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Blogging as a learning exercise (Blogging 201)

Raul — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 20:42:43 +0000

I blog about a variety of topics that I find relevant to myself and to my readers. Some of these topics may or may not be intellectually challenging, but they are always things that I am interested in learning about. For example, recently I wrote about the misconceptions of calling tactical deployment ‘a strategy’. The reason why I did that was because I wanted to clarify these ideas. I had them clear in my mind.

I wanted to share my thought processes and undertake writing a blog entry as a learning exercise. Same with the post where I expand on the idea of dissent in social media. So, my Blogging 201 tip is – find a topic you want to learn more about or where you want to describe an idea in more detail and then blog about it. Doing the research and putting your thoughts in black and white will help strengthen your blogging practice.

A house or an apartment? I prefer a house

Raul — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:45:03 +0000

Given my status as a scholar of urban sustainability and environmental policy, it almost seems like heresy for me to say that, given the choice between having a house or an apartment, I would, without much doubt, choose a house. I was raised in a house most of my childhood. I was used to having a huge backyard, to play in my parents’ garage as well. Having a house was a standard in my early years.

Then I went to university, and I moved from having a house to having a room in a house (shared accommodation) and then to an apartment with a roommate. For a few months, I lived alone. And I liked it. But I noticed (when I was in undergrad) how much I needed additional space. I didn’t have a proper dining room, I didn’t have a backyard, I didn’t have much of a kitchen.

Right now, I live in a very small one-bedroom ground-level basement apartment. It does what I need it to do (and I do have a backyard, and a front yard, and I’m close to Main Street).

But having just house-sat for a few days, and having had the luxury of sleeping in one floor, working in the basement, and having guests for dinner in the main floor, made me really yearn for the space that a large, spacious house would give me. Also, bear in mind I’m single and without kids, so the space is reduced once you factor in other people. Still, despite the trend for urban density, and my interest in lowering the ecological footprint of people in Vancouver, this past weekend reminded me why people seem to be reluctant to increasing density. Because they may feel that they need all these amenities in their own home.

Do you prefer a house or an apartment? The prices of real estate in Vancouver are insane, though! The houses I saw in Parksville (some photos in this entry) were HUGE and the price? $ 238,000 for a two bedroom with an alcove and two bathrooms, plus space for garage. I’m not kidding.

Tell me your favorite brunch spot in Vancouver (or wherever you are)

Raul — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 08:44:43 +0000

I’m a total brunch addict. There, I said it. I think it was the fact that I was raised by a woman who made some of the best breakfasts in the world (my Mom).

Mom used to say that breakfast was the most important meal of the day. And she made sure we ate fruit, eggs, beans, coffee, juice.

So my question to you is – what is your favorite brunch spot? Bonus points if you’re in Vancouver or the Lower Mainland, as it’s highly likely that I’ll be able to visit that spot! I recently went for brunch with Ianiv and Arieanna to the Tomahawk in North Vancouver. It was awesome!

On the value of dissenting opinions

Raul — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 04:27:48 +0000

Dissent is the native activity of the scientist, and it has got him into a good deal of trouble in the last years. But if that is cut off, what is left will not be a scientist. And I doubt whether it will be a man.
Jacob Bronowski

I was raised in a family headed by two lawyers. My parents, both educated in the legal world, taught us the value of dissenting opinions. Not the legal notion, per se (which has its own definition), but the idea that, maybe, someone else who had the opposite opinion to us, just maybe, that person’s opinion was actually right (or it had the possibility of being right)

photo credit: Francis Carnaúba

At the family dinner table, we would engage in profound discussions, which ranged from philosophy to science to politics, to our interpersonal relationships. We grew up immersed in a family culture that valued dissent. Nobody was *always* right, nobody was *always* wrong, but there was always room for a “middle-of-the-ground” approach. At the very least, we were able to express our contrary opinions. I would say something that one or more of my brothers might disagree with, and we *always* waited to hear the opposing view.

We waited to make our argument and try to win over (by convincing the person, not by beating it up) because we (my brothers and I) were raised seeing how arguments between lawyers were constructed: by presenting evidence and leaving it to judges to weigh on the evidence presented.

We (all my 4 brothers and I) went on to study various types of engineering and we adopted the scientific method as a rigorous template for our own work. Three of us went on to do PhDs, where the value of argumentation and presenting evidence in a rigorous manner is even more appreciated (as indicated in the quote with which I started my blog entry).

I value dissent, I really do. I appreciate my friends’ dissenting opinions and I appreciate the feedback when they think my view is not the right one. I disagree with people publicly when I don’t agree with them because I think it’s the right thing to do: to create a debate that allows us all to learn. I always offer my criticism in a respectful manner, though.

I worry, however, that social media is harming rather than enhancing our ability to dissent online for three reasons.

photo credit: antwerpenR

First, the online and public nature of dissenting opinions via online tools may lead to recipient(s) not reacting well to the feedback. I am pretty sure nobody likes to be called out publicly (particularly if they’re sensitive and the ‘calling out’ is worded in a negative way). As my parents said, you can get so much more by using honey rather than using vinegar.

Second, the quick, reflexive nature of 140-characters-long responses does not give the recipient enough time to process the message. We fire quick “FAIL” messages with the assumption that the recipient will understand what we mean by that. Which, most of the cases, is not true.

Third, the attention span of people immersed in social media has been greatly reduced, so people love to read quick, witty bits of 140 characters but nothing more. Long blog entries where an argument can be properly outlined and developed are eschewed in favor of long bursts of tweets.

This is something I’ve been reflecting on for a long, long time. As an academic, I’ve been trained to confront dissenting opinions and offer evidence to support my viewpoint. I *enjoy* it when people disagree with me (and of course, I love winning arguments). I worry, however, that the fast-paced, group-mob mentality will overtake our ability to present cogent and articulate arguments that might be dissenting with the majority’s view. And that *is* something to be worried about. Because a society can’t learn without dissent.

Will dissent be permitted? The answer to that question will determine whether the society is a free society or a fear society.
Natan Sharansky

My BC Ferries trip to Nanaimo

Raul — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:00:39 +0000

I love travelling by ferry. It’s something that probably has to do with the fact that every time I take a ferry I feel like I’ve left behind everything (including teaching, consulting and research responsibilities). That only works, of course, if I am doing a media trip (like the ones I did to Sidney/Salt Spring Island and recently to Parksville). Or a getaway just for fun, like when I went to Victoria with JT for a few days 2.5 years ago (wow, that was a LONG time ago).

I flew into Parksville for Uncorked (thanks to a generous discount by Harbour Air Ltd, and my flight was paid off by the organizers) but on the way back, I wanted to take the ferry. I had travelled to Nanaimo late last year with JT but he drove at the time, and thus I didn’t actually get to see the Horseshoe Bay terminal, nor the Nanaimo one. So, I figured it’d be a good idea to try.

I was kind of surprised at how nice the interior of some areas of the BC Ferries vessel I took on the way back (side note, my travel from Nanaimo back from the Parksville Uncorked was compliments of BC Ferries). I still think ferries need free wifi on board (the whole tethering only works if you have a data plan). Overall, good times. And I’ll admit a weird fixation with the whole idea of looking at the mechanics of how the ferry docks.

