Ultranormal

Category: travel

  • Presenting to The Webfather

    I just did my first presentation at WWW on our microformat, and who was in the audience, but Tim Berners-Lee, the father of the web. There was a moment, sitting at the front of the room, waiting for my turn to present, that I got really nervous. I’m not normally nervous before I speak in front of a fairly small group (less than 100). This time, I was. I had a thirty minute presentation that I had to compress into 10, which didn’t help.\
    I think Friday’s will be easier. I get to talk about CSS, on stage with two people I know fairly well, and I have my full time. If you’re at the conference, Friday’s Style and Layout panel should be a lot of fun. I get to talk about the guidelines we set up for CSS in modules and themes in AIM Pages, and how that process has worked out for us so far.

  • Pictures Finally

    A couple new photosets. I can upload pictures from the conference center, but can’t from the hotel. So, here they are and there are more to come. I’m way behind on pictures.

  • Haggis Virgin

    Until last night, I’d never tried haggis and never really wanted to. But, we went to a lovely Scottish restaurant last night (“we” being Arun, Bert Bos, Chaals, Chris Lilley, Shawn, Carolie, Richard Ishida, Thomas and Liam – they were all here for the W3C AC Rep meeting), and they had haggis as an appetizer. And well, that was the opening. We all convinced each other than it was OK to try it as an appetizer because it would be a “wee little haggis.”\
    So, we got it, and shared a few. Shawn and I were “haggis hosts”, and Arun and Thomas were our “haggicytes.” And you know, it was actually quite good. It’s really rich, but the barley gives it a kind of weird texture. I don’t think I need to eat it again, but I’m no longer a haggis virgin. My haggishood has been taken by a charming wee chunk of barley and sheep organs. Yum.\
    Dinner was a lot of fun. I love hanging out with really smart people, and these guys fit the bill. They’re all brilliant, and terribly funny. We laughed a lot (I think the whiskey and wine helped), and told a lot of embarrassing stories about ourselves. Good times.\
    Today, it’s conferencing, which probably means less fun (and wouldn’t you know it, it’s not raining today).

  • Edinburgh Travelogue Day One & Two

    Since Jen asked, here’s what I’ve done/seen so far:

    • Since my hotel room wasn’t ready when I got in, I wandered around the High Street area, and got a lovely cup of soup in a little cafe.
    • I walked by a bunch of interesting shops that were closed because it was Sunday.
    • Today, I walked by a bunch of interesting shops that were closed because it’s a bank holiday.
    • I walked to the conference center to register and got a little lost.
    • I took some pictures, but because the network wi-fi sucks, I can’t upload them to Flickr.
    • I went to the grocery store across the street from my hotel looking for snacks and was disappointed.
    • I walked past a bondage shop, and it had a display window, which was a first for me… I’ve never actually seen a bondage shop. I’ve only ever heard that they exist.
    • Now, I’m working on my presentations, which I have to have done today (which is why I’m not out site-seeing). I thought I was done a little while ago, but after re-reading them, I still have some work to do.
    • I walked over a mile today, which is probably more walking than I’ve done since surgery, especially after you consider my marathon at Heathrow yesterday. I’m doing OK, just a little bit of tightness along the bottom of my foot. It did kind of punctuate just how out of shape I am, though.\
      Oh yeah, Heathrow. Holy crap. We landed at 6:40AM and we all promptly rushed to the bus. Unfortunately, between us and the bus was a gigantic throng of about two hundred people also trying to get to the bus. It was this huge mess of humanity, with no traffic cop, just a formless queue of people trying to catch their connecting flight and growing increasingly agitated. I had two hours between flights and got on board five minutes after the flight was originally supposed to leave (thankfully, it was delayed). If you’ve ever been through Heathrow, it took two hours to get from Terminal 3 to Terminal 1, and I had to jog the last bit (and if you’ve ever seen me, you know that’s not a good idea). It normally takes no more than an hour, usually thirty minutes.\
      A couple observations about Edinburgh before I post this. First, Edinburgh doesn’t seem as friendly as Dublin. Maybe it’s just the part of the city I’m in, but I’m downtown, and I stayed in downtown Dublin, and the vibe was totally different. When Sean and I got lost in Dublin, someone came up to us and helped without us even asking (we just looked lost). Here, people don’t return smiles and avoid eye contact (maybe it’s because I’m all shaggy again). In shops and restaurants, people are nice enough, but it’s not the same cheerfulness I fell in love with in Dublin (any why compare the two? because they’re fairly close together?).\
      Second, there are a lot of cobblestones here, and that freaks me out. I rolled my ankle on a seam in a parking lot in Austin. I’m a little paranoid about rolling my ankle again and cobblestone streets are like minefields.\
      Third, Edinburgh has really good chip shops. I had some amazing chips last night for dinner, and the fish was awesome. Edinburgh also has a lot of strip clubs. I walked past at least six on the way to the conference center (and don’t forget the bondage shop). The only reason I noticed this was that my friend Tom said there weren’t any strip clubs in Edinburgh (he only told me this because he was telling me about coming to the city while he was in the Navy… OK, I have no idea why he told me this, but he did). Yeah, I don’t think I’ll say any more about the strip clubs.\
      And lastly, I love British television. DirecTV should offer a Brit Pack that has all the BBC’s, SKY, and Channel 4 on it, live. Forget BBC America, I want the real thing. BBC News is better than anything we have here, and the Brits have the best/worst reality TV.\
      The conference starts tomorrow and I’m going to the Kendra Initiative dinner tonight (which, luckily enough is right down the street from the hotel), which promises from fun Scottish culture stuff. More blogging later… and maybe I’ll be able to upload pictures from the conference network.

