Author: MRJ

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Last week I joined the social game site foursquare, I’ve been looking at it over the past few months wondering when it would come to Canada. So when I heard on Webnation that it had come to our fair city I joined up right away. Foursquare is a social gaming site where you virtually check-in to places you are. This alerts your friends and gains you points you have the more badges you unlock. The person who checks in the most at a place is granted the title of Mayor. It seems like it could be a fun way to interact with friends and random internet people.

Of course I soon released is that my old Windows Smartphone really isn’t really the best interface to play on. I’ve been trying to use the limited web interface to check in. I’ve managed to become the Mayor at my local TTC station and my Bank Branch near my work, but without a better interface or a bunch of my friends joining I don’t see using this on a regular basis.

You can checkout my profile @ http://foursquare.com/user/mrj

November a new month, time to get a new focus. I am very pleased that I was able to post everyday in October and hope to keep that going through November right on till the new year. Once I reach Jan 01 2010 I will take a look back and decide if I want to keep the posting every day or go to a different schedule. Of course I am participating in both National Blog Posting Month and National Blog Writing Month in the month of November but really I would be posting every day with or without them.

For November I’ve decided that I want an additional challenge. I’ve been considering different challenges I could set for my self. I thought about Nanowrimo but I don’t think I have time or the inspiration to do it. Also one of the great things about Nanowrimo was the events, and I know I Don’t have time to get to many if any of them. So since writing fiction isn’t for me right now and I’m already committed to writing my blog that leaves either programming or something entirely new.

Continue reading “A new month, a new Challenge”

Today was a bit of a relaxing day… It started early, Jacob didn’t seem to care that we set the clocks back during the night, but at least Violet seemed to sleep a little later. So for a while before the women woke up, it was a tired Daddy and energetic little hanging out. It was a nice morning, though both Melissa and Violet joined us pretty early, before the adjusted 9am. Being Sunday Jacob wanted to go to church, he really likes Sunday school plus he enjoys singing in the church during Communion.

Melissa and I might have headed to church this fine morning, but we had plans to see our friends and their 1 month old. So instead of brining Jacob with use for a visit with friends, he went to church with his Nan, something they do together regularly. Between the TTC adventure to get there, the Sunday school and singing while there, plus any fun they get to afterwards its quite an exciting day for our little guy.

We had a nice visit with friend sand returned to a slipping child. We spent the rest of the day just relaxing. A nice way to end the weekend and begin the new month. I have a lot of plans for the new moths, plans I had thought about kicking off today, but as the day turned into one of relocation, I’ve decided to put off my big November plans until tomorrow. After all Monday seem like a better day to start something new then Sunday.

So tonight was Halloween and our little ones dressed up and headed out for a night of Tricks and Treats. Violet as a Bumble Bee and Jacob as a Pirate. A good time was had by all, though Violet was a little crabby. We were out past her bed time.  It will be interesting next year when she’s walking. Enjoy the pictures.

 

Tonight was night to spend with the family. Though we didn’t spent it in a traditional way. We had a quick jaunt to the mall to pick up the last few pieces of our kids costumes and while we were out we grabbed dinner. Wasn’t exciting, but I think we all enjoyed it. Though as we were coming home Jacob wanted to head out somewhere else. but then he’s three and he’s always up for an adventure.

Our little violet had some fun of her own. While we were having dinner she grabbed a roll from the table. She went to town on it. It was quite cute to watch. Of course we didn’t let her finish it all. It’s amazing how well she managed to it with her to 2 little teeth.

Tomorrow is Halloween, I’ll try to get the pictures of our little Bumble Bee and Pirate in tomorrows post. Otherwise it will have to wait until Sundays. Though I hope to start the month off with a more reflective post. I’ll see how the day goes. With all the excitement around Halloween and the regular weekend stuff it’s going to be a busy day tomorrow.

For the last 28 days I have managed a post a day, I’ve been feeling really good about my blogging over that time. I’ve been planning my posts days in advanced. Thinking about them, writing when I had a spare moment and it was going really great, until today.  Today I had my post worked out, but I haven’t written it yet I hoped to get it started last night, but the words never came. Today when I sat down on the bus, on the way to the office and began working on it I was disturbed to find that it wasn’t flowing. I just couldn’t get it. It wasn’t a complicated post just a review of a Twitter client that I use on my phone. I started it, and it just didn’t work.

