Wordless Wednesday: A crisp, cold, sunny autumn day in False Creek

On adapting to being a middle blocker (volleyball)

These past few weeks, I’ve come to realize how much I had missed competitive volleyball, and how at home I feel now that I’m playing middle blocker (or middle, as it normally is called in English). As I was growing up and played competitive volleyball at the junior provincial and national levels, I got used to being a power hitter. That’s what I was trained to be.

When I was the captain of my high school’s team, I played middle block because I was the one in my team who was in the provincial junior volleyball team (and thus was supposed to be the most skilled), but not really because I enjoyed the position. Of course, right now I am NOWHERE near the level that I used to have as a teen, but I’m working really hard towards that level again.

I don’t jump anywhere where I used to, but I’ve become a lot more skilled at analyzing where the power hitter is attacking, and that’s shown in the past few games. My team is pretty happy with me playing middle blocker and I’m having an absolute blast.

These reflections reminded me of how much I love volleyball. Just for your viewing pleasure, Mexico vs Canada in the Junior Pre-World Championships (you can tell that the Mexicans DO have an amazing level).

Share your favorite holiday dish to win a KitchenAid food processor

I feel almost guilty for running a giveaway for the holiday season (yes, for Christmas those of you who are of the Christian persuasion). But this was a giveaway I could not resist, particularly because I really liked the two recipes that KitchenAid shared with me for the holidays.

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The Laughing Oyster (Okeover Arm, Powell River, Sunshine Coast) #scac2011

What could be more fun than dinner with three lovely ladies (Andrea, Andrea and Robyn)? Well, finding a restaurant that has amazing food and that you had never heard about. Yes, The Laughing Oyster is an absolute gem that everybody should know about. Located at Okeover Arm (in Powell River, on the lovely Sunshine Coast), the Laughing Oyster was our dinner stop after a busy second day.

We had dinner at The Laughing Oyster during the Sunshine Coast Art Crawl 2011, and I’m really glad that we did.

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Head Above Water by Elements of Soul featuring Mia Taylor #MusicMonday

I’ve heard this song in various formats, but the one I absolutely love is this one, Elements of Soul featuring Mia Taylor: Head Above Water. I used to love it when I first heard it, and coincidentally I first listened to it as I was completing my PhD. November has a way of bringing back memories (particularly as it is the month when I was first heartbroken). But I survived, and I’m all the stronger for it.

Brunch at the Rockwater Secret Cove Resort and Spa (Halfmoon Bay, BC, Sunshine Coast)

They had me at frittata.

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Tug-Guhm Gallery Studio (Lund, BC – Sunshine Coast) #scac2011

I am, by every measure, very good at rampant consumerism. Don’t get me wrong, I only buy when I know that I am going to give away or replace something. And to be fair, when I was invited to do the Sunshine Coast Art Crawl 2011, I wasn’t even thinking of buy any of the art. I just wanted to showcase it in my blog. So when we visited the Tug-Ghum Gallery Studio, right on the premises of our beautiful hotel, the Historic Lund Hotel in Lund, BC (on the Sunshine Coast), I wasn’t going to buy anything.

And then… THIS HAPPENED:

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Win tickets to 3 Fold by @BalletBC

Amongst the contests and giveaways I had already committed to run before going on hiatus, I had promised Ballet BC to write about their 3 Fold project. It’s hard not to write about this, as I’m a former competitive dancer and for me, dance, theatre and art in general is so important. Besides, Ballet BC is presenting 3 Fold at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre only from November 17-19, 2011 with three evening performances at 8:00 pm, featuring two Vancouver premieres and the reprise of a work originally created in 2009 for Ballet BC’s inaugural Choreographic Series.

The Canadian Premiere of Parole Sospese (Words Suspended) by choreographer Walter Matteini is set to music by Anton Webern and Domenico Scarlatti. The work for 11 dancers is a poetic journey into the world of the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533), the most celebrated narrative poet of the Italian high Renaissance. Matteini takes Ariosto’s inspirational words and melds them into an episodic world of imagery where the soul takes flight in the unconscious realm of the imagination.

