I’ve never been a girlie girl by any means. I know designers, what’s “trendy” etc. but mostly due to my own personal style, attitude and honestly – budget – I’ve never been on the cutting edge. Over the last few years that best I could do was learn to dress for my body type. It’s like what Stacy and Clinton say – ignore the size numbers and get things that fit your body. I’ve also been able to find things that shape the top of my torso without ballooning out and way from my waist, making me look as though I’m in my second trimester. Long story short, I’m far from being an authority on fashion like the women who contribute to The Style Spy — who just so happen to be hosting an event this Friday.
The Style Spy is a group blog where you can find cosmetic tips, trends, latest looks, and enter contests. Last week I received an email notifying me of the Fabulous Life Event, which upon first inspection wouldn’t normally be my scene, but when I saw that it was taking place at The Bay downtown – I was sold.
What: The Style Spy’s Fabulous Life Event – Lounge, Red Carpet, Hollywood Snapshots, Cocktails & Appies, Perfume Bar, Jewelery Bar, Door Prizes, Swag Bags & sketches.
When: Friday March 14, from 6:00pm to 9:00pm
Where: The Bay Downtown, 674 Granville Street, Vancouver
More Info: The Style Spy
The Bay is definitely where I find the best clothing and everything is usually discounted when you get to the till, which is always a treat. (Latest purchase: Pink, silk, Nine West tunic for $29).
Aside from the location, I thought it would a great opportunity to meet Erica, founder of The Style Spy, with whom I’ve shared the occasional blogosphere correspondence.
I also knew someone who would immediately appreciate an event like this would be Keira-Anne so I enlisted her as my date. Through the magic of Facebook I discovered another blogger with a keen sense of what’s chic will be attending so it will be nice to meet her as well.
If you’d like to attend sign up to be a Style Spy member by visiting the site, then be sure to RSVP by emailing party [at] thestylespy.com and who knows, maybe I’ll learn a thing or two.
Although my involvement with The Lab was brief and only just a few days ago, I can still appreciate what they’ve done over the years.
I had the pleasure of meeting Amber Mac a few months ago when we were both members of Team Blogger on CBC’s Test the Nation (which makes some of my co-workers insanely jealous). However, I was first introduced to Amber’s work through the TV show “Call for Help“, which was a previous iteration of “The Lab with Leo“.
Leo Laporte is known for TWiT, the “This Week in Tech” collection of podcasts and his involvement with technology-centric TV shows over the last decade. Most recently he hosted “The Lab with Leo which welcomed questions about technology, and showcased the latest gadgets and social media tools. Although Leo was based out of California, he would come up to Vancouver to record episodes from a studio in Gastown. His show was interactive with its audience and many of the guests were friends of mine from the Vancouver blogging and new media scene. Want to learn about Twitter? Facebook? Making money from Google AdSense? Podcasting? This was all addressed through this television show that was also available online once aired.
Most recently, I was a guest on The Lab, talking about some of the podcasts I co-host and some basic mobile podcasting tricks. While waiting in the green room I Twittered about being nervous. About 20 seconds later Leo shuffled off the set, through the door and introduced himself, saying he had no idea “Miss604” was sitting right there. It was great to finally meet Leo in person, and to hear him sing a little song about the pronunciation of my last name.
On Twitter last week I noticed a message come through from Leo saying that his show had been canceled. Episodes already recorded will still be released this spring (mine included) but after such time the show will simply have re-runs. You can still find some episodes online, and Leo will be more active once again with TWiT.
My good friend Dave Olson also has an unreleased episode so when this latest slot airs (on G4TechTV Canada) I’ll be sure to let everyone know and grab a copy from Google Video although mostly I just need to warn my mom so that she can set the VCR.
The following has been adapted from actual correspondences
I arrived on the 14th, flying from Hamburg to Stuttgart. Hamburg is a very fine city that has a dynamic blend of old buildings and startling modern architecture. They have an immense construction project at the harbour that is similar to the Expo lands development.
People are friendly, as in Canada, but less reserved initially. In Canada people “exchange glances” and look away. In Hamburg a first look is like an extended quiet conversation. It is quite engaging. I asked about this characteristic and people acknowledged it is so.
People pour out of the trains in BC furtive and suspicious. In Hamburg you leave the train as if you know many people, though you may have spoken not a word.
The transit system is what Vancouver´s aspires to be – conventional trains from the hinterlands, S-Bahn rapid trains for the suburbs and city, neighbourhood and express buses, and ferries. It is similar to Vancouver´s in having no turnstiles. Yet I saw not one police or fare-checker. This all contributes to a more trusting and confident populace. This is something of a paradox to me, because on another level, the people are highly regulated.
