complaints about TAM6

I would have to agree with Mr. Lancaster that I was a little disappointed in the food, and the distance in which to get it from the conference center. That said I loved every minute of it, and my biggest complaint is that it is over.....
 
I didn't get to drive the ambulance! REALLY!

I mean the ambulance ride was a lot of fun (Hutch must have planned that for me as I didn't get to go on a roller coaster ride), but it would have been really b!tch!n to have driven it and made it go WOOWOOOWOOOWOOOWOOOO!!! (cause that's the kind of woo I like).

Next year I get to drive the ambulance or JREF is really going to hear about it.

oh, but the convertable Mustang ride back to the Flamingo almost made up for it!
 
Michelle Lyon said:
Did anyone else get to sit in traffic on I15 South yesterday?
Click to expand...

I left Vegas around 1 pm, and it took me 60-90 minutes to get through the 10 miles or so past the Nevada border. Some kind of accident that resulted in a transport on its side in the ditch. The rest of the way was fine, though.
 
Dunstan said:
I left Vegas around 1 pm, and it took me 60-90 minutes to get through the 10 miles or so past the Nevada border. Some kind of accident that resulted in a transport on its side in the ditch. The rest of the way was fine, though.
Click to expand...

That was much less than pleasant. We also left at around 1PM and were stuck in the same mess.

I don't think we have ever driven home from Lost Wages without hitting a big traffic jam on I-15, but this was far and away the worst.

TAM was wonderful though, and such nice people go there!
 
MY TAM complaint is that I spent my first TAM wallowing in freakish abdominal misery with nary of drop of liquor in sight!! We left Quark's early Friday night, and I then missed everything Saturday except Phil and Adam.

My second TAM will be misery-free, unless it is purely of the self-inflicted kind. :(
 
My complaint is that I'm still here until Wednesday, but all my friends have left me. Nothing to do but work and gamble, I guess.
 
My only complaint is that it's over. :(

Oh and I guess my only other complaint would be that the conference room was chilling to the bone. How am I supposed to properly show off my nerdy t-shirts if I'm all bundled up in fleece?
 
Last edited:
The Flamingo's food is yucky. Our room keys mysteriously "demagnetized" themselves twice. The drive there and the drive home were no fun - except that I was with "Mr. Celebrity" himself. My "trick knee" gave out the first night, walking back to the hotel from Batista's Hole In The Wall Italian Restaurant (exceptional food and dinner conversation) and I went down! Was in excrutiating pain for several minutes, and minor pain the rest of the weekend. I wasn't at the convention-proper :(. But Sunday was fantastic! So were all the social functions where I got to see some way-cool people!

No real complaints, though.
 
Dunstan said:
I left Vegas around 1 pm, and it took me 60-90 minutes to get through the 10 miles or so past the Nevada border. Some kind of accident that resulted in a transport on its side in the ditch. The rest of the way was fine, though.
Click to expand...

We got mired in two separate jams--this first one, and then one in Hesperia that set us back another hour and 15 minutes. When we finally got to the accident, it was really gnarly and awful. A state trooper was holding a plastic tarp over what I can only assume was a dead body, so that people wouldn't stop and rubberneck. A really sobering experience that only made me feel a little more anxious that everyone has returned, or will return, home safely.
 
Tamazon said:
My only complaint is that it's over. :(

Oh and I guess my only other complaint would be that the conference room was chilling to the bone. How am I supposed to properly show off my nerdy t-shirts if I'm all bundled up in fleece?
Click to expand...

How about some photographic evidence? There's a great shot of you and me with our twin nerdy tees. I'll post it on the photo thread.
 
The only complaint that I have, and admittedly, it's a small one. Every TAM I have been to, there are technical problems getting people's laptops hooked up to the video screen, causing delays, and/or problems with resolution.

Is it possible to standardize this a bit better or maybe do more testing for compatibility? Could just be the geek in me that wants this.

Oh, I was not a big fan of the Hrab performances during the show, but I didn't see his night show, so maybe that was better.
 
vissud said:
The only complaint that I have, and admittedly, it's a small one. Every TAM I have been to, there are technical problems getting people's laptops hooked up to the video screen, causing delays, and/or problems with resolution.

Is it possible to standardize this a bit better or maybe do more testing for compatibility? Could just be the geek in me that wants this.
Click to expand...

