Looking up, shot with my iPhone 12.
A fish mosaic at Sapperton Landing
Shot on Christmas Day with my actual camera, edited in Affinity Studio from a RAW file. Just tinkering on the new PC.
I will tinker more, to see how well I can edit RAW images with my new and current combo of hardware and software.
Skipping the Boxing Day sales for a trip to the ER
tl;dr: Signs of a returning infection led met to take action, which mostly involved sitting.
The Chronology before the ER:
Thursday: Wake up and feel a dull ache in my abdomen, the same area where I had my Big Infection a year ago (this fun guy started in my urinary tract and made its way to my kidney). I make an appointment with my doctor for Monday.
Monday: The symptoms have vanished, so we agree to monitor.
Tuesday: I go for a run, things seem normal.
Wednesday: The ache is back, but worse. It continues for several days and is worse when I lay down. No other symptoms.
Saturday: I decide to go to the ER to have it checked out.
Now, Royal Columbian Hospital is a fine facility, but its ER is meant for trauma patients, so people like me tend to have to wait. A lot. I left the condo at 10:28 a.m.
The ER Chronology:
10:28 a.m. I leave for the hospital, which is conveniently next door.
10:45 a.m. I am checked in. The ER is rapidly filling up. No one is fainting or vomiting. Yet.
11:09 a.m. They take my temperature and blood pressure. I can’t see the monitor, but from the expression on the intake person’s face, I’m assuming they are normal.
11:17 a.m. I now begin my wait for blood work. I am sitting next to the gift shop, but even though the entrance with the giant automatic doors in a room over, I still get regular gusts of cold air.
11:40 a.m. The blood work is done. It’s quick and efficient, but I later discover when I remove the cotton ball, that it’s soaked in blood. My blood. The usually nigh-invisible pin prick on my arm is very visible. I am displeased. Photo below.
12:30 p.m. We are now into the afternoon. A guy comes in and sort of collapses on the floor across from me. He might be in pain? He’s wearing sunglasses, so he looks vaguely cool while this is happening. Someone observing this leaves to get help and comes back with three security guards. One of them grabs a nearby wheelchair, they help him into it and park him near the gift shop. He seems OK now> Time will tell. At least there is still no vomiting.
1:15 p.m. I am still waiting. I don’t know precisely what is next, but whatever it is, it is not being rushed.
1:20 p.m. It turns out it’s a CT scan! I’ve gone from no CT scans ever to two just this year. Fun. They apparently have to take you to the CT scan room in a wheelchair, and I feel a little silly in it. The woman pushing me said she was my Uber driver, no charge today.
The scan is quick. I have to hold my breath three times as the machine sends me through and back out. I got a photo! (After I was done, but before they took me back to the waiting area.)
1:30 p.m. I am back near the gift shop, waiting again.
1:35 p.m. I am finally moved to the next waiting area, the inner sanctum: Zone 2 Intake. There is also a Zone 3, but I’m hoping that they are parallel, despite the numbering, and I won’t be shuttled to yet another waiting area. Although the guy sitting next to me is coughing, so maybe moving would be good. He has a mask–but isn’t wearing it. He eventually gets up for some reason and when he returns, sits farther away, which is dandy with me.
2:20 p.m. After the better part of an hour, my blood pressure and temperature are checked again. This time I can see the monitor and my temperature is a perfectly cromulent 36.7C. My pressure is 176/79? I think. I don’t remember the numbers exactly, and I can never remember what’s good or bad, but no one reacts with bulging eyes or anything, so again I assume all is normal. I am told I will need to provide a urine sample.
2:25 p.m. I am given a little bottle and directed to the washroom. I place the sample on a table outside the washroom and return to my seat. This was handy because I really had to go.
2:45 p.m. There is now only one other person here. She came in after me, so hopefully something will happen soon.
2:50 p.m. Success! I am taken to the exam room, where I exchange my t-shirt for a gown and wait on a bed behind a curtain, with others to my left and various employees milling about or walking by. Finally, my long wait is nearly over!
