This time 13 years ago (well yesterday) I sat down to tape a show for a friend. 13 years later...incredible to think that an idea has turned into this whole network of sites. I was going to revert the main ausxip page to it's original design but I've spared you :)
What happened on AUSXIP in 2009?
January saw me at the 2009 Xena Convention and Lucy's extraordinary Pleasuredome concerts. Incredible energy and it was such a fantastic con and concerts. Meeting up with friends again was one of the highlights!
In February the message board Talking Xena was officially brought back into the AUSXIP family to become AUSXIP Talking Xena once again after an 7 year break. The mods and former owner EZ Ryder had made it a great meeting place for people to chat about Xena, Lucy Lawless, Renee O'Connor and the rest of the Xena family. It was with that in mind that I agreed to bring TX back into the fold and have it become AUSXIP's official message board. With Spartacus about to be shown in the US, there is now a Spartacus forum as well.
March was the Annual AUSXIP Charity Auction to benefit Starship Children's Hospital and the Renee Outreach Fund. Thank you for once again supporting this! On my recent New Zealand trip I got the chance to meet all the Starship crew and they are just amazing. So supporting them is a no-brainer.
The major downer of the year was AUSXIP's hack meltdown. I'm not going to into that other than to say it was an experience I would rather not repeat.
In May (and in the middle of the meltdown) we had Cat and Nora's AIDS SF to LA auction. Thank you again for supporting the girls as they worked hard to raise money for this very worthy cause. They made the trek from SF to LA and I'm in awe of them both.
I crossed the ditch in September to support Starship and watch Lucy perform on the Starship Swing Supernova - that was ABSOLUTELY brilliant and I had a great time reporting back. Auckland is incredible and had a terrific time. It was my first (and not my last) NZ trip..hard to believe but true.
November saw Adrienne Wilkinson's Official charity auction and some new auction software which got it's first run on the site. That was very well supported and thank you to everyone once again!
Some more sites were added to the AUSXIP Network including my new Blog- MaryD's Blog This That & Other Stuff and The Daily Cheer in addition to the following sites:
AUSXIP Spartacus Blood and Sand
AUSXIP Crystal Chappell Website
AUSXIP Jessica Leccia Website
AUSXIP Andy Whitfield
AUSXIP Erin Cummings
AUSXIP Otalia
AUSXIP Venice
AUSXIP also partnered with a fantastic site, MichaelHurstNow.com, to bring you all the latest Michael Hurst and Jennifer Ward-Lealand news.
It's been a busy year! What's in store for next year?
We have the 2010 Xena Convention which I will be attending. It's Xena's 15th anniversary with Lucy, Renee and a whole bunch of other guests which promises to be fantastic. If you haven't bought tickets yet, hop on over to Creation Entertainment and get them.
March will once again see the annual AUSXIP Charity Auction and hopefully it will be a great way to raise some money for Starship and Renee's charity.
I'm quite sure lots of things will happen in 2010 that AUSXIP will report on...it's fun. As long as it continues to be fun; AUSXIP will be around.
All throughout the year your support via contributions of news, articles, pictures and other multimedia has been fantastic and very much appreciated!
Battle On!
MaryD