Wiscon Day 1 - Report 1
May. 22nd, 2008 06:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
julieandrewsLivejournal is looking weird, which makes me suspicious of this totally unsecured hotel wireless network. Anyway... long trip report behind the cut.
I woke up before 6am for no particularly good reason. Since I was awake, and near the end of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, I finished reading it. Great, superb, excellent book and you should totally go read it right now. It's here if you like your books free and electronic.
I called a cab at 8:15, since I needed to catch the bus to the airport that leaves at 9. It's only about a 10 minute cab ride, so it should've been plenty of time. I'd gotten used to the cabs only taking 10-15 minutes to show up at my house. When it got to be 8:30, I was wondering where it was. By 8:35, I was getting anxious. I called the cab company and was assured he was nearly there. I was freaking out by 8:43. When I get stressed out, I cry. Which easily renders me incomprehensible, which definitely doesn't help me resolve the problem. But at least it rids me of nasty stress toxins, or something.
At about 8:50, the cab showed up. Leaving exactly the 10 minutes it should take to get there, to get there. And that didn't leave time for purchasing a ticket. Why was the cab late? Because he couldn't find the house. Why couldn't he find the house? Because he'd been driving for all of 3 days. Then he had no idea where I was going. Because apparently he hadn't even lived around here for long. Fortunately, it wasn't hard to find. Really fortunately, because it wasn't quite the building I thought it was. If it hadn't been right off the exit, I would've been screwed.
On top of that, the cab ride cost 15$! It was a shorter ride than my ride to work, which only costs 10.25 (10.50 since they raised prices for gas). The way they figure fares is really messed up. Needless to say, I did not tip.
The bus company was much more competent. The woman selling the tickets was very efficient, and this is after I'd already called her twice in the vain hope that they'd hold the bus for me.
I got on the bus, with really not more than 30 seconds to spare, I'm betting.
We didn't quite arrive at the airport at the advertised time, but that was all right. The bus actually drops off at the terminals, so I didn't have a long walk across the airport to get to my ticket counter. No line there. No line at security. I could've gone through even quicker than I did, but I spent time filling out luggage tags, browsing Borders, and finishing off my contraband in a bottle.
At the gate by 10:50, leaving an hour and 15 minutes until my flight. And plenty of time to type up my travels so far.
In addendum, I noticed a crack in the case of my laptop. Was it there before it rode the conveyor belt? I'm afraid I don't know. I'm not used to looking at the back of my computer, just the front of it.
....
Bought a 2.30 drink from Dunkin Donuts. Which I probably could've done without, because United actually gave us a whole can of soda! A whole can! Though I wish they'd given us more pretzels.
Second flight from Chicago had no AC on the airplane when it was on the ground, and then it was 20-30 minutes just sitting there waiting for some machine. I didn't quite hear the announcement, so I have no idea what machine we were waiting for. Fortunately the in-air AC was working. And they gave us all a little bottle of water, even though there's no in-flight service. So we didn't pass out.
Found some Wiscon attendees at the baggage claim and piled onto the shuttle. We'd probably all been on the same plane without knowing it.
Checked in, went to find food. I walked quite a lot, as I was hoping the good food was just around the bend or hidden in the middle of the next promising-looking block. Turns out it was true. Awesome sub shop. Silver Mine Subs. For all I know, it's a chain out here. It seemed like a much longer walk back. Didn't get lost. Because I'm awesome like that.
I went to help with packet stuffing, but they were pretty much done by the time I got there. So I came back to the room to see if anything was up on lj. I'll go back down once registration opens. I'm rather tired and could just sleep and watch tv or whatever, but I feel like I should do something Wiscon-related now that I'm here. And not be a hermit.
Stay tuned...
I woke up before 6am for no particularly good reason. Since I was awake, and near the end of Cory Doctorow's Little Brother, I finished reading it. Great, superb, excellent book and you should totally go read it right now. It's here if you like your books free and electronic.
I called a cab at 8:15, since I needed to catch the bus to the airport that leaves at 9. It's only about a 10 minute cab ride, so it should've been plenty of time. I'd gotten used to the cabs only taking 10-15 minutes to show up at my house. When it got to be 8:30, I was wondering where it was. By 8:35, I was getting anxious. I called the cab company and was assured he was nearly there. I was freaking out by 8:43. When I get stressed out, I cry. Which easily renders me incomprehensible, which definitely doesn't help me resolve the problem. But at least it rids me of nasty stress toxins, or something.
At about 8:50, the cab showed up. Leaving exactly the 10 minutes it should take to get there, to get there. And that didn't leave time for purchasing a ticket. Why was the cab late? Because he couldn't find the house. Why couldn't he find the house? Because he'd been driving for all of 3 days. Then he had no idea where I was going. Because apparently he hadn't even lived around here for long. Fortunately, it wasn't hard to find. Really fortunately, because it wasn't quite the building I thought it was. If it hadn't been right off the exit, I would've been screwed.
On top of that, the cab ride cost 15$! It was a shorter ride than my ride to work, which only costs 10.25 (10.50 since they raised prices for gas). The way they figure fares is really messed up. Needless to say, I did not tip.
The bus company was much more competent. The woman selling the tickets was very efficient, and this is after I'd already called her twice in the vain hope that they'd hold the bus for me.
I got on the bus, with really not more than 30 seconds to spare, I'm betting.
We didn't quite arrive at the airport at the advertised time, but that was all right. The bus actually drops off at the terminals, so I didn't have a long walk across the airport to get to my ticket counter. No line there. No line at security. I could've gone through even quicker than I did, but I spent time filling out luggage tags, browsing Borders, and finishing off my contraband in a bottle.
At the gate by 10:50, leaving an hour and 15 minutes until my flight. And plenty of time to type up my travels so far.
In addendum, I noticed a crack in the case of my laptop. Was it there before it rode the conveyor belt? I'm afraid I don't know. I'm not used to looking at the back of my computer, just the front of it.
....
Bought a 2.30 drink from Dunkin Donuts. Which I probably could've done without, because United actually gave us a whole can of soda! A whole can! Though I wish they'd given us more pretzels.
Second flight from Chicago had no AC on the airplane when it was on the ground, and then it was 20-30 minutes just sitting there waiting for some machine. I didn't quite hear the announcement, so I have no idea what machine we were waiting for. Fortunately the in-air AC was working. And they gave us all a little bottle of water, even though there's no in-flight service. So we didn't pass out.
Found some Wiscon attendees at the baggage claim and piled onto the shuttle. We'd probably all been on the same plane without knowing it.
Checked in, went to find food. I walked quite a lot, as I was hoping the good food was just around the bend or hidden in the middle of the next promising-looking block. Turns out it was true. Awesome sub shop. Silver Mine Subs. For all I know, it's a chain out here. It seemed like a much longer walk back. Didn't get lost. Because I'm awesome like that.
I went to help with packet stuffing, but they were pretty much done by the time I got there. So I came back to the room to see if anything was up on lj. I'll go back down once registration opens. I'm rather tired and could just sleep and watch tv or whatever, but I feel like I should do something Wiscon-related now that I'm here. And not be a hermit.
Stay tuned...
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Date: 2008-05-23 12:46 am (UTC)