still from the list...

The other week I needed to email someone to make a request and based on his wife saying his arm might need twisting I thought I'd get creative.  One lame trip to Wikipedia and bunch of squinting later, I sent this:

Hi [his name],

IF (you would play O Canada with us on Sunday)
THEN
    (I would be very happy)
ELSE
    (it would be totally fine)
END IF

 Please believe me that the lameness of it was overwhelmingly obvious.  But...I like this kind of thing.  Codes..patterns..other languages...trying to get into others' wheelhouses.  And I miss being able to talk computers with anyone.  (He works with computers and of course I forget how.)

Even if his reply was purely business (i.e. "Yes, I'll play," or, "No, I can't") I was still going to send the lame email. His reply:

Nice.

IF (there is music) AND (it is in the right key) 

THEN

  {I would be happy to}

ELSE

  {I would sound horrible}

ENDIF

It made my stinkin day.  Made my day.  He's not an overly talkative person so I always need to work harder (which I love); he's interesting and I like him (and his wife!) and this was fun. When I saw him on Sunday he explained where I'd gone wrong with my email but reassured me that it made enough sense.  Apparently it's psuedo-code.  I don't care.  Made my day.

:)