Here I Am

My main purpose for being in NOLA is to pretend to be a computer nerd. Doing a piss ass poor job of it, since 1) I’m running a PC with Windows, not Mac or Linux or Ubuntu or whatever and/or 2) I’m blogging instead of understanding how to code ZCML Slugs in Python.

But the logo for this event? I understand that, and I understand it is hi-lar-ious.

I’m at Bootcamp right now, and by right now, I mean at the moment the teacher is talking about Adapters, which is similar to subclassing, but more flexible, thank god, because I can’t believe the crampy corner subclassing had painted me into, if you can imagine. Bootcamp doesn’t have a menacing crawfish logo.

Or a t-shirt.

The Symposium, which starts tomorrow, has both. I’m hoping that one appears on the other and that tomorrow you will see a picture of me with a menacing claw on each tit and reeling with laughter.

Went for another long walk last night, mostly through the French Quarter. Found the GLBT resource centre, but didn’t go in because it was one big room with one little room off it, with one person sitting in the little room looking at a computer screen. I didn’t want to be on the receiving end of that much attention.

The rest of the French Quarter is much nicer than Bourbon Street. It’s more pulled together than the other parts of the city I’ve seen, but not entirely. A lot of storefronts are empty, a lot for sale. A lot of people gone. But the architecture is grand, the plant life lush. It’s really quite stunning.

I was back early-ish, and ended up watching TV. TV is weird. It’s been so long since I’ve watched it, even TVDVD, that it seemed a bit foreign, like I was visiting a strange planet that used the same language, but one where the signifier/signified mapping was just slightly askew, and everything seemed just a little bit blurry.

Tonight I’m doing something different too. I’ve made friends with with a couple people from UC Davis. Trish, who was pinging my gaydar before she donned her Tegan and Sara hoodie, and her co-worker CT, who was disappointed that I’m from Canada and not a hockey fan. They invited me to go on a Vampire Tour with them. I hemmed and hawed a bit, because generally, I hate that shit. But they're nice people, and another evening of pharma adverts isn't appealing.

And I’m letting go.

Later: It's 1:47 am. I'm in the lobby of the hotel, which is the only place I can get internet. Greg, I learned why New Orleans has above-ground cemeteries. The heat in the mausoleums cooks the bodies down within a year. And then they push the bones off to a trench in the back. Learning that is why I particularly enjoyed the vampire tour. But mostly because Trish and CT are just lovely.