Travels – Page 15

Mar 13 2011

Traveling Home Today

Well hello there, I just wanted to drop a quick line and let you know the team is heading home finally today. Drupalcon ended on Thursday, so we spent Friday and Saturday exploring the city.

I have lots of photos and blog posts I’d like to right out the rest of the trip, but I wanted to also let you know that I wanted to do so. Couple thing have held me back at the moment, one being the hotel WiFi is throttled like no other. The most I can do here is general surfing and writing. For me to upload 20 or so pictures would take a couple hours. The other reason being no time, I have been out and about doing different thing, going new places. Like yesterday, I went to the Chicago Institute of Art, which is apparently the second largest Art Museum.

So in a few ours I will board a plane and fly to Edmonton and then proceed to drive 8 hours back to Fort St John. It will be a long day.

Mar 11 2011

Dayna Manning at Uncommon Ground in Chicago

Traveling with Dayna Manning, is like traveling with a rock star, cause she is one. She’s had a record deal, several albums and can finger pick like no other person I know.

A couple weeks before we took off for Chicago for Drupalcon, Dayna reconnected with an old friend and tried to setup a gig while here in Chicago. Sure enough it happened, pretty much. Dayna got on the list to for an open mic night at a very hip(?) little restaurant called Uncommon Ground.

She was up against 10 or so other performers, but was by far the best taking home have the pot of tips. With her strong voice and amazing guitar playing she captivated the crowd as soon as she started. As the passion in her song was let out, the crowd was silent, not a word was spoken. When she finished the crowd roared and the compliments from the other performers continued throughout the night.

The restaurant was heavy with culture and showed it off throughout the whole place. Colours were everywhere, which made these photo below turn out so amazing. So thanks to Andrew for taking them for me as he was in a better spot.

[Read more…]

Mar 10 2011

View from my Chicago Hotel Room

Going to the big City is alway a fun experience, especially when you get to stay in a hotel room high above the ground floor. Okay so the 16th floor isn’t all the high up, but when you live in a community that doesn’t have a building taller than 3 stories this is cool.

My view is pointing toward the lake, but is blocked by other big buildings. I can see a sliver of the lake. So far while here we have experienced all sorts of weather. One day it was cloudy with a high ceiling, another heavy, heavy fog, one raining/snowing and finally a blue skied sunny day. I think we have experienced every day possible that Chicago can have, well expect for a snow storm, but I can image that.

See all the photos by clicking [Read more…]

Mar 10 2011

The Other Two Keynotes

I wonder if it is hard to follow a guy like Dries at a place like Drupalcon? I guess it isn’t that hard when your name is Clay Shirky or Jared Spool. If you want to watch those keynotes like head to the Drupalcon Live Page.

Clay, who is a writer, prof and new media guy, spoke about social community and how it is changing the way information and awareness is used, moved, and consumed. He spoke about a a political religious incident in Asia somewhere and how a Facebook group brought awareness and stopped the issue. He also spoke about Wikipedia and how it is all community driven.

Then there was Jared Spool, who is hilarious, who spoke about usability of a website. Instead of me explaining it quickly while I’m sitting in a session, go watch the keynotes from the link above.

Photo from twitter

This is a photo of Jared from someone on Twitter, but the streamed moved so fast I couldn’t see who said it.

Mar 09 2011

Day One at Drupalcon Chicago

Alright I’m not the greatest at actually writing about the sessions I attended. That being because most of the sessions I am attending are only somewhat related to my field of work, therefore I only really take in half sessions.

Nonetheless though, I’m having a fun time. Obviously it was good to listen to Dries early in the day. Then I went to the Media Session. After that though I ended up meeting up with our Web Designer, Steven, and hitting up the Exhibit Hall for free swag. Then I sat in on Andrews Bird of a Feather on local news sites, which was interesting, but only a small turn out and finally I listened to a session with Project Manager, which was neat. Of course the final, final thing I did yesterday was attend the Drupalcon Field Museum Party.

I have to say I got a little overwhelmed at certain points yesterday. There were just so many people and I did the stupid thing and didn’t really pay attention to where I needed to me. Today though I have a plan of attack, read the schedule a head of time.

Something I was told when I started playing with Drupal, although I haven’t gotten far, was to never hack Core.

The only thing I am regretting so far at Drupalcon is not being more out going in person. On Twitter I’m a little Social-lite, but in person I keep to my own in a sense. Wouldn’t mind meeting other people along the way and hearing their stories.