Classic Dubya

President George "Dubya" Bush has made an art of manipualting the English language, and has reintroduced the long-lost sport of "verbal triple-jump" by fumbling his way through some very entertaining passages of unscripted monologue (no matter how well his guys tried to script it for him I imagine!)

"This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous. And having said that, all options are on the table,"

Here's an article highlighting some of the best Bush-isms for 2005. You gotta hand it to him ... how can one man say so many disturbingly stupid things?

Geez is that the time?

December is a month that just seems to float on by in my neck of the woods. You start off thinking you have plenty of time before Christmas silliness kicks in, but then you get to the end and wonder where the hell that month went? Oh well, better late than never.

I've been taking a semi-holiday this week to just catch my breath before January kicks off. It's been a fun year, and one full of challenges. Some highlights include:

• Launching Moket and embarking on the Flash mobile road to perdition.
• Macromedia Site of Day for "Move As One" (while it was still Macromedia)
• Speaking at MXDU 2005
• Star Wars EpIII (nerd!)
• Napolean Dynamite ("Pedro offers you his protection")
• my 3 foot tall Batman action figure I got for Christmas

The main thing that I do post-Chritmas is watch cricket - in particular a traditional game called the Boxing Day Test. For those not in the know, it's a big deal in Australia, and something that's a ritual for me after the fun and feasting of Christmas Day. So there hasn't been much in the way of working, blogging, Flash mobile-ing or anything for a few days now. Sweet :)

But in just under a week I'm off to Seoul for 7 days for the Adobe training course that will certify me to deliver the Flash Lite 1.1 courseware that is also being released shortly. Right now in Brisbane it's like 35 degrees C, and in Seoul it's around -2 C ... James Talbot has reminded me to pack some warm clothes :) Bill Perry will also be in town so I'm looking forward to spending some time with both of them, seeing the sights of Seoul and catching up on the latest from Adobe.

So with that, I'll say Happy New Year to everyone! Thanks for your support, work, comments, emails, invitations and opportunities this year - looking forward to a big 2006!

Moket at webDU 2006

Thanks to the guys at webDU (or web-doo as I think it's being shortened too :) for asking me to speak at the conference next year. We'll be bringing a session on Flash Lite - details still being worked out as it's obviously a popular topic and we need to make sure no one's repeating content from other sessions. There's some extremely cool speakers named in the lineup from Australia and all around the world, who no doubt will be delivering some exciting advances and insights into current and emerging web technology.

This will be the second year I've spoken at webDU (formerly MXDU), and we're planning for Moket to have a significant presence at the conference (including a revised conference companion to outdo the one we did last year!) Visit www.webdu.com.au for more info. If you're in Australia, or want to come down for a working holiday, then this is a great excuse.

U2 Concert Preview in Flash

It's been a little while since my last post, mainly due to the renovations being done to my office, but despite the distractions, we've been focussed on one thing - getting U2 tickets! We got them in the end, then a friend of mine emailed me this link, a preview of the show, and now I'm even more excited!

I'll also share with you my technique for getting those hard-to-get tickets over the phone (i chose the phone option because the website wasn't coping with the traffic and was cactus for most of the day). I started calling about 40mins before the tickets actually went on sale. The line was still engaged all the time, but you just get that hang-up/redial action happening. I actually got my call answered by the automated booking system at around 25 mins before tickets went on sale, so I just got the recording that explained the details of the show, but offered no prompt to purchase tickets. So when the system said "To hear these details again, please press 2", I pressed 2, again, and again, and again - for 20 odd minutes until tickets went on sale. The next time I listened to the show details - hey presto - and option for buying tickets! for anyone who has experienced the pain of missing out on popular tickets, this method is gold! So now all I have to do is wait for March 21st next year to enjoy the fruits of my labour!