It’s the beginning in these parts of the world of what some speakers on conference panels this month have been calling the “silly season,” meaning that their already low expectations are even lower for certain things they’d like to see happen.
Illustration: Sharpie pen on Stone journal paper by Black Elephant Blog author
That remains to be seen; sometimes it is what we are most sure about that ends up surprising us the most (almost by definition).
But it’s also almost the end of the month-long “Inktober” sketch-off, featuring thousands of pen-and-ink drawings posted on-line. One more day to go. Well, here in “Black Elephant” world the focus has tended to be on the more colorful scenes of October, but when unavoidably inside–away from the dazzling fall scenes–it’s been fun to capture some conference highlights with a Sharpie fine point pen.
And, per usual, this month the conference scene has been cranking up: as the temperatures drop outside, the temperatures seem to rise inside.
It will come as no surprise to many that people seated at long tables can sometimes be still enough for a sketcher to 
get a half-way reasonable “live” sketch going.
To add to all the benefits: Apparently, it’s been scientifically proven that sketching while listening/viewing actually improves your comprehension abilities!
Illustration: Sharpie pen on Stone Journal paper by Black Elephant Blog author
So here are a few of the Inktober conference sketches posted on this Blog before October, and Inktober, draw to a close. Next, this blog turns its attention to an intriguing new book called “Nonsense: The Power of Not Knowing“. This book examines how varied people’s abilities are to deal with uncertainty, ambiguity, and dissonant information.
Illustration: Sharpie pen on Stone Journal paper
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