For anyone not in the know I am currently part of the Pacific Standard Tribe, visiting family and friends in Vancouver for a couple of days before drifting slightly eastward to Banff on Thursday. And since Banff isn’t a place that I am recently familiar with, I made sure that I was preparing for being there. It seems that everything I brought and packed was considering the current state of Banff, but an old state of Vancouver from when I was here last in June. Neglecting to remember that in the winter months it rains in Vancouver. A lot.

And not the type of rain that can be avoided with good timing and a careful watch on the doppler radar, this is a soul-crushing long-term drizzle that I suspect won’t let up the entire time that I’m here. At least is what the forecast seems to indicate. So while I brought gloves, scarf and toque to prepare for the -2°C temperatures in Banff, I didn’t bring an umbrella or rain jacket. How soon we forget. In Bermuda, rain is something that happens at a point in time. And you can literally watch it pass by overhead.

Bottom line, looks like I’m going to get damp. I’ll try to borrow an umbrella, but I’m not going to let some water from the sky stop me from seeing my friends and doing what I need to do. I’ll let you know how Banff goes at some point too (I’m there for the CanUX conference)

Not made it to Bermuda, yet, but made it through the monumental task of completely sorting out all of my stuff and somehow packing it to head back to the tiny island in the Atlantic. If I knew how difficult this was going to be, I would have been a bit more hesitant to agree to it.

I think the problem was that I didn’t have my mother to help me this time. While my friends have been helpful above and beyond the call of duty—especially Jordan—they just aren’t the same as my mom there helping out. Mom: if and when I leave Bermuda, you might find a ticket with your name on it for the week before I leave. :)

Okay, this is longer than I anticipated. Good bye Canada, this time I have no plans to return.

72, 76, 91, 106

That is the progression of me getting better at bowling throughout the night. This was ten-pin bowling mind you, which I have never played before. Those bowling balls are quite heavy. I actually learned a lot about bowling in the past couple of days in the process of planning this last event out with my coworkers and friends. Apparently the most common type of bowling in Canada is five-pin bowling which I have never played before. As the name suggests, it uses five pins and a smaller ball. There are other slight variations on the rules but otherwise it is similar to the full ten-pin which is most popular in the US and UK. While the five-pin is the most dominant form in Canada, in Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia it isn’t. In Quebec it is Duckpin bowling and in NB and NS, it is Candlepin bowling. Given that growing up, the only place that I’ve ever bowled was in either Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, you can see why I’ve never played five or ten-pin.

And the rules of Candlepin are different enough that I would have been quite confused as to the rules of ten-pin but for the training I received from the Nintendo’s Wii Sports. I’ve played that bowling, in fact I was playing it the night before, which uses the ten-pin rules. So I knew that there would only be two balls per frame. What I didn’t realize, since in the Wii version I assumed this was a function of being a video game, was that after each ball, the fallen pins are cleared. This is not the case in Candlepin where fallen wood can be quite helpful in getting awkwardly arranged pins down. Apparently Candlepin is much harder, which I might agree with because I don’t think I’ve ever broken 100 in Candlepin, and the highest sanctioned score ever was 245 out of 300.

Enough about bowling though. It was a great afternoon and evening with way too much food had by me anyway. Pizza in the office—way more than we needed—and then the need to by food with our drinks at the bowling alley. Of coursed being stressed out about my move, I consumed more than might be considered wise. However, the evening was amazing. Good friends, good times. I will miss the Vancouver office so much. I feel that part of my being is in those… cubicle dividers… :). I watched it grow, and along with it, the number of great people I am happy to call friends. Jordan, Reza, Ken, and Pero, I will miss our weekend excursions and lunches. At least now you will be able to add more seafood and sushi into your rotation. Of course, I will still be in close contact electronically, but it isn’t the same. All the best.

But as I spend some time tonight trying to do a bit of pre-packing, I just don’t know how I managed to get all of my stuff into those bags. I know I have purchased a number of items and so I think I’m going to need to purge the old and weak articles to charity shops. It is a good exercise. I notices today that I have some old t-shirts which I don’t wear but seem to carry for sentimental reasons. I think it is time I said goodbye to those (after preserving their memory in photos).

The worst isn’t the clothes, but the host of random items I have sitting on top of my table and dresser. The dresser is particularly bad, there is actually a defined mound that is growing in the centre. My landlady is showing my apartment tomorrow at 11:30, so I have a hard deadline in terms of when I need to have this place looking presentable. It definitely isn’t there yet, but it is way better than when I got home from work. At some point tomorrow morning I will just shove everything into my storage room and shut that door. Until then I continue to pack and clean and sort. Cheers.

