So, in theory you’re not supposed to Drink and Blog (e.g. Blog Under the Influence) or Tweet Under the Influence (dweet). Anyhow, I just got home, Monica Hamburg and Chris just drove me home. I’ve had such an awesome weekend, despite the fact that I’ve been SUPER insanely busy with work. It all started on Friday night with NerdCamp Patio Edition. Had the pleasure of sharing a few beers with Duane, Rebecca and John Bollwitt, John Biehler, Peter Andersen, Dave Shea and Trevor O, and Ianiv and Arieanna (and Derek, whose blog I don’t have available at the moment).
It was particularly enjoyable to meet Dave Shea, whom I’ve heard is like the Master Geek. It was also a bit embarrassing, because Dave is a really nice guy, very pleasant to chat with and yet I totally made a fool of myself by saying “I do not belong here, this is a table full of geeks, I am SO not worthy“. Totally awesome also to spend some time with iPhone owners. Rebecca, Duane and John Biehler were showing off their hardware. It’s kind of hard to see how much fun they have with their gadgets when I’m PC-based. I am so totally going Mac next time I buy a damn computer. I also felt bad with all the geeks there, because I am such a non-geek, and I was immersed in geek-dom. I hope you guys didn’t mind.
The Kingston is a really cool bar (bar review forthcoming) and we had a great time. It’s so nice to be surrounded by such positive and encouraging people. Trevor was celebrating his birthday so it was nice to actually meet the person behind the blog. Shortly afterwards Rebecca and John drove me home, where I quickly showered and headed down to the Lotus for a DJing gig that Phaedra had, in celebration of her birthday.
Not only is Phaedra someone I deeply care for, but also, she is totally awesome in terms of the music she plays. We’re both into deep house music, so we had a fantastic time. I had a pleasure of meeting Jen Stoddart for the first time. Of course, I couldn’t miss Keira-Anne, who was there in her full splendor.
Saturday was a total recovery/work day, where I had a coffee with Rastin and Teresa at Bean Around the World. We also had some time to geek out, which was totally awesome. I rarely have the chance to hang out socially with them so I am glad I got a chance.
Today was also Mother’s Day in Mexico so I had to call Mom and also finish some work and attend briefly another friend’s birthday party (JG). He’s such a great guy I couldn’t miss it. Then I headed downtown for Rock Band with Tanya, Corinna and Adam, Gillian, Monica Hamburg and Chris and a couple other friends.
Tanya, Corinna, Adam, Monica Hamburg, Chris, Gillian and everyone else there were so awesome, it was great. I got to sing a lot, which was good. I am such a sucker for hanging out with good friends, and this was a great opportunity to combine social media and fun. These people are adorable. Corinna and Adam and I were all taking funky photos.
I am very appreciative of how much effort Tanya puts into her friendships, and I can’t help but go to bed with a lot of warm fuzzies. This Friday and Saturday, despite the fact that they’ve been trying, I’ve had a chance to spend time with great people, both days. I look forward to many more of these to come.
Sunday is usually a quiet day, and with all the work I have to do, I’ll just probably chill in the evening with JT as I usually do. I really need a break. Thanks to all my social media friends for such an enjoyable couple of days. And you should be proud of me. I didn’t dweet (at least nothing bad!).
I am very proud of what I have accomplished on my blog, and I try really hard to acknowledge each and every one of my fellow bloggers who have provided me with advice and help. I was facing a WordPress.com problem (that even though I bought my own domain, WordPress is only re-directing to my WordPress.com page instead of providing “clean links”) and got through thanks to the generosity of readers and or fellow bloggers. Thus, I always try to provide hat tips (e.g. “thank you for pointing me to this” or “thank you for helping me with that”).
This led me to reading about the hat tips and surprisingly, I found that there is disagreement on whether people should provide hat tips or not. I am a firm believer that they (we) all should, and the reason being that we all like (and deserve) recognition. I was really shocked to find out that some people don’t link or don’t provide “hat tips” or link love because it’s either time consuming, or they don’t think they ought to.
Reactions?
A while ago (can’t recall and too lazy to go through my archives) I wrote about how important it was to have the proper equipment in this city. I have recently lost a piece of important equipment (a compact umbrella that I can fit into my laptop backpack) but normally, this would be the line-up of equipment I’d be carrying with me at all times:
– Travel coffee mug
– Compact umbrella
– Water bottle (although with all the bisphenol A thingy, I might switch, hehe)
– iPod
– iPod cable to recharge the iPod battery
– Laptop (which is dying but hasn’t fully passed away, so I’m still carrying it around)
– 2 USB keys (although with the appearance of 4 GB USB memory sticks, these are going to go)
– Laptop-fitted backpack
– Light sweater (in case the weather changes) – UPDATE – Proofread my posts before I post them!
– Lots of pens and mechanical pencils – not sure this qualifies as equipment, but just thought I’d throw it
– Notepad with elastic band and bookmark – please note this item was part of the “Definitely, Maybe” swag I got thanks to Lainey Gossip.
