Category: acsac

Well, we now know what caused the noise this morning. A valve got stuck in the chiller pipes, and the motor kept trying to open and close it. Can you say “resonant frequency”. The part was replaced at 1030a this morning, and the guest have received a nice apology letter from the hotel (I’m not upset — parts fail at the best of hotels — and it’s not like hourly evacuation fire drills). I do have to say that the staff here at the Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort so far has been excellent and have done their best to keep our little conference happy.

Now, off to the reception…

About 330a this morning, there was suddenly a loud rhythmic banging in the pipe on our floor of the hotel (the pipes did this in the early evening, but for a much shorter time). Calls to guest services, when they answered, indicated there was coolent moving through the pipes, and “the engineers were working on it.”. It continued until 415am. Given my alarm was set for 445a (and I have trouble getting to sleep), it wasn’t worth going back to sleep.

So I’m annoyed. I’m not sure what the hotel can do about it (refunds don’t give back sleep), but I’m certainly going to talk to convention services in the morning. It’s not a good thing to wake up the person who booked the convention at your hotel. At minimum, I’m going to try to get them to apologize to our conference folks affected and explain what happened — because it will be ACSAC that hears about it from our attendees. What’s worse is that in everything else the hotel has been perfect and bending over backwards.

Grrrr. I can feel the headache starting.

Well, the first day went well. The hotel seems to be satisfactory to all, and the tutorials went smoothly (although low attendance). Went down to In-N-Out in the morning and made the arrangements for our special event. So all is well.

For dinner, BBQ was suggested. So I looked around and found some suggestions. The first, Scotties BBQ in Orange, was a hole-in-the-wall with no one there. I was willing to try it, but I couldn’t convince the others. We ended up at the second choice, Tulsa Rib Co., in Orange. Very good (although they supposedly use gluten in their sauce).

Tomorrow, day 2 of the tutorials and the reception.

Well, I’m down in Anaheim for this year’s ACSAC. So far, it’s quiet, but it should pick up tomorrow. But we were able to get registration open, and it looks like all the room setups are find.

As I type this, I’m hearing explosions outside. Don’t worry. It must just be the fireworks at Disneyland.

As I mentioned before, I’m currently planning the special event for ACSAC. I was running into a problem: If we left the hotel near Disneyland at 12:00pm, we couldn’t hit a restaurant, have lunch, and be to the whale watching dock at Dana Point by 2pm (map of route). I was debating switching things to Newport Beach, which is closer (map of route), when the idea hit me.

We had been talking today about the possibility of box lunches. What is more Southern California, in terms of food, than In-N-Out Burger. If we take advantage of their “not-so-secret menu” items or even their real secret menu items we can easily handle all guest (except the ones needing Kosher meals): vegan, vegetarian, or meat-lovers. I can base the price off the Double-Double Combo meal, since most items should be below that. I pre-order it and pick it up to be ready to distribute as folks get on the bus, and we eat as we go down to Dana Point. About the only risk would be an In-N-Out meal on a rolling boat. But that’s only a Cat III risk, right?

I think this is a pretty good idea. In-N-Out. Whale Watching. What could be more Southern California?

As folks probably well know by now, I’ve been involved with the ACSAC conference for years, primarily as Tutorial Chair. This year I’ve got the additional responsibility of being Local Arrangements Chair because the conference will be at the Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort. With this hat comes the responsibility of planning the special event… and that’s where you and your opinion come in. As a data point, remember the conference is the week of December 8-12, and the typical weather in Anaheim in December is a high of 70°F, a low of 46°, and there are only (on average) 4-6 rainy days in the month. Also note that we break on Friday for the special event around 11:30am to noon.

I initially came up with four possibilities for special events:

1. Downtown Disney/Shopping/Disneyland. Through the hotel, we can get twilight tickets for Disneyland, usable only after 4:30pm. These are about half price. I was thinking we could walk over to Downtown Disney for lunch (perhaps the Hard Rock), do shopping either there or at the new Anaheim Gardenwalk, and then go to the park as a group after 4:30pm.
2. Whale Watching. This activity would include lunch at a suitably uniquely Californian restaurant, following by a 2hr Whale Watching cruise. Supposedly the Grey Whale migrations are in December.
3. Art Museum. This activity would include lunch at a suitably uniquely Californian restaurant, following by a visit to either the Bowers or Laguna Art Museum.
4. History. This activity would include lunch at a suitably uniquely Californian restaurant, following by a visit to Richard Nixon Library and Birthplace.

Right now, my inclination is the Whale Watching activity. This is good because we could return to the hotel in time for folks to use Twilight Tickets if they want. It is also something pretty unique to California (I don’t think there is Whale Watching from Miami or Orlando). If we do the Whale Watching, then comes the opinion of which service to use, and where to eat.

So, to that end, I’d like your opinons on the activity. Think in terms of someone from outside Southern California coming here for a conference. Note that if you have personal familiarity with any of these services, I’d love your opinions in the comments.

Yes, I made it back safely.

The day started with packing the conference office. I’m going to be getting the bulk of the boxes, because the next conference is in So. Cal. Lunch was at Versailles in Miami (but I think the LA chain is 100% better). After that, I took a cab to the airport. It took forever for the cab to come, and then the Miami traffic was so bad it took forever to get to the airport. Luckily, I alotted plenty of time.

Every time I fly through the Miami Airport, I remember why I don’t like this airport. The security lines are incredibly long, in an unairconditioned space, so you’re schvitzin’ for over an hour. Then it is loads and loads of walking (haven’t they heard of moving walkways?). Food isn’t convienent and is overpriced, and then our flight was delayed because they couldn’t get the key to open the jetway. (Not to mention the flight, which was a packed 737 for 5.5 hours).

But I made it back. Of course, the predictable effect happened after a 23.5 hour day combined with lots of atmospheric pressure and humidity changes: a bad headache. I’m just starting to come out of it now. Now to catch up on everything…