I watched Test The Nation tonight to see how the Bloggers and Rebecca faired on the show. The bloggers, in pure geeky awesomeness, managed the win! Here’s a shot of Rebecca holding the winning trophy! Photo by Miss604 Congrats guys! You did us all proud. John Biehler posted some great clips of Rebecca rocking Test The Nation. Check it out (and listen to the idiots booing in the background — I guess they thought they’d win?) I’m bookmarking your blog too. ...

I hate Air Canada, really I do. They have screwed me over so many times and are at least partially responsible for how much I hate flying these days. The last time they gave it to me was last year coming back from Boston. I arrived 90 minutes before my flight and was told that due to weather they were going to delay us a while in the airport. Since I was hungry and needed a beer, I said no problem. So, they booked me on a flight two hours later and said it would be fine. The funny thing is even though it was raining outside, every other airline appeared to be operating normally. After dinner ...

I was up late playing around with some stuff on the computer, and didn’t manage to actually lay down until around 2:30am. I figured since I was getting up at 6:30am to drive Rebecca to the airport that four hours should be enough time. Unfortunately I think forgot to factor in the amount of caffeine I had had over the course of the evening. So when my alarm started beeping at 6:30am, I realized I hadn’t really had any sleep yet. Upon arriving at the airport, Rebecca had a call from her people out in Toronto letting her know that her flight had been cancelled. So we went to Milestone’s ...

Just read that an Air Canada flight from Victoria to Toronto was forced to make an emergency landing in Calgary due to turbulence. Apparently the plane hit a patch of turbulence that sent a pile of people into the ceiling. I would have probably shit my pants had that happened on my flight. My last flight to Kelowna was pretty bad, and my glasses came off at one point, but thankfully my head didn’t encountered the ceiling. Half a dozen passengers were badly injured after an Air Canada plane bucked in midair on a flight across Canada, probably because of heavy turbulence. A spokesman for Calgary ...

Tuesday evening, Toronto blogger and artist Raymi (Lauren White) will be down at the Crooked Star showing off some of her art and meeting people. If you’re in the Toronto area, make sure you pop by with lots of money. The event kicks off at 7pm, and looks like it will go into the wee hours of the morning. There’s a facebook event associated with it, and you can find it here. Best of luck Raymi. ...

I rarely dream, or remember them at least. Last night however, I had one of the best nights of dreaming in a long time. Most of them were a bit messed up, and a few of them were of the past. I woke up at around 5am this morning actually feeling like it was about ten years ago based on some dreams I was having. That’s a strange feeling. Then, at 6am, the fire alarm went off, so I spent the first few minutes trying to find something to wear downstairs, and then evetually stumbled down 15 flights of stairs in some jeans, I think. Thankfully the cute girl from 14 was there too in her jammies, so ...

Well, I made it. I had originally been scheduled to fly out on the 2nd of January, but since I figured everyone would be tired and hungover on the 1st that I’d just head back then and get rested up for the grind again. After everyone left the hotel, I called West Jet to see if there were any openings on any flights. Pretty much the only one that worked was the 7am flight out of Toronto. Since it was already 4am, I figured I might as well just head to the airport and sleep on the plane. Of course, once I got to the airport nothing was really open and the line ups were already pretty big. I did ...

I spent most of the morning in bed on my second day of Toronto, which was fine by me since the bed here is super comfy. The rest of the day is pretty much a blur for me. Tony and I met Christie for lunch, and then walked around and did a bit of shopping. I picked up a nice scarf and Tony got some gloves and a hat, so we’re both officially winter people now. After that I went back to the hotel and had a little nap prior to the little hockey game party we had at my hotel. I wasn’t planning on getting super loaded, but somehow between the lack of food in my stomach, the martini Raymi made for ...

Well, judging from the beer bottles all around me and the chinese food stain on the bed, I think I had a pile of fun last night. I did my best to keep track of how many beers I had via facebook, but it looks like I lost count at the end or had trouble counting. I went with Raymi and Phil to the hospital when I arrived in the hotel since she hasn’t been feeling that well. There they gave my a Christmas present, which included this cute little guy that plays the guitar (thanks guys, I’ll post a photo later). After that, Raymi and I started our nacho-fest with some down at Sneaky Dees. ...

In Toronto and in the hotel. Fuckers gave me a king sized bed when I asked specifically for two doubles or whatever. Still an ongoing battle there. I changed my seat around prior to the flight so that hopefully nobody was going to be sitting next to me. Thankfully that plan came together and I had the whole row to myself. About 2 seconds after lifting up I made a make-shift bed out of all three seats and someone managed to sleep for most of the flight. Just waiting for Raymi to come pick me up from the hotel and the adventure will begin. ...

