Gus Digital

Yesterday while a colleague and I were in the elevator, we bumped into a client of ours. Through our usual conversation we inquired what she was up to this past weekend and she let us know that she played “Frolf” at Jericho Beach.

Being the inquisite person that I am I asked what that was. She went on to explain that it is a combination of frisbee and golf. I always thought it was just called “Frisbee Golf”, but I guess they combined the words together to make it more “trendy”.

I of course went onto Wikipedia, but they have it listed as “disc golf” though it’s linked to frolf word itself.

It seems like the object of the game is similar to golf, where the player tries to have the frisbee fall into a basket. Perfect summer sport I think. Maybe we should have a blogger or twitter game happen sometime this summer.

There are even tons of photos of people play frolf on Flickr and you can check some of them out here.

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YEAH! I’m going to see Madonna for her “Sticky and Sweet” tour when it hits Vancouver, but no thanks to Ticketmaster.

TICKETMASTER - YOU SUCK ASS!!!

I went on Ticktmaster’s website to get tickets and I was put “in line” when it was processing my selection. I was kicked out not once, not twice, not even 3 times but I would say over 10 times. Over 10 times of waiting in the que, for 10 minutes, ticketmaster would just kick me out saying “we’ve encountered a problem, sorry for any inconvenience”. WTF!!!

It wasn’t only me who was having problems with ticketmaster today, but it looks like everyone was. Russ even tried on his computer and he failed 4 times.

Ticketmaster if you are going to sell high profile acts, and charge a service fee, maybe you should make sure your service is working!

At any rate I’m going though only by my self as I could not get 2 tickets, but managed to get one ticket by the side stage. I guess I shouldn’t say I’m going alone as I’ll be going with about 40 thousand other fans!

I can’t wait to get “Sticky and Sweet”!!!

UPDATE: I went back online to check for tickets and all of a sudden Ticketmaster had $350 tickets available. I don’t recall seeing them at first and I wonder if they just sold the upper level and then opened up the lower level afterwards.  At any rate I now have a floor ticket, 15th row no less! WOOT!  I know I’ll be able to get rid of my other ticket (crossing my fingers).

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On Wednesday I attended Launch Party 4 at Republic on my way home from work. I wasn’t going to attend the event as I was tired from work and I had to attend Convergence 2008 the following day.

Launch Party is a venue where start up tech companies, techies and others come together.

As I don’t consider myself really a “techie” I did feel a little out of place. I’m naturally a shy person and takes me a little while to open up to people. I find it hard to just approach people and introduce myself as I feel I might be interrupting their conversations or that they might think I’m trying to sell them something. I have to thank a few people in the blogging community for encouraging me to attend the event and for saying hi to me. Hopefully I’ll get better at these events in the future.

At any rate, it looks like the event was a great success, even though they were competing with the Vidfest opener.

You can find some photos of the event on Flickr.

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I know this late, but hopefully not too late.

Again I had the pleasure of attending Third Tuesday Vancouver where Darren Barefoot spoke on how to target influential bloggers and went through a case study. I’m not going to bore you with the details, but if you would like to know more you can head over to Rebecca’s blog where she lived blogged the event or through Raul’s blog.

I’m always impressed how Darren is able to engage his audience when he speaks. Truly amazing.

It was great to see the usual people there, Rebecca, John, Raul, Tanya, Monica, Jenn and to meet new ones, Lucy, Phillip (I know I forgotten others so my apologies).

Liz did let me know that since this was my third, Third Tuesday, I’m actually a veteran. Hmmm I never thought I would be considered a “veteran”.

I do have to say thank you to Tanya and Monica for organizing the event and the Century House for hosting us.

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I really don’t know why no one has blogged about this earlier, at least as far as I can tell.

I have gone to the International Food Fair located at 530 Hornby for lunch on several occasions. I usually head over to their Sandwich Shop and have myself either their turkey, or turkey club. What makes this place so unique is that for under $7 you will get yourself a great sandwich made from real turkey meat. The owners arrive bright and early to actually roast their own turkey. I’m also suprised just how much turkey they put on their sandwich. Not only do they make sandwiches, but they also make great burritos and other Mexican style food.

