About two months ago I was packing up my items in Buenos Aires, getting ready to fly to New York City and then to Europe. I've been out in Port Coquitlam now for almost a month and am pretty much back into the swing of my normal routine here. I've been thinking quite a bit about the summer, and of course what my plans are after that. Everything is still up in the air, but here's how I think things will shape out. I've been planning for quite some time to take most of July and August off. I have a few little personal side projects to work on as well as some house keeping items over at BNC, but ...

For those of you following along on my great Twitter adventure know, I recently purchased a new bike and am trying to get out and get some exercise from time to time. Prior to leaving for Argentina I was actually going to the gym about four or five times a week, but didn't really get much exercise (other than massaging my liver from time to time) while I was away. Despite what many people think, exercise really only has a moderate affect on weight loss, if any at all. In fact, almost every proper study ever done that tests the hypothesis whether or not exercise leads to weight loss is inconclusive. ...

This upcoming weekend is the 2011 incarnation of Northern Voice. I went to my first Northern Voice back in 2007 and met so many great and inspirational people. In actuality, that event was the catalyst that started me playing with WordPress and meeting some of the people that I now call my close friends. Since I lived out in Chilliwack during last year's Northern Voice I didn't get a chance to catch it all, but I swung by for an hour or so and said hello to some friends. This year I should I live a lot closer and will be there on both Friday and Saturday checking out the various sessions, and ...

As everyone in Vancouver now knows, Derek Miller passed away Tuesday evening and his final blog post, written before his death, was published online first thing in the morning. When I first read the post, I did so thinking it was an actual update from a living Derek, and had to read it twice before it sunk in on me that he was actually gone. I never knew Derek Miller before cancer. The first time I heard his name was at Northern Voice in 2007 I believe, and a few people organized a video to be created to eventually be shown to Derek. It wasn't until a social event at BarCamp that I actually got ...

Well, the results are in and Harper has somehow secured a majority government. I'm actually surprised that they obtained a majority, mainly due to vote of no-confidence in parliament, but this is how it all played out. In all honesty, I can definitely handle the conservatives winning, but I find it odd that Harper is still allowed to lead the party. At the very least you would think the conservative party would remove Harper as the figurehead based on the previous allegations against him and the vote of no-confidence. But given that Harper's government renovated the Parliament Buildings and replaced ...

As everyone now knows, Osama Bin Laden was killed tonight in what was apparently a US led mission in Pakistan. I watched the entire media surrounding the event unfold, starting with Twitter, moving to some news agencies such as the New York Times, and finally culminating in President Obama's speech regarding the death of Osama Bin Laden. In truth, I found it hard to watch. While I am happy that all the families who were affected by September 11th finally have closure, I find it hard to celebrate the death of any one individual. Maybe it's because I think most wars are pointless, like I thought ...

I remember taking a summer off from UBC one year and heading back to Chilliwack. At the time gas was sitting at around 39 cents per litre. It's hard to imagine that it's only been around ten years since then and gas is now hovering at around 140 cents a litre in the Vancouver area. To put that into context, the $60 I spend filling up my car would have cost around $16 back then. In fact, now that I'm back in the Vancouver area, it's not lost on me just how expensive it is to own and operate a car. I have a 2006 Mazda 3 Sport that I own outright. My insurance runs me around $135 a month through ...

Back when I was 18, my mom asked me what I wanted as a present for successfully completing high school with honours. My friend Matt at the time had just started playing guitar, so I decided at that moment I too wanted to be a guitar player. A few weeks later we found ourselves down in Tom Lee music in Vancouver, and my mom purchased my first guitar for me, a Fender Stratocaster. Since that time I've probably gone through three or four acoustic guitars, each time upping the ante in terms of cost and quality. That said, most of the guitars I've used over the years have been fairly unremarkable, ...

There's a new kid on the block in terms of Vancouver WordPress conferences, and that kid's name is WordCamp:Developers. Unlike previous incarnations of WordCamp in the Vancouver area, WordCamp:Developers will have less content about the beginner aspects of WordPress (like the difference between .com and .org, which comes up at many conferences) and more content about advanced aspects of WordPress, such as development. As many people know, I've helped organize three WordCamp conferences in the Vancouver area. The first was a small WordCamp Vancouver that was attached to BarCamp (which is no longer ...

