You may have noticed some things have changed ’round here!

That’s right, 642Blog.ca is now known as What The Sooke?! I made the decision to move the blog to this new address a few weeks ago and have been working hard to get it all put together. I found out that moving a blog is nearly as complicated (and as much of a pain) as moving to a new house. Hopefully everything still works! So, what’s new?

• Theme. A fresh, clean look is what I was after. With no exaggeration, I must have perused hundreds of themes before deciding on this one.
• Logo. Jason from Inktvis Creative/DiscoverSooke did an outstanding job on both my blog logo and my new real estate logo, pictured below in the footer of the blog.
• Listings. I’ll now feature my listings on the blog – You can find them under the category ‘listings,’ oddly enough!
• More content! This whole exercise has been a lot of work and has really inspired me to put it to good use. I have some great ideas for articles and videos and I intend to post much, much more often than I have been.
• Easier sharing and subscribing. You’ll note that at the bottom of each post, you’ll find sharing buttons to share via Twitter, Facebook and several other methods (you can even print off the articles and frame them!)
• Featured Posts. Articles or listings of particular interest will now be ‘sticky’ and featured in a big featured posts slider on the front page.

I hope you’ll enjoy the new What The Sooke!? as much as I have enjoyed putting it together. As always, your comments are welcomed and encouraged – use the comment form, or send me a message here.

Sooke Fire Department image credit: Mike Byrne, ClocktowerImages.com

I’m not sure how this escaped my Sooke Internet Radar™, as I’m usually up to speed on just about anybody doing anything online in our town, but did you know that the Sooke Volunteer Fire Department has a blog?

I discovered it yesterday via a Twitter search for Sooke. It appears to be mainly a forum for keeping the department’s many volunteers up to date on what’s been happening lately, but makes an interesting read for observers who’d like to know what all the sirens are about.

The blog is regularly updated, with the latest post being from January 18th, its tenth post so far of the year. There are a few pictures and lots of insight as to what it’s like being the first on the scene.

I highly recommend you check it out, and follow along the daily activities of those volunteers who help keep us safe in Sooke. Make sure you check out the sidebar near the bottom, which shows the most recent 30 incident responses.

-Tim Ayres – Sooke Real Estate Professional

Your comments are welcomed and encouraged!
Just use the form or link below this post.

You can bookmark this post using the button below,
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Since Raul was so “upset” (wink-wink nudge-nudge) that I didn’t mention him in yesterday’s W-5 post, I thought I’d steal a meme I came across on his blog (see, I DO read you). For the uninitiated, a meme is like the blog equivalent of a chain letter, except it just asks simple questions, and not for money to Nigeria, or e-mail forwards so Bill Gates will pay for some unfortunate kid’s new legs or whatever.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago:

1. Living in Tsawwassen (near Vancouver), with my Mom.
2. Going to school at Kwantlen University College (Criminology).
3. Cooking in at least one (maybe two – don’t remember) different restaurants to pay for said edjamakayshun.
4. Waiting to turn 18 so I could take my PADI Divemaster training on the way to becoming a Scuba instructor.
5. Generally being an awkward first-year college/uni student.

5 things on my to do list today:

1. MLS Tour – It’s quite a short one this week, maybe that’s a good thing.
2. Attend an all-candidates luncheon here in Sooke, to hear what the mayoral and council candidates have to say.
3. Post today’s Horrible MLS Photo Of The Day.
4. Follow up on a buyer call I had yesterday.
5. Watch ER tonight with my fiancee.

5 snacks I love:

1. Bananas.
2. Crackers of almost any sort.
3. Those Japanese rice cracker snacks.
4. OH GAWD MACADAMIA NUTS.
5. Nearly anything sweet (cookies, squares, etc). I have a real weakness for sweets.

5 things I would do if I were a millionaire:

1. Buy a larger (but not pretentious) house on or near the waterfront.
2. Invest in rental properties or commercial properties.
3. Donate some money to local charities in the community.
4. Take a few months off work and take my fiancee around the world.
5. Have a huge party for everyone I’ve ever met. Internet people included!

5 places I’ve lived (for various lengths of time):

1. Tsawwassen, BC
2. Richmond, BC
3. Sooke, BC
4. Great Stirrup Cay, Bahamas
5. Various and sundry tiny boxes aboard large floating steel circuses.

5 jobs I’ve had:

1. Cook/Sous Chef
2. REALTOR®!
3. Scuba Instructor and Dive Shop Manager
4. NCL Dive-In Programme Instructor and Shore Excursions Rep.
5. Courier. The worst 2 months of my life. And my poor truck’s.

5 people I tag:

1. Kye Grace
2. Amanda Nicole
3. Darren Barefoot
4. Stephen Jagger
5. Rodney Bartlett

-Tim Ayres – Sooke Real Estate Professional

Your comments are welcomed and encouraged!
Just use the form or link below this post.

You can bookmark this post using the button below,
or get free updates using the big buttons on the sidebar!

