Almost ten years ago, I started playing around with some microprocessor hobby kits at home. At the time they main ones were called STAMPS and you programmed them with BASIC. You could make them run motors, measure temperature, pretty much whatever you wanted them to do. A few weeks ago I ran into my friend John, and he was telling me about a similar thing called the Arduino. It’s basically a small little microprocessor kit that has basic inputs and outputs that you can use to do arbitrary things. Given that I’m an electrical engineer by education and that I haven’t really done anything electrical ...

There was a time when I had over $6,000 worth of camera gear sitting in my computer room. I love photography, and having a whole kit full of professional lens is great to have, but it’s not really very practical to lug that much gear around, especially if you’re trying to travel light. I’ve spent a lot of time over these last few months thinking about what type of camera gear to bring. My first plan was to simply take along a high-end point and shoot camera and make due with that. Given that my old Canon Digital Elph was dying, I went out and bought one of the nicest compact cameras I could find: ...

Today is Tony Pierce’s 104th birthday. Tony’s a great guy who has built himself quite the media empire down in LA. The last time I saw Tony, it was at some dimly lit, somewhat seedy strip club in east Hollywood. Prior to that, Tony and I sat in his car in some parking lot, drinking cheap beer out of a brown bag and reminiscing about life. Good times. Have yourself a good birthday dude, and try not to get into too much trouble. ...

About a year ago I reverted this site to a simple theme, mainly because I haven’t been entirely sure what to do with it. I set out about six weeks ago to do a refresh of this site that would cater to some of my upcoming travel adventures. As I got about half way on it, I realized it probably would make more sense to do a dedicated travel site catering to people who want to explore world travel and also for traveling techies like my self to get more information about some of the places I’ve visited. So, that’s what I ended up doing. My new site is called The Migratory Nerd, and is at themigratorynerd.com. ...

I decided about six weeks ago that I wanted to have a completely different online presence for my travel adventures. While my personal site has served me well by allowing me to write about personal subjects and technology over the last few years, it’s become somewhat disjointed. So, with conscious effort I have finally managed to put something together with a specific focus: travel. Unlike most versions of my website, which normally take all of about two or three days for me to get online, I’ve slowly been tinkering with this one for the past few weeks. I haven’t had a lot of time, so mostly ...

Yesterday morning I woke up to a call from Passport Canada that basically let me know that they didn’t really have a solution to my problem. From their perspective all I had to do was to drive down to Vancouver, show some ID, and pick up my passport. The main obstacle was that Canada Post was saying that they would refuse to release it to me within a government issued ID that has my old address on it. Despite all that, I figured it was worth a shot anyways, so I packed up some documents that had my old address on them (including a copy of my 2009 tax return, and some T4 slips), and headed into ...

So, I made a mistake. I can’t really understand how I possibly made it, but it seems clear it was definitely my mistake. When filling out my passport application about a month ago, I accidentally put my mailing address as my old address in Vancouver. Perhaps I thought it read “Previous Address” or something like that, but after looking through what I sent them, I definitely put my Vancouver address into the “Mailing Address” portion of my passport. Which would explain how it was mailed on the 8th of October and also why I still don’t have it. I thought I could simply drive into Vancouver and pick ...

It’s true, I’m a nail biter. I have been for as long as I can remember. I blame it on my mom, she was a nail biter too! The thing is, I’ve been biting them so long that for the most part I don’t even know I’m doing it. That’s what makes it a hard habit to stop. It’s not like smoking where you have to go find the pack, pull out a lighter, and then light up. I’ll literally be on the couch and realize my hand is in my mouth and I’m biting. I’ve actually never been successful quitting, but I’d really like to stop. I’ve tried all those fancy polishes that are supposed to help you stop, but I eat those ...

In just 45 days, I’ll be out of my apartment out in Chilliwack, and essentially homeless for the next 30 days. Truthfully, now that my place is partially boxed up, I’m getting antsy to hit the open road. My current plan is to have a lot of my stuff already in storage around November 1st, so I can possibly go visit a few people in the United States in November. As I mentioned before, I’m also heading to the Mayan Riviera in just three weeks, which will be a nice break from the norm. I haven’t had a vacation in the sun since about the same time last year, so I’m definitely looking forward to chilling ...

I pulled a pile of boxes out of storage today and started the packing process. I don’t technically have to be out of my apartment until the end of November, but my plan is to have a storage facility rented for November 1st. At that point, there’s no reason why I can’t load it up and get most of the big stuff done. I’m also going to be pretty busy in November (I’ll be in Mexico for a week, and have a few weekend activities going on), so I’m not sure how much time I’ll have then to get it all done. I packed up about 50% of my office today, and the majority of the electronics in my living room. ...

