Cafe Melba has been expanding since they originally met the Martians to talk about their website needs.  They now have 4 Cafe’s in Auckland and one Espresso Bar and also supply their own coffee blends for sale.

Cafe Melba in Ellerslie has just one the prestigious Metro Magazine Best Cafe award for 2010 (Ellerslie Area).  Congrats guys and keep up the awesome work!!  If you are in the area you definitely need to pop in and see why they one.  If you are not in Ellerslie then check out their other cafes in Vulcan Lane, Queen St, Hardinge St and Hurstmere Rd.

Here is the Cafe Melba site for more info – there are even menus to you can make a choice before you walk in the door!

I’ve just made dome updates to the current CM site and had a chat with Shawn, (CM Big Daddy), and he is dead keen to upgrade their site to something a bit more interactive.  I smell a Martian Internet Business Systems site in the making!  (well here’s hoping).  The MIBS would be great as it would allow Shawn to sell his coffee blends (and more) online should he wish to branch out inn that direction.  Either way, look for a post about their new site in the coming months.

All this talk off good coffee has made me realise than my nasty cup of instant is stone cold and needs reviving.  When are they going to open a Cafe Melba Tauranga?  :)

Check out this listing for “Beddy” and truly awesome bed up for auction on TradeMe.

Just make sure you are not part of an evil horde or you might get your butt handed to you!

Check it out here.

Wow – what a mad, mad week it was last week.  I pulled around 80+ hours in the last 6 days working on the Star Wars fan film being filmed in Hamilton by Sasha.

What a fun day.  Glen (my wife), and I were on the road to Hamilton at about 6.45am after 4 hours sleep.  As soon as we arrived as Sasha’s place it was all hands to battle stations getting everyone into their costumes.  There were a few final touches required for some of the key characters but for the most part is was a simple matter of each person bunging the stuff on and grabbing their weapon.  Easy peasy.

The props all looked great and received a lot of positive comments.  The general consensus seemed to be that they were of a far higher quality than what is usually seen in this type of movie.  Great to hear.

One of the best costumes was the “Axe Guy”. played by Jeremy, the hubby of the make up artist working on the shoot.  I had talked to Sasha about including a “vibro-axe” in the weapons list to mix things up a tad.  The vibro axe is a weapon seen in Return of the Jedi and is used by various guards at Jabba’s palace.  Then we met Jeremy and he suited the part of a big axe wielding barbarian guy down to the ground.  He’s about 18 feet tall and as broad as a barn .

I also ended up getting roped in to play a character when one of the actors was unavailable.  I rummaged through our costume bits and threw together a desert looking outfit that was reminiscent of the garb of the people on Tattooine, Luke Skywalkers home planet.  I go to say a line in the movie and mime getting blasted by laser.

I’ll be posting more photos of the costumes and the props once we get everything back and sorted.  Right now it’s back to work on websites and print jobs.  No more huffing paint and glue fumes for me this week – It’s going to be a week of hard out computer time!

This year seems to be all about getting fitter and getting out and doing stuff.  With my wife now addicted to running and completing her first road race it was only so long before I’d have to start pulling my finger out and getting involved too.

We signed up for the Rotorua Waikato Draught Tough Guy & Gal Challenge with 3 of our friends.  The course is 2 laps of a 6km slog across country through swamps, mud pools and various obstacles – so 12kms in total.  This is what I have been running on the treadmill and losing weight for lately.  :)

The course was hard going but fun.  About 2200 people run the course with only around 800 electing to do the full 2 lap 12km circuit.

We ended up jogging most of the course which made it take longer than anticipated, mainly due to the crowd of people and the slick nature of the course on such a wet day.  The course thinned out a lot once most of the people finished their 6km lap but by then we were quite cold and noticing the effect the chill was having on our biodies.  Even so, we managed to complete the second lap in a shorter time than the first.

We are looking forward to next year where we hope to completely thrash our times by being fit enough to get ahead of the main pack where we can run properly the whole way.

All in all it was a great day with a lot of fun.  No matter how cold and dirty you get you just can’t wade through chest deep mud and not be smiling like the happiest kid on the planet.

