Lotusphere Day 3 wrap-up - hitting the wall...
Category Lotusphere2008
The culmination of the last three to four months of work, worry, and stress came to an end today. One session and two "guest" appearances at Worst Practices kept me busy. Add in that it's been over 1.5 weeks since I've seen home, sleep's been erratic (so what's new?), blah, blah, blah... What it all amounts to is that I've hit the Lotusphere wall, and I'm ready to collapse with the annual post-Lotusphere crud that's part and parcel of the visit to Florida... It just came early this year as I got down here a week before the event.
The day started out at 4 am, when I woke up after far too few hours of sleep. In theory, I had two more hours of sleep available to me. In reality, the impending arrival of the 8:30 Admins Are From Mars, Developers Are From Venus session took front and center stage in my mind. I finally gave up the battle, got up, and started working myself into the "urban grunge" mindset of my developer "costume". As I looked rather "unusual", I didn't go to the dining hall for breakfast nor did I eat much in the room. Meds to fight the growing sore throat, caffeine to amp up the energy level, and a last run-through of the material. I couldn't take it any more at about 7:45, so I went to the room to get set up.
Funny how no one in the elevator wants to make eye contact with you when you look like you just stepped off your skateboard...
Overall, I thought the session went well. Definitely not your typical "technical" session. But people seemed to have fun, the interplay between Warren and I appeared to go over well, and we were able to give advice and application rather than just harass each other the entire time. I haven't seen the evals, so I don't know the true results of how it all went over. I figure half will think it was a great time, and half will wonder why they wasted an hour when they could have been in a "real" session... :)
From there, it was off (still in costume) to Bill and Paul's Worst Practices session. As always, one of the conference highlights. But this year, there was a twist... I got to get up on stage to talk about how *not* to plan a conference (ILUG 2007). Basically, I was able to show how Bill and Paul did just about everything they tell you *not* to do in Worst Practices. I do believe they were truly horrified and embarrassed over the roasting they got, and the crowd ate it up. More fun than I've ever had on stage, and I appreciate them letting me be part of it. Not that they'll ever agree to it again, however... :)
Next, time to crash a bit... Grabbed my first real food of the day, chatted with some old and new friends, cleaned up in my room to look "normal" again, and then off to the Swan to... do the Bill and Paul roast at the Worst Practices repeat. Even though they knew what was coming this time, it was still a whole lot of fun to watch them cringe in front of a live camera (and enthusiastic crowd) as I had them admit to some of their own "worst practices". Again, quite the experience...
Finally, there was the Charts, Reports, and Graphs session by Rob and Julian. After seeing that, there is *no* way you can say "Notes doesn't do reporting". This was a five-star session that shouldn't have been missed by developers. If you did miss it, buy the DVD and download the sample database on their web sites later this week. It'll rock your world.
Now, there was one more session time slot after that, but I'm toast. I'll catch the repeat of the Great Code Giveaway by Rob Novak tomorrow morning, when I'm able to concentrate and absorb more information. Tonight's party is at Universal's Islands of Adventure (which I love), but I'm still not sure if I'll make it. I can feel the throat tightening up again, and I'm feeling like someone just flat out pulled the plug on my energy levels. A wise person would load up on Nyquil and try for an overdose of sleep. I'm torn between "I need sleep" and "tomorrow's the last day"... We'll see who wins in about an hour...
The culmination of the last three to four months of work, worry, and stress came to an end today. One session and two "guest" appearances at Worst Practices kept me busy. Add in that it's been over 1.5 weeks since I've seen home, sleep's been erratic (so what's new?), blah, blah, blah... What it all amounts to is that I've hit the Lotusphere wall, and I'm ready to collapse with the annual post-Lotusphere crud that's part and parcel of the visit to Florida... It just came early this year as I got down here a week before the event.
The day started out at 4 am, when I woke up after far too few hours of sleep. In theory, I had two more hours of sleep available to me. In reality, the impending arrival of the 8:30 Admins Are From Mars, Developers Are From Venus session took front and center stage in my mind. I finally gave up the battle, got up, and started working myself into the "urban grunge" mindset of my developer "costume". As I looked rather "unusual", I didn't go to the dining hall for breakfast nor did I eat much in the room. Meds to fight the growing sore throat, caffeine to amp up the energy level, and a last run-through of the material. I couldn't take it any more at about 7:45, so I went to the room to get set up.
Funny how no one in the elevator wants to make eye contact with you when you look like you just stepped off your skateboard...
Overall, I thought the session went well. Definitely not your typical "technical" session. But people seemed to have fun, the interplay between Warren and I appeared to go over well, and we were able to give advice and application rather than just harass each other the entire time. I haven't seen the evals, so I don't know the true results of how it all went over. I figure half will think it was a great time, and half will wonder why they wasted an hour when they could have been in a "real" session... :)
From there, it was off (still in costume) to Bill and Paul's Worst Practices session. As always, one of the conference highlights. But this year, there was a twist... I got to get up on stage to talk about how *not* to plan a conference (ILUG 2007). Basically, I was able to show how Bill and Paul did just about everything they tell you *not* to do in Worst Practices. I do believe they were truly horrified and embarrassed over the roasting they got, and the crowd ate it up. More fun than I've ever had on stage, and I appreciate them letting me be part of it. Not that they'll ever agree to it again, however... :)
Next, time to crash a bit... Grabbed my first real food of the day, chatted with some old and new friends, cleaned up in my room to look "normal" again, and then off to the Swan to... do the Bill and Paul roast at the Worst Practices repeat. Even though they knew what was coming this time, it was still a whole lot of fun to watch them cringe in front of a live camera (and enthusiastic crowd) as I had them admit to some of their own "worst practices". Again, quite the experience...
Finally, there was the Charts, Reports, and Graphs session by Rob and Julian. After seeing that, there is *no* way you can say "Notes doesn't do reporting". This was a five-star session that shouldn't have been missed by developers. If you did miss it, buy the DVD and download the sample database on their web sites later this week. It'll rock your world.
Now, there was one more session time slot after that, but I'm toast. I'll catch the repeat of the Great Code Giveaway by Rob Novak tomorrow morning, when I'm able to concentrate and absorb more information. Tonight's party is at Universal's Islands of Adventure (which I love), but I'm still not sure if I'll make it. I can feel the throat tightening up again, and I'm feeling like someone just flat out pulled the plug on my energy levels. A wise person would load up on Nyquil and try for an overdose of sleep. I'm torn between "I need sleep" and "tomorrow's the last day"... We'll see who wins in about an hour...
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Comments
Congrats on the session. Is there video somewhere? Did you get Danica to help out with the skit?
See ya.
Posted by bykrmyk At 07:38:57 On 24/01/2008 | - Website - |
The session went well, and there "might" be a video of it floating around... :)
Posted by Duffbert At 10:39:47 On 24/01/2008 | - Website - |