The site’s finally back up, and I’m just recently back from giving my paper talk at IPDPS 2004 in Santa Fe. The short version: woot. A longer version follows.
After a short stop in Albuquerque to get a good back-shavin’ (it cost way more than a nickel, and the first few people I asked seemed anything but “glad”), I arrived in Santa Fe. I stayed at the Eldorado Hotel, the largest hotel in Santa Fe. They upgraded me to a Junior Suite, which had two bathrooms, a fireplace, balcony, and plenty of other such silliness. It was nice. The first thing I noticed was how nice the people were: at the hotel, in the shops, at the restaurants… Granted, they all wanted my money, but a lot of places around Boston think that good service means fast service, not necessarily with a smile. Weather-wise: sunny and cool. An honest weatherman would have had a little picture of cash in the boxes for the days I was there, because the weather was money. OK, that was lame, shut up. There was an art gallery every twenty feet, with food being served just about everywhere else. Seems like a lot of people really did go to Santa Fe to start a restaurant. As I mentioned, there are pictures here.
The conference was fine, and I don’t have much to say about it except for the paper talk. I do feel obliged to point out how much fun it was to see the look on peoples’ faces when they would find out I was an undergraduate. I was definitely the youngest presenter. My talk was on Thursday morning, in front of about 20 people. I think I remembered just about every piece of advice anyone had ever told me about giving a talk, except for: 1) keep hands out of pockets and 2) slow down. I kept my hands in my pockets to stop myself from throwing them into the air, yelling, “Aaaaarrrrrrgh,” and running out of the room. The talking fast thing is just a function of my caffeine intake. There was infinite free coffee, and I tried to drink my registration fee’s worth. The questions people asked seemed to indicate a good understanding of our work, so I think it went well. The session chair tried to start some shit, but I laid the smack-down. No, I will not explain. Once I finished my talk, I fled the room to pack and checkout, a process for which I had only ten minutes.
After stealing all the toiletries and accoutrements the hotel hadn’t nailed down or threatened to charge me for, I hopped on a shuttle back to Albuquerque airport. During the flight over the Rockies, I watched the shadow of our plane ripple on rainbow-colored clouds while I thought to myself, “Fuck, I am so behind on work.” I didn’t get to eat any food during my layover in Denver (no time), and the only food on the plane was buy-on-board-cheese-suicide, so I just had a can of tomato juice. Plus, they showed the same movie on the way home as they had shown going to Denver: Paycheck. Friendly skies, my butt. My flight arrived in Boston with precisely enough time for me to just miss the T. I shared a cab with an MIT dude coming from Los Alamos who’s involved with some Top Secret Area 51 shit. (I’m 51 percent joking.)
Now I’m back, and I’ve only got two weeks before classes end. In that time, I need to complete four final projects, three short papers, and my thesis proposal. Oh, also: find housing for the next seven months, complete the IBM employment process, go to Senior Ball, present two of the projects, and, well, it goes on. Wish me luck, and I’ll just keep repeating to myself, “I graduate in a month, I graduate in a month…”
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May 4th, 2004 at 3:42 pm
Graduating eh? I am sure that you can survive this final week. If anyone can, you can man. Sounds like you also had quite the interesting trip. Can I perhaps have some of the free toiletries and stuff that you pilfered from the hotel?
May 5th, 2004 at 3:38 am
I literally stole 5 pounds of stuff from that hotel, based on the difference in the weight of my luggage. I am the cleanest man alive.