The official snaps won’t be in the Vancouver Sun until tomorrow morning however earlier today I had the pleasure of traipsing around downtown with John, Jeff, and Alanah and meeting all kinds of Canucks thanks to Raise a Reader Day.

“The Canwest Raise-a-Reader program has excellent momentum and this year, on the morning of Wednesday, September 24th, newspapers in 28 communities will host Raise-a-Reader Day activities on city streets from Victoria to St. John’s. Thousands of volunteers and local celebrities will exchange special Raise-a-Reader edition newspapers for donations to literacy… …Through the volunteer efforts of people across Canada, Raise-a-Reader is able to provide the necessary funding and resources to family literacy programs, libraries and school libraries in the greatest need.”

Alanah and me with Mason Raymond of the Canucks (and How I Met Your Mother fame)

Each year I have a blast walking around and meeting players and organization members. It’s such a casual atmosphere, everyone is in high spirits and thinking the best for the season ahead.

One of the best ways to get your day going is by getting a hug from Ryan Kesler.

Legendary (first ever) captain of the Vancouver Canucks, Orland Kurtenbach. Such a nice man who was excited to hear about our podcast (and possible bus ads).

My meeting with Stan “The Steamer” Smyl, who led Vancouver for his entire career until retiring in 1991. His number 12 hangs in the rafters and will soon by joined by number 16.

You can also catch photos on John’s Flickrstream from our adventures at the Canucks game last night where they were kind enough to have a penthouse suite as a token of their appreciation for online content creators like The Crazy Canucks.

I figured it may be best to speak about this before it happens so that I can get my readers to tune in, if they weren’t already inclined to do so. I will be doing a guest spot on Radio 1410 this afternoon (formerly known as CFUN) and will be sharing some thoughts and insights about the blogosphere. I’ll be interviewed by Val Cole and Patrick Maliha (who do the Afternoon Buzz 2pm to 6pm weekdays) and will post my show notes later today.

If you do catch the spot today, please feel free to drop me a line with feedback or any neat blogs or websites I should plug in upcoming segments.

As a side note, I may also be a guest speaker at SFU again this fall for Michelle Kim’s journalism course. Registration is still open and you can sign up for “Basics in Journalism: How to Break In” on the SFU site.

Update: Links mentioned on the show include Flickr for photo sharing, UrbanSpoon for restaurant reviews, and Delicious for social bookmarking. I’ll be back again next Wednesday between 2:45 and 3:15pm with more internetty goodness.

When John and I were separated by thousands of kilometers before he made the move to Canada we used to send each other video postcards. One evening when driving back to the city from his parents’ house he put his camera on the dashboard of his car and spoke to me while cruising through the rolling countryside. In the background was Couches in Alleys by Styrofoam featuring Ben Gibbard [YouTube] and when John finished his message he turned the camera out, facing the road, and captured a fiery amber sunset falling gracefully from the sky as though slowly and peacefully embracing the earth.

Since then, I’ve enjoyed being able to travel and explore highways across this continent with him. Driving home from Osoyoos along the Crowsnest the other weekend I had tears come to my eyes several times. We were carefree, meandering along a well-traveled highway nestled between mountain ranges and valleys while the tunes on the radio made us both sing along whenever we felt like joining the chorus. There are few places on this planet that make me wish I could freeze time and soak in their majesty, and for some reason my thoughts always come back to Iowa.

I had never been to the Midwest before I met John and during our whirlwind tour for Thanksgiving last year, passing the signs for the famous covered bridges of Madison County and the birthplace of John Wayne, the beauty of the landscape won me over yet again.

I have a sneaking suspicion that these warm feelings, thoughts and memories are not so much about the locations themselves, but the people I was with – in particular, the person who shared these travels with me. I’ve been very lucky in my life to experience such places and to have met people whose hospitality and generosity can only be shadowed by the goodness of their hearts.

If there is one place that I could remain for the rest of my life, however, that would be in the arms of my husband, who is celebrating his 30th birthday today. “He’s not North, my South, my East and West,” and I look forward to exploring the ends of the earth with someone so full of life and spirit that it humbles me each morning when I get to be held in his arms.

The title of this post is from a Ben Folds song

In the last ten days alone I’ve had the chance to meet and chat with Canadian beer-making legends, interview my all time favourite band (and one of Keira’s favourite bands), talk local history with a Vancouver mayoral candidate, laughed with the internet-famous, and meet another rock star who blogs.

After coming down from Las Vegas, eleven live blogs, five events, and preparing for this week’s events (which include a hockey game, charity live blog, National Digital Media Day, and BarCamp) I have to take some time to share my thoughts on a parcel I received today from the Union Gospel Mission.

The UGM is a beacon of hope Canada’s poorest neighbourhood, the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. Through programs, drop-in centres, thrift stores, their blog, womens’ and youth outreach centres, the UGM helps those who need it most.

This afternoon they sent Matthew Good, Duane and I each a thank you note:

Rebecca Bollwitt, for your compassionate response to a community in need. Thanks to your innovation UGM set a new fundraising record during Blogathon Vancouver 2008 to help your friends in the Downtown Eastside.

I’m overwhelmed by this modest token of appreciation and it makes me want to do more with my Social Media for Change campaigns.

I didn’t do Blogathon for links, traffic, and recognition – I did it because through this medium that so many often find shallow and self-serving, I have a voice which I choose to use to create positive change, in big and small ways, and to make everything count.

I also have the best readers in the world; those support me and my effort, who leave uplifting or even constructive comments, and those who simply come back every day. I thank you all.

Last night between my interview and the Less Than Jake concert, John and I headed over to Launch Party Vancouver 5 for some schmoozing, networking, and all out good times. As I’m currently sitting in the Phoenix airport waiting for my flight to Vegas for Blog World Expo all of my energy from 3 hours sleep has now been expelled by composing this post so I’ll let the images say the rest.

Photo credit: Tris on Flickr

James of AdHack with TrevorO and Jordan Behan kicking butt on the red carpet.

Photo credit: Tris on Flickr

Raul and me… psst! it’s also his birthday today, head over to his blog since he’s not on Facebook and you can’t send him a wall post.

Photo credit: Tris on Flickr

One of the Launch Party organizers from day one, Maura, looking lovely on the red carpet.

Photo credit: Raul on Flickr

Sheil and me with Vision Vancouver Mayoral candidate Gregor Robinson who made an appearance.

Photo credit: Tris on Flickr

Warren Frey was our videographer for the evening.

Photo credit: Tris on Flickr

The love of my life. That’s it, that’s all I can say. I really like this photo.

The rest of the photos can be found in Tris’ Flickr set, Jordan’s set or Raul’s as well. You can also check out my posts from Launch Party 1 through 4 to look back on the year we’ve had, celebrating startups in Vancouver.