Vancouver Webloggers

Vancouver Webloggers is closed. Urban Vancouver is a replacement site, and in the coming days, will feature a new design. You can create an account which will get you a weblog, an image gallery, RSS feed, and the ability to add links to websites and events. If the editors, of which I am one, feel your weblog post is worthy of more attention, we will promote it to the front page.

May 22, 2004

Ordeal with FIDO »

What a day this has been, at this moment I have some resolve from this whole situation but at a $450 phone bill charge. Let me start at the beginning. On May 08, 2004, I called FIDO (611) and complained about my stylish but shitty phone Z200. They "guy" was not super helpful but had accommodated my complaint and said he would try to help. He did! But this is where it gets complicated. I went to Naramata. He was supposed to send me a phone. I was supposed to receive it by Wednesday. This did not happen. I called on Friday, May 14 and spoke to an operator. She told me that my phone was on the way. The Delay she claimed was with "Canada Post.” I later found out that the mail did not go out and that the phones are back ordered. . I wait another week and call back. That would be Thursday, Yesterday. I get more cock and bull stories on what is my status is. Then I promised a call back. It did not come. I call today and that is when things really go heated up. I called this afternoon on my free afternoon and get the original "guy” he proceeds to tell there is really nothing they can do for me. I would have to wait indefinitely for the new phone. This was completely unacceptable. I was on the road so I asked if I could call back. I did but he was not available. I hung up and called half an hour later. A got a relatively helpful person. He proceeded to tell me more about their shortage of stock and how it isn't their fault etc. I also stated how much it was not a customers fault either that they cannot keep up. Regrettably, this is where it got ugly. The operator started to get rude and i started to raise my voice. He did not want the hassle of my problem, created by FIDO, and told me to cancel my account. HOLD THE PHONE! What did he just say? That right he just told me to cancel my agreement. Well I lost it; from here, I was angry now at him and FIDO. I ask to speak with the supervisor but this Guy refused at first and then finally asked why I wanted to do so. I told him that I was not accustom to being called a liar and demanded a supervisor. Finally, a supervisor came and after I shared my entire story, I allowed him to respond. He stammered a bit and finally we made some headway. This was what I had wanted all along but they were difficult in given in to my need. Finally after an hour of discussion and me losing it I finally have to have me phone. Although he was reluctant to do so, to get me off his back I think he caved. I can say that now because I am holding my phone in my hands. We will see when the bill comes.

posted by Joseph at 6:55 AM | Comments (2)

May 20, 2004

How ESL stduents study in Vancouver??? »

Q:"Dear Ai, I am preparing for the TOEFL test to enter university in Vancouver. I have never been outside China. I am very nervous about communicating with local people in Vancouver. Could you tell me how ESL students study in Vancouver? Is there a different study method between a non-English country and an English speaking coutnry?" -Vicky from China

A: Hi Vicky. Thanks for your e-mail. Many EGG readers live outside Canada and hopefully this answer will help other students like you.

If you are currently in a non-English speaking country, try to build your vocabulary. If you are planning to to go to university, then you will need to know many academic terms. In university, you are required to read English textbooks quickly and efficiently. Also, many students put pressure on themselves to make the perfect sentence or else they do not speak up in class.

However, even if you do not speak in perfect sentences, you can still say enough words to communicate. Most English-speaking people can guess what you are trying to say. To become a good English speaker, you need to make many mistakes! You also need to be a good listener. When I was taking a creative writing course, one of my homework assignments was "eavesdropping on a conversation". I took the bus a lot back then, so I listened to conversations, recorded them in a notebook, and then practiced later.

This is a good way to learn idioms. But be cautious: some people may be offended if they know you are recording them. This is one method I used to study English successfully in Canada.

More questions?? Go to http://dearai.blogspot.com/
Write to "Dear Ai" at ai@vec.ca

posted by Ai at 2:27 PM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2004

What kind of Accommodations do you recommend? »

Q:"Dear Ai, I'm planning to go to Vancouver this summer for one month. Because it
s a short time, I want to enjoy Canada as much as I can. What kind of accommodations do you recommend? -Cathy from Taiwan"

A: Hi, Cathy. There are many types of accommodations, but most students choose homestay. I had four different homestay families in Vancouver: one with two young children, another with older children, one was a vegetarian couple with a dog, and the family I stayed with for almost two years was from Portugal.

Homestay is an excellent way to see how Canadians live. There is a homestay placement fee, but you'll be treated like one of the family and efforts are made to place you with a homestay that maches your needs. For example, would you like to live with a family who has younger, older or no children at all? Do you mind living with a dog or cat, or sharing the house with other students? Also, it's important to tell your homestay family if you have allergies. After you are assigned a homestay, contact the family. Often homestay families have an email address and are happy to talk to you.