3:42 p.m. I am still in the exam room. My long wait is lengthening.
4:30 p.m. It is now past sunset and dark outside. I can’t see outside because there are no windows here, plus I have blue curtains all around me. It is not as captivating as it sounds.
4:40 p.m. The doctor arrives. Woo. Most of the results seem to be normal. The doctor asks some questions, prods about the abdomen and notes my non-verbal reactions (this time it is my eyes bulging when she hits the sensitive spots). She says they are going to run further analysis on my urine and will have the results in a few days. She asks if I want to start antibiotics in the interim as a precaution. I say yes, remembering the hell I went through earlier this year. She then reminds me it would be IV therapy. I still say yes, grudgingly.
5:04 p.m. The IV guy comes over and talks to me. IVs are also old school to me by now, so I just smile and nod a lot.
5:12 p.m. The worker prods the crook of my left arm. I advise him of my apparently rolling veins. He points one out to me, and demonstrates the rolling. In the end, he opts to put the IV near my left wrist. This is good in that it leaves me with most of my flexibility intact. It’s bad in that my shallow skinny wrist seems to provide less cushioning for the IV than the soft, flabby crook of my arm, meaning I can feel it more. Oh well.
5:21 p.m. The IV drip is started and as before, the process takes about 30 minutes. Another guy comes by when the machine starts to BEEP because I have absorbed a half hour’s worth of cool liquid into my veins. He removes the tube, caps the IV, then swaddles it in bandages. Unlike previous IVs, the swaddling isn’t so massive it looks like my arm has bisected a football. I am forced to wear my watch on my right wrist, and will spend the rest of the evening looking at my left wrist, wondering why my watch isn’t there.
5:56 p.m. I am finally released, nearly 7.5 hours later, with instructions to return at 3 p.m tomorrow for more IV therapy fun. I am very hungry and have to pee again.
Overall, a good test of my patience (hospital joke). I kind of hate my body now. But I do what I must.
When I got home, I ate pizza and kept looking at my left wrist to see what time it was.
And now, photos!
Ho Ho Ho, 2025 edition
It’s Christmas Day and I have thoughts.
But only a few.
2025 has been a rough year at both a personal level and, you know, globally. But as I type these words, I remain hopeful that things will actually get better. The road is long, but it doesn’t end with a cliff.
And now, Christmas cat:
Bonus thought: No snow, hooray. I know some people like at least a dusting for the holiday, because it looks pretty, and I don’t disagree with the pretty part, but I like my snow in the mountains, where I can admire it from a safe distance.
Run 995: Unimpeded, plus geese
I’m a day late with my run because of the timing of yesterday’s doctor’s appointment, the weather, and possibly the alignment of the moon.
The forecast promised rain by early afternoon, but I wanted to run at the lake, so I split the difference and did a short loop, which saves me about 45–50 minutes of walking. Plus, I didn’t really want to do all that extra walking, anyway. 8 km seems like plenty.
Conditions were similar to the last run at the lake, though a smidgen warmer at 4C (the weather app said wind made it feel like 2C, but wind was a non-factor for me). I was a bit slower, but managed to improve my pace throughout and had an average of 5:42/km, which is fine. BPM remained at 146 again and I got a new max HR of 163. I can’t remember if this is higher or lower. I very rarely hit 160, so it’s also fine.
There weren’t many people out, possibly because the chilliness offset the relatively mild conditions, but there was an assortment of joggers, walkers and birders (I could not see what they were looking at, but a few were staring intently in one direction on one part of the trail. I did see a Steller’s Jay myself, though!)
We had another windstorm pass through yesterday, so there were some twigs and small branches scattered about, but nothing like the debris field of the last run here.
Here’s the Spruce Loop from last week:
And today:
With the trail clear, I was able to complete my run without having to stop, walk, duck or divert. As an extra bonus, I also didn’t have my shoelaces come untied. Nice.
A good start to the week.
