General

Transit etiquette

As per Translink:

Please give up your seat to people with very large belly warts.

“Hello, please have this seat so you may apply vast quantities of Compound W.”

Also applies to people:

  • Who have swallowed bowling balls
  • Are incubating a large spheroid alien
  • Have ingested an extremely large capsule
  • Might be pregnant?

(See the real tips here. The illustration is from the Translink newsletter.)

It’s the first day of fall, 2024 edition

Boo.

That is all.

Well, and a cat:

Okay, a little more:

Today’s forecast is light showers and a high of 18, which is a bit cooler than normal. Tuesday they claim a high of 25 (not a record, but 5 degrees warmer than average) and mostly sunny. The point is we have reached the season of variable weather, where it could be sunny and almost summer-like (good fall) or wet and cool (not Fonzie cool, the other kind), which is bad fall. But the seasons are relentless and there’s no avoiding them, so instead I will look forward to drinking tea, keeping warm and enjoying runs where I don’t have to worry about Dry Mouth Syndrome. See? Positive!

This was my birthday cake

UPDATE: Real and yummy red velvet cake came two days later. Worth the wait.

A poor substitute, but it’s hard to screw up peanut butter and chocolate. Not impossible, but hard.

Also, I’m not sure when it happened, but at some point the Canadian version of these went from Reese to Reese’s, aligning itself with the American version. I always thought Reese sounded a bit funny.

These cups, which of course seem tiny in my adult hands, are about 76 calories each. Do not scarf.

It’s the start of the decade (as I know it): Turning 60

Yep, it happened just as the prophecy and my birth certificate foretold: I have turned 60 today.

In most demographic divisions, I am now in the last group, the group where no further division is necessary, because someone who is 60 acts, reacts and lives in the exact manner as someone who is 90. Or 100. (I riffed on this last year when turning 59, but now IT’S HAPPENING. Will start listening to country music tomorrow.)

Unlike last year, when I altered my run schedule specifically to run on my birthday (because I wanted to make a statement), this year I preferred to stick to the schedule, which meant I ran yesterday, will run tomorrow and take today off. Conveniently, my Garmin Forerunner, after wishing me a happy birthday, told me it was a Rest Day. I will not disobey my watch.

And that’s about all I have to say. It will be a slightly mellower day for me, but otherwise typical. I may vacuum, which is probably in the Top Five for least exciting birthday activities.

Here is a celebratory birthday GIF. I may add a drawing of my own later, I have an idea.

A wordless summary of our current civilization

Presented by Chris Silverman.

Description: “A dull gray background. Hurtling from the sky is a huge asteroid, white heat glowing around it and streaming from behind. Directly in its path, seconds from impact, is a person holding up a phone, taking one last photo.”

Check out Chris’s excellent work on your favourite (?) social media platform or at notes.art

A review of my current domains

Or, How I Am Really Reluctant to Let Things Go.

I saw this on Mastodon (I am sure it’s been making its rounds on all the socials for some time) and it reminded me of the domains I have let go in the past. None of them were dropped for financial reasons–back when I dropped a few of them, the cost of renewing was as low as $10 a year.

But there’s a psychological weight to holding onto something you (secretly) know you’re never going to use, and so I let them go. I am currently paying for five domains right now, which is not a big number in the grand scheme of things, but seems like a lot of domains for one random dude to have.

Let’s see where they stand!

  • creolened.com. This domain! It’s been running as a WordPress blog since February 2005, so its 20th birthday will be coming up soon. This is the one domain I actively use.
  • stanwjames.com. This is my name and it’s a domain. If I was advertising for a job or something, I’d probably slap something on it. I have occasionally thought of moving everything from creolened.com to this domain, but ultimately I don’t have a compelling reason to do so.
  • gumgumpeople.com. Currently a bare-bones WordPress site. I may do more with this in the next few years. Even if I don’t, I’ll keep it around (hee hee).
  • gumgumgames.com. This is idle, but could be used if I ever finish a game.
  • doodlingsandnoodlings.com. This was meant to be a place for my writing and drawing (sort of a more focused version of creolened.com), hence the name, but I never quite put together a plan for it. Also, I regularly forget if doodlings or noodlings comes first. This is another maybe for future use.

All of my domains, then, are currently safe, even though most will still remain idle. But you never know, the future is unwritten and all that jazz. Maybe I’ll start posting cat pictures to all of them.

False Creek, September 6, 2024

I had 90 minutes or so to kill before birding yesterday and so when I arrived downtown I got off at the ?Main Street SkyTrain station and walked from Science World along False Creek, to just past the bathhouse at English Bay, then back to near the Aquatic Centre, which is just by Burrard Street Bridge.

Here’s a gallery of photos I took, a combination from my iPhone 12 and my Canon EOS M50 (you’ll know which is which, trust me).

September: Why I like it and why I don’t

September good:

  • Weather is still generally summer-like (today’s forecast high is 29C, which is a whopping 7 degrees higher than the average), but more comfy (except for today).
  • That more comfy weather is ideal for running.
  • My birthday, yay! I have always maintained that having a birthday is better than the alternative.
  • I don’t have to return to school.
  • Two stat holidays if you work for someone else.
  • Some of the leaves start to turn and look all pretty up in the hizzy.
  • School supplies are on sale. I don’t need them but whenever I see big displays of pens, paper, binders and notepads, I always want to buy one of everything.

September bad:

  • Days get noticeably shorter. The sun is already setting before 8 p.m.
  • In a weird way, I kind of miss the start of school. But I’m referencing when you’re still a little kid, and starting a new school year is an adventure, and a year feels like it stretches out forever.
  • We officially move from summer (my favourite season, I don’t care what the haters say!) to fall, which starts out fine and ends with skeletal trees, a few hours of daylight, and everything gray and soaked with rain.
  • Pumpkin spice becomes inescapable.
  • Christmas stuff starts to appear.