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Posts Tagged ‘ copenhagen ’
My photos of Copenhagen
Day 1, October 14, arrival:
Day 2, October 15, workshop:
Day 3, October 16, conference:
Day 4, October 17, Legos:
Day 5, October 18 (Max’s bday!), Tivoli:
Day 6, October 19, Glyptotek:
Cph on Saturday and Sunday
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 18 |
On Saturday, I checked out of my hotel and left my bags with Roger’s hotel and went with him, Shira, Hector, and Keith Massie to Tivoli. Well, Keith and Hector just stayed for lunch (pizza which was surprisingly quite good). Shira, Roger, and I walked around Tivoli more and took photos and shopped for gifts.
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 18 |
It was freezing, and I ended up buying a wool jacket/sweater hoodie. While buying it, I thought that Robin would be pissed if I didn’t get her something, too, so I bought one for her too. Unfortunately, when I got back yesterday, we saw that it was a bit too small, and she thinks it smells like sheep. :(
Am I the only one who thinks women in hoodies are hot? Will have to get a cloth one or something later… maybe I can get her a cap, too… those are hot.
Gonna try to find a US dealer of them and exchange it, but it’s a smallish company, I think… Fuza.dk
After Tivoli, I went back to Roger’s hotel with him while he and Shira (who went to her hotel) prepared for the IR9 banquet that night. I called Lindsay Cornelius from Roger’s room to make arrangements to meet up with her for dinner and then to crash at her place for the next two nights. Turns out Lindsay had just gotten off the metro and was on her way. Also, turns out that Lindsay knows Danielle (through Isaac, the smartest person I know) who Roger knows since they’re both at Utah! Small world.
Lindsay and I walked around a famous canal and then went to a Chinese restaurant called Dong Yuan which was surprisingly good. After we caught up a bit, me giving her some gossip from the college of ed (she was finishing up her dissertation when she and her family, Tom and Cavin moved to Denmark), he headed back to the Strand to get my bags and then caught public transport back to her place outside of the city.
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 19 |
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 19 |
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 19 |
The next day, Lindsay, Tom, Cavin (who’s 3, btw), and I went back into the city to check out Glyptotek, a sculpture museum (with some paintings to boot) and do some sightseeing including a completely marble chapel. I’ve got a ton of photos to go through, but I’ll do that later today or tomorrow and they are now posted!
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 19 |
Turns out Tom is into turn-based strat games and RPGs! And they’ve seen Spaced but not Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz! Hmmmm….
Anyway, I’m back now and have a ton of work to do. The workshop has given me a lot of really good feedback to pursue for my paper on ethical responsibilities in WoW, trying out Ninja Gaiden for the DS on the plane on the way there has given me some more ideas for the review I’m writing, and I still have two papers on expertise development in WoW to finish up. Been thinking that maybe I can turn my workshop paper into the one I submit to eLearning for Constance instead of an expertise paper and then making the TWC paper on expertise more data driven rather than methods driven…
More on Cph (Friday the 17th)
So on Friday, I went to some morning stuff and then hung out with Roger Altizer in the afternoon. The plan was to meet up with some people and go to Tivoli, but we were slow going and ended up just taking our time and going to Rosenborg, the royal palace where they keep the crown jewels, instead.
As soon as we got out of Roger’s hotel (Copenhagen Strand), we saw two city bikes nearby and grabbed them! We had to fiddle with the locks a bit (you deposit a coin to activate the unlocking thingie and then when you return it to various places around the city, you get your coin back), but after that it was pretty awesome. I am so not used to pedal brakes. It’s not really the braking that was a pain, though. After I stop, I usually rotate the pedals backwards so that they’re at a good angle for me to launch off when I start again, but since they couldn’t rotate backwards, I kept fumbling my take-offs. We must’ve seemed like two total dorks, grinning like crazy, on our beater electic blue bikes, wobbly starts and unpredictable paths, and all.
