Category: Blogs

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Bring back the stick in rink

Vancouver Canucks - Original logoI’m not sure where I picked this up exactly, but it’s a really great read. There are so many, non-Canucks fans who look at the original logo for Vancouver and can’t figure it out. Just recently, in fact, Rebecca and I had a Flames fan ask us this question. Even I knew that it’s a “C” for “Canucks”, made from a hockey rink with a hockey stick set inside it, just like you see here(click on it for a larger image).

The story of it is really interesting though.

“For one thing,” Joe explains, “I was a hockey fan. But also I was on my own as a graphic artist and I figured if I ever got this thing [the logo], it would really be something because Vancouver is such a crazy town for hockey.

“I spent about a week doing it,” he recalls. “I took it to Greg Douglas who was then the Canuck’s public relations man. He said that Mr. [Tom] Scallen and Mr. [Lyman] Walters, who were the heads of Medicor, were coming to Vancouver and he’d make arrangements to have me meet them.

“So it was the next day or so that I went to the Hotel Vancouver to see them. They owned an agency in San Francisco that did advertising for their ice shows, and they also had submissions from other people around the States.

“They had a whole pile of designs scattered around the floor, but I really had no time to look at them closely.

“So I submitted mine and left it there after explaining about the blue and green for the water, mountains and trees. There was no price talked about.

“About two weeks later, Greg called me up and said, ‘Joe, they want to go with your design. [sportslogos]

I also love the part where Brian Burke coughed up the cash to use the logo for Orca Bay to use the logo on Vancouver’s third jersey. You wouldn’t think that an organization would be so nice to the creator of a logo like that, but this just goes to show the class that Burke had as a GM. At the same time, there is no arguing that Joe Borovich was the guy who created the logo.

If Orca Bay made the move to make the “stick in rink” logo, including the original colors, the main jersey for the Canucks, then I am all for it. It’s the only logo on any merchandise that I would buy, and Rebecca would probably tell you the same thing.

Update: Not so much to this post, but the Canucks played in Columbus tonight. Great game, taking it into overtime. 3-2 over the Blue Jackets.

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Announcing a new podcast: The Crazy Canucks

A few months ago, Rebecca[miss604] and I brainstormed an idea for a podcast that seemed too good to pass up. With the friends that we have been making in the world of blogging and podcasting, The Crazy Canucks was born.

We’ve brought together Vancouver Canucks Op Ed, the Canucks Hockey Blog, the Canucks Outsider, Miss604, and my adventures with RadioZoom into a podcast that is probably unlike anything you’ve heard before, and nothing like anything I’ve ever been apart of. And you don’t need an iPod to listen!

The Crazy Canucks

[krey-zee, kuh-nuhks]

Local Canuck Bloggers to Host a Weekly Roundtable Podcast this 06/07 NHL Season

Current album art: The Crazy Canucks podcastVANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA (October 2, 2006) – Coming this October is a podcast the likes of which Vancouver has never seen. It will be a collaboration of hockey bloggers and the brainchild of a podcaster who all have one thing in common: The Vancouver Canucks.

The Crazy Canucks will be a weekly podcast about the team, the players, the organization and the league. Our goal is to have a fan’s point of view, since we’re not cable TV and we’re not local sports radio. Agree or disagree, leave us a written or audio comment and tell us how you really feel.

Listen and subscribe to the podcast, which will be available weekly on TheCrazyCanucks.com.

For more information contact: feedback [at] thecrazycanucks.com

Look for the premiere episode to debut this week as the Canucks kick off the regular season on Thursday. Subscribe or listen directly on the website. It doesn’t matter how you hear it as much as it matters that you come be apart of the podcast. Afterall, we’re fans just like you.

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I might be at the Portable Media Expo

My immigration status is still unchanged. That means I cannot go to the Portable Media Expo in California, at least physically. In fact, it’s already started by the time I make this post. The keynote is over and people who claim to know more than you about podcasting are beginning various sessions about different topics, mostly how to make money off this stuff.

