If it's the last thing I do?... a singular post for December 2012

~ This is the only post I've slated here for the rest of 2012. ~

One post? Seriously?
Expert opinion suggests updating blogs every day or every 5 days or every week or something. I'm challenging that notion this year: there’s no way any human being needs to feel the need to “publish” something that regularly. Especially during this big holiday month where there'll be no shortage of messages coming at you.
So THIS is the only post I'm planning for the balance of the year.
It's a break.
I hope it's a welcome one.
Because the other thing I read about blogs is to challenge established notions.
Which also jives with Seth Godin's occasional recommend for us to break the system.

~ in case of boredom, break habits ~
You might be here because you followed one of my rabbit-trail posts here and were intrigued. If you're looking for something interesting to look at, some new info to take in... my first notion is "Why?". Perhaps a telling little internal exploration. Speaking of telling little internal explorations, my other thought is: if you're looking for something intriguing/thought-provoking/compelling, it might already be in you.
Consider sitting yourself down with a blank page (or Word doc) and see what you've got in you.
I'm pretty sure it'd be pretty good.
Alternately, you can also feel free to re-visit my posts from the season last year when, ironically, I felt compelled to do the opposite tack and post right on Christmas Day.

~ hey man, let's just chill ~
In the middle of everything that's going on, I'd love for you to just chill.
This is my blanket wish for everyone I love:
to have opportunity to opt a little less into social media, and conversely, a little more into actual in-person socializing. Surround yourself with family and friends. Just be. Relax. Be yourself.

~ my ironic "game" this month ~
I'm also taking as much a break from constant social media checking as I can muster.
Ironically, my social media call-outs are set to go. But they're all pointing here.
Is that a weird part of my game? Does it bug you? Drop me a line and let me know.
Speaking of the game, there'll likely be some big changes to how I post/blog in the New Year. Part of the reason I'm taking this #blogbatical is to re-focus and redefine my communications channels. So please remember me & this space circa Jan 3, 2013!...

~ credit where credit is due ~
The cover image is the first-ever illustrated commission on this blog, courtesy LaJolee, a new local source for Illustration, Design and Illustratorly Merch. Check out the site, there's more fun stuff where this came from. I was super-glad to have collaborated on it.

the end of a #Mo era.

My pretty-close-to-full moustache Mo-Mo, fruit of my month-long #Movember efforts, was posted yesterday on my Movember page.
Thanks to everyone for your support: monetary, in spirit, and otherwise.

Hats off to my brother Hin for:

• setting up our Mo Tang Clan team & prodding me to get involved
• likely topping our team's donations race
• growing a pretty good #HulkHogan for Movember this year
• not only not quitting when we had our grandma's memorial on Nov 22, but working his Mo tactfully into his speech (he impressed our Mom. And that's tough)

I'd post an After but it should be pretty close to that Day 1 picture on my Mo page.
(for you last-minute-ers, there's still a day to give to the cause!).

#Movember Week 3 and quickie fr the only health book I've ever read #DavidAgus #TheEndOfIllness

This is the only health book I've ever read cover-to-cover.
It seemed different.
It also seemed about time I'd done some reading on these lines, now that I'm a Dad.
I grabbed it at my local library so I'm suspecting it's at one near you too.

Seemed appropriate to mention and sort of plug in the middle of my Movember campaign.

The author, Dr David Agus, is a cancer doctor.
I could summarize more but his website has a really nice sell-job. 
Here's page 194, one of the "Health Rule" tip-sheets he ends every chapter with:

Elements of Healthy Style

Health Rule
Eat well. Get your nutrition -including naturally occurring vitamins and minerals - from real, whole food that is as close to nature as possible. Don't trust anything that comes out of a blender, juicer, or glass jar. Buy frozen fruits and vegetables or "fresh flash-frozen" over what many supermarkets sell as just fresh. It's hard to summarize nutritional recommendations in a list, but below is a list of general recommendations. Understanding the complex nature of nutrition is a more important principle, but lists can be helpful tools:
1. Moderation.
2. Eat on a regular schedule - it doesn't matter how many meals, just regular timing. No snacking. (You'll learn the importance of maintaining such strict regularity shortly.)
3. Eat cold-water fish a minimum of three times per week (e.g., salmon, sardines, tuna, rainbow trout, anchovies, herring, halibut, cod, black cod, mahimahi, etc.).
Exception: It's better to avoid fish than to consume any fish that is not recommended by SeafoodWatch.org, which keeps a running record of safe, ocean-friendly seafood.
4. Choose a multicolo(u)red diet.
5. Drink red wine (one glass a night) five nights per week - unless you're at high risk for breast cancer.
6. Eat a good-fat diet - not a low-fat diet.
7. Read Michael Pollan's In Defense of Food - it's the best book on food. 

Kipling's words to inspire a million Mo's #MovemberCanada

via ca.movember.com

Here's a 3min Movember video set to Rudyard Kipling's "If".
Also a subtle-ish reminder that my Mo-gress is posted on my official Movember page.

3 Ways to Make This A Day To #Remember. #RemembranceDay2012

Today is Remembrance Day in Canada and other Commonwealth countries.
The express purpose of the Day is to remember that at the 11:00th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918, World War I hostilities officially ended with a signed treaty. It's often marked by observing a minute of silence at 11:00am every year on November 11.

