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. 

From film to digital: concert photography

I was taking pictures at the Bell X1 show that we went to at The Plaza last week [mbv], and I realized that it was the first time that I had been at a show with the powers of an official photographer since I've switched from film to digital.  Which says a lot both about how long it's gone since I've had a photographer's pass, and also how quickly the world has moved from film to digital.

I used to feel bad about how many photographic fuck ups I made while covering concerts, until I saw some professional photographers running through an easy dozen rolls of films per song.  The fact that I spent $50 on film and development might have hurt my wallet, but seeing what the rest of them use the fact that I could get a few great shots from that was a nice ego boost.

For the Bell X1 show I ran through about 500 shots easy, most of which spent about five minutes in iPhoto before getting deleted.  The bulk of those were either out of focus, blurry or just plain terrible.  Then I ran through those that were left and cut them down to just the best ones, the ones that if I had a page to fill I'd be happy using and those were the ones that made it to Flickr [fkr], which according ot Lydia was way too many.

The one legacy I have from the film era is a few photo albums of pictures in storage that need scanning in, so that I can get them onto Flickr.

Edit:  The first two pictures in the slide show above are actually from my film camera and were scanned in.  The rest were from various digital cameras including my two Canon Rebels, various cell phones and other smaller digital cameras.

I'm pants at job hunting

I am totally rubbish at finding a job.  Other people seem to be able to do it with very little difficulty, but nearly six months on and I'm still working on resumes and haunting the cyber halls of Monster.  I will admit I'm being a bit pickier than I could be, because since I'm so crap at this I'd rather not need to do it again soon.  That's why I'm only trying for jobs that I really would like to have such as at the soon to be opened Apple Store in Pacific Centre [mbv], or the reporter/photographer job at the Chilliwack Times [ct] that I applied for yesterday.  (I built an on-line photography portfolio for that job that you can browse here [fkr]).

So I've decided to draw up a few rules for the sort of job that I'm looking to take, just so I don't end up doing this macabre dance in six months. 

1) I have to like the job.  I guess this seems like a luxury, but most of us spend so much time at work that the fact that we generally don't like our jobs is insane.  Life's too short to be doing something that I hate any longer than I need to be.  I mean it doesn't need to be as fun as a trip to EuroDisney, but I don't want to be going home ready to hide under my bed crying.

2) I want the possibility for advancement.  This is one of the reasons I've been focusing on larger companies  during this job search, because there's more chance for things like raises, promotions and rewards for long term service and good work.  I've been with the same company for nearly a decade and the people hired this month are paid the same as me, get as much control over their hours as I do and there's pretty much nowhere for me to advance.  To the company the only difference between me and new hires is that the new hires are younger and more attractive.

3) I'd like to be able to be creative.  Granted if I get a sales job this isn't going to be much of a possibility, but when I was talking to Rob Butz who I used to work with at the Phoenix I realized that my years with the paper were probably the best I've ever had.  Being able to do something like that, something that manages to use at least part of my creative side, would be wonderful.

4) I'd like to have a job that includes travel.  This is sort of an outside shot thing, but I like travelling for work.  I used to really dig the weeks I'd have to go to Toronto for Campus Plus meetings and would actually really like something were I got the chance to travel.  Maybe having to spend two weeks a month in Peace River might blow, but some travel would be hot.

5) Working somewhere where they respect me would be wonderful.  Really so much can be ignored if I have the feeling that I'm needed and an important part of the team.  Feeling like you're just a cog in the machine, and as easily replaced as a three dollar mop, is incredibly demoralizing.  Things like money and hours can be ignored if there's a sense that my contribution is important and that I'm doing a good job. 

The complete fraud pulls it off

So I did what I feel was a decent job speaking at the Canadian University Press regional conference at The Peak [tp] at Simon Fraser yesterday.  My Airport Basestation was being awesome so I couldn't print my talk out, so once again I had to read it off of my cell phone.  Thankfully the iPhone's screen is decent to read from even when your hands are shaking with presentation nerves.  Nobody from The Phoenix seemed to have gone to the conference, so nobody had any familiarity with any of my written work, given that it's mostly been published in Kelowna.

