another linux birthday party w/ no fork [was Re: I generally have no trouble with muni metro. To what are youreferring?]

[Tony Godshall]

...
[me]
> > Regardless, BART serves a wide area, and anything that requires a
> > transfer away from it significantly impacts convenience and
> > therefore attendance.

[michael] 
> 	This is true to a certain extent, although muni metro is a
> more convenient transfer than anything else.  You just get off at
> embarcadero, and the muni metro fare gates are just opposite the BART
> fare gates.

[me]
> > I'm seriously considering not attending the linux-picnic this year
> > or organizing one that's handier to the car-free and car-lite crowd
> > (I am not yet free but I am moving in that direction).  But given
> > how little time I am willing to put to organizing, it'll probably
> > not materialize at all, or be a single buttock event at best.
 
[michael] 
> 	I'm 100% car-free (never even learned *how* to drive) and this
> idea intrigues me.  What locations were you interested in?

The beach park in Alameda would be handy to me.  Not on a
BART line, but a five minute bus ride from 12th St Oakland BART
and 15 minutes from SF Transbay terminal on the "O".

Lake Merritt is pretty handy to BART.

There's some nice park-like stuff by North Berkeley BART.

Near Rockridge BART there's a park and a little pond or
lake.  It's a pretty steep uphill from the BART stop, tho.

I'm sure there are others.

Thanks to a witty person who apparently wishes to remain
nameless...

> IIRC, the event organizers offered to arrange a ride to the picnic for
> anyone arriving to the area by public transportation.

Ah, but is the ride provided in an environmentally friendly 
vehicle ;-)

Anyhow, going South of Fremont typ. requires multiple 
transfers and complicated scheduling and iffy bike-
transport even if you get a ride at the end.  But mebbe
there's a nice Amtrak connection.

[nameless again] 
> While it is useful to have a fork *at* a picnic, it doesn't seem as
> useful to have a fork *of* the picnic.

I wouldn't want to really fork the picnic so I'd think we'd
want to schedule it for different hours or a different day.
That way people can go to both.

> > But given how little time I am willing to
> > put to organizing, it'll probably not materialize at all, or
> > be a single buttock event at best.
> 
> Seems like a visit to Dr. Mephesto (sp?) from South Park
> could solve that problem.

I should look into that.  A lot of what I do is half-assed.

And yes, we really don't want to move toward fragmentation
or we'll end up with events where only debian-running 
car-free left-handed kde-free Monthy Python fans are welcome.