It’s not long now (tomorrow?) before Brek leaves, never to grace our humble shores again. And Blacky too, I guess, but he’ s only going on holidays. Bek, you were in my dream last night, and we were at school and you were moving away. I guess that’s what prompted me to remember that you were leaving soon. I’ll miss you dude, be safe.

I went to the movies today and saw an awful, awful movie … Epic Movie. It was so completely lame it wasn’t even funny. The most notable actors were Kumar from Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle, and Stiffler’s Mom from American Pie trilogy. Don’t see it.

I’ve also made some improvements on both the TT and PP websites, so that’s been a good day really. I plan to also work on the WCG website in coming days.

Catching up with Lisa tomorrow, which’ll be interesting. She’s pretty pregnant, so I don’t know what we’ll be doing … maybe lunch, do super pregnant chicks still eat a lot? I mean I know semi-pregnant chicks eat a lot - I’ve seen it on Tv and the movies - but do super pregnant chicks still eat heaps? I don’t know. I understand they fart a lot, again based on my knowledge of TV and movies. So we’ll have to go somewhere with lots of food and plenty of breeze. I’m sure we’ll find somewhere.

oh, and get this. Tonight on TV:
7pm new Prison Break
8pm new 24
9pm new Heroes
10pm new Studio 60

That’s SWEET baby.

Well, I’m now in place at my regular hotel in Salt Lake. It’s good - particularly for the price. I also have finally emptied my car, which was causing me some stress worrying that people would break in and steal my booth from it’s secret location in the boot. Admittedly, nobody would … but doesn’t it look suspicious if someone ignores their perfectly functional boot and places their baggage on the back seat? Suspicious.

Got a voicemail from Godfrey recently, sorry I missed your call dude.

I’m now setup in my virtual office here in SLC, with a printer even, although I mainly bought it for it’s scanning abilities. I now have a dedicated USA printer/scanner and an LCD monitor. I’m investigating the concept of storage space over here to keep stuff that I buy purely to use once a year. If I’d done that years ago, I’d be so much better off now :/
Also thinking about buy an office chair, but I’ll need to think on that a little more first.

Today I finally made voice contact with Lisa, and we’re catching up on Wednesday. Heaps of work to do at the moment though … PP is on the verge of a very big sale, that will not only represent a lot of money for us this time, but also some very big contracts in the near future if it comes off. If I were Leyton, I’d think about retiring from the medical profession.

Cute as Balls … that link needs sound.

So I’ve just arrived in SLC, after two days of solid driving (mostly at around 130kph, love American freeways).
Best signage read on the way:
*** WARNING: Detention Centre in Area. Do Not Pick Up HitchHikers. ***

I screwed up slightly, however: when I planned that part of the trip, I’d allowed 4 half days driving, spreading it out enough to not die of exhaustion. Apparently, since then I forgot I did that, so when I arrived here at my hotel, they were not expecting me for another 2 days. I madly ran around trying to find somewhere, and I found a Holiday Inn Express with vacancy, at a somewhat higher price than I normally pay though.

I’m glad that I’ve made it, and I’m here. Now I can get back to bidness!

Thanks dudes for the Australia Day wishes. The messages were hilarious, especially the one were Glenn didn’t realize it was the answering machine. LOLZ.

Also, the message from Charlotte was cute as balls. Today I’m on the road, with 2 full days driving ahead of me. I’d better get this show on the road.

It’s the 24th in America today, so that means that Happy Birthdays! are required for Blacky, who is as old as the hills today. Happy Birthday Blacky, try not to trash my apartment in my absence. Thanks. I’ll bring you something cool back from America as a late gift. I’ll get it the same time I get the Christmas gift I still owe Leyton.

In other news, nothing much is news. With the conference finishing up yesterday, I was glad to get back to the apartment and relax a little. I leave here on Friday for a loooong drive to Salt Lake, which I will need to spread over a couple of days.

I had lunch “out” today, and had “sliders” which are tiny little hamburgers. Standard serving is 6, and they came with onion rings. Nice, but I wouldn’t neccessarily bother again - why not just have one regular sized burger? I suppose there’s the novelty factor, but who needs that more than once?

Latest Heroes on TV a couple of nights ago, that was good to watch on regular tv. My ftp server is proving quite handy, and quite easy to keep updated too.

At some stage I’m going to need to buy a LCD monitor over here, and I’m also tempted to get a scanner to keep track of receipts and whatnot. I plan to hold out on that purchase until Salt Lake City at least. Perhaps I’ll get another keyboard as well, which will make typing better, particularly with regard to some of the more prolonged email days I have to complete.

Had a quick chat with Glenn this morning, and it sounds like there’s a Australia Day bbq at their place planned. Jealous? definately. Also, Charlotte is almost 3 - I have sent her present, but I’m not sure what day it will arrive on. Glara, let me know once you receive it so I can stop fretting about it aight?

Operation conference is now winding up. I think it was a success, and certainly worth coming.

