Last weekend, Cam and I drove up to South Lake Tahoe for a couple days of snowboarding and escape. Tahoe is too far from us for a one-day there-and-back trip. But it’s close enough (~4 hour drive, sans traffic) for a weekend getaway. It was Cam’s first attempt at boarding. I say, she did remarkably well given her lack of any prior experience skateboarding or surfing. ~300 words
Until the past few days, you might not have imagined how a small, isolated country somewhere in the South Pacific could have such a significant impact on the Web. We’re early on in the second day of Webstock, a web conference, shaking down in Wellington, New Zealand. And what a conference it is. ~600 words
I acquired a taste for them a year ago when I visited Australia for the first time. John and Sara had a pack of them at their place when Dave, Joe, and I stopped by for a barbie one night after Web Essentials 2004 was over. ~500 words
Inspirational, energetic, insightful, encouraging. That’s how I’d describe the Web Essentials conference in Sydney, Australia last week. An excellent crowd filled with so many wonderful people. It seems the WE05 team is on to something very successful. Going through the list of other talented presenters for this year, I’m still wondering why they invited me back on stage this year… ~500 words
I returned to London from Copenhagen one day before flying back to San Francisco, and got my second chance to explore the city. A half day still isn’t much time to see all London has to offer. But a tour around London on the top deck of the sightseeing busses at least gave me a good feel for what the parts of the city are like. ~700 words
A couple weeks ago, my girlfriend and I flew to Orlando, Florida to spend some time with my father. Since he works for Disney, we took a day and hopped through a few of the parks for free. My souvenir is a photo gallery of some of the type and signage throughout Magic Kingdom. ~300 words
Just arrived in London. I decided to fly in a few days early, before the flurry of activity later this week. For me, the end of this week will bring an intense set of speaking engagements, tightly packed together. Two overlapping conferences in two cities over three days. ~400 words
Once again, I find myself in Hong Kong on business. Out of the fourteen hours of our flight last night, I slept for about seven of them. Never very solidly, as we kept hitting patches of mild turbulence every half hour or so. I drank plenty of water during the flight, and am continuing to do so. Nevertheless, jet lag is already punishing me in full force. ~400 words
After two years of sharing space with good friends at Adaptive Path, Stopdesign finally moves into its own office. Over the past week, I’ve been painting, moving, and assembling, creating a clean, comfortable space that Stopdesign calls home. I now sit high above Market Street in a funky little office with lots of windows and incredible views over downtown San Francisco. ~300 words
A byproduct of doing so much traveling lately is the overabundance of photos I’ve taken. I promised the many people I met from far and away that I’d make them available when I returned. Problem is, I’ve never been satisfied with the photo gallery services currently available, especially for mass quantities of photos. So I looked into alternatives. I’ve been using iPhoto to manage photos and galleries locally on my PowerBook, and I have lots of familiarity with Movable Type. All I needed was a bridge between the two. Update: The templates are now available. ~3,000 words
While I’ve been busy the past few weeks, so too, have some of the folks I got to meet in the fine, windy city of Wellington, New Zealand. Next week, Thursday 9 December, will be the first official meeting of the Web Standards Group in Wellington. It’s free, casual, and open to anyone who’s interested. ~200 words
In sorting through the 980 (!) photos I took in Australia and New Zealand last month, I thought this particular image was worthy of posting here separately from all the others. The Kiwis I met at the conference in Sydney told me Wellington had some of the best coffee in the world. After noticing something in my last “flat white” at the Wellington Airport, I think I understand why that might be true… ~100 words
The last three days I spent in Wellington couldn’t have been better. The weather was ideal: clear skies with a few clouds, mild temps, and a low breeze blowing off the harbor — apparently kind of a rare environment for Wellington. The days were relaxed, nothing was planned, and I got to meet quite a few local webbers. ~900 words
Best taken while suspended upside-down, dangling by a rubber band strapped to your ankles. Begins with intense anxiety. Guaranteed rush to the head follows. Heart continues pumping for at least 30 minutes after. ~100 words
