Last weekend I went to Carnival in Pittsburgh.

I met: aij, alanv, aleffert, ayndin, azzil, buoren, cdinwood, chrisamaphone, combinator, demarko, dr4b, dracai, drquuxum, etopiei, etotheipi, fixermark, gwillen, jashar.myopenid.com, jcreed, kahare, klari, lars_chan, lunaratu, moonndragn, mr_wright, mygrane, pfriedma, physics_dude, qedragon, rachael85, rbraun, redglasses, rehana, rjmccall, roseandsigil, rupes, sajasj, sk4p, skydiamonde, sleepsong, styger, theadana

At long last, I met gustavolacerda in person.

I failed to meet: x77303066, rdore

I wish that creidieki, indrani_prime, julia82084, lordm, mrsix, mtolan, naufiel, platypuslord, yannaboo, or the inimitable Mark Stehlik had been there too, but such is life.

It was a lot of fun. There was some Mao, which I have not had a chance to play since the UOregon concurrency workshop last July. I also drank a moderate amount, which had an immoderate effect on me, since I've had almost nothing to drink for the past six months. Good times.

As before, I felt a kind of timeline shear when alternating between social circles from different generations, though it was far less noticeable than previous years. This is partly due to some social reorganizations, and partly due to the fact that the 'younger' generation is not quite so young anymore. Indeed, it's very funny to hear the seniors talk about distancing themselves from the rowdy, immature youngsters. :-)

As Carnivals go, this one was a turning point: next year, I will know very few, if any, of the current undergraduates and other denizens, so future years will largely be an exercise in coordinating a mass reunion with other returnees. I'm guessing this is the same phenomenon experienced by the older generations. Furthermore, this one was also a turning point because I don't miss Pittsburgh anymore. The city has an entropic, rusty charm to it, but I no longer identify it as home, or even one of many homes. Austin is home now.

Highlights:
Seeing lars_chan again at long last
"His Gardening Royal Highness"
Uno's with kahare, ayndin, rjmccall, and Andy
A giant Nintendo on Midway