The Merry March Travels of LH

I hit the road again this Saturday, though this time I won't be leaving the States. Heading first to Boston, where I'll be speaking at DrupalCon 2008 along with Chris. I'm particularly looking forward to the GHOP panel and the Summer of Code BoF, as well as Dries' State of Drupal talk. Also curious to learn more about how the relationship between Drupal and Acquia works, especially how their business model, which is centered around community support, functions on a day to day basis. Of course, it's always great to see old friends, meet new people and share their stories. I can't wait to hear the story of how DROP came into being, and am planning to canvas all available GHOPers and GSoCers for suggested program improvements

Most exciting, though, is getting to see Angie again. It has been far too long.

The following week I'll be in Chicago for our team all hands meeting, followed by PyCon 2008. It's always a blast to see Ben, Fitz and Trow in their native habitat. The pizza is not bad either. If you haven't heard it yet, Ben and Fitz's podcast PC Load Letter is a must hear.

Chicago Engineering has grown a bit since the old days, and it will be nice to spend a bit more time getting to know the guys I hang out with on IRC. Should be fun to hang out in their new office space, too. I seem to recall rumors of floor to ceiling white boards....

On 18 March I head to NOLA, where I am going to top off four days vacation with a visit to Penguin Day New Orleans. Louis has already promised to take me to Lake Pontchartrain, along with Cafe du Monde. I have a lot of ideas about what I want to pack into those four days. There is just never enough time to spend in New Orleans, and I have not been back in over four years.

Having never been to a DrupalCon, PyCon or Penguin Day, these next three weeks should be quite interesting. If you should happen to find yourself at any of the above, please keep an eye out for me, come on up and introduce yourself.

Man, do I want a café au lait.

Dad

Is officially, 100% fine. Relief. Life is even better.

It's Officially Hot in Here...

Google Summer of Code 2008 is on!

Spread the word, hang out with us in #gsoc on Freenode and apply, apply, apply.

Now I'm going to go relax with Ben and hang out with Pinkerton.

Life is good.

Nearly There...

This past week has been a hectic one. Been working on a project that I'm just putting the finishing touches on now.

Spent yesterday redoing the master and guest bathrooms, complete with the inevitable clean up required by yet another plumbing problem. It was not pleasant. It did, however, result in getting some beautiful new shower curtains up, which in turn inspired me to gussy up the bathrooms in general. The curved shower curtain rod, shown here with actual towels, just plain rocks. It feels like the shower is two times bigger now. From an aesthetics perspective, I'm much more excited about the guest bathroom, though those outdoor light fixtures really, really need to go. I still can't imagine what the previous owners were thinking.

I spent the first half of today thoroughly engaged in my never ending battle with the laundry. That's the trouble with laundry - it just never goes away. While I'll admit a certain perverse joy in washing clothes, putting them away I could simply do without. Except that you can't, so I finally break down and hang/fold/toss into drawers and life becomes much more zen for a few days. I was bustling about rearranging the linen closet, as that's an excellent way to avoid actually folding the linens, when the phone rang.

It was my Mom. My Dad had, apparently, suffered a mild stroke this morning and was at Stanford Hospital. I was in her car heading there about 40 minutes later. My Mom said he was okay and that his tests didn't show any damage, but I don't think anyone is ever really prepared to hear the words "your father" and "stroke" in the same sentence. Well, I sure wasn't.

The weather all day has been gray, wet and rainy. Good weather for staying inside and puttering around the house. It let up a bit by the time we arrived at Stanford, and we reached my Dad's room mostly dry. He was in great spirits and feeling wonderful. His sense of humor was as strong and quirky as always. He said all the numbness in his face and arm had subsided. He was a bit grumpy that he hadn't eaten all day and that they'd only feed him ice chips. We laughed a lot.

Dad told me to stop worrying almost immediately after I sat down next to him, but I didn't stop until he started cracking jokes about us sneaking him a plate of rustic vegetables and some tomato soup. Having snuck many a snack into hospitals, usually in gummy candy form, I would have complied. When someone sick asks for something that healthy, how are you supposed to refuse? Then Mom quite rightly pointed out that in this particular case it was a big no-no, citing several signs on display in the ER this morning regarding not feeding patients who'd suffered stroke, so no food smuggling occurred. Infinitely pragmatic, my Mom.

We left after being there for two hours or so. My Dad should go home tomorrow after an MRI to confirm that all is actually well. Phew. Crisis averted.

I saw this sign in the elevator bay at Stanford. I know I'm easily amused, but this one's just great. Especially when you're nervously skulking the halls of a hospital trying to figure out why you can't find the elevator. Or the stairs. Or a sign telling you where either of those things is hiding.




Where, might I ask, was my would-be-but-forbidden robotic traveling companion? Said rumored robot surfaced during neither of my trips on said elevator. Even though it had a sign. I hadn't thought to bring my own, either.

