I'm home from my trip and beginning to recover. I'm amazed to discover it was one of the most useful business trips I've ever taken. I met a lot of great people, had some job interviews and handed out my business card a lot. There were even some good sessions where I learned a few things.

I shared a room with two other women and we had a great time - we'd compare notes when we got back to the room and share what we learned at the different sessions. Conferences are more fun with friends, I tell ya.

I didn't take many pictures, and those I did take were mostly related to work. Here's the one I took for pure fun:

This was taken in the lobby of the hotel where I stayed. These are all game developers who attended the conference. Every time I walked through this lobby, it made me laugh. Apparently these people are so used to game environments they need a big, hovering sign with a label to point out the bar.

But I love them anyway.

Very busy this week, and it's gone by in a blink. The good news is I get paid for some of the work I did. It's amazing how busy I can get doing things which are unatached to income.

I'm getting ready to go on another trip next week - this time to San Jose. Sure it's California, but I'll be spending most of the time inside a conference center. I'll be helping run an interesting roundtable for video game writers - we're going to throw down our mad skillz and see who's the best of the best. We're calling it Write Club. See, trade organizations can be fun. (International Game Developer's Association, at the Game Developer's Conference.)

I have this bad habit of letting my paperwork pile up. I usually know where the important things are in the various piles, and I try to convince myself that filing cabinets are just sideways piles - but still, I procrastinate the filing.

Now that I've spent a day sorting through my oldest, biggest pile I think I've discovered why.

Papercuts. I hate, hate papercuts. Sticking files into folders means handling them edge-on, and my hands are absolutely torn up. Not a finger is untouched. I know I'm whining, but really - ouch!

This is also one reason I couldn't hack it as a file clerk at the lawyer's office. I wanted combat pay.

2006 is shaping up to be a year of change. I have three younger brothers - two of them are having new babies this year (well, their wives are doing the hard work of course) and the third just announced he's getting married.

Of course, he's been so busy I haven't had a chance to quiz him on why he decided to choose such an inconvenient time and place for the wedding. But it's just possible it's not all about me.

I'm happy for him, but he's got some explaining to do.

As for change more directly in my life - well, freelancing is sort of a constant state of change. Jobs come, jobs go. There are good things and bad things about this. Right now I'm cautiously optimistic.

Possibly because my health has been pretty good lately. My traveling only wiped me out for about a day and a half, rather than a month and a half. I call that progress.

I just returned from my annual pilgrimage to see the accountant in Chicago. Also, my friends who still live there. Also some clients I'm doing freelance work for. It was a nice visit - Sarah provided the hotel room and both she and Dean provided some valuable taxi service. Thanks guys.

I had forgotten just how cold it can feel when the humidity isn't zero and there's a little wind. Also, why do Midwesterners take it as a badge of honor that they walk around outside block after block after block in that kind of weather? She claims I've gone soft. I think I've fallen back into my wise Montanan ways of staying out of incliment weather when possible.

There were two other items of business to attend to on this trip - shoe shopping and seeing Millenium Park. I'm sure the shoe shopping bit is self-explanatory. However, the locals were all shocked that I hadn't yet seen Millenium Park and yet I worked only blocks away for seven years.

Here's the thing - it's more of a Millenium-ish Park. It overran its finish-by date by four years, so it wasn't quite completed when I was there. And I guess it's taken me this long to be convinced the hunks of twisted, shiny metal were worth visiting in their final resting places. The construction phases were really not pretty.

Now that I've seen the finished product, I have to say it's not bad. A little 50's chrome-sci-fi for my taste (and you know how I like my chrome sci-fi) but I guess newness generally takes some getting-used to.

I've supplied a few pictures from my trip for your viewing pleasure.

As you can see, subversified.com has a new look. I'm also going to start posting again, maybe not every day, but more frequently than every few months.

I'm also going to start posting more of my professional stuff on my business site blog. I'll keep you up to date on my personal projects here, but if you're linking to this blog for professional reasons, you'll want to change your links.