I’m currently sitting in the Starbucks near my place, slowly hacking together what will eventually be my slideshow for WordCamp Portland. Truthfully, I’m a bit nervous about this presentation. While I’ve spoken at a few conferences here and there, most of my presentations were around the 20 – 30 minute mark. This time around, I have a full hour slot to fill, and crafting an hour-long presentation that doesn’t completely suck is a rather delicate procedure. I’ll be talking mostly about mobile blogging, both from a content producer and a content consumer perspective. The good news is ...

Despite being tired, I dragged my ass down to the gym tonight. Without a doubt, it was probably one of history’s most pathetic workout sessions, but I managed to get through it. I also score fairly low on the whole “coordinated gym-goer” scale, mostly because I don’t have any shoes that are really gym worthy. I have a pair of running shoes, but they’re not really meant for going to the gym, and they hurt my feet. So instead, I usually wear a pair of vans or something else to make sure there’s a clear separation between the cool people and me from a fashion perspective. Upon leaving, ...

Strangely enough, most people in Vancouver probably don’t remember me as ever being super skinny. For whatever reason, I’ve always had a bit of meat on my bones. You can chalk it up to a slow metabolism, or crappy genes or whatever, but there are not many times in my life where I’ve been rail thin. The first time I came close though was probably around grade 11. I was playing three sports at the same time, getting lots of rest, and for the most part, lived a pretty stress free life. I couldn’t tell you what I weighed during that period, but looking at old photos I definitely think I looked ...

One of the things we’ve done with WPtouch for a while is to include a Friends and Family page for all the people who have donated to the project. To that end, I wanted to start recognizing companies that have helped me out for travel and events by either comping me items or giving me great deals on things like meals, drinks and/or accommodations. With that in mind, I’ve started putting together a duanestorey.com Friends and Family section that will permanently be on this site. I’m sure I still have lots of entries to add, but I’ve added the first few to that page. Big thanks for all the ...

The tendency for a body at rest to stay at rest, and for a body in motion to stay in motion. Two important states, to be sure. For me, I find myself bouncing between those two states from time to time, often as a result of some cycle I’m trying to break. Most of the time, that cycle for me starts with lack of sleep, and progresses into this weird state of limbo where I’m constantly feeling unhealthy. The last time I felt I totally got away from it was back in May, back when I was going to the gym routinely and eating meals at home the majority of the time. I’m close to getting back there, ...

I’m heading to a friend’s wedding in Seattle in November. I’m actually pretty excited about the trip because it’ll be my first real weekend there since 2007. Seattle’s one of those cities I always expected to fall in love with, but for whatever reason, just haven’t managed to yet. I suspect it’s because I don’t really know where to go when I’m in the city, but I’ll do a bit more research this time around. The last time I was there I stayed at the relatively trendy Hotel Max, which was fairly central and had a decent little lounge. I was talking to the people at the Alexis ...

Does anyone know of any really cool mobile sites on the web? Not just apps, but actually web pages? If so, drop a comment. Thanks. ...

Ahh yes, the end of a long weekend. And not just any long weekend, the last long weekend of the summer. So long summer of 2009, it was nice to know you. My niece and nephew head back to school tomorrow, which is sort of exciting for them. I always liked going back to school for some reason. Maybe it was buying a whole new batch of school supplies, or seeing some of your friends again after a summer apart. Granted, after about a week I was sick of the new year, but that first week was usually fun. As for me, I took it pretty easy this weekend. I was originally supposed to go camping, but opted ...

About a year ago, I decided to slowly migrate away from Media Temple and move to something a bit better. Truthfully, Media Temple’s service was one of the worst I’ve experienced, especially since it’s priced at more than double what comparable packages are charging. I still think there’s lots of promise with their grid service, but I don’t think their paying cliental should be used as guinea pigs on technology. Unfortunately, I never completely got away from Media Temple, mainly because I have a few things there that need to be moved carefully, and I just haven’t had the inclination ...

Other than the two days I spent down in Oregon a while ago, I really haven’t taken any time off this summer. Truthfully, I’m a bit bagged to be honest. We had a couple big projects on the go there, and thankfully they’re pretty much done at this point. I’ll be doing up a posting on BraveNewCode next week talking a bit about some of the recent things we’ve been involved in. In the meantime though I’m shutting everything off that beeps or glows and going to enjoy this weekend reading books and watching movies. Anything that doesn’t involve typing. ...

