If new media is a field that you’re trying to get into but you lack an avenue to showcase your journalistic skills, then this is a unique opportunity for you to dabble into a medium that has revolutionized the way we communicate.

Here is an opportunity for you to intern with us and learn what it takes to create a quality lifestyle video blog. We’re looking for a:

Production Assistant / Researcher

A person who has a knack for finding interesting and unusual stories and knows how to present them to a large and diverse audience. In addition, you need to know how to find people, information and stories using print media, television and the internet. Professionalism and good people skills are a must. You will be responsible for finding and developing content for video and/or print and assisting in the actual production of these features. You will also be assisting the producer in researching stories, gathering information, and contacting potential guests for preliminary interviews.

Writer

We are looking for a person with excellent writing skills and a unique voice or “angle” on life. The writer will be responsible for finding and developing content and putting it on the page in a way that attracts readers and keeps them coming back. We are especially interested in writers who can develop themed and/or interactive series that can be published on a weekly basis.

There’s no money in it, but what we can offer you is invaluable experience:

• Working with a TV producer and a technical director
• Developing stories and working in a fast-paced environment
• Reaching a worldwide audience hungry for quality content
• That will jump-start your career in radio, TV or the internet

If this sounds like fun and you feel you have something to offer, we’d love to talk to you. Please email your resume, along with three story ideas, as well as writing or video samples here. We will review your submission and contact you accordingly.

Dabbler.ca has enjoyed great success and our readership has skyrocketed in the mere three months the site has been in existence. We currently publish a new video every weekday (60 and counting) and run weekly article series like Essential Self-Defense Tips, Parliament of One, Household Solutions, and Movie Reviews. To keep up with demand and to continue bringing viewers and readers the quality content they have come to expect, we are expanding our operation and ramping up production.

As part of this process, we are looking for sponsors and advertisers. We do not take money, products or payola of any kind from the people and companies featured on the website and all the schwag we do get goes straight into the giveaway bin to be shared with our readers. Dabbler.ca is completely independent and relies on the income generated from advertising sales and sponsorships to keep going.

Throughout September we are offering reduced rates for advertising and sponsorships both on our site and in our videos. This is a perfect opportunity to reach our growing audience and be part of something new and exciting. With more funds coming in, we can expand our operation and with expansion comes more exposure for our advertisers. It’s a win-win situation. Read the rest of this entry »

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this letter do not represent Dabbler.ca but that of the individual. Dabbler.ca has no beef with C.U.P.E. but Morten has. This is his personal rant.

I write this letter in frustration. Not because you are on strike – every worker is entitled to stand up for their rights – but because you are lashing out at people that have nothing to do with your situation. I am the council president of a building with 220 units situated in Metrotown. Not one of my over 500 neighbors votes in Vancouver elections and none of them have any say in your labour dispute. Yet they are effected by your strike. Because of your indiscriminate shutdown of the waste transfer stations, our building is drowning in a mountain of garbage. And since we are not involved in your labour dispute, we can do nothing to fix the situation. You are holding our building and many others with it hostage even though we are irrelevant to your counterpart – the City of Vancouver.

By blocking the transfer stations, you are making enemies of people who would otherwise support you wholeheartedly. What you are doing to the people who live in municipalities adjacent to Vancouver is wrong if not immoral. You have no right to impinge on our services – we didn’t create your problem and we can’t fix it. By blocking our garbage disposal, you are forcing people like myself to clean up the mess while you claim the throne and become King of the Hill of Putrid Waste.

Take a long hard look at whom you are punishing here. Right now, you are acting like the kid who pours milk in his classmate’s bag because his mom didn’t pack the right thing for lunch. Grow up!

Morten Rand-Hendriksen
Strata Council President

If you Google my name, you’ll find this link. It’s the minutes of a meeting in a sub-group of The Norwegian Association of Higher Education Institutions that was held in the small Norwegian town of Bodø far above the polar circle. Here, preserved for all eternity on the internet is a document telling me exactly where I was and what I was doing when the planes hit the Twin Towers.

