Kyle Thomas

The Website of Kyle Thomas (KyleWith)

Sorry Wrong Number Yellowknife

Lately I have been getting a lot of calls for people around Yellowknife asking me questions about what is going on around town. I love this, because I love sharing it. I mean it is the whole point of YkOnline, to share what is happening. Anyways along with those calls I have gotten some calls from, for lack of better words, confused people. Three calls really stick out in my mind and I will share them with you. By the way I never answer my phone by saying anything about YkOnline, it is just normally “Hello, Kyle speaking”.

1) I received a call from a lady who wanted to pay a bill. I asked with “Hello” and she said “Hi, I would like to pay my hydro bill”. I was then confused and said “excuse me” which led the woman to say again “I would like to pay my hydro bill”. At that point I knew she had the wrong number and asked her who she thought she was talking to. She replied with “Isn’t this the City if Yellowknife” and I semi chuckled and said “No”. She then hung up without saying anything.

2) A man from southern Alberta call me asking for a Newspaper. That really confused me, I thought why would I have a newspaper. He explained that his friend had won a gold medal and he wanted a newspaper from every capital in Canada.  As I told him I didn’t have any, he questioned why a newspaper company wouldn’t keep any. At that point I was shaking my head, I then explained to him what YkOnline was. He told me I was the first website he landed on when he searched Yellowknife Newspaper. I thought I would help him out so I tried to find the number for the newspaper on their website, but couldn’t so I frantically rummaged around to find a two month old paper with a phone number in it and sent him on his way. I wonder if he actually got that paper?

3) The Final call was just this morning. A lady called me about the Snow castle, I thought okay, whatever, I’ll help her with the information I know but apparently that wasn’t good enough for her. She wanted to know how much snow was used to build the castle, and I had no idea. I said that and tried to explain how it was built, but she wanted to know. She told me that this is the kind of thing someone helping build the castle should know. That confused me and I apologized but explained that I really have nothing to do with the Castle or Festival except that I have been there. She replied well this is stupid, it said to call you for details. Now I was really confused, but I don’t know where she would have gotten the idea to call my number for details about the Snow Castle. In the video I said check YkOnline or the Snowking website for the schedule, but nothing else. I told her the best place to get a hold of someone would be the Snowking website, but she hung up on me mid sentence.

I’m wondering if maybe I’m not clear about YkOnline and who actually operates the site. I’m a life-long resident just like anyone else. I have a passion for Yellowknife and want to share it with everyone. I have a large knowledge of the city but am not really affiliated with any group or organization. I am also not part of the City of Yellowknife. I’m happy to see that the site is gaining ground and more than willing to answer questions about the city and what is going on but am wondering if I should explain who I am a little better. What does everyone else think?

I Believe… In Myself.

This week have been one for the books. A lot has happened, both good and bad challenging. Let start at the beginning of the week and go from there.

Well the boss is out of town at the coffee shop so the 3 of us who work there have been pulling together to keep the store moving smoothly. I have to honestly say, I do not know how the boss keeps her head on straight. She is amazing. She has been doing this for 10 years now and I wouldn’t be able to last 6 months in her shoes. Things have been going fine though, but I have been sticking around the store in the afternoons to lend a hand if needed.

Early in the week I received my advertising funding which in its self is exciting but then I thought I would take the first step. I became a member of the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce and with that booked a booth at their annual Trade Show. That is one of the more exciting things, the booth.

I will be in the front lines of Yellowknifers for 2 whole days. Along with telling people about what it is YkOnline.ca and WiTH Media does, I am going over the idea of live streaming from the event. I could potentially have a bit of a studio set up in the booth with 2 mics and cameras. With that I could invite other businesses over to the booth and we could do live interviews (as well as recorded). I asked the other day about a portable audio/video setup and the idea behind that was to be able to walk around while streaming live, but at this point I don’t think there will be a reasonable solution. I’m very excited about this, if you can’t tell.

Friends are few, but support is strong. I hate using people, I hate depending on people so it takes a lot for me to accept help (it may not seem it, but is true). So when friends step forward so say they want to help and want to see me succeed, it means a lot. I know this will sound a little self-centered but the one thing that bothers me is people who don’t leave comments or feedback. I want to know if the content I’m creating it good or not. If it isn’t I will change it. Anyways, this week, one friend in particular, who I have known for many years from around town and more recently from the Mall and Twitter, came down to the store after a brief conversation on twitter. He seemed more excited about my possibilities that I was. He offered advice and a helping hand and for that I am extremely thankful. There have been others who are supporting me by encouragement and ideas. While I’m on the topic of thanking those who have helped thus far I need to mention my father. The man use to write proposals for a living and with out him there wouldn’t have been a chance in hell that I would get those proposals in let alone done. Sometimes I don’t say it enough, but thank you all.

