this morning the heat has broken with a bit of a thunder storm - cooling welcome rain, but it hasn't lasted long & i suspect the afternoon will be hot again. it's the last day of the sprint. for some reason i woke up at 7.30am, ridiculously early as we didn't go to bed until nearly 2am, but i was wide awake so enjoyed a couple of hours of quiet before everyone else awoke, drinking coffee & answering emails. yesterday agnez & i got up early & did yoga on the terrace, but the rain prevented that today.

it's wednesday afternoon & the heat is pretty oppressive - i've put a little rack under my laptop because she's so hot, & my hands are too sweaty to use the trackpad. it's not just madrid's weather that is making me sweat - we've all been working hard on the new /etc site since our late start this morning (we had a late night, ok?).

i am in madrid; it's hot - pero tengo cervesa. i am here for the /etc web site workweek - the collective effort of 5 women to spend a week together rebuilding the group's web site. this is sprint methodology - a concept that i first met in agile software development, but one that is being increasingly applied as a successful creative collaboration methodology.

i am at the libre graphics meeting in brussels; this is the 5th annual gathering of people who use and develop open source tools for graphics. like the software, the event is free, & pretty well organised - the programme is packed but femke's excellent time-keeping skills are keeping the presentations moving along.

the call for the 101010 UpStage Festival closed on 31 march, & over the last few weeks vicki, dan & i have been going over the proposals received. every year we get more, & again there is a fascinating variety in ideas and content, & plenty that promises to be great. but also this year, we've noticed an increase in proposals from people who have assumed either that UpStage is a web-casting platform, or that the festival is for web-cast performances using any software.

yesterday i was one of four artists who collaborated in an improvised sound piece, initiated & coordinated/directed by annie abrahams as part of her current exhibition "if not you not me" at HTPP gallery in london.

& so nancy arrived, which was very exciting - we hadn't seen each other since isea in belfast, where we had many an adventure ... but that's another story! (nancy was also in haiti a couple of weeks ago at the ghetto biennale, so last week's earthquake has had a direct personal impact - more here and sign the petition to drop haiti's debt).

after lunch, the audience has shrunk by almost half, & it seems to be mostly men who have left. so we now have something like 90% female audience, & the talks are also becoming more overtly feminist.

i'm at the haeksen miniconf at the australian linux conference, being conveniently held this year in wellington, where i conveniently happen to be at the moment. everyone has rushed outside at lunchtime, because there's the first sunshine in about a week of appallingly bad weather. but in the foyer there are quite a few people lurking around, either chatting in groups or hunched over laptops attached to the powerboards that have been generously placed around.

friday night at fred's

fred's is a sort of unofficial music venue in a little old church in one of the forgotten bits of inner-city wellington. this week, it's been host to fredstock - a festival of experimental music - & on friday night i braved wellington's gentle breeze to check out the sounds.