A View from the Isle

Believe it or not UBC is letting me teach not one, but two courses this summer. The first one is this Saturday June 6 from 9-4 on audio and video podcasting….

Introduction to Audio and Video Podcasting TRIS HUSSEY Learn the basics of audio and video podcasting from one of Vancouver’s social media specialists in this one-day, hands-on workshop. Students learn how to record, edit, encode, and post audio and video podcasts. Topics include: hardware, software, how to add music and titles, where to post your podcast, search engine optimization and how to host a live Internet radio show. One day is all you need to get on air and podcast with confidence and ease! IM 805 S09A Sat, Jun 6, 9am-4pm; UBC Robson Square. $350+GST.
link: UBC Computers, Media and Technology – Multimedia Summer Programs 2009 – Summer Workshops

You can register as late as Friday, here is the direct link to register for my podcasting course (only 10 spaces left!).

The following week I’m teaching a half day course on building a website with WordPress:

Learn how to make a professional looking website using the WordPress blogging platform with little to no coding required. Led by one of Vancouver’s WordPress and social media experts, this half-day workshop teaches you how to use WordPress to build dynamic, elegant and professional looking websites quickly and easily. Learn the settings required to turn a WordPress blog into a website, how to tune it for search engines, what plug-ins to install and how to choose the right theme for your website. You don’t have to know how to code to have a great website, you just have to know how to click. IM 810 S09A Sat, Jun 13, 9am-12noon; UBC Robson Square. $175+GST.

This is a course that grew out of my WordCamp Whistler talk and later talks on how to use WordPress as a CMS to build a great (and easy to update) website. If you’d like to attend this course, here is the direct link to register for my WordPress course (about 10 spaces left!).

While I am nervous to be teaching for a full day this weekend, I am excited as well. So, so many things have changed since I sat in this very place (I’m getting my intro to the UBC Robson Square computer labs) and learned about podcasting from Roland Tanglao and Dave Olson at the first NorthernVoice back in 2005.

I’m going to dig up some of my early podcasts for the class, for comic relief if nothing else.

Both courses are hands-on. Expect to be recording and being recorded for the podcasting course and leave with a workable website for the WordPress course.

I suggest bringing a flash drive with if you attend. You can bet that I’m going to have goodies for people to take home with them.

Hope to see you this or next Saturday!

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Just a quick post to see why my post is missing from the front page!

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I was just in a session at NorthernVoice that I both didn’t want to miss, and dreaded to go to: COPING DIGITALLY: Breaking Stigma and Healing Mental Illness Through Blogging and other Social Media.

Why? Because I’ve suffered from depression and suicidal thoughts since I was about 15-16, maybe earlier. It wasn’t until 2004 that I started getting real help for it.

Anyway, I’m sitting in the session, listening to the powerful, touching, raw, and open words from Airdrie, Tod, and Isabella, and it’s all welling up to the surface.

All the truths. Feeling like you don’t deserve the good things. That you’re a fake. That someday someone is going to say, “wait, this guy has no idea what he’s talking about…”

I’ve been feeling pretty good lately. There are some awesome (really awesome) things going on for me right now. Work, relationship, friends…

But the darkness is never far away. It’s never completely out of sight or beyond my senses.

It’s like a cold knife’s edge or just that intermittent icy draft that you just can’t quite find to stop.

I’ll say flat out I was-am-on the edge of tears during their talk. As Tod was retelling his breaking point story, my own came to the fore. Talking to my mom on the phone. Sobbing. Feeling like it’s all not worth it…

Obviously I got through that. I went to see my doctor and got my first medication. Like Airdrie I really resisted medication. I didn’t want-egotistically-anything messing with my mind. I felt like my mind, the way I think, was really all there was to me and medication would take that away.

I’ve had some pretty close calls since then. There are a few that come to mind right now and for the friends who are reading this, the ones who I was leaning on, clinging to: I lied.

