In Vancouver, Canada for a while, here are some things to do!

It turns out my things to do in Seattle blog post was very popular.  Lots of folks are also making a trip up the coast from Seattle to Vancouver and curious of what to do in Vancouver.  Below are a list of things that I enjoyed when I did them.  Enjoy!

Downtown area / peninsula

• Walk around the sea-wall of Stanley park
• Sit on the patio and have food at Milestones in English Bay
• Vancouver Aquarium is one of the best in Canada
• There is a ton of shopping and stuff on Robsin between Burrard & Howe, and of course the Pacific Centre just north of Georgia (Use maps.live.com and you can see the area)
• There is a fancy restaurant called the Stone Grill, if you’re looking for some upper class dining, it’s under the Grandville bridge on the city side
• Gas Town – old part of Vancouver, similar to Pioneer Square in Seattle, but they have a Steam Clock!
• Yale Town – upper class neighbourhood with some shops…
• You won’t want to go past (east of) Main Street on E. Hastings… it’s not that safe… if you see bars on the windows of stores, go the other way.  J  It’s probably fine during the day, but it’s not really that nice of an area any ways.

South of downtown / Kitsilano area

• Walk from Kitsilano beach to Grandville island
  • Kits beach has volley ball courts
  • Pass a small maritime museum
• Grandville Island – Market/shopping area, can be related to Pike Place market.
• Jericho Beach Park – has some amazing views of the city
• On Oak St, there is the Vandusen Botanical Garden’s if you like Flowers, etc.
• There is a ton of shopping on 4^th street between Burrard and MacDonald
• For Eating, I like the following places
  • Earl’s – American food
  • Rugby Club – quality steak house (at Broadway and Oak (or close to there)
  • Cactus club – American food
  • Hell’s Kitchen – Pizza
  • Nevermind –night club, but they have awesome Yam-fries!
• University of British Columbia – On the west of this campus, there are some incredible views of the mountains, especially at the “Point Grey” area

North Vancouver

• Capilano Suspension Bridge a suspended bridge, costs money, but pretty cool to do that and the tree-tops thing they have there
• One exit to the east, there is a free suspension bridge in Lynn Canyon, and this one is free!
• Grouse Mountain, there is tons of stuff to do here in the summer (it’s a ski hill in the winter), like zip lining, and mountain climbing etc.

Root Beer Party Keg

If you're not a beer drinker, or want to play pranks on your drunk friends, the Root Beer Keg is for you.

GTA IV - My Current Status

As of this very minute, here are my current stats

Game Progress	37.78%
Missions Passed	47
Missions Failed	28
Current Money	$42,777
Times busted	1
Times died	12
Playing time	21:47:48
Addiction level	Jonesing Bad
Cars stolen	115
Bikes stolen	10
Boats stolen	1
Helicopters stolen	1
Time on 6 start wanted	20:31
Fires started	13
Criminals killed	13
Time spend on the Internet (in the game)	35:33
Emails received (in the game)	40
Emails sent (in the game)	22
Total dates	9

The amount of content in this game is un-canny, I can't believe I'm still only < 40% through the game!

Placebo and Nocebo

While on a retreat this past weekend with my wife's fellow medical practice peeps, I asked a very important question.  But before I get to that question, you need some background. A family member of mine is having some pain for arthritis, and in an effort to get the best pain medicine possible, he has entered a drug study.  He either has his original medicine, a new medicine or a placebo pill.  He doesn't know which.

So, back to my important question, I asked: What are placebo pills made of?

Another non-medical person said "Don't you know? there is a placebo mine! It's a natural resource!"

As it turned out, these two quick sentences turned into an entire weekend of fun.

• A country's major industry is fishing, mining and placebo exports
• How is medical research going to be conducted once the placebo mine runs dry?

And of course, if you're having reactions to the placebo pill, you can try Nocebo, all the benefits of placebo, but without the side effects.

For those of you who are curious, here is a wikipedia article on Placebo.

Using Windows Live Writer...

So, I'm using Windows Live Writer, which is particularly cool, given how this blog is hosted on Blogspot.  So this is really a test post to see if this actually works as an offline writer.

So, I'm going to publish this and see what the blog looks like.  :)

Seinfeld's Muffin Tops!

Wow! At the local coffee shop, i noticed today they were selling only the tops of muffins. Kramer and Elaine tried to do this once on the TV series, Seinfeld. The problem was, they couldn't figure out how to dispose of the bottoms. No one would take them!

Except of course, NEWMAN!

I looked hard, but didn't see him in the back. I wonder how they are disposing of them?

I never thought i'd see this in real life!

The New and Improved i-Wipe

Over at Engadget, they found some folks who actually found a purpose for a Mac computer!  At least the old ones.  I wonder what they can come up with for the Macbook Air? Hopefully not as malicious as people think

Thank-You Douglas!

Today, my co-workers and i were meeting in a private conference room (meaning you can't book it though the normal means because it belongs to someone) and the phone rings.

Is anyone working remotely today? No

Who could it be? We answer:

"You have a collect call from ... Douglas ... This call originated from the Monroe Correctional Facility, do you want to accept the charges?"

Umm, no.

It was good for a laugh though..

Camping by the Natural Gas Line

At a friends house, and he just had a natural gas fire pit installed on his deck. Growing up, we had to go camping for marshmellows.

Now we can camp, wiothout the camping! Mmmmm Marshmellows.

Fun with Sand and a Stick

For Christmas, my sister bought me a neat toy. I haven't had one of these before and i thought it had a really neat pattern.