We received a commission in the e-mail this week for a new logo that Allyson will be using for her web site.

I thought I would take a moment and brag, edify, and rave about how cool Robin Thompson is.  I met Robin a number of years ago in Victoria while performing a bunch of improvisational theatre shows.  He is hilarious!  It wasn't until later I learned of Robin's passion for drawing.  I saw a few things and thought they were amazing.   This guy rocks!  And is a comic god!

Check out Robin's offerings on eBay!

Tags: robin thompson, champions of hell, comic, artist, comics

In positive news for Firefly and Serenity, according to Amazon.com Top 100 Best Selling DVD List for 2006 - Firefly is listed at #10 and Serenity is listed at #18. Not too shabby for a canceled television show and the silver screen movie that followed.

In your face, doubters! I mean, really - if you check out this dance routine, you will notice Serenity music being used for their performance. Firefly and Serenity will return. There is no doubt.

Tags: firefly, serenity, dvd, movie, television, bring back firefly, serenity 2 campaign

On Saturday night, I got a call from an incredibly cool chick named Kelly.  (Who happens to run a very cool mead community web site called Meadworks - check it out!)  She was very excited and almost wasn't able to get her words out.  (I am also convinced she had found her way into a mead bottle somewhere - but I will leave that to your endowed imaginations.  Snicker!)  The gist of the voicemail was this:

"Shane!  Shane!  I ran into some cool people today and they are called The New Wrinkle!  I checked out their web site and saw that your company is hosting them!  That is so cool!  I am very proud of your accomplishments!  That is exciting!"

I jumped up and down and thought it was amazing that Kelly was on the site because, only hours before, I had been promoted to the role of technical advisor for The New Wrinkle.  You see, the video blog talks about a variety of things but one such topic is technology.  And, let's just say, I am suspicious about how some of the technical stuff that appears on their web site tends to follow our beer swilling parties.  Hmmmm.   Thus, I requested a new role on the podcast.  Little did I know it would be a promotion to the credits.  How cool is that!  So, that little exchange of two of my closest friends running into each other and doing a segment on a video blog - that is just too gnarley for geeks like me.  Small city fever. 

If you want to check out the video blog, the hosts are A. Traviss Corry (face it, dude, Arthur is a cool name) and Amir Aghelnejad and the site is The New Wrinkle.  How I got mixed up with these wickedly cool people, I will never know.  And they all tolerate me too.  That is saying something.

Oh, yah, and Traviss?  Make sure you call me about those nerdy things and we'll chat and get you ready for your on screen close ups.  I am also going to stop there because if I say "cool" one more time....oh, man.

Tags: the new wrinkle, shane birley, technical advisor, meadworks, kelly legge, vancouver, traviss corry, amir aghelnejad

On Friday, I mentioned I was going in for a physical checkup.  It would be my second ever (the first, I believe occurred at birth) and being that I am in my 33rd year of life - I felt it was a good idea to get checked out.  Off I went to the doctor's office and I was somewhat nervous.  A few weeks before I had blood taken and didn't yet know the results.  My biggest fear was the cholesterol count.  Several of my friends have had their blood checked in recent years and most of them had some issue with the level of cholesterol.

Here is a little information:

Cholesterol is a sterol (a combination steroid and alcohol) and a lipid found in the cell membranes of all body tissues, and transported in the blood plasma of all animals. Lesser amounts of cholesterol are also found in plant membranes. The name originates from the Greek chole- (bile) and stereos (solid), and the chemical suffix -ol for an alcohol, as researchers first identified cholesterol in solid form in gallstones in 1784.

Most cholesterol is not dietary in origin; it is synthesized internally. Cholesterol is present in higher concentrations in tissues which either produce more or have more densely-packed membranes, for example, the liver, spinal cord and brain, and also in atheromata. Cholesterol plays a central role in many biochemical processes, but is best known for the association of cardiovascular disease with various lipoprotein cholesterol transport patterns and high levels of cholesterol in the blood.

When doctors talk to their patients about the health concerns of cholesterol, they are often referring to "bad cholesterol", or low-density lipoprotein (LDL). "Good cholesterol" is high-density lipoprotein (HDL); this denotes the way cholesterol is bound in lipoproteins, the natural carrier molecules of the body.

I am here to say: in your face, cholesterol!

My levels of this potentially deadly and necessary menace were perfect.  The "bad" levels were low and healthy and the "good" levels were a tad low but with diet and exercise my doctor is confident I will be able to get it higher.  The rest of my physical was awesome (yes, the weight was discussed) but since I have never smoked, do exercise from time to time and am full of life - I was given a clean bill of health.  

