Month: December 2009

Christmas 2009

Merry Christmas, everyone!

I’m in Belleville for the holidays, as usual. I’m enjoying a little bit of relaxation and celebration back home with my family.

My mom threw her now-traditional Christmas Eve Open House last night. I got to catch up with cousins and aunts and uncles. Today we did the normal Christmas gift exchange and dinner stuffs. All in all, it’s been a lovely Christmas.

I managed to watch the Doctor Who special tonight, and it was… something else. I look forward to the resolution next week.

I’m putting together a game of [Spirit of the Season](http://www.evilhat.com/home/sotc/spirit-of-the-season/)–a special Christmas edition of [Spirit of the Century](http://www.evilhat.com/home/sotc/)–for next week. I’m looking forward to pitting Nick Saint, aka Secret Santa! and his band of Reindeer Men against their dastardly enemies. And it’s been over a year (really?) since I last ran a game. I’m looking forward to getting back into that. And I’ll need to put some work into it tomorrow.

I don’t have any particular reason to go Boxing Day shopping. I’ll have a look around online, but I’m not especially looking to buy anything.

I’ll be back in Waterloo on Monday, I think. Then I’ll have to get ready for my New Year’s party.

Ubuntu Waterloo Region

I’ve been trying to get more into Ubuntu lately. Not just running it, but getting *involved*.

I like Ubuntu. I like the software; I like the ethos; I like the community; I like how it’s catching on with people. There’s lots of things to like. I haven’t been this excited and enthusiastic about a computing platform since my old Amiga days. Rather than just basking in my enthusiasm, I want to *do* something about it. I want to contribute.

So I’ve been poking around the [various ways to get involved](http://www.ubuntu.com/community/participate). I was sitting in on some of the [Ubuntu Open Week](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuOpenWeek) sessions last month, looking in occasionally when they were talking about things that looked interesting. In one of the community sessions, I asked what you could do when your LoCo ([Ubuntu Canada](http://ubuntu-ca.org/), in this case) doesn’t have much of a presence in your area. I didn’t get much of an answer, but I did start up a bit of a conversation with some other Ubuntu people in Southern Ontario.

So coincidentally, the next week was [Ontario Gnu/Linux Fest](http://onlinux.ca/). [Ralph](https://launchpad.net/~txwikinger), one of the KWLUG people, was asking around for people to help out with the Ubuntu table. And since I wanted to promote my [release party](http://www.flyingsquirrel.ca/index.php/2009/10/27/karmic-koala-release-party/), I volunteered.

I got to hang out with other KWLUG Ubuntu people, and they showed up for my party the next week. We talked a little about starting up a more local LoCo. Ralph went off to UDS in Dallas and talked to the Ubuntu Canada people there. The result of that discussion is the [Kitchener/Waterloo Chapter of the Ubuntu Canada LoCo](https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-waterloo-region).

So far, we have 12 people signed up. As of right now, we know we’ll be participating in the [Ubuntu Global Jam](https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGlobalJam) early in 2010. What we do beyond that, we’re still working on figuring out as a group. I’m just happy that we’re building this local group I can explore this whole Ubuntu thing with. I’m looking forward to seeing where it goes.