James' Santa Clara 2007 Travel Blog: 2007-06-18 (Monday, June 18, 2007)

2007-06-18T07:30-07/09:00-07

I was a little more tired this morning (from all the walking last night) than I thought I'd be, so even though I woke up on time, I wound up running late because I was moving more slowly.

(I was tempted to skip shaving, but I really couldn't get away with doing that without looking like a slob. So, that took even more time.)

Alas, this left me a whopping 10 minutes for breakfast, so I had to order the painfully expensive buffet again.

However, this time I remembered to ask for Tabasco sauce for my eggs. Plus, the small shot of blueberry yogurt was on the house. (I couldn't quite catch the server's explanation—he said something about anniversary, I thought, but since I was in a rush, I just thanked him instead of asking him to clarify.)

I rushed off to get the course materials, and then booked it over to the tutorial session.

2007-06-18T09:00-07/10:30-07

Tutorial M6, morning session 1.

Yay! This room has power outlet strips strung throughout it! This means that even if I can't find an AC outlet in my afternoon tutorial, I'll be starting with a full battery, so I'll have enough juice that I won't have to worry about running out of battery power.

2007-06-18T10:30-07/11:00-07

The morning break. Instead of bagels, they had assorted fruit and pastries. I grabbed one of the pastries and some tea.

2007-06-18T11:00-07/12:30-07

Tutorial M6, morning session 2.

2007-06-18T12:30-07/13:30-07

We broke for the tutorial lunch.

Today's lunch theme was Italian... I think. On my plate is a roll, a Caesar salad, and some rigatoni with vegetables.

Dammit, this is California. I know the avocado crop was hard-hit by the cold weather a few months ago, so I don't expect to see giant bowls of guacamole, but c'mon... how about a giant bowl of artichokes? Vegetable pasta salad, maybe? I can get Italian food anywhere. (Asian food is pretty much everywhere, too.) Why not choose a lunch buffet menu that emphasizes local produce and products?

The dessert selection today was much better than yesterday: assorted cakes, pies, and cheesecakes. I took a small piece of everything.

After eating, I picked up the materials for my afternoon tutorial, then headed back to my room to drop off the morning tutorial's materials.

2007-06-18T13:30-07/15:00-07

Tutorial M10, afternoon session 1.

2007-06-18T15:00-07/15:30-07

The afternoon break. Cans of soft drinks, bottles of mineral water, and brownies were available. This time, I didn't snooze; I grabbed some Coke and a bottle of mineral water right away.

I drank the mineral water; I stashed the Coke in the mini-fridge back in my room. (That'll be for tomorrow morning.) I didn't actually eat any of the brownies... I've been eating enough today already, thank you.

These trees produce bright, giant flowers. I didn't notice them from the ground, because they're not that close to the ground, and they're oriented up.

2007-06-18T15:30-07/17:00-07

Tutorial M10, afternoon session 2.

I felt bad for the presenter (Jacob Farmer), because at least every 15 minutes, some electronic device in the audience would decide to yammer. This is the most disruption I've seen in any Usenix tutorial session in years.

2007-06-18T17:00-07/19:30-07

I check the BoF board on the way back to my room, but surprisingly, there were no BoF sessions scheduled for tonight whatsoever. There were no BoF sessions scheduled for tomorrow (Tuesday) either, although that may very well change.

Given that there were no other evening activities, I decided to go walk for my dinner again.

I went back to my hotel room and spent some time cleaning up my notes before heading out.

This picture is in the hotel corridor that leads to the convention center.

I've been trying to decide what I think this picture is supposed to depict. The conclusion I keep coming up with is that the woman with the man's arm around her is taunting the woman sitting at the table over that fact the she's the one who has his attention—her glance is just for the woman sitting at the table, and it's not a pleasant one.

Not exactly a cheery painting, methinks.

2007-06-18T19:30-07/21:30-07

Monday is generally a bad day to eat seafood. (If you want to know why, Google for Anthony Bourdain and bad mussel.) So, I didn't want to eat sushi tonight.

I was oscillating between Amarin Thai Cuisine and Janat Indian Cuisine. I finally decided on Amarin, simply because the reviews I could find were more favorable.

As the reviews indicate, Amarin is a restaurant in a little strip mall. It more closely resembles a Chinese take-out place than a real restaurant, although they did have tables, and did give me prompt service.

As I was eating, another Usenix attendee came in to eat as well. He had decided to opt for Thai as well, because he really liked Thai food. (By sheer coincidence, he also spoke Japanese, because he had spent some time living in Japan, so we had a lot to talk about during dinner.)

For an appetizer, I ordered the BBQ calamari. (Alas, I forgot to take the picture until I was already well into eating it.)

Usually, BBQ means slathered with a syrupy-sweet tomato-based sauce, but to my surprise, Amarin meant BBQ in the traditional (that is, correct) meaning: cooked with wood smoke. (You can see the char marks where the calamari sat on the grill.) The dipping sauce on the side was sweet, but similarity to traditional BBQ sauces ended there. All in all, very tasty.

For my entrée, I ordered the seafood Panang curry. The Panang sauce was a lot less sweet than I'm accustomed to eating in Pittsburgh Thai restaurants, and the spice/flavor blend was also slightly different. Is this Panang sauce more authentic? I don't know. But it was tasty.

The same as yesterday, I had two choices: finish the meal (even though I was already satiated), or leave it for them to throw out. As with yesterday, I opted for the former, rationalizing that hopefully the walk back to the hotel would burn off some of the calories.

2007-06-18T21:30-07/23:00-07

I again pondered whether or not to go take a swim in the pool (or soak in the jacuzzi), but eventually concluded that I felt too tired (and bloated) to do that. Instead, I spent some time cleaning up my notes... and then fell asleep in my clothes when I decided to take a break to rest my eyes.