Saturday, 19 July 2008
LugRadio Live 2008 - the Pre-Event Party
Today was the first time I'd ever really been in the presence of heroes in my eyes (except Alan Cox at my first ever Linux Expo UK - without realising that was who it was!). Today, not only did I get to meet Daviey and "Cied" (Ciemon Dunville), but I also got to offer Aq a pint. I'd have actually bought him one, but I was actually in the middle of a conversation with Daviey at the time, and wanted to continue the chat!
For those who don't know, Aq, Jono, Adam and Chris are the presenters of the famous-amongst-linux-peoples podcast LugRadio. Aq and Jono started the podcast four years ago, and this year they decided to close up shop - a sad day for all of us who love to chuckle in public at audio via headphones.
Having had a fairly quiet journey (as far as Stafford) from Manchester and checked into a nice-ish hotel (except for the people in the room next door) I decided to check out the pre-show party, as mentioned repeatedly on the LugRadio podcast, at the Hogs Head in Wolverhampton.
For those who have never been to Wolverhampton, let's just say that it's not exactly a large place. I walked from the outskirts to the centre in about 10 minutes, and even then most of that was wandering in circles making sure I'd actually not gone too far for the junction I was looking for!
The venue was packed (as it would be on a Friday Night), and my first order of the day was to charge my mobile. I turned on my laptop, turned off the power saving and plugged in the mobile.
Now, in a normal pub, this might have turned heads, but on this occasion, I think there might have been too many mobiles and laptops to phase anyone, so having put my laptop back in the bag and confirmed I was still charging my phone, I made my way to the bar.
The queue was rather heavy, but I managed to get close to the bar and order what soon became my usual - two Blue WKDs, and then made my way back to where I'd been charging my laptop.
I'd already spotted an 802.11 detecting T-Shirt, and suddenly realised that I'd made a fashion faux pas... I had exactly the *SAME* t-shirt. What was I to do? I couldn't arrange a wardrobe replacement overnight. Oh well, at least I was fairly unique in my lego-style "I love it when a plan comes together" A-Team T-Shirt, and maybe by Sunday the batteries in his T-Shirt would have run out and mine would still be fresh... plus I have a Transformers shirt, and no-one else there did... HA!
I slid over to where the Wifi-T-Shirt guy was standing and asked him if he was anything to do with LRL. He said yes, and directed me towards the beer garden. Oh my. What a lot of geeks.
I tried to take a photo, but sadly, as all I had with me was my dodgy mobile, the photos look like crap. They are tagged at the dashwire LRL08-pre-party tags page.
Fortunately, after about half an hour of standing around like an idiot, I saw someone I knew from GeekUp Manchester, and talked to him for half an hour. I know *who he is* but not his name. It's very bad of me. Hopefully, he'll post my picture on Flickr and I can tag it, and get his name as a result!
I went and bought some drinks (two Blue WKDs and a guiness for GeekUp Guy) and then headed back into the fray. I'd seen a Ubuntu-UK Podcast jacket and was looking for Dan and Fab of LinuxOutlaws fame. Sadly I didn't spot Fabs dreadlocks, so I couldn't lurk, and instead went and spoke to Daviey from UUPC. We talked for a while and eventually offered him a drink, and, while I was at the bar, recognised the dulcit tones of one Stuart "Aq" Langridge. I offered him a drink, but when the bar staff weren't damn quick enough for me, suggested I'd give him the money and come back to talk to him later. He declined and suggested I could offer him yet another drink tomorrow night. Oh why not I thought, and pocketed the about £1.80 in change I had!
I went back to talk to Daviey and Cied (also from UUPC) about Amateur Radio - a hobby that Cied and I have in common, and one that Daviey seems to have missed by the skin of his IRC virginity. After a while talking (where I seemed to volunteer for a speaking part on the UUPC cast to be recorded during LRL), Daviey misunderstood the universal sign language for "It's your round", thinking it meant "Drink up, I need a kebab", so went around for about half an hour saying goodbye to people, and then carried on talking once he'd bought his round (although I should note, he didn't bloody buy me a drink. Damnit). Meanwhile, I was introduced to Jon, dubbed "The Nasty Guy", after I mentioned my usual Web2.0 nickname and he protested that he was the only Jon in the room, hence he got given the bad name :)
After Daviey and Cied wandered off, Jon and I discussed life feeds, and how you should be able to tailor the feeds into "all photos of X", "All microblogs of X", "all work stuff from X", etc. I think I'm going to write it, and friendfeed be damned.
I bought another pair of bottles and realised that actually I was rather drunk, and was starting to not make any sense, so voluntarily returned to the hotel, met Gordon JCP in the lift after having admired his t-shirt from afar most of the night, and stumbled to my room (where my noisy neighbour has either gone to bed or left! Woot!) and figured I should probably write up what has happened thus far.
The only downside thus far has been that I've eaten only marshmallows and drunk only Blue WKDs since arriving at Manchester Piccadilly, so tomorrow I am likely to either be suffering from a sugar hangover, or worse a real hangover. Not so good. Sadly, when the bar closed at the hotel, they stopped doing room service, so I can't even have something greasy to sober me up.
