Global Hermit's blog

We went crow-hunting in Burnaby tonight -- this is a bit dark but hopefully you can see what's going on here.

Here's a message from my good friend and co-host Andy Walker...it's a worthwhile cause so please consider signing up for this!

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Hi everyone:

Little Geeks is a foundation I started to give Internet connected computers to underprivileged children.

We are in the final process of acquiring a charity number which will allow us to receive several large donations from corporations. But in the meantime our bank account is dwindling and we really need some operational cash so we can continue our good work in the community. Right now, for example, we're preparing to ship 40 more systems to children.

We're asking our faithful supporters to each donate $20 (or more) to us through Give Meaning. This allows us to receive funds effectively. We'd like to raise $10,000 by year end.

So would you pledge $20? It will be charged to your credit card only when we reach our goal of $10,000. So right now it’s just a commitment for you.

Please donate at:
http://www.givemeaning.com/donate/n-ggprofile.aspx?gg=784

Learn more about the Little Geeks Foundation at www.littlegeeks.org

Thanks!
Andy Walker
Founder
Little Geeks
littlegeeks.org

Where does the time go?

I'm nearly finished another shoot week at The Lab With Leo Laporte -- our fourth month of taping! It's been a lot of work, but it's also been a lot of fun despite technical and logistical hurdles along the way.

Thankfully we found a great apartment fairly quickly -- it's right near the railroad tracks (about 30 feet from our front door!) so it's a bit noisy sometimes, but it's a fantastic view otherwise:

It's now also a short drive to a lot of great scenery, so now that our car has finally arrived in Vancouver, we'll be starting a series of short little jaunts around the area to see new sights (and undoubtedly to take photos). The first major car ride was to Ikea in Coquitlam to replace some furniture we had to leave behind, but there was also a side-trip to Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, where we confirmed that Battlestar Galactica's planet Caprica set was right here on earth:

Checking the shot

Well...initially I thought that my time in Vancouver would be over at the end of April, but as it turns out, breaking up is hard to do. The first shoot week of The Lab With Leo Laporte went really well -- the energy was fantastic, the show looked great, and we tried a lot of things we hadn't done before. Any worries I may have had about the whole situation pretty much resolved themselves...it's going to be a lot of fun. So I'm now officially in, full-time.

Obviously that throws a bit of a monkeywrench into Lab Rats -- I can't just get in the car and drive over to Andy's place any more. That means a bit more co-ordination, getting Andy out here semi-regularly to be on The Lab, and getting me back there semi-regularly. So essentially we'll tape blocks of episodes at a time, much like we did on Call For Help and will continue to do for The Lab. And it means we'll now have a bit of variety, with Lab Rats East and Lab Rats West -- not only will be be taping on two different sets (Greedy is cool with us using their facilities here to do some Lab Rats work too, which is a big relief...I don't have to worry about setting aside space in a new apartment, which will undoubtedly be pretty small) but we'll have the opportunity every so often to head into the field in different locations, as the need arises. Now, not only can Andy cover off special events in Toronto, but I'll have access to Vancouver, Seattle and maybe even the Bay Area (less regularly) if something major comes up. It'll be a bit challenging at first, but I'm positive that this will make for a much more dynamic show. You'll get to see our first Vancouver episodes in a couple of weeks -- albeit in a very temporary location -- and then we'll see episodes from both sides of the continent from that point on.

Thanks to everyone for your support on both Lab Rats and The Lab -- it's good to know that people are enjoying the work we're all doing on these shows...it makes it easier to keep going even when there are bumps in the road!

My world for the next few months

I don't think it's any big secret at this point that Call For Help is ceasing production in Toronto as of the end of January, and moving to Vancouver under a new production house (and a new program name). I was offered the opportunity to be part of the new production on an ongoing basis, but for a number of reasons I'm not prepared to leave Toronto behind -- largely domestic and business reasons -- but I AM going to be joining the new production for a short period at the beginning of the new show's run, to help set up the program and help it transition into its new era.

The Toronto run of Call For Help was a great experience: we got to meet a lot of interesting people, make a lot of lifelong connections, and have a lot of fun along the way. But alas, all good things must come to an end.

Midway through April (after my Vancouver contract comes to an end) I'll be looking for a full-time gig in the Toronto area, plus freelance writing opportunities. And who knows...maybe I'll finally get started on a book or two!

I don't haul my butt to the "Compose" link that often any more, but I figured it was time to put a couple of short things up.

The bad: Just yesterday morning my car was rear-ended while I was on the way to work. I was stopped behind some other cars at a stop light, and we were all going very slowly, including the guy behind me...he just wasn't paying any attention and he didn't stop. The good news is that there didn't appear to be any damage to the car, and even though I was holding up my coffee at the time, only a little bit spilled (thanks to whoever invented the thermal mug!). It's now about 28 hours since the accident and though I have bit of stiffness in my neck and shoulders, it looks like I might have escaped whiplash...it was a pretty good jolt and I wasn't expecting it, so my neck did the old heave ho when the car was hit. I know that the effects of whiplash can take some time to manifest but I'm crossing my fingers.

The good: This happened a while back but I wanted to mention it. At the beginning of the month I arrived back in Toronto after a trip to Los Angeles for the Podcast and Portable Media Expo. I was pretty exhausted by the time I finally arrived back home I wasn't paying as much attention as I should have -- I had put my wallet in my lap while I was paying the cab driver, and when I stood up to get out it dropped into the gutter.  I didn't even realize that I had dropped the thing until the doorbell rang at 8am the next morning, and a woman I'd never met put it into my hand with all of the contents intact. I thanked her but I have to admit that I was still half asleep and partly in shock and I didn't have the presence of mind to offer her a reward for bringing it back. I know the chance of her stumbling across this and realizing that I'm talking about her is pretty minimal, but if it happens: Thank you again for bringing it back to me intact, and I'm sorry I wasn't thinking straight at the time. The honesty you showed was very very much appreciated. I often think that people are ruled by selfishness but I know that's not always the case. I once did the same thing--returned a wallet that had fallen onto the sidewalk--so maybe it's true that what goes around comes around.

We had a great shoot week at Call For Help this week -- as many of you know, Amber MacArthur is now working at City TV, and while we definitely miss her, we had the pleasure of having Cali Lewis from GeekBrief.tv filling in as co-host this week, until we find a permanent co-host. Here's a quick look behind the scenes.