An Accepted Offer

Yesterday was the first Sunday in quite some time where Joanna and I didn't go out house hunting. The reason, happily, is that last week we made an offer on a 3 bedroom 1.5 bath contemporary style split level in Natick and this weekend we found out that it was accepted by the current owners. We've now started down that fun filled path to home ownership. Next step is the home inspection, which should happen some time this week.

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.

A Wet Week

So, this weekend (and much of the past week) has revolved largely around rain.

I had tickets to the Red Sox/Braves game on Wednesday. Amusingly, Joanna's parents also had tickets, and since they generally drive in for games we hitched a ride with them, hoping against hope that the rain would let up and we'd actually get to see a game. Naturally, the game was postponed before we even got out of the car, and it was rescheduled for the next day when neither of us was able to make it. Grr.

Fortunately, I also had tickets for the game on Friday night, so all was not lost. Of course, that game was also rained out. On the bright side we found out about it before we left for the game. With our initial plans for the evening shot we decided to head into Boston and catch a showing of Shear Madness, which while not baseball was pretty awesome.

Now in theory Saturday was already booked. There was supposed to be a birthday party during the day for a friend's kid and that night JJ and Donna were coming into town and we were all going to see the John Gorka concert in Framingham. The rain had its way with these plans though, and the party was pushed back to Sunday and the baseball game we were supposed to see on Friday night was rescheduled for Saturday night.

In practice, we ended up hanging out watching the first Red Sox game (which went quite swimmingly, Dice-K really did a number on the Braves) because the birthday party had been postponed due to rain and then spent way too long waiting for the T trying to get in to Fenway for that night's game. For some yet to be explained reason all the trains going in were single cars that were totally and completely packed, so we spent quite some time waiting at the Newton Centre T stop watching trains go bye, and then a rather uncomfortable trip in to Fenway becoming far too friendly with the portion of the baseball loving public who managed to cram themselves into that train with us.

Eventually we did make it to the game though, and despite precipitation that ranged from mist to out and out rain the game did actually happen. Of course, we'd really have preferred that it not since the Braves proceeded to crush the Red Sox. I did manage to put my new 70-300 f4-5.6 IS lens to good use, with the end result being the following flickr set. I particularly like the shots of Wally wearing his rain coat and Ortiz walking away from the plate after striking out.

On Sunday the rain did finally let up a bit, and the postponed birthday party actually happened. Let's just hope that this is the start of a week that isn't completely and totally controlled by rain!

Now that's a Ball Game!

Friday night's Red Sox game was a lot more fun to watch than the last one. Things that ruled included:

1. Actually having seats. I bought a 10 game package of seats on ebay for this year, and this is the first time we got to see them. Turns out to give a heck of a view (section 12, unobstructed view, etc), quite a bit more fun than the standing room seats.
2. The offense actually supported Wakefield, who pitched a hell of a game. This stands in stark contrast to his last game where he also pitched a hell of a game, but got screwed because the rest of the team couldn't get any runs.
3. After some slightly strange moves in the 8th put us in a bit of a sticky situation Papelbon came out and took care of things. I'd never actually seen him pitch in person, and man was it something. The crowd really went nuts, and he certainly delivered.
4. The crowd continued singing "Sweet Caroline" well past the point where the music faded out and the bottom of the 8th started. I always wonder what the opposing teams must think of that when they play in Fenway...
5. Once the bottom of the 8th yielded its 6 runs they decided not to waste Papelbon on a situation where he really wasn't needed and Timlin came in to finish things out. I definitely like the idea of using Papelbon when he's needed and pulling him out when it's clear that he's done the job.

Anyway, a great time was had by all. Next time I'm going to have to bring my camera, as those seats have a great view of home plate and a pretty decent view of the rest of the field. With any luck I'll be able to come home with some great shots.

Another Season At Fenway

Last night was the first Red Sox game we had tickets to this season. Standing room only, which sounds kind of lame until you realize that the standing room seats have pretty decent views (when some idiot isn't standing at the top of the aisle in front of you anyway). It was a bit cold though. The t-shirt, shirt, sweater, and jacket I was wearing were apparently not quite enough. Next time maybe something with a hood...

As for the game itself, we got shut out by Hernandez. Heck, it was almost a no hitter until J.D. Drew managed to get a single off of him in the 8th. I guess Joanna's technique of incessantly talking about the fact that a no-hitter was going on did work in the end. Dice-K managed to give up 3 runs, but as Rob said, if he pitches like that in every single game this year he'll win more than he loses and nobody would think of complaining. If you're going to complain about anything from last night it's gotta be about the fact that the offense couldn't get their shit together. Doesn't matter how well a pitcher does if his team doesn't score any damn runs.

I must admit though, it was pretty crazy watching Dice-K's first outing at Fenway. The stands were practically white from all the flashes during his first pitch, and I'm still trying to figure out how the guy dressed in a sumo outfit managed to avoid frostbite. The fact that one of the vendors outside the park is now advertising Sausages, Pizza and Sushi will take some getting used to though.

Next tickets are for Friday night versus the Angels. Hopefully it'll manage not to rain. Heck, hopefully it'll manage not to snow...

I'll take "Things I didn't think I needed to double check" for $500, Alex

So, is it just ridiculously outside the realm of normal expectations to assume that when you purchase a picture frame that claims on the package to be 5 inches by 7 inches in size you'd actually get a picture frame that measures 5 inches by 7 inches? Am I the only one who thinks that's a pretty basic requirement and one that you really shouldn't need to confirm before purchase?

I only ask because the 5 by 7 variant of the IKEA clips picture frame (which in all other ways is quite nice really, I'm a big fan) apparently measures 5 1/4 inches by 7 inches.

Naturally, while my printer's software (and once again, I'm more than happy with it in every other regard, it's quite lovely stuff and when combined with this printer makes some beautiful prints) is more than happy to print 5 by 7 or various other sizes that are largely a function of the paper size it totally refuses to print something as arbitrarily odd as 5 1/4 by 7.

Of course, I didn't think it would have to since, let me reiterate, THE PACKAGE SAYS THEY'RE 5 BY 7!

Required Reading: Scalable Internet Architectures

So, last week I managed to find enough free time to finish up my copy of Theo Schlossnagle's book Scalable Internet Architectures. It is, without a doubt, required reading for anyone thinking about working on a large scale internet facing web application today.

Theo is a regular speaker at various open source conferences, and much of the content from his talks made it into the book. That means you get a combination of just plain old good advice on how to make things scale up (worry about logging, think about caching, plan your upgrades), tips you might not have thought of (you can use cookies as a rather effective per-user caching system as long as it's for small amounts of data) and as might be expected from someone who went to Hopkins a hundred and one tricks you can play with the Spread group communication system.

Even if you don't build your application using the techniques that Theo specifically discusses you'll absolutely benefit from his advice on what sort of things you should be thinking about as you design your architecture, since if you don't think about them then you'll just have to do it when you rebuild it later for greater scalability.

Anyway, go grab a copy, it's worth a read.