Well, it has been quite the year. America has treated us pretty well. We get all the cool services like Netflix and next day (or even same day!) Amazon delivery. Service levels seem higher than in Canada.

Getting a drivers license, auto title, auto insurance are much more difficult. Health care is very confusing. It seems like you have to deal with four different entities to do anything, and as I am now learning, it is expensive!

One morning it really sank into us that we were in America. We woke up listening to a local radio station news broadcast that a man was arrested for having a storage locker full of automatic weapons, grenade launchers, C4 etc. He had stopped paying his rent was why he was caught. Only in America.

America is still in the dark ages with respect to units of measurement. I’ve managed to grock gallons instead of liters. (I actually still think in miles per gallon). I have yet to make the switch to Fahrenheit. I know 72 is room temperature. 32 is freezing. 90 is hot. Everything else is viewed as somewhere between those extremes. I still set all my weather utilities to use Celsius. Seems so much more civilized.

As for Microsoft. Well, what do I say? More accurately, what am I contractually bound to NOT say? (I dunno yet!) Yesterday was my last day at Microsoft. I know I can say that. What will I do next? Good question. Still to be sorted out. I do know I am moving with my lovely wife to San Francisco. Given my skill set and our desire to live in an urban environment, that is the logical destination being the center of the web and all.

I have found myself using Facebook and Twitter for my personal commentary and this blog is being neglected. My professional blog at Identity 2.0 has not done much better, but that is a different story. Now that I don’t have to follow Microsoft policies, I intend to share professional thoughts at Dick Hardt dor org and @DickHardt. The “2.0″ meme is so last decade.

Changes are afoot in the US, and my arrival is now one of them. I am leaving Vancouver and moving to the Seattle area to take a job with Microsoft … and you can Blame Canada for part of it! There are many things I will miss, and many that I won’t:

What I will miss

Friends: I’ve lived in Vancouver since 1981. I attended UBC and have many dear friends both new and old. I hope they will come visit me in Seattle!

Urban Living: I’ve gotten used to be able to walk to the store for groceries, walk to the theatre to watch movies and walk to local restaurants for great dining.

Restaurants: Vancouver has many amazing restaurants, and I have had the pleasure of becoming friends with many people in the industry. Boneta, Chambar, Chill Winston, Jules and Salt are the ones within walking distance.

Province of BC: We have a great government in power in BC. Gordon Campbell and the Liberal party have done a great job of improving the quality of life in BC, and the new slogan, "The Best Place on Earth" captures the ambitious vision they have.

Vancouver: This is a beautiful city. The mountains are right there. Not off in the distance. They are right there. Often when looking at downtown, you see the mountains above the tops of the towers. It is a cosmopolitan city that is still polite and humble. And the waterfront. It is everywhere. Visitors often mention "towards the water", not realizing that is almost every direction. With the new developments around the Olympic Village, there are miles and miles of seawall to explore.

What I won’t miss

Weather: I’d like to miss some of the weather, but I will still be on the coast of the Pacific Northwest. Dreary, gray days will continue to be in the weather forecast more often then I prefer.

Pro Basketball: I had floor seats for the Grizzlies when they were in Vancouver. I really enjoyed live basketball. The Sonics left last year. Damn.

Unsophisticated investors: I have had a few unsophisticated investors that have been painful. I had four in Sxip that have been making my life miserable for the last 10 months. Sure, people have differences of opinion — but refusing to meet to work things out is so unprofessional.

Canadian politics: while entertaining, the current federal fiascos are embarrassing. I used to tease my Americans friends that they should get a real democracy with more then two parties so that ideas can evolve. I keep my mouth shut now.

Vancouver Politics: the new mayor of Vancouver is also an embarrassment. He refused to pay his Skytrain fine. WTF? He has this "great vision" of solving homelessness and having developers build low cost housing. Sounds great, who would not agree? But where is the plan. I’m moving, I can stop ranting now.

Jennifer: my fiance will be coming with me!

What I look forward to

Change.gov: The new federal administration looks exciting and is more aligned with my social values then previous administrations. I look forward to experiencing the impact as a participant, rather then as a spectator.

New friends: I look forward to meeting new, interesting people. Hopefully fun, interesting people will want to meet me!

Cool services: As a US resident I will now get access to cool things that roll out in the US without having to feel like a 2nd class citizen waiting for iTunes, Netflix, iPhones etc. being available.

Smart People: I am really looking forward to working with a bunch of smart people.

New Home: Jennifer and I will be moving into a home together. We hope to find a place near the Microsoft campus with some property around it. Having a big garage and house will be a big change from the loft where we live now.

New Job: I am really looking forward to working with a bunch of smart people at Microsoft and learning about working in Big Enterprise and Big Software. For more about the job, read my Identity 2.0 post.

I was doing some research for my voting identity post and was reading an article on voter registration requirements in the various US states. I noticed that in Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Idaho, Illinois, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont: there is no requirement to be of sound mind to register to vote.

In Wisconsin,  one of the requirements is "Not make or benefit from a bet or wage depending on the result of an election". What kind of fun is that?

The two year Election 2008 television series is coming to an end in less then a month. The world is watching to see who gets voted off the island.

The real political action (IMHO) is what’s happening in the US Congress — which is looking to be heavily Democratic — and the potential for 60 Dem seats in the Senate may usher in an era of activism like the early 60s — particularly with the recent economic melt down.

But that is not as entertaining as the multi station television series about the leadership battles within and now between the Blue team and the Red team.  Even though we are in the middle of our own federal election here in Canada, it seems that more Canadians tuned into the US VP debate then the Canadian leadership debate (they happened at the same time).  We Canadians will only have ourselves to blame if we focus more on the US entertainment export than on our own political process. And even though it does not really matter, I too will follow the story line until Nov 4th.

In case you are dismayed by the Red team winning the Election 2008 television series, Canada once again will come to the rescue.

"Summer" has not fully arrived here in Vancouver. For those of you looking to keep the skin cancer demon away, this strip has the solution.

It is supposed to be Spring now. It is not acting that way. Vancouver has been pretty chilly lately, and today it is snowing. Not just a little. Great big flakes of snow. (view from outside my loft)

Last weekend Vancouver was the one Canadian city to participate in the World Pillow Fight Day. See footage below:

I was reading the Feb 4/08 issue of Fortune cover story on 100 best places to work and decided to play with Apple’s Numbers and do some comparisons of tech companies. A couple ratios were interesting, the revenue per employee and the number of applicants per hire, plotted below for your viewing pleasure. Google leads in both. Interesting to see Microsoft trail in diversity, and no surprise, Apple is not in the top 100 companies to work for. (click on the graphic to see a bigger version)

Today I was talking to someone who had heard about my Identity 2.0 talk but had not seen it. He said he had done a search and I found it odd that he had not seen a link to the video. I Googled my name and the first listing was to my talk. He then mentioned that he used Live Search.  So I went to Live.com and searched for my name. Here is a screen shot of the results: