When I look back to a year ago I think of everything that has happened and how far John and I have come. Last year was monumental in terms of us getting married and spending the following twelve months on an incredibly tough roller coaster. 2006 was certainly a challenge, emotionally and physically but we’ve been able to grow so much from that experience – of course I say that now…
Thanks to an event last August, I have met some amazing people and had the pleasure of getting more acquainted with them over the last couple of months. One of which is Keira, whom I’ve been able to hang out with a bit more recently – I am very thankful to have a new female friend in town.
Tonight Keira, John and I decided to drop by Duane’s to hang out a bit since he’s been sick and we haven’t seen him for the last couple days. After some food we picked up ‘the boys’ and headed out to Spanish Banks, as ‘the boys’ need a good dog-friendly off-leash park to play in. I haven’t been over to that side of town in over a year as John and I usually walk to our favourite beach. Planning entire day trips across town and looking up bus routes takes a little more time to put together.
Sunset Keira & Casey
We had fun along at the beach, wading in the crashing waves of the incoming tide and throwing little sticks for Casey and Benji to chase after. Casey being the stick-master and Benji being the ‘guard dog on duty’ barking and confronting any other animal (usually 3 times his size) that would come near our little group.
Good food with friends followed by beach times and a sunset is a fantastic way to spend an evening, this is something I could really get used to.
This should really be called, Liveblogging: Explained or how Miss604 does it – cause I’m sure there are numerous methods, but although I am no expert or professional, over the last year I’ve done a handful of live blogs at events and conferences. One question that always comes up is “how does it work?” so I suppose I’ll take a minute here to explain just how a live blog works.
Basically a live blog is someone posting content in real time on their blog. No you cannot see the text appear before your eyes as they’re typing, but if the reader refreshes periodically, more text will appear. This happens by the author creating a post, hitting publish, and then going back into the same post and editing/saving sporadically throughout the duration of the event.
Authors: Advertise days in advance so readers know to tune in.
Readers: Show up, refresh x repeat.
Authors: Publish Once + Edit/Save as necessary.
The first live blog I ever followed was probably Alanah’s, when she ran Vancouver Canucks Op Ed (predecessor to Canucks and Beyond). Alanah would live blog Canucks games, making time stamps based on the time left in the period or separating sections of the post by period. She would comment on the game, give stats, and provide a forum for other watchers, fans and readers to comment and discuss what was going on at ice level. Live blogging is just that much more fun when you know you have an audience and you leave comments wide open, getting a dialog going is a fantastic way to communicate your experience to the readers.
My first live blog was last August at Matthew Good‘s apartment when he had an intimate invite-only mini-concert for fans before leaving on a trip [Miss604]. I applied the same concept, I kept one browser window open displaying my site, opened up the comments and kept another browser open with my editor so I could type and publish on the fly. I used actual timestamps to make my place and shared quotes, jokes, the playlist and various other tidbits with the readers. I was also able to connect my camera to my laptop and have John take photos. I would then upload them to Flickr and include them in my post. Readers would then be able to see exactly why I was talking about, while it was happening. At that time Matt also asked me to read out some questions directed at him in the comments, and I would type out the answers for his fans.
Since then, I’ve blogged events while attending, such as Barcamp (which was actually the same weekend as the living room show) and Northern Voice. Those were not truly live blogs but more like… 15 minutes after the fact, recaps. The next true live blog was SuperHappyDevHouse, followed by DemoCamp01. I have also previously published a post entitled “Liveblogging, Is It Worth it?” in response to something I read on Seth Godin’s blog.
It’s definitely difficult to relay information on the go, it’s basically rapid-fire note taking. I find that I type a lot of inside jokes when I’m liveblogging, things that could either be better explained with a post-mortem or left out entirely in a recap. What I find most valuable about liveblogging is the instant feedback and interaction with readers – Miss604
Most recently, this past weekend I found myself almost a year later, live blogging another private show of Matt Good’s. This time it was in Las Vegas [Miss604], and I had some more help with the photos [Flickr].
“i got to meet miss604 who liveblogged the event perfectly and gracefully and far better than i imagined. she took pictures and was later relived from that duty by the totally capable duane storey who had a sweet camera and was uploading them to flickr within minutes of taking the pics.” [Tony Pierce]
The best part is being able to provide some kind of portal for those who cannot attend these events. Even when I do not get any comments or interaction, I still get to archive a blog post about something I experienced. If I get to share that with thousands people live, or five several months later, it makes it all worthwhile.
In a hilarious yet ingenious mass-marketing plot 7-Elevens around North America have been turning into Kwik-E-Marts, in anticipation of the Simpsons Movie that hits theatres July 27, 2007.