Win tickets to Billy Bishop Goes to War (@TheArtsClub)

Raul — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 20:30:43 +0000

As mentioned in my previous posts, I’ve made it my goal in 2010 to continue supporting the local theatre scene, and my friends from The Arts Club have been absolutely amazing in offering my loyal readers pairs of tickets to check out their fantastic productions. I will be at the opening night, and if you win, you will have a chance to be at the premiere too.

Billy Bishop Goes to War is written and composed by John Gray with Eric Peterson, and stars Ryan Beil and Zachary Gray. Directed by Sarah Rodgers, this production takes place from March 25th to April 17th, 2010 at the Granville Island Stage.

There are a number of elements that I like about the possibility of checking out this production. First, the actors are known to me – I’ve seen the work of Ryan Beil before, particularly in Othello and Comedy of Errors (Bard on the Beach). Second, both actors are graduates from UBC. And third, it looks from what I could read like Billy Bishop was considered a Canadian hero.

From the press kit:

This tour de force—featuring a pianist and one actor playing 18 characters—follows the trajectory of Billy Bishop’s career from ne’er-do-well cavalry officer to the nation’s most-decorated soldier. Both comic and dramatic, the myth of the daring WWI flying ace is told through story and song in one of the most popular musicals in the Canadian canon.

To enter the contest, drop a comment on this entry. I will be drawing the winner of the pair of tickets on Monday March 22nd before 6pm (which is World Water Day, so I’ll be drawing them from UBC Robson Square). Good luck! Hope you enjoy it, and if you don’t win, you still can check Billy Bishop Goes to War. For tickets click here.

The @5days_Vancouver campaign for homeless/at risk youth

Raul — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 19:03:13 +0000

photo credit: Danielle Scott

I was alerted by Nathan Tippe to the 5 Days Vancouver campaign, the local branch of the national 5 Days campaign, created by students to raise awareness of the situation of homeless people and at-risk youth. I was more than happy to promote the cause (a) because it is a fundraiser and (b) because the local chapter is being organized by UBC students (and as you know, I teach at UBC).

I feel a bit embarrassed that I just started promoting it now, when the campaign started on March 14th, so I would really appreciate it if you took the time to maybe RT this post and consider donating to their worthy efforts. This is what the UBC students who are running 5 Days Vancouver (@5days_Vancouver on Twitter) are doing:

In March of 2010, a group of students at the University of British Columbia will sacrifice basic necessities in attempt to draw attention to the plight of the homeless in their communities. The event will see these students living without shelter and disposable income for five days, with all food and drink donated to them by passersby on campus. In addition, they will still complete their academic responsibilities and post their experiences on a daily blog.

The event was initiated by a group of students from the University of Alberta in 2005 and has now grown into a national event. Ten universities across Canada participated last year raising over $170,000 for youth at risk across the country, with the University of British Columbia successfully raising $15,000 in March of 2009.

This year, the money raised will go towards supporting Directions Youth Services Center. Directions is an integrated one-stop center that provides a wide range of social, cultural, education, housing, employment and life skills services to homeless and at-risk youth between the ages of 12 and 24. To hear the stories of youth who use the center check out www.inourshoes.ca. Check out the Campaign to see the full list of rules.

Charlie’s Restaurant and Bar (Yaletown)

Raul — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 17:00:06 +0000

I was invited along a few other of my fellow foodie Vancouver bloggers to an evening of dinner and drinks at Charlie’s Restaurant and Bar in Yaletown, thanks to Ryan Bazeley. I found the invite rather compelling – I have always wanted to check a restaurant that would go the way of cooking ‘gourmet pizza’.

Normally, I would be the first one to admit that I’m not a pizza lover. I have lactose intolerance and but I do, on occasion, eat pizza. And I’m more drawn to eating pizza when it’s not your usual fare. After having a chance to sample several of Charlie’s gourmet pizzas, I can confidently say that I’m coming back and having dinner here on my own next time. The cocktails were really well made and the dinner bites we had were really good.

Located in the heart of Vancouver’s hip Yaletown district, Charlie’s Restaurant & Bar is Vancouver’s newest hot spot for gourmet artisan pizza. Live DJs provide a sexy electronic soundtrack as modern Italian fare (made with the freshest seasonal ingredients) is served up alongside creative cocktails and fine wines.

Chef Brian Ritchot offered us a broad variety of samples of his creations, including Short Rib (braised short ribs with caramelized onions and horseradish cream) and Duck (smoked duck with porcini sauce, portabellini mushrooms, tallegio, radicchio and truffle oil). I’m definitely partial to the Short Rib pizza.

In most of my recent reviews, I’ve tried to include pricing, particularly as I think that’s valuable and useful to my readers, and I often compare with other places where I have lunch or dinner. I did the same at Charlie’s, and I found that Charlie’s menu is reasonably priced, in light of the location (1265 Hamilton St, in Yaletown). I would expect the pastas to hover around $18-20, which may end up being a little on the higher-end of the pricing scale. Same with the pizzas (although they are definitely really, really tasty and filling)

The cocktails? Great (and lethal!) – I submitted my Northern Voice 2010 abstracts after a few of those. I had both a Devil (fresh fennel, cloves, cherry syrup, Cazadores Reposado tequila, cherry bitters and ginger beer) and the Cocktail 1265 (blood orange, grapefruit, juniper berries, pine nuts, basil, grapefruit bitters and vodka). Delightful.

All in all, I would definitely come back, the music is great and the location is pretty much unbeatable, walking distance from the Canada Line (Yaletown/Roundhouse) Station. As usual, my friend Karen Hamilton (TinyBites) took amazing photos, which you can admire on her Flickr page. All photographs used are copyright of Karen, but she was kind enough to let me use them.

Disclosure: My dinner and drinks at Charlie’s were complimentary courtesy of Charlie’s. I wasn’t paid to write this review, nor was I required to do so either. The purpose of this media dinner was to introduce several foodie bloggers (myself included) to Charlie’s. In any review I write or publish on my site, I retain editorial control at all times. Should you have any questions/concern feel free to contact me via e-mail through my contact form.

Happy birthday to my brother A!

Raul — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 04:03:24 +0000

My eldest brother A is (like me) an academic (although a more traditional one since he is a tenure-track professor at an American university). We left (him and his family to the US, me to Canada) on the same year, to undertake graduate studies at the same time (he was starting his PhD and I was doing my MBA/MEng). My brother A (the oldest of 5 boys) has always been a role model to me.

While growing up, it was up to him to take care of all of his brothers. To this day, even after being married for over 20 years and having three daughters, he still makes the time to check in with us, his younger brothers, and look after us. Whenever I’ve been in difficult situations (including financial) he’s always been there to offer his help, even if that means making additional sacrifices of his own.

I wish I was half as talented as my brother A, and as hard working as he is. My brother is (and I’m not ashamed to admit it), one of the world’s foremost experts in thermal sciences and an incredibly talented scholar. But make no mistake – my brother is also an incredibly generous human being, with an incredible capacity to love.

Recounting the many reasons why I love my brother A would take a long, long time, but the one thing I would like to say, just as a reminder, is that you’re my role model. When I grow up, I want to be like you. I would want you to be as proud of me as I am of you. Because you (and your daughters and your wife, my sister-in-law), mean the world to me. A, you are the epitome of success and you deserve every good thing that comes your way, because you have worked damn hard to achieve what you’ve accomplished.

