Up until this weekend, an image of me in my bikini was my most viewed Flickr photo. It was taken this summer after some lovely time in the sun… or was it before some sun? Hmm.

Recently, I’ve been posting photos taken at Northern Voice, with the universal Flickr tag “nv07“. My photos have all been tagged appropriately and my feed (including my Flickr pics) has been added to Planet NV. This has lead to a dramatic increase in traffic, due to everyone posting and browsing photos taken this weekend. This also leaves my personal rankings e.g. most popular photos etc. totally outta whack.

As of tonight, my MOST viewed Flickr photo is of Tod Maffin standing in front of Radio Canada‘s nightly news cameras (bumping my bikini pic to #2). No offense to Tod but is there something wrong with this picture?

We survived Northern Voice and all the wind and rain that pelted us on the way home. I attended a few more sessions later in the day and we opted out of any post-moose activities tonight as we also have a full day tomorrow.

In “Why do we blog” Darren Barefoot shared oodles of data gathered from his “Why do you Blog” survey. Pie charts, graphs, anecdotes etc. The most amusing part of the presentation was his story about working at the Victoria Infocentre way back when.

A photo session followed, lead by Kris Krug. In my opinion, he and Dave had the best presentations of the day. They were both laid back, had practical and useful tips, and told it like it is, plain and simple. Things don’t have to be complicated.

Photo credit: Robert Scales on Flickr

I have to say, I’ve never been more ‘recognized’ from my blog. Of course it helped that this was a blogging conference, but people would walk up and ask if I was “Miss 604″. Also, at least 3 people today knew me for my one post back in August, which was the Matthew Good living room show live-blog. It was really, really nice to meet everyone and if I looked a little dumbfounded, nodded and smiled all goofy-like it’s because… yeah, this has never happened before.

My blog’s grown so much in the past year, and I’d like to think it has improved. Taking away the helpful tidbits shared by all the sessions today I hope I can only grow from here – in blogging and podcasting.

Tomorrow we have a Canucks game at noon, which we’ll probably catch at the Fogg for two reasons: it’s our anniversary so we should probably treat ourselves to a meal outta the house and second, it’s pay per view. Later in the evening is a podcast meetup, at TC Lions Pub. After all the shmoozing this weekend I hope I’m in prime condition for my job interview on Monday (hopefully it’s the first of many that are in store for me).

The morning sessions were pretty wicked, especially Dave O‘s podcasting P’s (plan, produce, promote). It really got to the core of the medium and his presentation, which consisted of black writing on cards (a la Bob Dylan) will be hard to beat. As he puts it, it was a “grass roots, electricity-free” and “stickin it to the man” type of presentation.

There’s a back channel on Skype where we heard about the lunch movement – venturing over to the pub for some food and a pint. The fish and chips were excellent but the wait was horrific. Not only was there a healthy blogger conference representation but there was a football (English football) match on the tube. This of course lead to a almost-too-long-to-be-tolerated wait for our bevies and bill. No worries though, John and I weren’t up for rushing back to catch the 2:00pm sessions and we’re now left with plenty of time to upload photos, chit chat, and prepare for the presentations at 3:30pm.

I’m on cup 3 of coffee but that’s now being mixed with a pint of G.I. Pale Ale so I’m going pretty strong. So far, lots of great stories, fascinating people, and despite the fact that I can’t wait to encounter even more of these experiences – I’ll totally be ready to crash tonight.

We left the house this morning and it immediately started to snow. In all the rush of preparing for the trek to UBC we forgot to check the weather. It’s pretty chilly although flowers are already starting to bloom in the city. After 3 bus connections and running into a few fellow MooseCampers we arrived the Forestry Services Centre. It’s a lovely building full of MacBloe-esque charm and about 300 bloggers.

Photo credit: Audihertz on Flickr

The keynote was the first item on the agenda. Anil Dash gave a talk on Making Change Happen with Your Blog. He really drove home the fact that we’re not just typing into thin air – there is impact, there is change, there are memories and (sometimes unfortunately) everything is logged. He spoke of how our priorities change, well not so much priorities but what we value… family heirlooms to meaningful text messages. It hit close to home because I have a text message on my phone from 2005 when John made his first ever trip to Vancouver to visit me, all the text says is “here”.

It was a great presentation and after 1 coffee I’m warming up and feeling a little more alive. It’s freezing cold in here (although the opened-toed shoes I’m wearing really don’t help) so I’m sure I’ll wake up after this next session. We’re in “Blogging 101″ with Richard Ericksson, chit chatting to Cosmo from the Clubside Breakfast Time podcast.

I’ll add some pics later. I’m so Mac illiterate, it ain’t even funny. I’m sitting here watching John and others blog or take notes on their laptops – it’s like the end of one big Doogie Houser episode. Time for coffee #2…

I wasn’t at Moose Camp today, but I did meet up with a small group of fine bloggers this evening for some food, beer and an exclusive tour of the CBC after hours. Tod Maffin (who is also responsible for the Inside the CBC blog) was our guide as we explored all the levels of the CBC building downtown. It was pretty interesting to see what 30 of our tax dollars produce day in and day out. Things have been moved around due to the construction and massive renovations but we were able to meander through studios and office space all the same. See where the anchors sit during the news, where mad edits are made on the fly, dressing rooms, editing rooms, studios and music archives.

I had a pic of the Bruno Gerussi commemorative wall, but it didn’t turn out. Beachcombers has a place in my heart, and I even have an autographed pic of Molly’s Reach – signed by Molly. I think I was about 4 at the time, hence the “Keep smiling, cutie” message.

I’m looking forward to the conference tomorrow, to putting more faces to names and maybe learning a thing or two. For all the “action” today, peruse some of John’s posts. Photos of the late night CBC tour are up on my Flickr – Set: Northern Voice 2007.

It’s completely legal for a woman to go topless in Vancouver.

Vancouver Police will soon be circulating a memo reminding officers that it’s okay for woman to walk around the City topless.

The move comes after a complaint was made to the police department from a woman who has crusaded for the right to go shirtless for years and was victorious in BC Supreme Court. [CKNW]

My husband made a point of sending me this story via del.icio.us. Maybe he’s hinting at something, maybe it’s something I might consider after the week I’ve had. Needless to say, with tonight’s dinner being the kick off for the Northern Voice conference, I’m ready to do some fierce networking.

What does this have to do with being topless? Not much, really. I just had two things to post about and decided to combine them. Not that I want people to be thinking about me topless when considering me for potential career opportunities.

Tomorrow I’ll be doing some temping just to keep the cash-flow going in our household, while John enjoys a full day at Moose Camp. I’ll join in on the festivities on Saturday, and I will be wearing a shirt.

I have to say, it’s been a crazy 12 months that we’re going to celebrate on Sunday. By crazy I mean heart-stoppingly stressful and excruciatingly emotional and financially painful. But hey, we’re still smiling. Or at least John was when he sent me that link.

Update: Going to NV and you have no idea where it is specifically at UBC? Check out John’s post for map and details.