Last night I was exhausted, and went to bed around 7pm. Waking at 7am has me in much better spirits that yesterday. I’m in Dallas until Friday I think, then I’ve got a long drive to Salt Lake, which I’m spreading over a few days. Now that TomTom works, I’m going where he tells me, via the route that he tells me. Who knows where I’ll end up!

Apologies to anyone who tried to ring m SkypeIn number advertised by email and got a busy tone. That was because my computer was off. hehe. Computer needs to be on and logged in for SkypeIn to work. Live and learn right?

things are cold, my brothers. Stone cold.

So yesterday ended in a fizzle, although if I cared about the football game I would’ve had a great time - it really went down to the wire. The conference had a football theme to the evening, with popcorn and pretzels for afternoon tea, and then tacos, pizza, hotdogs and hamburgers for dinner. Oh yeah, fo sho. My only regret is that I didn’t eat tacos till I puked.

On the way home I picked up a humidifier and a cable to try and plug TomTom (or Tom, as I’m going to call him from here on out) into the lappy. After much swearing and gnashing of teeth, it worked, and now Tom is fully operational. Hooray!

I woke at an ungodly hour and couldn’t get back to sleep. I was hungry, so went out for a cheap breakfast and to read the newspaper, and was successful on both counts. I came in to the conference early, to find a free breakfast available here (doh!) andinternet, which is infinitely better than newspaper.

I’m getting a shoutout in the keynote at 11am for travelling the furtherest to be here. That’s pretty cool. For those that read the same blogs I do, WWTDD has a hilarious bit on Paris’ droppy eye, and Brisbane Window has its first new posting in a month. I got a long day of reading blogs and shivering ahead of me.

so here i am, in the US of A. There was a huge football game on today, apparently of crucial importance that the conference almost stopped for. They had it projected on a huge screen that everyone came into the dining hall to watch. Chicago vs New Orleans, I forget who won. Look it up if you like.

On my plane to Bangkok, I sat next to some European guy whose mission was to get as hammered as possible on the flight. It was quite impressive … we’re talking dual wine glasses, so he could drink from one while waiting for the other to be refilled. He passed out a couple of hours from the end of the flight, but when he woke up he started hard drinking again. I didn’t really understand it.

I had a free night in Bangkok, thanks to Thai Airways, so I didn’t need to collect any luggage … just take my carry-on through immigration, skip the baggage claim, and then through customs and into the limo. It was a warm evening, and I was sweating quite a bit. I was tired, too, and was suprised the limo to the hotel took around 3/4 hour. I was staying at the Amari Watergate (Amari was the “brand name” of the hote), which was really quite nice. In my time in Bangkok, I visited my favourite bookshop, favourite internet cafe, favourite restaurant, favourite cafe. 24 hours is a really convenient amount of time to spend there - although I felt a bit “feverish” by the time I left … I think it was the weather.

The flight from Bangkok to Los Angeles was nice - I was in a row by myself, which meant I could spread out nicely. I had audiobooks, and real books to keep me amused. I listened to Bill Bryson’s new book, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid, and George Orwell’s Animal Farm. I read Mario Puzo’s Fools Die, and watched Romeo + Juliet. Long flight I was glad to be off by the end.

Excess baggage from Brisbane to LA was 2 bags @ US$109 ea. Excess baggage from LA to Dallas was US$160.

My flight to Dallas from LA was via Las Vegas, and the flight from Vegas to Dallas featured a nose bleed that just wouldn’t stop. Eventually the cabin staff noticed and brought me an icepack. I was moderately mortified.

I needed to pay for a SmartCart for my bags at Dallas, and then in the world’s biggest scam needed to rent another cart once I got to the car rental terminal. I got the car from Hertz, and ended up going with all insurance options … most folk will probably remember my umming and ahhing before I left concerning which insurances to get. My TomTom wouldn’t start, but the car I had had Neverlost in it, so it didn’t matter too much. I prefer the TomTom to the Hertz GPS - it just doesn’t compare really - so I’ll work on updating the firmware etc on the unit in the hope it’ll soon go.

The hotel here is good, I arrived 6am Saturday. I tried to sleep as soon as I arrived, but couldn’t … so I went out for breakfast at Denny’s. Get this: scrambled eggs, 2 link sausages, 2 x smoked sausages, 2 sausage patties, 3 pancakes, bottomless tea and tip came to US$10. As Leyton said, at those prices, Australia will NEVER catchup to being the most obese nation in the world. Ah well.

Unfortunately after the breakfast I started to feel tired, so thought to myself that I would have a nap. 15 hours later, I woke up, having slept through 2 alarms - one set by me, one set by the previous guest in the room, which I discovered this morning. This meant that I woke up at mdnight - perfect for overcoming jetlag - and got some work done. I then read a little and went back to bed around 3:30am. This morning, the trade show started.

Things are going well, the booth looks great. The one thing I’m not sure about is parking … I think I may be booked when I pick up the car tonight, but cez la vie.