Posted: February 6th, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: week sauce | 2 Comments »
This week’s sauce has some great junk. Plus to be merciful there’s no random dodgy photos or videos. I’ve been having a great week. Left Montreal, passed through Vancouver and now I’m happily ensconced in Victoria. I already took one of the first aid courses I want to do, and I’m happily doing the foot work for a couple Victoria based posts that I want to do. Anyways, let’s get this baby rolling so I can go watch Zombieland. Again. It’s a cool movie! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: February 4th, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: travel photos | 7 Comments »
In order to get on to Vancouver Island from the mainland of British Columbia you pretty much have two choices: plane or ferry. My favourite is definitely the ferry. The BC Ferries are remarkable in that they can carry 1650 passengers, and up to 370 vehicles between the British Columbia mainland and Vancouver Island. They’re the largest double ended ferries in the world. Plus they serve a damn tasty veggie burger on board. The most common route is from just outside Vancouver over to the capitol of British Columbia, which is Victoria. It’s an hour and a half voyage which winds through several small islands in the Pacific Ocean and is really quite scenic.
The sore point for me is watching this great scenery sail past while I have no photography skills at all. So a few days ago, I stood on the deck of the seventh floor, right up at the bow and tried my best to get a good photo. With it being a chilly February afternoon, high up on the bow of a fast moving ship, it wasn’t exactly crowded. I have a very tough time taking photos; I don’t feel comfortable taking them, plus I don’t have much of an eye for it. So excuses aside, here are a few that I got which seem fairly nice to me. Let me know what you think! Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: February 3rd, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: blah blah blah, web | No Comments »
I had the good fortune to contribute to a cool roundtable post up on the Where I’ve Been blog about visiting Canada. It covers some really good questions about destinations in Canada. I definitely recommend checking it out if you’re ever likely to visit Canada or know someone who is.
I really like the style of those roundtable posts they do at Where I’ve Been. Comparing the different answers from various travel folks gives a different sense of perspective on the topic. Plus it’s neat when all three of the contributors give the identical answer to a question. Then you know there must really be something to it beyond personal opinion. This is actually the second one I’ve contributed to and with some luck I hope to do more in the future. Anyways, check it out!
Oh, Canada: In a few days, epic NBC Winter Olympics montages will remind the world that its rugged environs have provided us photogenic landscapes, hockey, poutine and moose for decades. And while Bob Costas and co. might boost interest, Canada remains a remarkably overlooked tourist destination. Why?
Continue reading Travel Tuesday Roundtable: Canada on the whereivebeen.com blog.
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// shawn
Posted: February 1st, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: web | 3 Comments »
There was no shortage of decisions to be made when I decided to make my lifestyle change to become a professional hang-about. Most of those decisions answered themselves or were handled quietly. However, my decision on whether or not to do a travel blog was rather drawn out, and also unusually public. From that discussion on BootsnAll, I came to the point of liking the blog idea as a personal trip record and kind of fun thing to do. I also noticed that a strong travel blog was used by everyone that was turning travel writing into a career of sorts. Whether that’s blogging or freelance writing, or whatever. It was a cool idea to have a strong, successful travel blog, but slaving over search engine optimizations (SEO) and networking sounded like something I wanted no part of. I wasn’t making travel my life focus so that I could grind through a Google Analytics menu all friggin’ day.
I was fortunate to have the opportunity to preview the Travel Blog Success (TBS) site. I can readily say that I learned quite a bit about travel blogging there. It’s made starting this blog much easier and quite a bit more rewarding. TBS is a good deal for a certain type of travel blogger. And possibly not as much for others. Instead of just generally recommending the site to everyone I would like to try and clarify who will really get the most benefit.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: January 30th, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: week sauce | 4 Comments »
Well kids, after 13 months in Montréal, I fly out on Tuesday. The apartment is almost completely empty, and everything I own (now) is crammed into my backpack. In a day and a half I’ll be officially, and intentionally, homeless. I enjoy how my achievements sound quite a bit like failures; It keeps my naysayers on their toes.
I summed up what I know of my plan previously, and I think that’s still accurate so far. From here I’m off for a night in Vancouver, then over to Victoria for the rest of February. I can hardly wait! I’m also going to make a point of getting down to good old Seattle while I’m in the area. The big unknown is what group I’ll be able to sign up with in order to volunteer in Haiti. I guess we’ll see how it all plays out.
As usual this week’s summary is a compilation of good articles from around the web, plus whatever other random crap I have on hand.
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted: January 26th, 2010 | Author: Shawn | Filed under: language | 3 Comments »
Of the 6912 recognized languages in the world I bet none of their “hello” and “thanks” sound as true to meaning as French. I’m big on listening to how people speak, how they sound and what they say. Bonjour and merci seem to be two words that even if you don’t know a word of French, you would know what they mean.
Comparatively speaking, “Hello” and “Thanks” just don’t cut it. Hello sounds like a kids cartoon character and thanks sounds like an itchy sore.
“Um.. are you okay there, Janet? You’re sure itching a lot.”
“Oh dude, I know. I have the worst case of thanks on my bum. It’s driving me mad! The itching totally distracted me while I was trying to watch the new episode of Hello & Tinkles Go To PooPoo Town.”
See what I mean? As I wrap up my last few days in Montreal I know I’m really going to be sad to go from bonjour and merci to hello and thanks.
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// shawn
