Yikes… another late night. I’m just getting back to my hotel room just before midnight. I  had a full day of meetings then a dinner. I am beat and my head feels like it’s in a vice. . I tried drinking a glass of wine at dinner and found again that I simply cannot drink anymore since Sam died. one glass of beer or wine gives me such an incredible headache.. it’s strange how my body and mind have changed over the past 4 and a half months, Oh well… it’s no great loss I suppose.

     On the bright side, I’m really enjoying this meeting. It’s such a hoot  being around all of these friends from so many different parts of the world. The day started out wiht a huge gathering in the arena

The rest of the day was divided into 4 meeting sessions. The first one I tried was supposed to  be about using improve techniques to make meetings more fun.. ironically it was a very dry and process oriented discussion about being spontaneous. It just didn’t work for me.. so I skipped out and joined a session on ‘dealing with difficult people’ . That session tried to categorize the 16 ways that people can be difficult. .. It was sort of a Meyers-Briggs for jerks. Later in the afternoon I saw a talk by Jeff Jonas, the CTO of IBM’s data analytics organization.. he’s a brilliant and funny guy. He had wonderful hand drawn animations that were both funny and surreal.. Even better he gave us some completely insights on database query management.. I can honestly say I  can’t  ever remember learning more about a new topic in one hour talk.

   I managed to skip out of the last session today to get a run in with my very good friend Bruce. Bruce and Jim and I had been hanging out  today.  Jim   couldn’t run because of his recent hip replacement aside from that he’s getting around perfectly.   Jim did manage ot take a wlak with us mddiay

Bruce and I did a loop around and through Disney Land,  Here’s a picture of Bruce from my hotel room

   After the run, I  called home and talked ot Diae and the boys.. Sound like things are going OK there. Gabe told me that he, Hannh and Kevin put one of our kayak’s in a pool of melt water in the back field and paddled around.. Diane got pictures that I’ll post when I get them. I miss those guys so much !

After the call, I went to a reception and dinner for IBM Distinguished Engineers  and Fellows. I have so many good friends here. I still haven’t been able to sit down and talk  to all the folks I’d like to see.. just not enough time.

 My good friend Glenn from Australia had challenged me to bring a gadget.. of sorts to play with at the meeting. I had decided to bring th color changing LED headband that I made on Saturday night. I used the LED ribbon that I had aught in Shanghai last month.

All of my friends took turns wearing the ‘crown’ as they called it.. Here’s a quick clip of the band going on my friend Lori’s head. That’s Nick D next to her.. he’s the ‘chief scientist’ of all of IBM.. (and a hell of a nice guy)

 

It was a really nice and low key evening. Many folks came up to talk to me about my family, about Sam.. and about  how I was doing.  As always, I’m overwhelmed by peoples kindness and compassion. We’re well cared for Sam !

 

-jc

 

ps I just  got back to my room ad heard about  the tragic shooting at Virginia Tech. My heart goes to all the victims and their families.. I feel somehow like I can feel each of the families as I write this.. If I prayed.. I’d pray for them… I wish them peace and strength