This is a fantatic book for women everywhere to buy. Got my latest raise from reading this book.
Happy Canada Day!
O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.
With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!
From far and wide, O Canada,
We stand on guard for thee.
God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
Happy Canada Day Everyone!
Google came out with their latest foray into taking over the entire internet by releasing a beta, limited release of Picasa Web Albums last week. I received my *special* invite to check out the new feature today.
I've uploaded to "My Public Gallery" over a 100 pictures of my first trip to Montreal that I took last month.
Here's the link: http://picasaweb.google.com/Karen.Ruby
So far, I'm quite impressed with how easy it was to download and install the new Picasa2 application so that I can use the Picasa Web Albums feature. Uploading my first album only took a couple of minutes.
Picasa Web Albums allows you to share your albums or keep them private. You can choose who gets to view your albums and you're also able to bookmark "My Favourites" albums.
I've always resisted opening a Flickr account for some reason, although I do enjoy viewing my friend's albums on the site. There's no tagging in Picasa Web Albums (yet), but this is a very easy way to share my photos with friends and family (and my blog readers). I'll continue to upload selected photos on this blog (check out my numerous photo albums to the left), but since I don't want to over-load my blog storage limits, and since I take a lot of pictures, I'm very happy to be now using Picasa Web Albums to share my photos.
You can also view other people's Public albums and download all their photos to your computer. Not sure why someone would allow this, though. I've turned off this feature on my Montreal album.
I love using Picasa, and now that they have added this Web Album feature, I can see myself using it more and more to share my photos. With 250MB worth of storage space, I can really share my photos now.
Check back often to "My Public Gallery" as I'll be uploading more albums soon.
You should definitely sign up and check out the new Picasa with its Web Albums.
Tags: Google Picasa Picasa Web Albums Flickr
I've been using Netvibes every day for about three weeks now and I must say that it's a very cool and useful homepage. I am totally impressed with the customization and features offerred.
This Web 2.0 app provides you with your own totally customized homepage. You can add almost anything you want to your homepage, including mail services like Gmail and Yahoo, any RSS feed you want - including Digg, del.icio.us, Technorati, Boing Boing, TechCrunch, (even my own blog). You can add podcasts, Google search, to do lists, notes, bookmarks, eBay, Flickr photos, Writely documents (which I'm still waiting for my invite so that I can use that cool web word processor). I'm sure that Picasa Albums will be added too, once that app out of limited test release (hopefully soon).
I love that my home page has the ability to add multiple tabs and I can drag 'n drop (very cool!) any module that I want to any tab that I want. It's totally customizable! You can even title your page to whatever your heart's desire.
Developers are adding modules all the time to Netvibes web services, including the FIFA World Cup 2006, games, local weather, map mashups, calendars, Soduku, and so many other very useful services that I keep finding and adding to my home page.
This is pretty darn cool. I can see something like this definitely hanging around as it's so useful. Why go to tons of other sites when all the information you want is on one customized site?
Check it out.
I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho yesterday. Right from page one, I started underlining sentences and I think I must have underlined something on every single page. I got so much out of this book and I really recommend it if you are looking for a purpose and a reason to pursue your dreams.
I can't remember where I read that this book was a must-read (probably Oprah magazine or one of my daily RSS feeds that I read), but I'm really glad that I ordered this book from Amazon. I had never heard of Paulo Coelho, but apparently he is a very famous Brazilian author with many influential books.
From the jacket cover:
"This story, dazzing in its powerful simplicity and inspiring wisdom, is about an Andalusian shepherd boy named Santiago who travels from his homeland in Spain to the Egyptian desert in search of a treasure buried in the Pyramids. Along the way he meets a Gypsy woman, a man who calls himself king, and an alchemist, all of whom point Santiago in the direction of his quest.. No one knows what the treasure is, or if Santiago will be able to surmount the obstacles along the way."
The story is very simple, but the lessons imparted in the book are timeless: that everyone has a purpose in life or a dream when they were young that came from their heart, but as they grew up they listened less and less to their hearts and allowed their dreams to die. The universe is waiting to help you fulfil that dream, if you would only listen and pay attention to the omens in your life which are leading to what your heart really desires.
Some more pearls of wisdom from the book:
"It's the possibility of having a dream come true that makes life interesting."
"Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own."
"...that a certain point in our lives, we lose control of what's happening to us, and our lives become controlled by fate. That's the world's greatest lie."
"It's what you have always wanted to accomplish. Everyone, when they are young, knows what their Personal Legend is. At that point in their lives, everything is clear and everything is possible. They are not afraid to dream, and to yearn for everything that they would like to see happen to them in their lives."
