WordPress Presentations at the Network Hub, photo by Ianiv and Arieanna Rebecca is over in Victoria right now for Social Media Camp, and it sounds like it’s a great event. WIthout a doubt, everyone is interested in social media right now, and learning how they can leverage it to build relationships and better run their business. While it hasn’t been officially announced yet, I’ll be giving a talk about WordPress and social media on June the 23rd at the monthly WordPress meet-up in Vancouver. It’ll be at the Network Hub, and should be a fun event. Hopefully whoever comes out will be up for hitting ...

Stella As many people know, I spent the last four months bouncing between South America and Europe. It was a fun time, and I met a pile of great people over the course of my trip. One such person is Stella Maris, who lives just outside of Sao Paulo, Brazil. I was at a random pub in Buenos Aires called “Sugar” when I ran into Stella and her cousin. I was a few sheets to the wind, so I honestly don’t remember too much that night, other than meeting up with them. But thankfully I’ve kept in touch with Stella over the last few months, and it so happens that I can wish her a virtual birthday from afar! Stella ...

I’ve been following along with the Air France crash investigation with interest. I don’t like flying: I get anxious on airplanes and would rather not be hurtling through the atmosphere. But I know that if you want to go anywhere fast, you need airplanes. So whenever I hear about a plane crash, it always unnerves me a bit. Normally I put the crash out of my mind as simply a crappy plane used by a lesser-known airline, or the result of some route I’ll probably never go on. But the crash of Air France 447 was neither: it was a one of the more well-known airlines in the world, and it was on a route ...

About two months ago I was packing up my items in Buenos Aires, getting ready to fly to New York City and then to Europe. I’ve been out in Port Coquitlam now for almost a month and am pretty much back into the swing of my normal routine here. I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the summer, and of course what my plans are after that. Everything is still up in the air, but here’s how I think things will shape out. I’ve been planning for quite some time to take most of July and August off. I have a few little personal side projects to work on as well as some house keeping items over at BNC, but ...

I’m up to a little over 60 kilometres worth of biking on my new bike, and so far I’m really enjoying getting outside again. The first few rides I did were pretty painful, both from a muscle perspective and also from a cardio perspective. But I’m up to about 16 kilometres a ride now, and I can see myself doing a 25 kilometre ride fairly soon as well. I’ve actually been using the RunKeeper application on my iPhone to track my progress. It’s a free application as well as a free service (there’s a paid upgrade option). I don’t think I’ll upgrade, mainly because I don’t think I’d need any of the perks ...

For those of you following along on my great Twitter adventure know, I recently purchased a new bike and am trying to get out and get some exercise from time to time. Prior to leaving for Argentina I was actually going to the gym about four or five times a week, but didn’t really get much exercise (other than massaging my liver from time to time) while I was away. Despite what many people think, exercise really only has a moderate affect on weight loss, if any at all. In fact, almost every proper study ever done that tests the hypothesis whether or not exercise leads to weight loss is inconclusive. ...

Many people have heard the phrase low-carb before – basically a low-carb food implies food with a minimal amount of carbohydrates in it. I would say that any particular low-carb meal should probably have less than 10 grams of digestible carbs in it if it is be classified as a low-carb meal. The motivation for doing so is to limit the amount of insulin that gets produced after the meal. Since insulin directly influences the accumulation of fat, a low-carb diet/meal minimizes the amount of fat that can be stored after a meal, and often leads to more stable blood sugar. A slow-carb meal on the other ...

This upcoming weekend is the 2011 incarnation of Northern Voice. I went to my first Northern Voice back in 2007 and met so many great and inspirational people. In actuality, that event was the catalyst that started me playing with WordPress and meeting some of the people that I now call my close friends. A Mosaic Of 1600 Northern Voice Photos Since I lived out in Chilliwack during last year’s Northern Voice I didn’t get a chance to catch it all, but I swung by for an hour or so and said hello to some friends. This year I should I live a lot closer and will be there on both Friday and Saturday ...

Derek Miller, Photo by Kris Krug As everyone in Vancouver now knows, Derek Miller passed away Tuesday evening and his final blog post, written before his death, was published online first thing in the morning. When I first read the post, I did so thinking it was an actual update from a living Derek, and had to read it twice before it sunk in on me that he was actually gone. I never knew Derek Miller before cancer. The first time I heard his name was at Northern Voice in 2007 I believe, and a few people organized a video to be created to eventually be shown to Derek. It wasn’t until a social event ...

Yes, I Rule At Photoshop Well, the results are in and Harper has somehow secured a majority government. I’m actually surprised that they obtained a majority, mainly due to vote of no-confidence in parliament, but this is how it all played out. In all honesty, I can definitely handle the conservatives winning, but I find it odd that Harper is still allowed to lead the party. At the very least you would think the conservative party would remove Harper as the figurehead based on the previous allegations against him and the vote of no-confidence. But given that Harper’s government renovated the Parliament ...

