And definitely too busy to write.
I never reported on my Charlottesville expedition – a few highlights:
Wore the leopard spot cardigan Rach gave me to the first day of the conference.
The keynotes were in a music venue/theater – so you walked into a long hallway, and the breakfast was spread out on what would normally be the bar or concessions stand, in a darkish lobby. There were really uncomfortable metal chairs set up on the slanted wood floor, in the main hall of the venue, even darker. Although it seemed oddly unusable for a UX conference, the sound and projection were all top notch. In addition to the 2-stall women’s bathroom on the fist floor, there was also a huge, clean although reeking of disinfectant, bathroom on the first floor that you’d only find if you noticed the tiny sign in the 2-stall bathroom that said “more bathrooms downstairs”. Made me think that for a travelling musician, Charlottesville is a better gig than Madison – even though it’s rural, it’s near a much larger market. Short drive to the next show.
I learned some good stuff on UX and usability, and collecting user feedback.
They had the opening reception at a Mexican restaurant/bar. All the food was good, taquitos and empanadas and little tacos – but the guacamole was outstanding. It had a sweet, not overpowering onion flavor, that I think was from white onions, maybe soaked in cold water to leech out the bitterness – but not cooked.
Bebedero empanadas
On the last night of the conference, instead of doing one if their “adventures” – I was signed up for something called drink & draw, but I probably should’ve done the Charlottesville ghost walk – I went and had a pulled pork sandwich and a beer for an early-ish dinner. There was 6-plex theater right across from the hotel, so my plan was to go see a movie. I hoped to do a walk myself to the UVa campus, it was about 30 minutes to the Rotunda. But after consulting with Mark about which of the movies playing he’d most like to go to together, I ended up at Denial and it started too soon to fit in the walk. Way to blame not exercising on somebody else.
It was the kind of conference where they gave us a lot of food – breakfasts provided from local restaurants & bakeries, lunch coupons, and heavy appetizer reception, as above. The first day there were croissant bites and mini muffins and quiche and coffee and juice. I tried the spinach and almond croissant bites – they were pleasant but the fillings were pretty well imperceptible. I also picked up a mixed berry muffin and even though it was only 3 bites after one it was too seedy to interest me in finishing it. I selected the lunch coupon for a place called Rapture – a hipster bar with vegetarian & southern food – and had a mixed plate of curried lentils, mashed potatoes, mac & cheese, and collard greens for lunch with not-sweet tea. Breakfast on Tuesday was stratas and more baked goods. The stratas looked a little scary – cooked really dark on top – so I stuck to bakery – a couple of slices of nice pumpkin bread. They had sheet of brown paper taped up where you were supposed to write:
Secret vice – mine was the peanut butter taffies that only come at Halloween – he come to think of it, now that it’s after Halloween – I didn’t get any of them this year;
Favorite song – Van Morrison “Jackie Wilson Said” – it’s not really my favorite song but it’s the song that can you feel better when it comes on the car radio, even if you’re stuck in traffic;
Worst advice: You can’t do that on a Mac.
The other interesting food experience was when I got back to the DC airport. You ordered your food – from the Boar’s Head sandwich shop and adjacent hamburger stand, anyhow – by pressing buttons and they gave you a receipt with a number. The workers behind the counter only did food; there was kind of a starter out front dealing with people. When your food came, you grabbed anything else you wanted, like a bottled drink, and proceeded down to the self checkouts to pay. I wonder how many people never do. You’re kind of a captive audience, this is on a kind of lollipop hallway with about 6 gates on the lolly, so there’s no where go. Probably everyone is fairly honest.