High Tech Recession

In retrospect, it all seems so obvious.

Once the darling of Wall Street and Sand Hill Road, the High Tech community has really hit the skids. 1998 and 1999 saw heady IPOs and venture funding doled out to companies with the most ridiculous business plans, the pendulum was bound to swing the other way.

Here in Vancouver, there have been layoffs from some top-notch Web Design firms like Stratford and Blast Radius, as well as software firms like Brainium and, most recently, from my previous employer, Multiactive.

One of those employees included in the 20% staff cut was my good friend Derek K. Miller, who had served there almost 5 years. An eternity in present times.

An endless resource for company information and an undisputed fountain of knowledge, he was called upon from all areas of the company to share the intelligence he'd gathered in his tenure.

Derek's not upset about being laid off...in fact, I think he sees it as an opportunity that he wouldn't normally have had.

I guess this recession isn't so bad.

New Office Perk

Just got a Xootr Cruz in the office the other day. Lots of fun zipping around the photocopier at high speed.

Took it out for a dash up to the post office about 4 blocks away, which is mostly uphill. Because the Cruz has larger-than-normal tires, it was quite an easy trip.

Coming back was another story, though. As my old Physics teacher Mr. Holland used to say: What goes uphill must come downhill. Fast.

Although particular model is fitted with a handbrake to make stopping easier, I might have asked if the brake was functioning before I decided to take it out onto a busy street.

As I came rocketing down Homer, heading for lots-of-traffic Robson, I realized that stopping would be very unlikely. I was wrenching on the handbrake as best I could...to no avail.

There was only one option left to me: bail.

I jumped off just metres from the intersection and thankfully my balance is still functioning moderately well. I didn't fall, but I stumbled around awkwardly until I slowed my momentum to a halt.

I think I'll stick to the office for now.

Skytrain Mishap

As I do at the beginning of each working day, I walked down to the SkyTrain to begin my morning commute. As I approached the station, I noticed that there were a large number of people standing around the station. There were also a lot of SkyTrain employees directing commuters away from one particular car.

As I passed the crowd, I could see into one of the cars where a man seemed to be passed out on the floor. I walked into the next car and asked an older lady what had happened. She said that someone had been shot on the train.

Shot? Shot?!

Okay, I know that there are people in Vancouver who own guns, but I don't like to think that they'll actually use them. Especially near my home!

Well, the firemen came first and they crowded into the car, followed a few minutes later by the paramedics. As they were wheeling their gurney to the scene of the crime, I took advantage of a break in the crowd to peek in the window one more time.

There was no blood, no violent aftermath that one would expect from a fierce firefight on the SkyTrain. In fact, the patient looked like your typical Yaletown Serf* with a bad case of the shakes. In fact, he seemed to be responding to inquiries from the firemen quite easily. Once the paramedics got in there, he was fitted with an oxygen mask, climbed onto the gurney and was wheeled away.

Looking for a second opinion, I asked the nearest SkyTrain employee what had happened. His story was quite different:

The recently wheeled-away was on the SkyTrain when, just before arriving at Patterson, he had lapsed into a seizure of some kind. Passengers in the train, scared for their lives, alighted the train with such speed as to cause others to similarly run for their lives. Someone finally called 9-1-1, after, I'm sure, they all had their morbid sense of curiosity satisfied. Either that, or he stopped shuddering and they got bored.

It's amazing how people react in certain situations. I hope I don't have something go wrong when I'm stuck inside a train with similar idiots.

Oh, and never listen to old ladies on the scene.


Yaletown Serf: black Doc Martens, black pants, black shirt, black jacket

Changed, finally.

Though I have been building a company that creates web sites for the last 6 months, our own web site has languished. We finally pulled everything together and slapped down Version 2 this weekend.

Funny how that works. The gardener always has the messiest yard. The plumber always has leaky faucets at home.

I guess you spend so much time working on other peoples sites, you have little creative energy left over when you decide to work on your own.

Even with the weekend launch, the site, as it is today, will change in the next week or so to include some Flash for navigation.

So I guess the current version is V2.0 Beta.

Serial Movie Goer

Jo watches movies. A lot. So much, in fact, that she has compiled her Cinema Lovers Guide to Vancouver Movie Theatres.

Additionally, read about Theatre and Arts events around our fair city.

Hey, Jo!

And all was dark...

Last night around 10:30 pm, I was at the office, working on some project or other and *snap* *poof* - all the lights went out. Not just the lights in my office either...I mean
all the lights.

It was a strange sensation. I am so used to the ambient noise of computer fans, air conditioning, the low buzz of monitors and all of a sudden -- nothing. After a few seconds I could hear some "woo-hoo!" sounds from outside as others in the Yaletown area registered their delight in the darkened city.

Back in the office, I was frightened for a few moments, trying to figure out what was going on.

A blackout in a city this size? Not possible. I thought.

I stumbled around in the pitch blackness of my office trying to find the exit. As I've only worked here for about 7 days, I haven't memorized the layout yet. Once I made it out into the hallway, the emergency lights were on, adding to the errie effect.

