I had to go visit the Geek Squad today. My external backup drive (the one we keep our travel videos on) broke. It was the slow part of the day, so I was their only customer. They were very helpful and friendly. They solved my problem–and what a great opportunity for a little people watching.

Geek Speak

I noticed that their terminology, even for things outside their technical expertise, was different than I ordinarily hear. So, being the extrovert that I am, I involved my Geek Squad Assistant in an extended conversation to hear more from him. I drew in another Assistant, and then another one.

They were hesitant to jump to conclusions, and they were very precise with their words. They weren’t careless with their laughter either. I thought that was particularly telling.

Their bodies during the conversation were guarded and defensive, even as they began to relax and talk about themselves. Only near the end did the first Assistant begin to relax more.

A Digression

I had breezed by a tweet on Twitter (whether it was true was unimportant to me at the time) that one of Wikileaks’s revelations involved the CIA installing software onto outside technology pretending to be the Geek Squad–or something. I just read the tweet, not the article, so I don’t know what it said; but it was enough for a joke.

When I paid them to transfer my travel video to my new external hard drive, I told them to not put any of the CIA sh*t on it.

I thought it was funny. After they could tell I was joking, they laughed a little, too.

Time to Write It Down

I digress. After I left, I wrote enough of the conversation down so that I could remember it. Remember their body language and reactions.

I’ll use it this week in the first draft of my sequel to Murder For Me. It couldn’t have happened at a better time.