We were attending my girlfriend’s father’s 65th birthday party.

While they were camping down by the river, we stayed in the awesome Mozey-On-Inn Motel in town (5 minutes away), a great little 3 room motel:

We stayed in the Barber Shop room (the largest of the 3) and we had a shotgun above our bed…you know, just in case.

As my girlfriend’s family are avid ATV’ers and members of a riding club, we were able to borrow theirs over the weekend. Coalmont seems to have a lot of ATVs thanks to the Kettle Valley Railway corridor (aka the KVR) which is a well used trail for getting between Princeton and Tulameen.

With hundreds of miles of trails, it’s a great place to go quadding. This was my first time and it was a ton of fun…the kind of fun that makes you want to get your own quad.

Quadding is some dirty business…days later and I think I finally got all the dirt and dust out of my sinuses.

The campground was just around the corner from Granite Creek (aka Granite City), one of BC’s many ghost towns.

It’s mostly just a few collapsed buildings now but is steeped with history and plenty of ghost stories.

I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen so much wildlife in one weekend. Saw two bears and well over 30 deer during the trip, plus some lamb, sheep and a bunch of chickens.

It was nice to get away for a weekend that for the most part (aside from the motel’s wifi), had no internet or even cell service.

Things got a little crazy at the birthday party…

(don’t worry, it was just the empty packaging the fireworks came in…we’re not that crazy!)

I shot a TON of GoPro footage (stills & video) over the weekend…just not sure anyone is interested in a 2 hour trail ride video of me driving over logs and eating dust.

No, it’s because I think SXSW has outgrown Austin. Just look at this lineup for badge pickup (it’s hard to tell but it’s actually a double looped line that snakes around the entire convention centre):

Every year, more of my friends attend the conference…and they tell two friends and so on. The estimate I heard for just the interactive portion this year was 24,000+ attendees. That doesn’t include the Film folks and the Music people that start arriving towards the end. I don’t know if any city can support a conference like this, while still having the charm of Austin.

The other thing that I’ve noticed the last few years is that the people that I met early on are no longer attending. It’s for various reasons but many just don’t make it a priority anymore like they once did. I was chatting with Erica OGrady (whom I met at SXSW a few years ago) about this topic at the Bing/Cheezburger party (which was a blast – see the photo above) and she’s also questioning her future attendance for the same reasons I am. It’s just gotten too big. It used to be lineups for the hot parties. But now it’s lineups for everything.

I wanted to check out Anthony Bourdain’s panel about how his No Reservations tv crew use social media. I figured I would show up 1/2 an hour early and get a good spot to take some photos. I ended up walking past a giant line about 45 minutes early (on my way to the trade show to kill some time) and it was the line up for Bourdain. It now seems that in order to even get into an A-list panel, you pretty much have to skip the previous timeslot’s panel just to wait in a line. I couldn’t even get into a few other panels because the doors were locked and it was full…despite me being early for them. Frustrating? Hell yes!

While I did make it into the panel, I almost didn’t bother because on the way back from lunch, we actually bumped into Mr. Bourdain as he arrived for the panel and he was gracious enough to let a bunch of geeks and fans get their photo with him.

This lineup craziness also extends to the parties and other night time events. So much so that you usually need to RSVP to them weeks or months before you even get to Austin.

This year, the Bing/Cheezburger party took it a step further. You had to RSVP via Eventbrite and then you needed to pickup a wristband a few days before the party from the Bing compound if you wanted to skip the party lineup. The key difference is that their wristband actually had an RFID chip inside that would give you quick access to the party as well as when a roving photographer took your picture, you could literally swipe your wristband across a receiver that the photographer had and it would post the photo they just took to your Facebook wall. Pretty amazing…if not a little creepy. It did make for a quick entry though.

Now, I’m the first to admit that the last few years, I’ve attended fewer and fewer panels due to the fact there is so many other great events and activities happening outside the convention centre. Some friends have even gone ‘badgeless’ because you really don’t need a badge to have a great experience during SXSW (although many events do require a badge unless you have VIP status).

This year was no different.

Google previously had a huge presence on the trade show floor but this year, they opted to rent out an ENTIRE neighbourhood within walking distance of the convention centre and setup shop as the “Google Village”.