I’ve been asked to write an article for a European magazine about Vancouver. I’m keeping my particular angle under wraps until everything is completely done, but I’d like to solicit some help from my readers. In fact, I’m hoping I can use a few of these quotations in the article, along with possibly a photo or two of some of the people who quoted them. So, in one or two sentences, please feel free to answer any of the following: What do you like the most about Vancouver? What is your least favourite thing about this city? What is your best memory from living in the city? Do you think ...

I’m sure we all have one, a list of things we’d like to do before that big farmer in the sky puts us out to pasture. I’ve got a small list in my head that I’ve been slowly trying to take care of over the years. At the very top is playing guitar and singing live. I started playing guitar when I was 18 years old. My mom bought me a Fender Strat, and I practiced on that ampless for a few years. I’ve gone through various guitars over the years, and finally picked up an jumbo Takamine acoustic electric a few months ago, partially with the intent of someday playing live somewhere. Granted, ...

That’s probably the hardest question to answer nowadays for me when crossing the border. My life and my job are pretty intricately mixed nowadays, that it’s often hard to differentiate between the two. For example, when I went to WordCamp San Francisco, I was asked that question by the border agent. The conference I was attending definitely interested me on a personal level, especially since I have a personal blog, but clearly I can extract some business value out of it as well. So is it a business trip, or one for pleasure? The problem with going down the business line is sometimes the border ...

I was looking at my schedule tonight, trying to figure out where I have to be and when. Here’s what it’s currently looking like: Sep 3 – 7, Camping at the Lake Sep 10 – 13, Canadian Country Music Awards, Vancouver Sep 18 – 20, Speaking at WordCamp Portland Sep 24 – 28, Friends from Ontario in town So basically every single weekend in September is already jam packed. I still haven’t decided whether or not I’m flying to Portland or driving. Considering I just drove to Portland a while ago, I’m leaning more towards flying. If I do that, I’ll probably fly out of Bellingham, since ...

I just finished booking my flight to WordCamp Portland, so I figured now was a good time to write a post about it. I was a co-organizer for two WordCamp Vancouver events, as well as one up in Whistler, but strangely enough I haven’t actually spoken at a WordCamp for almost about two years now. So having me up front should make for some interesting entertainment. I’ll be speaking on mobile blogging, with an emphasis on our WPtouch plugin. I’ll probably also talk a bit about mobile blogging in general, similarly to what I talked about at the Network Hub a few years ago. If I have time, I’ll ...

I’ll be going to BarCamp Vancouver in October, and one of the sessions I’m thinking about trying to organize is one about open-source business models. Given that BraveNewCode releases several open-source, GPL plugins, this is an area that I’ve been spending a lot of time thinking about lately. Truthfully, our WPtouch plugin represents well over a thousand hours of work. For a while there, Dale and I both dedicated the majority of Fridays to updating and enhancing our plugins, including WordTwit. And while donations on these products are great, truthfully the amount received is only enough ...

Last night’s tweetup was a ton of fun, so thanks to everyone for coming out. I crashed at a friend’s place in Vancouver last night, and came back to Chilliwack around noon today. Unfortunately, someone drove a tractor over my head sometime in the middle of the night, and I had a nice headache for most of the day. I ended up crawling into bed around 1:30pm when I got home, and somehow slept until around suppertime. Given that my fridge was pretty empty, I decided to order some pizza and spend the evening watching a few movies from the couch. I’m not sure what the weather will be like later ...

Pretty good article I read today about the importance of slowing your life down. I think it’s relevant since it’s basically been the direction I’ve been taking my life for the last seven months. Read the goods here. ...

It’s widely recognized nowadays that many people have a condition known as insulin resistance. Internally, their cells have become desensitized to insulin, which ultimately forces the body to create more of it in order to meet the cellular demands on the body (insulin is required to move glucose into the cells for usage). Unfortunately though, high insulin levels lead to heart disease, type II diabetes, obesity (or a difficulty in losing weight), high blood pressure, and are potentially implicated in several cancers, including breast. This metabolic condition is known in the literature as “metabolic ...

The American Heart association has just gone on record as recommending that sugar consumption be drastically reduced. I should point out that this is in stark contrast to their longly held assertions that saturated fat is the primary cause of heart disease, and carbohydrates essentially are harmless. So this is a warning to everyone that you should limit your sugar intake in the interest of good health. I personally wouldn’t be surprised at all if you’ll continue to see these ongoing shifts in policy, up to the point where the policy has completely changed to recommend that refined carbohydrates ...