Former Ballet BC dancer Simone Orlando created Doppeling in 2009 as a full-company work for Ballet BC’s inaugural choreographic series. A whirlwind of complex ideas, the ballet shifts effortlessly from its investigation into the contrapuntal relationship of space and the body, while tickling the senses with a clever statement on gender and the history of the classical form.

If you have an appreciation for contemporary ballet (and I’m hoping you do), tickets for 3 Fold can be purchased through Ticketmaster at 1-855-985-2787 (855-985-ARTS or online at ticketmaster.ca and range in price from $70.00 to $22.50 (excluding service charges and HST).

Ballet BC, a company of 16 talented dancers from around the world, is committed to the ballet of today. Solidly grounded in the classical ballet lexicon but with more immediacy and connection to the 21st century, the company presents a diverse repertoire of Canadian and international contemporary ballet. Now in its 25th anniversary year, Ballet BC continues its commitment to perform on multiple regional, national and international tours in addition to its regular performance season at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre in Vancouver.

For more information, visit their website balletbc.com or you can also follow them on Twitter @balletbc. You can also find them on Facebook.

I am lucky enough to have a pair of tickets to give away to 3 Fold, and I’ll make your life easy by asking you just a simple question to enter my giveaway: what was the last dance performance you saw in recent months? I have been lucky to be part of Vancouver’s dance community for a long while so I can tell you the most recent was West Side Story (musical with a lot of dance and operatic voices).

To gain an additional entry all you need to do is post on Twitter:

Told @hummingbird604 the last dance show I saw http://is.gd/jmHM3h for a chance to win tickets to 3 Fold @BalletBC – you too can enter!

I will draw a winner on November 15th at 2pm, and announce it here. If the commenter has Twitter, I’ll announce it on Twitter. So stay tuned and check back here!

Fray on Fraser #FoodFriday

Best news of recent weeks? Knowing that there are so many new restaurants moving to the Kingsway and Fraser or upper Fraser area (e.g. Mount Pleasant/Riley Park). I have written about many of them including the Lion’s Den, Les Faux Burgeoises (Kingsway and Fraser) and now of course, what can we say about the Outpost Cafe, which I absolutely love.

As I mentioned a few years ago, Fraser is really becoming the new Main, and Fray on Fraser is one of the very welcome additions to this neighbourhood. In fact, Marche St George is also one of the shops that is attracting a lot of business, much like the Outpost Cafe AND Fray on Fraser.

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Crepe des Amis (River Market, New Westminster)

Let it be known that I hold my own when I chat with the owners of Crepe des Amis (in French). I may not speak the most perfect French, but at least I can order my food. The owners of Crepe des Amis are some of the nicest people I’ve ever met, and they’ve been incredibly supportive of our New Westminster campus at The Network Hub located in River Market. When we organized Freelance Camp Vancouver 2011, Crepe des Amis were generous enough to offer a really sweet deal for lunch for our attendees.

I had been wanting to try a savoury crepe so a couple of weeks back, Jay Catalan (cofounder of The Network Hub), Brigette Mayer and I went downstairs from our New Westminster campus to get a crepe. Mine had chicken, tomato and a ranch sauce that was absolutely glorious (and for the first time in a long time I’m quite happy with my photograph!)

Even more amazing: 97% of people who have rated Crepe des Amis on Urbanspoon love it. You should really check the ratings up, because the comments are completely true. This place is a hidden gem.

Welcome to Crepe Des Amis , a local creperie which creates fresh whole wheat sweet and savoury crepes daily in New Westminster. We also serve savoury fusion crepes with a twist along with organic coffee, refreshing floats and delicious frozen yoghurt & tofulati treats…

You should totally check it out (and then come upstairs and check the New Westminster campus of The Network Hub!). River Market has so many cool things to offer. And did you know that someone drove all the way from Port Moody to come and visit Crepe des Amis? Yeah. Read the Urbanspoon comments. And then come to Crepe des Amis.

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Disclosure: We all paid for our lunches on our own dime.

