[Note: I wrote this post last night - I'm not still on the train.]

I'm just now leaving Providence by train, having just attended my first east coast dinner, and it was fantastic.

We had about eight people in all, and the conversation was great. It ranged from the safety and efficacy of pharmaceuticals found on train tracks to the Rhode Islander's pride and comfort found in the corruption of government. We talked C#, Java, Mono and Python. Pretty much everybody present had one foot in OSS and one foot in Windows, and there wasn't a single moment when anybody wanted to argue about Coke versus Pepsi. What I mean to say is that it was a hell of a lot of fun getting to talk to geeks about technology instead of the politics of technology (the politics of corruption, on the other hand, was quite an entertaining subject).

The dinner began at the mall, wandered to a pub, and finished up at an interesting place called "AS220" which was a sort of artist collective.

If you were thinking about going, but didn't, then don't make the same mistake when we have the next one of these things.

Yes. Oh, yes. There will be another...

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to crack the H. P. Lovecraft book that Brian gave me as a welcoming gift...