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dec 3

it was a day in transit
I woke early early
only twothree hours after I coaxed numb brain silence

mom and I sat in transit, I said, why you wanna drive me ma? I already said I would go back to college.
we car phoned colin, we talked about life. I love my mother more as I grow older. she is a wise woman.

I was reading snow crash
and then I got off the plane in reno
reading snow crash was a far better idea
glossy sickened mega bucks terminals festooned with aged and decrepid gamblers line the airhalls
I stride with a red duffel on my shoulders, I hate this state.
my bus pulls up like a mighty mythological messenger from mammon - el dorado.

all around the dizzying disorienting swirl of neons and lights and jangle and slock slock slock of coins hitting bin bottoms
people smoke cigarettes in this state, they smoke cigarettes indoors.

I was at once madly drawn to photo the aged cripples flinging coins
while I wanted to remain as far from that dirt and depression
this place is already a photograph.
wanting too bad to be taken
can't turn anywhere and not click a shutter on senseless spectacle

I stand with jean gaddy later, we observe the people
how glamorous, she notes,
yeah, like james bond
with his boxers showing

slotted look all these people gamble, they plug their money in for small victories
we ego revelled for a moment that our gambling takes place in relationships and jobs and higher stakes and character-critical risks and opportunity
thinking that way, dollar slots seems like piddle shit.

almighty dollah

this would be the worst place to do mushrooms - I can't imagine feeling so much empathy for what's going on here. maybe I should challenge myself.

this conference had better be good
and today, it was

(I'm in reno for a new directions for news conference
"competition: a universe of publishers")

I left my room after some e-mail check
met a grey haired youngish man in the elevator hugging a plastic portable computer "lap top"
you're with ndn
and so he was
greg riker with microsoft
wearable technologies division

he'd been with atari same time as brenda laurel, jaron lanier, alan kay
early buttkickers.
I know enough, thanks to howard,
to keep him rolling and give him a sense that I knew my stuff

then a early partner in electronic arts
and my software etc relentless game playing handy
I knew those early titles, sighted favourites: starflight, wasteland

now, microsoft, last year smart cars
this year wearable tech
(the guy had a laptop, two way pager, psion pda)

when's your birthday?

why? he's suspicious

cuz you seem like quite an initiator, I was thinking you're a fire sign, or maybe cardinal

hah. his birthday is tomorrow.

sagittarius. fire. natch. me too.

so we got along, and that was good,
he told me a prank idea for loading a squirt gun up with lighter fluid to spray at people lighting/smoking cigarettes
(later found out he spent last year travelling the country by mobil home with his wife "developing moving-map technology for automotive computing and exploring wireless connectivity solutions for virtual office technology." (ndn bio)

standing around in unfamiliar groups beginning to drink to begin the conference
I choose soda water
I notice I'm often the center of attention
I speak authoritatively on the net
I have a strange life
smiling men in dark clothes who work for newspaper companies keep the questions coming

dinner seating jean launches in
as usual, stand up, give us your name, your job title, and what will change in the next 14 years.
besides their jobs, not one of these mofos mentions newspapers.
(that's a good thing)
some are idealists - technology leaves us to a creative society
some think a revolution
some mentioned a new mission for medicine, and genetic engineering
stanford guy sez that the have and have nots will be levelled, but disparity will exist between the can and can nots.
george hearst at my table sez that profit margins will shrink for media makers.
I agree. it's already true. no one makes much money off this media stuff.
a futurist speaks, he announces himself as "a futurist" and he sez big things that are non-specific.

I thot the rate of flow will increase
I talked very fast to give folks a sense of those modern rates
the rate at which things happen is going to speed up
such that money and information is transacted so readily and speedily that they will become largely irrelevant
in favour of what? maybe creativity maybe revolution.
two folks after me mention my intro as a sign of a generation gap.

we white men sit around a table, eat steak, drink wine and talk about the future
I like to say, grab a distopia and a utopia and it will end up in the middle
always good and evil and people talking shit
media and companies don't change that - people always talking shit.
online, offline, alone, together, always their lives.

I like to say a lot of other things
I end up interjecting a lot, poking at their points and citing myself as an example of the future

it's fun
I make an effort to query other folks, and listen
george hearst, on my left, sez that an equalized knowledge pool emphasizes creative applications. I like the sound of that.
let's equalize the knowledge pool.

typical jean, brings together a group of newspaper dudes for a conference
and opens it with a speech from a young president of a video game company
jack president of lucasarts
shows videos of current and future wonders and screen spectacle
critical issue for them is network play - bringing people together in their worlds
I wanna know, since e-mail is the most popular application of the internet, more than this web one to many stuff, people want to talk to each other
have you thot of building the tools so that people can build worlds and characters to communicate with each other on a more casual, less violent, basis?
he's more oriented towards opening his movies and having customer casting calls.
rather be a storyteller than a tool builder.
well, I'm not mister many to many either.

someone asked him about muds, he glossed over it.
I later mentioned the habitat to him, made by his company
he was impressed, thanks to howard.

I don't gamble, I walk around with my laptop open and record the sounds of reno.

hear the fabulous sounds of reno:

150k .aiff coins and bells
21k .aiff casino bells

sounds like gamelan!

I go to the arcade and cash a five dollar bill and buy roger waist high hispanic kid waiting for his parents
I buy him in on some two player fighting games, he kicks my butt and teaches me moves.

jean I come back to my stuffy hotel room and write this stuff and realize I have homework from jean that I have to have done by 7.40 in the morning.

this ain't no vacation.

wanna say thanks to ellen steuer, who just went to vegas yesterday with her bro and margie and in conversation about drugz and nevada helped me iron out some of my dialect

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