Category: Adventure

Categories
Adventure

DrupalCon Denver: Day 2

Woke up really early (think the whole timezone thing must be messing with me a bit), so I figured I’d check out the gym in the hotel. Surprisingly, many others had the same idea. I got a nice super early workout to start off my day.

Then I walked over to the Colorado Convention Center which featured the opening keynote by Dries, the founder of Drupal. The theatre was massive, and much to my surprise it was practically packed with all the attendees. I’m really interested when they release the final count, it’s gotta be at least 3000+

Then the sessions began.

My first was Drupal Media. This is a very important module to practically all the sites I work with now. It was great to hear all about it and it’s features firsthand. I was pleased to hear of how much they’re committed to it and wil really try to chip in myself to this most noble cause.

Then we had lunch. Thousands were driven like cattle to the food upstairs. It was a lunch in a box (like the shoobies pioneered), and not too bad. In my box was a turkey sandwich (very good on some fine bread), a bag of chips, a big chocolate chip cookie and an apple which I wisely decided to save for later in the day (so glad I did just a few minutes ago). A fine box.

Then I went to my first ever BOF (birds of a feather) session. These are more group discussions than formal sessions. It was pretty cool, the topic was Drupal Trends in Education: Mozilla Badges, Learning Registry and Data.ED.gov. Everyone there seemed to be from education, so I had a good amount in common with most of them. The whole badge idea sounds very promising, but I can’t see the NJEA not somehow shooting in down in fear or something like that.

The Drupal Community: Where Are We Going and How to Get Involved was the next session. This had a much smaller attendance than most the other sessions, but the presenter webchick put on an excellent. The audience seemed very eager to contribute to the community and that’s a thing to see.

The next session, HTML 4S turned out to be much more interesting that I’d imagine it’d be. The presenter was a very animated, foul-mouthed Dane. He was hilarious, though there were times I didn’t quite understand what he said I still found myself cracking up. He was clearly very passionate about what he does, and had some excellent tips and suggestions regarding markup with a strong focus on HTML 5 today.

The final session of the day for me was Webform: The Survey Tool for Drupal. The presenter did a really great job, going over the basics as well as some advanced tips that I will surely put to use. I worried that it might be too basic before attending, but it was perfect and I’m glad that I did.

Then I headed back to the hotel and dropped my stuff off and headed out to grab a bite to eat. I’ll try to check out Denver a bit more tonight and see if there’s anything going on in the Code Lounge later tonight if I’m up to it.

Categories
Adventure

DrupalCon Denver: Day 1

Big Blue BearWoke up around 3:30 am or so to make sure that I had plenty of time to catch my 7:15 flight. I really didn’t have any trouble getting up (didn’t need the alarm clock), and didn’t feel tired driving to Philadelphia Airport either.

I’m not much of a Philly visitor, so getting to the airport is still an adventure for me. Luckily, no wrong turns were made and I got there in decent time. I’m not sure if this is a new thing with me or not, but I really didn’t feel comfortable driving over the bridge. I’ve driven over many a bridges in my day, but for some reason this morning it kinda creeped me out a bit. Perhaps I was more tired than I recalled, oh well.

The plane ride wasn’t too bad either. Flew on SouthWest, and we actually landed 45 minutes ahead of schedule. Apparently the wind was really down today, so that meant much less drag on the trip over. The flight wasn’t even close to full, so every seemed to be no more than 2 people per row.

There was a good deal of turbulence at times, especially as we approached Denver. I was told to expect that, so it didn’t spook me too much. By some miracle I hopped right onto a train at the airport and would up right at where my shuttle service was. Did not expect that to go so smoothly.

I then checked into the hotel, seems nice so far. As you probably can assume if you no me at all, by this time I was starving. So I took a walk to Sam’s No. 3, a place that I found on one of the Food Network shows.

Food was very good, portions were huge. I moved so that a couple could be seated. This turned out to be a most chivalrous act as the person I was now sitting next to was a toothless crazy talking bad lady. She said some pretty random stuff to me, and I do feel as though I will smell of cat for months.

I then proceeded to return to the hotel, with a few missed blocks along the way and took a much needed shower. I am very proud to state that Denver has decent water, and the hotel has great water pressure. This is most important.

Next I walked over to the Colorado Convention Center and registered for the conference. This place is massive. There’s even a gigantic blue bear statue looking into the place, very cool. Registration was a snap and I got a nice t-shirt to add to my collection.

I missed the cutoff date for the hack-a-thon (such a bummer), but did sit down and chat with some other great people with similar interests. It was great to exchange tips and tricks with them. I don’t have that day to day to do, so it’s always a pleasure to meet fellow geeks in person.

I also took in the shortened conference opening day to explore much of Denver. The 16th Street Mall was very nice. Tons of nice shops with a bus that runs the entire stretch for free (I of course walked the entire time).

