Hummingbird604.com » upcoming events

Green Drinks Summer Picnic (July 28th, 2009)

Raul — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 19:30:37 +0000

I’ve written before on my blog how, in spite of the fact that I have a doctorate in Resource Management and Environmental Studies, I have never felt part of the crowd at Green Drinks. Maybe it’s the fact that my line of work and research are not in the mainstream sectors (green energy, climate change, green buildings), or the fact that the event itself has felt “too network-y”, but I had lost any interest in Green Drinks. Up until the last Green Drinks that I attended, where I very publicly and heart-felt-edly vented to Wendy and to Christina. And I felt better.

In spite of anything, year after year, Green Drinks’ summer picnic has been, every year, a consistent hit and I absolutely adore the work that Christina, Lyda and Wendy have put into organizing (in volunteer manner) Green Drinks. Also, I’m trying to get back into the environmental community at large (it’s not like I’ve ever left, but I’m somewhat peripheral, given my strong involvement in social media/PR/tech). Therefore, I’m going to transcribe the email that I received as an invite to this summer’s Green Drinks.

The regular July Green Drinks is being replaced by our annual outdoor event that will take place Tues, July 28 from 6pm-9pm at Jericho Park East. DO NOT go to Steamworks this month. We will be back inside at our usual time and place in August.

Green Drinks Picnic
July 28 (Tues), 6pm-9pm, Jericho Park, Eastern pond picnic area

This is a BYOE (Bring Your Own Everything) event. There will be no cooking or washing facilities at the site so please plan for a basic cold food picnic. The theme of this mission, should you choose to accept it, is local and sustainable food. So bring something appropriate if you can, enough to share if you’re willing…and hey, there might be a contest. Details forthcoming.

Basics to bring:
*yourself and any interested friends or family.
*your own food, drink and necessary dining implements: plates, cutlery,
etc.
*willingness to pick up all of your refuse when you leave.

Other items we’d love someone to bring:
*games or sports equipment (volleyball & net, badminton, bocce, etc).
*a BBQ that you are willing to share – please get in touch if you can for sure bring this.
*non-amplified musical instruments and your singing voice.

What not to bring:
*glass drink containers
*booze – parks officers don’t want to see that
*amplified music or public address systems
*advertising
*electricity
*structures, fences, poles, tents, stages, etc

These are Vancouver Parks restrictions so please see their site for further details:

How to get to the Green Drinks picnic:

We’ll be in the same place as previous years, which is not far from where the back of the main stage at folk fest will have been the week before. See the Vancouver Parks website for details & map of “Jericho Pond”:

Here are the transit options:
*Bus 4 – get off 1 or 2 stops west of Alma along 4th Ave.
*Buses 7, 44, or 84 – get off at Alma & 4th and walk a few minutes
westward.
*Buses 9, 17 or 99 B-line – get off at Alma & Broadway and walk north to
4th and then west to Jericho.

Of course, there is plenty of space to park your bike or kayak!

Christina on behalf of the other Vancouver Green Drinkers/Picnickers

BC Anti-Bullying Day (Wednesday Feb 25th, 2009)

Raul — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 18:04:00 +0000

I think that only the people who know me the most (a vast majority of my offline friends and some of my friends online) know that I was bullied when I was a child. That’s the reason why I am trained in martial arts. Not because I liked to kick anybody’s rear end, but because I needed to protect myself.

One day (several months after I had started my martial arts training), a guy who had bullied me for a long while started picking a fight with me (Gustavo was his name), right before school was over. I was faced with the choice I never wanted to face – “do I fight or do I run?” I decided it was time to fight back. I grabbed Gustavo’s arm and applied a judo move on him. I threw him over the top of my shoulder and, strategically, forced him to land with his back towards a trash can. I did this purposefully as I knew that would immobilize him completely. He started crying on the spot and ran away from me as fast as he could.

My classmates were astonished. “How could Raul, the tiny little midget, defend himself now? What happened to him?” From that moment onwards, I never looked back, and never had to face another bully. The word was out: Raul was never going to let anyone else pick on him ever, ever again.

While I know that my family worries a lot about my personal safety (for many reasons, one of them because I have such a public presence online and offline, and also because of the recent strings of assaults in the downtown core), I think it’s important to fight back against bullies. To demonstrate that we will not let aggression take us down.

Premier Gordon Campbell recently announced that Wednesdy, February 25th, 2009 is BC’s Anti-Bullying Day (hat tips to Tris for reminding me!). If you support the cause, I encourage you to show up at the Vancouver Bloggers Meetup wearing a pink shirt. Wear it at work, wear it at home, wear it out and about. Take a stance.

2009 Taste BC on January 22nd

Raul — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 05:16:29 +0000

The fine folks of Liberty Wines invited me to participate in their 2009 Taste BC event at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on January 22nd, 2009 from 4:30pm to 7:30pm. This awesome event takes place for the second year in a row. Unfortunately, I’m triple-booked for that evening, but luckily I have enlisted a guest blogger who will be covering the event and will be bringing you a full report of the event (thanks Ed!).

So you might ask yourselves, what is Taste BC? It is a celebration of local food and drinking. There are many positive elements to this event, including the fact that it allows participants to sample a very broad variety of food and wines. Along with fantastic food and drink, the event will feature live music, door prizes and a silent auction for a variety of luxury items, including local experience packages and delicious products made by British Columbia’s own producers.

Tickets are $ 49.99 and can be purchased from any Liberty Wines location. Furthermore, one of the event’s main draws, and something that really warmed my heart was the fact that proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to the BC Children’s Hospital – Oak Tree Clinic. I’d seriously recommend this event, as it seems to be poised to be a yearly tradition that is not only a celebration of food and wine/cheese but also an opportunity to enjoy tasty food and drinks for charity.

Upcoming environmental events in Vancouver – September 2008

Raul — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 22:00:12 +0000

Two upcoming events are rather relevant to me and both fall on the same day.

Green Drinks Vancouver happens again on the third wednesday of the month (Sep 17th, 2008) at Steamworks.
The Metro Vancouver Sustainability Breakfasts series continues, and this time, they will focus on the discussions we’ve been having on bottled water. I am SO definitely there!

About the Community Sustainability Breakfast [Metro Vancouver's website]:

Sustainability Community Breakfasts – Nature’s Health Drink – Always on Tap
Wednesday, 17 September, 2008
from 7:30 AM to 9:00 AM
British Columbia Institute of Technology
555 Seymour Street, Vancouver

About Green Drinks Vancouver Sep 2008 [Green Drinks Website]

WHEN the next regular Green Drinks is: Every 3rd Wednesday of the month (except in Dec and July) Our next event is on Sept 17th, 2008
WHERE: Steamworks pub at 375 Water Street on the edge of Gastown near Waterfront Station.
Please be aware that due to changing space availability we cannot guarantee we’ll be in the same room each month – if you can’t find us just ask Steamworks staff which room we are in.
TIME:5:45pm-until?

It’s lucky that both of these events fall on the same day, and that I’ll be back in Vancouver by then! And again, I’ve got a full week booked (Brew 2.0, Green Drinks, Launch Party AND a special day!). Can someone please clone me? Thanks.

Heads up for 2 upcoming Vancouver tech/blogging events

Raul — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 20:30:38 +0000

It’s kind of nice to know that, even though I’m 6000 km away from Vancouver, my friends back home still keep me informed of events that are coming up, so I’m just going to write a quick roundup.

- Via Steve Jagger, I heard about Reachd’s upcoming (September) training package on SEO, Google Adwords, Social Media Guided Tour, etc. By the way, if you want to know more about Steve, you can read Rebecca’s fantastic Blogger Profile series. I had the pleasure of attending one of Steve’s seminars earlier this year — pretty awesome.

- Via Travis Smith, I heard about the Expression Engine Roadshow. In Travis’ words “It’s half a day, and would probably be useful for anyone who’s interested in learning more about ExpressionEngine, especially the upcoming EE 2.0 — Rick Ellis, the CEO of EE, is coming to talk about it.“. It was Travis who was kind enough to give me an interview when he was getting an iPhone. Travis’ blog is awesome too (and the layout is horizontal!)

If you have another event forthcoming that I should be aware of (or if I didn’t highlight it on THIS post), please drop a comment here (trust me, I have a great memory but things do escape me sometimes). In case I haven’t covered all the events, you can always check Rebecca’s weekly TechVibes column. The most recent one can be found here.

OH! And if you are going to Gnomedex, and would like to share some of your thoughts, let me know and you can either write a guest post or I can link back to you

I want to convert you… to WordPress!

Raul — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 22:40:40 +0000

As I’ve posted before, I read pretty much every blog on my blogroll and then some. Thanks to a handy RSS feed reader, now I can do that in the blink of an eye, literally (I speed-read). However, I took some time to see who of my friends are still on Blogger (I am talking to you Barbara, Phaedra, Pat, Jennifer, Marina, Dan, Mitch, Sarah, to mention just a few).

If you’ve been reading my blog at all, you’ll know that I am speaking at WordCamp Fraser Valley, precisely on the topic of how I transitioned from Blogger to WordPress. I am in no way associated with WordPress, they don’t pay me a cent (although I do have friends who are indeed associated with Auttomatic).

The truth is that I’ve thoroughly enjoyed writing my blog on this platform. So, I’m basically plugging you to switch and since many of you Blogger friends are also my friends, friends, you should come to WCFV and hear me speak like Ulysses listened to the siren’s sweet voice “WoooordPreeeess…. WoooordPreeeess” (ok, that sounds better when I say it than when I read it).

So, join me and a roster of fabulous bloggers (Rebecca, John, Kerry, Kulpreet and yours truly) on July 16th, 2008 from 6-9pm. For more details, click on the link that says “I’m Speaking at WordCamp Fraser Valley“. And in case you didn’t know, the registration is almost full so, you REALLY want to register as in, like, right now.

Upcoming event – Podcasting for Social Change (Net Tuesday)

Raul — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:10:30 +0000

So, remember when I said that I was going to only attend 6 events all month? Scratch that. It’s going to be 5. Green Drinks is colliding with WordCamp Fraser Valley, which means, I can’t do Green Drinks YET AGAIN. Ooops. But on the good news front, I will be going to Net Tuesday, and I want to promote my friend and mentor Dave O’s upcoming event, with the topic “Podcasting For Social Change”. You know you want to go, because he’s got a very fine line-up of speakers, including John Bollwitt, Roland Tanglao, Rob Cottingham, and Dave Olson as a moderator (you’ll NEVER get another chance to spend this much time with these many awesome people at the same time, unless you do Northern Voice 2009… and even then!).

