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I attended the 130th National Meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers (AAPT) in Albuquerque this week. This will be a fairly long entry, so I'll put it behind a cut.
Here's some background. The AAPT meets in August and January each year. The summer meetings are larger, with more talks and events, in part because the high school teachers are more likely to be able to attend. They're usually held at university campuses with dorm housing available, making them cheaper and also increasing the attendance of high school teachers (who generally don't have travel grants like university types do). Winter meetings are usually held in hotels and convention centers, making them more expensive but requiring less walking (dorms are often a goodly walk away from any buildings on campus being used for sessions).
Of course, a low *requirement* for walking doesn't mean I don't end up giving myself blisters.
Anyway, this time out the winter meeting was at the Albuquerque Convention Center, and I stayed in the Doubletree Hotel across the street (and, fortunately, with an underground passage).
SUNDAY
Got up at 5 AM, got picked up by a coworker for the two hour or so drive to Kansas City International (even with the new lower prices for taking the step from Manhattan to Kansas City by air, the timing didn't work out for making layovers). I foolishly left my belt on...between it and my glasses I apparently had too much metal for the insanely sensitive magnetometer. And it's a pretty small belt buckle. So I got to be patted down. I guess I'm lucky they didn't decide I needed a cavity search. I really hate airports these days.
Airplanes, however, are still fairly cool. When flying over the foothills in northeastern New Mexico, the snowy hills cut through by plowed and driven roads looked like the shell of a great egg, cracked yet still holding together. Looked cool.
Anyway, one of my quirks is that when I arrive in a new area, I want to get the lay of the lay of the land as quickly as possible. Which, at conferences, usually means walking. A lot. And since as usual, I had Sunday afternoon mostly free (the non-workshop stuff kicking off at dinner time), I walked all over downtown Albuquerque. Judging from the map I downloaded in advance, I think I walked a total of 2.5 miles on the initial loop.
After getting my registration stuff at the convention center, I hit Central Street (south of the hotel), which my online research had told me had a lot of restaurants and stuff. It did, but Albuquerque's downtown clearly caters to the governmental crowd (something that would become even clearer later in the walk), and almost nothing that wasn't also a bar was open on Sunday, with most stuff not even being open past 4 or 5 in the afternoon even on a weekday. Did see two strip joints, though. (No, I didn't go in.) Noted a few places I might wanna check out later, then looped back east. Found Al's New York Pizza Depot (NYPD), serving the best New York style pizza I've ever had, and that was late lunch for me.
Decided to check out the northern stuff too, recalling a few places listed on Yahoo there. Aside from a Burger King I decided was too far away to use for quick meals and a Pizza Hut delivery-only place, no places to eat. But there were four or five huge courthouses (city, county, state, federal and maybe one other, not that I can think what it'd be) and the police and sheriff's departments. Definitely a governmental downtown.
Along the way, I noted a few things about the downtown in general that caught my attention.
Had a K-State Alumni gathering back at the hotel, got some reception food and chatted with various people, also learning how my boss got his job at Kansas State in the process (his wife was telling stories). Then found out where the nearest 7-11 was by asking at the front desk (I'd missed it on my roaming, it was tucked away on a street that didn't look promising when I looked down it), and went to get a Super Big Gulp, the main purpose being to get a big cup to use for icewater the rest of the stay (little hotel glasses I drain in a gulp, and I do like my icewater). Then the conference's official opening reception was on, and I had more reception food, including some chicken skewers that seemed rather mild (I don't care for Mexican spicy foods, so of course all the stuff there was of that variety)...but turned out to have a delayed heat effect that didn't kick in until I'd had three of the things. Hothothot.
Went back to the hotel and planned the next day. Figured I'd do breakfast at 7-11.
MONDAY
Today I started paying for my walking on Sunday, which I think added up to about 4 miles total, in shoes not really designed for distance walking. Dr. Scholl's "gelling" insoles don't do much. Sore hip (possibly from the ultra hard hotel bed), blisters on two toes (didn't realize this until Monday night), strained muscles all through my legs. In short, typical for me at a conference.
