Earlier this month, I was at YAPC::NA in Madison, Wisconsin. It was my ninth YAPC! I’m still something of a newcomer compared to a lot of the folks I talked to, who have been YAPCing since 1999. Still, I feel like YAPC::NA is a regular part of my year, these days, and I was looking forward to it. I enjoyed it, too!

At YAPC North America this year, swag included Campaign Secrets, a card game about the US presidential election. This game was also swag in 2006, and I played quite a few games of it with Dieter Pearcey and John Cappiello, many of them at the airport waiting to go home.

Ever since I got my iPad, I’ve felt like it should be possible to use it to take down a lot of ideas for my D&D campaigns. Unfortunately, nearly every time I’ve tried to do so, it’s been a big disappointment.

It is traditional for each release of perl to be announced with a form letter beginning with a quote, or epigraph, chosen by the release engineer. For Perl 5.16.0, I chose the penultimate stanza from W.H. Auden’s September 1, 1939.

Sunday, the 15th day of the Red Moon, 937

Year 28 of the 7th Imperator, 13th of Declarations

Saturday, the 14th day of the Red Moon, 937

In October 2011, Jesse Vincent handed me the patch pumpkin, meaning that it’s now my responsibility to keep Perl development on track and moving apace. One of the biggest parts of this responsibility is making sure that we release new versions of perl, and that they’re fit for human consumption!

Thursday, the 12th day of the Red Moon, 937

I fell behind a bit in writing up Alar recaps. Oops! Things have been very busy lately, which I should write about in a separate post.