It's been such a long time since I've written anything to you, my faithful readers. Life became so hectic and hurried that I barely had time to use a computer. In fact, it's been about three months since I last wrote anything substantive on the Internet.

I think that a lot of this has been fall-out from working on computers too much. Really, I had a brief spat where I stopped using a computer completely. You should have seen the size of my inbox when I returned. As such, the writing bug has come less frequently and less passionately than before. I suspect a bit of my photography has suffered as well, but it's really starting to come back.

Since you all like looking at pictures, I think I'll pull out a bunch to show you.

madamewoo and I went to see our friend Freida perform her experimental electronic musical composition.

I know nothing about electronic music but I do know something about pictures. Alexander, whom I don't know, put a distintegrating stuffed animal on his head, walked up to the front, and nodded so that stuffing fell all about him..

I did a small bit with this year's Computers Freedom and Privacy, held in Montréal. Mostly I did a little research on party planning and did a bit of the advertising. Since this was a privacy conference, there are no public pictures from our little soirée.

However, I am allowed to post photos of the fascinating open panel discussion.

This was actually a summer full of conferences, which is something I'm quite pleased about. Evan Prodromou helped organize RoCoCo Camp, which centres around wikis and other collaborate on-line spaces.

He also introduced me to OpenSpace, which was so successful I think the next BarCamp should employ it.

Next, I flew to Edmonton to shoot a friend's wedding. My mom and I wandered the streets for the first few days, taking in the sights.

Downtown Edmonton is rather deserted for the May long weekend, we only saw the homeless walking around the deserted Chinatown district.

West Edmonton Mall fared a lot better. The shoppers were out in full force and couples were dragging each other into the various shops.

We snuck into the fairground and took some pictures of the rides. This rollercoaster seemed quite popular, though since I'm deathly afraid of heights, I knew better than to climb aboard.

After all that glitz and excitement, Mom decided that we should take in some of the cultural sights. The Alberta Legislature Building is actually quite gorgeous, with a surprising tropical garden at the top of its domed roof.

For the stag party, I tagged along with the bride and groom as they went on a whirlwind tour in a white limousine. We managed to end up at a bar where the guests got rather hammered. After a few rounds of pool, people were getting tired so I called the driver and dropped people off at their hotels.

I returned home to a forlorn kitty cat.

He ignored me for a few hours but then decided that he was far happier posing in front of the camera.

Sadly, we noticed that the bathroom sink had clogged up while I was away. My efforts to clear the clog were futile, so the landlord called the plumber. Who used a drain snake, then disassembled the sink, then tore out the wall, before asking “is this floor made of wood?”

Madamewoo looked at me with horror as the workman got out his hacksaw. Well, that's how we started the bathroom renovation project and were forced to find alternate bathrooms for about two weeks.

November was just a whirlwind of activity. I was so busy that I barely had enough time to sleep, much less sort through photographs and write in my journal.

So here's an executive summary, brought to you by my photographic memory. That is to say, my photo albums.

I started the month by flying to Sunnydale, California. I spent a week at the Googleplex working on Ubuntu during the day.

My nights were filled with activity as well. I saw old friends, like Peter, and made new ones too.

The next week was spent in San Francisco. maradydd took me to a Dorkbot. Fun!

Again, the days were filled with work for Canonical. (I took many wonderfully embarassing photographs of my co-workers.)

And again, my evenings were also very adventurous.

I managed to meet lovely people like Rachel, and Sorrel, and Erica, and Sophy. It's strange, but not that strange, how they all are connected to ioerror somehow.

I finally got introduced to Scott Beale at the Laughing Squid party. I managed to convince Marc and Etienne to come along, and I think they liked it. But really, how could they not? There was a steam car, the Photoboof, kettle corn, robots, dancing girls, columns of fire, strange bicycles, art cars, and LEGO.

I returned to Canada where I attempted to collapse, but failed. gorbash_dragon reminded me just how festive this time of year really is.

This began a whole lot of socializing with my long lost friends. So I went to a diluvienne's tea party.

