Sunday, July 09, 2006
Okay, so it doesn't havet he same ring as "Vegas," but it's where I am currently and so it's what I'm going to write about. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.Before I get to deep into the details, let me give you the context. I requested that my company send me to the INCOSE Symposium, which probably means nothing to you, so in layman's terms it's a conference on Systems Engineering. Come to think of it, that also probably means nothing to you. And yet you will continue reading.
Day 1: Saturday
Travel days: is there any better way to waste an entire day? Yes. Sleeping in my super comfy bed all day is one. Skipping out on work and surfing all day would be another. I don't even think I need to mention the barrel of monkeys. Flight was bumpy and I was stuck in the back of the plane in tiny seats (I appreciate Business Class so much more now), but I still managed to catch a couple winks. And the best part is that when I woke up there was a blonde bombshell standing right in front of me waiting for the bathroom (Sorry GiGi; I don't get to see eye candy very often -- see Day 2).
Rental car place took forever, but only because I wanted to see if they had any cars with manual transmissions (gonna start test driving cars soon and I don't want to look like an ass), but alas, they don't carry them because people would eff up the transmissions. I guess a lot of other people had my same idea.
Get to the hotel and realize why it's called the Florida Mall Hotel: it's attached to a mall. Who'da thunk? The room is pretty sweet; king size bed, mini-fridge, and best of all, a 32" LCD TV. There are worse things in the world than business travel. After fajitas and beer at Chili's, I'm ready for bed.
Day 2: Sunday
First day of symposium events. This may come as a shock to you, but this paragraph probably won't be very exciting. Okay, for those of you still reading let's continue! Alarm went off at 6:30am, which is 3:30am my time, so I can assure you I'm chipper as a chipmunk. It's a half hour drive to the hotel where the symposium is held (it was booked when I finally got approval to travel). Then it's on to two 4-hour tutorials.
I'm sitting in the first tutorial and during a slow point I decide to look around and investigate the audience. In my mind before I flew out I imagined several engineers about the same age as me would also be in attendance. Boy was I wrong. The average age of the crowd must have been in the early 40s, easy. The ones who were my age were foreign -- French or German or Dutch. Awesome. I'm staying in a hotel 20 miles from the conference and there aren't any people my age to hang out with. Who's gonna be bored at night all week? *thumbs pointed inward* This guy!
Shared a table at lunch with a guy who went to USC who now lives in Vermont and a guy from Finland who works for Nokia. Conversation was of the nerdy variety, which is okay by me since I am a nerd and I'm at a nerdy conference. I actually learned some things about engineering in the public sector (as opposed to the aerospace sector).
All in all, the two tutorials were quite educational. And when they got slow I pulled out the laptop and kept up with the World Cup final. By end of the game I had people leaning over asking for the score. (Side note: Suck it, Frogs. Viva Italia!)
I'm back at the hotel after a delicious steak at Outback, watching Gladiator on TNT. Connie Nielsen (Lucilla) is hot. Maximus is a badass. Speaking of movies with hot women and badasses, I haven't seen The Count of Monte Cristo in a long time. Might have to go buy that one.
Stay tuned this week for more exciting posts!
Poor Scotty. I will send you a picture.
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