Gus Digital

It’s official. Today Rogers announced that the Apple iPhone is coming to Canada this year. Though not much more was said, I’m definitely excited about it finally arriving officially in Canada.

Of course the questions on how much it will be and how much the data plan will be still remains to be seen. As well the launch date wasn’t mentioned. I hope the phone won’t cost over $600, but with our luck it probably will be. It will most likely be the 3G version of the phone which is suppose to be launched sometime this summer.

I was hoping to have gotten the scoop ahead of time from my niece (who works at Rogers), but alas she was tight lipped about the whole thing. Maybe she can make it up to me by sending me an iPhone when it arrives.

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Last night I reached a Twitter milestone; I posted my 1,000 tweet.

For all of those who don’t know Twitter is site where you post “what are you doing now”. Sorta like a micro blogging site, where you only have 140 characters to use. You can “follow” people and have users “follow” you. That means when you post a tweet, everyone who follows you, receives it. You can also be apart of a conversation and discussion as well.

I have been using Twitter for just over a year and have developed some great friends using the social media tool. Thanks for all the support I’ve received from others last night to make it to the milestone.

What might you ask was my 1,000th tweet; well it was announcing my 1,000th tweet
If you would like to follow me on Twitter, please search for GusF

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Today after taking Junior to the Vet to have his shots updated and have it’s yearly checkup, Laura gave me a call to let me know she was heading to Cupcakes to get herself a cupcake. Now she knew I have been craving cupcakes for about 2 weeks now and was so “kind” to give me the details of her excursion.

Since today was a nice afternoon, Russ got our car and we drove down to English Bay where Cupcakes is located (yes we were lazy and didn’t walk). The amount of cupcakes they produce on a daily basis is astonishing. They have mini cupcakes, standard cupcakes, big ones and even Cakes. MMMM they looked so tempting and I almost got a dozen, but I settled on 1/2 a dozen cupcakes of different flavours; lemon drop, red velvet, blue hawaii, cosmopolitan, mocha, peach.

These will be definitely well consumed by Russ, Cyd, Junior and myself this evening!

I definitely need get a recipe for making these myself!

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What a work it week it has been. Our lovely “earning season” has begun yet again, which means I will be at work later than usual proofing client’s earnings release and making sure all things go smoothly. This part of my job I can do without, as I’m not paid overtime for staying late and I usually just play the waiting game as the earnings release is being formatted by our Editorial team. On top of this, there are always work networking events to attend. I did mention in one of my tweets this week that I was asked by my boss if I wouldn’t mind being apart of a panel to discuss social media in our industry. This for an event that our local chapter of CPRS (Canadian Public Relations Society) is having on professional development. Since our competitors are sponsoring the event, they don’t wish to have us speak at the event, so alas I will not be apart of the discussion. So much for “social media” and “open transparency”.

Speaking of Social Media, Tazzu.com announced there will be a Wordpress Camp happening April 30 from 5:30 - 8:30pm at the Network Hub. Since I’m fairly new to using Wordpress and this blog is hosted on Wordpress.com, I will most likely attend the event and hopefully get some pointers on how to improve the look and feel of the blog. Some speakers that will be speaking include Rebecca (aka Miss604, who will be live blogging at the event), Duane, and the ever delightful Monica, just to name a few.

My sister Maria and her husband Dan arrived back from a 2 week trip to Cancun Mexico this week. I don’t think they have had a vacation away together since they were married over 16 years ago. They had the pleasure of staying at the Royal Hideaway Playacar, an ultra ritzy all inclusive resort. Not only is it for adults only, but it has been rated a AAA 5 Diamonds. Yes that is right folks “5 Diamonds”, not stars! Based on some of the photos she sent me this place is fantastic! The also looked like they got time to reconnect and relax. I would post some photos up, but as they are personal photos I’m not sure if she would like me to share it with the world. She will have to add a comment on here to say it’s ok for me to do so.

Now that the weekend is finally here I need to figure out what I’m going to do. The only major plan for Saturday is to take Junior to the vet for a checkup and a booster shot on his rabies vaccine.

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In the tradition of “10 Things You Might Not Know About Me” that I have seen on the internet through other people’s blogs (Raul latest post) I thought I would add my list to the blogosphere.

1. I was a blond up until I moved to Canada from Argentina. After a few years of life here, my hair turned brown, go figure!

2. I used to have an older brother, though never got to meet him as he passed away before I was born. I have 2 older sisters.

3. I have a slight fear of spiders. I recall when going through my potty training, a spider crawling up from my training toilet and running up my leg.

4. My favourite fruit is a banana, though it gives me gas.

5. I prefer tea over coffee, though I love having a latte on the weekends

6. I once dreamt that my mother had the trunk of her car fall on her hand and it started to bleed. When I asked my mother if this ever happened to her, she wondered how I knew it happened as it happened when she was pregnant with me.

7. I used to have a mullet when I was in High School.

8. The last aquarium that I had I killed all the fishes by adding bleach when trying to clean the algae (no I didn’t add the bleach directly when the fishes were in, but I didn’t rinse the aquarium very well and killed them all)

9. I use to love collecting insects, mainly Praying Mantises, and feed them grasshoppers when I was younger

10. My dream holiday is to go on an African Safari, and I hope to do this in the next 10 years before my 50th birthday!

I have to admit coming up with 10 things was actually difficult for me. Hopefully they are not to trivial and hopefully you have found out something you didn’t know about me.