– Security cable (to make sure nobody runs with my laptop in tow).
You know, I wouldn’t mind adding a cell phone to my equipment but … I just have been SO lazy. So, the question is now on to you – what equipment do you NEVER leave your house without?
Everybody who knows me well will know that I am a fan of JJ Beans House of Coffee. It’s a local chain of coffee shops
JJ Bean offers some of Vancouver’s finest coffee, freshly roasted in small batches every day. We have five retail stores in the Vancouver area, and we supply wholesale coffee to over three-hundred cafes and fine-dining restaurants in the lower mainland.
Our passion is great coffee. Our goal is to share that passion with everyone we touch. Come visit us and discover just how great coffee can be.[JJ Beans]
They have a location very close to my apartment, so I *love* meeting my former students, colleagues and friends there. It provides a comfortable atmosphere where you can chat, discuss career options (for my former students) or just simply edit a paper. There is ONE thing you can’t do there, though: surf the internet (thus, you can’t use Twitter or MSN or GTalk or write a blog post).
While having coffee at Bean Around the World with Rastin and Teresa we were complaining about the fact that JJ Beans doesn’t have Wi-Fi. Teresa has commented about this on her blog, and we all agreed that we should start a petition to have JJ Beans reconsider and offer Wi-Fi.
WHY SHOULD JJ BEANS HAVE Wi-Fi?
- Because we like to geek out to good coffee. And JJ Beans has awesome coffee.
- Because it would attract a whole new crowd, including the students who love multi-tasking and the geeks.
- Because it would make my life SO easy.
- [Add your own reason]
Since I’m not on Facebook, I can’t start a petition on it. But I’m more than happy to talk to the managers about it. I’ve had some great conversations (one of the most recent, with Jonathon Narvey) while having a coffee at JJ Beans, so what could be better than being able to geek out there with blogo-friends?
I’m somewhat ashamed to admit that even though I have a blog, I own my own domain, and I write each and every one of these posts all by myself, I’ve learned lots about coding and tags, and twemes, and Twitter and all that jazz. I’ve still never fully understood RSS feeds. I have some idea, but haven’t had the time to really delve deep into what an RSS feed is.
I have some understanding that there’s a URL that you add to your Google Reader that allows you to read the feed. Now, I managed to set up my Google Reader to catch some of the feeds of my friends’ blogs, but haven’t set it up for everything.
This morning, I realized that if I wanted to use TwitterFeed, I need to access with OpenID and all that jazz. Took me a long time but I did it. And now, TwitterFeed doesn’t recognize my feed (which in theory is http://feeds.feedburner.com/hummingbird604. The worst part is that my feed shows only fragments of my posts, thus forcing anyone who reads my blog through their RSS reader to come and visit my site.
Of course, many people will be very annoyed at this fact, so could someone please let me know how to set this RSS feed so that you can read my full posts instead of summaries? Thank you.
Even though I’ve desperately tried to do everything at the same time, the fact that I’m so busy has led me to be unable to pretty much participate in the Projecting Change Film Festival to the extent that I’ve wanted to do. But I can now offer you an updated link to the schedule, as the current link doesn’t work.
May 9th (yesterday) was focus on food, and today is all about the Sustainable Saturday, with films covering issues that range from climate change, energy to water supply (with the midnight showing of Chinatown). All movies are shown at The Ridge (on Arbutus and 16th). Tickets are selling fast, so head over there now 🙂
Well, I love to give link love (I love giving love in any way, shape or form, but link love is fun). I know, sounded cheesy. But, whatever 🙂
So, here is some link love on a Friday afternoon.
– Dr. Beth Snow is running for a worthy cause. More details there, so go sponsor her!
– You heard about Cinema 319 from Marina before nobody else. Go and read her, NOW.
– Karen Parker is really a funny writer yet she seems to have neglected her blog. Go and pester her, tell her I sent you and that she should get on and write ONE blog entry, for crying out loud! 🙂
– John Bollwitt finally decided to write again 🙂 So here’s his view of podcasts. Recorded history or edited history eh? 😉
– Finally, a little of self-centric love – Here’s a link to the upcoming Projecting Change Film Festival – So check out the movies I want to see. Because you know, it’s all about me!
🙂 Enjoy your weekend!
Can you/should you date a blogger? Apparently the folks at Shagablogger think so. Armed with the strangest/weirdest/oddest name for a dating site, Shagablogger is apparently supposed to help you find the love of your life. Or your love of blogs. Or maybe just a bigger readership.
Welcome to Shagablogger, the worlds first dating site built by bloggers, for bloggers. We understand that as well as growing relationships, bloggers are interested in growing blogs. As such, you can use this site to meet fellow bloggers, grow your blogs, and ‘network’ under the most unclassy domain name in the world![Shagablogger site]
Anyway, check their website and then come back and tell me what you think. Or simply just drop a comment and tell me whether you think bloggers should date. Is this the best way to find love in the blogosphere? Hat tips to John Chow for including in his Friday Miscellaneous Ramblings.
