Thanks to all our Flower Power customers. On your behalf, we just donated $1,000 to eradicate mice off the Antipodes Islands, which matched dollar for dollar by Gareth and Jo Morgan, means thats $2k towards the million dollar target.

We think its a pretty awesome cause, and love the fact that instead of thinking the problem with our environment is too big, Million Dollar Mouse, plucks off a small part of the problem, that we can actually fix.

So good on you all, Keep buying Flower Power through Powershop, and we’ll keep you posted on all the good your money is doing :)

Some other great causes Flower Power customers have donated to:
$5050 for the Christchurch Earthquake Appeal
$1,000 to the Wellington Hospitals and Health Foundation

And don’t forget, you can get $50 free power, just by signing up :)

“If the world is a mess, what’s the simplest thing we can focus on? And joseph Kony is that person. He’s [been] a warlord for 26 years, has been abducting children from their home and making them kill people, cut people’s faces off… The worst crimes your’ve ever heard of.”

If Faceook and Twitter have their place, surely this must be it. If you haven’t watched this video yet (where have you been hiding?!?!?!), do it now.

I have struggled to stop thinking about that poor wee girl who was attacked in a New Zealand campground late last year. For everyone overseas, her family was travelling around NZ, her parents had nipped next door, and a teenage boy had broken into their caravan and attacked her so badly she required hours of surgery.

It was a heinous act and until last week, I thought there was simply nothing that could explain something that evil.

Until, of course, some blanks were filled in.

This boy was the victim of sexual abuse himself, but unlike the horror the whole nation felt at his actions, he suffered in silence. My understanding is that although it was admitted as evidence in this case, and believed, no one has been held accountable to the crimes committed on him as a child. I have no comprehension of how it must feel to have gone through something so bad, and have no one acknowledge to you that it was wrong, and that you deserve better. How even today, when telling a court and having them believe you, the perpetrators still go unpunished.

His parents are losers. Gang rivals, wife beaters, child abusers and the types of people I cannot comprehend. They simply did not love their children in any way that the likes of me understand to be normal. I imagine they too, are victims of their own horrendous lives, and so the cycle continues. But to actually sit back and imagine life as an unwanted, abused and abandoned child, is actually unbelievable to most of us. We simply have no understanding of the impacts on people, of how fundamentally different their world is to most of ours.

The reason I write this is not because Im sitting here crying for that boy. Some combination of nature and nurture has led to this, and I completely agree that nurture on its on would not guide two different people to this same outcome. He made his own, stupid, horrendous decisions, and their impact will be ongoing and awful beyond belief.

Im writing it because I still can’t get my head around the fact that situations like the one the boy grew up in exist. In my country. Probably all too often. And those sorts of situations, while seemingly cliched, are the biggest breeding ground of unspeakable crimes. We need to stop rolling our eyes when criminals claim their background as a factor, and realise that those backgrounds may actually be partially responsible. As a side note, we probably also need to figure out a way to offset the reduced sentences handed down by prosecuting those who committed the crimes that were used to excuse later behavior of the victims.

Its easy to assume that some people are inherently evil. It makes sitting on your high horse easy. It makes your anger justified and tidy. It helps you separate yourself from the acts of others and feel secure. But it’s totally not true and more importantly, it doesn’t stop it happening.

I suppose a bunch of people are calling out to ask how on earth this kid grew up in New Zealand, in this way, without reasonable help. I wonder if that in any community, it doesn’t matter what’s in place, there will always be cracks, and people will always fall through them, and therefore crimes like these will still happen. I’ve got zero ideas on how that can change, but I also have about the same amount of patience for anyone to smugly claim that crimes like this happen solely because of the presence of evil.

Im not sure how it happened, but after a great patch of running several times a week, and doing some good distances in weekends, sometime round the very end of last year… I lost all enthusiasm.

I think the fact that when I was running, I was running for at least an hour started to put me off. I think also, the festive season had it’s impact and Im a shocker for being unable to turn down the offer of a drink. Getting up bright and energised the next day, becomes a lot harder, even after two wines the night before.

I muddled my way through the holidays, had a great few beach runs at Mt Maunganui, then started the year with, erm, a total halt.

The only thing worse than realising you are a fat, lazy bum, and that you’ve managed to increase your weight by 3.5kgs in a mere few months… Is doing it straight after one of the fittest times of your life. The worst, worst feeling in the [exercise] world, is turning up at the gym and not only being unable to do stuff you breezed through a short time ago, but that after each session, finding you can barely walk for days.

All that hard work undone.

I’m so disappointed in myself.

Im trying very hard to silence the voices in my head telling me that Ive failed, and focus on getting back into form, one step at a time. This week’s been reasonable, I wen out less (though still too much), and I made it to 3 fairly hard gym sessions, including a run this morning where I found I could still survive 40 minutes (which came as a pleasant surprise.)

