Well made it to Denver in one piece. Drive in was interesting, the lack of trees a bit creepy, but at same time makes one think of all that frontier mythology, without all the strip malls and highways could imagine buffalo and covered wagons and the like, still not a lot of cover when they send the helicopter gunships in for you... sat about talked watched some random stuff. 

Slept ok tho up periodically is that a contradiction in terms, had a chocolate bagel for breakfast which was a trifle odd, now lounging about. So after a good bit of lounging, made our exit to natural history museum, pretty big place, apparently with a new parking garage. Was definitely one of the nicer natural history museums I've been too, gems were quite nice, on par, maybe even a bit better than ny, and really gems are the highlight of anyplace, instilled in me the urge to own some rodochrosite, tho when got the chance it cost too much. Some nice dinosaur stuff, one absolutely spectacular Native American mask of a sea spirit beautiful piece. missed the mummies, what a pity... Actually started out with planetarium show which was neat, though as most popular science shows, kind of corny in a lot of places, mars exhibit which was rather nifty, maybe a little overdone, as hands on exhibit halls tend to be, but fun, had some nifty demos, and a little diorama of mars that they had a person in a fake space suit wandering around in, fiddling with stuff and answering questions kind of an interesting job description: fake astronaut. Back lounged, sat outside and did a little sketching of flowers, and birds, none too successfully, took a little walk around the hood, it's still bit weird to me, that kind of suburban neighborhood that is purely residential, is that what they mean when they say bedroom communities? or is that something else? Dinner at a Chinese place, Buddha's delight, nice brown sauce, rained a bit, once back, did a little more sketching and genuinely learned a bit about music, tho only a bit, so that's what a measure is. A somewhat strange experience so far, but that's kind of the nature of these things. Goodness knows I continually wonder if I'm making a fool of myself, The response I suppose is who cares .

Well one of those days, Went to red rocks after lunch , which was quite impressive, and then to Waterton canyon. There were some pretty flowers, some kind of wild plum, what looked like hops to me, wonder if there is such a thing as wild hops. 

Fiddled about and made it to church eventually. It was quite a nice service in spite of the mr rogers multimedia quality, they did shout to the lord, which I remember and always liked from CIFC events and I seem to remember Jenel used to do the waving the fist in the air thing as well, the space is actually pretty nice I thought, I mean it's very modern, but for all that it's decent looking, just need to do something with those walls... if you ask me, So back, lunch, headed out, got to Boulder. The art show, was interesting, nice locale along a pedestrian mall,... really nice music store stopped into while b looking at silk skirts, picked up a terry callier live album, wandered into some more stores, drove in circles a bit finally alighting on lawn an university of Colorado-I think for picnic dinner. Pisser, Margo from the WSOAE called me there since I hadn't signed up for the show, wasn't a hard sell to sucker me into saying I'd send them a check, they must be hurting for people, not surprising given how well things gone in the past. The production of much ado at Shakespeare festival was western themed with a bunch of additional dialogue , was a nice event, very well done.

So a late start Mon headed to Mt Evans, a pretty drive, stopped a bit here and there, lunch at echo ? lake. Drove up, stopped, wandered through ponderosa pines, they are quite impressive, guess it's not the only time I've seen them, think saw them in Arizona, just walked for a little, was really beautiful, great variety of wildflowers. made it to the top, a storm coming in, could see lightning flashes, was quite an impressive view, all the mountains stretching off to the distance, made our way down, stopped to do a little wander around summit lake, started to rain, headed back, made it in, then out to thai place with the famed fred and martha, they did seem quite nice, amusing folk went by their place, beautiful collection of orchids, a great deal of effort clearly goes into humidifying the place for them, trying to get the house built does sound like a horror show, not that I'm likely to, but makes me think better of every trying to build something. Sat about and talked for a bit, not a bad evening all said, back and caught half a special on motorcycle racing on the salt flats, better them than me. 

So Tuesday to the art museum, a slow start quite a nice place really, they even have a nerdrum in the modern. some fun stuff all around both native american, european etc, all quite nice stuff, they had the neat idea of putting little lounges on each floor, with reference books, in some places videos and a vcr, curio drawers, and some other actual artifacts in cases scattered around a sort of neat effect that would be fun to page through stuff if on a more leisurely visit, kind of like the sort of study one would like to have, had lunch in the cafe there, which has a really small lunch counter and a la de da cafe, that had some quite good food, sitting on the outdoor patio, roast mushrooms with polenta late by time got out wound up calling her father and having him meet us down there, bit of delay in doing so, had dinner at California pizza joint, gorgonzola and pear pizza, which was different, but quite good. Went to the tattered cover, which was a nice bookstore, got a mixed works of christina rossetti tho was tempted to get a hardcover edition of her poems instead.

Wed were supposed to be going to a mine and railroad, but couldn't get reservation for mine, so took it easy, went to goodwill, got a book on being a christian telecommuter more for the hell of it than else, and maybe advice applicable to a would be artist. also a shirt. after lunch, headed to another big red rock formation, which was very pretty took a hike around that, got some reference pics, probably be lousy , amusing humming birds fighting with eachother you would think that is enough energy wasted they'd all drop dead. back, passing her dad on the way, made pasta with the raw tomato and garlic and aglio olio, even tried frying some zuccini seemed like they liked it, though may have just been polite. looked at some old pics, kind of a weird experience, kind of hard to explain why. This sense of someone else's past opaque to you...

