I’ve registered for PyCon 2008. I registered for three tutorials (“Introduction to SQLAlchemy” (Jonathan Ellis and Michael Bayer), “Generator Tricks for Systems Programmers” (David Beazley), and “Internet Programming with Python” (Wesley J. Chun), and am staying over to spend two or three days (depending on my return flight…) in a post-conference Django development sprint.
I’m particularly looking forward to meeting David Beazley. His “Python Essential Reference, 3rd Edition” rocks. It’s one reference that is always close by my elbow, and is dog-eared from much use. I sent him an note about it after having the book for about a month — he probably thought it odd, but I felt compelled to send him a thank-you for writing it — and now I’m looking forward to thanking him in person for creating such an excellent resource.
I’m also generally looking forward to meeting other Pythonistas and Djangonauts. I’m sad to say that I’ve been only marginally active in SeaPIG, and have made only a few Python contacts via local geek activities. Left unchecked, I tend to focus in on just what I’m doing and not enough on networking and community interaction. (Lurking in Django and Python forums doesn’t count as interaction…) I’m hoping to give back to the community during the PyCon 2008 Django sprint, and make new friends and technical contacts.
Seek Nuance 