I wrote about this on my old blog at livejournal and on my business blog back in October.

Well, the report is out, and my Government seems to think it knows what's best for me and the 20 million or so other people who live in Australia.   I thought Government was there to do a job for me, not treat me like a baby.

Media Release: http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2009/115

This blog... runs Drupal. So does my biz blog at cc.com.au/donna - and we've been running Drupal sites for our clients for some time now.  But when Simon, Caitlin and Lisa from emspace came along to an OSIA meeting, Peter and I actually really engaged with the Drupal community for the first time.  We've now been to a few Melbourne meet-ups, went to the Melbourne DrupalCamp in May this year, and are not only both planning on attending and speaking at DrupalSouth - we decided to sponsor it.  So - straight after the fabulous wondrous geek-a-ganza that is linux.conf.au - I'll be diving deep into the Drupal goodness of DrupalSouth.

I got bills to pay. Why am I procrastinating so badly when I have a pile of billable hours ahead of me that would neatly deal with the pile of bills sitting on the other side of the desk? Not to mention the business admin that needs to be done to make the cash flow.

It doesn't feel like procrastinating, but it is. Today I've been sucked into reading and microblogging about issues I care about...  Topics du Jour...

I've been working with Dr Kathryn Moyle and Ian Ralph to put together a one day forum on Open Education. We've called it Open Edge 2009.  The program has been finalised, and I've just put together a one page flyer - to help with last minute promotion to get the word out.  Would love it if you could forward on to anyone in your networks you think would be interested!

Download Open Edge 2009 Program PDF

Check out the website: http://open-edge.info 

Spent a chunk of time today getting the LibreGraphicsDay miniconf call for participation ship shape.  It will take place on the 18th or 19th of January in Wellington, during the traditional linux.conf.au feast of appetisers, the community organised streams known as miniconfs.

I used to love the Hottest 100 - it was a summer milestone. Somehow I got old, and it ceased to be as meaningful to me. I watched with a vague nostalgic interest as people tweeted during this year's JJJ Hottest 100 of all time. I nodded and frowned when I read of the curious outrage about the very very few numbers of women artists who made it in to the list.

Melbourne has a new logo. 

I think I like it. But I'm still getting acquainted and reserve the right to withhold judgement. I do think it's high time our fair city got a refresh... but quarter of a million dollars does seem like an awful lot of money, and I also wonder why a melbourne firm wasn't hired to do the job.  I mean really. What does that tell you?

I've been crazy busy of late, and seem to be suffering the same fate as others in that I'm using micro-blogs for the quick updates and burning need to express those 'top-of-mind' thoughts, rather than posting here to http://kattekrab.net - Ah well.

Not that you care. I don't imagine these rare postings of mine are missed much by anyone! :)

So what have I been up to? Conferences. Again.  Ya'd think I would have learnt to keep away from these unmitigated stress-fests by now. Oh no. Not me. Never learn, Can't be told.

Entries closed and voting is open for the about screen contest for the next release of Inkscape.  There are 36 entries, some of them representing hours of dedicated artistry by their creators, others flashes of inspiration quickly rendered with our favourite tool.

I've picked 9 of the 36 for my own personal shortlist... but I can only vote for one - which will it be?  What do you think?

View all 36 here http://inkscapers.deviantart.com/journal/24960257/ - and create an account to vote!