It’s a fact: human beings take things for granted. Canadians and Vancouverites are not exempted from this. Why on Earth would people choose to voluntarily pollute their environment is beyond me. Do you want to guess what I found on this gorgeous park, right besides Lonsdale Quay (after having hung out with Arieanna for a bit at Waves on 1st. St. and Lonsdale)?
Yeah… I found THIS…
And THIS…
Does this upset me? YES. IT DOES. The mere reason why I traveled all the way from Mount Pleasant to the North Shore was to enjoy the scenic beauty (which I did), to have a chance to hang out with friends (which I did). However, I was not prepared to be taken aback by the lack of environmental awareness of what is touted as “the most environmentally-friendly city in Canada”. Well… somebody needs to remind its citizens about better environmental behavior.
/end rant.
And here is a gorgeous view that may give you a hint on why I travel to North Van for comfort.
I’ve blogging for two years, and for the past year, I’ve posted solidly between 2 and 6 posts every day. There are times when my traffic goes up, there are times when it goes down. However, in the strangest of events, my traffic WENT UP ON SUNDAY. Yes, you heard right. On Father’s Day. On Car Free Day. On one of the sunniest days we’ve had in a LONG, LONG TIME, and my traffic this Sunday beat the highest number of visits I had during the week. Why? Don’t ask me. Ask the blogosphere!
On another side note, I need to really get myself organized. I know that I’m on lots of things, but I haven’t managed to really organize all the online stuff I have. So I am …
On Twitter: @hummingbird604
On Flickr: Rolex-PV (Raul)t
On YouTube: drhummingbird604
On Vimeo: hummingbird604
On Facebook: NOPE – I am NOT on Facebook.
On Pownce: hummingbird604
On Plurk: NOPE – I am NOT on Plurk.
On Meetup.com: Raul’s profile.
I have an invite to Jaiku that I haven’t activated, and an invite to FriendFeed that I haven’t activated either. Am I missing something?
There are a gazillion reasons why I adore Monica Hamburg. She is smart, she is witty, she is beautiful, she is incredibly knowledgeable, savvy, sweet, warm-hearted (ok enough with the gushing, hehe). We had joked FOREVER about how I knew she had a Twitter account and I had followed then unfollowed her because she never Twittered. Finally, she has caved in and is now part of our Twitter folks. This is her first tweet:
“@monicahamburg is giving up 🙂 I’m twittering now – thanks for your patience you wonderful peeps! 11:44 AM June 09, 2008 from web”
She is one of the local powerhouses in the realm of social media, and there is a lot to be learned from her. So, I am glad you’re now one of us, Mon. You’ve assimilated on to The Collective, Seven of Nine! 🙂 Much love to you and welcome to Twitter!.
The Car-Free Festival: Main Street Edition was very much a lot of fun. My friend Karen Parker was volunteering for the West End one, but I wasn’t really much in the mood to swing by (and I had to finish inserting a few references in EndNote). [Sorry Karen!]
For me, eating cotton candy is one of those things that transports me back to a wonderful childhood. I hadn’t had a chance to eat cotton candy since I was 20, so this tasted like a little piece of heaven! I was also very touched by the fact that young kids were helping out and making the cotton candy.
I wanted cotton candy… so they were kind and gave me one!
Main Street was closed between 12th Avenue and 16th Avenue (thank you and kudos to the Vancouver Police Department, the City of Vancouver Fire Department and all other local support, because it was VERY well protected. I felt really safe walking there, thanks to road closures and having an ambulance standing by!). Another really cool element was an exhibition of many different modes of transportation with bikes.
You need balance to do this!
I had an opportunity to speak with a number of people in different booths, which was REALLY cool. Some of them had already read my blog! YAY! Furthermore, there were a lot of exhibits that showcased the amazing stuff we have on Main Street, including the Happy Bats Cinema (who offered veggie dogs, popcorn and soda by donation!). I mean, how cool is that?
