I had a chance to put some faces to names when I met up with Pete Simmons and Michael Dunstan, who are some Zope gurus based in Auckland. Our meetup took 3 hours and we covered various topics, including Selenium and ArchGenXML amongst other things. We're planning to meetup again this coming Wednesday and there will also be an ex-Zope corporation developer coming along, which should be interesting. Pete will also take us through a more indepth ArchGenXML tutorial.

I got to the check-in desk about 10 minutes before departure and as a result had to pay $145 for another ticket and wait 3 hours! I suppose it wasn't a total loss, though, as I was able to finish my presentation for the PBT Business Networking Club this evening and therefore pay for some of my fare ;-) It didn't help my grumpiness much (add to that a lack of sleep), although a Wendy's combo for lunch should help there.

Last night, after hearing about the London bombings, I text messaged my brother who lives in Fulham, London to see if he was alright. I got back the following reply:

Yup fine dude working in sth west london far away from the danger its abit crazy in central though they'll neva get this coconut bra!

Two Sundays ago Miho and I watched 'Finding Neverland' and it got me thinking about my experiences as a youth. It filled me with a bit of nostalgia, gave me 'warm fuzzies', and had me wishing those days were here again. I suppose not all of us have good memories of our childhood but it does shape who we are today, and in my case anyway it was a simpler, less complicated time. While I was reminiscing I decided to compile a list of the movies, music, tv programmes, sports stars and other things that shaped my youth. Here are some of the things I recall (in no particular order):
Tron, Condorman, Bros, MC Hammer, Milli Vanilli, Mel and Kim, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Earvin 'Magic' Johnson, Ardijah, MacGyver, Dukes of Hazard, CHIPs, Knight Rider, Streethawk, Gummi Bears, Smurfs, The Muppets, Nintendo, Double Dragon, Galaga, Stubbies, KC and the Sunshine Band, Star Wars, Pick-a-Path Books, Lego, He-man.

Translation (German): 'What did I bake in the Knapp bakehause'.
I've been so busy over the last week-or-so - mainly preparing a public lecture for last Sunday. Over that time I baked a few items, namely some ginger crunch, a couple of chocolate cakes, and I just finished baking some oat cookies. All of my critics, of which I am foremost, thought the fruits of my labours were great.

Update: I forgot to mention that I also made some caramel corn.