pawrrr: Automation Fair 06 At Baltimore

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

The company had its annual Automation Fair in Baltimore this year, and lucky us got to go down to check it out! Great exposure to the different things the company does, how we fit in and also for gaining knowledge of the company partners. It was really cool that they also threw in a tour of Washington DC for the next day.

So at 12 midnight we boarded a coach which was to bring us straight to the Fair.

Getting ready to sleeeeep.

We reached Baltimore Convention Center at 6am all blurry eyed and groggy with messy hair. Had to go to the bathroom there to wash up a little!

we were first given a tour of different departments..

the company sponsors the #20 car in nascar.. and there was this display where we could take photos with the car and they would print it out for us. the photos turned out real nice cos they had nice lighting and cool camera and printer and all. they also had daytona machines [but with the company name stuck over it] and a corner where you could time how fast you took to change a tyre. There was also an autograph session in the afternoon with Denny Hamlin who races for us but I missed it. not that I knew who he was beforehand anyway.

i won a BMW Z4! nice anot? haha.. actually it was just some souvenir that i made someone help me get. one of my favourite souvenir from the fair.. a toy car keychain, and it's the kind with a spring mechanism such that u can pull it back and release it and it would move. i rike!

lunch time..

cool wrapper machine. more importantly, yummy hersheys candy in those blue bags.. ha!

lots and lots of buttons! these really fascinated me. i think i have a fetish for buttons. they are so cute and i get a high out of pressing them. haha! used to fight with my bro for those buttons you press for pedestrian crossings!

After lunch, we went to register for a hands on session later in the afternoon, and then went for a industry talk. I totally cannot remember anything about the talk except that all 5 of us promptly fell asleep after we sat down. Kinda sad but we were really really tired.

After that talk, we rushed down to the hands on session. it was on factory talk, and we kinda followed this handbook of detailed instructions. i thought it was kinda weird that they let us try the tutorial on a build version instead of a release.. and they even warned us not to deviate from the instructions or it would be buggy so nonsense right? I actually enjoyed using the program, it was really cool that you could check in your ladder diagrams and stuff from it, instead of using clearcase. ok, i feel like i'm writing my report on what i've learnt. haha.

cool stuff from the hands on session. a wireless mouse!! ha! doesn't work too smoothly though. [whispers: its made in china] =p i think its cool nevertheless. At about 4pm, we gathered and got back on the bus to go to our hotel. Wingate Inn. I wonder if it's pronounced win-gate or wing-ate. Some snapshots along the way..

Football stadium for the Baltimore Ravens

invasion of a monstrous huge head

i was so tired i didn't take any photo of my room, so here's puji's room instead. Shared the room with my roomie, who else. haha. After a half-hour nap, we dragged ourselves up to travel back to the town area for dinner.

traffic was kinda crazy

Outside the Baltimore Aquarium

The Baltimore Aquarium, looks really cool eh. Too bad we didn't have the time to go in.

invisible paw

cool lighting

All of us, before heading for dinner.

eskipaw.. and guess who the guys said i look like..

*mutters*

See the chinese words? Directly translated to Heritage Walk. HAHA.

We had dinner at Phillips Seafood..

The attack of the giant crab

me and my hoegaarden!

The oysters were FANTASTIC. melt in your mouth.. love it! The beige paste is horseradish or something, it's not as irritatingly strong as wasabi but it works as well.