Much needs to be done in the next eleven days to get my affairs in order. I need to squeeze all of my belongings back into suitcases, donating and selling those items which don’t make sense to bring with me. Backing up files, organizing papers and let’s not forget saying good-bye. No one wants to leave good friends behind, but it is a grim part of reality for someone nomadic like myself. Not to say some last minute memories can’t be made.

I’m sure there will be more updates and more photos as the relocation process continues, stay tuned.

Moving from the east coast to the west coast of Canada wasn’t as difficult as I thought it might be. Yes, I hate being away from my family, but the environment isn’t too bad. The familiarity of being near an ocean, all of the national stores, restaurants and customs. However, there are some things which are different across this true north, strong and free. Groceries are one difference. This one is mostly related to Vancouver’s huge international population. Fortunately the vast diversity in the types of restaurants and cuisine available here outweigh the odd fish-smelling supermarket. It isn’t the content of the stores per se, but the feel of them. They feel tired.

The biggest blow for me came today however. I had a craving for cheesies for a few days and at one point over the weekend I was in a drug store and stopped in the snack section. It wasn’t a huge selection and I was disappointed but not surprised they didn’t have exactly what I was looking for: Humpty Dumpty Cheese Sticks. So I left thinking I would have to go to a proper grocery store and pick a bag up at some point. So today I went down into the mall to the “Great Canadian Superstore” in order to pick up a bag. They had a huge aisle dedicated to potato chips and related snacks, but I couldn’t find what I was looking for. Nothing Humpty Dumpty at all in fact—no Party Mix or Ringalos. A dark fear started tugging at my mind, very subtly. I went back up to the office and told my friend Ken that I couldn’t find any Humpty Dumpty products.

“What’s Humpty Dumpty?” He replied.

So that answered my question. Humpty Dumpty is available in Ontario and points east, but not west. It turns out Old Dutch, which is quite popular out here, bought out Humpty Dumpty last year. Some of their products have been re-branded and released out here, but mostly just the potato chips. I have seen Party Mix out here somewhere, IGA I think. The buzz online is that Cheese Sticks are hard to come by and most people have friends and family bring them out from the east coast. I guess that is one more thing I can look forward to when I go home for Christmas, along with reasonable cheese prices, donairs and good pizza.

I’m skipping a day. Not that it matters, since I’m writing about it a couple weeks after the fact, but since I have the photos online from my aquarium visit, I will talk about that first. I went to the aquarium—this time with Chris. And my camera. The first time I went I experienced and saw the exhibits as a person. This time I was there as a photographer and it was a much different experience. The dolphin show was the main difference. I didn’t see one the first time I was there, and although it wasn’t a long show, everyone enjoys dolphin antics. And they make interesting subjects of photos.

The hard thing about taking photos at an aquarium is that most of the time you are going to be shooting through glass—or plexiglass which is even worse. Reflections, light abberations and various spots and scratches can make your well intentioned photos look a little bit underwhelming. You want to get as close to the glass as you can to minimize the reflections, bearing in mind that the angle at which you shoot can also affect how the light plays. For the indoor tank photos, the light is usually one stop away from awful, so you will want a fast lens and perhaps a higher ISO. I was lucky to have my f/1.8 50mm which, while limiting my focal range, allowed nicer photos without resorting to a grainy ISO.

It was a good day, the aquarium being the highlight with a nice photo taking session in Coal Harbour before hand. After the aquarium we tried out Stanley’s Park Bar & Grill. The food was a bit below average I’m sorry to report. At least on our visit. They were out of Diet Coke (seriously) and salsa for our nachos. I had the chicken burger which was a little over-charred. The location is nice in the park, but the restaurant doesn’t provide its own washroom facilities instead relying on the public washroom nearby. Trough urinal… classy. Definitely wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone.

Ok, I have to apologize, I have a pile of photos, and things to write about, but no time to write or organize. Isn’t that always the way. Last week, August 3-10, my friend Chris stayed with me and I took the week off work. It was a week of much photography, as Chris is even more into photography than I am. I also found out he is a bad influence, but more on that later.

I have had a photo set up on Flickr for a while now entitled BC Day which shows our first day out, Aug 4 or BC Day here in this province. That day started off with me buying a new lens, the Canon 50mm f/1.8, which while cheap, takes a very crisp photo. Then we headed down to Granville Island where we enjoyed the holiday festivities and took lots of photos along the way. After wandering around in the heat, we eventually headed back downtown via a walk across the Granville Street bridge.

