From Peter at PSDT.com Tue Aug 9 08:51:16 2005 From: Peter at PSDT.com (Peter Scott) Date: Tue, 09 Aug 2005 08:51:16 -0700 Subject: [VPM] Poll Message-ID: <6.1.2.0.2.20050809085033.02cc2970@mail.webquarry.com> Can I have a show of hands please, how many people would like to come to a regular meeting on August 16 to hear myself and Darren Duncan report on OSCON 2005 and the embedded Perl Conference? -- Peter Scott Pacific Systems Design Technologies http://www.perldebugged.com/ http://www.perlmedic.com/ From darren at DarrenDuncan.net Tue Aug 9 11:49:02 2005 From: darren at DarrenDuncan.net (Darren Duncan) Date: Tue, 9 Aug 2005 11:49:02 -0700 Subject: [VPM] Poll In-Reply-To: <6.1.2.0.2.20050809085033.02cc2970@mail.webquarry.com> References: <6.1.2.0.2.20050809085033.02cc2970@mail.webquarry.com> Message-ID: At 8:51 AM -0700 8/9/05, Peter Scott wrote: >Can I have a show of hands please, how many people would like to come >to a regular meeting on August 16 to hear myself and Darren Duncan >report on OSCON 2005 and the embedded Perl Conference? Aye! One warning, however: There is a *slight* chance that I may have a work conflict. Specifically, I was accepted to be an extra in the X-Men 3 movie, which is filming over the next 3 weeks, and I said I was available all days. I have been called in for Saturday the 13th so far. I may subsequently be called in later, and they tend to work long days, hence the possible evening conflict. Other than that, I see no conflicts. On a separate note, I am now using a version control system for Rosetta, which is at http://svn.utsl.gen.nz/trunk/Rosetta/ . (It was provided by Sam Vilain of the Tangram object-persistence module.) Anyone interested in seeing the newest version can do so there. Have a good day. -- Darren Duncan From Peter at PSDT.com Wed Aug 10 17:33:09 2005 From: Peter at PSDT.com (Peter Scott) Date: Wed, 10 Aug 2005 17:33:09 -0700 Subject: [VPM] Victoria Perl Mongers meeting: August 16 Message-ID: <6.1.2.0.2.20050810173041.03ac6088@mail.webquarry.com> Victoria.pm will meet at its regular date, time, and place on Tuesday, August 16, 7pm, at UVic, Harry Hickman Building 120. I will give a report on the recent Open Source Conference with its embedded 9th annual Perl Conference (cool new Perl 6 news!) and Darren Duncan will do the same if he is able to attend. Other topics to be covered as time permits; make requests for anything particular. (Courtesy copy to VLUG members by permission of the list manager. Victoria.pm's home page is .) -- Peter Scott Pacific Systems Design Technologies http://www.perldebugged.com/ http://www.perlmedic.com/ From darren at DarrenDuncan.net Mon Aug 15 17:37:30 2005 From: darren at DarrenDuncan.net (Darren Duncan) Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 17:37:30 -0700 Subject: [VPM] OT: my casting in X-Men 3 Message-ID: Addendum for local folks: Were any of you involved? ---------------------------------------------------- Over the last few weeks, something interesting happened with me, here in my home town of Victoria, BC. I have been cast as a background performer / extra in the movie X-Men 3. So if you see that movie next May, and perhaps the trailer this christmas, you should see me in it, fairly recognizable (I'll post a still online after it comes out, to use for recognition); I'm dressed up in a black suit jacket. The casting call took place on Sunday July 24th, 11am-2pm, where about 1000 showed up, and about half got in the door during the 3 hours and were photographed. I applied there and I think I was the last one to get his picture taken prior to the casting people packing up and running for the ferries. I only found out about this the day before, as it was mentioned in a small article in the back of the local newspaper, the Times Colonist. A few days into August I was contacted, the first of about 4-5 phone calls to do confirmations of availability and get costuming and location plus date/time instructions. I was one of about 170 people chosen to take part from those photographed. But I didn't know right away, since I was away at a computer conference (OSCON 2005) from Jul 31 - Aug 6, but found out of the first contact when I got home. The filming with the majority of the extras, including myself, happened on Saturday August 13th; it was sunny and clear all day, and there was a light breeze from the ocean near by. I showed up at Royal Roads University / Hatley Castle around 10:30am and went to the tent where the extras were gathering, then signing in and filling out a few forms. A little while later, I went to the hair/makeup department (in an adjunct tent to the extras) and they did something to make my hair stand still, and sit in a slightly unusual configuration, but otherwise I was unchanged. The wardrobe department, an open area in the parking lot, then validated that the clothing I had brought was perfect and no changes were necessary. The filming proper that involved me and most extras started at