Category: Personal

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The Stanley Cup happened to drop by work today

Stanley Cup and Me I have never been close enough to the Stanley Cup to really even see it prior to today. The one day I go to work without my camera, it decides to roll through the front door at work and pay the place a visit. In a mad scramble, I was able to snag a pic with it via cellphone, not to mention the opportunity to touch it as well as take a good look at it.

The one thing that struck me was how scratched it is. That’s not surprising, and I think it’s a lot like seeing people on TV and them not looking the same as they are in real life. It’s been through a lot, not to mention that its century old lifespan lends to have a little bit of wear and tear to it.

The cup was in town tonight for the Vancouver Giants home game where they honored legends of the NHL. The Giants even dawned the jerseys of the last team to win the Stanley Cup in this city, the Vancouver Millionaires[wiki] in 1915.

Back then, all you had to do was be a proven team and issue a challenge to the reigning holders of the title. A far cry from the 82 game regular season and playoffs consisting of four rounds, best of seven series. This point was only driven further into my head when I got home tonight to turn on “Hockey: A People’s History“[wiki] on television. A must see for any hockey fan.

Vancouver's only time on the cup

Alas, one day, Vancouver’s name shall appear on this cup once more as champions.

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The point when you can’t do free anymore

This is a tough topic, and I even hesitate to mention anything about it. Still, it’s worth opening up a discussion because as I get deeper and deeper into my career that revolves around technology, whether it’s in radio, web design, podcasting, or content producing, this is something that similar people are running into.

What do you do when you can’t do what you love to do for free anymore? After all of those favors or helpful tips that you give out to other people are just too much for the amount of time that you have in a day where you have to ask for some compensation, what else can you do?
Continue reading “The point when you can’t do free anymore”

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Family and fun in KCMO

Rebecca and I got back yesterday from a one week stay in Kansas City, MO. My mother grew up there, and it’s where my parents met and got married. The road that took our family to Iowa is a whole other tale, but there is still a large portion of extended family that lives in and around KCMO.

KCMO from Liberty Memorial

My grandmother turned a young 90 years old this past Wednesday, so that, of course, means one thing for a family with hefty Mexican roots. It’s a party, and I think I’m still recovering.

The birthday girl

Otherwise, this trip was a chance to get away from the craziness in Vancouver, enjoy some family, and relax a little bit. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, and you can see more of them in the Flickr set.

She really was here

Truly the “City of Fountains”.

Neptune

Pomona

Brusch Creek

Choices

I haven’t been able to find Mexican bread as good as this in Vancouver.

Mi madre y mi tia

My mom and my aunt, but you can’t see the three pitchers of sangria that were absolutely amazing.

La Bodega

And the scene of the crime.

Rebecca in KCMO

KCMO Pose

Liberty Memorial Park

It was a really great week in Kansas City. Hot, but great to see all of my family. Hopefully a trip to Iowa can be the next leg when we go to visit, but now we’re anxious to show them some of the sites here. Pictures can’t do KC or Vancouver justice, both great in their own right.

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Adjusting and fixing my RSS feeds

There is a good chance that RSS subscribers just got blasted with a back log of posts, so please don’t think that I made about ten posts in a single day. I did some rearranging a couple of months ago when I re-themed my site, restructured my WordPress install, and upgraded to the latest and greatest version of 2.5.

I neglected to make adjustments to FeedBurner, and that has been fixed. Let that be a mental note to the rest of you with similar setups. If you make significant, back end changes to your WordPress site, don’t forget to double check you RSS feed if you are using a third party site like FeedBurner.

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Duane does the 2008 Junos

My good friend Duane Storey has done some amazing coverage of the 2008 Junos this past weekend. He flew out there like a new media ninja and tossed out a lot of blog posts, videos, and photos from the media access he was granted for the whole event.

Michael Buble at the 2008 Junos, Photo by Duane Storey
Photo credit: duanestorey on Flickr

Have to say that I’m very impressed that he was able to do what he did. His level of access was on par to the big name players, and dare I say that it was better than what traditional media usually feeds you. Feel free to check out some of his posts here.

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Yes, that’s me

Zanstorm posted about this on Waiting for Stanley some time back when he saw me in the background during the Nashville game, and he asked if I knew I was on TV. I honestly didn’t know if I made it on the TV, but it didn’t surprise me. We’re all down there doing our sports coverage thing.

It was when I got an email from faithful TCC listener GZ Expat that it was kind of fun to acknowledge that yes, that’s me in the background… the really short guy with Brad Isbister, #27. That guy is huge.

"Is that you??"

If you’re wondering why it’s been so long since I’ve posted, this is apart of that. It’s been quite the month with my day job. After Northern Voice, the pace has gone nonstop, even if we did make a weekend for ourselves on Salt Spring Island. The toughest part is coming home and wanting to do much of anything except relax.

I hope to do more soon, but the season isn’t over for the Canucks just yet (which could be an entire other post for another time). One more regular season game, then, I hope, things will slow down. Hope is the key word there.

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Update your bookmarks and welcome to johnbollwitt.com

I’ve gone and done it again. Rebecca bought me my very own domain for my last birthday, and I’ve decided to launch it one a bit of whim. More of the details later, but I’ve switched my hosting provider and used that as a good excuse to make the cut with audihertz.net.

It’s kind of a sad day to see the domain that I’ve been working under for so long go away (only somewhat because I own it for a long time to come), but it’s time to opt for something a tad more functional for conveying what my URL is. Audihertz will probably be a long time, online persona, but this site now has a much more personal brand to it now.

Welcome to the era of johnbollwitt.com.

Old links should still work through the magic of Duane Storey wizardry. Thanks to him for helping me through the process.

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The year of the eight

Good people, good drink For New Years Eve, we ventured out to be with some friends for the occasion. Some were old, some were new, but all of them were people that have become new to our lives. I’ll even say that if it weren’t for blogging, they probably wouldn’t be friends. It’s amazing how that works, and 2007 has been another, amazing example of how life continues to progress.

Hi. This is a delayed, new year post for 2008.

I actually started writing this sometime ago, and it was even late to the mark when I tried to do that. Ever since getting the full time gig of a day job, it’s tough to find a lot of time to do the other things that really interest me. It’s not that I don’t like what I do. I’m just busy.

This last year has been down right insane. It started off with my approval for permanent residency in Canada, and it concluded with probably the biggest thing to happen in my professional career. I’m working for a group of radio stations once again, and the work is nothing short of a walk in the park. It’s one thing to say that it takes time to learn how to do your job. It’s a whole other realm when you work in the 2nd biggest market in Canada, not to mention those winter snow games in 2010 on the horizon.

I suppose that this is the point where I should make resolutions for this year, but there isn’t a lot to hope for other than good fortune and health. We work hard day in and day out, and there are days when that doesn’t seem like it’s enough. And at that point, which is probably what the main resolution I have for this year, is to enjoy time together more with Rebecca. Camping, traveling, and summer days on the beach, all squeezed in between the hectic lives that we have carved for ourselves.

“Get busy living, or get busy dying.“

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Making the best of a birthday

Driving the Ikea

I know that I am late to mention anything about Rebecca having her birthday on the ninth, but I’ve been far too busy to stop and mention it in a blog post. That’s not to say that we haven’t been busy celebrating her birthday nearly all week. From dinner to a Canucks game, we’ve just been going and going with a variety of fun things.

Regardless, let me take a moment to wish her, my wife and partner in crime, a happy birthday. 🙂