In the fall of 2010, I decided I wanted to set out on a big travel adventure. At the time I had become a bit bored of life in Chilliwack, and wanted to take advantage of the fact that I can work anywhere with an internet connection and actually see some of the world. I sold most of my furniture at the time and put the rest into a storage locker. And almost exactly a year ago, I boarded a plane and headed to South America. I spent approximately eight months of this past year living out of a suitcase, bouncing between apartments and hostels, working from little remote coffee shops, and taking in ...

About a week ago, I got word that my cousin Corey had died back in Chilliwack. It obviously caught everyone off guard, since he was only 38 years old and was relatively healthy. As a family, all we have been left with are questions, sadness, and the hole where Corey's life used to be. When I originally set out to Argentina at the start of this year, my mom sat me down and we talked about what would happen if someone were to pass away while I was gone. Obviously if possible, I would do my best to get back home for a funeral or support. But I was told by my mom, and later reiterated by a few other ...

I left South America a few weeks ago, and have since been to New York City and a great deal of Ireland. Ireland was quite the whirlwind adventure. I spent the first night in Limerick at my friend Andy's place, and then the next day we did a road trip up to Galway. The day after we headed down to Cork, and made a quick pitstop to kiss the original Blarney Stone. The next two nights we stayed at little 200 year old cottage in Mitchellstown. All in all a great adventure. I flew to Edinburgh, Scotland Monday morning, and am currently sitting in a hotel. I haven't had time to go take my photos yet, ...

Well, given that it's already Christmas in some parts of the world, I wanted to write a quick post and wish a very Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope the next day or two for everyone are spent in the company of family and friends, surrounding by love and laughter. Yesterday we had Christmas over at my dad's house, and today I'm heading over to have a mini-Christmas at my sister's house. Tomorrow I head over to my mom's house for dinner with that side of the family, and then Christmas is done for me. At that point I'll finish my packing and start getting ready to head to Argentina. A very Merry ...

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 awesome dinner ...

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 at buying ...

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 ...

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 time. ...

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, ...

Today is also my step-sister Alison's birthday. Strangely enough, I went through my Flickr photos and I don't really have any good shots of her, so I had to grab one from her Facebook profile instead. Tonight we're having a little BBQ over at my dad's house for her, which should be fun (although I probably won't be staying too long, as I'm pretty swamped with work). Happy Birthday Alison! ...

The photo above is from my 19th birthday. I don't even really remember the circumstances that led me back to Chilliwack that weekend, but I actually do remember blowing those candles out, and being at the same condo where I graduated from high school. In that same condo I showered after a lot of rugby games, I did a lot of physics lab write-ups, and I even wrote my first song on my Fender strat after some girl stood me up. Sadly enough, I spent most of that night sitting in the dark on the couch in my mom's living room and wrote most of it on my electric, completely ampless. My mom would swing ...

My mom reminded me tonight that at this time in exactly two weeks, I'll no longer be in Vancouver. The time sure has gone quickly. I actually get the keys to my new apartment on the 15th, so I might head out on the night of the 14th and grab them in person. I've been slowly organizing things in my current apartment, and strangely enough, I really don't have that much stuff here. I'll probably load up my car on the 14th with all my valuables and drive those out to Chilliwack myself. I also need to find my Shaw cable modem, which apparently I'm to bring back to Chilliwack for them to reactivate. ...

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My dad is coming out to hang out at my place tonight. We're probably just going to sit around, watch movies, and maybe have a few beers. I don't get many opportunities to head home and visit my family these days, so it's definitely nice when they find the time to come into the city and see me. ...

This weekend I'm going to do something I haven't done in a long time -- I'm going to head home. To be honest, I don't think I've been back to Chilliwack since easter, which is a very long time for me. I'm not entirely sure what my plans are for the whole weekend, but I'm heading back to Chilliwack at least for a few days. I might end up in Osoyoos visiting a few friends, but I'm going to hold off making any plans until after I get caught up on sleep Saturday. I'm also hoping to spend a bit of time with my grandma, since I haven't seen her in quite a while and she hasn't been feeling very well ...

Today is my sister's 34th birthday. It seems like only yesterday we were tromping out in the backyard together in Chilliwack. As most people know, my family is very important to me, and I am very protective of them. My life growing up in Chilliwack wasn't all roses, and most of us had to pull together to get to where we all are today. My university education was basically funded by various members of my family and loans from the government. My sister worked extra hard and offered to pay my phone bill every month, while my mom gave me spending money. My dad and stepmom came in and saved the day ...

You know, it's hard to believe that there was a time when Andie was actually taller than me, but it's true. I think I passed him at the age of 16 or so, but Andie could always hold his own in a wrestling match. As you can tell, today is my brother-in-law, Andie's, birthday. Andie started dating my sister when I was 14 or 15, and he's been an integral part of the family ever since. I'm proud to call him my brother-in-law. Happy Birthday Bud. ...

Today (Tuesday) is my niece's 10th birthday. It seems like just yesterday I was out working at UBC when I got the call telling me that my sister had gone into labour. I left work and made the trek back to Chilliwack, and made it to the hospital just in time to see the first few minute's of Jessica's new life. That photo is one of my favourites of my niece. It was probably taken when she was only 5 years old or so, but it was one of the first times I got to spend alone with her (I had been living out in Ottawa for a few years prior to that). I had told my sister that I was going to go to Burger ...

I've basically been on-the-go non-stop since San Francisco, so I haven't had much time to do anything on the computer. I originally had a 11am flight out of San Francisco, but for whatever reason it was delayed nearly four hours, and I didn't arrive until close to 4pm. It probably would have been faster to drive. Tony took me out for a great night down in Los Angeles. We went on a full tour of Hollywood, then picked up a few tall-boys and just chilled for a while. I also had some really great mexican food at a local hole-in-the-wall that Tony frequents from time to time. I only had one night in ...

Yes, today is my mom's birthday. I lost count of how old she is years ago, but she'll always be 39 in our hearts. Have a great day today mom! And hurry up and call me back so I can wish you Happy Birthday myself! ...