April, 23, 2004 archives

for our company meeting last year, it was flying to budapest and back while suffering from a herniated disc. this year, it was flying back from cancun while suffering from food poisoning (or something like it).

but like last year, getting together with my coworkers made up for any travel discomforts. our staff meeting came directly on the heels of the mysql users conference, and both events went tremendously well.

the staff meeting was in cancun (where the earlier beach photo was taken), at an all-inclusive resort. a dangerous thing for a company that wears it’s (partially-)finnish heritage proudly. we spent some time sequestered away in the conference rooms conducting some business, but we also went on an overnight team building event through alltournative. the sleeping arrangements that some people got stuck with made for some unhappy campers, but i think it helped that our ceo was one of the people left without a tent and sleeping on the beach. and the general fantastic-ness of getting to see a side of the yucatan peninsula that you miss entirely within the walls of an all-inclusive resort.

my next scheduled trip isn’t until july, for the o’reilly open source convention. that’s only three months away, but right now it seems comfortably distant.

but back to the users conference: i really enjoyed it, particularly the talks by brad fitzpatrick of livejournal and michael benzinger of sabre. there were a few rough spots in the schedule, but with the major problem from last year’s conference addressed (wireless!), the quibbles seem fairly small. next year’s conference will be back in the bay area, which isn’t quite as appealing as a location, although it will be quite a bit more convenient for all those people suffering under the delusion that the bay area is somewhere you’d want to live.

from what i’ve heard, the bar business can be fairly lucrative. this article in the los angeles downtown news covers the plans of two developers to open a number of bars downtown. they run banquette, the cafe in the ground floor of my building, and will soon be extending its hours and serving beer and wine.