Chuck Frain In The Bay

First, thanks to all my friends and family that donated financially and/or encouraged my effort at Plungapaloza ‘09 for the Maryland Special Olympics. Together we raised $600 and helped to enhance some lives. You can see my pictures and get the proof that yes, I am that crazy when it comes to a good cause. There is, of course, a Youtube channel for videos from the day.

So who’s ready to join me next year for this event?!

This Friday, January 30th at 7pm Celeste Lyn Paul has organized a KDE 4.2 release party in Silver Spring, MD at the Piratz Tavern. It is a family friendly place so come out for some good food and good company. I will be making an effort to be there.

In just a few weeks on February 11th the Columbia Area LUG will be welcoming Paul W Frields from the Fedora Project. Voting is still open, but as of now it looks like he will be talking about remixing Fedora to your custom needs for a live CD/DVD/USB image.

The Ubuntu Maryland Loco will be participating in the Global Bug Jam again this year. We will be getting together on February 21st. Details are still being worked out as to where and the exact times (I am expecting it to be ~9:30am-1:00pm). As soon as details are confirmed I’ll post more.

Be sure to check out the new look and features to Identi.ca, the Free and open microblogging service based on the laconi.ca Open Source software. Evan and the team have made some great visual and functional enhancements to the site. The new groups functionality is particularly interesting. I’ve filed one bug against the feature but otherwise it’s really cool. I created groups for the Ubuntu Maryland team and CALug. I’ll be using these as another means to push info about what’s happening with our teams, particularly last minute meeting updates for weather related stuff.

Thursday I’ll be making another double red donation to the Red Cross. If you are eligable go out and Give Life.

I think that’s about it for now take care and I’ll talk with you all again soon!

I guess the best place to start is with Inara. Our little shnoodle is now happily walking on a leash. Peg got her a little back pack to wear while out for walks. We put in treats and a little weight so she can feel it there. And as she’s cleaned up after the plastic bag goes in the backpack. Since she’s been using that she’s excited to go for a walk. She walks as tall as she can with her little frame. Her tail is up and she’s active and curious on the walks. It’s great to see.

Right now, Inara is trying to figure out how to get to the jerky that’s sitting on the arm of the sofa. She either has to go over me or come around me on the floor and jump up next to me with little room to spare. She’s pawing on my forearm as try to type. I’m wondering if she’ll make a choice one way or the other, or give up altogether.

A couple weeks ago I went to ShmooCon for the first time. Of course it was on Valentine’s weekend that it was going on. Valentine’s day I spent there helping to get the lab set up. As many of these things go it was much activity getting things set to go, without much happening for technical and environmental reasons.

I came home and Peg and I exchanged gifts. I gave her a card and she gave me her purple M&Ms with a personal note on them. We then had dinner in and a nice evening together.

Then I spent the next three days at ShmooCon talking with people and sitting in on some great talks. I also found several talks that were less than inspiring. Overall it was a lot of fun even though it was a working event and I learned quite a bit. The lab guys were great to work with and very helpful. We got an impressive amount data from monitoring the network that’s being blogged about by Ron Gula.

A few of us in the CALug have gotten together to figure out a way to give back a bit. This has led us to meeting with J0hnny Long from Hackers for Charity. During our lunch the other day we flushed out a few ideas we had on how we can help with his project. Johnny mentioned that he was getting some computers donated from a company and he was going to turn them around and give them to a charity in Baltimore. This had me perk up and volunteer the Ubutnu Maryland Logo Team to do the install of Ubuntu on the machines for him. I figured we had the experience of doing install fests and the methodology down for that. We’ll see what happens with that once he gets more details on the donations.

Then Wednesday night the MD Ubuntu team had a meeting out in Frederick. A group of about 15 of us met at TGIFriday’s for dinner and talk. There were quite a few new faces and several from the Columbia area came out to support the effort. I was impressed with the turnout of the Frederick crew. There was a lot of interest in starting a team meeting out there. So we discussed a few things off the cuff and got some good ideas together. More details will be coming out in the next week or so.