Remembering war sacrifice is important.
In addition, remembering itself is important, and can apply more broadly.
Especially since Remembrance Day falls on a Sunday this year, it seems appropriate to consider other remembrances that have shaped, or can shape, who we are. 

1. Especially now that I'm a dad, I quite often think back and remember that my parents made a ton of sacrifices to give us a chance at success. My Mom actually got a little choked up thinking she may have failed me in some way in her mothering and I assured her that she didn't. Our family was wrapped up in the turmoil of China post-WWII. It's complicated, yet still has common earmarks of many in our boat: uprooting a young family from Asia to Canada (we landed in Toronto in winter. I was 3 months old. That feat alone is herculean to me). Mom and Dad spent their lives working and saving so we could have every opportunity possible. This strikes me as a good thing to remember.
2. Even more simply: think back to when you said "I should remember this" or "I don't want to forget this." You can hold me accountable to this: assuming my wife doesn't see my blog beforehand, I plan to spring the question on her with roughly this scripting:
   "Hey, do you remember the last few times one of us said, 'hey, we should remember this'?Because it's Remembrance Day today and even though we're supposed to remember war sacrifices, I think it would be nice for us to remember those little things too."
   I actually kind of need this because I vaguely remember my wife saying "we should remember this" and actually can't remember what it was we were supposed to remember. We've been quite short on sleep for the last two years and I think our memory might be affected. And also our memory (yes, that's a joke). 
3. There are some things coming up that I want to remember. I'm currently reviewing a book called Stop With The BS. In it, author Shane Mac references a Tim Ferriss (the Four-Hour Work Week guy) principle:  “It is not our ability to take notes, it is our ability to find them later.” A dead simple idea but so true (in the book and probably on Tim's blog, there's a simple enough remedy). So if I get to it, I plan to have a more indexed system of referring back to notes I've jotted down. Having Evernote on my phone & computer helps. Theoretically. Anyway, point also is to pre-populate some big milestones ahead, which also draws together success-related practices like visualizing and goal-setting.

So there it is: three ways to remember today.
Feel free to comment in and check up on my homework, and add your own thoughts or reactions. Wishing you a memorable day.

the #Movember plan for "#worldDomination" 1min vid

In case you thought Movember was just an excuse for us guys to not shave our upper lips, here's a nice little YouTube post about where some of the funding is going, namely to fund increased worldwide collaboration among Prostate Cancer researchers to combat the #1 cancer affecting men.

I'd say, though, it is nice to have an excuse to halve my shaving time...

My Mo's progress through week 1 is posted on my Mo page if, for some reason, you want to see my moustache grow or, more to the point, you want to give to the cause.

my early pick to win #TheVoice is...

I like NBC's The Voice.
It's one of these shows that part of me feels embarassed to like (possibly a topic for another post).

The show's #UniqueSellingProposition: celebrity judges have their backs turned to the singing contestants. They pick them for their team (almost) solely on their voice (the almost: they also see the crowd's reaction). A few other things that, in my mind, set this show apart, though:
1. Initial quality. Contestants WIN a spot in front of judges. They've already gone through an intense selection process to get there. There's no interest in showing deluded singers and being mean to them, which is such a relief. As a result, the initial blind auditions send home some singers who are still fantastic & talented.
2. Note the phrasing: "their" team. The judges pick the team they coach and thus co-own success. Maroon 5's Adam Levine and country star Blake Shelton coached the first two seasons' winners respectively and are not shy about saying it.
There's probably some HR/Leadership principles at play here. Just sayin'.

So my early pick to win is Trevin Hunte.
Apparently I'm not alone in early-picking him.
It's not so much a professional odds-on prediction as much as a wish: he seems like a really authentic 18-year-old who's got so much talent, he doesn't seem to totally grasp it yet. A big part of his story is a major rejection from an earlier music teacher who didn't believe he could "make it". So he's so genuinely appreciative of every chance he's getting. It was quite touching and telling too: this big 18-year-old kid cried when he won his last televised battle, eliminating a team-member who'd taken him under his wing.

Some aspects of Trevin's story remind me of me at a similar age. I don't put it out there a lot but I had a meagre start in choir singing. I enjoyed being in the background and was okay with not getting solos, but one conductor saw something in me, trained me & put me up there (I shared the stage once with a guy who was semi-pro at the time and became a stellar classically-trained soloist).
I think back fondly to being picked in this way.
I also find it odd that that set of memories didn't really surface while watching any of last season, and really only came back to me while considering Trevin's case.

Wanted to slip this in a little bit before they start the Live Finales tonight.

Someone will win this thing. Someone amazing.
I'm really pulling for Trevin Hunte. Go Trevin! 

The-kind-of-odd-tangent-my-brain-does: I wondered why I wanted to spell Trevin's name with a Y in it and it's because his first name is close to Trayvon Martin's: a sad note in 2012 American events. It'd seem a sort of cosmic redemption for Trevin to win this thing for that reason too.

My wife's early pick is 35-year-old Scottish rocker Terry McDermott.
I think he's a good emotional pick too.

 

Remember remember the 1st of #Movember.

Day 1 of Movember.
I have to tell you I'm joining this movement this year.
I have to tell you because if I don't, you likely won't know I'm trying to grow a moustache until maybe November 26.

Movember is men growing their moustaches throughout November to raise funds and awareness for Men's Health issues. They stem around Prostate Cancer but it's kind of also about us men getting over the barriers to getting checked out by a doctor, because there's a lot of health doo-doo we could prevent if we get checked out early. 

