I really wish I had some really great things to write about. But the truth is, I didn’t really get up to much this weekend. I’ve been working on a pretty cool project at work, so I spent most of Friday night trying to lay the groundwork for it (yeah I know, real cool way to spend a Friday night, but oh well). Saturday night we went down the Global/Afterglow for Kate’s sister’s birthday party. That was a pretty fun time, even though the drinks were ridiculously overpriced (Derek’s martini was $15). I’m not really sure why, but I’ve been a bit bummed out lately. I’ve been trying ...

I was just reading that Sony has finally come out with a digital SLR of their own. At first I kind of scoffed at it, thinking that nobody really uses Sony these days (seems like everywhere I go someone has a Canon or Nikon SLR). However, reading the specs, it seems pretty impressive. I like the idea of putting the image stabilization in the camera body instead of on the lens. Canon charges quite a bit for the IS versions of several of its lenses, so it’s nice to know that Sony is a little smarter in this area. I’m not sure what the price point is for this new SLR, but it might be fun to check ...

I went to Hayz’s and Hanh’s house-warming party tonight. Their cat “toaster” took a real shine to me (when he wasn’t biting me)..? Here’s a shot of me and Toaster chilling near the bathroom: ? ...

Some of us met up at Jericho beach this afternoon for a quick game of ultimate, followed by some food on my portable BBQ.? It was a good time, and now I’m looking for somewhere to drink.. I’m sure I’ll be out on the town tonight, so drop me a line if you’re in the neighbourhood. ...

Last week, Tiffany invited me out to join her and Hanh for some karaoke down at the (yeah, that’s right) the legion. It actually wasn’t as bad as I thought, although the beer line was insanely long. Once we figured out how to ‘shorten’ the line, it was a far better evening. I didn’t get up the guts to go sing anything crazy, but maybe next time. Afterwards, Derek and I went to Tiffany’s place for an hour or so. Here’s a shot of me, right before I ate her budgie. Actually, I think the budgie was giving me a kiss. ...

Well, on Friday night Cole and Lexi came over for a sleep over. We hung out at my place, and then went down to Granville Cinemas to see Over the Hedge. I have to say, that’s the one saving grace for movies these days — that the animated shows still have heart and soul. I couldn’t believe what amazing scenes I was seeing, even though it was completely computer generated. It makes a typical Hollywood look so dismal in comparison. Here’s a shot of Lexi hanging out at my place. ...

So, this weekend I decided to leave the city life behind and join my dad and Cathy for a few days in the wilderness down south.? The destination was a little place along the ocean called Fort Casey, near Deception Pass, Washington.? I had a great time, consuming an ample amount of alcoholic beverages, and sitting by the fire. Unfortunately, the one major downside to travelling to the United States is having to go through customs on both sides.? No matter how many times I cross, or how many stamps I have in my passport, I always get grilled pretty hard.? It’s gotten worse now that I have a decent ...

I’m now the proud owner of my first L-series lens: the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L. I’m just charging my 20D now, and then I’m heading out for a couple hours of shooting to see what this puppy can do (or can’t do maybe). Look for a few pictures later tonight or tomorrow. Update — I’m back, and I took some photos.. I found out that flickr doesn’t support the Adobe colour profile, which is why alot of my photos end up looking washed out on there.. I’m going to have to start shooting in sRGB again I think. ...

I went for a quick walk after that 70’s show finished. I managed to grab a few shots of the sun going down, and after, walked barefoot in the sand for a while. ...

About 18 months ago, I picked up the Canon EOS 20D to replace my dying Canon Powershot camera. Stepping up from a point and shoot to a digital SLR was a pretty big step for me at the time, since I had never even really used an SLR camera before. I made a rookie mistake when I got it, and instead of buying a nice lens to go onto it, I picked up a cheap Sigma zoom lens. I spent the first few weeks completely disappointed with my camera, thinking that my point and shoot pictures were nearly as good as the ones coming off my SLR. After reading the newsgroups, I basically figured out that I needed ...

Well, the whole no-drinking-for-thirty-days effort came to a crashing halt late last night as Derek, Chris, Alex, Dustin and myself managed to get ourselves pretty wrecked.? It started as a simple “just one drink, it won’t kill you,” and finished sometime around 4am as I passed out on the couch.? The good news is that I didn’t break from low carbing, so I should still be on track. I think the whole no-drinking effort was fundamentally flawed from the start.? That being said, I’m going to try and limit my drinking during week nights I think. ...

So I woke up this morning, and slowly made my way to Chilliwack so that I could hang out with my mom and grandma on Mother’s Day. It was a beautiful day for a drive through the Fraser Valley, hovering between about 20C near Vancouver to about 26C in Chilliwack. After visiting mom and baba, I went with Amanda, Andie and the kids to Cultus Lake to relax near the water for a while. Cultus Lake is easily my favourite campground in North America. I realize that I’m probably biased, since I grew up near Cultus, but having been up and down the East and West coasts of North America, I haven’t found ...

I went to the Compact Sports Car show at BC Place stadium today with Brennen and Dave. I had never been to a car show before, if you can really call it that. The focus seems to be more on the car-models than the cars themselves. It was a pretty good time though, and I got lots of cool shots with Dave and Brennen. ...

I picked up a new cell phone the other day — the Samsung a920. This thing is pretty cool because it has a build in mp3 player, and a 1.3 MP digital camera. The best part is that it’s possible to post the photos right from the digital camera into my flickr account, so I can take photos on the fly and have them show up on my blog. Pretty cool if you ask me. Here’s a sample shot taken of my desk at work (yeah I know I need to clean it). I haven’t figured out how to make it send the original image (it seems to scale it down all the time), but it’s a neat feature regardless. ...

So, I’ve recently had a revelation about technology. Walking around Vancouver, I’ve been amazed at how much our society depends on technology. Computers, cell phones, MP3 players, iPods, TVs, DVDs.. These things are all great. But as I walked around Vancouver yesterday I realized one thing: we have all this great technology to help us, but none of it %*( works. I woke up in the morning and decided to go for a short walk and listen to some music. I left my apartment, and then proceeded to wait 10 minutes to grab one of three elevators (two of which were out of service). I walked down the street, ...

Well, I took a day off from CounterPath today to get caught up on sleep, and to catch up on all my errands. I spent the morning doing my taxes, and then had a nice lunch on Granville Island with my mom and Marty. After lunch, I headed back to my place via the little ferry, put on my walking shoes, and went for a long walk. I’m about half way through cooking up a nice BBQ chicken, and then I think I’m going to head to the gym. All in all, it’s been a very relaxing day.. I also started thinking about what I want to do this summer for a vacation. I’m pretty sure I’d like to do the Oregon ...

Well, after nearly three weeks, I’m finally back home.. I left April 14th for Tokyo, Japan, bounced through Vancouver on April 24th, landed in San Francisco on April 25th, and finally arrived in Vancouver late last night.. Man am I tired.. But wow, what an amazing trip. I have never been off the continent before, and it was really amazing going to a completely different place, both geographically and culturally. Thankfully, I don’t have any trips planned, since I’m completely exhausted.. But who knows, in another month or two maybe it will be time to fly again. As you might have noticed, ...

Well, Dragos, Cheung and I did some serious customer support down in the bay area for the last 8 days.. All in all, it was a pretty good trip, but it was 12 – 14 hour days pretty much the whole time, which didn’t leave much room for relaxing. ...