Okay, 7-11 was uninspiring for breakfast, ended up with a quart of milk and a danish. Hoped to get more at the buffet in the exhibit hall after checking my email at the "email cafe" they set up using old beige boxes. Unfortunately, the assumption of wifi has led to there being less concern over providing access at these meetings, so it's tough keeping up with things. Especially in my case, with the semester starting on Wednesday and students starting to freak out about closed sections (I take care of the waitlists for the department). The breakfast was "take it or leave it" crossaint-omelet sandwiches of several unlabeled varieties, and coffee. Don't like omelets, don't like coffee, decided to ditch the Ceremonial Session and seek better breakfast.
Just south of the convention center I found Frank's Other Place, a classic-menu diner, and got some hash browns and bacon to round out my breakfast. Decided to eat there Tuesday and Wednesday as well, which worked out great. Frank's Other Place has a somewhat odd decor. There was a Christmas tree covered in ornaments, and icicle-lights, which were up a bit late in the season but did make sense. But then there were the light-up shamrocks, the small rubber plants, the bits of pottery and local art, and the big (maybe half life sized) stuffed tiger. And that was just in the front room, I never did go sit in the back room.
Went to check out the library (it was a block west of the 7-11, so I popped over there on Sunday night, but it was closed) and ended up buying a library card ($3) so I could use their computer terminals. This card would be my one distinctively local souvenir, something I couldn't get anywhere else. :) While I could only get an hour at a time, and had to work around the sessions I wanted to go to, this did let me keep up on things reasonably well and deal with the flood of email from students and instructors I would be getting through Wednesday.
Ate lunch at Subway, discovering a sandwich of theirs that I didn't merely tolerate, but actually liked. Ended up having lunch there Tuesday and Wednesday as well. Then it was off to the first sessions, in which I took a lot of notes. I always take notes at these things, then type them up and distribute them to anyone interested. Helps me feel like I'm justifying the money the department is spending on me. Ended up with 31 pages of notes all told. Dinner was Al's NYPD again, then hanging around the hotel room reading Exalted: Fair Folk. This was not one of my more social meetings.
TUESDAY
This was the big sessions day for me. Went to the first Plenary session, three talks (with crowded lunch at Subway in between), ditched Plenary 2 to go to the library after seeing the 'freaked out students' email levels shoot up. After dinner it was time for the committee meetings, which only happen at the winter meetings. The really fun one is the RIPE (Research In Physics Education) one, but I couldn't attend this year, since I agreed to be on the Laboratories committee starting this year, and it met at the same time. Had the Young Physics Education Researchers meeting at 7:30, then my own committee meeting at 8:30. I ended up agreeing to organize an invited session for the next winter meeting, on the topic of taking the Americans with Disabilities Act into account when revising your lab curriculum.
As I tried to get to sleep, I realized I might have trouble getting people to accept invitations to the session, given that we can only cover that day's registration, not travel and lodging...and the meeting next January is in Anchorage. Yes, I am insane. I hope to find someone or several someones to hang out with in Seattle a couple days next year, so I can split the 12 hour flight into two legs with a stay at a hotel in between, each way. My boss heartily approves of this tactic.
WEDNESDAY
Last day, more or less. Realized I could probably get a government person to come to the Anchorage meeting for one of the invited talks, I'd be another (someone else is putting her name on the session, she just wants me to do the legwork), so one more invited or two submitted and it'd be a minimum length session.
I probably shouldn't have eaten that danish at the book giveaway before talks, it either disagreed with me inherently, or at least pushed me over the edge of overeating, and I had to skip a session I wanted to go to because I was feeling sick. Sigh. In addition to the "walking too much" tradition, I also have a tradition of missing a session because I feel sick. Don't really want that one. At least the first one has the benefit of teaching me where everything is. Y'see, I normally eat small meals several times a day rather than three big traditional meals. But conferences assume you just have the three, so I have to eat more to avoid stomach growling by the end of a session, and I inevitably overestimate at least once (and underestimate at least once as well, which hurts, but doesn't make me have to ditch sessions).
Anyway, after about half an hour, I decided sitting around wasn't helping, so went limping to the library. By the time I was seated in front of the computer the nausea had passed, and I felt okay soon after. Did some shopping around at the stores that were all closed on Sunday, but didn't buy anything. And here I'd thought I wouldn't escape without buying something made of turquoise!
