Rebecca and John showed up late Friday night to hang out in the country for the weekend, which was a nice surprise. We had planned to do a quick hike on Saturday, but none of us were really up to the challenge when the time approached. So instead, we decided to drive the 40kms or so from my place to Chilliwack Lake. I hadn’t been there in probably around 10 years or so, so it was cool being back, especially with the snow-capped mountains surrounding it this time of year. I’m going to have to try a camping trip up there sometime this summer, as some of the spots looking fairly nice. Other ...

I actually didn’t apply for a media pass, so I technically do not have access to the BC International Media Center. That said, if you have access, you can sign people in as visitors, so I’m currently down here as a guest of John Biehler. Here’s a quick video that John and I shot to give everyone a little tour of what it’s like inside. ...

John Biehler and I decided to grab some grub around 7pm tonight, but unfortunately, had a hard time finding a place that could initially accommodate us. The first pub we tried to get into (on the corner of Robson and Granville) was completely full, so we decided to try the Kingston Pub on Richards street. While it was also extremely full, they managed to find room for the two of us downstairs near the large screen TV. Shortly afterwards Rebecca and John showed up, and we watched the Women’s Mogul event while sipping a few beers. When Jenn Heil started her final run, I turned my video camera ...

I have all my camera gear packed up, which for me, is quite a lot of stuff. I pulled my old laptop/camera-bag out of retirement, which means I can have the majority of my gear, as well as my laptop, all in the same bag. It is as convenient as it is heavy. I bought a ticket on the 10am Greyhound bus leaving Chilliwack for downtown Vancouver. I decided that having my car in the city wasn’t really a good idea with the games going on. Right now I’m just sipping a coffee, then I’m going to head down to the Greyhound and wait down there. I have a pile of work on my laptop, so I should be able ...

I can’t really say that I’ve seen much of Victoria since being here, since I haven’t really been out that much. That said, it’s been really great just hanging out with some old friends and taking it easy. My friend Jeff (who has been a friend of mine since high school) picked me up at the Helicopter pad in Victoria on Friday night, and we spent most of the night just chilling at his place watching movies. Today Jeff, Michele and I took Maya (their 2.5 yr old daughter) down to her gymnastics class and watched that for an hour or so. Then we came back to Jeff’s house and made a pretty ...

This upcoming weekend I’m shutting the computers down and heading over to Vancouver Island. One of my best friends from high school (and also university) lives over in Oak Bay in Victoria now — strangely enough I haven’t really seen him in about a year, mainly because we’ve both been busy. I’m sort of known amongst my friends as the guy who is always busy. I don’t try to be, it just always seems like there’s some event or something I’ve committed to that I have to go to. That’s why a few months ago I said I was taking a break from all the Vancouver events — it’s not that ...

This is actually kind of a sore spot, so I thought that I would touch upon it. The New York Times recently announced that they were going to start charging for content in 2011. Strangely enough, most people who grew up in the Internet age seem to think that everything, including premium content, should be free of charge. I personally don’t believe that’s the case, and would even go so far to say that having an economy based on content generated at the expense of advertising dollars is an extremely bad thing. But at the end of the day, it always amazes me how little people are willing to pay ...

Well, today there are at least two important events that happened in the past. First, on January 15th, 1977, my friend Brennen was born. Since that time he has pretty much been a major pain in my ass, causing me to lift boxes for weekends at a time, to fix countless porn-infested computers, and to drive out to the edge of the world (White Rock) on weekends. That said, he’s a great friend, and I hope he has an awesome birthday today. Also, at this exact time last year I was packing up the last few things in my desk in Vancouver and leaving my job there for the last time. Hard to believe I’ve ...

It’s not officially Christmas yet where I am, but it’s only about six hours away on the east coast of Canada, so that’s close enough. As most people know, I moved back to my home town back in January to be closer to some of my old friends and of course my family. The last time I lived in Chilliwack in any capacity was when I was 18 years old, right before heading off for the city and university. So, this is my first Christmas as a resident of Chilliwack in about 14 years. Pretty wild now that I think about it. Thankfully we don’t really buy many gifts these days (since I’m pretty crappy ...