I've never done it before, but this year I'm joining forces with my brother in Toronto, forming the Mo Tang Clan alliance to grow our facial hair(s) for the cause. So far I have my daughter's pic as my Mo pictorial presence. I doubt I can beat the appeal of her fruity Mo.

I'm toying with "thon"-ing the concept: having people pledge an amount for every time someone comments on the 'stache. It's part of the objective of the month, plus I'm curious if anyone would ask. Again, might not be an issue for me till after the 26th...

Anyway, here's my Mo page.
And here's the Mo Tang Clan team page. 

Please give early and often. Thanks for your support!

Dexter: a darkly dreaming post for #Halloween

via youtube.com

I had fond memories of Dexter's Laboratory and was more than pleased to share this cartoon gem with my 21-month-old daughter on the tube. Imagine our surprise when we clicked on the show Dexter and...
...I'm totally just kidding. I can tell the difference (could you imagine, though? I wonder if the show's creators had banked on that kind of snafu...).

I started watching Dexter this fall.
I watched the first 3 episodes of Season 1, then read the plot synopses through Season 6, then watched the Season 7 premier. It was a neat way to go. I was so very glad to see the title sequence had remained the tight-focused innuendo-laden visual (the video posted above) since the beginning. Also, Season 7 ended with the biggest of big reveals (I'll not spoil it if you've yet to catch it...).

In a small nutshell: Dexter is a blood splatter expert for the Miami Police Dep't. He's also a closet serial killer, using his "gift" to moonlight as a killer of other killers. 

Dexter's very much an ordinary guy, just with a talent and unusual affinity for homicide. Not that it makes it hugely forgiveable, but he's become very neat and efficient at it. And therein lies the crux of a fascinating premise: the primal urge for eye-for-eye justice is expressed in fighting darkness with equal and opposite darkness. In the show, it occasionally works out neatly but very often, in individual cases as well as in the overarching story, Dexter's private and public lives are an unbelievable mess to manage, with heart-wrenching collateral damage.

Dexter is based on a short story called Darkly Dreaming Dexter and those words resonate with the spirit of what it is, and with the spirit of today: we all have a dark side which is a bit more allowed to peer through on Hallowe'en.
Sometimes the release is healthy.
When it's out and/or acted upon too much, though, things can get real complicated.

Is this a bagful of candy for #nerds? a post on the primo #HalloweenTreat

Is this the Hallowe'en treat for adults? I got the image here.

There's a lot of scary going on right now.
And I'd planned to blog scary for Hallowe'en.

After some thought, though, I re-discovered a core truth about Hallowe'en that was just a little off the scary obvious: to the target market, kids, Halloween is, in many ways aboutcandy.

Gobs of candy.

Candy by the handful.
Candy by the bagful.
At no other time of year are handfuls and bagfuls the measure of candy. 

I'm not sure if my Hallowe'en experience was typical or not. We not only went for volume, but quality: we pinpointed the primo treats (for us, there were cans of pop, full-size candy bars, and chips) and devised ways to repeat-visit them.

This got me thinking about what a treat would be in marketing.
One adult equivalent is tradeshow swag.

And in that realm, the Lancope light-up ninja sword really stuck with me as a primo treat. To me, Lancope really understood their target (tech nerds at a computer security conference) and treated them to branded merch that tapped into a core essence of both the security product AND the aspiring ninja inside any self-respecting nerd. Kudos to Lancope for suitably equipping their prospective customers (quite possibly for Hallowe'en).

According to my research, witty T-Shirts are a close runner-up for primo nerd swag.

Note: I use the term "nerd" with affection. I love nerds and consider myself one. If I were at this show, I'd either have grabbed one of these swords or been really disappointed when they ran out.

I'll have the scary post go up deeper into Hallowe'en.
Stay safe. Have fun. And please enjoy your gobs of candy responsibly.

something scary at the bottom of the stairs...

See the full gallery on Posterous

At the fairly well-known educational institute I'm currently attending, the above is what greets you when you try to walk out from the main floor in Stairwell 1.

The doors on every floor toggle (arbitrarily?) between a Keep Closed warning and an Alarm Will Sound warning. While I'm about 60% sure that even the Alarm Will Sound ones won't actually sound an alarm when you open it, I'm not about to test this theory out and risk an inadvertant school bell fiasco in the middle of downtown Vancouver. This one looks like it's going to ring about 5 alarms, doesn't it?! Then again, maybe I'm just too easily scared.

Showing this as photo evidence of something that could be made much easier, to encourage the healthiness of walking instead of using the elevator. For me, it was a two-day affair figuring out how to walk the stairs to my regular classroom, and even then I have to change stairwells part way.

I'm almost annoyed enough to send it to Seth Godin's ThisIsBroken.com but the site's pretty old and this doesn't seem quite broken enough. Partly posting her because my mini-experiment kind of works: if you toggle between pictures 1 and 2, you get some approximation of the flashing light scenario down there.

(actually) writing good writing #writingTip @ErnieSchenck2

An old Communication Arts column by Creative Director Ernie Schenck recommended kickstarting creativity and the rhythms of writing by actually re-writing good writing by hand. I haven't taken the time to do this as much as I'd like, and I'm not sure it's improved my writing yet. Still, this was a nice piece I picked up while my hard drive was defragging (IT guys, is that actually a thing?...).