As everyone now knows, Osama Bin Laden was killed tonight in what was apparently a US led mission in Pakistan. I watched the entire media surrounding the event unfold, starting with Twitter, moving to some news agencies such as the New York Times, and finally culminating in President Obama’s speech regarding the death of Osama Bin Laden. In truth, I found it hard to watch. While I am happy that all the families who were affected by September 11th finally have closure, I find it hard to celebrate the death of any one individual. Maybe it’s because I think most wars are pointless, like I thought ...

Between the ages of 17 and about 21 or so I was actually pretty big into biking. I used to have a Specialized mountain bike, and would hit the trails on the weekends or ride around Chilliwack with my friends. Unfortunately that bike got stolen one day when I accidentally left the garage door open overnight, and I didn’t have money to replace it at the time. About five years ago I decided to pick up a bike in Vancouver, and ended up getting a cheap $150 hybrid just to try and get some exercise. I’m not sure if it was because it was pretty much a piece of garbage or the fact that it wasn’t really ...

I remember taking a summer off from UBC one year and heading back to Chilliwack. At the time gas was sitting at around 39 cents per litre. It’s hard to imagine that it’s only been around ten years since then and gas is now hovering at around 140 cents a litre in the Vancouver area. To put that into context, the $60 I spend filling up my car would have cost around $16 back then. In fact, now that I’m back in the Vancouver area, it’s not lost on me just how expensive it is to own and operate a car. I have a 2006 Mazda 3 Sport that I own outright. My insurance runs me around $135 a month through ...

Back when I was 18, my mom asked me what I wanted as a present for successfully completing high school with honours. My friend Matt at the time had just started playing guitar, so I decided at that moment I too wanted to be a guitar player. A few weeks later we found ourselves down in Tom Lee music in Vancouver, and my mom purchased my first guitar for me, a Fender Stratocaster. Since that time I’ve probably gone through three or four acoustic guitars, each time upping the ante in terms of cost and quality. That said, most of the guitars I’ve used over the years have been fairly unremarkable, ...

There’s a new kid on the block in terms of Vancouver WordPress conferences, and that kid’s name is WordCamp:Developers. Unlike previous incarnations of WordCamp in the Vancouver area, WordCamp:Developers will have less content about the beginner aspects of WordPress (like the difference between .com and .org, which comes up at many conferences) and more content about advanced aspects of WordPress, such as development. As many people know, I’ve helped organize three WordCamp conferences in the Vancouver area. The first was a small WordCamp Vancouver that was attached to BarCamp (which is no longer ...

I’ve been itching lately to try cooking some Indian cuisine, and have devoured a few cookbooks on the subject. The cookbook that appeals to me the most includes recipes that entail slow cooking most of the popular Indian dishes, so that’s what I’ve decided to start with. The name of the book (if anyone is interested) is The Indian Slow Cooker: 50 Healthy, Easy, Authentic Recipes. Why Indian? That’s a good question. Probably the best answer is that I really have no idea how to make any of the dishes, so it seems like a fun venture for a few weeks. I also recently spent three months in Argentina ...

I moved into my summer home yesterday with John and have slowly started getting settled. Most of my bedding is stuck in the back of my storage locker, but considering that I only have a duvet and some sheets stored I decided to simply buy a new bed set. So yesterday I went out and bought a bed in a bag from the new Walmart out in Chilliwack. Since then I’ve dropped about $250 on both groceries and a few new kitchen toys, including a slow cooker. I had a slow cooker a long time ago but never used it, mostly because I had no idea what to do in the kitchen at the time. I still have a lot to learn, ...

As many people on Twitter know, after four months of traveling I am finally back at home in BC. I was originally going to fly back home on Thursday, but the combination of a friend of mine having a death in the family back home and the fact that I found a really cheap flight leaving Dublin on Sunday made me decide to head back a few days early. Sunday was a long day: I had an eight hour flight from Dublin to Chicago, a five hour layover, and then another four and a half hour flight to Vancouver. Chicago was bursting at the seems, and people were literally camped out in the hallways waiting for ...

I’m currently sitting in the Edinburgh airport in Scotland sipping on a rather expensive $6 diet coke while waiting for my flight to Dublin. I haven’t done a post on the economy in a while, so I figured it was about time. Edinburgh, Scotland Lots is going on down south, none of it is good. Last weekend the US government came close to a shutdown due to the fact that they hit their congressionally approved debt ceiling. While it’s been raised previously, there’s growing concern that the US debt is at the point of no return. As a result politicians on both sides are trying to get both sides to agree ...

I left South America a few weeks ago, and have since been to New York City and a great deal of Ireland. Ireland was quite the whirlwind adventure. I spent the first night in Limerick at my friend Andy’s place, and then the next day we did a road trip up to Galway. The day after we headed down to Cork, and made a quick pitstop to kiss the original Blarney Stone. The next two nights we stayed at little 200 year old cottage in Mitchellstown. All in all a great adventure. I flew to Edinburgh, Scotland Monday morning, and am currently sitting in a hotel. Cliffs of Moher, Ireland I haven’t had time ...