16-X-2007.
asrm, second day. The stand already standing and everything there in the exhibition hall being under lock, we carried only our laptops. We had time to drop by some place to have a breakfast and coffee (around 8:30). There's about one kilometer from the hotel to the exhibition, so we walked, easier that way than to muck with parking and driving. It's mid october, but this is Virginia, okay, DC, and even our official t-shirts were a bit much.
At 9:30, of course, we're at the stand and the crowd rushes in. Seems to be that all of those, who just whizzed by the first day, now have the time to drop by and talk with us. Even the fat guy, whom we visited two months ago, came along.
Luckily, the chairs belong to the exhibition hall, they are firm, metal, sturdy, heavy duty, made to last at least a dozen years. Even Jiang came by and, what else, engaged Jan in another long talk. She always has her next scientific paper in the works, for which she needs more data that can be extracted from our database, by means of yet another special report.
Post festum, naturally, another couple of Heinekens on foot, this time accompanied by other two ladies, experienced users of Feds, from some other clinic.
It's only in the morning that I notice that DC, at least downtown, doesn't look that bad at sunrise. Though, this first shot is not here because of its beauty, but because of the size of the man-at-work signs. They probably needed an extra truck for signs alone. It's good that we walk - the traffic isn't too swift, but with this it would be half slower.
This is the view from our room, don't know which floor, fifth or sixth. Jan was my roommate, while David and Norman were in the other room, six doors down the hall. We met mostly in our room, after that one time in theirs, perhaps on fourteenth, when Norman raised hell when someone sat on his pillow. We had to hear an outburst of rhetorics, all about bacteriology, pathogens and whatnot. I asked how come that we aren't extinct as a civilization, if we so failed to evolve to live along all that flora. But no, didn't dismay him, he kept on and on. David just gave me an aside „see what I have to deal with?“ but otherwise didn't even try to get involved.
And I also talked with Norman to explain to him why I wouldn't even touch any financials in Feds - because all I know about accounting is wrong here. They enter it in some 20-30 columns, there are so many kinds of transactions, where does each fit into the accounts is beyond my comprehension. So much of it is apart from the regular debit-credit that I can't find my way through it. Not to mention that some things are okay here, for which any accountant at home would either pull out a gun or a rope to hang himself. Including some stuff, regular here, which would merit jail time at home - for instance, Verizon sending me a bogus invoice („no I never was your customer, that line never started working, cancel that invoice“) and then saying „it's okay, we'll credit your account“. That's artificial blowing up of the throughput, you're writing donwn mickey mouse money, which never came to your account, never existed. But no, that's normal here, heard that each time, as if they don't know what a storno is, there's no „ouch we fucked up the invoice“, there's always this „ah okay, we'll pretend that you paid“.
The last day of the fair it was really crowded, specially the two hours before lunch. Too bad I'm anonymizing the pics, this girl was a specially interesting face. The eyes almost bulging, yet somehow dreamy... and all silent, only her colleague talked.
The little gadget with a printer is a story to itself - anyone who stops for a talk have to register there. They have a card or whatever, so there's not much typing to do - either it's some kind of touch card, or David had only to retype its ID - and so this way the fair has some trace on who contacted whom, and probably sends everyone involved anything they have about their co-speakers (yup, still a missing word in english), so they don't have to waste time on exchanging printed stuff or looking up each other on the web, so they'd be doing their intermediary's duty. Which is to convince both sides that he's indispensable. The gadget also prints some slip, or two slips, which serve as a reminder or... who'd know.
Around 13:30 one lady from Atlanta came by. She'd really be a beauty, even a tomboy hairdo fit her nicely (and her hair didn't suffer that genetic straightening), had she not been around 100kg. She is still nice, but only because her face is still young and tout. What the molasses do. Too bad.
An hour later we were already packing our bits. By 15:00 it was as if typhoon went by, everything gone.
In the afternoon we just sat in our rooms, to breathe a little, which means we worked. I see I did some bit in CAAR - just added more logging to its current engine.
In the evening David excused himself and vanished, so the three of us went somewhere for beers and pizza, on the sidewalk, which is still rare enough in DC. I guess october is the time when the mugginess is not so horrible anymore so one can sit outside. There aren't too many such weeks, though I saw that the café across the street had a full garden at all times. Perhaps it's so this time of year, and also in april, until it begins.
Mentions: asrm, CAAR, David Berton, Feds, Jan Brenkelen, Jiang Wong, Norman Shen, in serbian