that ring of confidence

Going straight

Back in October of last year I spoke at a Canadian University Press (CUP) conference up at Simon Fraser University hosted by their school paper The Peak.  I'd a long history with The Peak both through CUP and Campus Plus but also because when I'd visit Graham during my reading week I'd often do guest articles for the paper.  They had me in to speak about tech freelancing, which was ironic since it was nearing the end of when I was actually doing freelancing for the Kelowna based publications.

At the same time as my talk, which I'd like to think went well, Charlie Smith of The Georgia Straight [tgs] was also speaking, and we got to talk a little bit after the presentations.  He mentioned that they were looking at updating the Straight's tech coverage and gave me his card.  Of course at the time that was awesome news, and I promptly went around saying things like, "Oh yes I'll be writing for The Georgia Straight soon."

Because I'm a bit of an idiot who career-wise was getting a bit down about not really progressing.  The fact that I'd started my freelancing career at the biggest publication that I've yet to write for, IGN.com which at the time had over 8 million monthly readers, was making everything else seem a little anti-climatic.  The cocktail party explanation that I wrote for papers in Kelowna was getting old and blogging for free over at Metroblogging Vancouver [mbv] is fun but not as impressive as I'd hoped.

I kept persisting but eventually I gave up as I was not making it anywhere near the insides of the paper.  Until Stephen Hui who I knew from CUP, got a job there and then got put in charge of the yet to be revamped tech section and got in touch with me.  I sent him some articles, he seemed to think they didn't suck and this morning we met at Starbucks.

So I'm doing a few articles for The Straight, and that also doesn't suck.  This might be the equivalent of bragging it up at a party back in November, since it's going to be a bit before they actually come out, but I feel good about it. 

The Jesus phone and my other blog

It is completely and entirely appropriate for you to tell me that I'm going to hell for this post.  Or rather for the picture to the left here.  However I've closed the comments so you can't do that can you.

It's just been awhile since I've played with my old friend the Church Sign Generator [csg] and so I figured that I'd have a little fun playing around with it while I try to drift off to sleep.

Meanwhile if you've been wanting to read some serious blogging from me then check out Metroblogging Vancouver.  In amongst some terrific new authors I blog about square watermelons [mbv], give an on the spot live blog of the downtown power outage from my cell phone [mbv] and go to a petting zoo at Maplewood Farms in North Vancouver [mbv].

All of that and more is waiting for you at Metroblogging Vancouver.  It's free, and maybe that's the sort of charity that will repay any existing deities for my blasphemies. 

I'm still closing the comments though.

Let us celebrate 1,000 posts

You looking at blog post number 1,000 here at my personal site.  I've been doing this a long time, and not always as actively as I'd have liked but I finally made it to the four digit numbers.  If posts were money I'd be a thousand-aire.

Which is why I had hoped to have something more to post for you than some more footage of my trip to the Sub Pop 20th Birthday bash in Seattle.  However I just finished working a twelve hour shift today, and I just realized that during this swing of shifts I'm working twelve days in a row.  So you're going to have to get what you take.

Or something.

I did see the new Batman movie.  Post about that soon I'm sure.  Until then though enjoy the Flight of the Conchords.

Perhaps Geotagging on the iPhone 3G isn't that hot

 

I got a new iPhone 3G the other day and I love it.  Love it.  Love it.  Along side my Macbook it's the favorite thing that I own.  Even more than my car, which has dropped down in my list of objects of affection due to gas prices.

The application store is awesome, the new apps are great for the most part.  I like Twitterific, AIM and the Remote application the most.

I was also super excited about the Geotagging feature of the new iPhone, which uses GPS and other network data to tell the phone where a picture taken with the phone's camera was snapped.  I tried it out today while getting an ice tea at Blenz, but when I loaded the picture up to my Flickr [fkr] account I noticed that the positioning seemed a little... off.

How off?  Well a picture taken in downtown Vancouver was actually taken, according to the phone, was apparently taken in Hulunbeier, Nei Mongol.  I'm not sure where that is but a glance at the map, pictured above, it's obviously nowhere where anyone has built a Blenz coffee shop.  Unless the Vancouver based chain is really expanding into new markets.

Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog

Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.

Awesome.

Joss Whedon.

Awesome.