Another topic there was IRC chats for the team. We decided to move it back to an 8pm start time and limit the chat ‘officially’ to an hour. With it being IRC, we can run over if needed. Up until now, we’ve been having the chat in the #ubuntu-us-md room on Freenode. It was suggested that we use #ubuntu-meeting to get a little higher profile for our IRC meetings. We’ll look into that now that we’re an official team.

So the next major event we have going with the MD team is the March 8th Ubuntu Install Fest in Columbia so come out and join us if you want help installing Ubuntu to your PC or laptop. We’ll also be doing GPG key signings for those interested in that.

Most importantly thanks to Peg for putting up with my extra circular activities and extra work time that I’ve put in that has kept me out of the house more lately than normal. I’m lucky to have you around!

Well it’s now late so I’ll post more another time. Inara has given up on the jerky. Maybe next time she’ll get it.

Peg took a few videos with her phone. I haven’t worked out how to link them in my post here without messing up my entire blog page. I’ve just uploaded the videos to Youtube and now cannot get to the site. Inara checks out her cake then she gets her cake!

So this is the typical ‘what to do with the year’ letter. I’ve been giving this some thought and here’s what I’m thinking, in no particular order with the exception of the first item.

I want to continue to grow the fantastic relationship that I have with Peg. She and I are so great together that no matter what else happens, I want the year to end with us together and as strong or stronger (if possible) than we are now.

The next would be to continue the bonds with family and friends.

If nothing serious happens between now and the end of the year, I should be debt free. I’ve been following the Dave Ramsey plan for a little while now and am really seeing some great steady progress moving forward. Doing some light number crunching shows that at an aggressive pace I should have everything paid off by the end of December 2008. While that date is realistic and the target, my goal date is March 2009. After all, who has a perfect year?

On the Ubuntu advocacy front I have a few ideas. I want to have semi-regular dining out experiences. I think that our Gutsy release party went really well. I want to see us do four more presentations before the end of the year and a community service project of some sort. I have some thoughts on tutorials to do between regular team meetings. Install fests will continue this year with the first one being discussed now. We will hopefully be approved by the 1st anniversary in March. Hopefully we’ll be celebrating that milestone with a table at the Hamfest. I also hope to become an official member by summer. This fall holds some potential, but all of that is out of my hands so I’ll clam up on that for now.

I’m also excited to see what happens with Inara, our dog, over the next year. Already we’re seeing hints of progress after just two weeks. I hope that by the end of January we’ll have her walking on a leash. Maybe by late winter or early spring we’ll be taking in fosters again. This does depend on how well Inara progresses obviously.

Professionally  I haven’t set any concrete goals. I’ve gotten the rhythm of the job down now. Going forward is getting deeper and digging into details of the work that I need to focus on. Ways to improve the daily progress and results of what I do.

I want to read at least two books a month.  One to improve myself and one to enjoy.

Outside of that, I just want to have a nice enjoyable year.

Love to all my family and friends!

Once we welcome Sailor into the home and we’re all settled, we are intending to do the fostering again as time allows.

So about a week and a half ago we were interviewed at home and approved to be fosters by the Montgomery County Humane Society. Last Sunday we were contacted about two different dogs, and were able to take Rebel.

He’s been a good dog so far and I’ve taken to him more than I thought I might. It’s taken him most of the week to understand that he’s not going to yet another place for a little bit. This morning I took him for his walk all on my own and cleaned up after him. That was the big task that I wasn’t looking forward to dealing with having a dog.

Peg’s had a lot of people interested in him just from his photo and description. If it weren’t for his affecting our allergies I think Peg and I would consider keeping him around. There was an event yesterday that we took him to and several applications were put in for him. I’ll be surprised if Rebel is with us much longer depending on how long it takes the organization to process the applicants.

