Bill

Still in Texas.

Derek

Well, I'm off to ConJose tomorrow, and I'll be gone until Monday.  The programming schedule is here. Bill has already picked out all the stuff he wants to go to.  I haven't looked that closely.  I've got six hours eaten up by workshopping, so that's gonna limit some of the stuff I can go to.  Still, I've got my evenings free for the various parties.

Gloria

Ah, the uses for reduntant systems. Never thought it would be such a necessity. No matter how hard you try to prepare for contingencies, something can always happen. Right off I forgot to bring my jacket. Contingency plan, get a blanket from the stewardess--at least for the flight. 

The second redundancy plan I had in mind was in regards taking notes during the convention. A new laptop was thought to be the main system, with a notebook for redundancy. When I tried to start this commentary at the airport, found out that the latest update I'd downloaded for XP hosed up Word. Mind you, this was after finding out my flight no longer existed (I got my tickets back in December for this flight), that I would be leaving an hour and twenty minutes later than scheduled, and that I had to figure out a way to let Wendy know all this, as she was the person picking me up from the airport. Sigh. 

So anyway, since I had an extra hour plus, I uninstalled Word, reinstalled it, and still had the problem. So next, I uninstalled what I hoped was the right update. Still didn't work. I ran out of time. Then in the plane I realized XP has 2 other alternatives--Word Pad and Notepad. Whatever is wrong with the system is major, because Wordpad wouldn't stay up either. But good old notepad came through for me! Yay! And Yay for redundant systems!

Another example of redundant systems (yes, all this within the same few hours!) came into play as I needed to let my friend know about my flight change. First, get hubby to send Wendy and email as soon as he gets home. Me, use PDA to get her number and call her on the cell phone. The cell phone redundant system backfires, phone number in the PDA is bad. Option, call hubby and get him to not only send the email, but call as well, chasing down the number from the APA (Amatuer Press Association) member page. Redundancy wins again. 

I can see redundancy is definitely not something for just machine systems. Long live redundant systems!

Melanie

Apparently the cats knew something was up -- when Lyndon got up this morning, they were both sitting on my big bag, as if saying, "Okay -- we're ready to go!" Uh, huh. Cthulu only knows what the place is going to look like when we get back.

Anyway, after a moderately insane day (they KNEW I was leaving today -- that's why everything broke and I had to do three emergency fixes at once) and a bit of confusion on Lyndon's part in finding my office that involved me watching 114 from an office window in order to track his movements, we finally made it to Love Field. Very much a commuter airport, and undergoing a shitload of construction. I just hope I remember where I parked the car (Level B, Section 11).

The flight from Dallas to Houston was short -- which was good, since we were on a Continental Express prop jobbie. Talk about tiny -- Lyndon wondered aloud if they'd wound up the string that ran the engine tightly enough. I told him to hush -- he'd just upset the emergency backup hamsters.

After a short layover in Houston, during which I got to see a rather, erm, dramatic statue of Shrub's dad and Lyndon bought me a plush Boo doll (from Monsters Inc. -- she's sitting on the dresser right now), we got on the plane for San José. The blessed lad who had the window seat moved to another row, so Lyndon and I had three seats to ourselves. He set up shop and wrote for most of the trip, while I watched "Life or Something Like It," wondered just how much lipstick Angelina Jolie went through in a week, then did some writing of my own.

After we landed, we were greeted by an enthusiastic horde of potential taxi drivers who kept imploring us that, "Much cheaper over here, yes yes!" The taxi stand organizer waved us over to a stand of waiting cabs, where we found a quiet, pleasant driver who took us to the hotel. Only $13.50 -- I was expecting something around $35.

We're in the Fairmont Hotel, by the way -- it's nice, one of those plushie places with a bathroom you can rollerskate in and actual couches and loveseats in the rooms. After dumping the bags, we headed down to the bar for a long-awaited drink and scan the crowd for people we knew. Turns out we did indeed know some of them -- we ran into Eugene Heller, one of my compatriots from Con*Cept. He sat down with us and chatted for about an hour over Bailey's (me) and beer (Lyndon), when I realized I was starting to nod into my drink.

We're now back in the hotel room, Lyndon is snoring away peacefully on the bed, and I'm about to haul my tired carcass into the bathroom for a much-needed shower. Night, all.