The details of what he did during the war are still somewhat sketchy as he was flying top secret missions that he was not allowed to talk about for 50 years. This time frame has just passed, but as you’d imagine, after not being allowed to talk about it for that long, one has grown accustomed to keeping the secret.

From what I have heard either from my Granddad or second hand through my Mom, Granddad joined the Royal Air Force (RAF) when he was 17. He flew a number of planes, including gliders. One of his missions was to fly a massive cargo glider carrying a large number of troops behind enemy lines. This was achieved by the glider being towed by a large powered plane until they were close to enemy territory. At that point, the glider was released and Granddad flew the plane to a secret field and safely landed the plane. They used the gliders because they were so quiet, they couldn’t be heard by people on the ground. Once down, and the troops were deployed, the plane was abandoned and Granddad had to rendezvous with people that helped him get back across the border without getting caught.  His plane was shot at on one of these missions and he still has the shrapnel from that in his back to this day.

I know that this is just a small part of what he did during his time in the Air Force and I will probably never understand the true extent of everything he did during the war. As time passes and each year we have fewer veterans with us to tell us their stories, we need to make sure that we take the time to hear and learn about the stories from the war - lest we forget.

So I took a small portion of my day to say thanks to everyone who has ever fought a war in defense of this country and remember the great sacrifices that they made so that we can live with the freedoms that we take for granted every day.

When I do something, I want to do it really well and will focus much of my effort and dedication into these pursuits, but I’ve been realizing as of late, none of these things make me a better or more well rounded person because of it. Yes, it’s great that my career is going so well or that I finished school, but there needs to be more than that!

So I’ve decided that I’m going to do something about this, I just don’t know what that is yet. When I was younger, I had music - I played the clarinet for 10 years.  Once I graduated high school, I let this hobby fall by the wayside. I’m not particularly interested in picking it up again, so I’m crossing that off of my list.

So as I sit here on the verge of my 29th birthday, I’m trying to figure out what my passion is. Even with the thought that I’ve put into this as of late, it’s still not come to me. So I’m thinking that I would like to try a vast assortment of things to see what piques my interest.  I’m never one who sets a resolution on New Years, but I think I’m going to do it for my birthday - like a present to myself.

Over the course of the next year, I am going to do things that take me past my current comfort level. I want to take an art class, help people less fortunate than myself, learn how to be a better photographer, maybe pick up a sport or enroll in cooking classes, who knows? But as a present to myself, before my 30th birthday, I want to try at least 10 new things and maybe, I’ll develop a passion for one of them that I will continue on with throughout my life, wherever that takes me.

I’m always open to suggestion, what are you passionate about?

So here it goes.

5 Things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. I was going to Kwantlen College in Surrey. I was going to do my first 2 years of my criminology degree there, then I was to head to SFU to finish it and finally on to UBC to get my law degree.  If you know me, you’ll know that this isn’t the path that I ended up going down and couldn’t even imagine where I’d be now, if I had. I’d wanted to be a lawyer for as long as I can remember, but I hated criminology almost immediately, so I ended up dropping out and wandering around aimlessly for a couple of years.  Although, I’ve still not completely ruled out going back to school and getting my law degree.
2. I was about to start working at the Boathouse in New Westminster. I worked there for almost 4 years. Starting off as a breakfast hostess and working my way up to serving at night. I had a blast doing it at the time and it was great money, but I’d never want to have to do it again.
3. About 10 years ago, I broke up with my high school sweetheart - we dated for just over 4 years.  It was incredibly hard to do at the time, but I have zero regrets about doing it.
4. I had just quit my job at Dairy Queen. Yes, I know I was far too old to be working there at that time, but I’d been working there since I was 14 and it was one of the hardest things I’d had to do. To this day, whenever I quit a job, I pretty much get physically ill.  There is something about leaving the people who I’ve had enter my life - far more extensively than as just coworkers - that tears me up inside.
5. I was getting ready to celebrate my 19th birthday. Yes that was the big one. We ended up going to a little pub in White Rock and I ended up drinking far to much and getting sick for half the night. I’m glad I lived through my late teens and early twenties and would never wish to do it again!

5 Things on my to-do list today:

1. Drop of 4 pairs my shoes to the shoe doctor to get re heeled.
2. Pick up some film at London Drugs that they couldn’t process and take it down to First Photo in Kits.
3. Drop of some clothes at the tailors to be mended.
4. Pick up some accessories for my outfit for the Parade of Lost Souls tonight.
5. Meet Nadia and go down to the costume warehouse blow out sale - the line up was about 4 hours long, so I skipped this one.

