What I Learned at Tech Camp

Those of you who know me, know I carry around a little brown notebook that contains just about every thought and scribble I have ever had.

This week, I filled up the section called "To Blog" with all kinds of great Civil 3D and AutoCAD ideas. Those ideas will be written about on www.civil3d.com later next week once I get caught up on some work here in my home office.

So here I will recap what I learned after I closed that little notebook and FOR ONCE I did not take it along with me to dinner and beyond. I find it hard to believe myself.

1. ADDENDA TO TECH CAMP SURVIVAL GUIDE
I apparently forgotten a few things in my guide. First of all, the snacks out on the afternoon break of the first day are always the best- full sized candy bars, fruit, and other stashables. The TechCamp souvenir bag that you received when you checked in was actually given to you so that you could fill it up with snacks for the week. Don't forget the pony bottles of Perrier and Coke for filling the hotel room fridge.

2. YOU KNOW YOU ARE A NERD WHEN...
You pack a 19" LCD for a trip to Disney World. I could have SWORN it was on the required list right after "Have 337 installed" and "Do your Prework".

3. TECH CAMP VS. THE PEACE CORPS
I finally had a chance to meet some of the newer bloggers, and I especially enjoyed my poolside chat with Louisa from "Civil 3D for Beginners". If you ever considered leaving your career in CAD for a stint with the Peace Corps, make sure you check out Lou's Comparison before trading in your Red or Blue Army polo shirt for a pair of birks.

4. AUTODESK SUPPORT ROCKS
I haven't called or submitted a support request since last year when my login somehow got yanked during a database migration, so I hadn't had a chance to talk to the great new people in Civil Software Support in Manchester. Luckily, Autodesk had the good sense to bring a bunch of them along. They are happy, concerned, super smart and forgiving people who can shake a tail feather to any 80's song you throw their way. Did you know their manager was the 1987 regional breakdance champion?

5. GNOMES
If you leave your laptop unattended, little Canadian Corridor Gnomes will come along and write a special message on your desktop wallpaper. Occasionally, you will also find that your mouse is now controlling your neighbor's cursor. Those silly little elves.

6. LESSONS IN ELECTRONIC AQUATICS
A Pocket PC dropped in the Hot Tub will come back to life after 36 hours of drip dry, however a Palm Treo requires a blessing from Jeebus himself, or at least a call to the insurance company.

7. SONGS WITH FUNK
There are at least forty 70's and 80's hit tunes with the word "Funk" or "Funky" in them, and no shortage of wordplay that can be done with the word "Funk". If your last name was Funk, you might think that was cool.

8. FUN CAN STILL BE HAD...
Apparently being a pregnant workaholic doesn't mean that a gal can't have some small amount of fun. I mean, there is NOTHING more fun that Civil 3D, but when your eyes go blurry and there is not another Harry Potter to read until July, sometimes a few hours pretending desani is a a corona and pretending you have some rhythm isn't such a bad thing.

9. IS THERE LIFE AFTER AG?
The knowledge base doesn't have a workaround for a missing AG, but the general concensus was that though we were desperately short of tall italian guys, that yes, it is possible to smile again. We always poured an extra drink for him just in case, but alas, it appears he was really not going to show up.

I am looking forward to seeing you all again at Autodesk University, because as we all found out....there is still so much dancing to be done.

And with that- back to the Salt Mines!