I suppose the lesson here is that people like me can never stop. I have way too much of a tendency to choose chips and beers over exercise and salad, and once Im out of the habit, the slippery slope isn’t so much of a slope as a vertical drop. Good to know I suppose, but I feel like I have a very small inkling of what it must be like to be an alcoholic who has stopped drinking. Every single day, for the rest of my life, I have to think about eating and exercise.

It’s a little depressing.

Turns out that while I sit wallowing in my anxiety about my life decisions, some of my friends are doing productive things, like writing books.

While I have no shame in admitting that regardless of whether or not this book was utter rubbish, I’d still pitch it to everyone I know… I genuinely found it remarkably good. Surprisingly good.

It’s not that I lack faith in my friends, but it’s not often that you hang out with someone a reasonable amount only to discover that they have amazing hidden talents. I believe this is Luke’s first book, but try as I might, I couldn’t find any evidence to support that fact. Its really well written, a real page turner (or clicker if you have a Kindle) and kept me enthralled right to the last page, when I changed my thoughts to hoping for a sequel.

If you like those thriller, adventure books (or actually even if you dont – this book converted me to the genre), you’ll love this one and for $2.99, you can afford to read it and ask me to eat my words.

All reviews are much appreciated, especially the good ones, and now it’s been entered in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards, you should read it quickly so if it reaches the finals you’ll be ready to cast your vote :) (the books has already gone from the 5,000 entries into the top 1,000)

Buy the book here

Disclaimer: It occurred to me as I was wondering if I needed to pack my own lunch, that I had never, until late last week, been to an actual real life conference. This means I have nothing to compare Webstock to, though anecdotal evidence suggests that most conferences struggle to contain their participants whereas Webstock cant seem to get rid of them :)

I have always hesitated to go to Webstock. Years in the Wellington tech community has led me to believe I already am aware of the movers and shakers and already interact with the people I really respect. I sort of thought another back patting love fest might be a little too incestuous for me (arrogant, I know, but Ive been to a fair few… Probably the downside of living in a small city)

The cost was also prohibitive. I have customers all over the world, the $1k surely would be better spent heading their way and drumming up more? Or if I need a mental break, that would go a longway towards martinis on a tropical beach somewhere.

So, you could say, I was a hard sell.

But given my recent state of mind, I figured I should stop treating Webstock like an either/or and just go.

And it was nothing like what I expected. I probably should have realised that after there was some ‘email issue’ that resulted in the whole community not only getting a bunch of internal information, but in the entire community blacking out any mention of what it might be. About the most unusual sight on the internet.

Im not really sure how to explain the sense of joy and motivation that settled over me as one of my idols Kathy Sierra took to the stage. From there, the mass of 850 people and 900 Apple gadgets were taken from refugee camps in South Africa, to the store room at Zappos. We faced our own mortality, and questioned everything from the big decisions around how to live a meaningful life to how to prioritise an inbox. We were amazed at the map of tweets following the earthquake in Japan, and shocked at the reality of how much of our information could be lost forever if the website we entrust with it, folds.

The funny thing is, as much as I’m sure Ive convinced at least half a dozen people to go next year, Im unconvinced Webstock actually NEEDS anyone else – the conference sounds like it’s sold out year after year.

But if you do get in early enough, it’s well worth going to – even if you have to fly across the world to get here. From what I hear, some of the speakers even want to come back, just to participate.

The only line that comes to my head is from Chicken Little or some children’s book

“The sky is falling”

I remember this time last year, happily getting on with life post earthquake one. I remember seeing the first tweet saying something was happening in Christchurch, followed by a steady stream reporting death and destruction. One thing Twitter really captures in the sheer terror of these moments. In 140 characters, all you have room for is raw descriptions of seeing people trapped under buildings.

I remember calling dad and him calmly telling me the radio wasn’t reporting much, and that we, on the internet, tend to dramatise things.

I remember feeling sick still.

In the days following, I remember watching the refuges arrive, shaken and shocked. Similar to my experience in Thailand after the Boxing Day Tsunami, but so, so much more awful, because back then, I could always go back home, and we all know New Zealand is the safest place in the world.

In the minutes, then hours, then days, then weeks that followed, the pieced together stories of loss, terror and heroics started to pour out. Since then, a lot of us have visited Christchurch. The only thing I could compare it to was stepping off the plane from beautiful New Zealand, into a recently abandoned war zone. The sights of buildings, half fallen, with windows busted and inside, rows and rows of clothes, shoes, tables with food still on them. A normal city, but broken before anyone had any time to do anything.

I cant comprehend how it would feel, as my friend’s mum put it, to ‘know you are going to die’, and then survive it. And then to feel that same feeling time and time again, as the earth continues to move.

I know a lot of people in Christchurch can’t help but feel abandoned. None of the rest of us have any idea what they have been through, what they go through. In Wellington, it’s really hard to feel the impacts day after day. It’s like two separate worlds a mere few hundred kilometers away from each other.