Went to the final session, then got together with the others from K-State and agreed to meet at the hotel at 4:30 decide when to catch a shuttle to the airport. Then back to the library for one last session (finding that the dire weather forecast for Kansas that night had been revised to be far less dire...the system fell apart so we wouldn't be driving back in freezing rain!), and Al's NYPD for a final two slices of delicious pizza. Got back to the hotel at a little after 4, and a shuttle was already there...one of the other guys had decided to jump way ahead. We ended up spending three hours sitting around the airport, which at least had restaurants and gift shops on the other side of security (and I didn't get a pat-down this time). Sketched some Kokopellis at one of the gift kiosks for an idea I had (http://www.dvandom.com/drawings/kpnightbeat.JPG - Nightbeat as a Kokopelli, for an art contest at the AllSpark board), read, had a big and naturally overpriced muffin, etc.
Got back into KCI at 10:10, but didn't get out of the airport for nearly another hour. I managed to nap fitfully for maybe 45 minutes (I wasn't driving), and got home at about 1:10 AM. After minimal required unpacking of stuff I needed to use in the morning and eating enough to not be ravenous, I got to bed about 1:30, with sleep following maybe half an hour later.
THURSDAY
Not part of the conference, but bears some mention.
Got up at 5:15. Toilet overflowed, as mentioned in an earlier post. Had to be at work at 7:00. Was not really at the top of my game for the rest of the day, but I survived.
I am SO making sure I get a substitute to cover for me the day after I get back from Anchorage, if the semester starts unreasonably early like this year did.
Some time this week I'll probably start typing up my 31 pages of notes from the talks. And start thinking about how to incorporate some of the nifty things I picked up in the Practical Pedagogy session.
Here's some background. The AAPT meets in August and January each year. The summer meetings are larger, with more talks and events, in part because the high school teachers are more likely to be able to attend. They're usually held at university campuses with dorm housing available, making them cheaper and also increasing the attendance of high school teachers (who generally don't have travel grants like university types do). Winter meetings are usually held in hotels and convention centers, making them more expensive but requiring less walking (dorms are often a goodly walk away from any buildings on campus being used for sessions).
Of course, a low *requirement* for walking doesn't mean I don't end up giving myself blisters.
Anyway, this time out the winter meeting was at the Albuquerque Convention Center, and I stayed in the Doubletree Hotel across the street (and, fortunately, with an underground passage).
SUNDAY
Got up at 5 AM, got picked up by a coworker for the two hour or so drive to Kansas City International (even with the new lower prices for taking the step from Manhattan to Kansas City by air, the timing didn't work out for making layovers). I foolishly left my belt on...between it and my glasses I apparently had too much metal for the insanely sensitive magnetometer. And it's a pretty small belt buckle. So I got to be patted down. I guess I'm lucky they didn't decide I needed a cavity search. I really hate airports these days.
Airplanes, however, are still fairly cool. When flying over the foothills in northeastern New Mexico, the snowy hills cut through by plowed and driven roads looked like the shell of a great egg, cracked yet still holding together. Looked cool.
Anyway, one of my quirks is that when I arrive in a new area, I want to get the lay of the lay of the land as quickly as possible. Which, at conferences, usually means walking. A lot. And since as usual, I had Sunday afternoon mostly free (the non-workshop stuff kicking off at dinner time), I walked all over downtown Albuquerque. Judging from the map I downloaded in advance, I think I walked a total of 2.5 miles on the initial loop.
After getting my registration stuff at the convention center, I hit Central Street (south of the hotel), which my online research had told me had a lot of restaurants and stuff. It did, but Albuquerque's downtown clearly caters to the governmental crowd (something that would become even clearer later in the walk), and almost nothing that wasn't also a bar was open on Sunday, with most stuff not even being open past 4 or 5 in the afternoon even on a weekday. Did see two strip joints, though. (No, I didn't go in.) Noted a few places I might wanna check out later, then looped back east. Found Al's New York Pizza Depot (NYPD), serving the best New York style pizza I've ever had, and that was late lunch for me.
Decided to check out the northern stuff too, recalling a few places listed on Yahoo there. Aside from a Burger King I decided was too far away to use for quick meals and a Pizza Hut delivery-only place, no places to eat. But there were four or five huge courthouses (city, county, state, federal and maybe one other, not that I can think what it'd be) and the police and sheriff's departments. Definitely a governmental downtown.
Along the way, I noted a few things about the downtown in general that caught my attention.
