Today was my first Super Happy Dev House (SHDH), which is an event that happens once a month where a bunch of developers get together in a big house somewhere in the San Francisco bay area and develop stuff. What kind of stuff, you ask? Whatever they want, of course.

SHDH, where one is immediately rick-rolled upon entering.

I planned to spend most of my time working on Meal Advisor, but actually spent a good deal of time with Dave teaching me Python/Django. The new version of ReviewsBy.Us will be known as Meal Advisor and is currently being rewritten in Python so the hope is that I will be able to help with some of the basic programming.

Each SHDH is held in a different large home that someone opens up for the event. This one was at a gorgeous house in Cupertino of which I didn’t think to get photos until after nightfall. I overheard one of the owners explaining that he and a bunch of other engineers chipped in to get the place. Not a bad idea around here where real estate is ridiculously expensive for the individual or couple.

Overall it was a fun day of living vicariously through Cupertino homeowners, overhearing what were sometimes strange conversations, and getting a lot of work done in what others may perceive as a distracting environment, but for me is the rare kind that keeps me on task. The exciting part came soon after dinner had arrived as the lights were turned off for Earth Hour while we all sat with a plate loaded with Italian food. We still managed to eat by the glow of the many laptops, but Dave and I were still amused by the timing.

I think I’ll come around to SHDH again. Even if I’m still working on the non-technical aspects of Meal Advisor, I seem to perform well when surrounded by geeks. My only gripe is that there needs to be coffee. I guess I know what I’m bringing next time.