I do a lot of writing. And I take a lot of notes. I have to keep track of contacts, stories, various website codes, scripts and playlists for my radio show, minutes and contracts for CFUR and other boards, plus blogs that I write. Working in two different offices plus from home, you would think I have a whole bunch of text documents saved and synced across computers.
I don’t. I have one file.
ResophNotes bills itself as a simple and fast note taking system for Windows. And that is exactly what it is.
Unlike Word, Pages, and OpenOffice, which require you to save multiple documents, ResophNotes just keeps everything in one database. There’s a searchbar in the top left-hand corner, so to find a note you were writing, you simply type in a few key words and your full list of documents is filtered down. This means there’s no need for folders all over your computer, and no need to title the notes. Even better, it automatically saves on the go, so you never have a crash and lose all your work.
It’s light-weight, which means there’s no formatting. No tables, bullet points, even bold or italics. But you know what? I’ve found that doesn’t matter. I focus on my writing, then if it needs formatting I put it into Word or my blog and add the formatting as a final step. Formatting is a distraction.
Better yet, it syncs. You sign up for a SimpleNote account, and you can access your notes on any computer. If you don’t install ResophNotes, you can use SimpleNote‘s web interface. I have another Simplenotes client (mNotes) on my phone, so I can access all the information there, too– even when I’m offline. There’s Mac and iPhone versions. Oh, and Simplenote has version history, in case you accidentally delete something.
If I’m on the phone with someone and need to keep track of phone numbers, tracking numbers, or even add some to-do items, I throw it in a new note. If I have an idea for a blog, I put it in there, too. I transfer stuff I know I’ll need to access from my physical notebooks into my virtual one. Almost Mainstream scripts, to-do lists, contacts, letters– all in. It’s a searchable database equivilent of what used to be stuff scribbled on the backs of receipts
I never thought that the word processing tool I use could affect my workflow. And I definitely never thought that the best writing tool I’ve ever used would be the most minimal. It’s drastically increased my productivity, and virtually eliminated time wasted looking for that one piece of information I know I wrote somewhere! I understand if you’re skeptical. I was, too. But using Resophnotes and its sister software for the last few months has been great. I highly recommend you give it a try.
I took this picture last year to make a point about the ludicrousness of some of the bike lanes (or lack thereof) in parts of Prince George. With spring cycling season here, I think it’s time to come back to it.
This picture is taken directly off of the highway. For a bike commuter like myself to follow the rules, I am supposed to ride directly beside high-speed traffic without so much as a white line to tell the driver where their space ends and mine begins. Bad enough under the best of conditions, but here’s what that lane looks like right now:
In case you don’t see it, it’s covered in gravel. This is the case throughout much of the city. Last week, I was riding down university hill, a high speed route. Piles of gravel were in one place– not the road, and not the sidewalk. The bike lane.
The possibility of losing control alongside vehicles moving at 50 km/h and up is worrying at the best of times. Piles of gravel make it that much more likely. And yet in order to follow the rules, I’m supposed to navigate my two-wheeled vehicle over slippery terrain.
Meanwhile, here’s the sidewalk I’m not allowed to use:
It’s covered in gravel, yes, but it’s also a lot wider. Also, you’ll note there’s no pedestrians in my picture. That’s not unusual. On my entire ride to and from work, I’ll pass maybe three people walking on the sidewalks, versus at least fifty vehicles that will pass me. And if there were an accident, which is likely to be worse: a biker wiping out on gravel and being hit/run over by a vehicle, or a biker colliding with a pedestrian?
Look, I’ll use roads and bike lanes where it’s reasonable to do so. But if there’s a bike lane barely as wide as my shoulders, it’s full of gravel, rush hour traffic is going by me, and there’s no one on the sidewalks– well, what would you do?
*disclaimer: This piece is in no way an endorsement or criticism of any political party. And as always, my opinions are wholly and completely my own and do not necessarily reflect those of my employers.*
Jack Layton is in Prince George this morning. I’ve heard this is the first time a federal leader has visited the city since 1993. This despite the fact that the city actually has two ridings up for grabs. Not as many as Montreal or Vancouver, I know, but more than lots of other communities.