Stats:
Run 995
Average pace: 5:42/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 9:53 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:41
Weather: Mostly cloudy
Temp: 4°C
Humidity: 90-87%
Wind: light
BPM: 146
Weight: 166.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 6,805 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (65/109/174)
Music: Lifes Rich Pageant, R.E.M.
More black and white nature
I don’t have any photo editing apps on the new PC yet, so I decided to use the built-in Photos app to take some recent shots and make them all arty and black and white. The results are not bad.
All shot on my iPhone 12, which has half-forgotten it’s a phone in its old age.
A somewhat sinister tree
Maybe it’s just me, but this tree looks like it’s reaching out its long mossy arms to do weird mossy-covered tree things. Shot along the Brunette River.
Cold rail
Shot early this afternoon, the weather app reported 4C but “felt like zero.” At least there’s no snow. Yet.
Run 994: Winter’s a-coming
The forecast was threatening rain by early afternoon, so I opted for a run on the river trail, which would get me out and back before The Rains once more swept in. It turned out a run at the lake may have been possible, as it’s remained cloudy but not threatening since I got back.
Still, change is good and all that. Sometimes.
Condition-wise, the air was eerily still, particularly after the high winds we’ve experienced in the past week. Humidity was still high at 90%, which meant the temperature of 3C–and the surest sign that winter is officially only a few days away–did not feel as chilly as it might have.
Despite the benign conditions, the river trail was sparsely populated, though much tidier than two days ago, with park crews having cleared all the debris and chopped up the one tree left drooping low over the trail.
I got off to a weirdly strong start at 5:30/km. Maybe the brisk air made me feel revitalized or something. It didn’t last and I actually slowed until the fourth km, when I picked up again, finishing with an overall pace of 5:38/km, which is perfectly cromulent.
I experienced no issues, other than my right shoelace (for a change) coming untied about 1 km in. Having worn the Peregrine 15s for a dozen runs now, I really like how they fit and feel, but I can’t remember the last time I’ve had a pair of shoes where the laces came undone so regularly. Maybe it’s a metaphor.
In any case, a fine wrap-up to the week, especially considering it was nice ‘n dry.
Stats:
Run 994
Average pace: 5:38/km
Training status: Productive
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 10:13 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:19
Weather: Partly cloudy
Temp: 3°C
Humidity: 90%
Wind: light
BPM: 146
Weight: 166.7 pounds
Total distance to date: 6,800 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (60/101/161)
Music: Ta-Dah!, Scissor Sisters
When dreams go meta: Of bikes and subways and teenage hooligans
Last night I had several dreams and the second one, for a moment, went totally meta.
In the first dream, I was in a subway system–it may have been the Canada Line, since it’s the only subway we have here (currently)–but the layout was its own dreamworld thing. All seemed normal when an announcement came over the PA warning passengers of a kind of breach of the system and for everyone to basically watch for trouble.
The breach took the form of what appeared to be a gang of young white guys, either in their late teens or early 20s (I saw several of them close enough to ID this aspect. I also noted that they were the typical stereotypes, laughing and cackling over the terror and mayhem they were causing.) who had somehow managed to get their vehicles into the system. The warning was that they were essentially terrorizing the system by recklessly driving their vehicles through the tunnels. They had pick-ups, muscle cars and a station wagon that I remember spinning out on a section of track that I assume was a switch area, since it was relatively open.
At one point I was in a station and saw a number of vehicles making their way over (don’t ask how I could see this) and started heading up the stairs/exit to safety. I never questioned why the transit people would keep the system running with this chaos going on, or how exactly one might drive a pick-up truck into a subway, but hey, dreams!
In my next dream, I was with a couple of people on bikes. We were in an area that seemed to be a combo of a conventional amusement park, but also a real park with trails for riding and such. We were exiting a store as the dream began, and returning to our bikes. We set off at a leisurely pace, heading past both natural scenery, like a river, and rides of a nature I can’t precisely recall, but may have been themed to fit the area–things like log flume rides or “mines” to explore. The trail began heading down, presumably into a valley, and I was in the lead. I began peddling harder, picking up speed, something that is rather uncharacteristic of me in non-dream life. There was a family riding behind us and they were getting too close for my liking, as if they were going to try passing us. I was having none of it. The downhill slope had occasional uphill parts, and I remember peddling harder in these sections to maintain speed. The feeling of doing this was very visceral. The dream ended without conclusion, alas, so I don’t know where our ultimate destination was–but we did leave that pesky family behind.