I’m pretty sure you’ll be working late this week, on your research, your teaching and taking care of your family as well, but I do hope that you can take a few moments to yourself to enjoy a milestone. You are on this planet one more year and I, for one, am very grateful you are. Remember I love you profoundly.

Your brother,
Rolex

Why I am not at South by South West Interactive #sxsw

Raul — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:30:26 +0000

There is this big techie, geek, music nerd conference called “South by South West Interactive” (SxSWi or for someone, SxSW). It’s happening right now and there are a number of friends of mine from Vancouver (about 80) who are there. Admittedly, going there and having more in-depth, intellectual conversations on technology, society, social media and the like would be attractive.

But, given that I’m trying to get more into the academic conference circuit (in public policy and environmental policy), and given that I’m not a tech guy, despite my strong ties with the tech world, I thought that it wasn’t really a fit for me. Also, it’s not an inexpensive trip (on the contrary, it’s rather expensive). Last year I was invited to cover it as media, but frankly, I wasn’t in a position to do so.

And this year, with my teaching and all my other obligation (primarily the missing class bit), going to SxSW would be insanely wrong. So that’s why I didn’t go. Of those of you who are there, why did YOU go? And for those of you who AREN’T there, why didn’t you? I’m curious…

Bic 3 Comfort Advance Razor review

Raul — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 19:06:41 +0000

First rule of travelling is to never pack at the last minute. Unfortunately that happens to me quite a lot with the super busy schedule I have. So, while I was annoyed that I completely forgot to bring my disposable razors (I was using the Quattro Pro by Schick), I am very grateful to destiny that I did. At the Tigh-Na-Mara, on the first day I arrived, I had to buy a disposable razor (at $ 2.00 it was rather inexpensive).

I just went with the one that was available first hand. I didn’t even know the actual name was “Bic 3 Comfort Advance Razor” (Bic, by the way, has a YouTube channel). All I did was to buy it and pray it would work for me. You see, I have very sensitive skin, and despite the fact that the rest of my body is pretty smooth, my face gets scruffy (I think I should have never start shaving, I now have to do it regularly, and I can even show a 5 o’clock shadow on a bad day). So, shaving for me is a torture.

I have, however, found my favorite disposable razor – the Advance provided me with an extremely smooth shave and I didn’t even get cuts (obviously, if you handle *any* razor wrongly, you will always end up cutting yourself). I can’t complain at all, for what I paid, I have now summarily ditched all my other razors. Finally, I have found a razor that suits me!

Daylight Savings Time

Raul — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 14:35:14 +0000

photo credit: keepitsurreal

This morning I woke up strangely early, and I pondered what was wrong with me. Well, there’s really nothing wrong, it’s just that today is Daylight Savings Time (DST) in North America. We have sprung our clocks forward one hour.

That, unfortunately, doesn’t make me happy because (a) I wake up early as it is every day and (b) yes, it’s lovely to have more daylight but it’s really hard on my body when I lose sleep.

But anyways, in case you didn’t know, you should change the time in your clocks today one hour later (e.g. right now it’s 7.32am because of the DST).

Nixon in China Blogger Night Liveblog

Raul — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 00:39:59 +0000

photo credit: mrplough

I’ll be one of several bloggers tonight who will be at the opening night of Nixon in China, a wonderful opera put together by the Vancouver Opera. I have previously been part of the Blogger Night program and this year I thought it’d be a good idea that other bloggers participated. So when I was asked again to participate, I felt honored.

Furthermore, I’ll be sitting along great friends of mine – Emme Rogers, Darren Barefoot, Gus Fosarolli and Tris Hussey. It’ll be a lot of fun. I am not sure what the hashtag will be, but I’ll make sure that everyone tweets with the same one.

Nixon in China is unlike any other opera I’ve witnessed. Despite the fact that I’ve seen opera sung in Russian, Italian, and German, I had never seen an actual American opera.

The opera focuses on the personalities and personal histories of the six key players, Nixon and his wife Pat, Jiang Qing (spelled “Chiang Ch’ing” in the libretto) and Chairman Mao (”Mao Tse-tung”), and the two close advisors to the two parties, Henry Kissinger and Zhou Enlai (”Chou En-lai”). It is composed of three acts.

The first details the anticipation and arrival of the Nixon cortege and the first meeting and evening in China. The second act shifts focus to Pat Nixon, as she makes tours of rural China, including an encounter at a pig farm. The second scene includes a performance of a Communist propaganda play, in which first Pat Nixon, then her husband and then Jiang Qing, intercede in the performance. The last act chronicles the last night in China, in which the characters dance a foxtrot, their thoughts wandering to their own pasts.

Happy 19th Birthday to my niece E

Raul — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 17:00:30 +0000

Earlier this year, I was reading this blog post written by my friend Shannon and I remember clearly I commented on her post

I’m just warning you that my niece is turning 19 in March and I’m totally plagiarizing this post (changing the name, quite obviously! and adapting some stuff to the fact that she is, well, a girl).

Love you, yo – but you already knew this.

I have lived in this online world, cultivating my online space for almost 4 years (my 4th year blogiversary is at the end of April 2010, in case you wanted to know). I’ve gone from having absolute privacy and writing with a nickname to actually posting photos of myself and my friends on this, my own blog. I’ve navigated the public/private divide for long enough to discern when it’s a good idea to post a photo of mine and when it’s not.

So, in preparation for writing (as I usually do) a “happy birthday E” blog entry, I phoned her (an almost-19 year old) and asked her if she would be comfortable if I posted a photo of her on my site along with the blog entry. That’s something I usually do, and I wanted to hear whether she would feel comfortable in me doing so. She agreed, but after careful consideration, I decided against. I also decided against using her full name on my site. Instead, I’m following my own instinct and gut and I’m keeping it at “E”, without her photo.

But the way in which I pondered about including a photo of E on this entry has the same meaning and the same connotation as my relationship to her – overprotective. Debate can ensue amongst my geeky friends on whether I’m being paranoid in not naming her or sharing a photo of her, and that debate really doesn’t matter to me. I consulted with a good friend before, and he made some good suggestions. But in the end, my over-protectiveness won over my desire to share with the world just how beautiful E is.

That’s who I am, E – your uncle Rolex is an overprotectionist. Sorry!

I loved you even before you were born. I loved you from the moment I knew your Mom was pregnant, and from the moment your Dad and I commented on the fact that we were no longer kids. That we had to grow up as we had a next generation coming up. I loved you from the moment I held you in my arms, and I had the privilege of being one of the very first ones to do so at the hospital.

I wish I were as eloquent as Shannon was with her nephew, and about 50% as funny. But you’ll see, my dear E, it’s all been said and done. I’ve tried with my actions to demonstrate to you that in addition to being your uncle and your Dad’s brother, I’m also your friend. You can count on me today, tomorrow, any way. I’m proud of who you have become and how much you’ve grown.

Am I prepared to see you grow up? Not really. Every time I think about you, I worry. Not because you give me reason to worry, but because I’m overprotective. Because I don’t want anybody to hurt you. Because as your parents know, I love you (as I love your sisters) as if you were my own daughter. And that’s a hell of a lot of loving, you know?

