Category: Journal

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.

Ignite Waterloo

I went to the first [Ignite Waterloo](http://ignitewaterloo.ca) event last night. Ignite events have been around for a while, but this was the first time we had one in Waterloo. And it was amazing. The premise is you get smart, talented speakers and give them 5 minutes each. They have to prepare 20 slides and they automatically change after 15 seconds.

For the speaker, it’s both a great challenge and a lot of fun (or possibly terrifying, but they *seemed* to be having fun). For the audience, it’s illuminating and never dull. Speakers covered a whole range of diverse topics, from solving Rubic’s Cubes to dealing with economic development in Africa.

Oh, and there was a cupcake decorating contest, too.

What I found amazing is how many people I recognized there from all sorts of different things. Kwartzlab, of course, Communitech P2Ps, Devhouse Waterloo, BarCamp, DemoCamp, etc., the Royal Medieval Faire, work, online… Normally those lines don’t cross very much. It’s really gratifying to see some of these groups come together.

A whole bunch of other bloggers have already posted their rave reviews of the event. Here’s just a few:

* [Fellow Kwartzlabber, DW](http://kwartzlab.ca/blog/dw/2009-11-26/ignitewaterloo-was-fantastic) (You might recognize one of the photos).
* [The Ignite Waterloo blog](http://www.ignitewaterloo.ca/2009/11/that-certainly-worked-out-well/)
* [rQ](http://readqatalyst.blogspot.com/2009/11/ignite-waterloo.html) (with [a follow-up about cupcakes](http://readqatalyst.blogspot.com/2009/11/cupcake-camp-my-personal-favs.html))
* [b.p.’s awesome sketchy notes](http://picasaweb.google.com/bpfotos/IgniteWaterloo09#)
* [wendyhoo](http://wendyhoo.posterous.com/ignite-waterloo-was-a-sweet-affair-ignitewate)
* [cutegecko](http://www.cutegecko.ca/blog/3090-we-attended-ignite-waterloo-and-all-i-wrote-was-this-lousy-blog)
* [a bunch of photos](http://www.brightlightsphotography.ca/galleries/ignite/)
* And, of course, [the twitter stream](http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23ignitewaterloo).

I hear a rumour there will be another one in the spring. In the meantime, the amazingness of Ignite gives me great hope for [TEDxWaterloo](http://www.tedxwaterloo.com/) in February.

Karmic Koala Release Party

So me and some folks at [kwartzlab](http://kwartzlab.ca/) (as well as the [KW Linux Users Group](http://kwlug.org/)) are getting together on Thursday to celebrate the release of [Ubuntu](http://ubuntu.com) 9.10, the Karmic Koala.

[Details at the Kwartzlab site](http://kwartzlab.ca/karmic) if you’re interested in attending.

I run Ubuntu at home on all my computers now. Well… nearly all. It’s come along way in the last few years, to the point where it’s making me feel at home and content in an operating system again. I’m also feeling like I want to contribute to the community. So the party seems like a nice way to do that a bit. Plus, I kinda want to see who’s around here, maybe build a local community where we can participate.

I’m a member of Kwartzlab, and I think they’re an awesome group of people. This is one of the things I’m hoping to do to get more involved in the lab. Another is showing up on Tuesday Open Nights and just working on projects. That’s what Tuesday Open Nights are for, after all.

And *maybe* I can bring it all together and hack on some Ubuntu-related projects in the ‘Lab…

Kwartzlab Grand Opening

[Kwartzlab](http://kwartzlab.ca) is a club, a collective, a shared idea, and a place. The idea sprang up when [Mike Hiemstra put out the call on his blog](http://mghiemstra.com/our-area-needs-a-hackerspace) back in March. Since then, folks got together, had lots and lots of meetings, incorporated, leased some space and have been spending the last few weeks turning a little bit of the old Boehmer Box Factory into a place where people can go, commune with like-minded folks and make stuff.

Tonight’s the [Grand Opening](http://kwartzlab.ca/events/2009-10-01/kwartzlab-grand-opening).

I’ve been sort-of involved since the beginning. I’m a member, ‘cuz I really want this thing to take off. Just being around these folks is really inspiring, and I’m hoping I can contribute something to the group.

Come check out the space tonight. They’ve put a lot of work into it and it’s night and day from the way they found it. See some cool projects, and chat with some great people. It’ll be a lot of fun.