Each house was decked out in Google colors and brands along with giant map pins out front. There was the Android house, the Developer house, the Maps house, complete with a Streetview car out front and many more.

One of the coolest things I found was in the Discovery house which featured a live web cam view of a Coca-Cola machine in New York City and a terminal that you could use to send a video message (and a free coke) to whomever walked up to the machine in NYC. They could then thank you for the coke via video (and you’d get an email link). A really clever campaign that will be spreading to 20 cities around the world and you can send a free coke from your laptop anywhere.

Another fantastic event held outside the convention centre was the GE Garage. This was a complete tent city of awesome technology that people like me love: tools and toys. They had basically brought one of everything that you’d find in an epic workshop or hackerspace and set it up and let you play with it.

They had a laser cutter/engraver where you could etch any design on your iPhone:

They also had a CNC machine where they cut out molds for the injection molding machine they also had on hand where they made iPhone cases with a built in pocket on the back for a Square reader.

If you ever wanted to learn how to weld, you could do that too. They were letting anyone help weld bike racks that would be donated to the City of Austin when SXSW was over.

They also had something close to my heart, a 3D printer table complete with the new MakerBot Replicator which hadn’t actually been released yet (they just started shipping to those that pre-ordered them). They were printing SXSW themed guitar picks for anyone that wanted one:

It was very cool to get to see one up close and I was also able to chat with Matt and Keith from MakerBot.

This also lead to a MakerBot meetup later in the week…where even the MakerBots got to ride in the famous Austin pedicabs.

As usual, there was no shortage of live music at night. At the Cheezburger party, the band FUN performed:

and at one of my favorite spots to see live music in Austin, the Belmont, hosted locals Ghostland Observatory with a fantastic show at the HP Cloud party:

and for the second year in a row, Neiliyo killed it at the ServerBeach party which the whole Eh Team crew come out for:

So, as you can see, there are still lots of great reasons to attend SXSW…and I barely spoke about the panels I attended. I’ve said the last couple of years that in order for me to attend SXSWi, it needs to be a different experience. So a few years ago, I spoke on a panel, last year I drove to Austin and this year wasn’t that different other than the size of the event. Next year may have to be something special for me to attend again…maybe I’ll submit a panel idea.

I’ll likely wait until the summer when tickets go on sale to make my final decision on attending in 2013. I may even just book a badge and hotel room as a placeholder which I can always transfer to someone else if I decide not to go…something I’ve been telling people for years if they want to attend – book in late July/early August if you actually want a hotel that is walking distance from everything…otherwise you’ll be stuck with a $20-30 cab ride each way to your hotel in the boonies.

Special thanks to my friends at Roam Mobility that loaned me and the Eh Team crew some of their Liberty hotspots which were fantastic for keeping us all online when many others either couldn’t get online or incurred huge roaming charges because they didn’t plan ahead. I’m pretty sure I’m going to buy one to keep myself. They also gave us some SIM cards to give away in Austin which helped out a bunch of Canadian folks. A full review of their service will follow in a separate post now that I’ve had a chance to throughly test it.

While in Austin, I met up with the folks from the Toronto, Ontario based Jugnoo to try out their new beta service that launched just prior to SXSW. It’s a one stop social dashboard to creating, monitoring & publishing content and campaigns for social media.

I used their tool to create these short video slideshows (5 in total, which I packaged in this YouTube playlist) using my own photos which are individual daily recaps while at SXSW:

It’s a pretty slick tool with lots of options and I only really played with the video creation component which was surprisingly deep. Using my photos as the raw material, I was able to either directly upload or use links to my Flickr stream (or URL) to pull them into the tool, arrange them in sequence, add titles and choose a visual template. I was then able to add a soundtrack from their large library of music. It reminded me a lot of using iMovie except it was completely browser based. Once the video was created, you can then publish to your choice of social networks. They also have integrated analytics and monitoring for anything you produce with the tool.

My only issue with the video creation tool was that it isn’t currently possible to edit the video after you render it out (the rendered video is saved, just not in a further editable format if you want to make changes to text, layout, etc.). But as this is a beta, I provided this feedback to them and they are hoping to make this happen very soon. It’s still a very impressive tool considering it’s all done in a browser.

