2005-06-25 - 11:06 p.m.
With my usual impeccable timing, I managed to develop a disfiguring pimple right on the very tip of my nose just in time for Pride Day. I didn't think I'd still be struggling with pimples in my thirties. Just another example of how adulthood is over-rated.
Pride Day was hot and humid and crowded, but I got to reconnect with some people I hadn't seen in a while, so that was nice. It seems to me that Pride gets more like the Ex every year - hot, shadeless, crowded, brimming with merchandise, and with line-ups for all the food stalls and the bathrooms. I'm not sure what you're supposed to do for Pride if you're essentially an introvert and don't like crowds. Plus no one ever even hits on me at Pride, which I have to admit is disappointing. Even if my reaction to being hit on is usually to run like the wind or have a minor nervous breakdown in front of them.
I've been to two conferences in the last couple of weeks which were heavily populated by policing, fire services/bombsquad guys, and the military. I think I'm going to have to get a more grown-up and intimidating wardrobe if this continues. And get used to being called "Ma'am" or, if in the presence of other women, "ladies". That is, if I'm acknowledged at all... Gah. I sometimes forget in the health sector, which is full of high-powered women, that the world is still full of dinosaurs.
On teh bright side, I did get to see a cool helicopter demo - they've got equipment that started life as a geophysical survey tool, and can be calibrated for other purposes, like detecting the limits of a plume in the case of a nuclear accident. So they put out a couple of check-sources in a field near the hotel, and then we got to see a real-time display as the helicopter flew a pattern over the field and the computer screen on the ground registered a satellite picture that signalled where the sources were. And then there was a demo of a bomb-disposal suit that came complete with an entertaining promo video set to bad techno music. It was all *extremely* butch.
