A story about how SVLUG (allegedly) got banned from Google

Around 2008, SVLUG ceased to be able to hold installfests at Google's
teaching facility at 1565 Charleston, Building 46. Room 135 ("Avarua" room), 
and I never knew why.  For a while, I thought it was a consequence of
SVLUG then-President Paul Reiber showing up drunk and disorderly at the
2007 'SVLUG Kernel Walkthrough' lectures at a different Google building,
but maybe not.

Last Wednesday, I heard a story...

For a very long period, from about 1998 until Andrew Fife's presidency
in 2008, I stayed as far as I could from SVLUG's internal politics,
which during that period were infamously toxic and generally absurd, and
I really had better things to do with my life.  But still I cared.  So I
had to wonder, why I heard that we'd become personae non grata at one of
our leading tech firms, where numerous past SVLUG presidents and other
notables work.

After Lyz Joseph's excellent SVLUG talk about Ubuntu 16.04 LTS "Xenial
Xerus", a bunch of us went to the traditional after-meeting dinner at
Frankie, Johnny, and Luigi's Too in Mountain View.  And I finally heard
from the attendee sitting across from me a claim.  He said 'Yeah,
SVLUG's installfests got kicked out of Google because there was this one
guy who went into the Google food room and piled just massive amounts of
food into his backpack.'  And I said:  'Michael Cheselka?'

To be very clear, the gentleman did not explicitly say yes, and he did
explicitly not say know.  His expression was very interesting, though.
Could be my cynical imagination, but it seemed to say 'Personal
responsibility is so very awkward.'

I remember, clear as day, the time we at SVLUG encountered Michael,
because it was June 28, 1998 the 'Launch Win98 ...on a Rocket'
publicity stunt at DeAnza College in Cupertino:
http://www.svlug.org/events/launch98.php 
http://www.svlug.org/events/crash98.php

We duly launched Windows 98 on a rocket:  It crashed.  And then we
adjourned to a nearby Round Table Pizza in (IIRC) Saratoga.  Eight or so
of us, including Michael, ordered a couple of big pizzas, and ate them.
The bill came...  and Michael said he'd just arrived from Austin, needed
a job, and wasn't able to pay his share.  He just offhandedly stiffed
everyone else -- all of us being strangers to him -- and never made good
on his debt.

That was our introduction to Michael.

We've seen Michael at many events since then.  He seems to always need a
lift or other favours, usually looking for a job, seemingly very big on 
getting things for free.  Several times, he's taken advantage of my
gladly-extended offer to pick people up from CalTrain for CABAL meetings
at my house in Menlo Park, and to help attendees get home.  One time, I
picked him up and he immediately asked 'Where are you working, these
days?'  I said 'I work at a variety of places, and prefer to protect my
client confidentiality.'  He pressed again.  I said:  'Most recently,
I've been doing Linux work at a large EDA industry firm.  The specific
firm doesn't matter, and I'm not big on telling people where I work at
any particular time.'  He saw a Cadence Design Systems bag in my back
seat and said 'Is it Cadence?'  Not a particular respecter of subtlety
or courtesy, is our Michael.  

I do not know for certain if the look on my interlocutor's face when I
named names meant I'd hit the jackpot, though I have my cynical
suspicions.  I _do_ know that there was a long period when SVLUG events 
carried out inadequate supervision and control over attendee conduct, 
and we put a screeching halt to that problem starting 2008.  For
example, we very carefully make sure we clear out of Symantec on time
and are _very_ good guests at that facility, cause no trouble ever, 
leave it clean, and make clear that we'd boot to the curb anyone who
caused the least bit of trouble.

We might never get back into the good graces of Google, Inc., but we've
done our damnedest for eight years and running to ensure that we _would_
be an excellent and welcome guest if we _were_ ever tried out again,
there.