You know, there are some good ideas, and then there are the ideas that make me want to create viruses to send to the people that came up with them. A new service called “blogversations” is one of the latter ideas. Before I start bashing it, you might want to know what it is:

Blogversations are a new, not evil way to market your products and services through discussions. Leverage your authority and audience to earn money – without losing control over what you’ve got to say. Turn your ideas, criticisms, opinions, and reader share into money – and not muddy up your site with clunky ads in the process. Engage your audience with thought-provoking issues and questions. [Source: Blogversations]

At first glance, sounds good right? A site that lets bloggers earn some money for holding discussions! Well take a moment to think it over. Is that really what we want? Companies “sponsoring” a discussion?

I personally think Blogversations is the type of service that will bring an end to blogs. Who cares if bloggers get to retain control over what they say? Companies should be making products that people WANT to blog about, not paying people to blog about their average widgets. And what would happen if everyone started posting only sponsored posts? Besides the quality of the blogosphere declining, no one would read the posts anyways. Who wants more ads? Not me!

To all the bloggers out there that try it, good luck. I just hope it doesn’t last long, for all of our sakes.

I have one Gmail invitation available to give to someone! So the first person to email me with the words “I WANT GMAIL” in the subject gets it. Please use my Gmail address, not my other email addresses!

If you want to buy music online, there are hundreds of thousands of tracks at your disposal. However, you won’t find Beatles music anywhere – they have been one of the largest holdouts in releasing their catalog online. Way back in June, reports surfaced that the group was finally in talks to release their music for sale online.

Now with speculation that Microsoft will open the doors to its MSN Music Store on September 2nd, reports have again surfaced that Microsoft has used its financial clout to become the first site to offer the Beatles catalog. Apparently the Beatles wanted tens of millions of dollars for a long-term exclusive arrangement.

The MSN Music Store is already supposed to have some excellent features like instant messaging and search integration, so being the only site with Beatles music is icing on the cake! Now lets hope the site is open to Canadian residents fairly shortly after it opens!

Read: Internet Nexus

Tonight Kimmi and I went to see Collateral starting Tom Cruise, Jaime Foxx, and Jada Pinkett Smith. I must say, I really liked the movie. You might be predicting another Phone Booth where the entire movie is spent inside the cab, but it wasn’t like that at all.

First off, Tom Cruise plays a very convincing bad guy. You wouldn’t think the smug Mr. Smile would have it in him, but he does! Just goes to show that he really can act. In fact he played the character so well that you ended up both hating him and feeling sorry for him…a sign of a good bad guy I think. Jamie Foxx also gave an excellent performance, showing a lot of depth in his role as the cab driver. I understand now why Jada Pinkett Smith didn’t get major billing for the movie – her role is minor, and really not that special at all. Basically, insert pretty girl here.

The film is directed by Michael Mann and it shows. His choice of camera angles and lighting is pretty consistent – dark, closeup, blurred shots. The overall effect is somewhat similar to Tony Scott’s Man on Fire, but without the slow motion. I also think he did a good job of making the scenes in the cab seem somehow larger and less confined.

Bottom line, I give the movie 4/5. I quite liked the fact that Cruise played a bad guy, and there is a lot more in the movie than just the guns. Think irony, humor, and all that other good stuff. It’ll be interesting now to see what he chooses for his next movie (besides MI:3). If you’re looking for a good show now, go see Collateral.

My sister arrived in Edmonton today at 7 PM – the plane was about 25 minutes late. She sure had a lot of stuff, then again I don’t really remember my move too well. For instance I don’t remember how many bags I had. So this time I was prepared and took a bunch of photos. Now Kim will never forget!

On the way in we stopped for dinner at Denny’s and also at the Rexall Drugs she’ll be working at on Jasper and 118th. I am sure you’ll all be seeing a lot more of Kimmi, especially if she starts a blog!

Welcome to Edmonton sis!

I was looking in the Calendar and realized that the last day of classes before Reading Week is February 18th. Which is perfect, because I am seriously considering attending the Northern Voice conference which is taking place on February 19th.

So I decided to look up some travel costs. I expected the bus to be quite a bit cheaper than flying, but as it turns out, its not! Even with a Student Discount applied, return fare on Greyhound from Edmonton to Vancouver is $280.23 and the duration of the trip is 18 hours and 35 minutes. So I’d have to leave Friday afternoon to get there on time, and if I left right after the conference ended on Saturday I’d get back at 11 AM on Sunday.