It’s my blogoversary! One year ago I registered my very first WordPress.com blog. VictoriaBCRealEstateBlog.com [which is now imported and viewable in the archives of this blog] was originally intended to be a resource for REALTORS® about technology and web 2.0 stuff that I thought they’d like to know. However, I soon realised that not many REALTORS® in Victoria and surrounding areas actually read blogs or are as enthusiastic about tech as I am. So I started another WordPress.com blog, TimAyres.WordPress.com which then became Blog.TimAyres.ca, which focused on consumer issues and of course the Horrible MLS Photo Of The Day. Eventually I grew out of the limited (but still totally awesome) writing environment of a free WordPress.com blog and made the move to my own self-hosted WordPress.org installation this past June. The current revision focuses more on hyper-local content for Sooke. “642″ for those that have asked is the telephone exchange prefix for Sooke. Most local numbers here are 642-xxxx.

Over the past year I feel I’ve come a long way as a blogger. I first started out regurgitating content that I’d found elsewhere on the web, or just linking to other articles. But I think now I’ve found my voice and my niche in the blogosphere. The addition of videos to my blog a few months ago has also contributed to the growth of my blog.

I’ve come to realize a few things about what’s popular on the blog. Sadly, the most popular entry I made was a list of safety tips for REALTORS® following the tragic murder of Lindsay Buziak in February. A post I wrote about a creep in a truck skulking about Sooke is also one of the most viewed, as are my recent musings on the marketing “genius” that went into Bell’s new -er campaign.

I blog because I enjoy it, and it’s a way for me to connect with not only local Sooke residents, but a worldwide audience of like-minded people. I’m constantly borrowing ideas from other bloggers and incorporating them here for you. I know I have about 30 regular subscribers, but if you’re out there reading this, why not drop a comment at the bottom of the post to say Hi!

Thanks for reading!

-Tim Ayres – Sooke Real Estate Professional

Your comments are welcomed and encouraged!
Just use the form or link below this post.

You can bookmark this post using the button below,
or get free updates using the big buttons on the sidebar!

Inspired by other hyper-local bloggers like Miss 604, 642Blog.ca is going to focus on local Sooke content. Events, community info, history, people, and real estate will be topics covered. Have an event? let me know. Ideas for articles? Ditto.

I highly recommend you subscribe to the feed from this blog for free updates. I blog daily, and you won’t want to miss it. In the sidebar you can find instructions and information about subscribing.

I want this to be a community effort and a forum for discussion of local issues. I encourage you to comment (anonymously, even) on any post, good or bad. Just look for the comments box or link.

And for those not in the know, the 642 in 642Blog comes from our phone numbers in Sooke, which mostly start with 642. Yes. We’re all up in the 642, y’all.

-Tim Ayres – Sooke Real Estate Professional

Your comments are welcomed and encouraged!
Just use the form or link below this post.

You can bookmark this post using the button below,
or subscribe to this blog for free updates using the big buttons on the sidebar!

A blog meme is kind of like the blog equivalent of a chain letter. There are 8 questions in this one; here we go!

1. Who is your favourite musical artist (post a YouTube video)?

Hard to say, really; I have so many. But I have a lot of respect for Ry Cooder. Being somewhat of an amateur guitarist, it’s hard to find another artist who’s influenced so many other great guitarists, wrote musical scores for films, played session music for so many other artists, and has an incredibly eclectic style, drawing influences from ragtime, folk, blues, soul, gospel, dustbowl, country, even Hawaiian slack-key. Hell, even The Tragically Hip quote “Get Ry Cooder to sing my eulogy” in At The Hundredth Meridian.

Here’s a clip of Ry Cooder’s Feelin’ Bad Blues.

2. Who’s your favourite artist (post a Flickr Photo)?

Probably Van Gogh.

3. Who is your favourite blogger?

I read a lot of blogs, but I think Dad Gone Mad Danny Evans makes me laugh the most. Seems like the kind of Dad I’ll be later in this great adventure.

4. If you could meet anyone, alive or dead, who would it be and what would be the most interesting thing about him or her?

Pierre Trudeau comes to mind. The guy was a rockstar as politicians go. Said what was on his mind, and showed grace through a turbulent time in Canada. I bet he’d have been fun to have a drink with.

5. What did you want to be when you grew up?

I changed my mind a lot. Scientist, writer, lawyer, police officer were all possible career paths for me.

6. What is the most interesting piece of trivia you know?

Well, those that know me well know I’m a repository of useless facts. My dream is to be a contestant on Jeopardy! because I know all those facts would come in handy. The most interesting piece of trivia I know would probably have to be that SCUBA diving has approximately the same accident rate as bowling.

7. If you could live at any point in history, what would it be and why?

Probably the 60′s to late-70′s. The music, social change, and whole counterculture thing would have been awesome to witness first-hand. Most of the music I listen to was written in that time.

8. What is the most interesting job you’ve ever held?

For three years I worked aboard cruise ships as a diving/snorkeling/watersports instructor and a shore excursions representative. I think there’s no better way to make sure you never want to go on a cruise later in life than to work aboard one for a few years. It was a fun way to save some money, but I don’t miss it!

There. Done. Now, I know I’m supposed to meme 6 or 8 other people, but I think I’m the last person to get this, so I won’t. Feel free to answer it as a Facebook note, or on your own blog and link to it on the comments.

Have a super weekend!

-Tim Ayres – Sooke Real Estate Professional

Your comments are welcomed and encouraged. Just use the reply form below!