“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.” (Saint Augustine)

I’m on my way to Banff tomorrow for the Blog n Dogs conference. I have borrowed snow pants. I have located my winter shoes. I’m still searching for more appropriate outerwear. My wee wool coat is not going to do it.

Suggestions on braving the cold?

I have been waiting for this book: The Imagined City: A Literary History of Winnipeg, edited by David Arnason and Mhari Mackintosh. There was an announcement in today’s Winnipeg Free Press that Arnason will be at the Millennium Library Tuesday evening for the release of the book.

The event begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Carol Shields Auditorium on the second floor.

A lot of crazy stuff happened in Winnipeg.

Arnason was my thesis advisor at the University of Manitoba. He came out drinking with the grad students and told fantastic stories. I like retelling the stories but I often get the details confused. For example, I never met Al Purdy, but Arnason did. David Arnason. I like telling this story as my own. But it’s not.

Arnason told me Purdy arrived at the University of Manitoba as a visiting professor sometime in the 70s. Purdy left everything in B.C., including his wife. He brought only a few possessions and furnished the apartment with a mattress and some pots and pans that were scrounged up by grad students.

Purdy lived just off campus in Summerland Apartments. He liked socializing with profs and students. They hung around, drinking, and sat on the mattress or the floor. Purdy stocked the cupboard with bean cans and bottles of rye.

Arnason told me Purdy rinsed out the bean cans and used them as glasses. The saving grace was Purdy passed them around half full of rye.

Arnason told these stories as a distraction. He sometimes offered stories in lieu of critical feedback on my thesis. My essays and revisions came back with a check mark or, well-written pieces, a ìgood.î

Arnason says Purdy once called him in the middle of the night. Purdy didnít care about etiquette or the time of day. He commanded that Arnason come over and read the poem he just finished. Arnason had a wife. He lived outside Winnipeg city limits, in St. Norbert. Purdy presented a problem.

Arnason arrived at Purdyís. I imagine he looked tentative, peered at Purdy from the doorway. Purdy offered Arnason a bean can and then waited in anticipation as Arnason read the manuscript. When Arnason finished reading, he handed it back to Purdy. ìItís good.î

Arnason appreciates the economy of words.

ìGood,î was Purdyís indignant reply. ìItís great! Read it again.î

I just spent 10 minutes on a Kick Ass posting about what’s going on in the publishing world. Then the computer froze. I was under the illusion that my posts were “quick saved” as I typed. This is not the case. Now I’m dreadfully late for a post-birthday cake eating date. So instead of Kick Ass you have Half Assed.

The vague recollection of the post is as follows. Lots of cool things happening in publishing, no time to talk, here it is:

Read this article on Berrett-Koehler. Total eye opener in terms of a kick ass business model for book publishing.
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/100/berrett-koehler.html

Listen to Patricia Storm on CBC Radio talking books on Cross Country Check-up
http://cbc.ca/checkup/archives.html

And House of Anansi launched a podcast today.
http://www.anansi.ca/podcast/apod.xml

Really, my first post was 4 million times better and I’m not exaggerating.

For a stunning example of half-finished web design, visit the Canadian Blog Awards page and vote for So Misguided.

Round 1 voting has started for the 2005 Canadian Blog Awards.

So Misguided is nominated in the Best New Blog category and the Best Culture Blog category. Vote for Pedro! No, I mean vote for me by selecting the category and then So Misguided.

The Polling Stations are open until Wednesday November 30th.
Friday December 2nd, 12pm EST: Round One results will be announced.

Then I solicit your votes a second time, seems rather tedious:
Saturday December 3rd – Friday December 9th: Round Two voting.
Sunday December 11th, 9pm EST: Round Two results will be announced.

Voting Instructions
Vote once, every day. So Misguided for president.

Don’t pay too much attention to the voting results. It is crap. You’ll see what I mean. And where do LinkFour and LinkFive go?

I forgot to post this last week so here it goes now. Google Print has a new name. It is now Google Book Search. Perhaps Google has just discovered SEO?

The change has been in place since November 17. The search page at http://print.google.com is now http://books.google.com

The second part of the change is the home page promotion. Google Book Search is *bang* right on the home page, unfortunately you now need to log into your Google account to view the book pages. Is that like showing ID to get into the library?

Check out the explanation for logging in:
http://print.google.com/intl/en/googlebooks/help.html#whylogin

Apparently you can click the “view an unrestricted page” link. I don’t see that link.

What do you think about Google Book Search so far?

I turned 30 on Wednesday … but I’m celebrating until Monday.

One of the most interesting things about turning 3-0 is hearing about how other people celebrated their 30th birthday. My favourite story so far is that of a colleague who hosted a big party and presented a Punch and Judy show, with an original script.

Do you have a good story? Tell me.

Patricia my favourite bibliophile blogger has asked whether her readers recall being read to as a child. I definitely do. My mother has a fantastic reading voice. I used to fight with my brother over who would get their story read first. I was even recently relating the story of how my mother used to read “What Was That !?” This is the story of a family of bears, and one by one each of the baby bears hears a bump in the night and comes running to the parents’ bed. “What was that?” they cry. “Why it was just the lady bug down the hall, dropping a shoe.” So one by one there is an explanation of the bumps in the night, until there is a huge crash, and every little bug in the house cries out WHAT WAS THAT. It is of course the legs of the bears’ bed giving way under the weight of all the little bears in the bed.

Just at the moment when the bed cracked, my mom would slam the book closed and scare the heck out of us. I loved it every time.

Many years later, my mother worked as a librarian and my teenage self used to sneak in to listen to her read at storytime. I still love being read to, and I love reading to people.

My birthday is tomorrow. I was never one to wish for a puppy, but yesterday I got a dog. Not a real dog, but an invite to the phenomenal Blogs n Dogs workshop in Banff. Nice present for sure. I’ve always wanted to go to the Banff Centre.

Raincity Studios in partnership with the Banff New Media Institute is producing a 3 day workshop on blogging and social networking at the Banff Centre, Alberta from December 4th-7th 2005, and I am attending.

Yesterday I received an email from Robert Scales of Raincity Studios announcing that I was the winner of their scholarship (workshop fee, activity fee–DOG SLEDDING–accommodation and meals, and airport transfer fees to and from the airport to Banff). I swivelled around in my office chair many times and the grin has yet to leave my face.

Here’s the post announcing the winner and the 5 other finalists.

Want to come? The registration closes Friday, November 25.
Register. Do it now. Don’t delay.

There’s dog sledding, and I think in my submission I may have promised to bring my tap shoes.