[tlug] Why the shirts? Why TLUG?

["Shannon Jacobs" <shannon.jacobs@example.com>]

Okay, so it's nice to get together for a beer or three, and I've gotten a 
couple of technical questions answered, but... Maybe the real problem is 
that my motivations are too negative. For example, I am strongly motivated 
to stop spammers, and it really bothers me that I haven't done more to stop 
them. (But if you can recommend a good Japanese lawyer, I might go after one 
particularly annoying spammer... I'd sure like to make an example of him and 
his ISP.) I don't feel as negatively towards Microsoft, but there's 
certainly no love lost there, and I admit that my interest in Linux is thus 
primarily a negative thing, too, as an alternative to Microsoft.

Earlier, I've asked both directly and indirectly about the purposes of TLUG. 
There have been a number of answers, mostly contradictory. Some people want 
'quality, not quantity', and I take that as a different kind of negative 
motivation, but one I don't share. Other people just want to have fun, 
whatever that means in the context of Linux. For myself, I can say that I do 
like learning new things, but I'm not as interested in the software tools as 
I used to be, and I mostly see tool study as overhead. Is teaching fun? 
Well, if that's how you feel, that would seem to argue for seeking more 
newbies... Some people are apparently terrified of alternative donations 
(apart from beer money), others say the club has no need of money, and 
meanwhile we have this new shirt project. Are they to be sold exactly at 
cost? Whatever. So far there have been few clear responses.

Maybe my interests are simply too divergent from the interests of most TLUG 
folks? If so, then I should be looking elsewhere. Can anyone recommend an 
alternative Linux group that is more focused on seizing the current window 
of opportunity against Vista? I see there's a LinuxWorld Expo next month 
(and I just registered for it), but I haven't found any links to alternative 
Linux groups in Japan (including searching in the TLUG website).