You can check out the first episode here and take a break from all the hectic.

I hope to be this kicky when I’m her age!

I was so pleased to hear that Montreal tech reporter (and all-around great guy) Roberto Rocha is embarking on a new adventure and taking to the road. He and his fiancee Bianca are taking a year to travel around the globe, reporting on whatever comes their way. They’ve created a site called Mojotrotters (mo=mobile / jo= journalist) in which they explain :

Our goal, as trained journalists, is to bring places to life through the lens of our experience, using words, videos, sounds, and photos.

Sounds like a dream huh? Roberto announced this new adventure today and was met with a flurry of tweets telling him how lucky he was to have this opportunity. It’s interesting to read his philosophy on how anyone can do this if they just make the necessary sacrifices. It really is that simple. By assigning priority to the goal, you can make it happen. All of that self-doubt that creeps in can really be eliminated just by planning and setting your eye on the prize.

Look at travelhacker Chris Guillebeau and his quest to visit every country in the world by April 7, 2013. As of this date he’s at 122 of 192 countries and is offering up details via his blog as a way for readers to learn tips and techniques for becoming travelhackers themselves.

You up for jumping in feet-first and making travel your #1 priority? I’d love to hear your stories. I’m charged by these empowering tales as I embark on my armchair adventure of goal-setting and life mapping here in freezing cold Montreal.

Quebec web personalities unite to provide help to those in need.

Now in its second year, La Guignolée des médias numériques et médias sociaux is ramping up to collect funds for numerous local charities. A group of local social media personalities have collaborated to develop a website where people could easily donate money to help others during this time of need.

The following charities will benefit from the money raised from this holiday campaign:

Please help to promote the Guignolée des médias numériques et médias sociaux by publishing their banner on your blog(s) and online profiles. Encourage your friends to do the same! Display a banner on your blog

Great job goes out to the organizers! Thanks for this initiative

I personally hate the execution of this feature and am thankful to use TweetDeck rather than the web-based version of Twitter. Removing the ability to make a comment on the item being retweeted is the most limiting aspect of this enhancement considering context is key when posting anything online.

In this post, Powazek advocates that for online crowds to be wise, they need the following elements: simplicity, clear interfaces, aggregation, participation, selfishness (yes, selfishness!), scores, leaderboards,  explicit vs. implicit feedback and savvy voting systems.

It’s well worth investigating this post in detail as it does take Surowiecki’s initial thesis and offers up suggestions on how to empower the energy of community with tools to allow it to become effective and truly – wise.

Photo of some wise people at a Montreal Tech Entrepreneur’s Breakfast by Montreal Tech Watch

Bear with me!

MC Router - The First Lady of Nerdcore

For those of you who have always wondered.. A Day in the Life of a Turd (spot us is a pretty cool concept non?)

Sleeplessness and Paranoia- A study that proves it’s good to get your sleep. What did you just say to me? Are you talking to me?

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) in Montreal presents the exhibition Actions: What You Can Do With the City, an exhibition with 99 actions that instigate positive change in contemporary cities around the world. Seemingly common activities such as walking, playing, recycling, and gardening are pushed beyond their usual definition by the international architects, artists, and collectives featured in the exhibition.

Fine & Raw chocolate… Raw truly is better

Andrea Innocent (aka innocentgirl)- Amazing Aussie illustrator. Check out this amazing piece called “Falcon Girl” based on Ishibashi Misato, an 11 year old girl living who owns and trains two birds of prey. Rawr.

I know I’ve been a late bloomer when it comes to confidence, but partially because I’m not so comfortable in the spotlight. I’ve always used my quick wit and snappy comebacks to save me in social situations where I felt awkward and much of my decision to start the Montreal Girl Geek Dinners group was to force myself to become more social as well as give back to the community.

I won’t bore you with the psycho-social reasons why I was so socially inept. Maybe I was more comfortable chilling in the womb, alone with the amniotic fluid rather than gurgling with the other babies in their cribs. Hard to say.

Fast-forward to now and although I get a little wonky in new situations, I feel much more grounded and comfortable in my skin. These certainly are better days .

Today I almost fell off of my chair when I saw that I was mentioned on a list of ‘Underground Web Celebs Made In Quebec” by NVI, a local web development and digital marketing company. Believe me, I often felt that the same (although well-deserving) people have been mentioned in the context of “Top Web Stars”/ “Social Media SuperHeros” and so on.

Not to take away from these folks who do kick ass work, but it feels awesome when you’re a not expecting to be recognized for your efforts. I’m honored to be named with people on the list who I think are doing amazing things in the MTL tech space such as: Sean Power, Katheline Jean-Pierre, and Heri Rakotomalala among others.

Well it only seems fitting to ‘pay it forward’ and mention some of the people who inspire me, make me laugh, cause me to think and inhabit this Quebec digital microcosm along with me. This list is by no means exhaustive but just a sampling of those folks who rock my world whether by Tweet, by blogpost or by being either personally or digitally connected to me

Aleece Germano – Web consultant, Project Manager, eCommerce specialist, musician and philanthropist, Aleece is cultured, wayyyyy smart and gave one of the most professional talks ever given in the history of MTL Girl Geek Dinners. She is nice to the nth degree and involved in many organizations and events such as hosting an annual clothing swap, promoting events at Montreal’s coworking space Station C and launching a a legal campaign to help Mile End dépanneur owner Tammey Lau.