about 1pm and went to about 7pm; I signed out and left about 8pm. About a dozen of the main cast were in attendence, and while I spoke with none of them (professional courtesy; they are working), I did get within several feet of them on a recurring basis. This was a rather large and important scene with a lot of people there. The filming was all outside, and the sun was hot, so it was standard practice for everyone to use umbrellas to keep the sun off when filming wasn't happening; but, it was also said that any tears generated from the sun can contribute to the scene. There was also an hour lunch break around 2pm, which was quite enjoyable; the catered food was very good. At certain times there were a lot of wasps around, mainly the ubiquitous snack table, but none but one person got stung by them. Everyone was very friendly, there weren't any significant mishaps. Most of the people involved were in a union, but the extras weren't. The scene in question was filmed about 20 times, from various angles and distances, and will probably end up being around 2-3 minutes long in the final version. Half way through, there was an announcement that it was Halle's 21st birthday, and a quick birthday song was done; the 21 thing was a lie, but she had trouble having the right emotion for the subsequent take because of it. Suffice it to say that Halle is having more to do in this film, considering that the one scene probably has as much of her speaking as the sum of any prior film. Hugh Jackman wasn't in the scene, but was involved in producing the movie, so was around. Most of the other main cast was in the scene, plus about 150 extras. And there were supposedly 250 crew around, though I didn't see more than about 50 myself. Based on certain previous experiences, between behind-the-scenes type videos and attendence at conventions where actors etc talk about their experiences, plus watching a scene being shot near my house for a movie-of-the-week, I had a rough idea what to expect. What happened was largely in line, but there were some surprises also; for example, many things were less formal than you may expect. One thing I will say is that all the speakers had microphones to record their voices, and they are barely audible to the other cast (as a standard person speaking normally in a large room, without a mic, would be), but they are just loud enough that you can still hear them if everyone else is silent, and they are supposed to be. Another surprise is that, at certain points the director is calling instructions during the filming+action time, which would presumably appear in the recording; however, I would guess that they will only be using the audio from one of the 20 shoots and overlaying it with images from many others, so those instructions won't come through. Now, while I hadn't been told anything about the film besides what is shown and inferred in the scene I was in, suffice it to say that I can't tell you what the scene is about. We don't want to spoil things for the viewers, and all that. So if you have questions, I can answer any that don't involve spoiling the story. But ask any on-list, so others benefit from them. The experience was quite enjoyable, and I look forward to doing it again. I have also made a few or one contact within the crew that I would probably talk with again in the future, perhaps long term. In the short term, the filming continues here for another week, before moving to Vancouver, so there is a chance that I may be called back for another scene (I reiterated to the casting person that I was available for any day), though no offers have been made yet. FYI, I applied to do this for 3 main reasons: 1. I enjoy being involved in creating things. 2. I like X-Men a lot, and am happy to be involved with a related production. 3. I've never been in a movie or TV show before, so this is a new experience to be involved in, outside the things I usually do. Have a good day. -- Darren Duncan P.S. Yes, I did get paid; technically this was a job. From Peter at PSDT.com Mon Aug 15 17:33:00 2005 From: Peter at PSDT.com (Peter Scott) Date: Mon, 15 Aug 2005 17:33:00 -0700 Subject: [VPM] Victoria Perl Mongers meeting tomorrow, August 16 Message-ID: <6.1.2.0.2.20050810173319.03ac6a18@mail.webquarry.com> Victoria.pm will meet at its regular date, time, and place tomorrow, Tuesday, August 16, 7pm, at UVic, Harry Hickman Building 120. I will give a report on the recent Open Source Conference with its embedded 9th annual Perl Conference (cool new Perl 6 news!) and Darren Duncan will do the same if he is able to attend. Other topics to be covered as time permits; make requests for anything particular. (Courtesy copy to VLUG members by permission of the list manager. Victoria.pm's home page is .) -- Peter Scott Pacific Systems Design Technologies http://www.perldebugged.com/ http://www.perlmedic.com/ From darren at DarrenDuncan.net Tue Aug 16 15:35:11 2005 From: darren at DarrenDuncan.net (Darren