Thanks to everyone for entering my blogiversary contest. This evening I put everyone’s name in a hat and drew a winner….

…Ariane from the West End Girl blog – congrats!

Since DaveO bestowed $100 upon Keira and I to spend at happyfrog friendly and listed establishments I haven’t done much shopping. However, I bought something today and will deem is my first official purchase as a happyfrog tester, and it’s from a store you might not expect.

We’ve seen the emergence of reusable shopping bags around town, and there’s plenty of talk in the blogosphere as well about the important of reducing your plastic bag usage. (Metroblogging: Ban Plastic Bags Now and Plastic Bag Ban. Keira-Anne: Slopes and Totes).

John and I have cloth Safeway bags for our shopping, which are pretty great as they can hold the same amount of two plastic bags and are a lot more comfortable to carry on the long walk home. I now have something a little more universal which I picked up at Zellers. Yes, I’m mentioning Zellers in a eco-friendly blog post – here’s why:

Hbc is a recognized retail leader in sustainability practices in the areas of ethical sourcing, environment and energy, associate wellness and community investment. For the last five years, the Company has been one of the few Canadian retailers to issue a formal report on its progress in these areas. Going forward, all aspects of this program, as well as new policies and customer products will be part of the Global Mind brand…

…We will offer our customers environmentally friendly products under the Global Mind brand.Reusable shopping bags; Cold water detergent by Truly and Energy Star products will be available at stores across Canada. [Hbc News Release]

I picked up a nylon “Esprit Global/Global Mind” bag today for a whopping $0.99, which beats the heck out of some of those $40 designer go-green bags out there. I’ll toss this tiny, collapsible pouch in my work bag for impromptu grocery store trips on my way home, or for any time I just need something extra in which to carry items.

It’s great to shop local and at mom n’ pop places but when you can find that the big wig department stores are also making an environmentally conscious effort, it’s worth noting as well. I found out that Hbc actually has an entire website dedicated to social responsibility [CSR] and better yet, they have added incentives for using your cloth bags when shopping at their stores.

The bags are available in select stores with broader distribution to all Hbc locations scheduled for November 1, 2007. Customers will receive 1,000 Hbc Rewards points when they purchase any of the Global Mind bags, and 100 points every time they use the bags while shopping at an Hbc store. [Hbc News Release]

I forgot my points card today but I’ll make up for it in the future when I whip out my Global Mind pouch for my next commercial excursion. And since the bag was so cheap, that means it’ll get a lot of use. Now, just 99.01 happyfrog dollars to go!

Keira and I will be blogging all of our happyfrog purchases. You can read our posts in our “happyfrog” categories:

Keira-Anne.com/category/happyfrog
and
Miss604.com/category/happyfrog

Cool trains, nifty buses running us all over town, happy little sea buses carting us over to the mountainous North Shore, why wouldn’t we have a TransitCamp in this town? I think for the most part though, the main issues raised at TransitCamp were more buses, more scheduled times, more access and more info is needed.

This wasn’t a day to rant about Translink (for some people) but it was a day to talk, discuss, brainstorm, address hot-button issues and make some cool art. Some of the session titles were: Ask the Gurus, Best Practices, Car Free Day/Events, Transfers, Building a Community within the Community, Social Media for Transit, Wireless Everywhere Transit… and more.

Roland captured most of it on his UStream, and John was able to make some really great summary posts.

Here’s a short summary from the two sessions I attended:

Evolving from the free day we get on New Years, the topic of encouraging others to take transit instead of their cars generated much discussion.

Should a group of individuals sponsor a pro-active campaign, handing out cards and fliers to riders to promote another “free day” of transit? Something like this would certainly be at a cost to Translink and offering pamphlets to commuters wouldn’t be very effective.

The thought I shared with others in the room was to get Translink to participate in events instead of actually being the initiator ie. there’s a community festival out in Tsawwassen, and all those who attend are encouraged to come by transit. You could even have prizes for those who submit their fare stubs for added incentive. Translink could then be a PARTNER in the event alongside cycling coalitions or other societies and groups.

