Hotels, gatherings and the usual affairs...

caseopaya has been staying at the Crown Plaza hotel during the Melbourne Boat Show, allegedly a 4.5 star place which overlooks the Yarra. Personally, I think the place is pretty average to say the least. A very bland building, average food, a billing and card service that's obviously broken. At least the view is good.

Tuesday night managed to attend the LUV monthly meeting, where kattekrab presented a discussion on Open Document Format (hooray), Jacinta Richardson spoke on the OSDC conference and Rusty Russell, spoke about anti-circumvention legislation; this is very important

Friday night attended a documentary film hosted by Earthsharing on the Narmada Dam project and the attempted relocation of indigenous people who preferred to face the rising dam waters rather than move.

Attended damien_wise's wonderful birthday dinner with fine conversation and fine company on Saturday night; following eve after my Cybernoia game (which was dealing with multiple levels of virtual reality, not including the game itself) dined with the gaming crew as horngirl who was in town for a flying visit from Canberra. Yesterday managed to catch up for a quick beverage with severina_242.

Went to a service industry networking group bright and early on Wednesday morning. Find myself thinking "I don't need a personal trainer, I don't need an immigration specialist, I don't need a home loan broker... But they all need websites and IT systems administration." There is an advantage in belonging to a ubiquitious industry. The disadvantages can be truly frustrating. Then imajica_lj told me he has encounted a similar experience among managers twice!

Gideon Levy says the right things about the Gaza seige (hat-tip to angel80. Meanwhile four out of five Israeli's want their government to assasinate Hamas leaders. A little closer to home, my old bose Jose Ramos-Horta has become Prime Minister of East Timor. John Martinkus has a few questions on what is a sort of coup. Damien Kingsbury gives the event a weak cheer.