As most people already know, I am a big fan of camping. I'm not really sure why to be honest, but there's something about being in the wilderness with nothing but a bit of nylon between you and the outdoors that I've always found appealing. Maybe it started years ago when my dad and I used to crash out in his camper when I was a kid. Maybe it was all those trips I did with Brennen and Jeff in the old days. Needless to say, it's one of the things about summer I always look forward to. Last summer was unique -- it was the only summer in ages where I looked back and actually felt like I did enough ...

I gotta say -- I'm fairly amazed that it's still snowing on the west coast. I woke up to a white coating on the local mountains and houses here. I actually spent a few years living in Ottawa, and one of the reasons I came back was because the weather was so much warmer out here. But this is without a doubt one of the craziest winters I can remember. Cultus Lake provincial park is only a few weeks away from opening, so it's pretty incredible that we're still plagued by this cold snap. I sure hope we're privileged enough to have an extra warm summer as payback for this dismal winter. Anyone have ...

Hat Tip: Sara Lang. ...

I've been toying with this rather amazing idea for the last few years. I'm going to toss this out there, because I'm rather fond of it. The Vancouver technology scene is rather impressive. Almost every week there's a really awesome event taking place that brings together some great minds. I can't tell you how much I've learned from my peers in the last few years. Given that we all take time out to get together and discuss technology, I always thought it would be fun to all go somewhere all together. Sort of like a less formal SxSW, but with more of an unconference component. So here's what I imagine. ...

Well, thus marks the end of my first two-week vacation stint. This vacation saw me bounce from San Francisco, to Los Angeles, back up to Vancouver, to a Matthew Good show, then to the North Cascades, up to Whistler, and then back home. Not bad for just over two weeks. Golden Gate Bridge, taken during my trip It was great getting to hang out with my sister, brother-in-law, and their two kids down in Disneyland. Despite only being an hour and a bit away, I don't get a chance to head home that often. Plus, I haven't really spent much time with my niece and nephew (although I was there in Chilliwack ...

Wow, it feels like I've been disconnected from the Internet for a very long time. I spent today somewhere between Los Angeles and San Diego, hanging out at Legoland with my family. I actually wasn't really sure what to expect, given that I haven't really been into lego in a long time. But the good news is that Legoland was a lot of fun, and it was a nice change from the line-ups and the pace of Disneyland. Also, Legoland was near the water, and was a nice change from the hot weather down in Anaheim. Jessica, taking a break at Legoland. My nephew Derek spent about $150 on Lego in Legoland, and ...

Ok, ok. I'll take a break from writing about the iPhone. But business has been great lately - my traffic has nearly doubled in the last few days. Not like I really pay attention to those things, but it's pretty clear when there's a big prolonged spike -- clearly people are excited about the iPhone. To be honest, while talking about web traffic, I'm actually surprised mine has stayed up. I used to host all my plugins here and sort of assumed when I finally moved them over to BraveNewCode that alot of my traffic would disappear. But for whatever reason, my traffic has actually increased quite a ...

As I mentioned in my last post, my mind is starting to drift towards a vacation sometime in the next two or three months. I'm thinking about overlapping it with a trip I'm making in June to Disneyland (to hang out with some of my family who will be there). Here are a few ideas: Vancouver -> Los Angeles -> Costa Rica: I loved Costa Rica when I was there, and it might be cool to head back and rent a little place on the beach for a week. The flights for the entire trip are about $1000 right now. Not bad for five flight segments. Vancouver -> Los Angeles -> Cancun: I've actually never ...

I rarely dream, or remember them at least. Last night however, I had one of the best nights of dreaming in a long time. Most of them were a bit messed up, and a few of them were of the past. I woke up at around 5am this morning actually feeling like it was about ten years ago based on some dreams I was having. That's a strange feeling. Then, at 6am, the fire alarm went off, so I spent the first few minutes trying to find something to wear downstairs, and then evetually stumbled down 15 flights of stairs in some jeans, I think. Thankfully the cute girl from 14 was there too in her jammies, so I ...

