An Example of Irony?

The word ironic often comes up in my upper-level classes. Unfortunately, it's such a hard word to define briefly. It's an even harder word for which to give examples. I always forget the Christmas story. You know, the one about the wife who cut her hair to pay for a gift for her husband. He got her a fancy barrette but what did he sell in order to have money for it? Oh well.

Today, I took an Instagram photo of the SE 6 building as I was crossing the BCIT Burnaby campus this morning. I need to pass the east corner of the building as I head to my office. I saved the location data to Foursquare where read the following,

"Only 6 electrical outlets in the whole lecture hall. For laptop users, make sure to sit near one.

Wayne P. · June 16, 2012"

Why is that ironic, you may ask yourself? Well, the official name of SE 6 is the IBM Technology Building.