If I was a musician and Robert Plant hadn’t already used it, I would totally make an album called “Now and Zen.”
Here are some things I find that produce a zen-like quality for me, where I lose myself in the activity, and my mind can unlock to drift and ponder and take me away from the world for a while.
Running. That runner’s high thing you hear about is real. Also, this can vary a bit based on conditions. If the terrain is slippery due to ice and whatnot, it’s harder to find zen because I’m concerned about face-planting. But generally, running is very calming to my brain.
Drawing. Especially when I do bird art, which is almost like colouring in a colouring book. The application of colour is very soothing.
Writing. Even on this blog, sometimes! The quote at the top of this site is accurate, but a lot of writers forget how it feels to get in the proverbial zone. You are taken, briefly, to another place, and it’s great. When you leave, it’s almost like a memory wipe occurs, so writing becomes a “chore” again, instead of a secret delight.
Picking up litter with a picker and bucket. This requires a certain amount of hand-eye coordination because grabbing cigarette butts off the ground can be trickier than you’d think. But the activity is so mellow and gentle, it’s nice just to slowly move around the condo complex and surrounding area and plink away at the occasional bits of litter.
My phone history, apart from what we now quaintly call “landlines” began in 2009 with a Samsung flip phone and effectively ended in January 2021 when I bought an iPhone 12.
Samsung M320 (it cost $40, which seems surreal now)
iPhone 4
Samsung Galaxy S3
iPhone 5c
iPhone 6
iPhone 8
iPhone 12
Other than the dalliance with the S3, you may have noticed an early pattern: I got a new phone pretty much every year. Then after the iPhone 6 I skipped a generation. With the iPhone 8, I skipped two generations (the 10 and 11–the 9 never existed). And now, I have skipped four generations, with the fifth about to launch next month.
The main reason is phone tech improved. They got faster, got much better cameras, and starting around five or so years ago reached a point many would consider “good enough.” Everything since then is iterative, not revolutionary, in the same way computers get better or TVs improve. You only notice the differences if you go a long time between upgrades.
My current phone, which debuted in September 2020 and which I purchased in January 2021, is reporting 83% battery health, yet there are days when I plug it in before bed, and it’s still at 90-95% charge, because most of the time I don’t use the phone at all.
I rarely check social media, which I have largely abandoned save for Mastodon, anyway. I message a few people, take photos here and there, check the weather, make actual phone calls very occasionally and not much else. I never play games on my phone. I don’t read on it, nor write long messages. I may occasionally scan my email. Sometimes I use the calculator. I’ll add food to the grocery list.
I actually stopped using the Photos app after Apple’s misguided1Misguided is apparently now Apple’s north star when it comes to design, especially for software revamp in iOS 18.
Basically, my phone is just a tool I sometimes use for certain things. I’m not one of those people that must breathlessly check the socials every time I get a free nanosecond. I am content to amuse myself with my own thoughts. Since getting my “good enough” iPhone 12, the tech lust to get a newer phone has disappeared.
The cause hasn’t been helped by Apple crawling up its own butt and becoming a terrible company in the past five years, either. I would not buy a new iPhone at this point, even if they scrapped the shockingly misguided2See? UI refresh known as “Liquid Glass”.
Or Liquid ass if you go by Apple’s original YouTube thumbnail:
Apple eventually uploaded a new thumbnail.
Anyway, this leads to the question I pose in the title of this post: When am I getting a new phone?
I think it will come down to a combination of things, most likely something like this:
When Apple stops supporting the iPhone 12 with updates, which will probably happen in a few years, though I have no immediate plans to update to “iOS 26” because of the awful aforementioned Liquid Glass revamp. Even here, security updates would probably extend the life of the phone to 2028 or 2029, years that once existed only in bad near-future science fiction.
When battery life becomes unacceptably poor. I think this may take a good while to happen, especially with my usage.
If I find a deal on a new/newish phone that is too good to resist. I have no idea how likely this is, but it ain’t happened yet.
I decide my iPhone 12 cameras are now potato quality (they already are if you zoom in at all) and can no longer tolerate them. This is actually not very likely. I have an actual mirrorless camera for taking good photos of things.
Looking over the list, it seems I’m likely to keep cracking wise about my iPhone 12 for some time yet. But we’ll see.
The “Liquid Glass” UI redesign being spread across all of Apple’s operating systems has pretty much confirmed in my mind that Apple’s best designers have either left the company or are being overruled by people who have no sense of design.
I’m not sure if I like having a Conservative prime minster who ran as a Liberal.
I did not have getting multiple injections into my abdomen this month on my bingo card (see: Stabbing the abs for more.)
I continue to be puzzled and occasionally flummoxed by the lack of awareness exhibited by so many people when in a public space.
Smartphones are a good thing, social media owned and operated by Big Tech is a very bad thing.
It’s very summer-like today, after the first week of summer was cool and a bit damp. A lot of people prefer the latter, even though we get it for about six months of the year.
There will probably be some fireworks going off later this evening.
The new sidewalks on our street are very bright in the sun.
