For those of you who haven't been following along, there are some new airline rules going into affect regarding delays that force aircrafts to sit on the tarmac. There have been many documented cases of passengers being stuck on the tarmac for extended lengths of time, often without any food or water, while waiting for clearance to depart. A recent example involves Virgin America and a plane that was on the tarmac (loaded with passengers) for nearly 4 and a half hours. The solution to this problem, in the eyes of the FAA, is the impose fines on the ...

It won't be much longer now until things start heating up around here. It seems like just a few days ago that Christmas was here (or possibly it only seems that way because my tree is still up). I for one am getting pretty excited about enjoying the sun again when it comes. This summer I'm hoping to do quite a bit of camping and hiking. The campground reservation system for the lower mainland isn't open yet, but I found out that the one in Tofino actually opened the other day. So I decided to ...

Turns out I haven't written anything in almost two weeks now. Truthfully, I almost completely forgot about my blog, partially a consequence of not having anything to write about, and partially due to all the things I have going on lately. I've actually quite enjoyed taking a break, and don't really think you'll see much in the way of content over the next few months, other than a post here and there when I'm bored or have something on my mind. If you want, follow my Twitter stream for some random amusement. I spent the last weekend ...

I spent this afternoon out in Hamilton, Ontario, watching the Canada vs the United States hockey game. This morning I predicted that they would win with a 3-2 margin, which they did. And on that note, thus ends the 2010 Winter Olympics. I'll be honest -- I was against the Olympics. I was against the costs, against the expenditures, against the further widening of the gap between the rich and poor. But truthfully, I'll carry the three days I spent in Vancouver at the start of the Olympics with me for the rest of my ...

I woke up yesterday to another sunny day here in CowTown™. I was debating going to the gym, but decided instead to go and try a local hike. So I pulled my hiking boots out of a box, found some clean socks, and drove up to the trailhead for Teapot Hill, which is only about 10 minutes from my house. Teapot hill isn't that hard of a hike, but considering I haven't been hiking really in years, it did a good job of wearing me out. The elevation gain is only around 300 meters, but a lot ...

I read a great story about Roger Ebert last night on the Esquire website. It's an article written by Chris Jones, and it's one of the better pieces I've read in quite a while, partially because I've been a long time reader of Roger's film reviews. Many people probably aren't aware of this, but Roger had a run in with cancer a few years ago, and ultimately lost not only his lower jaw in the process, but also his ability to speak. There's a great quote in the article from Roger Ebert (I believe it actually came from his ...

I went down to the Atlantic House the other day with Rebecca, John Bollwitt, and John Biehler. We did our best to help the Atlantic House with their excess beer problem, and eventually had to solicit the help of a few other people, namely Robert Scales and Kris Krug, who happened to be in the area and swung by. Since I had my video camera on me, I thought I would take a quick stroll and see if I could find out what some of the people in Atlantic House thought about the Olympics. The end result is this ...

We started the day yesterday down on Granville Island, eating a nice healthy breakfast of cheese fondue at the Swiss House. Rebecca was there to judge a chocolate contest, and we tagged along for the event. The Swiss House is in Bridges on Granville Island, which is a really picturesque location. The prices were a little steep for the food, but I guess you're paying a bit for the novelty of eating Swiss Food and having a great view of False Creek. Afterwards we decided to head on over to the Atlantic House, which is currently in the ...

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 ...

We just walked back to the west end from the Kingston Pub, and ended up walking past a huge group of people around Granville and Robson. Here's what it looked like about an hour ago.