[ return : true ]

float upstream.

all we can say is that we were short-handed at the time. our designer will never forgive us, either.

good thing we already have templates for most of the site. ^_^

i'm sorry. this is what happens when you send the designer out to cover something of this magnitude.

i was unprepared, probably still am, always will be.

it was too much an assault.

my god.

you can't understand with solid ground under your feet. this is something bigger than that.

it starts when you walk in. on the south side there's a huge staircase, maybe not so tall, maybe not so wide, but still, it looks huge. there are stickers on the steps, so that when you first see them they appear to be a huge, seamless, minutely detailed and repetitive advertisement. something almost fractal about it. i don't know what it means that i can't remember what they were advertising.

and at the top there's a horrid cacophony, a din of sirens and yelling and exhibitors who designed their booths to stand out, and so all the booths do stand out, together. it fairly bursts off the floor, out of the hall and cascades down the stairs, but when you turn to escape it there are only the walls of the convention center after all.

never, never, never send out the designer to deal with an electronics expo.

when i looked at the people, this was where they belonged. where you, gentle reader, would have belonged too i expect. i didn't. i wanted to run, to sit and watch lain again and wonder what she would do in a situation like that.

but wonder what lain would do and suddenly it's obvious: she would understand. the show would move to her will, and it would be whatever she liked. so i go in and look regardless.

go in and look. . .

lain

there's a bit more information here. the ed. staff has nothing to say about our brave correspondent's resorting to religion to deal with this.

and it's all so new to me. i talk to one guy who helps me play a game. he speaks japanese, so it's something nice, something familiar. he interprets for me as i move a farmer around. . .

so i should report something? there are impressions i should have, things i should have found but that now have been forced from my mind, blasted by the sensory assault that greeted me when first i mounted those steps.

i don't know; i don't remember. leave me alone.

yes, you should report something!!

(ed. note : we lose more good designers that way. . . )

the badge printers were fast and efficient. crowd control was horrible. security was for the most part unobtrusive. the exhibitors were nice —that's part of being press. even when i wasn't press, they were nice.

i had fun, once i got used to it.

well, i suppose that's good. never mind that you can't produce a coherent report to save your life. you had fun.

—e3 non-report by chris