Conference Time!
I need to stop trying to predict when my next journal entry goes up, because I'll enviably be wrong. Anyway, during the beginning of this month, I spent the entire work week going to a museum conference in Corpus Christi. This was my first professional conference, so I really didn't know what to expect at all. My baseline for judging conferences has been SciFi, gaming, and anime conventions. If figured this wouldn't be quite the same, so it was interesting to see how'd they'd differ. So Sunday I spent all day packing up and getting ready to go. I didn't know what to wear, so I packed a variety of nice cloths and normal street cloths. Most of my expenses for this trip was paid for by the museum, and I also had a spot in the van that was going down from the museum. But I had to wake up very early on Monday morning in order to do so.
So I wake up early on Monday, and I notice the back of my throat is a little soar. I didn't pay this much mind because a lot of the time I wake up with a soar throat, and it turns out to be nothing. However, as the morning progresses, it doesn't go away. I was getting sick again, which was weird because I hardly ever get sick, and I had just been sick two weeks earlier. Had I gotten sick a day earlier, I'm not sure if I would have pulled out of the trip, but I probably would have. Anyway, I spent most of the trip in a half awake, half asleep state of conscious. Anyway, I get down there and check into the hotel with no problems. First thing I do when I get to my room is try to find the nearest drug store. Unfortunately, we were right in the middle of downtown, with no drug stores nearby, but there was a gas station where I was able to get some cough drops. The next day I spend pretty much in my room coughing a lot. It was pretty miserable for the most part, but at least the room was nice. I also got my registration material too that day, to figure out what I should go to. But most of Tuesday was spent in my hotel room sleeping or watching old MST3k episodes. The hotel's cable was kind of crappy. No Comedy Central, but it did have Cartoon Network and an HBO that was on a really weird time schedule. But I had brought along my computer and the cables to hook it up to the TV, hence the MST3k. I also discovered how awesome Adventure Time is. I watched a bunch of while sitting around in my room. The show has oddles of subtext, which is what I really like about it.
I was feeling better on Wednesday, so actually got out of my room to experience some of the convention. The main thing I went to where the sessions. These were like the panels at the nerdier conventions I've been too. I went to one earlier in the morning, then I went back to my room to sleep a little more before I went to another one in the afternoon. I also took some time to walk around the show room too. The show room was kind of like a dealer room, except the vendors weren't selling anything AT the convention. Rather, they were showing off goods and services you could buy for your museum. I saw a lot of neat stuff. I think my favorite were either the sound projector that couldn't be heard even a meter way from it's intended area, or the QR codes meant for museum labels. Later that night, I left the hotel to go to a sushi place. I'd been looking forward to some fresh seaside sushi, and the place I went to did not disappoint. Even though they were having a sushi happier hour, I still dropped $40 on sushi. I was a bit worried when my first credit card was declined. Turns out, the hotel put a larger charge on my card. It went away a week a later, and the actual charge was put on it instead. The next day, I went to a couple more things in the morning. After lunch though, there wasn't anything I really wanted to go to, so I blew it off in favor of just walking along the coastline. I was kind of hoping I could make it to this Aircraft carrier I saw in the harbor, but that turned out to be impossible on foot. Later that night, I went to yet another sushi place. This place was super trendy though, so I was a little intimidated. But the bartender was really friendly, so it turned out nice. Friday, only one of the vans was going back, so I had to wait till mid day to leave. That meant I was able to make it to one more session before I left. Also by this time, I was mostly better.
So that was my first museum. I kind of avoided some of the more social events. I didn't want to get anyone else sick because of me. The other weird thing about it was that a lot of the other things that were going one required an additional ticket which you had to sign up for in advance, and that there were evens going through Friday night. Of course, since I was sick really killed a lot of my motivation. But now I know what to look for in future conferences I go to. From what I did go to though, I real liked, and it did somewhat motivate me to try new things in my job. So I'd like to go to some more in the future. I'm already looking at a couple I might want to go to next year, and it would be nice if I have the same for a travel budget next year too.
So I wake up early on Monday, and I notice the back of my throat is a little soar. I didn't pay this much mind because a lot of the time I wake up with a soar throat, and it turns out to be nothing. However, as the morning progresses, it doesn't go away. I was getting sick again, which was weird because I hardly ever get sick, and I had just been sick two weeks earlier. Had I gotten sick a day earlier, I'm not sure if I would have pulled out of the trip, but I probably would have. Anyway, I spent most of the trip in a half awake, half asleep state of conscious. Anyway, I get down there and check into the hotel with no problems. First thing I do when I get to my room is try to find the nearest drug store. Unfortunately, we were right in the middle of downtown, with no drug stores nearby, but there was a gas station where I was able to get some cough drops. The next day I spend pretty much in my room coughing a lot. It was pretty miserable for the most part, but at least the room was nice. I also got my registration material too that day, to figure out what I should go to. But most of Tuesday was spent in my hotel room sleeping or watching old MST3k episodes. The hotel's cable was kind of crappy. No Comedy Central, but it did have Cartoon Network and an HBO that was on a really weird time schedule. But I had brought along my computer and the cables to hook it up to the TV, hence the MST3k. I also discovered how awesome Adventure Time is. I watched a bunch of while sitting around in my room. The show has oddles of subtext, which is what I really like about it.
I was feeling better on Wednesday, so actually got out of my room to experience some of the convention. The main thing I went to where the sessions. These were like the panels at the nerdier conventions I've been too. I went to one earlier in the morning, then I went back to my room to sleep a little more before I went to another one in the afternoon. I also took some time to walk around the show room too. The show room was kind of like a dealer room, except the vendors weren't selling anything AT the convention. Rather, they were showing off goods and services you could buy for your museum. I saw a lot of neat stuff. I think my favorite were either the sound projector that couldn't be heard even a meter way from it's intended area, or the QR codes meant for museum labels. Later that night, I left the hotel to go to a sushi place. I'd been looking forward to some fresh seaside sushi, and the place I went to did not disappoint. Even though they were having a sushi happier hour, I still dropped $40 on sushi. I was a bit worried when my first credit card was declined. Turns out, the hotel put a larger charge on my card. It went away a week a later, and the actual charge was put on it instead. The next day, I went to a couple more things in the morning. After lunch though, there wasn't anything I really wanted to go to, so I blew it off in favor of just walking along the coastline. I was kind of hoping I could make it to this Aircraft carrier I saw in the harbor, but that turned out to be impossible on foot. Later that night, I went to yet another sushi place. This place was super trendy though, so I was a little intimidated. But the bartender was really friendly, so it turned out nice. Friday, only one of the vans was going back, so I had to wait till mid day to leave. That meant I was able to make it to one more session before I left. Also by this time, I was mostly better.
So that was my first museum. I kind of avoided some of the more social events. I didn't want to get anyone else sick because of me. The other weird thing about it was that a lot of the other things that were going one required an additional ticket which you had to sign up for in advance, and that there were evens going through Friday night. Of course, since I was sick really killed a lot of my motivation. But now I know what to look for in future conferences I go to. From what I did go to though, I real liked, and it did somewhat motivate me to try new things in my job. So I'd like to go to some more in the future. I'm already looking at a couple I might want to go to next year, and it would be nice if I have the same for a travel budget next year too.