Further Confusion 2014: Monday and The Journey Home
Four months afterward, the final chapter of my trip to San Jose.
Got up early Monday morning (which happened to be MLK day) and hitched a ride on Caltrain out to Mountain View. My first destination was the Computer History Museum.
As I waited for the bus to carry me the final 1.5mi, I noticed some rather strange phenomena. Black or white unmarked vans would pull up to the station and a bunch of people would climb in. Where I'm from, unmarked vans generally go to places that you don't want to be. I asked a driver of one of these vans where they were going... he explained that it was a shuttle to take Apple employees to the Cupertino campus. Another unmarked van arrived with a sheet of copy paper taped to the door, which read "AMD Duane". Microsoft's vans didn't bother with being discreet, they were covered in "Microsoft Connect" livery. Google's GBuses were notably absent.
Turns out, the bus I needed wasn't operating that day, but there was a cab ready to take me where I wanted to go.
The Computer History Museum was filled with all sorts of nifty things. Spent several hours wandering around the place taking photos. Lots of photos.
A *working* Babbage adder
The Utah Teapot!
Piles of old crappy computers! :D
The Altair 8800. Microsoft got their start writing a BASIC interpreter for this model.
Anyone remember pets.com?
Eventually, it came time to leave. I hiked a few blocks north to visit this little company called Google. I noticed a number of smaller office buildings occupied by Google as I approached their campus, but not quite as numerous as Apple's satellite buildings. By the time I reached 1600 Amphitheatre, I had about 15 minutes to get some photos before my bus connection.
The area was pretty quiet, my guess is that Google observes MLK day. The quiet was broken in a courtyard across the street from the main campus. This was the famous Android courtyard, featuring cute standees of each Android version, which was mobbed by Asian tourists. I managed to dodge the mob and get a few clear shots.
I spied the VTA bus approaching from down the road, so I crossed over to the bus stop and hitched a ride. It put me about half a mile from the San Antonio Caltrain station. Still, it was a lot easier than walking to Mountain View station from Google. San Antonio station was pretty deserted, but the train did show up, and hauled my tail back to San Jose.
The only Further Confusion programming really going on that day was the "Dead Dog Dance", so I had plenty of time to rest and eat. Suited up one last time. The dance started late, but in the meantime, a few of us fursuiters chatted in the headless lounge. It was there that I happened to meet zoren (finally!), neoreveng, and badgermeles.
Danced around for a while and wandered around the room pestering all in my path. Eventually got tired and headed back to my room. The con was over for me.
The [Whale-free] Voyage Home
Tuesday morning came, another beautiful sunrise over the convention center. I packed up my stuff and checked out of the hotel. I took the opportunity to make use of Uber to get to the airport, and was quite impressed. The late-model Corolla that picked me up was a lot nicer than any of the beat-up taxis that I had previously taken. I now understand why the incumbent taxi oligopolies are so deathly afraid of Uber: It's a higher-quality service for the same, or in my case, cheaper price.
Flight home was pretty straightforward. Southwest to PHX, then board another plane bound for ATL. Southwest's two checked bag allowance saved me soooo much money during the trip. And the drum case I packed my fursuit head in arrived intact. w00t!
Final thoughts:
This was a very fun trip. Aside from a crummy badge pickup experience, FC was quite good. It was great to meet up with west coast furs and the surprise of seeing college pal Holly Fox. I managed to hit a number of interesting places accessible via public transit.
Would I attend FC again? Sure! Will I attend next year? Not so sure.
I likely wouldn't fly out to just attend the con, further exploration of the area would be a major driver of a future trip. Heck, there's still the entirety of San Francisco left to see. Though, having a car is probably necessary for such endeavors.
Even with my dirt cheap tourist excursions and a clever deal on airfare, it still required a budget that rivals what I typically spend for DragonCon, and much more than Megaplex. Assuming the airfare deal was a one-time thing, renting a car, and visiting SF... it would be around $2000+ to go back again.
