Written by Dave Blizard

It's like someone took the blinders off. The beauty of traveling somewhere new or moving to a new city is that you start to notice the differences. These are things that resonate with just a slight bit of dissonance when compared to the familiar tune that hums along in harmony.

After finishing up on Dead Space it was time for a change. I moved from San Francisco to Vancouver to work at Black Box on the Need For Speed franchise. This was a great opportunity to work with a top notch team on a legendary franchise. I was really excited to live and work in downtown Vancouver compared to my old San Francisco lifestyle compromised by a long daily commute down to Redwood Shores.

Although the language is the same and the differences could be considered minor, there are certainly things that stand out to me as the aperture of my view has widened. The first things you notice are the obvious ones, the ones that you interact with daily. How about money..... it looks different, it feels different, and there is a severe empty space in my pocket where the 1 dollar bill used to fit. In Canada the one dollar bill is replaced by the "Loonie" and it's a coin that weighs about 2 pounds. :) The two dollar bill never really caught on in the US but here in Canada it's yet again another giant piece of metal called the "Toonie". This makes for heavy pockets and lots of change, although my piggy bank might accumulate enough funds to pay for my next vacation.

So about this time you might be wondering where is this guy going with all of this and how could it be related to cars and Need For Speed. Well... one of the differences between Vancouver and San Francisco is the insane car culture that exists here. I have been taking photos of all these sightings and posting them to Twitter with hashtag #awesomecarsighting along with corresponding TwitPic for your viewing pleasure.

Here are a few pix to wet your appetite. Stay tuned to www.twitter.com/blizzzz #awesomecarsighting for more.

More soon,

Blizzzz