Sometimes I wonder... Other times I know.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
 
PDC Dry run tomorrow..
Brad is blogging about what we do to make PDC great. He's picked the session Dharma & I presenting as one of his top picks; we hope that we don't disappoint!

This is probably one of the most time intensive conferences I've ever prepared for. I guess first impressions really do count, so we're gearing up to give you the best sessions at PDC :)

- posted by # posted by Dennis Pilarinos : 9:53 PM 0 comments  
Friday, August 26, 2005
 
I can post to my blog using our technology!
Using our stuff was EASY after hours of trying to understand the AtomAPI and Webclient... Dharma & I will explain how during our session at the PDC.

Speaking of which.. the keynote is looking good!

- posted by # posted by Dennis Pilarinos : 1:07 AM 0 comments  
Wednesday, August 24, 2005
 
All quiet...
.. on the Microsoft front.

I've noticed that a lot of bloggers haven't blogged much in the last couple of weeks.

Probably because of the same reason I haven't... PDC prep!

See you all there!

- posted by # posted by Dennis Pilarinos : 11:57 PM 0 comments  
Monday, August 15, 2005
 
Ios, Santorini, Kefalonia, Seattle
I was hoping to blog a bit more often while I was in Greece, but that didn't quite work out.

Lil & I spent some time in Ios, which is traditionally known as the "party" island, however we found a fantastic hotel and spent our time relaxing at the beach and on a precarious journey to Homer's tomb. We didn't make it all the way, as our little scooter didn't have the ability to brave the entire 12 kms of rocks... about 8kms through the journey, a white car we had been following up the mountain pulled over (on the way down) to tell us that there would be no way we'd make it all the way unless we planned on walking the final 2kms. Oh well..

We went to Santorini next. Santorini is the island with the traditional white houses most people associate with Greece. The captial of the island (Fira) was incredibly busy and our hotel was "lacking" (to put it mildly) We headed to the North, to a village called Oia. Incredibly, we found a room within the white-house cluster with an incredible view of the Caldera.

I have to plug a few pictures I really like in my gallery... pic1, pic2, pic3.

Dinner on the second night in Santorini was a highlight of this trip... an Irish waitress who'd lived in Greece for 15 years made our evening. Her humor was exactly what we needed to forget the otherwise unpleasent first impression of Santorini. We liked her so much, we went back with my sister and her boyfriend.

We flew from Santorini to Athens, took a bus and a ferry to Kefalonia... the island where my mom is from. The village where my mom is from is very removed from tourists, which makes for a great place to relax and enjoy the view.

The views in Kefalonia are breathtaking.. the beaches are some of the best in the world. Here are a few pictures: One of the best beaches, here is the same beach as in pic1, incredible blue...

I'm very excited to be back at work and I'm prepping for my PDC session with Dharma.

- posted by # posted by Dennis Pilarinos : 9:03 PM 0 comments  
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
 
From Athens to Paros...
A couple of highlights from Athens... Lilian & I did a marathon walk across the city and saw The Acropolis, walked around Plaka (touristy part of the city... which incidentally also means 'joke' in Greek) and the old Olympic Stadium.

John was another (1 of 6 I believe?) Irishman that Damien had met on a bus (the loud "shiat" was a dead give-away).. a very interesting guy working for the National Research Center of Athens in Nanotechnology. I had a brief taste of that subject back in University.. very cool and definitely the future of capacitor technology in chips.

We also met 2 of Damien's and Phaedra's friends (Alex and Katya). Alex & I compared interview horror stories as he just finished his loop with Oil/Gas Shell. An extremely argous process, I think it spanned about 3-4 days. Congrats to Alex for receiving his offer!

Lil & I headed off to Paros, our 1st of 4 islands and took an incredible high speed ferry. BC Ferries could take a page out of play book used by these local ferry companies. In and out of ports in a hurry and they offer very luxurious ships.

Our accommodations left a bit to be desired, but OK overall. We rented a scooter and toured the entire island, finding a fantastic beach where mostly locals were spending their day.

We're off to IOS in about 2 hours, then Santorini where we'll meet my sister and her boyfriend Simran.

- posted by # posted by Dennis Pilarinos : 3:15 AM 0 comments