So, I pondered, what could I say that would be of value to you that I haven’t said yet? Well, here it is, my lovely niece. Here’s the full 411 on what I recommend you do:

- Love to the fullest. You may end up having a broken heart, but you’ll survive. I did. I fell in love profoundly, I knew what love was, and then I had it taken away from me. I recovered. And if it happens to you, sweetheart, remember, no matter where I am and how many thousands of kilometres separate us, I will be there for you, in an instant.

- Work hard. This comes without saying. You know the rules my parents imposed on us (being integrated people). My success, sweetheart, is the result of many years of hard work. You know that. Same goes for your parents, and your uncles. There’s no such thing as a free lunch.

- Never lose yourself. It’s easy to fall prey to false pretenses of fame, popularity, and many other “shiny objects”. Don’t fall for that. Remember who you are and what your values are. Never let go of those.

- Remember that family first, friends second. This is particularly important at an age where your friends seem the family you choose. It’s true, they are. But nobody will love you like your family, and of your family, your parents, sisters (and of course, your uncle Rolex!)

- More importantly, remember that no matter what your life choices are, whether they seem not sound or wrong, I will always love you no matter what. I love you for the person you are, the person you’ll grow to be. I love you like the daughter I don’t have yet and I will always have that special place in my heart for you.

And if you ever, ever, ever need me, remember – I’m as far away as a Facebook email or a phone call.

Love you always,

Uncle Rolex.

Muscle memory and competitive training

Raul — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 08:19:08 +0000

photo credit: chrisamichaels

I was having a conversation with my friend Terra over GTalk on how I need to slowly add on to the training regime I have so that my body continues with its pattern of reshaping. I went directly, as you may have read in previous posts, to swimming 3 times a week, running 3 times a week and doing weight training 6 times a week. All of the above, shifting to eating smaller meals (3->6 times a week)

When I was playing competitive volleyball, I was training 6 hours per day on top of all my other activities (dancing, school, volunteering, etc). But admittedly, I don’t have right now the body constitution to go back to that highly-intense regime. I mentioned to Terra that one of the things I really enjoy is how fast my body responds to exercise and training, and she mentioned that one of the reasons why my body responds that fast is precisely because of the muscle memory.

I recall a blog entry on my friend Julie Szabo’s blog on how she could, at some points, still do a double salchow (figure skating), and I remembered that it’s true, muscle memory DOES have a definite positive effect. I was and have always been an athlete, even when I have stopped exercising due to so much work. So, I’m really glad that my muscles’ memory works so well!

Misconceptions on tactical vs strategic thinking

Raul — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:29:22 +0000

photo credit: bdjsb7

When I was starting my MBA (Masters of Business Administration) coursework, I fell in love with economics. As a recent chemical engineering graduate, I was all about the mathematical modeling. After all, I had calculated countless distillation towers, solved hundreds of problems related to chemical plant design. I was (and still am) a fan of formal modeling.

While taking my MBA courses, game theory and microeconomics in general drew me quite strongly and thus I chose a concentration in Strategic Management. For me to fall in love with business strategy and corporate strategy, it helped that I had two of the best professors at then Faculty of Commerce, now Sauder School of Business: Dr. Thomas W. Ross (I was his research assistant for years) and Dr. Helen Michelson (who was my professor for both Business Strategy and Corporate Strategy).

photo credit: alexbrn

Since I’ve gotten more involved with the social media community, I’ve seen the term “strategist” thrown around rather casually. This worries me a bit, since just about everyone seems to think that they’re doing strategy. I figured I’d come back to my MBA roots for a quick overview of the misconceptions of tactical vs. strategic thinking.

First of all, strategy has two particular dimensions. The first one is temporal - to think strategically you need to be thinking ahead. If you are creating strategy, you have to be able to delineate the causal pathways of your strategic decisions at different points in time. Tactical decisions relate to the ‘here, now, within this week/month’. Strategic thinking is primarily far-reaching, long-range. If you create strategy, you need to be able to model the system in such a way that, whatever tactical plans you implement, you will be able to maintain some degree of predictability.

Along the same line, you should be able to choose amongst a variety of strategic objectives and adapt to changes in the (external) business environment. If you want to achieve a certain degree of growth, you need to have at least 2-3 different pathways to reach the same goal, in case something goes wrong. That’s why strategic thinking requires long-range planning.

The second dimension is organizational. If you work at the tactical level, you will be implementing strategic objectives with specific, ground-level plans, within specific units of the organization. If you work at the strategic level, you should be able to design development trajectories for the entire organization.

The misconceptions I find with regards to strategic thinking vs tactical implementation not only have to do with the organizational scale at which activity takes place, but also with the temporal dimension AND the predictive nature of strategy. If you want to be a strategist, you need to be a good chess player – think 2, 3, 5, 10 moves ahead.

The cost of getting back in shape – Swimming edition

Raul — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 23:00:38 +0000

photo credit: hectorir

At the end of last year, I promised myself that 2010 would be my year, that I would be focusing on my own personal growth. In seeking to become again an integrated person (someone with artistic, scientific, humanitarian and sports activities), I decided that I couldn’t come back to competitive volleyball directly. I needed to be regain my cardiovascular resistance.

So I went back to swimming. You may have noticed that I’ve lost a substantial amount of weight. I am swimming 3 times a week (in the early morning, before I teach my class at UBC), and I am also running 3 times a week and doing weight training 3-6 times a week (depending on how sore my body is).

I wanted to document how much it’s costing me to get back in shape. So here are some of the costs associated:

4 month pass for unlimited swimming $ 126 (I am faculty so I get a slightly reduced price)

2 pairs of swim trunks $60 (I probably could have gotten cheaper Speedos in North Van, too far, too late)

1 pair of swim goggles $35 (I didn’t want to skimp on goggles as my eyes are rather important)

1 duffel bag $30 (this was rather inexpensive as I bought it in Chinatown)

Grand total: $242 per 4 months of swimming

This, of course, doesn’t include transportation (because I *always* take public transit everywhere, so the cost of going to UBC every Mon, Wed, Fri is already a sunk cost). And since I swim before any of my “paid work” time is on (e.g. before 8:00am), I don’t discount any trading off time.

The one thing I might be trading off is some late-night time to work on projects (which could be/are paid). But to be quite frank, I prefer to spend money on myself and sleep at a more reasonable hour than not do so. I still feel that I have the energy and the time to work 16 hour days, even with all the time I book for other activities.

So there you have it, about $60 per month to get me back in the shape I want to be for summer volleyball. This doesn’t take into account the gym/weights part nor the dietary part. That’s the purpose of another blog entry.

Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture Festival 2010

Raul — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 18:41:49 +0000

It’s only fitting that with the start of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Paralympics Games, there is an event on disability and the arts.

I’ve been kindly given 2 tickets to the opening performance of the 2010 Kickstart Disability Arts & Culture Festival, a performance of “She Cried, She Laughed” at the Chan Centre at The University of British Columbia, 8pm, tonight March 12th.

As part of Kickstart Festival 2010, She Laughed, She Cried is a special evening of fado and comedy that will move you from tears to riotous laughter! The evening features two extraordinary and very different artists who share a common ability to touch your heart.

I was deeply moved when I read the mission of Kickstart (formerly the Society for Disability, Arts and Culture). They have amazing goals, and I’m very supportive of their mission.

Kickstart’s mission is to produce and present works by artists with disabilities and to promote artistic excellence among artists with disabilities working in a variety of disciplines.