Dave Slusher is one of those guys. He speaks for the trees. Er, I mean hobbyists. Amateur podcasters that do it for the love and not the money. He also put out a call for URLs, logos, and a voice comment regarding why you podcast and would you keep doing it if you knew, tomorrow, that you were never going to make a single dime from podcasting. He’ll be using these things in his session with a goal of highlighting those who do this for the love, not the dollar signs.

I gave him all three, and he emailed me to let me know he got it. If it wasn’t for the fact that I listened to Ted’s latest edition of Island Podcasting, I would have never known that he was doing this. My listening to the Evil Genius Chronicles got a little backed up. Even though I emailed him the stuff yesterday, I got in “right under the wire”.

So if you saw or heard of RadioZoom at the PME, be sure to leave a comment and let me know.

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Just another day, but I’m another year older

Canucks vs. Anaheim for my birthdayWhat can I say? It’s been an incredible weekend of birthday happiness.

There was Snow Patrol on Thursday night(which I have yet to make my review post about yet), dinner with my Canadian family on Friday, Mexican food with my Canadian friends on Saturday, and the Canucks vs. Ducks at GM place tonight. I’ve said it a lot already, but you only turn twenty-eight once, right?

There are so many thanks that need to go out to so many people. So many good times were had over the period of four days, not to mention the cards, gifts, and alcohol, consumed or given as presents, from everyone.

Just before the puck dropped tonight at GM Place, my parents called me on my cell. It was a moment of true analogy. The beer we had just purchased was foam all the way to the brim and slightly spilling over as my folks wished me a happy birthday. That’s what today had climaxed to, and I don’t think it could have gotten better than that, not to mention that the Canucks preveiled, 4-3 in a shootout.

Poncho's! As I write this, The Reverend Don Deeley is making his way through his weekly radio show at WYEP in Pittsburgh, dedicating a good portion of the selections my way, all for my birthday. He emailed me to give me a heads up, thinking I wouldn’t be listening, but I’ve been streaming in from the beginning. That means a lot, and I thank you so much, Don. Anytime I can take over airwaves through the use of my voice or a barrage of song requests, I’m so there.

I also want to mention thanks to some fellow bloggers for extending some birthday wishes. J.J. from the Canucks Hockey Blog met up with us ahead of the game tonight, providing me with another, frosty beverage for my other hand. Yvonne sent in an email as well as getting a voicemail from Uncle Weed. Even the woman who cuts my hair called me, but Minoo was more concerned about how Rebecca liked the coloring of her hair after there were some issues with getting that all done.

Rebecca had her hair coloredMost importantly, Rebecca has made this an amazing birthday. This has been the first time that we’ve been able to be together for it, and she has made it more incredible than I could have ever imagined. Everything you could probably imagine about her being a wonderful person is true, but I have that and a lot more with everyday that goes by.

Thanks to everyone. Just because your name isn’t on here and the exact contribution to this weekend isn’t listed, that doesn’t mean that it’s insignificant. There’s just so much, and I’ll keep those for myself. Memories are always the best gift that can be given.

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Collection of blogs to feed your Canucks need

Welcome to September. Ok, the month is nearly over, but pre-season hockey kicked off this week. On top of that, my birthday is on Sunday. Rumor has it, Rebecca might have gotten us tickets to the Canucks game for the same day against Anaheim. This might be a secret, but I am almost positive that we’re going to be there. I’m almost shaking with excitement as I type this. An amazing way to celebrate my first birthday in Vancouver.

The hockey blogs are ramping up for the coming season, so I thought I would do my best to share some of my favorites for getting news on the Canucks. I should also mention that the commentary is the best thing about these sites. Afterall, what else are blogs for if you can’t share some of your personality while posting away about the team, or teams, that you love, not to mention the team, or teams, that you don’t.