So, mark your calendars – Wednesday July 8th, 5:30pm, WorkSpace. More details? Check Dave O’s blog.

I took the liberty of using DaveO’s YouTube promotional…

WordCamp Fraser Valley and coffee/snack sponsorship

Raul — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:35:22 +0000

On July 16th, 2008, a number of local, Metro Vancouver bloggers who use WordPress as their main platform will be descending on Langley’s The Cascade Casino (no, we are NOT gambling, just in case you were wondering) to present at WordCamp Fraser Valley, and according to the most recent update from BlueFur, they’re already at 33% capacity (and it’s not even July) so be sure to register, PRONTO!

At any rate, I found out that Gary Jones is looking for coffee and snacks sponsorships. Given that I work in the environmental field, ideally I’d like to see a reduced environmental footprint. One idea would be to contact local, environmentally-conscious producers to see if we can get some type of sponsorship (e.g. organic vegetable platters, or organic, ethically-traded coffee). I’ll see what we can do – I am sure amongst my readers there must be people who work in environmental issues and the food industry, so if you do (or know of someone), drop me a comment or send me an email.

WordCamp Fraser Valley 2008

Raul — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 01:27:13 +0000

Gary Jones from BlueFur invited me a while ago (after the very successful, and superbly organized WordCamp Vancouver 2008, by Tazzu) to speak at the first ever WordCamp Fraser Valley 2008 , and I was thrilled to accept. I really respect the work of Blue Fur and I’m very happy to contribute in any way I can. As a matter of fact, I owe a lot of the increase in my readership to WordPress-specific tools and tricks.

Matt Mullenweg in WordPress gear. Photo credit: Niallkennedy on Flickr.

The following is an abstract of the talk I’m going to give, hoping that it will be useful. I know for a fact that John Chow and Rebecca Bollwitt (aka Miss604) will be speaking too. This will be SO MUCH FUN!

Here’s the abstract of my talk:“I Switched to WordPress, and So Can You”

I started blogging on the Blogger platform for ease of use (and because several friends of mine were using it too!). On March 23rd, 2008, I took one of the best decisions in my burgeoning blogging career: I moved my blog entirely from Blogger to WordPress. Many bloggers seem afraid of taking the plunge and switching to WP. Currently, I blog primarily on the WordPress.com platform, and have enjoyed an increase in readership of over 300%. In this presentation, I will talk about my experience switching platforms, outline the advantages that I see in WordPress, and speak about the next steps I plan to take in the process of becoming a WP geek.

I am, of course, open to any questions or comments you might want to include. I am sure that some of you might want me to post some video, being the owner of a Flip and having attended a Reachd.com awesome seminar. I will try to do at least some vlogging – most likely, I’ll be live-vlogging Rebecca‘s as she will be too busy giving her own talk to be able to vlog it!!! (but knowing Rebecca, she might even be able to live-blog/vlog her own part of the WordCamp!)

Upcoming events – Geeky and non-geeky

Raul — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 17:15:47 +0000

Just a quick reminder

- Vancouver Joomla Day 2008 – Saturday June 14, 2008. I will be liveblogging a couple of sessions. Registration is $ 25.00 and $ 30.00 at the door.

- Third Tuesday with Joe Solomon from EngageJoe.com – Tuesday June 17th, 2008 – I might be live-blogging, but I could almost bet that Rebecca will be media sponsor Thanks to Monica Hamburg for organizing! If you follow me on Twitter or read my blog and haven’t introduced yourself to me, this is your chance! I will be wearing a name tag with my blog site!

- Green Drinks Vancouver – Wednesday June 18th, 2008 - Since I’m on the job market AND I volunteered to be a Green Greeter, I *will* most certainly be there. I have to meet Isabella later that day, but at least I’ll be there for a couple of hours!

I have a pretty busy weekend, so I might not accept any more invitations other than what I already have planned for Friday and Saturday evenings. Sunday evening, as you all know, is already booked, so – sorry – next week perhaps!

Upcoming event – Vancouver MetBlogs Meetup

Raul — Tue, 20 May 2008 18:15:00 +0000

Given that I’ve read Vancouver Metblogs for quite sometime, that they have some of my blogo-friends writing for them (including Rebecca, Ryan, Barbara and Stephen), and the fact that they did invite me to contribute last year (I sort-of declined, because at the time I was really focused both on trying to learn more about blogging AND I had a lot of day-job work), I thought that maybe I should attend the upcoming Vancouver MetBlogs Meetup at Library Square at 7.30pm on Tuesday May 21st, 2008. I am also attending Third Tuesday, so not sure how I’m going to balance both. I’ll see. Now that I do have a cell phone, maybe I can coordinate with Rebecca and/or other bloggers to sort of try and do both events at the same time. It will be challenging, but most certainly will be fun.

Third Tuesday Vancouver May 2008: Darren Barefoot

Raul — Sun, 18 May 2008 06:21:15 +0000

The Vancouver social media crowd can hardly wait to hear Darren Barefoot, one of Canada’s blog-fathers speak on May 20th on “Getting the Attention of the Web’s influencers“. This promises to be a really good Third Tuesday (all of the ones I have attended have been simply outstanding, and this one is co-organized as I understand by Monica Hamburg, Tanya Davis and Tod Maffin).

I have heard Darren speak before, at one of the NetTuesday events (which I live-blogged) and I like his work. I comment on his blog frequently and have chatted with him and exchanged emails a couple of times, although I wouldn’t say by any measure that I know him really well. But I do know his work and I really like his Web 2.0 savvy and knowledge. Plus, he has a really particular style of presenting his work. So, it should be interesting to learn more from one of the top bloggers. Besides, it does give me a great opportunity to meet in person other bloggers and readers of my own blog, and hang out with many great friends I’ve made through my blogging.

Miss604.com (Rebecca Bollwitt) will be providing excellent coverage of the event, AND she is also a media partner Rebecca will provide either live-blogging or recapping. Better yet, she will be giving prizes away!!! I haven’t yet decided whether I’ll live-blog or not, but I will also be most definitely posting a recap. Other local bloggers who are disseminating the news about Darren’s next speaking gig include Philip Jeffrey (aka tyfn, from Fade to Play fame), TechVibes and of course the Public Relations Meetup.com site.

When? Tuesday, May 20, 2008, 7:00 PM
Where? Century House Restaurant & Bar
432 Richards Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 3L5
604.633.2700

About 94 people have RSVP’d so I suggest that if you haven’t done your RSVP you do so REALLY SOON. I will be attending, and to make it easy for you to spot me, I’ll be wearing a name tag with my name and my blog’s address No, I haven’t made business cards yet. Not sure if I want to But for sure, if you read my blog and we haven’t met in person, by all means come and say “hi“. I don’t bite (unless asked to, of course, hehehehe).

International Day Against Homophobia (May 17th)

Raul — Sat, 17 May 2008 16:55:09 +0000

Canada (at least some parts of the country) is considered one of the most progressive countries in the world in regard to gay/lesbian/bisexual/queer/trans issues. Being queer in Vancouver is seen almost as natural as having a beer on a sunny beautiful day on the patio. It’s not even an issue. Of course, I have read about gay bashings in the West End, and nonsensical gay slurs being blurted out, but generally speaking, I have the sense that queer folks feel relatively safe (I may be totally wrong on this one, so I’d welcome commentary on this particular topic).

Photo credit: jencinar on Flickr

However, being gay/lesbian/bisexual/trans/ is still considered a crime in many countries. International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) is today, May 17th. This day is

In 75 countries being gay is still a crime. French activist Louis-Georges Tin, founder of the International Day Against Homophobia, hopes to change that by having the United Nations adopt a resolution calling for the decriminalization of homosexuality worldwide.
[IDAHO website]

Photo credit: Citius64 on Flickr. Translation – “Be careful who you hate. He/she may be someone you love”

Last year, I wrote about National Coming Out Day (October 11th). Many queer people are afraid of coming out for fear of retaliation and rejection. I have been a witness to some parents reject their own children because they do not conform to societal perceptions of “normal”. However, I have also seen a lot of public support for queer people. For example, VanCity, TD Canada Trust and KPMG have all implemented strong “diversity in the workplace” policies. This kind of progressive thinking should permeate all levels of society.

Therefore, please join me and stop to reflect for a moment on the need to realize that we are all human beings, that we all have rights and that homophobia should stop. Let’s celebrate diversity and International Day Against Homophobia.

Media accreditation and the Projecting Change Film Festival

Raul — Tue, 06 May 2008 18:17:01 +0000

This year has been a year of first-ever’s. It was the first time ever I guest-live-blogged (for Miss604.com, the Michael Geist lecture at SJC). The first time ever I podcasted (as a guest blogger for HappyFrog FrogBlog, covering EPIC ’08). The first time ever I received free admission to sustainability events (the Sustainable Living Show). And now, it’s the first time ever I’ve received a media pass for a film festival, and I’m SUPER EXCITED! I just heard from the Projecting Change Film Festival organizers, and they’ve arranged to have a media pass for me. WOWZA!

In addition to having reviewed lots of “less than awesome” movies on my blog, I’ve also taken the time to write detailed movie reviews for films that have been part of locally-run film festivals. For example, I reviewed “Mount Pleasant”, the 2006 Ross Weber film that depicts my neighborhood as the land of ‘women of the trade’, drug-addicts and derelict streets. This movie premiered in the 2006 Vancouver International Film Festival. I have also reviewed “Super-Amigos” and “The Portrait of Dorian Gray“, two movies that showed unexplored aspects of queer life. Both movies premiered in the 2007 Vancouver Queer Film Festival. In the case of Super-Amigos, a superhero-themed Canada-Mexico co-production, the movie examines the day-to-day life of five real-life masked wrestlers/superheroes, one of which is Super-Gay, a gay man who fights for the rights of the queer community in Mexico City. Of course, there is an environmental superhero, Ecologista Universal.

So, as you can read, I’m also a movie fiend. You may ask yourselves… what movies am I excited about and wanting to see in the upcoming days? Well, if you are a close friend of mine, or have read about my day-job and my research, this is the film that I’m waiting with baited breath (I’m also excited about others, but this one is just… SO appropriate for me): Flow: For Love of Water

Flow: For Love of Water is Irena Salina’s cautionary documentary that is determined to stir things up. Water, the quintessence of life, sustains every creature on Earth. The time has come when we can no longer take this precious resource for granted. Unless we effect global change, impoverished nations could be wiped from the planet.[Projecting Change website preview of the movie]

Water, water everywhere… Photo credit: Raul on Flickr (originally taken by JT)

For those of you who don’t know, I am very interested in water issues and I’ve done extensive research in the field. I have a feeling that the movie will be VERY interesting. For the trailer, click here.

