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Meeting

A couple of days ago, Sept. 29 (Thursday) I was having a generally great day -- delivered a short (5 minute which became a 10 minute) persuasive speech in front of a mix of techie and non-techie people which went really bad with my lack of guidance (i.e. I had no index cards with me). That was good enough for me because I personally have been talking about Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) for the past 3 years, I should be able to handle that even without a prepared speech -- which I barely did. It was a lively discussion at 9:30 am, which got my day started real nice.

Up next was me seeing Yannie for lunch before I headed for Mandaluyong for the PLUG Board Meeting to which I was invited to be a part of (the meeting, not the board. ;) ). There was something bothering Yannie, which she didn't tell me about yet -- but which I promised her I would ignore for the rest of the day. Now I think I'd like to know what was bothering her.

On the way to Mandaluyong the phone ran out of charge. I was supposed to meet Calen and Polo at Robinson's Pioneer, but I was an hour and a half early for the meeting with Paolo, and the last SMS Message I sent to Calen didn't specify where we'd be meeting. I needed to act fast, so I went around Robinson's Pioneer to look for a computer shop from which I hope I could be able to contact Jojo to send Calen an SMS Message to where I was. Good thing there was one, so I got my very rare dose of MS Windows again. I owe Jojo one because had it not been for him, Calen and I would not have met at Robinson's Pioneer.

Then came Paolo with his "Bret The Hitman Heart Shades Lookalike", whom I quickly recognized while hanging out at Hot Loops. (Btw, Hot Loops has great donuts and coffee -- local brewed coffee that is). He grabbed something to eat, and we talked over the possibility of server building here in the Philippines, and making clusters on a per-project/client basis. Sounded good, but we had to head to Starship Enterprise.

Yes, Starship Enterprise it looked like -- that being Ian Sison's office and the headquarters for Q Software Research Corporation. One by one, members and non-members of the PLUG Board started coming in, and the usual geek-get-together-we-talk-tech session ensued, as we awaited the official start of the Board meeting.

I learned a lot about how geeks get together and talk about tech, social issues, problems, and how we geeks try to solve problems without resorting to too much kludging and hacking. At least that shows that there is some truth to the age old addage of "the more the merrier". I should blog about the geek culture I observed in the PLUG Board meetings at least at some later time.

Then it was time to go home. I had to commute (at 12:30 in the morning Friday) from Edsa Central Crossing to Pacita Complex, then from there Commute to Calamba, Laguna, then to Calauan, Laguna. Total travel time: 4 hours, which got me home at 4:30 in the morning to a half-asleep dad worrying the past few hours because he can't contact me through my phone (which was dead since 3pm the day before). It would have been nice to do that, have I had a companion with me to talk with for the 4 hour journey. That's a nice thing to do again, especially if you're not alone.

So that was the day which was so full, and so enlightening that I thank the Lord for protecting me every step of the way. Aside from the grime because of the Manila air pollution, I relatively got through the day and safely back home unscathed. Indeed, I am very thankful.

It would certainly be nice if I could be of more service to PLUG someday. I know I'd love doing that.

CHill...

PS. October 1 is Jonahlyn Mari's birthday, I would like to greet her publicly. She's one of my dear friends from High School, former dance partner (YES, I used to dance, quite well if I would say so myself the cha-cha and swing), and one time confedant regarding issues of the heart. Today, October 2 is Yannie's birthday, her 20th -- I love her so dearly, and wish that she has a great year ahead of her (God willingly with me).

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