I heard little bits of pieces of this last night, but just managed to read the real blog entry today. Tony Pierce is going to be leaving LAist and will be heading over to the LA Times to run all of their blogs. Congrats Tony, that’s really awesome. First beer’s on me out in TO bud. ...

So I spent about two hours tonight talking to Tony, and I think we both agreed on one thing — spending New Years in our own cities was pretty fucking lame. So, right now, we’re both thinking about heading to Toronto for New Year’s eve, which might be a fairly large mistake for me, I’m not sure.. To be honest, I’m not sure Toronto wants to handle me for that long. I need to convince Chad and Danielle to come with me. But, I’d love to get out of Vancouver for the holidays and just be me for a while. Not Duane the programmer, or Duane the engineer, or Duane the anything.. Just duane ...

Raymi promised me a tipsy iChat later with her and Phil, which means I need to start drinking. I have so much wine at my place it’s not even funny. Somewhere on the order of 25 bottles I think. But, I’m a bit tired of wine lately. Wall Of Poison So, I think I’m going to go for rum and diet coke, which is pretty much my drink of choice if I’m at a pub these days. Which would you choose? ...

So everyone else is blogging this, so fuck it, I might as well too. My friend Raymi in Toronto has a very unique, and often copied, blog. So tonight, after getting a bit tipsy, I attempted to recreate some of her brilliance myself. The end result is a funny parody, complete with drunk dancing by myself. You can check it out at duanetheminx.com. Thanks to Keira for helping me put the header together. Clearly I need massive help. ...

After work I swung by the Alibi room in Gastown to help celebrate Jeremy Crowle’s birthday. I was a bit tired from this whole week so didn’t end up staying out super late, but I managed to drink a few rum and diet cokes and buy Jer a beer. There’s another party tonight that I was invited to, but I’m not sure if I’ll hit that. I think I really need a nice night inside with some movies. I have to hit the airport in a sec and drop my friend Hesty off for the start of his vacation. After that I’ll probably check out the Eastside Culture Crawl with some friends. Also, Rebecca and John are ...

Here’s a shot I took in Raymi’s bathroom out in Toronto. I’m going to be setting up duanetheminx.com soon, so check back soon. Clearly I rock the mirror shots. ...

A few days ago I attended Kaede’s one year birthday party out in White Rock. She got a ton of presents and had a really great time. Happy Birthday kiddo. ...

There are some people who would say that getting excited about Christmas in November is a bit lame. And to them, I would say bah, humbug. Most of my best memories revolve around the Christmas season — either friends in my university dorm sharing some eggnog (with rum of course), opening presents with my niece and nephew, or watching it snow in Ottawa from my festively-lit living room. I don’t know why, but I just get excited when I start seeing lights up. So tonight Kasia (a friend of mine who also adores Christmas) and I went out on a quest to get me some decorations for my apartment. It ...

I first met Vancouver’s own Miss604, Rebecca Bollwitt, last year at the Northern Voice blogging conference. I had checked out her blog occasionally, and I recognized her from photos both on her blog, and ones taken during Matthew Good’s living room show last year. Being the social guy I am, and fueled by some liquid courage, I walked up to Rebecca (who was also on her way to acquire booze) and started chatting. Since that time, I have gotten to know Rebecca and John quite well, and am proud to call them both good friends of mine. Rebecca’s blog is a witty ensemble of local Vancouver ...

Not much new to report. Work is going fairly well, and I’ve met most of our Ontario company now. Derek and I hit “downtown” Kanata and hit a few local establishments tonight, which was actually a lot of fun. I have two more days here, and then I get on a plane and head to Toronto for Matt’s concert. I’m actually getting pretty excited about the whole ordeal. I talked with Tony briefly tonight and he’s in the same hotel as me, which is cool. The next time I probably blog will be in Toronto, a few hours before the pre-show meet-up. ...

