[svlug] The purpose of the Picnic is to Have Fun.

[Heather Stern]

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Quoting Heather Stern (star at starshine.org):

>   I see that a certain cheery soul decided to remind folks of his two
>   cents worth on the nature of how picnics work.

:: This is of course not correct.  I was not addressing "how picnics work".

    Well, we know that you decided to type a lot.  It *seems* to address
    a claim that it won't work.

I'm not interested in helping you make any more antimatter, Rick, my
*starship* has an installfest to pack, and my *oven* has linuxcookies
to bake, and if I'm lucky, I might get to use my ham handset.  Or not.
The food's the important thing, and I committed to be dealing with that,
because that's what I was asked to do.

::And it is indisputable that your ham radio group unilaterally decided 

    It's not /per se/ a ham radio group.  If you don't like high end 
    frequencies for an internet route, you can leave your laptop unplugged.
    I just don't care either way.  I'll be busy having fun.

    If   (you are enjoying then)
    Then (you are territorial) 
    Else (you are bored)
    Fi.

    Cats have no lord.  Penguins don't either.  The people will come;  the
    only territory covered will be a lot of grass.

::unilaterally without consulting the Bay Area's Linux groups any more.
    Without consulting you doesn't mean nobody knows there's a picnic.
    It means Duncan didn't want to spend a lot more time than it takes
    to peek his nose in on several user groups and say Hey Let's Go.

    Go or don't go.  But stop bringing this crap to social events. The
    only purpose it serves is a man's ego.  

::_And_ pocket all leftover sponsorship money into your own treasury
::after the event.
    You mean the portion that carries over to following picnix, like
    Westercon funds carry over to following conventions, or the Other 
    Portion that actually came from what very few member dues Sbay ever
    charged, plus a few bucks thrown in by some Sbay board members and
    one or two of its regular members, to cover Sbay's pitiful expenses 
    to its own duties to subgroups you've never been involved with? You 
    are claiming, incorrectly as well as ad hominem, that these funds 
    are being comingled to some enemy purpose.

    If it were true it would be a nasty breach of trust.  However, 
    they're not being comingled.  You claiming it won't actually make it so.

    If you use correct and valid logic framework, with actually bad data
    for its givens, you can postulate anything you like, love, or hate,
    and it looks grand, but it's still *incorrect*.

    Nobody died and made you treasurer, of absolutely anything.  

::sponsoring Bay Area Linux groups, zero -- listed this year, and it's
::become the Sbay picnic.
    This mainly happened because Duncan wanted to be at the webstuff, then
    eventually realized that typing still sucks.   The groups listed as 
    sponsors are the ones that threw money rather than made plans to show 
    up with stuff.   Though we have no idea, they might show up with stuff
    too.

    It's everyone's picnic, Rick.

::You can't reasonably deny any of that -- 
    What I won't deny is that there are a core group of volunteers that
    are overloaded but nonetheless eager to pour real work instead of words
    into a real picnic.

    I was core for BayLISA's picnic several times.  It didn't exactly get
    to this scale, for all sorts of flyers that went out.  There's well 
    over 200 RSVPs in and still climbing. 

::deal and call me names for lack of a real reply. 
    I called you certain.  You are overly certain of details which you have
    false, and of your ability to read anyone's motive through your own
    smoke coloured lenses.

    I know that my own lenses are rosy and I feel *sure* that you have a 
    kindly and defensive intent on behalf of the good souls of SVLUG.  But 
    your defensiveness here only causes havoc.  I don't think it's a good
    idea to fight as if you're cornered when there's no corner and nobody
    offering battle.  

::I'm reserving my volunteer energy for a summer picnic _by_ the Bay
::Area's Linux groups, which I think remains a good idea -- as it was
::when such picnics were held in years past.

    If you mean "owned by one person" and that's you, I'll bear the same
    beef that you think to have with anyone else on this year's picnic,
    because I *think* that you delude yourself that "us" means one person,
    whom you despise.

    I think you'll find that the few hundred people who RSVP'd already
    are just planning to have a picnic, without any special labelling
    about whether they wear allegiance to any one group - yours, mine,
    ours, sacramento, germany, whatever.  I'm a member of about a dozen
    groups.  I don't swear 100% of my soul to any one of them and none
    of it to the others - I am simply all that I can be for the people
    I socialize with.  

::The nice thing about avoiding backroom politics and debunking such
::allegations in URL-pointable format (as above) is that it does away with
::them for good.  I notice that Alvin's rhetoric on that point vanished
::immediately and from that moment onwards.
    Yes, and I thank him for being polite enough to let things drop.
    If you will choose to do the same I would be a happy gal.

::Ian made _no answer whatsoever_ to that request.
    He moved things to a sensible registrar so they could be split;  he
    made phone calls, he got flack.  From several sides.  I saw.  I 
    stepped in.  I get flak now, as I expected much worse then.  You know 
    what, it's still lightning and it's still a bug.  

    You only know the action.  You don't know the motive, and you don't 
    know the failed actions.  Everything else on your part is guessing.
    I expected that you're a logician enough to recognize when your own
    logic isn't valid.

::deliberately difficult to reach was always annoying:  Just one problem.
::It's pretty much irrelevant to the matter at hand.
    No, it's relevant, if the matter at hand is a claim that he did nothing.
    He did things which didn't work.

