Woe is me

I'm up in my hotel room, sick as a cliche, missing GA. Well, I suppose if I had to miss a day this is the one to miss, and the plenary will be streamed tonight. I'll be at tomorrow's plenary if I have to rent a wheel chair.

Some quick notes from GA

I had originally intended to blog from GA itself, during the time between programming, but they want $14/day for access there, which would be in addition to the $10/day I'm paying the hotel for internet, on top of the $13/day for parking, all of which is in addition to the room base rate- which with the GA discount is still $35/day higher than we paid for our hotel in Paris. Ok, that was the 14th Arrondissement, but it felt safer and their beggars smelled better.

You can read about the actual goings-on here , so I'll talk about the first impressions of a first time delegate/attendee instead. The people- everywhere you go, you'll find people you have something in common with; you'll never be at a loss for conversation. The exhibit hall; just like the dealers room at a Star Trek convention, even including the fact that many of them use lingo so specific to their interest that it sounds like an alien language to anyone else. (Wait, scratch "alien"- that's not inclusive enough for this venue. Make that differently genomed star travelers) The staff; so cheerful and helpful it inspires a perverse desire to stomp on their toes just to see if they're capable of losing their temper.

There's more, but it's 12:25 AM, and programming starts early tomorrow... err, later today.

We've arrived

It's 11:21 PM, Teusday night, and we're finally ensconsed in our hotel room in Salt Lake City. Too tired to write much more; I'll pick it up tomorrow night. Tomorrow morning we'll register, and try to find some fellow bloggers!

Preparing for GA

Since the family reunion broke up, we've been preparing for GA by restoring and freshening the spirit- traveling to Salt Lake via Yellowstone Park. (which is why I'm so behind on news and commentary, as evidenced by my previous post) (Yellowstone pictures later) Just have time for a quick note while sitting in the hotel having coffee. I've noticed that some of the fumes spewing from geysers and fumaroles not only smell bad, they leave mineral deposits on metal surfaces, such as jewelry... my mother would have found it only fitting that my flaming chalice and pentacle are encrusted with brimstone.

Some thoughts on riots in Iran

We're about to hit the road for the next leg of our long way to GA, and I've been watching CNN over breakfast. While it's hard to trust the news from Iran, given the lack of international journalists permitted inside, one thing seems clear to me: Benjamin Franklin was right, that we have spawned a new people on this continent, more enterprising but more violent- the property damage and blood in the streets of Tehran so far is less than you'd expect in an American city that just won an NBA championship.

Chattering like magpies

Though I understood the phrase intellectually, I've never gotten the impact of that old saw before- we don't have magpies in Indianapolis. I've seen magpies before, but only from the window of a train- I never heard them. Where we're staying here in Utah, however, they have them by the flock.

If you've never heard a magpie, they sound a lot like their cousins, the crow; but crows are no more talkative than other birds- magpies talk like teenagers with unlimited friends and family plans. Imagine Unitarian crows in an unmoderated open debate, fueled by fair-trade espresso. Two magpies make more noise than a murder of crows.

One such raucous caucus right outside the window gave me a lesson in the universality of life experience. There were two magpies, one slightly larger than the other... the smaller one would run in front of the larger one, tilt his head back, and open his beak wide. The larger one would make a cutting remark, turn, and walk the other way. The smaller one would gave a shriek of outrage, and run around to stand in front of the larger again... rinse and repeat. Is their a parent alive who doesn't empathize with the beleaguered magpie?

On the road to GA

The long way, via visiting family. It's 9:15 pm; we just got back from dinner at 1880 Coco in Rawlings, Wyoming... yesterday morning at 10:00 am we were just pulling out of Indianapolis. I'm beat. More later.