It's not always funny when your cell's ringer is "I'm a Barbie Girl"

At least not to this man:
Bjarne Stroustrup
Bjarne Stroustrup, Inventor of C++


I thought this might be an interesting story to share..

Well, Baylor had an interesting lecture last Thursday from a quite famous and interesting man, essentially the inventor of the C++ programming language, Bjarne Stroustrup. I went for a little extra credit, and I felt it would be an interesting lecture, since he is, after all, the inventor of C++. Approximately 100 students were there, and I'd estimate more than 90 of them were male (what a surprise!). Well, the lights dim, Stroustrup stands up and begins his lecture. You can tell by the looks on half the students' faces they're intent on enjoying every second of the lecture and in general awe of the man. I was moderately interested but about to fall asleep, tired from studying and class in general. So I put my elbow down and tried to rest my head facing the front, hoping my computer science teacher two rows behind me wouldn't notice if I dozed off for a minute.

Then twenty minutes into the lecture, I knew by looking up at the clock, it's dead silent except for Stroustrup saying something about try/catch blocks (I'm not really sure, I wasn't paying too much attention). Suddenly, the tune to Aqua's "I'm a Barbie Girl" starts playing incredibly loudly. Actually, it was my cell phone. And my ringer is set at the maximum volume with vibrate on, so that I'm sure to never miss a call. Yes, for comic value, my phone's ringer has been set to "I'm a Barbie Girl" for a couple months now. Stroustrup kind of pauses and looks confused momentarily, and everyone in the lecture room looks over at me and many try to keep themselves from laughing out loud. It's loud enough to sound like a fire alarm.. only a fire alarm that plays the tune to "I'm a Barbie Girl" whenever there's a fire. So I turn off the ringing as fast as I can, which was about at the line "Come on Barbie, let's go party." My computer science teacher looks over, and I can tell he's pissed at me for having my cell phone on in the lecture.

Well I think to myself, "I'll wait two minutes then turn it off, since it makes a somewhat loud sound when turning off." Well, shit! Less than a minute afterwards my phone goes off again with "I'm a Barbie Girl." Once again, many in the room glance over at me and many don't look amused. Fortunately, though, I turn off the ringing a little quicker this time, and subsequently turn the phone off completely as fast as I can. But I'd already drawn massive amounts of attention to myself for being the retard with his cell phone not only on, but also playing "I'm a Barbie Girl" in a lecture that was being recorded by three different people. Damn. Oh well, if I ever meet this guy again, maybe he'll remember me. That's right, the inventor of C++ now knows me personally.. he probably thinks I'm gay too.. Thanks Mom, for the calls, though. I'll be sure I won't forget to call you periodically from now on.

-Greg
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