SubConf/Munich 2009

As I compose this, I'm 38,000 feet above sea level and somewhere between Charlotte and Denver, en route (ultimately) to this year's U.S. Apachecon event. Seems it was just yesterday that I was flying home from my last conference event. Perhaps that's because it was just a few days ago that I passed through Customs in Charlotte after the lengthy flight home from Munich, Germany. I'd been in Munich for the third SubConf Subversion user conference. I've had the pleasure of attending the prior two years as well, and this year's event was again a enjoyable one.

After helping to coach Gavin's soccer team to an 8-1 victory last Saturday, I hurried home, grabbed my bags, and was off to the airport. My direct flight from Charlotte to Munich landed Sunday morning around 8:30am local time. A couple of train rides and a short walk later, I was checking into the B & B Hotel, where (I was told) "all the cool kids" — that is, some fellow Subversion developers — were staying. I spent Sunday afternoon getting settled into the hotel and resting, then met up with Hyrum Wright for the express purposes of reprising last year's trip to Berni's Nudelbrett and to plan how we'd invest our time on Monday.

Hyrum and I decided on a trip to Salzburg, Austria for our Monday outing. It was two hours away by train, so we caught the earliest one we could manage. While in Salzburg, we visited the Hohensalzburg Fortress (an 11th-century fortress that overlooks the city), the Residenz State Rooms, Mozart's birthplace, and some other spots in the city. Afterwards, we took a bus out to the town of Grönig, where we rode the Untersberg Cable Car up into the mountains. Wow! Suspended above the earth by a wire the thickness of my forearm, watching as rocky crags passed underneath, I was overwhelmed by the novelty of it all. This was not a normal day in the life of Mike Pilato, to say the least. Our train back to Munich got us in town in time for dinner, which we took at one of the city's many beerhouses. (Thankfully, the locals don't take it too personally when we tourists opts for Coke and Fanta.)

I returned to the hotel around 10:00pm, where two things were waiting for me: a group of Subversion developer colleagues, and a nasty surprise from the SubConf event organizers. It seems that an employee of Polarion who was slated to present an all-day Subversion workshop the following day (Tuesday) fell ill, and then made the poor decision to use email — nice, asynchronous, non-interrupting, unacknowledged email — as his medium for telling the event organizers that he had to bail on the workshop. By the time they realized that they had no one to present the workshop, the organizers had to scramble for assistance. They found me online and asked if I could present the workshop instead. I was completely unprepared to do so, but offered to help as best as I could.

Fortunately, things took a turn for the better when I then went down to the lobby to meet up with my colleagues. While I was bemoaning this situation and my lack of preparedness, the angel Michael — no, not that one; Michael Diers (from Elego) — offered to assist me for the first half of the day-long workshop and to take over entirely in the latter half. And as if that wasn't great enough, I was then presented with the finished results of the T-shirt I designed for the conference:

Tuesday's workshop went pretty well, actually, thanks largely to Michael's familiarity with the topic and ready-on-hand materials. After lunch I was finally able to meet up with several other Subversion developers in a room the conference organizers had arranged for us to occupy for hackathon purposes. We worked for a few hours before heading over to participate as a panel in a Developer Roundtable event — an hour and a half of face-to-face interaction with Subversion users and administrators interested in learning more about Subversion's upcoming features or in solving particular Subversion problems they were having. I love these events for the fact that they serve to remind me that at the other side of every bug report or feature request is another human being who isn't just trying to make work for us as developers but is merely trying to get stuff done.

Wednesday morning, I delivered my keynote presentation, The Subversion Legacy (So Far...). I took the attendees on a brief walk through Subversion's history, beginning with its instantiation as an open-source project by CollabNet and continuing through to the current day, and focusing on aspects of the community and of key events and decisions which have contributed to Subversion's success. Despite the language challenge (most of the attendees were more comfortable communicating in German), I got positive feedback. And with that completed, I was in the clear in terms of obligations to the conference, and joked that I was now able to return to my typical 40% stress level.

I spent the rest of Wednesday and most of Thursday working on Subversion itself in the hackathon room with the other developers. We had occasional breaks to take in presentations by our peers, but mostly spent the time trying to improve the very software that the conference existed to celebrate. Thursday night those of us that remained went to dinner in Munich, sharing a final last few minutes together. A casual onlooker would never guess that we live scattered across the globe, only occasionally seeing each other in person. (In fact, I met one of my CollabNet colleagues for the first time on this trip!)

