Two separate parts of my life collided in a very unfortunate way today. Unlike chocolate and peanut butter, the combination is neither delicious nor very cool. It was pretty embarrassing, in fact. Read on, please:
One of my things is to take a photo of me sitting in pretentious chairs. With a pretentious expression on my face. Lucky for me, pretentious chairs are everywhere in Asia. Unlucky for you, I like to post them on Facebook for fun. Like this one from last year:
Unlike most times, I’m actually trying to look ridiculous here.
It’s just a stupid thing that I do for fun. Ha ha.
OK, that’s thing number one. On to thing number two.
Today I got invited to join a press conference. A grant program that the Consulate supports had a kickof event. It’s a good program, training young people on entrepreneurship skills. I represented the U.S. Government at the event. I delivered brief remarks in Vietnamese, which impressed the participants. I’m pretty sure I looked and sounded ridiculous, but that’s not any different from any other day in my life.
My famous coked-up look. Would you buy a car from this guy? Me, neither.
Then the event turned into a talk show, where we discussed issues related to startups. As a diplomat, of course I am an expert in business, angel investors, and sales pitches. Not.
My famous “thumb on chin” thoughtful pose. Man, am I ever learning lessons in self-awareness on this job.
It was fun for me, probably painful for everyone else. But they got their revenge. And I paid a stiff price for being a smart-alack.
The organizing group created a promotional poster to publicize the press conference. They needed a photo of me for their promotional poster. But they didn’t ask me for a photo, for some reason. Instead, they went online and searched for a photo of me.
Are you starting to guess where this story is going?
Yup, sure enough, they managed to find a photo that totally captures my essence. It was the most awesome photo that they could have found. Then they posted the graphic on their website and Facebook page:
Can you spot the awesome-looking person in the picture?
Words fail me.
As always, my humiliation is your entertainment.