Since I’m hyper busy all week, I guess I won’t be able to make the opening night but I’ll be at the 10am showing on Sunday morning. I also will do my best to check other films. If you notice, in the schedule you can find that theme days (e.g. food and agriculture, sustainability, focus on the family, etc.) … strongly recommended.

If you want to check all my coverage of the Projecting Change Film Festival, my posts will be tagged with the category “Projecting Change Film Festival”.

Upcoming events – Earth Day @ Jericho Beach

Raul — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 17:23:49 +0000

Photo credit: Raul on Flickr.

The celebrations for Earth Day are underway at Jericho Beach, and you can rest assured that the HappyFrog FrogSquadders will most certainly be there (I’ll be making an appearance but will probably not stay for long). You can check the HappyFrog site or you can also check the event listing on Evergreen.ca

Music and dancing always lure me to events, so even if I wasn’t an environmentalist (which is not the case, because I am one) I would totally attend. All performances look very exciting but there are a few that I’d like to highlight, including Timothy Wisdom who will be DJ’ing, and Tambura Rasa who will perform a unique and eclectic mix of flamenco, African percussions and Middle-Eastern sounds.

Despite the fact that I really don’t drink Starbucks (with the mere exception of the cold capuccino in a bottle), I am very appreciative of the fact that they provided free drip-coffee on Earth Day and will do so again today, Saturday at Jericho Beach from 11am to 5pm, but YOU HAVE TO BRING YOUR OWN REUSABLE MUG.

Make sure to also check the 30 Days of Sustainability website (this month-long event was launched this past Earth Day, April 22nd) for more information. I will also be posting a couple of post-EPIC 2008 summaries both here and on the HappyFrog FrogBlog.

April 22nd 2008 – Earth Day

Raul — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 09:13:39 +0000

Photo credit: Raul on Flickr.

Earth Day is celebrated in many countries on April 22nd. Many people offer varied stories, but the most widely accepted is that April 22nd is the anniversary of the modern American environmental movement (although some people would argue that it was the worldwide environmentalism that was born that year). Other milestones, such as the 1972 United Nations Summit on the Human Environment (Stockholm 1972) are so close to the year 1970 mark it as the birth year of environmentalism.

Earth Day Links offers a slight variation of the story with Senator Gaylord Nelson touted as the organizer of Earth Day. I’m not going to debate or dispute this, I just want to point out that environmental awareness increased between the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Although my specialization is environmental issues, and I do celebrate Earth Day, there have been some sombre developments in the lives of very close friends that really prevent me from being overly excited about Earth Day. So, instead I offer some link love for you. Have a good Earth Day!

Photo credit: Raul on Flickr.

- Earth Day Canada offers 10 small steps you can take to reduce your impact on the environment. Check their suggestions here.

- Evergreen’s Earth Day Vancouver celebration will take place on Saturday April 26th at Jericho Beach from 11 am to 5 pm. Most likely, I’ll be there. More info can be found here.

- To celebrate Earth Day, make sure to check the recently completed Vancouver Sun Sustainable Living EPIC Expo 2008, and look for the HappyFrog FrogBlog coverage (I got a few posts there too!).

- If you are located elsewhere on the Lower Mainland you can look here for various listings of events. It does include some Vancouver-based events!.

Adria Vasil speaking on Saturday Apr 19 at EPIC ’08

Raul — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:26:59 +0000

_________________________________________________________________________________
This post is cross-posted with HappyFrog’s FrogBlog and will be also available on
EPIC ’08′s blog
_________________________________________________________________________________

The whole concept of EPIC is exciting in and of itself, and while trying to find which events I wanted to attend, I needed to peruse the list of “Who Is in the Main Stage”. Just about everybody is excited about Mike Holmes (from “Holmes on Homes” fame). Since I am renting and opportunities to own in Vancouver are looking quite slim, I decided to let the Holmes enthusiasts flood the room and instead, I’ll be probably hanging out and doing interviews with some of the exhibitors at EPIC 2008.

Photo credit: Raul on Flickr.

The list of speakers sounds really exciting, and one of those that I am excited to see is Adria Vasil, author of Ecoholic: Your Guide to the Most Environmentally Friendly Information, Products and Services in Canada. What is Ecoholic, you ask?

When the world’s environmental woes get you down, turn to Ecoholic – Canada’s best resource for practical tips and products that help you do your part for the earth. You’ll get the dirt on what not to buy and why, and the dish on great gifts, clothes, home supplies and more. Based on the popular and authoritative “Ecoholic” column that appears weekly in NOW, Ecoholic is a cheeky and eye-opening guide to all of life’s greenest predicaments.

[From Random House website]

Why am I excited to hear her speak? Several reasons, but one of the most important, I believe, is that I have always been curious about environmental journalism. What drives a journalist to cover sustainability issues? Are they well-educated on the issues, on the topics? How does writing for a broader audience work and how do you engage and encourage said broad audience in trying to go green?

Adria Vasil has been writing the Ecoholic column for NOW Magazine since the spring of 2004 and has covered environmental issues for NOW’s news section for four years. Vasil has a degree in development politics and cultural anthropology from the University of Toronto and a degree in magazine journalism from Ryerson. An advocate for the earth, women’s issues and human rights since her teens, Vasil has appeared on MTV Canada and CBC’s Newsworld to promote environmentalism.

[From RandomHouse website]

Adria’s talk is on Saturday April 19th at 3:00pm. I’ll most likely be around and close to the HappyFrog booth, so if you want to come down and talk to me, I’ll have my name tag. And I’ll see if I can score an interview with Adria either before or after the talk. A blogger interviewing someone who is more in the mainstream media… how geeky!

Event recap: Green Drinks April 2008

Raul — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:14:38 +0000

I love having a chance to meet a bunch of enviro-geeks, and well, a beer is not so bad either, so I have tried to be a loyal fan of Green Drinks Vancouver. However, I have to say that tonight I was VERY disappointed. As in, REALLY disappointed. There are several elements that were highlights and a number that were the low points. So, I’ll briefly summarize them here.

HIGHLIGHTS
* Meeting Sarah Marchildon, her friend Paul, and other enviro-folks (I may miss some, but I had a chance to meet the folks at Projecting Change – Lindsay and Brady, Lynn, Tim, Kim – who just completed a North Shore program to find their career path – Heather and Will, of course, Jeremy, James, Sean, Jeff, Pam, and a bunch of other folks). But seriously, meeting Sarah Marchildon was AWESOME. She is as sweet and genuine and wholesome and beautiful in person as she is online.

* Having a chance to just be immersed in environmental issues. Since I have been working from home lately, I have had very little interaction with enviro-folks. Which will be quickly remedied since I’ll be blogging about EPIC 2008 and I will also be cross-posting with HappyFrog‘s FrogBlog. Check our live feed, I’m joined by an outstanding group of Vancouver bloggers! Tips of the hat to DaveO for inviting and EPIC ’08 for making this possible.

Now, for the NEGATIVE SIDE OF IT.

* Super expensive beer. I’m sorry, but $ 6.00 for a beer doesn’t cut it for me. First of all, I’m on a budget here. Second of all, the beer was an awful lager that didn’t really taste good for me. Third of all, I can get beer and a burger at The Five Point on Main and 16th for $ 10. Thanks, but no thanks. I’m getting turned off with Steamworks. Which leads me to the second point…

* Pretentious location. I am definitely not very impressed lately. Would this change if my paycheck was heftier? I don’t think so. I find this bar kind of pretentious. And I’ve had this issue for a long time. My brother loves it, my colleagues organize gatherings here all the time, and I come all the time, not because I’m a fan of the place, but because that’s where gatherings are organized. But really unhappy with the place, the beer. The saving grace? The staff. Waiters, waitresses, hostesses, and bartenders are all very, very nice and prompt.

* Lack of a steady crowd. I mentioned this to Christina (one of the super able organizers, with an unbelievably sweet smile and gorgeous eyes). I’ve been to MANY GDV events. I have a photographic memory, so I can tell you who has been there repeatedly and who hasn’t. The degree to which people attend GDV repeatedly is VERY LOW. As in, really low. What are the implications for [UPDATE - Clearly I was exhausted last night, so here is the rest of that sentence] community building? Well, this sequence of events…

… LEADS ME TO PONDERING…
- Why are we, environmentally-minded folks, not patronizing a more organic, enviro-friendly place like Rhizome?
- Why aren’t folks returning?

THUS, I HAVE THE FOLLOWING SUGGESTIONS FOR THE ORGANIZERS OF GREEN DRINKS

(a) Get Green Greeter Volunteers. This is a big issue I have with GDV. I am a super outgoing, ultra social guy. But when I’m at GDV, I freeze. I don’t feel comfortably approaching people, not because I am shy, but because I find it hard. Groups are quickly formed, and yeah you can tell me that I can break into them (I did, and I have always done it), but can you imagine? I freeze, and I’m an extrovert! Can you imagine if I wasn’t? The organizes could help by recruiting a few volunteers who could go around the room greeting people and helping bring others to already-formed small groups.

(b) Change the venue. Seriously. I love Christina, Rika and Lyda, and I know all this work is 100% volunteer (and if you didn’t know, YES they have day jobs and NO they’re not getting paid to organize Green Drinks Vancouver!). But Steamworks feels to me pretentious and it makes me feel part of a group of Green Yuppies. Considering the state of the debate on whether you need to make enough money to be sustainable, we are seriously contributing to fuelling the idea that we are Green Yuppies. I for one, am not. And I refuse to be identified that way. I prefer to be a Hippie than a Yuppie. So, I vote for Rhizome or some other enviro-minded venue.

(c) Do a survey. Why aren’t people coming back? What is it that they are NOT getting at GDV? Heck, if you need the web support, I am even willing to create the survey and post a link on my blog. And I’ll even throw in the statistical analysis for free.

(d) Create a sense of a community. Right now, GDV looks like a room full of enviro folks who don’t know each other, who don’t really relate to each other, and who don’t seem to be very connected to each other. Maybe organize “ice-breakers”, give a shout-out in public to the participants, etc. There’s plenty of ways to do this.

