On Day 4 I didn’t take any pictures with the real camera. I think Day 4 is the day of the ridiculous Big Meeting Party. Which is a complete waste of time. On the positive, it helps me pile up the overtime. On the negative it is like a 13 hour day and the last 3 hours are awful. And because of it, I didn’t even touch the real camera.
So we skip ahead to Day 5. I took a quick walk around before heading to the Big Meeting.
Here are some pictures from that walk. Although be warned, there are some pictures of the outside of a strip club. If you might find that offensive, this post might not be for you. Skip this one and enjoy your day good sir. I said, “Good day to you sir!” Pornography isn’t my bag, but I understand why it exists. It exists to perpetuate a culture of violence towards women. But all corners of the world come under the artist’s scope and I found some of their advertisements an interesting subject.
A lot of people told me how they hate New Orleans because it is dirty, but I didn’t find it any dirtier than most major cities I’ve been in. And I can name a ton of small towns in Iowa that are dirtier. Way dirtier. They wash the streets every morning. It really isn’t that dirty.
The other thing people complain about is the amount of houseless people. That doesn’t bother me either. I don’t automatically think I’m better than somebody because life has been pretty good to me so far. I wait until I see their social media posts before I decided I’m better than other people. Like a gentleman.
These photos are great, and I really want to know who Armpit is.
You are correct, the big party is always useless. There was one year I got a vicious case of a stomach bug and had to miss that party, and I honestly don’t know if I won or lost that year.
I don’t love NO, but it isn’t for those reasons. My reasons are:
– I would get lost every single time I went, esp for LSU, as the exit from the airport was incredibly confusing to me. I was working before GPS, so I was trying to read MapQuest printouts as I was maneuvering this tricky exit situation. If you get on the wrong exit, spoiler alert, you are stuck on a several mile long bridge over the swamp. It is intense when you are exhausted and not good at navigation.
– One of my times I got super-lost was RIGHT after Katrina, when there was a great deal of crime. I totally understand the crime, all of people’s belongings were gone and the government doesn’t do an adequate job of reimbursing or helping out. However, I still had some sort of scary moments as a 25-year-old female who is short and weighed about 115 soaking wet.
– I went with FM once, and we were walking on Bourbon St – I hadn’t been there in any of my previous trips. As such, I was totally unaware that one whole end of the street really tilts hard into strip clubs and porn shops. He walked me into that section to see how I would react, and I was just wildly uncomfortable. I was safe and all, it just put a bad taste in my mouth – which wasn’t actually the city’s fault.
The big party is even more useless now because it happens on the floor of the Convention Center immediately following the close of exhibitor hours and the only booths people go to are the ones that are giving away free alcohol. So you don’t even get a chance to leave. It is just a like 12-13 hour day where literally nothing happens the last 2-3 hours because nobody comes to our booth.
Whomever Armpit is, they are probably a visionary.
Having just got back from Austin, I saw way more of the unhoused there than I did in New Orleans. It wasn’t even close.
That sounds like just the worst reason to have to stay at the booth.
I absolutely love Portland, OR – and it has one of the highest unhoused rates in the nation. I agree that doesn’t say bad things about a city – hopefully it means they have great weather and social infrastructure!
And since we are owned by Mormons now, even if we wanted to waste a ton of money on giving away booze, it is against company policy.
I’ve heard that about Portland, but have never been.
I didn’t realize they were Mormons! I didn’t really think about it until now, but the spelling seems much more Germanic/Jewish. I’m going to guess the annual onsite board meeting reception (if those are still a thing) is now dry, too? But at the big annual meeting, it’s not like anyone is going to spend tens/hundreds of thousands just because you gave them a Bud Light, anyway, so it really would be peeing money away.
I think you’d like Portland! Very goofy, great food truck scene, lots and lots of street art and fascinating people-watching. It’s also known as a great beer town (which I’m going to guess you are as unimpressed by as I am), as well as a very elitist coffee scene (about which I only care a tiny bit more than beer). I also read that it has more strip clubs per capita than anywhere else in the US (including one vegan vampire-themed one called “From Dusk Til Dawn”), so I guess it has that going for it.
I actually don’t know that they are Mormons, I just call them that because they are from Utah. But they didn’t add Pioneer Day as a paid holiday, so they aren’t very good Mormons if they are. They have a policy where no alcohol is allowed on company property.
Plus you have to buy alcohol from the AAO and the price is absolutely outrageous!
I do believe I would love Portland, but yeah, I might be less interested in coffee than I am in alcohol. The Strip Club does sound amazing!
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