Back from Chicago

A more motivated person than me would probably write a blog post about all the stuff Joanna and I did in Chicago over the weekend. I am not that motivated. Instead of writing that blog post I sorted through the hundreds of pictures I took and came up with these. They don't cover all the stuff we saw, but they certainly hit the high points. Enjoy.

A Lot Of Fun, A Little Rain

Thanks to Rob's father being out of town on business I managed to snag a ticket to the USA v. El Salvador Gold Cup match tonight. Actually, it was a double header, with the second match being Trinidad & Tobago v. Guatemala, but when the rain started to come down hard just as the USA crushed El Salvador 4 to 0 we decided it was time to call it a night.

This was the first time I'd actually been to a professional soccer match, and I've got to say it was quite a bit more fun than I'd expected. The game is fun to watch, there's practically no down time, and the fans are totally insane, way more into it than any sporting event I've ever been to.

I'm going to have to look into seeing some MLS games later this summer, I mean if they're even half as fun as this was they're totally worth it, with the added bonus that you can actually get tickets, unlike some other professional sports we've got around here...

mod_wsgi

So last night I happened to run across mod_wsgi. Very slick stuff.

Looks like a great way to get a simple python web app up and running with less overhead than mod_python. The documentation is quite comprehensive, the code is short and well commented, and there's an awful lot of interesting functionality here.

One thing that struck me as particularly interesting was the code for managing a fastcgi-like pool of daemon processes to do the actual work. It's an optional feature for mod_wsgi, but the code seems to be reasonably well fleshed out, and if any of us ever get back to working on mod_proxy_fcgi we'll have to track down the mod_wsgi author and see if he'd be willing to let us base our daemon support on his code.

Anyway, just something to file under "neat stuff to look at when I get the time"...

Progressing slowly towards fish

I'm happy to report that my roommate Jessica has managed to secure a heater for her fish tank. We are now one step closer to aquatic friends living under the stairs. Note, however, that she's been working on this project since we moved in to the apartment in September, and only sometime in the past few months did the tank manage to acquire water. My money's on us needing to either renew the lease or move before she gets around to, you know, actually acquiring a fish.