Since the performance is tonight, I will draw the winner of my 2 tickets at 3:00pm. To enter the contest, simply re-tweet this post or drop a comment (or both, which would give you 2 entries!).

To learn more about the 2010 Kickstart Disability Arts & Culture Festival you can read more on their website here.

My talk at @BCIT on Social Media, Politics and Public Policy

Raul — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 07:51:59 +0000

A few weeks ago, my friend Tris Hussey (who is teaching at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, BCIT) invited me to speak to his class on the topic of “Social Media, Politics and Public Policy”. I have previously given similar talks (if you look at my SlideShare space, you can see a few of the Power Point slide decks of recent talks I’ve given).

I spoke to Tris’ class this past March 3rd, 2010. It’s kind of coincidental, because I have previously sought to teach at BCIT (this was before I started teaching at UBC) and I never got any positive feedback/responses. So, for me it was a bit of an irony that I ended up, indeed, teaching at BCIT (guest lecturing, of course, and it’s Tris whom I have to thank for the opportunity).

I’ve given a similar version of this talk previously, but this time it felt more fun as the students were already well engaged in the social networking space. The perspective I took then was more on the political analysis/policy analysis side (which suits me rather well, as those are the topics I teach at UBC). I centered my analysis on issues of publicness vs. privacy, seeking the audience where it is (for example, the Facebook page for Kelowna, British Columbia, is very active). The government of BC is seeking public input for the new water laws through a blog. There’s a broad variety of things already happening in the space, and it’s very exciting.

And, on that note, I submitted a panel to the conference Northern Voice 2010 precisely on this topic. I would copy and paste the abstract, but I prefer to surprise you with the excellent panel I have assembled. I am hoping (fingers crossed) that my panel will be accepted, because it has an excellent group of speakers.

Thanks to everyone who sent me tweets about examples of use of social media in politics and public policy, and to Hans Peter Meyer for sharing a report he created. An earlier post of mine where I asked these questions can be found here.

Happy birthday @ColleenCoplick

Raul — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 06:54:04 +0000

Credit: Tris Hussey on Flickr

I met Colleen Coplick (Miss Manifesto) about at the same time as I met most of the Vancouver social media scene, at my very first Third Tuesday. Colleen and I have had a chance to get to know each other more through time, and in particular, this past year (2009). While formerly from a traditional PR background, Colleen has immersed herself in the social media space in a profound and rather unique way.

Colleen and I share a love for good wine, good food and of course, Mexico. And in some important occasions, Colleen has been there, for me and for other of my friends (I particularly enjoyed my birthday of last year, which was A LOT of fun). That “being there” is something I value and respect in people. On your birthday, I won’t raise a glass of wine (I teach tomorrow!), Colleen, but in the geekiest of forms, I’ve written you a happy birthday blog post! Hope you’ve enjoyed it.

Wines of Mission Hill Dinner with Ingo Grady #parksvilleuncorked

Raul — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 01:07:04 +0000

My second activity at Parksville Uncorked was the Wines of Mission Hill Dinner with Ingo Grady at the Tigh-Na-Mara. (I was supposed to go to a winery luncheon but opted to just take it easy and explore Parksville). I didn’t even have the time to look at the menu, but from my experience at Swirl I knew it would be a great event. Not badly priced, either!

The event itself was priced at $99 per person, but as a 7 courses meal with wine pairings I would say this is the price range I would expect to pay for a similar event in Vancouver. We started with an amuse bouche which was a delightful scallop and lobster terrine. As I mentioned to folks, as an amuse bouche, it was just to “open palate” as we say in Spanish. I had to pass up on the squash torte since I am allergic to squash, so I chose a salad instead. I think everyone’s favorite dish was the oxtail ravioli, absolutely delicious. And of course, I’m addicted to dessert!

Overall, it was a delightful event, as I got to meet a lot of new folks, even some in the Vancouver Island news and broadcast industry like Dana Hutchings, amongst several others. This was particularly important as we were discussing topics that ranged from the use of Twitter by news companies to the whole discussion on speed vs accuracy. Overall, an absolutely delightful event.

You can view the whole set of photos of this evening on my Flickr account. And the lovely ladies you see with me on the top photo are (from left to right) CHEK TV’s Dana Hutchings and Tanya Smith (in the front) and Luba Plotnikoff with Oceanside Tourism Association and Jenn Houtby Ferguson with Tigh Na Mara Seaside Spa Resort.

Disclosure: My Wines of Mission Hill Dinner at the Tigh-Na-Mara was sponsored very generously by the Parksville Uncorked Festival. I wasn’t paid to write this review, nor was I required to do so either. The purpose of this media trip was to report on the event. In any review I write or publish on my site, I retain editorial control at all times. Should you have any questions/concern feel free to contact me via e-mail through my contact form. For the rest of my Parksville Uncorked posts, you can check them here.

Switching from TweetDeck to HootSuite

Raul — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 21:50:40 +0000

I have used TweetDeck for a long time, almost ever since I started on Twitter. Now that I use an iPhone, I use Tweetie (which I find incredibly useful). I had been using HootSuite for a long time for my pre-scheduled tweets, but the whole columns thing (and the stand-alone feature of TD as an AIR application) was something I really enjoyed of TweetDeck. Lately, I have found it so clunky (TD) that I decided to go back to HootSuite, this time pretty much for good.

There’s one thing that sort of will make me miss TweetDeck, not only the fact that it’s a standalone application, but also the fact that now, people will not be able to recognize when I’m prescheduling a tweet and when I’m really online. I find that at least, if people knew that my tweet came from TweetDeck, they would figure I’m online, and if it came from HootSuite they would know it was prescheduled. Now there’s no differentiation. Not sure if it is good or bad, but it just is.

Vancouver Bloggers Meetup and Social Media Club Vancouver Event March 18th

Raul — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:21:41 +0000

As you can read on my bio, I sit on the Executive Committee of the Social Media Club Vancouver, and I am also the organizer of the Vancouver Bloggers Meetup. It seemed as the perfect fit to do a joint event, and yes, while it will be a panel on the Olympics (some discussions have happened already on the topic, at W2/FreshMedia, etc.), this one will have a different theme.

Credit: John Biehler on Flickr

Lessons of the Olympics: what social media taught us

A panel of social media and media experts will discuss the lessons social media taught us during the Olympics, and offer some takeaways to help you and your organization deal comfortably with the next huge, complex event to come our way (and you KNOW there will be another)

The event will take place on March 18th at BOB (143 East Pender), where panelists include Jonathon Narvey and Shane Birley, Kirk Lapointe, Laurent Piche, Colin Horgan and John Biehler, with Colleen Coplick as moderator. More information and the bios of individual panelist at RaincoasterMedia.

The Foundation Lounge (Main Street)

Raul — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:19:54 +0000

It seems as though I’m on a vegetarian rampage. Last Sunday I had dinner at Bandidas on Commercial, and this week, I had lunch at The Foundation Lounge. As I mentioned on Twitter, Mexican cuisine is actually largely vegetarian/vegan, and I am, after all, a scholar of environmental policy (so, eating less meat does reduce my ecological footprint – congruent with my research and values!)

