ALA ... the rest

Pretty short actually....

After waking up in my own bed, I got ready and headed out. Stopped at Target to get some sandals as I knew it would be hot, filled the tank, and set off for Orlando.

Spent a couple of hours at the Placement Center in the Convention, talking about JPL to various individuals looking for a job. Then I hit the floor to see the exhibitions, which were pretty swanky. Got several freebie items, and gifts for my co-workers.

Around 5:30p, the Opening Session was beginning, so I went to see Richard Clarke speak and to see Sanford Berman get an award. Ran across Amy M., was good to see her again.

Couple of notes --

Isn't it kind of a let down that the highest award ALA can give to people is a plaque and honorary membership? There should be some named kind of award, a gift or endowment or something. It feels like giving a retiree a gold watch.

Also, Sandy Berman is a "liberator", a "visionary", yet a good number of the accolades he received, as well as his own spiel had a prominent gold cross in the background, displayed pretty obviously. The cross is a symbol of one of the most oppressive organizations around, the Christian Church (Catholic, Protestant, whatever, they're the same in my book, practices and formalities be damned). Is it supposed to be a loving, kinder God? Or get that extra note of controversy while they do the presentation? Wierd.

Is closed-captioning really that hard? "General Railings" for "Generational"? Not too mention the total inadequacy when it comes to jihadists (spelled "jehadists") or any other Iraqi/ Arab name or phrase. Spent half the session in stitches.

After the opening session, hit the Scholarship Bash at Universal Studios Florida with some of the NexGen/Chatty fellas and gals. Was fun. Sprinkled rain a lot. Ayanna, Louise, Brian, Tracey, Jenny, Meghan, kudos to you all. Cynthia was taking pictures of librarians, talked with her. Very nice. Had to catch a short bus to the Convention Center where my car was still parked, Cynthia's was there as well. I dropped her off at her car, waited to see it start, then headed on to catch my bud Ted at Chili's.

Notes on the rides:

All too short.

Jaws was the most fun.

Chili's was closed, so we ate at TGI Friday's. Continued my predilection for Margaritas.
Ended up crashing there. I have to admit, I have some serious congestion. So, I snore. Too loudly. It was only a one bedroom at the HoJo's, so I started sleeping on the floor, but made too much noise, so I moved to the bathroom (with a little help). Fully dressed, with a heavy comforter, in a room with no circulation. Whoo-whee. Kept waking up every 30 minutes to an hour in a pool of sweat. Fun. But, it was an experience, and I was grateful for the free place to rest. Not knocking it, but next time, I get a room myself.

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Sunday...

Hit the floor again, all day. Picked up a lot more gear, saw some interesting presentations from vendors. One hilarious incident took place at Baker & Taylor during an eBooks presentation (something my library is subscribing to). John Straw was speaking, and the Convention Center's fire alarm went off. It increased in tempo until it started drowning him out. He kept pausing, and someone was sent to see if the alarm was real or not. (It turned out to be false.) He kept losing track due to the alarm, so we - the participants - kept him on-topic. After the alarm was silenced, the presentation continued apace.

Then one of the building's directors hopped on the intercom for the OCCC announcing that the fire alarm was false and "people were welcome to return to the center". The announcement threw John off, as it drowned out everything else, but he recovered. Then it repeated in Spanish. And again in English. And again in Spanish. And again... for about five more minutes, with minute-intervals between announcements. By the time it was done, the whole group was laughing. Fun stuff.

That evening, some alumni from SLIS gathered with staff at the Peabody Hotel. Drs. Dawson, Ward, Carpenter, Boyce, and Thomas were there. Some other fellow graduates, including Tricia Egbert, Executive Asst. to the Director (one of the head honchos at my library) were there. Drs. Paskoff and Ju were coming in as I was leaving for the Sirsi dinner.

Sirsi (www.sirsi.com) was hosting a 25th anniversary birthday bash at Epcot Center for all ALA attendees who use its services (Workflows, etc.). It was pretty nice. Food was good, Jack was excellent, and there was a conga line. Lola was there and we talked a good bit about jobs, the field, etc. There was a wonderful fireworks display that night - Remembrance of the Earth, I believe, was the theme. Drizzled a little. Rode the bus back to the Rosen Centre, walked Lola to her hotel, went and jumped in my car and went to meet Ted and Claire - along with Shun-Jin, Jenna, and James(?) at the Bahama Breeze on International Drive. The service sucked, the music was too loud (steel drums and Caribbean-twinged versions of pop songs on speakers right behind us) and I didn't have much to add to the conversation, being the lone public lib moderate surrounded by academic radicals. Interesting conversations, just didn't have too much to add.

Called it a night and slept in the tub again. This time with the door cracked open and shorts w/ a tee. Much comfier, still waking up a few times due to the heat and cramped condition. But, overall, much better. Still, next time, I get a hotel room.

I am also going to look into getting medical assistance for this. Too many problems with my sleeping. Way too many.

Woke up in the morning, laid around a little, then figured since I'd done everything I wanted to do - at least the things I was aware of - I headed back home. Too much to get prepped to do, and catch up on around the apartment.

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Summary of the trip:

Very good experience for my first conference. Learned things I didn't know, met people I hadn't met, and did things I hadn't done. I am aware there were more things I could've done, but given the limitations I put upon myself, overall, it was good.