I loved my week in Denver when I attended Web Directions North 2009. Days of presentations by some of the industry’s best and brightest followed by nights of camaraderie with people that were just as deep down the web-geek rabbit hole as myself. I learned several things during the presentations, but the majority of the major mind-blowing things I absorbed came from the after-session meals and late-night socializing with fellow designers and developers just shooting the breeze.

One of the groups in Denver that was present during some of these post-presentation events was Refresh Denver. I don’t know why, but the idea of a group of like-minded web-heads meeting up, talking shop, and having a few drinks or something to eat never occurred to me. I immediately knew that I wanted to see some of that scene going on locally.

Fortunately, Mindfly Web Studio (aka, my employers) also were thinking that, and thanks to their work Refresh Bellingham has been set into gear! On July 15th, Jeff Croft of Blue Flavor will be traveling to the City of Subdued Excitement to talk to Refresh Bellingham about the use of grids in web design. After his presentation those that desire will be getting drinks and eats, providing plenty of opportunity to get to know local web people and learn from one another.

Refresh Bellingham is a great opportunity for web designers and developers of all skill levels in the Bellingham area to gather, socialize and learn from each other. It’s not a sales pitch, it’s a community. If you’re a professional, a hobbyist, or a student considering entering the field, I strongly recommend coming and checking it out!

Did I mention it was free to attend the presentation? If you’re like me and regret missing AEA: Seattle, then come check out Jeff’s talk at no cost.

Let us know if you’re coming.

Over the weekend I moved to a new apartment. After this, it was Memorial Day on Monday. As a result, this week’s comic is a day late, and accompanied by only a brief post.

It wasn’t my intent to discuss Twitter back to back. After all, there’s all sorts of important web development topics just ripe for plunder. But I couldn’t pass this one up.

Twitter is working on a TV show. No, really. Or working with people working on a show. Whatever. I can’t imagine how I’d react to hearing this in person from one of Twitter’s higher-ups if I worked with them, although today’s comic attempts to recreate such a scenario. However, both Eric Meyer and Jeff Croft managed to craft suitable tweets that sum things up fairly well, here and here (respectively).

I appreciate the tool that is Twitter. I’ve kept in contact with people met elsewhere thanks to it, met new people with similar interests over it, and made good use of it in keeping up to date on interesting information in my industry. I’m not really sure, though, that a 140-character micro-blog requires a televised show.

About the only way you could jump the shark more is, well, to be Fonzi.

Seriously, why is he water-skiing in a leather jacket AND the shortest shorts ever? If this was cool in the 70′s, I’m glad I was only 3 when they ended.

It’s been well over a month since Web Directions North 2009, and with SXSW having occurred since then I’m sure that WDN’s awesome sessions and wacky evenings have largely faded into distant memory. However, there’s a few things that were never spoken of that came to my attention during that fateful week in February, and I feel it’s my duty to report them to you. Hence, today’s comic.

I’ll be honest: I cannot be sure that all three things depicted reflect the truth. However, I do know for a fact that Mark Trammell did perform the duck dance. I’m not sure if it’s an ancient ritual designed to summon waterfowl or merely a remnant of the disco era, but it was glorious to behold.

Dave Shea’s hair is seriously something that perplexes me. It seems perfectly sculpted, with this well-mannered shelf that seems to be immune to wind or IE-bugs. I’ve noticed it before in his pictures, but when you’ve seen him in person it’s even more amazing to behold. Seriously. Is it hair gel? Spray? Amazing genes? (Fun fact, in the pre-vector CSSquirrel comic here, the guy running from the demon in panel #1 was meant to be Dave Shea. I’d obviously failed to capture his hair’s look, though.)

Now, re: Jeff Croft’s libido… that may be a bit fictionalized of an event. However, when I last met him he was told about a comic I’d done featuring him, and had mistaken me for the artist responsible for this masterpiece, and not my own humble poke at HTML5 featured here. Now, to prevent further confusions, I can simply state “I was the guy that drew you in bed with a squirrel.”

I’m not sure if that’s something to be proud of, but I bet it’ll be hard to forget.

Hopefully now that this important exercise in documenting the nonsense of WDN09 is complete I can get on with comics involving the usual, such as Opera vikings, IE blunders, and Andy Clarke’s knickers.