i am sitting on a couch in a colorful quirky house in a mexican barrio in northish hollywood in los angeles in california, in my pajamas.

yesterday i arrived to meet all the cyberfashion crew and get prepped up on the schedule of events. all of us are bestowed with exhibits-plus passes throughout the conference, which includes the presentations and exhibits, like emerging technologies, art gallery, and the animation theatre. however, we can attend more things like special sessions and even paper talks by requesting and passing around some communal conference select passes.

all i can say is that the conference is *humongous*. even last night, when the only event going on was 'registration', there were people everywhere. the LA convention center is also enormous, which to my regret is completely prohibitive to my knowing where i am at any time. last night, we tried to find the west hall parking area, and after miles of walking and consultations with conference people and security guards, we were completely addled on which direction was which. anyway, i'm just peeved that i don't have the information i want at the time when i need it. maps are my next favorite thing to spicy noodles.

there were a lot of fun things lined up last night that the crew was planning to party at, but i knew i would crash around 10pm (1am EST). therefore, i headed back with diana to her friend katherine's place to veg out, order pizza, and promptly pass out on the couch with all her colorful stuffed animal (where animal means cute rotund creatures with eyes) friends.

anyway, to get to her place we took the LA metro, which was an interesting experience. everyone i know says that the metro really blows; it does in some ways, but it wasn't the worst thing ever. first of all, it's cheap. $1.25 for one way, which is the same as boston, and you go much, much farther for your money! however, we waited for a bit at the PICO stop for a train; however, it wasn't really any different than waiting incessantly for the T to arrive. there was a boston flashback as two trains in the opposite direction came and went. haha. anyway, we got on, and the first thing i noticed was that there were no white people at all on the train. ...interesting. we got off at the next stop to transfer, and waited for the red line to north hollywood. while we were there i think there was a small brawl at the other end of the station, but i'm not sure. still, all minorities around, and i guess we blended in as asian ethnics! the redline train was actually quite decent and clean, reminded me of the washington metro except with raspberry red upholstery. (in my experience, usually the red lines of any metro system are the best maintained. i'm not sure why.) in actuality, the stations themselves were pretty good. all with working escalators (do you hear me, boston?), and the western/hollywood stop had a cute tiling scheme that reminded me of oversized chiclets meets jpg blowup. very colorful and happy. we walked about a mile to kat's place, which was strange only in the sense that we were walking along a highway, and passed a denny's, home depot, farm fresh, and various strip malls on the way. we also had a good overpass moment. i guess that's not so strange if you live in boston, but i'm so glad living in cambridge that i don't have to worry about stepping aside quickly moving traffic and large parking lots.