The music was fantastic, and I made a point of listening to musicians on all three stages. This photo is from the main stage (on 13th Avenue)
I plan to write more detailed posts with focus on each one of the booths/businesses that were showcased, but in the mean time, I know you want to check my Flickr account for more photos, so go there right now 🙂
SIDE NOTES – Some other local bloggers also have done reviews/links/photos of Car-Free Festival. Do you mind dropping a comment and I’ll update this post as I get the links? 🙂 Thanks!
My Dad and I have a loving yet complicated relationship. We are very similar, yet we differ in so many ways. One thing we always have agreed upon, though, is the immense love we have for each other. We may distance ourselves from each other but we always come back. I just wish he wasn’t 6,000 km away from me so that we could spend some time together. He hates traveling so I always have to fly back to Mexico to see him.
My brothers have children and are now fathers, and I am always amazed at how much they love their children. I am very proud of them, and I wish that, when the time comes and I become a father, I will be a good one. I am a very loving man, and thus I would think that I would make a great Dad. To all the Dads around, bloggers and civilians, whatever you do and wherever you are, have a wonderful Father’s Day.
In lieu of hanging out with my Dad (who is 6,000 miles away, in Mexico), I am planning to take a little bit of a Raul day and go to the Car Free Festivals. Given that I live in Mount Pleasant, I am pretty sure I’m hitting the Main Street Car Free Festival. I am also maybe going to swing by the Commercial Drive (Grandview) one for a bit, and perhaps the West End one. There will be photos AND videos coming up soon 🙂
Keira-Anne was the first one to call her “J-Sto” (short for Jennifer Stoddart). Jen is an adorable, twenty-something blonde beauty who also happens to be a blogger. We have been reading each other’s blogs FOREVER (well, for a very long time) and we finally met in person this year.
This is my friend Jen (Photo credit: Jennifer Stoddart on Flickr)
We have had a chance to hang out a couple of times (most recently at Phaedra‘s) and we always enjoy each other’s company. Furthermore, Jen and I share one special love: fashion. Since I used to be a model (about 20 pounds ago), it is always fun to talk about this topic. And yeah, she *is* gorgeous. So, in celebration of her birthday, I’m heading out to the Car Free Festival on Main Street *and* in the West End (how I’m going to manage to do both AND write a paper is beyond me, but whatever).
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JEN!
I am not really that silly to think that when someone unfollows me, it’s because there’s something personal. There are LOTS of reasons why people unfollow me. Sometimes, they need a Twitter-break (“you know, we need to get a Twitter break until you get your tweets under control”). Sometimes, they just think I’m not tweeting what they want/need. In reality, I don’t mind. I try to follow back as much as possible (unless I really physically can’t handle all that many tweets).
Even when I am not following reciprocally, I ALWAYS make a point to talk to my followers. ALL. THE. TIME. I am not a snob, and I am definitely NOT a Twitter snob. So when I started losing followers, I was a bit taken aback. I am sweet, I write what I think is fairly decent content. So why am I losing followers? Hez pointed me out to this article that says it’s maybe Twitter’s fault. Fine. I just don’t want to be worried about it. I write this blog AND my tweets for myself, but I’d be a bit worried if it was because of something I said. I have always believed in the value of good content, and I’d be worried if my followers weren’t very happy with what I write. Just a reflection… not a worry 🙂
Colleen Coplick has a lot of cards under her sleeve. She writes her own personal blog and she is also a PR person who in addition writes for B5Media. However, it is Drinks after Dark, her latest venture, that has got me hooked. See, I am not a really heavy drinker. When I was younger, my Dad would be worried sick that I would get into trouble. He always had told me “Raul, you NEED to learn at least how to have ONE drink, so that you can close the business deals right on the spot”.
He was right. My Dad is a lawyer by training with a specialization in intellectual property law and civil law. I was always reticent to drink. I was like “Dad, why on Earth would you like me to drink? It’s kind of stupid and useless”. But he was right, there is value in learning how to handle one or two or three drinks.