No, I agree with you and mentioned this issue on my evaluation form. I think it's more than nitpicking. There was a lot of wasted time on Friday with A/V snafus, and one paper presentation on Sunday got completely screwed up because the wrong version was on the stage laptop.

This is not my area of competence, but shouldn't these problems be mostly preventable? Can't someone do a dry run of each slideshow, video clip, etc. to make sure they're all properly installed, in the right format, etc.?
 
Dunstan said:
No, I agree with you and mentioned this issue on my evaluation form. I think it's more than nitpicking. There was a lot of wasted time on Friday with A/V snafus, and one paper presentation on Sunday got completely screwed up because the wrong version was on the stage laptop.

This is not my area of competence, but shouldn't these problems be mostly preventable? Can't someone do a dry run of each slideshow, video clip, etc. to make sure they're all properly installed, in the right format, etc.?
Click to expand...

I talked to someone about this last year. Several of the speakers made changes to their presentations 10-30 minutes before they went on. It's easy to tell a paper presenter to have their slideshow ready and sent in days before presenting, but I doubt you'd want to tell that to any of the main speakers.

And I wish more people would take some time and review some of the presentation tip sites. Just because you can make your words bounce all over the screen doesn't mean you have to.
 
mr. ottle said:
My complaint is that I'm still here until Wednesday, but all my friends have left me. Nothing to do but work and gamble, I guess.
Click to expand...

If I had known you and Frau Ottle would be there that long I would have stayed another day or so... or did she leave and you're by yourself? :p
------------------------------

Sincere complaints:

I have either a bladder or prostate problem since when I need to tinkle, I need to tinkle and the bathrooms at the Flamingo are just too far away from many of the areas we congregated.

During one of the panel sessions I was going to voice my concerns about the emphasis on atheism at a skeptics conference, but, because I am an atheist, was wearing my Christ crucified with "Getting tough on crime c. 33 A.D." t-shirt at the time and would have stuttered since I'm so shy I did not. I did discuss it with others at the Garden bar though and some of them felt the same way.

PLEASE DO NOT SCHEDULE THE LESS DYNAMIC BUT STILL INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE SPEAKERS AFTER THE MORE DYNAMIC SPEAKERS BUT BEFORE LUNCH OR BREAKS. As much as I loved Dr. Tyson's presentation, I felt bad that Alec Jason's presentation had to be truncated to much. I would much rather push breaks/lunch back to let Dr. Tyson go on than have Mr. Jason have to fast forward through the vast majority of his presentation.

Unfortunately this complaint goes back to TAM 2 when Julia Sweeney went long and Dan Garvin had to cut his "how I escaped from Scientology's Sea Org" presentation had to but cut short. Everyone knows certain speakers will be more dynamic than others, even if those others aren't any less fascinating and informative than the more dynamic ones.
-----------------------
Less sincere and totally ego driven complaint:

Why wasn't Wiseman on TAA2? I was partially inspired by the fact that I was too lazy to hit the barber shop for 10 months and partially inspired by his TAM 3, etc. examples of how we can be blind to change and cut 4 inches off my hair in Juneau (and was planning the same at TAM 6 but $30 is twice what I'd pay at Supercuts) in the midst of the cruise. I would have loved to have seen if he noticed. Hell, even Phil Plait did and he barely even recognizes me after 5 Amaz!ng functions together. :D
 
deBergerac said:
I have one major complaint regarding TAM6. I am not there.

I am really jealous at all of you who managed to get there this year. So I thought it would be a good idea to start this thread with complaints about TAM6 because not everything can be as amazing as it seams, right!?!

You are not all having the time of your life while I am stuck here in Sweden? There must be things that are boring, people that are unfriendly, and I bet that you have already read all the books for sale, right?

So feel free to complain about TAM6 so that we that are left behind can feel a little better.
Click to expand...
Hey, I was wondering if you had attended or not. Maybe you can go to TAM7. You were missed!
 
Unk said:
I talked to someone about this last year. Several of the speakers made changes to their presentations 10-30 minutes before they went on. It's easy to tell a paper presenter to have their slideshow ready and sent in days before presenting, but I doubt you'd want to tell that to any of the main speakers.

And I wish more people would take some time and review some of the presentation tip sites. Just because you can make your words bounce all over the screen doesn't mean you have to.
Click to expand...
Well, as I said, perhaps they can make the equipment more universal. Resolution is a big deal though. A lot of presentations were cut off, and just some better preparation is in order. Again, I only bring it up, because it's been an issue almost every TAM.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom