I haven't posted a blog here in quite some time. As the internet marched forward, most of my online activities have spread out to other sites.
I mostly share links and thoughts via Facebook these days. You can follow me there. I post many things as public, in addition to the new friends-only posts I make.
FB has also become the place where I post most of my photos. However, I still maintain a flickr account where I post more artsy photos.
I just transitioned the server this website is being hosted on to a new one. So I thought I would throw this post up here as a marker for that. Hope you're well :)
2011 was my 6th year attending the Northern Voice personal media conference. I took the opportunity this time to play around more with my DSLR camera. I got to talking with photographer John Biehler about shooting using a fisheye lens, and he was kind enough to lend me his for the second day of the conference.
Fisheye is such a different perspective, it took me some time to get a feel for what it works well on. Here are a few of my favorite fisheye shots from the day (click to enlarge):
See all my photos in my 2011 Northern Voice photoset. The first half were with a 'regular' lens, and the second half are fisheye shots.
Notes from day 1 of the 2010 Northern Voice personal media conference...
Bryan Alexander reminds us inject a sense of mystery into our (digital) lives.
How do you Find Your Voice? Monica Hamburg says "Write, write and keep on writing. Don't be afraid to suck."
Dave Olson says "Take Risks and Hone your Craft with practice. Your voice comes out of your personal experiences."
The Cunting Linguist said "Write for yourself. Create excellent content. Be yourself online and don't pull your punches."
Taylor Loren ended the day with a hilarious take on relationships in the digital age. She had artistic slideshow technique, and maybe works with my cousin.
PPS: A friend of mine recently started a new blog about food and environment issues in Vancouver. I have been quite enjoying it, so check out: None too strong.
I've taken to sharing links and quick posts on my twitter account instead of here. Twitter is a real-time micro-blog network. It lets you write short posts and also watch a feed of messages from people you follow.
People can follow your posts without you following them back, making for an interesting usage slope: how much publishing vs reading. Wildly different uses result.
This blog remains the place for longer writing. A blog is a simple way of creating permanent public webpages. An important tool in the cyberage.
Why do I publish media online? To share information. To entertain. To advertise my business. To advertise causes I believe in. To write the history of my life. To help write the history of humanity.
What about Facebook? I am still a fan of Facebook. I find it useful for events, photos, and entertainment. Facebook remains a walled garden, so it doesn't compete with blogs or twitter for real web publishing. It excels as a more private communications infrastructure.
One of the speakers at Interesting Vancouver scoffed at Facebook as a community tool. Well, my pictures from the last Vancouver Zombie Flashmob were mostly collectively tagged when I added them to the event page on Facebook. That is community building.
After getting interested in the foodie scene mostly thanks to King Casey's erudite yet eminently readable food blog and a xmas gift of the Larousse Gastronomique (Hardcover) from me to Tash (which I've been perusing), I'm slowly getting interested in being hoity-toity with mah food. Thanks, King Casey!
Vancouver is a high-tech city; tons of people here are bloggers. Here's a clearing house of Vancouver based blogs that have ended up in my RSS reader. I don't actually end up reading them all now, but there's good stuff within.