I had been to The Foundation with my friend Todd Sieling before, but somehow I never wrote about it. Todd and I recently met up for lunch again, and we returned to Foundation for a second visit. The first time I was there, I had mango with black beans on a bed of rice, but this time I tried the “BLT-ish” sandwich (vegetarian bacon, lettuce, tomato and guacamole). For $7, I would say the “BLT-ish” a really good deal, as it includes a side salad. I wasn’t hungry at all after lunch, which means that (at least for me) the portions were generous enough.

I would strongly recommend The Foundation for lunch, I haven’t really been here for dinner but as far as lunch goes, the service is prompt, cordial and the food is really good. The previous time I needed to add salsa to my rice as it was a tad sweet, but this time, I think I made the right choice for food. And of course, catching up with good friends and engaging in intellectually stimulating conversations is always fantastic.

Rotary Mexican Fiesta Fundraiser for IREE

Raul — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:58:52 +0000

photo credit: Kevin Hutchinson

A dear friend of mine (Carlos Obregon from Bloom Marketing) is organizing a Mexican Fiesta in conjunction with the Rotary Club Vancouver Sunrise on Saturday, March 20th. This fundraiser is for a really good cause, the Instituto Leones de Educación Especial (IREE, Leon Institute for Special Education).

This institute is near and dear to my heart as it’s located in the city where I grew up part of my childhood, and where my parents live now. Moreover, IREE provides services to children with Down Syndrome, which their parents could not afford without IREE. I’m really happy that Carlos and the Rotary are organizing this event and I want to help promote it.

Tickets are $ 75.00 (with tax receipts, a drink ticket). You can get more information here, as per the invite:

We are writing to invite you to attend as our special guest the celebratory dinner event being held by the Rotary Club of Vancouver Sunrise at 7:00 pm on March 20, 2010 at the new Coast Coal Harbour Hotel located at 1180 West Hastings Street, between Thurlow and Bute

More information on IREE and the rationale behind the event:

The Rotary Club of Vancouver Sunrise is fortunate to have 20% of our members who hail from Mexico and so we have chosen to focus our international sponsorship initiative for the next 3 years on a partnership with the Rotary Club of Léon to benefit the “Especial Education Institute” (IREE). The dinner event on March 20 will celebrate the first phase of our community service project initiative. They are building a multi-use classroom that we will furnish, these furnishings include chairs, desks, audio and video equipment, exercise equipment, computers, among other goods needed. This room will be the first facility in Central Mexico aimed at providing training specifically for care givers, families and teachers of people with intellectual disabilities, particularly down syndrome patients

We would be pleased to host you and a companion as our special guests at this event, the details of which are attached. In addition to our club members and their guests, we expect to have a number of corporate sponsors in attendance who conduct business operations in Mexico.

For more information, please contact Diana Theman 604-623-4325 (office) and dtheman@shaw.ca or Carlos Obregon 604-696-0902 (office) and carlosobregon@yahoo.com.

Please support this worthy cause. I really would appreciate it.

Good luck in Calgary, Tanya @NetChick!

Raul — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 18:19:42 +0000

I enjoy a rather privileged position: I have a gazillion friends from the Vancouver (and beyond) blogosphere. I’m not really sure what exactly is the reason behind my success in creating long-lasting friendships with Vancouver bloggers (and with several non-Vancouver and non-Canadian bloggers too!), but I suppose in a large part, it’s the fact that I am the organizer of the Vancouver Blogger Meetup (since April 2008).

I first started reading Tanya Davis‘ blog in early 2006, when I first started blogging. I read a profile that Rebecca Bollwitt wrote about Tanya, and I pondered “wow, what does a decade of blogging mean?”. I realized that Tanya (aka NetChick) was also the organizer of Third Tuesday Vancouver, nowadays probably the most popular social media gathering in the city of Vancouver. Through time, Tanya and I created a very strong bond, a friendship that defies the bounds of geographical location. I have always felt that there is a part of me that is SO similar to Tanya. We both enjoy creating communities, we both are very social

Tanya and I are very lucky in that in our role as Meetup organizers, we have also created many long-lasting friendships. Last weekend, I attended Tanya’s farewell party, organized by Miranda and Reilly Lievers, as well as Monica Hamburg.

It felt so amazing to see so many common friends of us, friends who normally don’t hang out as much with each other (unless it’s Northern Voice, BarCamp, a WordCamp or something major like that, but who were brought together because of the fact that, well, it was Tanya’s farewell.

I only can hope that whenever I move to a different city or country, my goodbye party will be as well attended as Tanya’s was. Particularly because I think that, despite the fact that many of our shared friends weren’t able to make it, those who attended were a good, representative sample of the breadth and depth of relationships that Tanya was able to create.

Tanya, I will miss you dearly, that’s a fact. But the fact that you have found love in your life, the fact that you are happy and that you are about to get married, makes me incredibly happy. Furthermore, I have all the more reason to come visit Calgary, since now I have my brother and his family, and you and Barry there!

Much love, best of luck and more importantly, wherever you go, you’ll always have a place in my heart.

Schedule your posts throughout the week (Blogging 201)

Raul — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 15:26:40 +0000

photo credit: dunzki

I am terrible with this particular piece of advice. I used to be really good at using the “Time Stamp” feature of WordPress, but sometimes, I just feel that I need to get some stuff out of the way and I feel that I need to provide my readers with more content (I also will fully admit that it’s all about me sometimes, I really want to get some stuff out of the way and speak about it or write about it on my blog.

Frequently, I have a very short attention span, so I publish my blog posts whenever they come to me. But the problem is, that means that sometimes I just blurt out the posts because I have an idea in my head. So I’ve learned the hard way that, perhaps, the best way is to just write when I feel inspired and then time-stamp the blog post. That means, change the date in the “Publish immediately” area of the Publish tab.

So, for those of you who are more seasoned bloggers (who write at least one or two entries a day), you can time-stamp them whenever you feel inspired. I have done that for Tuesday of this week, to avoid publishing so many entries in one day!

Pacific Coast Highway (Nils)

Raul — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 04:59:55 +0000

I can’t remember where I listened to this wonderful jazz song (a bit on the chillout down tempo side, but still kind of acid jazz), Pacific Coast Highway by Nils, but wherever the heck it was I found it, this is TOTALLY down my alley. If you really want to get to know me, listen to this type of music, you’ll know it’s totally me.

Win tickets to the Opening Ceremonies of the Paralympics with @PowerSmartBC and @hummingbird604

Raul — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 01:10:45 +0000

As you may know, the Power Smart Village of BC Hydro will stay open during the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games (see my friend Rebecca’s guide to the Paralympics) The kind folks at BC Hydro have been kind enough to give me a pair of tickets to the Opening Ceremonies of the Vancouver 2010 Paralympic Games on March 12th at BC Place at 6pm to give away. I am pretty excited, as I’m a big fan of Paralympic sports.

Here’s how to participate in the contest:

Re-tweet the post (1 entry).
Comment on this post (2 entries).
TwitPic a photo of you at the BC Hydro Power Smart Village (3 entries).

I have previously highlighted the excellent work that the folks of BC Hydro have done with the Power Smart Village, and below you can find a short video that showcases a bit more of what they are up to. For some excellent promos and deals, you can follow @PowerSmartBC and find out more here on their website.

The contest will be open until Thursday March 11th morning at 11:30am, when I will be drawing the winner. Good luck everyone!

