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Virtually home for the holidays

Do you Skype?
andrewbyline

If you’re working in the service industry, and most Whistler residents are or will be when the holidays roll around, chances are you’re not going anywhere this Christmas. That’s okay – take the time-and-a-half holiday pay and double-time overtime, and run.

Besides, this is 2005. Nobody needs to be home for Christmas and New Year’s anymore, providing your friends, family and you have the right gear.

Stay in touch

If you don’t have a microphone or camera on your computer, get one. They start at about $30 and could save you hundreds in long-distance calls. Last week Skype (www.skype.com), the free Voice Over IP phone service, announced a new free video phone service. You can call anywhere in the world and chat for as long as you want through the Internet without paying a cent over what you already pay for your Internet service. For a monthly fee you can also make and receive calls through your computer to and from those people who don’t have the right equipment or a fast enough Internet connection. If you make a lot of long distance calls, it might be worth the investment.

Of course you can also use programs like MSN Messenger, AOL Messenger, iChat to stay in touch. All are free and can be found at www.downloads.com under Internet/Chat or www.tucows.com under Home and Education/Chat.

Be Santa Claus

‘Tis better to give than to receive, some wise man once said, and he knew what he was talking about. But while charity and generosity are noble in their own way, we live in a tit-for-tat world – you need to give tit to get tat, and vice versa. In other words, the more you give the more you get.

Of course anything bought after Dec. 1 can only be classified as "last minute." Unless you can buy something today and have it in the mail tomorrow, there’s a chance the gifts might not get there.

Being a last-minute kind of guy I’ve been through all this many times before. To simplify things I do a lot of my last-minute shopping online and throw in a few extra bucks for the express mail.

I do a lot of that shopping at www.indigo.ca . It used to be a Canadian company, but now it’s a division of Chapters. Still I think most of the money remains in Canada, and as always keep as much money in Canada as possible.

Another good option is Hbc ( www.hbc.com ), which includes The Bay, Zellers, Home Outfitters, and more – all Canadian, at least for now.

For electronics I start at Future Shop ( www.futureshop.ca ). I think the parent company was bought out by Best Buy, but Future Shop is still somewhat Canadian.

Another great place to buy stuff is Mountain Equipment Co-Op ( www.mec.ca ) – all-Canadian, and people can always use gear.

For music and movies, I try to shop at A&B Sound (www.absound.com), which is also Canadian. The website is not the easiest to navigate, but you can order most things quite easily and download the flyer to see what’s on special.

Of course, if you don’t know what to buy then the old standby is a Gift Certificate. All of these companies offer them, and they always come in handy. They’re also cheap and easy to send, and will likely get to their destinations faster than big packages.

I don’t have any international packages to send this year, which is good because customs can delay packages for a long time. Some pedals I ordered in late August didn’t get to Whistler until the end of September, and they were sent by priority mail. Gift cards will travel faster, but I doubt many stores can use cards marked in Canadian currency.

The one way around that is to buy things from stores in the country you want it delivered. Use American stores when sending to the U.S., Australian stores when sending to Australia, and so on.

There are some international sites you can use as well, like Amazon.com ( www.amazon.com ). Click on the International tab to see all the places you can place orders.

Another site with that capability is eBay ( www.ebay.com ). Check out the Global Sites pull-down bar at the bottom of the page. Contrary to popular opinion, not all off the items for sale are used.

Have yourself a Merry little…

If you’re homesick, there are literally tens of thousands of web cameras around the world you can visit if you want a glimpse of home. It’s not the same as being there, but given the fact that most cameras refresh every few minutes, it’s as close as you’re going to get.

Most people will be able to find their home city through the EarthCam-Webcam Network ( www.earthcam.com ).

There are also several webcams in Whistler. Whistler-Blackcomb ( www.whistlerblackcomb.com ) have three going, and you can link to up to 14 other cams through WhistlerWeb.net ( www.whistlerlivewebcams.com ). Obviously this won’t cure homesickness, but it’s a good way to get in touch with the people that miss you. Just arrange to be in front of one of the webcams at a given time, smiling and waving, and tell all your friends exactly when to tune in.