Category: Lower Mainland

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Impromptu adventure to Canucks Superskills

The white team lines up So I got ahold of some tickets for the Canucks Superskills event, and the fact that Rebecca’s birthday is coming up was going to line up perfectly. I thought I would put them in a birthday card and surprise her with them. After all, it was something that she had asked for, so I thought I was rocking the birthday.

All was going according to plan until I was listening to the radio while in the shower this morning. Apparently someone moved the event to today and not next weekend like I had planned on working out perfectly for Rebecca’s birthday. Or maybe it was actually today and I failed to really double check that date and time.

Regardless, I surprised her when I got out of the shower with second row tickets, which were actually a surprise to me as well (I really need to be better about checking these things), so we grabbed our things and rushed out the door.

Ronning chases the puck

The Canucks Alumni played a game before the festivities kicked off. Cliff Ronning, Dave Babych, Gary Valk, and a wide cast of others were on the ice just ahead of the Superskills getting under way.

"Captain Mike Weaver, thank you."

Just minutes before the competition, Mike Weaver was taped… er, tapped with the captaincy of the white team. He wore it proudly.

"In Sweden, we call them up pushes!"

Losers had to do push ups. Henrik looks a little too happy to be on the losing end of the stick, but you have to applaud his enthusiasm.

Mitchell chats up the junior players

The North Island Silvertips came over from the island for the festivities. They got to participate in each of the events as well. I could only imagine what it would be for a young kid like that and having these NHL guys around you. It would definitely be a boost to work harder to get to the big time.

Mason Raymond wins fastest skater, gets pie in face

Mason Raymond won the fastest skater competition, beating out last year’s winner, Ryan Kesler. You can see his reward above. An extra note, Alexander Edler won hardest shot, dethroning Sami Salo from his four year reign.

Luongo chats with the junior goalie

Once again, you’re a young goalie and you get to share the ice with the likes of Roberto Luongo. How cool is that? Intimidating and encouraging, all at the same time.

Slingshot swag to the crowd 3

The whole place was full with fans, and I can’t remember going to a game, which I haven’t been to a lot nor are we talking about playoffs, where there is so much enthusiasm combined with blue and green in the seats. From row one at ice level to the last row up top, I think it’s safe to say that some of the best fans in the NHL really is in Vancouver. For some, this is the cheapest way into GM Place to take the entire family, so it’s great to see a good turnout as well as a well done event, very deserving to the fans.

Happiness in a stick

Willie Mitchell, a true fan’s player, gave his stick to this youngster. It’s those things that stick with you as a little kid like that. If you don’t believe me, check out The Crazy Canucks #48 where we tell you the story of one guy’s effort to get a broken stick signed that he got as a young boy from Cliff Ronning during his days with the New Westminster Bruins[wiki].

Have nothing but good things to say about the event today, especially for being such a last minute thing for us to go check out. Our seats were amazing, and I had way too much fun with my new camera. You can see all 107 pictures in my Superskills set that I put on Flickr, and most of that was learning what my camera can do. I’m far from mastering it, but it keeps surprising me with what it can do.

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A Dave Olson original of our very own

A Dave Olsen original for christmas

One of the neat things that happened just before Christmas was Dave dropping by to give us this present. An original piece of artwork that pays homage to Vancouver in the only way that makes sense to those who live the true life of a Vancouverite. I’m not sure that I fully qualify, but a combination of Dave and Rebecca has taught me a lot. Very cool.

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This is winter time in Vancouver

Kat Kam - Dec 20, 2007 @ 16:45

I noticed this from work today. The mountains look so incredible this time of year. Rebecca said it best. When it’s summer and everything is green to the point where you can see every single tree on the sides of the mountains, the mountains seem so close. Then when it’s cold and snow capped, they seem so far away.

As long as the snow stays up there, where it’s far away, I’m cool with that.

Thanks to the KatKam for the picture.

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Registration is open for Northern Voice 2008

MooseCamp session run down 6 Registration is now open for Northern Voice 2008!

This is the fourth, annual new media conference that I had the opportunity to attending last February for my first time. The deadline for speaker submissions has come and gone, so the next step is opening the event up for attendees. NV is in February again this year, and the dates have been set for the 22nd and 23rd. Single day registration is $40, and it is $60 for the entire conference, per person.

Also worth mentioning is the pre-conference party that will be happening on the Thursday night before the event at the Tiki Room. It was last year’s party that introduced me to a lot of people who are common friends and faces, so it’s certainly worth attending. Just don’t call it a “networking thing”. That’s so lame.

I’m really looking forward to this year’s conference. With my day job, getting back into the fray of blogging and podcasting can be a bit of a challenge. That’s doesn’t stop me with doing my best to pay attention to what’s going on with the rest of the world, or Vancouver for that matter.

