X-Canada Day 17 PEI,NS

cross canada wrap-up

we'll be taking the ferry from Prince Edward Island to Nova Scotia and then drive to Halifax. I cannot say enough about PEI. it's an amazingly scenic province.


- PEI potato field

PEI is the setting of the internationally famous L.M. Montgomery stories. the most popular being the Anne of Green Gables books.


- "Green Gables" national park

the house pictured above was originally owned by a relative of L.M. Montgomery and it inspired descriptions that you'll find in her books.

Update: a last minute change of plans has us in a small town called Antagonish. tomorrow we'll make another effort to get to Halifax.

we went for a sunset stroll on a nearby beach. as we were leaving, we noticed that some idiots hadn't put out their beach fire - we toasted some marshmallows before we covered it with sand.


- the last thing a lobster wants to see

update: we recently made it to the Nova Scotia side of the bay of fundy. it's quite a striking place. the beach sand is red and the shoreline is lined with high bluffs. and then there's the tides; the bay experiences the greatest tidal change in the world (about 28 feet). this photo of a Cape Split dock nicely illustrates the difference between the high and low tides.


- Bay of Fundy, the world's highest tides

X-Canada Day 16 PEI

cross canada wrap-up

we're spending today on Prince Edward Island.

PEI is amazing! today was the first day that my wife and I had to break out the backup flash card for our camera. we started joking about how many photos we'd be taking of the view over each new hill or corner.


- PEI is famous for its red dirt


- some subtle horses by North Cape


- the Province Building was the location of the planning for the confederation of Canada


aerial photos of PEI.

X-Canada Day 15 Quebec,NB, PEI

cross canada wrap-up

today we will be heading towards PEI. hopefully, we'll have access to the net so that we can upload some photos.

this sign is in fredericton, new brunswick. it must be the most canadian sign on the planet.


- no left turn to tim hortons



- Confederation Bridge stretches for 12.9 kilometres and connects PEI to New Brunswick

X-Canada Day 14 Quebec

cross canada wrap-up

we'll be heading to Montreal this morning and then we're going to see how far across New Brunswick we can get.

we went to Mont Royal and looked over the city. after we saw a woman attempt to kick a squirrel, she told us that they are "méchant" ('mean').


- cet écureuil parle seulement le francais

Update: we stopped in Montreal long enough that we decided to spend the night in Riviere-du-Loup (Quebec).

X-Canada Day 13 Ottawa,Ont

cross canada wrap-up

today we're in our nation's capital. we went on a tour of the parliament building and drove by the Prime Minister's residence.


- the Canadian house of Parliament

X-Canada Day 12 Hamilton,Ont

cross canada wrap-up

today we may just take it easy and visit with friends in Hamilton,Ontario. soon we'll be back on the road - off to Toronto and Ottawa.


- Dundurn Castle (photo from http://www.hamilton.ca)

X-Canada Day 11 St. Mary's,Ont

cross canada wrap-up

yes, Ontario is a big province - we're still here. today we'll be visiting St. Mary's, Niagra Falls and then visiting friends in Hamilton.

St. Mary's is a beautiful small town in Ontario - and it's also the home of the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.


- the St. Mary's town hall

Niagra Falls was fun. we went on the famous "Maid of the Mist" boat ride which gets you right next to the falls. they should call it 'Maid of the Shower' though. there was so much water that I used the raincoat to protect my camera and I got soaked. but it was a sunny day so it was great being cool.


- Niagra Falls (Canadian side)

X-Canada Day 10 Tobermory,Ont

cross canada wrap-up

thanks to unprotected wireless networks, we're blogging from Tobormory, Ont. our goal today is to do some sight seeing and then make it to a small town called St. Mary's where we will be visiting with family.


- what would a cross Canada trip be without Canada geese?


- lake Huron sunset


- lake Huron glass bottom boat view of a shipwreck

X-Canada Day 9 Ontario

cross canada wrap-up

we left our relatives' cabin near Massey and we're about to take a ferry across lake Huron.

we're currently on Manitoulin island which is the largest island in a freshwater body of water. also, it contains the largest lake that's in an island that's in a lake... and the largest island that's in a lake that's on an island inside a lake.


- crossing from Manitoulin island to the mainland

X-Canada Day 8 Ontario

cross canada wrap-up

we left our campsite in Eagle Canyon and we're trying to make it to a cabin near Massey, Ont.


