My WordPress-ification process has been quite intense, and it’s hard to juggle searching for a job, doing academic work, socializing AND trying to master WordPress. But right now I feel pretty good about it, and wouldn’t go back to the Blogger platform. The last time I posted something on Blogger I was actually kind of weirded out. “WHOA. It’s like I’ve never used this“.
This week (probably Thursday or Friday, as I want to stay away from the computer for a while), I am buying the CSS customization option for WordPress as I want to be able to tinker with the layout and the theme color scheme. Since I’ve been previously known to avoid the WordPress Codex, I figured this time I would follow the rules and go and read the Codex before I ask my friends “how do I go about this…”
Both Rebecca and Andy wrote recently about themes, and Rebecca unveiled her awesome new theme just this week. But to be quite honest, I still had one question in my mind – what IS a theme?
A WordPress Theme is a collection of files that work together to produce a graphical interface with an underlying unifying design for a weblog.[WP Codex-Themes]
Yeah. RIIIIIGHT. The preceding paragraph proceeded to explain what a theme is in WPGeekSpeak. That’s the point where I realized one of the things that I hadn’t done (shame on me) ever – CHECK THE GLOSSARY. So I went to the Codex WordPress lesson semantics. Are themes the same as CSS? I have discovered that no, they’re not. I roamed around the glossary and semantics site for a while, and now I understand that by customizing the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), I will be able to define colors, layouts, etc. The theme is more overarching, then…
I may request help to customize my CSS, but I also want to learn how to change it myself, because I don’t want to be a fake geek. I like being a true geek, and I like to do my own stunts. I am well aware that asking for help is one of my challenges, but thankfully, being a computer geek is complicated enough that I am always willing to ask someone to give me a hand. So, I hope that soon enough, you’ll see a different color scheme, although it may be a while for a change in theme!
Spending time with good friends over brunch is always fantastic. I had never done brunch with Monica nor with Tanya and thus I jumped at the possibility of hanging out with two of my favorite gals for brunch. We met at Provence Marinaside, at the foot of Davie Street, in Yaletown. I have had dinner at Provence before, but (as you may have noticed by the fact that I do not have a restaurant review of it), dinner there was anything but memorable. And this time, Provence Marinaside didn’t make an impression on me either. The saving grace was, of course, the company. I love both Tanya and Monica and we had such a great time that the food and service at Provence was somewhat irrelevant.
The added bonus was seeing Michael Weatherly (of NCIS and Dark Angel fame). Weatherly is an actor I’ve always liked a lot, and from what I could see, he didn’t seem conceited at all. I was *this* close to say “hey Michael” but refrained myself. Geez, after all these years living in Canada AND living in Vancouver, I can still get a bit star-struck.
The food was really nothing to write home about, it was decently good breakfast, but honestly, screwing up breakfast is rather hard. I ordered scrambled eggs with fruit, toast and veal sausage. Perhaps not the best choice. The veal sausage was WAY too strong and it looked really pretty ridiculous. For about half the price, I could have gotten better scrambled eggs and sausage at an equally sophisticated restaurant (Crave on Main). I would rate the level of service and pricing at Provence Marinaside with the same of Figmint on 12th and Cambie (whom, if you recall, I didn’t like either).
Again, this wasn’t a BAD breakfast in terms of food, but it wasn’t something I would write home about or a rave review. The company was really what made it all worth it, because the service was pretty appaling. We didn’t get refills for our water, nor for our coffee, and I had to ask THREE times for jam. I am NOT impressed. If you’re charging high-end-ish prices, you should give me high-end-ish service.
Hanging out with Monica and Tanya, was just unbelievably awesome, and I got a lot of really important and useful advice in regards to my life in social media and also, in regards to the job search. It was very calming to hear them both reassuring me that I’ll be getting a good job. We also laughed a lot 🙂 Good times, indeed. Although next time, I’ll probably suggest we change venues for brunch. I am not coming back to Provence Marinaside. Not until they have fixed their level of service 🙂
I moved to Canada nearly a decade ago, not knowing what was going to happen and uncertain about my future, funding for my degrees, and the life over here. All I knew is that I was leaving behind an incredibly annoying boss, a job that while I liked, was just extracting the life out of me, and a really strong social networks of friends, as well as my family.
