"Please enjoy the public spaces..."
Jan. 23rd, 2006 07:31 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walbournThe days start really early on a cruise ship. Most activities start at 8am, likely because seniors rarely sleep late. We had to be out of our state rooms at 8am this morning, and ideally ready to debark by 7:30am. When ship's time is Eastern and you live in Pacific, it really sucks.
In any case, we made it off the boat, through a perfunctory customs check point--they know where you've been the whole time--, and on to a Microsoft bus to the airport. It does mean "enjoying" the fine Tampa airport for a few hours, but it also means not missing our flight home. At least TPA offers free wireless. Internet access on the cruise ship was crazy-ass expensive, and slow enough that it felt more like I was paying by the byte instead of by the minute.
Having an academic conference on a cruise discussing gaming technology in education was a strange experience. There was a reporter from Forbes at the event covering the thing just because she writes for the 'nerd beat' and the idea was too rife with potential press juiciness to miss. Here's hoping the article is at least somewhat positive. Despite the organizational snafus, the attendees I spoke with seemed happy with the content of the conference overall. I ran into my advisor from UT Austin, Dr. Fussell, and did a bit of catching up. I couldn't have done too badly on my two presentations because several people came up afterwards trying to get me to do talks at their institutions.
Without the conference giving me something to do at least half a day each day and the opportunity to spend some quality time with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
jeliza, I doubt that I'd have found the cruise experience all that worthwhile. As it was, it was a relaxing few days and an interesting event a little outside my normal industry-centric circles. If you were looking to get a solid few days of sunbathing, reading, and lounging in whirlpools, you might want to check them out.
In any case, we made it off the boat, through a perfunctory customs check point--they know where you've been the whole time--, and on to a Microsoft bus to the airport. It does mean "enjoying" the fine Tampa airport for a few hours, but it also means not missing our flight home. At least TPA offers free wireless. Internet access on the cruise ship was crazy-ass expensive, and slow enough that it felt more like I was paying by the byte instead of by the minute.
Having an academic conference on a cruise discussing gaming technology in education was a strange experience. There was a reporter from Forbes at the event covering the thing just because she writes for the 'nerd beat' and the idea was too rife with potential press juiciness to miss. Here's hoping the article is at least somewhat positive. Despite the organizational snafus, the attendees I spoke with seemed happy with the content of the conference overall. I ran into my advisor from UT Austin, Dr. Fussell, and did a bit of catching up. I couldn't have done too badly on my two presentations because several people came up afterwards trying to get me to do talks at their institutions.
Without the conference giving me something to do at least half a day each day and the opportunity to spend some quality time with
jeliza, I doubt that I'd have found the cruise experience all that worthwhile. As it was, it was a relaxing few days and an interesting event a little outside my normal industry-centric circles. If you were looking to get a solid few days of sunbathing, reading, and lounging in whirlpools, you might want to check them out.
