I'm going to Laos!

As of yesterday, I was scheduled to go to Laos sometime in September for around 2 weeks. For that trip I was only going to go to Vientiane.

That all changed today; now I'm leaving on May the 6th for a month-long trip that includes traveling into some of the remote areas of Laos to gather field samples and do some training in the regions.

I've been to Thailand before (on my way out of Bhutan), but never to Laos. From what I've heard about the country, it's supposed to be amazing.

I'm totally excited!

Vancouver Gamelan Music

Here are a couple of videos that I took of the Vancouver Gamelan Orchestra Extravaganza that was put on by the Indonesian consulate in Vancouver.

Convert VB.Net <-> C#

Every once in-a-while I need to convert between VB.Net and C#. Doing this by hand is a pain, but now there are some automated tools to help.

Telerik Code Coverter is a free simple VB.NET to C# code converter and vice-versa. It's shaping up to be one of the best code converters out there.

Google says Lasqueti Island doesn't exist

Do a search for "Lasqueti Island" on Google Maps (maps.google.ca), and you will see that Google says that this island, between Vancouver Island and Texada Island, doesn't exist. Only when you turn on satellite or hybrid views will Lasqueti Island actually be shown.

I wonder what the 350 residents of this approximately 8 km wide and 22 km long island have to say about this!