Back in grade twelve, the graduating class of my high school, Sardis Senior Secondary School, performed a pretty cool version of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas for the entire school. I was kind of in the choir, even though we didn’t really sing. My friend Landy was actually the grinch, and he looked pretty hilarious wearing those green tights. The title of this post is a reference to something the grinch says near the end when he ponders the real significant of Christmas. Without a doubt, Christmas is a hard season for a lot of people. The commercialization of the season puts a lot of pressure ...

I just saw some great new work from Giant Ant Media, and wanted to share one of the videos here. It’s great watching Jay and Leah slowly dominate the world. Good job guys! You can check out a few more over on Jay’s blog. ...

I just got home from dropping Dale and Patrick off at the Abbotsford airport. Without a doubt, it was a great visit, and it was good to catch up with both of them. As I mentioned previously, this last weekend was the last item on my radar for the foreseeable future. This last summer was extremely busy — I attended two out of town conferences, and it seemed like I was bouncing in and out of the city on a routine basis. Given that I moved into my new place here in January, it’s only recently that I’ve found the chunk of time necessary to finally unpack. We’re also been extremely busy at ...

Gillian Shaw had a great article today in the Vancouver Sun about what it means to unplug nowadays. I think as the penetration of computers, especially mobile internet, continues to spread, it’s going to be more and more relevant. Without a doubt, I think people spend way too much time online these days. In fact, if anyone is guilty of that, it’s me. I was recently trying to think of memories from before the Twitter and Facebook eras, trying to remember what I used to spend most of my time doing. I remember having a lot of nice dinners with my ex, and also going for long walks from time to ...

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 ...

The tendency for a body at rest to stay at rest, and for a body in motion to stay in motion. Two important states, to be sure. For me, I find myself bouncing between those two states from time to time, often as a result of some cycle I’m trying to break. Most of the time, that cycle for me starts with lack of sleep, and progresses into this weird state of limbo where I’m constantly feeling unhealthy. The last time I felt I totally got away from it was back in May, back when I was going to the gym routinely and eating meals at home the majority of the time. I’m close to getting back there, ...

I just finished booking my flight to WordCamp Portland, so I figured now was a good time to write a post about it. I was a co-organizer for two WordCamp Vancouver events, as well as one up in Whistler, but strangely enough I haven’t actually spoken at a WordCamp for almost about two years now. So having me up front should make for some interesting entertainment. I’ll be speaking on mobile blogging, with an emphasis on our WPtouch plugin. I’ll probably also talk a bit about mobile blogging in general, similarly to what I talked about at the Network Hub a few years ago. If I have time, I’ll ...

Yesterday I went down to Friday Harbor and hung out with my friend Lynn. I hadn’t been to Friday Harbor since I was about 17 or so, so it was definitely cool to go back. There wasn’t as much there to do as I thought there would be, but Lynn and I managed to find a few watering holes to hang out in and observe the locals for a while. “Chap-man” pretty much took the weirdo cake, but there were lots of runners up. It was great catching up with Lynn again too, since we hadn’t had a chance to hang out for over two years now. In addition, the weather was nearly perfect, and reminded me of ...

I get the odd inquiry about the work involved in organizing a conference, particularly a WordCamp. Rebecca, John and I have organized several WordCamps, but WordCamp Whistler was undoubtedly the hardest of the bunch, mainly because none of us had the opportunity to assess the location until the night before. While the event was really successful in my mind (the speakers were great, the staff at the Fairmont were helpful, and everyone I talked to felt that they got good value from the event), in retrospect I might have organized something a bit more local. The costs associated with the event kept ...

I’m pretty close to wrapping up a few projects here, so much so that I’m half packed already for my upcoming road trip. Until this afternoon, I hadn’t really decided what I was going to do for a little break, but after talking to a few people, decided to hit the open road and see where it takes me. It’s more of a working vacation to be honest, as I still have a few client projects to do, but I plan to do them from beside the pool at a KOA, or little coffee shops near the ocean somewhere. I’ve been up and down the West Coast quite a few times now, so it’s a drive I’m familiar with. ...

While in Cancun back in March, Dale and I had a pretty drunken discussion on our hotel patio, not really about anything, but at the same time, a conversation about everything. We talked a bit about politics, a bit about spirituality, about the past, and about the future. Jump ahead three months, and here I am, on my own patio, drinking a rum and diet coke, surrounded by green tomatoes, looking up at the stars that were absent from my life for the last five years, thinking back on my first five months back home. Yesterday I drove out to Surrey to hang out at a brew pub with some friends. Afterwards, ...