I did treat myself to some frozen yogurt at Pink Berry. Got salty caramel with raspberries and blueberries. Yum. I pretty much walked around a lot today. Checked out the capital building and some park and walked in pretty much every store imaginable. It’s a pretty cool setup they have here.

I’m exhausted and probably falling early tonight to catch up on the poor sleep last night and have energy for the sessions I really want to check out. All the good stuff really starts tomorrow, and I’m really looking forward to learning all that fun stuff.

Categories
Adventure

Flat Tire

I was on my way to Estell Manor Park after work to run with NGM. It’s a pretty awesome place to go running, there’s a boardwalk in the woods and it’s well marked and isn’t too bad on the knees. However on my way there, I ran over a large blot and a decent shard of metal.

I immediately hard a strange thud coming from one of my tires, so I pulled over to check it out. There was no apparent air loss in any of my tires, nor was there any visible puncture. So I drove for a little bit more and the large thud was still present.

So, I pulled over again in a bank’s parking lot to inspect this further. Still no noticeable pressure loss, but upon close inspection I noticed the head of a large bolt protruding from my tire. I guess it must’ve been under the tire the first time I pulled over to take a look.

I really wanted to see if I could get this changed fast enough to potentially get it plugged that night if possible. Changing the tire wasn’t too bad, think I spent more time getting the spare out of my cluttered trunk than anything else.

I did text NGM to let him know that I wouldn’t be able to run today. I’m still puzzled by this one, but he would then go on to call my work number to ask if I needed help even though I had texted him from my cell and I clearly wasn’t in the office. Oh well, he’s a goofy character sometimes.

Once I got the spare on I tried to think of where I could get my tire plugged as it was almost 6:00 pm. I drove by a few gas stations in Mays Landing, but all seemed to be closed at that time. So, I figured I’d give Sears at the Hamilton Mall a shot, they were the next stop towards my way hom.

Sears would be able to patch/plug my tire that night, so I was pretty excited about that. However, walking around the Hamilton Mall on a Monday night was a pretty strange experience. I really think this area has gone downhill, it seemed to be some very shady looking characters there.

The Sears guys noticed that I had a brake light out as well. While I normally enjoy to do such things, they said it would only be around $9 to replace, so I said sure, why not. Well apparently, the guy replacing the bulb accidentally broke my light assembly. So now they have to replace it and I have to go back to Sears (which by the way I’ve never been very fond of).

So after my unexpected flat tire adventure, I finally got home and ate food (was so hungry). I was glad that I can still change a tire with no problems, but a little bummed that my light got busted and now I have to go back to get it fixed.

Categories
Adventure

Mutter Museum

SkeletonsI asked the Shepherd to come up with some destinations for a recent adventure. Apparently he recently heard about a strange museum somewhere in Philadelphia. With a little bit of searching we came across the Mutter Museum. We were now determined to seek out this fine establishment.

The plan had us departing no later than 10:00 am. This meant I would have to call the Shepherd at 9:30 to wake him and possibly come over and manually wake him if necessary. Amazingly, when I called him that morning he was already awake and ready to go. If you know him then you may not believe the previos sentence, but honestly it is true.

The ride over wasn’t too bad, there really wasn’t much traffic to deal with. It took us a few extra turns to get there, but nothing too out of the way.

Paying for street parking was very difficult. It wouldn’t accept my debit card despite several swipes nor would it take our $5 dollar bills. Apparently there was a $4 limit on it. Luckily I did have some singles and began to feed them one at a time.

This took a very long time, for some reason it was a struggle for this wretched machine to take my money. Finally with my fingers numbing from the frigid cold it just shot out our parking receipt. And when I mean shot out, it went onto the street and the wind took it for a little ride as well. Eventually I was able to pin it down with my foot, but I’ve sure I gave some people a very entertaining show attempting to pay for parking.

We walked a block the the museum and used 2 interent coupons the Shepherd printed out to save $2 each on admission. I’ve never seen him so organized, and frankly it was rather strange. But I saved $2 and that was nice.

Inside it was very nice, but sadly no photography was allowed. We were both shocked at just how busy it was. We clearly expected to be the only fools to partake in such an adventure on this day, but apparently others shared our interest as well.

The various exhibits were for the most part extremely morbid. I can’t say that I was a fan. While I can see the medically value in documenting and sharing such things that were on display, I felt at times dirty for viewing many of the exhibits.

There was a wall of skulls, with some dating back hundreds of years. Samples of Einstein’s brain were featured as well.

The most disturbing exhibits to me were the numerous jars of fetuses and siamese one’s on display. That was very creepy. Also the assortment of old tools was strange as well. They had there tongs that were used to crush a babies skull, yuck.