We also had a brief presentation from Carol Vignale. Along with Ruth who is an Elder with Tsawwassen First Nation, Carol’s group partnered with a member of the CNIB, and the Delta Police/Community Police Station to create “Safe Route Tsawwassen”. The goal here was to reduce numbers of cars coming to schools, provide information about safe routes to schools (new lines, remove shrubs, crosswalks etc.) and to build up the community shuttle program for Tsawwassen.

Carol, who was also on the GVTA committee and helped with the community shuttle bus initiative, offered up some great information about their group. She was also a part of their local cycling initiative [Canada.com Article]. Carol’s initiative really provides a great module that other communities could put in place and build upon.

A few more topics that came out of this session were: Getting better access to community data, an increase in dialog between riders and Translink, a summarization policies on their website ie. “What is Bill 44?”, and more communication about what resources are available, how they’re available and how Translink actually connects communities.

Topics for discussion: Why is it so hard to get wifi in public spaces (not just cafes or apartments)? Most are City, Translink owned spaces so herein lies the problem. Are we getting wifi on buses? No, a recent article in a local paper basically made it seem like it but this is actually an internal communication system for operators, which won’t be for the public. However when they implement GPS tracking for the public it will work hand in hand with their new scheduling system, which you can text to get ‘next bus’ information for the stop where you’re waiting.

Back to the wifi discussion: Who would provide the blanket bandwidth at transportation hubs/stations? Who would provide the support? Where would it be, places you wait, places where you spend the most time?

What about bandwidth hogs? Where would the hot spot be? Could Translink partner with local shops as access points? Dave points out that in all these scenarios the biggest costs would be tech support and bandwidth.

This particular discussion seemed to really promote FreeTheNet Vancouver, then it turned into something about social networking and media then veered in all other directions before the conch blew announcing time was up.

Things got a little scrambled in a few of the sessions, which mostly consisted of pockets of people in deep discussion, but for the most part things stayed on track. I ducked out before the arts and craft fun times but still got to experience some great conversations. I’m sure more summary posts will pop up, but here are some samples from my photo-documentation this afternoon – the rest are in the Flickr Set.

View more in the Flickr Set.

I’m all about the fundraising here on Miss604, but ya know I’m also all about Ralphie. That’s right, little Ralphie from A Christmas Story who wants, “an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock and ‘this thing’ which tells time.”

It’s the lovable cinematic Christmas classic that my husband and I quote in everyday life year round and it’ll be on the big screen this weekend along with It’s a Wonderful Life.

The best part? Your movie ticket helps get the Vancouver Masters Synchro team to the World Masters Games in Perth, Australia AND the US Masters Nationals in Las Vegas, USA

What: Double feature big screen showing of A Christmas Story and It’s a Wonderful Life
When: Sunday Dec. 9, 2007. Doors open at 12:30; First movie starts at 1 pm with a 45 min. intermission
Where: The Frederick Wood Theatre, UBC [Google Map]
How much?: $10/person; or $25/family (up to two adults and two children)

For more information check out the team’s blog (which is built on Drupal… nice!)

Last night John and I ventured over to Flux Bistro in Gastown for the Zero Ground album release party. Man, there’s nothing like hearing and experiencing live music.

Chad Nantais composed the entire album on his computer some time ago and after some suggestions from colleagues, he decided to bring it out into the real world. With a six-piece band, he delivered four of Zero Ground’s original songs to a very captive and crowded house.

Zero Ground is the soundtrack to a modern world where machines allow one person to re-create what was once accomplished by an entire band, and technology can create as emotional a connection as a human.

The tunes are instrumental with jazzy, funky riffs flowing from more than just guitars, drums, and piano. Chad has a history as a DJ, spinning hip-hop and house music but also a closeness to Motown since growing up back East. All of these elements come into play and it was really interesting to see it all meld together after only ever sampling a few electronic tracks online.

I must say though, after his “War Games” reference before launching into the tune “Shall We Play a Game” I was pretty sold. There are definitely great things in Chad’s future and we were pretty lucky to be a part of his exclusive premiere audience last night.

You can sample Chad’s tunes on his website or MySpace, but the CD is available for purchase at Zulu and RedCat Records. It’s also up on iTunes and CDBaby for online orders that ship by mail. He’s also up on the Podsafe Music Network so this could be very useful for all you podcasters out there.