LuftHans Free Software in 3D

Ready for a real Oktoberfest experience in Arizona? Try the 3rd annual Phoenix Oktoberfest from the Arizona Center for Germanic Cultures.

Phoenix Oktoberfest is being put on by valley german, austrian and swiss groups in conjunction with the AC4GC.

We'll have real german food, beer and drinks. It's 10:00 to 22:00 at the Margaret T. Hance Park in downtown Phoenix. 200 East Moreland is just South of the Burton Barr Phoenix library on Central.

ABLEconf is the brand new Free Software conference for Arizona. Our goal is to introduce Free Software such as GNU/Linux, Firefox, Thunderbird, the GIMP, Inkscape and OpenOffice.org to the general public. We'll also have geek stuff like programming and storage and toys and games :).

The inaugural ABLEconf event is being held on Software Freedom Day, Saturday, September 20th 2008, at the University for Advancing Technology (UAT) from 10:00 to 17:00.

The schedule shows a variety of talks as well as continental breakfast.

There is no cost to attend ABLEconf and no need to pre-register.

The annual Irish Festival was last weekend.

They ran out of corned beef and cabbage before we got there :(, but the shepards pie was tasty :).

They had Guinness booths. This festival wasn't sponsored by Budweiser! Glad some people do the cultural thing right ( even if I don't like beer ).

Fun music and dancing. We didn't dance this time as we were short of time due to needing to make a wheelbarrow delivery.

$gf bought a hand-knitted sweater. She had passed up all opportunities in .ie to buy one, but finally gave it. It's quite nice. It's also a bit thinner than the ones we saw there, which is good in Phoenix.

My roomie and I walked in to Old Chicago for Stammtisch tonight. As usual I was greeted with a round of 'Hey Hans' but it wad different as it was in English.

There sat Sean, Dathi, Jason and Alara :). Most cool.

Marc continued on to the Germans while I stopped to hang out.

Sean was up for fighter practice this week, so now I'm even more annoyed that I missed it.

It was fun hanging out and popping back and forth between the tho groups.

Sean can't stay for the Irish Festival tomorrow :(.

We ended up closing the place down.

AC4GC's first Oktoberfest was also last weekend. A good turnout despite rain and being only a few miles away from the well-established GreekFest.

Michael of the, now closed :(, German Corner made sure we were well-fed. There was beer, of course. There was a booth from the Irish Cultural Center. That might've had something to do with the beer :).

The Irish Cultural Center has really been a help in getting AC4GC and the Oktoberfest started. Sliante!

$gf bought me a cool traditional germanic shirt.

Picked up some Feigling suspenders and saw a guy with a cool Lederhosen t-shirt.