I assume the reason leaders don’t visit often is that the Prince George ridings are considered “safe ridings.” Prince George – Peace River was Liberal from 1968 until 1972, and since then it’s gone to the Conservatives or the Consevative forbearers of the Progressive Conservatives, Reform, and Canadian Alliance. Cariboo – Prince George has been Conservative since it was created in 2004, and the riding that preceded it, Prince George – Bulkley Valley had been Conservative, PC or Reform since 1979 aside from one five year stint with the NDP in 1988. In the last two decades, the Conservative candidates have won with over 40% of the popular vote.
As long as I’ve been of voting age, Prince George ridings have largely being ignored by the parties at a national level. Again, I’m guessing it’s because the Conservatives feel assured of victory and focus on ridings that are vulnerable, while the other parties feel assured of their defeat, and so focus on ridings that are vulnerable.
This has been most obvious in the case of parachute candidates– people running to be the representative for a riding they’ve never lived in and may not have even visited. This hasn’t been the case for every candidate in every riding in every election, but it has happened. It’s happening in this election.
Parachute candidates feel like a flash-point for the party vs candidate debate. Is having a candidate who doesn’t live in the riding an admission that local representation plays a small role in the overall political game? Are we really just voting for the party and its leaders? Or are we supposed to be voting for an MP who can bring the issues of their constituents to Ottawa? In one case, a candidate refused to talk with local media– they were just a name on the ballot. If you voted for that candidate, could you feel like you were basing your decision on anything other than the party they were attached to? Does that matter?
I guess the parties do what they have to do. There’s only a limited number of days in a campaign. There’s only so many people willing to stand for office, especially if they don’t think they have a chance of winning. They’re going to focus on places where results aren’t a foregone conclusion. But I sometimes wonder what would happen if they campaigned everywhere with as much vigour as they do in swing ridings.
Further reading:
Jason Morris paints a sympathetic portrait of parachute candidates— and good reasons the party may use them. It’s good balance if you feel angry about parachute candidates. He also lays out an argument as to why BC’s north doesn’t matter.
The other day, I was trying to load my blog and I noticed it was taking a long time. The same thing happened when I clicked around onto individual posts. I’d noticed this happening more frequently lately, and decided I should actually do some investigation. I ran a Google page speed test and found that my blog ranked a dismal 42 out of 100.
I’m not overly concerned with most search optimization things, but I do want people who are trying to access my site to be able to actually access it. A couple of times in my tests, it took upwards of ten seconds for content to load, and occasionally didn’t even work.
I’m not much of a web designer, but I found the main culprit was my header. I use a (slightly modified version of a) lovely theme designed by Derek Powazek for WordPress called “Depo Skinny” that allows you to pull your most recent Flickr photos as an online banner. This is what it looked like:
Unfortunately, doing this meant querying the Flickr site every time you visit a page on my blog, and that was causing really slow load times. So I’ve scrapped it, and now my speed ranking is in the 80s.
I’m glad it’s working faster, but I miss the banner. I don’t like the look of the site as much without that splash of colour at the top. So I guess I’m going to have to make some sort of static banner that can be cached and not affect load times too much.
Meanwhile, I’m hoping if you ever try to visit my site and things don’t work, you let me know. I think most readers have their own way of getting in touch with me, but just in case I’m akurjata [at] gmail.com or on Twitter @akurjata.
Thanks.
I’ve mentioned ambient awareness before. It’s a concept used by social scientists to describe the phenomena of obtaining peripheral knowledge. It’s usually used to the describe the process of sort of knowing what’s going on in people’s lives without necessarily engaging directly with them by getting information via things like Twitter, Facebook, etc.
I think there’s another form of ambient awarenss, though. It’s gaining peripheral knowledge about a physical place that you aren’t actually located in. I had a bout of that on Saturday night.
