Track 2 - Vince at ISCA
Day 0 - 16 June 2006 - Friday
--- Starting in Ithaca, New York
On Friday I worked until late trying to get things prepared
for my absence. Kristina dropped
Susie the guinea pig off to stay with Pete (a co-worker of mine) and his
family. Kristina's family got in a bit late, and I tried mightily
to fix her sister's computer, but she forgot to bring the A/C adapter
so just as things were getting better it ran our of battery power!
Day 1 - 17 June 2006 - Saturday
I woke up at some incredibly early hour, around 5:30 AM or so.
I was catching a ride to Boston with some other grad students.
They had a talk to be at by 1pm, and since it is at least a 6
hour drive, we had to leave early. I was waiting for
them at the agreed to 5:45AM, but they didn't show until 6:30! I was a
bit annoyed by that.
We drove out taking I-88, not realizing that in only a week's time
torrential rain would wash out one of the bridges and close the highway.
Speaking of rain, it rained pretty hard our entire time in New York.
--- Entering Massachusetts
We made it to Boston in good time, and found the hotel with minimal problems.
Everyone else went to talks; I had to wait until 3pm before I could check
in to our rooms. Luckily there was wireless internet so I could
do something useful while waiting.
Here is the view out of my window:
We were staying at the Park Plaza hotel. It was a very fancy hotel,
but in our opinion not really worth how expensive it was.
I walked around the neighborhood a bit, the hotel is right near
Boston Commons and the Public Garden. Here are the famous Swan Boats:
The park also had some neat purple flowers, here they are in front
of a statue of George Washington:
Day 2 - 18 June 2006 - Sunday
On Sunday I attended workshops. The conference I was at was
ISCA-33 (the 33rd International Symposium on Computer Architecture.
It is considered the top conference in my field. Cornell had submitted
a lot of papers, but unfortunately none got in. Despite this, the location
was convenient this year so a lot of us went anyway.
I attended two workshops, they were both well done. Oddly they had
pipecleaners and play-doh out, presumably for us to play with
during the presentations.
During a break
I went for another walk.
Only a block away from the hotel is the beginning of US highway 20:
Remember this for later, in a few days you'll see the other end of this
highway in Oregon.
Day 3 - 19 June 2006 - Monday
Monday was the first day of the actual conference, a full day of talks.
It was generally agreed that these talks were not very strong.
For dessert at lunch they served us Boston Creme pie, appropriately enough.
My hotel room was on the 7th floor, I eventually figured out how the stair
system worked because the elevators were always chronically full.
During the afternoon break they served us snacks, which included Ice Cream
Sandwiches, Corn Dogs, hot pretzels, and popcorn. I wasn't expecting
such a canival-like meal.
Day 4 - 20 June 2006 - Tuesday
Tuesday was the second day of talks. Happily, the talks were a lot
better than those on the first day.
I bought some postcards at the hotel gift shop... they were the most
expensive ones I think I've ever bought in my life. I got to mail them
from an upper-floor hallway down a mail-chute, just like in old books.
In the evening they had a cruise of Boston harbor planned. We all
piled on the busses, and ended up there an hour early. (No surprise,
as the harbor was only 10 blocks away).
We walked around the harbor a bit while waiting. Here was some public
art that looks like 20-foot high laptop computers. We weren't sure
what it was supposed to be:
We also walked by the New England Aquarium and saw a harbor seal:
Eventually it was time to leave, and we boarded the ship. There were a
lot of things to do there. I liked riding out on the top deck the best.
They had a really good magician there who was doing card tricks. They
had two live bands... unfortunately the conference was at least 90% male
computer professionals, so not much dancing happened.
Kristina had taken our good camera overland to California, so my picture
of the beautiful Boston skyline at night didn't really turn out that well:
Also on the ship they had gambling with fake money. The top 3 winners
of the evening won prizes. I lost all of the fake money they had issued
to me, but my
fellow grad student Chris managed to make 4 straight 8:1 bets on Roulette
and won $65,000 (starting with $2500). So here he is winning second
prize for the evening:
21 June 2006 - Wednesday - Day 5
I woke up early on Wednesday: time to head for California!
I woke at 7:15, trusted my roommate could handle checking out and getting
my excess luggage back to Ithaca, and off I went!
I walked to the South Station train station, and caught the T commuter
train to Providence.
--- Entering Rhode Island
In case you are wondering, here is what Providence looks like from near
the train station:
I then walked to the bus station. There was a park nearby that
had a statue of Ambrose Burnside from whom the term sideburns comes
from. He indeed had big sideburns, but you can't see them in
my picture:
I took the bus to the Providence airport, and I met up with Kristina's dad
who had come there directly from the Cape.
From there I flew Southwest airlines to Phoenix Arizona. I had a window
seat, and for a while was having trouble figuring out from the scenery
where I was. And then, suddenly, I recognized where I was... I was flying
over my own hometown!
Here you can see extreme southern Harford County:
I know it's nearly impossible to make out anything from that picture,
so I cleaned it up a bit and highlighted some key features:
--- Entering Arizona
We eventually got to Phoenix, where it was 107 degrees. Luckily I didn't
have to go outside. I wandered the terminal a bit... they have really
cool carpet there, it has airplanes and radar lines on it:
I Connected to the flight to Oakland, and made it there uneventfully.
--- Entering California
Happily Kristina was there waiting! We eventually managed to find
the rest of her family with the car, and then we grabbed some food
and then went to the motel to sleep and get ready for the second
phase of our trip...
See what Kristina was up to the first 5 days
or
On to Day 6...