And that’s where I find the value of Drinks after Dark. Colleen provides you with good content, funny writing AND several suggestions on yummy cocktails, the best wine, or expensive wine-glassware. Regardless of how much you drink (e.g. quantity), Drinks After Dark is a good read. Go check it out.
Every so often (rarely, but more often lately), I go through this phase where I just want to be with myself. I *love* hanging out with my friends, don’t get me wrong. But I just need… my time. I need to find again who Raul is. And right now, I think there are several versions out there on the Internet. I am, to many, the good and reliable friend whom they can trust to keep a secret. I am the companion who will say YES to hanging out at the spur of the moment. I am the guy who doesn’t know how to say no even when he’s double-booked. [UPDATE – And I am also a guy who likes his “me” time]
This weekend has been both amazing and informative. The fact that I got to spend time with Andy, CS, Karen Parker, her friends, Kerry Anne, Teresa, Rastin, Ash, Bruce, Rebecca, Keira, John Biehler and John Bollwitt, Phaedra, etc. AND still managed to get some time for myself speaks volumes to my ability to organize my personal life.
That being said, I kind of thing that Sunday should be a me day. I want the morning to go to church, do errands, write a bit of the paper, and then I have my traditional JT evening. As for what I did this weekend? I had a wonderful brunch with AF and CS at The Nice Cafe, combined with Vancouver Joomla! Day, commitments all day long, then a wonderful evening at Karen and her boyfriend’s place for board games (I suck at poker). Kerry-Anne and her husband were in attendance. Man, are they ever suited for each other! They are so cute.
Thursday, as you might have read, I had a great time having beer and appetizers at Public with Andy, and then Friday night I had a wonderful evening with Phaedra, Keira, both John B’s, Amy and Jen. Oh – even better – I got to hang out with Nancy Zimmerman before I met with Andy at the Blackwater Cafe. Not bad for a weekend’s worth. This wekeend was amazing yet I still think I need some “Raul time”.
I just wish I could do more research. As I told Kerry-Anne, I would do MUCH more research if I only didn’t have this busy social life. But I am NOT going to complain. And I am hoping that Derek K. Miller will be impressed with the fact that THIS weekend I am summarizing the whole weekend in a post 🙂 How’s that? 😉
Have everyone a wonderful evening! And now, the question is on to YOU: What are YOU doing this Sunday? Is Sunday for you a day to wind down?
Hat tips to Beth Snow and Rebecca Bollwitt who directed me towards BlogDesk (Rebecca has a thorough review on her blog). This post and the previous one (the recap of Vancouver Joomla! Day) were composed in BlogDesk before I uploaded them. I can now get the best of the best!
Only problem I seem to see is creating the post in a visual editor (BlogDesk has a visual editor). I am so used now to writing my own tags and HTML that I am feeling a bit unhappy. But it does help me having the categories directly to the right of my window.
Thanks Beth and Rebecca for telling me to use BlogDesk! It is now your fault that Vancouverites, and my readers from abroad will be able to read more and more content from me, as I now can compose posts wherever I want and then just upload them with a single click!
I had to miss a couple of sessions due to scheduling conflicts, but I managed to spend a large chunk of the day at Vancouver Joomla! Day. I was quite positively surprised by the large number of women in the audience (go tekkie women!), at a rate of about 1:3 (1 female per 3 males) and a very good turnout (about 120 people, 80 men and 40 women). Whomever said that nobody knew Joomla! in Vancouver, was seriously wrong.
EDIT – Here is the Flickr set of the Joomla! workshop.
I had to live-blog on Ash’s MacBook Pro, which on the one hand, is very pretty but I had a really difficult time creating posts because of the lack of familiarity with the computer. Furthermore, I wasn’t using my own TwitterFox (or Twhirl as I do from my desktop) so I had to Twitter from the web, which was a real annoyance.
