What Happened in Atlanta – Big Nerd Ranch

Filed under: Tech

Posted 2 years, 2 months ago at 5:43 am. 3 comments

Merry Christmas!

I guess no one expected me to blog about a trip that happened two months ago, but it would be a shame not to, as it marked one of my UPs in 2007. Most importantly, I am on my way to Tokyo(where else?) and I still have N more hours to kill before arrival.

WARNING: This is a rather long post. It is 9-hour flight to Tokyo, remember?

In the first week of October, I took a week off and went to Atlanta to attend Big Nerd Ranch’s Cocoa boot camp. For those who are not familiar with programming and Mac, Cocoa is the development platform for Mac OSX. I first learned about the boot camp from an article in the MacTech magazine. Big Nerd Ranch was found by Aaron Hillegass, the author of TEH most popular Mac programming book out there. He also teaches the Cocoa course. Everything sounded really tempting: Coding with a bunch of Mac geeks on a farm surrounded by animals, forest and waterfalls.

It was a difficult decision though. The 5-day course itself (with food and accommodation included) was $3500. Flying to Atlanta from Vancouver in reasonable hours would cost another $900. The cost was EXTREMELY steep for someone who has only worked for a little bit over a year and had already wasted too much money going to Japan. I don’t remember what I was smoking when I registered for the course, but I knew was I was not too happy and needed a vacation desperately. That was one thing I learned in 2007: Life is short, treat yourself better and make things happen.

I probably told myself I could cancel my Christmas trip and pre-spend the trip money on Big Nerd Ranch, even though I can go to Japan three times with that kind of money. Not to mention I am actually going to Tokyo on Christmas day as I am typing this.

In order to minimize the cost of flying to Atlanta, I decided to depart from Seattle instead and transfer at Dallas. The cheapest flight departs on Saturday mornings at 6 a.m., so I had to take a bus from Vancouver to Seattle on Friday evening straight from work. The experience was nothing but Holly-Taihen(tm). It was a 6 hour bus ride from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m., because there is always someone on the bus with an expired Visa. The 6-hour overnight lay over at SEA-TAC was pretty terrible as well, but it was not half as bad as the 15-hour layover on my way back. I was more than happy to pay for wifi access on both nights. This was not exactly “treat myself better”, but at least I made things happened with less money.

After 24-hours of traveling, I finally arrived Atlanta and checked into the hotel I reserved earlier on Priceline. Since I arrived a day early, I had some extra time to roam around the city and do some sightseeing. Atlanta was not very tourisy per-se, but it gave me a really good impression. The city was well-layout and extremely clean. Imagine Vancouver but with more skyscrapers, cleaner streets, bigger shopping malls and a much much lower sales tax rate (4% versus 14%). Everything seemed cheaper over there, and yet it felt like a modern and prosperous city.

The course itself took place at the Serenbe Southern Country Inn.
(The following is not an ad, but a straight copy and paste description from their website.)

The Inn at Serenbe is nestled in the rolling countryside on the edge of Atlanta, just minutes from Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. Our 900 acres include preserved forestland, wildflower meadows, 15 miles of trails that go by two waterfalls and a large granite outcropping, an animal village, swings and rocking chairs, two pools and a cabana, two hot tubs, croquet lawn, and endless opportunities for relaxing and connecting with nature. Stroll across the wildflower meadow to the Serenbe community where you’ll find the Blue Eyed Daisy Bakeshop and The Hil restaurant. StudioSwan art gallery, Harris & Clark Thoughtful Grocery and Food School, boutique shops, and more.

The accommodation and meals provided were luxurious, which made the cost of going way more justifiable (Resort and food photos were uploaded to Flickr earlier). For a bachelorette who rarely cooks, it was the best week of food I have eaten for the entire year. I miss southern food and their sweetened ice-tea.

Everyday after a hearty breakfast, we walked to the classroom to begin our Cocoa training and sugar consumption. Aaron is a really articulate instructor with a natural born talent to teach. I have read his book before, but seeing him “perform live” in person was even more rewarding. The syllabus was well thought-out and involved a lot of hands-on coding. It covered a lot of material and felt overwhelming at times, but you just get used to it once your fingers start typing in lightning speed.

We also took breaks from coding and went hiking everyday. I am not a big fan of hiking and bug-kissing, but the 30 minutes to 1 hour hikes really helped me forget about work and daily chores. After each hike, I was ready to cram more Cocoa and sugar into my brain.

Despite the delicious food and useful skills I picked up at the Big Nerd Ranch, the experience felt similar to the two-week UVic pre-Japan course I took with my co-op friends. A group of people, who shared similar interests, stayed in a remote location having fun and learning. Everyone was on vacation-mode and was ready for more fun after class.

Was the course worth it? Yes, definitely. If you are thinking of going but cannot justify the cost, just go. Think of it as a course plus a vacation, both of which are guaranteed to be remarkably awesome. If your company is willing to subsidize you, go often!

Tags: Atlanta, Mac, Photos, Travel