I pulled a pile of boxes out of storage today and started the packing process. I don’t technically have to be out of my apartment until the end of November, but my plan is to have a storage facility rented for November 1st. At that point, there’s no reason why I can’t load it up and get most of the big stuff done. I’m also going to be pretty busy in November (I’ll be in Mexico for a week, and have a few weekend activities going on), so I’m not sure how much time I’ll have then to get it all done. I packed up about 50% of my office today, and the majority of the electronics in my living room. ...

Well, I cooked my first thanksgiving dinner tonight, and for the most part it went off without a hitch. First, based on suggestions people made on this site, I decided to brine the turkey before hand. Brining involves soaking the turkey in a salt/water solution for 12 hours or so before cooking it, and ultimately forces moisture into the turkey, keeping it nice and juicy. My grandma hates dry turkey, and she couldn’t believe how moist the one was that came out of my oven, so definitely mission accomplished. I was a bit worried the meat would taste too salty, but that wasn’t the case at all. On ...

Well, according to my little Excel spreadsheet, my trip begins in 96 days now. Depending on whether or not you’re a glass is half full or half empty kind of person, that will seem like a lot of time or not very much. It doesn’t seem like very much time to me, considering how much I need to still do before taking off. First, I gave notice on my apartment the other day. My landlord confirmed it today, which basically means the clock is ticking on this place. I’ve been waiting for October to officially arrive before starting the mad craigslist dash to sell pretty much everything that isn’t bolted ...

This morning I put a deposit down on a nice apartment right in the heart of the trendy area in Buenos Aires, Palermo Soho. Soho, of course, is a reference to a hip, upbeat area in New York City. Given that I’m only staying for three months, I thought I would spend my time in the cool part of the city. Palmero Soho is extremely green, with lots of parks and trees. In addition, it’s also full of great restaurants, pubs, patios, and shopping. In Buenos Aires it’s next to impossible to get a super cheap apartment unless you have a local guarantor. That said, the place I’m renting is a pretty good ...

This morning I put a deposit down on a nice apartment right in the heart of the trendy area in Buenos Aires, Palermo Soho. Soho, of course, is a reference to a hip, upbeat area in New York City. Given that I’m only staying for three months, I thought I would spend my time in the cool part of the city. Palmero Soho is extremely green, with lots of parks and trees. In addition, it’s also full of great restaurants, pubs, patios, and shopping. In Buenos Aires it’s next to impossible to get a super cheap apartment unless you have a local guarantor. That said, the place I’m renting is a pretty good ...

Last week I went over to my grandmas house to finally organize some boxes that had been there since my university days. At the bottom of one such box was the majority of my hockey and baseball card collection from the late 80s and early 90s. In fact, I probably have around 5 or 6 smaller boxes of cards, many of which come close to being a complete set. If you were around in those days, you probably remember how hockey cards went from being considered little cardboard things that came with gum to investments basically overnight. Most of us starting selling transformers and whatever else we could ...

Given that I’m hitting the open skies in a matter of months, I’ve been trying to spend more time with the family. For easter of this year I went out and bought a pretty nice organic turkey from JD Farms in Langley, but never got around to cooking it. Since I’ve always been an eater of turkey and never a cooker of it, I offered to do thanksgiving dinner for my mom’s side of the family this year. I have to say, I can cook a pretty mean chicken these days. So I’m hoping I can pull off a turkey. If anyone has any suggestions, then by all means, drop them here. I’m hoping to turn the awesome knob up ...

I won’t lie: I hate banks. Other than PC Financial (which has been my main bank since I was about 20 years old), the major banks absolutely gouge their customers. I remember once going into TD when I was in university and asking to open a savings account. Once they showed me their fee structure, I realized there was absolutely no way I’d actually be able to save money using that account, since the costs each month were greater than the interest they paid. Consequently I have been a member of PC Financial since that time, and haven’t paid a single fee. That said, I’ve been strongly considering ...

A few days ago I pulled the trigger on a trip to the Mayan Riviera in Mexico. I’ll actually be heading down there with Dale, mostly so we can drink a few beers and also strategize a bit about the next year before I head off on my little adventure. While we sometimes meet in Hamilton or Chilliwack, it’s obviously much nicer to be able to have those kind of meetings around a pool in Mexico with some nachos and beers. And truthfully, it’s really not much more money to meet down there: a typical trip to Hamilton during high season probably runs $700-$800 for the flight, plus all the expenses we incur ...

About a month ago I was in my room moving some stuff around when I heard a big thump. Looking down, my SLR had taken a small dive off of my bed and landed directly on my Flash unit. Unfortunately, being that the mount is this flimsy plastic thing, it immediately snapped, rendering the 430EX Flash pretty much useless. I spent a little time investigating whether or not it may be fixable. Not only is it fixable, but it can be done at home for relatively cheap. The first step is to order the part online. I actually found a store in San Diego that carries all the Canon parts. Here’s a whole section ...