Once we parked and got to the park outside the castle, we walked around checking out the public sculptures and birds and flowers. We tooke a while, and by the time we actually got to the castle, it was closed! We did see a couple of camo-wearing guards with their M-16s and bayonets patroling outside though. Roger turned to me excitedly and exclaimed, “It’s Metal Gear Solid! Quick, figure out where their patrol goes and then sneak between them!” To which I replied, “Dude, they have bayonets; I’m not gonna piss them off!” I imagine, two random geeky Americans have this conversation at least once a day there.
Anyway, after that we went back to the Hotel Maritime (my hotel) and met up with a whole slew of people incl. Sal Humphries, Casey O’Donnell and Andrea, Sean Lawson and Cynthia, Hector Postigo, Keith Cormier, Cassandra Van Buren, Shira Chess, and one or two others who I’ve forgotten… hmm there was someone else from Australia I think and maybe Keith Massie was there…
We walked over to the main drag and a bunch of them decided to get dinner at the same restaurant I went to with Casey, Andrea, Roger, and Hector on Tuesday. So, some of us (Roger, Hector, Keith C., and I) decided to go meet up with Dmitri Williams and his wife Cindy, and Christian Sandvig (who I later found out is married to Lisa Nakamura, who, btw, is a fellow Reedie and games/online researcher that I met at last year’s AoIR conference!) at the Square Hotel.
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 17 |
On our way to the hotel, we passed by the main city square where we saw that there were a bunch of white legos that people could play with and make buildings out of. Not sure why everything was a building. Roger mentioned that here in the US, there’d be giant dildoes and shit like that instead. We’re crass like that.
Anyway, after we met up with the new party, we went to the Absolut Ice Bar. Kind of expensive for what it is, but, otoh, when the hell are you going to be in a room made of ice again? It was really cold. Cold even with the parka on. And the vodka drink I had was pretty good… a little too sweet maybe.
After that we walked over to Tivoli but didn’t go in. Instead we ate at a restaurant right outside of it (not the Hard Rock Cafe; the other one). Ribs were a mistake. I mean they were good, but what was I thinking? It’s not like they were slow roasted or anything.
During dinner, I think I over-exaggerated how awesome the Chinese food is in the bay area. I mean, it is really, really fantastic, but at one point I made a claim that you couldn’t find food like it anywhere else, even New York. I think it’s true, but, obviously, I haven’t been to a whole lot of places in New York. The corollary would also be true, though. There’s probably some awesome Chinese food in New York that you can’t find in the bay area.
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 17 |
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 17 |
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 17 |
During dinner, Christian told us about his experiences in Thailand and how amazingly surreal they were, while Dmitri and Cindy kept wowing at how they had completely different experiences of Thailand.
We asked a waitress what was something unique or quintessential about Denmark that we needed experience. She asked another waiter, since, as a native, she was having a hard time figuring out what was unique. The waiter, I think from Spain or Italy, said “porno.” Apparently, Copenhagen was once the porn capital of the world before LA and Florida took over (I’d guess with films and videos globalizing the porn market).
So, it was rather fitting that we took a walk down a famous street for hookers and drug dealers to hang out on. And, yes, we actually were greeted (“Hey”) by them as we walked down it and back. What’s funny is that it turned out to be the same street that Hanna Wirman, a visiting local (yes, that makes sense to me), led me down on the way to the train station after the In the Game dinner on Wednesday. Heh.
Cph update
Some people I’m hanging out with this week are staying in a hotel just around the corner with free wifi. I’m in their lobby right now waiting for them to get back from morning sessions so we can go to Tivoli Gardens together.
On Wednesday I attended the In the Game workshop which was great. We talked about ethnographic methods and what that meant for our work including issues of responsibilities, co-presence, involvement, disclosure, and risk.
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 16 |
On Thursday, the IR9 conference proper started. A few games sessions that I went to and I saw Mimi Ito’s keynote describing the multi-sited work that sounded similar to the methods used in ESTG, though maybe shallower with a wider net. Her presentation didn’t cover methods that much so it was hard to figure out if they did more than interviewing or how deep any sort of participant-observation happened. Also, of course, it covered a different topic: youth and media and general media usage vs. deeper interest-based groups usage
I was talking with Roger from Utah about the keynote at dinner that night and he had some tough questions for Mimi, but didn’t ask them because he didn’t want to piss off a big name just yet, being a new scholar and all. So, I volunteered to ask her via email when I get back in the states. I guess we could also just wait til November when the report comes out.
