In addition to critters, trams, and work, I had a few other random adventures while visiting Australia and New Zealand last month that were noteworthy. I’d been to Sydney before, and since I’d already done a lot of the Australian animal things and needed something to do on an evening, I signed up for a […]
Archive for the ‘travel’ Category
A harbor cruise in Sydney and Hobbit feet in Wellington
September 18th, 2026 by pleia2
Posted in travel | Comments (0)
Spending time down under at IBM Z Forum AU/NZ
September 8th, 2026 by pleia2
A few months ago I was invited to speak at IBM Z Forum in Australia. It’s an annual invitation-only, client-facing event where they bring in speakers from around the world to talk about topics of particular importance to the expected attendees. In my case, they were looking for someone who had given multi-arch talks with […]
Vintage trams in Australia and a cable car in New Zealand
August 27th, 2026 by pleia2
I like things on rails, but the last time I was in Melbourne in 2016 I didn’t realize they had a vintage tram system until I was leaving and it was too late to ride them! So when I learned that work was taking me to Australia I made a point to make sure I […]
Petting critters in Australia: 2026 Edition
August 20th, 2026 by pleia2
Every time I visit Australia, I like to pet a new animal. Always in controlled, appropriate environments! And this has lead me to visiting a lot of wildlife centers and zoos over the years, which I’d probably be doing anyway but it’s really become A Thing with this petting goal. I wasn’t sure I’d accomplish […]
Atlantic City Waves
August 6th, 2026 by pleia2
While we’re spending our summers in Philadelphia, we try to do one east coast adventure where we take some time off from work. Last year we took a road trip up to Boston and southern Maine. This year we went back to Atlantic City! The last time we went was a couple years ago over […]
Open Source Summit 2026
June 5th, 2026 by pleia2
Last month I had the pleasure of attending the Open Source Summit in Minneapolis. For the first time, I didn’t have a speaking slot or booth duty, I was there as an attendee with a list of people and projects I wanted to meet up with, and sessions I wanted to see. On Sunday I […]
Work travel side quests
June 1st, 2026 by pleia2
A little over a week ago I returned from two back-to-back work trips. With one of them ending on a Thursday and the next not until Sunday, I considered flying from Atlanta back home to San Francisco, and then back out again to Minneapolis, but timing and cost-wise, even with additional nights in hotels, that […]
Red Hat Summit 2026
May 26th, 2026 by pleia2
For the second year in a row, I had the pleasure of crafting the IBM LinuxONE booth presence for the Red Hat Summit. I went into this knowing that last year was going to be impossible to top, 2025 was a launch year and we not only had our own big activity space with four […]
SCaLE 23x
March 16th, 2026 by pleia2
Last week I had the pleasure of attending SCaLE 23x in Pasadena, California. I love SCaLE, it’s probably my favorite conference. It’s big, but it still feels so local, and I always walk away having met new, exceptional people, and with the warmth of connection I feel from seeing some of my closest friends in […]
Finally back at OLF!
December 17th, 2025 by pleia2
Back in 2018 spoke at Ohio LinuxFest and had a wonderful time with the community there. It’s a great mix of folks who are very local, and open source experts from across the country who come in for the event. Beth Lynn Eicher, who leads the event, is a champion in getting more folks involved […]