The Conference Continues...

The view of Miami Beach from the balcony today was gorg. I've never seen water on the east coast so green. It almost rivaled our good 'ole Anna Maria Island (pictured right--that ain't no Miami Beach). Lots of friendly folk from around the country are here, open with sharing ideas from their corner of the world.

So what did I do today? I attended a 5 hour long session about Virtualization and understood about 4 to 6 minutes of it. I chatted with some techies who are up to some pretty neat things. And I reminded myself that I appreciate having a job and the opportunity to be here.

My co-workers and I placed the standard phone calls to husbands and kids, sending smoochy thoughts to the dogs. We had a bit of a strange dinner after a tiring day, populated by an interesting exchange of table talk.

As you've probably noted, surrounded by the same group of people for any length of time, one quickly learns that speech is bound to offend one or more in the party. After the niceties and catch-up conversation, getting-to-know you better questioning and general commentary wears off--that's when the barriers in thinking before speaking start to relax. It seems to be facilitated by the distance from home too.

There's a trite, overused saying that resurfaces from time to time. It's good advice. "Just be nice."