So it seems that we're finally all caught up with the Oz Files updates, only just in time to head out for a new place. But there's not much to report from here in Brisbane. Michael's been at his conference (International Society for the History, Philosophy, and Social Studies of Biology, fondly known as ISH), hanging out with his fellow philosophers and, you know, philosophizing. I've been either tagging along to see friends or doing some work from our hotel, the Inchcolm. The hotel is kind of neat; it used to be a set of doctors' offices that were fixed up into boutique hotel rooms and suites. Then at some point it was bought by Quality and has gone a bit downhill. Our room was cool, with lots of genuine wood paneling and nifty touches like restored brass doorknobs, but the shower had pretty much the worst water pressure of any shower in the universe. It took a solid five minutes to get the shampoo out of my hair. Honestly, I can understand wanting to save water, but this is ridiculous. Anyway, it's been great to see our friends and have a chance to hang out, and it's been a good way to ease from vacation mode back into the work mode we hope to adopt for our time in Canberra.
As such, we haven't had much of a chance to explore the city, although I gather there are some nice museums and suchlike if we wanted to. The river runs through the center of town and it's possible to take a ferry instead of a bus to get between our downtown hotel and the university, so that's provided a good way to at least get a view of everything for cheap. We're staying pretty close to the main train station and the CBD (= central business district), with shops and restaurants, so it's comfortable. It's not quite as exciting as Sydney or Melbourne, but we're also not giving it much of a chance. Plus, there's a Wagamama, so there's not much incentive to explore the local restaurants. We have got to get one of these in Philly.
Days have been filled with the usual conference stuff, such as deciding which talks to go to and which to avoid and how to surreptitiously connect one's computer to the Internet from the back of a session without being noticed. Nights have been filled with the usual post-conference stuff, such as trying to make plans for six or twelve people at a time to come to dinner, only to lose half of them as they wander off to talk to other friends, and then gain ten more people as they wander back with said friends, and then try to get everyone to walk in the same direction at roughly the same time and the same pace so no one gets lost, and then to attempt to barge our way into restaurants and pubs and rearrange the tables so everyone can fit. Two words: herding cats.
And, for those of you unfamiliar with the behavior of a large group of Australian philosophers, this should give you a good taste:
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