I traveled to the airport Friday morning with Greg Stein, hopped onto my plane bound for Charlotte, and was fortunate to sleep two-thirds of the flight away. I was greeted in Charlotte on Friday afternoon by my incredible, amazing wife and children. The opening theme of my keynote was about gratitude, and gratitude for good friends and a loving family served as the bookend to that week-long trip to Germany.

Soccer Monsters

I don't know why, but my oldest son's soccer team chose the name "Soccer Monsters". I have trouble prioritizing how I spend time, so for kicks, I whipped up (with the assistance of Amy's valuable feedback and suggestions) a team logo:

The coaches liked the result. Now our little 5- and 6-year-old soccer stars are sporting embroidered patches of the logo on their jerseys (thanks, Patches4Less), and slappin' stickers of the logo all over the place (thanks, Contagious Graphics).

Review: Main Street Steak & Seafood, Harrisburg, NC

At the core of every pessimist's belief system is a simple truth: if you expect the worst, you'll only get pleasant surprises. At the core of every realist's belief system is another: if you expect the worst, and consistently receive it, pessimism might just be warranted.

Long ago, 4351 Main Street, Suite 111 — located in Harrisburg's Town Center — held Ciro's Italian Restaurant. Amy and I lived in Chicagoland at the time, and were only able to visit that establishment once. I recall enjoying it and remarking that it was much like having an Olive Garden in Harrisburg, but without the cookie-cutter chain restaurant feel. But eventually Ciro's moved out of that space, making way for a new tenant: Parma Ristorante. Now, my understanding is that Parma was actually a reincarnation of a separate restaurant (Roma's) which had previously occupied a location on the outskirts of the town. We had friends who swore by Roma's pizza, but our own experiences there were mediocre at best. Sadly, mediocre took a turn for awful when Parma opened up. This isn't a review of Parma, and perhaps it isn't kind to speak of the dead, but suffice it to say that despite multiple opportunities to impress us during visits to that shop — even across its various management and ownership changes — it not only failed to impress, but it failed to even remotely please. Parma was, quite simply, a monumental culinary disaster.

When Main Street Steak & Seafood opened its doors a few weeks ago in the old Ciro's/Parma location, we looked forward with cautious optimism to trying it out. That optimism was quickly crushed by the terrifying review of the establishment that we received from some good friends. Their nightmare-ish experience at the place — which ultimately resulted in them having to cancel subsequent plans for their evening — was one for the storybooks. If I recall correctly, the only positive thing that could be said was that the dessert tasted good. And even that was bittersweet, as said dessert was delivered in unrequested take-home boxes! So, as you can probably imagine, it was with justifiable pessimism that my wife, Amy, and I wandered into Main Street Steak & Seafood last night.

Our first impression of the restaurant was not exactly ideal, though in fairness, only some of that could be helped. The orientation of Suite 111 in that building is such that the restaurant doors are on what could arguably be considered the back side of the restaurant. I've got a whole set of opinions about the design of Harrisburg's Town Center that aren't particularly relevant here, but again, this is just what Main Street S & S has to work with. What can be improved is not allowing a number of staffers to sit in a bench near the hostess stand with their backs to the window awaiting incoming customers. Even if there isn't always something to be done in a restaurant, the customers need to think there is.

The restaurant was busy, but not crowded. Several staff members were bustling about, doing their thing. One got the sense that the place was alive — not quite abuzz, but definitely alive — with activity. Gone were the old Tuscan tones of Ciro's and Parma. New cuisine demands new decor, and MSS&S has opted for a more contemporary blue and silver look, sparsely accented with iron works and some somewhat out-of-place looking fish caricatures. Modern jazz music added to the ambience, playing at appropriate levels — even though we were seated directly beside the kitchen, we heard more of each other than of the music, and more of the music than of shuffling pots and pans. As this was a rare chance for Amy and I to have a dinner without our kids, "more of each other" was a big plus for us.

Soon after we were seated, our server, Chad, greeted us and took our drink orders. While the wine list appeared to be about a page long, we opted for soft drinks on this evening instead. Chad returned with the drinks (served in unassuming glassware) a short while later, bringing a basket of breadsticks as well. We needed some extra time to decide on our orders, and Chad granted us that without disappearing into that abyss that often consumes other waitstaff in similar situations. Amy and I eventually decided to opt out of an appetizer, hoping to save some room for dessert. Chad took our dinner orders, and then set off to register them with the kitchen while we set off to munch on the rather tasty breadsticks.

