Strange Aeons
sesquipedalia verba
Simon Wells is an academic researching Argumentation Theory, Automated Reasoning, Intelligent Agents (IA) and MultiAgent Systems (MAS) all approached through a ludic lens.
He is particularly interested in how these tools can be usefully applied to critical literacy, security, gamification, and complex systems.
TwitterNYC Odyssey Day 5
My last morning in NYC. Feeling a little tired after my night out in Manhattan I threw all my gear into my bag and headed back to Manhattan for breakfast. My travel plan was to take the subway into Manhattan, eat breakfast then a train from Penn Station to Jamaica Center, followed by the Air Train to my terminal at JFK. This was suggested by Simon last night as the best trade off between time and expense and was a plan made when we were originally meeting on saturday morning before I headed to the airport. With Betsy still sick we abandoned the work plans but I still followed the basic travel plan. So I hopped onto the Q line to canal street. I then found a nice french bistro with a terrace where I had some Eggs Benedict, coffee and juice, before taking the subway up to Penn Station. The journey to JFK was uneventful. It was after my arrival at JFK terminal seven that things started to get interesting.
My itinery from BAA sent me to terminal seven to catch an Air China flight to LAX on what appeared to be a code share flight with Continental. My first inkling of something not quite right was the Air Chine flys out of a different terminal than seven. Anyhow, after failing to find my flight code on any monitor, and their being no Air China in this terming, I then tried the Continental, because it was a CA code, and United, just for luck, desks to see if they could indicate where I was supposed to be checking in. I was basically sent to another terminal, that Air China operates out of where I was subsequently informed that Air China had no idea what flight I was on, or who with, because they don't fly to LAX. Eventually I gave up with Air China and went to the Air France desk and explained that all of my other flights were with them and that there was some sort of mix up with my connection to LAX. The Air France people were really helpful, they searched in the system, found my flight, informed me that the flight didn't actually accept passengers and that it was basically a cargo flight. They then booked me onto an American Airlines flight leaving an hour later as my scheduled cargo flight had been missed at this point with all of the travel between JFK terminals and check-in desks.
So I eventually arrived at LAX after a long cattle class flight on American Airlines stuck in the center seat of the middle row which has made me realise that I don't ever really want to fly long haul again in economy class. I think that in future I would much rather pay personally for the upgrade to business or first class where it actually makes a difference. Anyhow, arriving in California, first impressions were that it is very different on the west coast to the east coast. Where in NYC nobody has the time to talk and the overall impression is quite aggressive and self-interested, the west coast seemed quite laid back, peole seemed to have the time to talk to complete strangers. Within minutes of landing I had talked to a guy at the taxi rank who was collecting donations for a homeless shelter, seeing as he helped me find the supershuttle stop and explained that I didn't need to phone them to get on the shuttle I gave him a small donation. After that I got on the next shuttle heading for Pasadena and arrived at my hotel around 11PM. My first few hours were spent at LAX and on various California highways, whilst my shuttle driver first tracked down his phone which he had lost meaning that he couldn't coordinate with his despatcher.
My hotel is a step up from the Best Western, I am in the Pasadena Hilton -- because it is the main IJCAI conference hotel, honest. I have never felt bed sheets of such high quality, whilst the building itself seems a little tired, it is clean and the beds are great. I even got a room with a balcony which was nice. I took a couple of pictures from my balcony in the warm night air then retired quickly to my bed.