"...people need not fear the unknown if they are capable of achieving what they need and want. We are afraid of losing what we have, whether it's our life or our possessions and property. But this fear evaporates when we understand that our life stories and the history of the world were written by the same hand."
"It was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the Master Work. Now, I'm beginning what I could have started ten years ago. But I'm happy at least that I didn't wait twenty years."
"Because, wherever your heart is, that is where you'll find your treasure."
There's not anything really new and earth-shattering in this book, but the writings and story speaks so well and sometimes we have to be in the mood to hear and pay attention to universal truths. I won't reveal what happens to Santiago along his journey for his personal treasure, but this book has a lot to say in its simple story and I would recommend that you read it if you are interested in listening to your heart and following your dream. It's never too late.
Tags: The Alchemist Paulo Coelho
Isn't this a cool picture?
I took this picture last Saturday night when I went on the Yankee Lady III (Map) boat which cruised around the Toronto Harbour, Ontario Place and the 13 Toronto Islands. This picture is out of focus and skewed, but I thought it turned out quite interesting.
I had a great time on the boat cruise (dinner, dancing, seeing the sites) and snapped some good pictures of the Toronto skyline from the boat.
Here's a couple more pictures that I thought were pretty good:
It was evening when I snapped this picture from the top deck of the Yankee Lady III boat and it was cool that night (not like today when it's 40 degrees with the humidity). Last weekend was perfect boating weather, IMO.
Seeing Toronto from the water gives you a different perspective. Look how big the CN Tower and the Rogers Center looks in this picture. Very impressive.
If you're planning on visiting Toronto, I would really recommend seeing the city by water, it's a pretty fun and interesting way to see Toronto.
Don't know if you heard the news or not, but apparently the infamous book of Bill Swanson's titled 'Swanson's Unwritten Rules of Management' was not wholly authored by Bill Swanson - he plagarized most of it from a 1944 book by engineer W.L. King called "The Unwritten Rules of Engineering".
Here's my original post from August 2005 on the Unwritten Rules of Management.
Check out the ChangeThis manifesto by Tom Ehrenfeld titled "The Rewritten Rules of Management" on why this latest lack of integrity should be a major concern for us all in today's business world. It's quite an interesting read.
I came across a couple of self-publishing or publish on demand sites that I thought I would share.
As you may have read here, a couple of months ago I self-published my Mother's poems and provided everyone in the family with a copy of the book. It turned out fantastic and as this was something that I had always wanted to do for my family, I don't have to live with the regret of not completing this goal any longer.
Even though it's in beta, Blurb.com looks like a really really easy way to self-publish your book. You can even use one of their book templates if you didn't want to design your own book from start to finish. You have to install their software on your computer, but as the site says: What will your book be? Start-to-finish publishing software simple and smart enough to make you an author. The prices seem pretty reasonable, too, at $29.95 for a 40 page colour book. I'm waiting until they complete their blog template before I decide to take the plunge and self-publish some of my blog posts for members of my family who don't own a computer.
Another site that is pretty cool is the Lulu.com site that allows you to not only publish your books but also you can publish other products such as calendars, videos, images, music and audio and then sell those products on Lulu's site. There is a ton of stuff to check out at Lulu.com. The Lulu.com site is a more robust site that offers so much more than just publishing your book, they have marketing services links that provide you with everything you need to design, market, publish, graphic designers, and get your book sold on their site. The site has a wide selection of books and other products that authors have used Lulu.com to create. Thinking of writing a non-fiction book? I noticed quite a few non-fiction titles in their Top 100 books.
Everyone wants to be an author and everyone has a unique voice. If you are thinking of self-publishing or publishing on demand, check out the links.
Tags: Blurb Lulu Self-publishingI went to Montreal over the Victoria Day May long weekend. Check out my new Montreal photo album for some of the pictures that I took. I had never been to Montreal before and had always wanted to visit there since it's only about a 5 hour drive from Toronto and it's supposed to be such a beautiful city. I wasn't disappointed and had a great time while we were there.
We stayed in the downtown Novatel Hotel, which was really impressive with its helpful staff service, large rooms, and its central location. We were able to walk to a lot of places downtown or to the Metro to take the subway to visit the tourist spots from our hotel.
I picked up the Top 10 Montreal & Quebec City book before the trip and managed to visit a lot of the Top 10 places, including:
The highlight of the trip was seeing the Notre-Dame Basilica of Montreal. What a spectacular sight! If you are planning on going to visit Montreal, this is one place that should be on the top of your list of sites to see. There was so much to take in at the Basilica - the stained-glass windows, the Sanctuary and Altar, the Pulpit, the Casavant Organ, the amazing bronze Daudelin Sculpture, and all the rest of the artwork and sculptures. Simply breathtaking. I'm so glad that we were able to go inside (cost $4) and view this magnificent structure.
