I have a long history of weird people hitting on me at the Terminus - usually because I was waiting for Ruth and reading. Apparently this meant I was "smart".

So much to Ruth's amusement 30-something women would come talk to me. As they were usually slightly mentally unstable 30-something women it often made for bizarre and amusing conversations.

Now Ruth doesn't work at the Termi anymore so I don't often go. But last night we stopped in from a drink and ended up staying for a while.

Even though I wasn't reading my pattern of weird women continued. A quite pretty young blond woman leaned over me and asked for a light - which I duly gave her. She then proceeded to introduce herself as "Hil". In her first sentence I learnt "Hil" was short for Hilary. In her second sentence she indicated she was from Echuca. Okay so far so good. Normal thus far. But the third sentence:

"You know it's really hard to find someone who wants to fuck me in the arse and really hurt me."

She then proceeded to make it clear that if I could fulfill her requirements we could leave now. I pointed out Ruth and gave my apologies and she went back to her own table. Good to see I can still pull the interesting women...

So after many, many years (5 at least!) my blog is moving away from Expression Engine to Drupal. There are a number of reasons for this but briefly they are:

1. The “Book” content type. I am a writer and I am thinking my next book will be authored between a bunch of us online. Drupal offers the ability to do that and export the resulting content as DocBook. I had a look to see if EE could do this but I don’t have the time to develop something.

2. My preference is generally open source software - I sit on the executive council of Linux Australia - and I don’t see EE as truly FOSS. Drupal makes me feel intellectually more comfortable.

3. The ease of theme application - I don’t have to design or tweak HTML/CSS anymore. (well only a little)

Now I get the annoying feeling though that I will end up tweaking PHP in a few places but *shrugs* it's all good learning. :)

Amazing photographer Phillip Jones Griffith - author of Vietnam Inc has died. His work in Vietnam - both during the Vietnam War and afterward - to document the suffering of civilians significantly influenced world opinion of the war and the aftermath. His insight and ability to see into the heart of issues through photography will be sadly missed.

Funny.

Sorry.

Today we honour the Indigenous peoples of this land, the oldest continuing cultures in human history.

We reflect on their past mistreatment.

We reflect in particular on the mistreatment of those who were Stolen Generations ¡V this blemished chapter in our nationfs history.

The time has now come for the nation to turn a new page in Australiafs history by righting the wrongs of the past and so moving forward with confidence to the future.

We apologise for the laws and policies of successive Parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians.

We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country.

For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry.

To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry.

And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.

We the Parliament of Australia respectfully request that this apology be received in the spirit in which it is offered as part of the healing of the nation.

For the future we take heart; resolving that this new page in the history of our great continent can now be written.

We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.

A future where this Parliament resolves that the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.

A future where we harness the determination of all Australians, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, to close the gap that lies between us in life expectancy, educational achievement and economic opportunity.

A future where we embrace the possibility of new solutions to enduring problems where old approaches have failed.

A future based on mutual respect, mutual resolve and mutual responsibility.

A future where all Australians, whatever their origins, are truly equal partners, with equal opportunities and with an equal stake in shaping the next chapter in the history of this great country, Australia.

An actual review!

Another interview - this time with me.

Almost a review.

As you might guess from my wrap-up of posts I didn't get around - due to being incredibly busy dodging people with invoices - to finish blogging about LCA. Perhaps next year when I might actually get to see SOME of the conference. :)

Day 1 of the conference proper was a great success. Initial teething dramas with chairs were quickly resolved and keynote went smoothly. With the exception of:

a) One fire alarm
b) One broken A/V system
c) One nearly missing taxi

... the rest of the day also went smoothly. Again only caught snippets of talks but what I did see looked good. The day was even sufficiently smooth that our esteemed conference director even managed to leave the premises for a few hours.

The day finished with the Penguin Dinner at the Night Market - which quite frankly rocked. Pete and I got there late - rolling up the line of volunteers who guided the delegates from the Uni to the Vic Market - but still managed food and drinks. The meal/drink tickets proved a good idea with little overhead required.

The night itself was interesting - very informal with people moving around and mingling - something that I think is really critical at a function like this. I think set-piece sit down dinners just don't suit this sort of event. Everyone gets a little trapped at their table and never feels entirely free to wander. Will strongly recommend '09 make the event something similar.

Got to shoot the breeze with a few people, chatted/gossiped with Alli, listened to a long discussion about file system development that convinced me that the less I know about FS work the better. I quickly banged my head against the table until all knowledge of VFS vanished. Yammered on with Martin Krafft and some other Debian peoples about Debian package management, and security until they kicked us out. Most satisfying discussion and now tempted to go to a Debian conference for a look-see.

Night ended relatively early and I declined an offer to sip tequila and another to consume copious cocktails.