Our salads were delivered quickly, and were much larger than we expected for the $2 paid for them. Amy went the garden-salad-with-balsamic-vinaigrette route, and she was pleased by the thick dressing and (again) the large portion. My Caesar salad was good, too, but even though I could see that the dressing was thoroughly mixed throughout the greens, I wasn't able to taste it in my first several bites. I suspect it was mixed when the lettuce leaves were still wet from washing, which watered the taste down below the threshold of detectability. But as I settled into the salad, that Caesar dressing taste began to appear. In the end, it was largely forgettable as salads go. But forgettable is actually quite fine when you've every reason to expect much, much worse.

Our entrees arrived just as Amy (who is a slower eater than I am) was finishing her salad. We had chosen entrees that we were familiar with so that we could have some point of reference for comparison. Amy's filet mignon was cooked properly and accompanied by smashed potatoes and mixed vegetables. We were surprised to see yellow carrots amongst the mixed vegetables — those aren't common in area restaurants. Amy had positive things to say about her entree's taste, the portion sizes of the sides, and the cool plate all of this was served on. Her only negative comment was that she felt the veggies might have been improved with some seasoning. My oscar-style grilled salmon was also properly cooked, flaking apart as I expected without any detectable dryness save for a small, thinner corner section. It was topped by asparagus that, too, was well prepared — al dente enough to remain crisp and encourage knifework, but soft enough to drape across the salmon fillet. I, too, had the smashed potatoes, which weren't the garlic mashed I'd hoped were available, but which served their starchy purpose.

The main course came to a close much as it often does: my plate empty, and Amy's only halfway so. Here we learned the downside of those "cool" plates: those suckers are heavy. We asked Chad for a take-home box for Amy's leftovers, but the restaurant should strongly consider having the servers perform the transfer of food to boxes instead of leaving the customers to deal with those heavy plates themselves. Once the leftovers were boxed, Chad gave us the dessert selection. The options were fairly straightforward — no fancy dessert names evoking imagery of volcanoes, tropical destinations, or one's own demise. "Chocolate cake" was the first mentioned, and I'm not sure were even paid much attention to the rest of the list because clearly (to my wife, anyway) it was a night for chocolate. They were out of ice cream, so we ordered a coffee accompaniment. Chad returned shortly thereafter with a whopping chunk of 3-layer cake, drizzled with chocolate and raspberry sauce (and, of course, our coffee). Here Amy's and my opinions diverged. That the cake was served chilled was to her a great thing, somehow balancing out with the hot coffee in her universe. Me? I want soft, moist, and warm cake. I want the chocolate to ooze, the icing to drip, and to feel like I need to keep a spoon on standby when the fork can't keep up with the whole lot of the liquefying mess that ensues. This fact, however, did not prevent me from performing my husbandly duties and eating 49% of the cake. Warm, cold, or otherwise, it was a tasty cake. Then upon our request, Chad provided us with the bill, and that was that.

Overall, our visit to Main Street Steak & Seafood was nothing like what we expected. In stark contrast to the experiences of our friends, the service we received was outstanding. Food-wise, I can't say that anything we had was unique or inspirational, but perhaps that's okay right now. Maybe playing it safe and establishing a client base is wise given the disappointing track record of the previous establishment. I would certainly encourage the management to consider some more creative options, though, perhaps offering the entrees with choices of cooking styles and/or sauces. As for Amy and I, we welcome this new addition to Harrisburg's foodscape, and look forward to returning for another visit some time.

UPDATE 01/18/2010: Amy and I visited Main Street Steak & Seafood multiple times after this first visit. Perhaps as expected, our opinion of the place plateaued quickly. I guess that after being flatly shocked not to hate the place on our first visit, we eventually realized that there wasn't really much to love, either. The food was fine — and just fine. We never had a single dish that tasted like the chef had tried to personalize it. We never left upset, mind you — just a bit underwhelmed. And now Main Street Steak & Seafood has joined the ranks of the many restaurants to have bit the dust at 4351 Main Street in Harrisburg.

A new generation of Jedi

George Lucas haunts my dreams as of late.

Many months ago, my oldest son, Gavin, got into robots. Wall-E was his world. In a moment of parental weakness and nostalgia, I guess, I showed him a YouTube clip of the Hoth battle sequence from The Empire Strikes Back, with the goal of introducing him to AT-AT walkers. Oh, dear. What a can of worms I opened that day. What were these laser cannon things? Those sweet snowspeeders? And what, pray tell, is that gloriously glowing sword of light, Dad?! PLEASE TELL ME NOW!!

Gavin (6) and his brother Aidan (4) fashioned out of paper and string masks for themselves — Darth Vader, and a Storm Trooper — to wear while playing. Their dollar-store foam swords were swords no more, but light sabers. Gavin's thirst for Star Wars grew insatiable. Without my knowledge, he got his grandpa to spend an evening on YouTube cruising movie clips. There he learned of such unsavory characters as General Grievous and Darth Maul. Indeed, he appears to have already begun embracing the way of the Dark Side of the Force (at least, that's what his mother says when her patience is tried).

