It’s that time again — time for me to take a little breather and catch up on sleep. Last week I was talking with my boss at work, and decided that maybe I should get away for a week and take some time off. I had originally booked a trip to Mexico back in November, but unfortunately due to a last minute surgery I had to have, had to cancel the trip entirely. So, I haven’t really had a proper break since July of last year. Needless to say, I’m a bit tired and worn out. So, if all goes well, I’ll be taking the week after next off to relax. I’m not really sure what I’ll do. The Northern ...

My dad was down in Chilliwack today and he stopped at a home brew wine place. They had some special on so he asked me if I wanted to go halfers in with him on some homemade wine. Since I’ve never done it before, I thought I would give it a try and see if it’s worth doing again. The one we ended up picking was a Washington Shiraz: White Sands & Rattlesnake Vineyards, Yakima Washington A blockbuster with a rush of blackberry, plum, cherry and candied orange fragrances, which is followed by flavours of currant, fig, cedar and spice intertwined with a beautiful balance of toasted oak. The ...

I’m always amazed how little liquor some people can handle. Me, it’s pretty rare to get in a state where I feel like I’ve had too much.. But my pal Cisco — It doesn’t really take him a heck of a lot. We had some beer with lunch today, and here are the results. I think you can rent him out for parties too. ...

Well, this day is finally over, so I can write about it. I cracked a bottle of wine at 6:30pm and started going through some old photos for something to do. I decided about mid way through that I would use the opportunity to try out some wines that I’ve been meaning to check out for a while. At around 10pm Tiffany strolled by and helped me on the drinking front. It was a pretty decent evening. I gotta get to bed for a 9am conference call tomorrow, but here are a few photos from today. ...

I just looked at my computer clock and realized that today is Valentine’s day, and here I am, on my couch in the dark, alone. I talked with my ex-girlfriend briefly on the phone tonight, asked how she was doing, what she was up to, the same old same old. We were trying to figure out a time to get together for dinner, and she said that Wednesday night was obviously out. And even though I wanted to ask, I didn’t. Because really, who wants to know what their ex is doing for Valentine’s day? So, what do I plan to do? I’m not really sure, but I imagine it’s going to involve some liquor down ...

So, I was multitasking at work today, installing Windows Vista on my laptop, and doing some work on my desktop machine. I thought the upgrade process would be simple, but instead it was a huge headache. First, Windows Vista Installer analyzed my whole machine and told me I was good to go. Then, I start installing it and it goes “wait a sec, just joking — you gotta remove all this software first before you can install Vista.” So, I uninstall Nero, my anti-virus program and a DVD RAM drive thing that I’ve never used. Install, take 2. The next part of the process is rather uneventful, but ...

So far, I have done a few things for Jill’s random acts of kindness challenge. You should visit my flickr page for some fun shots, or check some of them out there. You’ll need to click on the photo’s title to see what the photo is all about. ...

Sometime this summer, my friends Mike and Kim are gonna finally tie the knot together and live happily ever after. I’ve known about their wedding for a few weeks now, but tonight they stepped up and asked me to officially photograph their wedding for them. To be honest, I’ve been asked before by other people, mostly over a few drinks, and up until now I’ve basically always politely declined, mainly because I didn’t think I could pull it off properly and do it justice. So, after spending a few hours mulling it over tonight, I finally realized that I’m probably ready. Not only that, but ...

It’s been quite a while since I’ve been home on a Saturday night, and I have to say it’s been a nice change. I spent most of today walking around doing errands, and tidying up at home a bit. I bought some new stainless steel pots and pans, so maybe I will actually start cooking at home again. I even made a decent batch of chilli tonight, which is pretty amazing considering I’ve only cooked once or twice in about six months. My eye was bothering me quite a bit today. Most days it’s pretty good and it feels normal, but today it felt all dry and scratchy, which put me in a crabby mood. ...

Jason and I were messing around on our computers the other day and somehow found ourselves playing backgammon. He kicked my ass. ...