Headed home, had dinner. Updated some wiki pages and what not. Now I'm hanging out on IRC. I still have a great big pile o' laundry sitting on my bed. I think I'll cajole myself into doing it by watching The Living Daylights.

<random aside>
It's getting hot in here. That does not mean I'm advocating nudity as a lifestyle choice.
</random aside>

Musings on LCA & Back to Real Life

I said I'd post my thoughts on linux.conf.au 2008, so here they are. The program was excellent. I'll leave it to those better versed than I to comment on the technical aspects, but I particularly enjoyed the LinuxChix Mini-Conf and Elizabeth Garbee's Introduction to Open Source Animation, complete with audience accessible clay figurines. All the Keynotes were great; Stormy Peter's "Would You Do It Again for Free?" is real food for thought given some of the discussions going on around money in open source. Open Day rocked. Many thanks to the Olliver family for the open source dance mat and RepRap ring love. I didn't get to hear from Karl about his trip to Papua New Guinea, but I did get a chance to bond with Aaron over a power strip. Sharing free couch with James, James and Pascal was a definite highlight. Adam, Brad, Joel, Lee, Sam and Tim, it is always wonderful to see you. A couple of pleasant evenings were spent in the pursuit of dancing. I petted possums in the park next to my hotel with Cat and Lynne. Melbourne is a lovely city.

It was great to see the usual suspects, and to meet many more of you at the 'Student' Party. I hope you had as much fun getting early evening gelato as I did. Lemon gelato is just so awesome, particularly in a slightly humid atmosphere. If I asked you to ping me, please do; I'd love to hear from you. Ditto if you were promised t-shirts.

Finally, I was tremendously impressed by the work of the 2008 organizing committee. Their care and passion really showed through in the little details, from making the Penguin Dinner open to all attendees to providing refillable insulated water bottles. I saw many fewer plastic bottles in the waste bin than I'm used to seeing at conferences. I loved the juxtaposition between the cathedral for the Speaker's Dinner and the bazaar for the Penguin Dinner. I saw one of the greatest demos for women in tech ever - ask me about it next time you see me.

I won't be back to LCA next year, as I'll be in Auckland getting married, then honeymooning. No doubt paths will cross again sooner rather than later.

It's good to get back home, though. I spent Saturday and Sunday puttering around the house, enjoying my home brewed coffee and rearranging the bathrooms, putting away the last bits of what I'd packed for my past three week jaunt. And doing tons of laundry. As much as housework lacks excitement at the best of times, when I have been gone awhile I love how doing it grounds me and puts me back in sync with being home. Ben and I finally ripped out the nasty old shower doors in our bathroom on Saturday evening. Bliss. But now I must determine what type of shower curtain really defines me as a person. That's much more complex.

My best guy friend, David Wilkins, came over with his husband Gerardo last night. We had what our guests were gracious enough to christen Kung Pao Vegetable & Citrus Chicken Stir Fry. It tasted great, I just need to work out the amount of fruit juice in the sauce. Ben's General Tso's Chicken still beats any of my Asian inspired dishes any day.

Whilst not puttering about or entertaining, I watched The Living Daylights and Equilibrium. Live and Let Die is playing in the background now.

I spent much of today writing ~1K lines of HTML for what should be part of the first changelist I check in at work. Life is good.

It's a Small World

We hosted the Plone Strategic Planning Summit at Google last weekend. If you want full details on the summit, check out limi's summit write up. Limi is the world's foremost expert on embarassment driven development. And blogging. Seriously, ask him about this concept if you get a chance to meet up with him; I'm sure you'll find his commentary insightful.

Much to my amazement I discovered last Saturday that one of our GHOP Grand Prize winners happenned to live close to Google HQ, so I asked him if he wanted to swing by Google to meet with the Plone team. Jonathan came by with his Mom, Constance, and great conversations ensued. It was great meeting Jonathan and even cooler getting to see him interact with a bunch of folks he'd only met online previously, if at all. I think the best part of the day was hearing Constance talk about the flame wars she'd heard about from her sons as part of their participation in open source. Not that flame wars are a good thing, mind you, but it was surprising and awesome to see how engaged she was with community dynamnics.

I would never have anticipated meeting such a hip Mom, nor would I have expected one of our GHOP Grand Prize winners to live so close to Google. Talk about fortuitous timing. It also turns out Jonathan lives about two streets over from me. A very small world indeed.

It's a Small World was closed when we visited Disneyland. Somehow I no longer feel like I greatly missed out having been deprived of cathartic experience of riding through and listening to the ride's message.

This being Valentine's Day and all, I'd like to make a shout out to someone who helped make the Plone Strategic Planning Summit possible even though he didn't attend - Allen "Gunner" Gunn of Aspiration. Gunner always brings the love to any event he facilitates and I feel privledged to have had the opportunity to work with and learn from him at numerous events.

