So as the sun went down over downtown this evening, I thought it might be a neat idea to try and make a HDR panorama. I’ve done this a few times using my PC, but never using my new Macbook Pro. I took a series of 20 shots and merged them together using the Mac panorama software DoubleTake. Afterwards, I created the final HDR using Photomatix. Here’s the end result. The HDR process went smoothly, but DoubleTake did a rather poor job of aligning the images. Part of the reason may have been that it thought the focal length of my lens was 26mm, even though it actually was a 17mm lens. However, ...

Neil, a friend of ours who we have worked with for the last three years or so, decided it was time to move on and has taken a new job in West Palm Beach, Florida. Last night we all got together at his place to have a few drinks and say goodbye to our pal. Good luck Neil. ...

Ever since my injury in November, I have spent quite a bit of time in hospitals, doctor’s offices, and medical clinics. Part of those visits usually involves some interaction with medical students. And while I’m certain that there really are good medical students out there who are passionate about helping people and eager to learn more in their field, almost every single medical student I’ve encountered has been both arrogant and misinformed, a deadly combination when you’re trying to help people who are sick or have undergone significant trauma. My first encounter came sometime around ...

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First, I have to apologize for my lack of interesting blog entries lately. I have a few on my mind that I might get around to writing this weekend, hopefully some of which will be informational and humourous. I spent tonight walking down the beach with my camera snapping photos. The sunset photo below was one of a few that I ended up liking. One thing that I’ve noticed lately is that everyone I know that uses flickr, including me, seems to be on a bit of a break. I used to log in every night and see tons of new photos from everyone. Now, I can go days without seeing any changes in photos from ...

For some reason, as this weekend approaches, I find myself yearning to get in the car and simply disappear for a few days.. I’m actually in a really good mood, just with the sun shining and the air warming, I feel like going on a little road trip. The only problem is that I don’t really want to blow a lot of money. I have no problem camping if I have to, but I’m looking for somewhere to go that’s not more than a three or four hour drive. Anyone have any suggestions? ...

This is without a doubt one of the most horrible things I have read in a while. Watcharaporn Boonmak, 26, was ambushed by gunmen as she rode her motorcycle through a Muslim village in Yala, one of the three southern provinces roiled by three years of separatist insurgency in which more than 2,000 people have been killed. “She might have been shot in the stomach before they set fire to her and her motorcycle,” a Yala police officer, who asked to remain anonymous, told Reuters by telephone. One of her relatives told Reuters that witnesses at the scene heard Watcharaporn, a garage clerk, screaming ...

So, I was reading my buddy Joey’s website when I stumbled across a recent article of his. It shows a video of him riding a bike when he was a kid, and of course, in typical kid fashion, hurting himself. When I saw this, I was reminded of a similar accident I had when I was a kid. My sister tied my wagon onto the back of her bike and was pulling me up and down Wiltshire street in Chilliwack. I was having a great time, probably because I was wearing my bright green boots and my tacky overalls. Out of nowhere, my sister hits the brakes. Unfortunately, the wagon didn’t have any way to stop, so ...

I’m a gadget whore, plain and simple. If you were to come into my apartment, you would probably be surprised how many useless techie gadgets I have. From my iPod stereo adapter to my Satellite radio in my car, I just love things the beep and glow. This isn’t a recent development either — when I was a kid, my parents always made sure I had some type of computer around to play with. My first experience in the realm of engineering came probably around the age of 12 when I decided it would be a great idea to dismantle my entire commodore 64 and it’s disk drive using a screwdriver — I did ...

For those of you who read regularly, you’ll know that I’ve been striving to wake up earlier in the morning, and get home from work earlier in the evening. For the most part, throughout my life, I have been a night owl. I have always found it rather peaceful at 1 or 2am in the morning, and used to get some of my best school work done then. However, in the last little while I’ve found it rather depressing getting home at 8pm, eating dinner, and basically not having very much “regular” time to do normal things like go to movies or just hang out with friends. For the most part I’ve now ...