  • Vancouver Canucks Op Ed [http://www.vancouvercanucksoped.com]
    • I liked Alanah’s stuff before we interviewed her on the podcast[radiozoom#108], and she is an incredible source of what’s happening with the Canucks. Readers chime in with comments, and she responds with more insight to what she’s posting. That conversation alone can give you more about what you want to know.
  • Canucks Hockey Blog [http://canuckshockey.blogspot.com]
    • J.J. knows his stuff. The guy worked at GM Place for a number of years and has season tickets for the Canucks. Do you need anything more to tell you that he loves this team? J.J. offers great insight into what’s going on with the team, and I loved his coverage on the salary cap situation. I had the opportunity to meet him recently, and he is a super cool guy. We hope to interview him on the podcast in the very near future.
  • Canucks Outsider Podcast [http://hockeynw.com]
    • I can’t fail to throw a podcast into this, but DaveO does do some blogging on this site as well. The guy knows his stuff and has done a lot to teach me about the history of the team. Hasn’t been much since the Hurricanes won the final last season(of which he totally called from day one of the playoffs), so I hope he starts back up when the season returns. Plus, I know the guy. Go check out his stuff because I said so.
  • Miss604 [http://miss604.com]
    • Gotta plug Rebecca’s blog because she does some great blogging about the Canucks, and she is, afterall, my wife. Expect more as the season kicks into full swing.
  • Waiting for Stanley [http://hockey-madness.blogspot.com]
    • Three guys contributing to one blog makes for a lot of content coming from this site. They cover more than just the Canucks, but the things they cover give you a good overview with what is going on with the teams that will be coming up against Vancouver. “Waiting for Stanley” refers to the Stanley Cup, of course. With the Sedin twins pictured in the banner at the top of the page, this is the story for much of Vancouver fans.
  • Orland Kurtenblog [http://orlandkurtenblog.blogspot.com]
    • These guys crack me up. They’re new to the scene, as of July, but I like their take on the Canucks. They have a lot of knowledge in terms of the history of the team, and the commentary is hilarious. I dig the posts about Canucks players of past, and stuff like Celebrity Hockey Look Alikes crack me up.
  • Canucks.com Blog [http://blog.canucks.com]
    • Last, but not least, the official Canucks blog. However, there is a lot to be desired from this one. It’s a tad messy to sort out, and I’m not sure who the guys are that are posting, officially, on behalf of the organization. They also do live blogging of the games and have players do their own posts from time to time. It’s a great resource, but finding all of those elements that I just pointed out can be a little difficult.

That’s all I have for now, and I know that there are more blogs about the Canucks out there. Feel free to post a comment about them, but the ones that I just listed are the ones that I’m reading on a regular basis. I have so many RSS feeds that I check up on everyday, so if there are others that you think I should be paying attention to, let me know.

All of that being said, it’s going to be a crazy season coming up. Nothing is on TV until the regular season kicks off in October, so I have no way to judge anything except what I read about it in the blogs or catch from the media.

Yo! Luongo(that’s for you, Alanah) makes his debut in a Canucks jersey tonight in San Jose, and my favorite boy, Anson Carter, made his way to the Blue Jackets(where Federov just went out for the next six weeks with an injury SUCKER!). I don’t know what to expect. Maybe the game against Anaheim on Sunday, that Rebecca might be taking me to, will tell me more.

With hope, I’ll be doing my own posts from time to time about the Canucks, but keep listening to RadioZoom. Rebecca and I always love talking hockey there.

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Podcasting and the Meta Argument

At BarCampVancouver, Ryan Cousineau[wiredcola] led a session called “Sturgeon’s Revelation”[wiki]. The idea that “ninety percent of everything is crud” was the center piece of this session, applying it to pretty much everything that exists in the world of Web 2.0[wiki]. The main topic of focus, however, was podcasting[wiki].

Darren Barefoot made a recent post regarding social networks and podcasting, citing that the resources are not there for the medium as there is for photo, video, or link sharing. This idea speaks a lot to what Cousineau was getting at with his session, and much of his thoughts on the topic is posted on his blog.

When it comes down to it, there is not an easy way to share content within a podcast unless you listen to it. You can’t Google search for information that can be found in a podcast. There are such things as show notes and tags that people apply to the material that they publish, but not everyone does it, nor does everyone do it the same way.

The only solution to this problem is to transcribe podcasts in their entirty so that anyone searching for a topic can locate it in your podcast as well as anywhere else on the web. Quite often, this is where people with low opinions about podcasting derive their argument, and I’ve heard this thought propelled by a lot of bloggers. Yes, blogging is a very quick way of publishing information for the world to read in nearly real time. It is instantly indexed, searchable, and archived.