Ok, time for something that is completely non design related simply because I have to say how proud I am of my wife, Glen.

Yesterday was the annual Kawerau Half Marathon and 11km Fun Run.  Glen, who has been working hard to get fitter for the last 18 months, entered the 11km fun run a few weeks ago and has been training at least 5 days a week to get ready for it.  Glen has never competed in any type of road race.  The closest event to something like this was the “cross country” races at school where she generally rolled home last.  So understandably she was a bit nervous about her first ever real event.

We arrived at Kawerau with our mate Maggi all half asleep after an ealry start from Tauranga.  We didn’t know the area but found a park and waited for my parents who were joining us for support.  Maggi and I had the job of co-ordinating Glen’s post run nourishment and wardrobe.  We set up home base in the back of the Martian car then made our way to the start point.

The day was bitterly cold and misty but there was an excited buzz in the air.   As Glen stretched and tried to keep warm in her thin running outfit Maggi and I stood by bundled up like eskimo’s and pointed out how nice and warm we were  My parents arrived and parked down the road in a position where they could watch for Glen as she ran by.

We all waited for the timer as it counted down to the start time.   The hooter sounded and we wished Glen good luck as the runners moved off.  I watched as Glen as she jogged off through the pack making her way past the slower starters wondering how well she was going to do.

I was a bit nervous.  She had been working hard and had never run 11kms straight and we did not know what to expect.  I was confident she would be fine because I had seen the effort she had put into her training – but you can’t help worry when your partner is worried.

Glen has estimated that the run would take her about 80 minutes based on her training times around our neighbourhood.  So we supporters to time out to enjoy hot chocolate and biscuits.  Then Maggi and I went across the road to the conveniently placed supermarket for the makings of a hot chicken roll to warm up Glen after her run – a better option than the hot soup we had in the thermos back in the car.

Well, the course was a lot flatter and than where Glen usually runs, allowing her to stretch her legs out to a much faster pace than in training – slashing her estimated time to shreds.  The result: she came across the line at 59 minutes!  She was so quick that she bet us all to the finish line arriving about a minute before we all did!  Naturally Glen was over the moon with her time and we were all was extremely proud of her.  Next time we’ll UNDERESTIMATE her finish time!

Later the results were posted on a notice board and we wandered over as we warmed up with hot drinks.  Glen was amazed to read that she was the 8th woman across the line, less than 5 minutes after the first woman!  She was also only 18th overall to finish.  So in her first ever event she had managed to come home in the top 10 woman and the top 20 overall!

This was the icing on the cake and now she is looking forward to next year when she will compete in the half marathon event.

Glen is also registered for the Rotorua Tough Guy and Girl 12k Challenge next month and is looking to enter the Hamilton Half Marathon in October.

So a big “congratulations” to Glen and keep it up – We’re all proud of you, especially me!

A while ago I was contacted by Sasha from Hamilton, a super mega Star Wars fan who was getting a crew of likely lads and lasses together to make a couple of fan films for the annual Star Wars fan film competition.

Initially I set up a quick WordPress website so we could swap info and keep abreast of the progress of the various departments. You can view the site here.

But the reason Sasha contacted me was to design and build props for the movie.  He had heard about the star Wars costumes and props I’d made for a SW party a couple of years ago and was keen to get me involved in his fan film.

Using Cinema 4D I created a lightsaber for one of the characters which I then proceeded to craft out of PVC and assorted hardware.  You can see the images of the 3d lightsaber here and the PVC parts here.

The film was put on hold while Sasha sorted out the cast but with the players now confirmed it’s all go for filming in mid August.  So the props department (Martian) is back into production.  We have the light saber to finish plus 7 assorted blasters and laser rifles along with a vibro axe and various costume accessories.  One of which is being recycled from my previous SW costume.

Awesome fun!  May the force be with us!

One of my biggest gripes about being a graphic designer is the long hours plonked like a lump in front of the Mac.  Now I know I have all the other hours that I’m not working to go out and have some exercise but it just never seems to happen.  It’s either raining or too late or too early or some other pathetic excuse that allows me to keep my butt planted firmly in place.

