Note to Self:

Don't walk home from school at night in a winter storm wearing basketball warmups.


I just got back from a fun weekend at CUTC. I couldn't make it for the start of the conference, on wed night because of friday morning lab. Well right after finishing the lab, I took off (w/ edmond, a very very fast driver) for the Delta Hotel in Scarborough. I got there in record time and as soon as I walked in, I was pressed into moving boxes. Boxes of bottled water up a flight of stairs. But it's good I earned my keep. CUTC paid for the hotel, food and my attendence at the event. Pretty sweet.

I went as a helper for the video team of Richard/Jeff. I did a lot of filming, which was good because I got to attend events and listen to the speakers. Richard/Jeff basically lived in our hotel room for 24 hours working like dogs on the video. It turned out really well guys! Kuo, Cary and Joseph were also there helping out with a whole bunch of stuff. Cary was a real trooper, hopping around on one ankle and taking crap from angry/screaming CUTC delegates.

This year had a much different feel from last year. Last year I was an attendee and I was just herded around taking it all in. This year, I was moving from place to place and doing work. I had around 3-4 hours of sleep on friday night, which was probably a little more than Richard and Jeff. I thought the best part was the hotel room. When I got there on friday, we had to start on the video that night. To help us through the night, Matt and I made a LCBO run at 10PM. We walked about 20 minutes away to a nearby LCBO and got some BOOZEr, err, booze and carried it back in our backpacks.

Here's us just before drinking, popping the bottle caps with our shirts:


Cheers!

After several hours of drinking, and after Matt has lost all inhibition:


Here is Matt getting up from the bed after finishing his "business". You can see Cary "recovering" in the background.

Here's Matt passed out after a long, hard day's work:


Yes folks, that is a bottle of Olde English Malt Liquor...the choice drink of drunks everywhere!

I really wanted to attend the seminar with David Kirk, from NVIDIA, but I missed it. Apparantely, he had some really cool demos. I did attend seminars on Quantum Cryptography and Grid Computing which were pretty interesting. The keynote speakers were a mixed bag. The President of Microsoft Canada talked about pedophiles for half an hour. Boring and depressing. A keynote speaker from NRC was better and had some interesting things to say about Canada and the amount of research going on here. (Not enough, but there is a potential in Canada for tremendous research opportunities).

Anyway, Saturday night was the banquet, where the video was shown. Although there were a few problems with the audio, I think people liked it. I went home after the dinner, because I hadn't seen my family for Chinese New Year's yet. It was nice to be home with the family again....especially the plentiful food part.

Now I'm back at school, with piles of homework to catch up on.