Wow.. I’m beat. I made the mistake of staying up late last night, thinking that I would be tired enough to pass out and get a few hours. Unfortunately, I hardly slept at all last night, and am at the airport, completely bagged. It’s 5:50am, and I have another 40 minutes before the plane boards. Clearly I was a bit tired last night as well, since I drove all the way to my landlord’s house to drop off six checks that I somehow made out in the wrong amount on all of them (something that wasn’t discovered until I got all the way back home);. Thankfully, I brought along a mild sedative, and ...

I got back home last night at around 2am and promptly climbed under my duvet for a long night of sleep. I spent the evening with some old high school friends, and invited myself into a poker tournament that was going on in the evening. I somehow managed to come in second out of ten people, even though I don’t really know how to play (which seems to always sort of happen – I won our first work tournament last year, and come in fourth out of thirty last time). I just woke up around 11:30am here, and feel fairly rested. My stomach is clearly not impressed that I have stopped antibiotics, but ...

A few minutes ago, I took the last of the foul-tasting, side-effect inducing crud that I started nearly four weeks ago. The last few days have been particularly hard, and I’ve found myself extremely tired, have had a metallic taste in my mouth, and also a fairly bad migraine. While most of my family played board games tonight, I was forced to retire to the couch in the other room and attempt to out-sleep my pounding head. 168 little antibiotic goodies The Last 2 Out Of 168 Pills Hopefully in the next day or so, as the drug leaves my system, I’ll start feeling alot like my old self again. ...

Ahh, relaxation. Definitely enjoying it. I’ve been sleeping lots, eating lots, and watching a pile of movies. For the most part, my ass has been firmly planted on the living room couch, but I’ve managed to get outside a bit and see some relatives. Today is Christmas over at my sister’s house. Since my parents are split, today is Christmas with my mom’s side of the family. I have two gifts each for my niece and nephew, so I’ll bring one set over today and leave the other here at my dad’s for tomorrow’s round. Us adults don’t really buy for each other, but we’ve always sort of ...

Last night I made the long trek out of the downtown core and ended up near Metrotown, which surprisingly isn’t as far away as I imagined. Chad has a really nice pad out there, complete with an outdoor deck that would be just killer for summer parties and BBQing. Chad has a tradition at his party where everyone has to pick a decoration for the tree, and then proceed to make love to it somehow. Not sure how this came to be, but everyone eagerly began licking and kissing their decorations. After everyone had hit the beers in the fridge, Chad promptly dove straight into his massive scotch ...

Tony officially booked all his flights and everything for New Year’s in Toronto, at which point he tossed the email-gauntlet towards me and said “what’s up now?’ So, I have stepped up to the challenge and have also booked a flight for Toronto. Unfortunately, flying in Canada at that time of year is pretty pricy, so my flights are all at weird times to save money (and coming home it’s a three-city milk-run). The Guy On The Left Should Really Come Too I’ll be spending Christmas at home with the family, and then heading out to Toronto to enjoy the cold for a few days. I’ll probably ...

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 ...

Last night I met up with John and Rebecca to watch the hockey game down at Fogg ‘n Suds. I’m not super familiar with the Canucks line anymore, so being around super hockey Canucks people is a bit intimidating. That being said, I did manage watch some of the game and to lose myself for a time in the high-ball fishbowls that they were serving there. John and me, hanging out at John and Rebecca’s house – not sure why we put hats on I’m smack in the middle of packing for my trip, trying to figure out what to bring and what not to bring. As the first leg of the trip is work-related, I ...

Slight change of plans. I was originally going to go to Toronto on the 26th, but I’m going to go to Ottawa the week before for work. So, I’ll be bouncing into Toronto on the 26th, but instead of coming from Vancouver, I’ll be coming in on a flight from Ottawa. That will put me into Toronto several hours earlier, which should take a bit of pressure off with having to get downtown from the airport. I’ll be staying out in Kanata in a really great hotel called The Brookstreet Hotel, which just happens to be owned by Terry Matthews (whose company recently merged with ours). Apparently Terry ...

So, after work tonight I hit the bar with a few of the guys from work.. I feel great. I haven’t been this exciting about anything in a long time. I am pretty excited to see Ottawa again, the Byward Market, the Ottawa River, Parliament, and of course, my friends Rob and Anna. Packing and leaving on a plane are always a bit stressful for me, partially because I am sort of afraid of flying, but in this case, given that I’m gone for nearly two weeks, I was worried I had forgotten a few things. I nearly forgot all my socks the first time I tried to leave the apartment, and completely forgot my ...