I *know* about this issue (community building). Come on, I’ve moved to four different countries in the past 15 years, I know exactly what I am talking about. If members of a group are always transient and never steady, no sense of community is built. Now that I have been in two local Vancouver teams, and have been playing regularly, I NOW feel part of the teams. Look at my current activities in the blogosphere. I have attended many social media gatherings, and now people start to recognize me and have begun to make great friends who are also bloggers. I am now part of the Vancouver blogging and social media community. THAT is how you build community. You interact with them in REAL LIFE, REPEATEDLY.

WHILE position_in_community IS EQUAL TO not_established
REPEAT
Participate_In_Gatherings
ENDWHILE

Again, I am trying not to be overly critical, particularly because I fully endorse and support Green Drinks Vancouver. I am just making suggestions, in hopes that they will help the organizers make a better event.

First FrogBlog post finally up!

Raul — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 18:33:07 +0000

I do get around to completing projects and doing things, I swear The thing is, I usually have like 10,000 things on the go, so it’s kind of hard to do everything at the same time. At any rate, I’ve finally managed to get around registering with FrogBlog , the official blog of HappyFrog and publishing a first blog post.

It’s kind of nice to see that even though I am not a geek, I managed to realize that I had the Rich Text editor on, cancel on the publication of the post, copy and paste the code for my post, switch off the editor, switch back to HTML coding *and* post the correct code, and not screw up a thing. The Blogging Jedi Master should be proud

FrogBlog is powered by Drupal, but even though I’m not a Drupal-er, I have managed to learn enough HTML coding to recognize when I’m doing something wrong. Well, except for the stupid tags and categories on WordPress. GRRRRRR. Oh well, live and learn I say.

Upcoming events – Peace Girl Fundraising – Thursday Apr 10, 2008

Raul — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 21:36:17 +0000

The Justice and Reconciliation project (headed by Dr. Erin Baines) is organizing a fundraiser for the Peace Girl grassroots project in Uganda. From their website:

Peace Girl emerged as an idea after many years of working with former child soldiers and survivors of sexual and gender-based violence in Uganda and Rwanda. It is an offshoot of the Justice and Reconciliation Project, northern Uganda, a joint research initiative of Gulu District NGO Forum and the Liu Institute for Global Issues at the University of British Columbia.

Despite the fact that we have much more knowledge about the plight of girls and young women in conflict zones, and despite the fact that global policies have advanced significantly over the past decade, their situation is grave. We want to break from traditional approaches that views girls and women as victims in these circumstances and stop and listen to what they have to tell us about their survival. We seek to learn from survivors and introduce their stories to audiences who are also willing to listen. [Peace Girl Project website]

Here are the details:
Where: UBC, Liu Institute for Global Issues
When: Starts 5:00pm
Suggested donation: > $8.00
Why: To support Peace Girl, an action research community grassroot project for women in Uganda.

More details can be found here.

If you can’t make it but would like to make a donation, you can click here for more details.

Michael Geist on “E-Publishing and the Law” guest liveblogging

Raul — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:24:18 +0000

This is a preliminary post just to set the stage. I’ve been enlisted by Rebecca (Miss604.com) as the official reporter/live-blogger for the Canadian Journalism Foundation event that will take place at the gorgeous St. John’s College on the UBC campus. University of Ottawa renowned professor, Dr. Michael Geist will be speaking about “E-Publishing and the Law”.

The Internet and new technologies have ushered in a seemingly unlimited array of possibilities for access to knowledge, creativity, and public participation. University of Ottawa Law School professor and internationally renowned expert on law and the internet Michael Geist will highlight the role that the Internet is playing for new creativity and knowledge sharing, while identifying the business and policy challenges that this creates for journalists and journalism. The talk will be followed by a Q&A.[Canadian Journalism Federation]

Rebecca and I have agreed that I’ll send her the code after the live-blog, so you should mosey over to her post as well. It’s 3:22 pm now, so I won’t be posting updates until I am actually physically there.

5:51 pm – I’ve introduced myself to Cristina Coraggio from the Canadian Journalism Federation, and set up shop here at the Social Lounge, St. John’s College (SJC). I’ve accredited myself as the official reporter for Miss604.com. I feel important

6:02pm - I’ve introduced myself to Michael Geist, indicating that I pretty much will try to type exactly as he speaks (more or less, I type over 70 wpm but who knows how things go. You’ll see). He said he’s not bothered by that or by whether or not I get something wrong. I promised to drop a comment on his blog so that he can know if I got what he said right. The room is starting to fill. And for those of you geeky types – he is using a Mac (although UBC set him up on a PC – hehehe). We’ll see if there are any compatibility issues.

6:27 pm – Nancy Zimmerman (aka MoneyCoach) is here sitting right beside me. It’s so nice to see her! The talk is about to start. A preliminary introduction is given for the Principal of SJC, and the representatives of CJF and the volunteers. There’s also a brief speech on what the CJF is (go check their website, it’s linked in this liveblog). Brief speech by Mary Lynn Young of the School of Journalism at UBC.

6:33 pm – Three stories being shared by Geist. Got a lot of attention.

I) Speech from the Throne – Our government will improve the protection of copyright and intellectual property in Canada. The government was going to move forward. Bill was supposed to be forwarded on Dec 7, 2007 – the bill wasn’t. One of the reasons was “Fair Copyright for Canada”. Geist started the Facebook group “Fair Copyright for Canada”. His hopes were limited. The bill wasn’t going to be as balanced, he was concerned, so he sent out invitations to a bunch of friends. Within a week there were 10,000 people and within 2 weeks, 20,000 people. Today there are more than 40,000 people on this group and the legislation still hasn’t come. It was the active blogging AND the Facebook networking. Geist started a YouTube “The Canadian DMCA: What You Can Do”. It all got viral, lots of blogging, linking, etc. More videos, etc.THEN the media picked up on it. Many of the MSM outlets picked the issue up. Lots and lots of coverage, and people acting on- and off-line. How you can use Facebook/other media to reach

II) CMAJ – controversy that got national attention. CMA seemed to be interfering with the editorial independence of the editors of the CMAJ (ranked amongst the top 5 medical journals in the world). The editors of the CMAJ decided to resign instead of succumbing. They didn’t stop there, they created Open Medicine. It’s a peer-reviewed, open access, general access medical journal. The same editorial team now runs Open Medicine. Not only is it freely available and you can create other things, like research discussions forums, debating with the author and others.

III) Wiki-travel – If you haven’t – it was established by a Montreal couple in 2003 with the Wiki technology – collaborative creativity – create a wiki-based online travel guide. People talked about the museum they visited, airport, etc. You have a pretty valuable guide. It’s an award-winning site. 30,000 destination guides. 10,000 edits a week. A large community that contributes to this. There’s lots of collaborative examples. Even more interesting – beginning of February 2008 – WikiTravel launched WikiTravel Press. A paper version more convenient when you travel, taking the same content that is freely available and began to publish forms in print form. Print-on-demand using Lulu.com (Bob Young, Canadian entrepreneur). They got a couple of books. For the city of Chicago, circa 400 pages (you won’t find it at Chapters but you can order it online). Particularly useful is that travel books become dated quite quickly but in this case, it’s not like that – being updated regularly – publish print-on-demand – should you choose to buy it is the most updated version (update every month). You get the most up-to-date. They plan to offer in 2008 a customized version.

This is the current environment that we are living in. We need to think about that new world, we need to think about the new policies. This is the new “normal”. Please note that every time I write “Another example” Geist means these are examples of what is now “the new normal”

Another example – “No to Bill C-10″. A professor at The University of Alberta created a Facebook that grew to about 36,000 people (many of these people writing to the Senate). Now lots of people will have an opportunity to discuss this bill thanks to the efforts of this Facebook group.

Another example – It’s not confined to Canada – protests against FARC (Colombia) 250,000 people in a month alone. Rallies in 180 cities around the world protesting FARC. Similar actions taking place last year (monks in Burma), etc. Similar sorts of things happening.

Another example – “Yes We Can” Obama campaign – Put out in the beginning of February – generating a million views a day. The YouTube site has now more than 4 million views (sitting through the whole thing, more than 37 minutes!?).

Another example – The “Vote Different” video got a lot of attention. What is particularly interesting about this video is the same video that superimposes Clinton was created 3 years before but superimposing the president of Tunisia. Other countries turned to these tools years ago.

The new normal – graph that comes from Alexa – monitors traffic on various sites. In red, traffic for CNN – in blue, traffic for Blogger.com (RAUL’S NOTE – WOW – impressive growth). In 2006 traffic intersected – Blogger’s traffic now is much more – a few-fold times!). While there are some blogs not worth reading, there are some where you find excellent experts. There are lots and lots of new media, such as podcasts.culture.ca, and others.

Another example – Star Wreck – you can download it. Film that took 7 years to make. The makers have made enough revenue from DVD sales to actually

Another example – Community art project – PostSecret. Encourage people to create a postcard or a mash-up and to share a secret. Tell something to the world that you’re not comfortable telling your friends and/or family. Every Sunday a new series of secrets are posted. Some of these are pretty sad. These people do this as a form of therapy.

Another example – Flickr – photosharing – more than 2 billion photos. There’s a photograph literally of everything. With Creative Commons you can use practically everything (with attribution, of course). Facebook still the largest photo-sharing.

Another example – knowledge – Wikipedia – more than 2 million articles in English. Not authoritative but a great starting point. There are of course mistakes. But it’s a great beginning point.

LibriVox – upload books in audio-form, community created.

Example – There’s a move towards open-access. The Public Library of Science. Peer-reviewed, open-access scientific journal. Skepticism by the scientific community – 5-6 years later, some of the citation impact. People who have Nobel Prizes and then publish PLOS.

Example – We see lots of government data being readily available. The case of UNData. Freely available.

Example – Rise of the “citizen journalists”. NowPublic. Nurturing stories that don’t get attention from the mainstream media. Staffed by a handful of editors, 90% of the

Global Voices – Blog aggregator. Top ranked bloggers. Bring the voices and the stories from the bloggers in Africa, parts of Asia (those bloggers that we don’t hear about or hear from). You hear those stories there. You can also see them (people at personal risk post video or picture). Individual bloggers use these sites to ensure that their voices are heard (sometimes at high personal risk).

Reporters Without Borders -

Other tools – Google Maps – Ushahidi.com – catalog of violent events in some part of Africa. People who have chronicled these events to the level of city block. Tunisian Prison Map – Google technology to map prisons and people who are currently there.