My interview with @BCBusiness (thanks @dgodsall)

When I was asked by David Godsall whether I’d be willing to be interviewed for a piece on BC Business (the premier BC magazine focusing on business in our beautiful province), I was flattered but I’ll also admit a bit anxious. The topic is one where I have given talks about (on how to pitch bloggers and the relationship between bloggers) and written about (and heck, I have a permanent Pitch Me page).

My photo on the BC Business November 2011 issue. Credit: Dina Goldstein

But I didn’t want the interview to focus solely on any aspects that could be misconstrued. I pride in my blogging code of ethics and I’m very happy that I have achieved the degree of recognition and success that I have by adhering to rigorous practices of transparency and disclosure. I am really pleased with the final result. Dave Godsall really asked tough, good, incisive but really solid questions, and I’m delighted that my pride in my transparency and disclosure practices as well as proper attribution have been highlighted too.

Thanks BC Business for providing broad exposure to my blog, which even if it is in a hiatus, is a labour of love and one of my many sources of personal pride. The digital copy is here, and you can get a paper copy by purchasing the November 2011 issue of BC Business.

Also, many thanks to Dina Goldstein whose photography is amazing.

Follow the UX Leader

On Friday October 28th, I (Anabelle) benefited from the generosity of Kristina Mausser and Jeff Parks from Follow the UX Leader and attended their final UX workshop of the week on content strategy.

Jeff and Kristina are renowned UX and content experts, respectively, and have been giving these workshops throughout Canada and abroad. I joined a select group of Web designers and content experts for a day filled with new knowledge, practical exercises and excellent food from Cibo Trattoria.

The workshop covered topics such as content strategy and the organization, audience personas, content curation, mobile content, content planning, content analysis and “content waste” management.

The workshop was very hands on; we spent about half our time in group exercises to practice the new theories.

If you’re in the web creation or content fields, I strongly suggest you attend the workshops when Jeff and Kristina come back to Vancouver, probably next year. If you can’t wait until then, they are also giving the workshops in Ottawa next week and in Jamaica in January (what an excellent reason to take a tropical vacation!).

You can contact Jeff and Kristina for more information about the workshops; they also offer corporate training. They are very friendly and will be happy to help you!

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Disclaimer: Anabelle attended the content management workshop by invitation from Kristina to Hummingbird604.com. She was not otherwise remunerated for her coverage, nor was a positive review required. While no post was required, I (Raul) offered to post a brief note from Anabelle on her experience with the workshop. Raul maintains editorial control at all times.

Merging Media 2011 (as reviewed by @anabellebf)

I (Anabelle) had the chance to attend the first day of the Merging Media conference at SFU Woodwards thanks to an invite to Hummingbird604.com. Armed with my iPad and my favourite stylus app, I was ready for a day of interesting talks and really smart people.

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Supernatural Noir by Fugue Theatre (review) as experienced by @anabellebf

I’ve been really excited about Supernatural Noir (see our preview here) ever since I knew I would be reviewing it. An opera featuring a psychic detective, a snoopy journalist, a millionaire and a dirty politician? Gosh, am I totally in!

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Day of The Dead (Dia de los Muertos)

November 1st and 2nd are special days in Mexico, as we celebrate All Souls Day (or All Saints Day) on November 1st and November 2nd we honor our deceased, Day of the Dead. Normally, if I were in Mexico, I would go to my late Aunt’s, Grandpa and Grandma’s graves at the cemetery, bring flowers and say a prayer. This is a family tradition and we normally do it all together, particularly if our visit to Mexico coincides with the Day of the Dead. Unfortunately, right now I’m in Canada and I won’t be able to do this nor take time off to reflect on my loved ones who passed away. I have so much work, even after announcing my blogging hiatus, that I can’t even take time off.

This year has been one of intense loss, and one where death has touched me more than once up close (my dear friend Derek K. Miller passed away earlier this year, as did my cousin… my cousin was my age and left behind a daughter. Derek left behind his loving wife, my dear friend Airdrie, his daughters and his parents, and a whole lot of people who miss him dearly, myself included).