Oh, and cast of a 70 pound cyst creeped me out as well. It was huge.

Afterwards we walked around Philly for a little bit. However it was freezing outside and extremely windy, so that didn’t last very long.

On the way home I realized that we were near The Pop Shop, which is a restaurant that I went to previously with NGM after a run a while back. I suggested that we go there to get a bite to eat. It was just as amazing as I had remembered. I got a humongous grilled cheese and ate more fries than a man should be able to.

All in all a very successful albeit bizarre adventure. And I’ve very glad for my health.

Categories
Adventure

Christmas 2011

Just finished up the exchanging of gifts with the family. We had Anthony on Skype so he could partake as well. Still amazes me the communication tools we have at hand.

Everybody seemed to enjoy what I had gotten them. I had a Wal-Mart gift card sent to Ant (I think that’s the only store down in Florida where he lives), an espresso maker and a sauce pan for my dad, a Macy’s gift card for my mom, and Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Halo Anniversary for Frank.

My dad thought that the espresso machine was a really big purchase, but I calmed him down when I told him how cheap I got it on Black Friday at Target. He proclaimed me the greatest shopper ever.

I also got Elvis the Dog a holiday platter which he went crazy over. It was the duck one and he went for the dinner roll first, then the corn on the cob.

I got some pretty cool stuff from the family this year too:

  • Nike+ SportWatch GPS
  • NorthFace Bionic Jacket
  • Coleman Portable Electronics Charger
  • sling chair
  • snow shovel
  • socks (3 heavy pairs)

All in all a fine exchanging of gifts. With no crazy stressful fights or anything like that.

Categories
Adventure

First Camping Adventure

tentWhen I’m running early for work, I’ll stop at Target to just walk around and pick up some stuff that I might need. It’s actually been very productive for me. However, there has been a certain aisle that has caught my attention for several months now, the camping section.

I can’t explain why, but I’ve been drawn to the tents, sleeping bags, lanterns, flash lights, chairs, knives, gadgets, etc. I’d find myself really checking all the different gear out and in great detail.

Well a week or so ago, I figured with the pleasant November we’ve been having that if I were to finally give camping a shot, now might be my last chance until it warms up again in the spring. Two people came to mind who might just accept this crazy spontaneous mission, the Shepherd and Dustin.

So I asked, and yes they were in. Why not?

I then went on a camping shopping spree. I bought the best 2 person tent in the store (by the way it was $30 cheaper at Target than Dicks) and a really nice 30 degree sleeping bag. Quality stuff. I also picked up a rechargeable LED Lantern, which still amazes me with it’s brightness. I also threw in some rope and skewers for good measure.

We searched camping sites on state parks, and found a wilderness style site nearby in Wharton State Forest. So we drove out there on a Saturday afternoon and paid the $2 per night fee in Batsto, when the woman working there drew on a map where the site was.

Luckily the guys were paying attention to the directions, my attention was fixed on the various Jersey Devil merchandise on display, Some very cool and creepy stuff.

We arrived at the camp site a little past 3:30 pm. So we immediately got to work to get setup and a fire going before sunset. Setting up my tent was so much fun! It was super easy, with many of the parts color coded, so it was a cinch to figure out just what went where. I’m glad I got the nicer smaller tent, it would really payoff later in the night.

We then all set out to collect as much fire wood as possible, really wanted that fire to be going strong before darkness took over. I was really proud to see everyone working so hard gathering wood. There wasn’t a lazy soul to be found. Though much of it was wet from a rain two days before, the majority of it worked just fine.

The jackpot was struck when we stumbled upon a thick fallen tree. Wisely an axe was brought along, and we went to work breaking it down into smaller, more manageable pieces.

Dustin worked that fire for a while and just as darkness stormed it, had a great fire going. It was so quiet and peaceful out. Well expect for the idiot playing the trumpet a couple of sites over. If you’re reading this, you really have to practice more often.

Between the three of us, we’re a very silent bunch. Very few words were exchanged, but we all had a great time nonetheless.

It really is amazing how much brighter the stars are when you’re out in the woods away from all the lights that come with modern living. It was very cool to just stare up at.

As the night went on the temperature did start to drop a bit. Probably around 40 or so, not too bad, but still on the cold side. My sleeping bag and tent were so cozy and warm, both excellent purchases. I actually slept fairly well all things considering, I think I got between 4-5 hours of sleep. Sleeping on the ground was nice, I have some old back injuries and soft beds usually beat me up pretty well.

I got up and out of my tent around 8:00 in the morning. Placed our unused wood back into the forest (I believe that’s the proper thing to do), then watched the other guys eventually wake up too. I really enjoyed the camping adventure and am really glad that we went out and actually did it instead of just talking about it. Definitely something that I would like to try again.