Vancouver

I've been in Vancouver since Tuesday night at the SigMOD Conference on databases. When I told friends that, they said "wow, database conference, that sounds like fun" (that needs some heavy sarcasm punctuation of some sort). Actually, it wasn't half bad - stimulating and perplexing for me at the same time, some of the presentations I only half understood. But there was some good stuff. It was my first academic conference.
















The city is beautiful - verdant green, with snow-capped mountains off on the horizon over the water. At the same time, its eerily quiet, to the point that I find it disturbing. Its not a small city but it sounds like a quiet village. About the only sound is the buzz of the seaplanes taking off constantly. Large parts of the city are encrusted with tall condos of green glass which adds to the feeling both of its greeness and its sterility. I guess after New York, any city is going to seem sterile. You can't get less sterile than New York.