Other food you can find is Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Italian and the Indian food, which got a great write up on the Vancouver Sun last March for their famous butter chicken.

If you are ever hungry and downtown during the work week, stop by the International Food Fair and enjoy their offerings! Don’t let the appearance hamper your visit, the food speaks for itself.

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What a crazy week this will be for Social Media enthusiast or Tech junkies.

To start off tonight is Third Tuesday Vancouver which will host Darren Barefoot at the Century House Restaurant & Bar on Richards Street. Darren will discuss how to get top bloggers attention in this growing market place. I’ll hopefully be attending depending on how busy work gets here.

Tomorrow night will be Launch Party 4 Vancouver at Republic on Granville Street. This will showcase some new tech start up companies as well as having a Start Up Career Fair. I might venture out to this event as I have some pals that are techies and will be attending the event. Techvibes also has some other events on their blog.

Thursday will Cossette Communications - Covergence 2008 on Granville Island. I’m registered for this event for work, but I hope to learn a few “tricks of the trade” so to speak.

Other events this week include Vidfest which celebrates digital media in Vancouver.

Last but not least, Buzzbishop broke the news first this morning to the Vancouver crowd, the Apple Store will finally be open in Pacific Centre Mall on Saturday May 24th at 10am.

I hope I haven’t forgotten any events this week. Just let me know.

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This past long weekend, Russ and I had every intention of camping. We packed up Tabitha with our camping gear on Friday for our trek up to Cal-Chek on Saturday morning. On arrival, we drove into the 3 main campsite areas trying to secure a camping ground. We had both hoped that one spot might still be available, but alas all available spots were currently taken. We pondered if we should head up to Whistler but decided against that idea and headed back on our trek into Vancouver.

Though we had spent 4 hours on the road, we manage to just enjoy the wonderful weather and just enjoyed our drive through some country roads and along the Marine Drive on our way back into Vancouver. We passed by Light House Park (which Rebecca and Raul wrote about) and decided to take a look. I was amazed at the amount of people that were there and since there was absolutely no parking spots, we didn’t stay and headed back home.

On arrival, not wanting to waste a wonderful sunny day, we headed to a patio and enjoyed a few bellinis and a keylime pie. YUM-O-LISOUS

Sunday was another wonderful sunny day in the city which we started by having some breakfast at Deux Crepes and then went to George Wainborn park where we watched Junior enjoy the afternoon running around and playing with other dogs.

We then went around the city and shopped abit. I finally got to check out Homesense and was a little disappointed that for a store that is located downtown, most of their sheet selection is for King size beds. I’m not sure Homesense is aware, but the condos downtown really can’t accommodate king size beds. Oh well. I did end up going to Winners and bought myself a nice pair of shorts which I’m very happy about.

We finished Sunday night by heading to the movies and watched Iron Man. A little perdictable, but a wonderful opener to the blockbuster movie season to say the least.

Monday is proving to be a relaxing day and I’m not doing much. The weather isn’t co-operating today, but I still managed to head to the movies with Laura to watch Narnia - Prince Caspian. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and thought it was better than the first one.

This evening I’ll probably catch up on some programs I have taped and stay in.

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Today was a gorgeous day in Vancouver and I decided to work from home instead of heading into the office (luckily I can and took advantage since the boss was way..sneaky I know). When Russ arrived he wanted to know if I would like to go out for lunch on this sunny day. Of course I took him up on the offer and we headed down to Yaletown and try to secure a place on a patio. Alas the usual places (Cactus Club, Milestones, Yaletown Brewing Company) were all full. As we walked down Maitland we came across Brown’s Restaurant Bar (also known as Browns Social Club). The patio was just starting to fill up and we secured a table outside.

As Russ started looking over the menu he quickly pointed out that they served Bellinis. I have written a couple of posts in March trying to find out the best place in Vancouver for a Bellini and thought I should continue that series.