NV07 - Blogging 101 #6

So much has changed in the world of new media, social media, online communities, and so on, just since last year. Last year, Twitter was all the rage. Now we have Facebook. What new things will people be talking about? What has stayed the same?

Still, the forces of blogging and podcasting are still driving hard. Always looking forward to what other people are doing to breathe new life into something “old”.

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Ten minutes to sum up the first Vancouver TransitCamp

Session Discussion I really haven’t paid as much attention during the first Vancouver TransitCamp as I probably should have, but there are some people here today that have some wholehearted thoughts and views about transit when it comes to Vancouver. Some sessions have been filled with a lot of great ideas being shared, stories of woe, and elements of tension. That’s what happens when you present arguments in any atmosphere. Disagreements can and will happen, just like buses not showing up when you want them to.

There was a small representation from TransLink here today, and I’m not sure how they took an event like this. It’s freeform and open end topics that allow people to speak freely about whatever topic, transit related, they want.

On the flip side, I also mentioned that there were people here on the other end of the spectrum, fighting against some things that TransLink and related entities are trying to do, such as the Gateway Project.

More importantly, I love the idea of the transit system in Vancouver creating identity. I would love nothing more than some of the t-shirts that I’ve seen here today. The buttons were very creative, but the shirt that DaveO made read, “I remember the days before SkyTrain” was the best, attendee submitted concept that I saw. Also, the guy falling on the track and getting electrocuted was pretty awesome.

In the end, there are a lot of people here with a lot of ideas. Some are crazy, some are not thought through with enough foresight or hindsight. That’s where things like these events, in a BarCamp[wiki] type structure, make sense. When you are allowed to enter an open forum with little to no restrictions as to what you can or can’t say or do, you never know what might develop in the end.

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Great Vancouver transit tools of my trade

There are a bunch of things that I haven’t been writing about but have been meaning to for a long time now. So let’s take a moment to highlight some really cool things that have popped up in the world of the internets that make transit, at least in Vancouver, easier to deal with.

Google Transit – This is a really cool expansion to Google Maps, and it has only been in operation for the past month or so. I probably don’t use it as much as I should, but how great is it when you can pull up a Google Map with the location of the nearest bus stop? It’s still in development, but there are certainly good uses coming from it right now.

i-Move.ca – Take Google Maps and add real time traffic information. If you are traveling from one end of the city to the other, take a peak at what’s going on with the roads. If it looks bad, then maybe the SkyTrain is the better route to go. Not much different than listening to the radio for traffic updates, but there is a lot of information at your fingertips if you don’t want to wait for the next traffic update to cycle around on the radio.

MyBus – This is a Facebook application that I think I’ve mentioned before, but I had a chance to talk to one of the developers of this wonderful tool today. Add it to your Facebook profile, put in a list of common bus stops, i.e. the one closest to your house, and it updates with the time of the next five buses that will be coming to those stops. Also gives you a much better reason to log into Facebook before you leave for work in the morning, not to mention when you leave work in the late afternoon.

Still, with all these tools are your disposal, getting around Metro Vancouver can still be a pain. At least these things help make sense of it all. If you know of more, make a comment.

Post edit (Dec. 10, 2007)

Next Bus – Rebecca actually blogged about this awhile ago, but it’s something that I haven’t personally tried until this morning. Actually, Rebecca even tried it out in front of me the other morning, and it’s impressive. The way it works is if you are standing at a TransLink bus stop, you will see a numeric code on the sign. Send a SMS, or text message, to “33333” with the code on the sign in the body, and you will receive the next four or five buses that will be arriving at that location. Trying it out this morning, it took about ten seconds after sending the SMS to get a reply. Very useful when you fall out of your normal travel times or are in an unfamiliar location. (This is the only link I found on TransLink’s site about the service.)

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Thoughts on transit in Vancouver at the back of the room during TransitCamp

There are a lot of great things being discussed and talked about here at Vancouver TransitCamp. I know this only because I’m over hearing some of the conversation. There’s so much being talked about that it makes me have a lot of various thoughts about the mass transit system that exists in and around Vancouver, the “Metro Vancouver” area for those not hip to the lingo(because it’s no longer, officially, known as the GVRD), I thought I’d hit a few topics that stick out to my mind.

Session Discussion

First, the Gateway Project. Long story short, they want to twin the Port Mann bridge and allow a higher volume of automobile traffic flow through that area. I don’t like the plan, and there were people here this morning, SPEC, who are doing everything they can to help stop it.

