13 June, 2006

Nerd Herd Mentality

So, i'm live in Boston, i was hoping to do some sort of regular blogging update thing, but as always i'm overbusy and have little room in my head or schedule to do everything that i'd like to... let's see if i can catch up...

It's Sunday (we're pretending)... i'm skipping church to catch a plane to head off to Boston... little boy tried to convince me that Boston wasn't in Massachusetts but in fact it was in church... (i'm pretty sure he got Boston confused with his Sunday School classmate, Austin)... nice try buddy, i'd stay if i could... so, we get to the airport and i make it through security without a hitch and indulge in some treats from Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts.... (oh sweet french crullers... it's been far too long)... i'm starting to wonder if there's anyone in America who travels without a laptop anymore... everyone has to flash their laptops to get through the security checkpoint and it seems to me that everyone has one...

So, i'm boarding the airplane only to realize that 75% of the passengers are headed to Microsoft Tech Ed 2006 which is my destination... no surprise we're on Jet Blue which is the obvious choice for geeks because we get to watch DirecTV as we fly... anyway... this is all boring except that i watched SportsCenter while reading The Last Christian Generation and that one of my coworkers dumped a can of Coke in his lap and it was amusing (in a mean way) to watch him flailing across the aisle...

So, yadda yadda yadda... we get checked in and registered and we head over to the keynote presentation... yikes! almost three hours... a handful of important Microsoft people giving speeches and demos... and oh yeah, the guest attraction was some chick from 24... i guess it was a highlight, buti'm still holding strong with having never seen an episode of the show... anyway, she was there because they spoofed the show during the keynote to drive home the point of... um... yeah... it worked well...

Actually, a few interesting things that i noticed was a focus on "people" and a focus on a bigger budget... which says to me.. (i know, i'm a skeptic)... "we want you to think that we like you enough so that you'll be willing to loosen your purse strings and pay us through the teeth for our fancy new products"... Anyway... it's pretty much buzz central here at the conference so far... marketing is the obvious king here and we're all being inundated with the latest catch phrases and pleas for product loyalty... i actually laughed out loud when they announced that one of their promises was to "amplify the impact of your people" because just the other day, i posted this press release... ah... when world's collide... not sure how i feel about Indelible Creative Group anymore, that's for sure...

And so the keynote was done and there were lots of promises made not too much excitement from the crowd - possibly because many of us were grumpy about having a Sunday night keynote - and we all filed out to wait in the incredible shuttle bus lines which we found by following the numerous security guards waving plastic lighted cattle prod batons... it's also worth noting that i ate at Maggiano's for the first time on Sunday too... i think that's about it for Sunday... it may also interest you to know that i'm rooming with my boss this week, because apparently we employees aren't worth the cost of our own hotel rooms... wonderful... i'll be back in a bit to talk about yesterday which was Monday... in my unofficial official MS Tech Ed 2006 blog entries... i need to figure out a way to get some reviews written this week... (i did post a new Left to Write over at CMCentral)...

currently listening to:

Sivion - Spring of the Songbird
Jason Morant - Open
Fair - The Best Worst Case Scenario
Ayiesha Woods - Introducing Ayiesha Woods

keeping an eye on...


peace... love... bdg...

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