CurtBlog

finally had a chance yesterday to set foot in the Pacific ocean for the first time.  I've been out on this project for over a month, but haven't really staying in town much.  Got to do just a little body surfing, which I used to do a lot of back in my Rehoboth Beach DE days. In case you didn't know, the Pacfic Ocean is just a bit more powerful, at least compared to the Atlantic around Delaware.  Got knocked around a bit, but it was fun.

well i'm back from Redmond and rather exhausted.  still trying to process everything I heard about and saw this week.  of course i'm under NDA, so it's not like I can share much anyway.  but suffice it to say that if you like ASP.NET now, wait until you see what's coming.  it's gonna be fun.

by the way, i'm not the first to say this, but if you ever get a chance to see Don Box speak, make every effort to do it.  he's always got interesting things to say and is a very engaging speaker.  it's not fair that these guys get to be brilliant software architects and good public speakers.  but i guess it's like anything else, dedication and practice and of course a reasonably good noggin to start with.

sitting here at Microsoft listening to anders hejlsberg, architect of C#, talk about features of the next version of C#.  how did this happen... very cool.

Was listening to Pete Tong on BBC Radio 1 this past weekend and heard a new single from Martina Topley Bird, who just released her first solo record.  You probably don't know that name, but she is the vocalist that added so much to the first few Tricky records, including the brilliant Maxinquaye.  currently in the US it's an import, so it's really expensive.  so skip over to Amazon UK and it's about 8 pounds, so about a normal US dollar amount.  ordered, we'll see how it is.

Well, I can't recall pulling an allnighter at any point in school.  Can't remember ever doing it really.  Until this year.  I've pulled 2 already.  one at Microsoft.  and one this past early Sunday AM.  took part in a 30 mile bike ride that Friends of the Parks puts on in Chicago.  me and some friends from church volunteered Saturday evening, helping to set up.  then a late dinner at an awesome Greek place.  then back over to Buckingham Fountain to wait around until they got started.  since we volunteered, we could choose whichever "wave" to go in we wanted to.  when you have 8000-10000 people, you have to do things in waves.  anyway, it was awesome.  they shut down Lake Shore Drive for us, so we're riding down LSD around 2 in the morning looking at the city in all its nighttime splendor.  amazing.  rode from about 1:45 to 4:45 and then had some food and headed home along the lake.  saw the sunrise over Lake Michigan.  a truly transcendent experience in a lot of ways.

and now i'm writing this blog entry from Seattle.  for the next 3 days I'll get to hear about the next generation of ASP.NET directly from the ASP.NET team.  so that should rock in any number of ways.  plus i'll get to meet a lot of people who up till now I've only "known" online.  what a week.