Reflections

The last night here....the terminal room.

This is where I've come to waste copious amounts of time for the last few days. The picture above doesn't do it justice, it's a big room. Lots and lots of wires and power supplies and wireless access points. And, when it's not 12:41am, a good number or people as well. As you can imagine, there will be significantly more during the day than the night.

Because the terminal room is actually closing tomorrow around noon, this is going to be my last night in the terminal room. I will be in DC till Saturday morning, however.

This week has been a lot of fun. I don't know that I've made it any secret that I love to travel. I really do. I don't like being away from my wife, church, friends, and youth, but it's nice to just get away and not have to worry about (many) things. That being said, there was so much here!

• I've gotten to hear some really good speakers on really good topics, and have found several applications I'm taking back to try in the work place.
• Because of the IRC channel, I was able to comfortably meet others I would not have normally met. It's much easier to announce "I'm going to be by the big tree; come meet me for dinner if you want to" than it is to just randomly introduce myself to people. Yes, I have issues.
• I got to ride a train for the first time -- well, ride a train for any extensive length of time for the first time. That was a great experience, and I believe I would enjoy doing it again sometime.
• DC -- although I haven't gotten the chance to really go out into the city (I can hear my poor Mom yelling, "NO, NO, PLEASE DON'T!!!!", where I'm staying is really nice. I absolutely love the metro. It's a great way to get around the city.
• I've gotten to spend more time with my computer than I ever want to. Wife will be happy that, once I get home, I'll have no interest in doing anything at all with the computer for a while. It's a good thing I did bills before the trip.
• I've gotten to meet people from GoogleTM. I really don't know why I'm so fascinated with them, except maybe the fact that GoogleTM sounds a lot like working here.
• It was like a vacation. Which is not really good, because I had a lot that I planned on/needed to do while I was here, and didn't do any of it. So, all the things I put off for a week, I now get to go home and work on and stress about.

All in all, it's been a great trip. I really enjoyed San Diego last year, and this one was even better. Next year it's in Dallas, TX. Honestly, the idea of Dallas doesn't excite me, but I love to travel and the conference is so much fun I'll eagerly jump on it if given the opportunity.

Not sure how I'm going to spend today. I'm going to go to a few of the talks this morning, then probably jump on the Metro at lunch and head towards the reall city. If nothing else, I'd like to visit the Holocaust Museum, the FBI building, and the Mint (Wife and I did the first two several years ago, and they are definitely worth going back to. Did not get to go to the Mint, though, which would be interesting). The evening will end with Cheesecake Factory and the new 007 movie. Somehow, b/t now and lunch, I've got to figure how to make all this happen....

Hopefully I'll get lots of good pics this afternoon.