Post-FUDCon

Much to my amusement, for the return from FUDCon I got the plane seat numbered 13:

And somewhat I can say I was unlucky about that, Ionuț got the window seat, so I couldn't stare at the cloud formations all the way. But this was not that bad, I got to stay next to a pretty girl with hazel hair and big, green eyes (sorry, no photos for you :D)

Then I got back to the shitty city of Bucharest: dog-days, traffic jams, construction works in the middle of the roads and so on (still there is a small positive impact over the way the streets are looking due to the excessive heat, but again, no photos for you :D)


On a positive note, my dog was very happy to see me again, she was alone in the backyard with a pile of food and a reserve of water for about 5 days:


And then the 13 kicked-in: a phone call and I learned about the first job I have after returning to the office: setup a Vista computer, buy MS Office for it and shit like that. Way to go... At least I can give a try to the Fedora Live CD on the machine (an HP TouchSmart). After 5 minutes (don't have much time to play with it), the touch screen and wireless do not work OOTB, the webcam does.


Probably to celebrate my return, my co-workers decided to have for lunch a traditional Romanian meal: mici with mustard, French fries, salad and, of course, (hopefully my boss does not read this :D) beer.

FUDCon finale

At the end of the third (and last)day of FUDCon I joined the Italian guys for a little walk in the city. Unprepared for this, we wandered chaotically for a while and then returned to the hotel

From the hotel we went for the dinner in a beautiful place called Hackescher Markt were we had some good beers and meals and enjoyed the performance of some street artists


Also we had the opportunity to learn a few tricks about picking-up girls from Lennart (somehow I doubt those would work on someone who is not a waitress or have a similar job where has to play nice expecting a tip)

FUDCon day 3

The third (and last) day of the Berlin FUDCon was dedicated to a hackfest, with everyone working on whatever they liked:

There was also a presentation of the Electronic Lab spin by Chitlesh:


The atmosphere was pretty relaxed:


And the people attending where not that many, with some already leaving before the day started and some other leaving at various moments of the day:


Some were creating "patches" for the group photo:


I managed to take a photo of the third girl present at the event, so the ratio was about 1 woman in 50 men, yeah, this sounds pretty much like Fedora (and don't blame me again for this):


For a little while we had a nice sun and warm weather outside, so a few guys moved in the park next to our building:


Of course I couldn't miss the opportunity to take a few flower macros (come on guys, with such beauty near us, why are we staying in the inside?):


And also play with the lights and reflections:


A bit of disappointment was people not using their freedom to write names, thoughts, locations on the big board prepared for that (I did my part, how about you?):


Oh, the time is passing, not much remaining until I have to board the plane so I'll end this for now (a bit more to come later about how we spent the evening) with a photo of the deserted hall. FUDCon ended.

FUDCon crazy nights

I teased before about some fun adventures after the second FUDCon day, so it's the time to deliver my promise: in the front of the hotel there it was a large crowd from which were standing out a lot of nice looking girls dressed like for a fancy event. No way that would be related to FUDCon or LinuxTag, they were attending some kind of reception and we had to mix with them on the route to our rooms:

Learning it was a high school party, so part of them were potentially underage was not the real stopper, but the bad light and my shyness (being shy is my main flaw as a photographer, where the rule for taking photos of people is like: go as close to them as so feel comfortable and then take two more steps closer). So I didn't feel like lighting my flash and shooting left and right, but with the help of my long lens and most importantly with some support from Franceso, with whom I stroke a deal to ask the girls to pose with him, I managed to grab a few:
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Then I went with a group of people to the eastern part of the city for a dinner, and learnet a lesson: don't go to eat to a place called Habana, the advice is even stronger if you are hungry:


No matter how nice the waitress is, or how fruitier the fancy drinks are


It does not matter if the food is good or bad, no matter the free shots at the end as an excuse, no matter they don't charge for the appetizers they forgot to bring to the table for over an hour, if it takes that long to get the food (I think it was about two hours), then it does not matter anymore.


Oh, and forgot about the waitresses, hookers, high school girls and stuff, we decided what was the sexiest thing at this conference: our mighty leader. The sunglasses are definitely the final touch: