This fellow was playing with a toy helicopter successfully disrupting the Drupal training I was attending in Vancouver last month. It turned into a conversation about Christmas presents.

Listen carefully and you will hear the fabulous Meg Cole and Kris Krug from Bryght.

On Friday, my wife and daughter met me in Vancouver. After I finished Drupal training, I met them at the Georgia Court Hotel—a very confortable establishment—where we got squared away for the evening.

On Friday night, we went to my brotherr’s place for home-made pizza and then we headed off to his church for “Family Fun Night” which was involved a craft—banging nails into ice filled tin cans to create lanterns. I think that my daughter enjoyed the exercise and it gave her a chance to spend time with her cousins who are seven and three.

The next morning we slept in as late as possible and then joined my brother and his kids at a great kid’s book store on Broadway. We ended up buying more than we really expected and then went for sushi across the street. The street also had a great produce market.

Today was the last day of training with Raincity Studios (the name fits the torrents of rain and now turbid undrinkable water plaguing the city) and Bryght.

There were attendees from across Canada and the United States. I was amazed at the breadth of participants. I think (and hope) I have come away with some good contacts, perhaps some friends, but most of all great information.

The last four days have been extremely informative. I believe that what I learned/relearned/confirmed would have taken me 2-4 months to figure out on my own.

The last three days have been a remarkable experience. I have very little Drupal experience, but enough to know that the tool is pretty amazing.

Over the last three days I have:

1) Done a, from scratch, Drupal install on my laptop.
2) Learned the basic "Core" functions for Drupal.
3) Learned loading a new module (to increase Drupal functionality)
4) Learned how to load new "themes"
5) Started building a new theme from scratch--perhaps something will come out of it to spice this look and feel up.

I ended up working in CSS--something I haven't looked at in 8 years.

I am up in Vancouver right now getting a little training using Drupal. The hosts are RainCity and Bryght--both are heavy developers in Drupal.