I moved into my summer home yesterday with John and have slowly started getting settled. Most of my bedding is stuck in the back of my storage locker, but considering that I only have a duvet and some sheets stored I decided to simply buy a new bed set. So yesterday I went out and bought a bed in a bag from the new Walmart out in Chilliwack. Since then I've dropped about $250 on both groceries and a few new kitchen toys, including a slow cooker. I had a slow cooker a long time ago but never used it, mostly because I had no idea what to do in the kitchen at the time. I still have a lot to learn, ...

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 ...

I'm currently sitting in the Edinburgh airport in Scotland sipping on a rather expensive $6 diet coke while waiting for my flight to Dublin. I haven't done a post on the economy in a while, so I figured it was about time. Lots is going on down south, none of it is good. Last weekend the US government came close to a shutdown due to the fact that they hit their congressionally approved debt ceiling. While it's been raised previously, there's growing concern that the US debt is at the point of no return. As a result politicians on both sides are trying to get both sides to agree to cuts. Unfortunately ...

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, ...

I've been going pretty much non-stop since last Wednesday. It's hard for me to believe that less than a week ago I was sitting in the airport in Buenos Aires getting ready to leave. Since then I've flown for 15 hours, been molested in Houston airport, and spent five days bouncing around New York City with my friend. Leaving Buenos Aires Before leaving Canada I managed to pick up a prescription of Ativan to help with airplane anxiety. I actually have a mild-phobia of hurtling through the atmosphere in a huge pressurized cylinder. I don't let my fear stop me, but I get extremely anxious during high ...

I'll probably do a summary post on Buenos Aires the night when I leave, but this is my last weekly update from Buenos Aires. My little widget says that I'm leaving my apartment in four days, at which point I'll be migrating to a hotel for my final night. I've been trying to get my landlord to commit to a time to do the final walkthrough so I can get my damage deposit, but he hasn't responded to me. I'm not worried, since I do hold the keys and he can't really rent it until he gets them back from me. But it would be nice to have that all in place for peace of mind. I'll send another email in a ...

So, I've lost track of how many days that I've been here. I was originally coming for something like 87 days, so it must be near day 80 or so. As the title of the post says, I'm down to only 8 days left. I spent the weekend down in Ushuaia, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world. I had a great time, and was almost sad to leave when the time came. Staying in a hostel was a great experience, and I always had people around. Compared to Buenos Aires, where I work mostly solo during the weeks, it was nice to have some company around again, even if for a few days. I'll do a full trip review as ...

While I technically am leaving for Ushuaia in two days, for all intents and purposes (due to the early nature of my flight), I basically leave tomorrow evening. I'm excited about Ushuaia for lots of reasons. First, the weather is a lot colder down there compared to Buenos Aires. The high on Thursday is 9C, and the low is 6C. That's almost what the weather is like back home in Vancouver as well. While a lot of people like really hot climates, I'm not really one of them. I would rather be too cold than too hot - you can always put another shirt on, but if you're already sweating and not wearing ...

Next weekend I'm off to visit the southern most city in the entire world, Ushuaia, Argentina. From there, many people hop on a cruise ship and head down to Antarctica. It's an expensive trip to Antarctica, starting at around $5,000 a person, but spending a day or two visiting one of the most remote parts of the world is apparently well worth the price. I will not be visiting Antarctica, but I will be visiting the Antarctica Hostel, located close to the Beagle Channel and in the shadow of the tail end of the Andes mountain range. Ushuaia will obviously be the most south I've ever been in the world, ...

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 like ...

As many people know, I'll be heading to Europe right after my trip to New York City. I officially arrive in Ireland on April 6th, and will be spending the next few weeks around the United Kingdom. Europe is expensive, there's no doubt about it. Most hotels are around $150 a night for anything decent, and many hostels get bad reviews for what they charge. Since I've been living pretty cheaply in Argentina, I'm going to live it up a bit in April. Ireland was definitely on the schedule, as was London (briefly, as I've been there before) and Paris. But given that I had a full week to kill in the ...