I was very, very close to end at those points. Very.

You all and maybe some stubborn piece of will in my mind, kept me here. A lot was you.

Thank you is rather trite at this point, but well you know the deal.

I’m writing this post for the very same reason Airdrie, Tod, and Isabella did their talk, to raise awareness, to lift the stigma, to motivate even one person to get help, to let others know they aren’t the only ones.

This is my story.

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I’ll admit I was pretty bemused that the BC Liberal Party was a sponsor of WordCamp Whistler last weekend. I’m not big supporter of the BC Liberals. They tend to be a wee to far to the right for my tastes, however while I was surprised they were a sponsor, I wasn’t upset about it.

At the moment there is a bit of controversy over the organizers of NorthernVoice accepting a sponsorship money from the BC Liberals to subsidize the pre-conference dinner Thursday night. Derek makes some good arguments for why he and Airdrie won’t be at the dinner, while Duane makes the point that raising any money for a conference is hard in today’s economy and that the BC Liberals didn’t having anything other than their logo there (I don’t know if anyone from the BC Liberals was even there).

Both posts bring up the important question: Does money from a group mean that you as conference organizers support what that group stands for?

It’s funny, if you’re taking money from a company, I don’t think so. Maybe with the exception of very large companies. Political parties, yeah that’s a tough one. The Government or a Government Ministry, that would be “our tax dollars at work”, but are the BC Liberals trying to curry favour with the social media crowd (who are ironically traditionally left-leaning)? Or do they just think that this is something worth investing in (BC businesses and entrepreneurs)?

Realistically I think it’s a mix of all of that, but I don’t think that whatever the BC Liberal’s rationale is, taking their money means that the organizers are supporters of the BC Liberals. I think the organizers looked at the bottom line and saw that if they wanted to have a nice party the night before, they needed a sponsor. I doubt that they sought out the BC Liberals, I’m betting the BC Liberals came to them.

Yes, I’m splitting some rather grey hairs at this point.

And I support my friends who choose not to go because of where the money is coming from. Personally, I think we have an opportunity to engage with people close to government to maybe have a more transparent, dare I say, social media savvy election this spring.

I think the next question is are the other two major parties in the Province going to step up to the social media table?

Even if they don’t open their wallets to us.

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Going to try a little video blogging here. As you might know I did something to my right shoulder on December 30th and since then typing and writing have been less than fun. Here goes nothing:

[kaltura-widget wid="2cnde089ig" width="410" height="364" addpermission="3" editpermission="3" /]

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Because we’ve started to hit hard economic times and Vancouver’s recent cold snap, now more than ever we need to been as generous as we can.

When I walk through the DTES it’s easy to see people in need. It’s easy to understand the need for food banks and hampers, but what about the not so easy to see? What about people who you can’t see? What about people you think are okay and aren’t?

What about people like me?

Yes, me.

No, not this year. Last year.

Last year was a very, very bad year for me financially. The worst of the problem wasn’t through fault of my own, but it happened.

This time last year I had been to the food bank twice to get food for my kids. Yes, that means like many parents, I made sure they were fed and I went without.

My Christmas food and the majority of presents my kids got from me came from the Salvation Army. Cash gifts that family gave me went to food, shelter, then bills.

Last year I saw and felt what it is like to go hungry. The commercials on TV with the person having to choose between eating and rent or electricity made me cry.

Cry in frustration. Cry in shame. Cry wishing it were different.

Some dear, dear friends helped me a lot. More than I wanted, but exactly what I needed.

This is why I give to the food bank, and give generously. I give because I know for every person you can see who needs help there are far more you can’t. I give because I would sit in secret shame counting change to buy a coffee out with friends and think, well I don’t need to have milk at home yet.

So today in Vancouver we’re meeting this afternoon to donate warm clothes. I’ll make sure I’m there. I don’t have much to give, because I donated a lot of clothes and such when I moved here.