If nothing else, it provides a uniquely intimate look at writing you admire.
(by the way this is Herman, one of my favo[u]rite cartoons of all time)

(creative @dobronski waxes poetic on) Brevity http://t.co/8YiK8FNq

CD Doug Brown's one-sentence post about brevity: http://t.co/8YiK8FNq
I've now exceeded his length by one sentence (edited out a picture though) but I'll leave it at that bc we could likely all use a bit of a breather heading into the weekend...

My birthday: an occasion for all to give thanks

My birthday's a national holiday.

At least it is this year.

And the year I was born.

My birthday's a Monday this year and when that happens, it's Thanksgiving Monday in Canada.

I'm not sure if this happy coincidence has magically made me more thankful.
What I feel in my current season, which is far from problem-free, is still an almost inexplicable appreciation and love for life. 

In general, I'd think most of us like appreciativeness in people.
Genuine gratitude seems to imbue life and positive energy.

A common Thanksgiving question is "What are you thankful for?".

While is a nice question to consider, I propose two variations on the question to refine our Thanksgiving, based on how my own gratitude is shifting:

1

I'll call this thanks of omission: wherever we're at in life, there are infinite circumstances that could be worse for us. I think particularly of the space we're in right now: I have time, energy and resources to write a blog post; you have time, energy and resources to read it. Our ability to make this little mental transaction instead of, say, spending our days fighting for our lives, is a privilege only a small percentage of the world population gets (a similar thought in this post: How to Rule the Whole Freaking World.by Sonia Simone).

Two other odd examples for me personally:
a. I've never had an injury involving broken bones or losing teeth.
b. I've never had to deal with broken windows in my car. Even after having one totalled several years back. And after living and parking in high auto theft areas in Canada.
So... what's an omission in your life that you're thankful for?

2
Particularly over the last few years, when I think about being thankful, my thoughts gravitate more to people than to things (with lots of room still to grow in this area). However, this thankfulness comes into strangely sharper focus after you've helped bring a person into the world: our 20-month-old daughter isn't perfect, but lately she's had moments where she's a living breathing cartoon character out of Disney's Steamboat Willy.
On one level, she does nothing for me.
On a deeper level, she's probably more a saving grace for me than I may ever realize.

I'm thankful for my wife who's helped her be this way, and believes in me even in my less-than-perfect present situation. Lovingly taking care of the combined birthday/Thanksgiving baking while I sit at my laptop is something I'm also immensely grateful for.

I'm thankful for family & friends who've embraced and not judged.
They've helped me enjoy the many omissions from point 1.

So... who are you thankful for? (technically it's whom but that looks a touch too hifallutin...).

Wish you all a great Thanksgiving!

title image: Freedom From Want by Norman Rockwell

Books you can borrow...

I'm giving away comic books.
It's something I've never done in my life which is testament to the kind of pack rat I am. We could use the space though. Dana will be pleased I think.

If you'd like to borrow these, I'm donating them to my local library (Richmond Brighouse location) so if all goes well, you'll be able to sign them out there in the very near future. I'm posting the photo largely for my own reference: my memory is so shot sometimes these days, I'm quite sure I'll be looking for one of these on our shelf pretty soon and wondering why I'm not finding it.

Using your Jealousy. from Quiet: thepowerofintroverts.com - By Susan Cain

via thepowerofintroverts.com

Susan Cain wrote an excellent book on Introverts this year. It's really stuck with me.

She writes with vivid candour about her own struggles with introversion, this book being the fruit of this struggle and some resolution.

The following quote is from her chapter on life direction.

Seems appropriate as we enter another post-LabourDay season. Enjoy!

...pay attention to what you envy. Jealousy is an ugly emotion, but it tells the truth. You mostly envy those who have what you desire. I met my own envy after some of my former law school classmates got together and compared notes on alumni career tracks. They spoke with admiration and, yes, jealousy, of a classmate who argued regularly before the Supreme Court. At first I felt critical. More power to that classmate! I thought, congratulating myself on my magnanimity. Then I realized that my largesse came cheap, because I didn't aspire to argue a case before the Supreme Court, or to any of the other accolades of lawyering. When I asked myself whom I did envy, the answer came back instantly. My college classmates who'd grown up to be writers or psychologists. Today I'm pursuing my own version of both those roles.

from Quiet by Susan Cain (pp975-6 of the digital/iPhone edition) 

posterousfolio: longer copy / techie writing

elite.pdf Download this file

assist.pdf Download this file

overview_2.pdf Download this file

Longer form and more technical writing for what's now SAP.

posterousfolio: that gut feeling we have

RiceTalesBrochure_Final.pdf Download this file

I wish we could have said we sampled lots of product to get here.
I know I had a nice feeling of satisfaction when we got through this anyway, though.

Art Director / coCreative Director: David Yu

posterousfolio: FirstPeople church glossy

FirstPeople_Winter07-R01.pdf Download this file

A full magazine I was editor-in-chief on.
The article on Depression has really stuck with me years after.

Twitter-Owned Posterous Loses Databases, Suffers 17-Hour Outage

via thenextweb.com

My website was down for 17.5 hrs.
Since it was a Sunday, I'm assuming both my followers had better things to do.
I was in fact camping with the family and hope you were doing something similarly offline-y and Sunday-y.
The gruesome details are at:
http://thenextweb.com/insider/2012/07/22/twitter-owned-posterous-loses-multip...

