Posts Tagged: Life
Mythbusters!
The Mythbusters were in town this Sunday! Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage took over the Queen Elizabeth Theatre for a couple of hours of fun and science. Though I’m a huge fan I hadn’t actually planning to go, since I’ve got volleyball on Sunday nights, and I didn’t think a live show would really add much to the experience—unlike, say, Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer, who graced the Vogue Theatre back in November.
Looking Back at 2011
Not a big list this time, I’ll just mention two memorable highlights of 2011: I started working with Drupal, and I turned 40.
Holiday Photos: Find The River
As is my wont, I flew back to Ottawa to visit withe the family over the holidays. As is becoming my wont I took photos of the landscape from the plane, both coming and going. On the way over, the weather was completely overcast from Calgary to around Sudbury, but what I got was top-notch; Little towns like Temagami, Lumsden’s Mill, Fort-Coulonge, and Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, towns that I’d never heard of but suddenly became amazingly interesting places I might like to visit someday; islands and lakes like Lac La Pêche and Rapides-des-Joachims; and completely random places like some farm out near Russel, ON.
Walking Lions’ Gate Bridge
On Tuesday I did something I’d been thinking about for a while: walking over Lions’ Gate Bridge. I didn’t really plann it, I just got impatient waiting for the bus after work, then started walking along Marine Dr. The bus drove past as I was between stops, so I thought, fuck it. It was a nice evening, not too warm and not too cold, I had my camera with me and the light looked right for some good sunset shots. Why not?
Snail’s Pace
It’s the little things, y’know?
On the way to work this morning I saw a snail crossing the sidewalk. It had a very pretty shell, pale yellow with a sharp black stripe. Right in the middle of the sidewalk it was, halfway between the bushes by the McD parking lot and the cool shady bushes by the side of the road.
You don’t appreciate what you have when you’ve had it all your life
Last Friday I went to a friend of mine’s Oath of Citizenship ceremony. He’s originally from the States, has been living here in Vancouver with his husband for years, and made the choice to become an official Canuck. That means a lot. I was born here, so were my parents, and their parents, and their parents; never lived anywhere else except for 6 months in Belgium when I was 8. I don’t really think much about Canadianness except when listening to The Arrogant Worms’ heart-stirring national anthem, Canada’s Really Big, or bitching about our dead-eyed Bush-wannabe PM.
Northern Voice 2011
And it’s that time of year again. Time to hob-nob with all sorts of bloggers and assorted geeks in UBC’s lovely Life Sciences Centre, with its gorgeous atriums filled with natural light.
2010 was a good start
It’s been an interesting year, that’s for sure. A year of transitions and new beginnings. After being laid off in late 2009, I spent the first few months of 2010 trying to look for work, and not having much success. After a while I began to wonder if maybe there wasn’t another way to go about things. Tentatively I reached out to other freelance web designers, getting a feel for the industry, still unsure of what I really wanted to do, and what I was ready for.
Parade of Lost Souls 2010: Ghosts, Fears and Magic
I’ve got to admit, my attendance at the Parade of Lost Souls has been pretty spotty. I’ve only gone a handful of times since I moved to Vancouver, and I didn’t even know it had been canceled last year. I went this year, though. Because it’s a wonderful tradition that’s worth following, and because Public Dreams needs the support.
SkeptiCamp 2010 II
On October 23rd, 2010, several dozen skeptics descended on UBC for the second SkeptiCamp of 2010: a full day of science, education, questioning assumptions, and rap. Good times.
A whole lotta sunsets
Well, just two for now. This week I started working full-time again— a short contract, which suits me right now. But it gave me the chance to take some lovely shots of the commute to and from North Van. Plus, just tonight, as I came home I saw False Creek swathed in a lovely fog, so I got right on Burrard Bridge to take a few shots. Turns out I wasn’t the only one, seems like every photographer in the area had the same idea!
Davie Day 2010
Ah, the Davie Day festival, the time when local businesses and community groups come out to shine. In the last five years my attendance has been pretty sporadic—last year, for instance, I just remember briefly going up and down Davie Street, saying hi to a few friends, and that was it. But this year, I thought I’d be a little more involved. That meant pictures!
PNE 2010: Rain, Candy, Pigs and Quacks
We got in right under the buzzer. Some friends and I made our annual pilgrimage to the PNE on September 6th, the very last day. It was cold and showery, but I didn’t let that bother me. There was fun to be had!
NetSquared Camp 2010
Okay, now that the film festival’s done, I’m finally free to blog about NetSquared Camp 2010, an unconference of activists, technologists, entrepreneurs, and assorted geeks who want to make the world a better place, in a full-day extravaganza of sharing and networking. It was my first NetSquared Camp ever, and I’m still digesting everything I’ve learned. Here’s a rundown of the talks I attended:
Ghosts of Old Victoria
As I said in my previous post, during my recent trip to Victoria I went on a ghost walking tour. It was fairly entertaining (our guide was quite a good storyteller), and I learned quite a bit about the history of Victoria, though of course it didn’t convince me that ghosts are real.
Skeptics in Victoria
It was totally a last-minute thing. Some of the the Skeptics in the Pub crowd had been talking about a weekend trip to Victoria, but that had been scheduled for mid-July, then rescheduled to… later. Then, at New Bright Lights on Friday I heard that it had indeed been rescheduled, for that weekend. Well, fortunately my plans for the weekend had fallen through, so it was an easy decision. Rides, a place to stay, a clean pair of underwear in my bag, and I was good to go.
What I learned from managing the COMP 1950 project
COMP 1950 — Intermediate Web Design & Development. I decided to take this course because, though I’ve been doing Web design for years, it was all self-taught, and I figured there were some gaps in my knowledge and methodology.
Vancouver WordCamp
So I’m finally blogging about WordCamp. I had a great time, met some cool people, and learned so much I almost needed an extra brain. Well, I had my iPhone, does that count? Now I just need to digest everything I’ve absorbed and apply it to my present and future projects.
Northern Voice 2010
So, Northern Voice: the annual blogging and social media conference, held this year at UBC’s beautiful Life Sciences Centre. It was my first time; in fact I only heard about this event a few weeks ago. It sounded like a great time, and it truly was: two days of learning, nerdery and camaradery! I met some amazing people, attended talks and workshops for all tastes, from the technical to the social to the political to the academic, and overall basked in the presence of my fellow bloggers.
