mentorship

The kid in this picture has a big cast on his arm, but this doesn't stop him from doing risky things. We met at Leeside Park, near Hastings and Cassiar, in an underpass and had seen him around at other parks.

It's been a busy time at the mainwriter headquarters. The "new year" isn't even that new any more; in fact, the first month of it seems to be whipping by pretty quickly.

Yesterday my son went to the Dry Spot indoor skatepark in Vancouver and spent nearly an hour psyching himself up to "drop in" on this ramp in the picture. He said he felt "scared as all hell" when he decided to try it.

The words of a mom who lost her adult son have stayed with me today. Her 30-year-old son Devon Clifford died after collapsing on-stage at the Rickshaw Theatre in downtown Vancouver on Friday night while drumming with his band You Say Party! We Say Die! The young man suffered massive bleeding in his brain...

My friend Steffani Cameron is a blogger / writer / prolific tweeter I met originally through Twitter. She’s a self-taught gourmet who taunts the Twitterverse with delectable details of what she’s whipping up in the kitchen. Now people 11 and up can sign up for Steff’s one-on-one Cooking For Kids (and Adults). Check out...

It seems like an increasing number of people – like me – are taking an alternative approach to their kids’ education. My son was so unhappy in regular school that I pulled him out in Grade 3 and started in the SelfDesign program. Other families start off right away with home schooling or “unschooling”...

“Thats’s so random!” I never know what I’ll see on my iPhone camera after my son’s been using it. Yesterday I found this super-cool drawing on it after our trip to JJ Bean. He’s also taken some interesting shots of the painting on the south wall of Continental Cafe (which is worth a look-see...

Here in this picture, at the far right, is Virginia Greene - CEO of the Business Council of B.C. - who carried the Olympic torch in North Vancouver yesterday. Just over a year ago, I got some really good advice on networking from Virginia and it's made a huge positive impact on my life.

Today I had lunch with Lorraine Murphy - known online as raincoaster - one of the most well-known people in Vancouver's blogging / social media community. She gave me great ideas and encouragement - but before I get to that, here's something really disturbing...

My friend Astarte Sands has a really cool job. She coordinates a program for MOSAIC called Workplace Connections - matching local mentors with immigrant professionals moving their careers to Canada.