When you have a chance to give, do.

I will close this post with a thank you. Thank you to all who helped me so much last year. Thank you to all my friends in Vancouver when I see you give so, so generously at events that support the food bank. It makes me smile. It makes me proud.

And now you know why.

And now you know why I give.

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Last night there was a Tazzu dinner in Yaletown where the big even of the night was going to be Tanya (Netchick) drawing the winner of her $500 cash prize for donating to her Team Diabetes run.

Tanya had the lovely Monica Hamburg do the draw (since she didn’t have any entries in, unlike John Chow with 52 and myself with 7) and she pulled Marketwire!

The funny thing is that everyone wanted to know who would be next and it Gus … who works at Marketwire and helped to get the sponsorship for Tanya!

Marketwire showed how cool they are by putting the money back in. It doesn’t end there because one of Tanya’s teammates Christine is about $1000 shy of her goal, so Tanya gave the money to her and is encouraging us to help her as well (yes, Tanya has indeed met her goal, hence the $500 give-away).

Nice. Great work everyone.

So Tanya are you going to live stream your run?

Read Tanya’s post: (Tanya aka NetChick) This Chick’s Life- » Marketwire wins… And so does Team Diabetes!

You can see my whole Flickr set from the evening below (I was borrowing a Nikon P6000 point-n-shoot from work last night):

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File under “playing with fire in a fireworks factory”, word is that the Liberals, NDP, and Bloc are seriously considering calling for a confidence vote that could force another Federal election.

Incensed opposition parties are threatening to topple Stephen Harper’s Conservative minority and have begun informally exploring the idea of cobbling together a governing coalition. The Liberals are taking the taking the prospect so seriously that some MPs are privately discussing ways to dump Leader Stéphane Dion without waiting for their party’s scheduled May 2 leadership vote. Sources say former prime minister Jean Chretien has been approached for advice on how to massage Mr. Dion’s early exit. Sources say NDP Leader Jack Layton has cancelled a trip to Vancouver to take part in the opposition talks that went on through much of Thursday.

link: globeandmail.com: Confidence vote: Opposition parties say they will vote no

My thinking is: Are they nuts?!?

Okay, the Conservatives haven’t taken the bull by the horns to deal with the economy, and that seems preternaturally stupid, but I don’t think the electorate would be terribly enthused with another election so soon.

While this would make for a record five times I’ve voted this fall, I don’t think a coalition government would last very long (not with Dion or Layton at the helm and if the Bloc had any power most of Canada would call for a recall of the buggers).

This might be political brinksmanship at its worst. With a snap election I don’t think many people will vote (voting in winter, umm yeah no) or give the other parties a resounding victory. I see either a slim Conservative majority or a weaker minority government.

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Last night while I was watching with horror what was happening in Mumbai, Elizabeth Mori started tweeting a metta (Buddhist prayer) for peace. I asked her if she would be posting the entire metta, luckily for us she did:thanksgiving, peace, mettathanksgiving, peace, metta.

Today, as Americans celebrate Thanksgiving, and the entire world is gripped with the horror of Mumbai, let us all take a moment to reflect on Elizabeth’s prayer.

If nothing else, taking the time to reflect on the blessings we all enjoy.

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I didn’t talk about this on Twitter or that much at all, but yesterday I had my first of what will be regular colonoscopies.

As many of you know, my dad was diagnosed with colon cancer at 45 (very young), and the rule of thumb right now is to start getting checked 10 years before the blood relative’s diagnosis (yes, I was overdue).

So Sunday I started my fast and cleans for the procedure yesterday afternoon (hence why I wasn’t at work). Like many will tell you it’s the prep that is unpleasant, the procedure is cake.

Yesterday I got to see what the inside of my colon looks like (pink and fleshy) and I also got to see why I need to get checked regularly: they found something.

That something was a small polyp. A quick snip and they removed it for analysis. From the size and looks of it, I was told that it will probably be benign, however it was there.