On Saturday, LCD Soundsystem were playing their last ever show at Madison Square Garden in New York. I’ve never been to NYC, and I’ve never seen LCD Soundsystem perform. I didn’t livestream the concert, but I still have a pretty good idea what went on. That’s because I was getting updates on how things were progressing throughout and after the show. On Facebook, my cousin had flown in from Dawson Creek to see one of his favourite bands. On Twitter, the comedian Aziz Anasari was there to see his friend play. And on Tumblr, multiple music bloggers I follow were posting pictures as it went. So even though I only popped online for about five minutes, I had a full slate of updates telling me what it was like to be in Madison Square Garden right at that moment. Again, I wasn’t looking for news updates on New York or concert reviews on the show. It was ambient knowledge.
A more long-going version of this geographical ambient awareness comes to me in the form of Prince George’s County. As a researcher for a current events show based in Prince George, BC, Canada, I’m often on the internet searching for documents, background, or updates from the city. But often, these searchers bring results to me from Prince George’s County, Maryland. I can tell you with 100% certainty that Prince George’s County is near Washington, D.C. even though I’ve not once sought out information about this place. I can also tell you that it’s in a tri-cities area and that in 2010 they had elections. There’s a strong African-American community, as well. Again, I’ve never done any research on this. All of this comes to me via peripheral knowledge picked up through Twitter updates, Foursquare locations, and Google news alerts I’ve received when searching “Prince George” (even when I use “-county”).
As long as I try to stay up-to-date on events in Prince George, BC, I’m going to have peripheral awareness of what’s going on in Prince George’s County, Washington. It’s ambient awareness, but awareness nonetheless.
I’m on the board of the Coldsnap Music Festival. When our festival ended this year, we had an afterparty with various musicians playing for all the volunteers. Partway through the night, a guy with grey dreadlocks set up some equipment and began singing. Through technological trickery, he then started harmonizing with himself, adding beats and melodies along the way. It was unlike anything I’d ever heard.
His name is Doug Koyama. He lives in Quesnel and has been making music since the 70s, mostly in the world of musical theatre. A few years ago, he embarked on what he calls a “voyage of discovery into Improvised A Capella with a Loop Pedal.”
Doug Koyama at Coldsnap Afterparty
This week, I got to speak to Doug in advance of his national tour. It was research for an interview on Daybreak North, which I’ve posted below. The funny thing with musicians is that sometimes there’s very little to talk about, and sometimes there’s more than you can possibly fit into a five-minute interview. Doug falls into the latter category. Carolina did a good job of getting in as much as she could, and I wouldn’t have done things any differently, but I thought I would share a few things I found out that couldn’t be included in the interview. In case you don’t want to keep reading, I should tell you that Doug is performing tonight at Cafe Voltaire at Books and Company, and tomorrow night at the ArtSpace (above Books and Company). You should definitely go if you have the chance. If you are in a city other than Prince George, check his tour dates at koyama.bc.ca.
Here’s the interview with my notes are below.
[audio:https://dl-web.dropbox.com/get/Public/Koyama%20Interview%20March%2031.mp3?w=d24254f6]
On knowing what works:
On making mistakes:
On blending in:
On the journey:
“One woman in the audience Saturday said she “visited” a beautiful Caribbean island. For me, the music took me back to the Punjab, India when, on my first morning, I awoke at 5 a.m. to the sounds of chanting in the courtyard. Koyama’s music can be many things. Waves of the ocean lapping on shore or seagulls flying in the air above. The sound of wind on a mountain top. It has a soaring sensation and you wonder what heights it will reach before it ends. You hope it never does.”
On being in the moment:
Again, you can find Doug and his work at koyama.bc.ca. He plays at Cafe Voltaire at Books and Company tonight, and the ArtSpace tomorrow. He then heads across Canada. Details are on his website.
Trois by Doug Koyama
I don’t unfriend people on Facebook often. As a result, I have all sorts of Facebook flotsam floating around on there– people I went to high school with, previous co-workers, other people’s exes. These are all people that in a pre-Facebook world I would have known for a period of time and then, as the basis for the relationship disappeared, lose contact with. No animosity or ill-will, just the natural cycle of casual relationships ending. Now, these people maintain an ambient presence on my Facebook feed until one of us takes the active mood of deleting the other. What used to happen passively is now a deliberate decision– and one that, barring something particularly annoying or offensive, I rarely make. It’s a strange byproduct of our connected world.