So started out for the train and mine, ate lunch there while waiting for train whcih was late bc steam engine was down and they were trading off for a diesel, was a cute ride through mountains and the like, stopped in mine, was a neat little tour, not too in depth but interesting, the guy giving it clearly working on the crusty miner act, seemed a nice enough guy, an interesting tour, the owner was from lebanon ny, think I've been in some other Lebanon mine. Stopped off in Idaho Springs and Georgetown, very cute little victorian towns, clearly tourist towns, shops and such, , quite nice, very high end looking gallery nice stuff at expensive prices, jotted down the name of someone doing tempra on panels, dropped into brewery which made rootbeer recommended by the mine guy, was good rootbeer, kind of licorice flavor, kind of a slow trip back, got caught in traffic, almost made it back in time just as entering the development got pulled over for speeding oy, che machello. Her parents had called ahead that were going to be late and left when got there. Got to the place, posh and poshly priced joint in a former public library, fondu, so give you pots of oil and broth and you cook all the bits in it, fondu something or other, rather than the cheese fondu, tho they do that as well, it was quite good, lot of little dishes of various sauces, was alot of fun, definitely a slow meal tho, frying and boiling all these things, quite a meal. headed back, sat about a bit, saw her dragon collection, to bed, up hung about a little and to the airport, said goodbyes there. 

Made it in, 11 including tip from airport which seems like a rip to me its such a short drive, the bus probably wouldn't be that bad even, oh well. is kind of impressive tho, if determined you could walk to the airport. Hotel ok looking. room not ready, ditched and went walking I was in california for 15 min before being bored with it and ready to go home, Didn't help that I hadn't had lunch, wandered about very deserted streets speculating if any of the loosers I passed were headed for the conferece. I should talk as I stomped down the street ponytail flying behind, scowling and peering at my palm to see if anything worth doing was in dads notes, maybe should have just done zoo, but seemed late walked through empty and not terribly interesting lamplight district, and along water, did maritime museum which was interesting tho not that exceptional worth doing to keep me sane and less work than walking, sat down to take some notes, random guy started talking to me about palms. And now I really find someplace to eat, have wound up in random mostly empty mexican place in gaslight district, I have to admit, so far I have been less than tremendously impressed with the place, I know I'm in a bad mood since I haven't eaten, and I shouldn't be judgmental, but seems to have all the flaws of NY, big, lack of nature, bit grungy etc without any of it's virtues, say people on the street, or anything besides anonymous monolithic office buildings for blocks on end ah well, a little more charitably disposed after eathing tho only a little. Took senic route back to hotel adrianne had been in and left note, not back yet. ..We exchanged notes and collapsed soon after he did. around eleven

Uncannily I had eaten our free continental breakfast, (mmmh cheese danish) and was out the door by 8:40 Adrianne was working at animation conference. Ignored dads advice and tried to walk to park, couple false starts, this is not a pedestrian friendly city, often hit the you cant get there from here effect, but still got in at 9:05 tho should have been less. nothing was open of course, so wandered around, a pretty area, watched several small children crabbing for crayfish with bacon in the goldfish pond, which struck me as odd, tho they just dumped them back when they had them. I hit the tropical lathe house, which was pretty, some nice orchids, by then was 10 so hit the art museum, didn't do the pass tickets, so far having spent 28 dollars on museums I'm ahead compared to it. Had a nice hokosai exhibit as well as a big degas bronze show, came up with painting idea that will amuse me if nobody else. A nice tho small collection, Hit the Japanese garden which was worth a visit for $2 at least if you're into japanese gardens but rather small, their bonsai were alarmed which I found amusing for some reason. The free art museum was also nice, had a special exhibit with a nice elhi ? vedder of a fisherman and mermaid as well as a parrish with very blue shadows, he was known for using paint straight out of the tube wasn't he? had my resolution to do some contemporary dress biblical scenes renewed. There was an orchid show and sale in progress in one of the buildings, so looked at the orchids and was tempted to buy a section of some kind of euphorbia, but it was kind of big so refrained. Looked at the place mom and dad mentioned, but thought i might try it for dinner, and got a 2.50 bean burrito instead, was quite big.. looked about the artisan 'village' had some decent stuff, most so so, If I'd been hell bent on spending money I could probably have found something, but I wasn't. I bet there's money in sumi-e style cat pictures... Onward to to the zoo, got there around 2:30 left around 8:30, it's big, nice collection of exotics in landscaping, outdoes the bronx in terms of spreading things out and has the advantage of climate in what it puts in between. The koala were cute, tho watching the people watching them was almost as much fun, did alot of stopping to sketch, attracted a bit of attention here and there, walked more or less nonstop modulo sketching till I left, think I covered everything minus the aviaries which were closed because of some kind of bird disease they didn't want theirs to catch. left, The dinner menu at the place in park was both more expensive, and less appealing so passed. Poked nose into some kind of giant gay pride event, which looked like might be place to get food on way, but had to pay to get in and somehow I didn't feel the need to pay 12 dollars to attend a gay pride event, a free one that may have been something else. Walked back down to gaslight, ate a slice of pizza, still actually hungry, so then got a subway sub, which I really didn't need, tho it may have contained an equal volume of vegetables to what I've eaten in the past week. I briefly sat down there, but got antsy and finished it while walking to hotel, ruminating on the fact that I am hopelessly low class as I went. all said I was on the road, for 13 hours today maybe 10 of which I was actually walking, maybe Bethany is right and there is something kind of unnatural and compulsive about my walking on vacation, but what else is there to do, maybe I'll write some postcards before I go to bed... 