  • Edinburgh Day One

    It’s cold and rainy in Edinburgh and the hotel wi-fi sucks. I think I’m almost done with my presentations for this week and I’ve already registered for the conference and hit a grocery store (disappointingly, they didn’t have Smarties, Kinder Eggs or orange Lilt). I watched Top Gear on real TV and caught the UK version of Big Brother. Hats off to you, Channel 4. You guys really know how to pick a cast! I’ve been a fan of the US version since it launched a few years ago, just because it’s really funny how stupid people get when they’re cooped up with strangers. This version? They’re not only stupid to begin with, they’re all pretty much insane in some way (and it doesn’t help that the UK version is much crueler than the US one). You’ve got:

    • Richard, the self-labeled “sexual terrorist” who dresses like a cross-dressing nazi youth cowboy (yeah, really)
    • Shabaz, the “Paki-poof” (he said it himself), who reminds me of Mario, this guy I used to work with in Tucson who was the first person to make me realize that being gay’s not a “choice”. Mario couldn’t be anything else if he tried, and neither could Shabaz.
    • Pete, the rock-n-roll Tourette’s guy who says “Wank!” at the top of his lungs every couple minutes.
    • Bonnie, who can’t even say her own name.
    • Lisa, the Chinese girl from Manchester who has the most AMAZING accent you’ve ever heard.
    • Glynn, “the sexiest lifeguard in North Wales”, who went into the house in a big red swimsuit, is actually really scrawny and kind of gawky, and who has the second most amazing accent you’ve ever heard.
    • and little Nikki, who’s life ambition is to marry a professional footballer.\
      There are others, but they’re the pretty filler to keep people looking for nudity all summer.\
      I’m only a little jet-lagged. I got a solid 8 hours last night, and am only slightly in need of a nap right now. Time for a Dr. Pepper! Oh, and cobblestones? I could really live without them. They’re kind of daunting to a guy who’s paranoid about twisting an ankle.

  • WWW2006 and Me

    I’m headin’ to Scotland tomorrow for WWW2006, where I’ll be presenting twice:

  • I’m home!

    Mississippi was great! My parents seem very happy with their new home and city. Their house is really nice, with a gorgeous view of the lake from almost every room. I had such a good time, I even banned South jokes from the house and the kids’ ears.\
    I know Kevin was happy to see me, but the boys didn’t really care I was home. I am choosing to think it is because they were in such capable hands of my wonderful husband that they didn’t NEED me. It’s nice to not be needed. Seriously, I am already planning my next trip alone. 🙂

  • Wicked Miles

    I just checked and since January, I’ve already flown 29,599 miles. You need 36,000 to get Premier (you know: the silver card, shorter lines, infrequent free upgrades, no cost upgrades to Economy Plus), and I’ll have that before the middle of May.\
    You know, when I first started traveling for work, I thought it was really cool. There’s still a thrill every time I go to a new place, but it’s starting to get a little old. I’ll have 45,000 miles before June first.\
    Yes, being home with the kids has made me think of traveling… does that make me horrible?