CrowdSource interviews – Search Engine. Industry Minister crowdsourced a posting (more than 300 postings).

OUR PUBLISHING – There is a new normal

Geist recently edited a book – worth reading – Geist (Ed.) “In the Public Interest. The Future of Canadian Copyright Law”. Read it. It is available freely through Creative Commons. People who never would have purchased the book, unless they had online access. The publisher can tell you that the book has been a commercial success.

New publishing also involves – finding books – Book Search program (Google). Millions of books, digitized. The book is in the public domain. Full access to the PDF. It’s still subject to copyright. It’s a catalogue for the XXI century.

We are finding many publishers that used to lockdown their audio-books, launched an experiment with a watermark so that they can identify all the instances where the file was shared on a file-sharing system. The simple fact – they couldn’t fact ONE copy of their book. People were buying the DRM audio-books but not downloading them on to the net.

MITOpenCourseware initiative – very ambitious goals. All their courses freely available online. Make the course notes, syllabi. More than 90% of the faculty, more than 1800 courses, podcasts, webcasts of lectures, some of which are viewed 100,000 times or more. Lots of these views come from developing countries. Other professors are looking at these and learning tips for their own teaching. Only one Canadian member – Capilano College – (RAUL’S NOTE – What a shame for other Canadian universities).

People are becoming interested and engaged on this critical issue (copyright). Our rights as creators, our rights in terms of access to knowledge, our right to creating a knowledge society. We have the opportunity to create this society.

We have to be very cautious – not create OVERLY restrictive copyright rules. Ensure that there is sufficient flexibility to make full use of the tools that people are making

Copyright law is not there yet, but it could get there. It is essential that all voices are heard. At a minimum, ensure that that happens.

INTERMEDIARY LIABILITY

Geist will speak cautiously.

Around the question of “what liability should we ascribe to ISPs, bloggers, etc.” … not for what they say but the speech that can occur in their venue.

USA – controversial – Communications Decency Act. Unconstitutional. A number of provisions that survived. What survived is CDA SEction 230 – inmunity to intermediaries (Amazon, thousands of people posting book reviews, some of which may be defamatory, or Google – thousands of bloggers – some may be posting defamatory – individual blogger who allows a defamatory comment). You have immunity for the voices of others just because you happen to be hosting it. The rationale here is up to a court to determine whether or not something is defamatory, intermediaries don’t have that

WE DON’T HAVE THIS PROTECTION IN CANADA. If someone posts a defamatory comment on a blog, there is a probability/possibility that there might be a lawsuit (because we don’t have this protection). Creates an enormous potential for liabilities.

ACCESS FOR ALL

IF we are going to have this “new normal” we need to ensure that there is access for all.

We’ve rarely seen involvement of the government in these policy issues.

NET NEUTRALITY

Two-tiered internet. One in which those who can afford will be on the fast lane, those who can’t, will be on the slow lane. Google and Yahoo are actually lobbying against this, because they argue that they wouldn’t be Google if they had been charged as much in the 90s, when they were just graduate students.

Throttling – limiting bandwith available. But now some government and media outlets are making some content available. But people who are being throttled get only about 10% of bandwidth access.

GOVERNMENT DATA

From a “new normal” perspective – data SHOULD be freely available. In some countries, data is readily available. Weather data is publicly funded, freely available in the US. Here in Canada there are still lots of restrictions on government data (restrictions are stifling, government can deny some information).

Access to Information Request – what are people asking for and what is the government answering? Government is generally responding, but not to everything. More problematic – when government people say no.

The new normal requires focusing on CULTURAL FUNDING. What I’m hoping the CRTC recognizes is that the days of keeping content out are over. You can’t keep things out. If you want to support and enhance Canadian culture – you can explicitly provide government funding. The argument can be made that

The new normal requires addressing the issue of DEFINITION OF A JOURNALIST. If you post it in Canada – we still have issues of journalism and freedom.

There have been a couple of cases of people who have thought about bloggers/citizen journalists.

The new normal requires us to think about CONTRACTS. We spend a lot of time worrying about the protection of their copyright – they SHOULD spend more time thinking about their contracts. Highly restrictive, sometimes the creator ends up surrendering some if not all of their rights. Copyright still should be addressed in these contracts.

7:26pm - Concluding remarks – “Hands off the internet”. We still need an active role. It’s not about “hands off the internet”. It’s more about recognizing the future of the new media.

Now starts the Q/A period.

Q.- [RAUL'S NOTE - I couldn't really understand what he was asking - he asked way too many questions] Are we waiting for the government?

A.- We don’t need the government to move in. We need private sector and individuals to lead and establish the framework to move in. It’s not up to the government to move for us. One of the things we have to recognize is that many business have refused to move in the direction of what Geist calls “the new normal” (RAUL’S NOTE – described above in abundance!)

Q.- Comments on the blog – What should have the blogger done (he had a negative experience of someone else impersonating another person and leaving comments on his blog – suicidal comments – but the actual person emailed the blogger and asked him to take the comment down).

A.- There is no right answer. You have the choice to say that there’s nothing defamatory and you don’t think it should be liable. If they want to take it down, the person should find a court order. But this person may decide to sue the blogger. There isn’t really a right answer.

Q.- About Facebook – who owns the picture – can they use that picture.

A.- The CBC did a story exactly on that. The answer – you own the right but Facebook has licenser rights. Part of the agreement. You agree to give Facebook licensing rights. You could take the picture down. Facebook has certain rights. We’re seeing more and more journalists using the pictures found on FB. Geist thinks that there isn’t any clear right. They might want to rely on “fair use” or “fair dealing”. In the FB context, if you use a FB screenshot, it might be more “fair use”. There’s the issue of attribution – attributing the source. It’s a bit of a murky issue and we’re seeing that people are grappling with it more and more.

Q.- You mention jurisdiction but not what jurisdiction applies. Are you or are you not protected.

A.- Geist used to spend a lot of time on this issue until he gave up. Multiple jurisdictions can have jurisdiction over something that happens online. You can have a real substantial connection to more than one jurisdiction. Where this becomes even more controversial and murky is where you have a jurisdiction that really doesn’t seem to have a real substantial connection. There are journalists cases around this issue of internet jurisdiction. Australia was one such case.

The most important Canadian jurisdiction case – Washington Post – someone suing the Post for an article that was written back in the 1990s when this person lived in Africa, made allegations about drug use. He moved to Toronto. Once he moved there he decided to sue the Post in Ontario. The question was – could Ontario be a jurisdiction on this issue? This is a challenging issue.

Q.- A bit of a devil’s advocate – [RAUL'S NOTE - Two questions that are way too fast for me to capture - man, why don't people speak S-L-O-W-L-Y? The man is speaking way faster than I can type, and I am a super fast typist! - so I'm going to skip on this question] Should ISP’s restrict access or ask for more $$$?

A.- Bandwidth hogs could be charged more, that would be more fair. At least it should be a transparent issue. They don’t tell you that (ISPs). They don’t tell you when they throttle down their network.

Q.- Nancy Zimmerman – where do we find sources on these kinds of issues?

A.- Well, I blog a lot. At the U of Ottawa – CIPPIC.CA – Good sources.

Comment.- A source of information in Vancouver – You can get free summary advice from lawyers on a bi-weekly basis to answer copyright questions, if you’re a writer who wants to review their contracts, etc. You can use these to educate themselves.

HOLY SMOKES – I lost the last paragraph!

The session ended at 7.45pm.

8:39pm - I am on my way home. Hope you guys liked the liveblog!

Liveblogging “An Evening of Green Web 2.0″

Raul — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 01:12:35 +0000

After a short chat with Rebecca (aka Miss604), I decided that I was going to liveblog the event. She is also liveblogging, so mosey over to her blog for another perspective.

I was quite excited about the prospect, since I hadn’t met Darren Barefoot in person, nor the other two speakers. There is a bonus guest speaker. UPDATE – Food sponsored by WriteImage, additional sponsorship by Communicopia and location sponsorship by WorkSpace.

5.58pm – Rebecca has suggested that I live-blog and I accept, and surprisingly (and happily) my laptop is not having issues. I manage to get Wi-Fi and here I go!

6:10pm Owen works for a recent start-up in West Vancouver. They are organizing an event for Earth Hour (turn off all unnecessary power and lights). He mentioned that the biggest event will be in Toronto, but there are others here in Vancouver. Owen’s company does energy information management. Currently, they are working on a project that will monitor the energy savings that will be gained from Vancouver people participating in Earth Hour. Owen’s firm is also helping UBC measure opportunities for greenhouse gas reduction (if I understood correctly).

Ron Williams @ HappyFrog.

6:15pm Ron is “the token non-geek” of the evening. He’s going to talk about “Why HappyFrog?”. Live for about 5 months. What brought Ron to do what he did? He described the larger perspective that brought him to do this. He first looked at his Ecological Footprint (a concept developed by UBC professor William Rees and his PhD student, now professor Mathis Wackernagel, that measures how much land would we need to use per capita – so you’d need a few planet Earths to sustain a world-wide North American life-style). By the way, if you want to calculate your own ecological footprint, you can do so here.

RAUL’S NOTE – I was quite impressed at the degree to which Ron understands the whole issue around the problems with non-sustainable consumption, with the fact that the planet has a limited carrying capacity, and that our consumption patterns are unsustainable.

6.23 pm – Ron’s speech continues. These non-sustainable mega-trends should make us look at the level of dislocation and disruption – when will we realize how much impact we have? So, this is how Ron understood the world, and he wanted to create an independent media project – that’s how HappyFrog came to exist.

HappyFrog is harnessing social media, creating a resource that is locally-based, it is a hyper local directory of about 2000 businesses and non-for-profit that are British-Columbia-based. It’s based on Drupal. Basically a parallel to the 100-mile diet (“the 100-mile economic diet”) – socially responsible businesses with emerging commitments to sustainability. Everything is in your own backyard, the scale is different. He also commented about Epic – the Sustainable Living Show. They’ll going to put up a team of social media.

RAUL’S COMMENTS – Ron did a great presentation that was (surprisingly) non-geeky and without a laptop. Great behind-the-scenes description of how he came to be inspired to create HappyFrog. I am glad I now know more about HappyFrog.

Rex Turgano @ The Green Pages.