And for the record (not that any of you really mind knowing this, but…) I’m single.
Despite being absolutely swamped with work, I had already scored tickets for a live show of People in Planes at The Biltmore, so I felt absolutely compelled to attend, even if only for a couple of hours, for various reasons. First, I love People in Planes‘ music. This 5-men Cardiff-originated ensemble is incredibly talented. Second, I live ridiculously close to the Biltmore. It took me all of three minutes to get there and three more to get back home. And last but not least, I scored free tickets thanks to Beyond Robson. How often do you get free tickets to hear one of your favorite bands? Almost never, right? Well, there you go. So I had to extract myself from doing my work to spend a couple hours enjoying the band (also, my brain was not functioning at the time, so everything aligned itself).
The band’s front man sometimes reminds me of R.E.M.’s vocalist, but I was absolutely delighted to find that they sound pretty much exactly like they do on their website and albums. I have seen Maroon 5 live and have noticed that Adam Levine needs to lower his pitch when he sings live as he can’t reach such high notes as he usually does on his studio-recorded songs. However, this was not the case with People in Planes. They performed a large number of their upcoming album’s tracks, including my absolute favorite: Mayday (M’aidez)
There were a number of things that were slightly disappointing (none of them related to People in Planes nor the Biltmore nor Beyond Robson). First, there was a slight confusion at the door so it took them a while to find out whether I was on the guest list or not. But that was quickly resolved. Second, and this part really annoyed me: NOBODY seemed to really have the energy to dance to People in Planes’ tunes. They opened with Mayday (something I probably wouldn’t have done, I probably would have started with Last Man Standing to build the energy in the crowd. However, I was super excited to hear Mayday live, so I didn’t care much. It was surprising to find that I was pretty much the only one singing along. But then a few other folks started singing along the rest of their songs, so maybe they just needed to find the right one for them.
I am sorely disappointed in the music-attending crowd, because in every concert (at least indie band concert) I’ve been to, I don’t find that folks jump, scream, sing and yell along with the band. It was a very tame crowd for my liking. Plus, I didn’t have a +1. Normally, my good friend HZ would join me for these events but I neither told him on time nor did I have the heart to ask him to join me considering that he’s been away from his girlfriend for a few months, and they really need time together. I’m sure that when he reads this he’s going to scold me for not asking anyway, but truth be told, I am self-conscious when it comes to asking people to join me in adventures particularly when they’re partnered. I don’t like feeling like I’m the one who is taking them away from their partners (for however short time it is!). As my good friend HZ would say, I’m usually socially guilt-ridden, hehehe.
Overall, a great event. I would have really liked People in Planes to come after say, May 20th when my life will be slightly normal-ish. But to be fair, just being able to see the band live, and to hear Mayday (M’aidez) live was a highlight.
UPDATE – According to Wikipedia, “The first single from Beyond The Horizon, “Mayday (M’aidez)” will be available only on iTunes on May 6th, along with “Last Man Standing” and the “Pretty Buildings” video.” … but last night it was unavailable on iTunes, so maybe wait a few days.
Photo credit: (c) All rights reserved by Jennifer Stoddart on Flickr.
As some (or many) of you know, I’m currently under a lot of stress, have imminent deadlines and will be definitely not be as sociable and lively as I usually tend to be. While I plan to exercise a lot, I will need to reduce my social engagements as my dance card is already full for this and the following week. I will of course attend the social events I’ve already committed to, and will not stop exercising, but if I am not especially prompt in my responses, or visit your blog and drop comments as often as I usually do, please don’t take it personally. I’m under a lot of stress and just need to get stuff done. Should you need to contact me, please feel free to e-mail me or send me a Tweet. THANK YOU EVERYONE.
I’m just back from having lunch with LJ, whom I’ve always seen like my sister and with whom I have a very close friendship. We always joke about the fact that we like each other so much because we are so much alike. We’re both extroverted, cuddly, huggy, sweet, flirtatious, and both chemical engineers, funny how that goes. In many ways, she is the female version of me, but prettier. 😀
The funny thing is that even though we hadn’t seen physically in one year (you heard that right, yes ONE FULL YEAR) even though we live in the same city (well, that’s also a joke – she lives within the Lower Mainland). But as soon as we saw each other, it was like no time had ever passed. Not one single minute. We actually caught up about the things that had happened to us in more than a year in exactly 20 minutes.
The rest of the time, we spent talking about larger issues (our respective futures, our lives as we know them now, etc.) All of this over lunch, at Crave on Main (which is one of my favorite hangouts). I am amazed at how these things happen. I stopped seeing her last year (although we had occasionally a conversation over the phone here and there), yet I love her just the same.