- The Walk/Don't Walk signs have countdown timers during the Walk cycle, so you know exactly how long before the light turns yellow. Well, sorta. Some would turn yellow as soon as the timer hit zero. Some would wait several more seconds, and these weren't necessarily the wider streets. It was neat, but kinda frustrating after a while.
- A fair number of homeless, but except for a few holding up "will work for food" signs at the offramps, none of them seemed to be panhandling, busking or otherwise trying to get money. Maybe the city has tough laws in that regard, and the local homeless aren't gonna violate those laws within three blocks of the police station.
- Related to the homeless, I was initially thinking the city was really aggressive about keeping skateboarders off stuff, because there were bumps or metal armrests on pretty much anything that could be grinded on. And on a few things that couldn't. And then I realized that the point of these things was to make it difficult to lie down on benches and low walls, to keep the homeless from sleeping on them.
Had a K-State Alumni gathering back at the hotel, got some reception food and chatted with various people, also learning how my boss got his job at Kansas State in the process (his wife was telling stories). Then found out where the nearest 7-11 was by asking at the front desk (I'd missed it on my roaming, it was tucked away on a street that didn't look promising when I looked down it), and went to get a Super Big Gulp, the main purpose being to get a big cup to use for icewater the rest of the stay (little hotel glasses I drain in a gulp, and I do like my icewater). Then the conference's official opening reception was on, and I had more reception food, including some chicken skewers that seemed rather mild (I don't care for Mexican spicy foods, so of course all the stuff there was of that variety)...but turned out to have a delayed heat effect that didn't kick in until I'd had three of the things. Hothothot.
Went back to the hotel and planned the next day. Figured I'd do breakfast at 7-11.
MONDAY
Today I started paying for my walking on Sunday, which I think added up to about 4 miles total, in shoes not really designed for distance walking. Dr. Scholl's "gelling" insoles don't do much. Sore hip (possibly from the ultra hard hotel bed), blisters on two toes (didn't realize this until Monday night), strained muscles all through my legs. In short, typical for me at a conference.
Okay, 7-11 was uninspiring for breakfast, ended up with a quart of milk and a danish. Hoped to get more at the buffet in the exhibit hall after checking my email at the "email cafe" they set up using old beige boxes. Unfortunately, the assumption of wifi has led to there being less concern over providing access at these meetings, so it's tough keeping up with things. Especially in my case, with the semester starting on Wednesday and students starting to freak out about closed sections (I take care of the waitlists for the department). The breakfast was "take it or leave it" crossaint-omelet sandwiches of several unlabeled varieties, and coffee. Don't like omelets, don't like coffee, decided to ditch the Ceremonial Session and seek better breakfast.
Just south of the convention center I found Frank's Other Place, a classic-menu diner, and got some hash browns and bacon to round out my breakfast. Decided to eat there Tuesday and Wednesday as well, which worked out great. Frank's Other Place has a somewhat odd decor. There was a Christmas tree covered in ornaments, and icicle-lights, which were up a bit late in the season but did make sense. But then there were the light-up shamrocks, the small rubber plants, the bits of pottery and local art, and the big (maybe half life sized) stuffed tiger. And that was just in the front room, I never did go sit in the back room.
Went to check out the library (it was a block west of the 7-11, so I popped over there on Sunday night, but it was closed) and ended up buying a library card ($3) so I could use their computer terminals. This card would be my one distinctively local souvenir, something I couldn't get anywhere else. :) While I could only get an hour at a time, and had to work around the sessions I wanted to go to, this did let me keep up on things reasonably well and deal with the flood of email from students and instructors I would be getting through Wednesday.
Ate lunch at Subway, discovering a sandwich of theirs that I didn't merely tolerate, but actually liked. Ended up having lunch there Tuesday and Wednesday as well. Then it was off to the first sessions, in which I took a lot of notes. I always take notes at these things, then type them up and distribute them to anyone interested. Helps me feel like I'm justifying the money the department is spending on me. Ended up with 31 pages of notes all told. Dinner was Al's NYPD again, then hanging around the hotel room reading Exalted: Fair Folk. This was not one of my more social meetings.
