I had a fantastic time in Chicago at YAPC::NA this past week. Kudos to the whole Chicago crew, including Josh, Pete, and of course Heather, for putting this together and putting up with all of us. The dorms were, well, dorms, but the beer more than made up for it.

My talk went very well, and ended right on time. I was hoping for a better turnout (I think about 40 people showed up), but I believe those that did were impressed with what's happening in the mod_parrot world. In addition to explaining the goals and architecture, I was able to demonstrate actual working PHP scripts and Perl 6 handlers.

My lightning talk was even better. Jerry went first and created his "lightning" language in 5 minutes. Then I got up and made a registry-style Apache module out of it, complete with live demo, in 5 minutes. I couldn't hear anything from the stage, but apparently there were oohs and aahs, and even a "did that just f*cking happen?", and that's a good thing for the mod_parrot hype machine. We'll hopefully do this again at OSCON, with a comedic twist. But not like Ingy's. ;-)

The speakers dinner was fantastic, and the view of Chicago and the lake from the 32nd floor was amazing. It was good to see a nicer part of the city, since IIT isn't in the greatest location. The fireworks were a nice touch too.

On a non-technical note, Allison, chromatic, Jerry, Coke and I kicked off the Parrot Foundation with a long trip to the bank, a quick board meeting and a public Q & A session. I'm both honored and excited to be a part of this, as I believe the future of Parrot is a bright one.

Next up, OSCON. And a hotel room with a bathroom all my own!