In fairness to him, I have admittedly fed his interest somewhat. Star Wars was fascinating to me as a kid, too. I was his age when The Empire Strikes Back was released, and I have a vague memory of seeing the film in the theater — quite possibly my first theater experience ever. (This fact is not lost on Gavin when I tell him he's too young to watch the movie himself.) When I asked some friends for suggestions on new games for our Wii console, I was advised to look into the Lego game series. Naturally, I settled on Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga. My whole family has loved playing this game, which is challenging enough to be enjoyable to the adults while still being great fun for the kids, too.

It didn't stop there, though. It couldn't. The music in that game — most notably "The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)" — stirred my own Star Wars desires. I purchased a CD of orchestral recordings of various songs from the original Star Wars trilogy, as well as the DVDs of all six of the films. Those arrived a week or so ago. The CD is now near-daily fuel for my sons' imaginations; the DVDs have provided my wife and I with some late-night entertainment, too.

But now the Star Wars connection is appearing outside the family, too. Yesterday on Facebook, a good friend posted a status message about watching Episode 2, and the following thread (edited for brevity) ensued:

Ben Collins-Sussman: Star Wars episode 2 is truly one of the worst movies ever made. Why can't I stop watching? It's like rubbernecking a car wreck.

C. Michael Pilato: I just watched that last night! … But look on the bright side -- it's still better than Episode III.

John Bourdeaux: There are few things more disappointing than episodes 1-3.

C. Michael Pilato: @John: Agreed. Though Episode 6 is a close call. It's like some kind of interplanetary smash-up of Fraggle Rock and Willow.

Greg Kirkpatrick: I can't wait for lucas to finally make episodes 1-3 …

Brian W. Fitzpatrick: What are you guys talking about? I always thought it was a shame that they never made any Star Wars movies after Return of the Jedi back in the 80s.

C. Michael Pilato: "Comes first, denial does. When clears the haze, reality you see. Six films there are: three of worth, three of the Dark Side. Now sets in, pain. Afraid not are you of poor storytelling? You will be. You wiiiiiiiill be." -- Master Yoda

Greg Kirkpatrick: noooooooooooooooooooooooooooo…!

And the references show up lately even when not talking directly about Star Wars. Yesterday, I also learned that one of my and my wife's favorite musicians, Jennifer Knapp, appears to have returned from obscurity. But when glancing at comments made on an article announcing this fact, I see:

I hope she doesn’t George Lucas her career up.
— buffalo Buffalo buffalo · Aug 27, 12:13 PM ·

Can Pandora's box be shut? And, all joking aside, do I really want it shut? I mean, isn't it better to have two young boys whose imaginations are bursting with activity and whose play involves clearly defined ideas of right and wrong than to have kids whose eyes are glazed over from watching too much Dora the Explorer and Spongebob? (That's a rhetorical question — I'm confident in my own answer.)

Harrisburg-area "Kids Eat Free/Cheap" schedule

[Since my first post of this blog item, I've been contacted by folks associated with a really cool site, Kids Eat For (http://kidseatfor.com/), which tracks similar information, uses a voting system to keep data fresh, and even offers related iPhone and Android apps! When last I checked, the site was lacking many of the deals listed here, but thanks to the way it is set up, that's a problem you or I can solve. Click here to search that site for Harrisburg-area stuff.]

[Last Updated 08/31/2009]

I like to save money. The businesses near my home like to make money. Some of those businesses are smart enough to realize that if they give a little, I give a little, and we all wind up happy. I'm hear to talk about businesses near Harrisburg, NC that offer "Kids Eat Free" or discounted kids meals on certain nights. If you own a restaurant and offer these types of programs, my family (and others, too) will patronize your business, and will do so in preference to others that don't woo us through our children's bellies.

But since I've failed to find a reliable source of organized information about such offering in my area, I've decided to try to collect as much right here on this blog post. So, what follows is what I've found. You should assume that the definition of "kids" used here is "humans 12 years of age or younger".

