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Krista B. Blogs the Junos

I met Krista Baliko at a podcasters' meetup last year, (even though neither of us is a podcaster), so I like to watch her progress working at the CBC Mother Corp.

Good to see she's got a blog this week, as she posts about the goings-on in Saskatoon around the JUNO awards. The awards show time has been yo-yo-ing around, while organizers battled with CTV to avoid having the awards broadcast hours past prime time in Atlantic Canada. Sanity has been restored, and the show will start two hours early this Sunday.

Check out Krista's Juno Blog, for some behind the scenes action. I haven't seen any shocking celebrity news there yet. No Nelly Furtado hissy fits about the temperature of her bath. No Jian Ghomeshi throwing a phone at a bellboy.

C'mon, Krista, there's dirt out there to be found, you're just not looking hard enough!

I used to work with Krista's mom. (Hi Joan!)  Also, I'm finally able to provide a bit of link love to my spouse, who is coordinating a JUNO section of the Saskatchewan CBC website. Don't forget to pick up some milk on your way down from Saskatoon, honey.

I was just on the site tonight being a one-person focus group, and thought the photo galleries are the best items so far. Go CBC.

Tags: saskatoon, juno awards, krista baliko, jian ghomeshi, nelly furtado, blogs

Protection for all those Christmas Gadget Gifts

Whenever I lose something, I kick myself for not doing a better job of labelling it, so the finder can return it, if they're so inclined.

So an offer by Trackitback to sell me five of their lost-and-found return stickers for a total of $20 was too good to resist.  (No one in the family needs to know in advance which of their presents will have a free return sticker on it.)

The sticker I put on my digital camera last year doesn't guarantee it will get returned, but it makes it easier for someone to be a good samaritan if they find the camera.  I also added a cash reward, so if someone does return the camera, they'll get about 10% of the value of the camera as thanks.

And here's the best part.  Trackitback has a dirt cheap shipping price for people who aren't in a hurry to get their stickers.  Plus, they billed my credit card in Canadian dollars, saving me the currency conversion fee I get charged when I pay in US dollars.

A no-brainer for a Canadian company to let its customers pay in their own currency?  You'd think so, but there are plenty of companies that don't give you the option.

I have no idea when the Stocking Stuffer Special ends, but there's a $30 5-pack also available.  Even at the regular $10 per sticker price, Trackitbacks are worth it, if they save you replacing even one electronic gadget in your arsenal.

And yes, I do believe there a lot of people out there who would return a lost camera or laptop if they found it.  Just check out the overflowing lost and found boxes in stores, schools and other public places if you don't believe me.

Trackitback is franchised in most English speaking countries, plus Portugal and Mexico.  Items found in any country in the world will be returned, if the finder contacts Trackitback.

Josh Gets the Money Shot for Signage Fetishists

Confesion: I have a thing for signage.  I rave about good signage, and contantly harp about the perils of bad signage.

When I see a new stop sign - without warning signs about the change - all I see is a lawsuit.  When I can barely navigate a parking garage because the signs are hard to read, hard to understand and poorly placed, I vow not to return to that mall (well, for a few months, anyway).

When I speed up after the super speed bumps, only to find out someone mistakenly placed the 50 km/h sign before the last speed bump, instead of after it, I start to fantacize about painful procedures mistakenly performed on city engineers.  (Try going over one of those extra large speed bumps at 50 K when your spouse is recovering from whiplash.  Now go look up pain and suffering in the dictionary.)

So, I'm a signage fetishist.  I'm not ashamed.

I was particularly pleased to come across Josh Hallett's photos from an Ikea.  The signage - like the rest of the store and product design - is simple, elegant and extremely functional.

The spotlight trained on the arrow on the floor is a particularly nice touch.  Thanks for sharing, Josh. His Flickr photos. Check his blog, too.

Tangential linking:  For a different take on design, check out Ross Howard's post about ambient signifiers, and how the use of sound on the Tokyo rail system suggests ways to subtly help website visitors find their way (and no, Ross isn't suggesting musical websites).

Tags:  signage, kea, retail, signs, joshhallett, functionality

Flickr's Open Approach Continues to Pay Off

Every time I try out another third-party tool to view my Flickr photos, the creative options out there reinforces the cool factor in the Flickr brand.

