Downtown

I know, I know, I'm totally slacking on the blogging. A week later, it's almost not worth blogging an event, but I just don't feel right about letting this one slide, so here goes--a rundown of Vancouver's first TransitCamp:

Organizer extraordinaire: Karen Quinn Fung who's been doing research on Toronto's TransitCamp at SFU.

(photo by Roland)

When/where: December 8th, 2007 at Workspace.

What it is: TransitCamp is an un-conference, in the same style as many of the tech un-conferences that go on around here, like BarCamp[Wikipedia], DrupalCamp, DemoCamp. Un-conferences are just like regular conferences, except that the content of the conference is totally participant driven--attendees choose the session topics and present the sessions themselves.

Karen was so inspired by the TransitCamp she attended in Toronto that she decided to try one out at home, and she pulled it off just great! She got a good amount of publicity[Vancouver Courier] and I was impressed with the turnout as well as a respectable diversity of participants from tech geeks to transit geeks to a few reps from Translink. There were definitely some heated discussions--it'd been a while since I've debated urban planning type issues, and forgot how worked up I can get!

Sessions I really enjoyed: 2 meshing tech and transit--brainstorming on interfaces for schedules and how to communicate between transit services and users led by John from Handi Mobility (who make really cool stuff by the way, you should totally go check their site out):

and the other on wireless on transit led by Joe from FreeTheNet with lots of interesting commentary from DaveO:

And one on creativity and transit led by Jason Vanderhill, which introduced me to Jason Turner who writes great zines and graphic novels set in Vancouver many written (figuratively and literally) on transit:

If you want to know more about what went on at TransitCamp, there are lots of other detailed reviews and photos by some of the other attendees:

• Miss604
• John [1],[2],[3-not really about TransitCamp, but perhaps inspired by it?],[4]
• Roland [1],[2]
• Dustin
• Karen
• Richard
• Paul Hillsdon
• Stephen Rees
• More Flickr photos

ps. I drew this:

(photo by jmv)

So, you know that last minute entry for Miss604's blogiversary contest? Well, I just got home from the gym to discover that I won!!!

How cool is that? I seriously never win stuff. This week is off to a great start! Only one thing...apparently, the Giants game is Saturday, ie. the same night as Alex's party. Maybe I'll have to try and do both?! The passes to Mount Seymour are what I'm really excited about though, how great! Thanks again, Rebecca! Exclamation marks!!!

Continuing along the theme of winteriness in Vancouver, guess what turned up in the mail today (btw. did you know Canada Post delivers parcels on Saturday?) My ice skates! I asked my mom to send them out, and they arrived this morning, nicely sharpened, with a lovely little note from my mom, of course.

It was a quiet afternoon, after going to the gym, mostly spent doing house stuff, and catching up with people on the phone. I hadn't talked to Tall Scott since last weekend, so I called him up and he didn't have plans for tonight either, so we decided to hit the rink--the West End Community Centre has adult public skate from 8-10pm on Saturdays, which is great cause there's no kids to run over!

We had a pretty good skate, but started feeling a little tuckered out by the time they kicked us off to clean the ice, mid-skate, so we pulled off our skates and went to pick up a movie.

We ended up renting Oceans 13--it was pretty good, not super intense, but still had a good enough plot. Downed the better part of a bag of plain rippled Lays chips, mmmm... Quality couching for the day accomplished!

I think we may have to make a habit of heading over to the skating rink--it's cheap, fun, and actually a surprisingly good workout! Doesn't hurt that it's on the next block either...

Just had to get the initial excitement out with the photo...

I am still a prairie girl at heart, and I have been waiting for the snow. There were some doubters out there, but I knew it was coming... Many a morning I have woken up thinking it may have snowed, but looked out my window to see only grey. When I awoke this morning and heard faint ticking on my window, I thought it best not to bother looking...the snow pessimists had gotten to me... "It's Vancouver, it doesn't snow downtown..." I rolled over and slapped on the radio to listen to the CBC in bed, as I do most weekend mornings. When the news came on, the man said, "The snow that has been falling on the Lower Mainland has started sticking downtown." I instantly popped up and stuck my head through the curtains, and all saw was white...

Then like a crazy person, I yelled, "IT SNOWS!!!! wheeeee!!!!!!!!!"

It was snowing little pebbles when I first got up, and now huge fluffy flakes are coming down. I'm so glad I bought winter boots last weekend--I haven't had any in years, but always wish I do when it does this, so I can go tromp around without getting soggy (plus they're plaid and cute).

Snow days are for staying close to home, listening to the CBC, making tea, reading, walking around all bundled up, and if you're really lucky, snuggling up with someone you like and watching it fall.

It's really coming down now... Hello December, it's going to be a great day.