Gateway is a real waste of money and the wrong thing to do environmentally. More care should be given to resist the notion of where more lanes of road will lead to less traffic congestion. Instead, the money going into that project should be given to massively expand SkyTrain service through Surrey and Langley. That expansion should loop around and come back across at the Port Mann bridge. That would help to reduce the amount of commuters coming across the bridge, from the east, if they had an accessible, reliable method like the SkyTrain.

The world of transit in Vancouver

And the SkyTrain… It needs continued expansion, and I really hesitate to say that. However, the reality is the necessity that a growing city like Vancouver needs something to handle the amount of people that are arriving in the lower mainland every day, week, and month. Could you imagine what it would be like if you could not only train from YVR but the ferry ports or even North Vancouver? Madness would precede it before it happened, but imagine what it would be like after.

The bus system… more should be done to increase its reliability. GPS tracking on the buses would certainly influence this, no matter how big brother it sounds. With my recent pains of commuting through the Canada Line construction, I would love to know if I have to wait five minutes or a half hour for the next bus to arrive. I’m not afraid of walking. What I’m afraid of is being a block away when the bus comes and makes me committed to walking the rest of the way, ending up being late for work.

I might add to this post or make more posts about other topics, but these are the issues at the top of my head.
Continue reading “Thoughts on transit in Vancouver at the back of the room during TransitCamp”

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Going to Vancouver Transit Camp

Vancouver Transit Camp Better late than never, but I wanted to mention that I was going to be attending the first ever Vancouver Transit Camp on December 8, 2007.

I’m really unsure what to expect from the event, but ever since moving to Vancouver, mass transit has become an important element of day to day life, not to mention a nearly everyday occurrence. My daily commute relies on the bus system, we probably take the SkyTrain at least once a week, and that SeaBus gets us to see our friends on the north shore without too much of trouble.

I’m fascinated with it. There’s probably no better way to explain it than that, and I’ve been apart of many conversations as to why something is the way it is and how it could be so much better if they just tried some idea that I have.

We’ll see what happens, and I’ll do my best to report back on what happens.

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Sticking up for the Cambie Business Association

I hate the idea of lawsuits to get anything settled, but there is some validity to their argument. Being that I am commuting into the heart of the Canada Line construction, the businesses in that area are truly suffering from the mind numbing construction going on in that area.

Cambie Business Association considers lawsuit against TransLink

[…]They’re calling it a last resort. Leonard Schein with the Association says they would have preferred to negotiate with TransLink, but says after that went no-where, they’ve decided to take it to the next level. “The merchants would prefer not to have to go to a lawsuit because it costs everybody a lot of money, and we were hoping to negotiate a fair mitigation for the merchants, but we heard last Wednesday from TransLink that they aren’t going to pay one penny for any of the losses.”

Schein says many businesses have been suffering. “The Park Theatre has lost $160,000 from January 1st to October 31st and we still have another month of construction in front of the Park.”

A survey conducted by the Federation of Canadian Businesses last summer has found the average merchant has lost over $100,000 during the project. Shein says it’s not fair that merchants will have to pay out of their own pocket. A decision and vote on the lawsuit will take place December 12th.[news1130]

I will admit that a majority of my interaction with this construction is in the area where Cambie Street intersects with Broadway, so how the rest of the world on down the path exists is beyond personal experience. However, I’ve heard horror stories.

#15 going through Cambie St. war zone On the other hand, I will say that I spend as little extra time that I need to because of the Canada Line. Additionally, there are three other areas being developed that screw that entire neighborhood up in conjunction with all the TransLink construction. When you factor in a those three other buildings in their various phases of development, it’s a complete disaster, and that makes me not place the sole blame on TransLink.

I don’t know how many times I have heard people say how much they go out of their way to avoid the area around Cambie and Broadway[googlemaps], but it happens daily. Sure, this headache will be temporary, and I know it sounds like I’m a true Vancouverite that is complaining about anything and everything that annoys me. But, how much will the businesses in the area change after all this is done and over with?

You have to consider what the personal, economic effects this will have when it is complete. Sure, millions of people will be able to easily reach the airport via rail transit, but the lives it will complicate, if not destroy, when their businesses are forced to close down because we dread the traffic snarls just to get there is depressing. Life can and will go on, but the price might be too much for some to recover.

Will it be better that, down a major portion of the Cambie corridor, the trains will run underground so those who pass through don’t have to gaze upon an area of Vancouver that has been shocked into rediscovering itself once this is all said and done?

It’s not so much that these entrepreneurs deserve monetary compensation as much as they deserve a break for sticking through the tough times when everything is finished.

Unless, and this is a total conspiracy theory, your plan is to drive out existing tenants so you can overhaul the neighborhood, a la Coal Harbour[wiki] or Yaletown[wiki]?