I had the most delightful lunch with Jason, a professor of mine from grad school who’s just a quality human being. It was good to catch up. I’d asked him to bring a picture of his two-year old, which he remembered to do—two of them in fact—and she is just adorable.
Among a number of other things, we talked a little bit about his current research, which is still in the reuse area, and I pointed him to two recent videos I’d seen that he’d probably find interesting: the Blaise Aguera y Arcas: Jaw-dropping Photosynth demo on TED and TinEye on the Web.
I did my China presentation tonight, and at first I thought there was only going to be five people there, but there ended up being a lot more— perhaps 15 or so.
I never know if I go over the top sometimes, but I felt pretty good delivering the thing, people seemed interested, laughed at times, and asked some questions, so I’m thinking it was a success in terms of an STC program at least.
Some affirming comments afterwards:
- From Andrew, with whom I went to grad school and with whom I was co-president of the student chapter of STC, “Your presentations are always so honest. That’s what I like about them.”
- And from Monique, whom I just met this evening, “You’re very personable.”
- Both Sandy (another grad school friend) and Sarah (our STC student chapter advisor, and friend) said that it was good, as well.
From there, I rushed to Durham to Manbites Dog to see the 8:15 Hungry Ghost performance put on by Paperhand Puppet Intervention.
I’m just going to say this about the show: I don’t do well with a lot of abstraction, and I’m way too impatient a person to appreciate a glacial pace in just about anything.
I considered going to Trailer Park Prize Night, but once I got home that crazy idea went out the window. Thank goodness.