West Coast Express Trip from Waterfront to Port Moody Stations

Last night, heading home, I decided but didn't commit to hopping on SkyTrain going in the wrong direction. That is, at Waterfront Station, many people go Westbound past the station to the switch, where the train "turns around" and heads Eastbound. People (smartly) do this to get a good seat before trains fill up with commuters, often by Stadium-Chinatown Station.

Au4

After listening to their album a couple of times from their site, I'm currently downloading the ambient electronic sounds of Au4, evidently pronounced "oh-four", who hail from Vancouver. I heard about the band through my co-worker Kris Krug (also of Static Photography). This was my first purchase of digital music outside iTunes, so hopefully the local band gets to see all of the money.

Inattention Data: Requesting a Skipped Items Feature for Google Reader

After months of fidelity to NetNewsWire, the excellent news reader for the Mac, I'm switching back to Google Reader. The reasons for getting drawn back include peer pressure (everybody's doing it) and the social features (the 'Share' button beneath every item), as well as not requiring a manual refresh. The automated refresh makes it harder to reflect, but that's what leaving your computer at work is for.

I'm Tired of Facebook Thinking That I'm Tired of Being Single, Especially When It Knows I'm Not Single!

Facebook, as many people know, is a social networking site for keeping in touch with the people you know, and for sharing things with those people. I've found that it strengthens the weak bonds I've had with people I've met a few times and gotten to know, and has re-united me with people from my past whom I regretted not keeping in touch with.

Groups

Ma.gnolia is a social bookmarking website, making it easy—and pleasant—to publicly and privately submit links to interesting websites and articles, tag and rank them. They do a lot of things right, including a permanent link for each individual bookmark, so that I can link directly to it if a comment someone makes needs responding to or pointing out. (Dare they add comments?

29

Today I enter the final year of my twenties, turning 29 years of age. The last few weeks I've been reflecting on how to get my shit together, and the prospect seems overwhelming. Money currently ain't a thang, but I have no plan for 5, 10, 20 years from now. My hobbies revolve solely around a computer, and the only thing I know how to cook is spaghetti. I lead a disorganized life in a small apartment, something I feel condemned to continue.

The Morass of Such Thoughts and Insoluble Problems

Vincent Van Gogh to Theo: “'Am I an artist or am I not?' must not induce us not to draw or not to paint. Many things defy definition, and I consider it wrong to fritter one's time away on them. Certainly when one's work does not go smoothly and one is checked by difficulties, one gets bogged in the morass of such thoughts and insoluble problems.

Interesting Site Note: Taglines

A few people have mentioned that my website's tagline changes from time to time, and have noted the wit they contain. (One even thought it was a running story, which isn't a bad idea actually, but few taglines are related to each other.) This site's tagline, technically the "slogan" in Drupal-speak, is often a turn of phrase from a rap song, but sometimes something that resonated with me from a text, like a book or article.

Giro di Burnaby 2007 Next Week

Giro di Burnaby on the Heights

Next week, Criterium bike racers will convene in North Burnaby to participate in Giro di Burnaby. I was at last year's event, and it was pretty amazing seeing the speedy racers whiz by. I took some video using my cameraphone (each hosted by Amazon S3, so there are BitTorrent links as well, not that it matters really), as well as a few photos posted to Flickr. Looks like Terry Power posted some photos as well. I added the event listing to the Urban Vancouver events calendar, so it will show up in the upcoming events listing when the time comes closer. This year, I have a much better camera (a Canon EOS Digital Rebel XTi in addition to the Nokia N70 I took photos and video with last year), so this will be my chance to take some higher quality photos while figuring out how to capture fast-moving objects.

iPhone, Co-Housing (With Wife-Swapping Jokes), Next Bus Info on Facebook, and Spying on Your Readers at DemoCamp Vancouver

After some initial confusion about the location of tonight's DemoCamp Vancouver, we all made it to the Irish Heather to hear about the iPhone, co-housing, a Facebook application for bus schedules, and tracking the movements of people while they visit a site. And then networking ensued, at least presumably, since I left after the demonstrations.

"When Sysadmins Ruled the Earth" by Cory Doctorow
A story about the Internet surviving more than just a nuclear attack.
"Fixed-gears have drawbacks that deter the average cyclist."
I'll say. Good luck commuting more than 10 blocks in Vancouver with one. It's uphill half the way home from work for me.

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