2026-03-28 12:00:00
DrupalCon was in Chicago this year. I arrived Sunday morning and after connecting with a couple of coworkers we hit a nearby Irish Pub where I was able keep an eye on the Purdue game as we ate. I attempted to go for a walk in the afternoon but it was right around freezing with a bitterly cold wind coming off the lake. I made it about 2 blocks before meeting friends at the hotel pub seemed like the more sensible idea. After a team dinner me and two coworkers headed to Buddy Guy's blues club, where we enjoyed a local blues band and a surprise appearance by Buddy Guy himself.
Monday was training day and I wasn't doing any training or optional industry sessions so I mostly worked. Efficiency was marginal as the in-room WiFi was useless, so I worked down in the lobby of a conference hotel where I knew hundreds of people. But I did get the stuff done that I needed to do done, leaving me free to focus on the conference. The conference kicked off at 4 PM with the opening reception, where I was on booth duty. That evening I took a couple of coworkers to the Billy Goat Tavern where we had steak sandwiches and chips (no fries!) and several rounds of Old Styles. I gave them the full Chicago experience, LOL. Also, I'm apparently the dive bar guy now, so I'm responsible for dive bar night at all future conferences. As someone (not me) might say on LinkedIn, I relish the opportunity to bring my coworkers meaningful cultural experiences and I deeply appreciate the trust they have placed on me with this mission critical responsibility.
Tuesday was day 1 of the full conference experience. As I do every year, I circled some sessions I wanted to attend, then missed them all as I was always in an interesting conversation when the session was starting. They are all recorded so I'll catch up over the next weeks, err months. As always my brain was completely full after a day of talking with so many smart and interesting people.
Tuesday night was the big gala celebrating 25 years of Drupal. I've been a part of the Drupal community for half of those 25 years. Given the price of the gala at $125 a person, I thought it was a sit down dinner event, especially since the company bought a table. Instead it was a fancy happy hour. There was plenty of food, so I didn't go hungry. One of the food options was Barbie tacos. Now, all tacos are good tacos, but these things were perfectly sized to fit in Barbie or Ken's hand. I imagine they used tweezers to add the filling to the taco wheel. After the party I went back to the room and bed as I had to get up early to lead the 2nd annual DrupalCon birding expedition. Wednesday morning 7 people met me at 6:45 AM to go birding. We watched common song birds in Grant Park and got good looks at Red Breasted Mergansers and Horned Grebes on the lake.
Day 2 of the conference was the same as Day 1. Lots of interesting conversations, with 2 days on the conference floor starting to catch up with me, or at least catch up with my back. There did seem to be more optimism and energy than in recent years. That is saying something given the year most Drupal agencies have had.
Wednesday night we had an invite only party for customers, prospects, and friends of the company at a speakeasy. After that we retired to the hotel bar, where I lasted 1 Guinness before retiring for the evening. This is my third consecutive DrupalCon where I didn't see midnight. 10 years ago I saw sunrise on the way back to the hotel once.
Thursday was go home day. I started by birding again, because it was a beautiful morning. After that, I packed up and worked from the lobby for 90 minutes before heading to the airport. I was worried about the security lines at Chicago Midway, but in typical Drupal community fashion, there were Slack threads with airport line updates from those who had left earlier. It took me 3 minutes to get through the pre-check line. I'm typing this on my phone on the flight home.
The conference was at the downtown Hilton, and I must say it was my least favorite DrupalCon hotel. As mentioned earlier, in room WiFi was useless. Also, the prices were stupid expensive. I grabbed a diet Coke from the shop in the lobby and they charged me $8. My expenses were covered, but that kind of captive pricing just offends me. So every morning I made a one block walk to Dunkin' for coffee and a donut instead of of overpaying for a coffee in the hotel. Screw them.
DrupalCon next year is in Orlando. I'm already looking forward to it. But next up is DrupalCon Asheville in July, followed by Drupal GovCon in August.
2026-03-15 12:00:00
Thoughts in the calm before the storm.
RVA is in the category 4 storm warning zone for tomorrow. 70+ MPH winds, 1-2" hail, and tornadoes are expected. All the schools are closed. The church preschools are closed. The commercial preschools are open. It's not safe for a 16-year-old to be in school, but it's fine for the 16-month-olds. KinderCare is publicly traded with a PE firm majority stockholder, but I'm sure that has nothing to do with the decision to open tomorrow. They'll probably close at 3 PM and kick the teachers out of the building as the tornado is bearing down on the building.
Purdue won the B1G 10 tournament. I did not see that result coming. I know I'm supposed to not care about college sports, but tourney time sucks me back in every year.
