Recently in On The Road Again Category

So here we are in partly sunny with a chance of rain San Diego, California. Checked into the crappy, yet historic, Horton Grand hotel on Fourth and Island. This is like a poor imitation of a New England Bed and Breakfast. The thing is...it's not an imitation. It's just...well...ehhh.

The good news is that registration went smooth...there wasn't a person on line. Nice. Got my bag with all the goodies which I haven't had a chance to go through yet, but lets just hope that there aren't any defects in the bags this year like there were last year. What a fiasco that turned into. But I digress.

I'm sitting here in the "Communications Network" center on the upper level of the center. There are 15" flat screen monitors and Compaq PC's as far as the eye can see. Seriously, there must be around 1,000 PC's here for the attendees. Right now there are about 40 people here. The scary thing is that tomorrow, you won't be able to get a seat. The conference is sold out.

That's all for now. Everyone have fun. Talk to ya later. Gotta get some ZZZZZZ's if I'm gonna catch the Steve Balmer Keynote speech at 9am tomorrow.

So I'm on my way to meet with a vendor in Pittsburgh for a few days and unfortunately American Airlines, my normal airline of choice, doesn't fly there. My only real choice was between Delta and US Airways. I would have flown Delta but they run limited flights to Pittsburgh and those weren't at the right time. In any event, here I am sitting in the departure lounge for my flight.

The last thing one expects, or wants, to hear while sitting in the airport these days, is an alarm coming from the end of the terminal you are sitting in. Thing is, that's not the worst part about this situation. What's scary is that when the alarm went off, there wasn't the slightest bit of urgency on the part of security. They just sort of wandered over to the door, looking around with a mildly puzzled 'Oh...am I supposed to do something about that?' sort of look.

All the while the other passengers in the lounge, who were looking a bit one edge and who were clearly expecting her to do something, where looking, equally puzzled at the lack of urgency exhibited just after a message had come over the airport loud speak notifying us all to ?Be Alert?. At this point the female security guard went over to the door, looked around, opened the door and stepped into the stairwell on the other side, thankfully shutting the door behind her. About five minutes later she comes back, looks around, glances out the terminal window to inspect the moving walkway and its wheels as if someone who had set off the alarm and didn't belong would actually be standing in plain sight.

After she looked around, clearly still a bit confused as to what she was supposed to do next, she sat down and started writing something. I dunno...maybe this is all that the security guards are supposed to do, but come on...after all that we've been through...it was terrifying to think that this is the extent of the airport gate security that our surcharges, a consolidated TSA staff and lots of legislation are supposed to have provided.

Good going Dept. of Transportation...good going GWB.

Ah...San Diego in Summer....I can't wait. The SUN, the ocean and TechEd 2004?!?!?!? What?!?! Oh well...not all of us get to travel the world on a whim. Some of us actually have to make the best of our good fortune and take advantage of an opportunity when it arises. As a result of some minor good fortune, Microsoft has seen fit to hold court in San Diego this year (last year was Las Vegas).

So I figured that while I'm out at TechEd, I may as well make the best of it and do a couple of things. First, I'm gonna blog it. You'll find a new column for TechEd 2004 commentary on the right hand side of the page under the heading TechEd 2004::San Diego. With any luck (and a bit of skill), you'll also find the entries syndicate over at techedbloggers.net and over at The Unofficial Microsoft Weblog

Now, here comes the good part. After all is said and done, I actually get to take a vacation. I figured...shit...while I'm out in San Diego, why not take advantage and do a little tour, so tour I will. Once TechEd is over I'm gonna head up to San Francisco and Napa with the girlfriend for a few days to eat a lot of...(what are people known for eating in San Francisco anyway? Ghirardelli Chocolate? What?) Maybe I'll have a burger in the joint in Sausalito (Do you know the one I mean?) and then hit a few of the vineyards in Napa and Sonoma.

Oh and there will be pictures...lots of pictures...So many pictures in fact that I've already created the TechEd gallery and a gallery for the vacation pics as well in eager anticipation.

Make sure to head up to Cambridge on April 17th 2004 for BloggerCon II. Let me know if you're planning on heading up. Look forward to seeing you all.

Update 3/3/2004: Damn...had other plans that I forgot about. Looks like I won't be going. I'm sure I'll read all about it though. Everyone have fun.

I came across this post Memo to Washingtonians over at 601am and thought I'd share it...and my personal experience with you because its downright funny. Then we can debate whether New Yorkers are rude or Washingtonians are just annoyingly nice.

Anway...I've been meaning to tell you all a bit about our trip to Washington, D.C. this past weekend, but I just haven't gotten around to it. It's pretty much the usual touristy crap which I won't bore you with. But there are a few stories to tell, so I'll probably dribble those out over the next few weeks as they come to mind.

Anyway...you're probably wondering why...

Finally got the CD of the Killington photos from a few weeks ago. Have a look at the 2004 UBS Warburg / Perot Systems Killington Ski Trip album.

I'll be out of town this weekend, heading down to the nations capital for a trip down memory lane. I haven't been to Washington, D.C. since I was in camp and the age of 16. Not that it's changed much to be sure, and as much as I hate politics, I think its amazing to see explore the foundation for the machinery of our democracy.

Particular sites that I would like to see while I'm in town are the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument, the Vietnam Memorial and Arlington Cemetery because the GF did some significant restoration work at the Robert E. Lee Memorial house there.