Journal Posts

I realized recently that it’s been almost a full year since I wrote anything on this website. I have tried at various times over the last year to sit down and write, but the words just wouldn’t come. But tonight I thought it was probably best to blow the layer of dust off and finally write an update. And the main update is this: last year my heart broke. As many people know I was in a pretty serious relationship; it unfortunately ended almost a year ago today. As an engineer, I’m trained to solve problems, often difficult ones. But despite my best efforts, I was unable to fix our relationship when things started to fall apart. I watched, mostly helplessly, as we grew further apart, and whatever magic there had once been slowly dissipated away. When it ended, it was less of a breakup and more the sad admission […]

A friend of mine is making preparations to leave on a big European adventure, and trying to get everything ready before she leaves. One of her recent questions on Facebook was regarding how to be paid as a US-based contractor via PayPal and not lose any excessive money due to currency conversion. This is actually a tricky problem for a few reasons. First, most banks in Canada only deal in Canadian dollars. If you want to deposit USD into your CAD account you can, but the banks usually tack on an extra 2-3% to the base rates as another way to make money from you. Only a $100 it’s not a huge deal, but when you’re dealing with $1,000s of dollars the difference can add up to a week’s worth of groceries abroad. The astute reader might right away think that the solution is to open a USD-based account at […]

When you do a ton of traveling, you are invariably faced with finding accommodation wherever you end up. While it’s possible to find private apartment rentals for a week at a time, most people that aren’t traveling as part of a vacation package generally opt for a hotel for shorter trips. I’m no stranger to booking hotels online. In fact, I started using Hotwire for most of my bookings not long after the service first came out. While I sometimes wait until I get to a destination prior to booking a hotel, for the most part I book online beforehand to minimize stress when I arrive. Through the years I’ve sampled most of the major hotel booking services and wanted to share my experiences with a few of the major ones here: here is my comparison of Hotwire vs Priceline vs Hotels.com. Hotwire Hotwire.com pioneered the low-cost online hotel booking […]

I started my long-term travel adventures in January of 2011, almost 2.5 years ago. Looking back, I really had no idea how the airline systems worked: I wasn’t really collecting any sort of air-miles, didn’t know how to fly for free, nor was I trying to get to any type of elite status (I didn’t even really know how to be honest). After 2.5 years though, I’ve finally hit my travel groove. So lately I’ve been dedicating efforts towards taking advantage of some of the cracks in the system to make the most of my travel adventures and to fly for free around the world as much as I can going forward. Here are some of the tricks I’m using. Using Rewards Cards To Earn Free Flights Or Vacations Everyone who travels often should also have at least one travel rewards card – not only do these also let you […]

I posted around Christmas about a project I was starting to build an electric brewery. I realized recently that I hadn’t given an update with it basically since then, and thought it was time to share the progress. Most of the parts were waiting for me back in Canada when I arrived back from Australia, so I laid them all out on my temporary butcher block work station for assembly. That butcher block is actually a 7′ countertop from Home Depot that I got on sale – eventually it will form the base for the brewery itself. Before working on the brew kettles, I decided I would attempt to build most of the control panel. Once my 1/2″ knockout punch arrived, I decided I would knock-out the holes for all the buttons on the front of the control panel. As you can see in the photo, I wrapped some 8.5″ […]

In just a few weeks, I’ll be boarding a plane and making the roughly four hour trip to Ontario (seven if you count a quick nacho stopover in Calgary). As I’ve indicated on Facebook, my plan is to move to Hamilton, Ontario for probably a year or so, mostly to work with Dale on some projects at BraveNewCode. Without a doubt I’m looking forward to a new change, as I originally moved out here to Chilliwack to help get BraveNewCode off the ground, something that happened nearly five years ago. In terms of logistics, Ontario is actually quite a bit better for me. It’s closer to Europe, which I love visiting. It’s close to many other cool cities, such as New York, Boston and Montreal. And it’s also just a short hop to the Caribbean. My girlfriend is from Brazil, and it’s much easier for me to fly from Toronto […]

A recently brewed an American India Pale Ale over the Christmas break. Beer Information I’m a big fan of American IPAs, and it’s usually what I drink when I’m lounging around home and I feel the need for a beer. Here are the target stats for this brew: BJCP Style: India Pale Ale – American IPA OG: 1.064 FG: 1.010 IBU: 65 ABV: 6.5% Color: 8 Batch Size: 5G Boil Duration: 60 mins Mash Temperature: 151F Brew Date: December 24th, 2013 Grain Bill 13lb 10oz – Canadian Pale Ale Malt 10oz – Caramel 40L 6oz – Caramel 15L 6oz – Wheat Malt Hop Bill/Schedule 1oz Simcoe – First wort hopped 0.3oz Centennial – @ 30 mins 0.8oz Citra – @ 15mins 1oz Chinook – @ 10mins 1oz Amarillo – @ 10mins 1oz Amarillo – Dry-hop 1oz Columbus – Dry-hop Water Treatment I recently checked out my town’s (Chilliwack’s) water report […]

I friend of mine recently asked if I was putting all my beer recipes online, and I unfortunately was forced to answer no. When I started brewing I tried to put them all online, but the write-ups just took too long. So I’ve decided to start posting them again, but in a very limited format. That way it doesn’t take me long to post them, and hopefully I can solicit input from others. Beer Information My goal for this beer was to make something easily drinkable for some of my family that generally prefers lagers, and tend not to like really bitter ales. I find most blonde ales a bit boring, so I mashed it at 152F to add a bit of body to it, and also used some left-over hops (in small quantities) from a recent IPA I had. I’m hoping these end-up having a subtle presence (due to […]

I started brewing beers at home a little over a year ago. Having no real experience before starting, I did what most people do in this day and age and tried to read as much as I could on the internet as I could before starting. While many people start with extract brewing, I decided at the time to just dive right in with all-grain brewing. Like most beginners, I made many mistakes when I started. But over time I have slowly improved the areas where I felt most deficient and have generally been making better and better beers (at least in my mind). Like most home brewers, the part of the process I least enjoyed was bottling. Washing and sanitizing bottles can take a lot of time, as does the actual bottling process. If you make a measurement error while priming, you’ll get to look forward to drinking a […]

About a year ago I picked up a new hobby – home brewing. I had quite a few friends who were into the hobby before me, and it just so happened that there was pretty great home-brew supply shop in town. So I thought at the time it would be fun to try my hand at brewing my own beer at home. I quite enjoy the entire brewing process to be honest. For me a picture-perfect Sunday usually involves a few movies on Netflix, a roast chicken in the oven for a late dinner, and brewing an occasional beer over the course of the day. That said my two least favourite aspects of the beer making process involve using my wort chiller (which is a pain in the ass in a small apartment) and the entire bottling process. For now I don’t have any other options besides using a wort […]