The Edge Foundation has this event called the World Question Center where every year, they ask some of the world's brightest thinkers one Big Question. Last year it was What have you changed your mind about and why?

I loved pouring over the answers, mostly because many of them described a shift in the writer's thinking, rather than just changing their opinion on a particular fact.

However thinking about what my answer would be, I couldn't really come up with something I felt strongly about. That was until recently, when I saw a very poignant speech on racism. The crystallization of 'race' as an artificial descriptor of culture finally put concrete words onto something that had been in the back of my head for years now. Here goes.

What did I change my mind about and why?

Today was a very nice spring day in Vancouver, so we went out to Stanley Park to enjoy the air. I captured the following beautiful sunset:

The quality is not 100% as it was taken with a camera phone (my N73), but it still looks nice. I stitched it together with Double Take.

After being confronted by US Homeland Security Threat Level announcements in the SFO airport, I started wondering what the Canadian equivalent would be.

So, today I've been living in Vancouver for a month and a half. I've had time to get settled in, so I figured it was time for a little retrospective.

Tomorrow I'll be boarding a plane heading to Vancouver. Unlike the last two times, this trip will be one-way. Once I land, I get to walk the immigration gauntlet, after which I'll hopefully get a valid work permit.

Apparently, my life comes down to a big bag of clothes, a suitcase stashed with media, a backpack full of electronics and a box of books trailing behind. Plus, two bottles of beer.

Aside from my friends and family, I'll be missing the national sport of sandwich-making, sweet sweet Pêcheresse and fries that have anything but ketchup on them. Oh, and buildings that are older than 150 years.

The Belgium-Vancouver Beer Pipeline is the first of several steps intended to remedy this problem.

Well I guess a little status update is in order, as I've just had a very busy and exciting week go by ;).

Vancouver, Canada

... is not bad at all. The people are friendly and the sights are amazing (coming from someone whose land of origin is flatter than a pancake). Pretty from most angles, anyway; -1 on the expensiveness, all the homeless people and the difficulty in finding a proper sandwich. Seriously people, meat salad is only the beginning.

Bryght

... is a fun place to work at. The environment is very relaxed and the Bryght guys are a very sensible bunch (which all Drupaleers should already know). Part of the deal I have with Bryght is that I can spend a certain amount of my work time on arbitrary Drupal stuff (e.g. writing or reviewing core patches), which is working out great.

BarCamp Vancouver

... was a blast. This is the second BarCamp (and third *Camp) I've been to, and it just gets more fun every time. A ton of people showed up, all with tons of ideas buzzing around in their head. The opening party was at Bryght's new office, but the actual event was at Workspace in Gastown, an awesome shared working environment for geeks and non-geeks alike.

The Weather

... has been awesome. Today was actually the first overcast day I've ever seen in Vancouver, and even then it didn't actually rain. I wonder how long my "Rainless Vancouver" streak will last (18 days and counting).

The Scenic Tour

... starts here as I'm borrowing a digital camera at the moment. I've been uploading the photos that don't suck to flickr.