Re:8

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The blog has moved!

Hi everyone! After much back and forth I have decided to go ahead and move the blog to a new site. You can find the newly redesigned and improved blog at magtravels.wordpress.com.

All new images and posts will be posted on the new blog from here on in. Existing posts will remain on this blog, but have also been imported to the new blog, so feel free to start following my travels on the new blog!

I'm back!

I've been pretty bad at updating this blog - I have to admit that I was quite focused on our wedding and getting all of those details sorted, along with getting that blog updated. But, the wedding is done, and now, a different kind of planning is getting started - our honeymoon.

As I've explained before, we are planning on making our honeymoon last two years. We want to really take the time to see the world, take it in and enjoy it. Obviously this will require a lot of planning, but on the other hand we also want to try to keep a lot of things open. We don't want to outline our trip too much, or have a schedule. We want to fly West and see where it takes us. I think that this will make for much nicer travels.

We do have some vague ideas as to where we want to go: for example we plan on starting the trip off in Japan and meeting Travis' family somewhere in Africa in September 2011 (one year into our trip). We are also planning to meet friends in Burma, Turkey and India.

With all of this in mind, the blog will become progressively more active until go time - September 2010. The blog does need some maintenance though, and although I am attached to this design (for all of the ours spent on CSS and the history of it), I may be doing some drastic changes. I apologize in advance if things get messy before they get better.

Thank you for hanging in there with me, and can't wait to get the next world tour started!

The guidebook is in!

There is no nicer surprise than to open your mailbox after a hard week at work to find a package from Paris, containing a copy of the guidebook in which your very own image was published! It really made my day.

There were two further surprises when I opened the envelop and saw the guide: 1) I had understood that my picture was to be on the cover. Oh well! But the image made it inside and on the web, so that's good! 2) They did not Photohop me out of the picture, and so my reflection is still there.

In all though, the Viatao guide for Shanghai is small and compact, but filled with information. It's really a clever design and a great idea for anyone just visiting that city - you get the info that you need without all of the bulk. As as added bonus, the guide leads you towards small businesses and green businesses, so that you can feel even better about your travels. I'm glad to be a part of it!

Check it out!

In it to end it!

{This is a twin post to the one on my other blog - I just want to spread the word!}

Ginger, Travis' mom (and my future mother-in-law!) is in her 20th year of surviving breast cancer. She is an incredible woman and to celebrate this huge milestone she has decided to participate in the Avon Walk For Breast Cancer. Her team, the Blessed Breasts (great name, no?) will be walking 39 miles over the course of two days to raise money and bring awareness to the cause. Their fundraising goal currently sits at $18,000. That's no small feat!

If you would like to donate to the cause, please visit the Blessed Breast's fundraising page - here you will find the team's info. Simply click on a team's member name to read their story and donate!

Vancouver, showing off

How amazing is this? And of course, it's just a block from my house! I just love how Vancouver is making herself pretty & cultural to welcome the world for the 2010 Winter Olympics. I wish that these could stay!

We, by Jaume Plensa (part of the Vancouver Biennale)



Vectorial Elevation, by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (part of the Cultural Olympiad - CODE)



The fun part about the Vectorial Elevation piece (aside from the fact that it looks amazing and is on display non-stop from dusk 'til dawn) is that you can design your own pattern on the website! You can design, preview & dedicate at your heart's content! For those who can't make it in person, you can also watch the light show on the live cam.

What an honour!

One of the things that I love about flickr is that you never know who will take a look at your photos. I have most of my photos on a Creative Commons license, which means that people are free to use my images as long as credit is given and that the pictures are not used for profit.

I received an email last week from a publishing house in Paris, asking if they could use one of my picture in their upcoming guide book. I have to say that most often when I get these types of request it is for what I consider to be some of my most mediocre images, but this time it was different. They were asking about one of my favourite photo from Hong Kong, and not just for any book. It turns out that the publishing house, Viatao, creates incredible guide books that encourage sustainable world travel. How perfect is that? That is what every world traveller should aspire to, and so I responded that I would be honour to have them use my image for their upcoming Shanghai guide (as if it matters that my image is from HK!).

Well, if that wasn't a big enough of an honour, they responded that they intend on using the photo for - wait - the cover of the book! I was just floored, and excited. I can't wait to get my copy!

Until then, here is the photo that is getting published:

Time Lapse Vancouver - Cloud city

How amazing is this? Vancouver is so amazing, and this showcases it!

Blogger vs. the other ones

I've been on Blogger for what now seems as ever, but as you've learned from my previous post I decided to host my wedding blog on WordPress. I'm not quite sure why I went with WordPress, but it was probably due to some great designs that I had seen around - and tabs. I love tabs! I guess that there was a certain hope in there for something more sophisticated.

Now that I have both, I can see the pros and cons of both and I'm not sure of what I want to do. Do I want to keep this blog here, where it's been all along? Do I want to move it over to WordPress? Or about some of the other sites, such as TypePad and Tumblr? It's so hard since there are so many options and no "perfect" option.

Since I have only tried WP and Blogger (both as free accounts), here are my personal pros and cons for each:

Blogger:

• Pro: You can edit your CSS!!! Not that I made that many changes to this template, but I like the fact that I can change anything and everything that I want around.
• Pro: A history, a sense of belonging.
• Con: Limited & mostly ugly templates.
• Con: No tabs.
• Con: Puts you in charge of deleting spam (and I have just deleted 10 spammed messages today!)
• Con: I have to use a web counter service - and can't even remember my password anymore!
  

WordPress:

• Pro: The Dashboard is genius. It makes my life so much easier.
• Pro: Included stats! It's addictive.
• Pro: Automatic detection of spam comments.
• Pro: The Widgets make (certain) things easy!
  
• Con: No CSS to edit (unless you are willing to pay).
• Con: No perfect template (unless you are willing to pay).
  

So. While it seems that my preference is leaning more towards WP, I'm still holding on for dear life to my CSS and the option to add certain things, like my DOPPLR badge or LinkWithin...

What do you think? How did you choose your blogging platform and what's keeping you there?