Where’s the workplace love (aka AppreciationAtWork.com)? A Book (P)Review - @DrPaulWhite

via appreciationatwork.com

Why do companies lose people?
In a recent online presentation, Dr. Paul White cited research indicating that for 78 or 79% of people who quit a company, “lack of appreciation” is a top reason. An off-the-top-of-your-head think would probably lead you to one conclusion he presented: among companies that don’t appreciate, many have some kind of appreciation program, like an employee-of-the-month or “Dundies” or that ilk. It’s just not perceived as genuine appreciative so, ironically, it’s not so appreciated.

Dr. White offers four (4) handy hints for workplace appreciation. People feel appreciated IF:
1 it’s communicated regularly
2 it’s expressed in language relevant to the recipient
3 it’s individualized and delivered personally (i.e. not just a giftcard, but one the recipient would enjoy using)
4 it’s viewed as authentic

Dr. Paul White is the co-author The 5 Languages of Appreciation In The Workplace with Dr. Gary Chapman and presented these 5 languages*:
1 Words of Affirmation
2 Acts of Service
3 Tangible Gifts
4 Quality Time
5 Physical Touch
*not totally sure if there’s a preferred order, this was kind of reading it from the Appreciation At Work website.

If these sound familiar, it’s because Appreciation At Work is co-authored by Gary Chapman, the guy who brought us the 5 Love Languages (slightly different: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch).

A friend of mine suggested that you get the main idea of the 5 Love Languages by just knowing what the 5 Languages are. I actually read that book but tend to agree. And I’d hazard a guess that the 5 Languages of Workplace Appreciation are likely in the same boat.

The main takeaway of the whole idea, to me, is simply to give appreciation some thought when you do it, if it’s what you do. Multiplied over however many people you’re dealing with, or with staff very different from you (think introvert vs extrovert), and it can be hard work. Like love is. And like love, any given moment might not seem like it pays off, but we trust it does in the long run. There’s likely a lesson about appreciation (aka love) there beyond just the workplace.

Oh, I came across these cute freebie office tools on the book website too...

Corporation's New Logo Changes Everything | The Onion - America's Finest News Source

via theonion.com

This is the dream, isn't it?
Check out that first paragraph. Gotta love the Onion.

Little (<5min) Clip from #LittlePerson #StandupComedian @TanyaleeDavis #ff #FollowFriday

via tanyaleedavis.com

Language Warning! Tanya Lee Davis is a comedian, thus probably contractually obligated to drop a 4-letter-bomb in this bit. Surprising that CBC kept it in.

As headliner for the Stand Up For Mental Health 2012 grad class show that my friend was in last Monday, Tanya Lee Davis had me laughing so hard, parts of my face twitched that I didn't think could twitch. If all goes well, I'll plunk an inevitably late post about the night on my Late News blog. Speaking of late news, this past week was Mental Health Week.

Posterousfolio: a website solution for finding solutions

via ettechnologiesinc.com

I wrote the content for this website, including the concept for the little flash animation intro.
Was an interesting exercise to find a solution for a solution-finder...

Art Direction: David Yu
Flash Development: Cody Nicol

omg Happy #NationalScrabbleDay2012! Just found out there's such a thing.

via cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com

It's National Scrabble Day. It's a Day because it was founder Alfred Mosher Butts' birthday (and the Nation in question is the US, which I assumed but was good to check). I just found that out. And you'd think I'd know.
That said, the official Scrabble Players Tournament Players site gives no indication of this being a real day.

So don't feel bad if you didn't get me anything.
Just run out and get it now.
I'm totally kidding.
I'm not sure what you do on the day anyway, besides play, which I kind of do anyway.

Have a safe and blessed National Scrabble Day.
Oh yeah, the Canucks play today too.

posterousfolio: reading in case you're bored at the bar Pt 1

BRtent_trad.pdf Download this file

Client allowed us to do fun things with beer (there are actually a lot of aspects of beer advertising where this is not the case, somewhat surprisingly). Finally got a chance to poke some fun at Legal Disclaimers here. Overall, as fun as working with a beer client should be!

Agency: Phoenix Advertising Group
Art Director: Gillian Meyer
Creative Director: David Bellerive

Report: #TimTebow and#JeremyLin under consideration for Sainthood

They've been the driving force in their teams' wins. They've been very public about their Christian faith. And they've shone without cracking under the intense worldwide media spotlight on their lives.

This, according to an unnamed Vatican official, constitutes sufficient grounds for these two big-name 2012 sports figures to be officially named as Saints. They have arguably achieved two of the main criteria: saintly Christ-like character, and performing miracles. As with almost all Saints, the miracles are the main question which will likely continue to be debated for years to come, especially because the miracles currently on the table are their sports achievements as key contributors to their teams' unexpected wins.

Source: Yahooo! Sports

Dark Chocolatey Life Lessons: a really late review of #CharlieAndTheChocolateFactory

via imdb.com

On another site I set up, The Late News, I wrote a really really late review of the movie Charlie And The Chocolate Factory. It's probably less of a review as a reflection after watching it (finally!...) and some takeaway thoughts about the kinds of lessons we get from chocolate and/or movies. Enjoy!

Got a Hi Score at the Vancouver Scrabble(r) Tournament!

I got a Hi Score in my Division in the 2012 Vancouver Scrabble Tournament!

If it seems like old news to anyone who happens to be following my exploits, that's because it is pretty old news: it happened 19 days ago. If the organizers hadn't been nice enough to mail me my prize, I wouldn't have known it at all.

