All done

The last couple of days in San Francisco was pretty cool. I had a chance to ride along the waterfront again, this time taking some photos, which I will upload soon enough. The flight was relatively smooth - I even managed to get some sleep. The only problem I had was after the flight, when I found out that the baggage handlers had left my skateboard at SFO. I had to wait until the next day to get it back, and it had some chips on the side. Fortunately, there wasn't any structural damage so it still performed the same.

I've also finished my NaNo novel since getting back. I managed to finish pass the 50,000 word mark just before midnight on November 20, and I finished the story after midnight. This means that I reached the target in two thirds of the allotted time, which is pretty satisfying. I'm thinking about setting a higher word count target for next year to keep things challenging but for the time being, I shall bask in my winnery goodness.

Writing Dangerously

I just had the best day I've had this month, perhaps even this year.

But I'd like to fill in a few gaps.

I slowly got better and better as LISA went on, but I never fully recovered, and by the end of the conference I was resigned to my fate of being sick upon landing in San Francisco.

Despite that, I did have a great time at the conference. It was a huge learning experience hearing from experts in my particular profession, and I've taken a lot out of it. It was also good to meet different people in similar positions.

I arrived in San Francisco late on Friday and was picked up from the airport by my cousin Mike. After having some awesome chicken wings that I had experienced the pleasure of tasting the last time I was in San Francisco, we went out and partied all night.

I didn't sleep until 4am, which was not ideal for...

The Night of Writing Dangerously

It started off with a huge headache at 8am, woken up by the roadworks outside. I knew that things could only get better. (And they did.)

The day was unusually warm for this time of year. San Francisco must have known that I was coming. I decided to take advantage of this fact by skateboarding along the waterfront with my new longboard from San Diego. I made it all the way to the Bay Bridge before turning back. It was sweet.

After I got home, I prepared for the impending write-a-thon and then began the short (ok, 20 minutes, so not that short) walk over to the SomArts Center where the event was being held.

I was immediately impressed by the fact that Chris Baty, the man responsible for starting all of this insanity, greeted everybody at the door as they entered. I was a bit starstruck and fumbled my words, but managed to say a quick hi before grabbing my raffle tickets for the night.

The tables started filling (I had one person on my table with over 73000 words already) and the liquids (some alcoholic) started flowing, and people began writing.

Eventually it came time for Chris's speech about the history of NaNoWriMo and how it had come so far from being a small project between friends to being an international phenomenon. I did my hardest to hold back the tears. I'm such a softie when it comes to emotional or inspiration speeches, and this was both. Chris Baty is one of my heroes.

After Chris was done with his speech, everybody got back to writing. Prizes were drawn and photos were taken (mine were particularly awesome), and eventually it was time for the event to draw to a close. It was a sad moment because it was one of those things I felt I could have enjoyed had it gone for the whole day. Alas, it was not to be.

We all packed up and said our goodbyes to the new friends that we met, and I went and talked to Chris to say thanks to him for being crazy enough to start NaNoWriMo. He was a bit amazed that I was from Australia, but probably not as amazed as I was at being there.

That was it for the Night of Writing Dangerously. It was my first, and I sure hope it's not my last. I doubt I'll be able to go every year, but it's something that I'd love to do again some time in the future.

In terms of word count, I passed the 40k mark during the write-a-thon, which was a nice milestone to reach during such a cool event.

Time to put this thing on cruise control until the finish line. 50k is so close that I can taste it.

Still jetlagged

So I'm in San Diego, and I still haven't entirely shaken off the jetlag from the flight. I wasn't able to get as much sleep as I usually do on international flights, and I got to LAX feeling pretty lousy. The flight to San Diego was in a small EMB120 plane, and it was loud; the engines could be heard above everything else. It was so loud, in fact, that they should provide anybody who flies in them with earmuffs for OHS reasons.

Much of my first half-day in San Diego was spent checking out the nearby Mission Valley shopping centre. I forgot how massive American malls are. They're more or less department stores the size of Australian malls spread out across a stretch of land. You almost want a car to get in between shops. Despite that, I didn't find anything I was looking for, and ended up going back to my hotel room and working on my NaNoWriMo novel (currently over 26,000 words!).

Sleep was very interrupted, and I woke up at 3:30 in the morning, surrendering to jetlag. I wrote some more shaky prose then had a greasy breakfast and some coffee before setting off on the day's adventures.

My first full day involved getting lost, much like my first day in most foreign cities. I started off with a very short stop of Old Town, which I found boring. I immediately went back to the light rail station and caught a connecting service to downtown San Diego, which seemed pretty dead for a Saturday. It was nowhere near as busy as the Sydney CBD would be late on a Saturday morning. I caught another connecting eastbound train and, after getting off at two stations I didn't mean to get off at, I ended up deciding to find a bus. I grossly underestimated the scale of transit maps I had briefly looked at, and ended up walking a long way until I eventually found one that would take me to North Park, where there was meant to be a couple of skate shops.

The first shop dealt mostly in standard skateboards and fashion, but I finally got around to purchasing a longboard at the second shop, Route 44. The guy there was really helpful and even gave me a discount because I bought a complete board as well as new shoes. It ended up costing me just over US$185 for both, which I thought was a pretty sweet deal. I tried it out later in the night and it seemed to go pretty smoothly. I still need to get used to the act of skateboarding, though.

A series of miscommunications regarding the billing of the room ended up spoiling my mood, but I'm hoping to have all of that resolved momentarily.

The first day of the conference was a struggle. The tutorial session itself was very interesting - it was about computer forensics - but I wasn't feeling the best, which wasn't helped by a lack of sleep the previous night. I skipped any attempt at socialising that night and decided to write a bit then go to sleep.

Right now I'm sitting in a workshop still feeling sick because the closest pharmacy is two train stops away. Yay!