Jackie Ng – Web Marketing / Social Media Consultant at Jacoutofthebox. Jackie was so quick to lend a hand when she heard about the Montreal Girl Geek Dinner group and although we’ve yet to meet, her tweets inspire and educate me as she’s always sharing links that are well selected and relevant which demonstrates to me that she ‘gets it’.

Peter Bailey- Consultant with Flow Ventures, Peter is one of the most polite and friendly people I’ve ever met in my life and certainly provides the best career advice I’ve even been privy to. A strong supporter of local tech events, Peter always has a smile on his face and an awesome attitude towards life.

Tamu Townsend-Tamu seems to know every single person on this planet and when I mention her name, they always seem to get the hugest smile on their face as they speak so positively of her from either working with her, buying comics from her or meeting her at various Montreal events. Tamu’s dedication to raising awareness for bone marrow & stem cell donor registration inspires me to no end. She’s also one of the coolest sci-fi, animation fans and comic book girl geeks I’ve ever met.

Rommil Santiago- User Experience and Web Design Expert. Rommil possesses a wealth of knowledge about the web and was someone I did an interview with a million years ago for a ‘design a thon’ that he threw. He was one of the first people I knew of in Montreal to host an event with the primary goal to give back.

Martine Pagé- Screenwriter, reporter and overall wordguru, Martine is one of the first bloggers I followed back in back in the ‘early days’ and can be credited with being part of the inspiration for me starting the Montreal Girl Geek Dinners group. She’s a strong advocate for women on the web and in technology, creative thinking and has the best hairstyle/haircolor this side of Mile-End.

Shout out to my old CloudRaker peeps like: Aran Rasmussen, Antoine Girard, Stephanie Troeth, Stefan Dukaczewski, Stephane Caron, Yanick Proulx, Anile Prakash and Twist Image folks like: JF Fortier and Matt Fogel. These are smart, smart people that I’ve worked with. If we ever started a web design shop, this town would fall to its feet.

I should really write a list like this more often. It feels awesome to share such positivity and realizing that I could go on and on is really a good sign

Operation Nice was developed by Melissa Morris Ivone  whose “goal in life is to be as nice as she can possibly be.’ Melissa admits that in writing her own ‘love list’, she found it hard to do (I can so relate as I work on mine!).

I think it’s an important exercise for us to do on a monthly basis. Take some time to reflect on all the good that we’ve done and how truly awesome we are. It’s not about being Gandhi or Mother Teresa. It’s about the little things we’re doing on a daily basis that sometimes are seem so small to us that they seem so insignificant. It’s easy to see all the rockstars that surround us and feel that we’re not doing enough or that our contributions are so tiny, but their impact can be huge to those around us.

Now, my love list:
I love that I’m compassionate and caring to both humans and animals. I love that I have a strong yet silent character and weigh my words before misspeaking. I love that I’m not an arsehole. I love that I root for the underdog – those unpopular and often misunderstood folks. I love that I’ve gone through some hard times but didn’t let them harden me. I love my fiance who is the soul mate I never though possible as the term soul mate always sounded too ‘hokey’ to me. I love my furkid, Bob who shows me how to live in the moment and to not take myself too seriously. I love that I’m confident enough to let myself be the quirky, offbeat geek that I am and encourage others to let their ‘geek flag fly’. I love that I’m not too confident to be uncomfortable to be around. I’m a smart girl with many interests, a curious mind and a heart of gold. I’m cute but would hit a bully with a skateboard if they were to say mean things about you or your mom. Oh, and I always have great haircuts.

Now to work on yours. Please share it with me. I’d love to read more about you.

As per Melissa’s post, here are the directions for this Operation Nice assignment

Today’s Assignment: Make a Love List about Yourself
What do you love about yourself? It could be something about your appearance or personality, your strengths or talents, whatever you’d like! Post it on your blog or post it here in the comments. Or do both! Either way, really focus on what you love about yourself and I guarantee you’ll feel happier afterwards.

Oh and Melissa, thanks so much for your energy, creativity and for such a wonderful blog with such an important mission. You are right in that I do feel happier after working on this love list!

I do love me... I really do

Isabelle Lopez gave a phenomenal talk at the most recent PodCamp Montreal event on “The Self, The Identity and the Internet” which evolved into a group discussion on how comfortable (or uncomfortable) we are with our identity and existence on the internet. Her blog is certainly worth following for her take on social media and society.

Zen Habits keeps me grounded. (that could have developed into a haiku but I stopped it early).

Josyan MacGregor is my new partner in crime in presenting the Montreal Girl Geek Dinners and has a blog focused around marketing and new media written by a girl with a heart of gold. Check her out.

BoingBoing... Sigh. I love this site so much that I gave my fiance a BoingBoing hoodie from GamaGo as his engagement present.

Gwen Bell is my homegirl. I found out about her through the Buddhist Geek circles and she’s since inspired me through her awesome posts and her energy which seems to just project right thorough the computer!

Tara Hunt is just one of the most insightful gals out there and a true hero. It is also awesome that she is a recent pugowner (I’ve been with my little feller for 7 years and he rocks)

I’ll continue to post about blogs that I find special, endearing or otherwise remarkable.