I now have family all over North America, have lived in Europe and moved back to Canada, and every morning I wake up feeling free, happy and fulfilled. I have a LOT of Canadian friends, both born-Canadian and immigrants. At one of the gatherings I organized recently, I discovered that out of the six people in our table, NONE had been born in Canada.
I have fell in love with a Canadian, I have had my heart broken by a Canadian, and despite this, I love Canada. I love its multiculturalism. I love its freedom. I love its uniqueness. I love the fact that I have many Canadian friends, and many non-Canadian friends, all of whom I love dearly.
I am enthralled by what Canada has offered me, and while I am keenly aware of my roots and my origins, I am also very happy to be living in Canada. On your anniversary, thank you Canada for giving me so many opportunities for growth, for love, and for happiness. Happy Canada Day, everyone!
I know this isn’t the kind of post that people would like to read up on a Monday morning, but I have been getting many reminders (the most recent, this past weekend) about how important it is not to push myself. I have had this conversation with many of you recently, about how much I’ve been pushing myself and over-working and thus I plan to take all of July easy (except, of course, for the job search part – which will have to be rather intense).
Therefore, I have decided that I am only committing to 7 (SCRATCH THAT – 6) events throughout the whole month of July, and even those, I will just stay for a short while. Therefore, you’ll see me (briefly) at:
– Green Drinks
– Third Tuesday
– Net Tuesday
I’ll be organizing
– Vancouver Bloggers Meetup
I’ll be presenting at
– WordCamp Fraser Valley
And I’ll be doing the whole 24 hours relay of
– Blogathon 2008
Anything else, I will most likely pass. I am really, really, really sorry. If you have a house party that you’ve invited me to, I’ll probably make a REALLY BRIEF appearance and not stay for long. Bear in mind that this is not in any way a reflection of any desire to be anti-social. Much to the contrary… unless I start taking care of myself, I will be running myself out of steam over, and over, and over again.
This decision also will influence my online communication. I will attempt not be on Twitter much, so if you want to get a hold of me, email, GTalk or MSN will be pretty much the best way. I may not be at any big events for Canada Day either, so in advance – Happy Canada Day!
[ EDIT – I noticed that Green Drinks collides, so it’s only 5 events all month ]
Often times, I get so carried away with the whole social media and tech discussions (try Googling iPhone Rogers and you’ll know what I am talking about) that I tend to forget to talk about the field where my expertise lies: environment. I did not go to graduate school in this field just to let it slip through the cracks. So I was quite pleased to see a few opportunities opening for me this week to have enviro-geek discussions on my blog, and meld my two worlds: tech-geeky and enviro-geeky.
Darren Barefoot is helping IKEA Canada spread the word about IKEA’s most recent initiative: The IKEA Way. What is this? In a nutshell,
The IKEA Way is our promise. We promise that we’re working towards having an overall positive impact on people and the environment. In other words, we’re going to be nice to people and nice to the planet. Sounds ambitious for a global company? It shouldn’t. We believe it’s just part of smart business, but more than that — it’s the right thing to do. [The IKEA Way – What We Do]
In the academic literature I have frequently come across the concept of “GreenWashing”. In non-enviro-geek terms, greenwashing refers to the deployment of a series of strategies and tactics that will make your company “look” green but it does not mean that you will indeed be undertaking measures to reduce your company’s environmental impact.
While doing a little research for this post, I came across a really neat article on TreeHugger titled “Greenhushing doesn’t help anyone“. So what is greenhushing? Pretty much the opposite of greenwashing: when a company doesn’t want to promote its environmentally-conscious efforts for fear that they will be taken as greenwashing.
As Stiffelman points out, greenhushing may just be as bad as greenwashing. Why not promote your efforts if you are actually a company that is trying to better its environment? That’s one of my own personal pet peeves. If you have it, flaunt it! The whole concept of eco-labelling is predicated on this idea – my products are more environmentally-friendly, thus merit eco-labels (be it SeaChoice, Forest Stewardship Council, Environmental Choice or any of the other ecolabels floating around).
The IKEA Way seems to me like a good initiative (I have been perusing the website and offered some feedback on how the website and the overall initiative can be strengthened). Of course, there is work to be done, but at least, these are some steps towards better environmental performance. And besides, who doesn’t like IKEA furniture? I do… 😀
Moreover, this looks like a perfect mesh of Web 2.0 and environment. This is the direction where my own work is going to go, I can see that. I like to harness the power of Web 2.0 to effect social change and sustainability. Hat tips to Darren for pointing me out to the IKEA Way.