And callmepavlov's Munchkin party.

Expozine, which isn't a party at all. But they threw one afterwards.

And ze_dinosaur's farewell party.

My final event of the month was a blast. denkizero invited me to a launch party, where everything was two dollars, although bad puns cost extra. There was a fashion show, a marching band, an iPod battle (with real iPods), some television interviews, some drinking, some socializing, and a few time-outs.

Whew.

The Wunderbar in the W Montréal is one of those spots where people too cool to hang out at trashy bars go to. Trashy bars are fun places, because the people are shameless at having fun. Cool bars are fun places, mostly because the people are just plain shameless.

I was supposed to meet dzuunmod there, but I was busy packing for my flight to California.¹ By the time I stepped out of the taxi, they were already gone. But I had consciousness to burn, since I had an early morning flight. And there was no way I'd go to sleep. If I did, I'd sleep right through my boarding call.

I walked up to the door, the doorman got it, and I went inside. After checking my coat, I strode into the club.

The Wunderbar is decked out like a dance club on a Friday night. This seemed appropriate, as it was Friday night. There were lights everywhere, lining on the walls, embedded in the wavy plastic ceiling, illuminating the liquours. They pulsated to the beat of the music, as did the patrons.

They clutched their expensive, yet trendy drinks, as they danced to a mix of popular beats. Mostly R&B or hip-hop, with some pop thrown in for good measure. Most of the songs were about women and their sex appeal, which inspired a group of them to get up on a railing and start dancing. I think a bouncer asked them to get down before they broke their necks. This was surprising as few people looked properly drunk. Like I said, the drinks were expensive.

What I've been noticing when I go out is the incredible sameness of people. But here, the sameness is different. There were obviously business types in attendence on the night I went out. Twenty-somethings for whom off-the-rack suits and little black dresses are de rigeur. That's just like those indie shows I go to, where everyone is wearing their horn-rimmed glasses and black hoodies.

Although the bar was decked out like a posh dance club and sounded like a dance club, very few people were actually dancing. Few of them had any rhythm and the ones that did basically stood in one spot and jiggled. Occassionally, some guy would ask a girl to dance, but they'd shimmy awkwardly before collapsing on a couch again.

The others would stand around and try to talk over the music. This was difficult as the bass was pumped until you could feel the floor thump. The treble was tweaked so it sounded ethereal. Still, the DJ was excellent, transitioning so seemlessly that song flowed right into the next. But you could tell that the DJ was there to do his job. He surveyed the crowd with disinterest, from behind in his eerily-lit booth, protected by his headphones and his MacBook. His outsider status was confirmed with his Come on Feel the Illinoise shirt.

On the opposite side of the bar, there's a sunken VIP lounge lined with couches. Moments before I sat down to write in my notebook, the place was filled with people making out. I have no idea where they went. One couple seems to have migrated in front of the bar, which doesn't have a lot of space. People constantly have to squeeze past them.

In one corner, there were some middle-aged businessmen trying to kick back and relax. This was actually pretty difficult as they were being constantly interrupted by us young ones. They also seemed to be actively not staring at the ladies who walked past, attempting to converse uncomfortably instead. After they finished their beers, they gave up and left. They were the only ones that had suits that fit.

For all the supposed exclusivity of the Wunderbar, the bouncers actually do a terrible job of keeping the riff-raff out. While I was there, I managed to see long-haired students waving around beer bottles, a girl in a grey pullover hoodie swigging from a waterbottle, an awkward balding man in an argyle sweater, a lank boy with an improperly tied tie. Oh yeah, they let me in too. But I had a clever disguise on, since I look good dressed all preppy.

I had to leave in the early morning as I had an errand to run, so I picked up my greatcoat and headed for the door. It was an interesting and glitzy place. I wouldn't mind going back and doing more people watching. It could prove to be interesting for a group of us to sit down and take over.

¹ That was over a month ago, isn't that crazy? I'm so late at writing this up, it's scaring me. It's a good thing I took copious notes at the time.