Friday was a great night at the Blenz coffee shop on Seymore Street. The Ubuntu community in Vancouver hit the 500 members mark and we had a great celebration. I love having a party in a coffee shop since these days I don’t drink much alcohol–or coffee either for that matter. I had a delicious cappuccino which is a real treat for me and gets me a bit giddy these days, so I fit right in with all the wine drinkers.

As usual I am continuously amazed by the cool people I meet in this alternative group of practical revolutionaries. My night started out learning about the history of kyaking in Vancouver Island and at some point moved on to discussing Hacktivism and even more exciting stuff. Although I don’t know that much about computers, I sure love hanging around with people who do and feeling like I am on the cutting edge of something–even if I am not really sure what it all is. That is the great thing about being part of a community like this, there is always someone who will know and who will be willing and able to help you out. I had a few glimpses of whole worlds that I didn’t know existed, or just never thought much about–gaming was one of those, although there aren’t many games offered via Ubuntu.

Being me, I actually spent a lot of time talking about food. I may have even found a foraging buddy who will take me to find some native blackberries this year! I definitely found another friend to take me down to buy salmon right from the fishing boats and at the very end I even discovered our wonderful Buzz generator Randall knows how to make pickled herring! That was a very exciting discovery as I had just been saying a couple days earlier that I wished I knew how to make it. As you all know I like to learn traditional techniques and as it turns out he learned it from his mother. I see a lot of potential here–perhaps even a new Hella Delicious episode with a guest star =). I think we may have even agreed to arrange a potluck smorgassbord for an upcoming Ubuntu party. But don’t quote me on that.

For anyone who doesn’t know what Ubuntu is, check out this interview, or come join the group. There is something for everyone and the best thing of all is the fun diverse group of people you will meet. Oh–I should mention the extra bonus of not having to worry about viruses when using Ubuntu on your computer.