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Tonight I’m attending IABC-BC’s Second Life - A Communications Tool? event.

It will be interesting to hear what the speakers have to say as I’ve heard mixed reviews of Second Life over the past year. What might be cool (ok maybe just plain uncool) will be the virtual DJ performing via Second Life as well as one of the speakers themselves speaking through Second Life.

I will report more on my findings later.

UPDATE: Ok so I didn’t post about my findings, but here are some photos I took of the event. I’m still not sold on Second Life, but what the hell.

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Tonight I had the pleasure of attending my second Third Tuesday Vancouver Meetup and my second time to hear Monica Hamburg speak (though the first time she was just the moderator for the Massive Technology Show - New Media - Collaboration in Business)

As the last time I was a virgin, I felt a little more at ease this time around. Granted I almost didn’t attend since I was feeling a little under the weather, I thought the topic of Crowd Sourcing and the speaker Monica was well worth the attendance. Granted I could have just logged onto the computer and read the live blog that Rebecca was giving at the event.

I had the honor of meeting Raul for the first time and got to chat a little bit more with Tanya, more than just sending Tweets to each other :).

As usual the host at The Network Hub were fantastic for allowing everyone to use their space.

One more note, Rebecca was giving away a “door prize” and Monica was so lucky to have chosen me as the winner. Yeah ME!!

I look forward to attending more events in the future.

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Starting this weekend there is an event (similar to the Eastside Cultural Crawl) that is going on in the West side of Vancouver called “Artist in our Midst”

We’re celebrating our 16th year of bringing artists and the community closer together, by opening the doors of our studios to the public.

This unique tour takes place over three weekends each April. It’s your opportunity to meet with the artists, see their work up close, and see them at work in their studios, as you stroll the beautiful streets of Vancouver’s West Side

This event is spread out over 3 weekends, so get out and enjoy the artists at their studios.

Russ and a friend of ours David will be taking in some of the sites. I’m sure they are probably going more for the homes than the art, but I guess art is what you make of it.

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Finally after a few days of rain and cool weather, Vancouver has a gorgeous spring day. What do you do when you have a gorgeous day like this, you get out of course. Having Junior helps in motivating me to actually get out there and do something. I thought to myself that this would be a perfect opportunity to get out and take some photographs on my journey with Junior.

We went on a different route this time around. I walked down Davie Street (through all the Canada Line construction) and started our little journey at the Quayside Marina and walked along the Sea Wall of the northern side of False Creek. Everyone was out enjoying the sunshine. People had their lattes in one hand and their dog leases on the other.

Walking along I took some great photos with my macro lens. I’m just loving this lens for all those close ups.

As Junior and I walked along the wall, passing David Lam Park towards our usual George Wainborn Park we encountered Junior’s twin “Max“. I recall my sister Maria wanting me to call Junior, Max and I’m kinda glad I didn’t, though my sister would be glad to know there is a Max out there
We later were invited to a friends place (who we got to know on our trip to Puerto Vallarta this January) for a bbq dinner. Now their penthouse on Broadway has been up for sale, and a couple of weeks ago they looked like they had sold it, but alas it never happened. I took my trusty camera to their place to get some wonderful shots of the city.

As usual they were great hosts and I hope they can use some of these photos for their listing.

What a great night!

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Yesterday somehow when I was getting ready for work my 2 month old Sony Ericsson W580I phone hurt itself. I have no idea how this happened, but the inner LCD screen developed a crack. The phone had worked fine that morning as I took a phone call, but just before I left for work I looked at the phone and noticed that screen was off. I restarted the phone (hoping this might help), but that didn’t fix it.

I was glad I had a 2 year warranty on the phone as I would just get it repaired (so I thought).

I took it the Rogers kiosk at Pacific Centre and was pretty much surprised at the level of lack of service I received. The gentleman behind the counter pretty much said “good luck in getting this repaired”. He let me know that the warranty doesn’t cover “damaged screens due to use”. When I let him know that I didn’t drop the phone or do anything to it, he couldn’t care less. He told me I had to take it to 2nd and Burrard to get it repaired. I had asked him give me the address and I felt as if I was asking him some task that was beyond his level of employement. He “manage” to write it down for me, but when I asked him for a number he told me he didn’t know the number (which was shocking) and just wrote the name of the store.

I was not impressed.

I ended up back in the office and did my lovely Google search and found out that this is not a rare occurance out there. Others have reported the same issue. Looks like it might be an issue with the phone and having it on vibrate.

I called the store where I purchased the phone and let them know of my internet search and he suggested I contact Sony Ericcson directly, as he said the warranty wouldn’t cover the screen either. Sony Ericcson was actually great to deal with and they sent me a return bill to send my phone in, yet it would take about 3-4 weeks to get my phone back. Being in the business that I am in, this wouldn’t do.

During all this I did send an email to my niece, who works for Rogers in Toronto, and she was spoke with her Rogers’ Sony Ericsson rep. and told him the whole story. They are going to send me a refurbished phone and I will send my phone for repair back to them. My niece Amanda ROCKS!!! She made my day!!!

I have nothing bad to say about Rogers as a company, but my dealing with that “idiot” at Pacific Centre definitely put a damper on my Rogers experience.

The following video is not my phone, but it’s pretty much how mine looks.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JqMeFhgeSE&hl=en]

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