But it's not just my photos I can play around with. All public photos on Flickr are available for anyone to view and sort.

Kevin Dugan pointed me to a site that lets you browse visually by tag, but there are dozens of other ways to play.  Check out some more toys.

We Met 24 Years Ago...

Kelley turned 21 the day we first went out.  I showed up at The Ubyssey production night to take her out for a hamburger at 2 a.m.  Her ex-boyfriend tagged along.  It was her birthday, and (after we dumped Glen) I kissed her on the back doorstep of the house where she was staying on a foamie in the basement.  We moved in together four weeks later.

Evenings out for food have been a touchstone for us ever since.

Tonight we went to Zest, where we had Mahi Mahi with some Monkey Bay chardonnay.  I hung on her words and her energy, just like 25 24 years ago*.

Happy birthday, Kelley Jo.  Happy anniversary.

Photo copyright Ian Smith, Vancouver.

* (I checked Kelley's math, and it was 24 years.  Big party next year, everyone!)

Rewarding Images

  How to cross the street in Brooklyn 
  Originally uploaded by gillicious.

You stay subscribed to some blogs just because you like to be surprised by whatever the person might do.

I came across Gillian Gunson on Flickr, and have subscribed to her blog Gillianic Tendencies for a year now.  Lots of discussion of her cat, her job, her hair.  Lots of self-portraits and angst about her cat, her job, her hair.

And a bright personality that shines through it all, keeping me coming back.

This week I was rewarded with this photo from her recent trip to New York.  Not your average tourist...

Photo by mmonk.

Lee and Sachi - 301 Days and Counting

  Red Rorbu - Lofoten Islands, Norway 
  Originally uploaded by LeeLeFever_TwinF.

I've been following Lee and Sachi Lefever's trip around the world on their The World Is Not Flat site.

Their most recent destination is Norway, with some amazing photos of the fjords and craggy cliffs that drop straight into the water.

I used to read a lot of travel magazines, but not so much any more.  Following this Seattle couple on their journey has been fun, partly because it's not neatly wrapped up into a feature article, with colourful locals and a pithy moral for each location.

I like the fact this is a real couple reporting on their trip, along with contributions by other travellers who want to share their own travel experiences.

Tags: travel, leelefever, photography, blogging, norway

Testing a Zooomr Photo Account

I finally dropped by Zooomr.com and set up an account.  Let's see if the html code works right...

20DollarBill Hosted on Zooomr

Update:  I figured out why I was having trouble displaying the photo.  In Typepad, you have to select "Edit HTML", or you need to click on "Customize the display of this page" and select Plain Text.  Then you can drop in HTML code to your heart's content. Can't believe I've been posting to this blog since the beginning of 2005, and I've only figured that out today...

Hmmm.  The 500-pixels-wide image doesn't display right, so I'll try 240 pixels instead.

It's True - Saskatchewan Is Better than B.C.

I'm not a big football fan, but we got free tickets to the Regina Rams game, and watched part of the domination by Saskatchewan of three B.C. teams this weekend.  Thanks for the tickets, Jill (my investment adviser at Scotia McLeod, who were game sponsors).

Saskatchewan Roughriders 23,  B.C. Lions 20

Regina Rams - 53,   Simon Fraser Clansmen 16

UofS Huskies 35,   UBC Thunderbirds 33 

(We'll just gloss over the fact the Huskies won a squeaker, and the Roughriders won in overtime.  Three wins out of three games is still domination.)

I think the Rams QB in the photo is Campbell Antonini, but let me know if I'm wrong..

Tags: football, cfl, regina rams, roughriders, saskatchewan, huskies, bc, bclions

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Marathon in the Queen City

If Regina was a major North American tourist destination, then naming the marathon here after its nickname would weaken the race's appeal to visitors, who might not know which city it's held in. But because we aren't likely to attract thousands of people from far-flung destinations, I guess calling it the Queen City Marathon doesn't hurt. And at least the name stands out from all the other marathon names in use.

Regina means Queen in Latin, and Regina was named while Queen Victoria was alive.

This was shot Sunday on the bike path behind our house. Click on the photo to see some other shots.

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