h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm posting this from the Hollywood Roosevelt Hotel, on Hollywood Boulevard. Sadly, it's not because my starring turn in the Hitchhiker's movie was recognised by a talent scout. I'm here working. I'm going to the Microsoft Professional Developer's Conference for the next week, to hopefully find out about all the new stuff we could use for DNA in the future.

My entry into the USA was interesting. The man on the Immigration desk saw the copy of Last Chance to See I was reading and asked me what it was about. When I explained, he looked very serious, and asked me if I knew about the North American Sealion. I said I wasn't aware it was endangered, so he told me very solemnly that he was going to tell me something about how we treat sealions, and that it would shock me. He then described the culling of seal cubs, something I knew about but hadn't somehow connected with sealions. He then said that this was one of the things that caused him to become a Wiccan. Which is, frankly, absolutely the last thing I would have expected to hear from a US Border Guard. But a pleasingly odd welcome to the US.

The flight had the compulsory celebrity. Paul Weller, off of The Jam was there, and frankly, the blond highlights were a mistake. But it was good to see he had to queue with the rest of us.

Strange coincidences abounded. My seat number was 42H. Bernadette suggested that the check-in clerk might have recognised my Marvin T-Shirt, but she didn't seem to have.

And as I was waiting to board, someone walked past wearing an h2g2 T-Shirt. One of the old ones, too. I saw him again at the luggage claim, and I had to comment, at which point he said 'You're Jim Lynn.' It was IanG who I'd worked with at Computer Concepts, and who was here for the PDC too.

So, I've just had a couple of hours wandering around outside the hotel. Graumann's Chinese Theatre and the Kodak Theatre are just across the road, you can see the Hollywood sign in the distance. I'd expected some anonymous hotel in the middle of nowhere, but this hotel was where the first Academy Awards were held, so I really am in the middle of Hollywood.

Now it's time for bed. It's only 8pm, but it feels so much later...

Jet lag when travelling west is a peice of cake - if you can stay up until around 11pm it's just like a really late night, but travelling east is a whole nother matter. That's why they call it the redeye

Traveller in Time on his head
"Have a good time, and try to find out what will go wrong before it happens with the servers "

Nice story Jim.

There are a suprising number of Wiccans in places like the US army too.

I was just listening to The Style Council this afternoon (The Jam were slightly before my time).

*faces south*

*waves to Jim*

Sounds like you had a nice entry into LAX than I did then - they spent 10 minutes grilling me over whether I was bringing in any 'party favours' (which was all the more confusing as I didn't initially have any idea what they were on about).

The Kodak Theatre is cool. Did you get a chance to trek up to see the Hollywood sign?

Hope the Microsoft thing was interesting.

Frankie

I did see the sign from the Kodak theatre balconies. It was slightly weird being somewhere so famous, but somewhere that has always seemed slightly fictional.