Tonight the roommates and I carved our pumpkins for Halloween. We put out cut up paper bags on the dining room table and proceeded to extract the orange, stringy pumpkin guts. We each picked our own design and sat in silence for about an hour as we patiently cut out the pieces. They all came out great.

My pumpkin featured a portrait of Oogie Boogie from The Nightmare Before Christmas. The template was made by Frank Jonen who made a 3D model to make sure it would work.

Need some help carving your own pumpkin this year? Check out these resources:

• How To Carve A Killer Pumpkin - Mahalo.com
• List of free Pumpkin Carving Templates
• Yes We Carve - Pumpkin carving for the election season

What does your pumpkin look like?

This past weekend the second DC area BarCamp took place. Like last year’s event, a horde of local techies came out to teach one another and collaborate on new ideas.

My favorite presentation was from Jeff Brown, a high school teacher who considers himself a webucator. His talk was about how he is teaching proper, standards-compliant web development techniques at Damascus High School in Montgomery County. Here’s a picture of the back of my head (I’m in the blue shirt) taken by kenyaoa during the session.

Another memorable event was an impromptu session about Expression Engine, a flexible CMS. I was so inspired from the small group that the next day I tried the free version out myself.

The Washington Post was there covering the event and there was a small write up in the business section this morning. They interviewed Charlie Park, a friend of mine I met at the first BarCamp, who started an online budgeting app. The reporter called the space where we were meeting a “Georgetown basement” but it was actually generously donated by the Center for Digital Imaging Arts, which is a part of Boston University.

When you get over a hundred developers together all day, they’re going to get hungry. Thankfully this Barcamp was loaded with food. A full breakfast was provided including an assortment of bagels, muffins, and coffee. Candy, nutrigrain bars, and granola bars were available for snacking on throughout the day. And for lunch, the organizers ordered 100 pizzas for everyone! I think that ended up to be half a pizza for every attendee. As you might guess there was some extra food leftover at the end of the day so the Barcamp organizers donated 40 pizzas, 60 bagels, and a heap of muffins to a local homeless shelter.

The after party took place at McFadden’s and since there was extra money left over in the budget we got to blow it on free drinks and food. Our waitress did a great job of keeping the group’s glasses and bellies full.

Overall it was another great DC tech event. A big thanks to all the people who helped organize the event and deal with the logistics. Another big thanks goes to all the sponsors who made BarCamp possible. Their donations went a long way so everyone could have a great time.

Other posts from around the interwebs:

• Diditz - BarCamp DC 2 Wrap up
• Taylor Davidson - BarCampDC2: Exploring Ideas
• Zvi Band - BarcampDC2 Was Awesome
• Tony Primerano - Good Times at BarCampDC2
• Photos tagged ‘barcampdc2′ on Flickr

I always thought this italian restaurant looked interesting. It looks like there was some major damage caused by a fire because the whole front porch has been demolished and there were smoke stains around the windows on the top floor. The fire crews had everything under control when I walked by but the section of 31st street between K and M was still blocked off. You can see what it looked like pre-fire at http://www.georgetowndc.com/view/ristorante-piccolo

Apple announced a new 24″ Cinema Display today at their press event. Besides looking like a gutted iMac, the display shares a similar look to the HP w2007 20-inch widescreen monitor.

Kristina and I are waiting in line to get our tickets. Can’t wait to see all of the interesting art within these curved wals.

A trip to New York City isn’t complete without a trip to the top of the Empire State Building. Too bad the line to get to the top was an hour and a half long. Oh well, it was a beautiful crystal-clear day which made for a beautiful view.

After the 3rd graders were let out we went to Center City just to see what has changed since the last time I’ve been here which was November of 2006. This shot is of the southside of City Hall.

Kristina and I spent the day in Philly visiting a teacher friend’s 3rd grade class. We had a religion test, a spelling test, and we ended the day making art out of macaroni and glue. All I can say is I’m glad I’m not in the 3rd grade anymore.

Here’s something I don’t see every day on my walk to work. Apparently there is some sort of big movie shoot at the canal. Lots of big equipment, lights, and a few Arri film cameras. They hadn’t started yet as I walked by so lots of people were busy getting things together which is the opposite of what happens when the film starts rolling.

TEH I CAN HAZ CHEEZ BRGR BOOK IZ NOW 4 SAEL!

Translation (via txt2lol.com): The I Can Have Cheese Burger book is now available for purchase!

icanhascheezburger.com has taken the net by storm. Starting as a simple site to show off the cute, captioned, LOLcats the site has grown into firm part of popular culture. They opened a store at LOLmart.com and now they are even selling their own book. For a mere $8.00 at Amazon, a piece of LOLcat history can be yours. My co-worker Paulo even has a LOLcat of his own in the book.