Goodbye GBL

I’m waving goodbye to my greatbearlodge.net email address. You might have noticed that the amount of spam I’m getting has increased dramatically over the last few months from a manageable 20-30 a day to over 150 a day. The stuff just pours into my computer and swamps all of the legitimate emails. I’ve had no end of offers to cleanse my colon with cheap watches while downing Canadian pharmacies and studying (or not) for a diploma. I have plenty of email addresses knocking around, so I’ll not miss it. I’ll send an email out to everyone later in the week to let you know (if you don’t already) what my new email address will be.

Cheers

Jason

Twit

Hmm, now that Web 2.0 is almost over (people having better things to do), I’ve decided to get involved. I thought I’d have a go at updating this website using text messages from my mobile phone – it might be interesting as we are moving around the country for the last couple of weeks, and before and after my flight over to Canada on 3rd May. That’s if I can get it working…

Cryptic Spam

I’ve just had the following spam email – well, I think it’s spam, it’s certainly not very good spam if it is. For a start, there’s no website link to click on that will download all sorts of nasty viruses, or will allow me to type in all my secret bank account details at the drop of a hat, or even to send £10,000 over to Nigeria so that I can claim a portion of a £15m will. Perhaps it’s surreal spam, maybe it was sent by an art student commenting on the state of society today. Maybe it was sent by a fool who pressed the send button before it was finished? Who knows…

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Hello Stan Rivera,

music maker --------------------------------------------------------

video software video izle microsoft office  microsoft office keyserial keygen download
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window film -----------------------------------------
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No virus found in this incoming message.
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com
Version: 8.0.138 / Virus Database: 270.5.7/1580 - Release Date: 7/29/2008 5:26 PM

Beaver Lodge Chalet

I’ve been helping a couple of friends called Kirk and Jenny over in Fernie put together a new website. We first met them when we stayed at their B&B the second time we went to Fernie (the trip where we were looking for a house). Their old site was getting a bit long in the tooth and was well past its sell-by date. The site is for the Beaver Lodge Chalet in town and has a load of stuff in it that I might put onto our when we finally put together our site. This will happen in the next couple of weeks, and we’ll be getting Great Bear Lodge business cards printed to give out because people seem to be getting pretty interested – woo! Anyway, the site is www.beaverlodgechalet.com if you’d like to pop over and have a look at it.

What? Another change?

Blimey, these redesigns are coming thick and fast now eh! Well, it’s been a couple of years since I did the last change, and I’ve had to upgrade the software and database that runs it,  so I thought it was about time I did a refresh.  Oh, and I’ve put together a page that will hold the triathlon information as it comes in. If you’re lucky Cath might even let you know what she thought about each one!

We’ve Lesley and Steve down this weekend to go to see the Buena Vista Social Club in Hammersmith, and Steve and Cath are going to do a spot of the old triathlon training.  I know, I know, our lives are social whirls but what can you do?

For everyone reading it from the UK, have a good long weekend, I’ll let you know what they were like next week.

Julie’s Blog

If you want to follow in depth training diaries from a triathlon nut, Julie over in Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, has just started a blog called http://www.runningwithdoggies.blogspot.com/ detailing her plans and showing what life is like high up on a pass in southern Canada. If you’ve read her comments here you’ll definitely know what to expect(!!!!!!)

Online Banking alert

I’ve had a few of these recently. If you get one ignore it; don’t even click on the link because your email address can be acknowledged at current and working. Even if you don’t fill in the form, you will end up with much more spam. Remember, banks and building societies never request you to update your account. These are crooks who are after your ID and password so they can clear your account out. If you aren’t sure, ring your bank.  Oh, and we don’t bank with the Halifax.

Online Banking alert,

Please note, that your Halifax online banking account is about to expire.
In order for it to remain active – please follow the link below to proceed and restore your account.

Continue using online banking.

Thank you for banking with us,

300 posts!

We’ve passed another milestone this week. I was checking the blog when I saw that, between December 2005 and this post, Cath, I and a couple of guests have written 300 posts in 16 categories, while you have written 1,077 comments. I have also dealt with at least 79 spam”comments” – not many compared to a lot of people.

We are listed on Technorati, and are linked to three other sites, one being a media site that did an article on Bloggers subverting “official” ski hill snow conditions! We originally ran on some software that I found and then spent a couple of months cleaning up. Now, we run on WordPress, Gallery 2 handles the photos. This means that I don’t need to keep debugging the stuff, that’s for someone else to do nowadays. We have also used two different hosting providers so far.

