General

I’ve ordered a Mac Mini with an 80G drive, Combo Drive, 512M RAM, Bluetooth & Airport plus a S-Video adapter cable. It will be connected to my TV & stereo as a media center. It can probably replace my DVD player, except for the lack of a decent remote control. There are now several media center projects, the newest at www.digitalducktape.net.

Yesterday was my last full day in Vancouver. I’m now at the airport waiting for my flight home. It didn’t rain yesterday so I got a chance to walk around and explore downtown Vancouver after work. I found the mall on Granville street and had dinner at the food court. The majority of the restaurants I’ve seen since I’ve been here are Asian. On various nights I ate in Indian, Japanese, and Vietnamese restaurants. There are also a lot of American burger places, which I avoided, and more Starbucks than I’ve seen anywhere else. At one point on Granville street there are two Starbucks directly accross the street from each other.

I finally got to the gym in my hotel last night. I attempted to lift my usual weight and couldn’t do it, until I realized everything was marked in Kilograms instead of Pounds. I’m still pretty bad at converting to & from the metric system.

It’s been raining since I got here, although the temperature is very mild – in the 40s & low 50s. Again I was in the office all day so I didn’t get to see anything. I didn’t do any walking or exploring this evening because it was raining pretty hard.

Everything here seems to close very early. After 8PM the streets are empty and almost every restaurant & store is closed.

I arrived at 11:30 last night exhausted & hungry. The flight was OK, except I had to change planes in Houston. Unfortunately the flight to Vancouver was at the opposite end of the airport from the gate where my first plane landed. I had only 45 minutes between flights, so I had to run most of the way.

I had a great first day here. I’m staying at the Georgian Court hotel. My room has high-speed wired internet, but I brought my Airport Express so I can connect wirelessly.

I’m still pretty jet-lagged so I got up early. It was great to finally meet my co-workers in person. After work, I explored a bit. I didn’t rent a car, so I walked. Vancouver is very pedestrian-friendly.

It isn’t cold, but it rained all day. It felt a lot like San Francisco or Seattle weather, and Vancouver reminds me of San Francisco. Downtown Vancouver is very easy to walk around. I only explored the area around Robson & Granville, which is the entertainment/restaurant district. Like Seattle, there seems to be a Starbucks on every corner. I passed at least 4 between my hotel andd Granville street.

I’m leaving for Vancouver this afternoon. I’ll be working in Absolute’s office for the week.

As some readers may recall, I started the South Beach Diet in early June. I haven’t written too much about it lately but I wanted to post a final update.

I’ve held steady at 155-157 pounds for several months now and I’m down to a size 33. When I started the diet, I weighed 191 and wore a size 36 or 38. At the beginning of last year, before I started going to the gym, I was around 200.

I’m pretty much eating normally now, except I try to avoid bad carbs (sugar & white flour) and bad fats. I go to the gym as often as possible and I do a lot of walking. I didn’t even gain weight over the holidays.

One of my co-workers told me:

“We have a unusual situation here in Vancouver. Suddenly it’s snowing and it’s like national emergency situation. “

One of my neighbors is vacationing in Mauritius now, which I see has been hit by the tsunami. I hope everyone is OK there.

Ho Ho Ho, originally uploaded by mike3k.

Santa came to our party last night.

New Office, originally uploaded by mike3k.

I have my new office pretty much set up now and I love working here. It feels more like a real office and I have enough room for all of my computers.