Tag: friends Posts

I just saw some great new work from Giant Ant Media, and wanted to share one of the videos here. It’s great watching Jay and Leah slowly dominate the world. Good job guys! You can check out a few more over on Jay’s blog.

Gillian Shaw had a great article today in the Vancouver Sun about what it means to unplug nowadays. I think as the penetration of computers, especially mobile internet, continues to spread, it’s going to be more and more relevant. Without a doubt, I think people spend way too much time online these days. In fact, if anyone is guilty of that, it’s me. I was recently trying to think of memories from before the Twitter and Facebook eras, trying to remember what I used to spend most of my time doing. I remember having a lot of nice dinners with my ex, and also going for long walks from time to time. And while I try to power down the gadgets in the evening, I know without a doubt that disconnecting even further will ultimately make me a bit happier. I’ve had many jobs where the expectation is that everyone […]

I just got home from dropping Dale and Patrick off at the Abbotsford airport. Without a doubt, it was a great visit, and it was good to catch up with both of them. As I mentioned previously, this last weekend was the last item on my radar for the foreseeable future. This last summer was extremely busy — I attended two out of town conferences, and it seemed like I was bouncing in and out of the city on a routine basis. Given that I moved into my new place here in January, it’s only recently that I’ve found the chunk of time necessary to finally unpack. We’re also been extremely busy at BraveNewCode, and Dale and I have both been feeling a bit worn out these last few weeks. Over the next few months, I’m going to be purposefully taking some personal time out from things. One thing that’s […]

Two of my friends, Dale and Patrick, are currently out from Ontario visiting. For the most part, it’s been a university type weekend, filled with late movie nights and copious amounts of beer. We’ve also been eating for six people, even though we’re only three, thanks mainly in part to Patt’s love of cooking. On Saturday we woke up in the morning and decided it was such a nice day that we’d head down to Stanley park for a few hours. We ended up on the patio at Lift, drinking a few beers around their outdoor fire pit. Jump ahead a few hours later and we found ourselves visiting a friend in the suite of a local downtown hotel. We really didn’t plan anything in Vancouver, since we were only planning on hanging out for a few hours, but decided afterwards to head over to our friend Chad’s house in […]

The tendency for a body at rest to stay at rest, and for a body in motion to stay in motion. Two important states, to be sure. For me, I find myself bouncing between those two states from time to time, often as a result of some cycle I’m trying to break. Most of the time, that cycle for me starts with lack of sleep, and progresses into this weird state of limbo where I’m constantly feeling unhealthy. The last time I felt I totally got away from it was back in May, back when I was going to the gym routinely and eating meals at home the majority of the time. I’m close to getting back there, but lately I’ve had a pretty hard time getting a good night’s rest. Last night I felt pretty bagged at around 9pm, so I crawled into bed. At around 2am I was […]

I just finished booking my flight to WordCamp Portland, so I figured now was a good time to write a post about it. I was a co-organizer for two WordCamp Vancouver events, as well as one up in Whistler, but strangely enough I haven’t actually spoken at a WordCamp for almost about two years now. So having me up front should make for some interesting entertainment. I’ll be speaking on mobile blogging, with an emphasis on our WPtouch plugin. I’ll probably also talk a bit about mobile blogging in general, similarly to what I talked about at the Network Hub a few years ago. If I have time, I’ll probably also touch on the WordPress iPhone application a bit, and whatever else in the mobile sphere I can find. Matt Mullenweg will also be holding a town-hall type of event where the audience can ask a bunch of WordPress questions, […]

Yesterday I went down to Friday Harbor and hung out with my friend Lynn. I hadn’t been to Friday Harbor since I was about 17 or so, so it was definitely cool to go back. There wasn’t as much there to do as I thought there would be, but Lynn and I managed to find a few watering holes to hang out in and observe the locals for a while. “Chap-man” pretty much took the weirdo cake, but there were lots of runners up. It was great catching up with Lynn again too, since we hadn’t had a chance to hang out for over two years now. In addition, the weather was nearly perfect, and reminded me of a nice warm autumn day. I’ve come to realize these last few years that summer is probably my least favorite season. Sure, sitting up on the beach with a book or a […]

I get the odd inquiry about the work involved in organizing a conference, particularly a WordCamp. Rebecca, John and I have organized several WordCamps, but WordCamp Whistler was undoubtedly the hardest of the bunch, mainly because none of us had the opportunity to assess the location until the night before. While the event was really successful in my mind (the speakers were great, the staff at the Fairmont were helpful, and everyone I talked to felt that they got good value from the event), in retrospect I might have organized something a bit more local. The costs associated with the event kept ballooning over time, and it was extremely stressful near the end when we were operating the event in the red, especially since I was basically bankrolling the event myself. We were forced to raise ticket prices at the end higher than I had wanted, simply to recoup some […]

I’m pretty close to wrapping up a few projects here, so much so that I’m half packed already for my upcoming road trip. Until this afternoon, I hadn’t really decided what I was going to do for a little break, but after talking to a few people, decided to hit the open road and see where it takes me. It’s more of a working vacation to be honest, as I still have a few client projects to do, but I plan to do them from beside the pool at a KOA, or little coffee shops near the ocean somewhere. I’ve been up and down the West Coast quite a few times now, so it’s a drive I’m familiar with. But every trip is a little different, and I usually meet lots of people at every campground I end up at. My friend Lynn lives in Seattle, and I haven’t seen […]

While in Cancun back in March, Dale and I had a pretty drunken discussion on our hotel patio, not really about anything, but at the same time, a conversation about everything. We talked a bit about politics, a bit about spirituality, about the past, and about the future. Jump ahead three months, and here I am, on my own patio, drinking a rum and diet coke, surrounded by green tomatoes, looking up at the stars that were absent from my life for the last five years, thinking back on my first five months back home. Yesterday I drove out to Surrey to hang out at a brew pub with some friends. Afterwards, I decided to give my old friend Harveen a call, a friend who was pretty much instrumental in my survival through university, and yet a friend I hadn’t talked to in about two years. Despite having gone through […]