Walking around Old Montreal was another highlight of the trip and gave us a feel for the culture of Montreal. The narrow cobblestone pathways and quaint shops lining the streets gave a glimpse of what Montreal used to be like. When I visited New York earlier this year, it felt like I could have still been in Toronto, but I didn't get that impression while I was in Montreal. You knew that you were in a different city, not only because of the French signs everywhere and the people speaking French, but because of the culture and architecture of a lot of the buildings. Montreal is quite unique in Canada. They say that Quebec City is like a European city, but since I have never been there before, I think I know a little of what they mean by visiting Montreal. The history of the city jumps out at you everywhere. They certainly know how to honour their people and the city is very proud of its past.
Montreal is a very friendly place to visit. We had great service everywhere we went, from the hotel staff, the waiters/waitresses in the restaurants we visited, the shop owners, the Metro station operator, casino staff, and local people. English was spoken everywhere, which was good although throwing in a a Merci and Bonjour was appreciated.
I would certainly recommend visiting Montreal if you are looking to absorb some culture and see some spectacular sites.
Tags: Montreal
From "The Power Principle : Influence With Honor" by Blaine Lee:
"The principle of "next time" is one of the most pratical, liberating concepts that can help you change your orientation to influencing other people. If you focus on the past, all you do is feel bad. A different future can be created. Next time I can be wiser. Next time I can try harder. Next time, if I see things differently, I can respond differently. There is hope in "next time". The positive approach to discipline focuses 20 percent on what went wrong, and 80 percent on what could be different next time".
Just something to think about. I know I've been thinking of what I can do differently "next time".
I'm still thinking of the INXS concert that I went to on Sunday night (May 14th) at the Air Canada Centre (along with 15 000 other people). What a performance!
INXS is on tour to promote their new album, Switch and is made up of Andrew, Tim and Jon Farriss, Kirk Pengilly, Garry Beers and J.D. Fortune.
I was hooked on the TV reality show "Rock Star: INXS" last summer as many, many other people also were and was very happy that a fellow Canadian, J.D. Fortune, won the show to become the band's new lead vocalist.
Okay, I admit it, I didn't think he would win last summer, but am really glad that he did. I absolutely loved the "Pretty Vegas" song that he co-wrote with the band's guitarist Andrew Farriss and seeing the band perform the song live was fantastic, if a little surreal as I can remember watching them perform it on TV last summer. But, nothing compares to seeing the band's hour-and-35-minute live performance.
I think J.D. was born to be on stage and be a singer. It got me thinking that it must also be surreal for him to be fronting a major band like INXS as it wasn't too long ago that he was living out of his car when he heard that INXS was looking for a new lead singer and was holding auditions for the Rock Star: INXS TV show. It's amazing and motivating to me how fast he turned his life around. I know that a lot of people were very impressed with his performance on the show, even though sometimes his antics were considered to be very arrogant and selfish. But, you can also say that he was confident in his abilities and wanted the lead singer position more than any one else on the show. You can tell his hunger was more pronounced than the other contestants/singers.
I also think there's a lesson there. If you want something bad enough, have the talent to back up your words and actions, are hungry enough, and believe in yourself, you can achieve your dreams.
Just something to think about.
I finally took the plunge and bought myself a flat panel monitor. Whippee! Is it ever gorgeous!
Dell was offering some amazing deals for the first week of May and I picked up their "UltraSharp 2007WFP 20.1-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor" for $429CAD (with tax it came to $493) and didn't pay for shipping. It was regular $649 plus tax. I think it was a good deal at the time. Within two weeks the monitor was delivered and setup. Here's a picture of it on my desk:
It takes up so much less space than my older 17" Dell CRT monitor. What a difference!
Because it's a widescreen monitor, I popped in one of my widescreen DVD movies. Watching a widescreen movie on a widescreen monitor makes a huge difference. Now you can see how the directors wanted to make the movie, without the fullscreen distortion. It's like having another TV, since my actual TV is only a 19" model. Can you tell where my priorities lie? 
You have to get used to the widescreen aspect of the monitor since webpages are sometimes either stretched to fill the screen or as you can see in my picture above, there are great big side panels on each side of the web page.
Here are the specs if you are interested: Dell UltraSharp 2007WFP 20.1-inch Widescreen Flat Panel LCD Monitor. What I really like, beside the huge 20.1" screen, is the USB ports on the side of the monitor. No more swapping USB peripherals on my PC. I also really like that I can add a PVR PCI card to my machine and use it with the new monitor to actually watch TV on my computer. I may do that shortly, especially now that I have space with the new 160GB hard drive that I bought late last year.
