conference first part 1

everything was alright this morning - i'd left myself a buffer so missing the first bus wasn't an issue. the woman at the train station's counter told me i needed to be at platform 2, though, when i was supposed to be at platform 1. this wouldn't have been a problem if i hadn't been standing on the wrong end of the platform, where there are no signs and the speakers don't work properly... i only realized something was amiss once the train had left, and had to wait another twenty minutes for the next one :/

on the plus side, i still made it in time without having to take a taxi.

it didn't take too long before the audience's silence was broken by someone raising the translation device's volume too high... hearing everything simultaneously dubbed in english was rather distracting.

double-dark matter: a prize was awarded to a student pursuing dark matter. the man giving the prize gave a speech explaining her research... which she then repeated on acceptance. wasn't she paying attention?!

i find the difference in wearing my glasses astounding. i'm actually surprised when i can make out the tiniest details on a face half a lecture theatre away.

the minister of science and technology spoke, and i can't recall what he talked about because his delivery was decidedly boring.

nasa's charles bolden gave an excellent talk. one thing that i found a little weird was that talk of the challenger tragedy caused goosebumps, but the columbia disaster merely brought sadness. i would've expected it to be the other way around, and i'm thinking that maybe it's got to do with the age i was when it occurred.

he then joined a panel with enrico saggese (a.s.i.) and thierry duquesne (cnes), run by zvi kaplan - who might be perfectly good at what he does, but that's definitely not public speaking. it wouldn't have hurt him to prepare some more. he shook and stammered, and was only made to look alright by the french lullaby... there was a man even less prepared.

i ran into a buddy from the first leg of 2008's course, and we hit the tent to discover the israeli space scene. i had no idea. there's a bunch of people who might be able to help me :)

dr diane evans vs professor nir shaviv - the co₂ debate. climategate aside, there were a number of solid points made.
1) the fact that nothing is known doesn't mean there is no problem, but it also doesn't mean that there is a problem
2) point 1 refers to climate only. continuing to pollute our planet and carelessly deplete its resources is going to cause us other problems that will be at least as bad as global warming.
3) regardless of our behaviour regarding the environment, the apocalypse could be triggered by any number of factors, including external ones. we need to have a backup plan ready. i don't want the taliban wiping out our history. [how's that for a random, anachronistic example? or is it?]

"i'd rather not look at the sun through a telescope" was what went through my mind when he was done. surely that's a harmful way to search for sunspots?

we had a sad lunch* [repeat], and i took a walk to the mall hunting something more substantial. i ran into my previous TL and his brother (who i've been reminding myself weekly to get in touch with for just under a year now), whose initial advice was fairly straightforward: get a degree in the field. considering the fact that that's impractical for someone who needs to work for a living, i'm going to have to pursue the way i was thinking of. at least now i have a matching external opinion.

* running into my unit commander when i'm on paid forced vacation pending release was just a bit awkward.

i rushed through the supermarket for oreos and coke, then returned just a couple of minutes late for the virtual tour of the i.s.s. by one of the astronauts. wearing his flight suit, we were joking that when you're an actual astronaut you never take that off :P

an interesting presentation made me ponder the possibility of transferring parts of venus' atmosphere to mars.

i saw a demonstration on what might one day be the basis for a cosmic router. cool stuff.

the rest of the afternoon was covered by our air force commander's half hour of nothing - he didn't really talk about space, just mentioned it as an aside while describing basic military needs that nobody (in the current forum) gives a crap about. the applause he received was perfectly delayed, and he walked off with his confidence visibly shaken.

in sharp contrast, four-star general kevin p chilton's speech was excellent. he spoke about space debris, and when he got to his final points he drove a personal one home unintentionally: i seem to have been a few years ahead of the pack in my thinking, but the pack is catching up. as i've always maintained though, i don't care who does the stuff that needs doing, just that it gets done.

nystire's previous TL called me up, she's arranging a section breakfast. aside from some advice, i gave her my assurance that i'd make it :)

the first thought when i hit the sidewalk: "is that security officer hitting on me?"
i think she was. we had a pleasant chat until we got to the train station, at which point i hurried past her... only to meet up with her again on the platform. that was only slightly uncomfortable :P

the fourth sms from urchin regarding going to the ozen bar got me fed up, and i silently uninvited her. i'm glad i did, she would have annoyed me. i don't think we're going to be friends anymore.

blue / blonde hair, blue stockings on the train, eyes meeting and lingering but not so much as a flicker of a smile, and so i walked away.

i walked and bopped the whole way home, awesome rock (mostly jimi hendrix and jefferson airplane) and a pleasant evening. i went shopping for a frying pan, realized that meat packaging is a skill that demands practice and not merely an explanation (the new meat counter lady isn't too good at it), and made slanted eggs to go on my smoked beef sandwich.
why slanted? because it appears that the counter has a very slight slope :P

at least i was right about one thing - using a pan in good condition allowed me to manipulate the eggs properly, and they came out great!

OH NOES!!!!
between penny arcade, xkcd, sinfest, and schlock mercenary, i can't choose :S
why can't i add a quarter of a vote to each?

[pauses to walk (bopping) to the ozen bar, meet the artist i shot down in the tail end of this post, thoroughly enjoy einav jackson cohen being wonderful, meet a pretty girl and actually invite her for a drink]

wow - i can't believe i've had a lot of fun *and* arrived back home in time to pretend to be a normal person (more or less) in the morning :)
i also can't believe that it's taken me two hours to finish this post, but to be fair i did watch half an episode of battlestar galactica and had a shower.

now - to sleep!