My Big Kiwi Day Out: A Tale of Hilarity, Profanity & Stupidity
Last month I traveled to Wellington to speak at the Webstock Mini conference and to volunteer behind-the-scenes at the FullCodePress international website-in-a-day competition.
There was a day between the conference and the 24-hour geek-a-thon, which the Aussie team spent preparing for their competition (one that they would go on to win). But I had no obligations at all, and being my first time to New Zealand, I decided to make the most of it. Rather than visit museums and tourist attractions, I really wanted to get out to see some of the countryside, and possibly do some hiking.
I was to get more than I bargained for.
This is my story of how I entered a rainforest on the Kapiti Coast of New Zealand, and nearly didn’t make it out again. It contains moments of jubilation, wonder, confusion, despair, pain, fear, exhaustion, and humility. Does it sound like I’m exaggerating? OK, maybe I’m prone to it. But if it means that the story is all the better, then so be it, I say!
It’s quite a long tale, so I’ve broken it up into several posts. I can’t tell you exactly how many yet, as I haven’t finished writing them all. I might even drag it out over a few weeks, coz I’m a busy guy, you know? But let’s take things one step at a time, shall we? Jeepers.
(If you’re interested in reading this slightly drawn-out and self-indulgent tale of getting lost (and found) — even if only to learn what not to do when you go hiking on your own in a foreign country — then consider following me on Twitter or subscribing to the feed for this blog.)
What We Know About You: Getting More From Web Analytics
A video recording of my first public speaking gig — at the REMIX10 conference at the start of June, a talk called What We Know About You: Getting More From Web Analytics. It requires that you install Silverlight on your machine to view. It’s a bit choppy (maybe something to do with Silverlight?) but if you have a decent broadband connection and a ton of patience (ie. you’re my mother) then it’s infinitely watchable.
That said, watching this was a little difficult for me, as all the things that I wish I hadn’t done jumped out at me and made me wince (lots of umms, pacing with my hand in my pocket, showing one slide but talking about something else, repeat questions from the audience for the recording). But given this was the first time I’ve done this, I’m still pretty proud of the end result, and it’s all useful to take note of for the next time I decide to give a presentation.
Watch other videos from REMIX10.
Tags: analytics, melbourne, microsoft, remixau, speakingFullCodePress 2010: Go Aussies!
Well my Webstock Mini talk is out the way, and now I’m spending my time as a volunteer/reporter/fly-on-the-wall for the third ever FullCodePress event here in Wellington, New Zealand.
At a few minutes after midnight (local time), we’re past the half-way point and I can confirm that Team Australia (aka the Codaroos) are looking very together and have a great vibe going on. There was big drama a couple of hours ago when the team hit server issues, resulting in all teams getting an extension of one hour to the original deadline — a first ever!
There is a huge amount of support for the team, with photos popping up all over the internet of supporters who are wishing them well in their quest to wrestle Olympic gold from the CodeBlacks and Team USA.
You can follow the progress of Team Australia and all of the FullCodePress teams online via Twitter, YouTube, Flickr and on the official FullCodePress website.
You can find some great interviews with the team (James, James & Bjarni, Robyn) and you can also watch and compare screenshots of each team’s sites as they evolve (The Aussies have chosen to use github to publish their site, so you can even watch their codebase evolve as well, which is just plain awesome).
On behalf of the rest of Australia, let me say, Codaroos, that the hopes of a nation are riding on your shoulders. We wish you all the very best, and here’s to hoping you kick some Kiwi and Yankee butt!
Aussie Aussie Aussie!!!
Tags: codaroos, fullcodepress
Matthew Magain works as the manager for online media at 