Which technically means, I’m an Ultra Nerd. Hat tips to Dr. Beth Snow (I was browsing her “geek” category archives and came across this test).
Now, you know you want to tell me – how nerdy are you?
While having one of perhaps the most relaxed afternoons of my recent life with my friend Arjana, we were talking about my recent fainting spell and the recurring migraines. This morning, I woke up at a reasonable good time, after sleeping a solid 8 hours. I begun my work day with a cup of coffee as I would normally do, and less than 20 minutes later, I had a headache.
A blinding, head-shattering, “I need a nap right now and some analgesics” kind of headache. I just woke up from said nap, a few hours behind in my work. Knowing me, I took this as a controlled experiment. I re-read notes of the latest instances of caffeine intake and how my head felt. Strongly associated. Lots of coffee = headache/migraine. *sigh* That’s too bad as I *love* good coffee. But if I want to be able to work well, I’ll have to switch to non-caffeinated drinks. Good bye, iced mocha 🙁
I started reading Derek K. Miller’s blog over a year ago, and I would always come back here and there for updates, particularly as he writes about topics that are rather near and dear to my heart.
In addition to all the stuff Derek has written about, he often provides advice to newbies on podcasting, blogging, photography, even Mac geekiness. Besides, in case you didn’t know, Derek is the co-host of Inside Home Recording, along with Paul Garay. And he has a great sense of humor. Besides, Derek’s even been Scobleized!
Derek’s viewpoints are visionary and I was blown away by his recent interview with the CBC’s Spark on the concept of a digital legacy. I consider both Derek and Airdrie my friends, and had a chance to hang out with them a couple of months ago. Good times indeed.
Today I read on Twitter and on his blog that he is turning 39, and I figured I’d send a big shout out. But hey, don’t drop the happy birthday wishes here – go to his blog and say “Happy Birthday”. Enjoy the bachelor week, Derek, and celebrate as much as you can!
While having dinner with my very good friend LF at Burgoo on Main, we had an interesting conversation, worth recalling here now. In the past few months, blogging has become a passion for me. So much that I think I’ve become a blogaholic.
I started reading blogs because my friends used them to keep me up to date on what was going on in my life. I started blogging first because my brother did it. I blog because I love writing. I still do like my academic work, and I am passionate about environmental issues, about research, and about teaching. However, I also love social media and the new word that has opened to me. From new friends to attending events to getting swag to simply being recognized (someone recognized me at the Car Free Festival on Main Street – “OH, so YOU are Hummingbird604! I do read your blog“). Quite endearing, really.
But the truth of the matter is that, beyond that, I may seem like a blogaholic but I have never done things any other way. If I am going to take something on, I do it to the fullest. When I learned to play volleyball, I became passionate about it and tried to get as good and competitive as possible. When I learned to dance, I immersed myself in the salsa culture and danced until my feet hurt. When my father said that I needed to find out what exactly made me happy I embarked in a test-drive of many different careers. That has been both my philosophy and my way of going about things. DO THINGS TO THE MAX.
I thought to myself…”well, if I am going to be in the social media , I am going to learn how to do my own HTML tags. I want to be able to modify my own CSS. I want to learn how to increase my Google Page Rank, understand SEO, and more than anything, be able to use social media and the technology to bridge the chasm between audience and data source… As a researcher, I want to be able to understand the why. As a blogger interested in social media, I want to understand the the how.
I have found that when a topic touches an issue that I am interested in, I research and read about it obsessively. The Sarah Lacy/Mark Zuckerberg interview fiasco. The Emily Gould – Gawker blogging debacle. The whole issue with AP and charging for quotations. Bill C-61 and the lack of transparency of governmental policy decisions. The list goes on, and on, and on. It’s almost 2 AM on a Saturday night (when normal people are either asleep or getting home from the bar) and I am at my office working, and blogging.
So the questions that are currently on my mind are … what is it that drives people to be workaholics (or blogaholics – or in my case, both)? What drives your inner competitive spirit? And what kind of trade-offs do we need to take into account before we dive in head on? I’d like to hear your thoughts.
[UPDATE – Having published the post, I almost forgot to mention that my friends Ianiv and Arieanna own the Blogaholics.ca domain – go check it out!]
