Stress Sponge

I love birthdays. Not just my own. Everyone’s! I absolutely love surprising people with presents, and get really excited planning what to get them.

I think it may actually be possible that I get more fun and enjoyment out of it than the person receiving the gifts. That’s not to say that I end up buying them things they don’t really want … just that I tend to bubble over with too much excitement!

And therein lies the problem. Because I have so much fun with the planning and the researching, the hunting, buying and wrapping … I often don’t actually make it to the person’s birthday before giving them their present.

F’s birthday is in June. I started planning her presents in December, and only made it as far as February before I exploded ribbon and perfect packaging everywhere. Usually I can make it until April or May before this happens, but this year I got her a really good, highly rated, Canon camera, and I reasoned that it was better for her to have it early so she could start using it immediately.

F and I both love photography and are currently devouring as many books and magazines for wannabe amateurs as possible. The camera I bought is a Canon Powershot SX10IS. It’s basically a hybrid between a compact and a DSLR. We also invested in a tripod, which means that we can go out at night or at other times when there’s low light, and get some pretty good shots.

Last night we headed out to Devonport for a couple of hours, and tried to put into practice some of the tips found in “The Digital Photography Book” by Scott Kelby.

We’re both still learning what all the bells and whistles do, but I think these are a pretty good start

It’s 50 years since the Auckland Harbour Bridge was opened for use.  For 50 years people have been asking for access to cross from the North Shore to Auckland City, on foot or by bike.  In 50 years, nothing has been done.

So on Sunday  I went and did my bit to show the New Zealand Government that Aucklanders strongly support walking and cycling across our Bridge.  A demonstration was organised by GetAcross, at Point Erin in Auckland.  Around 3,000 people came to show their support on Sunday morning, and despite what the media is saying it was a peaceful protest.  There was no pushing and no violence.

It was evident from the beginning that although Wayne McDonald didn’t want us to cross, that they were actually going to let us.  They had a maximum of 10 police offers blocking the Current Street on ramp, and after some people broke through the police line I didn’t see anyone arrested.  Needless to say, nobody seemed especially intent on stopping us.

For some unknown reason all north bound lanes of the bridge were closed, meaning that traffic was backed up for about 90 minutes.  I still don’t understand why they didn’t just close the 2 north bound clip-on lanes for us! I have to say that although fashion may have taken a leap back to the 80′s, the days of 70′s protests are gone.  Everyone was smiling and laughing… even the Police!

Weirdest part of the day:  Singing happy birthday to the harbour bridge.

Best part of the day:  Linking arms and skipping over the harbour bridge!!

Ok, so I’ve been more than a little slack with updating my blog… But that isn’t to say that I haven’t been completely lazy! I have actually been busy filling my brain with new and exciting information.

I was chatting with Fred a while back and he mentioned an open source CMS program called Joomla.

Since then I have had a lot of fun using Joomla to setup 3 websites:
AspellCarbon – A shopping website
MX Photos NZ – A photo sales site for motocross photos
Kim & Frank’s Cabinets – A portfolio site for a kitchen design company (under construction)

Joomla makes it incredibly easy to rapidly setup professional looking websites with little web development knowledge and for little cost.

For anyone interested, here is a breakdown of the templates, modules, and components I have used for each of the sites:

AspellCarbon

ALFcontact
CustomQuickIcons
JCE
JD Testimonials
JoomlaPack
QuickFAQ
VirtueMart
mod_s5_image_set_rotator
mod_virtuemart_s5_quickview_cart
mod_banners
mod_breadcrumbs
mod_s5_vm_accordion
mod_virtuemart_featureprod
mod_virtuemart_search
mod_s5_horizontal_login
mod_virtuemart_currencies
shopper_frenzy