I feel like more people cheat now than, say, ten years ago, possibly because more people are realizing they won’t get caught. This is not a good thing.
I have an itchy bug bite on my left leg. I have nothing in particular to help with this, except the power of my mind insisting it’s not really itchy at all.
I still love Bongo Cat. He is currently wearing a pineapple.
Apparently, Canadian patriotism is surging. A house a few blocks away is positively festooned with Canadian flags. I’m not sure how I feel about this, because nationalism generally leads to bad things.
I’ve seen reports that people are getting dumber. This feels right to me.
Am I getting dumber? My phone is often at 90% charge at the end of the day (even though it’s 4.5 years old). I think this is helping to preserve some brain cells.
When birding in Pitt Meadows, I went to check the temperature on my phone and it couldn’t pull the data in because of a very weak cell connection. It please me that such places exist, and you don’t even have to go too far to find them. Also, places where you can’t hear any traffic.
As I’ve reported before, my trusty Garmin Forerunner 255 has been reporting that I have been under a great deal of stress, experiencing high stress while sleeping and generally having Very Stressful days for about two months now. At first, I thought it was misinterpreting my kidney infection as stress and acted accordingly. But I’ve been off the antibiotics for a few weeks now and haven’t seen any return of symptoms, yet the Very Stressful reports persist.
So, I thought, maybe it’s something else. What else has coincided with the infection over the past few months?
I have basically stopped running. This isn’t permanent, I took a break after tripping and hurting my hands on my last run on December 30, then got hit with resurgent infection, finally seemed to recover from that and now there is snow on the ground. But I will run again.
Dealing with the infection and aftermath (there are more tests forthcoming for other things discovered that may be innocuous or could be more serious).
I have done little in the way of creativity: few drawings, no work on the game. I have been writing, but it’s mainly been the nonsense you’re reading on this blog right now.
Dealing with condo/strata stuff, as we restarted our efforts to shed the current council and management company (the latter of which specifically started harassing us last summer).
So, that’s a lot of stuff. Some I can deal with easily. I can fix not running by running. I can fix not drawing by drawing. The health stuff I just need to put aside for now. I feel fine and there’s nothing else to be done at the moment.
But the condo stuff, this got my attention this morning when I realized something: My mind wanders over to it constantly. When I say constantly, I am not engaging in hyperbole, or even just regular bole. Multiple times this morning, I caught myself thinking about condo stuff. It just comes up, unbidden, in my mind. Really, it’s kind of weird. It’s like my brain has adapted to just slotting in thoughts about the condo/strata whenever I’m not focused on anything else.
I think this may be a large part of my Very Stressful days.
Now, I do and will have to deal with strata stuff for at least a few more months, so there is no escaping it. But I don’t need to be constantly thinking about it. So my goal is to somehow train my mind to not think about it or if I do, to quickly divert to some other thought, such as:
Kittens
Puppies
Pop Tarts (just thinking, not eating)
Grassy meadows
Summer
A nice relaxing bubble bath
Walking alone among sequoias
Etc.
Basically, anything that will focus me away from strata and onto something relaxing.
I’ll see how it goes and report my findings soon, in the name of science and possibly my sanity.
I was six when the 70s started and 16 when it ended, so it pretty much encapsulates all of my childhood that I can still remember. Or think I can remember.
Kids, hold onto your smartphones as you hear about the primitive olden days:
Having a single phone in the house, in the hallway. It had a long coiled cord and was rotary. In the first few years it was also a party line.
One TV, in the living room. Maybe a 20 or 25-inch screen? It was colour, though! The guys watched Hockey Night in Canada every Saturday. I was not really into hockey. I was an artist! (See entry below on The Letterbox.)
The neighbours at the end of the block had seven chestnut trees in their year. We would put chestnuts on shoestrings and have chestnut fights, one of many dumb things we did as kids.
Speaking of dumb things: lawn darts! We played on the boulevard in front of the house.
A less dumb activity was bouncing on inner tubes in the same spot, using them as somewhat inefficient trampolines.
I would chop wood for our fireplace, because you were allowed fireplaces in the city back then. It was cozy in the winter.
I remember the Saucy Dragon arcade in downtown Duncan, which went on to be one of multiple arcades. In 1984, I even got my first job working at one. I eventually learned all the moves in the laser disc game Space Ace and could complete it on a single quarter. I believe all the arcades are gone now.
I’ve mentioned it before, but the stationery store, called The Letterbox, was a place I loved hanging out in. I was a writing nerd. I guess I still am. I’d buy fountain pens, refills, typewriter ribbons, art pencils and sketchpads there. And other stuff. It was my version of a candy store. It’s long gone. But there’s now a Staples.
Riding my bike without a helmet. No one wore helmets, it wasn’t even a point of discussion. I did fall a few times, but never cracked my skull open.
I got bit by every possible animal you can think of. I had probably 10x more tetanus shots than the average person.