Generating audio for a podcast can be done in the same way, but often is delayed and ineffective with being timely. The podcast itself, in its raw form, is a bunch of ones and zeros, and no one has developed a way to index the contents of a podcast so that it is searchable across the internet. No matter how great of material that you have in a podcast, some one finding that gem of information inside forty minutes of a mp3 won’t happen unless they download it and listen.

This is where I start to agree with the point that Cousineau is saying and the thoughts presented in Barefoot’s post. The conversation that you can get from podcasting is vastly different for the ones that happen through blogging, Flickr, or YouTube. “Feedback” is the better word for what goes on with a podcast. Continue reading “Podcasting and the Meta Argument”

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Godin declares job interviews are dead

I’ve known about Seth Godin for a long time now and don’t read his stuff nearly as much as I should. CNet mentioned a recent post on his blog that declares job interviews being a thing of the past. It’s well worth the read, and a few of the points stuck out to me.

I’ve been to thousands of job interviews (thankfully as an interviewer mostly) and I have come to the conclusion that the entire effort is a waste of time.

At least half the interview finds the interviewer giving an unplanned and not very good overview of what the applicant should expect from this job. Unlike most of the marketing communications the organization does, this spiel is unvetted, unnatural and unmeasured. No one has ever sat down and said, “when we say X, is it likely the applicant understands what we mean? Are we putting our best foot forward? Does it make it more likely that the right people will want to work here, for the right reasons?” […]

The other half is dedicated to figuring out whether the applicant is good at job interviews or not.

I should have learned this lesson in 1981, when my partner and I (and three of our managers) hired Susan, who was perhaps the best interviewer I have ever met. And one of the worst employees we ever hired. Too bad we didn’t have a division that sold interviews. [sethgodin]

Godin goes on to basically say that the best way to interview some one for a job is to actually make them do the task you are hiring for. It’s the only, true way that you can assure yourself that you are hiring the right person for your company.

I’ve gone to a good number of interviews since coming to Vancouver, but my immigration status has prevented me from getting a handful of jobs. That doesn’t mean I won’t apply for a job. Getting an interview is always worth the time, if not making valuable contact with people you wouldn’t mind hiring you when the time comes.

Continue reading “Godin declares job interviews are dead”

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Canucks 2006 broadcast schedule

J.J. over at the Canucks Hockey Blog posted an update to an older post about catching this season on TV. If you check out his post, you can get the full run down of when and where you can catch all the Canucks games this season. Well, not all of the games.

Bumping this up now that Sportsnet and the Canucks have agreed on a multi-year deal. I’ve updated the Canucks broadcast TV schedule above to include all Sportsnet and pay-per-view games this season.

80 of 82 games are going to be on TV this season, the first time in recent years that not all Canucks games will be shown. The two games not on TV are: the Oct. 21st game @ Nashville and the Apr. 7th game @ San Jose. [canuckshockeyblog]

Another intesting detail that many fans would be interested in that that the number of pay-per-view games appears to be 17. One would think that the two dates not being televised would get ear marked for PPV, but looks like we’ll be listening to Shorthouse on the radio for those games.

Lord knows that people would probably pay for it, but two more games would make buying all the PPV games in one package a tad more expensive. You can always get those special cable or satellite packages to catch games in other markets if those two games are that important.

This year’s regular season TV schedule once again includes 45 broadcasts on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific, with 13 games on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, 17 on Canucks TV and five games on TSN. Jim Hughson and John Garrett will once again be calling games on Rogers Sportsnet Pacific. [canucks.com]

I like Jim Hughson at the helm for play-by-play, and it’s hard to contest Shorthouse, be it on the radio or TV. It might just be me, but the color commentators often make me cringe, whoever they bring in for any game. “Roll up the rim to win!” is not the first thing that pops into my head when some one scores a goal, and “I like, I love it, I wanna see more of it” is just… well… need I say more?

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Here, there, and I swear I’m forgetting something

This week has been full of various projects and events. For starters, the concert at the former home of Matthew Good is still having some ripple effects. More so, the podcast Rebecca and I did to document the occassion after the fact is still going strong in terms of downloads. It was the most downloaded episode that I have released in a single day, on the day that it was published. A lot of that is in part from Good linking RZ#109 that from his website. Can’t thank him enough.

