Tag: Vancouver Posts

As most people know, I spent a lot of my time in Vancouver taking photos of the city. I was one of the first people in the city to dabble with high dynamic range imagery, and because I carried my wideangle lens around with me quite often, ended up with quite a few HDR images of Vancouver. While down in the Dominican, I was talking to Dale about possibly putting together a little package for media organizations during the Olympics. While in the process of putting that together over the last few weeks, I figured I might as well put everything online as well. To that end, I registered the domain VancouverStockPhotos.ca the other day, and was up until about 5am on Saturday putting it together. Most of my Vancouver shots are now up for sale, primarily as stock photography, but also a few that are available in prints. As […]

I had a rough sleep the other night, so I was a bit tired yesterday. I passed out on the couch for a bit in the late afternoon and early evening, and woke up just long enough to grab some McDonald’s for supper. Afterwards I started watching a bit of Lost, but could hardly keep my eyes open. I strolled into bed at around 9pm last night, thinking I would read for a while. Apparently I passed out, because next thing I knew it was about 4am in the morning. By the time the night was over, I had slept 11 hours, which is a pretty long sleep for me. I’m just taking it easy this weekend. I have a WordCamp Vancouver organization meeting on the weekend, but other than that am just going to relax and maybe watch a few movies.

Hard to believe the Olympics are only a few short weeks away. When I was living downtown I remember when they erected that big countdown clock. I remember thinking it seemed strange that they put that up nearly three years before the event, but I have to say, it went fairly quick. It’s interesting to see the city ramp up to the event, and all the associated problems that are starting to occur. Last week the local skihill Cypress shut down in an effort to save snow for the actual Olympic runs. Given the unseasonably warm temperatures right now, it’s even hard for the local mountains to create their own snow, since this requires a temperature as low as at least 0C to work. So last week Cypress began the process of driving snow up to the top of the mountain in an effort to preserve it. John Biehler reported […]

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 still early in the process, but today we (as a group) started planning a big WordPress event in Vancouver: WordCamp Vancouver. For those of you who follow regularly, you’ll remember that I was a co-organizer of WordCamp Whistler, which turned out to be a very well received event with an attendance of about 120 people, which is rather remarkable, given how expensive Whistler is and how far many people drove to be there. In the past, I’ve helped put together a few small WordCamp Vancouver events, but the one we’re planning is going to be a fairly large one I imagine. Right now we’re exploring venues in the downtown area near the water, so hopefully people coming from out of town can be treated to some picturesque views of downtown. Right now the tentative date is June 12th, 2010. I won’t say anymore, since we still have lots to […]

Years ago I found the website SpaceWeather.com, and since then have made a yearly pilgrimage to the site in the fall and winter months. Having seen the aurora borealis probably about 7 or 8 times in my life already, it’s something I try to see whenever I get the chance, sort of like hooking up with an old friend after a long absence. The first few times I saw it I was up in the Yukon Territory for a summer. Obviously up there it’s pretty easy to see (that is, when it’s not daylight for 24 hours a day, as it very nearly was for my first few months up there). I actually remember coming out of a bar late at night and wondering what that light was. Sure enough, looking up into the sky, I saw this big green-blue of the Northern Lights. Years later I would actually see […]

I read an article this morning that basically made me feel bad for being against the Olympics at this stage in the game. It was written by a participant in the games, one who is disappointed with the lack of support in this province: With a blunt and harsh realization that not everyone with a Canadian passport is brimming over with excitement and anticipation for the sixteen day event in February, I must admit that my bright and shiny optimism has turned a murky shade of grey. Not because sliding hasn’t been great – it’s been fantastic. I feel in top form on my sled, I am in my best physical shape, and emotionally, I feel complete zen. My biggest challenge at the moment is surviving life in British Columbia. To be honest I’m not exactly sure what the people in Whistler dislike more, the fact that I’m Albertan or […]

I just got home from dropping Dale and Patrick off at the Abbotsford airport. Without a doubt, it was a great visit, and it was good to catch up with both of them. As I mentioned previously, this last weekend was the last item on my radar for the foreseeable future. This last summer was extremely busy — I attended two out of town conferences, and it seemed like I was bouncing in and out of the city on a routine basis. Given that I moved into my new place here in January, it’s only recently that I’ve found the chunk of time necessary to finally unpack. We’re also been extremely busy at BraveNewCode, and Dale and I have both been feeling a bit worn out these last few weeks. Over the next few months, I’m going to be purposefully taking some personal time out from things. One thing that’s […]

I’ve been asked to write an article for a European magazine about Vancouver. I’m keeping my particular angle under wraps until everything is completely done, but I’d like to solicit some help from my readers. In fact, I’m hoping I can use a few of these quotations in the article, along with possibly a photo or two of some of the people who quoted them. So, in one or two sentences, please feel free to answer any of the following: What do you like the most about Vancouver? What is your least favourite thing about this city? What is your best memory from living in the city? Do you think Vancouver does enough to help the less fortunate members of the community? How do you feel about the 2010 Olympics, and what do you think the impact will be on the city? Who are some of your favourite local bands? […]

…has been announced, and it’ll take place on August 28th. Make sure you come out and meet all your fellow Twitter users in the Vancouver area. The event will be at the Two Parrots pub, which (in my humble opinion) has some of the best nachos in the city. There will probably be a John Biehler endorsed photo walk afterwards for those of you without compact cameras that want to learn more about taking photos in the dark.