I did hopefully do some networking... or rather I met a guy who might be an opening to do some Vancouver freelancing which would be nice.  I'm also looking at a reporter's job in Parksville on Vancouver Island, which I mentioned yesterday.  Having said that the idea of moving isn't exactly appealing to me right now, but I do need a career boost.  And I'm willing to sleep with anyone to do it.  Well maybe not sleep with, but certainly flatter or give neck massages to.

I picked the above video up off of Neil Gaimen's blog [ng] and it ammused me a great deal.  The actors in it are also in the British version of the Apple/PC ads that John Hodgeman is in for the North American market.

Everything's just a bit out of focus

My birthday was this week, so it's been a few days of collecting gifts and generally pretending I'm still ten years old, instead of twenty-nine.  Which if you think about it is a frightening number, especially given my general dissatisfaction with the state of my career.  And by general dissatisfaction I don't mean the sort of blasé disenfranchisement that I feel towards say the last few Jimmy Eat World albums, but rather a magnetic repulsion that's growing stronger every day.

My job search has gone poorly, with not even so much as a call back from any of the places that I've been applying to.  And it's not like I've been applying only to places that are a bit of a stretch for me, but places like the eBay call centre and IKEA don't even seem to be interested in me right now.  Whatever it is that I'm selling just isn't what people are buying at the moment.

Things seem to be rather stuck in a moment I can't get out of for now, with my only real forward motion possibility figuring out my education and getting back into some courses at UBC in January.  Until then I'm sort of just spinning my wheels.  I am applying for a job in Parskville, so you know I could be a small town reporter on Vancouver Island before you know it.

The irony being that in a few hours I'm going to be giving a presentation at a Canadian University Press conference on how to be a freelance writer.  Of course I'm still a ways off being able to support myself full time with freelancing, and truthfully that's not really the goal.  I'm not enough of a salesman, ironically, to be able to be out digging up work every day of the year.  I want to write, not sell myself.  If I wanted to do that I'd go into prostitution, or black market organ donation.

How my art got into Value Village

I just got back from my second trip to Kelowna in the last two weeks, this time it was a quick one day jaunt down with Nathan for purposes of performance art. More on the performance art later, if it amounts to anything. As it was most of our time was taken up by driving around Kelowna taking pictures of things and admiring the recent burst of construction that has brought the city forwards into true Malltopia. We also managed to visit with Chad who I hadn't seen last week, since he missed all the non-official grad activities.

I've got some photography up of the trip on my Flickr page [fkr], though most of it is either scenic photography from Knox Mountain, or pictures of Chad, Nathan and I chilling at Joey's on the patio drinking giant beers and eating sushi tacos. 

Since I only had Tuesday off we drove down Monday after I finished work arriving in Kelowna at about 11:30 pm, and then drove back this morning leaving at 6:30 am and giving me just enough time to get to my apartment and then up to Metrotown so that I arrived only five minutes late at 1:05 pm.  It was drive-riffic.

As a side note we went to the Value Village [vv] thrift store in Kelowna and I found a t-shirt that I had actually made.  Pictured below this Phoenix shirt I designed along with Todd Leskie for the PWRCUP conference we hosted at OUC.  It seems that someone must have sold/gave theirs to VV, or the large box of extra ones that we had left over was given away.  There was also an UBC-O History Union t-shirt [fkr], which lead me to belive that someone (Brian Doubt maybe) that was involved in both the History Course Union and the paper had been donating to VV recently.  So there you go, something I created is in the museum of Value Village.

My years are slipping away

  Phoenix 
  Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

Playing around with Facebook [fb] meant having to input in the years that I did some things.  For example what years was I at Okanagan University College?  I know I graduated OKM in 1997, so I would have started OUC that year as well.  But after that I lose track of things.

I joined the Phoenix, but then what?  When I did I get involved with the Canadian University Press?  When did I join up with Campus Plus, taking over from Mason Wright, and when did I give up the post?  When was Winnipeg, and when was Newfoundland?  When was the David Hayes / Mike Ault years at the paper and when were the Jeffery Simpson / Todd Leskie years? 