More later.
Cph, day 1, October 14
I arrived to Copenhagen just fine. The flight was half empty so I was able to switch seats to an almost empty row. I kind of wish I booked the flight right before leaving, though, as I prob would’ve saved like $200.
What was kind of annoying was that the movies (peronal screen on the seatback in front of you) weren’t on-demand, so after watching one, you had no idea if the movie playing on the next channel over had just started or was midway or what… I watched The Incredible Hulk and Hancock and a part of Little Miss Sunshine.
Copenhagen’s airport feels a lot like a train station. Or at least, the connection to mass transit is featured much more prominently than Sea-Tac’s bus stops in ghetto land. I snapped a few shots while waiting for the train into town and then some more of the cityscape as I emerged from my train stop at Kongens Nytorv.
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 14 |
Lots of bicyles, like Amsterdam. Lots of huge, old buildings, like Amsterdam. I like already!
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| From Copenhagen, Oct 18 |
I checked into a tiny hotel room, by American standards, but it seems the norm for Europe.
After checking in, I met up with Casey and he told me that some people were getting dinner at 5. A few hours to kill, I went downstairs and asked the woman if there was an internet cafe around. She said that there was a place just round the corner that might be open (it’s a national holiday this week or something.. some Autum festival…).
The cafe is called Holberg 19, in case you’re wondering. They have a laptop set up that has a funky keyboard which is half broken, so typing on it was a pain. I decided to come back later with my own laptop.
Hector (Temple) called me from my hotel lobby after I got back to my hotel room, and he and I worked for a couple of hours at that cafe while we waited for dinnertime.
That was nice, and Hector had some great tips for entering the job market, especially from a Communications angle. While there, my stomach acid started going nuts (as can happen when I travel it seems), so I took a quick break to head back to the hotel room and take some baking soda pills that Robin made.
I also stopped by a convenience store nearby to get some lotion that I forgot to pack. I couldn’t read any of the labels so I just went with the cheapest one (33 DKK ~ $6), and it turns out to be really thick and greasy. Ah well… it’s just for a week.
Anyway, after working a bit, we met up with Casey (UGA), his wife Andrea, Shira (RPI), and Roger (Utah) and went out to dinner, which was quite good and featured ridiculously huge sandwiches.
Things here are expensive, though. The burger was 140 DKK which is about $28! It was really good, but damn… I’m considering frequenting the various hot dog stands I see. Roger says they are pretty good, and a dog costs about 25 DKK. Much more affordable!
While eating my burger, my temporary crown broke off! Sheesh, will my dental nightmare never end? I*’m hoping that I can just make sure to clean that tooth really well after meals and hold out until I get the permanent crown put in scheduled for the 23rd back in Seattle. Man!
We then went to an Irish pub, the Dubliner for a bit and talked about games, narrative, embodiment, emergence, the TWC issue that Casey, Hector, and I are all contributing to, the In The Game workshop that Casey and I are in tomorrow, etc.
Got back here, worked a bit, fell asleep at 10. Now I’m awake at 3 AM writing this blog post in a text editor to upload tomorrow when I have net access. I gotta get more sleep and I was practically falling over during dinner, but I seem pretty awake right now… 2 hours during the flight and now 4 hours tonight. That doesn’t seem good…
Off to Copenhagen!
I’m off to Copenhagen today and will be there for a week!
Mainly, I’m going to attend the Association of Internet Researchers conference, as I’m in the pre-conference workshop titled In the Game. I’ll be hanging out with a slew of cool people (Casey, Sean, Roger, Hector, Cassandra, Keith, Keith, etc.) I met last year in Vancouver at the same conference. In fact, it’s mostly the vibe and energy I felt from last time that made me decide I should put this conference on my regular attendance list. I hope others I met last year (Lilly, Alice, Clifford, etc.) will be there too!
I’m also looking forward to my second trip to Europe (first was The Netherlands earlier this year!) and hanging out with Lindsay and Tom and Cavan after the conference is over.
Check out this cool blog my brother found on bicycling in Copenhagen!
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