Although I realize how young the Joomla! project is, I seriously would like to learn more about it. I found the sessions really interesting, although probably it would be of more interest to developers (and coders). So if you’re a high-tech geek, and you didn’t attend, you probably missed quite a bit. But not to worry, I have liveblogged a few of the sessions.
I’m exhausted and I really want to go home, because unfortunately I have lost my internet connection (that’s the problem with having a Mac broadcasting wireless signal and my laptop doesn’t get it. I got on the Vancouver Public Library network for a little while, but afterwards, I simply just couldn’t log on back, so I have been composing these posts on BlogDesk.
A big round of applause to Rastin, Ash, Teresa, Jen and all the sponsors, both media, service, food catering, etc. The audience was awesome too, I met some really interesting folks (although my conversations went a little bit too tekkie for my own liking – remember, I’m a non-tekkie blogger) [I know, somehow I don’t think I can use this excuse anymore since I do most of my own HTML by hand, and I think I’ve learned a little bit about SEO and all the social media geekspeak]
Overall, a good morning and looking forward to spending some time with friends tonight, if my body doesn’t start acting up (I have been really pushing myself lately, and I seriously shouldn’t!)
Chris Evans and Brad Baker – from the Joomla! project. They’re going to talk about security, performance and hosting. PeerGlobe and RMDStudio and Swing Candy all have pages describing the event, so you can check them out too.
We’re examining the installation of Joomla! FTP Configuration – if your files are written by the internet user, you can use the FTP to upload it.
QUESTIONS – Can you have 9 different websites that use the same images?
How you link to them and depending where they’re stored, yeah, sure.
Now we’ll spend a little bit of time talking about security, performance and hosting – it seems as always the hosts are on one side and the developers on the other side!
One of the most common things we see is Joomla sites being hacked. Joomla released a security patch. That being said, most of the hacks that we see are mostly third party components or extensions under the Joomla core. One secure/insecure component can be compromised. When a component is compromised you get a 777 directory under your attack. The attack cannot be spread.
[JOOMLA GUYS – MAKE SURE TO CONTACT ME IF I HAVE LIVE-BLOGGED SOMETHING WRONG!]
Joomla! Official Documentation Wiki
You can do a lot with Joomla! to optimize the performance. Sometimes you need lots of modules and lots of content. When you have to trouble-shoot – it’s super easy to do performance testing in Joomla! The kind of extensions that you run – you’d like to think that the developers would have done some reliance test.
Visit Joomla Performance – components that aren’t all that available.
When it comes to choosing a hosting provider – there are some really fast websites and on a sluggish server, it’s not going to work.
Diabetic Diet Secrets.com – Type II diabetes has increased 800% in the past 60 years. Vancouver has a substantial number of diabetes patients. The site is located here. Delivering diabetic education through the server.
AcaJoom – Newsletter – Every time they got a new person come in, suddenly they get the whole series of the newspaper – he can’t do that with Joomla. If you want to do a project that requires sophistication, Joomla is the way to go.
If you want to help reverse a huge problem, contact him through either of his sites. There is his contact information there!
Questions – What other tools did you use – Community Builder – works well. I’d like to be able to do that for people to log in at one time, they don’t have to log in through a separate form. People who can help me get all the photos in place.
I’m looking for people who can keep the site secure – I need a good tekkie 😉 [SIDE NOTE – He is so endearing and so nice! This is a very worthy cause – Joomla! Developers, come help!]
More door prizes! YAY!
This will be a project spotlight on Jim DeLaHunt & Associates.
Jim will try to show what he’s accomplishing with his site (for his business). There’s a contact page (that’s how you can get in touch with him). There is a translation tool (the content can be translated into Japanese [SIDE NOTE – How cool is this!] and into German.
