Punderings

Well, not really, but if felt like that for a moment. Spent the past couple of days in lovely (if humid) Austin, the city that just happens to be surrounded by Texas, but is not in Texas (as a co-worker said). It was actually a lot of fun with half of my whole team at work – good brainstorming, and great food.
We also followed V’s recommendation for a movie at a nifty dinner-and-a place, where you can order food and drinks in your movie seat. The menu wasn’t huge, but had some really interesting stuff, including a decent port, a $5 super milkshake, and some very nice champagne (as a split). Oddly enough they didn’t have much popcorn on the menu.
We saw Eastern Promises, which sort of falls into the category of movies that I’m glad I’ve seen, but really don’t ever want to see again. The cinematography and acting were excellent – at being dark and foreboding. I think it was the brief but ultra-realistic violence that was the turnoff – plus the basically depressing mood that gets set throughout.
Vigo Mortensen and Naomi Watts were both great. You could almost even list the nude Vigo scene as a bonus to the movie (for people who’d find that interesting) except for the aftermath of the scene, which is definitely not very fun. All in all, it’s worth seeing on video someday if you want a dark and moody Russian mafia film.
Oh, and yes, it was me that got the outbound JetBlue flight free movies. Silver Surfer was playing, which I wanted to see but I knew few others who would. But my credit card wouldn’t work in my seatback video screen – nor in my seatmate’s screen. Luckily, she was a JetBlue pilot deadheading, and was nice enough to bargain with the flight staff – who had already heard of problems with purchasing movies – to give the whole plane free movies.
Oh, and Silver Surfer again is a movie you should see on video if you really liked the Fantastic 4. Otherwise, skip it. Pretty simplistic, although he was fairly shiny throughout.

Oh, and as is often the case, going to my meeting was a lot of fun. But coming home was just as nice, especially to a nice home-cooked dinner and some stories of what Roxanne had been doing while I was gone. That included drawing out a (recognizeable!) scene from The Big Hungry Bear, and learning to type her own name. And then after dinner, I got to do the dishes. Ah, back to normal life.

.. but the lab I’m playing in (very cool work lab) doesn’t have Halo 3 yet. How cheezy is that? Gotham Racing just doesn’t add that much in 360, really.

Registration is going great for ApacheCon US 2007, which is coming up fast the second week of November. You can still get discounts on your registration now, including a discount for staying in the show hotel. BOF submissions are open, including expressing interests in proposed BOFs. And don’t forget to start writing your Lightning Talk… I am.

Even better: you can now submit your paper submission to ApacheCon Europe 2008, next April in Amsterdam again, since our CFP has opened! You only have a few weeks to submit your paper – speakers get free registration and other great benefits. Since we’re returning to the Mövenpick, it should be an even better show than last year.

And if you’re on the other side of the world, have you looked at the new mashup between Eclipse and Apache, OS Summit in Hong Kong? Registration is open there too, with committer discounts.

xkcd readers made a mountain of themselves at a tiny Cambridge park. I wonder where they all parked (or peed). I also wonder how many local residents were really surprised today.

That’s what many xkcd fans will be finding out later today. They’ve been organizing a meetup/flashmob/fun event/meeting inspired by a dream in a webcomic since early this year. Heck, googling “xkcd meetup cambridge” gets more than 30K hits.
I suppose even a moderately popular webcomic could easily inspire this much internet traffic if a certain meme happened to take off. But this one is cool for a number of reasons:

• Most discussion around it is polite, and for quite a while now very organized
• They appear to have a number of international travellers, several of whom have already blogged about their flights and what they’re doing before the meetup
• xkcd is actually pretty funny. Well, at least if you’re a geek, academic, or math person.
• I’m really trying to figure out how 1300? people are going to get to the park.

Plenty of people – attendees and lookers-on – have blogged about how that many people are going to fit into the small playground park that the meetup is happening at. That’s easy: most are going to walk over to Danehy park a few blocks away, which is plenty big enough.
No, I’m wondering how they’re going to get there. Obviously a lot are out of towners and will hopefully walk – good luck finding enough cabs! But all the locals or cartrippers – yow. I used to commute home past that neighborhood, and it’s not easy driving there any time of the day. And most of those side streets are pretty narrow, one way, and the whole neighborhood only has a few obvious driving entrances. Luckily it’s a Sunday here, but still. Wish I had a helicopter so I could watch.