The one thing that I have mentioned before is my social awkwardness, I don’t know if that is the right word but I’m going with it, around people I don’t know. Well it goes the same when it comes to business stuff. The main model for YkOnline will be advertising and what I struggle with is approaching people. Sure it is easy enough to tell me I just need to go talk to some people, but I can’t just do that. I over analyze it, remember, and fear to much about the outcome(I need to learn that it is alright for a person to say no). I’m to use to being on the other side where the client comes to you rather than me going to them. I have thought about what it is that would help me over come this dilemma which has be eating at me inside for weeks now. That is that I need a starting point or something to work from. In my mind, anyways, I come to the conclusion that if I see another people try and sell ad space to a business that I will feel better about the first time I do i. That and I might stop analyzing everything.

Well it seems I may have gone a bit off track, I blame the fact it is really late on a Friday evening and I have been up since 5:20am. Anyways the boss is out of town so we were all trying to do out best at the store, I received funding, became a member of the Yk Chamber and got a trade show booth, was encourage by a good friend who offered a hand and told me he wanted to see me succeed. I think there is more, but that will be for another time. So excuse the spelling/grammatical errors I’m just to tired to care. Let me know what you think. Cheers.

Video Camera to Computer Wirelessly

I am hoping someone out there in the land of Internet and tech will be able to help me answer my question.

What I am thinking in my mind is somehow sending audio/video from my Video Camera to my computer. I am hoping that the computer will then see the incoming A/V from the camera as a webcam type device.

The idea is to be able to stream mobile content online without being tied to a computer with cables. I realize the range may be an issue, but I was thinking of being able to wonder around a room, while the computer would be in a stationary place.

If you have a solution or know where to find one, like a link, let me know. Or even if it is something similar.

Conversation Starter, not me.

I ended off my last post talking about how I long for companionship and because of that I feel I must apologize or….. explain the type of person I am. I am horrible at conversations. I am alright at basic chit chat.I mean my gosh I work in a coffee shop I have to be. After that though I freeze up. I’m much like Shane Kozycan, the Canadian Poet who performed at the Olympics, I freeze up and would over analyze the conversation. Hell, before I start to talk to someone I don’t really know I’m going over what to say in my head, over and over again. This is effecting my business as well as my personal life.

I thought for the longest time I disliked text messaging or IMing and maybe I do, slightly, but what I think I dislike more is how hard it is for me to get out what I want to say in these messages. Although however much I dislike these tools, I would like to use them so when I ignore messages it is because I am ignoring them.

Is any of this making sense, or is the lack of sleep I get, getting the best of me.

A Cabin Companion

So if you haven’t noticed I have, once again, been a little absent over here.

I am currently sitting in a chair, in front of a fire, in a cabin back in the bush. I had the greatest intentions about coming out here for the weekend. I was going to read a book, listen to some podcasts, go cut some fire wood and of course write. It was going to be a blast, all by myself.

Well things never work out the way you imagine them. It is currently Saturday morning and I have no ambition. I barely made it through the night with the wood I head and instead of going out to cut more I decided to write this. I don’t know how to describe the feeling. I guess it can be called laziness.

Although I’m giving into my own laziness and heading home today, I did do the one thing I had been wanting to do for 2 years. That was to stay the night out here. Next time, which I hope will be in two weeks, I am going to bring a foamy. I may be able to “rough” it but plywood and my back don’t agree.

There is one other reason I feel I have lost ambition out here and that is companionship, a parent is one thing an actual companion is another. I now understand why so many people who wonder out in to the bush have dogs. They may not be great conversationalists, but they still listen…. for the most part. Having a dog would be great, a close friend would be better. Sometimes I feel sorry for the Madtrapper, and think maybe all he needed was a friend. Other times I side with him and think people should have just left him alone.

Well the time has come for me to stop talking about my missory and pack up and head home. I was going to take a bunch of photos but my flash light died so I used the batteries out of my camera.

Tell me, what is something you long for? Mine would be companionship.