    You don't like that.  Too damn bad.  You don't like him, too.  Also
    too damn bad.  I didn't like the umptybig pile of steps I had to force
    to go through paces, like teeny tiny shoes for centipedes, basically
    twice because the now split groups refused to give each other the time
    of day but I, by utter happenstance, happened to already own a watch.
    I didn't like it? Too damn bad for me too. The universe exists regardless.

::The request was:  Please transer ownership. [techie details on how to 
:: succeed at such tasks, snipped].
    That's right.  It requires a bunch of moving steps and handshakes. I
    can put up with bureacratic timewasting registrars;  I can graciously
    deal with overworked and harried volunteers.   He can't deal with JP
    and I don't see how you'd find that terribly surprising.  For one of 
    those precious steps I really couldn't either - I just am stubborn 
    enough to be my own workaround for it, because I had a goal in mind
    that didn't care about territory, only about technical results.

::When the group says "Hi, we want our domain back", you don't just
::attempt to call the president a few times, reach voicemail, and then
::just hand the domains to your _own_ VP and declare yourself finished and
::intending to ignore all future communications.
    I told you - he didn't do this because of what stupid paperwork position
    I hold - he did it because I demanded to take the heat myself.  

    And if you don't actually like that almost a year after the fact when
    you liked it just fine and dandy at the time, you know what, that's 
    also too damn bad.  There's no time machine.  

::When SVLUG asked _you_ for its domain back, you immediately moved in
::good faith to comply.  Ian didn't -- and it would have been really simple
    It *became* really simple, because I became the act of good faith. No
    more bullets, no more mudslinging, just work.

    SVLUG didn't have to ask me for "its domain back" because the fairly
    few left at its volunteer core never felt that I'd left, and that's 
    still true.  I did not give it to *any one person* - including you.
    I've set it up so *SVLUG* the group as a whole can manage it by way
    of several people at the core, since that seems to match the way SVLUG
    volunteers really get work done. 

    That my toes remain scorched at such a late stage of the game as Alvin's
    note, or yours, is just par for the course.  I keep burn cream in the 
    cabinet.

::simple for him to _even_ do so much as say "Hi, I want to transfer
    Hahahahahaha you funny man, think Ian wanna say Hi to *you*, who loves
    to flame him so much.   *whee* I needed a giggle.  

    Different people have different right answers.   His right answer was
    to not have to deal with it+ anymore.  I could do that for him.

    SVLUG's right answer was to get an entanglement dissolved.  I could
    do that for us.  

    If your right answer includes continuing any of this, I respectfully
    ask you to let it float away on the winds of summer.  My right answer
    is to speak my mind and then go back to my lab where I get real work
    done.  If I'm lucky I won't remember to glance back at the archive
    for a couple of weeks because... uh yeah, I've got a buncha volunteers
    for a picnic to catherd on Duncan's behalf.

::I described actions, not motives.  You acted in a good-faith manner;
    What one does is action;  good faith is motive.  You have no power
    nor authority to judge anyone's motive but your own.

    I am glad that you *feel* I've been good, especially as that matches
    what I hoped to be.

    But my actions weren't selected to make any one person happy;  they 
    were what I did because it had to be done, to make the pain stop.

::big production of it in public, against my advice.  Your choice.
    Your advice is occasionally contradictory or my telepathy must have 
    been turned off. 

    You personally encouraged me on Wednesday night to speak my piece
    in public, regarding facts that I know you had in error.  I replied
    at the time, something almost exactly like: "It would not be correct
    of me to say I'm glad to do so... but I will not fear it."  About a
    dozen people surely heard me, since I was also in conversation about
    other topics with them.  

::Do you want to also talk about ...  No, thought not.
    I don't believe that every sad or angry thing any man mutters while
    being given a royal flamage to be held against them forever, no.
    Of course I hold you and everyone else with "a few rough edges on
    them" to the exact same grace - there are many angry things you have
    said and then later regretted to me.

    We are human, every single one of us.  I am human, so are you, and so 
    is Ian.  Now that I've done you both the injury (more than once, I
    think?) of mentioning you in the same sentence, accept my apologies 
    and just let it all drop.

    I've corrected things to mention the bits I know of - I've spoken
    the truth of my own thoughts and actions rather than let your words
    stand for me - and I've spoken my belief that the picnic belongs to
    everyone who shows up, not really to any groups that overlap us all.
    I spoke against both the claim that there's no linux involved and
    a claim that they won't be. 

    Next week will have the reality of the Picnic itself and that will
    be that.  In my opinion reality will and should trump us both.

    I'm probably growing a reputation for writing dissertations;  I wonder
    if there's some sort of gel I can buy at Walgreen's to get rid of it
    :)  I've said my piece in good spirit and am in good spirit running
    off now, to my labs and the oven for I've much baking to do.

    We'll see if there's a red hat next year or a really weird video on
    YouTube, won't we :)

  . | .    Heather Stern          |     (408) 374-7623 land
--->*<---  star at starshine.org   - * -   (408) 761-4912 cell
  ' | `    KG6ZYC                 |    

If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would
be a merrier world. -- Thorin (via J.R.R. Tolkien)