I apologize to anyone I’ve ignored in the past 2 weeks, but Mass Effect (the bestest game ever!) is consuming most of my free time. I did manage to slip away from its clutches long enough to get some other outside stimulation. Two weeks ago, Emily and I went to see the ballet – it was good and I enjoyed it, but I still managed to doze off a few times. We also went to hear Stephen Lewis & Michele Landsberg speak – it was a great talk, although there wasn’t really any topic. It’s the 2nd time I’ve heard Stephen Lewis speak, and he’s always interesting.

Last weekend it dumped snow in Vancouver, a rare occasion. To celebrate, Emily and I headed up to Cypress to do some snowboarding. It was the first weekend Cypress was open and only the bunny hill was available, which was ok because it was Emily’s first on a board and she needed to take lessons anyway. It was good to get back on my snowboard and get a feel for the mountain. The first few runs were a bit shaky, and I fell off the chairlift twice (once it hit me on the back of the head as it went by), but I started to get the hang of it eventually. I’m looking forward to night skiing starting in a few weeks.

Interesting news I’ve noticed in the past 2 weeks:
Australia signs Kyoto protocol – with the Australians promising to take significant action on climate change, that leaves Canada and the U.S. as the only major industrialized nations that are doing nothing.

Canada’s coming DMCA will be the worst copyright yet – Canada is set to enter a digital stone age with ridiculously strict digital copyright laws. Cory Doctorow is leading the charge to stop it.

Vancouver investigates plastic bag ban – Hopefully city council decides to follow in the footsteps of San Francisco, London, Paris, and, of course, Leaf Rapids, Manitoba.

Rumors that Microsoft might acquire SAP – wouldn’t that be funny? I can’t seriously see this happening. Microsoft doesn’t do big acquisitions like this, and I don’t see why they would want to. But it would be funny.