So I’m going to attend the 4th Language Creation Conference (LCC4) this weekend. That is, I’ll arrive on Friday evening and leave on Sunday noon. I’m already excited on the one hand, on the other hand kind of anxious about the sheer geekiness of this event. 😉 But then, in my opinion, everyone is a geek in some way. Only that being a sports or music geek is considered normal, while being into sciences (or humanities, German conveniently doesn’t make a difference, it’s all literally ‘witship’) is weird. Anyway.

The train ride from Marburg/DE to Groningen/NL will be awfully long: 8½ hours of traveling, 1½ hours of waiting on platforms – for a mere 600 km (~375 mi), in spite of using the high-speed train from Frankfurt to Amsterdam. I think I can say I’m kind of disillusioned about ‘high-speed’? And the same on the way back on Sunday afternoon… Maybe I should’ve booked a flight after all, and would’ve spent less money and time on the trip. However, flights to neighboring countries have always seemed kind of ridiculously overkill to me. On the other hand, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing, I suppose, so spending close to € 120 and 20 hours altogether for that train trip is hopefully worth it. With the current gas price here (~€ 1.50/L, or $8/gal.), it’s probably even cheaper still than going by car, and trains are so much more relaxing – provided you get your connecting trains. I’m looking forward as well to the three-course welcome dinner on Friday evening, which, I guess, I can totally use after 10 hours of traveling.

And now for some self-advertisement: I’m doing a talk there on comparative strategies in general and their realization in Ayeri specifically, scheduled for Saturday, May 15th, 9 am GMT (that is 10 am in local time). I think I might be the youngest speaker even? 😮 David Peterson’s also planned me in for the panel on Trends in Conlanging on Saturday afternoon, as it looks like, namely in my role as a long-time ZBBite. Oh my, what am I supposed to contribute? I guess discussing a little will be fun nonetheless, though.

As with the last LCCs, I suppose the whole event will be broadcast live on the internet this time as well. Due to the time difference of 6 hours to EDT, some Leftpondians will probably miss the morning programs, I’m afraid, as it’s in the middle of the night for them. I’ll try to make photos in any case, and have already planned to post some here subsequently.