Facebook seems really cool, and so far today I'm addicted to it.  I've just been fucking about with it while watching the Canucks game since I got home from work.  How long it'll keep my interest I'm not sure but so far I've connected with some people I have not talked to in way too long.

Another one in the "I should really get my degree" catagory

I saw an old editor from The Phoenix outside the office at work today.  Mike Ault was the first Editor-in-Chief while I was at the paper, and the most colourful.  So of course I quickly sent an email about it to Delme, and then we talked about it on MSM.  Below is a bit of our conversation, Delme is "The Man Who Laughs" and I'm "Jeffery":

The Man Who Laughs says:

OMG

The Man Who Laughs says:

Seriously? Mike Ault?

Jeffery says:

Yeah man.

Jeffery says:

I was like, "Hey it's a chubby guy with weird glasses on a bike."

Jeffery says:

Then it dawned on me who exactly it was.

The Man Who Laughs says:

go ask him if he's still taking naked pictures of underage girls.

Jeffery says:

I was going to but then I thought better of it. I don't need that guy in my life.

The Man Who Laughs says:

few do

Jeffery says:

Dude, do you remember our first Phoenix meeting? Well my first anyway. When we went to his apartment and there was like a billion pictures of naked girls all over the place?

Jeffery says:

And I was like, "Well these newspaper people are freaks."

The Man Who Laughs says:

I remember it vividly. It was like something out of a lame thriller.

Jeffery says:

And it was literally like the three of us, because Dave was working or something.

Jeffery says:

Ha ha.

Jeffery says:

I know I figured there was probably a female torso in the freeze.

Jeffery says:

*freezer.

Then conversation turned to other editors who were at the paper during our time.  One of the editors, who I believe was the features editor, was Maya Segas.  Maya went on to become the student council president for a year and was involved in Amnesty International on campus, so she was pretty driven.  Of course we Googled her.

Jeffery says:

Found her.

Jeffery says: Here

Jeffery says:

Maya is a Campaigner for Oxfam GB. Originally from Vancouver, Canada, Maya has a B.A. in International Relations from the University of British Columbia and an M.A. in Human Rights from the University of Padua, Italy. She also worked in Brussels and Copenhagen for international organisations before joining Oxfam. She also did half of her Master's Degree in Bilbao, Spain.

Jeffery says:

The rest I found seems to be about Sega.

The Man Who Laughs says:

[face_jaw-dropped] Wow.

Jeffery says:

And people named Maya playing it.

Jeffery says:

I know. Typical Maya.

The Man Who Laughs says:

I feel so completely useless right now.

Jeffery says:

You feel pathetic? I'm in an entry level sales job.

Jeffery says:

Monkeys could do what I do if they could be trained not to throw their poop at the customers.

Clearly finishing my degree and getting some kind of job doing important work like being Prime Minister or driving a starship is in order. 

When CUP comes to town

This was first posted at Metroblogging Vancouver [mbv].  I posted here as well because I wanted to comment on it, but couldn't think of another way of saying exactly the same thing.  I might blog a bit more about it later on.  Why am I up at 5:30 in the morning when I work at 9?  That's a mystery to me too.

  The journalist's guide to the universe   
  Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

Some of the best memories I have are from when I was a student journalist.  That's right before I started blogging for free I worked in the coal mine that is the university press at the Phoenix [tp] at Okanagan University College in Kelowna.  I miss pretty much everything about it, including staying up late and struggling with a Powermac G3 and a pirated copy of Quark to get the paper to the printer on time.  Whether it was editing an article [ep] or writing one [teotw] it was almost all a joy.

One of the best parts was the paper's involvement with the Canadian University Press (CUP) [wp], the world's oldest national student organization.  Its yearly national conference was always a great time combining a goodly amount of learning with mind numbing quantities of booze. 

This year the annual CUP conference is being hosted in Vancouver from January 18 - 27 [cup].  People from the public are allowed to go, for a price.  Having seen some of the big name speakers, such as Nardwuar the Human Serviette and Dan Savage before and they're both fun if not high on actual education value. 

