Last week I attended a LUG meeting at UTD, utdlug.org, they covered some standard GNU/Linux (take that Richard Stallman) information.  Things like selecting a distro were disussed, the standard slack insults, and of course dissing rolling release were not left out.  From there it went on to a bunch of discussions on how to support and get information from the community, as well as IRC etiquette, which I will go into shortly.

IRC etiquette:

  1. Pick a unique, open handle/moniker/screen-name, you don’t want to be confused with that other 600 anonamoose’s out there.
  2. Say hello when you join a channel, everyone likes nice people.
  3. Join in the conversation, IRC is great for networking and meeting new people.
  4. If you have a question wait for the chat to die down to ask it, wait a while too someone else may ask it, making you look smarter.
  5. Stay on topic, some channels are stricter than others on this one.
  6. Be patient, people idle on IRC, a lot.
  7. Don’t insult people who aren’t willing to help you

Contributing to Open Source:

  • Pick a project you can get behind.
  • Write bug reports and descriptions.
  • Write documentation, most projects need this more than coders.
  • Get to know the people running the project, with certain exceptions they are pretty cool people.

After the meeting we did the standard and went to Chili’s for some food and chatter.  However about halfway through the meal I noticed that one of my teeth had cracked open, and a rather large chunk of it was missing.  Somehow there was no pain, and for that I am very thankful, however I did need to get to a dentist pronto.

Sadly it took me a day to get to a dentist, and get the thing fixed.  Once I sat down in the chair and got a look at my x-rays, I knew exactly what was going to have to happen before my dentist even said it.  Root Canal. That is right, there was almost nothing between the hole in my tooth and the root on the x-ray.  They prepared for a Root Canal, got me nice and numbed up, and started doing their thing, working toward the inevitable.  A few minutes later I heard the one phrase you never want to hear a doctor say, “huh? that is strange.” She then did some more grinding and double checking, and then told me that I am a very lucky guy and I didn’t need a Root Canal after all.  They finished off the crown, and sent me on my way.  As someone who is like the other 50% of the population, I very much dislike the dentists office, but the people at the Monarch Dental in Rowlett, Texas really made this a good dentist visit, even if I had to have the Root Canal at this time (I will have to eventually just how it works) I would think the same thing.  Thank you gals!

I go back in a couple weeks to get my permanent crown, I actually can’t wait to go to the dentist for the first time in my life.