A little while ago John and I expressed an interest in attending this year’s Northern Voice conference. Being bloggers and podcasters (in Vancouver and Iowa) for 3 years it seemed like a great opportunity to meet other locals with the same interest. We’ve met up with other bloggers before and attended a podcast meetup last year, which was really fun, but we’ve never been to a Northern Voice conference before. Most of all it would be a great opportunity for John to network since he’s going to get his work permit for Canada any day now.

The only thing keeping us from going was the entry fee. The two day conference is $100 out of our pockets and another $40 is we wanted t-shirts. So… for full participation and t-shirty experience it would cost our family $140. Now let me give you a quick little background on John and I.

John moved here in 2005 to be with me and hopefully start a lovely new career. Since he’s basically immigrating he cannot work until the Permanent Resident application is approved. He’s been jobless and I’ve been supporting our family monetarily ever since, needless to say, we don’t have a lot of money. We splurg sometimes and go out to watch a Canucks game at our fave local watering hole, and yes we attended Barcamp in the summer – which was really great. But at this point in time we’re inches away from having his work permit, which on top of all other immigration and lawyer fees, is $150. You may be able to see our financial dilemma now.

The Northern Voice crew were looking for submissions for a travel bursary, $500 for 5 people to make their way to the conference, who otherwise probably wouldn’t be able to attend. John and I jumped on this and recorded a podcast a couple days ago. We submitted and were hopeful. We only asked for part of ONE of the bursaries, not really the whole thing either, just the admission fee. Sure, we’re locals but maybe our cause is worthy enough, we’ve never been to a Northern Voice and we were really looking forward to it.

This morning the winners were announced, and we weren’t included. That’s perfectly fine, I mean it would only cost us $4.50 to get there by bus, but the admission is really the kicker. Oh well, right? I’m sure others were just as deserving and had to travel greater distances. Hmm…. although I think the idea of one of the winners could have just been put implemented, since it’s a great gesture, not sure it should have taken up one of the bursary spots though...

Regardless, if this is the first you’ve heard of Northern Voice and you’re a local blogger, check it out – the schedule has been posted and it looks really great – hopefully you’ll network, learn, shmooze and have great fun.

On the other hand, this was something that I really wanted to be a part of but I’m not certain that we’ll be able to get there this year, due to financial constraints (getting John’s open work permit = $150). So if that’s the case there’s always next year…

Update: To be a good sport, here are links to the winners’ blogs.
*Candace, Will, Jim, Mike, Monique, Laurie

Lately there has been a huge importance placed on Early Childhood Education [wiki], ads on kids programs encouraging parents to read, special nights at schools, letters addressed to parents. All in the hopes that our kids start off on the right foot towards being successful in school.

My eldest son will be starting Kindergarten in September and had been out of preschool for the past year. I previously had him in a ‘parent participation preschool’ [ppp] but found the demands to be too great on a one parent household. I think parent participation schools are wonderful,in that the parents are what make the schools work. They the teacher’s helpers, the field trip organizers and the fundraisers (among countless other jobs). You become so familiar with the other families you become support network for each other. Not to mention we had FREE parent education sessions every month. In the long run however these schools are now being challenged because of the time required to be a part of a school like this and with most families now having 2 working parents it becomes nearly impossible to have a ‘duty’ parent available a few times a month.

I struggled to find him another French preschool but finally gave up hope and enrolled him in the ‘pre-kindergarten’ class at a nearby rec. centre. Today being the first day I dropped him off before work he kicked up quite the fuss even though he had really wanted to go to school. He clung to my leg and even shed a few tears. As any other parent would sympathize, I felt really guilty leaving him but knowing him his whole life I was confident he would settle right in. I then start to worry how he won’t be going to kindergarten next year with any of his new found playmates. After mentioning this to Becky online from work she said something along the lines of ‘it’s only preschool, who remembers preschool anyway?’

I myself was a preschool drop out and Becky never even went at all. We reminisced about when I did go to preschool and she reminded me of the scary marionettes. All I can remember is a girl that always smelled as though she had soiled herself and really wanting to be next in line to paint but couldn’t handle standing behind her any longer and thus giving up and playing something else. I wonder what memories people have of preschool? Was it a valuable experience? Do you still know anyone from preschool?