Well, it’s only been a little over a week since I open sourced the plugin used on this website. So far, based on the flickr API key statistics, it looks like 25 people are using it, which is pretty cool. A couple of people have emailed me a few suggestions, so I’m gonna try to release a new version soon incorporating some of them. If you are using it, then drop me a line and let me know! ...

Jill emailed me on the weekend and said that since she met my challenge and changed a few lightbulbs, that perhaps I’d want to take a stab at her challenge. For those of you who don’t know, next week is officially Random Acts of Kindness week. And while I strongly encourage people to try and be kind for the rest of the year as well, this week is a chance to really up the ante a bit and see just how kind you can be to other people. So, since it’s officially Jill’s challenge, let her know if you do anything out of the ordinary to try and make the world a better place next week. If you’re ...

This afternoon at 4:30pm I have yet another CT scan down at St. Paul’s Hospital. I’ve been waiting for this one nearly a month now, so it will be nice to finally have it done. I’ve been told I can’t eat for at least four hours before the scan, so apparently this banana bread is my only meal until supper time. I’m not sure if they are putting some funky dye into my blood, but I’ll know in a few hours I guess. Update — Ok, so it’s all over now. I got down to St Paul’s at around 4:15pm and just chilled in the waiting area for a while. At around 4:35, some lady calls me up and walks ...

So I called my friend Margo the other night and asked her if she could contribute to the recent discussion on global warming and ways to reduce CO2. Margo is a good friend of mine from Chilliwack who now works in the conservation department of BC Hydro. Here’s what she had to say: There are lots of little and big things that we can all do to make a difference. The problem of global warming was created by the actions of many individuals and so the solution will also have to come from all of us. Really it’s not that hard. It’s about becoming more conscious about how you live your ...

In 2004, some friends and I got together and decided we would attempt to do the Vancouver Sun Run. We started our “training” that January, first doing little tiny runs around the block, then eventually moving up to hour long runs along the water in Steveston, or through the University Endowment Lands (which is an amazing place to run). The actual run itself was really fun, but a little too crowded for my liking. I didn’t expect to have a very good time, but after training for four months, I really wanted to see just how good I could get — unfortunately, I was sidestepping people for the ...

I finally cleaned up the main plugin for this website enough that I’m ready to release it to whoever wants to test it out. You can read about it and download it from the Crossroads Page. Basically all the flickr pieces on this website are handled by that plugin, so if you like what you see on this website, then feel free to test it on yours. I still have a ton of work to do on it, mainly in the speed optimization area, but I figured it’s good enough now for some people to test out. Enjoy. ...

Well, yesterday I posted my CFL challenge update. So far, I only have verbal commitments from people to change a few lightbulbs this weekend and contribute some photos. But hopefully they all pull through. As for me — I stopped at London Drugs on the way home and bought 6 CFL lightbulbs. Surprisingly, those 6 allowed me to replace 9 normal ones in my place (since the new CFL ones are way brighter in my bathroom — so bright that I don’t need all the lights I had in there). Here’s a summary of what that did: Power removed from incandescent bulbs: (7x40W + 2x70W) = 420W Power added from ...

Ok guys. I’m tossing the gauntlet down. If you haven’t been following recent events, a few days ago a major report on global warming came out that had some of the strongest language in it to date. The group of climate experts released a 21-page report for policy makers worldwide that indicates with more than a 90 percent accuracy that rising atmospheric temperatures and increased greenhouse gases are linked, and the “most likely” cause of global warming, suggesting that humans have caused the problem. […] The report found that it was “more likely than not” that manmade greenhouse ...

Well, I haven’t had an interesting blog entry in a while, so I thought I’d give an update. I went out with Jana tonight to Sandbar on Granville Island — it was a great time, and an absolutely amazing night to spend on an outdoor patio with good company and a bottle of wine. After I came back home and demonstrated my oh-so-rusty guitar skills in front of a live audience. This week is completely packed solid, so look forward to a pile of photos from the events.. Next update will probably be in a few days 🙁 ...

I put that 28-135mm lens on eBay a week ago, and it just sold for $450. I was hoping for slightly more, but that’s reasonable enough that I’m happy. ...