Well not anymore!  A brand new NordicTrack T12 Treadmill has just been delivered into the Martian office from Elite Fitness.  Well, the garage next to the office.  But the point is that it is right there and can be used in any weather, any time of day.  So no more excuses for me!  Elite Fitness are currently (as of this posting this) running a sale on a lot of great gear and I picked up the T12 with a $700 discount.

The T12 is a fantastic piece of kit.  It’s fully programmable, has built in iPod / MP3 player dock and takes the iFit programmed fitness cards featuring Jillian Michaels (the scary trainer from the Biggest Loser TV Series).  Simply bung in the memory card and Jillian will start your fitness programs and increase the difficulty as the days pass.

The T12 can also be equipped with wireless cleverness that will let you access the iFit website via your laptop.  There you can program your own real life route on google maps!  It even adjusts the incline to match the hills on your virtual route.  Now you can run around the neighbourhood without leaving the house – but why run there when you can run around Paris or Moscow!

I’ve scheduled jogging breaks from the Mac which is not only good for fitness but also a great reason to unplug from the computer for a while which is just plain good health.

So if I sound out of breath when I answer the phone it’s because I have just been for a jog and I’m probably having a heart attack.

Now I have never been one to buy into the gimmicky cleverness of techy gizmo’s.  When Mark bought an iPhone I laughed at him.  I called him a sheep and a slave to marketing.  I chortled over how he had just piddled away money on a shiny new toy that, by all accounts, was not even a very good phone.

Then a few months ago, while I was berating myself for not having a map in the car Mark introduced me to the Google maps feature on the iPhone.

This was the first time I had really considered the flashy iPhone as any sort of realistic business tool.  Mark showed me how it updated his contact lists, his to do lists, the internet access and the business application you could download to make life and work just a little bit easier.

I immediately went out and bought one.

Now I cannot be without it.  It wakes me up in the morning and tells me what I have to do that day.  If I have a few minutes to wait I no longer twiddle my thumbs, I update my to do lists, check website updates, email clients or plot routes for my next meeting.  The screen makes the interaction with the phone so much easier than the conventional cursor key/text key functions of regular phones.

So for anyone out there who, like me, poo-pooed the iPhone, I say “don’t knock it till you try it”.  It’s not the gimmick you may think it is.  It’s a real business tool.

Now, if you’ll excuse me I’m off to feed my virtual iPhone pet, “flossy the sheep”.

I’m not a huge fan of golf, but I do love flash and I do love seeing flash being put to great use.

The World Golf Tour experience allows golf enthusiasts to play the world’s most challenging and exclusive courses with HD graphics on a PC or Mac platform for free. WGT’s online community allows friends, families and golf fans to play a round of golf simultaneously, competing in tournaments for prizes, sharing scores, testing out the newest equipment and reading the latest news in the golfing world.

Go for a round here.

The Carver One is the incredible, 3 wheeled wonder that steers like a car but corners like a motorbike. It’s insane and it’s also no secret that we quite like it. We have a nicely rendered photoshop version of our ideal Carver One in all its metallic green goodness as a constant reminder of how much closer the real thing is getting.

Peter James is the chap that manages Carver New Zealand and Australia and fortunately for us he is local .. which means he pops over from time to time and enlists our help in any design work he may need and takes us for the occasional fly/ride/drive in the Carver.

We created a new site for Peter a few months ago, www.carverexperience.co.nz to help him get the word out on some of the great tourist packages that he is offering as well as promoting the Carver in general. We decided that it would be a good idea to try and give people a bit of a feel as to what its like piloting the Carver so we created a Flash application that lets people get a feel for how it behaves when you go around corners.

We pieced together the interior cockpit, created the ’tilt indicators’, steering wheel etc and with some photos from Peter’s travels in the background and some actionscript to tie everything together we had a fun little simulator. Click here to see what its like from inside the Carver.

We also built a page to show some promotional videos as well as a bookings page where you can book and pay for your experience online. So what are you waiting for? Go and experience the Carver One!