Video by Miss604: We all have a pile of computer work to do this weekend, so we're just sitting around messing with them. One of these days I'll take my christmas tree down. ...

After setting up my RAID 5 array last night, I decided that maybe I would take a stab at self hosting my blog again. Up until two years ago, I had always run my blog from home. It's not really that hard to set up your own Apache server, and Linux can literally run for months or more without requiring a reboot. The downside of course is that home internet connections can be flaky, and most co-locations and hosting companies have UPS backup when things go wrong. I recently upgraded my home fiber internet connection to a small business plan, so my internet connection at home is actually fairly insane ...

You know, there was a time when I actually sort of considered my blog a photo blog. Truth is I haven't really posted many photos lately. Here's one I took with my little Powershot camera a few days ago: ...

There are a bunch of guys over at my place right now, messing around with blogs, media, podcasts, and of course, beer. Right now it's John Bollwitt, John Biehler, and Boris Mann is downstairs with the next shipment of beer. I'll update this as the day/night goes on. We all have a few projects we want to do. I'm currently moving all my websites over to Media Temple, which is basically easy but requires a bunch of grunt work to pull off. After that I'm going to attempt to make really awesome movie/mp3 player for Wordpress. John Bollwitt making scrambled eggs, photo by John Biehler Wow, the day ...

Yes, it's that time of month again, maid day. When I got sick with pneumonia in the fall my mom came and spent a few days with me and ended up cleaning my entire apartment. Being a busy, single guy, it was in a pretty sad state. My mom, being a constant worrier, implored me, for her sake, to get someone to help clean my apartment so it would be clean and I wouldn't have to worry about getting sick at home. Since I'm sort of cheap (at least for things that don't involve technology), but wanted to put my mom's mind at ease, I made myself a compromise -- I'd get a maid but cancel my cable TV to pay ...

Perogy fest beginning soon. Here's a shot I took of the valley on the way over. You can see little streaks of rain and a few flares caused by drops on my lens, but I like them. ...

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 enjoyed getting the ...

Went shopping with my mom this afternoon. Shopping for toys. She wanted to check out the exercise bikes at Sears. I don't think she has room for one though. I put that one on facebook, so go check it out there. ...

So it's weird. When I was about 19 years old, I picked up my first guitar, which at the time was a Fender Strat electric. Surprisingly, I didn't really know how to play, but it was something I was always interested in doing so my mom surprised me and picked me up a guitar. I spent the next few years pissing my roommates off by walking around my dorm room playing Green Day and whatever else was popular at the time. When I hit the age of about 25, I sort of just gave music up completely, probably because I didn't really have much time and I wasn't really making much progress. About two weeks ago, ...

I've sort of gotten tired of dragging my big digital SLR with me everywhere, so lately I've been taking along my little Canon point and shoot, which by comparison takes garbage photos, but the size and weight of it is attractive. I've been thinking I might start taking a pile more videos just for the hell of it. While this video is completely boring, I just decided to give a quick virtual tour of my apartment, with a quick video of how nice a day it is in Vancouver. Don't worry, they'll get better. ...

As everyone knows, I've spent the last six months battling my Macbook Pro. It's been plagued with various problems, the most severe of which lately is intermittent connectivity wherever I go. Not coming back whenever it sleeps it pretty lame too. Anyways, I went to drop it off at the repair facility, and they said it would be gone for at least two weeks. So, being the impulsive buyer that I am, I decided to pick up an iMac for home. And to be honest, I used to always use a desktop computer, even though I had a Windows laptop before. But when I got my Mac, I ended up formatting my Windows machine ...

Well, now that I've gotten all my weekend fun out of the way, I think I'm going to take it easy and relax. Of course, the first thing I'm going to do is warm up some left over lasagna, but then I have a bunch of web work I really want to get done. Plus, Sunday is usually laundry day, and I need to catch up on that. I set up by Gmail/IMAP account on my Apple Mac Mail program. I'm not sure if I'm going to use it though. At least for me, it seems pretty slow. Not only does it seem to take forever to sync, but the CPU is fairly high even with the Mail program is idling. It might be related to the ...

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? ...

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 tooks ...

A few people convinced me to finally ante up and get a house keeper, since a) my place is usually messy and b) I don't really have much time to spend cleaning. She's in the bathroom right now, and she stepped out for a brief second to say: "wow, you're pretty messy eh?" with a cute smile. I think I can get used to having cute girls come to my place every few weeks and clean. Thankfully my place is going to be (and stay) spotless after all this. One girl came on Friday to clean the living room and kitchen, but ran out of time before finishing it all off (due to a prior constraint). So, ...

Well, I'm currently sitting in my boxers in a Montreal hotel about to go to sleep. I spent most of the day either thinking about traveling, or actually traveling, so when I landed in Montreal at 7pm, I was a bit tired from the whole ordeal. Leaving a foreign country where the rules of leaving aren't really clearly defined is a bit stressful for me. The whole tourist card thing turned out to be not a big deal, and eventually I made it through customs and security. It's amazing how less anxious I become whenever I land back in Canada -- there's a certain comfort with knowing your bank card will ...

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 evening of ...

I woke up this morning feeling even worse than I did when I went to bed last night, so I bit the bullet and changed my flight -- I'll be coming home later this evening. If I'm to get any more sick, I definitely want it to be back in Canada where I can hit a clinic up and not have to worry about costs or insurance. I'm pretty sure I have health insurance down here through my work insurance, but I can't imagine the hassle with trying to actually use it. My car is at the airport, so I should be all set when I land. It works out well since I have a lens to return to Leo's camera in Vancouver. Since ...

On Friday, I met up briefly with Rebecca down at the Six Acres in Gastown for a few drinks on a patio. It was a good way to start a Friday afternoon, and since I had only woken up a few hours prior, I was definitely in the mood to drink and grab something to eat. Afterwards, we went down to the west-end for some pizza, and to hang out with John, who was busy playing with Dave Olsen's new microphone on his computer. A bunch of my new blogger-type friends (most of which I originally ran into down at Northern Voice) were down at DemoCamp the other day, but unfortunately I wasn't feeling up to venturing ...

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