personal

It’s been a long time since I have written a post on here and it’s depressing. I have done some thinking in the last couple of days and here is what I came up with.

I have wanted to do some online video streaming for quite some time and I have spent a lot of time getting my setup working so that it would run correctly. That took away from my posting time so there was a lack of presence on the blog which wasn’t good. Then for some reason I got it in my head that if I was going to spend any time on the website it should be in the video stream. There are 2 issues with that. First is that I absolutely need to be in my home office for that to work. I don’t have any mobile cameras to play with so it’s not a choice at the moment. The other issue is that it takes planning and some dedicated time. I can post from any computer connected to the internet, hell… even my cell phone.

Now that I realize what my mental block was I hope that I can get past it… Christmas is coming and there will be much tech to talk about

Well today is a bog day for Canadian politics. We are going through an election as our American counterparts will be doing in the coming weeks. Today we are voting to elect a party and Prime Minister from one of 5 major parties, The Conservatives, The Liberals, The NDP (New Democrats), The Bloc (Quebec only party) and The Green Party. It really looks like a race between The Conservatives and The Liberals at this point with The Conservatives currently the party in power (minor holding).

I have taken a moment to put together a list of 6 resources for you to find information regarding the election and track the results.

CBC.ca - Canada’s nationally funded network will have up to the minute results. Check their dedicated site for the elction at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/.

CTV.ca - Canada’s other national network will also have up to the minute results. Check out their dedicated page for the election at http://www.ctv.ca/mini/election2008/.

The Globe and Mail - Canada’s national newspaper will have results on their page as well. Their dedicated election page is located at http://www.theglobeandmail.com/national/politics/.

The Toronto Star - Toronto (Canada’s largest city) with their look on the election. Their dedicated web page is located at http://www.thestar.com/election.

The Montreal Gazette - Montreal’s (Canada’s second largest city) major English speaking newspaper. You can find their dedicated page at http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/news/decisioncanada/index.html.

The Vancouver Province - Vancouver (Canada’s third largest city) with a look at the election from the other side of the rockies. Their dedicated page is at http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/decisioncanada/index.html.

BONUS!!! For us geeks, you can find Amber MacArthur online between 8pm and 11pm tonight with a live chat room open. Topic you ask? Of course the election. Go to http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081010/081010_amberblog/20081010/?hub=CP24Home for more information.

So if there is something you would like to add to the list, please comment and share it with all of us. I like to watch these results unfold from a wide variety of resources

Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) twittered a new site just a few minutes ago and I am psyched! It is a site all about grilling and BBQs. If you are a meat lover like me, then this is the site for you.

Prime Cuts is a site created by Justin Levy who not only seems to know a lot about meat and BBQing but also is a chef. So far there are only 3 or 4 posts on the site so it’s hard to see the continuity on the site but the posts that are there are very well written and very informative. I am always looking for new tricks with my BBQ, new things to cook and new ways to cook them.

So all you vegetarians can forgive me for this post, the rest of you go have a look and book his RSS feed

I wasn’t at home all weekend so I couldn’t immerse myself in Gnomedex and the Olympics. A cottage weekend with the family trumped geeking out, and it was awesome. I did have some time to reflect however on what I want to do with my blog, what goals I want to accomplish by blogging and sharing with the community.

I started to really concentrate on the blog on a daily rate back in May of this year, sometimes writing posts everyday and sometimes working on site design and layout. At the beginning the goal was to see if I could stick with it through the summer which would be the hardest months to do so. Aside from family trips up north on the weekends and some vacation, I have been keeping this up to date quite well. Now that the season is coming to an end, I only believe that my attention to the site will grow.

That brings me to a new goal that I have, “I would like to attend Gnomedex 2009.” I have been following what was going to happen at Gnomedex recently and I was interested in the conference from my first having heard of it. I like the idea that there are not ten thousand people attending, but more of a core group of like minded people who are going to experience the same itinerary as one group.

I have been involved with big conferences in the past. I was part of a group of people that went to E3 in 1999 and 2000 for Guillemot who was the parent company for Hercules and Thrustmaster. I had a great time at these conferences and learned a lot from attending them, but to host a Web 2.0 or social networking conference in that or a similar format wouldn’t be ideal in my eyes.

To have community members and leaders present to the whole group and then let the group meet socially sounds extremely more promising and I think that is what the goal is with Gnomedex.

If I am to attend the conference, it needs to be on the merit of my work however. I am not sure if I am telling you this or if it is more of a notice to myself. I didn’t set out to make The Sleepy Geek my primary source of income when I started this venture, in fact like I said before the goal was to keep going through the summer months. That’s not to say that I wouldn’t love to be doing this full-time, but that’s not on the front burner right now. So the goal is to continue to build readership and relationships through the site. I may expand my avenues of communication, possibly a podcast, more likely a video stream, but the goal is to raise enough funds to join the group at Gnomedex next year.