Survived first day, hit parts of npr and perception courses, a bit predictable and slow paced, hit the preception BOF, which had a huge crowd this time round, once again they collected names, maybe this time they'll actually do something with them. ate a $3 slice of pizza panicked doing the fast forward and went too fast, and skipped a few beats, but oh well I really should have practiced it in front of a crowd more rather than memorizing it, to npr bof which moved up the street to a different bar, was an amusing evening even got to explain the sug contour stuff, an expensive price tag for a veggie burger and a Guinness, but oh well, not a bad day, and leaves me a bit more charitably inclined than i started the day..

hit texture papers, which were interesting, then cut into part of engineeringish course, quick $3 pizza ahd hit some more animation, wonder if it's just me, but the kind of grim violent humor in alot of them gets on my nerves, odd since they intersperse them with cutesy stuff, so often seems like you can either go awwwwh or retch but nothing in between. hit bit more of course and some of coruse on intelligent spaces, then last paper session, really is quite incredible what they can do in real time with these fancy illumination and texture models. Joined the absolutely mammoth line for the ILM special session, which started a bit slow but picked up and was actually quite interesting once they got started talking about something that interested them. Being alone, hit a new culinary low, got two slices of pizza, then a bit hungry still a hostess pie from 7 eleven, in my defense I'd never tried blackberry and was curious, not bad, tho I realized after the fact, that the wrapper leaves it uncertain whether it is or is not vegetarian which is a disturbing thought, I couldn't be high class if you paid me to.

Nother day, saw some papers, some classes, some more animations, wandered, lapsed again, for the last time I swear and had lunch at subway, (that would be except for dinner which was more pizza on the way to the electronic theater more futzing about, then to electronic theater), which was quite impressive, kind of weird mix of fancy fx and more specific look animation, 

so hit latter half of fist session, some NPR sketches, tried to be dignified by actually eating a sit down luch, tho it was still a sandwich, then a double helping of ice cream, one from a store, then a second since ati was giving them out, I do hate eating alone, I know other people have the same feeling, of alienation at times at these big conferences, which is comforting, but still can't help but think that every time I go to a conference, I get a better understanding of how prostitution exists. This is just a week, but if you were always on the road at stuff like this, be dammed lonely and need a hell of a will to deal with it. more papers more NPR sketches, kind of interesting to hear about real world producton pipelines. Special session on robots, some rather neat stuff, tho as cool as they were, left wondering a bit if with everything that's wrong with the world is this really what we need to be worrying about, I'm already getting cranky in my old age... The little sony entertainment biped was incredibly cute and graceful though. To reception where ate huge quantity of nachos, and good bit of dessert, had my one free beer, alot more fun when you are around other people, wandered back

Started early day, first session then ours, the talk went well, got or rather doug got alot of nice comments, some interesting papers in the session, one of the better one's , went to lunch with Doug, Mat and Syzmon, which cost as much as my lunches through the rest of the week, hit a couple more sessions, Went to dinner with adrianne and a big batch of other folk once again a meal that proabably parallels all my prior meals in cost. have to say, billed itself as modern cuisine, which it clearly was, I think we wound up paying $30 for mineral water, one of most pretentous restaurants I've ever been in, not the most expensive certainly, but the most pretentious definitely. On offer was hierloom tomato soup, definitely a bit rairified for me, tho the grilled tofu wasn't bad. 

So after a desperate search for my pen, which was in my camera bag, got breakfast, ditched my bag at desk and walked to balboa park, since seemed a little more interesting than trying to hit the display from the seaport museum, at the modern art museum. So wandered a little, sketched a little till 10 when musuems opened, wandered thro museum of man, which had a pretty good mexican folk art exhibit, and kind of neat giant cast of maya monuments, some egyptian stuff, kind of weird to think about just how bloody many mummies there are in the world, anyplace that is anyplace, has to have at least one dead egyptian. walked thro the greenhouse again, sat a little and headed back, caught shuttle to airport. As of the moment looks like I wont get on the flight, which kind of sucks, since it looks like will be 9 hours till the next one, I don't really fancy 9 hours in this airport. oh well, we shall see. did indeed make it on by a hairsbreadth, they got a volunteer already on the plane, it was a close call to me 250 voucher plus a fist class flight back, albeit 8 hours later,assuming no disasters which would be somewhat ironic given the circumstances, I'll have survived another trip and be dammed happy to be home.