Sunday

Dickey's Barbecue Pit (6189 Bayfield Pkwy, Concord, 704-262-3337) — kids eat free

Firehouse Subs (8111 Concord Mills Blvd. Ste 670, Concord, 704-979-9900) — kids eat free after 4pm with adult combo

Firehouse Subs (7712 Sossaman Lane Suite 100, Concord, 704-979-3737) — kids eat free after 4pm with adult combo

IHOP (230 E Wt Harris Blvd, Charlotte, 704-717-9600) — kids eat free 4-10pm

Zapata's Mexican Cantina (8927 J M Keynes Dr., Charlotte, 704-503-1979) — kids eat free with paying adult

Monday

IHOP (230 E Wt Harris Blvd, Charlotte, 704-717-9600) — kids eat free 4-10pm

Supper (4435 Hwy 49 Suite 100, Harrisburg, 704-454-7120) — kids eat free after 4:30pm

Tuesday

Denny's (8031 Concord Mills Blvd, Concord, 704-979-7474) — kids eat free 4-11pm

IHOP (230 E Wt Harris Blvd, Charlotte, 704-717-9600) — kids eat free 4-10pm

McAlister's Deli (8599 Concord Mills Blvd, Concord, 704-979-0600) — kids eat free

Texas Roadhouse (7801 Gateway Lane, Concord, 704-979-3090) — kids eat free 4-8pm

Wednesday

Firehouse Subs (8111 Concord Mills Blvd. Ste 670, Concord, 704-979-9900) — kids eat free after 4pm with adult combo

Firehouse Subs (7712 Sossaman Lane Suite 100, Concord, 704-979-3737) — kids eat free after 4pm with adult combo

Foster's Grille (8520 Pit Stop Rd. Suite 10, Concord, 704-979-3663) — kids eat free

IHOP (230 E Wt Harris Blvd, Charlotte, 704-717-9600) — kids eat free 4-10pm

Shane's Rib Shack (199 Ken Hoffman Dr., Charlotte, 704-503-3113) — kids eat free

Thursday

IHOP (230 E Wt Harris Blvd, Charlotte, 704-717-9600) — kids eat free 4-10pm

Friday

IHOP (230 E Wt Harris Blvd, Charlotte, 704-717-9600) — kids eat free 4-10pm

Saturday

Denny's (8031 Concord Mills Blvd, Concord, 704-979-7474) — kids eat free 4-11pm

IHOP (230 E Wt Harris Blvd, Charlotte, 704-717-9600) — kids eat free 4-10pm

Texas Land & Cattle (7779 Lyles Lane, Concord, 704-510-0021) — kids eat free 11am-4pm

Do you have something to add to this list? A correction to offer? Leave a comment, and let me know about it. Cost-conscious Harrisburgian parents, unite!

Are you a business owner in the Harrisburg, NC area who is not on this list? Perhaps it's time to get with the program.

Here are some other sites with similar collections of information, though perhaps not focused specifically on the Harrisburg area:

• http://mykidseatfree.com
• http://www.frugalliving.tv/free-stuff/kids-eat-free.html
• http://charlotte.about.com/od/diningnightlife/a/kids_eat_free.htm

DISCLAIMER: I assume no responsibility for this information being incomplete, misleading, or downright wrong. While I'll try to keep it fresh and accurate, the onus is on you, the Reader, to verify this information before packing up your Suburban-full of hungry little monsters and heading off to terrorize one of these fine local establishments with an eye on saving a few bucks. Ya dig?

NOTE: Some of the information in updated versions of this post has come via the comments associated with the post. So if you read a comment that appears to suggest something already present in my post, chances are pretty good that the comment was there before I made the change/addition. Not that you should care anyway — we're here to discuss free food, not reading comprehension.

The Internet is weird

WARNING: Some of the content linked from this post contains, shall we say, unnecessarily strong language.

Through a series of links traversed today, I was reminded of a cheesy rendition of a song I did some time ago (and posted on this blog). But it wasn't my song rendition that prompted me to write a blog post today. It was watching somebody I've never met lip-syncing to it that did the trick.

Man, the Internet is weird.

SubConf 2009 is in my future

I'm in the process of booking travel and lodging for my October trip to Munich. Yep, it's almost time for the annual SubConf Subversion conference, again. This year, I get to do something new: the keynote! In addition to that, I and some other Subversion developers will be hosting another Subversion roundtable discussion. We did this at last year's conference, and — at least according to the conference organizers — it was a wildly successful opportunity for Subversion's users to talk directly with the folks that write the software they use. If you are a Subversion user or developer who'll be in or around Munich on October 26th, I hope you'll consider joining us for this roundtable discussion. And of course, if you can attend the full conference (October 27-29), I'm sure you'll find it immensely beneficial to you and your organization's understanding, appreciation, and use of Subversion.

Speaking of that keynote presentation, I'd like to offer you the opportunity to help me out with it. (Did you like how I made that sound like it was actually you that would benefit from this?) Check out my post on the Submerged blog about this topic: http://blogs.open.collab.net/svn/2009/08/how-has-subversion-changed-your-world.html