November 9th, 2008
Yesterday we picked up a pair of New Zealanders and headed for Tofino. Along the way we hit up Horn Lake to check out some caves. Ended up in one really cool cave that had a stream flowing through it and a zillion Daddy Longlegs spiders on the roof.
En route we saw packs of eagles near a wildlife conservation area before Port Alberni. It was weird because there weren’t any signs, just heaps of eagles in the trees. Once we stopped we discovered a pack of raccoons in the tree checking us out. Then a deer wandered by! We had no idea we were in a conservation area until Miranda checked it out on her map. Pretty cool to see so many animals in one spot.
After the zoo it was time for some random side roads for 4x4ing which was fun. Finally we finished up the trek to Tofino and piled into the small cabin we’d rented for the next couple of days. Dave and Amelia showed up for a beer and we learned all sorts of cool things about New Zealand that night. My favorite phrase: “budgie smuggler.” A budgie smuggler is slang for a pair of speedo swimming shorts.
This morning we made a huge fruit salad and found the one place in the cabin where we could get wireless internet. So now we’re gearing up to check out the area.
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November 7th, 2008
Tomorrow I leave with a pack of friends for Tofino. Getting out of town for a few days is going to be awesome. We’re not coming back until Tuesday so we’ll have time to sit back and chill out on the wet west coast. The forecast says sun for Sunday and I’m hoping we’ve missed any monsoons.
Last Sunday night I hit the Commodore for the Eagles of Death Metal, who aren’t really as heavy as their name sounds. Great show! Lead singer Jesse “the Devil” Hughes made a big deal out of his superior mustache and even took time out between songs to make a show of grooming it. The band played a solid rock set and hit all my favorite songs so I was pretty happy at the end of it, despite being out late on a work night.
What else? I hit the Agile Vancouver Conference this week. It’s a software developer conference and had a good mix of people. Only a few geeky neck beards were in attendance. Learned loads and our whole team benefited from seeing what other people were doing in their companies. The biggest change was in the conversations our team was having today, after the conference. Much more focus on best practices and getting our development process streamlined using the different techniques we’d discovered.
Now I’m going to pack for Tofino!
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November 2nd, 2008
Last year my Dad contracted cancer and subsequently passed away. He had just retired and was looking forward to several years of travelling, playing golf, and heli-skiing when he got the news. Six months later he was gone.
I heard a statistic yesterday that 2 in 5 Canadians will contract cancer at some point which means that even if I don’t get it then several of my friends and family will.
We’re doing something about it. Movember is a mustache growing charity event during the month of November and some friends and I have formed a Movember team to grow mustaches. Now I’m asking you to donate to the cause!
To donate, you can either click this link https://www.movember.com/ca/donate/donate-details.php?action=sponsorlink®o=1810296&country=ca and donate online using your credit card or a PayPal account.
Alternatively, you can write a cheque payable to the “Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada”, referencing my Registration Number 1810296 and mailing it to:
Prostate Cancer Research Foundation of Canada
Attn: Movember
145 Front Street East
Suite 306
Toronto Ontario M5A 1E3
We’ll get some pictures of this fine ‘stache up in early December so everyone can see how I stack up next to Burt Reynolds and Tom Selleck.
Thanks for your support!
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November 1st, 2008
I nearly forgot about the bizarre thing we witnessed last night! This guy was running around the Frog dressed in an Iron Man costume and when he left, he decided he was going to climb up the fire esape of the building across the street. He made it all the way up and then climbed up onto the roof! Eventually he made it back down without incident and did a backflip on the sidewalk to celebrate his accomplishment.
This was the most ridiculous thing we saw last night.
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November 1st, 2008
Saw a great little play last night called Jesus Christ: The Lost Years which fictionalized Jesus’s life between the ages of 13 and 30. Turns out he made it into outer space and did all kinds of cool stuff! Reilly and Miranda are into the independent theatre scene which is great because I love seeing cool plays put on by small theatre companies. Last night’s production was put on by Monster Theatre who I think are a gem in the indie theatre world.
So with the religious studies under our belt we retired to the Black Frog for a couple of beers and some chatter. Nothing too crazy to report from there other than to say they play the best music of any place I’ve been. Ever. The dude who runs the joint plugs his IPod into the PA and throws it on shuffle. His IPod is almost an exact duplicate of my music library with all sorts of great indie rock stuff like Frank Black, Built To Spill, Band of Horses, the Supersuckers, Eagles of Death Metal, Queens of the Stone Age, the Breeders, and so on. You *never* hear this music anywhere else.
Not sure about the rest of this weekend. We’re hitting up the Alibi Room for breakfast on Sunday. Today I’m getting my hair chopped and renewing my insurance. Sunday night the Eagles of Death Metal are going to rock the Commodore and I’m looking forward to finally seeing them.
Oh, and Green River is playing the Showbox in Seattle on Nov 29 as part of the Supersuckers 20th anniversary performance. I’ve got to make a decision about going down there that weekend for the show. I’m always in for spending time in Seattle and given that Green River is unlikely to do any more shows then I’d better take advantage of the chance to see them again.
Who are Green River you ask? It’s the band that the guys in Pearl Jam and Mudhoney formed in the mid-80′s and are widely acknowleged as the first “grunge” band. Out of the band’s breakup in 1988 came Mudhoney and Mother Love Bone. Mother Love Bone managed to get one album out before the singer died of a heroin overdose which led to the remaining members forming Pearl Jam.
So seeing Green River is a piece of rock history for me. It’s also great to see some of the Pearl Jam guys in a small venue instead of the stadiums they usually play. More importantly, the show I saw at the Sub Pop 20th anniversary festival this summer was one of the best shows I’ve seen. Now that these guys are all seasoned musicians they can take these songs and play them far better than they could back when they were a bunch of young punks in the 80′s. As one reviewer noted, “if they were that good back then, they never would have broken up.”
Final decision on the Green River show will be made before Sunday night. I’m pretty sure I’m going to go though.
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