San Antonio

Some things I took away from my week in San Antonio for the 87th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society:

1. Flying is boring and tedious. I would have much rather been in the car with my friends for 23 hours than in shuttles, airports, and planes for 8.
2. I almost came to despise catered food as much as dining hall food. Just give me something to eat and quit trying to make it look fancy.
3. Networking and being multi-skilled are the apparent keys to success.
4. The "professionals" are really nice to us kids.
5. The people from the University of Utah did a good job of selling me on their school.
6. The Alamo can be toured in 10-15 minutes. Good thing it's free. Just as long as you remember...
7. Restaurants on the Riverwalk really are expensive.
7b. Just because a Mexican restaurant is in Texas doesn't mean it has good Mexican food.
8. 2500 meteorologists have the power to fight climatology (see 30 degrees below average with ice).
9. If I'm going to work at the NWS, the focus will be on high impact weather. Also, it's a great job, but the shiftwork sucks and seriously eats into you family time (according to at least two separate non-NWS employees).
10. No one will care about your research if you put them to sleep during your presentation (see land/sea breeze guy).
11. At least one person from the NWA thinks their broadcast seal is far superior and more rigorous than the AMS seal.
12. The Tower of the Americas provides an obviously great view of the city.
13. Bill Miller must make great BBQ since he has more restaurants in S.A. than Starbucks does in Seattle.
14. Apparently there are places you can get two tacos for $0.99.
15. Why do Texans go against the national standard and call their interstates IH-10 (for example)?
16. Cell phone chargers are really expensive, so don't forget to pack them.
17. If you've never seen a broadcast meteorologist on TV, they look like every other person... until you see their station jacket.
18. It really can be a small world, such as running into Greg Fishel at a restaurant or having a former NCSU grad (Mike Brennan) sit down beside you in the airport.
19. And finally, big corporations know how to throw a party!

Conference kids: if you have any additional good/funny ones, send them over and I'll post them.

Pictures are posted!

Last Semester as an Undergrad!

Hard to believe I'm starting my last semester. I have three classes (Forecasting II, Remote Sensing, SAS) and three jobs (Sankar, NWS Internship, MEA 135 TA--this is new). Hopefully it will be less stressful than last semester, but I never know what to expect these days. Grad school applications are off, so it's time to play wait and see.

I had a good Christmas, although it seemed too short. I saw some flakes in PA, a dusting here and there, and some leftover snow in WV... hopefully that won't be all I see this winter. South Boston experienced some "moderate" flooding that closed US 501 for the first time in what seems like forever... I bet it's been 3 or 4 years but I could be wrong. For pics, head to my Webshots page.

I'm off to San Antonio this Friday for the AMS Conference! Of course, I'm a little nervous since I'm flying for the first time, and I'll be by myself at that. Also, the convention center is freakin huge. Can this semi-country boy find his way around? Of course. I'm more worried that I won't know what the heck I'm doing... haha. But I'm sure it's going to be a great time and I will learn a lot of stuff and maybe make a few connections.

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SESAC Attack
The biggest happening in the news geek world recently is Stephen Arnold Music's licensor (don't know the correct term?) SESAC dramatically raising rates and charging TV stations back royalties. Therefore, stations have been dropping his packages like flies. Even if you know nothing about TV news or care about what music they use, this list is still pretty astonishing.