Last weekend Mroth and I attended Toorcon, my first hacker convention, at the San Diego Convention Center. I'd never been to the CC, having only heard legendary stories about its size from Eric, who is forced to attend Comic Con there every year.
It's a boring place (like most of San Diego, though we had a fun time strolling around the Gaslamp District and dining at my sister and brother-in-law's delicious restaurant). But what I particularly enjoyed was the mostly male hacker audience (think programmer geek meets Marilyn Manson - lots of black t-shirts with slogans like "No root, no peace. Know root, know peace.") sharing the center with a Mormon women's group (complete with a Tabernacle Choir soundtrack), a women's "conference" that appeared to be jam-packed with marketing crap, a golf products convention, and a workshop for Landmark Education brainwashees. Wow. Hell of a mash-up.
My neighbors are blasting Carly Simon so loud it's seeping up through the floorboards. I want to barf. What is it about maintaining the same musical tastes you had as a teenager when you're over 40? Or even over thirty? I hear so much bad 80s music now in nearly every store I enter it makes me batty. I hated "Carribean Queen" in the 80s and I despise it even more now. And now they are playing "Nobody Does It Better" FOR THE SECOND GODDAMN TIME IN A ROW. It's time to blast some punk in return.