I’ve been to a few Python conferences in the last year, from which I’ve accumulated a few t-shirts.

I’ve also been to a few PHP events, so I have a few shirts, and bags, from these events.

So of course, to show my investment and prior activity in the various communities, I wear the shirts to the events.

PHP shirts to the Python events, and Python shirts to the PHP events.

Yes, you read that right.

I’m the kind of person that, when presenting two talks at a conference, wears the jeans to the community talk and the dress to the technical talk.

I’m also the kind of person that is fortunate enough to be involved in many different communities, and who is a little bit fed up with the platform bashing.

Polyglot programmers are rare, and are able to share knowledge and experience across different systems. By wearing the wrong t-shirt, I draw attention to this.

And I’ve not gotten called up on it before. I’ve had slow claps, giggles and the odd hearty chuckle, but I’ve never been told off or accused of not being a ‘team player’, which is fantastic. If I ever had those kind of comments, you bet I’d have something to say about it.

And it’s not just my wardrobe. There’s more than a few Python developers with PHP framework stickers, and PHP developers with Python project stickers on their laptops.

If anyone has an Internet Explorer shirt, or a Microsoft Shirt, in a ladies XL, please let me know. linux.conf.au is coming up :)