Monday 9 October 2006

Phtttt to the Phunk, Let’s Talk Photos

Okay, I’m out of my more or less funk, mostly due to jetlag, exhaustion and disappointment. But, onward, dear friends.

I’m Flickring (is that a verb?) all sorts of photos from my recent journeys and stops along the way: Sydney, Singapore, Madrid, Oviedo. Check ‘em out!

Filed under:   fundamentosweb2006, photos, travel, wd06
Posted by:   Molly | 11:12 | Comments (12)

Saturday 30 September 2006

The Fastest Way to Get to Australia . . .

is to never leave!

After enjoying the fantastic sessions and social events at Web Directions 06, Andy Clarke, Kevin Yank and myself headed off to the airport to catch a series of flights that would eventually get us to Oviedos for Fundamentos Web. But, as it happens, our flight ended up being cancelled and we’ve had the pleasure of staying in Australia an extra, unplanned night.

As we had to pass through immigration and formally leave Australia, we had to formally re-enter the country. There is now a unique stamp in my passport:

“Did Not Depart”

Double meanings aside, I’ve now learned that the fastest way to get to Australia is to never leave. Which, as much as I’m looking forward to visiting Spain, I must say has always been a joy to visit. Web Directions 06 South was an awesome experience, so my love and gratitude to Maxine Sherrin and John Allsopp and all the fantastic speakers and staff for putting on yet another inspirational event, and to all the attendees and friends who make 35 hour globetrots a joy rather than a pain in the proverbial you-know-what.

Wish us smooth travels, my friends, and I’m looking forward to my very first visit to Spain.

Update: Kevin has written a witty and accurate description of our adventure in his blog post this morning Did Not Depart.

Filed under:   humor, professional, travel, w3c, wd06
Posted by:   Molly | 16:18 | Comments (59)

Wednesday 13 September 2006

Back to School!

My autumn term is almost underway. In 9 days I’ll be winging my way around the world to present an international series of workshops, conference talks and training events. I hope to visit with many friends and friends-to-be-met along the way; talk web standards and life; share knowledge and good times.

Here’s the entire public schedule for your enjoyment. Seats are limited at all the events, so if you are planning to go and haven’t registered, register soon. Also, drop me a line in comments if you have questions, you’ll be attending one of the events, or even just in the area.

Sydney, Australia: Web Directions South

The idea of being back in Australia for Web Directions South is so exciting I just don’t know what to say! I had such a wonderful time last year the 14 hour flight from LA doesn’t seem so terribly daunting. I’ll be co-presenting a one day workshop “Extreme Standards” along with Andy Clarke, as well as being your hostess and speaker at breakfast on Friday morning, where we’ll discuss “Defining the New Professionalism.”

Asturias, Spain: Fundamentos Web

Despite my love of the Spanish language, which I studied in school and speak with some fluency due to my many years living in the bilingual environment of Tucson, I’ve never visited Spain. I am so honored to be a part of Fundamentos Web I can’t even say, and am even going to attempt to present my one hour session on The True Value of Microformats in Spanish. I won’t dare try that for the workshop, Designing Web 2.0, with Andy Clarke.

London, England: Carson Workshops

Last year’s CSS for Designers was a great experience, and I’m returning again to co-present with Andy, this time with a twist. CSS for Developers focuses on practical aspects of CSS more than visual design: Organizing CSS file systems, how to organize and optimize your documents, tapping into the Cascade and inheritance for efficiency – all the yummy technical stuff I personally love. With Andy’s eye for design we will of course be working on ways to encourage the more developmentally-oriented to think in visual terms. A unique course, and one I’m confident will be of great value and terrific fun.

London, England: Geek Dinner

Once again the fabulous Ian Forrester has arranged a Geek Dinner for me on Friday 20th October, at The Bottlescrue in London. Come along, bring your friends. 5 GBP for food and fun, can’t be beat.

Boston, MA, USA: The Ajax Experience

Since I know absolutely squat about JavaScript and XMLHttpRequest other than what they do, it’s rather humorous I’d get picked up for such a seriously geeky conference as The Ajax Experience. Somehow, I ended up running into a few situations this year where I found myself speaking to hardcore Java web app developers and found that they were expressing a real interest in CSS! This excites me to no end, because getting developers on board with CSS and semantic markup is a really important step to building better platforms all around. So, I’m very honored to be involved in this event and am looking forward to learning a lot, too.

Austin, TX, USA: An Event Apart

I’m truly honored to participate as the guest speaker for An Event Apart. Jeffrey and Eric have both been active mentors and friends in my life for many years, and Jason is easily one of the most good-natured, smart, creative people I’ve met in the past couple of years. To be Apart with these fellas, well, what a thrill, particularly in a town as cool as Austin and a venue as awesome as the Alamo Drafthouse. I’ll be presenting “From the Content, Out.”

Yikes!

I’m looking at this list and I’m getting really excited. I’m really looking forward to each of these amazing events and the many wonderful experiences I know I’ll have along the way.

And I’m especially hoping to see you there.

Filed under:   conferences, professional, standards, travel, wd06, web design and development
Posted by:   Molly | 06:34 | Comments (21)