Today I appreciate…

• This amazing project and website called CouchSurfing.com. It is thanks to this site that I met my current host and friend in Montreal Andrés, as well as the countless many that I count as friends.
• My super legs for powering through the aches as I cycled around the city this past week.
• Cafe Expressions, my fave cafe in Montreal at the moment, for the free wifi, great space to chill out, Sinatra playing in the background (”I did it myyyy wayyy!”). I love how I can sit here by the window, watch people on Mont-Royal street passing by, ponder about the future, and think creative thoughts. Also a great spot for sheltering from the rain!
• Ben, a random stranger, who found my ad on Craigslist, and met me at Laurier Metro today to purchase my Montreal to Toronto bus tickets off me.
• My two Fairy Godmothers – Maria and Gail – and my Evergreen Queen Michelle for organizing a super solution for making my move back to Toronto a heck of a lot easier and cost-effective. It’s just incredible what the three of them came up with in just a few days!
• Friends popping up in unexpected places like when I was served at the crepe place at Jean-Talon Market earlier today by Maryse – somebody I met at a party weeks ago, who I’m embarrassed to say, recognised me first.
• The beauty and wonder of a smile. So much more can be said with genuine eyes and a simple smile. In fact, that’s all that needs to be said.
• The wonders of creation and engineering. It is thanks to the magical winged bird, the airplane, that my dad arrived safely in Laos and stepped onto the soil of his birth country for the first time in thirty years. I wish I was there to see his face when it happened.
• My lovely friend Marie-France for hosting my first ever intimate and private Montreal meat fondue dinner party tonight. I’m excited!
• Couch Surfer Anuj for organising a little farewell shindig for me at his place tomorrow afternoon, which will involve yummy Indian cooking and fun folks. DJ Adam from the UK will be there too. After all it was his suggestion to have a “typical British” Biryani and beer day!
• This fantastic city, Montreal, thank you for all the amazing times, friends, colourful and original spots, culture, beautiful parcs, music, festivals, sunshine, rain, and French-ness. I’ll be back soon I’m sure!
• Yann Arthus-Bertrand for his vision and mission to educate and change the world with his projects, and his latest documentary that everybody must watch “Home”.

I joined the Critical Mass in Montreal last Friday, and had a blast!

Here’s my video of the event:

What is it?

Critical Mass is an event that takes place in hundreds of cities in North America and around the world on the last Friday of every month. It is a grand collective bike ride through the streets of downtown Montreal; a rolling celebration of urban cycling open to people of all ages and all capabilities.

Critical Mass has no official leadership or planning. All you need to know is when (5:45pm, last Friday of every month) and where (Phillips Square, Ste-Catherine @ Union) it happens. Aside from that, the ride is what its participants make of it.

Tags: biking, critical mass, montreal, road safety

A fascinating talk about social media and its potential application other than as a destraction from living life (i.e. “time waster”).

It was Mahatma Gandhi who once said “Be the change you want to see in the world.” Now imagine what greater reach his message would have had if he was using the power of Twitter or Facebook

Would love to hear your thoughts on this. Add comment below.

(on a side note, did anybody else think this guy looked and sounded like Tom Hanks?)

Tags: Communication, Cultural, Global Issues, Politics, Social change, Social media, Technology, TED.com

I’m going to assume that you know how to do the first three steps below so if not refer to this comprehensive guide.

Ok here we go…

1. Create the MP3 file
2. Tag the MP3 file (I used iTunes to do it).
3. Upload the MP3 file to your web host. You can use Podomatic if you don’t have one. A free account gives you 500 MB storage and 15GB bandwidth per month.
4. Get an RSS feed URL. This bit is kind of complicated so just read this first. I used List Garden to generate my RSS feed, and W3C validation service to validate it.
5. Once your podcast has been validated, all you have to do now is provide the address of your RSS file to anyone who wants to subscriber to your podcast. One option is to blog about it. If you want to allow readers to stream the file you can use Podcast Pickle for free to add a cool little player like I did on this site. For people to receive your podcast, they can use iTunes or any of the software listed here.
6. Finally, get your podcast listed in the many directories available on the Internet so people know it’s available and can subscribe.

Additional reading:

• adding an image to a podcast RSS feed
• iTunes tutorial – making a podcast
• Using iTunes to subscribe to a podcast

Tags: media, newbies, podcast, podcasting, rss, tutorial

My Positive Change has hit 1000 followers on Twitter – very excitement!

Tags: my positive change, twitter, www.mypositivechange.com