In Friday's edition of The Globe and Mail, Canada's oldest national newspaper, I was interviewed and quoted about the OK Button, a social experiment in which wearers signal that it's okay to strike up a conversation with them. I'm reported to have said something like the following: "[I wear the button] to keep myself accountable when people do want to talk to me." After growing up in Courtenay, B.C., "I'm still used to giving people a signal on the street that acknowledges that they exist." The story appeared in the second last page of the entire paper (not just the front section), and can be read online, at least for the time being. Vancouver blogger Lesli has a copy of the article as well as some commentary about the OK button: “I don't think buttons or a capitalist scheme are necessarly the answer, but perhaps we've come to the part where neighbourliness and smiling require a viral marketing campaign?” I'm pretty sure I heard about the OK Button through Djun. The timestamp on his post is later than I remember, but the earliest I documented having a button was January 7th, 2007.
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This morning CBC TV contacted me though my contact form and then by my work's phone # (that's what I get for not publishing my personal phone #) and asked me to be interviewed for CBC News. I should be on sometime after 6 PM on Vancouver's CBC's evening news, talking about the Vancity Bike Share program. I don't do media interviews often, so it will show, but I enjoyed riding around on Roland's bike—of all the days I decide not to bike into work, I choose this one—and talking to the CBC reporter. They'll stream the story on the CBC website for 24 hours, which should give an enterprising someone the chance to 'archive' it.
I have yet to write at more length about my new bike purchase of a couple weeks ago, which was directly as a result of participating in the bike share. So far so good: it's a one hour workout each way, 10.5 KM to work and 8.5 KM back (I take different routes. I'm already pretty serious about it, having bought rain pants, back and front lights, and even weather proofing for some of my existing clothing. Still, the true test is not a bright Summer evening but cold, wet, and dark rides both ways in the Fall.