  • Conferences, Conferences

    Just a little reminder… I’ll be moderating the How to Convince Your Company to Embrace [Web] Standards at SxSW 2006 next Tuesday. If you’re going to be at the conference, please show up, even if it’s just to heckle. We’ll have our presentation online by the time we actually sit down to give the panel (but probably not too much before that). If you’re planning on attending our panel, please leave a comment!\
    ~~Also, I just got the e-mail that Shawn and my proposal for X-Tech was accepted! That means that I get to stay in Amsterdam for an extra week after the CSS Working Group meeting in May.~~\
    UPDATE: We’re apparently not presenting at X-Tech. I’m not sure if we got the wrong e-mail first, but it certainly looked like an acceptance notice, but then came another much later in the day saying our proposal wasn’t accepted. Oh well. We can re-submit for “late breaking”, but I don’t know that I really need to bother with it.\
    UPDATE Part 2: I am presenting at WWW2006!! I’m helping Bert out on the CSS part with a presentation on architecting CSS for syndicated content (and for the site including syndicated content). It should be fun, and another chance to show off some of the cool stuff we’re doing over in AIM land.\
    We also submitted a proposal for the Developers Track at WWW2006, and may be helping out with the CSS piece as well.\
    I can’t wait for SxSW. I just hope this jet lag/sinus infection combo is better by Thursday.

  • Close, But Not Quite

    (I wrote this in the Frankfurt airport yesterday… just now getting around to posting it)\
    You know, you’d think I’d remember how weird watching familiar TV shows in different languages is. But, I’m an idiot, so of course, it’s a shock every time. I didn’t want much TV this week, but when getting ready in the morning, or more often, when in the transition from “nerding out” to “good gravy, I’m exhausted and ready for sleeping, brain shut off now” and needing something to distract me from vertical text, mixed left to right and right to left text interspersed with vertical text and all the problems that poses for CSS (and the world in general – is it too late for Esperanto? And no, Richard, I’ll never join the Internationalization Working Group… one day was enough).\
    Where was I, oh yeah, TV. In the hotel, they had a collection of stations:

    • a bunch of French channels
    • a station from Monaco in Italian
    • Eurosport – where all the commentary is English, but the ticker and commercials are German
    • BBC One – If you don’t know what the BBC is, umm, you need to get out more.
    • CNN International
    • Rei Uno – Italian
    • RTL – German
    • and Russian, Chinese and Arabic stations.\
      For some reason, I was drawn to Rei Uno because they had the Italian version of Big Brother, you know, Grande Fratello (it might have been Fratello Grande, I can’t remember – I’ve been up for a long time). It was funny as hell, really. I didn’t need to understand anything they said, the situation was easy to figure out. We’ve seen the situations all before, and there seems to be something about Italian TV that even if you turned off the sound, you could tell exactly what was going on.\
      And, the kings of reality TV, the British, have put together another absolute winner: Millionaire Mansion. You know those shows where people bring in old crap and some tweed-clad aristocrat tells them that it’s really a Victorian bowel de-obstructor and is worth, wait for it, eight thousand pounds!!! Hooray for worthless old crap that turns out to be treasure! The BBC has taken that rather stuffy premise (I watched it getting ready one morning, and wow, it is), and turned it into a reality game show!! I couldn’t turn it off… People off the street, in family teams, have to pick the most valuable item out of three, and then answer some really ridiculous pop culture questions in order to win a vacation in Barbados. Yeah, it’s just as good as it sounds.\
      It’s good to be heading home. As I’m writing this, I’m sitting in the business lounge in Frankfurt, catching up on TV from last week that I didn’t have time to watch (because I was pulled in by virile Italians trapped in a house crying and then confessing, and then making out).\
      More to come…