Also, I'm very much looking forward to the Dominican Republic vs. USA game tonight. I'll be rooting for DR. That lineup is crazy loaded.
Master Naturalist training is ongoing. I think I've completed my field trip hours, although I'm going on at least two more because they are so interesting. I've been thinking about how to fill my volunteer hours. I think I'm going to get trained to certify homeowner yards as bird-friendly with the Audubon Society. That'll be fun. I owe at least 40 hours a year, and I'm thinking I want to spread it across two main interest areas. My problem is I'm interested in everything. I'll definitely do something bird-related with at least half my time. The other half I'm still working on.
I'll be in Chicago for DrupalCon North America next week. On the weird chance that someone reading this will also be there, shoot me a message, and we can try to meet up.
This weekend was a pretty great weekend. I started Saturday (Pi Day!) morning by birding with some of my fellow naturalist trainees before our field trip started, where we learned about the invasive species removal efforts in the James River Parks system. Saturday afternoon we watched Purdue beat UCLA to advance to the Big 10 Championship game. Saturday evening I had a date night with my wife at the local pub. Also, I ate pie. Twice. This morning my wife and I went out birding, and this afternoon was book club day. I made soda bread to share for book club. And this evening is DR vs. USA baseball on TV.
It's going to be a crazy next two weeks with me trying to get two weeks of work done this week so I can not be working from my hotel room at midnight during the conference.
Remember, in a world where you can choose to be anything, you can choose to be kind.
2026-02-22 13:00:00
It was 60F (15C) yesterday. It's going to start snowing in a couple of hours. I am so over winter.
I think this is only the second weekend this year that I have not worked at least one day. I probably should have been productive today, but instead I ranked Tesla's albums. I also added some more records to my in-progress list of albums I was listening to in 1986.
A couple of weeks ago, I took 3 days off so we could attend the Hammock Coast Birding Festival. In looking at my billable hours forecast for the month, I'm going to end up working 100% of my hours. Does a vacation even count if you just work all the missed hours on weekends or at night?
Virginia Master Naturalist training is ongoing. I'm 5 weeks into my 13 weeks of classes, and I attended a 3-week field trip on James River Geology yesterday. I'm learning a lot, having a lot of fun, and hanging out with like-minded, environmentally focused folks. Next weekend I'll be learning abut oyster shell recycling and participating in the effort.
Last night Michelle asked me if we are officially crazy birders now. I'll let you be the judge. We drove 90 minutes RT to spend about 30 minutes standing in a field trying to observe the mating ritual of the American Woodcock. The male bird starts chirping after sunset, and if his chirp attracts a female, he then flies 300 feet up in loopy circles before dropping back to earth like a lead balloon, taking control of the drop in the last few feet to a perfect landing in the spot he left from. I saw and heard at least 20 of the birds, but seeing a plump brown bird 300 feet up after sunset is tough. Impossible even.
Also, yesterday was the 39th anniversary of the day I met the girl that would become my wife. To say her initial impression of me was "meh" probably gives me too much credit. The story is here.
Reading
I'm currently reading Dungeon Crawler Carl, the story of a guy and his ex-girlfriend's cat that survive the alien destruction of the earth and get sent to the dungeons. Except this dungeon is a reality show in which the surviving humans are thrust into the role of dungeon explorers in a universally (literally!) popular TV reality show, where almost all of them will die. So think The Running Man, with D&D style dungeons and monsters. I also greatly enjoyed Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz, which is a novella in which a restaurant robot realizes he has been powered down for 5 months in the independent state of CA, and that he and the rest of the robot restaurant crew need to make some cash to pay off their lease before they get sold into slavery in the US, of which CA is no longer part.
Listening
I haven't bought any new music since the last occasional update. I find it impossible to browse the new release section every Friday on YT Music, as I assume any band I don't recognize is probably AI. I likely need to track down some music blogs to follow.
Watching
I've watched far too much Olympic curling. We also finished up season 1 of ST:TNG. We also watched Sinners, which was fabulous, and the Hitchcock flick Notorious. I'm sure there was other stuff, but I've already forgotten it.
And that is all I have for now. I'm barely keeping up with the blogs I want to read, let alone cataloging links to share.
Remember, in a world where you can choose to be anything, you can choose to be kind.
