Afternoon kayak trip

One beautiful afternoon, Jonathan Hunt talked me into a Kayak trip on the South Saskatchewan River from Saskatoon to Wanuskewin Heritage Park. I loaded my trusty Klepper kayak and off we went.

Annual go-kart racing challenge

Last Thursday I challenged everyone to a race at the Velocity Raceway go-kart track. This race is now an annual tradition at VendAsta. I tried very hard but I was unable to catch up to Michael Bree who you can see in this video in the car number 10. The clear winner of this Challenge was again Dale Hopkins. This kid can swim and drive. The team prize was snatched by the DD team AKA The Nathans.

VendAsta has new digs in Saskatoon historical landmark

I'ts official. We have just signed a lease on the 5,000 sq.ft. , top floor, of the Saskatoon historical landmark: The Avenue Building. The space we have chosen could not possibly get any sweeter. The Avenue Building is located at the heart of downtown Saskatoon (corner of 3rd Ave. S and 21 Street E) and it has quite a history.

According to wikimapia.org:

Originally known as the MacMillan Department Store, the structure on the south-east corner of the intersection was built in 1912 by Saskatoon’s future mayor, Frank R. MacMillan. In 1927, the T. Eaton Company purchased the business, but not the building, as it was ready to open its own store directly across the street. MacMillan’s store was the single largest department store in the city at that time. After selling the business to Eaton’s, MacMillan extensively remodeled his building, inside and out, to convert it to office space, and renamed it the Avenue Building.

It featured expansive atriums with elaborate tilework, some of which exists today. It is now home to a variety of businesses and organizations. It even became a movie set, portraying a police station, in the movie "Murder Seen".

In above picture from 1931 (saskatoonlibrary.ca): The Avenue Building, built in 1913, is seen at the corner of 3rd Avenue South and 21st Street East (across from Army and Navy). Also visible in the image are Avenue Coat and Dress Shop, N.Bawlf Grain Co., Saskatoon Novelties, Bank of Montreal, and Fingard Bowladrome. Autos are seen angle parked on the street and a man is also seen in front leaning on a light post.

VendAsta TurnHere video

We are into 4 weeks of building new product called MashedIn. See how we are connected:

Most promising new company

I am proud to report that today VendAsta won the 'Most promising new company' award founded by Saskatchewan Interactive Media Association Inc. This is big deal for us as it marks the first major award in our one year existence. Since January of 2008 we have grown to 27 employees who who easily represent the top echelon of Saskatoon technical community. Thank you guys and girls, thank you Sask Interactive. We are very proud.

From Sask Interactive website:
Saskatchewan Interactive Media Association Inc. is the professional organization representing interactive media developers in Saskatchewan. As that professional voice, SaskInteractive represents members involved in the development of content-based interactive digital media, as well as consumers and stakeholders. The Association acts on behalf of its members to represent their views to Government, Industry, the News Media, and to the general public.

Cosmopolitan interaction

Monday is the day I'm starting to work remotely from Hawaii. Our scrum meetings will especially be interesting as I will have to attend them at 5:15 am my time. I do look forward working remotely though. I think it will give me the opportunity to improve the process and interaction for all of our remote employees.