I’ve been in Thailand now for about three weeks. So far, it’s pretty much everything I hoped it would be. Food is amazingly cheap, the people are super friendly, and in general Thailand is really laid back and accommodating. While the weather has been mostly cloudy lately, it’s still warm by North American standards, and a daily dip in the pool has become part of my routine. Pad Thai Back home a Pad Thai dish probably runs around $12 or $13 a plate. Some of the best Pad Thai I’ve had here costs around 50 baht ($1.66), so there’s quite a big price difference. At one place, you can pay ...

Yes sports fans, it’s time for another update. Today is day 65 in Buenos Aires. About an hour ago I had my last hair-cut in the city, and going forward there are a bunch of “lasts” about to happen. In fact, it seems like most of the expats I’ve met in the city are already gone or on their way out. A guy named Emerick from Montreal left two weeks ago, and another guy from New York is leaving this weekend. I suspect many people came to experience a summer in Buenos Aires, and now that summer is trailing off, it’s time to leave. Everyone I’ve talked to had enjoyed their time here, but ...

This last week was a weird week. I met up with a few friends and had some great times, but it was also the first real time I’ve been homesick in any capacity. There was nothing really that happened to make me feel that way, I was just sitting around and realized I was a long way from home. So I spent a day or so of being a bit melancholy. Thankfully the feeling has past, and it’s business as usual again. Weekends always get me excited, mostly because I have more opportunities to get out and explore on Saturday and Sunday than during the week. My Mac widget says I have 26 days left in Buenos ...

I’m currently at around 35,000 feet, somewhere between Buenos Aires and Puerto Iguazu. No, I’m not blogging from the plane, but rather I’ve set this post to publish while I’m up in the air. I wasn’t going to do another post before leaving for Iguazu Falls, but then I remembered my weekly Friday updates and wanted to get another in. So I thought that for this week’s Friday update it would be fun to create a few lists about what I enjoy here so far, and what I miss the most. Things I Love About Buenos Aires The People – Everyone I have met here has been super nice, especially when ...

Here’s a quick video update from Buenos Aires on roughly day 34. And just to clarify – when I was talking about free kisses being awesome, I was referring to the ladies! ...

So, I’ve been in Buenos Aires a little over three weeks now. This last week was pretty uneventful, as I’ve been working quite a bit and also spending six hours a week in Spanish lessons. Truthfully, I’m probably going to scale the lessons back here shortly, as I’m finding it pretty hard to fit them in and still have time to get out and enjoy the city. So I may scale back to two nights a week, or possibly even one. I also hadn’t explicitly budgeted for Spanish lessons, so I don’t want to use up all my travel money with lessons, especially since I have quite a few books around here as ...

The Adventure Starts Soon! Things are moving quickly now. My apartment is about 90% packed at this point, and I’m currently cleaning like a mad man so that I can get most of my damage deposit back. I’ve already moved in with my parents for the month of December, after which I’ll be heading to Vancouver Airport and catching a plane to Buenos Aires. Everyone keeps asking me if I’m excited. Truthfully, not yet. I know I will be, but packing and moving are both a bit stressful, and I haven’t had too much time to fantasize about my first beer in Argentina yet. I’m hoping once December rolls ...

It’s been over a month of me trying to get some resolution to my problems with my Internet at home, and I’m happy to say that I’m a step nearer today. I imagine it’s due to everyone’s help on Twitter to be honest, since a few people made a few calls internally on my behalf. So thanks if you helped out. I got a call a while ago from someone within Shaw who was informed of my problems. Right away, she said she was going to make some price adjustments to reflect the fact that my service has been sub-par. First, she lowered my monthly internet fee from $45/mo down to $10/mo for a full year. ...

It’s hard to believe that I’ve been down in the Caribbean for 11 days now, but that’s how the math works out. I woke up this morning and spent a few moments trying to figure out what day of the week it was, since it’s pretty easy to lose track. Sara made it home ok, and Dale and I have been working on some BraveNewCode stuff since she left. Yesterday we spent most of the day in the room, Dale designing away and me coding away. We’re keeping the lid on most of the things we’re working on, but lots of cool things should be coming down the pipe. The wireless here has proven to be a pretty ...

Quick update. Right now Rebecca and John are in the air, or about to land. This is officially day 8 here for me, which means there are fewer days ahead than there are behind. We’re all having a great time here, and have spent most of our days reading and swimming by the pool. The other night I ventured off the resort and ended up at the Hard Rock cafe in Punta Cana. I met up with a few Vancouverites and we all went to a dance club until about 5am or so in the morning. I stumbled back into my room around 6am, and passed out for the better part of the day. That was the first night I hit the sauce, ...

