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. continued

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.

continued

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. Maxine asked, “Would you like a Tim Tam, Doug?” Me: “What’s a Tim Tam?” Maxine, shocked at my response: “You’ve never had a Tim Tam?!”

continued

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. continued

My first night in London, I forced myself to stay awake by taking the tube to SOHO, finding fish and chips for dinner, and deciding to watch an Italian film, “The Consequences of Love,” at the Curzon. Not the best choice for keeping one’s self awake after an 11 hour flight to London, but somehow it worked. Billed as a “psychological thriller”, this film’s pacing should have put me to sleep. But I managed to follow to the end. continued

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. I hadn’t been to Magic Kingdom since I was a kid. It’s odd how you see things differently as an adult. Not unexpected, just odd. continued

Just arrived in London. It’s gray outside, and probably a little cooler than I thought June would be. But I’m glad to be here, regardless. A rather uneventful flight (always a good thing) except for the man sitting next to me smacking the Enter key on his laptop keyboard every 2 seconds throughout the night. continued

Once again, I find myself in Hong Kong on business. After leaving San Francisco at 1:20am early Wednesday morning, our plane landed at about 7:00 AM local time Thursday morning. 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. continued

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.

continued

Update: Good news! The templates I reference below are finally available for download by anyone to use. See the followup post: Photo Gallery Templates available.

Over the past two months, I’ve been lying low when it comes to the writing on this site. I’ve responded to very few emails, and fallen severely behind on the blog and news reading with which I normally keep myself updated. In the past two months, I’ve opened up my feed reader exactly two times. Both times, I quickly got disgusted with how many unread items popped up before my eyes. Too much to keep up with, especially after getting back from a month-long tour of Down Under.

continued