Happy Weekend!

I'm hanging out at Northern Voice today, out at UBC. Darren, one of the organizers of this fine event, kindly arranged for a small handful of non-profit groups to have booths at the event, and so I get to be here and spread the Web of Change love.

It's been gratifying, over the time that I've been involved with WOC (five years? good grief) to watch the awareness of our name grow. Certainly not everyone here has heard of us, but plenty of people have.

And it's a timely moment in time for me to be spreading the good word... because we have some big news about our 2008 programming. Have a peek at the site if you're curious...

It's been a fun day so far, with a whole of conversations that go a little something like this:

"You're here! How come?"

"Hi! Yeah, I moved back."

"Oh wow! Welcome back! When? Why?" etc etc etc.

So that's fun. Surprise! I moved back. Most people seem glad to see me, which makes my little ego feel good.

(The irony, I suppose, is that this is a blogging conference... and anyone who actually read my blog would know that I moved back... But then again, I totally don't expect that people actually read this thing, and in fact I'm always slightly shocked/embarrassed whenever I run into someone who tells me that they do!)

Today my inner Canadian and my inner Food Snob did battle. The Canadian won, and I voluntarily wandered into Tim Horton's and ordered lunch.

I should have listened to the Food Snob. It was terrible. And don't even get my Coffee Snob started.

But it reminded me – Northern Voice is coming around again! If you were there last year, you'll understand the connection. Only this year, I will not be the one organizing said BBQ. My toes still haven't fully thawed since that night...

This one didn't make it to the GETV site (and thus subscription feed to the masses), but I kinda like it. :) You can watch it right here!

Featured: Eric Rice via cellphone, JMV, some Random Dude, Captain Ajax, Julie of Capulet, Richard Eriksson, Phillip Djwa, and Kris Krug.

A few weeks back, I was innocently sitting in the Bryght office, when Kris said to me out of the blue "Have you ever wanted to be a broadcast journalist?"

"Nope," I responded.

"Oh. Too bad. I guess I'll try and think of someone else then." 

So of course I had to ask, and it turned out that Geek Entertainment Television was looking for a northern correspondant for during Northern Voice, as Irina was not going to be able to make it. I was apprehensive, but my desire for fame and fortune overcame me. And so I agreed. Eeeks!

Ante was up after I watched a few episodes and realized that Irina was funnier and snarkier than I could ever hope to be (poor little conflict-avoidant Canadian pisces that I am), but I did the best I could. You can watch the first episode featuring moi here! (Don't laugh too hard. I was a little nervous.)

I especially wanted to thank Eddie of Eddie.com fame, cameraman extra-ordinaire, for all his kind words and skillful editing. It was actually really fun, and I'm glad I had the chance. Stay home again soon, Irina! ;)

Just checking in from the keynote addresses at Northern Voice.  Robert Scales just took a great picture of me and Kris and I thought I'd stick it up, since I generally don't link enough images in here!

Moosecamp yesterday was fun - frenetic, unstructured, but fun. There's a ridiculous amount of Flickr-ing happening. I taught a yoga class. KK led a very successful photocamp. We had a picnic in Stanley Park, with mucho sausages, condiments galore, many photos taken, and probably hundreds of freezing fingers and toes in aggregate. (Beautiful day it may have been, but damn it was chilly come 8pm last night.)

I'm looking forward to the rest of the day, particularly the How Your Blog and Change the World panel. More later, likely...