phpied.com

So it's been pretty quiet around here. I'm still alive and very much so. Just awfully busy.

Bulgaria

I took a long trip in Bulgaria. About 1 month and 20 days. Including the traditional around-Bulgaria let's-get-drunk-in-different-cities-every-day tour de force with the gang. With unusual amount of guitar playing this time.

Not all fun and roses, though, I had to work most of the time for a superimportant gamechanging ultrasecret project for Yahoo! Search. And work on the finishing touches for a book.

France, Italy, UK

While spending time in Bulgaria I did some quick jumps to other European countries - France, Italy, UK. Everything is so close in Europe, it's a shame not to wander around once you cross the big pond.

In Paris I had the pleasure to practice some French, but most importantly to meet with the local speed freaks at the Web Perf Meetup organized by Éric Daspet. Great experience to interrupt sightseeing and soufflé-eating just to be among fellow geeks in a small and cozy group.

photo: @tbassetto

Second tour leg

Back in California to the normal life and kids' school year start end of August. But a second European tour leg was just around the corner.

JSConfEU in Berlin was last week, this is hands-down the best conference. I cannot speak high enough about it, the organizers, the people, speakers, everyone, the parties (ouch, the parties). I met so many people I have been in contact with (or wanted to be) for quite a while, including the new book's tech reviewer Andrea aka @WebReflection. It's surprising, for the regular introvert geek I am, the pleasure of meeting and talking to people. Oh, the miracles of the little, or not so little, quantities of Berliner Pilsner.

Back from Berlin, a copy of the new book was waiting, how adorable! (I really need to put some marketing effort into it... at least put up a page what's it about, since people are asking). It's been rating very well in Amazon's "JavaScript" category. Saw it at #3 a few times, watch out "good parts"!

Next week it's Fronteers conference in Amsterdam. Really looking forward to this one. After all, the one and only PPK started it all. I'll be speaking about progressive downloads and progressive rendering. Progress is important, progress is critical! And I've never been to Amsterdam.

Then Moscow and highload++ conference. How cool that would be. I always wanted to see Moscow or any part of Russia really.

So... busy, busy, busy. And another book baby on the road. And one last conference but here in LA's "backyard" Las Vegas this time.

I've never been a Kiss fan, but went to see them while in Bulgaria. The show was excellent, lots of fireworks, fire breathing and all kinds of effects. More theatre than music, but fun nevertheless. It's a whole different experience than for example Pearl Jam, which is my kind of show, because it's all about the music and being simple, honest and non-celebrity. I was looking to recognize a piece that Mike McCready from Pearl Jam says he stole from Kiss, in turn stolen from The Doors. The piece in question is the beginning of the Alive (Pearl Jam) solo, which is like the beginning of Five To One (Doors) and the middle of the She (Kiss) solo, at least I think She was the song.

Tried to do a few photos with a camera phone.

The opening band, Cinder Road, apparently something like a post-glam band, inspired by bands (from one of the worst periods in pop music ) like Poison, Motley Crue and obviously Cinderella.

In fact I think Cinder Road sounded better than Kiss, maybe because they couldn't rely on effects but had to actually play.

Gene Simmons

Gene Simmons, Paul Stanley

Yep, I was close to the stage, although I moved away eventually. The sound from the back was better.

Starchild, I think was the nick name of this dude.

At some point there were lots of flying little pieces of paper, lots and lots of them, much like snow.

The moon

My sister in the foreground, yet another explosion of sound and light on the stage in the background.

I spent the 10 hours flight LA-Munich mainly standing up, walking or sitting on the armrest while the two kids occupied three chairs sleeping, which was totally fine, who wants to sit for 10 hours with cranky underslept kids. Then spent two hours with the noisiest kids on the Munich airport and two more on the Munich-Sofia plane. The little one said "Daddy, we going into the plane's belly" and yeah, that's exactly how I felt at the end of the journey: as something that has been into someone's belly and then followed its natural way back to the light of day.

The important thing is that we're here now and the joy of getting together grandparents and grandchildren: priceless. Other than that Bulgaria is cool, unseasonably.