My First AMEBC Round-Up: Running Blog, Part 2

Round-Up 2007 got into full swing today. Booths and posters are up, people are schmoozing full throttle, and people are drinking the free draft like it was the greatest thing ever.

A quick aside, Bill Simmons, mentioned in my last post as the inspiration behind this series, decided to horn in on my racket, stealing my fans, and start his daily Super Bowl week blog (you can read it here). I doubt he's having as much fun in Miami as I am here.

Here are the recent highlights:

• This will probably rank as one of my top moments of 2007 for pure strangeness. I attended a technical session today entitled "Community Support: How to get there." It concerned working in Aboriginal communities, and had speakers including the BC Minister of Aboriginal Relations & Reconciliation, the Premier of Nunavut, and the Grand Chief of the First Nations Summit of BC. After the talk, I was outside enjoying some fresh air when the Premier of Nunavut, the Right Honorable Paul Okalik came out for a cigarette. We started chatting, and he asked me what I do. I barely got the word "uranium" out of my mouth when he told me that Nunavut has some very good uranium prospects, I should come visit them, and that he "can't wait to get it out of the ground and trucked away." After mentioning several meetings he recently had with various companies about the prospects, he looks through the window at all the booths and says, "What companies are handing out neat free stuff? Where can I find them? And not pens either. I have enough pens!" He then tossed his cigarette on the ground (we were five feet from an ashtray) and goes inside. I felt that if I would have ran to my office and got him a company fleece jacket, coffee cup & memory stick, I would be probably sitting on a million acres of prime real estate in Nunavut.


• Tonight I was asked by our VP if I was wearing my Hawaiian shirt to the booth. Could I have sensed encouragement & hope in his question? Probably not, but it's good to dream....


• Dorks Gone Wild continued tonight, with free swill from 4:30 - 6:30 as the afternoon "wrap up." Whatever in hell they have to wrap up, I don't know. Some of these twits have been drinking since noon. This was followed by "Yukon Night," with free swill from 7-10.


• One thing I don't understand is why in the name of Christ would students get falling down drunk at a conference with about 500 potential future employers.....fucking ridiculous. I have an idea. Wait in line for 10 minutes for the free swill. Bring me or other geologists the swill. Get us falling down drunk. After we give you a business card, go back to wherever the hell you came from and get falling down drunk with your friends & away from people that might be signing your pay cheque in three months time.


• We had a small UNB reunion of sorts.....three of us were sitting on a table, checking out broads, drinking the booze.


• I laughed as a structure dork fell up the escalator. And not at the top or bottom, either. How the hell does that happen?!


• As per my hopes and dreams, an impromptu free vodka reception (for me anyway) occurred tonight, courtesy of our drill company's foreman & his corporate credit card. Good times. At $8 a shot, I was almost forced to drink the free swill, but this guy came through....big time! And I didn't even have to go get them, he just kept bringing them! Good times indeed!


• At $8 a shot, you would think it would be good vodka but it was Skyy. Skyy is ok, but it's not $8/shot ok, unless you're in a strip club, and a nice one at that. I wasn't in a strip club of any kind. I was at Dork Fest 2007; they should have given me $8 for every drink I stayed for.


• BUT....with the vodka came courage, and I finally introduced myself to the cute dark haired girl. Unfortunately, she might think I'm the other Mat...or Matt...in the company....the one that hires people.....An internal battle of good and evil is now taking place within me. Alas, what to do? Actually, this can be the first ever Core Blogging Fan Participation Poll!!! The question is: Should I be good or evil? Post your answers in the comments section.

More to come soon, booth duty starts tomorrow. And remember to take part in the poll!