C'mon C'mon C'mon

There's been debate and some speculation
Have you heard?

Sloan

I figure two months is long enough.

I'm at LISA again, this time in sunny San Jose. I took the train down this year (no reason, why do you ask?), which...well, it took a long time: I got on a bus to Seattle at 5:30am on Friday, and arrived at the San Jose train station at 10am on Saturday. I went coach; a sleeper would have been a nice addition, as the chairs are not completely comfortable for sleeping. (Probably would have got me access to the wireless too, which Amtrak's website does not mention is only available to T3h El33+.)

But oh, the leg room! I nearly wept. And the people-watching....my wife is the champ, but I can get into it too. Overheard snippets of conversation in the observation car were the best. Like this guy with silver hair, kind of like the man from Glad:

Silver: So yeah, she got into animal husbandry then and just started doing every drug on the planet. I mean, when I started doing pot, I told my parents. I told my grandparents. But she...I mean, EVERY drug on the planet.

Or the two blue-collar guys who met in the observation car and became best buds:

Buddy: Aw man, you ever go to the casinos? Now that I'm up in Washington now, I think I'm gonna check 'em out.

Guy: I dunno, I go with my friends sometimes. I don't gamble, but I'll have a few beers.

Buddy: You hear who's coming to the Tulalip? Joe Satriani, man. JOOOOOOOOOE. Joe Satriani!

Guy: Yeah, I'll hit the buffet...

And then later:

Silver: I knew it was a bad thing. I mean, she was a ten. I'm okay, but she was a TEN, you know what I mean? The other tenants were going to get jealous, and I only had enough of them to pay the mortage.

Buddy: (separate conversation) And we caught one of those red crabs when we were up in Alaska?

Guy: Man, you won't catch me eatin' that shit.

Silver: And then she says, do you mind if I take a trip up the mountains with this doctor I met? I say, what do I have to say about it?

Buddy: What? Man, they're good eatin'. We just dropped it in a pot and boiled the sonuvabitch.

Silver: And that's when I realize she thinks we're in a relationship. I guess she's got this thing about men.

I slept badly, woke up at 3:30am and read for a while before realizing that the book of disturbing scifi stories is not really good 3:30am reading. I watched San Francisco and San Jose approach from the observation car; tons and tons of industrial land, occasionally interrupted by beautiful parks and seashore.

San Jose came at last. I had thought about walking to the convention centre, but decided against it. Glad I did, since a) it's a little further than I thought; b) it's surprisingly warm here; c) more industrial land, and d) when I did go out walking later on I managed to get completely turned around twice. I was looking for Phillz Coffee, based on a recommendation from Twitter (can't bring myself yet to say "tweet"; give me six months) and got lost in Innitek land (complete with Adobe) and a Vietnamese neighbourhood before finding it at last. The coffee was pretty good; they have about two dozen varieties and they make it one cup at a time. Not sure it was worth $3.50 for a 12 oz coffee, though...NOT THAT I'M UNGRATEFUL. Thank you, @perwille.

Gotta say, downtown SJ on a Saturday is...dead. I saw maybe a dozen people in six blocks despite stores, a nearby university (they call them high schools here) and I think three museums. I have no idea where one might go for a fun time at night, but I imagine it involves another city.

So then I took a bus to sunny Cupertino. Why? To visit the retail outlet of Orion Telescopes. I've got into astronomy again (loved it as a kid), and I'm thinking of buying one of their telescopes in about a year. Since the store was only ten miles away, why not go? And since the bus goes right from the hotel to, well, pretty close, seems like it's a requirement.

Now that was fun; even more people-watching on the train. Like the Hispanic gentleman w/a handlebar moustache, a cowboy hat, tight polyester pants (he had the roundest buttocks I've ever seen on a man. I could only wonder in great admiration), a silk shirt with "K-Paz" embroidered on the back, and a button that said, in Spanish, something that was probably "DO X NOW! ASK ME HOW!" And the study in ringtones: the elderly Hispanic grandmother who had Mexican accordion music vs. the middle-aged African-American guy who had Michael Jackson's "Thriller." Man, you just don't get that where I come from.

And the contrast in neighbourhoods between San Jose (out of downtown, it was all Hispanic shops), Santa Clara ("ALL-AMERICAN CITY 2001" said the sign; Restoration Hardware to prevent white panic) and Cupertino (duelling car dealerships (Audi, Land Rover and Lexus) and antivirus companies (Symantec and Trend Micro); Critical Mass, only with scooters instead of bikes; Harley driver wearing a leather jacket with an Ed Hardy embroidered patch on the back).

Anyhow, the telescopes were neat; it was the first chance I'd really had to look at them closely. I didn't buy one (relax, Pre!). They didn't have a floor model of the one I really want, but I've got a better idea what the size, and what I want out of one.

And now...to post, then register. Which means going to the business centre, since Internet access costs $78/day at the Hilton with a 3KB daily cap. And the Russian mob's attempt to get my banking data by setting up a "Free DownTown WiFi" network is NOT GOING TO WORK, tvaritch.