Because it was there, and polyps are one of those indicators, I’ll be back for another check in a while. Don’t know how often. I’ll find out in three weeks (also when I’ll find out if the polyp is really benign). I’m guessing probably about every three years or less.

So there it is. I’m in that class of people who are outside the bell curve for when to get checked, but … well I’m glad I did.

Scary? Yeah, of course it is.

So guys, if you have a family history, get checked. If you don’t ask your doctor for the signs to watch for.

Really.

No, Kris, I didn’t bring pictures back of my insides.

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This post from Service Untitled gave me just the right push and connection to flesh out my customer service post that’s been perking in my brain for a couple days now–Service Untitled» Blog Archive » Greet your customers by name.

As you know Wednesday night I made the leap back into the Mac world, that’s only half of the story. You see to make the transition complete, and not to be paying for something I couldn’t use, I needed to replace my PCMCIA EVDO modem with a USB version.

Sounds simple right? Just pick one up, right? Yeah, well, sorta. See I got my PCMCIA version about 7 months ago on a three year contract which meant that to get a new EVDO modem, I’d have to buy it as full retail price, or so I thought.

My first stop before hitting the Apple Store I stopped by my favourite Telus reseller to try to get a new EVDO modem. They told me exactly what I thought, as far as they could do (nothing) they couldn’t give me a discount. Here’s an interesting part, when I asked the woman if she could call Telus and see what they said, she told me that they’d laugh at her for asking (since it said clearly on the screen no offers were there), but if I called customer retention..

So I did.

I talked to “Steve” and Steve was fantastic, but frankly it wasn’t all him I had my role to play as well. On the phone I knew I was at their mercy. They didn’t owe me anything. Sure I have two decent plans, but it was my own dern fault for not getting the USB version in the first place. So I told him that I knew that I needed to pay something, but it would be great if I got a discount. I didn’t demand. I wasn’t angry. I told him how much I loved the service. That I told you all about it all the time (which I do, having an EVDO modem with unlimited data effing rocks) and have written about it as well.

Steve told me that giving me any kind of break was really outside the norm. I’d only had the plan for 7 months, so it would be two years before I was eligible for anything, but he did give me a nice rebate (very nice actually saving me a lot of money).

By the time I was done begging for a discount and getting my MacBook, my usual store was closed so I went to Cell City in the Pacific Centre. Again, great customer service. Telling the guy there about my call with Telus, we agreed that by being nice and polite with Telus I got the discount.

So here is the moral of the story.

We’ve all had experiences with bad customer service where the person on the other side of the counter just started out rude and confrontational, but how often have you had great customer service when you started off on the right foot? A lot I bet.

I called “Steve” by his name. I was polite. I was appreciative. I was cheerful. I praised the company he worked for. I think most folks will be more willing to help you when the interaction starts off like that.

Next time you have a beef with a company or need something, try sugar first. Of course if it gets ugly, well the gloves might have to come off.

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Truth be told, I haven’t been following the various state and local propositions down South. We don’t have those things up here in Canada, which is both good and bad. Regardless I’m hearing things about Proposition 8 down in California and it doesn’t sound like a terribly good thing—Proposition 8 Supporters Can #SuckIt.

In Canada we’ve had marriage rights for all for some time now. And as Erin points out, this isn’t a matter of morality, it’s a matter of basic civil rights.

You have to look at what the Bill of Rights and Constitution or Charter of Rights and Freedoms with an eye towards the full meaning. When challenged in Canada’s Supreme Court the Justices found, and rightly so, that there was no legal reason to bar gays and lesbians from marrying.

All the arguments I’ve heard made against have been based on moral reasons, not legal ones. Marriage, looked at from the government’s perspective, should be a civil matter and should be treated as such. A truly free government and people cannot discriminate against its citizens like that. You can’t choose who has rights and who doesn’t.