Sub Pop 20: Iron and Wine reach such great heights

Over the weekend, well Friday and Saturday, Lydia and I got down to Seattle for a few events that had been organized for Sub Pop's 20th Anniversary.  The record label that really brought grunge and alternative music to the world in the early '90s was having a two day concert festival and a comedy show.  We made the Friday night comedy show, with David Cross and others, and caught some of the first day of music.

One of the acts we did catch was Iron and Wine, who are probably most famous for this cover of "Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service.  The song appeared on the Garden State soundtrack and I love both versions.  This is the video I recorded of the song.  You can catch a recording of The Flight of the Chonchords' "The Humans Are Dead" here [yt].

I'm hoping to get some time to blog more in the next day or two.  So take care of yourselves until then.

Michael Bay's Rejected Batman script

Alright, I don't usually just make a short post to highlight something I found on the web, mostly because I'm trying to keep my blog a level above the Facebook news feed, but I thought I'd pass this on because it amused me so much.  Ideally Delme will read this, though maybe I should send it on to him.

The item that has me amused is a fake Michael Bay script for Batman The Dark Knight [ms].  Best line so far in the script, and Darring Fireball also quoted this one is:

We pan to a beautiful woman: platinum blonde with a huge rack.  She is the hottest woman in the world, but she wears glasses because she is also the smartest woman in the world.

The only thing that could make it better if is this was a real Michael Bay script.  Expected the usual conventions of any Bay film in the script, such as the fact that the world's most beautiful and smartest woman is also mechanically inclined thanks to her father.  There's also a lot of meetings between various high level military peoples.

It is gold.

The Completely Useless Guide to Being Poor While Living Rich

Over the last week or so I've been writing a guide to how to like a life of great wealth without spending much money. This guide would have taught you how to do things like go to see touring Broadway musicals without spending a dime. That sounds useful, but sadly the entire 200 page work can be boiled down to "get engaged to a woman whose roommate works at a radio station."

I was going to try selling the guide at local flea markets, but after the dismal sales of my first book [blrb] I decided that a 500 page book whose basic message didn't even take up half of the back of the jacket on the hard cover version was a bit cheeky.  I mean I'm not Deepak Chopra, I don't have the name recognition to pull that shit off.

What prompted my writing of the book was when Lydia's roommate Sarah got us free tickets to the Vancouver opening night of Spamalot [mbv].  It had been a play that I'd been interested in going to, but by the time it was announced that the touring company was coming to Vancouver I'd already moved out of the phase of my life where I could afford to pay for things and into the phase of my life where I eat rice and bulk chicken breasts.  The fact that the United Nations isn't delivering the rice from the back of trucks to my house is a small victory, I mean it's actually store bought.  So that's me for the win.

The other advice I have is know someone who works in the tourism industry.  Through the hostel Lydia got this wicked pass that gets her and a guest, typically me, into all sorts of tourist type spots.  On our weekend, which last week just happened to be Canada Day and the day after, we used the pass to take the False Creek Ferries three times, ride the Vancouver Trolley, go see the newborn baby Beluga at the Vancouver Aquarium and then go to Science World all for about four dollars each.

All of which is handy since I've got about $150 that I'm stretching until the 15th when I'm next paid.  The fact that the part time job is coming out to about one shift a month (June had two shifts and July brings zero), means that stretching a dollar is important.  Even more important now that for the second time in about a year I've had my wages cut at work. 

The summer plans are still being made

So these past few days have even been extremely beautiful. Well at least the weather in Vancouver has been very beautiful. Warm, sunny and with not one drop of rain to be seen darkening the sky it's been very un-Vancouver.

Lydia and I have been trying to figure out what sort of vacation plans we can make. There was some light talk about a trip to Las Vegas with my parents in September, but that seems to have died down. I'm trying to get a camping trip arranged with Nathan and Krista for August but after making bold claims about wanting to camp Lydia is feeling a bit nervous about the bears and the potential lack of washrooms that come with camping.

At some point we will get to Kelowna, both to scout out wedding locations and caterers and to just enjoy the sheer heat. Last year it was a bit cooler while we were there, and I was wanting Lydia to really get the sweltering Kelowna experiance where you'd kill a small child for a cold glass of lemonade. There's also a trip to Tofino at some point, since we really enjoyed out brief time there last year so much that I even claimed to want to move there [jks].

Don't worry, I probably won't. Though that would keep me from worrying about the future of Metroblogging Vancouver [mbv].