The Flickr Vandigicam meetup was a resounding success, and it appears that many of the past meetups are just as much so. There was nearly 30 people who showed up for the Portrait Throw Down III, and Rebecca even got in on the fun[miss604:post] while I recorded audio for a podcast to released next week. Lots of really fun people and just as many pieces of camera equipment. Be watching the RadioZoom website for that episode on Tuesday.

Darren Barefoot also put a call out to Vancouver bloggers to go check out his play[db:post], Bolloxed, during the Vancouver Fringe Festival. I sent him an email, and he graciously put Rebecca and I on the list. Being that we’re getting in for free, Barefoot is asking that we blog a review of the play. Of course, I offered to do some podcasting about it as well. I’ll take the mobile rig along with, capture what audio I can during the play, and even try to get Darren, the playwriter himself, on the mic.

I also want to encourage people to check out the “Fringecast” that is being put on by xpodradio.com. It’s a podcast about, you guessed it, the Vancouver Fringe Festival. Darren sent me a quick note to also inform me that he’d be appearing on there.

I’m also in the process of planning a new podcast, and that’s, once again, another hint drop. We hope to launch the project in the next few weeks, but everything is still in the planning stages. Listeners of RZ won’t be too surprised when it does land, but the scope of the podcast goes a little beyond what many podcasts are doing. Keep checking back as we get things off the ground.

Needless to say, without having any source of income coming from anything of what I just listed, I’m keeping busy.

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That’s the impression that I get

Living in close quarters with a fellow, Vancouver blogger, aka my wife[miss604], we tend to get the same spam. Take the Matchstick stuff for example. We both got that email and have slick, mobile phones at no charge. And then there is email from this guy, who shall remain nameless.

Hey There,

My name is —– and I’m a Vancouverite trying to get more involved in the
local blogging community.

My blog is —————- and I blog about what I’m passionate about,
Reality TV, Politics and Vancouver, an odd combination, but it seems to work
fairly well, at least so far. I update everyday and usually multiple times, so
my blog isn’t going to get stale anytime soon.

Anyways, as I’m trying to get into the Vancouver blogging scene I was
wondering if there would be anyway to get my site added onto your Blogroll? I
would, of course, be more than happy to add Audihertz to my blogroll as well.

Thanks for taking the time out to read this, let me know if you have any
questions for me. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Rebecca got the same email, with a minor change, of course.

Hey There,

My name is —– and I’m a Vancouverite trying to get more involved in the
local blogging community.

My blog is —————- and I blog about what I’m passionate about,
Reality TV, Politics and Vancouver, an odd combination, but it seems to work
fairly well, at least so far. I update everyday and usually multiple times, so
my blog isn’t going to get stale anytime soon.

Anyways, as I’m trying to get into the Vancouver blogging scene I was
wondering if there would be anyway to get my site added onto your Blogroll? I
would, of course, be more than happy to add Miss 604 to my blogroll as well.

Thanks for taking the time out to read this, let me know if you have any
questions for me. I look forward to hearing back from you.

Now, please don’t think I’m trying to be a snob here because yesterday, the same dude emailed me with this thing about free coffee from Starbucks. Certainly enough, Rebecca got the same thing in her inbox. Yes, I’m all about free stuff. However, I never responded after the first email, but it was something I was considering. I’m thinking twice now that I’ve been told that there is a way to get free coffee by clicking on some link in an email that takes me to said dude’s site.

The Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary defines “spam”[m-w] as “unsolicited usually commercial e-mail sent to a large number of addresses.” Two people, meaning Rebecca and I, isn’t really a “large number,” but I would have to put this solicitation on the spam side of the fence. And if the guy actually read our blogs, he’d know that she gets a lot more traffic than I do, at least in terms of comments. Our writing is different from each other and is not an important topic to get into right now.

I’ve always found that blogger etiquette is to check out other people’s sites, read them, comment on posts, and create an interactive relationship in that manner. This method makes me tend to believe that this guy might be one of those poser blogs. Just a way to get you there to click on the Google Ads which litter his site. Even if you’re not, then this is the impression that you have given me.

“And for the future? You came on a little strong.“