It's the small things that make one happy.
My Mother has written poems all her life and one of the things that I've always wanted to do was to give her an actual book of her poetry. Last month, I was able to accomplish this major life goal of mine by self-publishing her poems.
Here is a picture of my Mom's books on the day the order arrived. Talk about exciting! The book turned out better than I ever expected. You cannot imagine the thrill of holding a "real book" in your hands, until you self-publish. No wonder so many people self-publish and want to be authors! It's quite thrilling to hold the finished product in your hands.
Here's a close-up of the spine and cover:
I had always wanted to do this for my Mom and as an keepsake for each member of my rather large family. I had originally wanted to give the book for my Mom's 70th Birthday (which was 3 years ago). When the opportunity presented itself to self-publish her poems, of course I did was so happy to be able to do this for her, for my family, and also for me. My Mother's health is failing and I did not want to live with the regret of not having my Mom's poems in a book form so that everyone in the family and her close personal friends could have a copy of her beautiful poetry.
You cannot imagine the reaction to the book in my family - everyone is so thrilled with it. Of course, I am too! This is something that can be passed down from generation to generation in our family. My Mom is already a great-grandmother and one day her great grandchildren can remember their "Noni" by reading her beautiful poetry.
Here's one of my Mom's poems that I particularly like:
Thoughts
Sometimes I lie awake and think about things
How mountains grow and streams run
Silly thoughts, serious thoughts fill my mind
And leave me with an appetite for more
A thirst, a craving of what, why and how?
This often escapes me and I become
Impatient for this knowledge
For when can I grasp as much as my cup will hold
Then shall I know where lies my futureRita G. Ruby
The book was relatively easy and painless to get self-published. I worked with a graphic designer to design the cover page and the spine. I had already typed up all the poems (54 pages of them) and ordered them into chapters. I also wrote the page page, describing the book of my Mom's poems. The graphic designer worked with the printing company to print the pages and with the binding company to perfect bind the book. We also included two pages of colour photographs of different stages of my family. We only have a handful of pictures of everyone in the family in one picture.
All in all, it was so worth the time and money to be able to self-publish my Mom's book of poetry. If you have been thinking of self-publishing your own writings or someone in your family's writings, I really encourage you to do so. From start to finish, the book took only about six weeks and for 50 copies, it was under $1000. The money means nothing - the relief of not having the regret of not doing this for my Mom and for my family is priceless. The joy of actually holding the final book, knowing the happiness that it would bring my Mom and my sisters and brother, cannot be described. Self-publishing a book is pretty cool!
Don't live with the regret of not looking into self-publishing, if this has been something that you've wanted to do. If I can do it, then so can you.
Tags: Self-Publishing Poetry
Another very interesting poll today on the Globe and Mail site:
Sort of says it all, doesn't it? I voted 'Yes", by the way.
Google has done it again!
Google has launched Google Mars, in celebration of the 151st birthday of astronomer Percival Lowell, who studied the Red Planet for more than two decades. This is a pretty impressive feat with collaboration with NASA researchers Noel Gorelick and Michael Weiss-Malik from Arizona State University and the team at Google.
Check out some of the 11 spacecraft landings on Mars such as the the Mars Landers and Viking Landers:
The site has great links to images of the spacecraft and articles.
Google Mars shows three types of data layers for Mars, including Elevation (a shaded-relief map displaying altitude), Visible (A mosaic of images taken by the Mars Orbiter Camera ) and Infrared (according to Google this makes this the sharpest global map of Mars that's ever been made).
Google Mars also displays Mars Regions, Mountains, Canyons, Dunes, Plains, Ridges and Craters, in addition to the Spacecraft landings and stories about Mars.
Google continues to fascinate us with their mapping collaborations, including Google Moon (http://moon.google.com/), Google Earth (http://earth.google.com/) and of course, Google Maps (http://maps.google.com/).
Now, with Google Mars (http://www.google.com/mars/), they've extended their reach farther into the universe. One can only wonder what will they think of next?
This is a great resource if you are interested in Mars. As you know, Bush has pledged to send a man to Mars
Tags: Google Mars Mars
I spent yesterday in New York. Check out some of the pictures I took on my New York 2006 photo album.
We left Toronto by a charter bus on Friday night at around 10:00 PM and arrived in New York around 7:30 AM Saturday morning. After a hearty breakfast at Pom Pom's (which was delicious), a group of us thought that we would brave the New York subway to take in some shopping at Century 21 - the discount department store which was recommended. Of course, we took the wrong subway and lost about an hour or so and had to backtrack, but we finally made it. I must say that I was really disappointed in Century 21. To me, this was like Winners - except bigger and not as clean. My friend bought a pair of running shoes for $50 and a pair of Micheal Kors sunglasses for $10, but I didn't buy anything while I was there.