Wow.. I'm beat. I made the mistake of staying up late last night, thinking that I would be tired enough to pass out and get a few hours. Unfortunately, I hardly slept at all last night, and am at the airport, completely bagged. It's 5:50am, and I have another 40 minutes before the plane boards. Clearly I was a bit tired last night as well, since I drove all the way to my landlord's house to drop off six checks that I somehow made out in the wrong amount on all of them (something that wasn't discovered until I got all the way back home);. Thankfully, I brought along a mild sedative, and as soon ...

I had a few people over sort of on a whim last night, and we all sat around listening to music and enjoying Christmas nachos. I'm not sure if this is officially year two or year three for the nachos, but I've been trying to up the ante each year to see if I can outdo myself. They Almost Don't Fit I had a few Christmas decorations sitting around in boxes, so we all took turns throwing a few up on the tree. Keira helped herself to R2-D2, and I think I got stuck with Yoda. Good times. Only five more days of work and then I'm off for a while. I'm getting excited about heading back home for a few ...

I got a call from Canon today about my lens with water vapour in it. They verdict: completely unfixable. To be honest, I'm a bit pissed off. When I shipped it out to them, I followed it up with a call telling them it was rather urgent, and they needed to get to it first since it concerned water damage. The lady on the phone told me they were 5 days behind, and there was nothing she could do. Anyways, when they finally get to it, it was corroded inside and not worth fixing. The replacement cost of the new lens is around $1600, so I'm going to be submitting my first ever insurance claim. The shitty ...

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 ...

This is, unfortunately, my last full day at the resort. Tomorrow I get to wake up, pack my bags, and start the long journey back to Vancouver. While this place is really pretty amazing, I always get a bit excited whenever I get on a plane that's heading for home. I get into Montreal tomorrow evening, and will be staying overnight in a nice hotel near the airport. While the rooms here are fairly nice, the beds are unanimously hard and I haven't had the best sleeps. Hopefully the bed in the Hilton is nice and soft so I can get a really great sleep tomorrow night. I was originally going to have ...

To be honest, I'm not such a big fan of pre-arranged adventures at resorts. I've been on a few, and most of them are pretty basic and you kind of feel like it wasn't money well spent. However, I heard a lot of good things about the safari adventure, so I decided to check it out for the low price of $60 USD. We left the resort at 9am, and proceeded to head into the lush Dominican Countryside. It was absolutely gorgeous, full of rolling hills, lush green vegetation, and a ton of friendly Dominican people. The safari jeep was loaded to the brim of soft drinks and booze, and nobody had an empty glass ...

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Thankfully the clouds are overhead today, because yesterday was absolutely insanely hot. So hot in fact, that most people didn't even hang out by the pool bar. I'm pretty much all pooled out I think, so I'm going to find something else to do today. I'll probably walk down to the Plaza and book an excursion or two. They have an all-day catamaran trip to a remote island (with an open bar I might add) that sounds fairly appealing, as well as a safari trip to a waterfall you can swim in. Talking to people around here, it sounds like nearly everyone has had a lackluster summer back home, so don't ...

This will be a short entry, but I just wanted to say how great this place is. The people I've met have been super friendly, and the weather is pretty amazing. I took a pile of photos yesterday from around the pool. Unfortunately, upon waking up this morning, I've encountered some fairly serious camera problems. The first is that my DLSR body refuses to turn on now. It was working last night when I went to sleep, but now it just refuses to do anything. I suspect that due to the heat and humidity it's being stubborn, but it's not looking good right now. The other serious issue is that my 70-200mm ...

Well here I am, in the Dominican Republic, taking a quick break from drinking to write a small blog entry here. This is the first time in quite a while where I've just relaxed and been content with reading. Last night I tried to use the wireless internet here, but it wasn't working. And as soon as I learned it wasn't, I almost felt a bit anxious. And that's when I realized just how important it is that I just put the computer away this trip, and enjoy my time by the pool. So, I doubt I'll do more than a quick blog entry a day, most likely in the morning on my way to breakfast. The weather here ...

The first thing to note is that I cannot seem to find my little Canon camera, and it's the one I took all the photos with at Rob and Anna's wedding. So while I'm pretty sure it will turn up, unfortunately I do not have any photos to go with this entry :( Oh well. The wedding was quite lovely, and it was absolutely great to hang out with old friends again. It was a bit shocking to me to remember just how good some of these friends were. I guess my time back in Vancouver has sort of dulled my memory of what Ottawa life was like, but I received a lot of hugs and a lot of people went out of their ...