It was a beautiful sunny Sunday this weekend, so we took the dogs for a walk in Cottonwood Island park alongside the Nechako River. The ice was breaking up, and it occurred to me that I’d never seen the river at this time of year. That’s because even though the two rivers in Prince George are the primary physical characteristic of the city I’ve called home for most of my life, it’s only recently that I’ve spent much time exploring them.
When we lived in Victoria, we were in a neighbourhood bordered by Beacon Hill Park and Dallas Road. These were the main walking areas in the area, and I felt like visiting them gave me a good feel for the city. The ocean is what has historically shaped Victoria, and to a certain extent it’s the heart of the city. In Wuhan, it was the Yangtze River and East Lake, and in most other cities I’ve visited it’s been some body of water or other. Around the world, dependence on water shapes modes of settlement.
In Prince George, it’s the meeting of the Fraser and Nechako that shapes our history. The First Nations of the Prince George region are even called Lheidli T’enneh, “People of the confluence of the two rivers.” But even though we have plenty of companies with “two rivers” in their name, I don’t think the rivers play much of a role in the daily lives of most people living here.
After our experience living in Victoria, I started looking at neighbourhoods in Prince George in different ways. I had always assumed life in Prince George would be fairly consistent– newer houses, suburban neighbourhoods. But I realized that there are areas that feel more like ‘Prince George’ rather than generic suburbs. When people visit Vancouver and Victoria, they don’t go the suburbs. They go to the neighbourhoods and parks around the ocean– Beacon Hill, English Bay, Stanley Park. Those are the places that give you a sense of where you are. In Prince George, it’s the rivers.
Since moving back, we’ve been visiting rivers more often, and in all seasons. It’s like discovering an aspect of the city that’s incredibly central, but I’d never been familiar with. I’d recommend visiting the dominant physical characteristic of your own city from time to time. It gives you a better sense of where you are.
[audio:http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13148122/Your%20Man%20by%20Down%20With%20Webster.mp3]
“Your Man” by Down With Webster
One of the things I like about awards shows like the Junos is they expose me to bands that everyone else has lots of other people have been listening to, but I’ve somehow never heard of. For the last five years or so, I’ve lived in some sort of inverse universe where I’m constantly exposed to indie/underground music, and the stuff from commercial radio and MuchMusic completely bypasses me. The upside of this is that much like real candy, when you’re exposed to ear candy on an irregular basis, it’s much more enjoyable than when it’s your primary source of nutrition. Enter Down With Webster.
Cursory research tells me they have been around commercially since 2009, with interest from both Gene Simmons and Timbaland, and have had three hit singles: “Whoa Is Me“, “Your Man”, and “Rich Girl$.” Carrying on in the tradition of Sum 41 and Stereos, the band is marketed as a marriage of hip-hop and rock, but at the core is pure pop. But you know what? If you only have it once in a while, pop can be pretty darn good.
I just finished watching (ie listening to in the background) the 40th Annual Juno Awards. A few days ago I wrote about how Canadian content is going to become irrelevant as more and more people start listening to Canadian music naturally, without the need for enforcement. I think this edition of the awards is a good example of that. Two years ago I wrote a fairly complainy post about how irrelevant the Junos were in the face of all the great stuff happening in Canadian music. This year, I think they did a good job of hitting mass appeal and the more underground stuff, partially because of how much things have changed since last time around. Drake and Justin Bieber have happened, for one thing. If they were over-nominated at the Junos (they were), at least they are legitimately among the biggest artists in the world, and have been overnominated at every awards show. And Shad even beat out host Drake in the rap category, despite very little name recognition, even in Canada.
Other nods to critical success over commercial came with performances from Tokyo Police Club and Chromeo. Arcade Fire and Broken Social Scene were there, but I don’t think either are underground anymore. K’Naan got a big award, and everyone was gushing over Neil Young, who is the elder statesman of rock worldwide at this point.
