Finally, a useful and worthwhile application for modern technology

chain lake, canada

I recently took a few days of vacation time after a "use it or lose it" email from our HR department. I spent a few days in the sunshine, relaxing at the lake. When I wasn't fishing, I started to play around on my laptop and before long had put together this video collage of one of the most important experiences of my life.

I posted it here:

I like to get poked

vancouver, canada

Can someone explain to me what exactly a Poke is? Are we talking something like a wink? Or is it more substantial than that? Can you poke your friends? Is it sexual in nature? As in... "I wish Nate's mom had a facebook profile so I could give her a poke"? Or is it like a pat-on-the-back. If I poke a guy is that gay? If you poke your girlfriend's friend are you cheating on her? If I keep poking Julie is Russ going to beat me up?

I'd like to think poking is a little more innocuous than that, you know, a knowing nod between friends, or maybe a high-five.

...but just in case I'm wrong, I'm not going to poke my sister.

The road is calling

vancouver, canada

I'm thinking about travelling again. It's been over three years now since I returned home from Johannesburg (as soon as I wrote that I had to stop for a second to do the math in my head because it seems impossible that it could have been that long ago).

Let me clarify, I never actually stop thinking about travelling, I've just pushed practical thoughts of planning a trip to the back of my mind for the past 36 months in an effort to focus on building a career. A career that I hope one day will financially facilitate my insatiable appetite for going places I've never been before.

In the mean-time, I was notified via email this week past that I have 13.5 days of vacation that I must use before September of this year or else I will lose it. I could spend it turning long weekends into EXTRA-long weekends full of camping, fishing, ATVing, and relaxing at the lake.... which I will certainly do. But I am also inclined to take a full week and do something a little more adventurous.

After only 20 minutes of soliciting ideas via a status update on my facebook profile, I have already received two appealing suggestions:

Party in Las Vegas & SCUBA in Grand Cayman

Both have their merits but I want a more exhaustive list of ideas. Maybe it's time to visit some of those long-lost friends from the road?

And so I turn to you.