Blythe & Toys

I just can’t get back into blogging.

From my early (in)famous weblog in 1993 (then known as a personal website), to getting nominated for a Bloggie, to numerous press interviews to wide spread hatred in America for my comments about rabid patriotism a year after 9/11, to incredibly kind words from other (in)famous webloggers to leaving internet support to winning web design awards to opening a (now growing) online business…

It’s been a hell of a journey since my first modem back in 1991, and my first computer back in 1983.

I find I have less and less I want to share with complete strangers, and more and more I want to achieve in the Real World.

I’m trying to grow my online business with practically no capital and a hell of a lot of competition. Finally I’m getting good business contacts who are willing to talk wholesale, and I’m even going to Japan to meet some of these new contacts, including *the* name in Blythe.

I’m considering a trip to HongKong as the next place to go, but getting contacts is really hard - most of them are so busy that even though they plaster “contact us for wholesale distribution and orders” all over their websites and eBay Stores, none of them actually reply with real information. Hey, I have thousands of dollars to throw at you, please talk to me!

The people who do business with me are all wonderful, with quality products and great communication. My customers almost always are repeat business (thank you, thank you!) and the word of mouth seems to be happening.

I have a new line coming soon, exclusive to me and carefully designed and developed by an extremely talented designer in Japan. Exquistely hand made, you’ll have to wait a little longer to see it.

My goal is to have a physical shop front specialising in Blythe, Licca, Volks and BJDs with a side line in other collectables - but that’s down the track a little.

So in summation of my ramblings, go look at my shop, contact me if you want anything I don’t currently stock and do contact me if you can wholesale me Blythe goods and accessories!

Sorry for being so remiss, and not giving you any new goodies for a little while.

The simple fact is I’ve been flat tack with work (that thing I do for money, web design) and attending the Microsoft conference - Remix2007 here in Melbourne.

Remix was brilliant - getting a copy of Expression Web for nix always makes stuffy lectures more bearable - and the panel discussions especially got the mental juices flowing.

It was surprising to see what some of the guys on the panels actually looked like - most were as expected - youngish to 40ish, slightly overweight, slightly underweight geeks. Like me. Some thought they were rock stars, and might need a little less ego next time. But all were damn smart, knew their respective fields like the back of their hands, and were not afraid to share their secrets.

Russ Weakley did a fantastic session on better CSS, which I hope will be available as a podcast soon. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t told me before (not that he even knows who I am) but it was great to be reminded how to do things properly, and not cut corners. I wish I had taken photos and sound bites, cos he had some fantastic things to say.

Things I loved:

1. Russ Weakley’s fantastic talk on CSS
2. The catering
3. Free XBox (hello Forza2!)
4. Wacom give-a-ways
5. Webjam (although as usual, Galactic Circus is the suckiest venue in the world)

Things I didn’t love:

1. One Microsoft employee giving a talk who kept making comments that “designers will find this simple code too confusing, go make coffee”, “we all know designers can’t code”, “this will be over the head of any designers here” - I wanted to punch him in the mouth and let him know that “most” of us web designers do in fact code/markup in PHP, Perl, HTML, Javascript and CSS. We are NOT morons, we simply choose a different creative path.
2. No free internet. C’mon Microsoft - this is a WEB conference and no net? What the hell?
3. Lack of seating areas to chill, chat and network with other attendees.
4. Paying for my coffee in a take away cup? WTF? At least the stuff in ceramic was free.
5. Water that tasted stale and stagnant. Bottles please next time.
6. The male-oriented talks and extras. E.g. Xbox, the blokey jokes, no women speakers or panel members (Microsoft’s one <strike>token</strike> well not token, she is the boss afterall! (albiet kick arse!) woman hosting does not count).

Anyway, back to the slave yard for me, I’m on a deadline!

Then you are now looking at pixelkitty.net at my new hosts, mediatemple.

After a little over 3 years with my previous host, it was time to find something that better suited my needs. Hopefully, this also will be a long and happy relationship.

I’ve been with the same webhost now for over three years. Before that, I changed hosts more often than I changed my hair colour (and believe me, that’s pretty often!).

While I am mostly happy with my current host, lately there have been many intermittent outages (up to a dozen a day!) that are impacting visitors to the various websites I host or run here. Basically, they told me to lump it, as I only have a basic reseller account with them, and not a business level service. Hmmm was my response. If I do switch, I’ll be requesting they remove my testimonial from their rotation.

So, this is where you all come in. I’d like some ideas on who to switch to, if I were to switch.

Here is a list of basic requirements:

1. No more than AUD$30 per month
2. Unlimited subdomains
3. Ability to host at least 5 TLDs
4. Up to date versions of MySQL and PHP, etc
5. One-click installs for eCommerce solutions, Blogging Tools and Image Galleries (great for people I host)
6. 100gB space
7. Unlimited bandwidth
8. 24/7 Support (ticketing/live chat, not phone)
9. Guaranteed Support Response time of under 3 hours
10. Reliable Uptime

I’m not a reseller, and the sites I host are for communities or friends at no charge.

I’ve been considering MediaTemple, as I have a Hosting for Life discount card (15% off). Lately though, I have read a bit of negative feedback regarding their overage charges for GPU units and the last thing I want is to be hit with a sudden bill for a hundred USD or more!

Segpub is also a host worth considering (I’ve hosted with them before), but unfortunately is out of my budget at this time.

I’d love your advice, please comment.

I’m going to Remix07 at the end of June. It’s going to be fantastic, and I finally get to meet a few people I talk to online occassionally (hi Lisa and Lachlan!).

It’s been a while since I’ve been able to get to any design conferences, but Remix really appeals as it has both Design and Development threads this year. I’ve chosen the Design thread, of course. The big bonus is getting free copy of Web Expressions and the massive party at Galactic Circus the first night.

Taking bets now as to how many of us make it to the 8am registration on day 2!