But I actually think the real triumph is in the presence of the Drakes and the Biebers. What was frustrating about the Junos in the past is that even when we had amazing underground artists like the Arcade Fire, the insistence was on recognizing the commercial success of random pop-rock bands that were equally irrelevant to the the criterati and the commercial world at large. A Celine Dion best-of was nominated for album of the year. A few superstars, and then a bunch of unknowns. Then you take this and say “these are the best we have to offer.” If you’re going to present unknowns, you might as well present something interesting. There’s still an emphasis on the commercial acts, but at least now the commercial triumphs are people we’ve already heard of. And there seems to be more room for the underground acts, which is helpful, too.
This is a story about the internet making the world an amazing place. Back in December, I was on Tumblr, and someone I follow posted an image of a map breaking down “North American English Dialects, Based on Pronunciation Patterns.” I took a look, found it appealed to my inner language geek and reposted. But then it occurred to me that I might be able actually talk to the person (his name is Rick Aschmann, by the way). At CBC, I pitched the idea of interviewing the fellow about his work and localizing it by talking about dialects in our listening area. It was picked up, and I was able to call him.
After some searching on the internet, I found his contact information and called him up at his home in Ecuador. He was a guest on the show, and it was great. Turns out, he makes this map by finding YouTube clips of people from different parts of North America speaking. He verifies that they are ‘locals’ using Wikipedia. In northern BC, he used politician Jay Hill (Fort St John), hockey player Carey Price (Anahim Lake) and filmmaker Nilesh Patel (Prince George). As he said, there’s no way he could do this without the internet. Especially since it’s a hobby, not a job.
Think about that: thanks to the internet, he’s able to undertake the largest mapping of North American English dialects in history– in his spare time. Since this is a story about technology breaking ground in linguistics, I passed the story along to the national tech show, Spark. This week, they played their own interview with Rick Aschman. And now they’re turning it into a project, getting people from across Canada to help contribute to the map.
Step back: a guy in Ecuador goes onto YouTube and Wikipedia, two major databases of information made up mostly of people using it in their spare time, and uses these resources to make the most comprehensive English language dialect map of North America ever. People around the world find this and start posting it. This includes me in Prince George. I’m able to call him and he goes on Canadian radio, first regional, then national after I pass it along to yet another person I’ve never met face to face.
There are certainly downsides the always-connected nature of the internet age. But there are some pretty cool things about it, too. It’s easy to take for granted the scale in which barriers of communication have been broken down, but something like this would barely have been possible six, seven years ago. New technology, new ways of communicating, new knowledge. It’s pretty neat.
https://andrewkurjata.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/English-Dialect-Map-Daybreak-Version.mp3
Rich Aschmann interview on Daybreak North
https://andrewkurjata.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/plus-spark_20110327_spark142f.mp3
Rick Aschmann interview on Spark
English Language Dialect Map
Spark English Language Dialect Project
You may or may not know that in Canada, we have rules about the amount of Canadian content (including music) that has to be played on terrestrial radio. With the huge number of quality musicians coming out of Canada these days, I’m always surprised when I run across someone who thinks that this is a difficult thing to do. Of course, this is generally an older person. People younger than me have no problem with it. None of the DJs I’ve trained at CFUR have an issue. If they are indie inclined, they have no shortage of bands. Rap and dub have to it a little bit more consciously, but still manage to find a large catalogue of work with with just a small amount of digging. Even the one or two people who were more likely to listen to commercial radio thought nothing of finding Canadian artists, so it’s not like this stuff is limited to the underground.
I’m putting together my radio show for this week. All I’m doing is choosing my favourite songs that I listened to over the past week. I have rock, experimental, bass, and rap. Every single one of my songs is Canadian. Most of them were released in the last month, all were released in the last few years.
I didn’t do this on purpose. It’s just what I’ve been listening to and enjoying this week. It made me realize that I could see getting rid of these CanCon rules in a few years. Not because everyone will realize how unfair and unreasonable they are. They’ll get rid of them because the sorts of people who are volunteering in campus radio now will have taken over the industry. And they won’t see the point of having rules to enforce something everyone does naturally anyways.
