Aruba conference, day 2
Dec. 12th, 2006 05:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
trocheeYesterday was fun. I presented our poster, and got a variety of quite interested questions and interactions. One poster in the previous session was a nice piece of analysis of the utility high-level linguistic variables in prosody prediction from text, and when I came over to ask questions, the author made me feel like a rock star: "I was hoping I'd get to talk to you," he said. (He's probably the only person in the world who's actually read the entirety of the tech report I co-authored, including me).
When the conference proper was over, I got to go back to the room and see![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
imtboo, who had spent the day in our insane five-star hotel. She's lovely, and seeing her after this high-energy talky afternoon was so, so nice.
In the evening, several of us went out together, and I discovered that one of the other conference attendants (actually, one with a collection of very challenging questions for me and my co-authors at the poster session) was my predecessor at Failed Speech Company, and we spent part of dinner swapping war stories from FSC, and cracking up the rest of the table. (Dinner wasn't all speech geeks, but almost: the exceptions wereimtboo and the wife of one of my co-authors, who were both very patient with all the statistics and linguistics jokes.)
I let myself slip into shutting down after dinner, when I started worrying that I'd offended one of the friendly people from MIT by dismissing what later turned out to be a core piece of his dissertation work, and I spent the last hour (sitting in beach chairs with empty piña coladas) being tired, nervous and shut down. I almost saw it happening -- I feel like it was just out of reach -- and I recovered, but not until after we were back in our room. This is my daily practice, to find myself when I disappear into hiding like that. I'm getting better at it. (I apologized to the MIT guy this morning, and of course he didn't even remember what I might have said; he absolved me and said he wants to continue those conversations. It's nice to have more contacts of such nice, intelligent, well-connected people in my business: in addition, they might well be leads on jobs in a year or two.)
this morning I haven't gotten enough sleep. And the conference coffee has run out, so I am on cup number 1.05; at the next break there should be pastries and fruit as well so I will get another cup when I pilfer a few danishes to take up to my lovely fiancée. I'm glad we're not leaving for some time; it still hasn't felt much like vacation yet. It's fun, but it's still work. I haven't really spent any time on the beach yet!
When the conference proper was over, I got to go back to the room and see
imtboo, who had spent the day in our insane five-star hotel. She's lovely, and seeing her after this high-energy talky afternoon was so, so nice.In the evening, several of us went out together, and I discovered that one of the other conference attendants (actually, one with a collection of very challenging questions for me and my co-authors at the poster session) was my predecessor at Failed Speech Company, and we spent part of dinner swapping war stories from FSC, and cracking up the rest of the table. (Dinner wasn't all speech geeks, but almost: the exceptions were
imtboo and the wife of one of my co-authors, who were both very patient with all the statistics and linguistics jokes.)I let myself slip into shutting down after dinner, when I started worrying that I'd offended one of the friendly people from MIT by dismissing what later turned out to be a core piece of his dissertation work, and I spent the last hour (sitting in beach chairs with empty piña coladas) being tired, nervous and shut down. I almost saw it happening -- I feel like it was just out of reach -- and I recovered, but not until after we were back in our room. This is my daily practice, to find myself when I disappear into hiding like that. I'm getting better at it. (I apologized to the MIT guy this morning, and of course he didn't even remember what I might have said; he absolved me and said he wants to continue those conversations. It's nice to have more contacts of such nice, intelligent, well-connected people in my business: in addition, they might well be leads on jobs in a year or two.)
this morning I haven't gotten enough sleep. And the conference coffee has run out, so I am on cup number 1.05; at the next break there should be pastries and fruit as well so I will get another cup when I pilfer a few danishes to take up to my lovely fiancée. I'm glad we're not leaving for some time; it still hasn't felt much like vacation yet. It's fun, but it's still work. I haven't really spent any time on the beach yet!
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no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 03:42 pm (UTC)glad it went well this morning. i knew he wouldn't remember but it still feels good for you to do these things !
no worries, we'll spend plenty of time on the beach !
we came here for the conference so i am glad you're getting the most out of it.
i am gonna hopefully catch some rays today , though I also want to put the naplwrimo plays live ! it's bugging me at night that i haven't done it yet...
i love you and am proud of you .
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Date: 2006-12-12 06:40 pm (UTC)Doug was super nice about it.
I'm feeling tired and like I need a nap. The banquet tonight might be fun after a chance to rest -- and a source of free dinner -- but I don't really want to go if you can't (or don't want to) come too. They said that at 3 they would decide whether it could still be outside today. If you don't want to go, I'll give my ticket to Jodi perhaps.
love you, beautiful!
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Date: 2006-12-12 04:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 05:50 pm (UTC)crazy. and a little cruel. I'm glad we're staying for a week afterwards!
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Date: 2006-12-12 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 06:17 pm (UTC)going to a place like this and spending the entire time indoors is entirely crazy. yet many of the attendees do that.
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Date: 2006-12-12 05:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-12-12 06:21 pm (UTC)yet I probably won't do it much at all once the conference is over; the internet is too close to my work and stress back in Seattle. Of course, getting over that fear would be good too.
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Date: 2006-12-12 09:55 pm (UTC)hee.
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Date: 2006-12-13 12:41 pm (UTC)... i'm good with that.
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Date: 2006-12-15 12:16 am (UTC)