neurological dryer lint

i thought it'd be near impossible to find a city in America more humid than cincinnati... these guys have it pegged. although it's not totally unpleasant - there's kind of a gym-swimming-pool feel to the air now. i haven't seen the sun for one minute, though, just the way i like it.

despite that, it feels bright and cheerful driving around the southern parts of the city, which is why jimmy eat world's the world we love feels like it was written about this place, and it made great driving music while heading out to dinner tonight. i was feeling like italian, so at hamrick's request i hit up della notte and enjoyed some fettucini and shrimp.

you put a bunch of antisocial security geeks and ex-hacker kids in a big hotel with executive-levels and management and you get a very interesting oil-and-water thing. deep down i'm mostly a loner, prefering solitude over company - which is why i love this little hotel room overlooking the city. so at the conference, i'm one of the guys sitting by himself, reading, checking mail, trying not to look hostile but at the same time trying to look like i don't want anyone to talk to me. the few people that engaged me today did get a friendly response, but i tried to avoid extended conversation because i end up babbling, trying to sound more experienced and world-traveled than i am.

i also find myself feeling perfectly at home in this profession - constantly looking over my shoulder to see who's watching my keystrokes; keeping my bags zipped up and close to me at all times; ssh-tunneling all of my connections to anywhere, and checking both of my host-based firewall's logs every half-hour or so. the seminars today were decent; tomorrow's look about as interesting, including a roundtable discussion on CVSS, which FIRST developed (and i wrote a paper on).