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, I'd like ...
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 probably ...
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 it's a pretty close ...
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 to buy ...
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 this ...
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 ...
It's hard I imagine. Yet BC's finance minister seems to do it rather well. On AM1150 this morning, he had the following to say:
Speaking on AM1150's Early Edition Monday morning, Finance Minister Colin Hansen says, "Going to a value added tax system, as 130 other countries around the world have already done, and most provinces have already done is exactly the right thing to do at this time. It is the thing that will stimulate the economy and create jobs more than any other single action that the province can take."
Sounds great, but does it blend? I'm still waiting for someone to tell ...
Getting old sucks. It sort of creeps up on you when you're not really looking.
I've been fairly lucky in that I don't really have many grey hairs yet. Many of my friends starting getting their first grey hairs in university. While I have a few now, they've only recently emerged. Grey hairs don't really bother me, but joint pain and random aches do.
The first real joint pain I ever had was due to an injury I had after doing the West Coast Trail years ago. I hurt my knee pretty badly on day three (I suspect I tore my ACL, but never had it looked at), and was forced to chew tylenol 3's for the rest ...
This is the third post in an ongoing business series I'm going to be writing. You can view them all by visiting here.
A few years ago I read a book called The 4-Hour Work Week: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich, an interesting book by Tim Ferris. Since that time, I've seen Tim talk at least once (maybe twice?), and have read a few other books with similar concepts as the ones presented by Tim.
While there are a few things in Tim's book I don't entirely agree with, some of his core concepts are fairly important if you're thinking about branching out on your own. For instance, Tim ...
Yesterday I went down to Friday Harbor and hung out with my friend Lynn. I hadn't been to Friday Harbor since I was about 17 or so, so it was definitely cool to go back. There wasn't as much there to do as I thought there would be, but Lynn and I managed to find a few watering holes to hang out in and observe the locals for a while. "Chap-man" pretty much took the weirdo cake, but there were lots of runners up. It was great catching up with Lynn again too, since we hadn't had a chance to hang out for over two years now. In addition, the weather was nearly perfect, and reminded me of ...
Dale and I are going to start putting out a newsletter from time to time. If you're interested in WordPress and want to be in the loop when we write about cool tips and tricks, then head on over and sign-up. ...
This is the second post in an ongoing business series I'm going to be writing. You can view them all by visiting here.
So there you are, on the brink of making a big life-changing decision, and you're trying to get the nerve to finally do it. You have this great business idea, are tired of your current 9-5 job, and are ready to take the plunge off the cliff, hopefully landing somewhere far better below.
This is probably the hardest stage of a new business, in my opinion - getting up the nerve to quit your day job. You're forcibly taking action that is going to upset your life and move you pretty ...
First, I gotta say, I'm all over this little pub at Cultus Lake. I first came up here with Rebecca and John on the weekend, but it not only has one of the nicest patios I've been on in a while, but a pretty decent selection of food and drinks as well. I'm fairly certain they're all gonna know me by name here pretty soon.
This weekend I'm meeting my friend Lynn down in Anacortes, WA, and we're going to take the little ferry over to Friday Harbor for the day. I actually was there a very long time ago (it was a field trip back in high school for some of us), and I remember it being fairly cool, especially ...
We just did a quick update to WordTwit to include support for the Ow.ly service, and also fixed a few old bugs (the most important of which is the weird one involving encoded characters in the update message). The WordPress repository is updated, so you should see it shortly.
That is all. ...
Ok seriously. What the hell is going on in our province? First, Gordon Campbell springs the Harmonized Sales Tax on everyone, saying it will create jobs and somehow help the economy. I obviously voiced my concerns over that move, especially since the public seemed to be caught completely off-guard with the whole decision.
As we all know, the 2010 Olympics are just on the horizon. We also know that several cruise ship lines recently pulled out of Vancouver since it's a more expensive destination than surrounding ports, such as Seattle. Given how much money tourism generates in BC, you'd think it ...
This is an open letter to the people of the United States, namely those people who think universal (or government run) health care is bad.
In November of 2006 four idiots I had never met threw me through the plate glass window of a 7-11. Apparently, it was a fun thing to do after a few beers. I ended up in the hospital that night with five fractures in my face. Approximately two weeks later I had surgery to repair the damage to my face, and ended up getting a piece of plastic surgically fitted under my left eye. Without it, due to the lack of bone, my left eye would probably hang down into my ...