The McDonald’s opening in August 1978 (yes, I remember) was a major event. The day before, a friend and I rode our bikes through the parking lot and counted the stalls. It was 70 or so, as I recall. A Filet-o-Fish sandwich, my favourite at the time, cost 65 cents. Previously, to eat at a McDonald’s, we had to have our parents drive us to Victoria or Nanaimo. In 1978, Duncan arrived. The McDonald’s, of course, is still there.
When I went to high school, literally just at the end of the street, I came home for lunch and got addicted to All My Children for a few years. Like the arcades, it, too, is gone.
Better font rendering. This surprised me, but fonts look fuller and sharper.
Faster. Everything feels snappier, especially ordinary OS things like opening/moving windows.
The file manager does not regularly crash. Or crash at all.
So much more customization for the UI.
The panel (taskbar) can go anywhere, like in Windows’ olden days.
App and OS updates are handled by a single manager, making it simpler and quicker than Windows. Also, I choose when to install them.
A better bunch of built-in apps.
A better Mastodon app (Tuba) than anything on Windows (though not quite as good as some available on Mac).
Desklets, applets and extensions add a ton of optional convenience features.
There are aspects that aren’t as polished as Windows, I haven’t replaced all equivalent apps yet, and gaming is still not quite there, but at this point, the downsides of running Linux (I am still using Mint) are considerably less than when I first started tinkering with it. This pleases me.
This is borrowed from a thread on Mastodon in which the author posts a single game every day for 20 days, without explanation, that fit the criteria of “games that had an impact on me.”
I’m going to do my own variation here, listing out all 20 games, roughly in chronological order. Because I am olde, this also serves as a gaming history of sorts.
Adventure (Atari 2600, 1980)
Demon Attack (Atari 2600, 1982)
Astrosmash (Intellivision, 1982)
Miner 2049er (Atari 8-bit, 1982)
Star Raiders (Atari 8-bit, 1982)
Lode Runner (Commodore 64, 1984)
Dungeon Master (Atari ST, 1987)
SimCity (Amiga, 1989)
Populous (Amiga, 1989)
Betrayal at Krondor (PC, 1994)
Myst (PC, 1994)
Doom/Doom II (PC, 1993)
Unreal (PC, 1998)
Half-Life (PC, 1998)
Star Wars: Jedi Knight (PC, 1997)
Starsiege: Tribes (PC, 1999)
Diablo 2 (PC, 1999)
City of Heroes (PC, 2004)
World of Warcraft (PC, 2004)
PowerWash Simulator (PC, 2023)
Coming soon: I edit the list after remembering a bunch of games. Also, an explanation behind each game, in defiance of the Mastodon thread, because I make my own rules, baby.
In BC, the first Monday of the month (this year, it’s the 5th) is BC Day, a statutory holiday. Who doesn’t like stat holidays? I mean, other than retail workers, essential service workers and…probably a lot of other people, actually.
The day before BC Day is the Pride Parade in Vancouver. I’ve been multiple times and while I haven’t been in a while, it’s not because I don’t enjoy the parade, it’s more it’s too successful for its own good, drawing crowds up to 600,000 strong, which is close to the entire population of the city of Vancouver. Young guys in underwear are very popular. I’m not going to knock it, but I don’t want to be there when the parade ends and those 600,000 people need to leave. Also, the forecast is sunny and hot. This leads me to…
It’s still summer, if you like summer. I like summer. I like the longer nights, the warm days, the sun (not so much heat domes and the like). I like wearing shorts and not having to bundle up for my runs because it’s raining/snowing/hailing.
August has 31 days, so if you like it, there’s more of it.
If you go to school, it’s another month of school-free hanging out, relaxing and seeing the world, or some parts of it.
It’s also a popular vacation time, with the usually good weather.
If you’re into the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition), it starts in late August, and it lets city slickers see cows, pigs and, uh, probably farm equipment, up close and personal.
Probably other things I’ve missed and will secretly add to this list later.
Move to Australia. It’s winter there! Just try to avoid the poison animals. So maybe don’t move there.
Dig a hole in your backyard that’s about 10 feet deep, where it’s always nice and cool. Convince Amazon to deliver your sunscreen there. I’m kidding, don’t use Amazon, they’re a terrible company.
Remember to stop activities before heatstroke, not after.
Sand is your friend. I mean, it’s not, but if you go to the beach, you’re going to have to pretend.
Notice how trees have all their leaves in the summer? Trees are your friends (unlike sand, which just gets in your shorts). Touch trees all summer, to keep in the shade and rekindle the primitive soul within. But mostly to keep out of the relentlessly cruel hot sun.
Remember how winter is six months of steady rain? It doesn’t matter that winter is only three months of the year, it’s still six months of rain. Think about how you are getting a nice sexy tan now instead of plodding through endless puddles from endless rain.
Heat domes are still rare! This is not a tip, but is helpful in managing expectations when people start going on about how it’s too hot. Manage those expectations! Everyone loves the, “Well, actually, it could be hotter…” guy! That guy could be you. Also works for all other genders. Note: Everyone may not actually love this person.
Do not listen to the 1992 album Summer in Paradise by The Beach Boys. Do you really want to hear Mike Love rap? (You do not.)