Compare that with flying. I could leave at 7:50 AM on Saturday and get to Vancouver a half hour before the start of the conference. If I really wanted to, I could even leave right after the conference and be back in Edmonton around 9 PM. Total cost for a return flight on either WestJet or AirCanada? $397.93. So for an extra $100 I won’t have to sit on a bus for two days.

Of course, if I were to go with someone, the Companion Fare from Greyhound would make the combined travel costs much cheaper. And if I am going to Vancouver at the start of Reading Week, I’d likely stay for a couple days 🙂 Just thought the pricing difference (or lack thereof) between the bus and plane was interesting!

Tonight (being Tuesday) Felicia, Andrew and I went to East Side Mario’s in Sherwood Park. First of all, they got lost. Not like a few blocks away lost either – they were like 15 minutes away from where they should have been! I dont know how much clearer I could have made my directions! Anyways, after a botched dinner we prepared to make our getaway and ended up driving over an angled sidewalk. Hey, it looked like a driveway to me.

So then it was back to Felicia’s to get her little sister Stephanie. For the record, I didn’t do or say anything that might have you believe I was Dickson (Stephanie is only 15)…so keep that in mind when reading Inge’s blog. We finally decided to go rent a movie – we got The Thomas Crown Affair because they hadn’t seen it. Its one of my favorite movies of all time…if you haven’t seen it, go watch it right now. Like drop whatever it is you’re doing and rent/buy/download it this instant. You won’t be disappointed.

But before we made it back to Felicia’s to start watching, we stopped at Yi-Li’s house and interrupted him and Jane who were, ahem, watching a movie. Good times. Lets see what else happened…Felicia vaccumed up a spider because “it was too big to pick up with Kleenex”. Stephanie and Felicia eat a lot. Like bowls of cereal followed by fruit followed by popcorn followed by ice cream. And this was after we went for dinner.

OH! And Andrew drove his truck tonight. I am trying to remember, but I don’t think I have ever actually seen him drive before. Anyone else? And why is it that these people who rarely drive ALWAYS get lost? See a connection?

In case you didn’t know, Ashish Patel is back in Edmonton until September 6th. So I think we should all go for dinner with him so he can tell us about his adventures in Toronto and New York – like presenting to the CEO of IBM!

WHO: You, Ashish, and friends!
WHAT: Dinner and maybe something after!
WHERE: Boston Pizza Downtown (most likely)
WHEN: Friday, September 3rd, 2004 at 6:30 PM
WHY: Because you know you wanna come!

So far I have five people confirmed not including myself and Ashish. If you are planning to come, please leave a comment here or email me. I’ll post more updates here as the event gets closer!

Because it’s time for two new radio shows! The first one I must apologize to Kiwi about – we recorded it so long ago, and I never got around to mixing it. Finally, it’s here. And I have been too busy/lazy to fix the audio page, so instead I give you direct links:

• DJ Kiwi’s Episode #1 (48:25) – Listen Now
• Blogosphere Radio’s Back to School Special (17:56) – Listen Now

As always you need Windows Media Player 9 or later. Enjoy!

On one of the nastiest days of the year, Sharon convinced me to go to the Fringe. Or more specifically, the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. First of all, its “Theater” haha! And secondly, International? Not even the New York Fringe claims to be International!

Anyway, we went to see “Adorable” by David Belke. The play tells the story of a paranoid magician and his new assistant. I thought it was really good; Sharon said it wasn’t his best (I think she was just showing off her extensive Fringe knowledge ;)). I think I’d go again next year as long as the weather is nicer! Even though today was the last day of the Fringe, they are showing “the best of” for the next couple days if you are interested.

After the Fringe we went for dinner and decided to try Joey’s Global Grill in South Edmonton Common as neither of us had been there. That place looks so fancy from the outside, we felt completely underdressed walking up to the door. It wasn’t too bad though, even some guys in ball caps inside.

I can safely say it is my new favorite restaurant. The place is immaculate, and the bar is awesome. It is huge, and looks so nice with colored bottles and fancy lighting all the way up the wall. Oh and two pretty big LCD TV screens. Leather seats. Leather menus. The service was good, the food was great. The music was decent (80s and 90s dance pop mostly). And most importantly – a staff that puts Moxie’s in the northside and every other restaurant in the city to shame. Absolutely INSANELY good scenery. Give it a shot!