Last night I attended Indigo’s first solo show at the Verve Hair Lounge. It was a fun occasion and gave me an opportunity to witness her creativity and talent with oil on canvas firsthand.

Amber George (Verve owner) and Indigo – “weighted, I remain”

“She’s gone away”

A quiet moment before her show – “seven years later”

Food by Nuba Restaurant

Megan Mutch of Cerelia Winery

Beats by DJ Kilocee

I wish Indigo success with her future shows.

You’re next

School is not in session

She won’t protect you

Thriller on repeat

Even Zombies get married

Zombie jr and mom

What do we want? Braaaainnsss

Ooh! Text message

See you next year!

Art in the Garden is organised collaboratively by Janet Lee of Janet Planet Designs, Friends of the UBC Botanical Garden (including Gudrun Hancock), and the UBC Botanical Garden. This is the second year at the UBC Botanical Garden as Art in the Garden was annually held in Janet Lee’s private garden from 1999-2008.

Cory Lee of CoCoBo Designs and Janet Lee display CoCoBo fashion accessories

Crystal Deshaies showing off her Home & Garden Portrait

Ken McRae with Tulip, one of his fine art photography prints

Douglas Walker of Waterworks Garden Sculpture

Greg Michalski and Kim Urhahn of Ka Huila sing acoustic blues

Nathan Scott of Living Stone Studio poses with the gardener

I look forward to returning next year.

update: I want to thank Ka Huila for their complementary CD.

The 2nd Annual UBC Blueberry Fest (July 13-16th) was created to promote local food to the UBC community and Vancouver residents. Over four sunny days, live music played as people experienced blueberries in a variety of forms – e.g. blueberry pancakes, blueberry cream blintzes, and blueberry creme brulee – building on the success of last year’s inaugural event, which I also attended.

The BC Blueberry Fest was organised by UBC Food Services and sponsored by the BC Blueberries Council, UBC Bookstore, and ethical bean coffee.

The full set of photos are available on flickr.

How blueberry pancakes are made

According to the BC Blueberry Council, eating 125ml (1/2 cup) of Blueberries is enough to meet the recommended 7-10 servings according to the Canadian Food Guide.

Some additional facts about BC Blueberries

• Blueberries are one of three fruits native to North America and have been around approximately 13,000 years (Concord grapes and cranberries are the others)




• 650 farm families are harvesting close to 80 million pounds of blueberries this year




• British Columbia is the largest producer of highbush blueberries in Canada and the second top producing region in the world and still growing.

Would you like some blueberry cream blintzes?

Local produce from UBC Farm

Loving some blueberry pancakes

Music by FiddleStix

We’re The Celtic Scholars

From July 13th until the 16th, the 2nd Annual UBC Blueberry Fest takes place. It is a great opportunity to experience tasty BC blueberries in a variety of forms such as pancakes, muffins, and scones at reasonable prices.

• Location: UBC Bookstore Plaza – University boulevard and East Mall
• Dates: July 13-16, 9am-1pm
• Menu: BC Blueberry Scones and Muffins, Breakfast Parfait, Blueberry Creme Brulee, UBC Farm Salad, Blueberry Polantta Cake, Blueberry Cream Blintzes and more

The UBC Farm will be there on Wednesday.

Local talent featured – FiddleStix, Don & Abby, and the James Rogers Band

For further info: See UBC Food Services or email Juliana Campbell

Blueberries are reported to have nutritional value and I’m hoping to bake some Blueberry muffins once I acquire some skills. This Truly Simple recipe looks enticing.

flickr photo by FortGirl

See you there!

On Saturday I watched part of the 1st TEDxBerkeley via their livestream and it was a phenomenal experience. TEDxBerkeley was curated by UC Berkeley, Jessica Mah, and the executive team from the Berkeley Computer Science Undergraduate Association.

My highlights:

As someone that has fallen in love with photography over the last few years, I listened intently as Rick Smolan, author and photographer, described how he followed his passion during college. I loved hearing about 24 hours in Cyberspace and The Obama Time Machine projects and thought about their social benefit as everyday people shared aspects of their lives through photography.

I enjoyed listening to Ross Evans of Xtracyle talk about Holishift and how we can combine what we love doing with making positive change in the world. I am considering ways that I could use my passions to benefit others.

When Eric Lewis came on stage and described his music as Rockjazz, I didn’t know what to expect. As he began to play on piano, I was simply mesmerized at his talent and his unique style. I had never seen anyone play the wood & wires of a baby grand before. His rendition of Breaking Benjamin’s The Diary of Jane was eye-opening.

When Ross Evans returned with his lasso to accompany Eric, I was curious to see what would happen next. As Eric began playing Coldplay’s Clocks, a chill went through my body. Simultaneously, Ross began doing tricks with the lasso, jumping through it, hopping on one foot and moving it up and down through his body. It was the perfect ending to a well-organised, extremely successful day.

Ross Evans ended his talk with this quote by Howard Thurman, that should be the mantra for each of our lives.

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive and then go do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

TEDxBerkeley definitely lived up to its tagline – doing the unprecedented.

I can’t wait to watch TEDxBerkely next year – perhaps in person – this event has motivated me to make a serious effort to attend TED in the near future.

Life is too short not to try and improve our world.

On January 13th, I was part of a panel hosted by the Office of Learning Technology as part of the Teaching and Learning with Technology Speaker Series at UBC.

Facebook’s popularity is uncontested but questions remain as to its role and purpose in an educational setting. How are students and educators using Facebook? What are the benefits and drawbacks of this social networking tool? Come join our diverse panel for a discussion that promises to provide multiple perspectives, deeper understanding and further questions.