Today, the Day of the Dead, I want to take a moment to honor those of my loved ones who have passed away. I miss you. I miss you SO MUCH. More than you can imagine.

Falling In Time (Screaming Weenie Productions) #Theatre

As you may have noticed, I’ve made an intentional effort to provide more coverage to the queer arts, and I’m delighted that Screaming Weenie Productions, Western Canada’s professional queer theatre company, is presenting this Saturday the world premiere of Falling in Time, a pretty gutsy and strong play by award-winning, Vancouver-based dramatist C. E. Gatchalian.

Falling in Time is an epic exploration of armed conflict, savage masculinity, flagrant sexuality, unqualified forgiveness and unexpected love. Set in Vancouver in 1994, the year of the death of
North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung, the play criss-crosses two hemispheres and spans more than forty years. Through all this, four distinctly different lives miraculously intertwine. Steve is an aging, outrageous, twisted, bisexual Korean war vet who embodies, in his verbal and sexual brazenness, the psychotic, sadistic tendencies of Western imperialism that polite society has too often tried to sweep from view.

Jamie is an aloof, repressed ESL teacher haunted by a troubled childhood. Chang Hyun is a young Korean ESL student brimming with anti-Western sentiment and fresh off a traumatic experience in the Korean military. In the middle of it all is Eun Ha, a Korean woman who lives through the Korean War and, against all odds, finds the will to survive.

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Wordless Wednesday: Aerial Photographs of Vancouver and British Columbia

The Lund Hotel (Lund, BC)

Whenever I travel, be it for my academic purposes, for pleasure or on assignment for a media trip, I always make a point of asking the locals for stories and anecdotes. And apparently, The Lund Hotel used to have a ghost (most people that I talked to said that it was supposed to be ‘haunted’) but despite our best efforts, the ghost didn’t come and disturb our sleep. Or chat with us. Darn.

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Invite The World to Vancouver (and win an Annual Family Pass to @VanLookout)

As you know, my Mom comes every year (usually every summer) to visit me, but so far, none of my friends (with the exception of CB, who used to live here) has ever come to visit me, and that’s kind of sad, as I would love to bring them here (or you know, my brother and his wife and his daughters, for example). So, when I found out about Invite The World (To Vancouver) I found it an amazing idea. I travel a lot OUTSIDE of Vancouver, so it’s kind of neat to have a contest where you invite the world to come to you.

These are a couple of points that the partners in this initiative shared with me:
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This blog is going on hiatus for a while

One of the first things I told myself when I began blogging was that I would do it until I was tired of doing it. And one of the things I have realized is that I’m really tired. Having had 2 interns did lighten my workload when it came to blogging and social media, but on the other hand, there were other things to do as well (meet with my interns, follow up on things, etc.) And blogging isn’t even my day job.

So, I’m taking a leave of absence. That means that yes, you WILL see content here, but it will be primarily content that I had either pre-scheduled or committed to do. That also means that I will NOT be accepting new pitches until January. Sorry.

I have a number of academic commitments that I need to comply with and I’m physically and mentally exhausted. To those of you with whom I already committed to do things – your content will be published and coverage will be provided. Everyone else, I am not accepting anything new until January 2012.

Sorry. It’s not you, it’s me.

QUICK SUMMARY REGARDING PR PITCHES – While you can still email me about a pitch for a project, I will not be accepting any new pitches until January 2012. If we have already agreed on blog coverage for an event/charity/performance, and I can make it, I will blog about it. If I can’t make it or anything in my plans has changed, I will also let you know (and I won’t blog about it). If a short tweet or Facebook wall (or Google Plus) posting can be of help, let me know and I might be able to fit something in. Just the long form, I can’t promise anything beyond my current commitments (those that I’m hoping to clear by early next week).

What is your favorite martini?