The workshop "Getting paid to blog" sounds very interesting, especially since Vancouver's Darren Barefoot [db] is one of the speakers.  That and the other workshops will definitely be value for the money, if you're thinking of going. 

Though I've spoken at past CUP conferences I promise I wasn't invited to this one, so feel safe in knowing you won't have to listen to me.  Feeling so safe you should go.

Live and in concert

I'll be speaking tomorrow at WRCUP, the western regional confernece for the Canadian University Press.  I had talked to Trevor Hargreaves about doing something for the conference a month or two ago, but I hadn't heard anything from him since and wasn't sure if they still wanted me until I got an email from Meaghan McBride the editor-in-chief of The Cascade the conference's host paper.

Which means tonight I'll have to actually work on what I'm going to talk about for an hour.  I did a similiar speech for the PWRCUP conference that I organized while at the Phoenix a few years ago, and WRCUP tends to be the least formal conference so I'm not too nervous yet.

After the 10 am talk I might hang around a bit at least until after the keynote, and then Lydia and I will be going down to Seattle to see Belle & Sebastian and the New Pornographers.

I get the geek rage

Today I had to wake up early so I could walk to UBC's Robson Street Campus for the first day of Northern Voice 2006 [nv] the Vancouver based blogging conference that I'm attending today and tomorrow.  Maybe it was the walking to get there by 8:00 am but I just did not enjoy myself nearly as much as I thought I would

I posted a rant about the conference's major theme over at Metroblogging Vancouver [mbv], and how it just struck me the wrong way.  I guess maybe I'm used to Canadian University Press conferences which are, even the small regional ones, simply amazing.  This was well organized, and some of the speakers were real catches.  A few went over my head, or devolved into arguments about technical details between the speakers and members of the audiance, but it was the more abstract philosophical ones that sort of got my goat.

I think part of it was that today was supposed to be an open day, when people volunteered to do talks, and so it was less structured and the better speakers will be there tomorrow.  As it is I was frustrated enough with it that I snuck out early and went to see Goodnight and Good Luck at the Paramount Theatre (no not my Paramount Theatre).  Sadly while it was a great movie the getting up at 6:30 to walk to the conference by 8:00 am made me tired enough to fall asleep for a good chunk of it. 

I think I understood the main jist of it though, it was something about journalism.

Tags: Northern Voice, Northern Voice 2006, blog, blogging, conference, Paramount Theatre, Goodnight and Good Luck, movie UBC

Maintaining Radio Silence

It has been awhile since I last wrote anything here. So I am going to go quick to catch you up on the never ending excitment that is my life. So last time I dropped a line I was in Victoria attending the WRCUP conference. So let us begin there.

The conference was good. Well organized and fun. Jeffrey Weston was there and in fact the conference t-shirt was designed by my good friend. I decided to finish my time with the Canadian University Press and did not run for any CUP jobs. However the Phoenix will be hosting the next CUP conference when PWRCUP hits Kelowna.

Back in Kelowna I was once again visited by the door to door religious peoples. They spent some time explaining to me that God was not a trinity and that the God Christ was different than God proper. They also told me that heaven was nearly all full already. In fact they seemed convinced that all the spots in heaven were already reserved. "There was only one man in Ontario going to heaven," the elderly man told me. That seems true, I mean shit it's Ontario how many people from there can expect to be going to heaven. Oh also apparently there is no hell, and the good people who haven't already reserved a spot in heaven will just stay on Earth which will be spruced up a bit after the end of the world. Where everyone else will go I'm not sure.

They again invited me to their Easter service and gave me another magazine.

From the pictures in the magazine I learned that:
- men in fedora hats with revolvers would feature heavily in the apolcalypse
- the paradise Earth will be transformed into will be a farming community
- God thinks swearing is really shit

Anyway they promised/threatened to come back next week and read Bible verses with me. I'm either going to have to be rude and put my foot down on this shit or just stop answering the door. I'm too polite when I can not even tell Jehova Witnesses to screw off.

Victoria's Rain/Reign

I awoke today in Victoria. We are mere moments away from the starting of the Western Region conference of the Canadian University Press (WRCUP / CUP). Tension is in the air. Todd sleeps on a couch. I type on a computer.