Churches, likewise, can’t be forced to recognize or perform marriages for all. That is their right. If you believe in the separation of church and state and do not allow your personal morality to interfere with civil rights, then this should not be a problem for you.

The question for then is, do you support basic civil rights for all or do you discriminate based on something else?

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As much as we Vancouverites complain about the rain in the winter, we have it pretty good as far as weather and climate is concerned. Mild winters, nice summers all that, turns out that as global climate change hits a tipping point we might be flooded with people coming here to live:

Looking at a city like Nelson, with under 12,000 residents currently, and imagining this population ballooning to over 50-100,000 people as a result of climate change refugees and changing world political and economic priorities and climate – I don’t think it’s wrong to be looking at the issue with a broad mind. Source: The Truth About the Pacific NorthWest and Climate Change

This isn’t as nuts as you might think. No, our climate will change too, but because of our geography, etc this area is pretty likely to be a nice place to live regardless.

Which means are Provincial and Federal governments thinking about this yet? Shouldn’t B.C. cater to Canadians who want to move here over people from outside our borders moving because of climate?

How will we feed these people?

All good questions. Answers? Not yet.

Soon I hope though.

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While one could make cracks about many world leaders (like Dub-ya) who should be fluent in English, but aren’t, there is a little brewhaha over Stephane Dion and this fluency in English—CBC.ca – Canada Votes – Duceppe defends Dion over language ‘double standard’—and my question is are we wrong to expect this of a national leader?

Without getting into the Quebec/official languages debate, let me say first, I can’t speak French. I did take Spanish, German, and Latin in school which I gather puts me well ahead of my American countrymen. So I have taken the time to try to learn other languages even if I’m only fluent in my mother-tongue.

My feeling is, though, that our PM should be completely fluent in English.

French? There I’m stuck. How much French is good enough for a PM to converse with Quebecers?

In my mind the majority of Canadians speak English. Granted it might be safe to say that for a very large percentage of them English is a second (or third) language, but I think English is the dominant language of Canada. Shouldn’t then our leader be able to converse and answer questions in English?

On the other side of the coin, since French is the other official language, the PM should also be able to converse in French as well.

Problem is as I see it that there haven’t been many politicians of PM caliber who have been able to do that.

From there I’m stuck. What is the right balance here? How can our leader represent Canadians best?

Your thoughts?

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As all you readers know, all 12 of you, I’ve been taking stock since leaving b5 in July. I’ve also mused on grappling with the bittersweet nature of answering the questions of how and what I’m doing. My last post on blogging made me pause and think that it’s time for a little update on things.

First off I want to clarify some stuff from BlogWorld. No, I wasn’t myself. Yes, I had a lot on my mind, and chances are, it wasn’t you that I was upset at or pondering about. Really.

So, the “what’ next” question.

Here are the things I’m pretty sure about:

• My love of photography is growing by leaps and bounds. My skill is following more in a skips and hops kind of way, but I’m getting there.
• I want to do more and more photography on a professional basis (i.e. get paid to do it).
• My strengths lie in marketing and strategy, especially towards social media and community.
• I have a good head for understanding and relating to people who want to learn about technology
• I love to teach and am pretty darn good at it.
• I can be pretty eccentric, but that also means I like to challenge standard ways of thinking or looking at a problem.
• I’m a damn good writer and have at least three books in me (stay tuned on this).

Where does this leave me then?

Photography will probably be a side part of my life for the foreseeable future, but a company who would like someone who is passionate, articulate, innovative, and can connect with their users I’m their guy.

If you need someone to work on marketing your product, looking at the strategy, and can think beyond Web 2.x etc, that would also be me.

Writing? Of course. There are lots of things I can do, but my goal isn’t to be a consultant but an employee and build something great with a group of people.

While the resume almost seems passé now, here is my LinkedIn profile to peruse. Oh, and I’m based in Vancouver now and want to stay here, just saying.

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