Paris Hilton was Strip Searched!

I know what you're thinking -- this post has nothing to do with Ohio Linux Fest and / or Mustangs, and you'd be right. Almost. Ohio Linux Fest is about to announce it's Key note speaker list, and it won't involve Paris Hilton -- or Mustangs for that matter.

It will be something positive, enlightening and very party-oriented, but no, sorry, no strip searching of hotel error-ists (Pun_mode=1, sorry).

Yeah, that was a cheap way of getting your attention. I just finished reading CNN -- is there some other news besides Paris Hilton and gory car-crash stories going on? Maybe something positive about people doing something besides making a train-wreck out of their own and other peoples lives? I could bop over to Fox news and get the fair and balanced look at the latest Republican agenda, for some kind of weird balance.

Except, it's not -- it's two different, Network-oriented views that somehow seem to leave out good news. What abot the millions of kids in life that are doing something non-Paris oriented? Like the two young guys I met last night (one loves tennis, the other golf, both going to business school)? Somehow they've failed to make the headlines. In order to be famous, they need to drive on suspended licenses and [do I really need to mention all the crap Paris has done here that falls outside of the bounds of positive social behavior? Do I? It might increase my Google page rank, but I just can't bring myself to it in this context].

Ohio Linux Fest is not going to be a Paris Hilton event -- it's going to be something positive and deep (deep, Paris, just in case you're somehow reading my blog, is a term referring to things that tax the intellectual aspects of being human.) FWIW, I doubt Paris reads my blog. For one, it's about things (as mentioned) that are constructive and intellectual, but for another, she's probably too busy right now reading the bible and enriching her life planning new reality-TV episodes.

OLF is, however, going to happen September 29th of this year, in a large hotel (Sadly, not the Hilton) in Columbus. Expect somewhere between 1200 to 2500 people to attend. We're not sure, it looks like this year it may be wildly more popular than last, so hold onto your hats ;)

As for the hotel being strip-search, I'm happy to report that the likely-hood is probably very low. Most of us are likely to party after the event (the after-event party at OLF is legendary, for those of us sober enough to remember it). We try not to drink and drive on suspended licenses too. The wild OLF-goer partying involves spouting near-religious views on the GPL, vi-vs-emacs and all the other Linux-hacker-culture type stuff -- in other words, just exactly not the kind of stuff you'd find in Paris or even the news media's limited attention-span.

All-in-all, I'm pumped. We're in the final 100 days of registration and I have all of summer to enjoy till the event, so I'm a happy guy. See you all there!
(PS: don't forget to register if you haven't already -- it's free!).
((PS: Shameless_plug_mode=1);)
-=FeriCyde=-

No I haven't died...

You know a blog post is late when it begins with a title like this.

I have been extremely maxxed on the work/work side. I've achieved a sort of work-life "balance" that is so tipped to the work side that the phrase "work-a-holic" doesn't quite get the dimensions of the beast. Part of it is my emergence from the battle with depression (I think I can proclaim victory, but it's not over -- just beaten into submission).

I'm who I am, and I can live with that; I guess the biggest issues I've faced have been my own haunting fears (things that will get you in the end if you don't face them). Some have been rather hard to face, others just plain funny.

I think the biggest issues have been dealing with my creative side and the fact that I have nothing to be ashamed of when it comes to making people laugh, or making something that didn't exist before. When it comes to creativity, my basic thoughts are that most people have it inside of them, but its mystery and connection to the almighty scare them away from using it. When it comes to creativity and being accepted as a male, a third fear is added.

Whatever.

I had a good, creative day, yesterday. Some things I had been pressing against finally broke like they should have (barriers) and something came into being. I worked a dozen different directions -- and a long day. Brulant is a different place. It's hard to explain, but from what I can tell, I'm here for all of the right reasons and it makes me smile.

Driving home after a thunderstorm (I drove the Orange Mach 1 -- the weather report indicated a "bad convertible day"), I rolled through 271 and Cuyahoga national forest. Mist covered about 1/3 of the view and I felt an unusual mystical connection -- alive, human -- the gentle sound of rolling V8 thunder behind me. I know this doesn't probably sound like it all goes together but I guess you had to be there.

In the mirrors I spot a white GT convertible rolling up slowly behind me. As the car pulls alongside, I see the driver. Smiles -- thumbs up. Mustangs are crude animals. They have suspension issues, fit and finish problems and for the most part are "just barely practical (see prior posts). But they're also something else. And it's not just me. Suddenly, for just a couple of seconds I feel that I'm not the only one who understands this.

Some things have died inside of me over the past few months. I'm letting go of some of my bewilderment at the stupidity of the world. I'm not saying I'm ready to forget it -- just that I understand that it happens and that some people are destined to simply be thieves and liars -- and that they have to live with their choices. Those choices inevitably change their worlds in subtle ways that everyone around can sense, but not necessarily see in an overt sense of the word "perception". As tiny as that sounds, the fact is that its enough.

I'm not dead, and neither are they, in the sense that they're still walking the planet. Still, it's a death of a kind that brings not a sense of anger, but simply pity.
--FeriCyde