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Tag: site information

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Featuring

Kiwi #1: GnomeGrrl (also known as Aroha or Tracey) is the 37 year old site owner. Some might claim her to be a geek, but she’s still cruising that old Egyptian river, Denial. (More info ...)

Also Starring

Kiwi #2: J2 (#1, Jesse) is 18 years of age, and definitely not in denial about his geekdom. He enjoys art, computer gaming and anything technical and nerdy.

Kiwi #3: TJ (#2, Tyler) is 17 years old. He’s our resident ladies man and social butterfly.

Token American: Tracey’s husband J (Jeremy) is 33 and is definitely the token American. Born in Minnesota and raised in San Diego, he’s currently working IT in Las Vegas.

Special Appearances

Ellie: Ellie is our baby. She's an affenpinscher pup who looks like a monkey, has a pet tiger, uses her front legs like arms, destroys Jeremy's things, and is never far from her human mum's side.

The Fish: Tracey has 3 tanks (5 gallon, 10 gallon and 35 gallon) with a total of 18 fish between them. All the fish have names. And she can tell them apart. She wants another, much larger tank. Jeremy doesn't. But she'll win.

Family History

Tracey and Jeremy have been married since November 30, 1998, after meeting in a Yahoo! chat room (ironically called Love Stinks).

Jeremy moved to New Zealand in July of 1999, where they lived happily until circumstances forced a rethink, and he moved back to the US in December of 2006. Tracey and the kids finally joined him as legal permanent residents on August 10th, 2008. Their visa journey is chronicled here.

Once An Alien ...

Alien: It’s what we are. The US Government said so. Oh, we know the dictionary definition of the world isn’t just about little green men from outer space, but seriously ... ALIENS? It makes you feel like a freak before you’ve even arrived.

Errata

A kiwi isn’t really a kiwi: for details, please see this entry.
A note on dates and times: the logic behind the non-US spelling and date/time format is explained in one short paragraph (well, one and a bit ...).

The Basics

Las Vegas Gnome is the personal weblog of a Kiwi girl who ran the gamut of US immigration in order to move with her American honey of over 10 years to Las Vegas.

It's a reincarnation of a former weblog, Jaded Alien.

Why The Name Change?

Once I moved to the US, I discovered I wasn't nearly as jaded as I thought I was going to be. Despite the fact I still look at things with a little bit of humour and there are a few things that leave me standing there staring like a stunned mullet, I've found the reality to be far different from what I expected. The people are friendly and I'm still being welcomed to my new home by complete strangers.

I chose the name LVGnome because (obviously) I live in Las Vegas, and my online nickname is usually GnomeGrrl. Contrary to popular belief, it has nothing to do with World of Warcraft. Although I am an addicted player, the Gnome refers to my GUI of choice on Linux systems (and as such, should technically be pronounced Ga-nome). The Grrl, as my husband will tell you, is because I'm grrumpy.

More About Us

The site will expand as time goes on, but for now, you can learn more about the site owner and her family here, or get the low-down on their immigration journey here.

A Note On Dates and Spelling

Being from New Zealand and living many years with the date system and British-style spelling, it’s been decided that we shall keep it on the site. So, instead of month/day/year, it will be day/month/year, and we’ll be colourful instead of colorful. The reason for this is that once the move to the US is complete, we expect family members to visit regularly and we don’t want to confuse them.

Plus it’s hard to teach an old dog new tricks ...

Registration

While it’s not necessary to register on the website, there are a couple of good reasons why you should consider it. Check out the registration page for more information.

The Layout

Because I'm incorporating several weblogs in to one, the design has been kept pretty minimal.

The main graphic is sourced from StockXpert, and the smaller icons are part of the beautiful Silk set from FamFamFam.

The Power

The site is run using ExpressionEngine, a wonderful weblogging tool that I would highly recommend to anyone, despite the odd hiccup.

A variety of modules and plugins are used to help achieve what we need, such as the tags module from Solspace.

Other plugins include:
{exp:plugin_list backspace="1"}{plugin_name}, {/exp:plugin_list}.

Just A Little Gnome ...

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