I'm Back! (James Brown Style)
Holy Crap! What a vacation! Roger's mom and dad were nice enough to put up with us for a week in their house in L.A. whiched saved us alot of money. His mom even packed us sandwiches for lunch so we didnt have to drop coin at the conference on a greasy burger. On the first day they even treated us to a nite on the boat! Thanks guys! As if that wasnt enough to make the trip, on the very first day we all met one of my idols...Jason Schliefer (most famous for gollum off of Lord of the Rings). He was really nice. The whole time my wife and friends were telling me to go up and say hi to him but I was afraid that he would end up being rude and blowing my expectations of him. Fortunately that didnt happen. He was very nice. We bothered him until he broke out the pepper spray.
Siggraph as a whole was incredible. I couldnt believe how helpful the entire organization (ACM) was to getting people jobs. They even had employees in the front lobby to sit down and schedule an artinary with you for the week based off of specific events and what you wanted to accomplish (job search, entertainment, etc.)....this was AFTER you had already payed for the ticket so technically they didnt have to do this! It was great. Last but not least on the final day I won the PNY dream machine (an $8,000 computer sporting a Quadro FX 4400 graphics card). I didnt need to win that to make it all worth the trip but ofcourse I am on cloud nine right now. The guys at PNY were stoked that I was prior military and that I was a student...they knew I appreciated it. In the end we all walked away with our heads held high and about a gig worth of motion capture data and 3d versions of our heads that were laser scanned. Good times indeed.
Siggraph as a whole was incredible. I couldnt believe how helpful the entire organization (ACM) was to getting people jobs. They even had employees in the front lobby to sit down and schedule an artinary with you for the week based off of specific events and what you wanted to accomplish (job search, entertainment, etc.)....this was AFTER you had already payed for the ticket so technically they didnt have to do this! It was great. Last but not least on the final day I won the PNY dream machine (an $8,000 computer sporting a Quadro FX 4400 graphics card). I didnt need to win that to make it all worth the trip but ofcourse I am on cloud nine right now. The guys at PNY were stoked that I was prior military and that I was a student...they knew I appreciated it. In the end we all walked away with our heads held high and about a gig worth of motion capture data and 3d versions of our heads that were laser scanned. Good times indeed.