Tags: shane birley, cholesterol, health, blood, exercise, diet

One of the problems with having moved to Vancouver is most of the things I had access to like doctors, dentists, and chiropractors, disappeared. Sure. It isn't very hard to get those kinds of things, but dealing with getting a doctor is a real pain. Thus, when I moved to Vancouver in 2001, it took me a year to get a chiropractor. And over five to, finally, get a doctor.

Thus, a couple of weeks ago, I scheduled an appointment with that doctor. I went for a first visit. I had no idea who this doctor was, I knew only a name: Dr. Bienert. I went for my appointment, sat in the waiting room (for two hours), and then made my way into the examination room. I sat there, not knowing what I was to do. I twiddled my thumbs, played with a model of the human spine, and used a few of the tongue depressors and said "Ahhhhh." to myself. Believe me, if you had been in the waiting room for as long as I had you would start to go a little wacky.

In walked Dr. Bienert. She looked at me and and said: "You work in computers, right?" She. A girl. A girl doctor.

I replied: "Yes?"

We chatted for a bit and she said: "Blood work and your weight is the first thing we need to address."

I mentioned this.

She laughed.

And, now, later today, I am going in for my first physical and to "discuss my blood work". Someone suggested I might have one of "those exams". You know the type of exam where you tend not to like things to be stuck. Egads. I hope not. But it needs to be done. I need to "take one for the team".

Or, perhaps, just head on over to the local pub to hide. Did I mention I am thinking of becoming a vegetarian? Oh, man, I forgot my dentist is in Sidney, BC.

Tags: going to the doctor, health, canada, weight, food, work, computers, information technology

I mentioned a little while ago how Telus and Shaw were fighting it out for supremacy in the broadband war. The article at the Business Examiner in Victoria is online and I was quoted - kind of.

At the local level, the issues are likely to be mundane ones. The Vancouver-based internet forum provided by Techvibes, for example, was dominated for three days in 2004 by a simple consumer question from an internet user about which company to go with for high speed service. Dozens of frustrated technogeeks vented their wrath on know-nothing service representatives, tardy installers, greedy and illiterate accounts payable clerks-the list goes on and on, mostly, but not entirely in Shaw's favour. Installers never come; technicians give rude phone, accounts receivable double bill. The list, as they say, and the forum, goes and on. But the gist of the forum was for most consumers, the important difference may not be technical, but human.

I said that! Not quite in that way, so, I consider it para-quoting regardless of my name being displayed. Snicker.

Tags: telus, shaw, broadband war, internet, customer service, ripoff, business examiner

My yearly posting of In Flanders Fields:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

Tags: rememberance day 2006

I found this information on CBC and felt it was worth attention.

Canadian Military Personnel Killed

First World War: 1914-1918
66,655

Second World War: 1939-1945
44,893

Korean conflict: 1950-1953
516

Peacekeeping: 1956-2006
121

Afghanistan: 2002-2006
42

Tags: rememberance day 2006

Canadian Forces Rememberance Day Messages: Part One

Canadian Forces Rememberance Day Messages: Part Two

Tags: rememberance day 2006, videos

Today is Rememberance Day, a very important day for me each year. I am sure every family has lost someone in a war at some point. To me, it does not matter when. To me, it does not matter if I knew them. To me, it does not matter if they were a member of my family. They fought. They protected us as Canadians.

Here is the Minister's message for 2006:

Our men and women in uniform forged this nation's identity on the distant battlefields of the past century. In the First and Second World Wars, in the Korean War, in military operations and on Peacekeeping missions around the world, our soldiers have made Canada proud.

We know that our freedom is not free. It never has been free. The freedoms that we often take for granted have come with a heavy price for our country.

It is this Torch of Remembrance that we raise so proudly each Veterans' Week and on Remembrance Day. This year, the theme could not be more fitting: "Share The Story."

Not only are we encouraging our Veterans to share their stories, we are urging Canadians -- Canadians in every region of this country -- to take the time to listen.

We must also pause to think about our men and women in uniform today. Brave Canadians still serving around the world, in such troubled spots as Afghanistan. They, as those who came before them, know the threats we face today are real, and the cause is just.

And just as in decades gone by, our men and women in uniform should know they have earned the thanks, and they have earned the praise, of a grateful nation. Today. Forever. Lest We Forget.

Tags: rememberance day 2006, minister of veterans affairs