Two of my friends, Dale and Patrick, are currently out from Ontario visiting. For the most part, it’s been a university type weekend, filled with late movie nights and copious amounts of beer. We’ve also been eating for six people, even though we’re only three, thanks mainly in part to Patt’s love of cooking. On Saturday we woke up in the morning and decided it was such a nice day that we’d head down to Stanley park for a few hours. We ended up on the patio at Lift, drinking a few beers around their outdoor fire pit. Jump ahead a few hours later and we found ourselves visiting a friend ...

Vancouver’s known for a lot of things — fun patios where you can drink beer outdoors isn’t one of them. If you know of any patios in Vancouver, drop a comment. My favourite patio is the Kingston pub on Richards I believe. They also make pretty darn good nachos. So, what’s your favourite patio in the city, and why do you like it? ...

Today is my sister and brother-in-law’s 15th wedding anniversary. Hard to believe really, since I vividly remember being at their wedding years ago and doing the chicken dance over and over. It was a nice little wedding, right up at Cultus Lake, in a tiny little community hall that held around 80 people. In true Ukrainian fashion, the bar was completely open (a definite requirement for when I get married — I’m willing to compromise on everything else, but the bar has to be open). The wedding photos were across the road and on the edge of the lake. So this afternoon I’m going to be heading ...

My ceran top stove I hate you with all my being I wish you were dead ...

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When I got off the plane last night in Bellingham, I was immediately greeted with a big burst of autumn air. Apparently we’re just a few hours away, but last night you could smell it, the faint scent of another season gone by. Without a doubt, I’m looking forward to it, more so because my plate, which has been overflowing for the last little while, is almost clear. Unlike last summer, where I took a few weeks off, I didn’t really have much time off this summer, other than a day or two on either side of a weekend. The good news is that this fall will probably be intentionally light in terms ...

Well, I made it back home late last night. Thankfully, the border agents didn’t grill me as hard as they normally do, otherwise I probably would have started with the smart ass responses. I gotta say, WordCamp Portland was a really amazing event, so major kudos to everyone involved in pulling it off. In fact, with each WordCamp I attend, I think that bar is getting progressively pushed higher and higher. For example, prior to my talk someone came and fitted me with a wireless microphone in addition to a normal microphone, the former being for the live stream. In addition, they exported all my ...

Walking around WordCamp Portland today it was completely evident not only how much work has gone into it, but just how big the WordPress community is here in Portland. I knew this would be a good event, and have been pleasantly surprised with the number of people randomly coming up to me and saying hi, or just passively making WordPress conversation. I commented during my talk today that other web events have tickets with prices that can range up to $700 or so. Most WordCamps, due largely in part to help from sponsors, have prices that average around $25 or so. As a result, anyone who wants to ...

I finished my presentation about an hour ago, and have just been drinking a bit of beer since then. I just wrote a little post over at BraveNewCode about a cool little addition I had for my WordCamp Portland presentation, and wanted to post about it here. Both Andrew Sampson and comedian Stephen Fry contributed some data and a video for my presentation, talking about WPtouch and WordPress. It was very much appreciated, and was extremely well received down here. You can read the whole entry over at BraveNewCode, or check out the video here: ...

Well, here we are. It’s been a long time coming, but WordCamp Portland is finally here. I spent most of yesterday traveling, mainly due to the slowness of airlines, but ended up arriving around 6:30pm or so last night. There was a dinner last night for the speakers and sponsors, and it was good to finally meet everyone involved in the event. The restaurant was Ethiopian, which you don’t see too many of back in BC, so it was a great treat. Thanks to the dinner sponsor who picked up the food and drinks last night. I was originally going to come back to my hotel room last night and work on my ...

Almost time to get in a plane. Tomorrow night I’ll pack everything up and get ready for a trip down to the states on Friday. Definitely looking forward to the weekend, and also being on the other side of it since it’s the last real event of the summer before I can downshift a few gears and take things a bit slower again. I probably won’t post again until WordCamp, but who knows. ...