But today, one year on, a few minutes from the moment disaster struck, I just wanted to say (if it helps at all), we do care. We haven’t forgotten, we don’t expect you to have healed, we don’t begin to understand, we have no idea what to do… But we care. And maybe now, one year on, when all the immediate drama has worn off, we need to let you know that more than ever.

Kia Kaha Christchurch.

A week ago, I was down in Blenheim, staying at a friends house. While the family was out, a nice looking couple knocked on the door. After some confusion, it became apparent that they were representing their religion, and were there to discuss their morals and theories.

I am a very tolerant person, I welcome most opinions and don’t subscribe to the ‘get these religious nutters off my door step’ philosophy. While I am not in any way religious, I like a lot of the things religion teaches and I was thoroughly absorbed in their conversation about white collar crime.

When they offered me their magazine, I politely declined, and explained that I think they were doing a good job, and I agreed with what they said, but I had my own way of coming to similar conclusions.

The man then proceeded to start discussing his religion’s place in society… I thought he was trying to tell me how modern it is and how it may well have a place in my life. So when he said “in Wellington today, a group of Gay people are meeting with MPs” I initially assumed he was explaining how cool it is that a group that is traditionally somewhat persecuted, is now an openly accepted part of society.

It quickly became apparent that this was not the case, when he followed on with a statement about ‘moral decay’ in society.

My blood literally boiled.

On the spot, I was a dead failure. I made some weak remark about a person I know who is in fact gay, and how I was one of the people who fully supported this ‘moral decay’. And started in shock at these awful people who turned up on someone else’s doorstep to spread their hate.

People DIE from these opinions, they are sick and disgusting and it have no place in this country. Not only could he not even back up his ridiculous statement, on hearing my response, his only reply was ‘oh well, were all entitled to our own opinions.”

No. We are not.

We are not entitled to turn up to other peoples homes, their sanctuaries, and share our ‘opinions’. We are NOT entitled to talk for 30 minutes about our opinions then respond to any alternative opinion with such a lame answer. Any anyone who has any form of morals would surely feel sick at the thought of saying something that might be the final trigger to self harm for someone who struggles immensely in a world that may not accept them for who they fundamentally are.

The problem with the two people standing on my doorstep, is they arrived under the guise of sharing thoughts, but they will never be open to an alternative view. I gave them my precious time, and they demanded it without ever considering giving me theirs.

I dont know who brainwashed them, but given this man’s role as a pastor, I suspect he is well and truly carrying on the tradition and is currently building an entire new generation of unsuspecting bigots. What chance in life these kids will have is beyond me, as is the consequences of their words on the people around them.

I dont want to start a debate about religion. I am well aware all religions, and indeed all people are very different. I dont even think of this as a religious issue, as much of an individual’s complete lack of morals. What I want to know is how on earth do you combat this type of hatred in any form of meaningful way, when you are confronted with it?

Allaboutthestory.com was founded on the basis that the media world is going through massive change, traditional newspapers are experimenting with new models, and social media is changing the landscap they operate in.

The fabulous Julie Starr, founded the company on the basis that somewhere in all the change, there is an opportunity for a newer, fairer model where writers get paid what they are worth, and newspapers get access to a much larger pool of writers. So we launched a website that was fundamentally a marketplace for buyers and sellers of news content to meet.

It became apparent quickly that there was some interest, but also a huge number of barriers and the idea required quite a mindset shift in an industry that seems to be struggling a little with change as it is. We knew it wouldn’t be an overnight success, but we kept tweaking the concept, Julie found new opportunities and we gave it a real go.

Last week, Julie decided that it was time to let the idea go (which as Lance points out, is one of the most important points to recognise in a business). Its an interesting conclusion, probably because you quickly realise that what we are closing down is the website. The team is still all floating around (Lance is quite literally almost afloat on his way to Antarctica) and all agree that it was well worth a shot and if something else presents itself, we could combine forces again.

Yes it is easier to walk away when you have other things on (though, I think it also enables you to make less emotional decisions), but it also gives you confidence that, given the right group of people, and the right opportunity, its easy to give an idea a proper go.

Thanks guys, I loved working with you. Onwards and upwards!

We had a pretty good year at My Tours last year. We launched some very cool apps for museums, councils and businesses around the world…. Cumulating in our first bilingual app of Old City Jerusalem Tours for the Jerusalem Development Authority. We also now have iPhone and Windows 7 versions of the apps and the Android one on its way.

We have no one working fulltime on My Tours (though I suspect Glen Oli may beg to differ at various points), and were now at the point where its sort of make or break.

We’ve already lined up one trip to the US this year, but the BNZ Startup Alley provides an opportunity to essentially buy time for Glen to really push My Tours, while still being reasonably confident of feeding his expanding family.

The finalists were announced a week or two back, so this is sort of old news. But it did give me a chance to reflect on the year that’s been and the year ahead, and provides a good opportunity to check out the competition – and marvel once again at the range and calibre of local startups (especially the likes of Educa, who are a favorite customer of mine :))