Not AWOL, not MIA, but WMAO

You may have noticed a telltale absence on this blog for the last several days, but I can assure you that I have been neither Away Without Leave (AWOL) nor Missing in Action (MIA).

I’ve been WMAO.

Yes, “Working My A** Off” would get those who guessed that acronym a proverbial stuffed animal at this carnival booth.

So I have to apologize for those regular visitors to this blog for my absence, as well as to apologize to everyone else for not haunting the IRC channel (I can’t get behind the firewall at the newspaper, for starters) as much as I should, nor being here to blog as often as I should.

Until Lindependence moves on to another community, lately I live my life in a series of lists; or, like T.S. Eliot’s J. Alfred Prufrock, “I have measured out my life in coffee spoons” (to say nothing of the amount of coffee I drink to keep going).  Blogging is always on the list and sometimes, like right now, it makes it to the top and it gets done. Other times, it doesn’t, and hence the unintentional silence.

I can assure you that on top of the list tomorrow — or even later tonight, if I finish my list of things to do and get a head start on July 1 — will be the downloadable release of the window posters and fliers that we’ll be giving out at the Felton Farmers Market tomorrow afternoon. Watch this space.

Sitting alone at the bar

A bit of Larry Linuxseed trivia: I don’t make a big deal about it, though some do (especially AA types, God bless ‘em), but I stopped drinking in 1984; having realized at 26, while being examined by a doctor for alcohol poisoning (downing a quart of Jim Beam will do that to you), that between the time I started as a teen until I stopped on that day in the doctor’s office (it was in August), I drank enough for a lifetime. The doctor told me in unequivocal terms that the choice is mine: I could stop drinking or I could die.

“I’d like to get another opinion,” I said.

“Want another opinion?” The doctor replied. “You also need to lose weight.”

But I digress.

I bring this up because during the course of the day today, I sat on our IRC channel — #lindependence for those of you keeping score at home — by myself, hoping someone would stop by.

I know a lot of country music has been written around this theme, but it was like I was sitting alone at the bar all day, even though I had a significant amount of work to do while waiting for someone to pop in. But no one arrived.

Oh, lonesome me . . .

This is not to say that the IRC channel is going to waste. For example, I had a great discussion with Stephen Rufle of Phoenix the other day, which included what I think is a very cool idea for a vehicle to expand Lindependence’s scope; this “vehicle” is just that — namely a bus outfitted with desktops, laptops, distros and FOSS programs rolling into towns coinciding with festivals, Linux or otherwise, promoting what we already know.

So picture this: St. Linus’ Traveling Digital Salvation Show, saving your computing soul from the damnation surrounding you by the heathens from Redmond! Can I get an “amen”?

A side note before closing: Lyle Lovett is a Texan I hold in high esteem — not as high as that for Ken Starks, mind you — and while looking for something else, I heard his song “Penguins.” It’s moving up on my list of favorite Lyle songs, gaining on “She’s No Lady, She’s My Wife” and “That’s Right (You’re Not From Texas).”

Cooling down

The temperatures are cooling down in Felton, which is welcome. The hot temperatures have lent themselves to fires across the state, as you may have noticed, and so far Felton has been spared, but other parts of Santa Cruz County haven’t been. We have one of the best state parks here in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park, and it’s the home of the local “redwood break.”

As for the project, we have one somewhat significant development — not overwhelming, but significant enough: We’re pushing the kickoff back a week to July 12. So mark your calendars: July 12 is the kickoff, and we will schedule the other meetings/installfests between the 12th and the first day of Microsoft freedom, which is still July 28.

Why we’re doing this has to do with logistics in general and insurance companies in particular. In short, we won’t be able to secure the required hall insurance by the time necessary to secure the hall for the July 5 date.

So the revolution has been pushed back a week.

But on the good side, Ken Starks will be here, dispensing his knowledge of GNU/Linux (or maybe just “Linux,” as he prefers to call it), and Stephen Rufle will be coming up from Phoenix, hopefully with his open source stuffed animals. A group of local volunteers are ready to step up and do some hand-holding with those who are treading for the first time into the digital promised land. All the pieces are in place and the loose ends are aching to be tied.

Getting there is half the battle.