I ended up buying another Canon camera just for myself since my wife likes to snap tons of photos of the kids. If I have my own camera it’s much easier (my wife is a camera hog). I bring it everywhere with me, taking pictures are free so what the hell right?

I ended up buying the Canon PowerShot SD1100 for myself. It’s an 8.0 megapixel camera, the SD 750 my wife has is a 10.0 mega pixel. I cheaped out  a bit but the SD1100 still takes great shots. I also figured out how to take video with my digital still cameras  and upload the digital video right to YouTube which is pretty cool (and a time waster).

I really enjoy taking photos now, even if I’m an amateur at it. It’s fun to play with the camera settings, different angles and all that jazz. I guess for me it’s just another way for me to explore my creativity.

Doing digital vids will be cool as well, but I’m really impressed with the way YouTube compresses video, it looks all pixelated and blurry. I’m probably going to use Viddler for video on my blog, it’s much clearer than You Tube’s garbage quality.

On a side not does any know where to get long lasting laptop batteries? My laptop only lasts like 45 minutes so it’s kinda useless. I would like a laptop battery that last maybe 4-5 hours if possible, any ideas?

Enough for now, need to find a long lasting battery for my 2 week trip I will be going.

ciao,

C.V

shot taken on River Road of Fraser river in Richmond

my shaky camera hand gave me a nice photograph

My BBQ

English Bay winter

George Michael music playing in the background, and a coffee shop full of students makes me feel like I’m back in Burnaby Central High School 1988 all over again.. 21 years later and what has changed, I still feel like a kid for f*ck sakes. I was the kid who skipped school, tagged the washroom and didn’t pay attention in class (I got bored easy). I wasn’t  a bad kid, but school was just a wasted vacation for me.  I did graduate but school was boring to me. Now I’m playing catch up. I never used to read in high school, but the last 9 years that is all I ever do. It’s funny how life works huh? Let’s flashback to 1988 for a minute, and see how much has changed in 19 years, did I say 19 years?! Damn, I am old.

If this was 1988:

1. Hip Hop was just starting to hit the mainstream.
2. A house in Vancouver was about $200,00 max, now $600,000 +
3. I was 18 years old & thought I would be that age forever
4. Iroc-Z Camaro was the “cool car”
5. SUV’s didn’t exist yet…
6. What’s the Internet? Not around in 1988….
7. No cell phones
8. Tight jeans were cool, not baggy sh* catchers
9. I didn’t know what I wanted to do with my life , until I was 29 years old..
10. Gas was about 25 cents a litre

Anything I missed, leave a comment and I will add it.

Back to work now…

Doing work at Starbucks – Granville Street Vancouver

Slushy day at Starbucks – Granville Street Vancouver

MetroTown – foggy parking lot

MetroTown Foggy night

MetroTown elevator shot

Francis – My  Dad’s Love Bird

I have few things to say just basic life stuff, nothing to inspirational.  First off I have to say that I am soo glad that this insane amount of snow in Vancouver is finally melting away! I shoveled my sidewalks at least 20 times in the last 3 weeks, enough of that. Hopefully I can begin bike riding again by late this week, I hope. I hate feeling fat, now I sound like a teenage girl……..

We started swimming lessons on Sunday with the kiddies which was pretty cool. I do the lessons with my son and wifey does swimming lessons with my daughter.  Both of them love the water, Stefania actually cried for over 30 minutes in the changing room while I changed her because she wanted to stay in the pool. Yeah, she has a tough life…. At first I didn’t really want to do the whole “strip down and swim in the pool” deal. I  changed my mind when I got in, the water is actually mildly heated and it’s cool to see my son laugh and have a good time in the water. These are the times you want to spend time with your kids, when they are teenagers things will change. They will start having their own lives, so I’ll take it while I can.

Besides that I take possession of my 2 bedroom condo in Burnaby on January 23, which is also my wife’s birthday. She’s turning 33 years old, it’s hard to believe. I met her back in 1996 when she was only 20 years old. Time does seems to fly right by. Hell, I have had this domain name (MotionGroove.com) for 8-9 years if you can believe that? I’m not the only one with a few gray hairs, my website has them too now. Ha ha, ya lame joke. OK that’s enough for now, back to work and you guys better be as well…

shot of Grouse Mountain Vancouver – Jan3 2009

dirty faced baby

Does money buy happiness? Everyone has heard the phrase  “money doesn’t buy happiness”. So does it actually get you a smile on your face? For me I have been employed,  unemployed, a cabinet maker with a $17.47 per hour wage, and where I am now.  I don’t think I was ever depressed when I was making $17.47 an hour. I didn’t think I could have a family on that wage so I did something about it, but I wasn’t depressed.  Personally for me it was more important to have the freedom, but the thing is this. Money bought me the freedom to do what I want now. Was it by choice? It wasn’t completely by choice. I started doing affiliate marketing because I kept getting laid off every 4 months from all the dotcom companies back in early 200o.

Did I luck out?

I don’t think I lucked out at finding affiliate marketing, somehow I think it was drawn to me. I said over 15 years ago that I wanted to retire by 40 years of age, now I actually can and it’s hard to believe.  I wouldn’t be filthy rich,  but if I retired but I can sure live very comfortable. Does money buy happiness? Most people myself included just want to be able to not worry about bills and have some time to themselves (retirement basically). Most think they want to be rich but in reality they mostly want their life with a little cherry on top.

Money buys freedom and that puts a smile on everyone faces, so yeah I think money buys happiness in one way. But if you’re poor and an assh*le, chances are very high you will be  an assh*le when you are rich as well (probably even a bigger a-hole).

Whats the bottom line?

Be happy and grateful for what you have, trust me you can live without an IPhone or whatever other crap they are trying to sell to us. We could all life very nice with way less than what we have. If you sit down and think of all the crap you buy because YOU THINK YOU NEED IT, you would be truly surprised. Wonder why so many people are in debt, it cause we all eat out way too much, buy the latest electronic gadgets we don’t need, buy big ass SUV’s (that’s me),  and so on. We consume way too much, it’s completely unnecessary.. I kind of got off topic but whatever..