Chris if you read this, please don’t hold it in Hawaii… who knows if I would be able to make enough to cover that airfare

Cheers!

I know I bill myself as a techy blog but holy crap! The weather this summer has been horrible the entire summer. This is what we saw rolling over the island of Montreal yesterday!

August 18, 2008 5:30pm - Cloud of doom

It is starting to get a little tired with all the rain. At our cottage one of the local retailers was saying that they were on their 49th strait day of rain up there. Not that we have been blessed with good weather here, we only missed that by 2 days apparently.

This is our current forecast… everyone please wish us luck. I can only hope that things are on the upswing.

Montreal Forecast

How is the weather in your neck of the woods? Are you experiencing what feels like the end of the world as well?

It feels like the plague has taken over our house. My wife is down for the count with a fever and I am on my way. We think we caught it from the kids who bring everything home from their petri dish… I mean daycare. We took our daughter to the doctor today as she had an appointment already scheduled with her ENT (specialist) and after a clean bill of health we decided to take mom and dad by the walk in clinic. Verdict? We have strep throat. Booohooohooo. We have our anti-biotics and are going to get healthy, but before the doctor’s visit we were pretty sure that we just had a cold with a cough.

So what’s our choice? NyQuil! We love it because you can pretty much take it with whatever ails you, then you promptly go into a coma for 9 hours. AWESOME! The only problem is that my wife and I don’t like to take it on the same night in case something happens with the kids and night and we need a level head. So tonight isn’t my night. Boohoo!

Wish us luck, hopefully the Amoxil kicks in sooner than later.

I have been poking around for some time looking for marketing tips for my blog while also trying to come up with my own ideas. I follow a ton of people and noticed a post on twitter the other day from Chris Brogan, 100 Personal Branding Tactics Using Social Media. Chris is definitely an expert in this area so I and going to work on trying to follow the majority of his ideas. Increased viability will for sure drive first time readers. Then all I have to do is keep them coming with my outstanding whit! Woohoo! Crap, this might be harder than I thought.

It looks like a lot of work. I am up for it, the only issue I have is the lack of sleep. I still work at a 9-5 job to pay the bills but it gets in the way of my progress online. The Sleepy Geek really comes from me being tired. Two small kids and my wife also works and we are always on the go.

I want to try and get my work out there. I have started to blog and really what I want is to develop a good sized readership. I thought it best to get some content on the site before I really started to push at branding my name. I intend to use some of Chris’ ideas such as reading other blogs and commenting as much as possible with intelligent information. I want to also concentrate on building a community.

So here goes Chris, a wealth of knowledge and nothing but time to get it done. Thank you for your help and if I apply it correctly I can’t see it NOT working.

Vacation at the cottage is over Sad to be over, but glad to be home. It was nice to unplug from the world for a while, spending a lot of time with the family. It was a blast to just relax with the kids and my wife all day.

All that being said, it’s nice to be home. Glad to see my house and glad to see my own bed. I have a pinched nerve in my back and I think it’s mostly to do with sleeping in another bed. DOH! What do you want for cottage paradise?

Total creds to Chris Pirillo for this topic. I was reading through some of my RSS feeds and here is a post about a peanut butter taste test. I must say that this is a really cool topic because if you like peanut butter, then you most likely have a brand that you think is SSOOOOO much better than any other. As do I

I am a huge Peter Pan fan and have been since I was a kid. My brother is also that way and I suppose it’s due to our trips to Maine in the summer time. That’s because we can’t buy it up here in Canada

Part of my comment on Chris’ blog post:

“We vacationed a lot as a family when I was young in Maine. I love it there. Peter Pan is all part of the childhood memory that also includes jumping waves in 59° water, drives by the President’s summer place (Bush Sr. in Kennebunkport), the fair and salt water taffy from Goldenrod Kisses in York Beach and the family being together.”

It’s okay though because we stock up! That’s the nice thing about living close to the boarder I suppose. Take a look at his video. His wife Ponzi puts him through his paces

Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

Bill Gates as we all know has left Microsoft for new beginnings. I actually of the opinion that he will do more to change the world now than he did at Microsoft. If he is successful at his venture with charity as he was with his company Microsoft then we will be a better planet.

He has done interviews and been in the public eye for quite some time but when you get a chance to look back at the beginnings of his life and Microsoft it is always interesting to see a new view. My most recent finding is a CNN link to a narrated slide show of some photos. He describes each photo from a childhood shot to some of the company functions in the 90’s.