For those of you that don’t have a Blackberry, Facebook could be your version of crack (unless you actually have crack). I’ve read articles upon articles that mention the average amount of time people spend on Facebook per session. Isn’t anything beyond 10 minutes too much? Maybe I just don’t have that many friends, or I don’t go visit each and every one of my friends on Facebook. I can only imagine what it would be like for people that spend more than 30 minutes per session on Facebook each day (sometimes multiple times per day) to suddenly go without Facebook, cold turkey. Personally, I do check Facebook daily but only for about 10 minutes a day, just to check on any new messages or notifications or to update something. Other than that, there’s not much else I do. However, I do admit a jones when I don’t check Facebook at least once every other day. Having said that, this week I’m going to cut Facebook out of my life and not log in for seven entire days. This will be a mini-journal documenting my week.

Read the rest of this entry »

Today is Raise a Reader Day, in case you haven’t left your house and not seen the countless number of volunteers and their newspapers, soliciting donations. They are on practically every corner downtown and it’s hard to avoid them. No really, they are everywhere. Here’s an excerpt I read in the newspaper:

Tip: when you donate, make sure you get a sticker to wear that shows you’ve donated, so you don’t get stopped at the next corner, and the next one, and maybe even two or three after that.)

I didn’t encounter any members of the Canucks selling papers this morning; I guess because I didn’t go anywhere named Granville, Robson, or Burrard. I would have quite enjoyed seeing our savior (a.k.a. Roberto Luongo), though. Soon enough, I’ll get to see the man live in action. I’ve got tickets for the game on October 15 vs. San Jose.

One of the observations I made this morning, while I was in a deli waiting for my bagel to be toasted, was that some of the volunteers were quite aggressive. I observed one woman (apparently, a “team captain”) chase down someone on the street, asking for donations. Now, I’m not against making donations to something I support; in fact, I made a healthy donation today to the campaign. But I just didn’t like the tactics some people employed. A donation is optional. If someone chooses not to donate, smile, say thanks, and move on. DO NOT chase someone down the street and make them feel guilty. Other than that little incident, I hope the Raise-A-Reader is a smashing success again this year.