9/11 has been etched into our memories and is shaping the future. It is the defining moment for my generation – the day the world changed. Much has been made of the events that transpired in North America on that day, but the impact was felt worldwide. On this the 6th anniversary of those dreadful events I give you my personal story of 9/11 in Norway:

Read the rest of this entry »

Hello all! I sincerely hope you forgive the lack of a video this morning. If you’re one of Sensei Anthony Britton’s fans, don’t worry; the lessons will resume next Monday September 10th and you’ll definitely want to tune in for that one as we add a surprise element to our Essential Self-Defense series!

I figured that after babysitting my six-year-old niece (who never tires) for 34 straight hours this past weekend (thank heavens for her body’s need for sleep!), it would be ok to skip one of my regular features. After dropping her off last night, all I had the energy for was vegging out on the couch and taking in a movie. So I rented The Lives of Others on the way home, and I must tell you all that this is a film worth including in your rentals one day (it’s in German by the way, with subtitles).

The focus is on the state intrusion into the private lives of artists, whose affinity for freedom of expression deemed them a threat to socialist ideals in the twilight of communist era East Germany. That is all I can say without spoiling anything. The subject matter is most definitely not one to consider if you’re looking for a fun and light evening of movie watching, but if you want a thought-provoking and poignant dramatization of actual historical significance, then The Lives of Othersis highly recommended. There are no great action sequences of note and you won’t find the ‘hottest’ actor/actress that will distract you. It’s pure story and it’s told with extraordinary subtlety. You may find the storyline dragging at some points but trust me, it’s worth giving it a chance and watching it to the very last second. Director/Screenwriter Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck (quite the mouthful eh) spent five years of his life perfecting this film and you can see it in all its minute details.

Whatever you do, don’t watch this when you’re tired. It really wouldn’t do the film the justice it deserves. I usually don’t trust Oscar winners (*AHEMasgoodasitgets*) but for foreign categories, they generally don’t shoot too far off the mark.

That’s my opinion. Would love to hear yours!

When I suggested to Angela that she start her own video blog, I don’t think she took me very seriously…at least not at first. It was early May and she had decided that waking up at 3:30 AM for a breakfast show every day for over four years was just about all her already unhealthy body could take. With her producing and technical background in TV production, a video blog seemed to be the natural progression, and a new career in the exploding new media market with the largest audience imaginable was simply too irresistible.

During our trip to Norway immediately following her last day of work, the plan began to mature and the site started taking shape. A name was thought up, a logo designed, the content thought through, the look and feel developed, and while we celebrated the country’s Constitution Day, the story ideas started to blossom. Not limited by corporate policies and financial responsibilities, the site – now named Dabbler.ca – had the potential to span the gamut of general interest. On June 11th, exactly one month after she left Citytv, Angela released Dabbler.ca to the world. And I have to admit, not even I dared to dream that the site would be such a success in less than three months.

Starting out, we wondered if anyone would actually find the site. After all, the internet is enormous and the blogosphere within it saturated to the point of a complete whiteout. Our hope was that strong content and high production value would bring the viewers to us. And it turns out we were right. Dabbler’s viewership has risen exponentially with every month, from 5,000 unique visits (meaning from different computers) in June to 10,000 in July to 20,000 in August, all without the aid of advertisements or promotions (there just hasn’t been any time for it!). And those are just the numbers for the readers. The videos have been watched over 260,000 times by people all around the world.

As Angela takes a well deserved break on Labour Day, I extend her thanks and mine to the many loyal viewers who have made Dabbler.ca what it is today and what it will be tomorrow. And stay tuned! The cogs are still turning and big things are in the works, so there’s lots to look forward to. As many of you have come to know, Dabbler.ca truly has, something for everyone.

I did ages ago and never looked back. Unfortunately however, I still have to check how my site looks on Explorer every now and again because I sometimes discover that it appears differently in the latter browser. That becomes more than a little annoying and many a hair have been pulled trying to figure out why problems exist when everything seems to run smoothly on Firefox, so I beseech all of you to switch over. Like any other web browser, Firefox is free to download and you’ll soon start to notice how much better it is in comparison.

If viewing sites the way they were meant to be viewed isn’t enough of an incentive for you to make the switch, then you might want to consider it for safety reasons. No exploits, viruses, or malicious code are directed to Firefox because they’re usually targeted to Internet Explorer. And IF there is malicious code, Firefox will block it. It’s just safer. Period. Firefox also has literally thousands of plugins and applications that can vastly improve your browsing experience. In fact, the new Internet Explorer borrows heavily from Firefox. You know that tab function that was suddenly available on Explorer? Where do you think that came from?