Jim is doing a quick poll to find out how many people speak other languages. Jim uses an extension called JoomFish (cute icon of a fish). The other part is sh404SEF (there’s corresponding stuff on Joomla 1.5, but this extension is basically Joomla 1.0) – in a short time you may be able to do exactly what you want to do on Joomla 1.5 that you can right now do on Joomla 1.0
Questions – JoomFish – can do multisites – apparently yes.
Question – If you are searching for this site and you got a browser whose preferences are in German, do you get descriptions in German?
Well, there is some provision for making the title of a page and the meta-tags – localizing them and localizing the content.
Question – If I come to a page with a URL that has no language tags – it will present the default URL in the default language.
[COMMENT – Apparently Nooku does content translation for Joomla 1.5]
Question – What type of difference would it make when you pick the language – would you want to pick the language to be Spanish?
For 1.0 and JoomFish 1.8 – it helps to select a default language for the website and then you localize the other languages. It may even be that JoomFish 2.0 may be a bit even handed. But you should make a language as primary first. You want to take steps to make sure that you are in UTF Encoding. Otherwise you’d be in trouble!
For the front page, for the default language, he wanted to make sure that the language code was inserted properly. He wanted his site to be even-handed.
AND NOW WE GO TO LUNCH
Steve Burg is speaking right now about SEO and Joomla 1.5 – I just arrived back to VPL so I am a bit behind in the liveblogging. @SwingCandy’s twitter stream will have a much better account by now. I will start with the notes now.
Problem 3 – Reasons
– Sites have a limited amount of Page Rank.
– It’s much easier to rank a smaller site.
Problem 3 – Solutions
– Block
* Calendars
* Photo galleries
* Tags
* Search clouds
* PDF pages
* Automatically translated pages
How to block
1) SEF Patch – add no follow
2) Robots.txt file
Disallow: /photos/
Why use Joomla if SEO is important
* The fixes to Joomla’s SEO problems really aren’t difficult
* The core team are aware of the problems and working on them.
* Content is king – no other CMS makes it as easy.
Recommended extensions
* Virtuemart – optimized shopping cart
* JReviews – outranks CNet and Amazon for competitive product reviews
* Mosets Tree – Spidered directory (really easy)
Joomla sites with great rankings
– WHreviews.com – webhosting reviews
– IPodSpeakerReviews – first ranked
– Triple-X.com.au – for wetsuits
– Joomla sites are 3 and 7 for CMS
Questions – Tricks for indexing quicker with Google News — you need to have a unique (at least 3 digit) unique number (most websites use the date). SHS will allow you to insert the date into your URLs. That’s the best way to do it.
Question – Converting an HTML what would you recommend – Absolutely one thing – DON’T CHANGE THE URLs, unless you can’t avoid it, just keep the same URL structure. Otherwise you’re risking your ranking.
Question – Keyword densities on a page – I don’t calculate these quantities. In the title, description, maybe italics in a couple of times. Make sure that the actual keyword is mentioned in all the important places. I wouldn’t bother with percentages.
Questions
1) How does Google recognize metadata?
Descriptions would matter for your most important landing pages, but often it is better to leave the description blank. Definitely your home page needs a really good description, your most important landing or category pages, but in general, it’s often better to leave descriptions blank.
2) A site that has a list of links – direct listings – if someone wants to put their sites – how would they go about doing that?
If you type in Joomla in the Google homepage, you get 7 pages. That’s all very fluctuating, sort of an experiment Google is doing. They go back and forth. The better established and more heavily traffiqued websites – you can’t really do much about it. At some point Google will follow.
Question – follow up on Joomla’s migration. Do you have to hand-enter each HTML URL to keep it the same? If you have to do – is there any way to automate this process?
The short answer is NOT. It really depends on your site structure. If you have a site – it depends on the number of folders. If you have an existing site with 5/6 folders, you start getting into a lot of problems. 2 folders you can automate – more than 2 folders, then you’re in a pretty painstaking process.