We then went to see Ground Zero, which is just across the street from Century 21. There were a lot of people walking around and seeing the big empty space where the Twin Towers once stood. That was one of the highlights of the trip.
Another highlight of the day trip was going up to the 86th floor of the Empire State building. This was one of the best parts of the trip. It was super windy up on the observation floor, but a must-see if you are going to New York. The views were amazing, as you can see from some of my pictures posted. It only cost $16 to go up, or you can pay an additionally $14 to go to the 102nd floor. Being up 86 floors was high enough for me. Part of the walk-way was closed, as it was just too windy and cold, but most was open to the public. There was also a store on the 86th floor and I picked up some Empire State building souvenirs.
After a few hours at the Empire State building (there were lots of people going up, and there was security everywhere, but the lines moved along really fast), we then walked around Times Square and took in all the fascinating billboards and interesting shops. Walking along Broadway Avenue and 5th Avenue was great!
For dinner we went to a local TGIF's - they don't have that chain here in Toronto. Wow, was it ever pricey but I guess that's because the restaurant was located near Times Square. But, the food was really good and we enjoyed ourselves.
We ended up at the Social Bar and Restaurant on 8th Street and had a great time relaxing and socializing before we boarded the bus on the way back to Toronto.
Although the weather wasn't the greatest - it was a little cold and windy, we all were impressed by the lack of homeless people on the street. I think we only saw two homeless people the whole time we were there. Plus, there were no altercations on the street or mugging incidents or anything like you hear about. There were lots of tourists, that's for sure. Since we stayed around the downtown core area, we didn't run into any problems. If you go off the beaten path though, then perhaps it wouldn't be as safe. Oh, and we were also very impressed by the cabs and cab drivers. Taking a cab from the Brooklyn Bridge to Times Square only cost us $11 total. That's quite a bargain!
My first trip to New York wasn't very long, but it sure gave me a taste of what New York has to offer and I can't wait to return to spend more time there.
Malcolm Gladwell has a blog! Malcolm Gladwell's a blogger, too!
Check it out here: http://gladwell.typepad.com/
I bought and read both books. Very interesting reads.
Welcome to the blogosphere!
I hope TypePad can handle all your traffic!
As you probably already know, Gladwell wrote the fascinating book, "Blink" in 2005. He also wrote "The Tipping Point" in 2000.
Tags: Malcolm Gladwell
I went to the 2006 Canadian International AutoShow yesterday to see all the latest models and to have some fun. The Show has been on since February 17-26, 2006.
The 2006 Show was held at three locations this year; the Metro Toronto Convention Center North and South Buildings, plus the Rogers Center. I haven't been to an AutoShow in Toronto before, nor have I been to the Rogers Center (formerly Air Canada Centre) and had a great time seeing all the latest models, some very classic and restored cars and a few concept cars. There were tons of people walking around and taking in the sights of all the cool cars. Today's the last day for the show and I'm glad that I was able to go this year.
Isn't this a beautiful Aston Martin?
Me and my friend loved being able to sit in some of the cars that were on display. We really liked the SmartCar. It's a lot roomier than you would think.
Check out my new photo album for some of the pictures I took at the 2006 Canadian International AutoShow here in Toronto.
This is the first year in a long, long time that I've had a special someone to spend my Valentine's Day with and I just want to tell him that I'm very happy that he's in my life and that we have each other. 
Happy Valentine's Day !
This is my 200th post! I can hardly believe that I've written so many posts on so many different topics.
I have learned so much over the course of the year that I've had this blog, not just about blogging and internet-related technologies, but on a whole variety of interesting and sometimes quite fascinating subjects.
My first post was on February 12th, 2005 and was aptly named Firsts. I missed my one-year anniversary of blogging (sorry, was quite busy yesterday), but am taking this opportunity to save Thank You to all my readers over the last year. 
I've had some really interesting commentary on some of my posts and have met some highly-articulate and fascinating fellow bloggers through this site (you know who you are!). I know that I haven't posted as frequently of late, but I'm hoping things will calm down in my personal life and that I can post more regularly soon.
Thanks for sticking around and I hope you won't be disappointed as I continue to write about items that I think are interesting, thoughtful or cool.
I've uploaded some very nice pictures from my visit last month to Casa Loma here in Toronto. Check them out on my Casa Loma photo album. I think I took some great pictures of the castle itself, the many rooms, the great view of Toronto, and the many historic items on display.