To switch, click here.

Remember when Time Magazine named YOU the Person of the Year? Well, Matt Harding is a perfect example of why the average Joe can now share the title with the likes of Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II.

His claim to internet fame is oddly enough, his self-proclaimed horrible dancing skills. But this isn’t the case of another Daily Dancer. Matt shows off his steps in front of famous tourist attractions throughout the world (the tally at last count was 55 countries). He wrangles unsuspecting passersby to hold his little Canon Powershot digital camera for him and then he breaks into the same dance that he showcases at every location. He then goes home and edits all of the pieces together and makes a video to post on his website. How does he pay for all this? Well, originally from Connecticut, Matt was working in Brisbane, Australia as a computer game programmer when he decided to quit in 2003 and use his savings to travel the world, making sure his friends and family knew what he was up to by setting up a website. Sounds pretty ordinary right? Well, a few months into his trip, a travel buddy put it into his head that it would be a great idea to dance everywhere he went and record it. The product of that round-the-world trip caught the attention of the people at Stride Gum and amazingly, he was offered a sponsorship for another year of travel! And now he’s quasi-famous. Don’t you just love this wacky world of ours?

Matt is presently on another tour and will be making stops in Canada because no country in the world has sent him as many emails about being included in the next video, especially now that he is based only three hours away in Seattle (nope, this is not a full-time job; he still works in video games from time to time as a writer and designer). For those of you who are not already familiar with Matt, his last video was about places (click on the video below to check out what all the fuss was about). In this new one, it’s about people; LOTS of people, so he’s inviting anyone and everyone to participate. He usually just goes to one major city, but due to the demand, he’ll be visiting three Canadian ones and here are the details:

Vancouver, BC – Wed, September 5, 6 PM at the Inukshuk Sculpture near English Bay
Toronto, ON – Sun, September 9, 3 PM at HTO Park on the water near CN Tower
Montreal, QC – Tue, September 11, 6 PM at Place des Arts

You’ll need to sign a release form before you step in front of the camera so email Matt for one pronto, or arrive to the meeting place earlier so you have time to fill one out before he starts filming (it’s very short).

Matt has gotten a lot of attention in the past year so I know there are many of you out there who will want to join in the fun. And it really is just that: Plain old fashioned fun. Matt’s not trying to raise funds to save the world or trying to cure a deadly disease. He’s just out there to put smiles on people’s faces. Kids will love it.

For those of you willing to travel long distances, Craigslist has a ride share page for all three cities. Those offering rides and those in need of rides can go to these links: Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal

For people across the border, if you want in, he’ll also be making stops in Chicago, Boston, and New York so email him for the invite and release form.

Dance badly everyone!

Lead, mercury, cadmium, beryllium…all of these harmful heavy metals are what you keep out of the landfill when you recycle your old electronics. If you’ve been stashing away all of your old or unworkable tech items instead of chucking them into the garbage, then I commend you. At some point though, the clutter just becomes a little more than unsightly so here’s your chance to get rid of your techno trash for good!

Old computers, laser printers, inkjet printers and CRT & LCD monitors can be recycled at the Dell e-Waste bin located outside the SFU Microcomputer Store. It’s located on the south side of the UniverCity Cornerstone building (see left picture) at SFU’s Burnaby campus (don’t get off at the first bus stop but stay on until you reach the bus loop up at the top of the hill). They’ll be accepting your drop-offs from September 4 – 7 from 10 AM to 4:30 PM so take this opportunity (especially those of you that are conveniently already going up there for your classes) to properly dispose of your techno trash. You can enter a draw to win a Dell laser printer by doing so. If you have an item that you’re not sure will be taken, call Chris Boutilier at 778.782.3952 or email him at chris@sfu.ca to inquire.