Unbelievable how that goes. When friendships are solid, it doesn’t matter how long you spend away from them. You always come back to the same place and you don’t even need to say “I’m sorry we spent so much time away”. I’m glad we’re back in each other’s lives and look forward to many more of these moments. Because friendships are priceless 🙂
Fresh off of the recent Vancouver NetSquared event (also known as NetTuesday), I just got swamped with work and thus was pretty much unable to write a recap. However, since I have a meeting shortly and I can’t really focus much on work, I figured I might as well write a couple of comments on the meeting.
I had happily volunteered to live-blog the event for Rebecca (on Miss604.com), who couldn’t make it on Tuesday. It was the first time I’ve done a guest live-blog directly on her site, which made me a bit nervous (I feel better if I screw up on my site than on anybody else’s!), but at the same time, I was very excited.
At any rate, the evening, entitled “Welcome to the Widget Revolution” was very entertaining, with two presentations on how non-profits are making use of widgets to advance issues of social justice, sustainability and societal change. The last presentation was actually a demo of SproutBuilder, a great tool-building application.
I have the feeling that some of the participants expected a more geeky/techie kind of talk. The last part definitely was, but the rest was very much about how already built widgets were incorporated into the social media toolkit of a number of non-profits. I think that the message could have been more clearly articulated, although reading again the invite, I have to say that one could have found it from there.
Widgets aren’t just little pieces of portable code. Widgets are about opening up your message to your supporters and the community. Widgets represent a shift towards using online tools, and online thinking, to connect with more people and build deeper relationships with the people you are already connected with.
Vancouver’s 3rd Net Tuesday will explore the stories of nonprofits that are spearheading this revolution as well as demo a new widget platform — Sprout.[Vancouver NetSquared Meetup Site]
I took the liberty of making bold the part where you can read exactly what the event was about, but honestly, I can also understand why it felt as though somehow there was something missing. In the future, I would suggest that the organizers make it a bit clearer. Joe has made a LOT of great choices and put in a lot of hard work, both for speakers AND the sponsors – for example, the food was organic and the cutlery was biodegradable.
Here are some links in case you weren’t there:
Jason Mogus Slideshow: (Click here)
Jason Mogus Video:(Click here)
Scott Nelson Video:(Click here)
It was great as always to see a lot of my fellow Web 2.0 friends, including Nancy Zimmerman, Jonathon Narvey, the always amazing DaveO, Erika Rathje, Nadia Nascimento, Jenn Lowther, and I’m a bit afraid I’ve missed someone, so if I did – sorry! You can always send me an email to reproach me, hehe.
I have lived in Vancouver for over 12 years, and yet it’s only been since about 2006 (two years ago) that I have started to participate in local social gatherings. Let me explain. When I did my Masters degree, I made a lot of friends from school, who then went on to get jobs in the Vancouver area. The same happened to me, I got a job, moved away from Canada, came back, moved away again. However, after a couple of years, I pretty much had my circle of friends well established.
In one of my first relocations to Canada (I’ve moved countries more than I care to remember), I noticed a clear trend in my behavior: I wasn’t hanging out with many other people. I lived in residential graduate colleges and therefore, I didn’t need to make new friendships. My newer friends came from the places where I lived. The same thing happened, degrees were completed, people moved but the friendships stayed there.
However, in my last relocation to Vancouver (2006), I clearly noticed that I was meeting many more people. Not because I was making an active effort to meet people either for friendships or potential relationships (I haven’t really seriously dated anyone since about 2004), but simply because my friends had other friends, and we introduced each other to our own social networks.
With my recent (I’d say November 2007) foray into the world of social media (that is, actually MEETING in person all those people that I’ve read for months/years) I have begun participating in local meet-ups, something I had NEVER done before. Not because I didn’t want to, but it just simply didn’t even enter my mind.
Now that I’m participating in NetTuesday and Third Tuesday, Green Drinks Vancouver and other social gatherings (and having entered the Twitter world, with impromptu Tweetups), it has just dawned on me just how long I’ve been in this city without making real attempts to make new friends and/or engage in dating activities.
I consider myself very, very, very lucky in that I have a large number of good friends. I’m also lucky because I have managed somehow to keep my connections with the majority of them (some, of course, have drifted away). And that’s not my fault, I don’t think. I am, like everybody else, just a human being, with my foibles and strengths. There’s only so much I can do to be a friend and only so many hours in the day.
Were I to start over again in a different city/country, I probably would feel compelled to begin attending those organized socialization events (thank you Meetup.com, Upcoming.org and Facebook for making the task much easier!). Now the question is to you, my readers… what do YOU think of those meet-ups? Do you prefer to use Meetup.com or are just happy to organize an “Event” on Facebook?
In the interest of sharing what I learned from a number of awesome bloggers who have encouraged me to move forward with my blog towards self-hosting (baby steps, though), here is the procedure I followed so that WordPress.com users can make their websites look as though they are self-hosted.
For example, if you look at Duane Storey’s blog, he is self-hosted with a WordPress.org install. However, if you look at GusF’s blog, he is doing the same thing that I am. What is that, you ask? Well, here is what I did (thanks Rebecca for walking me through the steps, John Chow and John Biehler for scaring me into buying the domain and reminding me of domain squatters and Gus for providing suggestions).