We went on a very cold and windy Saturday afternoon to see the historic castle Casa Loma since I have never been there before and have always wanted to go. It's nice to be a tourist in your own city sometimes.
It's a very interesting place to visit if you are planning on coming to Toronto or even if you live near Toronto and haven't been there for a while. It's definitely worth the $12 entrance fee to see the historic site where the original owner, Sir Henry Pellatt, worked with the Canadian architect E. J. Lennox to build the largest and most expensive private home in North America for its time. They started in 1911 and it took over 3 years and $3.5 million to build the "house on the hill". As you can see from the photo album, the castle is quite a majestic sight with turrets and battlements. There is even a long tunnel that connects the castle to its stables and garage.
We walked through the three floors of the castle and the many rooms that have been preserved for over three hours. There were many people from around the world visiting the castle and there were several wedding groups getting their pictures taken in the absolutely gorgeous conservatory and library rooms. The conservatory (see my pictures in the photo album) was so beautiful.
Another highlight of the tour was Lady Mary Pellet's bedroom, she was quite an elegant lady and served as the first Commissioner of the Girl Guides of Canada. There were several items from the early period of the Girl Guides preserved, which was quite interesting to me because I rememer being a 'Brownie' when I was young girl.
Sir Henry was very involved in the military, particularly the Queen's Own Rifles, and there were many historic military items on display throughout the castle, too.
We're planning on going back for another visit since I hear that the gardens of Casa Loma are absolutely spectacular in the spring and summer. I'll upload more pictures then.
Check out the official site: Casa Loma
I noticed something new on my Gmail account this morning:
Gmail has added the ability to Chat within its email client. If you are on Google Talk, now when you log into Gmail you'll find a list of your chat contacts on the left-hand side of the window, and you can see who's online and start chatting with them. Having the chat option within Gmail allows you to save, search for, and view your chat histories just like your Gmail messages.
Gmail is integrating this to their millions of users in the next few weeks. I was pleasantly surprised that I my account had the Chat feature today. Pretty cool!
Thanks Robert for the early tip on this cool integration feature.
Tags: Gmail Chat
It's 2006 and time for reflection. It's hard to for me to fathom all the changes that have happened in my life over the past year. I think that I will remember 2005 as one of the best years of my life, despite the downs that periodically occurred. Overall, the highs over the last year outweighed the negatives.
I started this blog on February 12, 2005 and I'm coming up on 200 posts (which may not seem a lot to many people, but I think it's a lot of writing and reading). I've learned so much over the last year. I hope you have, too.
In looking over the last year, I've selected what I feel is the best post or two from each month. Best as in what I enjoyed writing or felt that was perhaps overlooked.
February 2005 : Our Unique Gift
March 2005: One Minute Millionaire, Part II and Small Acts of Revenge
April 2005: Perception is Reality and Winning the Lottery
May 2005: Mapping Crimes in Chicago
June 2005: Expect Help and Pay Attention
July 2005: Commencement Speech by Steve Jobs and Guns, Germs and Steel - Jared Diamond
August 2005: Orson Scott Card, Ender's Saga, and Advent Rising
September 2005: Google Earth and National Geographic and Taking Advantage of NOW and Blog Q&A
October 2005: Increasing Rudeness! and Viva Las Vegas!
November 2005: Canadian Historic Sites and Maps and Yes, Yes, Yes Saying Yes More
December 2005: Great Canadian Places
Stay tuned for another great year of blogging!
Merry Christmas! to all my faithful readers in 2005. Thank you so much for contributing to my blog this year!
Sorry for the lack of posts lately, but you see, earlier this month I received the best Christmas gift I ever could have received and I've been having a wonderful time with him.
I'm also on holiday this week, so I'm not sure how many posts I can write, but I hope that you've found my writings to be cool, interesting or thoughtful and I'm looking forward to sharing my new posts of 2006 with you.
I came across this site, Great Canadian Places, on CANOE because it mentioned Old Fort William. Have you heard of Old Fort William? It's a restored historic Fort located in Thunder Bay, Ontario - my hometown. In fact, Old Fort William is one of the largest historical reproductions in North America with 43 buildings spread over 25 acres. It's a fantastic place to visit if you are interested in seeing how people actually lived and worked in the 1800s. The Great Canadian Places site has some good pictures and movies of the Fort. Fort William and Port Arthur amalgamated into Thunder Bay in 1970.
I worked a summer at Old Fort William. Well, not at the Fort itself but on the landscaping surrounding the tourist centre before you enter the Fort. Everyone who works at the actual Fort site has to be in authentic historic garb and speak and act as if it was the 1800s. The visitors to the site are exposed to the life of an authentic fur-trading post. The teepees where the Ojibwe Indians lived and where they made fur items were just outside the Fort's walls and visitors were also able to see how the local aboriginal peoples lived. There are many people who are employed as fur traders, doctor, voyageurs, canoe makers, bakers, blacksmiths and others who made the Fort a valuable and authentic trading and military post. It's a great educational place to visit.
