In the spring of 2009 BCIT hosted the inaugural 3 Blog Nights and they’ve brought it back again this year for 72 straight hours of content and contests.
The goal is to get the word out about BCIT, raise some buzz through social media, share video interviews and do an ultimate giveaway two ultimate giveaways of $1,000 worth of tuition credits. The event began yesterday at the main Burnaby campus and will be going until Wednesday. They have an entire crew working 8-hour shifts each to keep the educational information flowing.
You can keep up to date on all of their interviews (including one I recorded with Kemp Edmonds today) and happenings online via Twitter @3BlogNights, and the 3 Blog Nights blog.
Tomorrow (Tuesday, October 27th) they will also be hosting a tweetup at Malone’s downtown, near their Vancouver campus. It will run from 5:30pm onwards and is listed on the official Vancouver Tweetup directory.
The crew at BCIT (Kemp, Dave, Randy et al) have been doing a tremendous job in using social media — from individual Twitter accounts to YouTube videos that profile programs and life on the BCIT campus. If you have the chance, stop by the 3 Blog Nights booth at the Burnaby campus (inside SE2) or check them out online. I know what it’s like to do a Blogathon so kudos to them for making this campaign an annual event.
Update: My interview video is now online.
The National Film Board of Canada (the NFB) has released its own application for the iPhone which includes hundreds of films, animated shorts, history vignettes, and classics all free of charge. My sister put this on my radar when she posted about it on Twitter so I thought I would check it out.
When I went to the iTunes App Store on my phone to get it I noticed that it was the “app of the week” since the NFB icon is the current main icon for the entire “entertainment” category. Upon downloading the app I discovered why it’s being showcased and has already received top reviews from sites like Gizmodo.
Some features I enjoy are the search and the ability to “favourite” videos. This allowed me to find The Cat Came Back and The Logdriver’s Waltz, save them, and play them back for my American husband. You can play clips on demand or click to have them download for future viewing.
I must have spent about 45 minutes sifting through all the amazing content and using specific keywords to find either documentaries I remembered or content I haven’t yet seen. How to Make an Igloo is an oldie but a goodie and I could spend about 4 hours going through the entire “History” section. You can also download and view a 57 minute documentary about the Greatest Canada, Tommy Douglas, made in 1986 — all for free and on-demand.
The app is clean, sleek, and having that search option or capability to see the Most Popular is a great way to bring back memories or introduce classics to new users. If you do not have an iPhone, much if not all of this content is available through their website as well where they even featured the first version of their iPhone app… circa 1980.
Links: iTunes App Store download link, NFB blog post outlining the features of the app.
Halloween 2009 is creeping up way too quickly however there are plenty of ways to enjoy the season with many activities around town. I have a feeling that this list will grow over the next week or so but for now here are a few Halloween events to check out, starting today:
Oct 24, 2009 Halloween Howl (2-6 yrs) at the West End Community Centre from 10:00am – 12:00pm.
Oct 24, 2009 Kitsilano Neighbourhood House Autumn Fair at the Kitsilano Nieghbourhood House (7th and Vine) from 10:00am – 3:00pm.
Oct 23 – 31, 2009 Halloween at the Vancouver Aquarium.
Oct 25, 2009 Ghost Walks at Fort Langley National Historic Site.
Oct 24, 25 & 31st Haunted Tours of the Gulf of Georgia Cannery in Richmond.
Oct 28 – 30, 2009 Haunted Village at Burnaby Village Museum 6:00pm – 9:00pm.
Oct 29 – 31, 2009 Eerie Nights of Fright at Fort Langley National Historic Site.
Oct 30, 2009 All Souls at Mountain View Cemetery from 6:00pm – 10:00pm.
Oct 29 & 31, 2009 Halloween in the Forest at the Surrey Nature Centre.
Oct 31, 2009 Halloween Spooktacular (For children ages 3-10 yrs old) at Trout Lake Community Centre (3350 Victoria Drive) 1:00pm – 3:00pm.
Oct 31, 2009 Halloween Howl at the South Surrey Indoor Pool from 1:30pm – 3:00pm.
Oct 31, 2009 Halloween Happening (for Children 9 and under) Sunset Community Centre & Sunset Ice Rink 5:30pm – 7:30pm.
Oct 28 – 31, 2009 Various events around the City of Burnaby.
The Halloween Trains at Stanley Park and Bear Creek Park are also open over the next week or so along with the stage productions of Evil Dead. Should you have an event you would like listed, please feel free to contact me.
I’ve been lucky enough to experience two autumns in New England where trees donning technicolour leaves cover the hillside, like an old quilt on a lumpy bed. Here in Vancouver our fall season usually means early sunsets, misty mornings, and grey skies for days. We see the return of the rain while orange and yellow hues tumble from branches to collect in gutters and along the sides of canopied streets. It’s no New England, but it’s spectacular in its own way, as Vancouver generally is.
The following collection contains photos I found using a Creative Commons License search on Flickr.
Please feel free to click through and explore from each of these photographers. If you would like to share your photos with me for potentially posting on this site, you can add them to the Miss604 Flickr Pool.
ITEM #: SGN 113
Photographer: Bailey Bros.
I thought of continuing my weekly Then and Now photo series until I realized that most “then” images would not accurately depict the city’s fall hues in black and white.
However, as I glanced at one of my favourite local history resources this morning, I found the following and decided to continue the Vancouver History Tidbits series instead.
October 22, 1949 – 60 years ago today—the first “official†tree was planted at Queen Elizabeth Park. It was called Little Mountain Park back then, carved out of a rock quarry and chosen as the site of Canada’s first civic arboretum.
Courtesy of VancouverHistory.ca, here are a few more items of note in our city’s history that happened during this season and in particular, on this day.
October 22, 1938 – Mart Kenney and his Western Gentlemen instructed dancers at the Hotel Vancouver in a new dance craze, the Lambeth Walk.
October 22, 1965 – Alvo von Alvensleben, one of BC’s first millionaires and an important Vancouver realtor, died in Seattle, aged 86. It’s estimated he pumped $7 million into the provincial economy in the years before WWI.
October 22, 1968 – Scuba divers found the drive shaft of the SS Beaver, sunk off Stanley Park more than 70 years earlier.
October 22, 1986 – The Province’s Page One headline: SHA-ZALM! That announced the election of “millionaire gardener†Bill Vander Zalm as premier.
October 22, 2009 – The Olympic Torch Relay for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games begins in Greece.
And just for kicks, tomorrow in local history…
October 23, 1930 – Contact! The Vancouver branch of the Aviation League of Canada, an organization promoting the growth of the air industry, began formal proceedings today.
October 23, 1953 – The Burnaby Lake interurban tram line—the route of which roughly correlates with the Trans-Canada Highway today—closed after 42 years, replaced by a bus service.
October 23, 1983 – The Kuan Yin Buddhist Temple at 9160 Steveston Highway in Richmond was dedicated.
All this and more information will be in Chuck Davis’ book about Metropolitan Vancouver History. Companies can sponsor years and if I had enough, I’d buy 1980 for Miss604.com although it already looks like Polygon Homes beat me to it.