The elevator wasn't working, so I went down the stairs to the front of the building and walked out into a totally darkened street. My office is very close to Concorde Pacific, a large-scale development of mostly residential towers. They were all black, save for some candles illuminating windows randomly throughout the collection of windows.

Looking toward downtown, I saw the same thing: darkness, save for a few candle-lit windows.

I felt like I was in war-time London during a blackout.

How odd.

Back to Reality

Well, after a nightmare of line-ups, delays, cramped space and slow luggage collection, I've made it back to Vancouver in one piece.

On top of my fantastic snorkelling experience, I was introduced to my new favorite sport: boogie boarding.

When I arrived in Nuevo Vallarta, I saw some people out on the waves with these smallish boards they they were using in the crashing surf. It looked like fool's play, so I decided to just stay on the beach and read my book.

Incidentally, I'm reading Robert Harris' Enigma about a brilliant British mathematician working as a member of the team struggling to crack the Nazi Enigma code.

Anyway, the 2nd day that I was there, one of the people I was with decided to try boogie boarding. After about 30 minutes in the surf, he jogged up to my place on the beach and pronounced it an enourmous amount of fun.

I decided to try.

The first few attempts were more water than wave. I got the salt water in the mouth, up the nose, in the eyes....not at all fun. But once I got the hang of when and where the waves would break, it all came together.

It was incredibly fun! I'd like to do it more, but in the near-freezing temperatures of the BC coast, I don't think I'm interested in trying it this far north.

Perhaps I'll have to book a trip to Hawaii, or the Dominican Republic.

Mexican Update II

Well, all is going well here in Nuevo Vallarta. Playing in the surf, riding the waves on boogie boards, playing volleyball and other summertime activites.

The snorkelling expedition went much better than expected. I got into the water with about 80 other snorkellers, and we spread across the bay next to the Marietas Islands. Very quickly I was surrounded by all manner of colourful fish that were darting past me on all sides. I was amazed that they were so close and seemed so unconcerned by my presence.

Further toward the island itself, I saw a very, very blue fish that looked like a large Red Barb that I used to have in my old fish tank. There was another fish that was very long and very narrow with tiny little flippers that helped propel it through the water.

Next, was the one of the more frightening and exhilirating experiences of my life. I had stuck close to the guide that accompanied us into the water. We had ended up in deeper water and, from time to time, he was going down to the bottom, dropping food along the way to attract fish.

I saw some movement off to my right which I thought was the seabed moving. I stopped swimming and looked directly at a huge Manta Ray that was swimming slowly, gracefully along the bottom.

I was totally stunned motionless in the water. It was about 20 feet across and appeared to be moving in slow motion. It was swimming away from us, but then wheeled up and around...right toward us.

I couldn't do anything. I was frozen there as it softly floated toward me. The moment is hard to describe, but it was beautiful and frightening at the same time. The animal was easily 3 times my size, maybe bigger.

At a distance of about 8 or 10 feet (distance is hard to judge under water), it gently arced downward and continued to swim past us. I watched it for as long as I could until it disappeared in the gathering green of the distant water.

That alone was worth the trip.

Update from Mexico

Well, I have been trying to update this blog from the local Internet Cafe for about 45 minutes now, but the machine keeps crashing. I´m attempting a covert version of updating the blog...perhaps that´ll work.

So far, I have had a great time of playing in the surf, sand and sun. It has been a pretty lazy few days, and not too much strain to look forward to.

Tomorrow I will be going out to the Marietas Islands to snorkel with dolphins, manta rays and assorted sea life. I think my friend Derek would be jealous.

Well, I better get back to the bar!

I'm off to Mexico!

In a few hours I'll be jetting my way to a week of relaxation in sunny Nuevo Vallarta, just north of Puerto Vallarta.

I'm a guest of Rodney and Jeaniene on the occasion of their marriage.

I've never been to Mexico before. I'm looking forward to this vacation quite a bit. If you read my site with any regularity, you'll know that the move into the new office has been somewhat hectic, so the time off is quite a relief.

I don't think I'll be updating this weblog while I'm gone, but you never know. If you want a postcard, just drop me a line.

Well, there's sure to be a few pictures to post upon my return.

Until then: Puedo tener otra cerveza, por favor?

I have to use a 14.4 modem?!

This is what I've been reduced to because of that wonderful monopoly called Telus. They told us they'd have our ADSL working for when we moved into the new office.

Is it working? No.

Do they know what's wrong? No.

Do they care? No.

Are they going to fix it? We can only hope.

The problem with government sponsored monopolies like Telus is that they do pretty much anything they like because they know you have no option to go anywhere else. Even if I get the ADSL from some other provider, the port is still connecting through Telus, so you dance with the devil no matter where you go!

Because some incompetant cheese-head at Telus unplugged our ADSL, my business comes to a halt as we wait until they figure out what they screwed up.

Now, here I am with two tin cans and a string that people call a "dial-up connection".