I’m all about supporting a good cause through my site especially when it also involves supporting friends in the Vancouver techosphere.
Kris Krug founder of Static Photography, President of Raincity Studios, organizer of PhotoCamps and giver of playful nicknames will have five of his photos on display at an artshow next week.
Where: Orb Clothing, 2028 West 4th Avenue, Vancouver, BC
When: Thursday June 26th, 6:30pm
I’m so thankful to be included in this cool event and hope you all can come out and join me on the 26th for the opening and auction. This is only my third time showing my work publicly in this way. You know… Prints. Hung. On walls… and I’m totally excited. [KrisKrug.com]
The Art of Giving exhibit will be at Orb Clothing and will also feature works from Rick Haywood, Zoe Pawlak, Judy Schallar, and Stephanie Wightman. Admission is free and 20% of proceeds will go to the non-profit of the buyer’s choice.
The Park Series is growing all the time, which I think is pretty fantastic. There are so many great green spaces around Metro Vancouver that are ideal for walks, hikes, picnics, and simply relaxing on the grass or sand. Crescent Park in South Surrey is another great suggestion that comes to us from Barbara of the Love Blog.
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How to get there: You can take the 351 Crescent Beach bus (same one you’d take to get to Crescent Beach or Blackie Spit) or driving along Highway 99 turn off on King George Highway heading South. From KGH turn onto Crescent Road and it’s between 132nd and 128th.
Features: Barbara pretty much sums it all up, “there is a wonderful duck pond in the middle of this lush park. Playgrounds for kids. Big fields for soccer & baseball on each side. Picnic areas. Big trails for walking in the trees. It is a very lovely park. My family live just a block away and we walk there a lot when I visit. The pond has some turtles now, which I hope to get some pics of next time.”
Notes: I have only been to the park once and that was during a high school cross country meet. The best thing about being in cross country in high school is that instead of running around a track you’re outdoors with fresh air, the smell of cedar trees, soft mulch to run on and mud to cake on your shoes – it’s always worth it though.
John and I are planning a trip down to Kansas City this summer to attend a birthday party which will more than likely be a giant family reunion. When shopping around for hotels in a city with which I’m not that familiar I rely heavily on the internet and its opinions. Frankly, TripAdvisor is a downer… everything has mildew in the showers, stains, and a missing TV remote. I started looking on Hotels.com, Travelocity.com, Expedia.com, and almost everywhere else. I sorted by location (close to landmarks I knew of like the Plaza), by price, and by star rating.
After searching for quite a while I finally came across The Q Hotel formerly The Quarterage Hotel which was renovated as recently as December 2007. It’s found in Westport, which is home to some of the oldest buildings in the city (19th century) made of brick and filled with bars, shops, and live music venues. Aside from location, it had everything else I was looking for… and most importantly free wifi.
According to their website The Q Hotel is Kansas City’s first GREEN hotel. It has an eco-plan that helped them earn this responsible and prestigious title from Energy Star appliances, bio-friendly cleaning products, water conservation, organic foods and wines, to sending leftovers to local farmers for composting. They also have a courtesy shuttle that’s a hybrid and offer up bikes so that guests can get around town. I’m pretty surprised there aren’t more initiatives like this with hotels around Vancouver.
I’d love to be able to stay here and blog about our experience at a green hotel. If anything, I would also like to be able to contribute a TripAdvisor entry that actually shines a positive light on hotel stays.
It’s that time of the month again, the one that we actually all look forward to: Third Tuesday is back at the Network Hub with guest speaker Joe Solomon.
Nonprofits have been using social networks to get the word out since long before the Internet existed. So what happens when nonprofits combine the power of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. to engage and expand their already-existent social networks? It’s kind of like a supernova of social change that’s addictive, fun, and often unexpected!
Joe will discuss amazing case studies of how nonprofits and social change makers are using Web 2.0 tools to get the word out and inspire action. [Meetup.com Event]
I will once again be a media sponsor providing a liveblog and offering up an Energizer Energi To Go iPod charger. Simply show up or follow the live blog and anyone who a) drops their business card into the draw or b) leaves a comment on the live blog will be entered to win.
Also of note, coming up next month (I believe July 16th) Gary is organizing a meetup for WordPress enthusiasts, users and developers in the Fraser Valley (yes folks, that means you have to cross a bridge to get there from downtown).
I’ve been asked to be a speaker but since I’ve already covered some neat photo blogging and photo plugins, I was wondering what my readers would like to learn about. Leave a comment with your WordPress questions that you’d like me to answer or if you think I should do my photo blogging talk again.
When you’re someone who co-hosts a weekly group podcast over the magic of Skype you better show up when a mastermind of VOIP comes to your town for breakfast.
Jeff Pulver currently travels around the world, hosting breakfasts with geeky-fun elements like “Real-Time Social Tagging” to spark networking and conversations. Prior to the breakfast at Subeez this morning I knew of him, I knew of his importance and contributions to the digital realm, but that was about it.
Pulver is the chief writer of what’s referred to as “the Pulver Order”, which was adopted in 2004 by the Federal Communications Commission as the first FCC ruling regarding internet protocol communications. The order ruled that computer-to-computer voice over IP (VOIP) is not a telecommunications service. He coined the term purple minutes to describe value-added IP network traffic. [wiki]
Within about 10 minutes of meeting Jeff, honestly I almost starting welling up because the words he was sharing with me were so inspirational and were also the verbal equivalent of the swift kick in the butt that I so needed to hear (especially given the week I’ve had).
When speaking to Jeff the most resonating word was passion. He clued into what I was passionate about and encouraged me not to ignore it.
You owe it to yourself to take a chance on yourself today and a bigger chance tomorrow. To feel more comfortable with change, try it gradually. Take 5 minutes today for yourself, tomorrow extend it to 10 and in a few days give yourself 15 minutes for yourself. You are the one in charge of your time and what you do with it. Give it a try and capture the feeling of personal liberation. If it worked for you, please encourage a friend to do the same. Do the things for yourself that nobody can do for you and watch to see what happens next. [Pulver Blog]
He even woke up one morning thinking about what Happiness Is, and put the call out on Twitter. He ended up with an amazing poem of sorts created by his social media friends and contacts. He truly is all about giving everyone their voice.
I was also delighted to take in breakfast with some new faces (like Leah and Jess), and some of the usual crowd like Boris (who real-time tagged me with “Surrey”), Colleen (who real-time tagged me as “Fancy”), Monica (who real-time tagged me with “Classic Chic”), Roland, Ian, and notorious gals like Jenn and Nadia (sans cocktail glasses in their hands at this early hour).
Coming off of his Pacific Northwest tour in Seattle and Vancouver, Jeff will be heading back to New York to host breakfast on June 24th. He’ll be back in Vancouver someday and given that this was the poorest turn-out of all his stops so far, I expect Vancouver to do a lot better next time, and you certainly won’t be disappointed.
