Canadian graffiti
We saw this example of “tagging”, as the kids call it, on the way to the park. It’s deeply disturbing that my daughter has to see stuff like this.
Sleepy squirrel?
This little guy has been about six feet away from my daughter’s window for over half an hour now. He seems to be all right–breathing and moving around, and such–but I’ve never seen one so content to just hang out like this anywhere before, let alone atop a narrow bit of latticework fence. Having been…
In search of some digital privacy
I use Gmail, and have for maybe a couple of decades, or whenever it became common enough that its initial, exclusive invite-only clique had run its course and the “in-people” had a ton of invites they could just throw around freely. And it’s been good, for the most part. It’s pretty intuitive and lets me…
National Day of Unplugging
My wife and I were a bit surprised when our daughter announced after school this past Friday that it was National Day of Unplugging between Friday at 6pm and Saturday at 6pm. So said her principal among that morning’s announcements, anyway. The point of the Day is to get people off their electronic devices and…
More reading, less counting
For the last couple of years, I’ve been not only tracking and posting what books I read from month to month, but also keeping an annual count those books. I was happy to see a big jump in that count from 2018 to 2019. But while I hope to read even more this year, I’ve…
The mental relief of a good book
As I’d mentioned previously, I get a daily newsletter for free and cheap ebooks for my Kobo e-reader. It’s something I really should stop, because while it sounds good in theory–what’s this? Free books? Yes, please!–the facts are that a) I continue to be a slow reader, and collect way more books through this newsletter…
‘Je ne sais quoi’ doesn’t last
I’m a sucker for books. My wife foolishly still leaves me unattended in book stores sometimes, and the result is almost always me ending up with a book or two (or… okay, three) for the kiddo, plus maybe one for her and one for myself. And while I’ve written previously about preferring physical books to…
Catnip for writers
I’m like most writers I’ve heard of, in that I can’t get enough stationery. Yes, I’d love new index cards or a notebook or pencils or pens, thanks. And no, I don’t care how many of all of those I already have. The look of new paper, the feel and potential of those pages and…
Happy Valentunes Day
My wife is a teacher in the provincial Catholic board, and as one of her many self-imposed duties, has taken it upon herself over the decades to introduce her students–a kind of suburban inner-city demographic–to music they will almost assuredly not have heard before. This isn’t (just) to say “My dudes, have you heard the…