Tag: friends Posts

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 that, I had some uncle duty to perform during the weekend — it was my nephew’s birthday, so we all went ice skating and then had some cake at his place. All in all, a great […]

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, thinking we might be catching a piece of Canadian and Olympic history (Canada has never won a gold medal while hosting the games at home). Unfortunately, we didn’t get the gold, but it was still an amazing achievement for Jenn Heil […]

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.

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 some done while in transit. Tonight is of course the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. It’s hard to believe that nearly three years ago I had taken this […]

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 involving home made focaccia bread and pasta. Maya and Michele did most of the heavy lifting on the Apple Crisp: Strangely enough, I don’t really see many of my high school and university friends all […]

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 just really needed to make up for some lost time with a few people in my life. My friend Jeff has been to Chilliwack a few times since moving to Victoria, but we […]

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 online content. Most people I know spend $2 – $5 at Starbucks (or some equivalent) each day. So we obviously think coffee is worth $2/day. Yet when it comes to anti-war sentiments or well-informed research pieces on the economy, […]

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 gone for a year already, but that’s how the math works out.

It’s not officially Christmas yet where I am, but it’s only about six hours away on the east coast of Canada, so that’s close enough. As most people know, I moved back to my home town back in January to be closer to some of my old friends and of course my family. The last time I lived in Chilliwack in any capacity was when I was 18 years old, right before heading off for the city and university. So, this is my first Christmas as a resident of Chilliwack in about 14 years. Pretty wild now that I think about it. Thankfully we don’t really buy many gifts these days (since I’m pretty crappy at buying gifts), but I had a bit of shopping to do today and I managed to get most of it done. My niece (who is now approaching 12 years old) is now apparently into […]

Back in grade twelve, the graduating class of my high school, Sardis Senior Secondary School, performed a pretty cool version of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas for the entire school. I was kind of in the choir, even though we didn’t really sing. My friend Landy was actually the grinch, and he looked pretty hilarious wearing those green tights. The title of this post is a reference to something the grinch says near the end when he ponders the real significant of Christmas. Without a doubt, Christmas is a hard season for a lot of people. The commercialization of the season puts a lot of pressure on families to buy gifts, often well outside their budgets. Back when I was a kid, people would compare their gifts at school and see who got the better load. Obviously as an adult, you come to realize that Christmas is really about spending […]