As I mentioned in my last blog entry, the other day I had a chance to photography my first wedding. All in all, it was a pretty rewarding experience. The day started at around 11am for me and Hesty. We suited up, did some last minute charging of equipment, and then got in touch with the groom. Normally the photographer heads over to the where the bride is getting ready for some photos, but Kim’s aunt wanted to do those ones, so I was relieved of that duty. We met Mike and the groomsmen down at the Holiday Inn in Langley to get ready. In true Chilliwack style, Mike, instead of hopping in the ...

Last night I had the chance to photograph the wedding of two of my old friends. It was a great experience, and I’m fairly satisfied with how the photos turned out, considering how dark it was both outside and inside the reception area. I’ll do a full write-up on everything I learned about shooting a wedding, but right now I have a turkey to eat. I shot over 1000 shots at the wedding, and I’ve slowly been sorting them. I put about 150 or so of them on Flickr if anyone is interested. There are still more I have to process and put together, but there’s enough that it’s fairly good representation ...

I’m in a hotel in Langley, and I’ve started to sort the photos from tonight. Having been to the location and having spent some time with old friends, I’m feeling a lot better about tomorrow. Danika, the flower girl I’m really glad I got a chance to try out a bunch of photos in a real setting, because I made a few mistakes that I likely won’t make tomorrow. I’m gonna keep this short, because I still have lots to do. Next blog entry will probably be Sunday after everything is over. ...

I managed to convince the hotel staff to give me a room at around 10:30am yesterday, which meant I could finally grab a few hours of sleep. I woke up close to 3pm, which meant I only had an hour or so before I had to head down to Manotick for the wedding rehearsal. I did a quick tour of downtown Ottawa with the time I had, took a few photos, and then got picked up by Alison. Afterwards, we all headed down to Collenade Pizza about one block from where I used to live in Ottawa. Thirty of us proceeded to catch up on lost time, eat lots of pizza, drink beer, and in general have a really great time. ...

Well, I made it. I got to the hotel at around 10:30am and prompt went to sleep. I just woke up, and feel a bit more energized now. I’m going to go take a few quick photos and then try to find the group. ...

So in about 24 hours, I’ll be boarding a plane and heading to Ottawa for Rob and Anna’s wedding.. I’m getting pretty excited about the whole trip, and it will be good to check out Ottawa again after all these years. As I mentioned before, I’m flying the whole trip in business class (thanks for air miles), so I’m hoping it will be a pretty enjoyable flight. Sunday I fly to the Dominican Republic for a well deserved week of rest and relaxation. Tonight I had a few friends over for what will probably be my last BBQ of the summer. Keira, Rebecca and John swung by for a pretty meat-heavy ...

Tonight I’ll be heading down to the Alibi room in gastown for the opening ceremonies of BarCamp Vancouver. For those of you who aren’t aware what BarCamp is, it’s essentially an “unconference” where the participants meet and generate their own discussions about things that interest them. The closest event to this that I’ve been a part of was the unconference at Northern Voice back in February, which had a really great turn out. Here’s the official description from the BarCamp website: BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open ...

Last weekend, I got together with Boris, Dustin and Dori, and headed up north of Whistler towards Birkinhead Lake. It was a last minute trip, decided upon while we were all under the influence, but we all decided we could use a break from the city. So on Saturday morning, at the crack of dawn, we all piled into my car and set out on the quest for fish (which would later become the quest for nachos). Surprisingly, everyone’s camping gear fit into the back of my hatcbback, but I think next year I’m definitely going to get a roof rack for it. I picked up my car last January, mainly because ...

In exactly two weeks from today, I will be getting on a plane (business class — fuck you Air Canada), and heading out east for some time in Ottawa and beyond. I’ll be taking the red-eye, (which I swore last time I’d never take again, since I rarely sleep on planes, and that’s basically the whole point of the red-eye) and will get into Ottawa sometime early in the morning on the 24th of August. From there, I imagine I’ll head to my hotel, which is only a few steps from the Supreme Court of Canada and Parliament Hill, and probably grab an hour or two of sleep. And then, I’m gonna wake ...

A few years ago I made my way to Central America for a week in the sun in Costa Rica. I finally managed to put the photos from it on Flickr. ...