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Why We Can't Remember Childhood Memories

Why We Can’t Remember Childhood Memories

There’s a fascinating mystery in child psychology. Most children do not have their first memory until approximately 3 years of age; this period is sometimes called ‘childhood amnesia’. Even up to the age of 10, most people remember very little even though there are 7 years of memories presumably being...
How to Emotionally Deal with Adult Acne

How to Emotionally Deal with Adult Acne

I am not qualified to write about dealing with adult acne physically because I have yet to discover products or a diet that completely rid my face of blemishes. Although a diet free of gluten, sugar and dairy has provided the most results, I have not had the taste-bud willpower to...
30 Is Still the New 20

30 Is Still the New 20

There’s a great TED talk floating around the 20-something crowd that makes some valid points about “Why 30 is not the 20.” Meg Jay, a clinical psychologist, says that just because major life events happen later in your twenties, and into your thirties, does not make an entire decade “developmental...
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Favourite Childhood Activities That I Still Do

Favourite Childhood Activities That I Still Do

One of the guiding forces in my adult life has been to ask myself: what would I have done when I was a child? This sometimes leads to interesting decisions and a simple outlook on a life that can often be overwhelming and confusing. What does this look like in action? Childhood Activities Updated for...
My Vancouver Summer Bucket List

My Vancouver Summer Bucket List

I am so prone to inaction in the glorious summer months. Lazing about on a patch of grass, or staying in bed reading, is really all I need to be satisfied in the warm months. But, this year will be different. I have lived in Vancouver for a year and a half, and I have...
The Most Bullshit "Motivational" Idea

The Most Bullshit “Motivational” Idea

Photo Credit: Hartwig HKD If you have an interest in the motivational and productivity movements, then you may have heard this little tidbit: You are an average of your five closest friends Now, I can neither prove nor disprove this statement, but I still think it’s bullshit. As part of the motivational ethos, it is...
Stress-Free Moving? Yes, It's Possible.

Stress-Free Moving? Yes, It’s Possible.

Photo Credit: Peretz Partensky I was a very lucky child. I lived in the same house from as soon as I can remember until the ripe age of 19, at which point I moved into my university’s residence. Since that fateful day in September 2006, I have moved a total of ten times, and sometimes...
Founders Collective: The Next Step in Business

Founders Collective: The Next Step in Business

Image Source: Crystal Sing Photography A note: I was a co-organizer for the Founder’s Collective event It’s been one week and I’m still basking in the afterglow of Founders Collective. On Saturday April 20th, over 100 female CEOs, founders and game-changers took over Launch Academy, a co-working space that is usually full of men. Meredith...
Slides: Building Your Online Community

Slides: Building Your Online Community

Last week I taught my very first workshop on online community building. It was part of Trade School Vancouver, which is a barter-driven community of people trading knowledge. I signed up to teach this course on community building in exchange for design help and surprises. It was by far one of the most rewarding things...
Online Resources for Achieving Your Goals

Online Resources for Achieving Your Goals

Photo Credit: kaneda99 Achieving your goals is not impossible, it’s simply a matter of changing your behaviour.  That’s the trick everyone – just change your behaviour. Unfortunately, I have never really learned a surefire way of changing my behaviour. Last month, I decided to use the Internet and social media to find better ways of...
Unreasonable Workshops at Institute B

Unreasonable Workshops at Institute B

Is it reasonable to ask people to never, ever utter another excuse defending their inaction? Is it reasonable to draw raw, emotional dialogue from a crowd of people who have only spent 1 hour together? Last week’s #UNREASOLUTION  event was an engaging and disarming goal-setting workshop that took place in the packed Institute B office....
Setting Effective Goals for 2013

Setting Effective Goals for 2013

Eustaquio Santimano via Compfight There is so much more to forming a new habit than setting a goal and *hoping* that we will feel motivated every day after that. Here are some of my tips for setting effective goals and examples of the goals that I made this year. Tips for Setting Effective Goals Blend...
Top 7 Nominee: Social Media Awards Vancouver

Top 7 Nominee: Social Media Awards Vancouver

 …Or how I’m going to earn your vote all year long. Today is the launch of Vancouver’s Social Media Awards and I was lucky enough to be nominated in the Top 7 for the Who To Follow 2013 category. I have only lived in Vancouver for one year, but I have met awesome people, worked...
Internet/Psychology Trends for 2013

