It's here: it's finally here. This morning was the start of Webstock - a wonderful week of internet geekery and super-smart people. I've been counting down the sleeps until I had no more.

This morning I brushed my hair and put on some pants, cradled my laptop as I crossed the road to the Wellington Town Hall to register for this amazing conference. Friendly faces, efficient hands, a brand new laptop bag and a skip in my step* got the day off to a grand start.

 

Everything is beautiful. Everything is beautiful. Everything is beautiful.

CSS3: Aeroplanes and Ecosystems

"I am going to lose all of you along the way: this is my goal"

Estelle Weyl

Estelle Weyl knows her stuff and she got straight down to business. We had a lot to cover and she was going to cover it. We didn't have to remember everything, but we did need to know what was going on in the world of CSS3. As she said, "The important thing in CSS is to know what things are possible."

Her slides were online and available. They were rich in the examples and interactivity - not to mention editable and forkable - all delivered with more interpretive dance than I was expecting to see today!

She had some cute examples too, like SpeciFISHity to explain the weight or importance of different elements. That little things such as DIVs and Ps and ULs were lightweight, like plankton, and it didn't matter how many of these you had because they could never outweigh a fish. The fish were classes and pseudo-classes et al, and always trumped the plankton. But the fish could be out flanked by the ID sharks, which because of their ferocity and power, should be used sparingly. All this could be over-ridden by inline styles and !importants so be careful and mind your ecosystem!

or something like that :)

It was a full-on day and I just plain do not know enough about what I experienced today to be able to share with any usefulness here. I do know that if you'd like to know more or start knowing more about CSS3, check out Estelle's blog, Standardista.com.

Updates and Swag

News arrived after lunch that Garr Reynolds was too ill to fly and the Presenting Naked workshop on Wednesday morning would be cancelled. Both Fox and I had signed up for this, so now we have a free day in Wellington.

Things we are considering doing instead of learning to present naked:

• making videos
• seeing if other attendees who missed out want to do something
• hanging out at a cosy cafe (if it's raining, or a cool one if it's sunning)
• drinking beer
• doing a tour of Wellington like.. a pub crawl or something

Anyway - we'll figure it out. Look, it's a bonus, okay?

Speaking of bonuses, the Webstock swag is nice this year, besides getting a tshrit I'll never be slim enough to wear (not Webstock's fault) there was a coffee cup (keepcup kinda deal), a tiny shopping cart, a ruler and pencil (see top of page) and - this just blew my mind and might just make Fox squeal when she sees it: a sachet of sherbet and a pony tattoo. !!!

Flippin' love this conference!

 

*the skip might have been on the inside - I fear I'll trip and sprawl if I get too fancy with the footwork.