A crushing workload has in part kept me from blogging lately, part of which owes to having to work on and deliver a speech to the LSU Center for Energy Studies Alternative Energy Conference. I think ultimately they will put my presentation on their web site, so those of you with absolutely nothing else to do can read it.
I did the speech so I could get a firm-paid trip to Baton Rouge out of it, thinking I'd have more time to run around town and enjoy the trip than I did. But it was great being on the LSU campus in spring. I ditched the conference lunch. Bad enough to be in a room with all those polyester shirt-wearing guys, worse to miss out on all the "scenery" on a walk to the student union for lunch (43 year old guy in a suit noticing LSU girls-that's completely still not creepy as far as I see it). The Center also took all the speakers to dinner the night before at Juban's, making the trip worth all the effort. Juban's turns out to be the best restaurant I've found in Baton Rouge. I had a crawfish cake to start, then a spinach salad with poppyseed dressing and orange slices (Mom's version of the same salad was slightly better, using mandarin oranges), and main course consisting of duck breast with blueberry sauce and quail stuffed with lump crab and sweet potato with bourbon cane syrup. Dessert of pecan pie with bluebell vanilla ice cream topped with Maker's Mark bourbon (getting faint thinking of it).
The speech itself was ok. For me the mark of a successful speech is if the audience somehow responds to you (you know, if they don't all fall asleep). I heard crickets after most of my jokes; they did like "Greetings from the People's Republic of Austin, island of blue in a sea of red." One idiot on the front row actually clapped. What do you expect from a guy who sits on the front row at a conference? I went overtime, proving once again that time moves a lot faster for the speaker than the audience. Promptly after finishing, someone leaped up to ask a couple of questions, and it turned out to be one of the Louisiana Public Service Commissioners. The questions were slightly tricky, but I managed.
Then I beat it to the airport, giving a ride to another speaker. She turned out to be an interesting and engaging person-a New Yorker who consults with industrial customers. Her flight was delayed so we ate disgusting fried food at the airport lounge while waiting for our reflective flights. She is a lesbian pregnant (via IVF) with twins. Hate to go to the stereotype, but surely I get an off the charts point value for having dinner at the Baton Rouge airport lounge with a pregnant-with-twins New York lesbian industrial consultant. Sounds like the beginning of an English Lit 101 short story. Or the beginning of a movie on Cinemax.
Looking forward to next week's triumphant return to New Orleans Jazz Fest, then to attending Ron's play in mid-May.
I did the speech so I could get a firm-paid trip to Baton Rouge out of it, thinking I'd have more time to run around town and enjoy the trip than I did. But it was great being on the LSU campus in spring. I ditched the conference lunch. Bad enough to be in a room with all those polyester shirt-wearing guys, worse to miss out on all the "scenery" on a walk to the student union for lunch (43 year old guy in a suit noticing LSU girls-that's completely still not creepy as far as I see it). The Center also took all the speakers to dinner the night before at Juban's, making the trip worth all the effort. Juban's turns out to be the best restaurant I've found in Baton Rouge. I had a crawfish cake to start, then a spinach salad with poppyseed dressing and orange slices (Mom's version of the same salad was slightly better, using mandarin oranges), and main course consisting of duck breast with blueberry sauce and quail stuffed with lump crab and sweet potato with bourbon cane syrup. Dessert of pecan pie with bluebell vanilla ice cream topped with Maker's Mark bourbon (getting faint thinking of it).
The speech itself was ok. For me the mark of a successful speech is if the audience somehow responds to you (you know, if they don't all fall asleep). I heard crickets after most of my jokes; they did like "Greetings from the People's Republic of Austin, island of blue in a sea of red." One idiot on the front row actually clapped. What do you expect from a guy who sits on the front row at a conference? I went overtime, proving once again that time moves a lot faster for the speaker than the audience. Promptly after finishing, someone leaped up to ask a couple of questions, and it turned out to be one of the Louisiana Public Service Commissioners. The questions were slightly tricky, but I managed.
Then I beat it to the airport, giving a ride to another speaker. She turned out to be an interesting and engaging person-a New Yorker who consults with industrial customers. Her flight was delayed so we ate disgusting fried food at the airport lounge while waiting for our reflective flights. She is a lesbian pregnant (via IVF) with twins. Hate to go to the stereotype, but surely I get an off the charts point value for having dinner at the Baton Rouge airport lounge with a pregnant-with-twins New York lesbian industrial consultant. Sounds like the beginning of an English Lit 101 short story. Or the beginning of a movie on Cinemax.
Looking forward to next week's triumphant return to New Orleans Jazz Fest, then to attending Ron's play in mid-May.
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