Internet/Psychology Trends for 2013

Trey Ratcliff via Compfight Who doesn’t love a good prediction post? Social media has brought about a proliferation of “X Trends for 2013″. The Internet and psychology underlie many industries and disciplines. Marketing? Yes. Public Relations? Yes. Interaction design? Yes. I could go on. Here are some trends that I think we will see in...
Social Media Style Guide

Social Media Style Guide

This is a quick reference social media style guide to be used when creating and using social media accounts. Twitter Profile Your profile should reflect your personality or brand Make sure to add a profile photo, a header photo, a URL, and a 160 character biography that reflects who you are and what you will...
2012 - My Year in Review

2012 – My Year in Review

I don’t think I could have possibly remembered all the amazing things that happened this year without the help of Facebook and Google. Google released their annual Zeitgeist video, which has managed to bring me to tears each year. Watching all the invigorating events that have taken place this year reminds me how powerful we...
Vancouver's New Resident: Free Portrait Vancouver

Vancouver’s New Resident: Free Portrait Vancouver

Photo Credit: Free Portrait Vancouver Facebook Free Portrait Vancouver is a yearly non-profit event, in it’s third year, where residents and neighbours in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside can get a free professional portrait taken. I was lucky enough to be a volunteer at this event. I helped students and educators (and all-around lovely girls) from the...
My Dream Job

My Dream Job

I have been having a bit of a professional existential crisis. Although similar, it’s not as dramatic as a regular existential crisis. It mostly involves telling people that you’re “funemployed” and then laughing that you don’t know what you want to do next, while crying inside. This has led to both Kristina Simmons and Danny...
Language Learning Technology

Language Learning Technology

It might frustrate me, but it doesn’t surprise me, that second languages can be challenging to pick up. Learning a language engages our long-term memory, listening comprehension, and muscles in our jaw and tongue (and sometimes your hands). I decided to learn Russian a couple of years ago and the results have been mixed. Anything...
Newcomer's Guide to Vancouver Startup Community

Newcomer’s Guide to Vancouver Startup Community

Hitchhiker's Guide to Toronto Startup Ecosystem, which draws it's inspiration from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Boston Tech Community, I knew that Vancouver needed one of it's own. Thanks to both authors for inspiring this resource. I hope that this guide helps anyone new to Vancouver, new to a career in startups, or with a...
Community-Centered Design

Community-Centered Design

This post originally appeared on The Community Manager Imagine you could build your own online community from scratch. Given what you as a community manager know, you would probably be using community-centered design to help achieve your goals. What is community-centered design? Perhaps the easiest way to explain community-centered design is to contrast it with user-centered design....
Create a Social Media Strategy

Create a Social Media Strategy

One of the great democratizing features of social media is that anyone has the ability to do it well, from whole teams to individual people. This social media strategy template would be useful for a wide range of companies, brands and products because there are a lot of variables that can be adjusted to suit anyone’s...
Building Community with Twitter

Building Community with Twitter

Yug_and_her via Compfight One of the best ways to get practice building and managing communities is to build a personal following on Twitter. Today I was researching Twitter resources to pass along to someone who was newer to Twitter. I found a lot of Twitter for business guides, as well as guides to the basics...
Community Managers Coding

Community Managers Coding

katiemarinascott via Compfight With the way the world is going it looks like almost everyone will be able to write code and program in the very near future. As more and more of our work and play involves using technology it makes sense that many people want to exercise more control over the tools and...
Vancouver's New Resident: Pecha Kucha Vancouver

Vancouver’s New Resident: Pecha Kucha Vancouver

Pecha Kucha is a fascinating presentation style where people talk alongside 20 slides that are shown for 20 seconds each. In a world full of short quips the length of the presentation doesn’t seem short at all, and for some it’s too long. By shortening the presentation time and allowing the visuals to play an...
Bringing Attention to Mental Health

Bringing Attention to Mental Health

In the past year I have come across more mental health campaigns than I have in the past 5 years. In our hyper-connected times we are able to communicate daily with people all over the world, so it’s no surprise that we’re beginning to tackle widespread issues. There are two issues that prevent people living...
Vancouver Opera: The Barber of Seville

Vancouver Opera: The Barber of Seville

I was lucky enough to catch Vancouver Opera‘s final matinee performance of ‘The Barber of Seville’ (or Il Barbiere di Siviglia as it was originally called). This was my second time at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre for a Vancouver Opera production, the first was for a showing of ‘La Traviata’. My interest in opera was...
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