More questions?? Go to http://dearai.blogspot.com/
Write to "Dear Ai" at ai@vec.ca

posted by Ai at 2:24 PM | Comments (0)

May 20, 2004

I would like to improve my reading skills, but... »

Q: Dear Ai, I would like to improve my reading skills, but I don't know what level I am. I tried some books, but it's too difficult and I gave up on reading. Is tehre any book you can recommend? -Ji-Eun Kim from Korea"

A: Hi Ji-Eun. Many ESL students have told me they "hate" reading because they tried some English books and found them too difficult. But one bad experince doesn't mean that reading is horrible. You simply haven't found the right book. Finding an interesting, well written book takes time and patience, but it can help improve your English skills.

When you pick up a book, look at the back cover. There's usually a summary of the book or comments by a popular newspaper. These will give you a general idea of what the book is about. Next, skim one page and count the number of words you don't know. If you're not sure about a word, include it anyway. If there are more than 3 words you don't know on one page, the book is too difficult. If you don't know 5 words on each page, then you'll probably look up 5000 words in the dictionary for a 100-page book! That's a lot of work! Using this simple test, you can choose the right book and finish it without frustration.

More questions?? Go to http://dearai.blogspot.com/
Write to "Dear Ai" ai@vec.ca

posted by Ai at 2:23 PM | Comments (0)

May 15, 2004

Urban Vancouver and the Future of Vancouver Webloggers »

400 entries (this one is #401), over 3000 comments, and 87 authors later, the future of Vancouver Webloggers is in doubt. The site was a spur-of-the-moment idea, and it wasn't a bad one in retrospect. People were able to organize events and discuss things and even self-promote, all of which I had no problems with. But administering the site has gotten in the way of my other projects, so instead of administering front-page content after-the-fact—which I now do daily because of comment-spam, even after installing and keeping up-to-date MT-Blacklist—and having to manually add authors, at Urban Vancouver, a new project of mine in collaboration with Boris Mann and Roland Tanglao, anybody can sign up for their own account, automatically get a weblog, submit content—including photos—for approval in the front page and main feed.

We've been developing in the open for the last month or so, and will continue to do so until we officially launch. So far we're happy with what we have, and only the design, which is temporary, keeps it from being a 1.0 release. Urban Vancouver is the following (and it not limited to the following):

• user weblogs, with Vancouver-related content (including text, audio, photos and hopefully video) promoted to the front page
• forums discussing Vancouver-related topics, like neighbourhood chat, free wireless access and cell-phone plans, but users can create their own topics as well
• events calendars with threaded comments from authenticated users as well as anonymous surfers
• special reports, which includes content about ongoing topics, like One Book, One Vancouver
• an aggregator, which collects and links to the most recent posts from bloggers located in Vancouver, which are bundled into topics, such as Vancouver business blogs and even some neighbourhood-level aggregators, like Yaletown and the West End
• XML feeds of everything so that you can syndicate content from the site or read it in your aggregator of choice
• your feature requests: like I said, we're developing in the open, and Drupal, the software that powers the site has an active community in which we also participate

We felt that, while nobody was doing anything like Urban Vancouver, we want as many people to benefit as possible from the site, and that benefit can take the form of increased exposure for those who have excellent writing or photography skills or who have interesting information to share about Vancouver. As mentioned above, anybody can have their own weblog or image gallery, which you can submit for inclusion on the front-page. We also hope to expand and strengthen our network of freinds and business contacts in the Vancouver area, and if we can do that for others, so much the better.

Boris, Roland and I will be at Trees Organic Coffee (450 Granville Street) at around 6 PM on Wednesday, May 19th if anybody wants to discuss Urban Vancouver in person, or even if you just want to meet the three of us. Trees has free wi-fi, so we'll be demonstrating the features of Urban Vancouver. If you have a laptop or otherwise wi-fi capable device, feel free to bring it with you. As for the future of Vancouver Webloggers, that's up in the air. The most drastic thing I could do is disable posting for articles on the main site, comments as well as the tagboard, the code for which I hope to release soon), and I am seriously considering it. Those would would like to RSVP or have questions about Vancouver Webloggers (including ideas for keeping it alive in some form) or Urban Vancouver, you can contact me.

[more...]

posted by Richard at 8:49 PM

May 12, 2004

Yep, I'm still alive »

...and I have a rather sad situation I need some help with.

We (the girlfriend and child-o-mine) will be moving to Ontario early in 2005 and unfortunately it will not be possible to take our two dogs with us. As such, we are looking to find suitable owners and good homes for them. While both of them certainly get along well, they are both very different in personality and temperment and so would do well either toether in one home or with separate owners.

Please feel free to pass this article on to other individuals and/or groups. Read on for more!

[more...]

posted by Hasan at 11:25 PM | Comments (1)

May 9, 2004

Jobs »

I've been thinking of jobs and careers a lot lately and want some food for thought. Be anonymous if you want, just answer as I'd appreciate it.