2026-02-11 13:00:00
Last fall we thought it would be a great idea to get out of the VA winter for a few days at the Hammock Coast Birding Festival south of Myrtle Beach. Average highs for the first week of February there are 61°F (16°C). We got in Wednesday after a day of white-knuckle driving in the rain, punctuated by sitting in park for about an hour on I-95 near Lumberton, NC. After checking in at the festival HQ and checking in at our Airbnb, we ventured out in the terrible weather to a local joint that would have been walking distance in reasonable weather. We drove. Inlet Crab House and Raw Bar delivered, though, as our dinners were excellent and very reasonably priced. On Wednesday evening we relaxed watching USA Curling at the Olympics.
So how did that winter weather escape plan work out for us? On Thursday morning I found myself standing on a jetty 100 yards out into the Atlantic Ocean at Huntington Beach State Park. It was around freezing with a 25 mph wind blowing on us. The waves crashing against the rocks were dampening us with salt spray. I was peering into my binoculars, searching through the fog looking for Northern Gannets.
100% a great time. I would totally do it again. Although I'd appreciate better weather next time. I have no photos from that morning because, well, isn't it obvious? I added the common loon and razorbill to my life list, though. We saw the gannets; although I had seen them previously, I did not remember just how large those birds are. Watching them dive for fish was spectacular, even in those conditions. On the way back we walked behind the dunes out of the wind, where I found a salt marsh sparrow, also a lifer for me.
After a break for lunch at our Airbnb, we headed back out for our afternoon birding event, looking for red-cockaded woodpeckers at Brookgreen Gardens, directly across the street from the state park. They have about 3000 acres of Long Leaf Pine forest, where about 40 of the worldwide population of 14,000 woodpeckers live. Alas, they were not to be found on our 90-minute tour.
Later that afternoon we attended the festival happy hour and were surprised at how far folks had traveled for this event. I had feared I might be one of a few lone outsiders, but we met people from Wyoming, Utah, AZ, and all over the country. After the happy hour, we stopped at Quigley's Pint and Plate for dinner, where I enjoyed a beer brewed there on the premises and a steak and shrimp dinner. That evening we relaxed in the Airbnb while watching USA Curling.
Friday morning we had a date with ducks. We met up with guide Richard Costa at a pond in the state park, where I saw many ducks, was freezing, and got more than a few lessons in duck identification. (Look at the bill!) The sun came out and the fog lifted just as our session ended at 10 AM. After that we lingered a bit and then headed south, as we had about a 1-hour drive to the Tom Yawkey Wildlife Refuge.
The refuge is run by the SC DNR, although the Yawkey Foundation helps pay the bills. Our guide, DNR Education and Outreach Coordinator Molly McNeill, was fabulous. The refuge is an island in the Intercoastal Waterway. You park and hop on a pontoon boat for a 30-second ride to get there. The refuge features longleaf pine forests, as well as old rice plantation land that is now a series of freshwater and brackish ponds. I had three target birds for the trip.
I got all three at the refuge. That's a good day of birding. We got great looks at a bunch of other shorebirds and ducks too.
Note: The woodpeckers only breed in mature longleaf pine trees, which used to cover the SE USA. Today, they only exist in a few places in the SE where the forests are managed specifically to help the birds. Longleaf pine cones need fire to clear out the underbrush to set new seeds. The trees literally depend on fire to reproduce. Fire suppression has been the SOP for years, although now the agencies managing these forests are doing controlled burns to keep the ecosystem healthy.
On Friday evening we attended the festival dinner, where Dr. Patrick McMillan gave a very engaging keynote talk. When we returned to the Airbnb, we...wait for it...watched USA Curling. Hey, I like curling. I joined a league a few years back and quite enjoyed playing the game. However, the league met on Saturday nights, and I didn't enjoy it enough to give up every Saturday night for it.
Saturday morning had us out of the Airbnb by 6:15 AM as we had a 7:30 birding session at the Black River Cypress Preserve. We spent three hours at the preserve, racking up mostly common birds, although a red-headed woodpecker gave us some great extended looks. Saturday afternoon got blustery to go with the barely above freezing temps. We had a boat tour scheduled but decided to skip it due to the weather. Instead, we went back to the state park and did some birding on our own, then went across the highway to Brookgreen to explore the park. We went for a walk and found a river otter enjoying life in a pond. We also went to the small zoo there. I generally avoid zoos, but I guessed correctly that this zoo was rescue-focused, and it was. We got to see a red wolf, one of only 300ish alive in the world. The park is part of the breeding program trying to save the species. They also had several species of owls and a couple of bald eagles that were rescues that could not survive in the wild. We happened to be there as an attendant was giving the owls fresh water, and it was hilarious watching the barn owls do their intimidation dance, which I doubt intimidates anything larger than a rodent. Likewise, the great horned owls cluck and growl, which again lacks a real fear factor when you know the owls can't fly.
