Tonight’s live blog is being written and published by Raul of Hummingbird604.com (update your bookmarks!)
“Widgets aren’t just little pieces of portable code. Widgets are about opening up your message to your supporters and the community. Widgets represent a shift towards using online tools, and online thinking, to connect with more people and build deeper relationships with the people you are already connected with.
Vancouver’s 3rd Net Tuesday will explore the stories of nonprofits that are spearheading this revolution as well as demo a new widget platform.” – [Meetup.com]
Presenters tonight include:
Jason Mogus, Communicopia
Scott Nelson, FearlessCity.ca
Keith Grennan, Sprout
and the evening will be moderated by Sarah Pullman.
Update: 6.11pm Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
I just realized that my last few posts were pretty bullet-pointed so I apologize for this. The first Vancouver History: Oddities entry was well-received so here’s another.
51 years ago Vancouver’s first shopping mall, Oakridge Centre, opened its doors. We were out that way last week and it took me a minute to remember that Oakridge is not in fact on Oak Street.
The Marpole neighbourhood of Vancouver is named in honor of Richard Marpole – one of the men in a posse that captured notorious Bill Miner in 1906. Little did they know he would escape from the BC Penitentiary a year later.
Whistler Resort had originally been called London Mountain. “The name was changed to Whistler, writes Constance Brissenden, “inspired by the whistler marmot that frequents its rocky outcrops.†[Oddities – 1965]
The Amazing Hunt took us all over the city and at one point we ended up on a small hill in Everett Crowley Park in South Vancouver. Looking around at all the deciduous trees and uneven landscape with amazing southern views I actually wondered if the park used to be something else. “Everett Crowley Park is Vancouver’s 5th largest park, but was Vancouver’s main landfill (the Kerr Road dump) from 1944 to 1967.” [ECPC]
Another park that used to be something else is Queen Elizabeth Park, which was once a quarry. Landscaping was complete in 1954 and “Mayor Fred Hume buried a time capsule beneath Centuries Rock in the park. It is to be opened in 2054.” [1954]
Often my inspiration comes from Chuck Davis and his team at VancouverHistory.ca. Chuck is also putting together a book called “The History of Metropolitan Vancouver”, which is due out next year. If you would like to be involved in any way, companies can sign up to sponsor a year in the book.
Little by little I’m discovering that some of my favourite plugins I’ve come to know, love, and depend upon to make my daily blogging life that much easier are pretty much… toast.
By way of Lorelle I also hear there are problems with the Automatic Update for Plugins in WP 2.5 so I need to make sure to stay on top of these things (from the WP Admin as well as the individual plugin side).
I rely heavily on plugins so discovering a new one each day that hasn’t been working then back tracking through dozens of posts isn’t too pleasant. However, I should have been more diligent after upgrading, and I’m pretty confident that these will all be upgraded soon enough. I just have to stop kicking myself for not checking in on these things sooner.
For a full list of what WordPress has determined as working or not so far, check out the almighty codex, it will be sure to save you a few headaches.
Luckily, we didn’t do much that involved exercising fingers so I am fully capable of writing this post. On the other hand, I know Vancouver Marathon runners must be thinking I’m crazy because the 7 hours of The Amazing Hunt totally kicked my butt.
It could have been the yogurt we had to chug, or the up-hill sprint, but regardless of my immobility in these days after the race it was once again a huge success thanks to Bill and his team.
Not to give away too much about the race, just because some of the challenges and clues could be used in future events, here’s a quick recap:
At 8:45 in the pouring rain we took off from the Pacific Coliseum and headed to New Brighton Park for our first clue which lead us over to Trout Lake / John Hendry Park.
John and I were the last team to arrive to that point although within about 45 second I had completed the Road Block, which was to dig in the sand near certain logs and find a buried clue. Covered in sand, we took off with our next clue, maybe 3 spots behind the lead.
We made our way to the Avalon Dairy and ran into a Detour (if you’re familiar with The Amazing Race you’ll notice the clues have similar titles and themes). We had to chose between chugging a bottle of milk, or sharing 500ml of yogurt. Now, I have NEVER tried yogurt in my life and the very thought of it makes me gag, however for the sake of the race we decided to avoid the milk and gulped down the yogurt.
Coming into the first pit stop, John and I were in first place, although with teams starting in one minute intervals after the break, we knew we had to work hard to stay on top. The rain pelted down on us as we waiting to begin the next leg.
After a few more clues and destinations we had to get from Commercial Drive, to South Main Street, then back to downtown Vancouver (picking up a few clues and solving a puzzle in the middle). This “neighbourhood to neighbourhood” search with no directions given was a part of a new type of clue called a Roundabout. The idea is to reach both vicinities and search for two pieces that, when combined, will help you figure out where to go next.