The story of my tournament was, in a word, bi-polar.
I know I was a sour-grapes-y on the 2nd day of the tourney, a big reason being I'd had my first O-fer (zero wins)day in my Scrabble tourney career. It happens, but losing does kinda suck.

This in contrast to day 1 when I only lost 1 game, and that a close one.
Kudos to Murray Weber who tied with me for the prize. Funny, we're both usually quite defensive players I think.

 

The late news

This post marks the debut of an idea I'm floating. I'm starting a website called The Late News, basically my commentary on news in various states of past-ness. (ie I don't think any of my Scrabble buddies are still talking about this tourney). I'm trying to spin my chronic lateness into some semblance of order, so better late reporting than never. Right? Anyway, part of my personality is to process things mentally before putting my stuff out there. Sometimes it's not a great way to go. But sometimes it is. Hence the tagline on this blog I've set up: News, After Thought.

Some stories I'm developing:

• my thoughts on the latest season of The Bachelor (yeah, late, I know, eh?...)
• quickie review of that Introvert book
• quickie review of that Thinking Fast & Slow book
• old movie review of The Truman Show

I'd LOVE for you to suggest other late news you'd like written up... I'm willing to reach back pretty far!

Posterousfolio: grilled Jesus?

fbc_ThisWBulletin.pdf Download this file

Had fun doing this one a little while back, was a neat thing to get on our church bulletin cover.

Trippy experience: I actually made this toast, twice, cutting tinfoil with a kitchen knife while we watched the first Twilight movie, after actually renting it was also an unexpected ordeal (remember back when we actually rented DVDs?). If it's still where I left it, the actual toast still exists.

Thanks to Darrell W Johnson, our Senior Minister, for letting me make him this toast.

As I remember it, he actually held it up during the sermon.

Work of Illustrator Lixandro Cordero in Vancouver #followfriday #ff

via wix.com

Lixandro Cordero does some nice-looking illustration.
He's also the night custodian at my church, First Baptist in Vancouver.

#GoCanada?! 2012 #SXSW Award Win for BLA BLA - NFB/interactive - National Film Board (Canada)

via blabla.nfb.ca

Not sure if all this flash is loading but I believe you can click above to go to this, winner in the Art category at 2012 SXSW Interactive Awards.

I'm not sure I get it, but hey, a win's a win. Go Canada!

pls remember to lose your hour tonight #dst #daylightsavingstime #daylightsavings

According to blog rules I'm supposed to put a picture here.
Then again, like I mentioned a couple of posts ago, I'm  not sure if this is a blog (and whether it's still cool or not for us to blog). A picture would be really really token here.

Simple msg today: please don't forget to turn your clock forward tonight, if you do Daylight Savings in your area.

I could probably look this up but wondering worldwide: who does the time change? who doesn't? I know we didn't have to in Saskatchewan. For some reason. And I didn't miss it much.

short & long on the world's most obvious #followfriday shout-out http://youtu.be/Y4MnpzG5Sqc #ff #stopKony #Kony2012 #invisibleChildren

via youtube.com

After seeing KONY2012 posted several times by our Facebook friends, Dana and I finally sat through the half-hour vid this week. Overall, it's worth blocking out the 29:59 of time to soak it in.

In a nutshell: Joseph Kony is one of the ringleaders in Africa who forces boys to be his army and girls to be sex slaves. The video is a call for us all to know his name, lobby our governments to be a military presence and bring Kony to justice by Dec 31, 2012. There's a big rally day slated for April 20, 2012 where posters will cover cities overnight and be an undeniable presence the next morning. 

I thought about editing this down and might still do it, but till then, here are some starting points that could shave some of your viewing time:

• 9:06 in, director Jason Russell tells his son about who international warlord Joseph Kony is
• 18:30 in, lobbying results in response from "a top pentagon official"...
• 23:30 in, George Clooney (need I say more?!...)

note: if these links don't work, you might have to just scrub to those minutes/seconds, sorry. dang computers.

counterpoint...

As with just about anything that gets this popular this quick (posted March 5, video at time of this posting has over 55 millions hits) with over 1 million Likes already, there's quite a volume of negative response & critique. Among the counterpoints:

• some reports suggest the org is shaving a lot off the top, with lots going to payroll & relatively few cents on the dollar going to actual development in Africa
• focusing on one dude misses the bigger picture of the complex struggle in Africa
• Steven Van Damme, Oxfam's protection and policy advisor for the whole of eastern Congo, currently based in Goma, suggests the video's popularity might make Kony get more violent

There are mainly from The Guardian's excellent mash-up of various perspectives on the big issue (when the video had only 21 - 27 million hits).

counter-counter-point
Invisible Children Inc isn't unaware of the media firestorm and they've posted a point-by-point response to the critiques.

This 30sec clip from ListenUpTV.com talking to "machine gun preacher" Sam Childers was also neat.

in my humble opinion...
Yes, the video is slick. Would we have sat through it if it were 1/2 as slick? 1/4? 3/4?
And now we know who Kony is.

Kony2012 reminds me a lot of the shoes-on-telephone wires thing from the movie Wag The Dog, an imperfect reaction of wide swaths of communities outraged by an injustice and wanting some act to crystallize it and feel like we can do something about it.