[Disclosure: I was chosen from a number of entrants to work with Jugnoo at SXSW and was paid a small sum to cover expenses in Austin as part of the contest.]

You can view my full set of photos on Flickr or watch this slideshow:

PS. I brought home a lot less swag this year…not because it wasn’t offered, I was just choosier. My favorite items were the HootSuite Scarf and the Magic Cheezburger 8 ball:

I was surprised how close the owls were to the trail (and tons of people) and we were able to see at least 8 in just our field of view…with many more further out. There was even a barn owl hunting nearby but I wasn’t able to get any good shots of him.

No shortage of photographers doing the same thing I was, except with much better (or at least more expensive) gear:

This is what $12 million gets you…the estate overlooking the owls and the bay:

I also managed to capture one of my favorite sunsets yet:

View the full photo set on Flickr.

If you want to check out the owls for yourself, head out towards Ladner via Hwy 99. Turn left onto Ladner Trunk Road and then right at 72nd Street (follow the signs to Boundary Bay Airport). Stay on 72nd until the end of the road and park where ever you can (likely along 72nd but there are a few parking spaces at the very end). There is a trail you should stay on that gives you plenty of viewing of owls. Don’t disturb the owls by getting too close…there are lots of signs saying as such.

Conveniently, they have a regular 3d printer night on Thursdays and that happened to be the night I had free to visit.

Upon arriving, I was greeted by Matt, the owner of Metrix and he gave me a tour. It’s definitely a maker’s dream space with lots of room, tools and even a sushi place upstairs that delivers to nerds in need.

There is an array of cool tools to use including 3d printers, a laser cutter, a giant CNC machine and lots of soldering/laptop workstations.

One of the things I had read about Metrix is that they have been making clonedel parts for 3d printers which are basically molds that you use to create objects out of whatever material you pour into the molds. It was cool to see the setup in person and check out the quality of the parts:

There was also a couple of reprap printers built with the clonedel parts:

They also have a vending machine filled with arduino microcontrollers and other geeky toys, snacks (including MREs!) and electronic kits. I ended up buying a bunch of things for myself from the machine:

Since this was a 3d printer night, Matthew brought down his CupCake:

(aka a FakerBot since it was a copy of Makerbot’s open source design that they made at Metrix) which he had modified to make it quite similar to my beloved Thing-O-Matic in how the Z stage operates.

I brought some of my prints and we compared parts. His modified CupCake was printing incredibly well…just as good as my Thing-O-Matic and much better than the output I had seen from stock CupCakes, thanks to his mods (which he posted on Thingiverse shortly after my visit).

I love how the CupCake has all the electronics and wiring on the OUTSIDE…so much more accessible:

It was a very fun way to spend a Thursday night in Seattle…I highly recommend checking out Metrix if you’re in Seattle as they offer lots of interesting workshops and a really cool atmosphere.

It was a good place to try out the new zoom lens (a 55-300mm f/4.5-5.6G ED VR) I recently picked up. I normally wouldn’t consider this kind of lens since it breaks my lens purchase rule of nothing slower than f2.8 but I’ve been doing more and more outdoor photography lately and the price was just too good to pass up.

Here’s some of my favourite photos from the visit:

Not the best photo since it was shot through glass, but I think it was funny that he was licking his lips as he approached me and then turned around and peed directly on the window in front of us…

View the full set of photos on Flickr.

A quick day trip to Seattle met with great weather as my girlfriend and I took in the Underground Tour of Seattle. It’s been on my list of things to do in Seattle for as long as I’ve lived on the West Coast and just never got around to it.

Meeting up in Pioneer Square in downtown Seattle, we started off with a brief bit of history at the tour’s base of operations and museum. We then headed out into the square and proceeded through the streets and into nondescript doorways and passages which lead us to stairwells that took us to the underground.

I don’t want to give away anything but the tour focuses on the parts of Seattle history that have been ‘swept under the rug’ and tells a fantastic tale of the city’s early days. It reminded me a lot of the Sins of City Tour in Vancouver…it’s amazing how many cities are built by some very colorful characters.