For everyone else who either can’t make it up the mountain to drop off your stuff, can’t make the hours, or simply live too far away to even consider it, don’t worry. There are a ton of other places you can do this. The GVRD teamed up with Encorp Pacific (those Return-It depots) last month and started an Electronics Recycling Program that covers the entire province. Click here to find out where your closest drop-off location is. There is NO charge for dropping off any of your techno trash so don’t be confused about the “Environmental Handling Fees.” The figures indicate the charges that are now being added on to newly purchased products at your electronics store. That’s provided simply to inform you of the levies now being imposed on new products. Here are the links to lists of electronics that Encorp accepts/doesn’t accept.

There are also private companies such as TechnoTrash Recycling that offers drop-off locations. Again, you should never be coughing up any money to recycle e-waste. If you happen to be a large company that has roomfuls of techno trash, TechnoTrash Recycling would be an example of a service that you should consider. They’ll come to you in a big truck and help you clear out all your old hardware. For a full list of things that they accept/don’t accept, click here and to make a pickup request, click here.

This is easy guys. You have no excuse to do your part for the environment.

With post-secondary education costs being as high as they are, students really can’t afford to make mistakes when choosing schools or courses. One bad semester could mean thousands of dollars down the drain, and if you had your whole university career neatly laid out, you might as well throw your plans out the window. With only one week of vacation left before the first day of classes, I asked a business student going on her last semester at SFU what she has learned from her experience and here are her nuggets of wisdom. For those that are just starting out, following these tips will prove invaluable when your friends start to complain about their profs, grades, or shortage of cash:

1. Background Check Your Professors

Friends and websites like www.ratemyprofessor.com can be lifesavers and potential GPA boosters by providing crucial information. Finding out how different professors teach, distribute marks, whether you should bother buying the required textbooks and whether they like exams more than assignments or vice versa can help you get better marks and potentially save you money.

2. Find Out Your Professors’ Specialties

The typical professor will spend the first fifteen minutes of the first class outlining his/her educational background and personal interests. This is one good reason why you should be on time for the first class. Make a mental note of these personal tidbits of information and avoid these topics of interest in your papers because professors are likely to be biased towards their own opinions on particular matters and thus be more difficult when marking.

3. Shop Around

Check out websites like www.amazon.ca, www.uswap.com, and your university’s buy/sell online forums for your textbooks before buying them at the university bookstore. You can almost always save a lot of money by buying from or trading textbooks with fellow students. Sometimes you can even find new copies of your texts from online bookstores that are cheaper than buying them used at school.

4. Know Your Benefits

Some universities offer medical/dental benefit packages for students included in your annual student fees. Some prescription drugs and medical services not covered in your provincial Medical Services Plan (MSP) are sometimes covered by these benefits. So the next time you need an expensive drug or root canal, ask Student Services before you shell out the dough. Example: At UBC, Gardasil is covered under the student medical plan; it costs approximately $450 for non-students.

5. Know Your School

Each school has several facilities, club rooms, and department lounges that offer quiet study areas, microwaves, fridges, couches, and sometimes full kitchens free for use. Exploring your campus and knowing where these places are can prove helpful when you have to spend the night writing your term paper on campus or need to cook up your mac ‘n cheese dinner. Example: SFU’s Women’s Centre is open 24 hours a day for female students to sleep in safety on several large couches and offers a full kitchen for free use.

Organizational Tips:

1. At the start of the term, write out all your course assignments and exams on a flash card and keep it in your planner for quick reference.

2. Print out the writing format sheets (or keep the reference websites bookmarked) you need for your courses for easy reference when you’re writing that last minute paper.

3. Check your e-mail regularly at least a week before your scheduled registration date for course offering changes. Also, check to make sure you’ve paid your deposit so you can register at the scheduled time. Note: If you’re on the waiting list for a course, write an email to the prof and see him/her on the first class to ask if you can have his/her permission to enroll. Professors usually say yes even if the class is at capacity.

General Tips:

Always give Admin. a week longer than the length of time they say they’re going to take for anything because they’re just that fast…

Don’t plan your year around the course schedule of availability that’s published each semester – they lie

Don’t take as many courses as you think you can handle on your first semester in university – enroll in one less so you have some time to get involved in extra-curricular activities and keep your scholarship

Go to the club events even if it means going on your own – they’re surprisingly fun

Find out which common rooms are closest to your classes and use them

Get to know your classmates. It makes school a lot more enjoyable and will come in handy when you’ve forgotten what the prof said would be on the final