Tonight I ended up down at the Paramount theatre in Vancouver for a premiere of Cloverfield. For those of you who keep up with such things, Cloverfield has been somewhat of a mystery, relying mainly on word of mouth and a few minutes of raw footage released as a trailer for promotional means.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
Going into the movie, I basically expected something similar to the Blair Witch Project, and for the most part, that's exactly what I got. Granted there are a few more effects in this movie, and it is set in the heart of Manhattan, but for the most part it's just the regurgitation of ...
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 ...
In about 30 minutes, the beach photowalk near my place is going to begin. It turned out to be a rather nice day with some ideal light, so hopefully there will be a pile of great shots taken. The challenge always for me is figuring out what lens to bring and what exactly I want to shoot. I haven't shot film in quite a while, so I loaded some 160VC portrait film in my one camera and put my wide angle on it, and will bring my 70-200mm f/2.8L for doing some portraits near the water. I'm just making some coffee and making sure my cameras are good to go, then heading downstairs to meet people.
I'll ...
Last night, Rebecca and Trevor told me about the sex show this weekend taking place at the Vancouver Convention Center. Since I've never been to one, and haven't had an opportunity to take my camera out in a few weeks, I decided to head down and check it out.
Live Entertainment
In terms of layout and logistics, it was like any other tech conference I had ever been at. There were tons of booths, some of which made sense given the aim of the sex show, and some which obviously shouldn't have been there. One that comes to mind is Sun Life Financial in the back corner. Seriously, do you really expect ...
I have attended a few photowalks in the last year, most of which have been in or around the Gastown area. These events have typically brought together anywhere from 5 to 50 people, and have usually involved people walking around and snapping shots for an hour or two. They are a lot of fun, and always a great chance for people to improve their skills or just get out and stretch their wings a bit.
I'm organizing one down in my neck of the woods for this Sunday. It will be mostly along the beach, eventually ending up near English Bay and the famous Inukshuk. Hopefully we'll even manage to catch a ...
A few minutes ago, I took the last of the foul-tasting, side-effect inducing crud that I started nearly four weeks ago. The last few days have been particularly hard, and I've found myself extremely tired, have had a metallic taste in my mouth, and also a fairly bad migraine. While most of my family played board games tonight, I was forced to retire to the couch in the other room and attempt to out-sleep my pounding head.
168 little antibiotic goodies
The Last 2 Out Of 168 Pills
Hopefully in the next day or so, as the drug leaves my system, I'll start feeling alot like my old self again. I should ...
Being a single guy, every once and a while I find myself reading the personal ads in Vancouver. I used to do it thinking that there was the possibility of meeting someone online, at least someone with similar interests and what not to hang out and be friends, but it's pretty clear most of the people on those sites these days just aren't really the caliber of people I'm looking for. I actually met one of my girlfriends on lavalife years ago, and we hit it off and are still friends to this day, so I don't think it's completely unheard of (although people back then used to seem a bit more real on ...
Chad's party last weekend was the first of the Christmas bashes, but they are coming hard and fast starting tomorrow. I just picked up a new pair of dress pants and my altered jacket from the tailor, and tomorrow I'm spiffing it all out down on Granville Island. There should be a small little pre-party at my pad near False Creek, and then a small little ferry ride over to Bridges, which is a fairly nice seafood restaurant right on the edge of the marina. Kasia won't be coming to my place beforehand because she apparently needs a gazillion hours to get ready before hand, so we'll just have to manage ...
Last night I made the long trek out of the downtown core and ended up near Metrotown, which surprisingly isn't as far away as I imagined. Chad has a really nice pad out there, complete with an outdoor deck that would be just killer for summer parties and BBQing.
Chad has a tradition at his party where everyone has to pick a decoration for the tree, and then proceed to make love to it somehow. Not sure how this came to be, but everyone eagerly began licking and kissing their decorations.
After everyone had hit the beers in the fridge, Chad promptly dove straight into his massive scotch collection ...
Tonight I went down to the Republic to partake in the second Launch Party. It's basically a mixer for technology enthusiasts, and an opportunity for a few startups to showcase their new products.
There were about 150 people that probably showed up, and it got rather tight and cramped at times, but it was cool meeting a lot of the people involved, and hanging out with a few old friends.
The Sxip Girls
I'm still on some drugs, so I refrained from drinking, which was actually rather nice in a way since I spent $0 at the function tonight.
Maura On Television
I'm not really sure why the TV people ...
Tomorrow night Tonight there is a Vancouver technology mixer down at the trendy night club Republic on Granville Street. I haven't been out to one of these in a long time, mainly because I've been feeling a bit under the weather for the last few months, but I think I'm going to check it out tomorrow.
Launch Party recently launched a new website, and if you look very, very closely, you may recognize the header image on it :)
So, hopefully I'll still feel like heading out tomorrow. I will be good to catch up with some old tech friends and see what's new. Plus, it gives me an excuse to go buy a new ...
Vancouver, being a coastal city surrounded by mountains, has one of the most moderate climates in all of Canada. The average temperature in the summer probably hovers around 20C or so, and in the winter, rarely drops below 0C. Last time I checked, only one out of every five Christmases in Vancouver is white.
And despite the relatively warm temperatures here, walking the streets of this city in winter you'll see the homeless struggling to keep warm, often forced to cover themselves with newspapers, cardboard boxes, or whatever damp clothing can be found in the dumpsters. Every night, they find ...
For those of you who don't know, the Internet Engineering Task Force is a group of people that ultimately decide the technologies that will ultimately be engrained into the internet. UDP, TCP, SSL, HTTP - these are all examples of technologies that were originally put through the IETF before becoming standards.
Next week, the 70th IETF meeting will be hosted here in Vancouver. A bunch of people from our company usually participate in the sessions, and I might swing by and check out what's new and exciting. One of the best parts about meetings like this is that it brings together a bunch of the ...
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. ...
Today was a long, dreary day. I didn't get home until around 9:30pm, and barely had enough strength to pound back some left-over lasagna. I was really looking forward to sitting back and watching heroes tonight, but mininova was down and my internet connection turned out to be pretty flaky. Today was officially full of fail.
I've not been feeling myself lately, and I don't really know why. Maybe it's the weather, maybe it's because I'm still battling an infection, maybe it's lots of things, but I find myself pretty bummed out the last few days. One thing that's been bothering me lately is that ...
After work I swung by the Alibi room in Gastown to help celebrate Jeremy Crowle's birthday. I was a bit tired from this whole week so didn't end up staying out super late, but I managed to drink a few rum and diet cokes and buy Jer a beer.
There's another party tonight that I was invited to, but I'm not sure if I'll hit that. I think I really need a nice night inside with some movies. I have to hit the airport in a sec and drop my friend Hesty off for the start of his vacation. After that I'll probably check out the Eastside Culture Crawl with some friends.
Also, Rebecca and John are currently ...
Last night I met up with Rebecca and John for some drinks at Fogg 'N Sudds on Robson Street. It's pretty much tradition with those two to watch any weekend hockey games down there, and whenever I can, I swing by to sample their fish bowl high ball drinks.
Afterwards, we all went over to Trevor's house and sat around drinking wine. Trevor has a pretty cool penthouse apartment in the West End with a great view of Vancouver.
Me and Rebecca, Drinking
And here's a shot of John before the sleep fairy came and took him away:
Good times.
Tonight I have a birthday to go to in Kitsilano, and then tomorrow ...
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 ...