Well, it turns out in the end that we skipped right over Joshua Tree and headed straight to the great western metropolis. I’m a softie, what can I say? So these last couple days have been idle bliss here, as long as you ignore the traffic.
Yesterday, while Leslie taught, my brother and I went down to Venice beach. It was everything I’d hoped for, freaks and musclemen, cheap t-shirts and sunglasses, and lots of rollerblades. We then had lunch at “Hurry Curry,” and wasted the rest of the afternoon in the periodicals room in the big library at USC. A trip to Santa Monica rounded out the day.
Today, we’ve been lazy to the extreme, though we did make it to the Getty Center to look at art and old things. It really is a beautiful place; make sure you get there in the morning before the crowds get too silly.
Tomorrow morning, we’re leaving for SIGGRAPH. I’ll probably make another album in gallery for the pictures I take there. SIGGRAPH is more than just an orgy of pretty things, its also a major academic conference in this field that I’m supposed to be joining in the next couple of weeks, and subsequently devoting five years of my life to in pursuit of the brass ring, the doctor of philosophy. After that, there’ll be nowhere to hide. So, besides ogling the CG and collecting schwag, I’m also going to be trying to determine what I’m going to do for the next five years, and also trying to work out with a professor a way I can pay my rent for the next two months.