Archive for October 31st, 2008

This will be cross-posted to tripadvisor in order to share my thoughts, and stroke my ego.

The standard phrase is to not judge a book by its cover.  This is usually about not being negative based on appearances.  Sometimes, however, it goes the other way.

I stayed at the Inernational Plaza Resort and Space in Orlando for the Eduause Conference, which is coming to a close today.  When I first arrived, i read about the 2 pools, the hot tubs, the jacuzzi, the min golf course, and even the putting green so that one could get ready for a round on a neaby course and called my wife to tell her how cool the place was.  It really had a tropical feel.

However, after just 1 night the cracks started to show through, an indicated of a hotel that hasn’t been kept up as well as it should.  For instance:

• my toilet had this magic capability to auto-flush every 10 minutes or so.  Maintenance could not fix it.
• my a/c was either on completely or off entirely.  Even turning it down to “low” for the fan didn’t help – when I’m gone for 7 hours at a conference it’s might cold.  And when it was off the air was incredible stagnant.
• The soft pillows were offset by the painfully firm bed
• The LCD tv was nice, but it really demonstrated the problem of a crappy tv signal looking horrible on a high resolution screen
• The coffee maker wasn’t just not plugged in, but there wasn’t even a plug nearby.  So I made coffee with it sitting on the ground.  You know, a standard spot for that.

The good news is that the pillows are soft.  And that the carpet wasn’t any dirtier than usual.  So I guess that’s a plus.  I would not recommend it.

On the bus to Educause this morning, what I presume to be the local easy-listening station was broadcast.  The following stories were covered

• McCain was on the trail in Ohio, touring by bus, to get their key 11 electoral votes
• Obama was in Iowa, then going to stop home to see his kids for Halloween before ending the day in Indiana
• A squirrel brought down the power lines at a polling station (somewhere)

And now we’re up to date on the news.  So apparently, along with information on who will be our next president, this squirrel must have been really important.