Yesterday I wrote about how my autobiography has changed over the last few years from being “hireable” to being “professional but personable.” One of the things I didn’t get much into was the challenge of presenting yourself in a short but sweet fashion. My short but sweet bio is, “I’m station manager of CFUR Radio and researcher for the CBC show Daybreak North. I play road hockey and dodgeball, and I have a lot of pets.” It does the job. But I wanted to share some that I think do the job better. Three of the best come from the past and present team of Tumblr:
“I’m Marco Arment, founder of Instapaper and former lead developer of Tumblr.”
Short and to the point. The “about” maintains the brevity:
“I’m Marco Arment, and I’m a web and iPhone software developer in New York City. This is where I write and share. This is my personal site and it does not represent the viewpoints of my employer.
I’m the creator and sole developer of Instapaper, which launched in January 2008.
From its inception in late 2006 through September 2010, I was the cofounder and lead developer of Tumblr.
Previously, I was a developer at Vivisimo in Pittsburgh.
I conserve exclamation points and avoid semicolons.”
Even the “colour” at the end gives you an idea of how succinct he likes to be.
topherchris is community outreach at Tumblr, and he’s able to fully reflect that on his homepage:
“I work at Tumblr.
I live in Manhattan.
Dinosaurs are awesome.”
His about is pretty much the same, but with a sales pitch:
“I’m topherchris. I’m an internet jackass.
I do awesome things at Tumblr. You should sign up and follow me.”
The best one goes to Tumblr’s creator, who simply uses a quote:
“Mr. Karp is tall and skinny, with unflinching blue eyes and a mop of brown hair. He speaks incredibly fast and in complete paragraphs” – NY Observer
One sentence, that says very little, but does link to a full-length profile on him, which tells you he’s the sort of person someone would write a full profile about. Unfortunately, this only works if someone else has written a full-length profile on you that you can link to.
Some other goods ones:
David Noel
“Hi, my name is David Noël. Hands up for all things tech, entrepreneurship, music, internet, remarkable people & ideas. Hands back down to type about it.
Airplanes, vinyl and freckles are awesome.
I’m the SoundCloud Evangelist. These are my favorites
I live in Berlin and would love to fly in a chopper some time. Questions? Fire away!“
“I am a radio futurologist.
… a consultant, writer and public speaker who concentrates on the effect that new platforms and technology are having on the radio business.”
David Eaves (Twitter version):
“Connecting: public service renewal, public policy, open-source, open data & government, negotiation, collaboration, life, fun and rockband drumming.”
And a couple of shout-outs to my colleagues in Prince Rupert (excluding the ‘cv’ portions):
Carolina de Ryk:
“My Mum has this story. On my third birthday, which falls on the same day as CBC’s anniversary, Mum found me on the phone leaving this message: “Hi CBC, I really love listening to you with my Mum. I’m calling to tell you that we have the same birthday.”
That, my Mum says, was the beginning of everything.”
George Baker:
“George Baker is a true southern-boy living up north: he doesn’t fish, he doesn’t hunt and he doesn’t even own a pair of gum boots. But he does enjoy learning from, covering and being a part of the Northern B.C. community.
…
George lives in a house-shaped orange on top of a hill in the ‘City of Rainbows’, Prince Rupert. He has a cat named Hemingway, and a pick-up truck named Chevy.”
All of these are sparing, but communicate who the person is in two paragraphs or less. Quick, succinct, to the point. Any that you’d like to share?
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April 2 2011 | ∞
In an effort to be better and blogging, I’m now cutting stuff from my posts that don’t fit the central point and turning them into their own posts. I’d drafted a post as a follow-up to my thoughts about rivers, but fortunately I received a comment from my friend Roxanne that did the job for me. She writes:
I can’t speak to the historical reasons why the city was made the way it was, but it does seem to me there was a real absence of design going on. We don’t have a single indoor or semi-urban space to showcase the rivers. There are some parks, which is great, but sometimes you would like to appreciate the river in a context other than a hike or a picnic (particularly in the winter months). I don’t know what can be done at this point, but it should definitely go on the city’s wishlist.
Update: In the comments on this post, Jason leaves a great comment:
Exactly.
Filed under: Best Of, Prince George | Discussion