Sunday, April 06, 2008

ESOP in a heartbeat

I presented my latest paper, A Theory of Hygienic Macros, co-authored with Mitch, at ESOP in Budapest this past week. Because I'm a genius, I managed to let my passport expire. Conveniently, there's an expiration notification service at every airport known as "not letting you on the plane."

It's a long story, but it involves emergency passport renewal, an extra weekend in San Francisco, and very merciful conference organizers and attendees.

All of this means I got to spend a total of about 48 hours in lovely Budapest--about long enough to see the Danube and a few of its glorious monuments, experience cheap beer, try delicious Tokaji, present a paper, chat with a few friends, and get right back on a plane again.

What a shame I couldn't have stayed longer. But the talk went great, and I'm still very glad I got to go.

For the record, the San Francisco passport office is staffed exclusively with miracle workers.

1 comment:

Paul Steckler said...

This is why I keep reminders of obligations that are so infrequent that I can't possibly remember them, like passport renewal and tetanus boosters, in my Yahoo Calendar.

For the record, my next tetanus booster is due in 2014.

-- Paul