Swirl at the Tigh-Na-Mara #ParksvilleUncorked

Raul — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 22:45:22 +0000

The first event I went to during my stay at the Tigh-Na-Mara was Swirl (hosted by this same hotel, where I stayed). I arrived to Nanaimo via Harbour Air Ltd (which offered a generous discount – thanks for that!). I was driven to the Tigh-Na-Mara and got changed quickly (you may remember my tweet about what I chose to wear) in order to get to Swirl on time. I was prepared for food and wine, but not for THIS much!

Kicking off Parksville Uncorked is Swirl. Festival goers will enjoy the best BC has to offer from fine wines to gourmet cuisine. Whether you are discovering BC wines for the very first time, or revelling in selections to tempt a sophisticated palate, this festival of taste excites all the senses. Tigh-Na-Mara Seaside Spa Resort & Conference Centre is proud to host Swirl 2010. Live entertainment from 6pm – 9pm.

Honestly, for the price ($ 69+taxes), I found the Swirl event pretty fairly priced. The entertainment (an entire jazz ensemble, with a female lead voice who was fantastic) was excellent, the wines were superb (I fell in love with a few Pinot Blanc’s) and the food was absolutely delicate. And the event was entirely packed! You’ll have to forgive the lack of clarity in some of my photos as I took those with my iPhone and the lighting wasn’t conducive to photos without flash.

I had a fantastic list of what wines I had tried and which food I had paired with it, but unfortunately that list got lost somewhere on my way back, but I can recall that I tried several Pinot Blanc paired with a few delicacies. I also found a really neat trick to eating paired food – a clip that helps you hold your wine glass while you are eating (as shown by Luba here).

I would definitely go to Parksville for a couple of days and one night and stay for the Swirl event, it was totally worth it. And the fruit fondue cones… delightful!

Disclosure: My dinner at Swirl at the Tigh-Na-Mara was sponsored very generously by the Parksville Uncorked Festival. I wasn’t paid to write this review, nor was I required to do so either. The purpose of this media trip was to report on the event. In any review I write or publish on my site, I retain editorial control at all times. Should you have any questions/concern feel free to contact me via e-mail through my contact form. For the rest of my Parksville Uncorked posts, you can check them here.

Bandidas (Commercial Drive)

Raul — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 08:09:41 +0000

My friend Beth Snow and I were chatting on GTalk earlier on Sunday, and she tweeted that she had a hunkering for Mexican food. Despite my vast knowledge of the state of the Mexican cuisine in Vancouver, I hadn’t tried any restaurants in the geographical proximity of the neighbourhood where she was located. So, we went back and forth thinking about where to go for an early dinner. We thought about Las Tortas on Cambie and 17th, but settled for Bandidas.

I’m glad we did, because (a) it gave me an opportunity to try a new restaurant and write a review and (b) allowed me to try a new Mexican (or sort-of) place, particularly one that has only vegetarian options, as well as (c) hang out with Beth, with whom I rarely spend enough time, although we chat on Twitter and GTalk all the time.

I recently told a few of my friends that, contrary to common misconception, Mexican cuisine is primarily vegetarian. The main staples of Mexican cuisine are, as accurately indicated in the Wikipedia entry, rice and beans, although chiles are also an omni-present element of Mexican dishes. Well, Bandidas very smartly exploits the nuances of Mexican cuisine and adds a few changes here and there.

Someone wrote on Yelp that Bandidas is kind-of granola-munching, hipster central. It kind of looks that way (all due respect to hipsters). But that doesn’t detract at all of this place. It’s really good. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The burrito I ordered was the Ronny Russell (with roasted yams and onions, fresh guacamole, black beans, green salsa, purple cabbage, & pumpkin seeds).

It was important for me not to order anything with cheese (which I hate) nor sour cream (which is bad for my stomach as I am lactose-intolerant). As for the food itself, the burrito was REALLY big and filling. I’m glad I chose it over the tacos. While flavourful, I wasn’t really excited until I added a bit of salsa to it. Admittedly, I continue to like Mexican food the way I was brought up – with lots of spice and chile. Both Beth and I were full around 3/4 of our respective burritos (she ordered hers with cheese, though), but we were brave and finished them all.

Overall, I now know why Glenn Gaetz, Hilary Henegar, Stephen Hui and Paul Jarvis rave about Bandidas. Add me and Beth Snow to the long list of Bandidas fans.

Iron Man 2. WANT

Raul — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 06:32:41 +0000

I have had a love-hate relationship with Robert Downey Jr. While I have always recognized his talent, it’s hard for me to really fall in love with his acting. He could ace a role, or he could just destroy it. But I’m a total sucker for his portrayal of Tony Stark (Iron Man). I’m a superhero movie geek, so when I found out he was going to be Iron Man, I totally thought he was going to be horrendous.

And he wasn’t. He was, surprisingly, fantastic in that role. I loved Iron Man.

For Iron Man 2, we have Scarlett Johansson as The Black Widow, my very favorite Russian spy. I totally wanted Famke Janssen as Natasha Romanov, but after seeing the second trailer, I’m quite ok with Scarlett now. Please, please, please, don’t let me down – I really want Iron Man 2 to rock.

Below is the first official trailer, I couldn’t find the embed code for the second one (which looks awesome).

I will be organizing a “Let’s Watch the Iron Man 2 Premiere” tweetup. Anyone want in?

International Women Day is March 8th

Raul — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:39:11 +0000

A while ago, I tweeted that it was hard for me to realize how much women have had to fight to break what is often called “the glass ceiling”, considering that I had been raised by a very strong woman, whom my father saw as his equal. My Mom has always been my best friend, and she knows A LOT of stuff that probably not everybody has shared with their mother.

I have always had very strong, very smart female friends. My cousin M has also always been a great friend, as have my sisters in law. That’s the kind of women I hang out with. I guess in a way I surround myself with women like my Mom. So, I ask for forgiveness for sometimes forgetting that the fight for women’s rights has been a long one. Celebrating women in my life (you all know who you are). Happy International Women Day (tomorrow, March 8th).

No Regrets (Robbie Williams)

Raul — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 21:13:58 +0000

There’s some degree of benefit to quiet Sunday afternoons. Today has been probably the first day I’ve dedicated to myself and myself only. It’s usually the time when I get to spend some time doing the things I like to do in a relaxed manner. Most of the time, I feel so stressed about preparing lectures, doing research, etc., that even on Sundays I work. But I think yesterday marked one of those days when I just relaxed and it was great for my soul.

I had the TV on the background today and listened to Robbie Williams singing a medley of his most popular songs. I absolutely adored this one (No Regrets). I didn’t particularly like the end of the song, but most of it was fun (if poignant!). A bit along the sounds of Pet Shop Boys, but in the most Robbie Williams way possible, if there’s such a thing

Tell me a story
Where we all change
And we’d live our lives together
And not enstranged

I didn’t lose my mind it was
Mine to give away
Couldn’t stay to watch me cry
You didn’t have the time
So I softly slip away…

No regrets they don’t work
No regrets they only hurt
Sing me a love song
Drop me a line
Suppose it’s just a point of view
But they tell me I’m doing fine

I know from the outside
We looked good for eachother
Felt things were going wrong
When you didn’t like my mother

I don’t want to hate but that’s
All you’ve left me with
A bitter aftertaste and a fantasy of
How we all could live

No regrets they don’t work
No regrets they only hurt
(We’ve been told you stay up late)
I know they’re still talking
(You’re far too short to carry weight)
The demons in your head
(Return the videos they’re late)
If I could just stop hating you
(Goodbye)
I’d feel sorry for us instead

Remember the photographs (insane)
The ones where we all laugh (so lame)
We were having the time of our lives
Well thank you it was a real blast

No regrets they don’t work
No regrets they only hurt
Write me a love song
Drop me a line
Suppose it’s just a point of view
But they tell me I’m doing fine

Everything I wanted to be every
Time I walked away
Everytime you told me to leave
I just wanted to stay
Every time you looked at me and
Everytime you smiled
I felt so vacant you treat me like a child
I loved the way we used to laugh
I loved the way we used to smile
Often I sit down and think of you
For a while
Then it passes by me and I think of
Someone else instead
I guess the love we once had is
Officially dead

Is your significant other necessarily your best friend?

