White Lightning Axiom: Redux

The conference is going quite nicely for me. I was up at 0530, out the door by 0630 and on the train before 0700 ... which got me to down-town Philly (30th Street Station) by 0730. Not too shabby. Of course, the NEXT day I missed the train by 5 minutes due to the mendacity of a couple of rather rude medical waste subcontractors hogging up the local surface roads. There are not supposed to be trucks on these traffic conduits, but there they are. So, I'll have to persist and live with being 20 minutes later than I want to be, but so be it. I really should not care since there is a complementary breakfast a 0800 till 0900 and I'll be there WELL before that begins. It's the fact that I have to tolerate it ... must be my Type-A leaking out in the wee hours of the morn. I've actually have has some fairly rotten luck with the train schedules, really. Yesterday, I did not buy a round trip ticket and paid (metaphorically) dearly for it. When I got into line yesterday evening, there was a man haggling over prices and schedules with one of the clerks and her manager. This effectively reduced 3 open windows to only one available. This little bit of rudeness cost me 15 minutes in line since the automated tellers were 'broken'. As a matter of course, I missed my train by ONE MINUTE, leaving me to stew and glare at this man who was trying to negotiate tender for a weekend trip ... during rush hour! ARGH, there are other ticket counters for this. And this over a few pennies no doubt. A round trip peak hour ticket over 3 zones costs all of $9.75USD. About 2 pints of good beer. Or a meal at a burger joint. Oh well, it's giving me a LOT of time to actually craft my blog entries with a less rushed pace and more pensive demeanor. That, and the people watching opportunities are unparalleled! Looking about the passenger car, it was as if I were in some sort of real-life Dick Tracy funny-pages exposition. And the conference itself? Much of the same in regards to people. The usual characters were there ... and a few people who I have known in previous incarnations during my professional career. The 'Tracks' were fairly interesting as well. Spring 2.5, SOA, GridGain parallel net computing, OSGi, Hardoop and so much more. Only at one time did I feel ... uninterested. If I'm confused or challenged, I feel much better ... as if I'm getting what I need out of a presentation. Challenge. Hopefully, todays tech safari will be just as fulfilling.

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