Oh, and the weather looks perfect, a little hot if anything. Sounds nice.

It’s almost a shame that MasterCard has made the list-of-statistics schtick priceless – but it’s still a good schtick.

• Days spent at the cabin in central Maine: 4
• Door-to-door hours spent driving down home: 3.5 (DD once)
• Door-to-door hours spent driving up there: 5 (rush hour -duh!, DD twice, Rite Aid once, finding an unlocked window once)
• Cats brought along for the trip: 1 (Lucas – he loved it!)

• Number of canoe rides: 3
• Number of times Roxanne got wet: 3
• Number of times Roxanne fell out of the canoe: 1 (while the canoe was still half on the beach, mind you. Still got my heart racing though.)
• Length of canoe ride after Roxanne got wet: 15 minutes (she insisted on still going out, even though soaked.)

• Minutes drive to the nearest paved intersection: ~ 10
• Times we all drove anywhere: 3
• Surfaces of car splashed by mud puddles: all 6

• Books read, each adult: 2
• Worthwhile books read, each: 0
• Beds slept in: 3
• Frogs caught: 2 (unrelated to any beds)

I was in a car driving westbound on Storrow Drive the other weekend day, and something just wasn’t quite right. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong – it wasn’t anything obvious. Then someone came out with this post’s title and it all made sense.
We were, indeed, stuck behind some grandparents in a Buick driving exactly under the speed limit of Storrow Drive. It was very strange driving along that all-too familiar stretch of roadway and actually be able to watch all the pedestrians in their leisurely walks along the river.
For those who aren’t local, Storrow Drive is basically a narrow, two late, limited access, divider-in-the-middle local road that’s masquerading as a highway, that wends and winds it’s way along the Charles River into the very heart of Boston. And when I say wends and winds, I mean frequently, sharply, and in three dimensions. Memorial Drive does exactly the same thing on the Cambridge side of the river, except it has stoplights. New Yorkers familiar with Saw Mill River Parkway will know what I mean. As a friend once said, Storrow on weekends is like the world’s biggest driving video game – except you only get one quarter.
As most locals know, the bell curve average speed on Storrow Drive & Soldiers Field Road is significantly higher than the posted limit – at least during non-rush hours. Sure, there’s the occasional driver who slows down for the tricky curve, or hits the sunken spot of pavement, and slows down for a bit. But we were stuck at the limit for quite a while as everyone else switched lanes and passed us at a more, um, normal speed. It was an interesting perspective on the usual rate of life for that part of Boston.

Much of this Labor Day long weekend has been the stuff that memories are made of, but that makes for bad stories. It was the classic relaxing, enjoying, eating, visiting, good weather, lots of fun and just enough naps kind of time that you wish would last longer, and want to talk all about until you remember that listening (or reading) about that kind of stuff is dull. Unless you were there, and then you smile. And remember the excellent food – too much of it. And then remember that you’re going to have to go back to your regular workout soon.
The milestone was separate, although it did have to do with traveling. We were in CT staying with family, and had finished dinner and were saying good byes to the other dinner guests who came over as well. Then, it happened. One minute, we were all saying our goodbyes and Roxanne was giving hugs, and the next minute she was gone! Toothbrush, spare diaper, and “baby doll” in hand. she had accepted aunt Susan’s incautious offer for a sleepover, and we were suddenly alone.
Well, the in-laws were still there – it’s their house! – but we were alone as we’ve never been for nearly 3 years. This was her first sleepover ever, and it all happened on a whim of Susan’s. She asked, Roxanne said yes in a matter of fact way, and there it was.
I guess the metaphor (that I’m far too tired to awaken from my fingers at the moment) is all about how parents so much aren’t in charge, and how it’s often a surprise when the children are ready for something before the parents are.

It was great, by the way. We stayed up late watching cable (we don’t watch TV at home), and the only unfortunate thing was that I, Robot was the best thing on. We slept in a little bit late, and then helped to make breakfast in an oddly quiet house. Given the sleeping arrangements, I hardly even noticed, except for a small empty something that was missing in my brain.
Oh, and she had a great night too, as reported by Susan. Got ready for bed, slept on the special bouncy air mattress in her cousin’s room, was fine when she woke up, and even walked the long walk over to grandma’s house where we were staying – nearly late for breakfast too!
All in all a good weekend. Thanks, all!