Raul — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 19:40:31 +0000

So, from a conversation last night with a very close friend, we were pondering about the relationship between best friends and significant others, and the degrees of emotional attachment. I think the question applies anywhere, from the realm of same-sex relationships to heterosexual relationships, to whatever in the middle. I asked the question on Twitter too

Question – is our emotional attachment to our best friends closer/equal/similar/not equal to that of our spouses/partners?

We were pondering about the argument that you always need a “best friend” and a partner/spouse, and that both of these individuals may have similar degrees of emotional attachment. In some ways, they can be both one and the same, but in other ways, for example, women may want to have their best female friend to go out shopping, or even bounce ideas, feedback, etc. Same with men.

Does this make sense? Ponderings and musings from a Sunday morning.

Tomahawk Barbeque (North Vancouver, Capilano)

Raul — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:39:03 +0000

I had been trying to get together with my good friends Arieanna and Ianiv Schweber for a long while, and our schedules had been just next to impossible to mesh. With the beginning of the semester, teaching took an insane toll on me. Also, the Olympics just completely borked my schedule too. So, this weekend I made an executive decision: come hell or high water, I was leaving my Saturday and Sunday mornings free to ensure I could go out for brunch with Ianiv, Arieanna and their baby Aiden, who is now 4 months old (and still has the most beautiful blue eyes!)

We finally had a chance to get together this past Saturday (yesterday) so we met up and went for brunch. Arieanna and Ianiv took me to this place in the Capilano area of North Vancouver that is apparently legendary and an institution for brunch. They were slightly surprised I had never been, given that I write so much about food and that I eat out a lot, but it’s always nice to try out new places. I’m at 100% batting score when I go out with Arieanna and Ianiv, as I’ve tried Bin 941 and Deuce with them and I’ve had fabulous meals. I figured that just by virtue of pure statistics we would keep our score at 100%. Arieanna and Ianiv were right. The Tomahawk is GREAT.

We arrived at The Tomahawk Barbeque close to noon, and while it was almost completely packed, the hostess made sure to speed up our seating. We waited barely 5 minutes and we had a table. The waitress was super kind in bringing almost immediately a high chair for Aiden, although we did not need it at that particular time.

Since it was my first time there, I ordered what I figured was the feature, most distinctive item of the menu (the Yukon breakfast). At $11.65, it’s more expensive than a few other Vancouver brunch spots, but not much more than say, IHOP or Denny’s. It’s definitely around the price of what the same dish would cost at The Well on Main Street).

The Yukon breakfast contains

Five generous slices of Yukon-style bacon. Two country-style eggs served fried or scrambled, a heaping portion of golden-griddled hash brown potatoes, and two thick slices of Klondike toast.

The eggs, while not as fluffy as I am used to at Crave and other restaurants alike, were really good. And who can say no to bacon, even if it is back bacon? Mmmmm. Bacon. The carafe of orange juice ($12) is not really inexpensive, it comes on the high side of pricing. The hashbrowns could use a little bit less oil, but overall, it was a really good brunch. I didn’t feel hungry at all until about 6 pm!

I would gladly come back, and I am very grateful that Arieanna and Ianiv took me there for brunch, as it was actually a very good experience. And on top of that, I got to hang out with two of my best friends and their baby! What else can one ask for? Good food, good friends, good conversation.

Happy birthday @CathyBrowne!

Raul — Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:06:42 +0000

I first met Cathy Browne when Isabella and I were looking for someone to do the Public and Media Relations role for Mental Health Camp Vancouver. She had recently arrived from the San Francisco Bay area and was relocating to Vancouver, armed with over 25 years of experience in the PR world. She recently moved permanently to Vancouver with her husband Dave, whom we also have grown to love and adore. Cathy has become sort of a beacon of the Vancouver tech/social media/PR community, always there for people when they need her, and in particular, she attends most of the social gatherings, meetups and tweetups.

I have nothing but words of praise for Cathy, as she did a fabulous job at Mental Health Camp Vancouver ‘09 and I am hoping (counting on) her to be again the Public Relations and Media Concierge for MHC Vancouver ‘10. Many of us in Vancouver run to Cathy when we need advice or a word of comfort.

Much love and all the best wishes for you, Cathy, and for Dave’s speedy recovery!

Lovin’ You (Is All I Do) by Smurf and Perry

Raul — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 03:03:17 +0000

Ever since I first listened to Smurf & Perry’s Lovin’ You I have been enamoured of this tune. I don’t really know if I’ll ever get the deep house, dance-able version that I love, but here is another version. Hope you like it.

Happy birthday @GusF!

Raul — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 15:15:56 +0000

Gus Fosarolli is a very close friend of mine whom I met through the Vancouver social media community. We see each other like brothers and that’s fantastic (particularly because sometimes, I *do* need someone to talk to that I’m close to and that is not my family members). Gus is Argentinian, so the fact that we both share Latin blood has been also fundamental in solidifying our friendship.

Gus, today and every single day, I wish you the very best. I will raise a glass of wine to your health! You know how they say that 40 is the new 20? I toast to your becoming of age! (40 = 20, so 41 = 21, which is legally the age that you can drink legally in Canada). As always, much love.

The Vancouver Pen Shop

Raul — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 06:31:42 +0000

My name is Raul and I’m a stationery addict.

So, this is going to sound totally self-absorbed, but frankly, I do have very neat and pretty handwriting. I spent thousands of hours writing hundreds of letters, using different colour pens, finding the right pen that would highlight how pretty my handwriting was.

In my traditionally chauvinistic undergraduate school (chemical engineering), my colleagues would say that I had “girl’s handwriting” (because it was so neat and clear). I think in English you would call it “printing” rather than “handwriting” (I write mostly without the flowy, interconnected letters).

So, because of the fact that I love my handwriting and I love writing with actual pens and in actual notepads and notebooks, I am the kind of guy who will, very happily, browse through complete, entire isles of stationery. I love felt pens (extra fine point, though – otherwise my printing doesn’t look as good). I love notebooks. I love Post-Its. I can live happy in a stationery shop.

Which is the reason why I love the Vancouver Pen Shop, and why I’m surprised I hadn’t stopped by and seen this wonderful shop. The owners are really knowledgeable and they let me browse through their isles and shelves. I love this place, and I would strongly recommend it. They also get the Olympic and Paralympic spirit. They have an actual welcoming sign for the Paralympics. That totally melted my heart.

The Vancouver Pen Shop is located on West Hastings, near Richards Street.