Despite the fact that when I did a Flickr search on my stream for “martini” I found that I have a few very blurry photos of martinis I’ve had in the past, the truth is, I am an absolute lover of the drink. I find that other drinks may or may not be as enjoyable, but I have gone from being a “gin and tonic” kind of guy to being a “sweet, ‘girly’ martini” kind of guy. One of my absolute favorites was the one we had a few weeks ago at Prestons, the Toblerone Martini. Sweet and chocolate-infused. Another restaurant that has martinis that I totally love is The Crime Lab. And one more that has really good martinis is Haro’s Restaurant at the Sidney Pier hotel in Sidney, BC.

So, I ask you, my dear reader – what is your favorite martini, and where do you usually get it?

Vancouver Haunted Trolley Tour (as experienced by @space_cadet00)

The Vancouver Trolley Company has put together a fantastic, spooky tour of Vancouver by Trolley that I would recommend to any lover of unsolved mystery, ghost story, or the secret gory past of the city. If such things give you chills – read no more!

The tour kicked off with our lovely, ghostly hostess and tour-guide, and Slash, our driver. First landmark was the Hotel Vancouver. I won’t tell you who or what resides inside, but there were non-stop stories from there, through Stanley Park, and across the city and back. Many landmarks of the city and historical buildings are said to be touched by the supernatural, and even if you just take it in as stories, they are pretty fantastic stories.

Then there’s the other side: the bloody history. This is the well-documented, photographed and reported-on events that have happened over the past 125 years,  some stories which came right up to present day. The stopovers at Mountain-view Cemetery and the Vancouver Police Museum’s morgue and autopsy rooms were great little excursions.

The tour ranged from very funny, to deeply disturbing and heavy. Loads of young couples were on my tour, but it definitely ranged for quite a span. I would recommend this for anyone who wants a different take on the city, who is prepared to know where many bodies are buried and possibly lose out on the joys of some great picnicking spots. It would make a fantastic date and is better than a horror movie for sure.

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Disclosure: Jessica participated in the Vancouver Haunted Trolley Tour on a complimentary admission courtesy of the Vancouver Trolley Company, who also sponsored a giveaway I hosted a couple of weeks ago. No post was required, nor expected, nor did Jessica nor I receive any compensation. As always, I (Raul) retain full editorial control on anything posted on my site.

Masquerave at Bearfoot Bistro (Cornucopia, Whistler BC)

Unfortunately for me, the wonderful annual event Cornucopia (which takes place in Whistler) ALWAYS coincides with JT’s birthday and therefore, I NEVER get to participate. But the fact that I can’t attend doesn’t mean I can’t indicate to my lovely readers and Twitter/Google Plus/Facebook followers about the return of Masquerave, a fantastic event that after a 5 year hiatus came back to Cornucopia, and it will take place at Bearfoot Bistro on November 12th, 2011. Incidentally, the Bearfoot Bistro is located at the Listel Hotel where I stayed last summer during a quick media trip I did to showcase what you can do in Whistler when you’re not a skier or snowboarder (like me).

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New exclusive trailer for Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol

As you may know, Tom Cruise filmed portions of Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol in Vancouver. And I’m addicted to his Mission Impossible movies. So here you have for your viewing pleasure, we have now below, Trailer 2 for MI4.

THIS. OMG, SO THIS! Language and the Urban Dictionary

Despite the fact that English is not my first language, I have been immersed in it full time for the last 15 years. I teach in English, I write my research in English, I grade papers in English. I consume news in English. In some ways, I am almost forgetting my Spanish. And Spanish is my mother tongue. I was chatting with Minna yesterday and she was mentioning that I’ve overused THIS.

Maybe because I find it so endearing. Or maybe because I’m more of a slang user now. I find myself using the Urban Dictionary so much more lately! So what does Urban Dictionary tell us about THIS?

One-word response placed after a quote on a message board as an affirmation of the author’s agreement with the quoted person’s view or opinion. Commonly used on Fark.com.
Some guy: “Nice to see that the human race has advanced to the point of using robots to poke things with a stick.”

Another guy (after quoting above): This.

I’m really sorry if you follow me on Twitter and you’ve seen me retweet stuff and comment “THIS. OMG. SO MUCH THIS”. I promise I’ll wean off of this.

Total pun intended.