It’s quite often that I find myself the target of questions relating to finding work in the tech industry in Vancouver. I’m not sure why, considering I’ve been working in the industry here for almost nine years and I’ve only worked for three different companies, but I guess people are under the assumption that having been around the block for a while, I must know what I’m talking about (a scary thought…)

Attitudes towards technology job hunting in Vancouver seem to have changed over the last few years and the techniques I used to use years ago have evolved to the point they’re there much more clear-cut and refined than they used to be. Superficially, it looks like less work is involved, but when it comes down to it, I’d say it’s actually more of a complex task because it requires a lot more industry savvy and self-marketing skills to find work in Vancouver now than it used to in the late ’90s.

A friend of mine dropped this question on me yesterday and I sat down and gave it some serious thought:

Is there a certain industry job posting board for web project managers? Or somewhere you can search for the top web shops to work for? And where would they find industry-related mags now?

Chapters sucks, and the Granville Book Company is closed…

I figured that since I was putting a decent amount of effort into a reply, I may as well make this available for others to read, too; maybe someone else in Vancouver can benefit from my hard-learned lessons. :)

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A friend of mine from my Tribal DDB days, Alex Beim, is working on a very cool side project that might be of interest to some of you — Go Ball Glow.

He’s designing a system that seems to be in part art piece and interactive performance. To top it off, it looks like a lot of fun too. I could definitely see it being sold to clubs, concert promoters or bands down the road to use in shows or night clubs. The random glow effect is controlled by detecting changing air pressure, and a microcontroller inside the balls can be manually triggered over Bluetooth as well, which creates some intriguing possibilities.

I’ve posted up a little video he made demo-ing a prototype he built using Ziploc bags. He told me that he’s moving along nicely in development of his prototype (it’s been ongoing for six months now) and that he should have three balls imported from China for test purposes very soon.

Alex is currently looking for someone with some hardware / electrical engineering skill to help out, as his current hardware guy just moved to Ontario (to become a rocket scientist…) Make sure to check out his blog if you’re interested in helping out, or just following the project.

So yeah, looks like I haven’t posted a playlist update in a few of months. Naughty Nick. :( Not to mention the fact that I seem to be running short on amusing playlist titles. Anyway.

The last couple of months have been pretty crazy for new music. I’ve been all over the map, sampling some punk, some dancepunk, some pop, some alternative, some hip-hop… you name it.

I’d have to say that the two highlight albums I’ve been listening to repeatedly recently are AFI’s Decemberunderground and Canadian hip-hop guru k-os’s Joyful Rebellion.

Now, I was never a big AFI fan until this album, but even though they’ve been accused of selling out and going mainstream (seems like every band that makes it big generally is accused of this), they’ve broadened their appeal and I think their sound has matured quite a bit. It’s obviously more polished for radio airplay, but the energy it generates is definitely worth whatever underground cachet they’ve lost in the process of appealing to a larger fanbase. It’s not often that I find myself screaming (err, at least my version of singing) along in my car to every song on an album. If you have a chance to listen to a couple of tracks off the album, I’d suggest starting with the current single, Miss Murder, and working your way up to 37mm, Love Like Winter, and finally what I consider the best song on the album, The Killing Lights. A killer track… no pun intended.

As for k-os, I have both of his albums and I definitely prefer the latter, 2004’s Joyful Rebellion. I’d love to see this guy get more airplay in Vancouver… A couple of the singles — Crabbuckit and Man I Used To Be — get a decent amount of radio play here, but there are several other songs on the album that are worthy of note, including my definite favourite, Crucial, as well as B-Boy Stance and Dirty Water (featuring Sam Roberts — I’d even go as far as to say that it’s Sam Roberts’s best work so far.) I’d love to see this guy live, and it looks like he has a new album scheduled for October. Maybe we’ll see a Canadian tour afterwards?

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To preface this, I haven’t posted anything in a while, so what could possibly be better to get the ball rolling than a rant? :)

So, I was minding my own business this morning, getting ready for work. I turn on the radio in the bathroom as I’m about to step into the shower — this is my usual routine, as I tend to listen to the radio first thing in the morning and on the drive into work, but usually switch to MP3s once I hit the office and after I get home — and I hear CFOX playing Mötley Crüe.

Okay, now this itself isn’t unusual… CFOX is well-known across Canada as Vancouver’s biggest rock radio station, and they do cater to an audience that includes late-30s mullet-wearing headbangers who still haven’t left the ’80s.

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I finally have some good news to post! As I mentioned before, I had my townhouse up for sale (in North Vancouver) for a little over two months, dating back to the beginning of April. I’ve been holding off mentioning it, but I guess it doesn’t hurt - it finally sold about two and a half weeks ago. I have to say it feels like the giant gorilla has finally jumped off my back — after nine weeks of stress, it’s nice to have a firm deal in place. I had several offers, a couple coming on the same day at the very end, and I did end up getting my asking price; all things considered, it worked out quite well for me. I guess the strain of almost daily showings and weekend open-houses was worth it; I really have to thank my mom and Kathy Major for getting the deal done without any hassles.

The closing date is coming up soon (early July), so I’ll be moving back in with my parents (!) for a little bit, while I hunt for a new apartment. I’ve been browsing around a bit, primarily looking in North Van (lower/central Lonsdale area), but I’m also interested in Kitsilano, downtown, and the Brentwood area of Burnaby. It all really comes down to availability and price — the housing market may be great for sellers right now, but it’s definitely not affordable for buyers.

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