The next day we decided we were going to try and head out whale watching. It was something that Chris had mentioned looking into and so we hit the Internet and found a few places who offered tours from the Vancouver area. We weighed the pros and cons, and eventually settled on Steveston Seabreeze Adventures. We called them up and they had some spots available on their afternoon excursion. They offered a shuttle service as well and told us they could pick us up at a nearby hotel. With the tour organized, there was only one thing left to do to prepare: rent a really big lens. At least Chris did. I felt happy with my 300mm, but Chris wanted to up the ante to 400mm, in a nice L-series lens. Although heavy, this was a nice lens. It did the trick too, because his photos were far better than mine. His camera is nicer as well, and I had mistakenly set my auto-focus to a setting that wasn’t very useful. However, I did manage to snag a few decent shots all things considered. I have an appropriately named Orca Watching photoset on Flickr with the results. I might toss up a couple of Chris’s photos at some point too—with proper accreditation.

It was a great trip out, the day was beautiful and the whales were active. Although expensive, the excursion was well worth it in both of our minds. The folks at Steveston Seabreeze Adventures were kind and easy to deal with. A very pleasant experience.

All told, the whole thing lasted about six hours and when we got back we were pretty exhausted. Being out in the sun all these days was starting to take its toll on both of us. However, the week was just getting started. There are many more photos and stories to relate. I also added a new page which outlines some of the photo gear I’ve acquired, most of it quite recently. More posts and photos to follow, hopefully soon.

Many thanks go out to my aunt, uncle and cousin who helped me move all of my accumulated crap out of my cousin’s place and into this one. I seem to have managed to acquire more than I thought over the past couple of months. If I had spent more than one day packing I might have been able to go through some of the junk that I have and thrown out some of the stuff I don’t need any more. But two car loads were all that it took, and I suspect that with the right car, and careful packing, one car could carry it all. But we had to rush it since I managed to mess up the time I was supposed to meet the owner and get the keys.

The place itself is small, but modern and comfortable. As I may have mentioned, this place as a washer/dryer en-suite, which is a huge convenience. There is also a dishwasher, which I likely won’t use much, but would be nice if I was entertaining a couple of people and didn’t want to wash up myself. The pool and the amazing proximity to the Skytrain are the final two pros that make this place a good spot for me. It’s been a long evening though, and I have to go and spend the first night in my new bed. Photos of the apartment are forthcoming.

I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a bear in person in the wild before. Of course that is probably a good thing.

That is the celebration part. The welts are a result of a game of paintball today with my coworkers. Nine of us in IT plus one computer-savvy business user today went down to Tsawwassan Paintball where we had booked a private course for a couple hours. It was a lot of fun, and our good work dynamic made it all the more enjoyable. How often do you get to shoot at your boss? I will say that while I always enjoy playing, I’m not all that good at it. I guess my lack of first person video gaming combat became very apparent as I was often quickly dispatched by some of my more adept colleagues. And now I have a couple of relatively painless welts from some of my more devastating eliminations. Fortunately not anywhere that shows whilst wearing office clothes. While I did get shot in the mouth once, I managed to avoid catching one in my neck which happened to at least two my teammates.

All said and done, a very successful and enjoyable outing. I hope that we get a chance to do it again some time.

Hope the weather is treating other areas as well. Adieu.

If it isn’t a word, it should be. At this moment, like a couple of weeks ago, I am typing an entry on a 24-inch iMac computer. The primary difference this time is that I own this one.

After a long hard battle with Fedex (I’ve never had a good experience with them), I finally managed to get a hold of my computer today. Although for a time there this morning, I thought that the fates were conspiring against me, when my two potential rides to the Fedex depot fell through. Not to be outdone, I went anyway on the bus/train and when I saw that my computer was a tad bit too awkward to carry home on transit, I took a cab.

Got home with it, and setup was a breeze. Like setting up a laptop, with the extra step of plugging in the keyboard. And of course the OSX setup is simple and easy, especially since I have been through it a few times before. Everything is as I would expect, and now I’m going through the process of getting her set up the way I like. I’ve already synched my contacts and email info over .Mac and the rest is just downloading a few applications and I am on my way.

Her name is Hekate for anyone following my progression through the primarily greek deities. Hekate (sometimes Hecate, although I chose the former spelling for my computer) is the greek goddess of magic, witchcraft, ghosts and various other spooky things. Generally considered to be a pretty powerful and bad-ass goddess, she was also benevolent and well respected. I’m hoping for similar things from my iMac. :)

Obviously one thinks that his own strategy is somewhat optimal. Anything to think about other than this book.

