My birthday is fast approaching, and the only real event I'm looking forward to is having a plate of nachos somewhere in the city with a friend or two. So, my question to all of you is: where are the best nachos in this city? My favourites so far are probably the ones down at Smiley O'Neils on Pender, but I'm open to suggestions. Drop a comment if you've had nachos somewhere in the city and let everyone know how they were (if they sucked, say so). I had nachos last night down at the Atlantic Trap and Gill, and the beef on them was actually a cut-up hamburger patty -- not cool people. Not cool. ...

When the Juno awards were announced a few months ago, I put my name on the list for media accreditation. I didn't hear anything for a while, so I sort of assumed it wasn't going through. Today I got an email saying I had a media pass, which means I have full access to photograph the Canadian Juno Awards. I'll be photographing and writing on behalf of Urban Vancouver, so look on my blog and over there from time to time for photos and a few entries. I still have to sort everything out and see if I can get a hotel room and what not, but it's fairly likely I'll be heading to Calgary for the first ...

Yesterday Apple released their long-waited for SDK for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. What this means is that if you're interested in developing applications for the iPhone, you can simply download the SDK and get cracking. That is, unless you live in Canada. That's right, Steve Jobs has limited real development to people with valid US addresses. And even then, it's an application process that costs a minimum of $99 to be a part of. I realize Canada is a really small demographic compared to the United States, but we're not *that* small, and there really are some bright people up here. I had ...

I just read the results of an interesting study done down south. Apparently americans spend approximately three hours per week grooming themselves and looking good, but less than an hour (per week people) on foreplay and intercourse. So it appears the collective mass would rather look good in bed than be good in bed. Here's a couple of paragraphs from the write-up. Americans spend nearly three hours every week grooming themselves, but less than one hour on foreplay and sexual intercourse. It's no wonder that only 46% of us describe our love lives as exciting, or existent for that matter. On ...

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 ...

Anyone know of any micropayment gateways available in Canada? I've been looking at paypal and Amazon's FPS system, but both of those only support micropayments in the US. Anyone have any ideas at all? ...

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 ...

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. ...

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 up, have ...

This morning I went downstairs and checked the mail, and was surprised to see a bill from the ministry of health. It would seem that the government wants me to pay for the ambulance that took me to the hospital the night I ended up with multiple lacerations to my head and face, and five broken bone segments in my face. While I'm obviously appreciative for our medical system, considering I have had two surgeries now that I haven't had to pay for, given that our health care system is supposed to be covered, I'm pretty surprised that I have to pay this at all. ...

I stumbled across an article tonight about a student who was trying to take a photo of a building and ended up on the group being harassed by some rogue security guard. Obviously the security guard claimed that the building could not be photographed and took it upon himself to intervene. I read about stuff like this all the time, and as a photographer I occasionally run into things like that too. I was in Pacific Center a while ago playing with a lens when a security guard came up to me and threatened to take my camera way unless I stopped taking photos. While at Harvard a few years ago, I had ...

If you were reading the news yesterday, you probably heard of the allegations that Canadians overseas have aided in the torture of Afghan prisoners by handing them over to local authorities and then not following up on their treatment. To quote a few paragraphs from the Globe and Mail: Critics demanded the resignation of Defense Minister Gordon O'Connor yesterday over new allegations that Afghan prisoners, detained by Canadian soldiers and handed over to local authorities, had been tortured. [...] Professor Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia, a specialist in international relations, ...

So, this weekend I decided to leave the city life behind and join my dad and Cathy for a few days in the wilderness down south.? The destination was a little place along the ocean called Fort Casey, near Deception Pass, Washington.? I had a great time, consuming an ample amount of alcoholic beverages, and sitting by the fire. Unfortunately, the one major downside to travelling to the United States is having to go through customs on both sides.? No matter how many times I cross, or how many stamps I have in my passport, I always get grilled pretty hard.? It's gotten worse now that I have a decent ...