When my father came to Canada he showed up at the Police Station and they asked him what he wanted. He said ‘Here I am.’ They laughed and sent him away. In Germany you have to inform the government when you move, within a few weeks, or you are fined.
You can feel spring is about to arrive, the weather gets cloudy in Hamburg but rarely rains. It was very cold. In Stuttgart it is much warmer and feels like spring. I miss many things, but most of all I miss my family. (… to be continued)
To me, the most satisfying cup of coffee is served in a diner where the waitress fills it up at least 6 times (without asking) before you get your two eggs over medium with bacon and hashbrowns. Other than that, at any specialty coffee shop on any street corner I’m usually a dark roast girl.
Photo Credit:
Cosmo on Flickr
The other morning John overheard someone ask for a dark roast coffee because they needed the extra caffeine in their system. The barista replied that dark roasts actually have less caffeine since they’re toasted longer and that drains it out. Of course when he told me this I had to do some internet-sleuthing to confirm or bust this dark roast caffeine myth.
Generally, dark-roast coffee has less caffeine than lighter roasts because the roasting process reduces the bean’s caffeine content. [Caffeine – Wiki]
Drinking a darker roast will decrease your caffeine intake as the higher roasting temperatures eliminate more of the caffeine in the bean. [Sally’s Place]
There are also several forums where others have asked the very same question and the resounding response seems to be that caffeine comes out in the roasting process. However, this lovely Drupal site below suggests the opposite:
It really depends on how you measure the caffeine.
If you measure by weight you actually have more caffeine in dark roast because the water loss is faster than the caffeine loss. If you measure by volume you have less caffeine because the beans expand as they roast. [Coffee and Caffeine FAQ]
It’s also been suggested that if you want a dark roast taste with all the caffeine of a light roast, try ordering an Americano. However, if it’s just the pure caffeine you’re worried about, consult Vancouver Coffee’s post about ingesting specific amounts to increase your hyperactivity.
In the end, I’m not quite sure what the actual answer is without getting into some serious mathematical and scientific molecular breakdown calculations. I’ll just sit back now with my warm beverage of choice until the shakes inevitably arrive by the next coffee run at 3:00pm.
The first thing that probably comes to mind when thinking about online video is YouTube. It’s the most popular service and is pretty darn entertaining but for some of my “day job” needs I wanted something that looked a little more professional and that wouldn’t scrape the encoding quality down like sandpaper.
The alternative I chose was Blip.tv, which allows you to upload videos, have “episodes”, and is conducive to video podcasting offering up RSS feeds, enabling comments, and tags. I was pleased with Blip while it lasted until something with the day job turned things upside down and I had to scramble to find another video service. Honestly I could have just embedded the videos using the amazing flv wizard but I like the social networking features and stats tracking of the video services.
I Googled around, passed over Revver (I forget my reason for ignoring it) and came across Viddler. I signed up for an account and was pretty impressed. They have a sleek interface that allows you to enter titles and tags on the fly in a smooth AJAX-y manner (you don’t have to go to another page to enter this information, it’s kind of like editing details of a photo on Flickr). You can also record directly to their site (without uploading a file) using your webcam.
What ultimately sold me was their batch upload feature. Since we no longer had our half-dozen videos up on Blip, I had to toss them all up again. Viddler helped me do that all in one batch operation which included adding tags and titles to every video while I waited. On the flip side, I’ve already noticed that the embedded videos on my work site don’t load in Firefox 2, but they work fine in Safari and FF 3 Beta 3.
Last night I went to my personal Blip.tv profile and encountered some familiar issues. The upload time was dragging, the thumbnail I uploaded for the video player wasn’t working, and the video wasn’t playing on my profile or while embedded on my blog even after about 30 minutes it still said status “pending”. I decided since Viddler was working out so well at the day job that I would sign up for a Miss604 account on there. I made a Twitter update saying I was moving on to Viddler and the response was astounding.
I received a Twitter request from Rob, the co-founder of Viddler, who also added me as a contact on the video site and made a nice comment about the video I had just uploaded. I then had some friends and contacts message me saying they’re also pleased with Viddler.
This morning I got an email from Eric, the Director of Content Development at Blip.tv. I assume he saw my Twitter as well – yes, Twitter is very public – and he was just asking if I would share some reasons why I left. Eric was really nice to inquire and I gladly shared my story. I explained my reasons for moving over to Viddler and he was all ears. I stand by my statement that Blip.tv is excellent for video bloggers (and I haven’t deleted my account or anything), but I think I’ll be giving Viddler a whirl for the next while and we’ll see how it all pans out.
I’d like to thank Rob and Eric for being so responsive and engaging me in conversations about my satisfaction with their respective services. I’m certainly more inclined to work with them and use their products after all of this. Geez, aren’t the internets great?
