Rebecca and John showed up late Friday night to hang out in the country for the weekend, which was a nice surprise. We had planned to do a quick hike on Saturday, but none of us were really up to the challenge when the time approached. So instead, we decided to drive the 40kms or so from my place to Chilliwack Lake. I hadn’t been there in probably around 10 years or so, so it was cool being back, especially with the snow-capped mountains surrounding it this time of year. I’m going to have to try a camping trip up there sometime this summer, as some of the spots looking fairly nice. Other than ...

I actually didn’t apply for a media pass, so I technically do not have access to the BC International Media Center. That said, if you have access, you can sign people in as visitors, so I’m currently down here as a guest of John Biehler. Here’s a quick video that John and I shot to give everyone a little tour of what it’s like inside. ...

John Biehler and I decided to grab some grub around 7pm tonight, but unfortunately, had a hard time finding a place that could initially accommodate us. The first pub we tried to get into (on the corner of Robson and Granville) was completely full, so we decided to try the Kingston Pub on Richards street. While it was also extremely full, they managed to find room for the two of us downstairs near the large screen TV. Shortly afterwards Rebecca and John showed up, and we watched the Women’s Mogul event while sipping a few beers. When Jenn Heil started her final run, I turned my video camera on, ...

I have all my camera gear packed up, which for me, is quite a lot of stuff. I pulled my old laptop/camera-bag out of retirement, which means I can have the majority of my gear, as well as my laptop, all in the same bag. It is as convenient as it is heavy. I bought a ticket on the 10am Greyhound bus leaving Chilliwack for downtown Vancouver. I decided that having my car in the city wasn’t really a good idea with the games going on. Right now I’m just sipping a coffee, then I’m going to head down to the Greyhound and wait down there. I have a pile of work on my laptop, so I should be able to get ...

I can’t really say that I’ve seen much of Victoria since being here, since I haven’t really been out that much. That said, it’s been really great just hanging out with some old friends and taking it easy. My friend Jeff (who has been a friend of mine since high school) picked me up at the Helicopter pad in Victoria on Friday night, and we spent most of the night just chilling at his place watching movies. Today Jeff, Michele and I took Maya (their 2.5 yr old daughter) down to her gymnastics class and watched that for an hour or so. Then we came back to Jeff’s house and made a pretty awesome dinner ...

This upcoming weekend I’m shutting the computers down and heading over to Vancouver Island. One of my best friends from high school (and also university) lives over in Oak Bay in Victoria now — strangely enough I haven’t really seen him in about a year, mainly because we’ve both been busy. I’m sort of known amongst my friends as the guy who is always busy. I don’t try to be, it just always seems like there’s some event or something I’ve committed to that I have to go to. That’s why a few months ago I said I was taking a break from all the Vancouver events — it’s not that I didn’t want to go, I ...

This is actually kind of a sore spot, so I thought that I would touch upon it. The New York Times recently announced that they were going to start charging for content in 2011. Strangely enough, most people who grew up in the Internet age seem to think that everything, including premium content, should be free of charge. I personally don’t believe that’s the case, and would even go so far to say that having an economy based on content generated at the expense of advertising dollars is an extremely bad thing. But at the end of the day, it always amazes me how little people are willing to pay for ...

Well, today there are at least two important events that happened in the past. First, on January 15th, 1977, my friend Brennen was born. Since that time he has pretty much been a major pain in my ass, causing me to lift boxes for weekends at a time, to fix countless porn-infested computers, and to drive out to the edge of the world (White Rock) on weekends. That said, he’s a great friend, and I hope he has an awesome birthday today. Also, at this exact time last year I was packing up the last few things in my desk in Vancouver and leaving my job there for the last time. Hard to believe I’ve been ...