Sunday, October 12, 2008

HighEdWeb 2008

October 5-8

Every year there is a conference of higher education web professionals (nerds). Since I am now in that category, I went to the conference with my coworker Laird. We got to travel to famous Springfield, Missouri. Alright, it's not famous. I had never heard of Springfield Missouri until I found out I was going to a conference there.

About Missouri

I have only briefly been to Missouri in the past, but it seems to be a pretty nice state. I hear that it is one of the Midwestern states, but I saw a Waffle House while there. I maintain that Waffle House is Southern, and that it's waitresses don't have all their teeth. Even though maps and the majority of Americans think Missouri is midwestern, they are wrong. Missouri should have thought before allowing Waffle House Franchises to turn their state southern.


Missouri State University
The conference was hosted at Missouri State University. The campus is really quite nice. The buildings are a mix of old and modern. Quite different from the 1960's square brick building thing that ISU has going on.














This is the Library. The tower is a carillon.


The Conference
It consisted of presentations and speeches about what's going on in the world of higher ed. websites. Pretty dull if you're not involved in that sort of thing. Occasionally dull if you are.
I learned a number of fancy things that I can use here. There are number of social outings associated with the conference. Most of them involved everyone getting drunk. They had a Guitar Hero contest and an outing to a Discovery Center that were pretty enjoyable.








Here I am at the Discovery Center playing with a freaky gyroscope chair.










I Eat Fancy Japanese Food

One of the highlights of the trip was a dinner I ate at a fancy pants Japanese Restaurant. It was very modern in it's decoration and food. It was also one of the more expensive meals I've eaten.
These pictures aren't the best. The restaurant was a little dark and I didn't want to use the flash and stand out like a tourist.

1. Gyoza















2. Lobster Sushi















3. Black Cod with shitaake mushrooms and a mild wasabi risotto.















4. Tiramisu