So, looks like Ireland is now in a bit of financial trouble. First, we had Greece. Next, we had some trouble in Spain. And now it looks like Ireland might be in for a world of hurt. If we go back a few years we can also find a few more countries in distress. Argentina had its currency nearly collapse in the early 2000s, and Zimbabwe went through a massive period of hyperinflation this last decade. Last night, right before bed, it looked like North Korea just launched a small attack on South Korea – so things aren’t looking very good on a global scale. I haven’t blogged about finances or ...

I recently caught wind of this video showing a professor scolding nearly 200 students for “cheating” on a university midterm. The problem is, after watching the video, is that I fail to see how this is cheating at all. What appears to have happened is that the university professor, most likely out of laziness in my opinion, generated a midterm exam using a test bank, which is a database of test questions. Since it is likely that these questions were also on many of the previous year’s midterm exams, students that studied from old material had a distinct advantage over students who hadn’t ...

Members of the Red Cross at the hotel. Photograph: Reuters The first I heard about the explosion today was on Twitter. A friend of mine made mention that she was glad I wasn’t in Mexico anymore as a blast just killed five Canadians staying at a resort down there, as well as two of the hotel staff. I got back home at about 2:30am in the morning on Saturday, so Mexico is still fresh on my mind. At the resort we were at, Dale and I spent quite a bit of time in the lobby sipping coffee and relaxing. At those resorts, the lobby is typically where people check in and out, and often sit around having ...

My landlord just stopped by for a visit. He had emailed me while I was down in Mexico and asked if he could bring some people by today, so I said sure. This morning I did a quick clean to make sure the place was presentable, and then set off to a coffee shop to do some work. Obviously the place wasn’t spotless, since I have a bunch of half packed boxes around and have been in the process of packing for the last few weeks. But most of the bedrooms are empty and the living room basically has a huge pile of boxes in the corner. So I was a bit surprised when, upon arriving back home, my landlord ...

Shira Lazar I first met Shira Lazar a few years ago at Launch Party Vancouver 2 I believe. Shira was up from Los Angeles to cover the event at the request of a mutual friend, Maura Rodgers. I unfortunately didn’t get to talk to Shira too much that night, but have kept in touch with her periodically over email. Shira is a well known Los Angeles media personality, and blogs frequently on CBS News’ On The Scene). Shira was nice enough to do a guest entry on my blog during the 2008 Blogathon. That event helped raise raise over $10,000 for the Union Gospel Mission in Vancouver and some of Vancouver’s ...

Hasta La Vista, Baby - Photo By John Biehler It doesn’t really come as a big surprise, but Gordon Campbell just stepped down as the premier of British Columbia. Between his handling of the Olympics and the controversy surrounding the harmonized sales tax (HST), a tax he promised not to introduce prior to getting elected, it’s no wonder most people are completely dissatisfied with his performance. I suspect the liberal party were hoping that Campbell’s announcement of a 15% income tax reduction starting in 2011 would offset the disappointment with the HST, but after his lacklustre televised ...

As yes, it’s the subject most guys choose not to talk about. But it’s real, and yes, I unfortunately have a bit of one due to shitty genetics. If you’re like me and of somewhat European descent you most likely have two eyebrows that like to be together more than they do apart. And that’s fine. Don’t be sad. First, you’re a prime candidate to back Bert and Ernie up on TV. Second, whenever everyone else out there has a cold forehead, you’ll be nice and warm. The first part of recovery is admitting there’s a problem. From there, here are your options. The Shave This is the course ...

I have a portable hard drive that I’m taking with me on my travels, partially to back up my main laptop from time to time, and partially because it contains a large percentage of my personal movie collection on it. That said, I’m going to try and get a pile of movies on there that I haven’t seen yet so I have something when I’m on train rides or in hostels and what-not. So, I’d appreciate it if people can leave a list in the comments of some of their favourite movies, or anything they’ve seen in the last few years they thought was really awesome. Thanks! ...

It’s strange living in my apartment right now. I have half of the place boxed up, and am slowly selling the rest of it off. Even though my bed is still set up, it doesn’t really feel like home anymore, so I’ve been sleeping on my couch in the living room. That couch was one I bought back in 2001 in Ottawa, and we’ve been through a lot together. When I leave this place it’s going to its final resting place at my sister’s house, but it’s been a comfy companion for the last ten years. My bar stools sold tonight, as did my entertainment unit. In terms of large furniture, that leaves ...

The Colosseum, Photo by David Iliff I went looking tonight to find out what the new 7 Wonders of the World were. I remember as a kid hearing that phrase a few times, and I thought there would be some straightforward list somewhere that simply listed them off in order. Unfortunately I’ve now come to the realization that there are many different variants of the list, all of which were undoubtedly influenced by different countries trying to be on the list such that their tourism industries would benefit. In fact, if you browse through the Wikipedia entries for Wonders Of The World, you’ll find ...