6.35 pm Rex is the Creator of The Green Pages website. In a nutshell, it is an environmental, Canadian website dedicated to sharing stories and information. They’ve been operating for about 10 years now. (RAUL’S NOTE – Love the layout!). In 1996, Rex started off at Univ of Waterloo, and apparently this idea came to fruition at the U Waterloo dorm. From their website:

thegreenpages.ca is a grassroots web phenomenon that started in the dorm room of an environmental studies student at the University of Waterloo. It began with a large collection of links and then grew into an interactive portal highlighting the latest social-economic, environment-related news, events, and stories from across Canada. The site acted as what is known today as a “blog” and created opportunities for students, organisations, and community groups to voice their opinions and share information. Today, the web site is a virtual “library” of ideas, success stories, snap-shots from the past, and inspiration.

RAUL’S COMMENT – At The Green Pages, you can browse by category and by region (e.g. if you want to check out British Columbia stuff you can check it out using a pull-down menu. I insist, I love the design. It was also nice to see him describe the actual evolutionary process (e.g. how he went from composing HTML on Netscape Communicator to adding discussion groups on Yahoo! and experimenting with logos, and animated GIFs – Rex is really funny, I have to say. Very good presenter.

Rex was frustrated and tired of forwarding stuff to people who were asking him the inevitable question “hey where do I find this environmentally-related stuff?“. He commented about a website that he used to go back through time, Archive.org. Holy smokes, you can go back SO many years! In 2004, his website evolved into a portal (similar to Google).

Over the years, The Green Pages has supported a LOT of organizations (and catalogued them, with the help of a few volunteers). The site kept growing and growing, and people started sending books (Rex, can I get a few of those? hehehehe). Apparently people thought that he was this huge organization (hopefully one day, Random Thoughts of a Student of the Environment gets me some free books!).

RAUL’S NOTE – It’s kind of nice to see that there are other people who have studied graduate programs in Environmental Studies (although at a different university – I confess that would *love* to be a professor at Rex’s alma mater – the Faculty of Environmental Studies at University of Waterloo). If I get a tenure-track position with FES, that’d be a dream job! Anyhow… I digress… back to Rex’s talk.

In 2003-2005 he became frustrated with information overload and partner frustration. So by then he realized that he could blog and that the social interaction was already built in. Thus began the “Greater Conversion” as Rex called it. He wanted a fluid site (RAUL’S NOTE – It is fluid, Rex, don’t change it!)

Numbers: 15 blogs, 10331 entries, 3000 links, 11,000 visits per month, circa 500 per day, 45+ volunteers across Canada. This is a part-time gig, with no funding. GreenPages as a media outlet, enviro-buddy, etc. They’re focusing on the latest technology (WordPress, Drupal, etc.), breaking down content, some social media technology (Upcoming.org, and Facebook – RAUL’S NOTE – I *hate* Facebook but *love* Upcoming.org – it links to my Google Calendar!)

Darren Barefoot – Associated with DeSmogBlog

6.51pm - It’s Darren Barefoot’s turn! Man, does he *ever* have a great voice! He should be a radio anchor, because his voice just filled this room. Very excited about the prospect of seeing him speak and meet with him in person for the first time!

Capulet (the company that Darren is a partner of) started to work with DeSmogBlog – he is NOT using PowerPoint (I’m very impressed) – using a very unusual but cool . Widgets – a widget is a “little bit of functionality on a website”. They made a desktop widget. Folks at DeSmogBlog – display the carbon footprint of the planet. Capulet helped DeSmogBlog create apparently the first carbon footprint widget out there.

Darren talked about Digg (ok, so I’m a non-geek blogger and yes I was excited to hear about Digg). It’s kind of a bookmarking service. DeSmogBlog is strongly and aggressively tackling bad climate-change skeptic PR.

They (DeSmogBlog and Capulet) have also engaged blogger outreach (I admit that I didn’t want to get involved with DeSmogBlog for a long time due to my work commitments, but now as they are shifting, I might want to get involved with them – even if climate change isn’t like full-on my research area, but I’ve studied the literature long enough). They also created a newsletter (old-school).

So it seems that DeSmogBlog also tried to do YouTube videos (but apparently didn’t really take off very much – the ones that worked, very few). According to DB, Facebook and MySpace bad for advertising (RAUL’S COMMENT – YAY Me! I don’t have to sign on to FB nor MS either – no source of revenue!!).

Question from the audience – Did you consider podcasting? – DB – Not really… they wanted to do some videos, but it is a lot more work that a blog post. 5 blog posts take less time than one podcast (RAUL’S NOTE – I agree. I love podcasts, though – but I am not sure they’d work that well at propagating climate-change stuff).

Question from the audience – what were the metrics of success of the site? – DB – Simple: more links, more visits, etc. Google Analytics, Technorati (which doesn’t seem to be all that great right now).

7.10 pm - The event is basically over. I think I’m going to stay for a bit and/or join DB at Steamworks (head over there if you feel like it!)

UPDATE – In a previous post I had already suggested that I would attend this event, but I can’t stop giving myself pats in the back for doing it because it was REALLY fun, and I got to chat to a number of people (which I’ll mention in my next post).

Upcoming environmental events in Vancouver (March/April)

Raul — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 02:38:05 +0000

I usually advertise numerous environmental events, but I rarely have the time to attend all of them (not because I don’t want to, but recently I haven’t attended because I have been sick). Anyhow, there are a number of events you might want to check out in the next few weeks.

(WordPress question – how do I create a bulleted list?)

Green Drinks Vancouver March 2008 is happening tomorrow night (March 19th, 2008 – after 5.45pm @ Steamworks). I am almost betting that they’ll have the Green Drink tomorrow. Meet environmentally-minded folks in a relaxed environment. Brought to you by Green Drinks and Connecting Environmental Professionals. I *might* attend this one, but just for about an hour and very early (e.g. around 6 pm) because I am still sick and I am not really in the mood to socialize.

Metro Vancouver wants your input on their Solid and Liquid Waste Strategy. As those are two areas of specialty of mine, this is one meeting I will not be missing (I shouldn’t have missed those Eco-Density ones nor the Regional Planning Breakfasts and stuff, but hey my dance card is extremely full!). Brought to you by MetroVancouver, who seemingly still use the GVRD server. Don’t ask ME why, go and ask THEM!

Next month’s Sustainability Breakfast will be on Living Buildings (aka Green Buildings taken to the extreme), April 10th, 2008. Even though these events have free food and are organized by someone who is an actual real life friend of mine, for the life of me I’m almost *never* able to make it to these. I will really try to show up to this one, though.

Once I find out how to create the “bulleted list” I might update this post. If you know of any environmentally-related events coming up and you want them advertised, let me know.

Upcoming event – Spring Living Fair

Raul — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 07:47:03 +0000

Living around the Main Street area (what some people call SoMa, South Main) but really should be still part of Mount Pleasant) helps find fun events (as if my social life wasn’t busy enough!)… Anyhow, fresh off the Green Living Show comes the Spring Living Fair (neither event is connected to each other).

From the Spring Living Fair website you can see when and where it’s going to take place. And one additional incentive… it’s free!

When: March 8th, 2008 (remember, it’s also International Women’s Day)

Where: Heritage Hall, Main and 15th Avenue.

From: 10 am To: 6 pm.

Will I be there? Potentially. I am not planning to wake up early on Saturday, I can tell you that much

Upcoming events – International Women’s Day

Raul — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 01:02:00 +0000

Mark your calendars! March 8th is International Women’s Day. It is a date to celebrate the contributions of women to society in all realms (social, political, economics, natural sciences, etc.). For me, it is slightly bizarre to have such a day (and before I get bombarded with negative feedback, let me explain why).

Let me start with the most important woman in my life, my Mom. My mother is highly educated, undertook her PhD in political science when she already had grown kids, has lived abroad, maintains a leadership position in her school and has many amazing qualities. The thing is, to me, that has always been completely normal. We (my brothers and I) were raised in such a way that gender really didn’t matter. All that mattered was that she was(and is) amazing, period.

Then, let me continue with my friends. As some of you may know, my first degree is in chemical engineering. Traditionally, there has been a distinct absence of women engineers (I have observed this trend particularly in three fields: chemical engineering, mechanical engineering and civil engineering). But the funny thing is (and to my male peers’ surprise) that the top six students in my class were the only five women in the class and yours truly. So much for “male superiority in the engineering field”!

As a matter of fact, the person who made me fall in love with chemical engineering itself is a woman (the most beautiful professor of Separation Processes, and Process Control ever). Fashionable, trendy, and extremely bright. To this day, AMVG and I remain really close friends (we became friends after I finished my undergraduate). She was by and large my favorite instructor in undergraduate.

The vast majority of my girlfriends are experts in their fields, some of them in non-’traditionally female’ areas. They are urban planners and epidemiologists, geographers, computer geeks and nurses, project managers and strategy consultants, specialists in environmental issues and policy analysts. I have them in all flavors and sizes (and all of them astoundingly beautiful, but that’s just a bonus) and they’re all leaders in their fields. And some of my best former students are women!

Of course, I am not about to suggest that there haven’t been historically gender disparities. I was quickly scanning a report online mentioning that women engineers were earning 70 cents per dollar earned by their male counterparts (sorry that I don’t provide the link, I was just quickly browsing and didn’t save the source). Income disparity is an unfortunate but real fact of life.

So please join me in celebrating the achievements of women and their contributions to humanity. And to all my girlfriends, sisters-in-law, nieces, fellow bloggers, former students, female colleagues, and former professors: Happy International Women’s Day!

Upcoming climate-change and environmental events in Vancouver

Raul — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 01:33:00 +0000

Well, hello sunshine! Today was a beautiful day and thus I had a chance to enjoy the sun for a bit. Worked from home for most of the day, although felt really sleepy at times. Anyhow, for those of you enviro-folks in town, here are some events you can hit.

Via one of my close friends, here is a link to a lecture that will be given tomorrow by Sheila Watt-Cloutier, sponsored by the Terry Project at UBC, on The Right to be Cold: The Global Significance of Arctic Climate Change. This will be at the(Life Science Institute, West Atrium, Friday Feb 29th, 12noon. If you don’t know who Ms. Watt-Cloutier is, she was one of the top nominees for the 2007 Nobel Prize (which ultimately went to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).

Via Keira-Anne’s blog, I found out about the Green Living Show (February 29th to March 2nd, 2008). She is going to head there on Friday with Rebecca (aka Miss604) so if you want to check the show AND hang out with two beautiful women, I’d suggest you head there on Friday. I plan to go on Saturday morning as I have a pretty packed social weekend, and most likely I’ll go with Phaedra and probably my friend HZ. I wish I could go on Friday but I’m totally booked (so blog updates unlikely until Saturday afternoon).

