Rain. And some more rain. Gray skies crying the Pacific’s blues greeted me this morning, and accompanied me all day. Well, I’m in San Francisco, and today is conference day, anyway: I’ll spend most of the day in the Moscone Center doing the conference thing, and I’ll have the weekend to explore. I started out early for the center, having about four blocks to walk in the rain. I found a Starbuck’s along the way.
The center was pretty big: it would have to be to host the MacWorld Expo each year. However, since the hotel employees strike here, much of the organization was ad hoc. For instance, in the huge conference center, one that’s appropriate for the vendors at the MacWorld or the publishers at MLA, contained two-dozen little tented areas: these were actually rooms where panels would be presenting. The din was overpowering, and I was scheduled to present in one of these curtained cubicles at 3:30.
After a panel on Technical Writing, I ran into Christian; he and I decided to have lunch and catch up. I also ran into Janice, Sid, Merry, and Julie, all former graduate students from USF. I met Phil before the panel, and we walked in together. It was fairly well attended, about a dozen bodies, and my paper went pretty well. After, Phil and I had some beers then dinner at Millennium, a vegetarian restaurant.
The rain never really did stop, but the day turned out to be pretty good. I wasn’t as impressed with the conference as I have been in previous years, probably because it’s usually in a hotel where everyone stays. Next year it’s in Chicago, so that might be more fun. More to come . . .
