I'm currently missing general session. I hate general sessions usually. The are really loud and rah-rah. I'm not in the mood for rah-rah. Last night I had another awesome dinner. I went to some resturant on Magazine Street. I wish I could remember what it was called. I had this incredible crab au-gratin. ok, YUMMY. I can't even explain, but i think it was crab, some sort of cheese and a few odd mushrooms. It was so rich I couldn't finish it. I had Pecan Crunch Ice Cream for dessert. It was to die for. Last night was the second night that I got free dessert. I like that... Free dessert. Apparently, it is a southern tradition. If a single woman goes to have dinner alone, the resturant gives her free dessert. Who would have known? I didn't. But, I do like this tradtion. But, I do have to get the girl at the desk in the hotel to help me pick less expensive dinner options. I've spent my entire food allowance for the day each night at dinner... and that is with free dessert. And, I don't drink. There have to be some cheaper places to go. God I hope so. Maybe tonight. Todays morning sessions were good. I thought the first, Dreamweaver Killer Tips was excellent. I learned 4 or 5 things that I didn't know about. I can't wait to start using them. The second, ColdFusion Performance Tips and Tricks was much harder for me to follow. But I did get some interesting things to try. He really suggested indexing your queries. It's something I've been thinking of trying, but haven't. I'm going to as soon as Renuka gets back from vacation. This afternoon I have two hands on trainings, and I'm really excited. I am ready to learn about optimizing my web graphics, which is my next session. I guess I'd better go to general session. I might be missing something.

{senseless rant} Just so we are clear... The Hilton Riverside sucks. I rented that laptop so I could blog every minute of every day, and do you think I can get on to their network? HELL NO. I've called tech support 5 times, and still no internet. and, I lost my book. I 3/4's done and I lost my book. {/senseless rant} Day Two at MAX. Blogging from the conference floor. There are a ton of people here, and I've been trying very hard to be social. I've given away 2 business cards. One girl Amy is a knitter. I think we might ditch sessions one day and go to the yarn store. That sounds like a blast to me! Class today was like 3 classes slammed into one 7 hour session. I am sure my brain hurts, but not in the right way. I'm really frustrated that it took 6.5 hours to get to the part I wanted to learn, then we breased over it. Damn it. It felt like a huge waste of time. ranted, I shouldn't be scared to try Flash when I get back to the office... I just really wanted to see the whole picture put together. In the end, I got an error message. I never did get to see it work. I did however tell the teacher why he was getting error messages when we got to the ColdFusion part. I felt uber smart. I think the class would have done much better with more imput from the users who signed up for it. I thought it needed more structure. I could be wrong, but that's what I thought. Tonight is the Welcome Reception. All the vendors are here, there is a ton of food, and LOTS of beer. Programmers are big drinkers. Wait, I'm a programmer, and I don't drink. Ok, so male programmers are big drinkers. Most people are smiling, really looking like they are having a good time. I know I am. I keep seeing the girls that I met, and I say hi. It's nice to recognize a face. I think it will be better tomorrow when I should have some dinner company. Dan and his wife Jeanette will be here by then. I think I'm going to go find dinner.