I didn’t see it live, but I read the highlights, and it’s pretty much exactly what I thought it would sound like. Whenever I see Gordon Campbell talk, I can’t help me feel that he’s talking down to everyone, and that’s the perception I was left with after reading his speech. First, he apologized for not giving the province a heads up about the HST, but Ottawa didn’t give him enough time. If that doesn’t sound like the biggest copout ever, I don’t know what would. Even if that’s true, you gotta wonder about any deal that’s shoved down your throat with a ticking stopwatch attached ...

I haven’t purchased anything new for myself to wear in probably a full year at this point. Unfortunately for me, that means most things in my wardrobe are starting to look pretty ratty. In fact, I was wearing a shirt the other day and noticed at the end of the day that there was a big hole in it that didn’t used to be there. Yes it’s true, I’m that awesome. I was telling Dale the other day that I’m probably about two shirts away from seriously having to consider wearing a garbage bag for the day. So, definitely time to go out and buy a few new things. Unfortunately, I don’t really ...

I haven’t stepped on a scale in about a month, but without a doubt I have been continuing to slowly shrink. I know this because the current belt I use to hold my pants up has five holes, and I’ve gone from the hole at the far side down to the hole at the other side. In about a week I don’t think this belt is going to do the job anymore, at which point I’ll probably buy a new one. I’ve been meaning to go to the gym quite frequently this last month, but just haven’t really had the motivation for a few weeks now. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get back into my normal routine and start ...

I haven’t blogged about my upcoming trip in a while, so I thought I’d do a quick update. I have one room officially boxed up, and the living room is mostly packed as well. The next big chore is to go through all my old clothes and get rid of anything I no longer wear. After that, I can box up what’s left of the bedroom, and then start working on the kitchen. Truthfully, it probably wouldn’t take me too much longer to get the rest all boxed up, but at this point if I go too much further it’s not going to be very exciting living in my apartment anymore. I sold my TV a while ago to someone ...

Almost ten years ago, I started playing around with some microprocessor hobby kits at home. At the time they main ones were called STAMPS and you programmed them with BASIC. You could make them run motors, measure temperature, pretty much whatever you wanted them to do. A few weeks ago I ran into my friend John, and he was telling me about a similar thing called the Arduino. It’s basically a small little microprocessor kit that has basic inputs and outputs that you can use to do arbitrary things. Given that I’m an electrical engineer by education and that I haven’t really done anything electrical ...

Today is Tony Pierce’s 104th birthday. Tony’s a great guy who has built himself quite the media empire down in LA. The last time I saw Tony, it was at some dimly lit, somewhat seedy strip club in east Hollywood. Prior to that, Tony and I sat in his car in some parking lot, drinking cheap beer out of a brown bag and reminiscing about life. Good times. Have yourself a good birthday dude, and try not to get into too much trouble. ...

About a year ago I reverted this site to a simple theme, mainly because I haven’t been entirely sure what to do with it. I set out about six weeks ago to do a refresh of this site that would cater to some of my upcoming travel adventures. As I got about half way on it, I realized it probably would make more sense to do a dedicated travel site catering to people who want to explore world travel and also for traveling techies like my self to get more information about some of the places I’ve visited. So, that’s what I ended up doing. My new site is called The Migratory Nerd, and is at themigratorynerd.com. ...

Yesterday morning I woke up to a call from Passport Canada that basically let me know that they didn’t really have a solution to my problem. From their perspective all I had to do was to drive down to Vancouver, show some ID, and pick up my passport. The main obstacle was that Canada Post was saying that they would refuse to release it to me within a government issued ID that has my old address on it. Despite all that, I figured it was worth a shot anyways, so I packed up some documents that had my old address on them (including a copy of my 2009 tax return, and some T4 slips), and headed into ...

So, I made a mistake. I can’t really understand how I possibly made it, but it seems clear it was definitely my mistake. When filling out my passport application about a month ago, I accidentally put my mailing address as my old address in Vancouver. Perhaps I thought it read “Previous Address” or something like that, but after looking through what I sent them, I definitely put my Vancouver address into the “Mailing Address” portion of my passport. Which would explain how it was mailed on the 8th of October and also why I still don’t have it. I thought I could simply drive into Vancouver ...

It’s true, I’m a nail biter. I have been for as long as I can remember. I blame it on my mom, she was a nail biter too! The thing is, I’ve been biting them so long that for the most part I don’t even know I’m doing it. That’s what makes it a hard habit to stop. It’s not like smoking where you have to go find the pack, pull out a lighter, and then light up. I’ll literally be on the couch and realize my hand is in my mouth and I’m biting. I’ve actually never been successful quitting, but I’d really like to stop. I’ve tried all those fancy polishes that are supposed to help ...