Question –
9.20 am I managed to borrow Ash’s laptop, so I am liveblogging on a Mac for the first time. Wow. I love MacBook Pro. Steve Jobs, send me a laptop, will you? Photos on Flickr will be tagged <strong>vanjoomladay</strong>
9.30 am Rastin is opening the session. Over 140 people are here (this is the largest ever Joomla! Day in Canada). A month ago, we had a WordCamp (90-100 people). Here we are, a LOT of people know Joomla! in Vancouver.
The Tazzu webpage can be found here. Brad Baker will start.
Joomla! is really easy to install. There are a handful of people who work full time with Joomla! Another handful do a lot of coding. About four people do Joomla! design templates. There is an abundant cross-section of people.
The Joomla! project – About 19 million page views, 15 million unique views, 40% bounce rate. Top content <a href=”http://joomla.org”>joomla.org</a>. There are more than 3200 extensions that you can find at extensions.joomla.org.
10 people from the core team of Joomla Project are here right now 🙂 There are hundreds of people involved in the working groups.
SIDE NOTE – I will have to take a break from the liveblog from about 10am to 11.30 or so, as I have to meet a colleague, but I’ll be back soon and will be back to the liveblog.
Question – How do you position Drupal against Joomla!? – The Drupal project is different to Joomla!
Question – The transition from one version to another is getting a bit problematic – do you think that’ll be solved soon? – Looking at statistic, more new extensions 1.5 – probably can’t talk about this right now.
Question – Several sites that are 1.0 – is there some means to transition to 1.5? There is a 1.5 migration group (and a live demo).
Question – Biggest challenges for Joomla project – Personal answer – getting more and more people involved so that development and business support can be expedited. It’s exciting. The project has gone from nothing to absolutely awesome growth.
Question – Is there a good blogging support? WordPress does have good support now – Have you seen the developers.joomla.org site? After listen to some of the presentations you might feel better. Joomla is a CMS and 1.5 is a solid framework. You will see, I think, some blogging add-ons although they’re coming along.
[Time for the next presentation – I am taking a break, back at 11.30am]
The outstanding and super-awesome folks of Tazzu community already have a forum very well set-up for discussions around Bill C-61. Head over there and start the revolution! 🙂
Just a quick reminder about Vancouver Joomla! Day tomorrow. You might have read that I’m going to be live-blogging a couple of the Joomla! Day sessions – as part of the outstanding roster of media sponsors (including blogging star Miss604, Rebecca Bollwitt, and witty and funny writer Bruce Byfield). I will be there early, and then I’ll be shuffling in and out of some sessions as I have a couple of other commitments, but I’ll be around most of the day!
I am never surprised by government’s lack of public consultation over an issue. Having taught public policy, I am more than aware about how governments maneuver to ensure that their bills and laws are passed with outstanding skill. Dodging bullets from the transparency and accountability social movement is known as one of the master skills of governments at all scales.
In my Twitter feed, I saw today a post on Bill C-61 proposed by Minister of Industry Jim Prentice and the lack of transparency and public consultation that surrounds the bill. I am not unfamiliar with this topic, having live-blogged Michael Geist’s lecture recently. Dr. Geist is an expert in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa (and an absolute pleasure to talk to, by the way).
He is (and I think, rightfully so) worried about the content and provisions of Bill C-61. Geist furthermore makes a really good point here:
“Because in a country that rightly promotes the importance of education, the Canadian DMCA erects new barriers for teachers, students, and schools at every level who now face the prospect of infringement claims if they want to teach using digital media.“[Michael Geist’s column, June 13 2008]
As an educator, a policy analyst, a researcher, an academic AND a blogger, I am worried about a bill that would prevent teachers and students from using digital media to advance the knowledge. In this era of the “new normal” (a term coined by Geist that I have adopted now as a philosophy) we have been adopting new technologies and media at an incredibly fast pace. Just as an example, I have been vlogging more recently, as well as highlighting new music, videos, etc.