The monthlong promotion has been rumored a long time — it’s hard to keep a secret known by so many suppliers and franchisees — but 7-Eleven managed to keep the locations of the stores quiet until early Sunday morning. That’s when the exteriors of 11 U.S. stores and one in Canada were flocked in industrial foam and given new signs to replicate the animated look of Kwik-E-Marts. [Yahoo News]
I read about this on Metroblogging Vancouver, where yong_sa discovered this article and found the only Kwik-E-Mart in Canada, which is in Coquitlam.
7-Eleven has a “Kwik-E-Mart Locator” on their site [7-11], where other locations include: Burbank, CA [Flickr Set], Chicago, IL, Dallas, TX, Denver, CO, Lake Buena Vista, FL/Orlando, FL, Las Vegas, NV/Henderson, NV, Los Angeles, CA, New York City, NY, San Francisco, CA/Mountain View, CA, Seattle, WA [Metroblogging Seattle] and Washington, DC/Bladensburg, MD [Metroblogging DC].
Those stores and most of the 6,000-plus other 7-Elevens in North America will sell items that until now existed only on television: Buzz Cola, KrustyO’s cereal and Squishees, the slushy drink knockoff of Slurpees. [Yahoo News]
The Coquitlam location is at 1198 Lansdowne in Coquitlam, BC. The 7-Eleven website says “street” although it should be “drive”. Here’s the Google Map. I’m not sure why more 7-Elevens joined in on the fun, because this will definitely be a sight to see, I’d love to go get a Squishee!
Reminder – July 11 (07-11) is free Slurpee day at 7-Eleven.
Last night John traveled to the USA for the first time since 2005 to pick me up from the Bellingham Airport. With PR card in hand he had no troubles making the border crossing and met me inside the terminal with, “you’re right this is a small airport, Cedar Rapids, Iowa is even bigger than this.” I have to say it was a pleasure to end my journey in the Pacific Northwest. Aside from the evening at Matt’s I ran into nothing but rude people full of attitude who were always looking at you, and speaking to you as though you were out to get them. I guess this is why I don’t go to Vegas often.
Today we had our second official beach day of the year. I took it easy and applied 15 sunscreen, although I’m not showing much colour now for being out in the sun for 2 hours earlier in the day. I do however have one spot on my ankle that I must have missed when applying the lotion because it’s beet red.
Sitting at home now and chatting with Keira, about to enjoy some lovely Belgian beer (complete with sediment) John and I can finally sit back and relax for the first time this weekend.
We’re now moving out to the balcony (and bringing my laptop so I can publish this post). Someone a couple floors above just dumped some water (I hope it was water) off their balcony and just barely missed us sitting here… sheesh.
I really need to get to that sediment beer so I’ll polish off this post with a You Tube clip of a commercial I caught on TV shortly after my Muffin Top post last month.
I realized this morning that my return shuttle ticket for the airport states that I must book my pickup 24 hours in advance. D’oh! Looks like I’ll be cabbing it, and probably soon too. I’ll get some airport breakfast and enjoy the free wifi, which is SUCH a nice perk, thanks again McCarran.
Last night was really great, I think the best part was that people from all over America that have never seen Matt perform let alone up close and in person, had the chance to meet someone they’ve been a fan of for years. It’s hard to control your giddyness when you know he’s just ‘a real guy’, but one that makes incredible music and sang amazingly last night. I hope (and am certain) all the guests had a great time.
Unfortunately I got a headache halfway through the show, and no I wasn’t drinking excessively. But the fact about my headaches is that they usually make me really nauseous. So there I was… at a private show in Las Vegas and about 20 minutes after Matt called it and everyone was drinking and having some food, I had to run to the facilities and… yeah. Good news is that shortly after I felt pretty good, hungry actually, so when the house closed down for the night Duane and I hit the strip to get some food. We took some photos and he barely made it through a yard of margarita. We were both pretty partied out, the whirlwind travel combined with the sensory and heat overload of Las Vegas was getting to us.
Heading back, I’m super glad I came down. The travel wasn’t painful and I got to meet some really great people (like Tony!) The live blog was a success and it was fun chatting to Dale throughout the night as well. I really hope Matt had a happy birthday, surrounded by old friends, new friends and admirers. Just an FYI, you can still catch the new album, Hospital Music, that is being streamed in its entirety from Matt’s site.
Time to pack, make sure my liquids are all in check, and I’ll make another post here either from McCarran or SeaTac.
The monthlong promotion has been rumored a long time — it’s hard to keep a secret known by so many suppliers and franchisees — but 7-Eleven managed to keep the locations of the stores quiet until early Sunday morning. That’s when the exteriors of 11 U.S. stores and one in Canada were flocked in industrial foam and given new signs to replicate the animated look of Kwik-E-Marts. [