5 Snacks I like:

1. Any sort of candy
2. Ice Cream
3. Edammame
4. Maple and Brown Sugar Oatmeal
5. Cherries when they’re in season

5 Things I would do if I was a millionnaire:

1. Take some time of work and travel
2. Buy a house
3. Start my own company
4. Donate money to charity
5. Help out my friends and family as much as I could

5 Places I’ve lived:

1. North Vancouver
2. Surrey
3. Delta
4. Vancouver
5. That’s it pretty boring I know

5 People I tag:

1. Nadia Nascimento
2. Raul P
3. Dan Nedelko
4. Kris Krug
5. Gus F

I don’t normally pass along chain stuff, but I’d be interested in seeing these peoples answers. PS. I you don’t read their blogs, you really should:)

Over the three days at blogworld, tagga is going to be throwing 8 taggamobs. Once you get there, we’re going to give you something fun to do and the winners will walk away with cool swag and prizes. The first two taggamobs are going to be held at the TechSet party at Bare where tagga has a cabana, so make sure you are there!

If you’re heading to Blogworld, make sure you follow tagga on twitter and text ‘tagga’ to 82442. Also, if you want to get mobile updates on the taggamob’s, make sure you subscribe to mobile on the tagga blog - this way you’ll know before everyone else when and where the next taggamob will be held!

We have tons of cool prizes lined up to give out - I get to feel like Santa at Christmas all weekend - ending with a grand prize of a $500 Apple GC.  I’ll give you a huge hint now, in order to win the grand prize, you’re going to have to answer a riddle.  I’ll be dropping hints throughout the weekend on the tagga mobile RSS (make sure you subscribe to mobile on the tagga blog) and through the tagga twitter account.

This struck me as somewhat odd, as when I was younger, I was on the phone constantly.  So much so, that when I was a teenager, my Mom actually gave me my own personal phoneline for my 13th birthday so that other people in the house could actually make a call when I was at home.  I would spend hours on end having random unfocused conversations.

This made me wonder, at what point in my life did my preferred method of communication shift from that of the traditional telephone to these newer methods of reaching out and touching someone.  The very first time I made an email account was in 2001, when I went back to University and they required us to have one for an online marketing class that I took.  And I never used MSN until I’d graduated University in 2006, when my job required it.

At first, I found IM to be very annoying and distracting from work and really only used email when I needed to send a file over to a classmate.  Today, at any given time I’ve got a dozen IM tabs open, am twittering regularly, and am constantly sending emails. Quite often now, my phone will ring and I’ll think why is someone calling me?

So I can narrow down the scope of this communications shift to the past 2 years, but why?  Is it because of what I do for a living and it’s just a natural communications progression, as you’re far more likely to find me infront of a computer than not?  I can’t really answer this question, but it’s got me thinking anyhow.

Has this happened to you? Do you still chat on the phone regularly with friends and family or do you pick up the phone to call a store instead of heading over to their website to see if you can’t source the information your searching for yourself? Or is this just me?

I was in the Lululemon on Robson street the other week buying a rain jacket for running when the girl helping me in the change room recognized me from a previous visit.  She asked me if I was interested in joining a clinic that they were hosting.  What they did, was ask 20 people who came in to the store if they wanted to take part in a four week - 8 sessions in total - bootcamp style class called Endorphins, that is taught by the owners own personal trainer. The best part about it, is that it’s free.

I was quite surprised that they were offering this for free and jumped at the opportunity to participate in the class.  To sign up for a 4 week bootcamp class, the cost is between $200 and $300. Anyway that you look at it, it’s a great deal for me.  I’m not sure exactly what is involved in an Endorphins class, but I’m definitely looking forward to going to my first one tomorrow.

It got me to thinking about why they were doing this.  They didn’t know anything about who I was, other than they recognized me from a previous visit and I was offered this before I’d purchased anything - and they didn’t have a purchase requirement in order to participate.

All to often these days, companies want you to jump through hoops in order to partake in a promotion that they are offering with all sorts of small print in there to catch you on the back end.   Think about all of those “free” digital camera’s that the telecom’s give you to sign up to their internet or phone services.  They are never free and you’re better off just buying one yourself.

There isn’t anything involved with this offer that Lululemon gave me.  What they have created is a loyal customer who is more than willing to tell all of my friends - and in my case readers - about this.  The next time I need to buy athletic gear, you can be assured that I won’t be hitting the Puma store on Granville or the closest big box sports store, I’ll be heading down to my local Lululemon.  If I wasn’t a loyal consumer before, you can be sure that I am now.

So other companies out there, you can take a cue from this.  Don’t make your customers jump through hoops to participate in your promotions.  You’re far more apt to create a loyal customer by treating them well than by trying to trick them with your “free” promotions.  I know that I loyally avoid several companies now due to their ‘free’ promotion giveaway’s.

Thanks Lululemon!