You know, there was a time when celebrities held themselves to a higher standard than the rest of us — that with the spotlight came additional responsibilities, especially for musicians or actors who appealed to younger audiences. I’m not saying that they should be held to unrealistic expectations — everyone falters from time to time. But when you have the limelight, your ability to do both good and bad is amplified, and while some celebrities choose to do the former, many ultimately opt for the latter. I don’t normally blog about celebrities or other Hollywood gossip. The truth is, I ...

Yes, I realize Christmas is still a long time away. But truthfully, it’ll be here in no time. This will be my first Christmas a resident of Chilliwack since I was 18, and I think it’ll be pretty cool. The tree in my photo is my little Christmas tree from Vancouver. I’ve had him up a few years now, and he always makes me happy. Truthfully, I kept him up until almost July last year, simply because I didn’t have the heart to take it down. I mean, I’d come home from work, and there’d he’d be, all lit up and happy. How could I take him down? I know, I’m strange. I get it. This year ...

I tweeted about some rather recent banking problems I’ve been having, so I thought I’d tell the whole story. About five years ago (probably longer to be honest), I opened a business account at TD bank on Broadway in Vancouver. I was going to start doing a little consulting on the side while doing my master’s degree, so I thought having a business account would be a good idea. At the time, I also got a small mastercard as well. I never really ended up having time for the consulting, so the account kind of just sat there for a few months. Eventually I ended up cancelling that mastercard and ...

I posted this a long time ago on another site, but stumbled across it tonight and thought I’d post it again. It’s a short film that was based on a recording of John Lennon made by 14 year old Jerry Levitan in Toronto. Jerry was a huge fan of the Beatles, particularly Lennon, and managed to sneak into the hotel to interview him about world issues. Since being released in 2007, it has been nominated for several awards, including an Oscar. ...

I’m trying to include some stats in my WordCamp Portland presentation. I was hoping everyone who reads this might be able to answer a few questions (please only vote for the topics that are relevant to you): [poll id=”16″] [poll id=”17″] [poll id=”18″] [poll id=”19″] [poll id=”20″] Based on the results from this, I might ask a few more questions. Thanks everyone. ...

I was just cooking myself lunch, and an old memory came back to me. It was probably around 2001, and I was working in Ottawa. A company in Silicon Valley called me up and asked if I wanted to come down and interview for a fiber optics job. I was only mildly interested in the job, but I hadn’t been to California in a long time, and I thought I’d hear what they had to say. I didn’t really feel like traveling alone, so I asked if they’d be interested in pitching my friend Rob also, which they agreed to. So anyways, one Thursday afternoon I was sitting in Rob’s apartment in Ottawa, drinking ...

It’s official – vacation is booked. I’ll be leaving Vancouver on the 19th of November, and heading to the Dominican Republic for two weeks. I’ve never really been anywhere on vacation for two weeks, so it’ll be an interesting experience. I’m heading to the Bahia Principe Punta Cana with Dale and Sara for a few weeks. I’ve been told that the beaches in Punta Cana are fairly amazing, so I’m looking forward to that. Plus, we’re staying in the Golden Club section which means we should hopefully be near the beach. Anyways, should be a great time. ...

Some random thoughts of mine from a coffee shop. Thou shalt know thy order before approaching the counter Thou shalt not hog the cream station for extended periods of time Thou shalt wipe up thy coffee mess after a spill Thou shalt not prefix thy coffee order with more than three descriptive words Thou shalt not setup a laptop on a table for six when drinking alone Thou shalt not order any item that cannot be reliably pronounced Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s coffee barista Thou shalt not order the devil’s brew – “non fat, no-foam, extra hot latte” Thou shalt not put 5 cent syrup ...

I was originally going to spend my day at home researching some stats for my upcoming presentation. Since it’s such a nice day though I decided to come up to the lake and casually drink a bit of rum while working on it instead. I suspect that this is one of the last weekends where it’ll be this warm, so might as well take advantage of it while it’s here. I just got confirmation about a pretty cool little video clip I’ll hopefully be able to include in my WordCamp PDX presentation, so that should be fun. Other than that, I’m just gonna keep plugging away at everything. I’m hoping most ...