The other two panelist were:
Sheryl Adam, a Humanities and Social Sciences Librarian, Koerner Library
Cyprien Lomas, Director of the Learning Centre in Land and Food Systems

The panel was moderated by Cindy Underhill, Office of Learning Technology

I enjoyed being a part of the panel. It was a great opportunity to learn from the staff and professors in attendance about their opinion regarding how Facebook can be used to network with each other and how they were using it educational purposes. There were comments made that the focus of these discussions shouldn’t be limited to Facebook but should involve how social media can be beneficial for education.

In addition, as there were not alot of students in attendance, there were questions about how best to reach students so that they can be adequately informed about Faceboook privacy issues? For example, for some exchange or foreign students coming to UBC, (e.g. China), this is their first exposure to Facebook.

I would love to see a panel about social media and education in which we discuss the advantages of tools like twitter for learning environments. Another beneficial panel would be about applications like Evernote and how they can enhance time management and productivity for students.

There is a podcast available.

Thanks to Catherine Paul, Office of Learning Technology for organising this panel.

Relevance: Knowledge about the social media, facebook, and online productivity tools is beneficial in understanding not only why a certain application may have value for educational settings, but to clarify why another may be better.

For example, Kristina Lee Podesva, a Vancouver-based artist has created a langarapublicart.ca project that is pretty cool. She is the inaugural Artist in Residence Program at the Langara College Centre for Art in Public Spaces.


According to the website:

The Langara College Centre for Art in Public Spaces was formed in 2008 as an innovative approach to the public art requirement of the City of Vancouver. The Centre has a mission to engage communities in the research, production and presentation of art in the public realm. The Centre encourages dialogue, and fosters opportunities to collaborate on, experience and learn about art in public spaces.

The 2008 – 2009 Program includes a public Speakers Series and Curriculum Development initiatives in addition to the Artist in Residence Program.

Project: This is a Vehicle

THIS IS A VEHICLE is a collaborative, online work by Kristina Lee Podesva, Artist in Residence at the Langara College Centre for Art in Public Spaces. THIS IS A VEHICLE represents one aspect of Podesva’s overall residency project, Vehicle, which re-purposes shipping containers as “reading rooms” and as discursive sites for thinking through the experience and phenomena of globalization. Similarly, THIS IS A VEHICLE invites participants to re-purpose everyday and not-so-everyday objects by imagining their new and uncommon functions

Dates: January 13 – April 21, 2009
Hours: Mon – Thurs, 4-8pm
Opening Night: January 13, 7pm

Location: Langara College, 100 West 49 Ave, Vancouver.

I am participating in the project by sending a couple of photos that I have reappropriated to info @ thisisavehicle.com.

This is a Vehicle



for

holding conference badges

Relevance: Public spaces should continually be re-mixed, hacked, and reappropriated by the public. Let’s keep urban spaces as people places.

I decided to make my trip adventurous by taking the Greyhound bus each way. I had 14 hours of fun as I chatted with cool people and made friends for life or until one of us deletes the other on FB .


Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel


The Fairmont Banff Springs is a beautiful hotel where the event was held and I really enjoyed spending my nights at the HI-Banff Hostel - definitely one of the finest hostelling international places in North America.

Kay Gruenwoldt – Nokia

Kris Krüg shooting Megan Cole interview of Jim Louderback, Revision3

Boris Wertz – Nexopia.com

Jeff Barr – Amazon.com

Maria Hale – TELUS

Jeremy Wright – b5media

Gavin McGarry, Deborah Day, Matt Toner, Keith Clarkson, & Jacqueline Nuwame

Megan Cole & Biren Ghose

Brian Traynor – N95 winner for having oldest mobile phone at nextMEDIA

Relevance: A fun opportunity to learn from and meet digital media movers and shakers

So, take out your sharpie and mark your calendar for Sept 26-27th. Then signup. It’s free.

It looks like this year Rebecca Bollwitt will be running WordCamp with Duane Storey.


What is Barcamp?

BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from attendees.

All attendees are encouraged to give a demo, a session, a presentation, or help with one. All attendees are expected to be participants. All presentations are scheduled the day they happen. Prepare in advance, but come early to get a slot on the wall.

Presenters are responsible for making sure that notes/slides/audio/video of their presentations are published on the web for the benefit of all and those who can’t be present.

Anyone with something to contribute or with the desire to learn is welcome and invited to join.

So, mark your calendar for Barcamp Vancouver 2008 from Friday September 26th 5pm – Saturday September 27h 5pm. Will there be s’mores? Should you bring a tent? Will you meet fun people that become friends for life? Well, I don’t know the answer to the first 2 questions, but the third is a definite yes!

I attended Barcamp Vancouver 07 for the first time last year and met alot of new people for the first time. I remember sitting on the couch meeting someone named Linda Bustos, talking about Malta with Darren Barefoot, and chatting about tagging with Todd Sieling. I was totally nervous giving a presentation as Kris Krüg played on a skateboard. As has become a tradition as I’ve attended events around campus, I took a picture with Rebecca. Good memories. It was also the first time using my Digital Rebel XTi.

I remember the Friday night as I arrived at the Alibi Room all existed to try out my new camera. I got ready to take a photo of Kris Krüg and I could figure out why I couldn’t zoom with my camera. That’s when he said “Phillip, it’s a fixed lens, you got to step back”. Hopefully I’ve improved since that night.

Darren Barefoot – Barcamp Vancouver 07



Roland Tanglao & Kris Krüg – Barcamp Vancouver 07



Me presenting – Barcamp Vancouver 07

Linda Bustos – Barcamp Vancouver 07

Relevance: Barcamp is about family, community, and sharing what you love to do in your life with friends.