Waiting at the Airport

Our flight leaves in another 45 minutes. I learned a lot from the conference, which was focused at a much higher level of design and application creation than I expected. No talk about CSS and the like, really. No talk about program specifics, except for one talk (where I did learn a cool new photoshop trick involving jpg compression).

Overall, though, I would much rather attend conferences in the future that are a little more focused on my favorite interest--design, and it's practicalities. And I am not so sure I would ever want to come back to a conference in Vegas. It's a constant distraction. They've designed everything to discombobulate you. And that just leaves me feeling really irritated.

I have noticed that I am starting to develop designer's disease. I had a mental grumble to myself about the fact that my hotel room's TV remote had a yellow button for the power and a red button for the menu. Which color do you normally associate with turning on a TV from a remote? Placement was weird too. I think they were deliberately trying to get you to go into their pay-per-view menuing system.

So overall, a good experience, but I'm not coming back to Vegas unless I have a lot more money with me.

When I get home, I have a lot of work I need to catch up on. I need to see my lovely wife, who I miss way too much for having been gone only 2 days. And I need to make a mental note to submit a couple of stories. I've got nothing in the mail right now. I think I want to send something to Polyphony.

I'm also thinking about sending my work to Clarkesworld first so the rejection letters can toughen me up, like some kind of Shaolin writer's training. The submission equivalent of punching hot sand for a few months. I really need to toughen up regarding my commercial work. I need to learn to divorce myself from it so that I can really get a lot better.