I took a good chunk of the Friday afternoon off to give myself some time away from the blogosphere. Funny how it goes, Karen Parker and I bumped into Richard Eriksson at the Apple Store where he posed the question of the day – “Will YOU buy an iPhone?“. I have been reading reviews of Rogers iPhone plans all over the place, and a lot of my friends have something to say, in one way or another. Buzz Bishop asked around on Twitter the same question – will we buy an iPhone?
With all the buzz in the blogosphere, I can’t really say that the topic has been exhausted, but it has been covered by my friends John Biehler, Andy, Liam, Tanya, Jordan and a number of other friends mine have been examining the issue in such a thorough way that I really don’t think I have much to add to the discussion. EXCEPT – that I am an enviro-geek learning how to be more of a tech-geek. So if Rogers hadn’t royally made such a big mistake, I would have most likely bought an iPhone.
Since I have tons of geek friends in the blogosphere with iPhones (Rebecca, John Biehler, Duane, Tod, Andy, Tanya – although she got rid of hers recently, Jenn, Nadia, just to name a few) I have had a chance to test-drive the artifact itself. I like it, the functionality is awesome, and there’s a gazilliion things that you can do with it.
Here is where Rogers made a mistake, in micro-economics terms – Rogers had the perception that the geek’s price elasticity of demand of an iPhone would be low. Ok, yes that was economics-geekspeak. In plain English – Rogers gambled on the addictive nature of gadgets for geeks. If you REALLY want a gadget, you’ll pay whatever price is necessary. Thus the price elasticity is low. If there are numerous substitutes, you’ll switch to whatever gadget is cheaper and can get you the same thing for the same price.
My price sensitivity, however, is quite high. I am highly sensitive to pricing changes AND surprising as this may sound, Rogers, SO ARE GEEKS! Living in an expensive city like Vancouver, and having tonnes of other options to switch to, trust me, an iPhone is NOT an item all geeks need. There are dozens of other options they have and they can switch to. Substitutes are available all over the place. Price elasticity is high.
Since I’m sensitive to price changes, and truth be told, I am also quite fine with my cell phone as is, and I don’t need yet another gadget, I will not be buying an iPhone. It would have been nice, for sure. It would have been fun, absolutely. It would make me look even geekier, heck yeah. But I am quite alright, thank you very much. Rogers hasn’t given me much reason to be thrilled with them, and now even less.
For more information, Google “Rogers fail iPhone” and you’ll find dozens of my friends’ reviews of the issue. Have everyone a good weekend.
I’ve been playing tennis since I was a little kid, as both my Mom and Dad were big tennis fans. I remember that my Dad wanted to teach me how to hit a single-handed backhand, but I adopted a two-handed backhand (which to this day is still my strongest stroke). I have managed, with time, to hit a single-handed top-spin backhand, but I still slice it two-handed.
Growing up watching the tapes of epic Wimbledon finals of Chris Evert vs. Martina Navratilova, and Bjorn Borg vs. Jimmy Connors, I always wanted to be there. The word “Wimbledon” evoked an exhilarating sensation of triumph and success. So when I decided to undertake some of my graduate work in Great Britain, I said to myself – “Raul, you HAVE to go to Wimbledon. Even if just to see it from the outside. Even if you can’t really attend a game. Just do it.”
So I did. One weekend, I took the train to London and managed to traverse the somewhat complicated tube train system. It was a sunny summer day, actually I think the Championships were on. I walked towards the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, enjoying the sun. It felt like bliss. I managed to score a visit to the Museum. Finally, I was in Wimbledon! While definitely not playing, I still had fulfilled my dream of being on site, where these epic battles had taken place.
Just this week, one of my nieces won her very first tennis tournament. She is a phenomenal tennis player and I am sure she’ll do great. I don’t know if she’ll ever play in Wimbledon, it would be awesome if she did, but the most important thing I want her to know and remember is that I will love her regardless of whether she wins or loses. Tennis is just one facet of her life, as it was only one of the facets of mine.
I am still in love with Wimbledon, and I always will. That’s probably why I was so happy when the 2004 movie “Wimbledon” came out. For your viewing pleasure, the trailer.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjOEtOErJVY&hl=en]
I got home last night at around 9pm, exhausted after having spent time running around like a headless hummingbird, and even though I sat in front of my computer, I was simply unable to produce anything. I wanted to write up everything I had for the weekend, and not a single word came out. My brain was completely shutdown.