1. I bought the domain http://hummingbird604.com
- Remember to buy your PRIVATE domain registration UNLESS you want everyone to know where you live through a WhoIs search.
2. I mapped the WordPress servers using the method shown on the WordPress.com. Note that there are 3 servers you need to map.
3. I mapped my domain on WordPress using this method and waited for the DNS propagation. However, much as I love Matt Mullenweg, this is a VERY confusing webpage for a non-geek.
4. This is the part that I wasn’t getting right and that was creating non-clean URLs (hat tips to Rebecca for the term ‘clean URLs’ and generally, for help on this matter!). From the WordPress Domain Mapping site:
Q: I own domain.com, can I map that to my wordpress.com blog?
A: Yes! Here is what you need to do:Go to your domain registrar and change the nameservers to the following, being sure to remove any existing nameservers that may be there:
ns1.wordpress.com
ns2.wordpress.com
ns3.wordpress.com
If your registrar needs the IP addresses:
72.232.101.25
76.74.159.137
64.34.177.159
Then you need to wait. DNS propagation could take up to 72 hours – though it is frequently less.Go to http://dnsstuff.com In the top right is the DNS Lookup box – enter your domain name. If it says our nameservers, you can proceed here. If it does not you need to wait some more until it does.In your blog click Settings > Domains. Put your domain name in the box, click ‘Add domain to blog’.
Your domain should then appear as a choice below that button. Next to the domain name it will say “Put blog here“. Click that.
The bolded part I show above is the part that, unless you read VERY carefully, you can get wrong. So what I had done before is – I had redirected my domain to http://hummingbird604.wordpress.com. But last night, while I was playing with WordPress.com, I found that I should have put my domain there (see graph below). VOILA! I now have clean URLs and the domain mapping works, so even if you use my WordPress.com URL, it still shows as hummingbird604.com.
I’m very proud that, while I received external assistance, I did all of this all by myself 🙂 (look Ma, no hands!). As I said, I prefer to do my own stunts 😀
The last couple of days have been rough, with highs and lows, ups and downs. Not of the depressive kind, but just feelings of self-doubt (which are very rare for me, I *almost* never feel this way). I just think that sometimes I put too much pressure on myself, on always being at the top of my game, without ever stopping to breath (and smell the roses, or so the saying goes). So, last night when I talked to my Mom, she gave me a pep talk using this phrase, which is also a reminder to everyone who may feel in a similar situation… “the darkest hour is just before dawn“.
Photo credit: SplodgusMaximus on Flickr.
My Mom still gives me encouragement using this phrase “recuerda que nunca esta mas oscuro que antes del amanecer” (the spanish free translation of the above named phrase), and I think that for the next few days, this applies more than ever. I’ve been hearing from other people (bloggers, and non-blogging friends alike) that things haven’t been going well for them, for one reason or another. Well, this is MY pep talk to YOU… the darkest hour is just before the dawn.
This year has been a year of first-ever’s. It was the first time ever I guest-live-blogged (for Miss604.com, the Michael Geist lecture at SJC). The first time ever I podcasted (as a guest blogger for HappyFrog FrogBlog, covering EPIC ’08). The first time ever I received free admission to sustainability events (the Sustainable Living Show). And now, it’s the first time ever I’ve received a media pass for a film festival, and I’m SUPER EXCITED! I just heard from the Projecting Change Film Festival organizers, and they’ve arranged to have a media pass for me. WOWZA!
In addition to having reviewed lots of “less than awesome” movies on my blog, I’ve also taken the time to write detailed movie reviews for films that have been part of locally-run film festivals. For example, I reviewed “Mount Pleasant”, the 2006 Ross Weber film that depicts my neighborhood as the land of ‘women of the trade’, drug-addicts and derelict streets. This movie premiered in the 2006 Vancouver International Film Festival. I have also reviewed “Super-Amigos” and “The Portrait of Dorian Gray“, two movies that showed unexplored aspects of queer life. Both movies premiered in the 2007 Vancouver Queer Film Festival. In the case of Super-Amigos, a superhero-themed Canada-Mexico co-production, the movie examines the day-to-day life of five real-life masked wrestlers/superheroes, one of which is Super-Gay, a gay man who fights for the rights of the queer community in Mexico City. Of course, there is an environmental superhero, Ecologista Universal.
So, as you can read, I’m also a movie fiend. You may ask yourselves… what movies am I excited about and wanting to see in the upcoming days? Well, if you are a close friend of mine, or have read about my day-job and my research, this is the film that I’m waiting with baited breath (I’m also excited about others, but this one is just… SO appropriate for me): Flow: For Love of Water
Flow: For Love of Water is Irena Salina’s cautionary documentary that is determined to stir things up. Water, the quintessence of life, sustains every creature on Earth. The time has come when we can no longer take this precious resource for granted. Unless we effect global change, impoverished nations could be wiped from the planet.[Projecting Change website preview of the movie]
Water, water everywhere… Photo credit: Raul on Flickr (originally taken by JT)
For those of you who don’t know, I am very interested in water issues and I’ve done extensive research in the field. I have a feeling that the movie will be VERY interesting. For the trailer, click here.
