~Wednesday~ Xolani and I had a nice exchange as we walked out to the bus stop together, since we hadn’t seen each other since last Wednesday. He actually went to Greensboro this weekend while I was gone, and although I didn’t learn how he did, I was glad to hear that he’d gotten out of the house some while I was gone.
He told me there’s going to be a dinner on Friday night for all of the host families to thank them for hosting. It’s going to be at 6:30, and the place is yet to be determined.
In an interesting twist, I found myself asking him a question about the bus route, as I was taking it all the way downtown this morning to attend day one of the WWW2010/FutureWeb 2010 Conference, which is being held today through Friday in the Raleigh Convention Center.
After moving behind the yellow line “so I can talk while I tell you,” the bus driver told me I should get off at the second to the last stop. I had to bite my tongue to not ask, “And I would know I’m at the second to the last stop, how?” I decided that I would just move up to the seat closest to the driver once downtown and then ask her to tell me when we were at the second to the last stop.
When we got to the McKimmon Center stop, I was surprised to see that during my six-day absence, a sheltered area had been built at that stop.
A beefy boy got on at a stop on Clark Avenue, which is a street that I don’t usually ride on, as my stop is the last one before turning onto it. I wondered when the route was going to change back from Clark Avenue to Hillsborough Street, as the Hillsborough Street re-design is finally winding down. Beefy Boy read Flight magazine as he rode.
At Cameron Village, an old man got on, who I imagined to be a retired professor, and I started an intellectual masturbation session about whether it’s any more tragic for someone with a Ph.D to get Alzheimer’s than someone without one.
I’m registered for the FutureWeb 2010 (FW2010) Conference, which is “co-located with the WWW2010 Conference,” and part of that arrangement is that as a FW2010 participant, you can participate in the keynote sessions of the WWW2010 Conference. That’s exactly what I did this morning, and I thoroughly enjoyed the keynote address by Vint Cerf, the person most-often called “The Father of the Internet.”
When I first arrived, I heard my name called from a walkway above me, and I took it as an affirmation that Jen, Nick, Garrison, and Jason all waited for me to catch up with them to head into the conference.
I returned back to the office after that with the intention of returning back to the conference for two afternoon sessions, but that ended up not happening. Back at work, I became aware of a couple of things related to projects I was working on, and for which I had tasks that didn’t get done, which had a negative impact on my colleagues—namely my office mate and my boss. Needless to say, I didn’t feel to good about that, and in a feeble attempt to make amends to some small degree, I didn’t return to the conference.
I went to a 2:00 open house for Stinson Collaborative Commons, a computer lab re-branded from its old name, “The Laundry Lab.” Thinking I knew the general vicinity of the lab, I didn’t check a campus map before I left, and I walked to a place that was pretty much on the other side of the North Campus from where it was. Something else not to feel good about.
I spent some time at the open house, although I didn’t feel very helpful there. I left in just enough time to make it over to the Talley Student Center to get my Faculty/Staff/Student ID card re-made, as they’re all going to a new system over the next several months.
Tonight, we had our final class, and we listened to two presentations—one on how the NC Museum of Art is using social media and the other one on how L.L. Bean is using it.
Then, we spent about ten minutes or so giving Dr. Dicks feedback on what worked in the class, what didn’t, and what he might explore when repeating the class again some time in the next academic year.
We concluded class by filling out the online class evaluations that are done for all classes at the end of every semester. I can’t even begin to articulate how glad I am that this class is over. I am so looking forward to getting back my personal reading time, and essentially having my Sunday through Wednesday nights back.
On the way home, I stopped by K-Mart, where I picked up my refilled Nexium prescription, and bought a birthday card for my dad.
Dancing was fun enough tonight. We had a good number of dancers, and actually there was a decent crowd there, too, although Carl did not teach a lesson. I had some fun two-steps, including one with Bill, Michael, and Geromy.
Joe actually came to dancing tonight, since he’s off this week, and he’d seen a Craigslist ad that Juan Carlos was bartending over at the “Tiki Bar” outside at Humble Pie tonight, so we stopped over there for a couple of drinks before heading home.