Aside from losing the “g” on my work laptop, things around the office have been pretty uneventful lately. Gus’ conversation with Dell support about the “g” that keeps popping off on me was rather amusing but aside from that, it’s business as usual.

It’s before one of our big seasons and there are no stat holidays for another 2 months, nothing will be much fun until the spring now. Something that keeps me going in the mornings is getting to work and plugging in my iPod. Well okay, the music AND a ginormous coffee help me survive the mornings. Usually I just plug it in, open the playlist I was just listening to on my way to work, and continue on from there. I turn my speakers down and find peace in the ambiance I’ve created for myself.

I don’t play my music too loud, I’ve actually turned on my tunes and walked around the newsroom just to see how much of it I can hear from where, and I think I’ve found a pretty good level. Yeah, I’m a dork. The only thing is, what happens when that one kick ass song comes on that I want to CRANK? Do I turn it up a little more for others to hear or do I keep it to myself? These are the current, unspoken, office music rules at my work

• Only one person may play music at a time
• You can listen to music as long as no one else can hear it
• If someone asks you to turn it up that only means that one person would like to hear your music because 2 minutes later a different person will ask you to shut it off or lower the volume
• If you’re Chris and you play emo, everyone will tell you to shut it off after max. 2.5 songs.

Oooh how about muzak?

The fact that I can walk into work and open up iTunes is pretty neat, seeing as how IT doesn’t even want us to download any programs on office equipment… but that’s a topic for another post. This is the first place I’ve worked where my workstation wasn’t really closed off so I’m learning as I go about respecting the ‘noise pollution’ around others.

So I’m just curious, what are other office’s rules for music out there?

We watched an amusing clip this morning, courtesy of Inside The CBC. This does in fact prove that the CBC can be funny… sometimes.

I pay close attention to the Canucks. I watch their games, I blog about them on occasion and I co-host a podcast where we talk about the team, weekly. Another thing I pay attention to is the guys themselves. Yeah, yeah I’m not a puck bunny but I am female and these boys are in the spotlight. I’ve blogged about Bieksa resembling Nick Lachey [Miss604] and there are a few more comparisons I could probably come up with but this time, it has to do with smiles. Zanstorm had a post about Marcus Naslund recently, sharing a concern I’ve had for some time.

Even after Markus Naslund scored a beauty goal last night, there was not a smile on his face as his teammates congratulated him. Has Naslund lost his smile? Why? Isn’t he enjoying the team’s success? Is he just ‘all business’ on the ice?[Zanstorm]

Photo credit: uncleweed on Flickr

Now, I’ve noticed this more with Trevor Linden, but really the dude had a lot on his mind in the last while. His performance on the ice, being President of the NHLPA up until this year, the law suit that was launched against him because of that role, etc. But does all the weight on your shoulders make you lose your smile?

I’d say someone like Luongo should be feeling the most pressure right now, but he’s always willing to flash a well-deserved and confident grin. What are some of the most memorable Canucks smiles?

Brendan Morrison’s smile is pretty notable but that’s mostly due to him being our overtime saviour (that, and he’s missing a few chicklets). His crooked, gummy expression is up there along with the likes of Matt Cooke and even Dave Babych – well Babych’s smile is memorable cause of the mustache. As for actually physically expressing the joy you feel after scoring a goal, Kesler’s got that weird glove twirl, but I think Dave mentioned it on a recent episode of the podcast – the Tiger Williams riding the stick down the ice thing Yeaahhhhh!

So what’s with all the pouty faces? I don’t think it’s too much to ask, say Cheese! We like to see our guys happy, celebrating goals and the success we’ve all enjoyed this season. I also can’t mention Canuck smiles without giving a shout out to Marc Chouinard. I’ve experienced his smile in person [Flickr] and after scoring his second of the year (after being called out on our podcast the other night) he has a reason to be smiling a little more lately.

At the second intermission watching the Canucks vs Flames on Hockey Night in Canada I’d love to have another reason to smile tonight.