Last night’s tweetup was a ton of fun, so thanks to everyone for coming out. I crashed at a friend’s place in Vancouver last night, and came back to Chilliwack around noon today. Unfortunately, someone drove a tractor over my head sometime in the middle of the night, and I had a nice headache for most of the day. I ended up crawling into bed around 1:30pm when I got home, and somehow slept until around suppertime. Given that my fridge was pretty empty, I decided to order some pizza and spend the evening watching a few movies from the couch. I’m not sure what the weather will be like later ...

This entry represents post 18 out of a total of 49. So, I still have a fairly long ways to go. To be honest, I was pretty beat when I woke up, and feeling pretty worn out around 9:30am or so, but thankfully I seem to have gotten another wind. I’ve been consuming diet pop like it’s going out of style, so that might have something to do with it. Or perhaps, it could be the big bottle of water I also started drinking in an effort to rehydrate myself. Whatever it is that’s keeping me going, I sure hope it lasts for a while. Photo by John Biehler Various friends of ours have been swinging by ...

In a perfect world, I’d already be on vacation. But since we have a few client commitments that have taken a bit longer than expected, I’m still working away. My original plan was to maybe go camping for a few days this upcoming week, but that doesn’t seem likely right now. But hopefully by mid week I’ll be in vacation mode, and will be taking a few weeks of downtime (I’ll still be doing a few client related projects during this time period, but those don’t encompass more than a few days a week). I’m hoping to also finish off my new theme for this site, and possibly uprev a few plugins. I’ve ...

I was talking to my mom on the phone the other night, and she reminded me that it had been nearly a week since I’d written a post on here. Truthfully I almost forgot that I had a blog — I just haven’t had the urge to write much lately. Maybe it’s because my days all sort of blur into each other these days, something hopefully the summer will remedy. I hung out with an old friend on Sunday, and we basically just bounced around Chilliwack drinking the odd beer in the sun – it was good times. I even managed to whack a few balls up at the Cultus Lake driving range. Most of them ended up ...

I started playing with a new look and feel for my blog last week, and finished most of it off tonight. I had hacked my other one quite a few times and ended up breaking a few things on it. Hopefully this one will stay lean and mean a little while longer. I still have to fix up the content on many of the subpages, but the main pages should be working mostly. I’m also going to be modifying the content to reflect my move out to Chilliwack in a few weeks, and of course going full time with BraveNewCode. I have a few more ideas with regards to showing images and what not, but this is a pretty good ...

We’re up to about $530 now. I’m hoping we can hit $1000, which means we basically need about $100 an hour. That’s a big goal, and I’ll need the help of every reader to pull it off. If you want to know more information about the United Gospel Mission, please head over to their website or send me a personal email via my contact page. When the iPhone 3G came out a few weeks ago, along with it came the new 2.0 firmware that brought many new features, including the coveted application store. Unfortunately, with the update came a pile of bugs, including problems with the GPS unit, and a completely ...

I did a quick tally of all the emails pledge I’ve received from Rebecca’s site, and we’re sitting at around the $400 $450 mark, which is great. Thanks to everyone who has pledged so far. My own personal goal was to try and hit $1000, and we’re doing pretty good so far. There are only about ten entries left, so if you’ve been sitting on the fences waiting to potentially donate, now’s your chance. As I mentioned in my last entry, Matthew Good has also generously donated a signed copy of his last album, Hospital Music, which hit #1 in Canada when it was released last year. Anyone who ...

I spent most of the last hour on the couch, just thinking by candlelight. It was a nice break from the norm, having a dark apartment sans the sound of computer fans spinning or other randomness that goes beep in the night. Looking out my window, it’s hard to tell just how many people participated. It seems slightly darker than normal I guess, but for the most part it looks like business as usual in this city. For those of you who missed it, I took my site down for a few hours in support of the event. Here’s a snapshot Rebecca took: And lastly, I just want to mention that WordPress 2.5 was ...

For all of you who have been waiting patiently for the new 10.5.2 update, the wait is over. 10.5.2 is now available on software update. I’m installing all 350 MB of it right now. For all of you about to update, I salute you. Oh, and for all you people on shitty broadband, you should know I just downloaded 352 MB in 4 minutes here. ...

Yesterday I didn’t really have much time to blog, and I doubt I will today either. I’ve just been a bit busy with everything. Looking outside right now, it looks like there’s an official snow line in the mountains around downtown, which probably means skiing and snowboarding will start soon. It’s a fairly nice day in Vancouver (in fact, it’s been really nice this winter so far), and you can check out a live feed if you want at KatKam.ca: Live Feed From The Kat Kam That camera is about one block from my apartment. What else is new. Well, I’m still feeling a bit under the weather in ...