[Update: I fixed the relative link for the image so that Gary's reader wouldn't drop my feed just because it was invalid (but all better now)]

I am now a proud soldier in the army of the "Green Program" at the Wilshire Grand:

If you can't read this little sign thingy, then here's what it says:

    1. Placing a towel on the rack means that you would like to use it again.

    2. Placing a towel on the floor means that you would like a replacement.

I took this a little further than I think they expected, and wound up leaving my PDC badge, Universal Studios wristband, and my Wilshire keycard.

I figure they'll hang on to these things for me in the event that the PDC spontaneously reemerges sometime in the near future. My brain was completely full from all the sessions, but I hadn't even begun to touch my drinking-with-cool-nerds threshold. I want that back, so I'm treating the towel rack at the Wilshire like a hope chest, except that it isn't a chest. It's a towel rack. And now, it's a hope towel rack.

As far as things leaving things on the floor that I'd like replaced is concerned, all that I left was the blogger BOF. I'd like a replacement for it. I'd like to think that, given another chance, we all could have gotten together simply for the opportunity to say "hi." I'd like to think that, should this ever happen again, we won't sit around arguing about RSS vs. Atom, pretending that it's a technical issue when it's perfectly clear that many of the people in the room just don't like Winer. If you don't like Winer, and if you want to come out with a syndication format so that you don't have to deal with him, then just say it.

All in all, the conference was a good thing. I have more to say, but I'm debating whether or not to post what I'm thinking. I'd really like to put up a series of posts, each dedicated to some cool bastard I met at the PDC. I love the tech mumbo jumbo, but I'm probably even more excited about meeting the people behind the tech mumbo jumbo, the blogs, and the companies. Like many nerds, I'm pretty autodidactic, so there's only so much lecturing you can do in my direction before I'll tune you out and start picking my belly button, looking for something to snack on. This is why I got so groupyish when I met Mark Dunn of .NET Rocks - .NET Rocks, as I've already stated, appeals to me because it brings the personalities behind the ideas out into the open, and I don't think there's nearly enough of that going on. Nerds are interesting people, and they do have things to say that don't involve curly braces (or angle brackets (or End Ifs)).

So, maybe I'll put up the posts - Maybe I won't. Whatever happens, I'm leaving right now to go eat a pastry (good ones are easy to find in Portland), and grab a good cup of coffee. I've been scarred for life by the "food" that was being served at the conference. I now need to commence the long and arduous process of removing those scars.