Even hummingbirds need to rest, and I am not the exception. These past few weeks, I’ve been talking to my friends, both on and off the blogosphere, about the fact that I have been pushing myself to extremes and sleeping very little. That’s not a sustainable position (not in the environmental sustainability sense, for the record, but in the sense of ‘sustaining’ – long term).
I need to take care of myself, and I plan to do so in the next little while. Please take no offense if I don’t respond quickly to emails, messages, phone calls, etc. I just want some time off. As I mentioned before, there will be some time-stamped posts in case anyone really cares to read, but for the most part, it is my absolute hope that I won’t be online this weekend. Enjoy yours!
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.
June 27th, 2008 in
blogosphere,
environment,
geekifying myself,
link love,
sustainability,
upcoming events,
WordCamp,
WordCamp Fraser Valley | tags:
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Since I’m writing a lot of posts for the West End Business Improvement Association Sustainability Expo (an event to which I was invited as a guest FrogBlogger for HappyFrog) I am going to have to keep this really, really, really short (for my standards, anyways). Here’s the plan in short form.
1 – I’m taking Friday off. Fear not. I am going to leave time-stamped posts for your reading pleasure (or lack thereof? ooops).
2 – I got a non-blogging busy weekend. Again, item 1 applies. Time-stamped posts, FTW!
3 – I will probably be unreachable via Twitter over the weekend. I plan to stay away from the computer as much as I can. Nevertheless, should you want to contact me, throw me an “@” or a DM and I’ll check it when I can. Failing that, send me an email.
4 – I NEED A JOB! The WEBIA Sustainability Expo reminded me of this. Preferably in the environmental field 😀 I’ll be talking about this more in later posts.
Ok, that was that. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend. What are your plans? Do tell…
While enjoying the company of Rebecca, Arieanna, Nadia and Tod, we were joking about the various geeky t-shirts around (inspired by Tod’s awesome Web 2.0 t-shirt). Rebecca herself wrote an awesome post about girl geek t-shirts (or lack thereof?)
If you have been reading my blog say, for the past year, you’ll know that I have learned a lot from scratch and I don’t like anybody to do things for me, I prefer to learn how to do them. I appreciate the help of my geek friends but I like to do my own stunts. I want to be semi-geeky, if you might. Don’t change my CSS, teach me how to do it. That kind of stuff.
I can’t recall if it was Rebecca who commented that there might be a geek t-shirt that I could find for the phrase “I do my own stunts” but I couldn’t find it. Nevertheless, let me tell you what I DID find: a geek t-shirt that seems custom made for me (in case you didn’t know, my first degree is in chemical engineering).
Photo credit: Think Geek.
[SIDE NOTE – The molecular structure shown is that of caffeine]
[SIDE NOTE – To prove that I do my own stunts, instead of downloading the image to my Flickr and then linking to it, I found the image location myself and inserted all the appropriate tags to have the photo link back directly to ThinkGeek’s website – how’s that for geekifying myself!]
So now, the question is on to YOU. What are your favorite geek t-shirts? Do you own any geek t-shirts?
To continue with our Mexican food rampage, Rebecca and I went to Delicados for dinner just before attending Third Tuesday. I headed down there early, and since we both were starving we figured we’d order right away. I ordered enchiladas, but committed the mistake of going SUPER HOT. She ordered a wrap.
I was slightly surprised with the sunflower sprouts, but they were very tasty. The food is good for what it is (e.g. comfort food for lunch/early dinner). We were shocked to find out that Delicados closes at 6pm but I’m somehow not too surprised since it seems to cater to the lunch business crowd. The food is tasty and not all that expensive.
We had the pleasure of having Colleen and Ianiv join us for a bit, and afterwards we had a quick pint at Century. Which reminds me that I should have asked Ianiv and Arieanna to guest-blog-post their dinner experience at Century. The staff at Century have always been super, super nice, so I would figure that maybe the food is just as good.
Overall, Delicados is quick, inexpensive, Tex-Mex, filling and sort of a cheap bite. Not bad for what it is, definitely. But closing at 6pm? Not good in my books! 🙂
My blog is looking nice and the header has been very well received. I blame social media superstar Rebecca Bollwitt for my wonderful new blog look, as she did a fantastic job with the header and the new layout, and the changes to the theme (only the ones that WP.com allows you).