Today I put some chicken wire on the back gate at the gap so that we can let him and future dogs run in the yard without a line on them. Since it was a nice day out we also got some playtime out there with him and he got confused between his favorite toys and deciding which one to keep.

At the Howard County Library the Ubuntu Maryland Local Community Team held an install fest. With a strong turnout by our members and the public we had a real successful day.

We started out the morning getting set up. I was running a little late but with Krispy Kreme doughnuts in hand, I think I was forgiven. Craig, John, Chris, and others were getting our install stations set up. Luis was bringing us monitors to use at each place. We ran our cat5 and wired up the network to the update server that Craig took the time to set up and configure.

We had a few early arrivals for the low-cost, gently used computers that the library was offering at a reasonable prices, to benefit the Friends of Howard County Library organization. While waiting for the PCs to arrive, one of the customers even went home to bring her current PC set up for dual-boot. We had a few people come in during the day to either have their PC ‘upgraded’ to Ubuntu or purchase one of the PCs we were configuring.

As the day progressed we had a lot of good conversation and enlightened a few people as to the benefits of Free software. One of our ‘customers’ kept asking “Is it really free (as in soda)?” She could not get over that all of the software we were offering was free of cost and free as in freedom, though I don’t know how much that aspect affected her. Other people passing by dropped in to find out what was going on and what we were about. Several people took the disks we offered and the knowledge we imparted to them.

Midway through the day we had visitors from the IT staff of the library. All gave us much praise on what we were doing. They even bought lunch for the group of us. I want to thank them all for their hospitality at this event and our regular meetings.

I think the biggest downfall to the day was the weather. Outside it was one of those perfect early fall days. It was warm and sunny with a nice breeze blowing. In all honesty, had I not made the commitment, I would have been elsewhere. I would have spent the day with Peg on the dog search.

Of course, I’ll be doing that tomorrow

I gave her a (small) dog collar, as a symbol that I’m okay with her getting another dog. Of course it was a purple one, as I knew that would be the icing on the cake.

She has been hinting for a while that she wants another dog. Her last one, Hannah, passed away before we met. She put this desire for a dog aside knowing that I’m not much of an animal person. Yet after the week that we had Buddy, my sister’s dog, I saw how happy she was having a dog around the house.  So after alot of thinking, I came to the conclusion that I can live with a dog, especially if I get to see her that happy.

It was such a thrill to see her open the gift. The moment she realized what it was and what it meant. I knew she couldn’t say much, but I could see the joy in her expression and her eyes.  After the stun effect wore off, she got up and gave me a big hug. She sat down again just saying how happy and excited she was, practically vibrating. It did take her longer to get the laptop to start the search for a dog than I thought it would, but she didn’t want to seem too eager apparently. She’s cute like that.

Happy Birthday Baby!

(Of course the side benefit is that she will be totally preoccupied with finding a dog for a while and then with the dog once she gets it. Free time for me!!!!!!!)

Anyway this is the first time I’ve met this part of the family and they’re all good people. As soon as I met Debbie I knew she was family as I had to look down on her. We got to the house where I met Debbie’s husband Jeff. After we got settled a bit we did a little grocery shopping then back to the house where Marie, the graduate, came home just after us. Then a bit later Max, the oldest, made his appearance and introductions. Of course Tiki the dog made his little presence known right from the start at the house. Of course Peg gets totally focused on him if he’s around, but that was expected.

Today Peg and I slept in until about 10 or so. We were both amazed but we woke well rested. After getting ourselves together we went out and found a dog track and took in a couple races. We walked out about $15 up even considering we had no program and we just picked a dog by it’s number. Then after our adventure on the way home, we went out to dinner with Debbie and Jeff. A tour of the roundabout that is downtown then back home for a movie and relaxation.

It’s a good trip so far. Tomorrow is Graduation Day ceremony then Wednesday is an outing with the family day. I’m looking forward to it.

I know that I may not express it with words often, but always know that I Love You!