So, who knows when I'll be back, but I'd sure like to go. :)
Got up early Monday morning (which happened to be MLK day) and hitched a ride on Caltrain out to Mountain View. My first destination was the Computer History Museum.
As I waited for the bus to carry me the final 1.5mi, I noticed some rather strange phenomena. Black or white unmarked vans would pull up to the station and a bunch of people would climb in. Where I'm from, unmarked vans generally go to places that you don't want to be. I asked a driver of one of these vans where they were going... he explained that it was a shuttle to take Apple employees to the Cupertino campus. Another unmarked van arrived with a sheet of copy paper taped to the door, which read "AMD Duane". Microsoft's vans didn't bother with being discreet, they were covered in "Microsoft Connect" livery. Google's GBuses were notably absent.
Turns out, the bus I needed wasn't operating that day, but there was a cab ready to take me where I wanted to go.
The Computer History Museum was filled with all sorts of nifty things. Spent several hours wandering around the place taking photos. Lots of photos.
A *working* Babbage adder
The Utah Teapot!
Piles of old crappy computers! :D
The Altair 8800. Microsoft got their start writing a BASIC interpreter for this model.
Anyone remember pets.com?
Eventually, it came time to leave. I hiked a few blocks north to visit this little company called Google. I noticed a number of smaller office buildings occupied by Google as I approached their campus, but not quite as numerous as Apple's satellite buildings. By the time I reached 1600 Amphitheatre, I had about 15 minutes to get some photos before my bus connection.
The area was pretty quiet, my guess is that Google observes MLK day. The quiet was broken in a courtyard across the street from the main campus. This was the famous Android courtyard, featuring cute standees of each Android version, which was mobbed by Asian tourists. I managed to dodge the mob and get a few clear shots.
I spied the VTA bus approaching from down the road, so I crossed over to the bus stop and hitched a ride. It put me about half a mile from the San Antonio Caltrain station. Still, it was a lot easier than walking to Mountain View station from Google. San Antonio station was pretty deserted, but the train did show up, and hauled my tail back to San Jose.
The only Further Confusion programming really going on that day was the "Dead Dog Dance", so I had plenty of time to rest and eat. Suited up one last time. The dance started late, but in the meantime, a few of us fursuiters chatted in the headless lounge. It was there that I happened to meet zoren (finally!), neoreveng, and badgermeles.
Danced around for a while and wandered around the room pestering all in my path. Eventually got tired and headed back to my room. The con was over for me.
The [Whale-free] Voyage Home
Tuesday morning came, another beautiful sunrise over the convention center. I packed up my stuff and checked out of the hotel. I took the opportunity to make use of Uber to get to the airport, and was quite impressed. The late-model Corolla that picked me up was a lot nicer than any of the beat-up taxis that I had previously taken. I now understand why the incumbent taxi oligopolies are so deathly afraid of Uber: It's a higher-quality service for the same, or in my case, cheaper price.
Flight home was pretty straightforward. Southwest to PHX, then board another plane bound for ATL. Southwest's two checked bag allowance saved me soooo much money during the trip. And the drum case I packed my fursuit head in arrived intact. w00t!
Final thoughts:
This was a very fun trip. Aside from a crummy badge pickup experience, FC was quite good. It was great to meet up with west coast furs and the surprise of seeing college pal Holly Fox. I managed to hit a number of interesting places accessible via public transit.
Would I attend FC again? Sure! Will I attend next year? Not so sure.
I likely wouldn't fly out to just attend the con, further exploration of the area would be a major driver of a future trip. Heck, there's still the entirety of San Francisco left to see. Though, having a car is probably necessary for such endeavors.
Even with my dirt cheap tourist excursions and a clever deal on airfare, it still required a budget that rivals what I typically spend for DragonCon, and much more than Megaplex. Assuming the airfare deal was a one-time thing, renting a car, and visiting SF... it would be around $2000+ to go back again.
So, who knows when I'll be back, but I'd sure like to go. :)