I've just uploaded a new website about how we can reduce our carbon footprint. We all can do our part by employing these simple tips everyday.

Please share the 12simplethings.org website with your friends.

There are localized translations in:

• Chinese (simplified)
• French
• Hindi
• Bahasa Indonesia
• and a Thai translation which will be published shortly.

In the short while since Ben has started blogging again, one of his last posts has picked up a good track of comments, which seemingly groks the issues between two of the major blog "systems": Movable Type and WordPress.

Now, guiltily, Ben is right that I have been blogging only nominally as of late. (Shame on me, but I think I'm redeeming myself as I have started up again last week after being clueless about where my round tuit had been for the last 9 months, which is the topic of my last post.) So it's fittingly coincidental that this thread comes when I'm renewing efforts to start blogging again and also to update the tools and systems.

Ben is well informed enough on user interfaces to take MT to task for their clunky user interface, although I've found the latest version of MT (version 4) is much improved. This blog is still MT 3.x, however, I have just migrated Art's blog over to MT4 (although she hasn't posted anything in about a year!). This blog post was composed with ScribeFire, a Firefox plugin, so I am dealing with a completely different user interface, which I find useful for composing off-line.

In the last two years, seeing WordPress take the blogging system lead, I've considered whether to stick with MT or make the move myself. One major consideration is that I had invested a lot of time learning and customizing my MT installations. I even started a test WordPress blog to learn about WP. I found the lack of a centralized
plugin directory for WordPress, slightly frustrating. But I'm not sticking to MT out
of inertia or sheer laziness; MT4 is actually a great product. Of course this can digress into some religious war pitting MT against WordPress, but I won't go there. With my prior "investment" - it should be
easier to edit the hacks, hard-coded links and template customizations
when I migrate to MT4 than move wholesale into WordPress, given the
seemingly scarcity of round tuits in my life. I just read
about on the upcoming 4.1 release, and I'm hoping it'll be out when I
start upgrading my own MT installation.

Personally, the licensing issue that SixApart waddled through was a
blunder on their part, which probably alienated many MT users and
developers, as Ben indicates. Although perturbed, I didn't migrate.
I give a lot of credit to the MT community, which I've found to be extremely engaged and a great
resource in developing my own sites.

In the meantime, the Tshins will blog with both MT and WP.

Technorati Tags: WordPress, MovableType, ScribeFire, blogging

"Hello World"... errr, I mean, hi, I'm back; that is: back from a 9-month blogging sabbatical. It was less intentional than being not disciplined enough to get a round tuit. Work has definitely picked up and is running me at a full-court press. But I figure I'd better get on with the writing - and also with the showing of my photos!

I've come to realize that I need to discipline my life, especially when life gets busy. Things can fall apart in busy-ness. The Canadian tire (or Canadian male muffin-top) reduction program needs constant attention, relationships need care (we're just celebrating our first anniversary), photos need to be taken - and even more importantly, need sorting, editing and presenting.

All this requires discipline - the 15 minutes a day to 1 hour a day, easy-win kind of discipline. After walking through the 9 Days in the Kingdom photo exhibition a few weeks back, Enrique and I were lamenting the fact that while our own photography has matured and is more-or-less marketable, we haven't put them out enough for friends to enjoy and perhaps for the world to notice (which amateur photographer wouldn't want to finance equipment and travels with their photography). And our lack of self discipline is to blame.

Well, without much ado, here's some of my recent work:

• A selection of calendar photos for the 2008 Evangelical Church of Bangkok calendar
• Photos from the wedding of one of my groomsmen Alan to Liz.
• Press conference of Professor Paulo Pinheiro the UN Human Rights Envoy to Myanmar
• A not-so-recent gallery from a shoot in Yaowarat (Chinatown in Bangkok) during Chinese New Year

Technorati Tags: blogging, photography, discipline

We're sitting in one of the Thai Airways Royal Silk Lounges at Bangkok Suvarnabhumi International airport, waiting to board.

We arrived at the airport with lots of time to spare, but the lines were ginormous.

We persevered, and ended up getting an upgrade to Economy Premium, although we're not in the same row. We'll try nicely to get seats next to each other...

Anyhow, it's a good 17 hour flight before we land at JFK and then taxi over to La Guardia for a flight back to Toronto.

Technorati Tags: Thai+Airways, upgrade, Economy+Premium, Bangkok, Suvarnabhumi

Yesterday (8 March) for International Women's Day, Ending Inpunity for Violence Against Women, I was asked to take photos during the UNAIDS Executive Director Dr. Peter Piot's address at UNESCAP.

The message is sobering because as real development progress has happened in developing countries, violence against women has not been fully tackled and building a real awareness in developing countries is still a challenge. I believe that this major issue will be a drag against development and progress if it remains underground and/or ignored.

The photographs are highlighted in the featured story on UNAIDS website.

View the photo gallery

Technorati Tags: International+Women's+Day, UNAIDS, Peter+Piot, UNESCAP, photography, violence+against+women