I mentioned in a previous entry that I’m actually going to make it to New Zealand’s North Island for a brief stay. Thursday — 21 October — I’ll be flying from Christchurch into Wellington around mid-day. I’m spending a couple days there, and I really don’t have much planned. I just want to see and experience New Zealand’s capital city, enjoy the coffee, see a few LoTR sites, and hang out with more Kiwis. ~300 words
On Friday, Mt. Hutt was still closed, and I had almost given up hope of boarding in NZ. But we learned after walking around Methven that one small club field was actually still open: Broken River. Not willing to forfeit another day of boarding, we jumped at the chance. ~900 words
I arrived in New Zealand late last night, after quite a bit of drama at the Cairns airport earlier in the day. I almost didn’t make it to NZ for multiple reasons. ~300 words
For those of you loosely following along on the OZ/NZ adventure, I just wrapped up five very relaxing days at Airlee Beach. It was a perfect spot to use as a base for exploring the nearby islands, and ended up being a great spot from which to head out to the Great Barrier Reef. ~900 words
A few times while traveling around Australia, either I’ve noticed a slight glitch on a site (Stopdesign, or a client site), or someone else points out a bug or problem with some file on a site I have control over. I left my laptop and cables, etc. in Sydney to shed the weight, so I haven’t had access to the tools I normally have at my disposal. Any of these changes are usually quick edits or corrections of previous oversights. However, I’ve been missing some sort of text editor that can work on files remotely via S/FTP. ~600 words
I stepped off the plane yesterday in Cairns and immediately got hit with a warm tropical breeze. It was a drastic change from the cool San Francisco-like weather of Melbourne. I loved Melbourne, and wished I could stay longer, but this short trip mandates that I keep moving so I can experience everything I planned. ~400 words
Firming up more of my itinerary the next couple weeks made me realize how little time I have left, and how much more I still want to see. Which means I’m now flying out of Melbourne tomorrow morning, heading up to Cairns. ~200 words
I’ll be joining up with Peter and Russ to fly into Melbourne this Tuesday afternoon (5th of October) for a spontaneously rescheduled Web Standards Group meeting that night. Dave Shea and his wife April are traveling to Melbourne, so they’ll also be there for the meeting. If you’re in the area, please come out and join us. Details on time and location will be posted to this page on the WSG’s site when they become available. ~200 words
Man, is Sydney beautiful once the rain and overcast skies go away. I woke up at 6:30am this morning, gazed outside my window, and saw bright sunshine already casting its brilliance over Sydney, so I rushed to get out to experience the day. I hopped a train up to Circular Quay and caught the 8am ferry over to Manly. Such an awesome experience to catch the ferry first thing in the morning… ~500 words
Just arrived in Sydney this morning. Still trying to orientate myself. John Allsopp picked up Joe Clark and me (we happened to be on the same flight out of LAX) from the airport early this morning. I only have 6 minutes left on a pay-per-minute access account, so this is going to be a quick one. Dave and I have walked all over the Chinatown/UTS area looking for wireless access, or some place where we can connect our laptops to a wired connection. No one seems to know what wireless access or “wifi” is here. Update: Manly knows how to do it right… ~500 words
As I sit at a gate at SFO, waiting for a hop down to LAX where I catch the Time Travel Express to Sydney, the fact that I’m leaving for a whole month doesn’t seem quite real yet. It’s a strange feeling. No anxiety or stress, but an odd feeling that I’m not prepared to be traveling for a month. Sort of like those dreams where you show up to school or some public place, then realize you’re wearing nothing but underwear. ~300 words
One of the concepts that’s had my brain wrapped around a pole lately is the international date line. When working out times and flights to Sydney recently, I found it really difficult to calculate arrival times based on a 14-hour flight, a 17-hour time difference, and the fact that I was going to cross the date line and lose a day. ~600 words
In less than one month now, I board a plane bound for Sydney, Australia. Where should I go? What cities and destinations should I hit? What should I not miss if at all possible? Where should I stay? Where should I eat? What should I eat? What experiences should I absolutely try my hardest to fit in? How should I get around? Etc. I’m hoping you have all kinds of great info, tips, and suggestions on visiting Australia and New Zealand, and that you might share some of them here. ~700 words