- looking at "Ontario's longest suspension bridge" from "Canada's longest suspension bridge" (don't ask me why the longest one doesn't hold both titles)

it will be a long day of driving today. we're currently stopped in Marathon where we discovered that their library has a net connection.

we've made it to Sault St. Marie! phew... we just saw a single car accident on the highway. some moron was clearly falling asleep and he drove right off the road. no injuries though, we hope he learned his lesson.

BTW - we're about 5000KM into our journey.

X-Canada Day 7 Man/Ont

cross canada wrap-up

on day seven we made it from Rennie (through Winnipeg) to Eagle Canyon in Ontario.

Eagle Canyon boasts Canada's longest suspension bridge.


- a great big waterfall

X-Canada Day 6 Sask/Man

cross canada wrap-up

I'm going to quickly write some short descriptions of the last few days. we've been far away from net access and just stumbled across a library with a connection in Marathon, Ontario.

on day 6 we travelled from Regina,Sask to Rennie, Man and camped with every mosquito in Manitoba.

there has been a great deal of flooding this year in southern Canada. we've seen quite a few places underwater.


- flood waters flowing over the road

X-Canada Day 5 Alta/Sask

cross canada wrap-up

I'm writing this from an internet cafe in Medicine Hat, Alberta. now that we've visited with friends and family in the province, we'll be cruising across the rest of the prairie provinces.

so far, not much to report today. while listening to wholesome Canadian music such as David Usher and K-OS we saw some deer and more prairie dogs.


- Saskatchewan scenery


- snow! no not really... it's the salt mines of Saskatchewan

X-Canada Day 4 Alberta

cross canada wrap-up

today's trip took us from Alberta's capital (Edmonton) to Drumheller and Calgary.

Drumheller is the home of the Royal Tyrrell Museum which is a world-class dinosaur museum.


- the prairie landscape


- one of the many Royal Tyrrell Museum dinosaurs

on the way to Calgary from the museum, we stopped to look at some scenery. we were soon set upon by a pack of prairie dogs (small gophers). they're about as ferocious as an elderly pigeon. however, they did nip at my shoes and I got some fantastic shots of the little creatures.


- they look innocent at first


- but then they start to plan


- and they call in reinforcements


- then they start getting rowdy


- and soon you have a standoff

we're now in Calgary visiting with friends. tomorrow we'll set off across Saskatchewan.

X-Canada Day 2/3 Alberta

cross canada wrap-up

I'm enjoying some Timbits after our trip to Fort Edmonton. we're here in Edmonton visiting with family.

the fort was established in 1840 as a Hudson's Bay Co. trading post. fortunately, for the beavers, Prince Albert wore a silk hat to the opera in 1850. this was one of the factors that caused a major fashion swing and the fur trade started to dwindle.


- the average family's living space in the fort


- the Hudson Bay Company representative family's space


- the outside of the fort

of course, a trip to Edmonton wouldn't be complete without a visit to the world's largest shopping mall. West Edmonton Mall boasts over 10,000 parking spaces, numerous movie theatres, a wave pool, an ice rink, a full-size rollercoater and a hotel. people used to joke that 'the mall' has more submarines than the Canadian navy.


- the waterpark (where I used to work as a lifeguard)



- the full-size replica of the Santa Maria, submarines and the Sea Lion show area

X-Canada Day 1 BC/Alta

this is the first of my entries about my cross Canada road trip. this one is easy since it's about my current home - British Columbia (BC). to get an overview of the entire trip, you can refer to the cross canada wrap-up post.

the capital of BC is Victoria which is located on Vancouver Island. however, the largest city is Vancouver (roughly 1.4 million people live in metro-Vancouver).

here are some photos taken from a cool marketplace area called Granville Island.


- the Burrard St. bridge and downtown from Granville Island. the picture is taken towards the pacific ocean



- the Yaletown section of downtown Vancouver (taken from a Granville Island water taxi)


- the Vancouver aquarium is well worth a visit

since we currently live in BC and my wife has lived here all her life, we will be driving straight across to Alberta on the first day of our travels. our first stop will be Jasper, which is located within the scenic Jasper National Park. hopefully, we'll see some bears, or maybe a moose. oops, I probably shouldn't perpetuate stereotypes of Canada by mentioning moose, but Jasper is one of the few places where you actually have a slim chance to spot one.

drumroll... we did find a moose :) we also saw a black bear, some elk and some deer.


