RailsConf 2008 Part 2 (Finally)

This is a total tangent off of my doings at RailsConf this year.  Before completely losing the topic, let me dump some closing thoughts out real quick.

It’s been several weeks since RailsConf 2008 ended.  As they say, fresh thoughts from short crams tend to fade fast from your memory if you don’t put them to use.  Well, I took notes, so that I wouldn’t have to worry about memorizing the sessions until I could implement what I learned.  I also apologize to anyone who expected me to email them right away after getting many business cards to expand my contacts in this world.

The last few sessions that I attended were pretty non-Rails, which is where I wanted to strengthen myself anyway.  I need more Ruby help and I got exactly that.  I also got to enjoy talking with people more this year.  That was my greatest achievement: Stepping out of my comfort zone and being social in real life.  It was great to not only put faces to the names that I have learned of online.

While at the conference, it’s harder to talk social life instead of shop, but once you get out of the bounds of the conference realm (like the expo area, or even more fun…the restaurant scene).  I only wish I had more time.  Meeting more people this year and having less than a week makes it more difficult to enjoy the interaction.  I was also on a more limited budget, so lunch out and about was not in my itinerary.

So yeah, social life and Ruby were the big moments for my time in Portland.  I think I’ll just re-iterate that Ezra’s talk on the cloud computing management tool (code named Vertebra?) was the cream of the crop.  I also enjoyed the time with Tom, James, and Scott (hobocentral.net), the KCRUG guys, who all seemed to enjoy the conference, and finding out that a buddy of mine from high school is in the Rails scene (at least to some degree).

Anyway, let’s stop this spiral of crazy thinking and move on to the funnier part.  Mind you “funny” is very, very subjective.

So, I was talking on an IRC channel earlier today and realized that I like to emote a “bonk” to the head.  Much akin to the the monks from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

In turn, that caused me to think, “Writing Rails apps is as easy as hitting yourself in the head with a wood plank.”  If you’re not following, just ask yourself, “Who can hit themselves with a wooden plank, given the plank is in their possession?”  Okay, good.  That was easy!  Just like Rails!  There is a deeper philosophical meaning and honestly, I’d love to dive into that topic some day.  The only downside is that my comparison isn’t a perfect 1:1 mapping, but it sure is close.

So there you have it.

Bonk away.