Duncan) Date: Tue, 16 Aug 2005 15:35:11 -0700 Subject: [VPM] Victoria Perl Mongers meeting tomorrow, August 16 In-Reply-To: <6.1.2.0.2.20050810173319.03ac6a18@mail.webquarry.com> References: <6.1.2.0.2.20050810173319.03ac6a18@mail.webquarry.com> Message-ID: At 5:33 PM -0700 8/15/05, Peter Scott wrote: >I will give a report on the recent Open Source Conference with its >embedded 9th annual Perl Conference (cool new Perl 6 news!) and Darren >Duncan will do the same if he is able to attend. This email is to confirm that I *will* be at the VPM meeting today, though I may be a few minutes late (sorry). I will also be bringing a CD with all the pictures I took while there, so they can be looked at if one of you has a computer along with a CD drive. -- Darren Duncan From Peter at PSDT.com Wed Aug 17 13:32:18 2005 From: Peter at PSDT.com (Peter Scott) Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 13:32:18 -0700 Subject: [VPM] Kudos and well wishes to Abram Message-ID: <6.1.2.0.2.20050817132704.02acc108@mail.webquarry.com> Last night's Victora Perl Mongers meeting was a success, with several new people attending. We looked at slide shows of OSCON and then did a brief tutorial with solving a small filesystem-type problem, then making the result into a maintainable robust solution, and then going in the other direction and turning it into a one-liner. Last night was also Abram Hindle's last time at VPM. Abram has been to every meeting starting with the first one, and has been booking the room for us for nearly all of that time. In addition, he has given some of the most popular presentations, including IRC, gaming, and Parse::RecDescent. Abram is off to U Waterloo to pursue a PhD in computer science and on behalf of the Victoria Perl Mongers, I wish him a safe trip and exciting research. Thank you! -- Peter Scott Pacific Systems Design Technologies http://www.perldebugged.com/ http://www.perlmedic.com/ From carl.constantine at gmail.com Wed Aug 17 15:22:56 2005 From: carl.constantine at gmail.com (Carl Constantine) Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 15:22:56 -0700 Subject: [VPM] Kudos and well wishes to Abram In-Reply-To: <6.1.2.0.2.20050817132704.02acc108@mail.webquarry.com> References: <6.1.2.0.2.20050817132704.02acc108@mail.webquarry.com> Message-ID: On 8/17/05, Peter Scott wrote: > Last night's Victora Perl Mongers meeting was a success, with several > new people attending. We looked at slide shows of OSCON and then did a > brief tutorial with solving a small filesystem-type problem, then > making the result into a maintainable robust solution, and then going > in the other direction and turning it into a one-liner. > > Last night was also Abram Hindle's last time at VPM. Abram has been to > every meeting starting with the first one, and has been booking the > room for us for nearly all of that time. In addition, he has given > some of the most popular presentations, including IRC, gaming, and > Parse::RecDescent. Abram is off to U Waterloo to pursue a PhD in > computer science and on behalf of the Victoria Perl Mongers, I wish him > a safe trip and exciting research. Thank you! > -- And he better dang well keep in touch or we'll come after him and hunt him down! ;-) Congrats Abram and all the best to you. -- Carl B. Constantine carl.constantine at gmail.com http://photo-op.ca/ From abez at abez.ca Wed Aug 17 17:02:58 2005 From: abez at abez.ca (abez) Date: Wed, 17 Aug 2005 17:02:58 -0700 (PDT) Subject: [VPM] Kudos and well wishes to Abram In-Reply-To: <6.1.2.0.2.20050817132704.02acc108@mail.webquarry.com> Message-ID: Thanks very much. I have appreciated the effort put forth by everyone who was part of perl mongers. It was definately my favorite "nerd church" gathering, I hope that with the help of Clarke from the UVIC CSCU that Victoria Perl Mongers can continue thrive. Thanks for your support. Also check out these neat ascii animations: http://www.perlmonks.org/?next=40;node_id=1597 abram On Wed, 17 Aug 2005, Peter Scott wrote: > Last night's Victora Perl Mongers meeting was a success, with several > new people attending. We looked at slide shows of OSCON and then did a > brief tutorial with solving a small filesystem-type problem, then > making the result into a maintainable robust solution, and then going > in the other direction and turning it into a one-liner. > > Last night was also Abram Hindle's last time at VPM. Abram has been to > every meeting starting with the first one, and has been booking the > room for us for nearly all of that time. In addition, he has given > some of the most popular presentations, including IRC, gaming, and > Parse::RecDescent. Abram is off to U Waterloo to pursue a PhD in > computer science and on behalf of the Victoria Perl Mongers, I wish him > a safe trip and exciting research. Thank you! > -- abez ------------------------------------------ http://www.abez.ca/ Abram Hindle (abez at abez.ca) ------------------------------------------ abez