As the year rapidly draws to a close some of you might still have access to funds for professional learning.

If you do, and are doing Drupal, or thinking about doing Drupal in 2012 then here is an opportunity to level up fast before and after the conference.

Pre- and Post-conference training is on offer in association with Drupal Downunder. Details follow - please help spread the word. There's also an iPad up for grabs - all who register for DDU2012 before Dec 31 go in the draw.

I sort of dislike regular expressions. They're usually annoying to read and not infrequently incomprehensible without reading a book (or two) first. Still, they're useful.

I wanted to apply some regex magic to HTML content, to change words that are not part of the HTML markup. However, anecdotally, regular expressions don't play well with HTML. Still, I wasn't interested in the tags, only what is between them, so it struck me as a not impossible task.

With voting for DrupalCon Denver sessions now open, I thought it would be good to remind people that session proposals for Drupal Downunder will close on Monday November 14th. If you have something you want to share, get your session proposals in!

For those of you who don't know what Drupal Downunder is, it's Australia's national Drupal conference. Running in Melbourne on 13, 14 and 15 January 2012, this will be the second Drupal Downunder. In January 2011, 160 drupalistas from near and far came together in Brisbane to create the biggest antipodean Drupal event to date, building on the success of DrupalSouth in Wellington in 2010.

Though run by Australians, it's run for everyone. Early bird tickets are still available, so if you're looking for a great Drupal event to attend in a warm climate early next year, come to Melbourne and join your friendly Aussies and New Zealanders.

"Drupal Downunder 2011 was a great event. A lot of people flew out from other parts of Australia and New Zealand to attend so it was very much a national event. There was a great vibe that reminded me of early Drupal events. It is clear that Australians are passionate about Drupal, and that Drupal is getting a lot of traction. — Dries Buytaert"