The discussion has been around with some of my geeky friends (of which, as Tyler Ingram very properly said, I now have A LOT) and Karen Parker suggested that I ask around all of you geeks who read my blog (particularly those who are self-hosted and/or WordPress Jedi Masters) about suggestions for self-hosting. With the new theme re-design, the increase in readership, my interest in being able to manipulate my own CSS, use plug-ins, customize my side-bars, etc., it appears as though the move to self-hosted would seem rather imminent. Which is kind of too bad since I already paid for the domain mapping. But whatever.
In the mean-time, while I decide what to do for self-hosting, etc., I’ve decided that I am going “self-hosting light” (as aptly named by Rebecca). I am going to buy the customization of my CSS. It’s been decided. That’s the only way I can change the color scheme in my blog.
To be quite honest, I am really enjoying the process of re-designing my blog and having a lot of fun while sharing it with the blogosphere, particularly because I have found that geeks are such a friendly bunch (of which I am now a part of, at least as a partial-geek – because, please do remember – I DO MY OWN STUNTS), and everyone is always offering to help. I am very grateful and very blessed.
And now on to the question…suggestions on the move? I know that everyone (and I’m not mentioning you by name because you know who YOU are) has been gently pushing me towards self-hosting, and giving me advice on the matter. I still have a myriad of questions – suggest providers/hosts? 2.6? *HELP!* 🙂 Or maybe I should just wait until WordCamp Fraser Valley and have this conversation after the event? At any rate, do feel free to drop a comment.
Rebecca and I have been in a little bit of a Mexican food streak, so when we agreed to meet for lunch, we settled on La Casita in Gastown. I had heard mixed reviews, and the ownership structure (apparently owned by non-Mexicans) made me a bit queasy as to the authenticity of the food. Reviewers on DineHere seem to like it. But I have to say that I wasn’t impressed with the actual food.
Rebecca ordered enchiladas, which looked authentic. I had a little bite and I wasn’t fully impressed (better enchiladas at Salsa and Agave, for sure! – SIDE NOTE – The owner of Salsa and Agave asked me NOT to praise her establishment so much because that might generate frictions with the owners of Tequila Kitchen – I don’t think so – they cater to different tastes, and they are both authentic Mexican food restaurants. As we say in Spanish – “el sol sale para todos“).
However, there is ONE thing I was 100% impressed with: their margaritas, particularly their lime margarita. I ordered a strawberry margarita blended and Rebecca ordered a lime one, and they both were awesome (though truth be told, the lime one was MUCH better in my opinion).
If I went there *just* for the margaritas, I think I’d be a happy camper. It’s not bad food, at all, it is good, and the service was good too. But I’m still infatuated with Salsa and Agave (the same way I was with Tequila Kitchen!) – and no, I’m not a fickle eater. I just wasn’t all that impressed with La Casita. But again, as I’ve said, it’s good food.
A couple of days ago, I had what I would say was one of the most fun times in a long while. While I have enjoyed many other events that I will be talking about in future posts, this particular one did remind me a lot of why I blog and how much I enjoy spending time with bloggers OUTSIDE the blogosphere. Rebecca and I met after work for a coffee, and while waiting for John, we sat down in a bench in Yaletown. We chatted about everything and anything, mostly about non-blogging stuff, and while trying to take a self-portrait photo of the two of us, I think I mentioned that my camera had video.
We found ourselves giggling incessantly for like 2 minutes. We were trying to film a serious “Hello there, this is Miss604 and Hummingbird604 and we’re in Yaletown” kind of video, but I have to admit that I succumbed to giggling and laughter. I had to cut the good times short as I was running to attend SteakCamp but as I was making my way towards the bus, I just relished the moment, and reflected about the fact that it’s those moments, when I am within friends whom I’ve met in the blogosphere, when I play Rock Band, or share a drink, when I sit at a coffee shop during a Vancouver Bloggers Meetup, when I have brunch at the Nice Cafe, when we try a different restaurant each time we have lunch, when I go to movies, when I am in a quaint little East Side steak-and-potatoes restaurant… those are some of the best the moments that I cherish. As I Tweeted a few days ago:
Blogging is what brought us together. It is up to us to maintain the relationships.
