In just a few minutes I’ll be heading to the Pan Pacific for the annual Christmas Wish Breakfast.
It’s become a tradition of giving in Vancouver where everyone is invited to come down, bring an unwrapped toy between 6:00am and 9:00am and enjoy a complimentary breakfast. In case you don’t have time to come in for a meal, there is also a drop off “express lane” open where you can still donate and receive a donut to go.
There were truckloads of toys out front already,
I’m thinking this was a ceremonial pile as there
was much more than this in total – which is awesome).
GlobalTV’s Mike McCardell
Lining up to give.
This is the largest toy drive fundraiser in the Lower Mainland [News1130] and it helps to make sure every child in our region has something special under the tree this season.
By now, you may have heard about the microblogging site, Twitter, from your friends, the radio, CNN or Barack Obama. It’s a great way to stay in touch, share updates and news, and communicate with others. I’ve been noticing more and more businesses on Twitter (which is a good thing) so I’d like to list off a few around town that Vancouverites might want to check out or follow.
Media
The Tyee – @TheTyee
The Georgia Straight – @georgiastraight
The Georgia Straight, Technology – @StraightTech
The Vancouver Sun – @VancouverSun
The Vancouver Sun, Digital Life – @GillianShaw
CityTV’s Breakfast Television – @BT_
CBC Radio 3 – @CBCRadio3
BCIT’s Evolution 107.9 Radio – @evolution1079
Talk 1410am’s Afternoon Buzz – @AfternoonBuzz
News1130 – @News1130
Techvibes – @TechVibes
UBC’s CiTR 101.9 Radio – @CiTRradio
Around Town
Grouse Mountain – @GrouseMountain
Capilano Suspension Bridge – @CapSuspBridge
SFU Woodwards – @SFUWoodwards
Kids Up Front – @KidsUpFront
Fearless City – @FearlessCity
Vancouver Board of Trade – @VancouverBOT
Canucks Fan Zone – @CanucksFanZone
Whitecaps FC – @WhitecapsFC
Hospitality/Food
Raging Bean Coffee – @RagingBean
Opus Hotel – @OpusHotel
Doolins Irish Pub – @Doolins
BC Restaurant & Food Service Association – @BCRFA
City or Political
Newly elected Vancouver Mayor, Gregor Robertson – @Gregor08
City of Vancouver – @CityofVancouver (Updates Protected)
Metro Vancouver – @MetroVancouver (Updates Protected)
Vancouver 2010 – @Vancouver_2010 (Updates Protected)
Translink – @Translink (Updates Protected)
West Coast Express – @WestCoastExpres (Updates Protected)
Skytrain – @Skytrain (Updates Protected)
SeaBus – @Seabus (Updates Protected)
BC Ferries – @BCFerries (Updates Protected)
The Green Party of BC – @BCGreenParty
Update – Reader suggestions:
Vancouver Public Library – @VPL
UQ Events – @UQEvents
Coffee Geek – @CoffeeGeek
SFU Twitter User List
Dept of Culture – DeptofCulture
Coast Hotels – @CoastHotels
However, I have a few tips for some of the Twitter profiles I’ve listed.
Make sure you have a custom profile icon or image – some people might recognize that more than your profile name.
Update as often as you can and make sure they’re not all automated posts. Have someone provide unique updates, be specific and feel free to share anything you like.
Follow other people. The whole point of social media is to communicate, create and share discussions. It’s a two-way street so let your followers know you’re interested in what they have to say as well. Who knows, you may get a top news story within seconds, find out about great deals, or get customer service feedback.
Finally, if you have a service whose updates could truly benefit people ie. sailing times, schedules etc. it would be really helpful to remove the protection (privacy setting) from your updates.
It’s free to sign up for a Twitter account and if you’d like to get updates from any of these sites (or yours truly) click on the links to ‘follow’. Please feel free to share more Vancouver Twitterites in the comments and I’ll update this post.
Over the last few weeks my company, sixty4media, has themed, coded, and tweaked quite a few WordPress sites (and even more over the years before we even had the company). I am often asked what I use to code or theme so here are some of the tools that make my life a whole lot easier.
MAMP
MAMP allows you to run a mini WordPress web server from your computer so that you can theme sites locally, without having them published online or on a development site.
FTP
You need a good FTP application for uploading files and images on the fly. I’m using Cyberduck right now but I’ve had many suggestions for more productive tools (and I can’t for the life of me remember the one that Tod recommended).
Smultron
For Mac OS X and Leopard
A great text editor (used for PHP files) that works nicely with Cyberduck by selecting it as your file editor under preferences. It colour-codes nicely and is very simple to use.
CSS Edit
MacRabbit – CSS Edit (for Macs only)
All in one CSS editing tool. Allows you to eyedrop colours, shows your properties in a sidebar, knows where to place brackets etc. and even auto-completes some elements. In the sidebar it also displays colours on anything that has a background colour ie. if your footer is blue, it will show up blue in the sidebar list.
WordPress Codex
This last one isn’t downloadable, the codex is an online resource for all issues, questions, and reference materials in the WordPress realm.
This has also been published on sixty4media’s blog.
Today is my friend Keira‘s birthday. She’s another year older, another year wiser, another year prettier (to make up for the older comment), and another year full of friendship, respect, and kindness.
Keira is one of the few people I can trust to listen without judgment if I need to pour out my soul, and she’s also a very good influence when it comes to skipping dinner and eating ice cream instead. She also knows that she can rely on me in the very same way. Although we didn’t meet through blogging at all, we’ve had many good times this year so I’ll display some fond memories below, in true Keira-Anne / Rebecca blog photo style. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
Over 101 years later and the earliest movie footage of Vancouver is still making the rounds. Now available on DVD, City Reflections 1907 – 2007 will also be screened December 12th at the Vancouver Public Library.
Time: 7:00pm to 9:00pm
Where: Alice Mackay Room, Lower Level (Central Library Branch, 350 W Georgia)
“The film is the earliest footage of Vancouver and was shot with a hand-crank camera mounted on the front of a B.C. Electric Railway streetcar by William Harbeck of Seattle.” [Miss604]
This is a free event and is bound to be full of interesting tidbits about Vancouver’s history as a city, as well discussions about how transportation has evolved around here.
