So, I’m “back” in the UK after a couple of weeks the other side of the pond. The more often I do this, the more I realize how totally I don’t feel I belong in this country – the UK’s a nice place to visit, but I’m done with living here. For me, the only issue is whether I ultimately settle in the US or in Canada. The former is preferable for high tech jobs, but the latter is politically and socially more conducive to my way of thinking. This is important, especially when you just decided that being an atheist isn’t nearly as cool as being a member of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster – pirates rule! So I ordered a copy of the Gospel of the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and am incidentally also waiting for permission to make “Linux is evolution, not intelligent design” t-shirts. As soon as I get approval, I’ll stick some up on cafe press.
I had a revalation at OLS. This wasn’t purely alcohol related, but I realized that I really do want to build my own cutter ship and sail the seas. It’s something I’ve been saying that I want to do, but now I’ve decided that these things don’t happen unless you start somewhere. So, I’m going to have the proceeds from a certain book go into a fund for making this dream a reality – it’ll take more than that to actually build the thing (I’ve ordered a couple of books on boat building and will need to take a lot more lessons in sailing as I’ve forgotten a lot of what I learned) but it’s a start. I’ve so far found at least one person who wants to sail with me, so that’s cool too. Motto: it’s very dangerous to offer me compelling justification 
Canada was fantastic. Did I mention that it’s one of the greatest countries in the world? I think I did, just a few times. In fact, I’m going to do another weekend trip sometime soon since I think October/November is just a little too far away to be over in North America again. I hung out in Montreal and Ottawa for most of the time around and during OLS. I saw a bunch of talks, hosted a BOF on drivers, had a lot of ideas, talked to really cool people, consumed 12 shots of coffee in a day, had 6 whiskeys and 10 shots on another day, generally didn’t sleep much for a week, and realized that OLS is just getting cooler as the years pass. Sure the programme could do with more work next year – but who can honestly say that’s the only reason for turning up?
Noise cancellation headphones rock. I picked up a pair at Logan the other night (right after having a double extra order of Clam Chowder at Legal Sea Foods – the folks there were totally understanding of my need to stock up before my return to the land of the quaint and boring) from a store where the dude who sold me this impulsive buy recognized the iPod Linux bootloader on my iPod – turns out Mad Dog goes there quite often too. Funny. Anyway, I’m now able to turn off the annoying world around me, thanks to the power of a little signal processing and basic audio theory applied to a gadget that should have been installed in every Jet Liner about a billion years ago anyway.
Did I mention that Canada rocks?
Jon.
You are right, Canada does rock!!
Jon, Jon, Jon!
What’s with the virulent anti-UK stuff? I know where you’re coming from being an expat myself – equally though, don’t forget where you’re from too. What makes you employable, open, tolerant, educated and countless other things has a great deal to do with the country, culture and attitudes you’ve grown up in and with.
I don’t like the ‘football, innit, wot?’ culture you’ve so perfectly named. Nor do I like some of the political directions the UK may be moving in. However….
There are reasons why people across the non-Western world head straight for the UK whenever they can. Those reasons have a lot to do with the culture and country that have enabled the two of us to grow, learn, earn our own peaceful and lucrative living and choose our own paths in life.
Whats so wrong with the UK…? But I suppose you’ve only lived in the US for a short while. Go and spend some time there. Understand how their employees rights are geared. Try living there when you have an unexpected illness or injury or requre health care.
The Uk is a bit fuddy-duddy for reason. We’ve were the US 150 years ago. The US will be us in 150 years time…
when does your job start?