The bushfires in Victoria in the last few days have been horrific, leaving thousands of people homeless. I was inspired by something I saw during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in New Orleans, where a site was set up to pair up the homeless with people willing to offer temporary accommodation. This proved to be very successful and I suggested we do this at Sputnik Agency where I work. The idea was very well received and we got together a small team, and started building the site.

Please head to Bushfire Housing and sign up if you have a place to offer, or if you know of anybody who needs temporary accommodation.

Any feedback is also welcome on the functionality of the sites or bugs you may find!

Thanks again! Lets help out however we can.

So, I’ve actually bought an iPhone a couple of weeks back, and I’m LOVING it. Brilliant piece of kit and by far the most usable phone I’ve ever had. Just last week Wordpress released a native app which I’ve downloaded and played around with it and I must say it’s one of the better made apps on the App Store, and it’s FREE too! It supports blogs hosted on wordpress.com as well as self-installed Wordpress on your own domains as long as it is 2.5.1 or above.

It’s very odd that on the past 4+ years I’ve been building Wordpress-based sites for clients and friends out, but this site is still on MovableType, since it was launched in 2000. It’s received a few facelifts between then and now but it’s always been on MT, only because I’ve been very reluctant to migrate all my blog posts, and to rebuild all the templates for a new platform.

I know I’ve been neglecting this blog for too long now. I need to figure out what I want to do with it and the site as a whole. Perhaps moving it over to Wordpress I might be more inclined to post more often if I can do it easily on the iPhone while I’m on the train or even on the couch at home, but then again, one of the main reasons for not posting as often as I should is that I feel a responsibility to compose meaningful posts up here and not just ramblings which would put me in the same class as the emo kids and their LiveJournals. Well, i use Twitter for that. :) This site needs more than just a new coat of paint. I don’t feel that it represents me anymore.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments or via email.

It’s the last day of my 20s. I’m turning the page tomorrow and being all grown up now. It feels weird, like all the other milestones you have to go through. Going from primary to secondary school, finishing secondary school and going to college, turning 18, 21, 24, finishing college and starting work, moving to Australia…

When you look back they seem small and insignificant, but at the time, it’s like the biggest thing ever, and you don’t know what the future holds. I’m feeling the same again right now.

My life has never been better and I feel like I’m in a good space. I’m now working full-time at a great creative agency, producing good work and earning a decent paycheck, which has lifted the constant and stress of working freelance. Sure, it does get stressful at work with some tight deadlines, but at least I can just focus on my work and not be juggling a million things in my head.

Many of my friends are already getting married, and while my closest friends haven’t had kids yet, but I’m sure it’s gonna start happening soon. It is weird how friendships and relationships evolve and change as circumstances change.

I know 30 is just a number and tomorrow I’ll wake up feeling no different — I’ll still be the very same person I am today, yet there’s a sort of line that is being crossed. Getting older. Ticking a different ‘age bracket’ box in forms. Becoming an adult and having to ‘act your age’. Being sensible and pragmatic. Making big decisions about where I’m going in life.

It’s all irrational, really, all these worries and anxieties. But I just can’t help it…

You always read about young hotshot 20-somethings setting up successful Web 2.0 companies and selling out for millions. What have I achieved before hitting 30? Well, I’ve moved to different country and settled myself down here, established new social and professional networks over here in Melbourne. I’ve worked for myself and made a living doing freelance and contract web design and development work. Got headhunted for a couple of jobs and eventually placed at Sputnik Agency where I am now. I also finally did a bit of traveling and went to the UK, Germany, Netherlands and the UAE for the first time, something I’d been thinking and talking about for a long time. My friends tell me that’s all admirable achievements and some don’t even get to do that, so i guess it’s all relative. I’m thankful for all the opportunities I’ve had and being where I am. Still doesn’t help with the uncertainty of the future though!

2007 was a bit of a rough year with more than average low points but it ended on a good note for me, and 2008 has been good so far, so I’m optimistic. Being 30 will be exciting so bring it on!

Just had dinner with Chris last night. It’s been such a long time since I’d had a proper catch up with him, even though he’s been back in Melbourne for quite a while now, and we see each other every once in a while but with other people and environments where it’s not very conducive to conversation. It was a nice dinner at Mecca Bah in Docklands and so we pretty much talked about life, the universe and everything.

Things have been so busy and moving so fast lately that I’ve realised how bad I am at keeping in touch with my friends, and I really miss them, the old gang from Ipoh with one in Manchester and another in Singapore… you know who you are! Also my college friends whom most of them are still in KL, where we shared some great times together and enjoyed those long, deep discussions late at night at the mamak stall or Coffee Bean.

It’s the Queens Birthday long weekend and I’ve been really looking forward to some time out for a quite a while now. I’ll be going with a few friends down to Wilson’s Prom for some quiet R&R away from the city. The house we’ve booked is even off the grid, being completely solar-powered. Talk about isolated! It would be great to go for walks in the country or just chilling out reading a book or watching a dvd. We’ll be leaving tonight after work, so we’d have the most of the 3 days we’re there.

As I was telling Chris last night, I’ve just been completely slacking in the blogging front as it just takes some effort to write something meaningful, and I’ve just not been able find the time to do that. Despite that, I think I’m gonna have to make some time for it and start posting regularly again.

I’ve also been playing around with Twitter for a few months now, barring it’s sporadic downtime, it’s been quite an interesting paradigm in the blogging space, almost like a cross between IM and blogging. Being able to send a SMS to Twitter also makes it even easier to post to than setting up a moblog which I’ve tried before. My Twitter ID/profile page is http://twitter.com/jonathanpoh if you want to keep up with what I’m up to.

Web designers are under-represented and ‘hidden’ under the guise of various job titles, according to Zeldman.

If you’re a web designer or work on anything related to the web, regardless of your job title, take the survey and be heard.

Inspired by Chris DiClerico’s Toy Dubai photo, I followed the same tutorial and made this fake tilt-shift photo of the Melbourne skyline taken a couple of weeks ago.

The tilt-shift effect makes the photo look like it was taken of a miniature model of the city. I’d seen this done before some months ago but never looked into finding out how it is done until now. It’s actually pretty simple!

Mint 2.0 is out! Looks really pretty and I’m tempted to upgrade…