Since I’m hyper busy all week, I guess I won’t be able to make the opening night but I’ll be at the 10am showing on Sunday morning. I also will do my best to check other films. If you notice, in the schedule you can find that theme days (e.g. food and agriculture, sustainability, focus on the family, etc.) … strongly recommended.
If you want to check all my coverage of the Projecting Change Film Festival, my posts will be tagged with the category “Projecting Change Film Festival”.
As you know, my dear readers, in the past few weeks/months, even though I’ve written this blog as a personal blog, I’ve also included a lot of snippets of information regarding local events, live-blogging, etc. Well, today’s post goes back to my roots and the reason why I started this blog. No, I didn’t start it to complain about the unbelievably abnormal behavior of my upstairs’ neighbours’ kid. But I did talk about it on my blog, every so often.
Since I’ve been so busy and emotionally and physically exhausted, I hadn’t even paid attention to the neighbours. I’ve been outside of my house for so long I haven’t even had an evening of “Raul time” in AGES. Anyhow, today I had to stay home for a substantial part of the afternoon, and I could hear my neighbour (the father of the little devil) tell him “How many times do I need to tell you to stop stomping on the floor?”. I am *not* kidding.
The kid is 3.5 yrs old, almost 4 and behaves like a one-year old. Why does he do that? I don’t know, but the parents try to REASON with the kid even though there is NO WAY IN HELL the kid is going to understand his parents and the level of speech they use. Other times, when I’ve written on my blog about my neighbours, I complain. This evening, I feel really sorry for them. My parents were UNBELIEVABLE and I think they gave me and my brothers THE best education ever.
Many people praise my brothers (and collaterally, me) because they are polite, courteous, well-groomed and mild-mannered. I’d like to believe I’m the same way. And the funny thing is, my neighbours’ kid is NOTHING like that. The kid is beautiful in and of himself, but his behavior and tantrums make him look simply… annoying.
Parenting is hard, and I seriously don’t want to do it until I’m ready. And yes, I can hear you now – YOU’RE NEVER READY TO BE A FATHER. I know. I am just saying…
Given the increased interest in sustainability, we shouldn’t be surprised that someone came up with the brilliant idea of organizing a film festival focused solely on environment and sustainability issues. The idea is simply outstanding.
What’s the idea of the festival? From their website:
PROJECTING CHANGE is an innovative organization that focuses on promoting Green and Sustainable Living through the use of entertaining & educational Film. Through the strategic use of engaging films and inspiring speakers we aim to increase awareness and promote change within our local community. Through these efforts all profits are invested back into local initiatives.
The festival opens on the 8th and goes until the 11th of May, 2008. Here’s the schedule, and all shows will be at the Ridge (on Arbutus and almost 16th Avenue). Drop me a line if you need more information, as I have been in touch with the organizers and I *might* get media accreditation.
I am an avid follower of Kyle XY, a Vancouver-shot TV show starring Matt Dallas, and as many of my friends know, a super-hero addict and a comic geek. I’ve always believed my “hummingbird-like” abilities were given to me to help the world in some way. I’m intuitive, perceptive, sensitive, emotionally-aware, am a fast thinker and tend to be fast at pretty much everything I do. You would think all those abilities (like those that have been bestowed on Kyle, the main character of the show I’ve mentioned) would be awesome. The truth is, the vast majority of the time, they are, but sometimes, they aren’t.
I have a number of friends and family members who have been in pain, recently – from having recently had surgery, to dealing on a day-to-day basis with cancer, to having to deal with emotional rollercoasters associated with personal issues, to having to go through the grieving of a recent death of a loved one. It frustrates me to no end that I can’t help them. NONE of them. Not a single one of them.
I’m just frustrated, and emotionally and physically exhausted. This situation is really unusual for me, and I just need to find a way to deal with everything that is happening around me, particularly because I don’t really know exactly where to go from here. I’m grateful for being able to live to the fullest and be reach supreme heights in my happiness levels. Unfortunately, this also translates in feeling incredible amounts of pain and frustration for not being able to help the numerous people I care about.
For those of you who may be worried about me, I am not depressed, I should say that clearly, but I am just feeling exhaustion, both emotional and physical. Maybe the best thing for me to do for a little while is just disconnect from the world, have a tea and just go for a walk along the seawall. I just needed to get it out.
Last night, I had the pleasure of attending a performance by the Marie Chouinard Compagnie. A friend of mine got us tickets to the event, which was held at the Vancouver Playhouse. Since I’m trained as a dancer, and part of my training was in contemporary/modern dance, I thought it would be easier for me to understand and appreciate the performance.
