chicago – Page 2

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.

Mar 08 2011

Drupalcon Chicago Field Museum Party

I don’t know if anyone actually got all dressed up for the Drupalcon Party or not but it is was in the amazing Field Museum. There “grand hall” as I will call it was massive and the ceiling went way up.

The room was packed, of course, with buffet style finger food and booze scattered all around the main level and the second. I feel as those I let myself down a little bit that I didn’t have the guts to interact with more people, but I still feel some what of an outsider when it comes to Drupal.

Couple of other good and bad thing about this party. I loved having the exhibits around for us to wonder through and admire. What I thought was a disadvantage was the amount of space there was. People were easily able to go and hide in places and it really killed the push to have to communicate with new people.

We copped out early, but I suppose I could have stayed. Again with the not wanting to interact. Oh man am I tired right now, was hoping to write more but can’t as my eyes are closing on me.

Mar 08 2011

Morning keynote with Doctor Dries

This morning was the first official one of Drupalcon Chicago which meant a big keynote with everyone in attendance. Today Dries was speaking. He being the “leader” of Drupal or rather the original creator.

He is a really neat guy to listen to, I for one can’t believe he is not overwhelmed with everything. He talked about how far Drupal has come and where it is going. Drupal 7 was just released about a month ago, which means Drupal 8 development is now commencing. Really interesting stuff to see how this community is.

What I thought was interesting, is when Dries said if he were to build Drupal again today it would be based around mobile. Obviously we’re moving to mobile, but do you think will eventually ditch a full computer?

This is Jam, I think he works for Acquia. Jam also place a big horn. I don’t know my instruments so bare with me.

Drupalcon Keynote

See there is Jam over on the left blowing away…

Finally it is Dries talking Drupal, his baby.

What do we think?

Mar 07 2011

The Eve of Drupalcon Chicago

Well I will keep with short as I am tired, it is 12am, and I need to be over at the Sheraton for Dries keynote tomorrow at 9am. So anyways, the Motion Media team and I had a pretty chill day of working, lounging and exploring.

We went for breakfast at The West Egg – review to come – then took off to the Drupal Tower – Sheraton Hotel – to lounge around with the fast internet and do some work. Our work for the day was basically around one big client site and an internal site. Both are some of are best work. I’m excited because the company will have a functioning blog again – opps did I just give to much away.

Unfortunately – fortunately – Martin’s computer died. It was a beast of a PC Laptop. Coming in a 17″, weighing god knows what. The point of the story is, we took a gander to the Apple store and walked out with a new 17″ MacBook Pro. It’ll be a learn curve for him, but we have faith.

To keep it short, that is how the rest of the day went, until this evening where we go to go see Dayna play at an open mic, but I’ll blog about that later. For now, check out these photos.

Brothers… can’t you tell.

Opps I don’t thinks some one knew he was getting his picture taken.

Blurry crowd shot of the Sheraton Hotel Lobby.

“I just bought a Apple Computer, but I still got my Android Phone, so all is good”

Mike and Steven sharing knowledge at one point in the afternoon.

Enough about us though, how are you doing. Drupalcon friends, what are you getting up to?

Mar 07 2011

REVIEW: Su Casa in Chicago

Su Casa is your average everyday Mexican restaurant in Chicago. Located on East Ontario St it offers authentic Mexican cuisine.

I’m actually not a big fan of Mexican food, but I managed to order something I could down. Although I’m not a find of the side of beans and paste with every dish. Lets back it up for a second though.

The restaurant was obviously older, which you could tell from the structure and inner decor. The place wasn’t crowed, but there wasn’t a lot of room either. Luckily we were able to get a comfortable table to seat the six of us.

The nacho chips with salsa and guacamole on every table was a nice touch and served as a good appy. The menu wasn’t bad, what I found bad was not knowing what most of the items where. So naturally I saw the word steak and ordered it.

It was steak shavings with lettus, tomatoes, rice and bean paste on the site. It wasn’t bad. Deffinitely not a favourite and I don’t think I would return on my own free will.

That being said, some of the others I was with, did in fact enjoy there meal, so don’t write this place off entirely.

There seemed to be a large amount of wait staff running around serving people and taking orders. For the most part they were really good and continuously made sure we were happy.

We all of course had fun and had a great meal altogether for the first time in a while.

Any recommendations on where we should go tonight in Chicago?