Leaving Vancouver

Don’t worry folks, I have no plans to permanently move away from Vancouver. However, every now and then I find myself in the situation of having to leave this lovely city for other ports of call. This could be for work or for pleasure (in fact, I am currently out of Vancouver on a work trip to which I added a weekend of pleasure — best of both worlds). I do, however, find myself frustrated annoyed pissed off at the difficulties and expense involved in actually leaving Vancouver. When it costs $700 to fly from Vancouver to Montreal (equivalent to flying from San Francisco to New York or Washington, DC), that is too much. That’s with a ticket purchased well in advance. Now, I’ve just found out that United/Air Canada seem to have stopped running a direct flight from Vancouver to Washington DC. Not only is this annoying from a professional point of view since I anticipate having to make regular trips down there over the coming years, it is really pissing me off from a personal point of view since many of my very good friends live in DC. Not a happy camper. This is all coming out now because I’ve been invited to give a talk there and I was trying to find a ticket that would get me there on time without having to cancel my Wednesday class, arrive ridiculously late at night because of having to transfer in Chicago or have to take a redeye. Worse, I may end up having to take a redeye and transfer. Grrr. Okay, end of rant. Until the next time the airlines or TSA find a way to jack me.

Photo of the Week

I will fully admit to being a gadget freak. I am, unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), also an extremely rational and reasoned gadget freak which means I have nowhere near the number or quality of gadgets I would like in my life. One of those coveted but unowned gadgets is a digital SLR. I do have three cameras (a wonderful old film SLR that my father gave me ages ago, a compact digital and a prosumer digital with high zoom fixed lens), but the dSLR is my goal. Which leads me to this post. If I am going to justify buying that shiny new toy, I should really try to take better pictures with the toys I have. I did recently pull out the old Canon A1, but of course have not developed the film yet let alone scanned it in. I also have been taking pics with my little compact Canon SD-600. So I’ve decided to post the fruits of my labors here. Hopefully these pictures will get better and more interesting over time and of higher quality when I finally do break down and buy the dSLR.

This week’s picture was taken on the beach near Bodega Bay, Sonoma County, California where I was hanging out with some friends this past weekend: