As many people on Twitter know, after four months of traveling I am finally back at home in BC. I was originally going to fly back home on Thursday, but the combination of a friend of mine having a death in the family back home and the fact that I found a really cheap flight leaving Dublin on Sunday made me decide to head back a few days early. Sunday was a long day: I had an eight hour flight from Dublin to Chicago, a five hour layover, and then another four and a half hour flight to Vancouver. Chicago was bursting at the seems, and people were literally camped out in the hallways waiting for ...

It's a long weekend here in Canada, and I really had no plans. Originally, Rebecca, John and I were gonna go camping, but weather dictates that that's no longer an option. Rebecca and John decided to come hang out for the weekend, which is obviously awesome, since I don't get to hang out with them as much anymore. ...

It's around 4am, and I'm drafting this post on the couch, glancing up occasionally to watch a bit of Dances With Wolves on Apple TV. I'm on entry #15, which means I have about 33 left to go. I am already faltering a bit with regards to content, which I think is more of a result of my lack of sleep rather than my imagination. I'm hoping to actually post an entry or two in advance and grab a wink or two if possible. Otherwise I'll be forced to do nearly a 40 hour stretch without sleep, which I imagine will prove rather difficult come tomorrow night. John and Raul both left sometime ago, so I am ...

Me, Keira, Rebecca, John, and Amy Photo "Credit" by Keira Mellis -- Attribution by force ...

Rebecca and John swung by tonight for 2.25 L of wine drinking fun. Don't shake baby. Also, my hosting account over on another server basically expired. I did my best to move everyone's websites over, but turns out that it's rather difficult to change over DNS entries for websites you don't own. I tried my best though. ...

I've decided that I want to go snowboarding a few times this season, starting like right now. I'm definitely going to hit Seymour with Rebecca and John soon, but was wondering if any other of my crazy readers were hitting the slopes this year. If so, where do you normally go? I need people who kind of suck to go with, since I'm pretty much guaranteed to roll down most of the hills. Snowboard, photo by miss604 The good news is that I absolutely hate my powershot camera, and will happily bring it along with the hope that I will a) capture some great, funny moments of me falling and/or b) break ...

I first met Vancouver's own Miss604, Rebecca Bollwitt, last year at the Northern Voice blogging conference. I had checked out her blog occasionally, and I recognized her from photos both on her blog, and ones taken during Matthew Good's living room show last year. Being the social guy I am, and fueled by some liquid courage, I walked up to Rebecca (who was also on her way to acquire booze) and started chatting. Since that time, I have gotten to know Rebecca and John quite well, and am proud to call them both good friends of mine. Rebecca's blog is a witty ensemble of local Vancouver happenings, ...

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 ...

So tonight I felt like having a few drinks, so I pinged Rebecca online and asked if it was ok if I showed up with a bunch of booze. In pure Surrey girl fashion, she said "yeah sure." I spent the night hanging out with Rebecca and John, laughing my ass off to Canadian Top Models and some Comedy Show on the TV. I don't do simple things like that enough these days, and it's always nice just to relax on someone else's couch from time to time. While outside, we were privileged enough to see a weird naked girl across the street, plus a bunch of people in the highrise across the road who thought ...

Today I met a few people down at the Paramount Theatre to watch the new Transformers movie. Rebecca, John Bollwitt, John Biehler and a few others (from the Facebook group we set up) all showed up to hear the infamous "cho-choo-cho-choo" transformation sound, and see Optimus up on the big screen again. Rebecca Simpson, waiting to see the Transformers What we immediately commented on is that despite 21 people replying and saying they were coming, only seven or so showed up. After discussing it for a while, we sort of came to the conclusion that it's pretty easy to just accept an invitation ...

I have a wedding to shoot in a few short months, so I've been asking friends if they'd let me shoot them to get some practice. Today I met up with John, Keira and Rebecca for a quick photo walk in the park. To be honest, after doing this shoot, I think I feel comfortable shooting outside now. I sort of always assumed my 70-200mm f/2.8L lens would be pretty useless in poor lighting or in a wedding environment, but when I used it today with my speedlight, it was actually pretty awesome. Every time I pull that lens out of my bag and put it on (which isn't often enough I've decided), I'm completely ...

So tonight John and Rebecca stopped by for some moral support, and we spent the night hanging out, eating BBQ food, watching Trailer Park Boys, listening to music, and of course, having some drinks. It was a really awesome night, and I laughed enough that my face really, really hurts now. I'm definitely chewing two T3's before bed. I'll be spending the rest of the weekend close to home, watching movies and hopefully relaxing. ...