Living in this regions means that you can probably walk out your door to find a place to eat dinner and have your choice of sushi, curry, pad thai, burgers or yam fries. However when you don’t have a favourite eatery or are looking for something new, where do you look? I’ve put together a small list of directories that you can sort through for ratings, locations and reviews of restaurants around the Lower Mainland.
Dine Here – This is usually the directory that comes up first whenever I do a search, often ahead of the restaurant’s own website. The reviews can be pretty blunt (like most other review sites) but in general it’s pretty useful and cover all of the region, not just Vancouver.
Urban Spoon – Harnessing the power of social media, Urban Spoon encourages bloggers to share their reviews, embed badges, rank restaurants and provides great mashup maps sorted by food type or neighbourhood. They even have an iPhone app that you can use on the go. Diner reviews are as simple as a click of the mouse. They certainly have grown leaps and bounds over the last year.
Food Vancouver – All about food in Vancouver, not just restaurant reviews. From wine to events and recipes. They also have a focus on special dietary needs, “cholesterol and heart health, diabetes, gluten free, high blood pressure, high fibre, inflammatory bowel, lactose intolerant, vegetarian, and weight loss.”
Tasting Vancouver – Nice, clean-looking site and it’s built with WordPress. They only cover Vancouver neighbourhoods so far, but this new kid on the block looks very promising – they just need your help to get more reviews on there.
Not only can you find some posts I’ve written on Techvibes and E!Online, but I’ve now added amateur hockey to my portfolio.
Last month HockeyStars was launched, with a focus on minor hockey in Canada they offer games, money solutions for teams, and an online community for teams.
HockeyStars.com is a website devoted to the amateur hockey community. It’s free to join and it has tools to help coaches and managers run their teams online. Players can post profiles and connect with their teammates and the rest of the hockey community.
My first post, “Gearing up for the Season”, where I talk about hockey gear and the funky smells which radiate from it, is now up on the Hockey Stars Blog.
The Gold Coast, Easter Island, Prague, Dublin and Honolulu; these are all locations of the Team Diabetes marathons, which aim to raise money for the Canadian Diabetes Association.
I went to high school with Candice Chamberland and although it had been ten years since we last spoke she came back on my radar through Facebook and also my blog. She informed me of her Team Diabetes fundraising effort and since then I’ve noticed participants have been sprouting up all over the place to raise funds for this excellent cause. I had the chance to sit down with Candice a few months ago to discuss her campaign and find out more about these Team Diabetes adventures.
Participant: Candice Chamberland – (Check out her new Run Blog)
Marathon Date: July 5, 2009
Marathon Distance: 42kms Full marathon (Half and 10km options)
Location: Gold Coast, Australia (the flattest course)
Reason for running: “My mom was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes about 6 years ago. I only recently just learned that my great-great-grandmother had lost her life to this disease. Recently a close family friend lost his father to his diabetes.”
Struggles so far: The training, it’s basically a lifestyle change you also commit to make in order to get you to the run and complete it.
Fundraising ideas: Have a BBQ or pub night and charge a base admission fee. This would work best if you can get a food sponsor.
While I’m at it, Tanya Davis signed up for the Disney World run in recent months as well.
Participant: Tanya Davis (NetChick.ca)
Marathon Date: January 10 & 11, 2009
Marathon Distance: Half Marathon (Full Marathon, Half Marathon & Goofy Challenge options)
Location: Disney World, Florida
Fundraising ideas: Tanya is running a contest for cash that you can enter by writing a blog post or pledging. She’s also got corporate sponsorship up for grabs: “Not only do the corporate sponsors get a logo in my sidebar for 6 months (worth $500 on it’s own), and a blog entry to recognize their sponsorship, but they’ve also got a great chance to win their entire donation back, with 21 entries towards the contest.” [NetChick].
Tanya is also going to be organizing a hip bachelorette auction so if you’re a single gal in Vancouver or Victoria be sure to let her know if you’re interested. The guys who donate during this event will also be entered in the cash contest for their pledge.
Her latest incentive is sponsored by Nutrisystem, where you can enter to win 2 months of their product.
All in all, runners (or walkers, as they are allowed on some of the courses) have pledge goals that are tiered in the months leading up to the event. You can pledge a participant here, just enter their first and last name.
Proceeds from the pledges go to support the Canadian Diabetes Association. It’s a phenomenal global effort to get people out and about on this epic journey for the cause.
I don’t usually watch much prime time television (and I’m still saving myself for the new season of Rescue Me) however growing up in the 90s I was obviously curious about the new 90210 so I have compiled some notes below.
– The morning news reporter at the high school has the hyphenated last name of Zuckerman, I can only assume that’s Andrea’s daughter.
– “Aunt Becky” Katsopolis is the new Cindy Walsh.
– “Silver” is Erin Silver, the half sister of Kelly Taylor and Brian Silver whose mother and father had a child in the original series.
– “How many times are we going to talk about this blog of yours? All it does is cause problems,” says Kelly to her little half sister. “That is what a blog is supposed to do,” the edgy Silver replies. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
September 25th is National Digital Media Day in Canada and all those involved with digital photography, podcasting, online video, blogging and the likes are encouraged to post content throughout this 24 hour period of celebration and awareness for the medium.
As one of the national blog leads, I’ve been plotting a cross-region blogging campaign, where I would start out in Surrey perhaps for breakfast (with wifi) and anyone could join up with me while I write a blog post. From there I would move on to another city, another cafe, and another blog post. Raul will also be hosting the Vancouver Blogger Meetup that evening, so you can head over there to do your part for NDMD 2008.
The end of my evening however will involve the Keall Foundation that is raising money for Project Tunisia as they have asked me to come and live blog their event.
When: Thursday, September 25, 2008 from 7:00pm to 10:00pm
Where: auto/ONE – TRUNK gallery (1755 West Third Avenue (at Burrard))
What: Social event and silent auction
100% of the silent auction proceeds will benefit these orphaned babies to make a considerable difference in these lives that never chose to be orphaned and unwanted. Together we will supply them with the basic comfort of full stomachs; clothed bottoms and printed caregiver reference guides for all workers at centres and Tunisian Orphanages. – Keall Foundation
If you have any items you would like to donate for the silent auction, please contact the Keall Foundation.
