Olympic Houses: Colossal Tease

All eyes are on Vancouver...

These words, or something as equally soaked in exaggeration, have been repeated time and time again leading up to and throughout the course of these 2010 Winter Olympic games. Vancouver is great and I'd be hard pressed to disagree that it has a lot going on as a city; that said, I was admittedly more interested in getting a chance to see the rest of the world on my home turf. And while tourists and drunken foreigners are entertaining in and of themselves, the officially branded "cultural houses" were sorely lacking when it came to any defining sense of identity or soul. Here are my thoughts on a few of the houses I checked out.

Switzerland House = Located in a restaurant on Granville Island. Outside, cute Swiss girls handed out pins and sample-sized chocolates while they talked with there adorable accents... alright, it was actually pretty good.

Russia House = Located in within the Telus World of Science. It was basically happy hour for sponsors of the 2014 Winter Olympics being held in Sochi. Room after room of brands and pitchmen. Somewhat of a boobie-prize, their current mascot is more hilarious then all of ours combined.

Quebec House = Down the road from Russia House this massive cube decked out in blue and grey looked promising and mysterious. Too bad it was virtually barren inside (if you can call being contained within four paper-thin walls as being "inside" something). On the upside, there were lots of empty chairs to sit down at.

Ireland House = Doolin's Irish Pub on Nelson. I think they increased the price of their beer. That's about it. That said, overpriced beer is still beer, the ambiance and energy in the place made for good times if you could foot the bill.

I went downtown in search of culture and all I got was this lousy torch.

PS: So I don't come across as entirely sour it should be said that I actually quite enjoyed walking amongst the crowds and letting the energy of the crazy masses of people get me excited for the games and for Vancouver. Go downtown with some friends and make a day--and long night--of it. Grumbling aside, this is the most alive the city has ever felt.

Assignment No.3: Who is Tim Berners-Lee?

Tim Berners-Lee is a brilliant engineer and professor credited for the invention of the World Wide Web. On top of this already impressive feat, Berners-Lee is also the director of the WC3 and a plethora of web related foundations and organizations.

His accomplishments include but are not limited to recently receiving an honorary doctorate from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam as well as being named as one of the "100 Most Important People of the 20th Century" by Time Magazine.

Assignment No.3: Who is Jakob Nielsen?

Jakob Nielsen is a renowned web usability consultant.

Nielsen has worked at suck companies as Bell, IBM, and Sun Microsystems. A Ph.D graduate of Denmark's Technical University, Nielsen has spent most of his working life helping to define and evolve the idea of web usability. Nielsen hold's 79 United States patents concerns usability and has developed five components of usability goals:

Learnability, Efficiency, Memorability, Errors, Satisfaction.

Additionally, Nielson founded the "discount usability movement" which focuses on the development of fast and cheap user interface improvements. A published web design author who continues to be highly regarded in his field, Nielsen most recently co-founded the consulting company Nielsen Norman Group.

Assignment No.2: W3C and its Role on the Internet

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is an online body and community that looks to set standards to propel the overall growth and quality of the internet.

The primary objective of the W3C is to ensure compatibility between industry members in regards to the software and website technology used to encourage consistency and usability. By agreeing to adhere to a core set of principals, member organizations can become regarded as W3C-compliant. To this point, the W3C has yet to offer official certification.

Assignment No.1: The Blog That Keeps Giving

Back in 2007 a younger more optimistic me would have had little trouble making decisions when it came time to deciding on what to read next. Working at a bookstore put me in the ideal position. I was constantly surrounded by some of the hottest titles and timeless classics, as well as some of the most educated opinionated people who I have ever met.

All that changed when I quit in the fall of 2008, inadvertently severing my ties to the world of fantasy and fiction I’d grown to love in pursuit of a career. This is when I first discovered, and quickly became an avid reader of, Pat’s Fantasy Hotlist.

Blogging since back in 2005, Pat’s continues to be my first-stop when in search of reviews, previews, and interviews, of all the biggest names in the fantasy genre. Gaining momentum since his initial efforts, Pat has gone onto recommend what have turned out to be some of my favourite fantasy titles in recent years.

If a critically minded review from somebody who’s been around the block is something you look for (when it comes to reading popular fantasy novels) be sure to check this out. As an extra incentive, through his connections with publishers Pat is able to hold contests and book giveaways that can range from single copies of new releases to full on collections.

Pat’s has become a reliable source for reviews and insight. A thumbs up on The Hotlist has yet to lead me astray.