Cool Place: Round Corner Cantina

Hey guys. Last night I went to a cool bar called the Round Corner Cantina. It in Lawrenceville, approximately here, and if you've been to the up-and-coming hip part of Butler street then you've probably even been really nearby.  Anyway, the point is that you should check it out. It's pretty hip. The inside bar has great ambience, & a cool bartending staff. The backyard area is big & fun & absolutely perfect with the weather last night. And finally they have a reasonably cool selection of drinks at decent prices. For e.g., I had the Tijuana Sling, a Taquilla-based drink with ginger ale & some other fruity stuff. Highly recommended.

Lausanne... Jealous?

Last night Sick Ridiculous and the Sick Ridiculous recorded a hot new track. This one's called, "Lausanne... Jealous?" It's more custom party music from Donna's PhD defense party, and it's mainly an homage to her and her work in the field of OOP research. Also, she's moving to Switzerland, hence the title and the 100+ of Swiss references.

Download this track free now, like immediately.

Also, by this point we have almost ten custom party songs! I'd like to remind you to check them all out, and that all our songs can be downloaded from Last.fm and elsewhere.

Sweet Camping City

This past weekend I went camping! Camping is definitely not something I do very often, so it's a big deal when I go. Overall result? Great time. Mild sunburn.

This particular camping trip was to Assateague Island in Maryland. I still have no idea how the name is pronounced, but the island is off the eastern shore of Maryland and it has amazing beaches. This was a lot different from any camping I've done before. Those trips have always been in the woods, and even when my friends told me about the island I still basically assumed we were going to be in the woods. That's just what "camping" means to me. Camping on the beach is a whole new kind of dirty. Going to the beach? Gets you dirty. Camping? Gets you dirty. Camping on the beach? Super dirty. I had sand in every single crevace. But for the views and swimming it was worth it.

Rants & Raves:

• There was a little rain & gnarly waves courtesy of our friend Hurricane Bill, but we are tough.
• I think I may have figured out the perfect food for camping: Pre-smoked sausages from Hillshire farms. They are way more satisfying than hot dogs but just about as easy to cook. Just wrap them in some foil and throw them in the campfire.
• Peaches are delicious. I got a bunch from the market in Philly where we had spent the previous night.
• Foam camping pads are terrible. They provide absolutely no padding. Get some kind of blow-up pad ASAP. I borrowed this from a friend.
• You will never eat as many granola bars as you bring.
• Maryland really is a beautiful state. I was thouroughly impressed with the scenery as we drove back to Pittsburgh. Also, dig that bay bridge! It's no Causeway, but it's still pretty serious.

Girl Talk!

Last night I saw Girl Talk in concert and had a great time! The concert was held at the Station Square amphitheater which is conveniently right next to Sation Square, but which has these amazing views of downtown, since it's right across the Mon. The scenery was definitely amazing, since we got there at about 7:15, and watched the city slowly get darker as the sun went down.

There were at least four good bands: Grand Buffet was tight as always. I liked seeing this band Donora, who had this Shhh! indie rock chick thing going. Then there was Wiz Khalifa, a more serious rapper, who was pretty good and had at least one song I already knew ("Say Yeah") from Girl Talk.

And of course there was Girl Talk. I really do love Girl Talk. He has achieved something that is really way beyond any other mashup artist which is, I guess, to make me actually like a mashup artist. Many of his songs, while maybe not better than the original, certainly have more energy. He has a pretty standard formula of Rap + Pop Hook, but the songs really come at you pretty fast & furious. I think he probably does a better job at picking the backing songs than many rappers themselves do. Maybe he should be a producer? Here's one example of that.

The concert itself was definitely fun. Dancing was the order of the day, and despite the fact that this was a big outdoor music festival, people were really dancing and having a good time. The vibe was like 90% positive I would say. If I had one complaint I guess I would say that his songs tend to drag just a bit more live than they do on the albums, but I figure that's because he's doing a little bit more in person and therefore needs more time to think. Anyway, highly recommend! 

You're the Best

 Remember that time I won the Stanley Cup?

Italy & ECOOP

Italy-2009-3
Originally uploaded by DixiePistols.

Well I'm back! Last night I returned from Italy on a Milan-Atlanta-Pittsburgh flight. Overall, the trip was great! Here's how it went down:

First off, I took the Pittsburgh to Paris flight. It was really great to fly direct to Europe and even thought it was a relatively small plane (757) they had those awesome TVs where you get to choose your own movie, TV & music, which made the flight fly by.

Genoa is a cool city. At first it looks pretty grungy, but the old city, with its tiny alleyways and the port on the Medditerranean were wonderful and made up for any other low points. We took full advantage of the Italian tradition of pre-dinner drinks, and I met a bunch of cool people from the conference.

The conference itself was also interesting. My workshop paper was fine, and ECOOP had more papers that I actually want to read than any conference I've ever been to before. I would say that 10 of 25 papers were interesting, when compared with the normal 3 or 4. Also Simon Peyton Jones gave a keynote, and I finally understand Haskell's Type Classes!

After Genoa I met up with Amy, a friend studying in Italy. We went to Milan for one day, which was fine, and then we moved along to Domodossola, a small city on the Swiss border in the Alps. I didn't really know what to expect, but we had an amazing time. There were two big highlights. First, we went to an Italian/Mountain folk festival where we ate ribs, sausage and listened to Italian folk music which was kind of like polka. The sausage was definitely the best I have ever had in my life! The next day we went to Lago Maggiore, the biggest lake in Italy. While it was full of European tourists, the scenery was awesome, so I didn't care. There were three tiny islands that we visited with palaces & gardens. The whole thing had the feeling of a Greek village. Definitely awesome.

Italy's great, and sometimes I sort of forget that. I definitely prefer the smaller places we went to over, say, Rome which is hot & crowded (but still great). It's great to be back!

Made it to Genoa

So I am in Genoa!

Haven't done much so far, but I guess I found the hotel's wireless. The flight was really neat. I really enjoyed taking Delta from Pittsburgh to Paris, and the flight was mostly full, so I guess that's a good sign for Pittsburgh. We also had on-demand video in the seats, which makes all the difference.

Here in Genoa the weather is nice & sunny but humid I guess. I've been stuck in this organizational meeting for the student volunteers at ECOOP, and frankly it's not quite the streamlined operation I'd hoped it'd be, but whatever I guess I can't complain since it looks like I won't have too much work to do.

More when I do it!