In the Summer of 2003 I visited Ottawa for a Computer Science workshop.  Before getting there I also noticed that there's Ottawa Linux Symposium going on after my workshop, so I made it there, and stayed at Carlton's Leeds College.  It was my first Linux conference.  I knew no one.  I met Keith Packard for the first time.  The closing keynote was by Rusty Russel, and left me energized about the community.

Since then Free Software conferences have taken me to Montreal, Barcelona, Glasgow, Wolverhampton, Birmingham, Canary Islands, Austin, Boston, San Francisco, Istanbul, Wroclaw, Vienna, Berlin, and Amsterdam,  among others.  I got to become part of a fantastic community.

Last night I arrived in Perth, Australia, home to the last major conference I wanted to speak at.

Today, at registration, I saw Keith, so went to say hi.  He asked:

  - You here to talk about your crazy glyph rendering stuff?
  - Yes, have you seen it?
  - Oh yeah, it's insane!

Then I headed to the first-timers' session run by Rusty.

Walking last night at University of Western Australia's Trinity college campus made me realize how much I had missed the Free Software conference scene, and made me feel great being here.  That, and the southern-hemisphere night sky.