TUESDAY
This was the big sessions day for me. Went to the first Plenary session, three talks (with crowded lunch at Subway in between), ditched Plenary 2 to go to the library after seeing the 'freaked out students' email levels shoot up. After dinner it was time for the committee meetings, which only happen at the winter meetings. The really fun one is the RIPE (Research In Physics Education) one, but I couldn't attend this year, since I agreed to be on the Laboratories committee starting this year, and it met at the same time. Had the Young Physics Education Researchers meeting at 7:30, then my own committee meeting at 8:30. I ended up agreeing to organize an invited session for the next winter meeting, on the topic of taking the Americans with Disabilities Act into account when revising your lab curriculum.
As I tried to get to sleep, I realized I might have trouble getting people to accept invitations to the session, given that we can only cover that day's registration, not travel and lodging...and the meeting next January is in Anchorage. Yes, I am insane. I hope to find someone or several someones to hang out with in Seattle a couple days next year, so I can split the 12 hour flight into two legs with a stay at a hotel in between, each way. My boss heartily approves of this tactic.
WEDNESDAY
Last day, more or less. Realized I could probably get a government person to come to the Anchorage meeting for one of the invited talks, I'd be another (someone else is putting her name on the session, she just wants me to do the legwork), so one more invited or two submitted and it'd be a minimum length session.
I probably shouldn't have eaten that danish at the book giveaway before talks, it either disagreed with me inherently, or at least pushed me over the edge of overeating, and I had to skip a session I wanted to go to because I was feeling sick. Sigh. In addition to the "walking too much" tradition, I also have a tradition of missing a session because I feel sick. Don't really want that one. At least the first one has the benefit of teaching me where everything is. Y'see, I normally eat small meals several times a day rather than three big traditional meals. But conferences assume you just have the three, so I have to eat more to avoid stomach growling by the end of a session, and I inevitably overestimate at least once (and underestimate at least once as well, which hurts, but doesn't make me have to ditch sessions).
Anyway, after about half an hour, I decided sitting around wasn't helping, so went limping to the library. By the time I was seated in front of the computer the nausea had passed, and I felt okay soon after. Did some shopping around at the stores that were all closed on Sunday, but didn't buy anything. And here I'd thought I wouldn't escape without buying something made of turquoise!
Went to the final session, then got together with the others from K-State and agreed to meet at the hotel at 4:30 decide when to catch a shuttle to the airport. Then back to the library for one last session (finding that the dire weather forecast for Kansas that night had been revised to be far less dire...the system fell apart so we wouldn't be driving back in freezing rain!), and Al's NYPD for a final two slices of delicious pizza. Got back to the hotel at a little after 4, and a shuttle was already there...one of the other guys had decided to jump way ahead. We ended up spending three hours sitting around the airport, which at least had restaurants and gift shops on the other side of security (and I didn't get a pat-down this time). Sketched some Kokopellis at one of the gift kiosks for an idea I had (http://www.dvandom.com/drawings/kpnightbeat.JPG - Nightbeat as a Kokopelli, for an art contest at the AllSpark board), read, had a big and naturally overpriced muffin, etc.
Got back into KCI at 10:10, but didn't get out of the airport for nearly another hour. I managed to nap fitfully for maybe 45 minutes (I wasn't driving), and got home at about 1:10 AM. After minimal required unpacking of stuff I needed to use in the morning and eating enough to not be ravenous, I got to bed about 1:30, with sleep following maybe half an hour later.
THURSDAY
Not part of the conference, but bears some mention.
Got up at 5:15. Toilet overflowed, as mentioned in an earlier post. Had to be at work at 7:00. Was not really at the top of my game for the rest of the day, but I survived.
I am SO making sure I get a substitute to cover for me the day after I get back from Anchorage, if the semester starts unreasonably early like this year did.
Some time this week I'll probably start typing up my 31 pages of notes from the talks. And start thinking about how to incorporate some of the nifty things I picked up in the Practical Pedagogy session.
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I have that problem too. It's probably healthier than gorging three times, so I wish more places were accomodating!
Also, I had spent the day before Stan's graduation making the house all nice and pretty for his relatives (including his dad, who I'd never met). Then I got all dressed up. 45 minutes before they were supposed to arrive -- and Stan was out of the house -- the toilet overflowed all over the bathroom and living room. Argh!
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SNORK.
I have a Kokopelli keychain my mother brought back from Phoenix last year. As such, I have the background information necessary to award you 40 bonus points for this drawing, regardless of how well it does over at AllSpark. :)