stillhq.com : Mikal, a geek from Canberra living in Silicon Valley

Arrived in Dallas

Sun, 11 Nov 2007 07:46:00 GMT

I arrived in Dallas yesterday. This part of the trip is to attend LISA 2007, spend some time on the Google booth, and present a poster about the initial research in my new-improved-previous-topic-abandoned PhD. I'm staying in the same hotel as the conference, the Grand Hyatt.

Staying at the Grand Hyatt has led me to make a conclusion -- people mistake expensive for up-scale. I look at the hotel, and its pretty lame: parking is $18 a day, internet is $10 a day, printing is $1 a page, and all the food options are expensive. I can only assume that either they're not interested in business travellers, or that they're hoping people will confuse being gouged for being upper class.

Oh, and the room is noisy and poorly laid out. I much preferred The Hampton Inn I stayed at in Atlanta to be honest. Now there was a hotel that understood business travellers.

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Random travel tip: DFW / Dallas Fort Worth

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 05:49:00 GMT

If you're flying through DFW and have a layover, then this random advice based on my experience yesterday might help. The airport is huge, but bits of it were built at different times. The D gates were much nicer (and had a better selection of food places) than the A gates. I assume that means that the E gates are even nicer. So -- don't go to your gate too early if its in an older terminal.

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Gordon's in Texas

Thu, 29 Jun 2006 10:10:00 GMT

Gordon is in Texas and having a ball, which is good to hear. His picture is quite cool too. He points out some interesting aspects of America in the post as well. Let's work through them one at a time together:

I haven't stayed in a Best Western yet, but so far I would have to say that the hotels I have stayed in have all been pretty good. Now, that might be because I am willing to spend money on hotels, but I think it's also because it's so easy here to change hotel if the first one sucks. For example, the hotel I stayed in in Portland had a many in a silly hat:
I have also seen churched with threatening signs, again in Portland for me. It seems to me that perhaps the clergy don't want to be too bothered by the huddled masses?
Parking places with funny little boxes to poke money I thought was a Pacific northwest thing (as I've seen them in Oregon and Washington). It's reassuring to know that other parts of the country have these too.
And yes, in general people here are wonderfully friendly.

Oh, and Gordon, don't forget to checkout The Capitol Steps sometime. They perform in a federal building, which means there are metal detectors and armed guards on the way into a theatre, and they're very funny if you're into political satire. One of my personal favourites would have to be the excellent garbled speeches although they are really known for their singing.

Also, I need your written report on the national mall, and the Smithsonians.

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