To New Jersey -- and beyond!

Wednesday:
Got up way too early to go to the airport. Flight was uneventful. Well, mostly. Our plane was going to continue on to New Orleans, and I had to convince Kes that we really shouldn't 'accidentally' go there instead :-)

Got to the hotel mid-afternoon, and relaxed for a while. There was an informal dinner where the winners could meet each other, and also their "buddies" (read: handlers). kestrell spent a lot of time talking with (and bonding with) the guest speaker for the awards, Michael Hingson. Talked a lot about technology, DRM, and suchlike.

Did not sleep well at all. In addition to being an unfamiliar room, it also had strange sounds. Some sort of recurring, but irregular vibration coming through the walls. It had a cycle which was just a bit too long for my brain to process it as white noise, so it kept waking me up. Only got a few hours worth of sleep in the end.

Thursday:
Again, got up way too early. Was shuttled to RFBD, where they fed us breakfast, then gave us a tour. The tour was pretty neat. Kes and I were both envious of the huge stacks they keep their (many many thousands of )master tapes in. And we got to see the machines they duplicated the tapes on. Very 1960's movie technology, with lots of blinkenlightsen. Then we got to see their *new* system, where they have a relatively quite small space taken up by computers and CD-Rom burners. They have this nifty half-robotic gizmo that burns CDs and prints labels, to the tune of 200 discs/hour. I noticed that the head tech had a copy of Holly Black's _Tithe_ on his shelf, which made Kes very happy to hear, as it's one of her favorite books.

Then came lunch, and "an opportunity for the winners to practice their speeches". Mostly, it was an excuse for the old battleaxe who was running the event to go over all the details ofr the third time running (with no new information), and for her to say, once agin, "be sure to thank the donors". It had gradually become clear that that was most of the point of this whole "flying down for the awards ceremony" thing in the first place.

After lunch, we had some time off, so we napped, to partially recover from the previous poor night. I got a wrong number phone call on my cell at exactly the least convenient time, about 15 minutes before I had set my alarm to go off, so not enough time to get back to sleep.

The tux fit OK. The neck *was* too tight, but I just left the top button undone. I probably would have actually been OK with that neck width -- if I was the sort of person who was into severe neck-bondage fashion on a regular basis. Many people complimented me on my appearance, but I still felt very "not me" while wearing it. There was a photo shoot, so if people want evidence of me actually wearing a tux, it can be arranged.

At the pre-ceremony reception, Kes was introduced to a couple of French mad scientists who had a cool new device they were showing off. I forget the name, but it's an off-the-shelf Ipaq, with a sleeve that fits over it to provide buttons for a braille-like interface, and some custom software to go with it. It's the first real blind-accessible PDA, and Kes *really* wants one. She's going to arrange for them to do a demo at MIT, and is hoping to score a discount :-)

The awards dinner went well. To my great relief, I ended up sitting next to a woman who worked in theater, and was interested in comic books, so there were actually some shared interests to talk about. Kes, contrariwise, was sitting next to someone who I had earlier mentioned to her looked very "Stepford Wives". Turns out she was also responsible for the tree-sized flower arrangements in the center of each table.

Michael Hingson, MC, gave an introductory speech. Turns out that he was working in the WTC on 9/11, and made it out with the partnership of his guide dog. His speech talked about a lot of other stuff as well, and was well-laced with humor and insight.

Kes was the first award winner to go up, and got quite flustered. "I have to follow *that*!?!" But she acquitted herself quite well, giving a talk on "changing vision and changing visions". They took her picture again and gave her the award -- a big honking crystal plaque-thing. After the ceremony, I gathered everything up while Kes talked to various groupies. Some of them didn't recognize her as "Alicia Verlager", but when they heard the name Kestrell, it was all "Oh, *you're* Kes! I love your stuff! I tell people you're an expert in *everything*!" My wife has groupies :-)

I spent much of the trip reading Cory Doctorow books on my PDA. Finished _Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom_, and started _Eastern Standard Tribe_. DaOitMK gets a general thumbs-up, with especial note given to a clever literary trick he pulls off about a third of the way through. Without spoiling it for people who haven't read it yet, it's the scene transition just after the protagonist discusses the various ways in which he has died and been restored from backups.

Another not-very-much sleep night. Not quite as bad, simply because of exhaustion.

Friday:
Up, yet still again way too early, for transport to the airport. Again, an uneventful flight. Got into Boston around noon. I escorted Kes most of the way to MIT, and then hurried off to work. Still carrying my luggage, now considerably heavier, what with the big crystal award and all.

Sadly, got to work after most of the Freedom Force interview was already over. On the up side, got to at least meet Brett Todd, who is one of my favorite game reviewers, and exchange "I like your work" praise with him. Was pretty wiped, but as long as I was there, figured I'd do a few more hours of work, before lugging the luggage home. We're a week away from Alpha, and things are looking good to hit that milestone.

Saturday:
Slept late! Yayyyyyy!!!!!

Kes and I went on our annual date to the MIT Press Loading Dock Book Sale. Kes didn't find very much, but I ended up dropping over $40. Book sales are dangerous places :-)

To New Jersey -- and beyond!