Thank you Rebecca. For everything that you’ve done for me on the blogosphere, but in particular, for your friendship and for such a great moment like the one I just described. Sharing a laugh with you is really, really fun. And thank you to all of you my good friends that I’ve made through blogging… My life is so much richer because I have YOU in it. You guys have reminded me that friendship is much more than online connections.
I wish I could say “You read it first on Random Thoughts of a Student of the Environment“, but unfortunately that is NOT the case SIGH. I read about Moderne Burger opening actually on Kitsilano.ca, a group blog spearheaded by Rob from TechVibes, and then I checked both Roland and Barb’s Van Eats and Andrew Morrison’s Urban Diner.
Just in case you were wondering if the buzz is warranted, you can read the photo above: “The two Moderne Burger addicts are back in rehab due to the diner being closed for renos. We miss you already and we’ll be back with a vengeance as soon as the gates re-open!!! Your loving clients, Mel + E“. If you ARE or you know Mel + E, drop me a comment on this post or send me an e-mail.
While some people debate whether Moderne Burger is *the* burger joint of choice in Vancouver, I am keen to try it out. Anyone want to join? – contact me via e-mail, drop a comment, or send me a tweet. And, if you are the owner of Moderne Burger, I’d love to be on your guest list for Friday! Yeah! Avoid the line-ups! YOWZA!!! 🙂
Since last week, Rebecca Bollwitt and I have been chatting about the feedback I got from Jordan Behan and Boris Mann re: the header of my site last week. Jordan, Rebecca and Boris agree: my blog *needs* to reflect the concept of ME… sort of “this is Raul – and this is what Raul is all about“.
After last week’s blog re-design, I’ve got a lot of positive responses to the new layout, but the header of the blog still kept feeling somewhat … how to put it… STILL NOT ME. Since the new header image was a modification of the standard image in this blog, it didn’t really reflect ME. Rebecca thought about the header for a while and came up with the one that is currently on the blog.
I’ll discuss more about the blog re-design in further posts, but instead of telling YOU what the changes are, I’d like you to tell ME – what do you think? If you have met me in person (or even if you haven’t) … does it reflect who I am? Thanks first of all to Rebecca for the hard work in creating the header, and to you my readers for providing the feedback 🙂
Everybody and their mother have been talking about FireFox 3.0, about how awesome it is, the page loads, etc. I would link to all of you guys (including many of my good awesome local blogger friends) but just about everybody has talked about the topic in one form or another, thus I’ll just assume it’s public knowledge – FireFox 3.0 has been downloaded a gazillion (I think 3 million) times and we are all happy.
Or at least, I was… until I found out that… FireFox 3.0 and del.icio.us 1.2.1 are INCOMPATIBLE. [UPDATE – Hat tips to Rebecca for the link to the proper site to download the del.icio.us extension – But I still want to rant about how I wasted time on this! — hehehe :)]
FAIL. Despite the fact that, as Arieanna and others have properly pointed out, I am in virtually every Web 2.0 (sorry Trevor, I know you hate the phrase!) application, I didn’t have a del.icio.us account. So I couldn’t carry my bookmarks anywhere. This morning, I was going to bookmark the CIRA WHO-IS Privacy Policy website, and I thought to myself “this is stupid. I should just get myself a del.icio.us account and tag this stuff and have my bookmarks be portable” .
Well, as it turns out, the most recent version of FireFox and del.icio.us are incompatible, at least the latest versions. Oh, goodie! Now I have to bookmark my stuff manually. Of course, you could tell me “hey just install the bookmarklets“. True that, I can do that, but what’s the purpose of having an extension that doesn’t work? GRRRR. I’m annoyed.
Ok. [/end rant]
By now, if you’ve been following Karen’s blog (Tiny Bites) and my blog, you’ll know that Buzz Bishop issued a challenge to us last week – “review The Brave Bull, and demonstrate that you’re not just reviewing only the high-end establishments“. We both bravely accepted (my response – Karen’s response) and I actually found it kind of funny as the restaurant is called “The Brave Bull”. That’s how SteakCamp came to be.
I arrived slightly after 6 pm, as the bus was running late (a guy I bumped into the bus, Martin Rotschild, told me that the evening was going to be better than I expected – and I have to say, that was TOTALLY TRUE). Tom brought along Ryland, Lisa, Candace, Corey. Karen brought Kurt (aka Mr. Tiny Bites) and we were also joined by Steve, Karl and Ryan. I am sure you’ll be seeing lots of Flickr photos around!