Never mind, I'll learn for tomorrow night... take advantage of the Kebab house en-route, and damnit, Wolverhampton is small enough that you can go down every street to get back to the hotel, and you'll still not take more than 20 minutes to do it :)
Good Night all :)
For those who don't know, Aq, Jono, Adam and Chris are the presenters of the famous-amongst-linux-peoples podcast LugRadio. Aq and Jono started the podcast four years ago, and this year they decided to close up shop - a sad day for all of us who love to chuckle in public at audio via headphones.
Having had a fairly quiet journey (as far as Stafford) from Manchester and checked into a nice-ish hotel (except for the people in the room next door) I decided to check out the pre-show party, as mentioned repeatedly on the LugRadio podcast, at the Hogs Head in Wolverhampton.
For those who have never been to Wolverhampton, let's just say that it's not exactly a large place. I walked from the outskirts to the centre in about 10 minutes, and even then most of that was wandering in circles making sure I'd actually not gone too far for the junction I was looking for!
The venue was packed (as it would be on a Friday Night), and my first order of the day was to charge my mobile. I turned on my laptop, turned off the power saving and plugged in the mobile.
Now, in a normal pub, this might have turned heads, but on this occasion, I think there might have been too many mobiles and laptops to phase anyone, so having put my laptop back in the bag and confirmed I was still charging my phone, I made my way to the bar.
The queue was rather heavy, but I managed to get close to the bar and order what soon became my usual - two Blue WKDs, and then made my way back to where I'd been charging my laptop.
I'd already spotted an 802.11 detecting T-Shirt, and suddenly realised that I'd made a fashion faux pas... I had exactly the *SAME* t-shirt. What was I to do? I couldn't arrange a wardrobe replacement overnight. Oh well, at least I was fairly unique in my lego-style "I love it when a plan comes together" A-Team T-Shirt, and maybe by Sunday the batteries in his T-Shirt would have run out and mine would still be fresh... plus I have a Transformers shirt, and no-one else there did... HA!
I slid over to where the Wifi-T-Shirt guy was standing and asked him if he was anything to do with LRL. He said yes, and directed me towards the beer garden. Oh my. What a lot of geeks.
I tried to take a photo, but sadly, as all I had with me was my dodgy mobile, the photos look like crap. They are tagged at the dashwire LRL08-pre-party tags page.
Fortunately, after about half an hour of standing around like an idiot, I saw someone I knew from GeekUp Manchester, and talked to him for half an hour. I know *who he is* but not his name. It's very bad of me. Hopefully, he'll post my picture on Flickr and I can tag it, and get his name as a result!
I went and bought some drinks (two Blue WKDs and a guiness for GeekUp Guy) and then headed back into the fray. I'd seen a Ubuntu-UK Podcast jacket and was looking for Dan and Fab of LinuxOutlaws fame. Sadly I didn't spot Fabs dreadlocks, so I couldn't lurk, and instead went and spoke to Daviey from UUPC. We talked for a while and eventually offered him a drink, and, while I was at the bar, recognised the dulcit tones of one Stuart "Aq" Langridge. I offered him a drink, but when the bar staff weren't damn quick enough for me, suggested I'd give him the money and come back to talk to him later. He declined and suggested I could offer him yet another drink tomorrow night. Oh why not I thought, and pocketed the about £1.80 in change I had!
I went back to talk to Daviey and Cied (also from UUPC) about Amateur Radio - a hobby that Cied and I have in common, and one that Daviey seems to have missed by the skin of his IRC virginity. After a while talking (where I seemed to volunteer for a speaking part on the UUPC cast to be recorded during LRL), Daviey misunderstood the universal sign language for "It's your round", thinking it meant "Drink up, I need a kebab", so went around for about half an hour saying goodbye to people, and then carried on talking once he'd bought his round (although I should note, he didn't bloody buy me a drink. Damnit). Meanwhile, I was introduced to Jon, dubbed "The Nasty Guy", after I mentioned my usual Web2.0 nickname and he protested that he was the only Jon in the room, hence he got given the bad name :)
After Daviey and Cied wandered off, Jon and I discussed life feeds, and how you should be able to tailor the feeds into "all photos of X", "All microblogs of X", "all work stuff from X", etc. I think I'm going to write it, and friendfeed be damned.
I bought another pair of bottles and realised that actually I was rather drunk, and was starting to not make any sense, so voluntarily returned to the hotel, met Gordon JCP in the lift after having admired his t-shirt from afar most of the night, and stumbled to my room (where my noisy neighbour has either gone to bed or left! Woot!) and figured I should probably write up what has happened thus far.
The only downside thus far has been that I've eaten only marshmallows and drunk only Blue WKDs since arriving at Manchester Piccadilly, so tomorrow I am likely to either be suffering from a sugar hangover, or worse a real hangover. Not so good. Sadly, when the bar closed at the hotel, they stopped doing room service, so I can't even have something greasy to sober me up.
Never mind, I'll learn for tomorrow night... take advantage of the Kebab house en-route, and damnit, Wolverhampton is small enough that you can go down every street to get back to the hotel, and you'll still not take more than 20 minutes to do it :)
Good Night all :)
Labels: LRL08, LugRadio, LugRadioLive, LugRadioLive08
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