Monday, July 21, 2008

It's over

I can never be as witty with these posts as Corbett is, so I won't try, just FYI.

It is over though. The conference is over. I'm still not entirely sure what I am supposed to do. The physicists have left town. I don't have to go to the University Center. There are minor things to deal with in the aftermath, but they are minor.

It all went off fairly successfully, I think. My talk went well, and I am glad I scheduled myself on Monday to get it over with. There were glitches here and there but nothing traumatic, and mostly people didn't realize it. I was (not entirely) amazed at how stupid people really are. I was about to say professors, physicists, or academics, but honestly, this stupidity is universal to all. Not to say that everyone is stupid, more like 5-10% (this is my estimate based on the number of people at the conference who were). Also, this is not to say they are stupid, just clueless. Yeah, clueless. Or just plain ol' out of it.

This comment comes from the number of times an announcement would be made, both verbally and written down, and immediately after the verbal announcement, people would come to ask me about whatever it was I just told them. It happened every single time. I guess I should say I wasn't terribly surprised, but given my low tolerance for irritants (shocking, yes, I know, because I am so happy-go-lucky and forgiving), it was enough to fuel the fire that had been burning every morning since 6:30 when I woke up.

But overall, it was a great experience, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I will also do everything in my power to never organize a Lattice Conference again.

by Topher at 11:16 AM |