The one detail I’ve left out is the meta part. As we were exiting the store, I described a dream I’d had, a dream about guys terrorizing a subway in their vehicles, and how it must represent my fear of riding transit or something. Yes, I was in a dream describing the immediate preceding dream to my fellow dream people. I don’t think I’ve ever had that happen before, but it was weird and kind of delightful.
Building a new PC in late 2025
Some of the thoughts are not fit to be heard by other humans. These have been omitted.
Getting ready
My older PC dates back to 2019, so it’s getting close to around seven years old. This seems to be the typical lifespan of my PCs, so I began looking for components to build a new one before year’s end. I was not in a rush, though that changed toward the end when ram prices suddenly went insane (thanks, AI companies!) I’d originally planned on going with 64GB but will stick with 32GB for now.
For other components, I bought nearly everything on sale and I made a change, going with higher end gear than usual. For example, the CPU I chose, the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D, is their top consumer CPU. I usually go mid-tier. The graphics card, my first AMD since the 9800XT I got with a coupon for a free copy of Half-Life 2, to give you an idea how long ago that was, is likewise the fastest they currently offer to consumers–a Radeon 9070 XT.
By buying on sale, I saved a lot of money. I haven’t added it up, but it’s probably between $600 and $800. This kept the overall price closer to my usual mid-tier range.
Building the PC. Twice.
Every time I build my own PC, I generally have a lousy, joyless experience and vow to never do it again1. Then I do it again, because the now seven-year gaps between builds is enough for the memory to fade into “Maybe it wasn’t so bad after all.”
For the record, I once again vow to never do it again. Note to future self: THIS TIME, LISTEN. I may still buy everything, but I’ll pay someone else to assemble it. They’ll do a better job with the cable management, anyway.
The whole thing was complicated by a defective component. I’ve packed the component up and will be returning it for a refund in the next day or so. This is always annoying, but there’s one component in particular that makes it even worse, and that is the motherboard, because everything connects to the motherboard.
It was the motherboard.
On the recommendation of a friend, I got my first-ever ASRock product, a high-end motherboard that weighed a ton, had RGB bling and came with an inscrutable quick start guide that failed to mention all of its components.
It also, as it turned out, had a bad ram slot. This meant I could only run with a single stick of ram. Not acceptable, of course. So I had to take everything off the motherboard, pack it back in its original box, find another motherboard and hope the whole mess didn’t happen again as I built my PC for a second time.
Because this was my first experience with ASRock, it’s very unlikely I will ever buy one of their products again. I’m sure they’ll manage without my contributions.
I went with an Asus motherboard, as I’ve used them multiple times, including my 2019 build, without issue. The second motherboard worked fine, and I am typing from the new PC now, hooray.
However, there was a complication with the second build and the new new motherboard. One of the two screws on the HSF simply would not line up and screw into the motherboard, as it was supposed to. I have no idea why one screw would not line up, but it would absolutely not line up. I spent about 20 minutes on it, growing frustrated, angry and getting the urge to go Hulk. I ended up walking away for a while. When I came back, I got it screwed in and done in a few minutes, as is often the case with these things.
But the experience reminded me how little the process of assembling a PC has changed in 30–or even 40–years. It should be a lot better than it is now, but this is the world we live in.
The new PC lives
One of the things I like about having a new PC is starting fresh. I spent some time decluttering Windows 11 (this task gets longer all the time, sadly), and now I am sticking to my rule of only adding applications as I need them. It’s a great way to see what I really use.