Our guide, Teri-Lyn was outstanding and she really made the tour come alive. It truly is a unique tour that I highly recommend checking out. I love the fact that so much is hiding behind and below those hidden stairwells and doorways throughout Pioneer Square.

Then, once back in Canada, I headed down to Vanier Park on Saturday for the Winter Wander. It was basically a $5 open house to all the attractions at Vanier Park. I’m a little ashamed to admit that I’d never been inside the Maritime Museum so it seemed like the perfect time to change that. I then proceeded to climb all over the St. Roch with my camera in hand.

After passing a little yarn bomb between venues,

we headed to the Museum of Vancouver and the Neon Vancouver | Ugly Vancouver exhibit which I had been wanting to check out.

Also couldn’t resist checking out the Smilin’ Buddha sign in the permanent exhibit side of the museum either.

A couple of great photo walk days for sure. Check out all the photos from the Seattle Underground Tour and the Winter Wander on Flickr.

A few nights before halloween, I figured it was time to carve up a pumpkin down at my local indoor shooting range:

and practice for the upcoming zombie apocalypse with a 9mm and shotgun.

Of course, this was all preparation for me to shoot real zombies, however instead of with a 9mm handgun, I used my DSLR to cover the annual Thrill the World Vancouver event. They set a new record for the number of zombies simultaneously dancing to Michael Jackson’s Thriller – 434! They also raised over $4400 for the food bank.

This year’s event was at night which presented some photographic challenges but that’s what giant LED light boxes are for.

You can view my full set of photos from the event on Flickr.

At the end of September I visited Fairmont Hot Springs, BC. and did a couple of guest blog posts over at Miss604.com. Easily the highlight for me was the hidden natural hot springs waterfall:

and I used my GoPro to capture the salmon run that was happening underneath my kayak while on a sightseeing tour:

I also got up close and personal with a bear cub on the resort grounds:

I had actually just finished in the spa and was following the bear cub around in my robe and flip flops. The momma bear wasn’t in the area…we saw her the next day and she was as big as a VW beetle.

Speaking of furry animals, I also got a new kitten recently. A female orange tabby that I’ve named Pixel:

She’s adorable…and is growing up quickly. She’s a Mac fan too!

And lastly, this year I’ve decided to throw my face into the ring (?) and participate in Movember. I’m actually going to grow my facial hair, even though I can just print a mustache on my 3D printer:

I’ve lost a number of people I care about recently to cancer and figured it was time to endure a month of awkward looks with a creepy janitor-esque mustache. Although I may try and do a fu man chu if my follicles play along. If you’d like to donate, please visit my Movember page. I thank you in advance for your support.

It’s an indoor trampoline park but I can only describe it as an adult sized bouncy castle (kids are allowed too) as this place is HUGE!

The House of Air has a number of different rooms or zones that have different features. When you first arrive, you are greeted by a number of large trampolines with an assortment of cables and wires for pro athletes can practice tricks on their snowboards and skis as well as amazing flips and jumps.

Beyond this area is The Matrix and the Colosseum.

The Matrix is the main trampoline room where you can bounce on one of the many trampolines that comprise the floor and walls of the enormous room.

The Colosseum is where frequent dodgeball matches happen. Let me tell you that dodgeball on trampolines adds a whole new layer of challenge and fun.

Here’s a little walkaround video from one of the walkways (sorry about the poor audio):

Unfortunately, I just had my Nexus S cameraphone with me…check out the gallery of much better photos and video on the House of Air website.

If you’re ever in San Francisco and want to get REALLY sweaty and have a ton of fun, you should definitely check out the House of Air.

Earlier this year, I also got to briefly drive a production Volt during SXSW as part of their ‘Drive a Chevy’ promotion where they basically offered taxi service to all attendees in Austin and let you drive the car to your destination.

This time though, I got to really try out the production model over the course of the better part of a week. As soon as we landed in Anchorage, Alaska, we were given our ‘own’ cars for the duration of the trip.

I’m actually a target consumer for the Volt. My current commute is just under 70 kilometres roundtrip from Port Coquitlam to North Vancouver each day. With the Volt’s electric range being around 86 kilometres on a single charge, I could easily go to and from work without charging and still have some range for some shopping trips on the way home.

