Today is November 4th, and my flight to Buenos Aires leaves on January 4th, 2011. That means there are only 60 days left to go until I depart on my big adventure. It wasn’t that long ago I was doing a post in celebration of 150 days to go, and now here we are at the two month point. I’m heading to Mexico tomorrow via WestJet in Vancouver. I spent most of last night packing my suitcase and trying to get my apartment as clean as possible in case my landlord decides to show the apartment while I’m gone. In truth, there really isn’t too much more to do in my apartment when I return. Other than the ...

I’ll admit, I don’t get it. It’s been four years now and yet Twitter is pushing forward with an advertising based revenue model (at least, pushing forward via a 3rd party). I’m not Twitter, and for me to sit on the sidelines and recommend a revenue model for a service I’m not a part of is pretty weak. But that said, I honestly think people would pay for a Pro twitter service if Twitter would simply offer one. I think back to my days in the BBS era when we would all pay $50 (this is back in 1990, so probably more like $100 now) simply to have a (+) next to our BBS name. That’s a form of vanity ...

Hasta La Vista, Baby - Photo By John Biehler It doesn’t really come as a big surprise, but Gordon Campbell just stepped down as the premier of British Columbia. Between his handling of the Olympics and the controversy surrounding the harmonized sales tax (HST), a tax he promised not to introduce prior to getting elected, it’s no wonder most people are completely dissatisfied with his performance. I suspect the liberal party were hoping that Campbell’s announcement of a 15% income tax reduction starting in 2011 would offset the disappointment with the HST, but after his lacklustre televised address ...

As yes, it’s the subject most guys choose not to talk about. But it’s real, and yes, I unfortunately have a bit of one due to shitty genetics. If you’re like me and of somewhat European descent you most likely have two eyebrows that like to be together more than they do apart. And that’s fine. Don’t be sad. First, you’re a prime candidate to back Bert and Ernie up on TV. Second, whenever everyone else out there has a cold forehead, you’ll be nice and warm. The first part of recovery is admitting there’s a problem. From there, here are your options. The Shave This is the course of action most ...

I had an idea roughly ten years ago out in Ottawa for a website or service that would let you pick your starting destination and get a list of possible ending destinations. That idea came out of a trip my friend Rob and I tried (unsuccessfully) to go on. We were both sick of our day jobs in Ottawa, had lots of money (compared to other 24 year olds), and had a long weekend coming up. So we started calling travel agents, telling them we didn’t really care where we went, as long as we got the hell out of town. Despite our efforts, we came up empty handed since none of the travel agents or their ...

Photo by Ryan Hyde I did a post a while ago detailing my plans to finally give up my no-fee bank account at PC Financial and move to a full service bank in preparation for my trip. How come, you ask? First, the idea of having a no-frills bank while in another country just seems far too risky. If I hit a snag, I definitely want to be able to pick up the phone and call someone for help. While PC Financial does offer phone service, in my experience very basic things like obtaining certified cheques or doing wire transfers are often a pain. While PC Financial is a subsidiary of CIBC, it’s still a ...

I’m not officially starting my big travel adventure until after Christmas, but decided to go on a little vacation in the meantime. On Friday I’ll be boarding a plane and meeting a friend down in the Mayan Riviera on the east coast of Mexico. I went on a similar trip a year ago and it was a great time. The resort we’ll be staying at is called the Bahai Principe Tulum, and it’s currently the #2 rated sort in the Akumal region. There are actually three different resorts on the same property, Coba, Akumal and Tulum. Last time we stayed in Akumal, but ended up really liking the pools and the look ...

I have a portable hard drive that I’m taking with me on my travels, partially to back up my main laptop from time to time, and partially because it contains a large percentage of my personal movie collection on it. That said, I’m going to try and get a pile of movies on there that I haven’t seen yet so I have something when I’m on train rides or in hostels and what-not. So, I’d appreciate it if people can leave a list in the comments of some of their favourite movies, or anything they’ve seen in the last few years they thought was really awesome. Thanks! ...

It’s strange living in my apartment right now. I have half of the place boxed up, and am slowly selling the rest of it off. Even though my bed is still set up, it doesn’t really feel like home anymore, so I’ve been sleeping on my couch in the living room. That couch was one I bought back in 2001 in Ottawa, and we’ve been through a lot together. When I leave this place it’s going to its final resting place at my sister’s house, but it’s been a comfy companion for the last ten years. My bar stools sold tonight, as did my entertainment unit. In terms of large furniture, that leaves my bedroom suite, ...

The Colosseum, Photo by David Iliff I went looking tonight to find out what the new 7 Wonders of the World were. I remember as a kid hearing that phrase a few times, and I thought there would be some straightforward list somewhere that simply listed them off in order. Unfortunately I’ve now come to the realization that there are many different variants of the list, all of which were undoubtedly influenced by different countries trying to be on the list such that their tourism industries would benefit. In fact, if you browse through the Wikipedia entries for Wonders Of The World, you’ll find around ...

