I’ve been away in Melbourne for the past week. What an amazing city! We had a awesome time there, fitting in two concerts; Arcade Fire and the next day Rage Against The Machine. Both outstanding gigs!

Also - I proposed to Amanda.

She said yes.

We’re both totally stoked!

It was our last day in Melbourne. We were having a drink in the shade of a big tree on the Yarra river and it was just so perfect so I popped the question! She said yes immediately and we both giggled and celebrated with another sip of our drinks!

Anyway - I’m sure I’ll have more to say about the whole trip once I settle back into a routine. Happy, happy days!!!

I’m not sure how long this has been live, but Amazon has launched a MP3 download service much like the iTunes store.

The exciting thing about this MP3 store is that all the tunes are 256kbps, DRM free and well priced. Single songs are 89c (US), albums are around $9 (US). This is the way music should be sold! I’m surprised it’s taken Amazon this long to get their shit together, but hey - they got there in the end and it’s pretty sweet.

Currently they have about 2 million songs from both indie and major labels. At this point it’s American/UK focussed so you’ll still need to hit Amplifier or iTunes if you’re after local music.

Thank-you Mozilla.

The wonderful people who brought you Firefox and Thunderbird have just released probably the best Firefox addon: Operator.
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If you don’t already know - there is a pretty strong rivalry between New Zealand and Australia especially when it comes to sports events. Well it’s now not too different in the web arena.

Starting in July 2007 there will be a Web Building Deathmatch.
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I’ve been living in New Zealand for over five years now. I left London very much against my will. I was unable to secure myself a working permit for England and my working holiday visa had expired so I had no choice but to bail. My folks had immigrated to New Zealand while I was doing my OE so I didn’t have a home in South Africa to go back to. That’s how I ended up in this fine country…
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We’ve been living in Emily place for a about 3 years now. It’s an awesome part of Auckland - close to the city (hm - it is the city), the supermarket, the nightlife, etc. Living the apartment life has been great but it’s now time for us to move along.
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I released the mockup for the redesign some weeks ago. During then and now several things have happened that have prevented me from releasing this sooner.

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Yeah, yeah I know…Its been how long since my last post…? Never mind that. Some heavy shit’s been going down on my end.

It’s better now - so I may be motivated to write some more in this here blog.

But back to the topic. I’ve got a speaking engagement on the 8th June. I’m talking at the Auckland Web Design meet up. It’ll be a 15 min talk about a website I’ve recently built. Outlining some of the technologies used during the build.

Please come along and show your support for not just me but the Auckland web design community.

There is an awesome international mailing list called The Web Standards Group [WSG]. Essentially it’s a 3133 member email list talking about anything Web Standards. Along with the email side of things there are also real live conference/meetings held in major cities around the world on a monthly basis. Currently the Aussies are winning with the most meetings held. Even the Wellington web standards contingent have managed to have several meetings. The Auckland lot, however, have only managed one small get together. Not optimum.

It’s up to Peter and me to get something organised in Auckland…There has been some renewed interest in getting a Auckland meeting happening so right now we’re trying to get a few things sorted. If you or anyone you know could give us a hand in any of the following areas it would be GREATLY appreciated:

1. A venue
   We’re looking for some place central to have Auckland WSG meetings. A lecture theater or some sort of venue that can hold 50-60 people is what we’re looking for. Would be a bonus is this venue was free or really really cheap.
2. Data projector
   We’re planning on having some presenters so we’ll need something to show slides, etc
3. Speakers
   If you or anyone you know has something to say about anything related to web standards then please let me know. I’m sure I could be persuaded to say a few words about CSS and or markup…but the more speakers we can muster the better!
4. Attendees
   We need you to come to these meetings. You may learn something, you may teach something. You’ll definitely meet like minded people and if you’re really really lucky you may get a snack or a drink!!

So come on! I want to see the comments flowing with ideas, venues and enthusiasm!

Four years, several hundred (maybe even thousand) dollars, a bottle of whiskey, x-rays, early morning queuing, waiting, waiting and more waiting the NZ Immigration Services have finally issued me with a Permanent Residence Permit.

What this means is I can work, live and study in New Zealand. I can come and go as I please. Essentially I can live here forever!

This is the one step closer to becoming a true Kiwi - like the rest of my family!

And now about the shopping trolley - this is state of the art grocery transportation. Not only that but oh-so-hot!

It’s always such a mission dragging our two weeks worth of shopping up to our apartment…now we can simply wheel it into the lift and BOSH! Sorted.

Joy! Joy!