After that we had another festival dinner, conveniently located less than a mile from our Airbnb. They gave away a bunch of door prizes. As expected, I won nothing.
Do I even need to tell you how we spent Saturday night?
There were some festival events on Sunday morning, but we had a 5.5-hour drive home if all went well. All went well; the drive was uneventful.
Would we do this festival again? Absolutely. Will we? Who knows? The only reason we wouldn't repeat next year is if we decide to do some other birding festival instead.
2026-02-01 13:00:00
It's Sunday morning, February 1st. These are 10 things I'm thinking about.
It's fucking cold here. It's 19F (-5C) as I type this. I live in the South. I do not remember this kind of extended cold streak in my 28 years in Virginia. We are into the 2nd week of brutally cold temperatures. We are expected to at least get above freezing this week.
I spent the morning cleaning up the document directory on my PC. I create many spreadsheets. Are too many spreadsheets possible? I'm not sure that it is. My brain apparently works in columns and rows.
The federal government is a hostile adversary and should be treated as such until such time that we get new leadership that respects the Constitution and the rule of law.
It's February 1, and there is still no healthcare deal out of the Senate. I'm sure that Schumer has written many sternly worded emails, though.
It's an Indigo Girls morning. They are awesome.
I spent yesterday vacation planning for the fall or early winter. I was all set on a 7-day Texas road trip centered around camping at Big Bend National Park. Then, as I dug into looking at campground reservations in the park, I learned that the Chisos Basin area will be off-limits effective June 1 for construction that could last two years. Some of the most iconic hikes and sights are there, and it doesn't make sense to plan a trip if we'll miss so much of the park. I think we've settled on a 7-day birding road trip through Florida. Big Bend will have to wait.
Texas is a stupidly large state.
I'm feeling increasingly optimistic about my business this year. Stuff is happening, and it's all good. Last year I wrote a business plan, and so far it's all going according to plan. Now I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop. Because the other shoe always drops. Also, I feel a little conflicted about feeling good about any part of my life with everything happening in this country.
I wonder how many non-US-based Drupal folks are passing on DrupalCon North America this year because they are afraid to cross our border? Catching up with Drupal community folks from far-flung locations is one of the best things about DrupalCon. I fear it'll be almost 100% Americans this year.
I'm only working two days this week as we are going to a birding festival in South Carolina. I need the break. I worked every weekend in January. Hopefully I'll see some payback in Q2 from the extra effort in January. Also, the weather looks nice for the festival: 50°F (10C) and sunny every day.
2026-01-23 13:00:00
I've noticed that by about 10 AM most days I am done with the news. I'm deleting unread email newsletters and skipping over blog posts or Mastodon posts that have anything to do with current events. I just can't take it anymore. Then I feel guilty about not staying up to date. But really, how is an article about yet another ICE atrocity in Minneapolis going to make my life better? I'm already at maximum outrage.
Speaking of Minneapolis, can I just say how fucking proud I am every single person resisting in that city. What little hope I have left for the future of this country is hanging on primarily because of the actions of the people of Minneapolis. You folks fucking rock. Keep on resisting. You way outnumber the Nazis and you can wear them down. As a resident of a state capital with a newly elected Democratic Governor I'm wondering if we are next. If we are, I hope I can live up to the example set by the people of Minneapolis.
In other news, I'm officially a Virginia Master Naturalist volunteer. I attended my first class last week. It's a long road to getting the Master Naturalist title but I expect to do it before the end of the year. The volunteer opportunities are amazing. There are so many opportunities to do cool stuff outdoors in support of conservation around RVA. The hard part is picking what to do. I want to do it all.
We went out for dinner tonight because we don't expect to leave the house again before Tuesday. We are hunkered down for the incoming winter storm. I've got a camp stove for cooking if we lose power, and I'm going to fill up the bathtub with water this evening so that we have flush water if a local water main blows. That happened last year and we were totally unprepared. This time we've got a stock of drinking water in the garage and the bathtub water for flushing the toilets. I've also got a generator, but I realized too late today that I never replaced the portable space heater that died last year. The house is well insulated, I think we'd be fine with extra layers if it comes to that. We live in a new neighborhood with underground utilities, so really we only lose power if something more central goes, and those issues tend to get fixed first since they affect a larger number of people.
Bring it on SnowMageddon 26. We are ready for you.
Also, check out my friend Ryan's interview over at the People and Blogs series. I was interviewed last year.
If you are in the path of the storm this weekend please stay safe, and warm.