When I walked into the summit and looked at all the easel pad sheets taped to the walls, covered in sticker dots, I knew Gunner had 'been there.' Jon Stahl confirmed he'd been inspired by Gunner's facilitation techniques, all of which are chronicled on the Aspiration wiki. If you ever get a chance to visit a Penguin Day or any other event hosted or facilitated by Gunner or another member of the Aspiration team, I highly recommend them. It's amazing how much can be accomplished and what real synergies can be created in just a short time using their facilitation techniques.

Happy Valentine's Day to all those who are celebrating. And to all, let there be love!

Wrapping Up GHOP

So I'm waiting to blog about the cool thing I mentioned yesterday because I don't want to scoop someone who shall remain nameless - *cough* - limi - *cough* - so I'll just do a quick post to celebrate the close of GHOP.

This contest has been a labor of love for several months by many members of the open source community and I cannot thank them enough for all of their hard work to make this effort possible. All of you rock!!

On a final note, I want all the student participants to know how much respect you've garnered in just a short time. I consistently hear from our mentors how blown away they are by everything you've accomplished. I sincerely hope all of you stick around and continue contributing to open source. I assure you there will be an endless supply of free and low-cost t-shirts in it for you.

I'm going to take a well deserved break. Until tomorrow morning. The Apps Architecture folks are in town.

I am Iron Woman

This has been an insane seven days, but also seven of the most incredible.

Last Sunday, I boarded a plane in Melbourne. I think my flight was supposed to leave at 13:00. I am also pretty confident it didn't. I know there was a four hourish delay in Sydney, but I also spent those four hours engrossed in a, shall we say, less than Western canon status novel. I also don't really remember those four hours. I'd been traveling for 3 weeks and three days at that point, returning home after linux.conf.au, but I do remember Grant telling me more about PA-RISC, making balloon animals and giving me mini-chocolate squares. Grant, you're awesome. :)

Ben picks me up at SFO.

We drive home.

I decompress.

Eventually, I sleep.

Life is good.

The next day around 10:00 I boarded a plane for LAX. A flight and a shuttle ride later, Ben and I settled into our hotel. I caught up on mail. We had steak dinner with Cat. Pleasant fare, pleasant company. It was a good night.

Walked - that's right, walked in LA - to Disneyland from our hotel room. We were in the park from 11:00 until 01:30 the next day. There weren't very many people there in general, but after 20:00 the park was almost literally deserted. I think most of our co-workers were at California Adventure. We went for many rides, no waiting.

We rode the Matterhorn and Big Thunder Mountain Rail Road twice in a row. We went through the Haunted Mansion and Pirates of the Caribbean seven or eight times each. Indiana Jones is overrated. If Finding Nemo is any indication, I would do very poorly in a submarine. I love Ben because he enjoys the Enchanted Tiki Room right along with me.

Up at 5:45 on Wednesday. On shuttle to the airport in 20 minutes, finally home a little over four hours later. Ran into the office for a quick meeting. Went back home. Crashed. Bliss....

Thursday rolls around. We announce the Grand Prize Winners for Highly Open Participation tomorrow, so I spend the rest of the week getting everything together we need to make that happen. Thursday, Friday and Saturday are all about feeling the motivate love. On Friday morning, I pop in to make sure the Plone Strategic Planning Summit kicks off, then go back to making other things happen.

On Saturday, I succumbed to Steve. Yes, I bought an iPhone. The worst part is, I love the darn thing. I mean really love it. I don't particularly think the techie obsession with gadgets is necessarily a good thing^TM and refuse to become emotionally involved with my accessories and tools. I still can't change my own battery. This device is still unbelievably awesome. The UI is unbelievably intuitive. Ship of Fools melodiously steals thoughts of time away from me as I pound away at the keyboard, moving messages, making things happen. Sweet bliss.

I still feel dirty, though. Curse you, Steve, for making beautiful products that function so well. Please open source everything Apple as quickly as possible so that I can use your devastatingly sexy toys sans guilt. I will forever thank you and recommend you to all my friends.

As a random aside, there are days I think the only one on the internet that you can believe in is Fake Steve. You have been warned, people.

I'd talk about today, but that'd be eight days and that's too long for a recap. Besides which, the truly awesome things that happened today I can't blog about just yet. Tomorrow though....

So, to come full circle, I mentioned that I started last week returning from LCA, and I'll write more about my experiences later. I do want to give a shout out to two women who were kind enough to share their thoughts with me, Stormy Peters and Sarah Stokely. Conversing with both of them gave me some valuable insights on self-perception, the pull between the professional and personal when blogging about open source and a whole host of other topics. Thanks to both of you ladies for your time. I'll actually be blogging regularly now.

Oh yeah, and I finally got Slashdotted.

Busy couple of weeks ahead. Life is good.