Once the electric battery is depleted, the Volt will seamlessly switch over to power the electric engine using a conventional gas engine where it can continue for nearly 400 more kilometres. Unlike some hybrids, the switchover is unnoticable since the Volt just maintains the electric batteries with the gas engine and doesn’t directly drive the vehicle.

There are more and more options for charging an electric vehicle. Many hotels now offer at least a couple of stalls with power in their parking lots and recently in Vancouver, local parking company, EasyPark announced a pilot program to have a handful of electric outlets designated for electric vehicles in their lots around the city.

While it is possible to charge the Volt via a regular household outlet, it takes about 10 hours to fully charge a depleted battery. If you have access to a 240V outlet (like what your washer/dryer would use), you can charge the battery in about 4 hours. A 240V outlet can easily and cheaply be installed in your garage. The trunk of the Volt has all the connecting cables you need to plug in anywhere using the outlet on the opposite side of the vehicle from the gas tank.

I really enjoyed driving the Volt while in Alaska. As you can see in this short time-lapse video of the road trip, it’s a beautiful place and reminds me quite a lot of BC:

The roadways around the peninsula were surprisingly flat considering we were in quite a mountainous area. So while the Volt has a number of drive handling modes, I couldn’t really tell much difference between them considering the roads were pretty consistent the whole trip.

I’m looking forward to the chance to check out the Volt again once it launches in Canada later this year…and seeing how it really stacks up on my own daily commute. According to GM Canada, the costs of operating the Volt in BC is 1/5 the cost of a comparable gasoline only vehicle. That seems to be a pretty compelling reason to look into this technology closer, not to mention the environmental impacts of using less gas overall.

Apparently, they rarely get sun in Alaska as the crew kept (jokingly) apologizing for the amazingly warm weather. I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt but also brought a rain jacket and fleece as instructed.

Heading out from the surprisingly beautiful Seward harbour, we headed out for open water.

Then the trip started to feel like a put on. Kind of like how a cruise like this would be at a Disney resort. “And over here we have our friend, the sea otter, playing in the water” – and presto, a sea otter appears and does many little rolls in the water for the adorning crowds on the boat:

Then, as if on cue, we had our first (of many) whale spottings:

I wasn’t able to get any ‘good’ shots of the whales (there were at least two at this location) other than lots like this as they never really broke the surface…at least from my vantage point.

The wildlife highlight of the trip (for me) was definitely the half hour visit we had with these dolphins (I forget their exact name) which looked like mini-orcas. This was shot from the bow of the ship and apparently there were lots along side the ship as well:

I’m not sure exactly how many there were but my guess was at least a dozen (they are hard to count!). Even the ship’s crew commented they haven’t seen that many at once before (usually only 3-4 at a time). They probably tell all the tourists that.

If you want a sure fire way to make over a hundred people really, really happy, invite dolphins to the party…everyone was euphoric during and after this encounter.

We then headed toward the main event: glacier ice on the water:

I’d never seen a glacier up close like this before and it was spectacular:

The sounds the ice makes as it breaks up is unbelievably loud…like being front row for a thunderstorm.

This guy shot photos and video of the whole cruise with just his Blackberry Playbook:

After spending a fair bit of time at the glacier, we headed out again and then came across a ton of stellar sea lions:

We weren’t as close to these guys as I got during my zodiac tour earlier this year but close enough to hear them fighting each other for prime sunbathing spots.

Then, after a brilliant day at sea, we headed back to Seward harbour. I still can’t believe the amount of wildlife we saw on the cruise…the brochure really didn’t lie as others on the same trip which took the same cruise the following day confirmed the amount of wildlife they saw as well.

I had heard good things about cruises in Alaska but really wasn’t expecting them to ‘deliver’ in this way…it was an incredible experience. One tip though – you may want to bring some gravol with you. Out of the 6 of us in my party, apparently, I’m the only one with the stomach for the Alaskan seas as everyone else was a little green for parts of the trip. I guess I can submit my application to the Deadliest Catch now!

Here’s a slideshow of all the photos I took during the cruise:

Disclosure: GM Canada paid for this activity as part of the media tour of Alaska that I was on.