Summer Seminar '05!
Another Summer Seminar has come and, sadly, gone. This year's was a blast as usual, but differed in that I had a partner in crime with me. Bringing Lindsay not only provided a fun (not to mention adorable) travelling companion, but let me vicariously experience the seminar from the perspective of an outsider. Also, it had practical benefits too, as she helped me dig up some images for my talks, which were, shall we say, not entirely done before the seminar began. I gave two talks this year (more literally a two-part talk, but it felt like two different presentations on the same subject). They were both well-received, and I got a lot of compliments afterwards. The downside is that I missed a lot of the first few days of the seminar, as I was holed up in my room re-writing, or, well, in some cases, plain old writing. One could argue that I should finish my talks, PowerPoint slides and all, in advance of the talk. One could also shut up.

So, in no purposive order, here are some highlights, mediumlights, and... well, there were no lowlights, but there were a few oddly-colored lights that made one wonder whether the lighting team hadn't gone a bit too heavy on the rum.

• The drive: Lindsay, amanda42, and I piled in, almost literally, to burntbythesun02's mustang on Friday morning and braved traffic, rain, traffic caused by rain, and being crushed beneath our own tightly-stowed luggage as we headed to the seminar. We feared that Amanda would be late for her 5:30 conference assistant meeting, but the wily Will Thomas had anticipated everyone's being an hour late, and had thus really planned it for 6:30.
• The locale: Schenectady is a quaint dump. In my book, any town without a Kinko's is no town at all. There is however an amazing Indian restaraunt, at the end of a mini-Santa-Monica-Promenade type stretch, at which we dined that evening, and again en masse towards the end of the week.
• The local locale: The conference was held at a converted Ramada hotel on the campus of Union College. Despite the inauspicious surroundings, the building was pretty decent as a facility. The rooms were large, and had their own bathrooms. (Attendees of prior years will appreciate this mark of distinction.) They were so capacious that Lindsay got a refund on her single and stayed in mine all week. For some reason this reportedly caused a minor scandal. If so, I'm not entirely sure why. Some couples were residing in doubles. Is there something about using a twin as opposed to queen bed that's particularly seedy?

  The caferia was surprisingly good, and better yet could be broken into at all hours, allowing round-the-clock beverage access. Which might have technically been theft. I figure if they really cared they would have locked the doors.

• The downside: the acoustics of the lecture rooms were terrible, or "tmrumgmmhpphph" as the word would have sounded in context. A giant white-noise-generator of an A/C system would kick in periodically, making speakers barely comprehensible. I made sure that sucker was disabled during my talks. Screw the heat. You come to my lectures, you're going to hear every phoneme.
• The People: I had tremendous fun seeing familiar old faces, as well as making some new friends. I had a great time hanging with folks such as amanda42, burntbythesun02, emilya, john_j_enright and his newly enjournaled spouse marshafombom, 1144, dwagoner, scottsch, essxjay, kraorh, zarex, and many more.
• The Talks: First of all, props to my boys burntbythesun02; ad kraorh for their excellent presentations on media bias and representational art in history, respectively. An earlier version of Jason's talk made an excellent Participant Sponspored Session last year; I'm glad the Center recognized it as being worthy of full talk status this time round.
• The Additional Talks: Other highlights included Jackie Hazelton's latest tongue-in-cheek "personal interest" talk (this year on "The Ten Objectivist Commandments"), a great two-parter on the philosophy of science, and an rather inspiring self-reflective piece by artist Michael Newbury. Duncan Scott interviewed Nathaniel Branden, who admitted some belief in ESP, much to the raised-eyebrow dismay of the audience.
• The Talks By Me: as already mentioned, I think they went well. I was pleased to get them out of the way early, so I could enjoy the long hours of hanging out in the Common Room every night that are an integral part of the SumSem experience.
• The Funnin': On Wednesday (the free day), a group of us headed out for whitewater rafting, on a quintessentially perfect hot summer day. Coordination was tricky, but we eventually all made it. (Personally, my philosophy of group activities is to tell people where and when to be and regard it as a nice bonus if they actually show up.) We had a great time, including some splash-battles with adjacent rafts. The only downside is that the river was a Class 2, meaning about as wild as a bathtub on a mildly sloped floor. A subsequent trip to Six Flags: Middle of Nowhere ironically provided more thrills and excitement than mother nature could muster. This also provided:
• The Incident Wherein Mike Inadvertently Destroys Lindsay's Personal Property: Look, the sign clearly said "no ramming other Go-Karts". Was I supposed to know someone would slam into our car, thus flinging Lindsay's digital camera out of my hands, wherein it had been engaged in the very reasonable activity of taking action Go-Kart snapshots, and onto the cruel pavement of the raceway? Hopefully it can be repaired rather than needing to be replaced.
• The One Redeeming Factor: I did get some cool actions shots of Nick driving a Go-Kart.
• The Other Fun Things of that Day: I get nervous and motion-sick on rides (despite having no problem with skydiving or whitewater rafting), so I stuck to the wimpier variety of Six Flags diversions. Lindsay charitably accompanied me on the Ferris Wheel (a.k.a. Ye Olde Romantic Wussbag-Ride), which offered a gorgeous view of the surrounding forest-and-hilly terrain, which I dimly rememeber through the haze of nervousness. That evening we went to karaoke, which I correctly anticipated as meaning a sawdust bar with a karaoke machine in the back. Much fun was had. I subjected the crowd to my rendition of The Cars' "You Might Think", sung directly at Lindsay in what I hope was received as a romantic gesture rather than application of torture. Lindsay giggled her way through that Toucha-Touch-Me song from Rocky Horror, which was enthusiastically received by the others. Joe P. did a mean Barry White impression, Christopher "Not Chris" Robinson belted out some Tears for Fears, and Marty brought us the strains of early Beatles. Presumably worried that our mood was too jubuliant, Amanda sang Radiohead's "Creep", and Chris Baylor traumatized us all with his rendition of a grim Tool song. Fortunately, the good vibes of the evening easiled sustained themselves through such twists.
• The Realization While Writing This: You know, South Korea as portrayed in M*A*S*H looks awfully like Southern California.
• The Giant Finale: Days before the seminar, Will Thomas asked me to M.C. the final banquet. This amounted to giving me ten minutes of free reign with a mic in front of the entire conference during dinner. I decided to abandon any pretense of reflective sentiment and do what amounted to roast-style standup comedy. My memories of the event are somewhat hazy (I tend to lose attention span during public speaking, due to the adrenaline rush), but I do remember a lot of laughing at the right moments, and I received much praise afterwards. So, if I may toot my own horn here, I think I kicked at least some minor degree of ass. As the whole conference population was more or less present, this was also my largest speaking engagement ever. (Who needs Toastmasters?)  This was needless to say great fun, especially since nobody I made fun of took things the wrong way. There was also a lot of dancing, which was fun to watch. Lindsay will doubtless have more interesting commentary on that subject than I.
  

There's much more to tell, but I'm getting awfully sleepy. Photos will eventually follow, once my friends who took some email me copies. (Hint, people!) For now, I am happy to report that the seminar was a bunch of fun. Gnight!