Via VTACC (Vancouver’s Taxpayers Against Climate Change), I found out about a lecture by Dr. Marc Jaccard on “Lessons for the Future from Canada’s Climate Policy Failures“, Tuesday March 4th, at 7pm at the Canadian Memorial Church (15th and Burrard). From VTACC website, here’s the abstract:

Decades of climate policy under different governments have failed to reduce or substantially slow the growth in greenhouse gas emissions in this country. How has this happened? How can we get out of this muddle so that Canada can do its share in the fight against global warming?
Go here for more information

And, from a colleague of mine, here are the details for a special lecture at SFU Harbour Centre by Professor Michael Grubb: ‘Cutting carbon in Europe to 2020: competitiveness, emissions trading and beyond’, Room 2200 (RBC Dominion Securities Executive Meeting Room), Monday March 3rd, 2008 – 9:00am to 10:30am (yes this is a morning seminar).

I am probably going to attend all four. Hope you can make it to at least one of them!

Upcoming events – BC Anti-bullying Day

Raul — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:24:00 +0000

Given that the Government of the Province of British Columbia has proclaimed February 27th, 2008 as BC Anti-Bullying Day, and a number of organizations (like CUPE) and public figures (including Christy Clark) are encouraging the public to wear pink (by the way, great website from the CKNW), I figured that, in celebration of BC Anti-Bullying Day, I’m should share with the blogosphere an intimate look at a part of my life I wish I had never had to endure, and how I dealt with it.

When I was in primary school, I used to be as tiny as a midget. For some bizarre reason, I started growing when I was 17. I am not kidding you. Nowadays, at a my 5’11″ (6′ on a good day) and 170 pds, it’s kind of hard to mess around with me (well, my height/weight and my martial arts and street fighting training kind of help). Unless, of course, you’re 6’7 and super strong… but I digress.

So back then, when I was short and wore glasses, I was bullied by taller, stronger young men. After all, “I was in an all-boys school and had to learn to fight” (their words, not mine). Many, many times, my brothers (particularly my eldest brother) had to intervene and calm some of these bullies. But I couldn’t have my older brothers always protect me. I had to learn to do it myself.

I have always been privileged in that my parents have always been my best friends, so I needed to tell them what was going on at school. After careful deliberation we (my parents and I) decided that I needed to take martial arts training. Not because I enjoyed kicking people’s butts, but because I wanted to be able to defend myself should I ever need to do so. As a young kid (and to this day), I always tended to be extremely sensitive, emotional and sweet. These were not traits that aggressive bullies would take in a positive light. But I didn’t want to be a victim or a target. I wanted to empower myself and be able to break through to these bullies.

One day (several months after I had started my martial arts training), a guy who had bullied me for a long while started picking a fight with me (Gustavo was his name), right before school was over. I was faced with the choice I never wanted to face – “do I fight or do I run?” I decided it was time to fight back. I grabbed Gustavo’s arm and applied a judo move on him. I threw him over the top of my shoulder and, strategically, forced him to land with his back towards a trash can. I did this purposefully as I knew that would immobilize him completely. He started crying on the spot and ran away from me as fast as he could.

My classmates were astonished. “How could Raul, the tiny little midget, defend himself now? What happened to him?” From that moment onwards, I never looked back, and never had to face another bully. The word was out: Raul was never going to let anyone else pick on him ever, ever again.

So, in celebration of British Columbia’s Anti-Bullying Day, I am going to wear a pink t-shirt to the office tomorrow (Wednesday February 27th, 2008). I encourage you to do so, too. Because bullying is simply wrong, and because once upon a time, I had to fight back too. And if you know someone who is being bullied, there are resources out there that can help him/her deal with it.

Upcoming event – Green Drinks (Vancouver) Wednesday Feb 20th

Raul — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 21:11:00 +0000

I have been so insanely busy that I have missed many of the most recent Green Drinks events. However, this coming Wednesday I am NOT busy and thus will definitely be going to Green Drinks. This is a gathering of enviro-minded folks from ENGOs, academia, industry, etc. Yes, there are actually ‘green drinks’ on tap.

From the Green Drinks Vancouver website:

There’s no agenda or other formality – it’s just a chance to meet regularly to chat, debate, socialize and connect with others in Vancouver who are passionate about environmental and sustainability issues. Whether you’re keen on green building & design, sustainable energy, organic gardening, or something else entirely, you’ll find like-minded people. Please feel free to bring your business cards, brochures, info sheets, magazines and newsletters to put on a table for people to take away with them. Do make sure to take whatever you left on the table with you when you leave.

I suggest that you check it out. I am not generally a fan of Steamworks, but it’s a great pub for this kind of gathering. Plus, I always end up bumping into lots of friends of mine from the environmental field (kind of the point, isn’t it?). Plus, if you end up going, you’ll get to see my megawatt smile

Upcoming event – Vancouver Blogger Meetup January 2008

Raul — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:28:00 +0000

I have been trying to attend one of the Vancouver Blogger Meetups and haven’t had a chance to do it (been out of town, triple-booked, etc.) At any rate, I just checked the link (it says the event is full, but I don’t care – I am still going to show up). Here are the details, as shown on the Vancouver Blogger Meetup website.

When: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 at 7:00 PM
Where: Our Town Cafe, 245 E. Broadway, Vancouver , BC V5T 1W4

I hope to see a few of the bloggers whom I have chatted with on email there.

Upcoming event – Vancouver’s Next Gay Top Model

Raul — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 05:22:00 +0000

I first heard about this event from the Georgia Straight, then I saw a link at VancouverVibe.ca, and finally I decided to check out the website. Something that really made me happy was to find out that the organizers are raising funds for an important charity: Friends for Life.

This past summer, I Blogathoned in support of ‘A Loving Spoonful’ (I doubt they actually knew that I did this to raise funds for them, but quite frankly I don’t care – I did it because I thought it was a worthy cause). More information about Friends for Life:

The Vancouver Friends For Life Society serves as a catalyst to enhance the wellness of individuals living with a life threatening illness by providing complementary and alternative health and support services.

Friends For Life was built on the belief that no one should have to face the many challenges of serious illness alone. Our philosophy recognizes the connection between the mind and body with a view towards treating the whole person – the mind, body and soul – rather than treating the illness alone. [Friends for Life Society website]

This is a worthy cause and of course I encourage you to participate. It should be fun. The list of contestants (with pictures and all) can be found here.

Upcoming event – Climate change talks organized by VTACC (Vancouver)

Raul — Fri, 25 Jan 2008 04:20:00 +0000

Voters Taking Action Against Climate Change (VTACC) is a non-partisan group that is organizing a series of talks on climate change that will take place within the next few weeks. I don’t know the first couple of speakers, but I do know Dr. Mark Jaccard and he’s a brilliant speaker. Many people may disagree with his views, but he is certainly a rigorous scholar who does good social science and that should not be discounted.

From the VTACC website (all talks take place at the Canadian Memorial United Church at 7 pm, on Burrard and 15th Avenue):

Global Warming: More than Hot Air?
Dr. David Chapman, Professor of Geophysics, Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Utah
Tuesday, February 5th, 7 pm.

Global Warming as Spiritual Crisis and Opportunity
Bruce Sanguin, Minister, Canadian Memorial United Church
Tuesday February 19th, 7 pm.

Lessons for the Future from Canada’s Climate Policy Failures
Dr. Mark Jaccard, Professor at the School of Resources and Environmental Management at SFU
Tuesday March 4th, 7 pm.

I am a bit surprised about the fact that very little has been talked about the politics of Canadian climate change policy (that is, about the political climate in Canada and how that is impacting implementation of post-Kyoto commitments). Would be worth examining, I think. And let me know if you attend any of the talks. You’re even welcome to guest-blog!

For more information about VTACC:

VTACC is a group of Kitsilano neighbours who are deeply concerned about global warming and want to mobilize people to get engaged politically to call for immediate and deep reductions in emissions.[VTACC website]

Upcoming event – Ecodensity workshops (Vancouver)

Raul — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 22:14:00 +0000

It annoys me to no end that important events aren’t promoted and/or broadcasted in mainstream media. Even though I was alerted to these workshops by an email from my friend J, I didn’t see it in the news. Thus, I make it my duty to try and promote local, Vancouver-based events whenever I can. This is one of those important dates you shouldn’t miss.

Ecodensity workshops will take place in the remainder of January 2008 and February 2008. From the City of Vancouver’s Ecodensity website, here are the dates of the next workshops. If you want to meet me in person, I’ll most likely be at the January 30th (unless, of course, Vancouver Blogger Meetup is the same day – which then would mean that I’d have to attend another date for the workshop).

The workshop dates are as follows:[City of Vancouver Ecodensity website]

Saturday, January 26, 1 – 3:30 pm
Van Dusen Gardens, Floral Hall
5251 Oak Street
Map

Wednesday, January 30, 7 – 9:30 am
Polish Community Centre
4015 Fraser Street
Map

Sunday, February 3, 1 – 3:30 pm
Croatian Cultural Centre
3250 Commercial Drive
Map
*Chinese facilitation available

Tuesday, February 12, 7 -9:30 pm
St. James Hall
3214 West 10th Avenue
Map

Saturday, February 16, 1:30 – 4 pm
Chinese Cultural Centre
50 East Pender Street
Map
*Chinese facilitation available

Please RSVP to ecodensity@vancouver.ca

Let me note that the locations for the workshops are fairly low-to-medium density. I wonder how would West End or Yaletown residents react to Eco-Density workshops. Same thing goes for areas like Shaughnessy or Dunbar. At any rate, I think you should participate, and feel free to spread the word.

4TheRcrd is officially launching tonight!

Raul — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 02:37:00 +0000

Jark is the strong force behind 4TheRcrd. Tonight (Dec 29th, 2007) is the launch party at The Wild Coyote, co-hosted by Phreshvibe. Details can be found here. I like the concept and I’m very much looking forward to seeing great stuff on the blog/magazine. Sleek and sexy design and layout, I think 4TheRcrd.com will be a good addition to the blogosphere.

I am so sorry I’m not there for the launch, but well, can you blame me? Beautiful views, gorgeous architecture and warm and sunny weather… I’ll be back in Vancouver soon enough! Congratulations to the 4TheRcrd.com team!