Here’s the list so far (last updated December 19, 2025):
Applications:
- Asus DisplayWidget Center (adjust settings on my monitor)
- Battle.net client (game client)
- Diarium (journal/diary)
- Discord (chat with my gaming pals of 20+ years)
- Epic Game Store (game client)
- Firefox (default browser)
- Godot (game engine)
- Notepad++ (substitute for Notepad)
- Obsidian (note-taking)
- Scrivener (fiction writing)
- Signal (chat with the one friend I convinced to use it)
- Steam (game client)
- TickTick (to-do lists and reminders)
- Vivaldi (alternate browser)
- Waterfox (alternate browser)
Games:
- Bongo Cat (this is just pure silliness and not even a real game, but it amuses me)
- Diablo 3 (I’ll stop one day)
- Diablo 4 (for when I stop playing Diablo 3, see)
Miscellaneous:
- Aptos font family (Hey, I like Aptos. Maybe I have no taste.)
- PowerToys (some of the utilities, like the command palette, are all but essential to me now with Windows)
Diablo 3 was interesting, because I downloaded and installed the Battle.net client, then copied over the Diablo 3 folder from my old PC to the new one. I directed the Battle.net client to the new location, it grumbled about how it was the wrong version, so I clicked the Install button and a few moments later, after probably writing the new path somewhere, it was ready and fully playable.
I have two SSDs installed: a 2TB main and a 1TB secondary. I want to put a Linux distro on the second (I actually already did, but kind of munged things, so I wiped the drive in Windows), and I’m mulling over what to try. My 2019 PC has Linux Mint, which I’m most familiar with, but I may hold off, as 22.3 is due imminently–unless I go for something else. I’m not hardcore or leet, so it’s not going to be Arch. Sorry, Arch lovers!
Anyway, I’m glad the PC is up and running. I’ll probably post a few more times about setting it up, tweaking things and such. Hopefully none of these posts will be horror stories.
- You may be asking yourself why I have repeatedly done something I claim to strongly dislike. This is a valid question. It comes down to just wanting to do it myself, not because I don’t trust someone else to do it, but because I know I can, and therefore, should. Yeah, it’s kind of dumb. This is also why I repeatedly vow to never do it again, because I recognize the dumbness. ↩︎
Run 993: Obstacle course ~or~ Don’t mind the trees
With the sun out, I was not going to miss running today. I’d had three days off as my December run schedule has been beset by appointments and bad weather (also, my treadmill is currently out of service, so no backup).
I headed out a little later than usual–just after 10 a.m., and was greeted with the expected debris of twigs and small branches littering the trails after last night’s windstorm passed through the area, with gusts up to 80-90 km/h.
However, I was not entirely prepared for the level of destruction at Burnaby Lake. I ran a short loop, which means I only saw a relatively small section of the 10 km loop, but there were multiple trees down, including what appeared to be at least two fir trees that may have formed a suicide pact about 1 km along the run, on the Spruce Loop:
I had to detour back to the main trail, then headed up to the Conifer Loop, hoping it would be passable (it was). But just to the right where the Conifer and Spruce Loops intersect was this:
There was another large tree down on the Piper Mill trail and a couple plus another runner and I all bottled up at it, working our way over it.
This led to the overall run being a bit of a crazy quilt, with odd turns and pauses all over. I started out with a casual pace of 5:56/km, but the last few km were unobstructed by debris, so I managed an overall pace of 5:45/km. My BPM was a pretty low 146. It was chilly at 6-7C, but I probably didn’t need to wear three layers.
This was also my first run wearing the Garmin Forerunner 265, which is different mainly by having an AMOLED display vs. the 255. It is quite a bit brighter, but I need to adjust the stats it displays during a run. Bafflingly, it doesn’t include distance on the main face.
Overall, an interesting change of pace, given the conditions, but otherwise a finee mid-week effort.
Stats:
Run 993
Average pace: 5:45/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 11:03 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 28:57
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 6-7°C
Humidity: 78-75%
Wind: light
BPM: 146
Weight: 167.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 6,795 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Saucony Peregrine 15 (55/97/152)
Music: Shuffle mode