In Boston for DrupalCon

I arrived in Boston in the afternoon after a fairly easy trip.

On the way from Waterloo to Pearson International Airport, Highway 401 was being repaired for potholes and the van driver took alternative backroads. This was a very scenic route with parts of the Niagara Escarpment, farms with cattle outside, and roads less traveled.

Minor adventure with US Customs

Then came customs and passport control, with the US Customs officials clearing people before they fly at Pearson, which is a good thing. When it came to filling the customs form, I decided to be extra truthful, and answered Yes to the questions about vegetables/food and meat. My wife had packed for me some baby carrots and chicken sandwitches, so I played it safe.

The customs control man was an burly tattooed man with the name tag: Ramirez. In a very grumpy manner the conversation goes like this:

Ramirez: "Where are you going?"

Me: "Boston"

Ramirez: "Why are you going?"

Me: "Conference"

He marks my customs card with a very big red A, and says "go through the double doors".

I go through the double doors marked "Secondary Inspection something or other". I see all these people waiting, and US customs people all over.

They call the name of someone called Youssef (Arabic for Joseph), and I say: that is it: must be my Arab name or country of birth. I gulp as I swallow, remembering the horror stories I read about all the time ...

After a few minutes in line, a man points me to the desk farthest in the room. I go there, and the person inspect my luggage for the chicken sandwitches and the baby carrots, then lets me go.

That is it? What? Where is my Arab name? Where is being born in Egypt? No finger printing or taking of photos (most Canadians get by without it). I printed reams of pages about Drupal Con, about 2bits.com sponsoring the event, the session I am going to present, ...

It was all about chicken and carrots! To be honest, I am relieved and pleasently surprised.

In Courtyard by Marriott Boston South

So, I am at the Courtyard by Marriott Boston South, with the Canadian delegation being NowPublic, Rain City Studios, 2bits.com. Also Narayan Newton from OSU OSL is here. He will be joining me for the performance session on Tuesday.

Sessions I am going to present

The following sessions got accepted and scheduled

• Drupal for Fun and Profit: making a career out of Open Source.
• Performance Tuning and Optimization of high traffic Drupal sites.

A third session I proposed about Userpoints did not make it due to many other quality sessions. However, Jacob Redding (major contributor for userpoints 5.x-3.x) is attending, and you can ask us about it if you are interested, or we can find an ad hoc BoF slot/session if time permits.

I will also be on some other panel sessions, the alternative social event, the Drupal Association session, and most of the code sprint on Friday.

See you all some time.