So why did it go wrong? The more I think about the question the more I think it isn’t really a why but a when. The when being Tuesday when I lost to separate revisions of my my blog that day. Both times the loses were silly, the software I was working in didn’t support auto saving and I didn’t take a second to manually save. So over the last couple days I’ve been looking into alternative work flow for my blog posts. The hardest part is I want to be able to work on my posts on my Phone and Desktop without having to do transfer them between. So far all my methods have been kludgy. I need a Blog writer for Windows Mobile.

I’ve tried a number of different ways of working. I’ve tried using email to write the posts on my phone and then email to my blog or an email account. Was ok, but no conductive to working on one then the other. I’ tried using Datebook entries and using Google calendar to sync them between the phone and the device. It worked pretty well, except it was a desktop and mobile failure with that connection method that hit on Tuesday.  Today I’ve setup a new method, with a Text editor or maybe Pocket Word on Windows Mobile and Live Mesh to do the sync to to the desktop. This should allow for a two way work flow, but only time will tell. Of course what I really need is Windows Live Writer on my mobile. It’s my favourite software for working in my blog.

It would seem that talking about it was what I really needed. As I started to write this entry I found the flow I’ve had for my posting returning. I’m so glad about that, there was a moment today when I thought about not posting. It didn’t last long, looking at the calendar on the side of my blog with everyday highlight except the final 3 days of the month was more then enough to keep me from faltering before completing my goal of writing everyday in October. Of course whether I will be able to keep it going through November is still up in the air.

 

When I sat down to write my first entry in my new series Cloud Gazing I had planned on writing about some web based Twitter clients and communication tools. But as I was thinking about it I realized that I have never written a post about Twitter or its competitors. So since I plan on talking about tools that connect to it, I thought I should start with Twitter. This isn’t the first time that I’ve planned on writing about twitter, but it will be the first time it makes into my blog. So today I will look at micro blogging site Twitter.

When you first go to twitter you are asked ‘What are you doing?’ and gives you 140 characters to answer. Your answer is posted to the stream so that the world can know whatever you answered. Its a simple but effective interface. You then have the people you follow and the people following you. You see the status messages from every one you follow whenever they post it. This can be viewed on the site, or with one of the many clients that are out there. You can also receive updates by SMS on your phone.

One of Twitter strengths is the uses of SMS. It’s also the reason for the character limit. The idea of twitter is you can do it anywhere from your mobile phone. A simple text message and your status is updated. Plus you get regular updates from the people you follow.

The great thing about Twitter is the conversations it sparks. When you post random thoughts or question to a crowd of friends and strangers you can get a lot of interesting responses.  The key here is having a community of followers and to follow interesting people. Of course you only get what you put it. The more you use it and engage with the other users the more interesting and informative will it be.

Watching twitter as it’s evolving both with new features and new uses by third parties is fascinating. Twitter has a powerful API that allows almost anyone to use twitter for there own projects. On of the more interesting uses I’ve seen is the Remote control for you desktop computer. One thing is certain there are a ton of uses for twitter that was never envisioned when it first came online.

That said not all the innovation is happening with Twitter, there are a number of services that do a similar things to Twitter. Plurk with its innovative timeline view, where the conversations are built right into the messages. Or StatusNet / identi.ca the distributed open source micro-blogging system which is trying to making micro-blogging more like email where it doesn’t matter what server you use everyone can communicate.

Today our little family headed out to Whittamore’s Farm at last getting to do one of the fall family outings that we planned. We left later then we usually would have because of a rough night of sleeping for Jacob.  We even thought about not going but the day was just to beautiful to waste.

It was Violets first visit to Whittamores, so Mommy and Daddy had to get a picture with our little girl.

Leaving later might have had some hidden benefits, though the farm was busy it didn’t feel as crowded as it has in past years. Like when we went to find a table for lunch, the picnic area was almost deserted.

We saw some animals, Wooden and real.

The kids both found something to ride.

Of course with the crowd we had to wait in some lines

And some things Jacob wasn’t big enough for

Of course there are lots of places to play

Of course what would be a trip to a Pumpkin farm without choosing a pumpkin. The kids were really helpful during the process. The one thing I can’t believe is that Violet is wearing Jacobs old Pumpkin hat.

All in all it was a great day at the farm. I just love family traditions.