It is like a Hitchcock movie, when will this bomb explode? We'll leave the audience guessing. I took some photos on the way over, however the ferry's motion made sure that they were all blurred streaks. At least the ones I've loaded onto my Powerbook.

Except for this one. Enjoy it, as you sing your Coke Machine Blues.

the unofficial CUP moblog

the unofficial CUP moblog

Following in the footsteps of many-a-CUPpie who went to Nash this year, Belinda Stronach made an appearance in St. John's last week and made the obligatory stop at Chess's Fish and Chips to show she's just another one of the b'ys.
- Posted on the CUP Moblog by ?

what they don't teach you in aquatic marine biotechnology

Pulse Flow: A mostly photographic weblog by Stephen Hui

These are quick notes now, typed out in a flurry of activity before a yawn breaks through. I have things to communicate and not much time. I have taken a combination of one million sleeping pills and twenty half gallon jugs of rye. And just a touch of maple syrup. It was a heady mixture, one that is sure to re-write the rule book on this sort of thing.

I must not understand the potency of this. My younger readers would be advised to substitute the maple syrup for something lighter, like American beer, until they've grown the iron chef stomach that is needed.

The information I have to pass onto you before my Ross Bagdasarian like mixing genius takes over and makes me go AWOL.

The first is buy good headphones. I can not stress this enough. I have spent every where from $2.99 to $150 on headphones and there is a difference. The pair I ordered from AudioCubes arrived today. They are freaking awesome. They're in-ear Sony Nudes and they kick some ass. They're not quite as good in quiet situations as my giant full headphones, but those don't work as well in shopping malls, buses or anywhere that you have to carry them.

I got them, sent from Japan, today while at work and threw them on while I browsed Future Shop and was blown away. In a store where there's a lot of noise the Nudes blocked out tons o' sound. But I could also readjust my hearing to pick up outside noise if needed.

They are coming with me on my next trip.

I can't remember what else I wanted to say. The room is spinning and I think the only recourse I have now is to make my way to an empty bathtub and curl up in a ball and prepare for the worst. I'll be there with a gun and a packet of sandwiches. Just come and fucking get me.

Oh, wait that's what I wanted to say. I checked who was linking to my site today and found that people were coming to see this place from the official website of Stephen Hui. As some of you may know Mr. Hui is the world's foremost elevator inspector and has been working for the Swedish Elevator Inspection Team for slightly over thirty years.

If there is a book on mechanical elevature then it's damn likely that he wrote it. If there is a word like elevature, then it's damn likely that I'd use it.

The fine art of falling apart

Sorry that I've not let you in on any secret parts of my life recently. Things have been busy, or I've been lazy. Mainly I've been fucking about trying to get the copy of Virtual PC that I bought from the Microsoft staff store to work on my Powerbook. It has, as all my trips into the world of Windows have been, a headache.

The main problem has been that the copy of Windows XP that I bought at the same time is an upgrade and not the actual full edition. So it looks for an old copy of Windows '95-ME and then bleeps at me for not having that installed on my harddrive.

In other news we returned from Seattle safe and sound. We added no more tickets onto my account. I now am paying $91 to Washington State. $91 which I can only assume will go towards Homeland security or buying a bigger American flag for the Space Needle.

Secret Agents of Social Change: An Illustrated History Without Pictures

Okay, so this entry is going to be all over the place, so if you've come here for focused thoughts on specific matters, come back tomorrow. If you're okay with a little leaping around, then we're good to go.

Yer fokkers at the DFO

I think many a CUP related blog has recently contained the words "fokkers at the DFO". Certainly this one just did. So don't be surprised, it's the new hotness as Peter called Don Iveson the other day.

Weather even the Newfies respect

Weather from CBC.CA

This weather has even the locals in St. John's impressed.

Newfoundland Weather

Weather from CBC.CA

There is a blizzard on. The winds are about 50 miles an hour now, and are supposed to get up to about 100. There is a large possibility that this will continue on through the weekend and into Tuesday, which will start to delay flights.

I may have to take up residence here.