As you can see their bellinis are the slushy kind, similar to the Cactus Clubs and Milestone’s. I do have to admit it was a very refreshing drink, though not as strong as the Cactus Club version, but I’ll add this to my second favourite of the city thus far!

The menu was standard fair, though my “Hollywood Burger” wasn’t anything to write home about and at $11 could have had alittle more beef.

With all the construction around Yaletown these days, sitting out on a patio isn’t always the best, but on a day like today you can’t help but get out there and just bask alittle in the sun.

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Today I attended the Canadian Public Relations Society (CPRS) Vancouver’s event on Social Media dumbed “Social Media – Speed Dating” (hey I didn’t name this one).

There was great turn out of PR professionals/communicators and I’m still amazed at the fear they all have about social media. They all seem to be afraid of having a blog, who will monitor it, who will write it, how much resources have to be used.

As human beings we are all afraid of change. I for one was skeptical at first when I entered the blogging world. I was afraid I wouldn’t have anything to say on a blog, would people listen to me, would I care. I started off slow. I created a personal blog that would allow my family back east in Toronto know what I was up to. Lately I started to follow more blogs and started commenting on more and more of them. I’ve created a great group of blogger pals, Raul, Rebecca, Tanya, and Tyler (to name a few). They have helped me greatly on this journey.

What I learned today was that people are open to social media, but just don’t know how to start. My suggestion (and for those that listened to me at the event) is to just start slowly. You don’t have to jump into it full force. As some of the round table speakers were saying, start off with an RSS feed on your website. This will allow visitors to your site access your information. Your RSS feed should be on your news release section to begin with. Then monitor it and see how that works out. You might then venture into having your own corporate blog, but limit it at first. If you want to get readers to your blog, start researching other blogs that write about the same topic as you do. Begin commenting on them and enjoy the discussions. Linking back on your blog to other blogs definitely helps and you will start to see results through time.

What I did learn, that I didn’t know before, was how to use digg or del.icio.us effectively. I was always worried about them, but as Natasha Davies from Moonraker Multimedia (sorry the website is under construction) said, create a del.icio.us page for background. Refer to this page on your news release, sorta like an on-line biography (I quoted that term and she liked it) allowing readers to know how you came up with your article/release and what you used as a reference. What I have learned in working for a newswire company is that reporters are lazy and they want all the information infront of them. I thought linking to a del.icio.us page with your research is definitely a great idea.

I was glad I was able to share my knowledge of Social Media to some of the attendees. I don’t consider myself an expert by any means, but I thank all the blogger pals and twitter pals out there for helping me along this journey of social media learning!

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Lately I’ve been seeing more and more stores popping up around the city that are specifically geared towards men. These stores contain all products that relate to skin care as well as basic men grooming essentials. Yes men do more than just shave and comb their hair before heading out for the day.

I myself have started to use some product on my face, afterall this youthful looking skin won’t last forever.

One store in Yaletown, Masc, has been open for just under a year. Owners Patrick Levesque and Jamie Beuthin have set up a great looking Urban Store.

our mission as we chose to accept it: to offer men of all ages the tools and information necessary to maintain a healthy and well-groomed appearance in a simple no-fuss manner, thereby giving them increased confidence to face the day-to-day challenges in their busy lives.

Another shop that is open is Momentum, located on Burrard Street between Davie and Burnaby. They offer similar offerings as Masc, except they offer their clientele shaving services. They feature

fine shaving creams, skincare, anti-aging, body care & hair care products. Plus a selection of traditional safety razors, straight razors, badger shaving brushes, and razor handles all under once roof! Only authentic products that deliver tangible results will be found at Momentum, we have hand selected each line we carry from small companies who are dedicated exclusively to men’s skin care products and have very high standards in the products they produce.

Now I’ve never purchased anything from them, yet, as I perfer to use Biotherm men’s products. I find that their products are smooth and don’t feel greasy and leave my skin feeling fully recharged.

Now if you are interested in having your say, MenScience.com’s Blog is asking for your help on their next body lotion. This is your time to participate men!

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