Sunset in Tofino

Published on
...

Is Diet Soda Bad For You?

Published on
Sylvain sent me this link today that basically concluded that one or more cans of diet soda can lead to health risks such as the metabolic syndrome “We found that one or more sodas per day increases your risk of new-onset metabolic syndrome by about 45 per cent, and it did not seem to matter if it was regular or diet,” Dr. Ramachandran Vasan, senior investigator for the Framingham Heart Study, said Monday from Boston. .. The study included nearly 9,000 observations of middle-aged men and women over four years at three different times. The study looked at how many 355-millilitre cans of cola ...

Apple Store Charging Fee?

Published on
I came across this article this morning, which says that Apple is starting to charge a $5 entrance fee into their stores. I’m not entirely convinced it’s true based on the wording of the article, but if it is, it’s absolutely ridiculous: If you want to see the iPhone at an Apple store, be sure to bring some cash. Large crowds flocking to see the iPhone and next generation iPods have forced Apple to begin charging a $5 entrance fee for Apple stores. Many analysts anticipated the move, and expect a positive response from customers. “Part of the move was to limit crowds to keep the stores ...

Congrats Jason and Sheila

Published on
My friends Jason and Sheila had twins the other night (well technically, Sheila had twins, but I’m sure Jason did his part). Jason sent an update email yesterday: Sheila and I are very proud to announce that the twins were born at 11:44 and 11:45 on Thursday, July 19th, 2007. Their names are Louis Marc Fischl and Hanna Michelle Fischl. Louis was born 6 lbs and Hanna was 5 lbs 7 ounces. Both babies and Mom are doing well and should be home from the hospital on Monday. So drop Jason and Sheila a comment and congratulate them on their new family. Also, for all you old timers, give them some ...

Shelby

Published on
...

A few weeks of HD-DVD

Published on
A while, I posted an article on my recent purchase of a Toshiba HD-A2 high-definition DVD player. Since that time, I have slowly been figuring out just what to do with it. After purchasing it, I sort of assumed that it would be easy to rent HD-DVD movies, but it’s actually still rather tough. Blockbuster recently announced an exclusive deal with Blue-Ray so that they would only carry Blue-Ray titles. And while a few people have said that it’s most likely the death-blow to HD-DVD, I disagree. For starters, the adult film industry has put its weight behind HD-DVD, which is my mind is a rather ...

Coal Harbour

Published on
...

Safety First

Published on
I got bored tonight and threw on a few episodes of 24 Season Four. The whole season revolves around a nerve gas attack. While watching it, I thought I would google a bit and find out about the history of nerve gas and its use in warfare. While scanning the Wikipedia entry for nerve gas, I read these paragraphs: In 1972, The United States Congress banned the practice of disposing chemical weapons into the ocean. However 32,000 tons of nerve and mustard agents had already been dumped into the ocean waters off of the United States by the U.S. Army. According to a 1998 report created by William Brankowitz, ...

Sorry, we only cover six broken bones

Published on
This morning I went downstairs and checked the mail, and was surprised to see a bill from the ministry of health. It would seem that the government wants me to pay for the ambulance that took me to the hospital the night I ended up with multiple lacerations to my head and face, and five broken bone segments in my face. While I’m obviously appreciative for our medical system, considering I have had two surgeries now that I haven’t had to pay for, given that our health care system is supposed to be covered, I’m pretty surprised that I have to pay this at all. ...

Vancouver Dating Life

Published on
I saw this personal ad on craigslist tonight. This basically represents the type of ads I’ve grown accustomed to reading over the last year: I am an attractive woman so I deserve the best. He must be tall, athletic, and educated. He must be successful,drive a nice vehicle, live on his own (no roomates) and be on his way to owning his own home soon. He must be generous. He must be willing to pamper me, indulge me, and treat me like a princess.I want a man who will take me for nice dinners and someone who likes to travel (with me).I don’t mind if he has a busy schedual. I will make him happy ...

Blogging and Respect

Published on
Why people stop bloggingThe other day, I wrote a pretty detailed article on my frustrations with how people have been using my Flickr photos, all of which are associated with a creative commons license. In that article, I had an interview with the Vice President of Creative Commons where we discussed what proper attribution means, and some of the grey areas associated with the non-commercial parts of the CC licenses. A few days after I wrote it, Darren Barefoot chimed in with some of his thoughts — there is a really good comment thread over there, so go check it out. Just this afternoon, I ...

So High

Published on
...

Under the Influence

Published on
...

Henry Hum

Published on
Maybe it’s because I’ve been planning a trip to Ottawa, or maybe it’s because of everything that’s happened in the last year or so, but lately I’ve found my mind wandering back to my life out east, and to a guy I once knew there named Henry Hum. Henry was a software developer who primarily worked on a piece of software called SAMI — it was the final software in the assembly line that would ultimately give a PASS/FAIL to every single fiber optic component that probably now powers the majority of internet today. Back in those days, we were shipping 10,000 or more components a week, representing ...

Just hope this doesn't happen to you someday

Published on
I came across this as part of my morning read. Sort of gross, but I actually know of similar things happening to people. My cousin works at Holt Renfrew in Pacific Center, and she said one time someone went to try on some clothes, and came out of the change room practically running to the door. When they went into the back, they found she had used the entire change room as a big bathroom (I guess she really had to go). Check out the article of the poor lady who was refused access to the store’s bathroom ...

Textures

Published on
...

Photo of the day theme for the week — Reflections

Published on
My dad suggested that it might be a cool idea to have a theme every once and a while. So this week, I’ve decided to make the theme: REFLECTIONS The idea is that you should take photos of the world that show some type of reflection. Be inventive, but some ideas are puddles, lakes, mirrors, glass, spoons, anything that casts a reflection. Send them in and I’ll try to put them all in a group somewhere to reflect everyone’s efforts! While not a stellar example, I took a shot today of some buildings with some cool reflections of other buildings in them. However, I’d encourage people to be ...

Post-Dating WordPress Entries

Published on
So I found out something pretty cool on Friday night with WordPress. It was around 11pm and I wanted to put a new post up but have the date say the next day at 1 minute past midnight. The idea being that I could post Saturday’s photo of the day Friday night before I went to bed. However, once I modified the timestamp in WordPress and published the article, it didn’t show up at all, which I thought a bit odd at first. However, after reading through the documentation, WordPress has the ability to schedule posts in the future. That is, whenever the timestamp of the post is in the future, it is ...

Sun Rays on Waves

Published on
...

Goldfinch

Published on
...