ALA: The Haul

Just a quick update on my trip. This year's ALA brought 22,000 people (mostly librarians) to Anaheim, home of Disneyland. It was not my favorite ALA location. Our hotel room was crappy and Disney music was everywhere. Most of the food options were located in "Downtown Disney," which didn't have any bars. How can it be the "magic kingdom" if there's no alcohol? What makes Goofy goofy?

The ALA meetings themselves left me uninspired. One of the meetings I attended was in the Disneyland Hotel, so I have a pen and pad of paper with the mouse-ears logo on them. I spent a lot of time in the exhibit hall picking up free stuff. Here's the haul:

• 29 pens
  
• 9 bags
• 4 pads of paper
• 2 key chains
• 2 packages of bookmarks
• 1 stress ball. (I actually got two stress balls, but I gave the first one away to a cute girl on the street who was wearing an Atheist t-shirt in a parody of the Athletics, the Oakland baseball team. She was handing out literature for what appeared to be some kind of cult. I listened politely to her spiel, and then asked her if she'd like a stress ball. Not that I have anything against atheists, but it seems that if anyone needs a stress ball, it's someone wearing an Atheist t-shirt handing out propaganda.)
  
• 1 small chip clip (I assume it's for chips, but I really have no idea. It was from the FDIC, so maybe it's supposed to be a huge money clip.)
• 1 CD-Rom by the FDIC on teaching people how to be money smart. Ironic that this was right next to Disneyland.
  
• 1 CD Repair kit that I had to leave in the hotel room because there wasn't space for it in my luggage
• various pamphlets, handouts, and promotional materials