As I mentioned in my last post, I somehow managed to lose my glasses at Honey on my birthday night. Since I only had them for two days, I was obviously a bit bummed about what happened to them. However, both Brennen and Hesty suggested I call my Visa company (since I used my Visa to do the purchase) and see if there is anything they can do. So surprisingly, my Visa policy actually has a clause that covers loss or damage for any new item for a period of 90 days. What that means is that they are going to give me a full refund on the purchase price. I just called the optometry place and put in an ...

Well, it’s now official — not only am I officially 30, but I have also survived my 30th birthday party. Thanks to everyone who came out to enjoy a few beers. In my case, thanks to all the shots, I drank way more than I’m used to. While I had a great time, unfortunately I slipped down the stairs at Honey and lost my glasses long enough for a few people to step on them. So, apparently I’ll be visiting the eyeglass store this week to put in a new order. Thanks everyone who popped by. I have a meeting with my plastic surgeon on Friday, and from there I’ll know when I’ll have my second ...

Well, in just a few hours, yours truly will be turning 30. I originally set out last night to write something memorable, and spent a few hours writing a blog entry that I hoped would detail the last ten years of my life. However, upon waking up this morning, I realized that it wasn’t really what I wanted to say, probably because I think it was heavily influenced by the events of the last six months. The truth is, this has probably been the hardest year of my life. Between a big breakup, that assault in November, a surgery and some other personal things in my life, it was really quite a challenge ...

My birthday present to myself was a pair of new glasses. Check it out. ...

Yesterday, partly by chance, and later by design, I found that I didn’t log into an IM client for nearly the entire day. No Jabber, no Yahoo, no Windows Live or whatever they are calling it now — just me, alone with my machine. And it was everything that I thought it would be. Now let me just tell you what a typical day is like for me on IM. I have, quite easily, well over 100 people on my IM client. A small percentage of these are personal (friends and family), but without a doubt, the majority are business related. During a typical work day, I’d say 70 of them or so are online and working ...

A friend of mine at work, Rob Brown, is trying to raise both awareness and some money to support Cancer research here in Canada. I personally lost my grandfather to prostate cancer, and I think most people at some point or another have had someone close to them who has suffered with cancer as well. Rob is part of a team that has taken it upon themselves to bike from Kelowna to Vancouver, a distance of roughly 400 kms (a route that goes through not one, but two large mountain passes), in one day to raise money for cancer research. If you wish to donate, please visit this secure link to make a donation, ...

So, I had almost completely forgotten that the Trailer Park Boys were in town this week. My friend Kris met them while he was at SXSW a few weeks ago and had a few drinks with the guys. He had said they were coming to town shortly, but it had slipped my mind until the end of the day today. Since I figured that the Robson’s Chapters is on my way home, I swung by with my 70-200mm lens and decided to snap a few photos of the guys. I was hoping Kris or Robert would have been around so I could have gotten a quick intro (Mike Smith, or Bubbles, used to be part of a band I once listened to called Sandbox ...

Ok, I’m sure you’re all getting tired of them, so this will be the last one for a while. It’s a tad blurry (I hand held it, and since it was into the sun I couldn’t really keep good focus of what it was I was shooting at), but you get the idea. ...

So yesterday, I met up with Jessica, Brennen, Kaedy, Michele, Jeff, Maya, Margo and Robbie, and the troop of dogs down in Steveston. In the old days, we started this day called “Friends Day”, where we would schedule in a day to hang out with our old high school friends. It sounds a bit lame, but with everyone’s time constraints, we found if we didn’t set aside time to hang out, it never happened. So, even though yesterday wasn’t actually a friend’s day, we still managed to all meet out in Steveston for a few hours of hanging out. Brennen and Jessica recently had baby Kaedy, and Jeff ...

Ok, I was randomly surfing youtube today looking for a few videos of something, and accidentally ran into this one. For the people in the crowd who like cute things, and like to “ooh and aww”, this one’s for you. Even the Otters are getting some lovin. ...