- Jasper moose


- Jasper moose drinking


- Jasper elk

although, it was sad, it was also interesting to see the damage that forest fires inflicted a few years back.


- the far hill was consumed by the fire


- the town of Jasper

cross Canada road trip

with our belongings packed in a 53-foot truck, it's time for us to focus on the fun part of our move to Halifax. here's a map of our potential route across the country.


- click the image for a larger view

unfortunately, I was in a car accident today so our vehicle is a bit battered. this was the fourth time in six years that I was rear ended at midday while completely stationary - there must be something wrong with the way that I stand still when driving.

our current plan includes stops in:

Vancouver, British Columbia (starting point)
Jasper, Alberta (amazing national park)
Edmonton, Alberta (home of the world's largest shopping mall)
Drumheller, Alberta (boasts a large collection of dinosaur fossils)
Regina, Saskatchewan
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Flint, Michigan (setting of Michael Moore's Roger and Me and the one time home of my parents)
London, Ontario
Ottawa, Ontario
Montreal, Quebec
Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (PEI)
Halifax, Nova Scotia (final destination)

Update: see the X-country wrap-up for links to posts about this trip

download interviews

in the name of multimedia, you can now download super low-quality versions of my last couple of interviews:

MTV 969 interview

Urban Rush interview

travel/SCUBA - LA and Catalina Island

if you are in L.A. and you're even remotely interested in architecture or art, you should visit the Getty Center. the building alone is worth the visit.

my wife and I also visited Catalina Island. the island is privately owned by the Wrigley company. which makes me wonder, how much gum does one have to sell to buy an island?

the island is great and I highly recommend that you visit. but if you do get the chance to go, try and spend at least one night on the island. it seems that the need to take a ferry (or cruise ship) to the island is enough to keep it from being constantly overrun by tourists. by late afternoon, the island no longer buzzes with crowds. while this means that most shops don't stay open very late, it also means that the island is an ideal location for a relaxing holiday.

while on Catalina, we went diving. I naively thought that the water would be similar to the tropical locations where I have done all of my diving. catalina was the coldest underwater environment that I have experienced. I believe that the water was in the 60's (that's fahrenheit) - so not actually that cold. the disadvantages of the cooler water included decreased mobility, bouancy issues and difficulty when first entering the water. however, once you are about 5 meters down, most of that isn't an issue anymore. the underwater scenery was radically different than a tropical locale. the main attraction was large kelp beds. I'm glad we got to play in the kelp but I think that I've stick to coral :)

print publishing

with the pervasiveness of today's instant publishing environments (e.g., this blog) it's tough for some people to understand the process for traditional printed media. for example, with the Halo 2 Hacks book still a number of weeks away, a lot of the contributors are asking me what is taking it so long to get out.

the project has only been going for about four months. although, I've seen books produced that fast, it certainly isn't odd that we're still a few weeks away from distribution. what has happened thus far? well here's the deal...

Writing - as with online publishing, the writing schedule for non-fiction books is tight. Halo 2 Hacks was more reasonable than The Unauthorized Halo 2 Battle Guide, but it was still relatively fast. even with a single author, books are expected to be written in two or three months.

Technical Review - once the author has produced a draft, technical experts are asked to check the facts. this is often the only opportunity for contributors to check the technical accuracy of the chapters.

Copy Edit - once the manuscript is reviewed for technical accuracy, the publisher will ask one or more editors to suggest changes based on potential problems with grammar, style, etc.

Gallery Proofs - after the formal edit, the book is converted to proofs. once these are done, it becomes too costly to make even moderate changes. for example, if a serious error is discovered, the mistake is usually corrected using the same number of characters -- this preserves the existing layout and pagination work.

Distribution - distribution is relatively straight-forward, however it certainly is one of the most notable taxes that is applied to printed material. obviously, online publishing has a much simpler distribution process (i.e., keep the server running). printed books can take months to get to stores.

all of this may be straightforward to most people, but there are often other considerations. for example, if a schedule is tight (e.g., for the battle guide) each chapter might go to proof while the next one is being written. this makes it even tougher to catch errors. quite often, corrections are made when the book goes to its second printing.

it isn't the ideal scenario for an author, but print media often has to be compete with online publications. on the web it's simple and cheap to make edits -- at least it should be if the site is setup in a sane manner.