Since I knew that the establishment was going to be run only by the elderly Chinese lady who is one of the co-owners, I had already indicated that we should expect slow service. We got there at 6 pm. We finished at 9.20pm. It was a long but awesome affair. The food took long (as expected), and so did the drinks, but everyone seemed to have had a great time.
I ordered a beef and barley soup but with the fact that we had brought an 11 people table, the owner scrambled to manage all of our orders. However, at all times, there was a really sweet and strong feeling of “being home”. For all the negative comments and bad reputation that this area tends to have, people have seriously underestimated The Brave Bull. True, the exterior doesn’t look particularly appealing. True, the fare isn’t upscale. But if you just want a steak and baked potato, for what it is, it’s a good one. I gave it an 8 out of 10.
Remember, this is NOT an upscale establishment. This is a Mom-and-Pop kind of small joint. Nevertheless, I did like it. We all finished our soups really quickly (and although I had to switch my beef and barley soup for clam chowder, I was quite alright). The steak I ordered was well cooked, simply because I don’t like medium rare, or rare, or medium well when I don’t eat in Mexico. I am a lover of Argentinian meat and thus it’s kind of hard to have me have a steak in Vancouver. Nevertheless, I finished EVERY BIT.
The lady owner was EXTREMELY sweet and accomodating to our every need and request. Truth be told, with a group this size, she was always very honest and said “the service is going to be slow”. True, I also had to distribute napkins and cutlery, but I had absolutely no problems and on the contrary, I had a wonderful time with all these folks. And I got to do some geeky talk too 🙂
First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who showed up, especially Karen and her husband.Thanks also to Rastin and Rebecca for their support. And thanks to everyone who showed up. As I told you guys at the table, my whole intention in answering the challenge was to bring some good business to this elderly couple, to clear some of the bad reputation (which to be quite honest, seems not to be warranted, because CLEARLY this place has patrons that understand very well the way The Brave Bull works – I counted at least 15 different people who were there having for dinner at various times throughout the night – so, for the size of the establishment, that’s not a bad outcome), and to just have fun and create community.
I think I succeeded in my attempt, and I didn’t do it alone – all of the participants in SteakCamp at all times helped me (particularly Karen being such a good sport – sorry to have dragged you into this!). When I went to pay the lady and she counted the money, her eyes widened and said “are you sure you’re leaving THAT tip?”. I just smiled back and said “yes I am sure”. Whatever price I paid for that meal (which yes, was about $12 dollars), and however complicated it was to organize this SteakCamp, her smile back to me was worth every single penny I paid and much more.
I rarely visit the iTunes store, for many reasons. One, I’m definitely not a Mac geek. I’m still PC-based. Two, I usually buy rare deep house music which is often not available on iTunes. And third, simply because I forget 🙂 But today I was browsing for a song from the Sex and the City soundtrack, and I found that you can only buy the WHOLE ALBUM. Um, sorry, thanks but NO THANKS. There are reasons why I buy only certain songs!
And I know that I’m going to be called cheesy or mushy, but heck, I love this particular tune: “All Dressed Up in Love” by Jennifer Hudson. That’s the music with which the movie ends, and it is particularly cheerful. Somebody took the time to create a mashup of scenes of the movie trailer and the song, and I really enjoyed it. Hope you do too!
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCghSVTFrDs&hl=en]
For reasons that I will not discuss here, I learned (and then proceeded to refuse) to speak Japanese. The funny thing is, I rarely use it anymore. Today, while reading one of Nadia’s tweets about how she was translating a site, I came to realize that I am very fortunate to speak the languages I do. Being able to speak a language breaks down barriers in ways one cannot always fathom. For me, being 100% fluent in English has helped me establish solid friendships (and yes, in some cases, romantic relationships). Communication is key in any relationship, and you really need to be able to convey the words in the best way or you’re otherwise bound to be misunderstood and create problematic situations.
The phrase that immediately come to my mind when I read Nadia’s tweet was “Anata wa totemo kawaii desu yo” which translates loosely as “did you know you’re very cute?“. I remember how giggly and happy I was every time I heard that phrase… *sigh* Oh, the memories 🙂
