I’m in Auckland after KiwiFoo, which was pretty darn awesome, and well worth a hectic travel schedule to attend. And while I have a lot of good things to say about my contributions at the conference, I instead want publicly say a few words of thanks to two people who have consistently made made my life better, and whom I deeply appreciate.

Tanya Gray I had the pleasure of meeting at Codemania last year, and has consistently blown me away with her generosity and desire to help others. She’s dedicated to teaching programming and technology at schools, and is doing an amazing job of encouraging diversity and participation. But for me personally, Tanya consistently and proactively steps forward to make sure I’m okay any time I might possibly be near Auckland. I have Tanya to thank for adventures through awesome underground rivers, for a place to stay, for helping me get around, and even for smoothly run conferences.

On Friday, Tanya drove all the way from KiwiFoo back to Auckland, picked me up at midnight, and drove all the way back again to arrive around 1:30am. She furnished me with one of her own sleeping bags. She’d already staked out a sleeping area for me a Foo. In other words, Tanya enabled me to have the best time possible this weekend, and I am deeply, deeply thankful to her, not only for this, but for all the good she is doing in the world.

Daniel Spector, whom I met many years ago at a Linux conference, has been an absolute rock, even when we’ve been separated by great distances. Daniel has checked if I’ve been okay when I’ve been feeling down. He’s encouraged me to chase my dreams when I’ve been feeling up. He’s had endless patience when I’ve needed advice, and endless generosity and hospitality whenever I’ve been anywhere nearby. Daniel believes in me even when I don’t believe in myself, and that has made an enormous difference to my life.

Daniel has been responsible for amazing adventures, for providing me with food and shelter, for fascinating conversations, excellent referrals, meeting amazing people, and some truly, truly awful puns. I adore him to bits.

~ Paul