What is the future of our rights as users of media and are we really doing what is best for the citizens and residents of Canada? That’s a question I am mulling over right now… what do you think?
Technically this should be a “bar review” since we basically had beer and appetizers, but I’ll categorize it as a restaurant review because I think Public Lounge Eatery would rather be identified as a restaurant with good booze than as a bar with some good food.
There are many reasons why I should have been to Public much earlier. First, I *did* drop by a first time with my friend HZ but we were swiftly kicked out because they were closing at 11pm. Now they close at 1:00am. Fine and dandy, only – I never get the chance to come here. Second, I live incredibly close to Public. If my decision to come by was solely based on geographical proximity, this is the first bar I should hit (heck, even closer than The Five Point!). Third, Public has an outdoor patio and I *love* outdoor patios! But I finally, FINALLY made it to Public. I had such a great time too!
Last night, Andy and I went for a beer and some appetizers to Public. I couldn’t have asked for better company. Andy has a great sense of humour and we hadn’t really caught up in a long time, since I had been very busy and he’d been travelling, so it was a great opportunity to catch up.
We ordered a three dip platter (which had some nachos and a weird-shaped toast kind of thingie – looked like a biscotti). Normally (as you all know) I would NEVER eat anything with cheese. First, because I hate cheese. Second, because even if I didn’t hate cheese (which I do) I am lactose intolerant. But I wasn’t about to say no, and Andy seemed to be interested in this dish, so I said “what the heck – this will be my cheese consumption for the whole of 2007 AND 2008“.
The beer we ordered was lemony, and it was light – we shared a pitcher of beer (and given that I am a light-weight, I would say that it had much more of an effect on me than it had on him!) and the 3 dip platter (shown below).
Photo credit: Andy’s photo on my Flickr.
I was also slightly weirded out by the way in which the waitress brought the bill. At The Red Onion (burger joint, really tasty) they bring you the bill underneath a red onion. At Public, they bring it in a weird-shaped holder (see below). Strange.
Photo credit: Andy’s photo on my Flickr.
Anyway, I couldn’t have asked for better company for a first try of Public Eatery Lounge. However, I think that next time I’m going to order something non-cheesy. Not only because I hate cheese, but because I had to pop in the lactaid pills and my tummy complained a bit. Next time, I say 🙂 All in all it was a great experience and very good company.
So, before I walked to the Blackwater Cafe in Gastown to meet with Nancy, I checked very briefly my Tweet count. I *swear* it was somewhere around 2950 tweets. Yes, a substantial number, but still – I mean, I am by no means the person who tweets the most in Vancouver (although I’m considered the top twitterer by TwitterLocal).
Anyhow, not sure how it escaped my mind, but I indeed am at around 3056 tweets. What the heck am I talking about and how have I managed to do my work in addition to blogging, commenting on other people’s blogs, writing papers/journal articles/conference presentations? That’s anybody’s guess. But one thing I do know – I am VERY happy with my Twitter friends.
As I mused today on my reflection – “Blogging is what brought us together. It is up to us to maintain the friendships“. Twitter has brought some amazing people to my life, and I’m very grateful for that.
On a quick side note, I was quite productive – had lunch with Rebecca at Salsa and Agave, then proceeded to do work at both UBC and SFU downtown campuses, then I met with Nancy at Blackwater Cafe (I *love* this place, this IS going to be our next Vancouver Blogger Meetup hangout! great decor, very nice guy the owner, etc.). Finally, met up with Andy for drinks at Public (review going live in the morning). Not bad for a night’s work, eh?
Gary Jones from BlueFur invited me a while ago (after the very successful, and superbly organized WordCamp Vancouver 2008, by Tazzu) to speak at the first ever WordCamp Fraser Valley 2008 , and I was thrilled to accept. I really respect the work of Blue Fur and I’m very happy to contribute in any way I can. As a matter of fact, I owe a lot of the increase in my readership to WordPress-specific tools and tricks.