I didn’t see it live, but I read the highlights, and it’s pretty much exactly what I thought it would sound like. Whenever I see Gordon Campbell talk, I can’t help me feel that he’s talking down to everyone, and that’s the perception I was left with after reading his speech. First, he apologized for not giving the province a heads up about the HST, but Ottawa didn’t give him enough time. If that doesn’t sound like the biggest copout ever, I don’t know what would. Even if that’s true, you gotta wonder about any deal that’s shoved down your throat with a ticking stopwatch attached to it. Second, ...

A while ago Epson asked me if I’d like to take their relatively new Epson Stylus Pro 3880 printer for a spin. Since I’m obviously into photography and the printer can easily accommodate colour prints, I thought it would be fun to test it out to see what it could do. First of all, I should say that this is a BIG printer. When the courier arrived to drop it off you could tell he was having a hard time moving it. Once it was in my apartment, it basically blocked the entire front door. Being a typical bachelor I of course left it blocking the door for the majority of the evening, but eventually decided ...

We had a customer email us today saying they were having some issues with PayPal. For the most part, PayPal is pretty reliable when it comes to purchases for us, and we don’t notice any hiccups. But today it seems like something was amiss within the computer walls at PayPal. The post on PayPal’s blog today said: Anuj from the PayPal comms team here. I wanted to let everyone know that we’re experiencing an issue on PayPal.com. It started at 8am PT today and means that almost all our members are having difficulty logging into their accounts and sending or receiving money from PayPal. We are working ...

I haven’t purchased anything new for myself to wear in probably a full year at this point. Unfortunately for me, that means most things in my wardrobe are starting to look pretty ratty. In fact, I was wearing a shirt the other day and noticed at the end of the day that there was a big hole in it that didn’t used to be there. Yes it’s true, I’m that awesome. I was telling Dale the other day that I’m probably about two shirts away from seriously having to consider wearing a garbage bag for the day. So, definitely time to go out and buy a few new things. Unfortunately, I don’t really want to buy ...

It would be pretty hard to call myself a Migratory Nerd if I wasn’t in fact a pretty big technology nerd. Thankfully, I have enough photography and technological gear around here that it’s pretty easy to describe myself as a nerd. In a perfect world, I’d be able to bring everything along with me. But given that I want to travel with a 40L backpack, I’m not really going to have a ton of room in there. The following is a list of the technology I’ll be bringing along on my little adventure. 13″ Macbook Pro The idea that people used to once travel the world for months at a time without really being ...

I haven’t stepped on a scale in about a month, but without a doubt I have been continuing to slowly shrink. I know this because the current belt I use to hold my pants up has five holes, and I’ve gone from the hole at the far side down to the hole at the other side. In about a week I don’t think this belt is going to do the job anymore, at which point I’ll probably buy a new one. I’ve been meaning to go to the gym quite frequently this last month, but just haven’t really had the motivation for a few weeks now. Hopefully this weekend I’ll get back into my normal routine and start going back. I ...

I’m originally from a small little town about 150 kilometres east of Vancouver called Chilliwack. It’s a picturesque farming town nestled between a few mountain ranges, and far enough away from Vancouver to have a little peace and quiet. And while Chilliwack is my birthplace and where my most of my family lives, I’ve spent nearly a third of my life living in Vancouver, either out at UBC where I did nine years of post secondary education, or in the downtown core, where I’ve worked the majority of my career. When I set out on my upcoming travel adventure, it’ll be from a familiar place: Vancouver ...

For the most part, I’ll be spending the majority of my time in Argentina around the city of Buenos Aires. While there, I plan to sample as much culture as possible, and hopefully spend some of my down time getting private Spanish lessons. Near the end of my time in Argentina though, I’m hoping to take a week or two off and actually do a bit of exploring around the country. One of the attractions I’ve been told to not miss is Iguazu Falls, which is located right on border between Brazil and Argentina. It’s quite the trek from Buenos Aires to the border of Brazil, and I’ll probably have to take ...

I went down to Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) in Vancouver a few weeks ago with the intention of buying a new backpack for travel. While I’ll be living fairly normally in Buenos Aires, I wanted to have a backpack that would allow me to take the occasional weekend trip without carrying too much or too little. Since I have a camera and a laptop, I also wanted a bag which could accommodate both of those, since I know one or two people who have had camera’s stolen from checked baggage over the last few years. Most travel books I’ve read go out of their way to remind people not to pack too much. Most ...

I haven’t blogged about my upcoming trip in a while, so I thought I’d do a quick update. I have one room officially boxed up, and the living room is mostly packed as well. The next big chore is to go through all my old clothes and get rid of anything I no longer wear. After that, I can box up what’s left of the bedroom, and then start working on the kitchen. Truthfully, it probably wouldn’t take me too much longer to get the rest all boxed up, but at this point if I go too much further it’s not going to be very exciting living in my apartment anymore. I sold my TV a while ago to someone who was ...