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Well this is a fine how do you do. I finally found the one application that makes me wish I’d gotten an iPhone. If only Nokia would make a version of their blogging software that cooperated nicely with WordPress.

A blogger can dream…

At some point last night, I got the crazy idea that it would be fun to ride my bike into work in the morning.

Fun.

Now, I’m no stranger to cycling, and I do love tooling around the seawall or taking long rides through the country on my bike. For the most part, I’ve never ridden in heavy traffic, save for the traffic that crawls along W. 10th Ave. between 4:30 - 5:30 pm each day. The thought of riding through traffic, or worse still, trying to cross one of Vancouver’s bridges on my bike kept me from venturing downtown on two (self-powered) wheels. Put me on my scooter and I don’t think twice about it, but on a bike? The best way to describe it would be white-knuckled fear.

Today I decided to face that fear head on. I suited up, inflated my tires, packed my laptop, makeup, a change of clothes shoes, and gathered up every ounce of reserve I had to make it across that bridge, and you know what?

view from the Cambie Street Bridge, Vancouver

It  wasn’t that bad. In fact, it was quite good.

Other than a few wrong turns caused by poor signage and construction weirdness, and a pushy woman in an (ugly) yellow Miata who cut me off because she was in such a honking hurry to make a right turn, the ride went smoothly.

Of course, this was at 7:45 am - there’s no telling what I’ll be in for during the ride home at the height of rush hour.

Do you have any bike commuting tips to share with this newbie? Have you had a close call (or confrontation) with an irate motorist? Do tell!

Seen at the Fido retail store on the corner of Robson & Seymour Streets:

I don’t know that we can read much into this; after all, it is early (these photos were taken at approximately 8:30pm). Still, I can’t help wonder if our collective outrage over Rogers’ extortionist data plans has really had an effect on our enthusiasm.

What are the lines like in your neck of the woods?

Herald Sun05 Jul 2008

I’m not a tennis fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I am certainly a fan of these two strong, beautiful, powerful women.

After reading Kera Bolonik’s Salon article about new wave music and how it gave her the courage to embrace her lesbian sexuality, I couldn’t help but think about the music I listened to when I was a sexually ambiguous, confused teenager who was filled with longing, uncertainty, and a face full of acne. In response, I offer my “I’m Coming Out” mixtape.

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After watching this promotional video for the Nokia N82, I understand why Ms. Jen makes a distinction between creators and consumers. I also understand why, in its current incarnation, an iPhone just isn’t for me.

One of the many by-products of increased FriendFeed use is that I’ve started looking for new ways to drive the conversations I’ve had there to this space. As a result, I’ve integrated Intense Debate comments on all posts from this post forward.

I don’t know how this will affect the commenters who are currently subscribed to my blog; after all, it’s one more service for you to sign up for (unless you use OpenID), which means your online identity gets dispersed across yet another service. There’s also the not insignificant matter of content/comment ownership when comments live in a hosted system. Should I decide to disable Intense Debate at some point in the future, I can export my comments, but does that mean the comments belong to me (and to the original commenter)? Do they now own the content because it lives on their servers?

Because you’re a part of this small community, I’d like to hear from you what you think about Intense Debate and related services. Have I introduced a barrier to your participation in this blog? Do you care where your comments end up, and if so, why?

This post could be subtitled “Or: where the hell have you people been in the last 9 years?”

I’ve been blogging a long time and across several different domains, although always under my real name. I’ve built solid relationships with people through blogging and by virtue of being connected to a super-connected person. I have a blogfam, and it’s a beautiful thing.

What I’ve never really had, however, is an audience.

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Meet MARV.

MARV - short for Mobile Assault Reading Vehicle - is our library’s latest attempt to bring new kinds of content to the library’s website.  MARV is made up of a first generation Flip Video camera, a Gorillapod tripod, two bike lights (one at the front, and one at the rear) a book, some rubber bands, inspiration, and a whole lot of mischief.

Kay, the Virtual Services librarian, had the bright idea that it would be great if we could film the inner workings of Translogic, the library’s conveyor system that transports books and other materials between departments. I’m known as somewhat of a gadget geek in the department, so when Kay told me about the project, I of course volunteered my camera and the tripod. Together with a couple of colleagues, we came up with MARV’s initial design, and set about trying to film what happens when a book is dropped in the internal and external book drops.

Sadly, there were some problems with the prototype; MARV tipped over when we put him down the internal bookdrop, and was too tall to fit in the external slot.  We re-engineered the design and made a second attempt at the outside slot, only to find that we hadn’t secured the camera properly, and the force of the impact caused MARV’s camera to flip forward onto the book cover, resulting in about 2+ minutes of dark footage.

Yet worry not: MARV will rise again.