The first hosting provider ran my software, but couldn’t run WordPress, hence the move. This was a nightmare as the two systems were different, so there was a lot of data manipulation in order to save all of the posts and comments. Unfortunately the pictures disappeared, but nobody has mentioned this. (Doh!) Around Christmas they told me that they were closing down, but in January they were sold to a US firm (I think). Now, while the site is still up and running, I’m uneasy about the hosting as we have heard nothing since. In March, the site had a hic-up, and I had to rebuild the posts again. More fun! Since April, my old site www.greatbearlodge.net, has been hosted by a large provider in the US (www.hostmonster.com). It seems to be ok, so in the next month the blog will move from this current location to www.greatbearlodge.net/blog. This will hopefully provide a platform that is much less risky than the one I’m on right now! I’m not looking forward to moving it, but needs must. You’ll know when it happens, sorry to have to do it again.

Now a bit about you. I have Google Analytics running on the site, and this give me an idea of who is reading, how often, and where in the world they are. Over the months that it is running, we’ve had people in Thailand (Ben), the UK obviously, Canada (Lou, Angie & Mick, and others), Prague (Lesley and Steve) and Australia (Neil and Phil). Surprisingly, there have also been people from the south of Argentina, Brazil, loads in the USA and Alaska, Spain and Germany. To give some idea of the numbers, since the beginning of May, there have been 10 visits from people in BC, Canada, and 7 from Alberta (Calgary no less), 4 from Australia, and 122 from the UK. On Monday 15th January, we had 33 people on in one day, so we are obviously not going to have to negotiate an increase in bandwidth are we?

Ok, what else? 67% of you use Firefox, of the Firefox users, nearly a quarter of you need to upgrade (go on, you know it makes sense, it’s free as well)! 80% of you only spend 10 seconds on the site – note to self, update a bit more often. At least one of you is running with a screen that only displays 640×480 pixels. You all have Flash, but we have no flash content, sorry about that.

So, what of the future? As you know, the immigration process has started now, so hopefully we will have heard from the High Commission by the end of summer. Even so, we will be here for about 18 months so that we can make as much money as we possibly can, and avoid paying as much Canadian tax as possible until we need to. Once we have a decision, we can start thinking about the website for the B&B again. So, a bit of a lull for a while, but then hang onto your hats!

The world turns, the snow is disappearing, and the the bears and their cubs have been spotted around Fernie, fattening up after the winter. Can’t wait to see them again.

Meanwhile, thanks for staying with us. Thanks for posting the comments, and thanks for the encouragement.

Jason & Cath

Drinking out in Fernie

We were in Fernie last night; well, virtually. Skype and a webcam can be wonderful things at times. We started the evening talking Lou. Lou, as you may remember, was our painter who became a good friend over the last year. A few months ago we drove to Lethbridge, specified and picked up a computer for him so that he could get onto the internet.

Lou has been a fast learner who nevertheless hates typing but loves Skype. Since getting his computer and downloaded Google Earth and such like, Lou has managed to make contact with his family for the first time in years. Actually, he searched for a favourite aunt’s name and nearly did himself an injury when her name was mentioned in an obituary. He calmed down a bit after making that step of calling them to get the news and found out that she wasn’t dead at all! Well Lou is about to travel back to his home town in New Brunswick to see them for the first time in years.

One thing Lou, you have to come back because we need that water-damaged ceiling painted! Have a great time over there.

Jane and Bob were bouncing about sending messenger messages and trying to call on Skype impatient to get on. So after we had spoken to Lou we called them back. The webcam showed palm trees and our friends with garlands around their necks. We were in the paradise islands of Hawaii. Well, that’s at least what we thought until the plastic inflatable tree suddenly lurched to the left and crashed into the carpet, sending it’s nuts all over the place. We  spent the rest of the evening doing damage to a bottle of wine (and a bit) with them. Hundreds of thousands of pounds of equipment has been installed across the world so that we could sit and take the rise out of each other for an hour or so!

So, a night in in Fernie. We had a great time, and I do miss the place. It’s odd that this is a mirror image of the last year when we were sat over there Skyping people over here. Angie and Mick, we’ll catch you when you are both off if we can organise it, let us know when you will be around (after Wednesday, and not Saturday)

Well, it’s 11:50 (possibly, the clocks moved forward last night), Cath has just got up and I’m about to fry up some proper Lincolnshire sausages (well, as proper as Lincolnshire sausages are outside the county), eggs, and such like. Have a good one.

Using this Blog

A few people have asked by email how to use this blog to make comments or register (eh Jan?).

I’ve added a new page on the right menu bar to tell you how to do this.