Dear Santa,

I guess it's been 2 years since I've written last. Last year I spent Christmas in a place Christmas forgot, or so it seemed, but it made me all the more thankful of the everyday riches we take for granted and the annual traditions we share.

Santa, I've tried to be a good boy this year but it hasn't been easy. 2008 was a banner year for me professionally, but I need to stay sharp in 2009. I would like to continue expanding my technical knowledge in my current line of work, Web development. As a result, my list this year is heavy in the way of technical reading as gift suggestions:

- Pro Drupal Development, Second Edition
- Pragmatic Version Control using Subversion, 2nd Edition
- Drupal 6 JavaScript and jQuery (Packt Publishing)
- Python Web Development with Django

Other suggestions:
- A webcam to help me stay in touch with friends and family on PEI.
- Socks - remember, I missed a year!
- Gym clothes - Santa, you can probably smell my existing pair of workout-wear from the North Pole. I really like lined gym shorts and dry-fit shirts these days, size large for both.
- Visitors - Montreal really isn't that far from PEI, and I have a lovely air mattress that is ready to host visitors!

Please, Santa, these are only suggestions, and please keep in mind I must port all Christmas gifts back to Montreal in January!

Yours always,

Ryan xoxo

A client of mine in South Africa has informed me that their Drupal website, built by myself, has placed in the top 10 of an annual ranking of non-governmental organization websites in South Africa:

2008 SA NGO Web Awards winners

The Parliamentary Monitoring Group deserves the bulk of the credit for this: they have posted 3522 nodes (and 3047 static files) since I signed off on the site in March, and have had 2618 registered users log in during this time (13470 nodes total, 10648 registered users total).

Node totals per type:

I'll be the first to admit that the site itself isn't that sexy, bit it's a BIG site with LOTS of traffic, and I interpret the usage numbers as a good indication of the overall usefulness of the site, regardless of the design merits.

Project Info:

• Client: Parliamentary Monitoring Group (Cape Town, South Africa)
• URL: pmg.org.za
• Project duration: 7 weeks
• Framework: Drupal 5.10
• Launch Date: February 11, 2008
• Project description: Drupal design and build, import 10,000 pages of legacy content, 6700 user accounts and 600 organizational accounts, custom node access system

CBC's Chief Political Correspondent Keith Boag weighs in on the ongoing barrage of misinformed Conservative spin regarding the Government, confidence in the house, and the legitimacy of the planned coalition:

"Wow."

"Look, you know, this is actually.. you know, Don's mentioning the ombudsman..."

"This is a challenge to journalists to cover this, because I cannot remember a circumstance when so many members of the government, including the Prime Minister, say things that need to be corrected because they aren't true."

"Mr Biard, for instances, just said that the the Bloc Quebecois would be on the government side of the House. He either has not read the agreement or he hasn't understood it, but that is absolutely not true. But we have a responsibility to point that out , and I think that Don (Newman) was trying to do that, obviously, but it is difficult."

-- CBC Newsworld, 2008-12-04 09:47

Previous to this comment, Don Newman had been speaking with John Baird who suggested the government would go over the head of the Governor General's office and go "directly to Canadians" if for some reason the Governor General's decision was not in line with the desire of the current Government.

While things heat up in Ottawa, someone has been busy bootstrapping the coalition's web presence by whipping up a quick Drupal site:

http://www.62percentmajority.ca/

There's not much to the site but I do I see webform module, event module, etc. The fact is, it was likely taken from initial concept to launch in a matter of days, and the site works and looks great.