Especially now that we have a daughter, the message hits home about wanting a world where a child can sleep at night, and not be mutilated or forced into prostitution or the military. The video helped us be aware of the plight in Africa. Did I get a bracelet? Not yet. Did I send money (yeah, they mention that in the video)? No. Do I trust that SOME of the funds given to Invisible Children Inc would help provide education to children in Africa? Sure. Could I combine the freedom and resources I have with the new awareness from this uber-popular vid to find the most strategic place to put my funds? You bet.

Yeah, it's not a perfect picture here.
But it's 29:59 that we sat through.
As much as I can see reasons for some doubters, I think it's accomplished a great deal of the good it was originally trying to do, namely to remember Kony.

the power & privilege of partnership #HenriNouwen #InTheNameOfJesus #BillVanBuren @firstbc

pictured here: Henri Nouwen (right) with speaking partner Bill Van Buren
from the Bill Van Buren memorial post on www.henrinouwen.org

I'm still not totally decided on whether this is a Christian blog or not.

(questioning both whether it's totally Christian. And if it's totally a blog...).

At the same time, I had a hoot reading a Christian book this week and thought I'd spread the love. Yes, having a hoot reading a Christian book is possible. At least for me.

Here's the book:

Part of the pleasant surprise for me was due to the title seeming so plain-Jane.
As you read it, you see how hugely appropriate it is.

the story

Henri Nouwen is somewhat known among Christians for one crazy career move, from Yale & Harvard Divinity School academia to a priest at Daybreak L'Arche community (Toronto) for people with developmental disabilities. An image indelibly marked in my brain (not mentioned in this book) is his faithful service and indeed sense of calling, even in cleaning up residents who couldn't properly go to the bathroom... As an outline of this massive career transition, and never truly denying how crazy it was, the short book (81 pages total, big type in a small format too) serves as a juicy parable about what's really important enough in our lives to invest our time and energies into.

the story around the story

The prologue and epilogue frame this experience (the book is an adaptation of a talk given in Washington) in Nouwen giving this actual talk with Daybreak resident Bill Van Buren. After reading the prologue, I was so very tempted to skip to the epilogue, an option entirely open to you as the reader. I'm happy to say I resisted the temptation and feel all the more blessed to have the experience unfold as Nouwen had intended. How Van Buren complements the content and becomes a true partner is a parable in and around Nouwen's parable, painting a picture of the beauty of partnering: doing things together and having someone help you out in ways you could never do yourself. Really fighting hard now not to play spoiler...

Overall a very worthwhile read. Mainly intended for Christians but I'm quite curious about how it reads for anyone. I believe there are thought-provoking questions raised in the book about leadership in general. But that might just be me. Honestly, a big reason for reading this was because it's a suggested monthly reading from my church, First Baptist in Vancouver. I am so so glad I took on this little bit of homework.

2 ways to get a website free (and an almost-free one)

image from internetmarketingcourseonline.org

It may have crossed your mind to set up a website.

If you have any part in the process of creating, editing or otherwise deciding on web content for your organization, plunking up a website yourself is a nice exercise. At one point we called this blogging, but I'm choosing to call it just having a website. For some reason it sounds more pretentious to me to say "hey, check out my blog" and a little less to say, "hey, I made a website, check it out". But I might be wrong.

Without being a hardcore full-time professional geek, this is far from the exhaustive list of resources.

Found something better? Leave a Comment!

1. Reformat a blog. Most blogs these days are set up so you can build one, then take away those things that make it really look like a blog, if you want to. It's a pretty easy google: the usual thing to do is to create Pages in your Menu instead of just doing Posts.

www.posterous.com ...is my personal fave as I can email posts, have photos available at full resolution, and post to three of the other formats below, as well as FB, LinkedIn and Twitter

www.wordpress.com ...has become an industry standard with lots of businesses using their software as their website Content Management System (a slightly different resource, details at www.wordpress.org ...I know, confusing isn't it?)

www.tumblr.com ...blog that's gained popularity for making pictures look good (thanks for the quicky info on this, Lois Patterson). Home to one of my favourite blogs ever, http://foodonmydog.tumblr.com

www.blogger.com ...owned by Google, so if you have a Gmail you technically have access to this, I think. At one point, this was a pretty standard place where people looked for Blogs. It still might be.

www.carbonmade.com ...slightly different animal, specifically for Portfolio purposes. Great quick way for Designers, Artists, Illustrators & other Creatives to put their work out. Thanks to Lixandro Cordero for posting on this.

2 this free hosting site

http://www.000webhost.com/

There are others if you search quickly (something called gybo in Canada?) but this one worked pretty well and they were quite generous with data limits when I played around with it before.

The almost-free one: I had some fun creating and editing content on www.SquareSpace.com which isn't free (not sure if it ever was) but I think it starts at $8US a month if you want to fork that out. In my experience, it was the friendliest interface for simply surfing to a page and just editing that one.

Dinking around with a website of your own can be a fun learning process to discover what it takes for any org to put their stuff out there. If you were on the fence on it, I'd encourage you to poke around with it. I'd love to see/hear/read how it goes for you.

Dream of the Zero (0) Inbox

via upload.wikimedia.org

I recently zero-ed my Inbox.
It's a productivity tip I've heard from quite a few people (who seem productive).
To do it, I had quite a backlog. I think I had 5 digits in the Inbox count.
My wife is grateful to not see such a ginormous number in my Inbox.
I texted her when I reached 3 digits.
She is also grateful I'm done, so that, while I'm home, I can get back to the all-important task of keeping Sasha from putting everything in her mouth.
A very freeing feeling to be so cleaned out, and having a resulting shorter queue of messages to work through now.