Upcoming event – Christmas on Cambie

Raul — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:54:00 +0000

For some reason, I always seem to be behind every other bloggers on the news front, so I am a bit afraid to bring something up to people’s attention just because I think it has been covered in more depth and better by other bloggers (see just for a few examples, Rebecca on the Vancouver mascots, Paul on the non-usability of iMove and John on the challenges faced by Cambie merchants).

However, I think this time I may have some very fresh news for you loyal Vancouver and non-Vancouver readers. From the owners of Trixi’s, one of the most fabulous crepe places this side of Paris, I got the following email:

Dear Trixi’s Customers,

It’s been a while that you have heard from us. We have some great news. As of Sunday, December the 2nd, the trench will be paved over and cross streets from 16th to 19th will be open again. In order to celebrate the progress of the Canadaline construction in the Village the Cambie Village Business Association together with Canadaline are inviting friends and neighbours to “Christmas on Cambie” on Sunday, December 9th from 12 pm to 5 pm.

For more info see http://www.cambievillage.com/.

We are very excited about this and hope you will come out to visit sometime soon.

We look forward to seeing many of our customers again and serving you one (or two) of our delicious crepes.

Ernst and Beatrix

I love going to Trixi’s and have been a loyal customer for almost two years now. And I am also a strong supporter of businesses on Cambie, both promoting events and being a customer of Cambie businesses (even if it means having to navigate and negotiate street intersections, etc.) So I would strongly encourage you all to go on December 9th. Furthermore, since I will not be in Canada by then, would readers please go back to this post and leave a comment with your experience at the event? Thank you.

[Note] The link for Trixi’s is actually a Canada Line link, but they are promoting Trixi’s, for which I didn’t find a website. But you can look at the Cambie Village Business Association website for more info.

Upcoming event – November Vancouver Blogger Meetup

Raul — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 17:27:00 +0000

Back in September (holy smokes how time flies!) I contacted Rebecca and asked her about the Vancouver Blogger Meet-up (VBM). I first read John‘s and Rebecca’s blogs about one or two years ago (not sure) when I read a review of the VBM (written by Rebecca) held at The Whip (on Main and 6th). I’d been really looking forward to attending one of these, particularly since the September one was going to be fairly close to where I live (one short bus ride).

However, this month’s VBM is scheduled on November 8th at 7pm at the Chateau Granville Lounge, and sadly, I can’t attend YET AGAIN! I have volleyball games and there is no chance in hell I can teleport myself to my games on time. Those Star Trek geeks really should get on it and do something about teleporting!

This is getting ridiculous, since I correspond with lots of local bloggers via email and commentary and I haven’t met up with any of them in person (with the exception of Carolina whom I danced with recently at Atlantis and Jark from Beyond Robson, with whom I’ve had a chat and a coffee at Lugz).

And if there’s a VBM in December, I’m going to miss it since I’m going out of the country for over a month. Dang it! On other news, Darren Barefoot is asking local bloggers to test drive a Brother printer. Rebecca and John are test-driving this beautiful printer, and I’d be tempted to join.

Upcoming event – 2 Degrees of Fire and Desire: A Theatrical Inquiry into Climate Change

Raul — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 22:46:00 +0000

As a former actor (I say former since I haven’t really done much acting in Canada in the past few years), I am always looking forward to events that showcase local theatrical talent. This is one of those opportunities, and it combines many of my personal interests.

Are you worried about climate change? Do you want to learn more and educate yourself about the challenges Canada and British Columbia are facing? What better way to learn than through non-orthodox methods? Going to see a play seems like a very non-orthodox way to learn about the climate change debate.

2o of Fear and Desire: A Theatrical Inquiry into Climate Change is being put on by Headlines Theatre, hosted by Rhizome Cafe and hopefully will be well attended. It will take place on November 8th, 9th and 10th at 7 pm. Admission is by donation.

From Headlines Theatre’s website we can read a description of the performance:

The play will tell a story in which characters are struggling with the complex issues emerging from climate change. [Headlines Theatre]

I am always amazed by great, innovative and non-orthodox ideas. I will be going to the play and probably will write a review, but you should seriously consider attending. The more I read about the kind of work that Headlines Theatre is doing, the more impressed I am. This is clearly well thought out and intends to have an impact on people’s lives.

One of the things I found more exciting about this project is that they have done a variety of other work, including examining the issue of crystal meth addiction, immigration, racism, bullying, etc. Had I known a few years ago about Headlines Theatre, I probably would have gotten involved myself. Not that it’s too late though!

UPDATE – I just remembered that I have volleyball on Thursday November 8th, so the only day I can attend is November 9th, so with no further ado, if you want to join me, you’ll have to show up on the 9th…

Upcoming event – Homelessness Action Week 2007

Raul — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 10:15:00 +0000

The connections between urban sprawl, sustainability, extreme poverty, homelessness and unaffordability of housing are undeniable. The residential housing market in Vancouver has grwon stronger in the past few years. However, it is also undeniable that social housing is a need in the Metro Vancouver area. The Greater Vancouver Regional Steering Committee on Homelessness has designated October 15th to 21st, 2007 as Homelessness Action Week.

While there are many being organized around Metro Vancouver, you can check the Vancouver events here. There are two specific ones to which I would like to call your attention (from their website):

Friday October 19: Sandwich and Blanket Handout to Street Homeless
When: 4–6 p.m.
Where: Broadway Youth Resource Centre, 691 E. Broadway

Saturday, October 20: Under One Umbrella
A community service fair for people who are homeless, street-involved, or living in poverty in Grandview Woodlands and surrounding areas. In addition to services, there will be food and entertainment. For more information, please contact the Grandview Woodlands Drug and Alcohol Coalition at:
T: 604.215.3907
When: 10:00 AM – 3:00 PM
Where: Aboriginal Friendship Centre, 1607 E. Hastings St, Vancouver

I strongly believe that sustainability and social responsibility starts at home. Thus, I would like to invite you dear readers to partake in one or more of these events. Because everybody has a right to a life with dignity and a home.

Upcoming event – National Coming Out Day (Vancouver)

Raul — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 07:15:00 +0000

Coming out of the closet (in the sexual orientation kind of way) means opening up a whole can of worms when it comes to acceptance by mainstream society, job security and the existence of glass ceilings, conforming to societal norms and dealing with potential rejection. The reason behind National Coming Out Day seems (in my interpretation) a celebration of that moment in a person’s life when it becomes important to embrace a whole identity, not just portions of it.

I had heard about National Coming Out Day but I hadn’t seen any ads for celebrations. However, it appears as though Xtra West Vancouver does have some information about an upcoming event. From their website:

The Centre presents an evening of storytelling to celebrate National Coming Out Day. Includes improv comedy with Tops & Bottoms and guest speakers Kevin McKeown, Nicky Phillips and others. Light refreshments. Free admission. Coast Plaza Hotel, 1763 Comox Street, 7-9 pm. 604.684.5307.

The Centre, for those of you who don’t know it, is a community resource run by volunteers mostly that provides services and support to the Vancouver queer community (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered and two-spirited). From their website:

The Centre is a community resource providing support, health and social services, and public education for the well being of lesbians, gay men, transgendered and bisexual people and their allies in Vancouver throughout B.C.

The Centre is committed to building pride and acceptance of diversity and to mitigating the impact of homophobia, heterosexism, transphobia and biphobia.

The Centre welcomes and values all people regardless of race, religion, sex, national or ethnic origin, marital status, family status, colour, age, disability, pardoned conviction, sexual orientation, gender identity, and source of income.

The event organized by The Centre at the Coast Plaza should be a lot of fun. And to read an advertisement by KPMG celebrating National Coming Out Day on the Xtra West, this is really outstanding. I am not that surprised since I thought that KPMG has always been a very progressive firm (not that I know them all too well, but if you think about the fact that they have a Director of Diversity and that he gave a talk at an OutRights conference, it speaks volumes!).

I quote from KPMG’s ad (I don’t have the website, otherwise I’d link to it):

KPMG is committed to building a workplace that fosters diversity and inclusiveness. We salute our colleagues who have chosen to live their lives openly with pride, and support those who continue to struggle. You are not alone.

Other firms that have shown commitment to equality, diversity and supporting queer causes include VanCity and TD Canada Trust (from those that I have seen, I might have missed a few other companies). I had previously read about VanCity’s and TD Canada Trust’s commitment to diversity here (Nathaniel Christopher’s website). Kudos to these firms!

Upcoming Event – Blog Action Day – Oct 15, 2007

Raul — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:11:00 +0000

So a few months ago, I came across Blog Action Day. I think it was through Darren Barefoot’s blog. At any rate, this is the 411 on Blog Action Day, from their own website:

Blog Action Day — On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind. In 2007 the issue is the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. Our aim is to get everyone talking towards a better future.

The whole idea behind Blog Action Day is pretty neat. And since my specialty is environmental issues (and the title of my blog is ‘Random Thoughts of a Student of the Environment’), it’s kind of intuitive that I’ll be blogging about the environment. I plan to write about issues that I haven’t talked about in previous posts (such as energy, e-waste, green weddings, etc.) and hopefully will come up with other ideas.

It will not be exactly like Blogathon 2007, where I had to post every 30 minutes for 24 hours. Both Rebecca @ Miss604 and yours truly did Blogathon this past July, and I am not about to repeat the experience. It was painful! But it was lots of fun and many people donated to my cause. Nevertheless, this is a one-in-a-lifetime kind of blogathon

However, this next October 15th, every post I will write will be dedicated to environmental issues. If everything goes according to plan and I manage to get all my work done, I’ll be blogging about once an hour for about 12 hours, but can’t promise I’ll have the energy to do so. At any rate, if you are a blogger, I encourage you to sign on. And if you’re a reader, I encourage you to leave a comment on this (or any of my future posts) with ideas for blog posts, commentary, whatever.

One small caveat though – all comments in my blog are moderated, so if you post and it doesn’t appear, then it’s probably awaiting moderation!

Upcoming event – Alex Alegria, celebrate Mexican Independence Day

Raul — Sat, 15 Sep 2007 17:27:00 +0000

So I did find some scoop. Apparently, Alex Alegria (creator of an all-girls Mariachi band) and his group are giving a performance at La Casa del Artista in Mount Pleasant. You can check the Upcoming webpage for details. You can find La Casa del Artista at 150 East 3rd. Avenue (3rd. between Main and Quebec, if my geography doesn’t fail me). I am sure it will be fun.