1. What do you do for a living?
2. Is it a career? If not, what's your ideal job?
3. What's your job title?
4. What do you do all day?
5. Pros? Cons?
6. Do you like it? love it? hate it?
7. Do you make low, decent/average, tons of money?
8. Did you go to school for it? How long?

Thanks!

posted by harpoon at 12:33 AM | Comments (7)

May 7, 2004

Yard Sale! Everybody come! »

What: Yard Sale with 3 urban family units
Where: 2368 West Broadway (between Vine & Balsam)
When: Saturday May 8 from 9 to 1

Things in the sale include:

• Nintendo64 with 1 controller and Mario game


• 14" TV with remote - works all the time


• 25" TV with remote - works some of the time


• 3 or 4 phones - corded & cordless


• couple of golf clubs with bag


• computer subwoofer speaker


• sports equipment


• women's clothes in sizes 8 to 16


• women's shoes in sizes 6 to 10


• books


• CDs


• art supplies


• computer games for the PC


• 20 gallon fish tank incl. accessories


• misc. tools and hardware


• dishes & table linens

I could go on for a while, really. This yard sale is going to be HUGE. You should definitely go!!!

posted by Sue at 10:22 AM | Comments (0)

May 3, 2004

The strike that never was... »

Monday may third. - The day the unions died!
The strike that never was...

I'm disappointed that the general day of protest never happened.
All this grand talk fizzled out to squeeming and bowing to the Govt.
The faith that was built up by the day of action by the unions is now lost.
This momentum will NEVER happen again and more and more people will stop standing behind unions.

I guess the union leaders didn't hear their members.
I guess the Govt. does have the power.

It is a sad message to front line workers -- that we don't matter!
We can go back to work without the securities that BCFED, CUPE, and other large unions have been shouting out all weekend long.

I am a public sector worker, a proud member.
I am a taxpayer, one of many.
I am one voice, that wasn't heard.
I had faith, but it is gone.
I was ready and mobilized.
I am... were you?

posted by Joseph at 8:41 PM | Comments (14)

April 19, 2004

Translink - Part 2 »

Hey everyone! Thanks for commenting on the previous entry on the translink.

If you read the comments from the previous post, you will find that there is a population out their that rely on translink and have no choice but to get poor customer service.

Below is the latest two incidents since the 16 of april and a responce to some of the comments.

I dropped my phone on the skytrain last night! It a bummer but alas it happened so here what i did. I called the Lost and found. Of course they were closed but that was fine. I was told by the Translink rep on the phone that they will be open MOnday and I will be able to pick my phone after 3pm if it was turned in. Well guess what. I mad a whole turn around on my route home and only to find that they only have deliveries on tuesday and thursday. So any thing that is lost will only show up at the earliest tuesday. So why are they even opened on Monday? What could the productivity of the staff at that office be like if they don't get shipments until tuesday?

I'll go back call tomorrow. The staff were very freindly there thought which was a nice change. I guess this IS turning into a translink bash only beacuse there is some amny things wrong with them.

The people who still constantly smoke on the Skytrain platform. There are "lightblue jackets" who stand around and chat with each other and do nothing about it. Clearly the No smoking signs are posted.

The second part of this is directly in responce to two of the comments in the previous post.
A) Public transit system vs. The RAV line. Last week there were off duty employees handing out flyers regarding the PUblic system going private. Many people took the flyer and tossed it aside. Did you know that the RAV line is going forward under many false guises? Did you know that a publicly taxed system will be handed over to a private company to run and operate!

We still have some of lowest fares in Canada! Yeay! -- But for how long?
"posted by RANDOM --i would be happy to see new lines head to richmond, the airport, and other under served parts of the city. but if the service continues to lose money, as it is - this is less likely to happen."

This line is only being pushed through beacuse of the 2010 games. Not to service residents per se but to accomodate to tourists who will bring in little residual money for the city. Not only that but surrounding areas will pay into this line but will not be able to fully reap its rewards.

B) "posted by A SKYTRAIN EMPLOYEE --joseph, i've passed on your story to a SkyTrain customer service representative, if for no other reason than to provide anecdotal evidence of areas which still need improvement."

I, myself forwarded my poorly written, mistake filled rant to the customer service dept. I could have recieved a reply from either the above citizen or from my complaint.

***************************************************************
Good Afternoon J,

Below is a copy of the e-mail you sent to Customer Relations regarding Fare Inspection on SkyTrain. SkyTrain Management will need more information from you. Would it be possible to get your daytime telephone number to discuss this further?

Thank you,
Amelita
BCRTC: 2004-00434
TransLink: 35866
***************************************************************

I will call her but of course she didn't leave me a phone number? Will i finally get results or am i just blowing smoke up my own ass!

thanks for reading.

posted by Joseph at 5:32 PM | Comments (1)