Check out the site to see other Great Canadian Places, including Dawson City, Gulf of Georgia Cannery, Nan Sdins, Skoki Ski Lodge, Bar U Ranch, Wanuskewin, Algonquin Park, HMCS Haida, Pointe-au-Pere, Quebec City, Old Town Lunenburg and L'Anse aux Meadows.
For more information on Old Fort William check out these links:
http://www.fwhp.ca/index2.html -> The official site for Old Fort William
I checked out the Glypho site on the advice of its founder, Ambika Sukla, and found the site to be a very unique way of collaborating with other writers and those that aspire to write.
"Glypho is modelled after a novel writer's thought process. A writer first thinks of a theme, then concocts interesting characters, and then creates plot twists to weave these characters into his story. Glypho opens this thought process for large-scale brainstorming and collaboration. In Glypho, anyone can submit a story theme or synopsis. Other users then can throw in plot and character ideas. Once there are a few ideas floating around, one or more members can write their own version of the first chapter. Other members can review the chapters to help the writers refine. Readers rate the contributions to select the best for the first chapter. Once the first chapter is selected, the second chapter is opened for brainstorming and this way the story develops chapter by chapter." - Ambika Sukla
I can see a lot of people being motivated by the collaboration aspect of this site. Those with writer's block can use the site to garner feedback from people all over the world on their story ideas. As a member you can rate stories, browse character and plot ideas, and contribute your own story ideas. You can test-drive your stories and see what other ideas people have for the direction of your characters and plots.
Oh, and your ideas are under the copyrighted under the Creative Commons licence.
I checked out the site and read some of the stories - they're grouped under Scifi, Romance, Mystery, Fantasy, Humor, Adventure, and Drama. There's plenty to choose from. Oh, and not all of the stories are written in English, either, so you if you are interested in reading other languages, you may be interested in this site.
I found that some of the writings are of the highest calibre and they really engage you so that you want to read the entire story. Only, most of them aren't finished yet! That's your job. The authors need you to read, dream, write and contribute your ideas on the story to help guide the story to its completion.
Any aspiring writers out there should definitely check Glypho out. Not just for writing, but for reading, too.
Very cool and unique approach to collaborative story writing.
Tag: Glypho
Just a quick post about a new site that I found called Diggdot.us which is a pretty cool site that combines articles and blog posts from Digg, Slashdot and the popular page from del.icio.us into one site and avoids duplicate entries. That's pretty cool.
This site saves a lot of time and you should definitely subscribe to its RSS feed.
Tag: Diggdot.us
Time has come out with their 2005 list of the coolest web sites.
A sampling of their top sites in each category includes:
As a bonus they have also provided a primer on blogging: So You Want To Be a Blogger?
Go to the Time site for the complete list of top coolest sites for 2005. I was pleasantly surprised to recognize a lot of the sites, and have even posted about some of them. It's also great to have discovered some new sites that are worth exploring.
Interested in Canadian history? Here are some great ways to learn about Canada and its geographic history.
Canadian Geographic magazine has a really cool site called Historic Maps of Canada showing how Canada has transformed throughout its history from the 1700s to the 20th Century. It's very interesting to see how our great country has changed throughout the decades. And, you learn a little bit of our history by reading the notes associated with the maps. Did you know that Canada's first Prime Minister was Sir. John A. Macdonald? I did because History was one of my favourite subjects in school (Geography being the favourite, of course).
If you are interested in historic Canadian landmark maps, such as legislative buildings and military sites, then the Canadian History News blog has a great list you should check out. Here's the Google Map for the Manitoba Legislature in Winnipeg:
By the way, I lived in Winnipeg for 4 years while I attended the University of Manitoba to obtain my degree in geography and I have fond memories of that city.
The Atlas of Canada site is another great Canadian mapping resource. This is a huge mapping site with many interactive features and tons of useful and interesting maps. The site has organized their maps into various categories including Environment, People & Society, Economy, History, Climate Change, Freshwater, Health, Reference Maps, and Archive Maps. One of my instructors at Ryerson worked on this site and the team did a fantastic job. The site has a huge selection of maps and is organized very well.
The Atlas of Canada site also offers free data and mapping services for all of Canada. Did you know that Canada is #3 in the world for diamonds? Check out this map showing kimberlite deposits in Canada from the Atlas site. Cool!