Matt Mullenweg in WordPress gear. Photo credit: Niallkennedy on Flickr.
The following is an abstract of the talk I’m going to give, hoping that it will be useful. I know for a fact that John Chow and Rebecca Bollwitt (aka Miss604) will be speaking too. This will be SO MUCH FUN!
Here’s the abstract of my talk:“I Switched to WordPress, and So Can You”
I started blogging on the Blogger platform for ease of use (and because several friends of mine were using it too!). On March 23rd, 2008, I took one of the best decisions in my burgeoning blogging career: I moved my blog entirely from Blogger to WordPress. Many bloggers seem afraid of taking the plunge and switching to WP. Currently, I blog primarily on the WordPress.com platform, and have enjoyed an increase in readership of over 300%. In this presentation, I will talk about my experience switching platforms, outline the advantages that I see in WordPress, and speak about the next steps I plan to take in the process of becoming a WP geek. 🙂
I am, of course, open to any questions or comments you might want to include. I am sure that some of you might want me to post some video, being the owner of a Flip and having attended a Reachd.com awesome seminar. I will try to do at least some vlogging – most likely, I’ll be live-vlogging Rebecca‘s as she will be too busy giving her own talk to be able to vlog it!!! (but knowing Rebecca, she might even be able to live-blog/vlog her own part of the WordCamp!)
There is NOTHING I hate more than having to update my “About Me” page, or my CV, both the academic and the MBA-ized version (yes I have MBA training – hence the nickname of MBA-ized). Ages ago, I created a CV where I would dump more and more stuff as I would do it. It has finally caught up to me that I can’t do that, for a number of reasons.
First, I’ve done more than I think I have. I had a really damn hard time writing down “oh, heck – I *did* present a paper at a conference in 2007 – riiiight… what was the title of that paper?” or “oh crap, I do have to write THAT paper for SO-AND-SO conference… riiiight… ok, let’s get on with it“… and the story goes on.
So, after seeing how beautifully re-arranged are my friends’ websites and “About Me” pages and CVs, I’ve decided that I am going to take most of Thursday, Friday and perhaps Saturday to re-vamp these pages AND my CV. Maybe by the time Saturday comes, I’ll be able to present you with some coherent re-design of my blog (I don’t plan to touch the theme/CSS – just the About Me page, perhaps my blogroll, maybe include a tag cloud).
As for my CV? Oh, that’s easy. I am *almost* done finding all the crap I’ve done in the past couple of years, and the stuff I have committed to – and yes, I stupidly said “sure why not” to two more book chapters and two journal articles. GREAT. Say goodbye to outdoor summer activities, Raul 🙁
…. unless…
Apple decides to give me a brand spanking new laptop 😉 And if they do, I’ll definitely spend time outdoors writing (Salt Spring Island, me, my laptop, perhaps a significant other… good times!)
I am not really a compulsive eater. Most of the time, I know how much I need to eat in order to feel fully satisfied, and I like cooking for myself as I usually tend to make whatever feels tasty. Last night, I was feeling somewhat down-ish. This was slightly surprising, as I happened to have a short walk and bus commute with Karen Parker, whose company I do enjoy a lot. But when I got home, I somehow felt rather lonely.
I opened my freezer, and found a container with more than a litre of boysenberry ice-cream (with soy milk, given that I am lactose-intolerant). I started having spoonful after spoonful of ice cream and then I recognized that this wasn’t going to be real food, so I went and prepared a good amount of rottini a la puttanesca.
I couldn’t stop eating – I had like five bowlfuls of pasta. Of course, right after, I felt lethargic and decided to go to sleep right after. I think that on the one hand, it’s true that I was hungry, but on the other, I just couldn’t stop myself from sampling the flavors I like. It’s like when I go for all-you-can-eat sushi. It’s not that I am hungry, it’s just that I *love* sushi and I just keep going for more, and more, and more. That’s why I should never be invited to a buffet – because if I am, I’ll end up eating non-stop!