While it is true that I’ve done this kind of work before, and I could find a theme in the first 45 minutes, the second 45 minutes lost me. The piece, “bODY_rEMIX/gOLDBERG_vARIATIONS” is described on Chouinard’s website:
In this new work by Marie Chouinard, the company’s ten dancers execute variations on the exercise of freedom. Often, the dancers appear on points: on one, two, and even four at a time. In a spectroscopy of the gesture, we also see them using different devices – crutches, rope, prostheses, horizontal bars, and harnesses – which at times liberate their movements, at others fetter it, and at still others create it.
This use of accessories gives rise to unusual bodily shapes and gestural dynamics and opens onto a universe of meticulous and playful explorations in which solos, duos, trios and group work, in their labour, pleasure and invention, echo the human condition.[Compagnie Marie Chouinard]
The athleticism and performance capabilities of these dancers were beyond what I have seen in my many, many years of dancing. I was suitably impressed. There are a few tidbits for just about everyone in the performance. The story I felt was being told in the first 45 minutes was an evolutionary tale that went from almost absolute immobility and crippled-ness to one of freedom and flight. It was indeed an outstanding performance. Do I think people would need to be trained in dance to appreciate it? Hmmm, a lot of people may argue that not, but I think that at least, you need to understand that sometimes, contemporary/modern dance performances don’t have a “theme”.
After hearing Jenn Lowther rave about The Greedy Pig (where she, Dario and Nadia went for dinner before a recent Third Tuesday), I couldn’t let the chance pass to try it, as JT and I were in Gastown, on our way to a contemporary dance performance (review forthcoming). I have to say that I wasn’t disappointed. At $ 12.00, The Greedy Pig‘s pulled pork sandwich was not that expensive and rather filling. I guess next time I’ll have to try the meatloaf sandwich.
On the table right beside me there was a gentleman who was trying the cheese and butcher plate ($18.00) which I have to say, looked very much like a fromage et charcuterie plate, very Parisian. Was kind of interesting to see a guy eat it all by his lonesome. It was a great evening and I’m glad I had a chance to enjoy this place with JT. Next time I’ll have to come for lunch.
There is only one thing that sucks about being allergic to squash … you can’t really enjoy butternut squash soup (oh wait… I hadn’t told you I’m allergic to squash… yep, I am… and I’m lactose intolerant. *sigh*)… But the best butternut squash soup in town, I’ve been told, is produced by Liberty Bakery, on Main and 21st. Avenue.
Photo credit: Raul on Flickr.
This little piece of heaven is wonderful for work-related meetings (when I’m working from home and other friends/colleagues who live near by are doing the same), or just for lunch. I’ve had their wonderful sandwiches on foccacia bread (in my case, I like turkey but they’ve got also hummus-based delicacies). Needless to say, great food and a very comfortable, home-like atmosphere. We should probably organize an intimate Tweetup or Blogger Meetup here, just a few folks 😉
In the past few months, I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know both your daughter (Rebecca) and your son-in-law (John), and I have to say that it’s been a great experience. I am sure you’ve read of our exploits, from having lunch at Tequila Kitchen to live-blogging at Third Tuesday, to bowling for Big Brothers at XCalibur… the time I’ve spent with The Bollwitts, and particularly Rebecca, has been outstanding.
Rebecca and I were talking today about the fact that it is your birthday, and the plans she had to celebrate it. I can completely relate to her excitement and joy. I am, in more ways than one, a Momma’s boy. I’m extremely close to my mother and she is really my best friend. So, I always enjoy listening to stories that my friends tell of how close they are to their parents, and especially, their mothers. Becky is really looking forward to spending some quality time with you and the family.
Miss604 and Mom604. Photo credit: Rebecca Bollwitt on Flickr.
Mother’s Day is celebrated in Mexico on May 10th and I will be stuck here in Vancouver. I have spent Mother’s Day away from my Mom more than six times that I can recall. We have always managed to live in different countries for the majority of my adult life. So in many ways, when Mother’s Day approaches, I live and enjoy it vicariously through my friends. Luckily, my Mom comes North every summer for at least a month and we manage to spend her birthday together. I for one know how important it is for a son or daughter to spend their parents’ birthdays together.
You have raised one hell of a good daughter. I have been lucky in that Rebecca has guided me in the world of social media and never fails to provide a helping hand whenever I need her the most. I haven’t had the chance to spend much time with John although I look forward to doing so, because I think that he must be one hell of a great guy if he scored with the wonderful daughter that you have.
I haven’t had the pleasure of meeting you in person yet, but I look forward to doing so in the very near future. The way personal relationships work in the cultures where I’ve grown up is very peculiar. We (the children) become friends and then our parents become friends amongst themselves, even when we’re all grown-up. I would hope that in the future, maybe you and my Mom will meet.
In the mean time and while that day arrives, I just wanted to wish you a very happy birthday. And even though I speak seven languages, German is not one of them, but I found a few words that I would like to say… haben sie eine gute geburtstag !!!!
