So even though I'm an avid fan of the Mac operating system, I try to use open source tools as much as possible (since part of my job is advocating that NGO's around the world use open source).  I've successfully weened myself off of Microsoft Office and now solely use Open Office (which I really do like by the way).  

I've tried to switch my web-browser several times.  Firefox is probably the best damn web-browser on the planet and it seems ridiculous that I use the Mac's Safari browser over it all the time, especially since Safari often runs into problems with certain scripts on web-pages.  The issue though comes down to performance.  Firefox running on my little Chicklet (my 12" power mac G4) brings the whole system to its knees.  I can't listen to iTunes at the same time without massive pauses - its extremely irritating!  Also the rainbow pinwheel will appear constantly and pause me in the midst of whatever typing I'm doing.  So I last maybe 2 hours in Firefox and then switch back to Safari.

I have to say I initially was caught a bit off guard - but I was seriously dissed at Asia Source II by a camp participant who apparently found me to be an arrogant american.   What was fascinating about it all was that it started out as a bit of fun by the Participants in the track I was facilitating.  They decided to prepare a short skit for morning circle that included them imitating the facilitators of the track.  Before the day was through, I found myself being seriously dissed on the camp blog, cries of homophobia being voiced by some of my closer friends at the camp and a series of events occuring that initially had me very troubled but ended up with me becoming very proud of the response by the camp participants.

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I've just arrived in Jakarta and am helping out with prepping for Asia Source II. Fortunately things seem really under control here, considering 140 people are about to descend upon us. Jakarta is very hot and sticky, so I'm really looking forward to getting to Sukabumi, where the event is being held, which is in the mountains, and reportedly much cooler.

If you want to read more about Asia Source II, see the wiki thats been set up at http://www.foss-at-work.net/asiasource2/

This is my fifth Source Camp working as a facilitator - and I'm working on the "Open Source Software Migration and Implementation" track. These are by far my favorite training experiences because its 7 days of 3 hour sessions. So you really get to sink your teeth in. One thing that was learned pretty early on in these camps is that the camp is only as good as the participants.

I'm usually oblivious to World AIDS Day. For some reason, I've only noticed by hearing the odd news blurb on TV or seeing some sort of poster about it on the streets of New York City. Maybe this year is different because I'm currently in the UK (again) and its the headline of several major newspapers. I also got an email from a friend here in the UK this morning commenting on the fact that its World AIDS Day and maybe he should try to do something, rather than sit back and just take notice.

So, its hit me differently this year than it has in the past. The most significant way is that I found myself remembering all those friends and acquantainces I lost, so long ago. Then also thinking about the numbers in the newspaper and thinking about what 40 million AIDS cases really meant. Then I thought this is crazy. Should I only remember those that have succumb to AIDS once a year? It just seems so much bigger than that.

Haven't posted anything for a while and I've spent the last six months in the UK discovering great music.

1. In The Morning - Junior Boys. This track was a freebie on iTunes UK a few months ago and I haven't stopped playing it since I downloaded it. Smooth, electronic pop.

2. Wonderland - Leg Soup. Disco lives! No really, it does!

3. Put you hands up for Detroit - Freddy LeGrand. Yeah - its getting overplayed but, its a really great groove!

4. Got to Release - Saturated Soul - more good disco

5. The Streets of Hotel California - Aggro 1. OK, I thought I'd never be able to listen to Hotel California but this mash up is really cool!

Yes, I do have an award named after me. It all started as a joke some years ago but has turned into something fairly respectable these days. There's a website, a nominating process that goes on for quite sometime and then a commitee that vets the nominees and ultimately decides who the award should go to. I am on the committee which is made up of past awardees.

Anyways, the latest winner of the Dirk Award has just been announced. Its none other than Kaladan Petkov, who is a good friend and close colleague that has joined me recently for a number of trainings, including ones in Tajikistan and in Northern Thailand. Cheekay Cinco, who also joined us in Thailand as a trainer, dubbed him the "Bulgarian Chuck Norris", mainly because of his beard and rather large frame.

I was in a gay pub in brighton, england the other night and was introduced to this young chap who looked at me accusatorily when he learned I was an American.

"Wait a minute," he said, turning one eye towards me like he just spotted evil incarnate, "you people teach creationism in your schools!"

Embarrassed doesn't nearly describe what I felt at that particular moment and I did my best to deflect his growing scorn. "No wait, I think you misunderstood," I did my best to defend myself "I'm really from New York City, not America, and we don't teach creationism in our schools there." I tried to dissasociate myself as much as I could. I then started worrying if I'd just damned myself more, I couldn't really remember if New York City schools were required to teach creationism along with everyone else.

Here's a map of the countries I've visited (so far!):

create your own visited countries map
or vertaling Duits Nederlands

This is a cute little google hack. I've been looking for some sort of visual representation of places, I've been for a while - including Plazes, which ended up being too much of a hassle.

So I've had several conversations with people in a variety of different countries about how fucked up things are in the US, and I've come to a couple of conclusions about how the world's super-power is really an isolated mess of a country with no relation to the rest of the world (other than seeing it as a increasingly hostile mass against US interests).

As I mentioned before, I had this strange (for me) conversation with my handsome Turkish couple about the impending invasion of Turkey by US forces due to Turkey's amount of valuable natural resources. Even though I wanted to tell them that they were out of their minds, becasue of the insanity of US foreign policy these days, I honestly couldn't.