Today was the annual BLUG meet – the one meet in the year where we look back on what has been happening in the opensource world and the BLUG, and generally have a nice non-technical nose-rub.

I didn’t have too good a time – for the past couple of days, I have had something nasty creep up on me. Luckily nobody noticed the amount of Crocin I was droppnig to stay afloat.

Things didn’t get better, given that as usual I found myself doing more than I expected to. Slides needed to be done, videos to be edited, event issues to be resolved, etc. And of course everyone (apart from Jessie) seemed to be in “Atul do” mode, as usual. Some people just disappeared on me, only to show up at the meet expecting me to have kept their slides ready.

I am getting sooooooo tired of this.

The meet went off reasonably well, though we started late, thanks to projector issues and amplifier issues (the Ashoka hotel has the world’s most pathetic PA system). The latter was resolved by using my own PA equipment, the former required 30 minutes of fiddling before it started working.

Ran through the slideshow, announced Linux Bangalore/2002, broke for socialising and food.

Food was good, but I couldn’t eat the Channa Bhatura (that people were really happy with, apart from the excellent Sandwiches), because I needed to spare my throat.

Post food, Mrinal and I gave a little “Unplugged” concert, singing and playing a few songs.

The songs we played were the result of two practice sessions, and a lot of Pink Floyd (Brain Damage/Eclipse, Hey You, Wish You Were Here, Comfortably Numb), Beatles (In my Life), Simon & Garfunkel (America, The Boxer) and Dream Theater (Hollow Years).

We did well on some, but some I just plain lost my beat – by then, my ears were buzzing badly, and my sinuses were in full-blown war mode. Mrinal managed to cover up my goofs nicely, and did a perfect windup with an excellent solo on Comfortably Numb in the end.

IAC, thanks to Mrinal for indulging me, and no thanks to the guys who walked out halfway through.