In just under two weeks, I’ll be joining Adaptive Path in Washington, D.C. for User Experience Week 2004, 16-19 August. AP’s guest speakers also include Jason Fried and Christina Wodtke. Topics will cover team and process, strategy, managing politics, interaction best practices, effecient use of a CMS, and fitting general user experience methods and practices into your organization. ~200 words
My favorite photo from a 10-minute visit (that’s all the time I had) to Seattle’s Rem Koolhaas-designed Central Library. ~80 words
In a few minutes, I step onto a plane bound for Seattle for a short two-day trip. I’ll be speaking twice tomorrow at Digital Design World. ~200 words
Next in the series of photos used for header images on Stopdesign is a candid photo I never would have expected to make use of in any kind of design, let alone Stopdesign’s Company pages. There’s nothing spectacular about this photo at first glance. Maybe even at second and third glances. In fact, any other designer probably would have passed it over. This is… Office shopping. ~300 words
Picking up where we
The second of a series, the header image from the Articles section originates from a photo that conjures up great memories with international friends. This is Café en Madrid… ~300 words
In the first of a series, I present the original, undoctored photo used for one of the header images on Stopdesign. This one: the home page. This photo was taken while visiting Miami in November 2002 for the AIGA
This year is certainly my “coming out of the office” year in terms of public speaking. With three events down, and four more on the schedule so far, the year holds lots of opportunities to meet new people. ~600 words
If you followed my recent mention of the
Benny Evangelista writes an interesting article for the SF Chronicle on the recently installed wifi at SBC Park. I read about the new wifi several weeks ago before opening day, but this is the first I’ve seen public mention about it in local media. My reaction is positive, although I certainly see the stigma attached to opening up a laptop at a sports event… ~500 words
Luck and some last-minute arrangements have me on the opposite coast right now. I’m in New York, in the middle of a whirlwind trip which only removes me from San Francisco for a span of about 48 hours. ~300 words
A reflective self-portrait of me, and the cool crosswalk signal icons in Vancouver. ~66 words
In two days, I’ll be heading north to Vancouver, B.C. for the AIGA National Design Conference, the power of Design. ~300 words
Frank Leahy is a friend and former-colleague from Wired. Frank left Wired a couple months ago, and he and his family of four recently picked up their lives and moved to England, settling temporarily in what looks like an amazing location: Cornwall. ~400 words
Where else can you go only 2 miles and experience a natural temperature drop of 25 degrees+? That was my experience in San Francisco yesterday as I went from Noe Valley to Pacific Heights to watch a portion of the T-Mobile International cycling race. ~300 words
A couple of readers wrote to me wondering what my normal view — described yesterday — is like. Yesterday’s photo was actually taken from a street corner behind my apartment building looking toward Twin Peaks and the fog-obscured Sutro Tower… ~200 words
Early on a Sunday morning. I wake up and open the living room blinds to a sea of white. On most clear days, I have a view of half the San Francisco skyline, a portion of the Bay Bridge, and… ~300 words
Via Paul Boutin, an interesting read from Peter Maass over at Slate. “Salam Pax Is Real” tells an inside story of Driving Mr. Pax, discovering his musical and literary tastes, and taking advice on buying Persian… ~100 words
It’s been a while since I’ve stumbled into The Canvas, paid for a latte and a pastry or ordered a sandwich and salad from the counter, perused the art hanging around the side walls, and camped out at one… ~500 words
It’s a rare occurrence to see two human faces superimposed on top of each other in the real world, at least outside of Photoshopped manipulations and Conan O’Brien’s “If They Mated”. But just such a thing can happen… ~200 words
I’m in Washington D.C. this week, spending time with a few good friends. Since everyone is still working, today is my opportunity to tour around independently and see some sights. I haven’t been here since my eighth grade class trip,… ~300 words
Sitting in the Miami airport, waiting for a flight to Chicago. Here’s a few more shots to highlight from this past weekend: … ~22 words
The AIGA I/O Conference wrapped up yesterday. Overall, it was an excellent 2-day conference with a nice range of topics covered. I stuck around in Miami for an extra day just to relax a little. Over the last couple days,… ~100 words