The traffic on Main Street heading back towards our second pit stop at Science World was just killer. Once we got down to False Creek parking was just as tough and John and I clocked in at the second pit stop in 7th place (out of 10). This is the longer edition of the Amazing Hunt in which I’ve participated, which is sort of good because we would have finished on a low note if that was the final destination.
Heading into Chinatown, we came across another Detour where we had to chose between locating a show with certain foreign characters on its sign, or going to a specific store and purchasing a certain product.
From my experience on the Granville Island race with Jenny, it’s always better to take the task where you know where you are going, because wandering around aimlessly isn’t very fun. We sprinted down Keefer street, picked up the item (Soy Tofu Dessert) and upon returning we had to devour the entire thing (layering it on top of the yogurt in our bellies from the dairy.
After the tofu dessert, we ended up at another location where we had to Merge with another team to complete the task. We were given the choice between certain flavours of gelato (wasabi or curry) and had to finish the entire quart in order to move on. Now, on top of the yogurt and the soy dessert John and I struggled although compared to the team that we paired up with who went to McDonald’s during the last pit stop and ate sundaes, we were a little better off.
The next clue was located somewhere John and I knew how to find right away. Other teams had to go into shops and ask for help or use a phonebook, so at least I felt good about my city knowledge even though our driving and navigation wasn’t as fast.
Finally, our race to the finish took place at English Bay, near the Inukshuk. By this time the rain had ceased and we had the most beautiful backdrop. Upon crossing the finish line in 6th place John was asked if he had fun. Having just burped up curry gelato during the sprint to the mat he bellowed, “no! not at all!” and I hope they knew he was joking.
It was another successful event with great twists and turns although here’s what I’d kind of like to see in the future:
Fewer eating challenges, especially involving dairy. For the Surrey race we had to gulp down a jar of buckwheat honey. That was gross but at least it wasn’t a) as large a quantity as the curry gelato b) it was the only eating challenge on the race.
I’d like to see more Road Blocks or Detours involving puzzles or mind games. I really liked the digging Road Block but having maybe just one more in the second leg would allow the other teammate to complete something while you could cheer them on and keep up your spirits.
John looks WAY TOO happy
All in all, the race was a great success. No one gets eliminated (although time penalties can be incurred) and the teams on every race I’ve run have been friendly, supportive, just competitive enough to issue a Yield or trash talk a bit, and there’s always laughter and good spirits.
The next Amazing Hunt will be taking place in Langley August 16th, followed by the North Shore race October 4th. If you’d like to sign up check the website for details, registration includes a swanky red and yellow race t-shirt as well. I think it’s a great bonding experience for siblings, parents, friends, and couples, and you can also organize entire company or group teambuilding races with various courses offered like “Downtown” or “Vancouver Transit”.
As this is race is “reality series” styled, there will also be a wonderfully produced video of the entire race available on YouTube in a couple weeks, which I’ll share unless there are gratuitous shots of me sucking back 500ml of yogurt.
This afternoon my dad pulled out his digital camera and showed me a photo of a nice man that sort of looks like he could be one of my mom’s cousins in Germany. Turns out my dad visited with one of the most successful race car drivers of all time, Mario Andretti, while he was making a public appearance at Route 99 Tire Shop in Surrey last week.
This got us talking about some of the larger, more world-class events that Vancouver used to host before it became dubbed the “no fun city“, from which it’s still trying to bounce back.
The Molson Indy Vancouver used to run along Pacific and Expo Blvd, around BC Place, over to the other side of False Creek and back. After the Indy weekend I would drive to work catching the smell of burnt rubber and noting the high speed skid marks along Quebec Street. The Indy was won several times by Mario’s son, Michael Andretti and ran from 1990 to 2004 and in 2002 Dario Franchitti dedicated his win to local Vancouver racing hero Greg Moore.
The Greater Vancouver Open aka the Air Canada Championship was held at Northview Golf and Country Club in Surrey from 1996 until 2002. My friend’s little brother was a caddie one year and drooled over the chance to assist Mike Weir’s clubs.
In 1995 Vancouver got its own NBA franchise. They ended up being so eager to fill the seats at the shiny new GM Place that our high school basketball team would get a pack of tickets almost every week. That’s right, West Whalley kids filed into the stands and I ended up going to far more basketball in my youth than I did hockey games. Watching “Big Country” Reeves walk at a snail’s pace up and down the court and perhaps lift a finger to sink a basket or 20 definitely wasn’t the most exciting. However, the experience of watching the famous opposing teams kick our butts 90% of the time was pretty entertaining. In 2001 the team moved to Memphis, after disappointing seasons and players who pulled “Duchovny”s, complaining about the weather in Vancouver.
I’m not sure if I miss any of these events really, although having Surrey on the world’s stage for the gold tournament was pretty sweet. Vancouver’s personality has changed over the years and during my lifetime Expo was probably the catalyst for a lot of things. I look forward to different festivals and events every year and am simply glad that the city is still mixing things up, although don’t even ask me to predict what this place will be like after 2010.
