I don’t usually ping stuff on other blogs, but this rather personal post by web developer Simon Collison left me with a rather warm, fuzzy feeling! I’m sure most of us who spend a lot most of our time on computers can relate to Simon’s feelings, and can appreciate that sometimes we need to remember the big wide world that exists outside our computers, mobile phones, and jobs.
It’s all been rather quiet around here lately, and that’s because Jane and I have recently moved to Telscombe Cliffs, which is (more-or-less) where we both grew up. After a 30-month ‘exile’ in Woodingdean, we’ve bought our first home — a 2-bedroom end-of-terrace with *gasp* front and back gardens!
While most people our age are dead-set on city living, we both agreed that what we really wanted was a house in the suburbs, rather than a flat in a central location. So that’s what we’ve gone for. Personally, having my own private space makes a huge difference to the way I feel at home. In our flat in Woodingdean I was constantly aware of my neighbours, and felt very self-conscious as a result. Now I feel like the personification of the saying "An Englishman’s home is his castle".
It’s been a couple of weeks since we moved in, and we’ve still plently of un-packing to do, but we’ve got the place nice and cosy, and most importantly we now have a broadband connection, which we’d become so accustomed to!
So here’s to many happy years in our new home!
A huge thanks is due to my most excellent friend Dan Palmer for a great weekend in Canterbury. During my time there, we attended a housewarming party, and after Jane joined us on Saturday, wandered around the beautiful city, visited the enormous cathedral, spent the evening in a local venue listening to country/funk bands and after one or two beverages ate a ton of fried chicken.
Can’t wait to do it all again some time soon!
Hurrah! Slides for my SkillSwap talk on XML and XSL for the Web are now up! They were created using S5: A Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System.
See them here: SkillSwap Slides.
Okay, so this post is a little late, but for those who didn’t know, Friday 2nd December saw the latest SkillSwap event hosted by none other than… me! The topic of the talk was An Introduction to XML and XSL for the Web, and took place in the BBC building on Queens Road in Brighton (the same Queens Road as Polar Central – see previous post).
It the first time I’ve given any kind of talk or presentation since Uni, so needless to say I was extremely nervous. However, with the encouragement of SkillSwap organiser Andy Budd and the ever enthusiastic web types that made up the ‘audience’, I soon began to actually enjoy myself. Being the worrisome type, I’d had all kinds of pre-event concerns – "Was the talk too niche?", "Was it too general?", "Would those in attendance know more about the subject than me?"… I needn’t have worried. Everyone there knew enough about XML to be interested, but not enough to defeat the point of the talk.
It was great encouragement when people started asking questions, and Paul commented that, during breaks and pauses, people were chatting amongst themselves about what they’d like to do with the technologies they had just been shown. Unfortunately, not quite everything went to plan, and I had to cut the presentation slightly short when a demonstration piece I’d prepared to show what can be achieved with XSLT just didn’t work. It was reliant on two things – a working web server that I had prepared on a USB key, and an Internet connection. We couldn’t get both on the same machine! Oh, well.
I thoroughly enjoyed giving the talk (I love being the centre of attention, really!), and was even more glad to hear that everyone there had enjoyed themselves, too. I can’t wait to see what the next SkillSwap brings!
The slides and a working version of the demonstration page should be available soon…
Recent Comments