Addendum: I had to work pretty fast.
If you emailed me something and needed some response, please shoot me another message!

2morro's post (for 2sday?!): 2 Ways to Get a Free Website

Local Scrabbler James Leong tells you where I am today...

via cbc.ca

I'm at the Vancouver Scrabble Tournament today.
In light of this, here's the CBC player for the Podcast where local Scrabbler James Leong was interviewed (sorry, couldn't figure out how to post to a specific minute, so he's at about 20:30. And if the black box up top isn't doing anything, the CBC.ca link will take you to the Podcast).
Who knew a Scrabble interview would mention the MMA and dreadlocks?...
www.vancouverscrabble.org

Monday's post: Dream of the Zero Inbox 

The Anatomy of a Perfect Website | Infographic from OrphicPixel

I actually learned something from Pinterest.com ... who knew?
Took some time to explore Pinterest’s Design section and was quite taken by the infographic below (aren’t infographics mesmerizing? Especially the way these long skinny ones look on Pinterest? I find them almost magical. But maybe I’m just easily swayed). I was struck with how ostentatious this title was and, quite honestly, it is overkill: it’s not a total anatomy (I was thinking it would actually show a map or something) and far from perfect. I guess it still hooked me in, though.
A more accurate title: good-looking killer factoids to consider for your website.
 
Key takeaways for me (to save you a wee bit of scrolling):

• people can’t find the info they're looking for on a website 60% of the time according to User Interface Engineering, Inc. research
• Top three most hated website thingies: 1 Pop-Ups in front of windows; 2 slow loading; 3 no close button
• No huge surprise, English is the top language at 68%. After that the languages are pretty bunched up. 2nd place is Japanese at 6ish%.
• Arguments for SEO: after a search, 42% click on the top link, then 8% on second link. 62% click on the first page of search results.
• Social Network ranking (May 2011 study based on time spent): 1 FB; 2 Blogger; 3 Tumblr; 4 Twitter; 5 LinkedIn [note: Pinterest became a player after this study was done and initial reports suggest people spend lots of time there. At least for now...]
• 80.4% of sites that use analytics use Google Analytics
• a nice quote: “Everything is designed. Few things are designed well.” Brian Reed

 

via orphicpixel.com

A question that’s becoming a reality, but I don’t think we’re quite there yet: who uses websites anymore?...

Source: Orphic Pixel is a dude named Mars, a do-all web guy based in Muscat, Oman.
His website tagline “one dot can cause you a lot” doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me here but might mean more where he is.

The business behind business, explained @SoulSystemsCo #ff #followfriday

via campaign.r20.constantcontact.com

I'm not super faithful to Follow Fridays but considering, I'm surprised that I haven't given a shout-out to SoulSystems.ca . In the "universe" of coaching, Soul Systems is unique in coaching team dynamics (and not simply individuals).

This latest newsletter post is a neat set of insights gleaning the true heart behind business itself. I've seen and heard this insight expressed in different ways but these days I'm always in the market for a well-phrased reminder of what it's all about. (also makes a bit of sense of the rather incendiary image)

The answer may surprise you...

Facebook Marketing Conference #fMC highlights

Yesterday Facebook hosted this Marketing Conference in NYC.
Attending was available through, yup, you guessed it, Facebook.com
The hub is here: https://www.facebook.com/business/fmc
One of the reasons for the conference, as I understand it, was as a launch forum for a number of new features for marketers, some in the works and some rolling out in the next couple of months, including:

• revamping Pages to be more clearly branded
• packaging ad services using branded, purchase-able tools with names like Reach Generator and Premium

All the re-vamps are gathered on this handy page.

Beyond the straight facts of the Conference, these were some aspects that were neat to me. 

• essentially a free conference. The bulk of the conference was made available as a live video feed for free via Facebook. In the past we'd arrange to be sent to a conference. As it happens, I only found out about it yesterday and had video run in the background while I worked on other projects (amazing how many complaints there were on the Comments feed. Reminded me of this).
• social enterprise. In describing new Admin titles (there will be more than just Admin) the presenting geek (an engineer or a designer) described it as a response to user feedback. I recognize that user feedback is part of any design process, just feels like Facebook and others who do Social Media well understand it, weed through it and make it part of the end product really quickly and intelligently.
• philosophical insight came out of an interview, that seemed a bit arbitrary, with an engineer. He mentioned a few truisms that Facebook staff live by, one of which was "done is better than perfect". Which is kinda nice.
• stories are becoming the major shift for Facebook (instead of simply Ads). And one of the stories within that story is from the Fireside Chat, which I thought would be just an afterthought and ended up being a warm (no put intended) conversation with American Express CEO Ken Chenault and their partnership with Facebook to champion small businesses (often without obligating people to use AmEx).

All this from a 7-year-old.
Can you believe that? Facebook just turned seven not too long ago, now it's a verb, a fairly common one. Seven years ago it was just two words that we hadn't put together like that yet. I was overall really impressed with Facebook, and in a context where I'm not sure any of us is really super-keen to be impressed.

I realize that, as Social Media reporting goes, I'm very much a latebird here (for those who know me, though, being a latebird shouldn't come as much of a shock). However, posting this a little after the fact allows their video queue to catch up so the https://www.facebook.com/business/fmc link should patch you into to the main speakers and breakout sessions, either now or very soon.

Tomorrow's post: a few words about the whole point of business.