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Kel and I landed in Austin, TX this afternoon. We’re here for SXSWi. It’s like an annual pilgrimage. Molly calls it “geek camp,” but I think of it more as a time to actually see the people I spend so much time with virtually. Between the scant few hours of sleep last night, the flights, and the general insanity of the last few weeks, sleep is looking very good right now.

I’ll post some more in the AM, but, in the meantime, you can check out the photos from tonight’s dinner with the usual gang.

Kel & I got back from our holiday in the UK late last week and we had a blast. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to hang with the Brit Pack as I was attacked by a pretty nasty bug when we got back in to London toward the end of our trip.

I have a mountain of email, but I am slowly wading my way through my inbox and wanted to say thanks for all the great feedback on the game. I also wanted to let you know that I’ve posted some of our holiday snaps up to Flickr for your perusal. The posts should be picking up a bit more now that I’m back and I’v also made the move ofer to WordPress 2.0, but am uncertain how I feel about TinyMCE. Like Molly, I feel it kinda gets in the way.

Anyway, I have to say that even though I’ve got a ton of work to do now (and a ton of blogs to catch up on) to make up for it, it was really nice to unplug a few weeks.

It managed to sneak past me for a few days, but my recent interview with Jeremy Keith has made its way into the latest issue of Digital Web Magazine. In the interview we cover the impetus behind his new book, WaSP’s DOM Scripting Task Force, and Jeremy’s future as a rockstar.

On a somewhat tangential note, if you’re interested in competing at the SXSW Web Awards in March, I recommend getting your entires in soon. If you enter by Friday (October 14th), you only have to pay $10 per category which is too cheap to miss out on. If you attend, you’ll get more of Jeremy & me on “How to Bluff Your Way in DOM Scripting.”

I’ve been insanely busy building a new Rails app for a client and travelling a lot for speaking engagements. I just got back from an incredible trip to San Jose (well, Cupertino actually) where Molly, Andy and I were doing some training. I had an amazing time with both of them and it was really fun to see Andy in action (I, unfortunately, did not have the peasure of seeing him rock the audience at @media). We had a really great group of conference attendees too. I am a little saddened that this was my last stop on the WOW tour (I am missing Hawaii as it takes place on election day, but more on that later), but I have heard some rumblings that the show may go back on the road for a European leg. Fingers crossed.

Anyway, we’ve pushed a new issue of ALA out the door which includes a fantastic piece by Eric on the new ALA print stylesheet and I have a new article is in there as well: Improving Link Display for Print. It’s print mania at ALA aparently.

Anyway, I am apparently going to New Jersey today for work, so I need to get ready. Ta for now.

It’s funny, but the more I take on, the more zen I get about work. Perhaps it’s the recent addition of a daily trek to the gym in the wee hours of the morning which is getting my day off to a better start. Or maybe it’s the Pragmatic philosophy which is beginning to take hold since finishing The Pragmatic Programmer and starting Agile Web Development with Rails. Who knows, but I am thankful for the calm.

So what else have I added to my already overfull plate? Well, I recently joined the staff of A List Apart as a copy editor. In fact Ross Howard’s High-Resolution Image Printing (in Issue 202) marks my editorial debut at the famed publication. I am very excited about getting to work with Erin, Jeffrey, Eric, Jason and the rest of the ALA all-stars as I have been an avid reader since I discovered it back in 2000. If you are reading an article and notice an overabundance of <abbr> and <dfn>, there’s a good chance I am to blame.

I am also pleased to confirm that I will be speaking at SXSW Interactive in March of 2006. At present, I am working on one session with Jeremy Keith and two other panels which are still in the formative stages. I will have more details to provide you all in the coming weeks.

Also to come are some great award announcements, a few more articles, and another potentially big announcement in the web standards arena. In the mean time, I am preparing for a private web standards training session down in North Carolina and next week’s trip to Silicon Valley, where Molly, Andy and I will be putting on a great 3-day training session as part of the Web Design and Project Management Tour from WOW.