It is also one of the nicest days we have had in Vancouver this year. The high is 31 and I’m sure it is close to that now. Which is why I’m inside watching all of that from the relative cool of the coffee shop. Less sweating in here, not that I was spared earlier, but it is definitely a move slowly kind of day. Also I am still not a huge fan of Fedex, and continue to wish that Apple would switch to using UPS.

On a 24 inch iMac no less. I’m surprised at how much I enjoy this new Apple keyboard. Just enough tactile feedback without the overburdening key travel. I will expand on my experience when I get home.

And while there is a chance of rain today (welcome to Vancouver) the temperature is a respectable 17°C with a high of 25 forecast. And to be quite honest, despite what some of my friends and colleagues might be hoping for, I’m not looking for really hot. Around 20 is fine, I can go out without a jacket, perhaps even wear shorts from time to time. Anything more and you are back into the realm of uncomfortable. And I’ve done hot — 47°C in Spain. For the time being I’ll take whatever Vancouver has to offer.

And it had some bizarre things to offer. Much like any city I suppose, there are things you will see that make you wonder. I’m not even talking about the things to see people do — that is another whole category of weird sometimes. No it is the occasional oddity, like the random pile of VHS cassette tapes that I saw just piled up at the side of someone’s house. Not under a window or in conjunction with anything else, just a pile of tapes. Perhaps they were in the process of being discarded, who knows. Or even last night on the bus home, there was a bag of something sitting on one of the seats. It looked a lot like olives, but I’m not certain — they had a bit more of a texture than olives normally do, but they were that colour green and the right size. It was amusing because no one was willing to move them off the seat, or even sit near them, and I when I got on the bus they had been given a fairly wide berth, like people expected them to start walking about. Bus occupancy eventually forced someone to sit beside the bag, but at least as of the point I disembarked, they were still monopolizing a seat of their own. I’m not sure if it is weirder that it happened or that I decided that I should write about it. I’ll leave that one up to you. Maybe the non-heat is getting to me. ;)

Well now it does. The new Apple Store in the Pacific Centre is right downtown, accessible via any number of buses and the Granville stop on the Skytrain. I suspect you will hear about my trip there in person sometime this week.

Likewise I have no reason to rush home by a certain time. Because of this, I have a very relaxed attitude about waiting for buses, trains, etc. I’m a patient person, and I’ve been known to wait long periods just to add convenience to my life. The point of no return I’m alluding to isn’t some point at which I can’t make it back somewhere, but is more like the point, before which, I am not willing to run to catch a bus.

Not that I blame anyone who does run to catch a bus. I certainly have done it. I did it last night in fact. It tends to happen a bit more at night when the buses are less frequent and the waiting is a tad less savory. But for me, especially in the morning, where I have to walk along the street the bus travels for three blocks before reaching the stop, there is a point where if the bus rushes by me, mentally I know that I’m not going to make it. You would think that for a regular commute I would have my timing set such that I wouldn’t just miss a bus, but surprisingly it happens more often than not. I know when the bus is supposed to arrive, I just have trouble with that last couple of minutes, getting out of the door in time. Perhaps I need to train myself to target a different time that will allow me to spend less than 15 minutes waiting at the bus stop.

In my duck tongue excitement, I forgot to mention my trip to the Aquarium on Saturday. Unlike our previous attempt, Jordan and I managed to make it to the aquarium and into the doors without waiting for the rest of our natural lives. I think we actually caught the end of the line that was there from Easter.

After paying our entrance tariff, we started to explore the depths of what the Vancouver Aquarium had to offer. I’ve said it before, but I have a real affinity towards aquariums. I don’t know why, I’m not particularly nautical in any way, but there is something about sea life that I find fasinating—as long as it is not swimming with me. I had heard some pretty good things about the aquarium here, that it was an impressive size, with an impressive array of displays. I definitely wasn’t disappointed by my first visit, but I will say that I wasn’t hugely impressed either. They had a nice diversity of animals, with the sea otters and seals being popular in my books. I also really liked the seahorse and jellyfish. They also have an “Amazon Jungle” display which is definitely interesting with it’s large fish exhibit.

This is definitely something interesting to see when you are Vancouver, and if you can, I would recommend going during the week to avoid the bulk of the crowds—and the kids. Kids definitely love their fish. :)