eat... while you speak!

personally, i'm not too fond of the idea of people eating at meetings. it's not a big deal if the meeting is during lunch hour, or perhaps one hour removed from lunch hour; after all, people are busy and sometimes don't have time to eat during lunch hour. but even so, it doesn't really make sense to be eating while you are standing at the front of the room, presenting something. and the strangest thing to eat while you are presenting? why, sunflower seeds of course. i was once in a meeting with a sunflower eating speaker doing a powerpoint presentation.

if you're really good at eating sunflower seeds, you can throw in a handful into one cheek, open the seeds in the middle of your mouth and then transfer the empty shells to the other cheek. unfortunately for us, our speaker was but a semi-skilled sunflower seed eater. she had thrown in a handful into one cheek, but had trouble opening them in her mouth. and afterwords she had to spit the empty shells into her hand. not exactly the most appetizing sight.

needless to say, i'm revolted by this behavior and not just because of the fact that i was not offered any sunflower seeds.