Life
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A Quick Update
by Been awfully quiet here so far this year, and I’m sorry about that. Not that that changes anything or that the relative quiet is going to shift much until the term is over. I’ve put a lot of pressure on myself to do well this time around at university. You know, actually live up to my supposed academic potential. It’s working out so far, but it usually means that if school is in session, I’m not doing much else. Really, I should have figured that out before now, but every term is a new one, right? A new one with higher level courses or new material that’s sometimes hard…
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Winter Term 2023
by I think I mentioned that this year was a heavy one, and deliberately. It’s not quite as heavy as I originally planned overall due to dropping a course first term. I didn’t want to, exactly, but the first assignment handed out had some Python programming on a topic that was listed for the last week of my the Python programming course I’d started taking at the same time. Seemed like a recipe for a low grade and I can’t afford those. Nothing I really wanted to take, as in nothing I felt contributed enough to my goals, fit the free space, so I focused on the courses I was…
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Knee Surgery
by In the mists of prehistory, back in the second half of the 1980s when I was young and not so bright, I had a wrestling injury (not an officially sanctioned event) that dislocated my left knee cap. I got my friends to help me stand up, slammed it back into place myself, and we carried on. Did I mention the ‘not so bright’ part? At any rate, I limped for a while, but the pain eventually went away, and I continued life as normal. But I’d done some damage and, up to some point, continued to. Somewhere in my very early twenties, every so often my kneecap would pop…
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Happy New Year!
by For those using for those using the same calendar I am at least. I light of recent activities and events for me, it seems reasonable to call the first day of the new year a day of rest. I certainly have things to write and things to catch up on, but I think getting started on all that can wait until tomorrow. In the meantime, whenever you might be reading this, I hope whatever year it is for you is bringing you what you need. Stay safe and be well, everyone. by
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Homecoming 2022
by Homecoming is a thing. Every year, at pretty much every school. Even though I’m a current student, I’m not so interested in the big football game that goes along with it, or the giant parties. I’m after the nostalgia. Yes, I dwell too much in nostalgia as it is. I’ll see or hear something or someone that reminds me of something or someone else and a mental chain will remind me of something I haven’t thought of in years or decades. But that’s not this nostalgia. The nostalgia of Homecoming for me is a shared nostalgia. This year, I got to share it with an old friend who drove…
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Back To School
by It’s Labour Day, which can mean a lot of things to a lot of people. And should. But a lot of people have, and will continue to, post better reasons than I can to remind you why Labour Day matters. I’m not going to talk about those. I am going to talk about BTS (Back To School) a little. My kids are all done with the public piece of education and have started pursuing their more adult paths. But BTS is still relevant for me right now because I’m about a third of the way through my return to school. Well, a third is probably generous. I’m about a…
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The Lawn Must Go
by Not because I’m tired of mowing it, though I am. Not because I have to have not one but two separate pieces of equipment to take care of it, and I do. And not because I don’t get any actually use or enjoyment out of it, and I don’t. The lawn has to go because grass is the most useless thing you can possibly grow on any bit of land and I’ve finally decided I have the energy to start a landscaping project that needs the time and effort committed that this one does. Okay, grass isn’t completely useless, it does produce some oxygen and it does lock up…
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There Is Not Enough Time
by Not for all the things I want to do. Not if I had between now and the heat death of the universe. I have so many stories I want to tell, and that number only ever grows. If I had the ability to do nothing but write and publish ten hours per day, every day, I might finish all the ideas I currently have for stories at every length by my 70th birthday. Maybe. And new ideas pop into my head all the time. Sometimes I even write them down. The places I want to see and understand, the things I want to experience, the skills I’d like to…
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The New Political Landscape in Ontario
by Two weeks ago, I woke up to the nearly finalized results of the Ontario general election. Not that they hadn’t been almost as finalized when I went to bed. A little time has passed since then and I haven’t heard any major noises contesting things, so we’re probably locked in. Ultimate result is that the Conservatives won 83/124 seats with 40.8% of the popular vote and a 43.5% voter turnout. However you might feel about the Conservatives, that’s wrong. They know it. Every other party knows it. We all know it. Essentially all the power to run the province was granted to a party that got its support from…
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Humour Can Be Dangerous
by And I don’t mean in a joke falling flat. Or maybe I do. If a joke falls flat at the wrong time in the wrong way, relationships can be damaged or even end. I’ve seen it happen and I’ve had it happen. Social media makes it more likely and easier. I see two main reasons why. I’m not going to provide any background for either reason. I’ve done a little reading on things (and I imagine a lot of people have) and what I’ve read has me convinced of the reasonability of both. New information could certainly change my mind, but this is where I’m landing right now. First,…