Wednesday:
Got up way too early to go to the airport. Flight was uneventful. Well, mostly. Our plane was going to continue on to New Orleans, and I had to convince Kes that we really shouldn't 'accidentally' go there instead :-)

Got to the hotel mid-afternoon, and relaxed for a while. There was an informal dinner where the winners could meet each other, and also their "buddies" (read: handlers). kestrell spent a lot of time talking with (and bonding with) the guest speaker for the awards, Michael Hingson. Talked a lot about technology, DRM, and suchlike.

Did not sleep well at all. In addition to being an unfamiliar room, it also had strange sounds. Some sort of recurring, but irregular vibration coming through the walls. It had a cycle which was just a bit too long for my brain to process it as white noise, so it kept waking me up. Only got a few hours worth of sleep in the end.

Thursday:
Again, got up way too early. Was shuttled to RFBD, where they fed us breakfast, then gave us a tour. The tour was pretty neat. Kes and I were both envious of the huge stacks they keep their (many many thousands of )master tapes in. And we got to see the machines they duplicated the tapes on. Very 1960's movie technology, with lots of blinkenlightsen. Then we got to see their *new* system, where they have a relatively quite small space taken up by computers and CD-Rom burners. They have this nifty half-robotic gizmo that burns CDs and prints labels, to the tune of 200 discs/hour. I noticed that the head tech had a copy of Holly Black's _Tithe_ on his shelf, which made Kes very happy to hear, as it's one of her favorite books.

Then came lunch, and "an opportunity for the winners to practice their speeches". Mostly, it was an excuse for the old battleaxe who was running the event to go over all the details ofr the third time running (with no new information), and for her to say, once agin, "be sure to thank the donors". It had gradually become clear that that was most of the point of this whole "flying down for the awards ceremony" thing in the first place.

After lunch, we had some time off, so we napped, to partially recover from the previous poor night. I got a wrong number phone call on my cell at exactly the least convenient time, about 15 minutes before I had set my alarm to go off, so not enough time to get back to sleep.

The tux fit OK. The neck *was* too tight, but I just left the top button undone. I probably would have actually been OK with that neck width -- if I was the sort of person who was into severe neck-bondage fashion on a regular basis. Many people complimented me on my appearance, but I still felt very "not me" while wearing it. There was a photo shoot, so if people want evidence of me actually wearing a tux, it can be arranged.

At the pre-ceremony reception, Kes was introduced to a couple of French mad scientists who had a cool new device they were showing off. I forget the name, but it's an off-the-shelf Ipaq, with a sleeve that fits over it to provide buttons for a braille-like interface, and some custom software to go with it. It's the first real blind-accessible PDA, and Kes *really* wants one. She's going to arrange for them to do a demo at MIT, and is hoping to score a discount :-)

The awards dinner went well. To my great relief, I ended up sitting next to a woman who worked in theater, and was interested in comic books, so there were actually some shared interests to talk about. Kes, contrariwise, was sitting next to someone who I had earlier mentioned to her looked very "Stepford Wives". Turns out she was also responsible for the tree-sized flower arrangements in the center of each table.

Michael Hingson, MC, gave an introductory speech. Turns out that he was working in the WTC on 9/11, and made it out with the partnership of his guide dog. His speech talked about a lot of other stuff as well, and was well-laced with humor and insight.

Kes was the first award winner to go up, and got quite flustered. "I have to follow *that*!?!" But she acquitted herself quite well, giving a talk on "changing vision and changing visions". They took her picture again and gave her the award -- a big honking crystal plaque-thing. After the ceremony, I gathered everything up while Kes talked to various groupies. Some of them didn't recognize her as "Alicia Verlager", but when they heard the name Kestrell, it was all "Oh, *you're* Kes! I love your stuff! I tell people you're an expert in *everything*!" My wife has groupies :-)

I spent much of the trip reading Cory Doctorow books on my PDA. Finished _Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom_, and started _Eastern Standard Tribe_. DaOitMK gets a general thumbs-up, with especial note given to a clever literary trick he pulls off about a third of the way through. Without spoiling it for people who haven't read it yet, it's the scene transition just after the protagonist discusses the various ways in which he has died and been restored from backups.

Another not-very-much sleep night. Not quite as bad, simply because of exhaustion.

Friday:
Up, yet still again way too early, for transport to the airport. Again, an uneventful flight. Got into Boston around noon. I escorted Kes most of the way to MIT, and then hurried off to work. Still carrying my luggage, now considerably heavier, what with the big crystal award and all.

Sadly, got to work after most of the Freedom Force interview was already over. On the up side, got to at least meet Brett Todd, who is one of my favorite game reviewers, and exchange "I like your work" praise with him. Was pretty wiped, but as long as I was there, figured I'd do a few more hours of work, before lugging the luggage home. We're a week away from Alpha, and things are looking good to hit that milestone.

Saturday:
Slept late! Yayyyyyy!!!!!

Kes and I went on our annual date to the MIT Press Loading Dock Book Sale. Kes didn't find very much, but I ended up dropping over $40. Book sales are dangerous places :-)