This week has been a good week - productive worksprints interspersed (heck, in some cases deliberately interrupted) by outings with friends in the DC area. I don't have much time left in DC due to Massive Amounts Of Travel between now and December when I leave, so I'm making the most of it now.

Monday: Copyright geekery over a Burmese lunch (thanks, Kat Walsh!), followed by empanadas and a long stint working from a coffeeshop, followed by sitting in on an ISOC meeting out of sheer curiosity. It was impressive, what they did to make the meeting accessible to folks who couldn't physically be there - not just taking notes and having a call-in line and posting things online, but how the entire assembly present was continuously conscious and considerate that there were remotees, and that they ought to be fully considered and accommodated.

Tuesday: Amsterdam Falafel with Kat, worksprinting on the textbook while sitting on a curb off a side street in front of someone's scooter, feet on cobblestones, people bustling down the main street a couple dozen feet away. Plenty of bike riding; it feels good to pump up hills a little easier now, sail down sloped streets at close to top speed and still be in full control, to coast to a stop in the driveway and sling off your jacket and your helmet and feel a breath of wind cool the slight band of sweat on your forehead.

Wednesday: Finally visited the Museum of the American Indian food court (thanks, Jason Hoekstra!) and have discovered this delicious stuff called spoon bread. Mmm, pumpkin spoon bread. Proceeded to work from the sunny, sunny lobby of the gorgeous museum for the afternoon, then wrapped up the evening with bubble tea and free food at the Catholic student center of the University of Maryland with Erin Dowd (and then a late-night worksprint). I have yet to do the Air and Space Museum, and would also like to see the Library of Congress at some point. I've already done the late-night bike-through of the monuments. And Erin tells me that hockey games around here are a lot of fun too, so we might watch a game at some point before I move back to Boston. (I feel like I've been introduced to a lot of dangerous things in the last few months... hockey, North Carolina BBQ, GSM USB peripherals, Kramerbooks & Afterwords...)

Thursday: Over massive amounts of apple pie, Mackenzie and I made up signs for a few Linux distros we were tired of fingerspelling all the time. (I do the Fedora sign with the infinity semi-diagonal - as if it were tracing the infinity in the Fedora logo - she does it as if it were the mathematical symbol.) As far as we know, they don't collide with any actual ASL words. And as far as I know, there isn't any other sign for Fedora. So I'm going to use this one.

To sign "Fedora" (for those who might not be able to see the videos):

  1. Take your right hand and make the "OK" sign (thumb and index finger touching in a circle, other three fingers extended, palm facing out)
  2. Move your hand in the shape of the "infinity" symbol - to the right, then up and to the left in a loop, then down, then up and to the right so that you end up where you started, your hand having traced a sort of diagonal figure 8 in the meantime.

That's it. If you want to say "I am Fedora," just sign "Fedora" and then point to yourself. If you want to say "Fedora 12," sign "Fedora" and then the number 12 (make a closed fist and hold it in front of you, with the back of your hand facing out and your hand oriented so that if your fingers were extended, they would be pointed up. Then flick your index and middle fingers out together, twice). And here's our F12 release slogan (though I might also follow it up with this sign).

I'll ask Steve when I get to RIT to make sure there really aren't any word collisions, but if there aren't, I'm going to do a little bit of filming...

PS: I'd also like to shout a thank-you to Bert Desmet for beginning to put together the FUDCon Toronto shirt design - when I saw the current version (the coloring still remains to be done) I just about fell over laughing. Take a look and you'll see why. (Hint: Lower right-hand petal.)