I would love one to have a EKATI diamond. We have to support our homegrown industries, right? Seriously, these EKATI diamonds are so beautiful and I get a thrill knowing that they came out of my country. Did you also know that the EKATI Diamond Mine was the first diamond mine in Canada? (EKATI diamonds are now known as AURIAS). They are so beautiful!
Check out the above mapping resources if you are interested in seeing the history of Canada through maps.
It's that time again - here's a mixed collection of items that caught my eye this week that I thought were either interesting or cool.
This article caught my eye today: Blogs Finally Get Business Savy by Greg Lindsay.
"It can't be said anymore that blogging isn't a business. The problem now may be that blogging has too many business models to choose from. "
The various business models include the following:
Greg states that "Yes, blogging is a business. But what kind?" Good question! Anyone have the answer?
Mathew Ingram of the Globe and Mail asks: Is the Bubble Back? Another good question! It appears that despite the frenzy of the latest round of buyouts, takeovers and Internet mergers "the interest in new Web-based business is far from being as manic as the sky-high dreams of Internet dominance were back in the late 1990s."
I, for one, would love to have those old days back. It was great being in IT during the dotcom years. Well, then again, after the boom came the bust, so maybe we're better off not repeating history.
Because I've been thinking about my career a lot lately, here's an interesting article from Fast Company: Cracking Your Next Company's Culture
"...there are other stealth (and very legal) ways to get beyond the glossy surface and make sure any potential employer's sales pitch matches up with reality" including these great tips:
Final advice: "Remember, an organization has no obligation to make things work for you. You have to make things work for you." Excellent advice!
Another interesting article from Fast Company regarding future trends: The Future's So Bright
What kind of technology is making the Future So Bright?
My gamer friends would certainly agree with the video-game advertising business model.
Is the Digg social-networking site going to bury Slashdot? Maybe, according to this article on Wired.
"Digg is quite different from (older) sites," said founder Kevin Rose. "Slashdot is put together by an editorial board. Digg uses the collective wisdom of the masses and, consequently, news breaks faster."
Don't know what Digg is? Check it out here: http://www.digg.com/ It's definitely worth checking out if you haven't already as the articles are submitted by bloggers and voted on by bloggers rather than a board of editors like at Slashdot. I don't think Digg will busy Slashdot as Slashdot has a different audience than those at Digg. There's enough room in the blogosphere for both sites.
Really interesting article about the demise? of Google over at Slate: The Great Google Wipeout Chronicle of a corporate death foretold by Jack Shafer. Only the future will know if Google's future spirals as Jack believes.
Another interesting article from the Globe and Mail about Freshdaily - "Toronto-based Freshdaily Inc. has announced the launch of Canada's first national blog network including city blogs in Vancouver, Montreal, Toronto and Mississauga, Ont. Each blog reports on local culture and happenings including coverage of music, film, the arts, fashion, food and urban issues."
It's certainly one to keep an eye on.
Here's one for the annals of Life's Little Annoyances and how one retired fellow got his revenge on VISA by making multiple payments in pennies.
Speaking of Life's Little Annoyances and Revenge and Rudeness, did you see this book by the author of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves? (Which I bought and thought was pretty interesting). Now, the author Lynne Truss is fed up with rudeness and is telling everyone to "Talk to the Hand: The Utter Bloody Rudeness of the World Today, or Six Good Reasons to Stay Homeand Bolt the Door" Right on!
You've read Malcom Gladwell's book Blink, right? Well, pretty soon you can also watch the movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Let's hope the movie is as good as the book.
What did you find interesting this week?
I must say that I'm very impressed with the service I've received from Apple. It didn't take them very long for them to send me the packaging box and then send me my replacement iPod through courier express. Only one week has since my iPod totally crashed and I had to send away for a replacement. I don't know how the heck I survived without one, since I missed it terribly. 
I'm really happy that I got another unit, and am not so happy that it had to be replaced in the first place.
But, I'm not very happy that now I have to rip all my CDs onto my computer and then transfer them onto the iPod through iTunes. This is taking me forever!
I guess I should be happy that, for the most part, I do have all the CDs for my music. It looks like I will have to get copies of some of the audio books that I had because I had to delete them off my hard drive when I was freeing up space. Thankfully, I now have that huge 160GB hard drive that I installed a couple of weeks ago. I guess I will have to prioritize what goes on the iPod this time.
It looks like I know what I'll be doing for the next few evenings... I hope to finish in a couple of days, so postings will be pretty light until then. Stay tuned.
Now, this is a pretty darn cool and very useful Google Mashup!
Gchart gives you the current time, country code, and area code(s) in any place around the world. You can click on the map to find the location or use the Search text box to enter a city/country.
Very, very cool!
Tags: Gchart Google Mashup
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