It was so nice though, that I kept going and ended up at English Bay, then ran back to Urban Fare to pick up a quick bite to eat.  It was a really nice long run - I’d guess between 5 and 7km.  But, I really don’t have any idea how long it actually was, because they don’t have any distance markers on this part of the seawall.  They do around Stanley Park, but that’s it. This got me to thinking why they don’t have distance markers or am I just missing them?

Vancouver is an abnormally active city and you can pretty much look anywhere in the city - particularly the seawall - during the day and see someone running, walking, biking, rollerblading or participating in some sort of group workout routine.  I think it would be a great idea to have distance markers installed along the seawall to let people know how far they’ve gone or to help facilitate people meeting on the seawall.  I can’t imagine that it would cost much to install and I’m pretty positive that I’m not the first person who has wanted to know how long they have run for.

This brings me to my other observation.  Not all of the seawall is lit at night - on my way back the sun set and there were several sections of the seawall that have absolutely no lighting.  I know that I shouldn’t leave for my run so late and it is ultimately my responsibility to ensure my safety and plan my activities accordingly, but I think as a basic safety precaution for the seawall users, it should be lit. Being a girl that was out alone, I find this to be slightly troubling - especially around the area’s that have construction.  It wasn’t too bad as the seawall was still pretty active with people because the sun had just set, I would have felt much more unease had it not been so busy. What do you think - should the seawall be lit at night?

Chris made some decadent Raspberry Mojito’s for us to imbibe and Tris brought some interesting bread in a can and promised me fluffer nutter sandwiches if I make it over to the Redwerks office.  He promises me that the sandwich isn’t dirty like it sounds - that it’s a marshmallow and peanutbutter sandwich.  He assures me that it’s the best sandwich ever - I’ll let you know what I think if I ever get around to trying it.

It was great seeing everyone and chatting with everyone who was there - Beth, Tanya, Tris, Matthew, John, Monica, Joe, Chris and a bunch of other people who I’m currently drawing a blank on.  I blame it on being a Monday.

Beth and I had a great time getting down to our bikini’s and laying in the sun - or what sun we could carve out amongst the shade.  Check out the cute pics that Tris took of me while I was there.

Photo Credits: Tris Hussey

So myself and another girl I met at bootcamp are planning on going to Steve Nash.  She’s out of town this week, so when she gets back next week, I’m going to try it out with a free week and sign up if I like it. She already has a membership there for $75 per month - which I am willing to pay if I like it.

That leaves me with nothing athletic planned this week and I really don’t want to slack for the week.  I’ve been thinking that I may see if the World Gym has a free pass I can use and try it out - it would be my backup gym if for some reason Steve Nash doesn’t work out.  It is less expensive and far closer to my house, but I wouldn’t have a workout buddy there.  If any of you workout there and would like a gym buddy for the week - ping me, I’d love to join you!

My other option is to continue to run the seawall or to play tennis.  Unfortunately I’m not that great at tennis and don’t have a tennis partner.  If you live downtown and would like to play with me let me know - as long as you can deal with my beginner status.

So this is my dilemma.  What would you do?  Are there any other outdoor activities that you’d recommend for one of the last weeks of summer?

With tagga, an advertiser only pays per action or is free with embedded ads.  All traffic generated from the SMS campaign is fully trackable through tagga’s analytics reporting - enabling advertisers to accurately track campaign ROI. They’ve also got some great revenue sharing options available to bloggers so if you’re interested, make sure you check out the blogger resource section.

Tagga Features:
•    Enable anyone to setup and launch a text message campaign within minutes
•    Enable print and web publishers to monetize content through distribution on  mobile phones
•    RSS to mobile features and easy embed scripts
•    Enable any web content to be sent direct to phone or email

Tagga hasn’t just been developed with marketers and advertisers in mind - they’ve set up some cool features that are useful for everyone. I personally love using tagga for a couple of their features.  I’ve set it up so that if you text jennmae to 82442, you’ll receive my personal contact info straight to your mobile phone.  I’ve found that this is great for when I’m out at networking functions and have run out of business cards and I’ve also used it on my about page on this blog.  I’ve set one up for my work contact info and one for my personal contact info.

I also love the tagglet tool.  It has a simple drag and drop install on your browser and you’re off.  Any website you navigate to, you can use the tagglet tool to send info from the site to your mobile phone.  I find that this is particularly helpful with addresses.  I no longer write down addresses of businesses I need to visit now, I just highlight the address on their site - hit the tagglet button, and it’s sent straight to my mobile phone.

I’m running tagga’s Social Media Marketing Campaign.  We’ve got plenty of fun campaign initiatives coming up and it’s already been featured in both Tech Crunch and Mashable.  I’ve been having a great time playing around with the site and coming up with fun campaign ideas for tagga.  Make sure you check them out and set up some taggs.