So, when I started working for IBM in January, they were talking that day about going to a conference in LA, and Ms. Laws, now known as “Boss Claws” after a brief stint as “Cathy,” asked if I would want to go if she could get my travel approved. I told her that I would need to check with my calendar and course syllabi (Firefox’s dictionary had “syllabuses” but that sounds awkward to me, actually, is it ok to say it “sounds” awkward, when I actually didn’t hear it? like, i wrote it, and said it in my head, and I didn’t like it…w/e). So accept for a test that was tentatively scheduled, there were no assignments to prevent me from attending CSUN!

Well, eventually, Cathy came back to me and said she’d managed to get approval for me to go to LA! All praise be to Boss Claws now and forever, none can say tha he or she is more generous, and there would never be one as just in the eyes of any, as Boss Claws in the eyes of all.

So, I got on a plane at like 6am, THANKS BERT! The Farm Bureau (in its entirety) was in the RDU airport when I entered, so it’s a good thing I’m paranoid about missing flights, b/c if I weren’t this time, I would’ve. The flight there was ok, the stop in Charlotte was stupid, but allowed me a chance to get some breakfast.

Got to LA at about 11 their time (and I was ready to go to sleep). So, I checked in (Hilton @ LAX), set up my room, I even used the little luggage holder thingy that I never used to understand. I had my Wii set up, my clothes hung up, dewrinkling, and was down stairs again (even after pottying) in like 20 minutes…yeah, I was sweatin. So then I met Pete for a sandwich in the hotel, this mediocre turkey sandwich was like $8! There were 2 guys behind the counter, both brown, one of a hispanic, or at least spanish-speaking variety, and the other…looked black, but sounded to me (I’ve never met anyone from Louisiana) like he was from the Bayou. It was the latter who rung us up, and he was like, “phat hat man!” and I smiled and said “THANKS!” and maybe I said it to emphatically, but he then went on to explain to me that “that’s how we say we like something, like it’s cool, or hot…it’s phat” and I was just like, “yeah…ok, thanks!” I know what phat means! After all, those of you who thing the my middle name is “Great” must recognize that in all actuality, my name could never be spoken for the fraction of it that has been converted into speech would take 37×5 lifetimes to speak, but of this, The first two names are indeed “The” and “Great” and the last is “Michael” but obviuosly, right in the middle of infinity, “Phat” is my middle name.

Anyways, after a quick sandwich, we went over to the IBM suite in the neighboring hotel (NO idea why the IBM booth and suite were in the Mariott, while we were all staying in the Hilton). Here I met most of the members of my team, almost all for the first time in person. I think this went pretty well. After the rest of the day was used to have everyone update each other, we went to dinner, and some Mozilla folks tagged along.

So unfortunately this is way after I went so I have forgotten many of the interesting points (yeah, yeah, “I can tell” you’re saying from the above, well, sorry).
The sessions each day were not particularly interesting. Some were, but on the hole, I would say the best part was meeting all of my team members and getting to meet people @ Mozilla, and getting to meet people from all over who use or produce enabling technologies.

Having a per diem (a daily food/expense budget) was really neat, and while $40 doesn’t go too far in LA, my only expenses were meals, so I could eat a little better than I eat here, and pay much less.
Ultimately the week was a wonderful experience, I liked meeting all of my coworkers and several people who I correspond with about PyXPCOM/XULRUNNER issues, most with Mozilla. It was very hard however to have had 2 weeks off, one of which a 40 hr, wonderful work week, and then come back to papers and math hw, and etc. So, now (this post was started like…weeks ago at this point), i have only 8 more days of class, and i can’t wait to get back to charlotte, and to begin 40 hr work weeks! I even began a wiki (Democratic Greatness) to houste (host + house) our decision-making process/info gathering about which house to rent, etc. (it’s user read-only, I’m afraid, if you want a user, lmk, after all, no point in us compiling all this info on rentals in Charlotte, just for some quick degenerate to come along and rent our favorite candidate!)

I have many drafts in my database (beginnings of posts) just waiting for me to write about this issue or that, and I can’t wait to graduate and (I hope [naively?]) to write or speak about these interesting matters.

*EDIT* In the airport (in Vegas) I played a slot machine once and I didn’t know what I was doing, but I risked my whole dollar all at once, and then cashed out immediately…I won $.75

Here follow 2 pics from LA, both with me in it, darn I’m sexy as a Man in Black (shirt).