Category Archives: Website

Since I was laid off from the Ministry of Health I realized that I have not challenged myself like I used to when I was programming for the MoH. I came to this realization when I was working nights and forced myself to figure out how to made my WordPress.com site send emails to my GoDaddy.com account and then get picked up by Gmail.com so that I still have my mark at markwood dot ca email address. Normally I would leave it up to my cousin David to figure out as he is the one that is the SME when it comes to most things dealing with Hosting and Domains.

Since he was visiting family in Kingston and was otherwise occupied, I hunkered down and tried to figure it out. It took some time and some realization that things are not instant when it comes to DNS’s propagation, but once I figured it out, I was really proud of myself. Knowing that the knowledge that I once had on the tip of my tongue was still buried deep inside my head just waiting to be accessed.

I also came to the realization that I need to challenge myself more when it comes to doing things on the computer. I have become to complacent with my current job since I am not really allowed to do any programming and aside from loading paper into giant printers and loading tapes into the tape drives. I need something to challenge me but since printing is on a set schedule and then their is the frequent ad-hoc request, it makes it hard to try and program something during the day when there are people around if I run into trouble. I do feel very under utilized and fear that the longer I am where I am, the harder it is going to be to access the information that is still at least catalogued correctly in my head.

Yes, I know this post should have been out two days ago, but I came down with a bad sinus cold and have not been able to think well enough to concentrate long enough to write all the things I want to talk about. So now that I am feeling a little better, I thought I would try and get through what I did this weekend.

To start things off, I will send you to xfep.com to read a funny little story about how the WordCamp Toronto 2008 hash tag battle happened. So in the end, my hash tag that I came up with in the morning before the event came out on top for both days! I think I should have one a prize for that. But no worries. At least I know that I created the hash tag for WordCamp Toronto 2008.

For those of you that have no idea what WordCamp is, I will take the next few minutes to explain WordCamp to you as best I can. WordCamp is a conference build around the blogging software called WordPress. Markwood.ca and many other personal and professional blogs are based on this software. So WordCamp is a place for people that use this software to find out new things coming up with WordPress as well as learn different ways to use WordPress from other presenters. There are topics such as WordPress Gallery with Rannie Turingan, WordPress Security with Mark Jaquith, WordPress and Podcasting: The Good, The Bad and The Audible with Charles Hodgson, Running Your Blog Like a Pro with David Peralty and a few others that I will mention at the end of my post.

There is so much to learn at these events that I thought I would record them all for myself so that I can refer back to them on a later date, but then I thought, “Why hog these sessions for myself? Why not post them online for everyone to see?” So that is exactly what I did. I attended ever session (except for the last panel because I had to get a cab to make it to the train station on time for my train.) Being a novice at blogging and wanting to get into the world of professional blogging, this event was very useful for me. I hope that other people will take the 6 hours plus needed to watch all these videos and really use them to improve your blogging abilities or to get into the world of blogging.

WordCamp Toronto Schedule:

Day One
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. – Blogging as a Cornerstone of Social Media with Joseph Thornley
video: The Video
11:00 a.m. – 11: 45 a.m. – ‘State of the Word’ with Matt Mullenweg
video: Part A, Part B
1:15 p.m. – 2:00 p.m. – WordPress Gallery with Rannie Turingan
video: The Video
2:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. – WordPress: Beyond A Blog with Jamie Oastler
video: The Video
3:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – WordPress and Podcasting: The Good, The Bad and The Audible with Charles Hodgson
video: The Video

Day Two
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. – WordPress Security with Mark Jaquith
video: The Video
11:00 a.m. – 11: 45 a.m. – Running Your Blog Like a Pro with David Peralty
video: The Video
1:15 p.m. -2:00 p.m. – Video Blogging with Mark McKay
video: The Video
2:15 p.m. – 3:00 p.m. – Making the Most of Plug-ins with Brendan Sera-Shriar
video: The Video
3:15 p.m. – 4:00 p.m. – Entertainment Blogging: A Panel Discussion with Frank Yang, Tim Shore, Chris Budd and Jonathan Dekel

If you would like a copy of the presenters slides, please go to the WordCamp Toronto Wiki