I recently discovered the Stanley Park Ecology Society when I was uncovering the fiction that lies in the mainstream media’s portrayal of the restoration progress of the park. They seem to be doing good things, according to their website, leading research and really caring about the wellbeing of the plants and animals.

Thanks to them I just learned the following:

According to a media advisory issued September 26th, the Eco Society will be having their AGM in October and are inviting the public to attend.

On October 17th at 6:30pm, the Stanley Park Ecology Society (SPES) will host a review of the year’s stunning events from weather to research to renewal. SPES’ Annual General Meeting will recognize the hard work and dedication of staff, volunteers and community partners, while also celebrating nature’s resilience and specifically, Stanley Park’s capacity to heal in the wake of the wind.

There will be a special guest speaker, Eric Meagher of the Vancouver Park Board. The reception is at 6:30pm, AGM at 7:00pm and the presentation is from 8:00pm to 9:15pm. This is all taking place at the West End Community Centre (I assume that’s as long as the strike finds resolution), admission is FREE and it’s open to the public.

This is definitely something I would be interested in attending. Despite the fact that going through the Parks Board guy’s slides for over an hour doesn’t quite tickle my fancy, I still feel as though I should inform myself further as I write about the park often enough.

Two quick updates to this post:

11:25am – Welcome to the live blog! Dave and I just took the bus over from downtown to attend the event that I just blogged about at Future Shop on Broadway. Despite *almost* being haggled by security until we said the magic words “blogger” and “Barefoot” we signed our little waivers about our images appearing in various publications and here we are.

Tod Maffin just made introductions, spoke about the community chat folks at the back of the room (who are eating up all the bandwidth) and the webcast which is now live.

11:35am – Amber is up first, starting the LCD vs plasma TV debate with her talk about why LCD works best for her, it looks good, it can be compact. Leo will then get his 10 minutes to tell us why he’s on the pro-plasma side, talking about price points, esthetics and the all out ‘cool’ factor when adding it to a home theatre experience.

Amber’ responds very diplomatically, saying it depends on where you want to put your TV and what you’re using it for.She also touches on the issue of quality, as I’ve also heard that plasma’s don’t last that long. Leo says the new generation of plasma doesn’t “leak” as much as it used to. Tod talks about burn and refresh rates, and both Leo and Amber defend their choices, “LCD is making strides but plasma is doing a good job of keeping ahead of them.”

1080i 1080p 720? I’m not so much into the TV geek talk but I am learning and I’m not alone. Most people don’t know the difference between TVs when they walk through the aisle at the store. Topics move along to cables, gaming, more acronyms, high definition, inputs, components and what’s the BEST for you.

Amber makes an excellent point – most people don’t realize when they buy an HDTV that they will NOT automatically GET HD viewing. You *do* have to sign up and get the package for HD service from your cable provider. It seems obvious but it does get overlooked. Also, make sure you are watching HD content, which looks amazing btw, because regular shows will still look like regular shows.

Note: you can sign on to the live chat to check out this action in non-Miss604 recap style.

Amber’s final thoughts are that if you want an HD experience on a TV, wall mounted, with nice lighting, get an LCD. Leo says if you want the true, hip, home theatre effect in your home, go for plasma.

Amber touches on how great sports look in HD, particularly hockey. Leo: “They call that a sport?” *record scratch* – crowd response, “oooooooooh!”. He redeems himself by talking about how cool podcasts are.

Did I also mention that Buzz is here? He’s got a really fancy camera that Leo just pointed out. Now we’re just talking about various types of content and gadgets. FYI, You Tube videos via Apple TV on a plasma looks great, says Leo.

12:10pm – Dave O taking over here … though i am not *really* paying attention 😉

Now, something i can talk about, PDR, Personal Digital Recorders – i’ve used one since 2001 (a first gen ReplayTV) and am shocked that they aren’t de riguer in every household now.

Another good point, don’t BUY THE FANCY CABLEs – that means the IP-unfriendly Monster cables. Leo says if you go farther than 10m, then maybe … but not really necessary.

Leo also mentioned he watches YouTube vids on his huge fancy TV. Amber givin’ it up for homegrown content producers doing great work. Leo mentions podcasts and amateur producers are definitely part of the future. A lot of talk about how TV producers aren’t yet making enough HD content.

Leo gets my kudos by making fun of Toronto. Will i be a dork if i ask if someone will give me their old crappy TV when they buy a new fancy one?

Becks is back …

12:15pm – I may not walk out of this event with a newly purchased HDTV (LCD or plasma hmm) but I will probably want one of these lap-saver gizmos that Dave just put on my lap. It’s an angled piece of plastic that allows you to type on your lap while ventilating your computer when it gets hot hot hot.

To optimize your colour settings and display Tod says you can buy a DVD that will display a test pattern. You can then calibrate your TV based on the settings and prompts. Although he also mentioned HDnet, the only all HD channel. They will actually play a show in the middle of the night that is simply a test pattern so you don’t really need to buy that DVD he just recommended…. okay now he’s just getting silly.

We’re learning a lot about Tod today, he’d really like a small TV in the bathroom so Amber instantly suggests an LCD. Yes, that would be perfect for bath time wouldn’t it.

Now on to the question and answer portion of our program.. if you’re in the live chat you can ask a question (which Tod is moderating) and they’re also taking questions in-store.

So far we’ve found out that LCDs use less energy. Next, are plasma’s susceptible to radiant heat? ie. if you mount it over to fireplace we hear LCDs work best for weight although they are probably both sensitive to the heat. Leo touches on how putting over the fireplace makes the viewing angle far too sharp. Amber says she’s going to get a tilted display but for these TVs there are optimal viewing angles.