The last time I went to a Mexican restaurant, I left really positively impressed. I’m talking about Tequila Kitchen, which I reviewed before here on my blog. After a rather disappointing series of experiences eating out Mexican food, I was almost ready to give up, but my lunch at Tequila Kitchen was great and thus I figured I’d try another Mexican restaurant in Vancouver.
The menu at Salsa and Agave. Photo credit: Miss604 on Flickr.
Funny how things go, I was working downtown and while chatting with Rebecca (aka Miss604), she commented she hadn’t had lunch. Neither had I, so we did a repeat of “lunch of the 604’s” (hehehe I just coined this term right now). She suggested to try Salsa and Agave, which is also in Yaletown (in the 1200 block of Pacific Boulevard). So off I went, walked from the Gastown area to meet Rebecca and we headed to this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant.
When we got there, we had to wait a bit for a table, but in the meantime, I could appreciate how authentic the food is (the staff is almost 100% Mexican, I think, so it was good). They have Mexican pop (Jarritos, Sidral Mundet, Sidral Aga, and the juices made by Jumex) which was another brownie point for Salsa and Agave.
The food is reasonably priced, normally I wouldn’t go for a lunch in the range of $12-15 because I either cook at home or eat something that is smaller. But truth be told, I was NOT disappointed at all. I ordered chicken enchiladas verdes and Rebecca ordered enchiladas rojas (e.g. the salsa in mine was green and hers was red). The rice and beans side portions were generous and the enchiladas were outstanding. I would even venture that maybe better than Tequila Kitchen.
Lunch with Rebecca at Salsa and Agave (enchiladas verdes y rojas). Photo credit: Miss604 on Flickr.
I would say both restaurants are good, and both are authentic, but I’m definitely leaning on the side of Salsa and Agave, for two reasons: (a) portion size and (b) price. I would have had a full dinner for less than $ 20 at S&A, which would have NOT happened at TK. It’s all a matter of degrees, really. But I’ll definitely have to come back to S&A for lunch, as their special ($8.00 for pop+burrito) is seriously almost unbeatable. And very authentic. The washroom – yeah, that part sucks because you *have* to get out of the restaurant, but other than that, I had very few qualms with S&A.
Overall, I would say again that while the food was excellent, the highlight was hanging out with Rebecca. Even though the past few weeks we’ve had a lot of exposure to each other (we live-blogged some of the same events, we’ve guest-blogged for HappyFrog, and attended Tweetups and Third Tuesdays and Net Tuesdays), you’d be surprised at how little chance we actually have to chat with each other. But doing lunch on Fridays (which seems to be poised to become a ritual) is great, as we tend to be both downtown Vancouver at a reasonable hour for lunch.
So, in short… Salsa and Agave Mexican Grill comes highly recommended. And even Martini Boys recommend it too! Feel free to drop me a comment if you want.
With the energy from WordCamp still going strong, many of us have been having a discussion on our blogs on – what’s the next step? Monetize or not monetize? Self-hosted or WordPress.com? I would like to share with you just a couple of my own thoughts on the matter.
There are many rewards that bloggers get from their readers. There are three that have continuously been making my day and encouraging me to continue blogging.
First, getting comments. I know for a fact that many readers prefer to “lurk” (e.g., just read the blog and go on with their day). They feel as though they don’t have anything to say or anything to contribute to the discussion. NOT THE CASE. Everyone, every person who drops a comment is important. Comments are part and parcel of blogging, and I would NOT want a blog where my readers wouldn’t feel comfortable, safe and welcome to speak up. Even if you disagree with my ideas, tell me. I *always* appreciate comments. And as some of my fellow blogger friends very wisely said, “more often than not, the comments are just as informative or more than the blog post itself”
Second, increase in readership. I don’t blog to sustain my ego. I write because I love it, because communication is what I feel good at, and because I enjoy exchanging ideas (see paragraph above on comments). That’s another thing that many bloggers have told me – “blog because you want to, not because you feel compelled to”. And the more readers I have, the more opportunities I have to meet new people, to learn more about others and to provide food for my soul. More readers means more avenues for discussion, more sounding boards where to bounce ideas from. That just makes my day.
And third, last but definitely not the least, increased opportunities to meet new people and make new friends. Before WordCamp, I only had read blogs like that of Mostly Lisa, Fade to Play, Crunchy Carpets, to name a few. But WordCamp gave me the opportunity to meet these folks in person. I had a chance to speak with the person behind the blog, and to extend my hand (well, more my arms because I’m a very huggy person) and share whatever I have learned from the past two years of blogging. And from this, I am sure I will make new friends.
And I’d like to close with a suggestion and a question. The suggestion: be grateful, be kind and be aware. Be grateful to the people who have given you new ideas to blog, new tips on how to be a better blogger, new chances to increase your readership through link love. I make a point to always mention the people who have contributed to my blog growth (you know who you are, I’ve said it many times!). I try to give kindness to the world because I think it is what makes us better. And I try to be aware of people’s limits and respect them.
And the question comes here – What are the kinds of things that you are mulling over in regards to where you’re going with your blog?
