Yikes…. I’m sitting in this meeting pretending to pay attention. I’m actually sitting here worrying about what I’m going to say when when I do my keynote address in an hour or so.. Wish me luck !more about how it goes later.
-me.

OK.. now I’m back.. I think it went pretty well.. I’m glad it’s over… SO.. now where was I ?

oh yeah…

September 11^th… . It’s a date that brings back terrible memories  to everyone.. It still does to me.. though they seem much. Much more distant this year.

I’ve only got a few minutes to post. I need ot wake up in 5 hours to catch a plane to DC then on to home…

   I had a really good day here in Austin. I spent a good part of the day working in my hotel room… The part I wasn’t working I spent worrying about my talk tonight. I do my best worrying while pacing around form room to room. On that particular circuit I started noticing the patterns in the wallpaper here.. I noticed that there were 7 distinct swirly patterns in the print.  It was much easier thinking about that  than thinking about finishing my talk…

 Wallpaper swirls in my hotel room

Around 11:15 my friend Wolfgang came over for lunch. We walked over to a tex mex place nearby and ate outside.. Today was cool (by texas standards at least) and wet..The air felt really good. I really enjoyed spending the time with Wolfgang.. we had a good set of personal and work talks. He gave me some very good advice today.. Now.. let me see if I can take it…  After lunch we took a short walk around the area.. we came across a little park with these really cool stone cows. They’re huge and beautiful.

 Cows and Wolfgang

Good bumber sticker in the parking lot of the hotel

As I came back into the hotel after lunch I was nabbed by my friend Ginny from the SRC. She’s coordinating this event. She asked me to see if I could make my  do to make the talk a little funny…She hadn’t seen the talk.. but she said things could use some livening up here.    Yikes.. it wasn’t really set up as a funny talk. I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to funni-fy it a bit..   Not easy to do in a pinch.. and not that easy in my current mood.. But I tried.. The rest of the afternoon passed too  quickly. I spent the time in conference calls as I feverishly tried to figure out how to  ‘lighten’ the tone of the talk…

Around 5 I started the toughest  task of all.. deciding which shirt and tie to wear.. I tried all combinations… and finally went with red shirt, red tie.. Here are the choices.. what would you have chosen ?

  I drifted downstairs around 5:30 and started mingling with the students and professors at the conference. I felt very much at home.. I knew so many of the folks here.. it immediately put me at ease.  There was a small reception, then we were called in to dinner. I got to sit at the grown-up table… it was pretty exciting. 18 years ago I was one of  students in this conference.. and now I was the dinner speaker.. is that progress ? I guess so. My good friends Bill and Mary Brenda were at the table as well as my friend Tak and several of the execs from the SRC.

Bill and Mary Brenda

Here I am right before my talk with a SamStone for good luck

. I enjoyed talking to all of them  which put my a little bit at ease… then came time for my talk The head of the SRC gave me a really nice welcome then…  Eeeeeeeeek.. It was time to go. I came up on stage in front of the 420 folks in the room and for about a half of a second.. I had no idea what to say..   Then someone  inside me started talking… and the next thing I knew I was done.. I do remember a point in the middle of the talk where I drifted out of my head and into the audience and thought to my self… ugh.. this middle part is boring… but  I managed to get through it. I ended with one of my favorite  demos: the frying pickle . I know folks liked that. I ended then went sat back down. I sat there trying to figure out if the talk had gone well or not. I always think I suck when I give a talk like this.. this time.. I was pretty sure I had sucked.. but the audience reaction seemed to lean against suckage… who knows.. who cares.. the one thing I know is that I was done.. Whew…

The Bio they had for me on the program

After my talk came the awards part of the banquet. The biggest award by far was the Aristotle award… given to a teacher for distinguished teaching and mentoring. It ‘s a really big deal. I’ve managed to get this award once for my friend and advisor Rob one year. This year’s winner was my good friend Wojtek, a  Professor at CMU where I went to grad school.  I was so very pleased that he had won this award. He is one of the best teachers and overall mentors I have ever known.   He and I shared a wall when I was in grad school. I still remember the conversations we’d have at 3 in the morning… He’s such a wonderful guy. I felt honored to be there watching him get this award

Wojtek

The banquet broke up and then I was sort of  mobbed with folks wanting to talk to me.  that as pretty cool.. I managed to get In a few good conversations with some of my buds from IBM.. and a few Profs I’d lost touch with.. I was really glad to be here.

Before I knew it .. it was 11:30 and I was beat… I said good night and came up to my room to pack. I was just about to jump into bed when I realized that I had forgotten to blog… so.. here I am.. Now I really gotta get to sleep. More tomorrow…

Love you all.. you too Sam..

-me