New Frontiers Symposium Diary - The Day After
Allowed to sleep until after noon, I did. When I rolled over and looked at the clock, it was 1:15PM. Still on west coast time, I guess. Lobby assembly time was 1:30. Will and Lisa Wise and Nick were already lounging about when I arrived. We had to call Mac's room to get him out the door.
Off to "The Triangle" for breakfast with the entire crew (except Stan and Rob Z. who were leaving or occupied or something.) Breakfast was at about 2:00PM, which is of course when all civilized people should be having their first meal of the day. The only request I had from home for a Canadian souvenir was a package of maple fudge. This would prove to be a quest of sorts. You would think that this would be easy in the fall in Canada, but not so. They have it for sale in the airport, but that's just too easy.
Mac ordered steamed mussels and the bowl was brought to the table with another bowl turned upside down on top. Perfect UFO! I took a picture which can be seen on my flickr page . Brunch took about two hours, what with all the hijinks and conversation. Paul had to go do some work, so Will and his wife, Nick, Mac and I took a stroll to the Citadel, an old British fort that dominates the skyline of Halifax. See pics of this adventure as well on the Flickr page.
We stopped in a friendly coffee shop for more talk before meeting up with Paul. There was a creative graffiti scrawled on the wall outside the door. I had no idea what it meant, but Nick made a face and I snapped his pic at just the right time. It looked like he was doing his level best to manifest a thoughtform, and came up with the image over his head.
Reunited with our host, we tramped upstairs to the inner sanctum of Paul's film company, Redstar Films. A few minutes of show and tell, and the group retired to a watering hole around the block known as "Maxwell's Plum." Paul ran upstairs to the men's room and snapped a picture of Mac in the urinal (when is he going to post that one?) Later, I tired to get him to take one of Nick washing his head in the sink, but he chickened. Again, everyone who was anyone was there, which meant Stan and Rob Z. were not. :) We were joined by Katie Martin, our new friend and big supporter of the cause. Veronica Reynolds showed up and just had to get pictures with all the speakers. See Paul's blog for photos.
Game #4 of the NLCS was on, and I stole glances at the bar TV once in awhile to see if we could possibly keep another New York team from making it to the World Series. The Cards lost that night, but went on to win the whole thing. Katie was the only one besides me who seemed to care. Props (what the hell are "props"?) to her!
Soon, it was 1AM (early still!) and we all went outside for the obligatory group shots. I spied a likely place for breakfast on the walk back to the hotel. When I went in in the morning, they had some good stuff, but no Canadian bacon! What's up with that? Maple fudge mission was accomplished before Paul arrived to take the Wises and myself to the airport.
If there is even half the fun to be had at next year's symposium, I'll gladly ride in the wheel-well of the plane on the way over. The people who attended this first New Frontiers Symposium probably don't know how lucky they were to see what a "UFO conference" can be. The speakers may have disagreed on some points, but they were all smart enough to realize that being "right" does not mean much in the UFO arena. Agreeing to disagree is in my opinion one of the hallmarks of an intelligent and civilized person, and we have far too few of them nowadays. Not once did I hear a poisoned aside or whispered note of avarice, which seems to be the norm at other conferences. Smackdowns can be fun, but we're trying to solve a mystery, not find out who has the biggest balls. Big egos encase small minds in a sub-zero state of suspended animation.
Big thanks are due to Paul Kimball, the speakers, and everyone who attended. Hope to see you all next year!
Off to "The Triangle" for breakfast with the entire crew (except Stan and Rob Z. who were leaving or occupied or something.) Breakfast was at about 2:00PM, which is of course when all civilized people should be having their first meal of the day. The only request I had from home for a Canadian souvenir was a package of maple fudge. This would prove to be a quest of sorts. You would think that this would be easy in the fall in Canada, but not so. They have it for sale in the airport, but that's just too easy.
Mac ordered steamed mussels and the bowl was brought to the table with another bowl turned upside down on top. Perfect UFO! I took a picture which can be seen on my flickr page . Brunch took about two hours, what with all the hijinks and conversation. Paul had to go do some work, so Will and his wife, Nick, Mac and I took a stroll to the Citadel, an old British fort that dominates the skyline of Halifax. See pics of this adventure as well on the Flickr page.
We stopped in a friendly coffee shop for more talk before meeting up with Paul. There was a creative graffiti scrawled on the wall outside the door. I had no idea what it meant, but Nick made a face and I snapped his pic at just the right time. It looked like he was doing his level best to manifest a thoughtform, and came up with the image over his head.
Reunited with our host, we tramped upstairs to the inner sanctum of Paul's film company, Redstar Films. A few minutes of show and tell, and the group retired to a watering hole around the block known as "Maxwell's Plum." Paul ran upstairs to the men's room and snapped a picture of Mac in the urinal (when is he going to post that one?) Later, I tired to get him to take one of Nick washing his head in the sink, but he chickened. Again, everyone who was anyone was there, which meant Stan and Rob Z. were not. :) We were joined by Katie Martin, our new friend and big supporter of the cause. Veronica Reynolds showed up and just had to get pictures with all the speakers. See Paul's blog for photos.
Game #4 of the NLCS was on, and I stole glances at the bar TV once in awhile to see if we could possibly keep another New York team from making it to the World Series. The Cards lost that night, but went on to win the whole thing. Katie was the only one besides me who seemed to care. Props (what the hell are "props"?) to her!
Soon, it was 1AM (early still!) and we all went outside for the obligatory group shots. I spied a likely place for breakfast on the walk back to the hotel. When I went in in the morning, they had some good stuff, but no Canadian bacon! What's up with that? Maple fudge mission was accomplished before Paul arrived to take the Wises and myself to the airport.
If there is even half the fun to be had at next year's symposium, I'll gladly ride in the wheel-well of the plane on the way over. The people who attended this first New Frontiers Symposium probably don't know how lucky they were to see what a "UFO conference" can be. The speakers may have disagreed on some points, but they were all smart enough to realize that being "right" does not mean much in the UFO arena. Agreeing to disagree is in my opinion one of the hallmarks of an intelligent and civilized person, and we have far too few of them nowadays. Not once did I hear a poisoned aside or whispered note of avarice, which seems to be the norm at other conferences. Smackdowns can be fun, but we're trying to solve a mystery, not find out who has the biggest balls. Big egos encase small minds in a sub-zero state of suspended animation.
Big thanks are due to Paul Kimball, the speakers, and everyone who attended. Hope to see you all next year!
posted by Greg Bishop @ 5:20 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home