12:30pm – Wrapping it up, Tod asks, “what’s next?” 3D? Super space Jetson’s style gizmos? Amber says we’re just at the beginning of the HDTV emergence. Leo says 4K is the wave of the future.

That’s it for the live blog folks!

Today I will be running all over Vancouver, in 3 inch heels with a Macbook. The reason being, there are several events I would like to cover and I just hope there’s enough time to catch them all.

The Future Shop and HDTV event is up first this morning at 11:30am at Future Shop on Broadway. As a blogger I’ve been asked to come out, listen to the debates, and I will cover the event… possibly live blog (I dunno, things could get crazy).

It’s a debate/discussion about the future of HD-TV featuring Tod Maffin, Amber MacArthur and Leo Laporte. It’s being held here at a Vancouver ‘in-store’, as part of FutureShop.ca’s launch of their community forums (which, to my surprise, have already proven quite popular). [Darren Barefoot]

As for participation, I think with Tod, Leo and Amber will have it covered. All I’ll need to do is take some notes and post the link to the live webcast here and hang out with Dave O cause I just found out he’s going too.

Now I have made a couple blog posts about Future Shop and honestly they haven’t been too positive. I’m not here to immediately change gears and promote them really… unless they serve lunch… or some pie. I’ll sell out for pie.

If you’re interested in hearing the debate on the future of HDTV leading into the launch of Future Shop’s community forums check out the webcast or try by here this afternoon for my recap.

After the geeky good times over at FS, I’ll be heading back to Bryght for their weekly community BBQ (even though I’m still waiting for my “I’m a Bryght Girl” t-shirt).

Bryght is a content and community management system that allows you to create and maintain a dynamic website for your organization (corporation, non profit, learning institution, etc.) without having any technical knowledge. It is based on the open source Drupal system. [Bryght]

After the in-store geek fest and the lunch time geek fest, I’ll be heading to Launch Party Vancouver.

Launch Party Vancouver is a lively mixer for the city’s brightest entrepreneurs, tech junkies, bloggers, investors and marketers, who are doing it, have done it or want to make their ideas happen here. The goal of the event is to foster a deeper connection among BC’s growing community of Internet and new media leaders. [TechVibes]

I’ll be mingling and schmoozing as best I can on behalf of my company. I make it a policy here on Miss604 not to blog about my business but I just so happen to work for a lovely e-commerce solutions provider, which is pretty fun.

Tomorrow, I’m going straight home after work. The weekend should also be pretty action-packed (with the Giants game on Saturday night and all) but I’m still trying to get over all the excitement from John’s birthday week. All I have to say is clear your calendars January 5-12, 2008.

I was passed along a link recently (via del.icio.us) for Urbanspoon, a massive website network of restaurants and food reviews from around the world.

Urbanspoon is the world’s leading provider of time-critical dining data, a major division of a very important multi-national corporation, and an all-around BIG PLAYER in the multi-billion dollar restaurant information industry. Read more about us on the Urbanspoon Blog. [About – Urban Spoon]

This month they expanded to covering 14 cities around North America and Vancouver made the cut.

They’ve been able to list almost 2,500 restaurants and eateries of over 60 different varieties in 32 neighbourhoods. Wow, and I thought I was on top of things with my little patio guide. It’s pretty amazing. They have a blog, polls, cute little “I like it” and “I don’t like it” quick review buttons, links to reviews by other sources, accounts so you can track your favourites and make recommendations, and of course there are plenty of interactive Google Maps. Oh, and did I mention they also have a Facebook app? Yup.

Want to go someplace neat for brunch tomorrow?

Screenshot of Urban Spoon – Vancouver – Brunch

You can then sort through by location or price, and if you don’t see something you love (or hate) on there already you can easily submit a new entry. Also, if you have reviewed a restaurant before on your blog, they would like to add you to their site. Your submitted blog post will then show up under the restaurant’s profile. You can also add a button to your post and it will all link up through their “Spoonback” system (see my post about So.cial Butcher Shop and Deli)

I’ve only had a little time to run through the site but from what I see so far, I am thoroughly impressed, kinda floored actually. Now I just have to go through all of my post archives, weed out my restaurant reviews and submit… if any of them are worthy.

If you have a del.icio.us account and would like to bookmark a story for my attention just tag it “for:Miss604” and I’ll pick it up.

Update: Two of my restaurant reviews that I could find pretty easily last night have now been linked on Urbanspoon. My blog is now listed as a source and it even has its own profile page on Urbanspoon, listing all of my posted/personal reviews as well.

They also provide the code to copy/paste a badge for your blog’s sidebar, noting your blog’s name and a link to restaurant reviews you have made.

It doesn’t look as though going to a Canucks game will make my “Cheap Fun” or “Cheap Things to Do” list anytime soon. At the beginning of the pre-season Canucks blogger (and podcast co-host) J.J. took a look at the price leap for tickets.

The Vancouver Canucks posted their single-game ticket prices on their website today… I’ve taken the liberty of comparing this season’s prices to last season’s:

…Canucks fans can’t be too happy with this increase, especially one that averages in double-digit percentages. Including service charges, the cheapest tickets – yes the cheapest – will now cost more than $100 for a pair. [Canucks Hockey Blog]

At this point, family nights with the Memorial Cup Champions do seem a little more tempting but there are other options. You could wait until the puck drops at GM Place, then “independent ticket brokers” on the street will start selling for $20/seat if you don’t mind missing some action on the ice. Or you could just watch Hockey Night in Canada… oh… wait.

So Canucks fans, are high ticket prices and $8 sippy cups of Molson Canadian going to stop you from attending games? Or is it just a part of growing up as a team?