Five deadly things I thought were great as a kid

  • Volcanoes
  • Lawn darts
  • Dinosaurs
  • Second hand smoke (just kidding)
  • Sharks

I still think dinosaurs, sharks and volcanoes are cool (er, maybe hot in the latter case), but continue to boggle over lawn darts being an actual thing. You can get non-lethal versions now that are blunt, but seriously, who really thought that throwing what amounts to a deadly weapon back and forth on the front lawn was a good idea for kids? It’s no wonder kids loved them, they were like the forbidden toy that somehow slipped through.

A case of the blahs

Hard to explain. Could it be…

  • Uncertainty about the future
  • Global warming (sort of related to the above)
  • General sense of flabbiness
  • Something intangible and unknowable
  • The fact that the Styx album Kilroy Was Here really got made

I’m listening to “Mr. Roboto” right now, and I’m leaning toward the last one. I loved this album when it came out in 1983. I was 19 years old at the time. I present this as my only defense. Well, that and being a sucker for concept albums, apparently even bad ones.

My mind is blank

Yep, it is. I am in one of those weird phases where the more I try to think of something to write, the more the thoughts find ways to squirm out of my head and fly away, never to be seen again. Or maybe they just splat against the nearest window.

So when in doubt, let’s list1I like lists!

The Five Best Colors in the World According to Me

  • Dark pink
  • Red
  • Dark blue
  • Verdant green
  • Black. It’s not a color, but it’s so handy. And black.

Three articles of clothing I will likely never wear

  • A speedo
  • A kilt
  • A burlap sack

Perks of working in IT Support

  • lol
  • lol
  • Seriously, lol

Ways to Make the World a Better Place

  • Ride your bike
  • Grow some veggies
  • Be nice to others. Not super stupid nice, just reasonably nice and pleasant.
  • Eliminate all management
  • Probably need to do something about capitalism, too

Top 5 Worst Songs in the History of the Universe by Popular Artists

As experienced by me.

And in no particular order.

  • “Mother” by The Police
  • “Revolution 9” by The Beatles
  • “Just the Way You Are” by Billy Joel
  • “Rock and Roll Music” by The Beach Boys (cover)
  • “Mr. Roboto” by Styx

Notes:

  • Fantastically annoying
  • Tedious and indulgent
  • Insipid and cloying
  • Far removed from actual rock and roll
  • So, so dumb. But admittedly kind of catchy.

Neat things

Let’s end the month on a positive note, with a list of things that I find neat. Sometimes I can’t explain why I find something–it could be something that delighted me as a kid and that delight stayed intact as I grew into a bitter, cynical adult. Or it could be so intangible I can’t explain it at all. I’m sure someone could build an interesting (?) profile of me from what I’ve posted below.

Here’s the list, in no particular order:

  • Trains, passenger jets and large ships
  • Desktop wallpapers featuring landscapes with bodies of water or spooky forests
  • The art of Simon Stalenhag, who combines simulated oil paint, realism and retro-future technology
  • Outer space. It’s just so freaky with black holes, dark matter, nebulae and more.
  • Spacecraft, both real and imagined
  • Electric bikes that look like ordinary bikes
  • Computer mice. I always want something new, regardless of how well my current mouse works.
  • Computer UIs. One day I’ll do a comparison of Mac vs. Windows. Maybe when Windows 11 comes out.
  • Dams, both those made by humans and beavers
  • Ducks
  • Skyscrapers. Really, anything that is built on a massive scale.
  • The ocean. It delights and terrifies me in equal measure.
  • Photography that shows things you wouldn’t normally see, by using long exposures, extreme close-ups or other techniques
  • Fudge. Okay, it’s not really that neat, but I kind of want some.

A list of observations gathered while strolling in 42 °C weather

It hit 42 °C today, which breaks the old high temperature record by an impressive 11 degrees. Tomorrow’s high is forecast at 35, which will feel almost mild in comparison. I decided to go for about a 15-minute walk down to the park when it hit 42, just to see what it felt like. My observations, in handy list form:

  • Opening the front door of the condo building is like opening the grate on a furnace
  • The breeze feels like it is burning my face
  • My eyes are hot; this feels hugely weird
  • Heat radiates from the pavement, less so from the sidewalks
  • After about five minutes, the metal on my Apple Watch is starting to get hot against my skin
  • I am sweating like I am running, yet I am merely walking
  • Kids are still running around and screaming; presumably they are magically immune to heatstroke
  • The idea of going for my usual 7+ km walk today seems equal parts foolish and ludicrous–I do not go
  • Coming back and opening the door to our condo unit and getting hit by the cool breeze of the air conditioner is really, really nice. Like, super mega-nice.
  • I secretly wonder if I’ll be finding out what it feels like when the temperature goes above 42 °C–and how soon that might be
  • At least I don’t live in Lytton

Quote on Lytton from CBC News today:

As of 5:30 p.m. on Monday, Lytton had hit 47.9 C, according to Environment Canada. For context, that’s hotter than the hottest temperature ever recorded in Las Vegas, at about 47.2 C, and almost eight degrees higher than Lytton’s record high before this year.

A list of all the things I like about Apple

Time to be positive for a change.

  • The Apple logo is nice
  • The M1 MacBook Air offers excellent performance
  • Apple includes the fast Thunderbolt 3/4 interface on all of its computers–and now on an iPad
  • They seem to be on the right side of user privacy
  • The Apple Watch clocks (ho ho) all other smartwatches in terms of versatility and performance
  • They’ve been around for over 40 years, they can’t be *all* bad
  • My iPhone 12 works as intended
  • My iPad Pro is really pretty good as a drawing tablet
  • Did I mention the logo is nice?

Dreams (not the Fleetwood Mac song)

I had four dreams last night and remembered them by inventing an acronym for them: CPAP (not to be confused with the device that assists people with sleeping):

  • Cat: In one dream I had a cat, and I was cleaning its food dish and was vaguely upset that the cat might be sick. The cat, a gray short hair, curled up in a giant plastic tub that was apparently its bed (?), but also had water in it. She didn’t seem to mind. This was a mildly upsetting dream. The same dream later featured me at a coffee shop, inexplicably with the cat.
  • Personnel: I was at work, but it was Dream Work, not actual work, and everyone was different or at least I don’t recall them being my normal co-workers. I was in a hallway with a co-worker, as we had apparently been working on something together and a couple of management types were there. A third co-worker was also there. The management types were suggesting that certain improprieties had been committed, and I began thinking over whether I had done anything I shouldn’t have done. I came up with nothing and the co-worker and I walked off, while the third one stayed behind, seemingly about to be punished for some unspoken sin. The impression I got was he had done something like watched porn on the job. This was kind of a dumb dream.
  • Allergies: I looked down at my arm and saw a few silver spots on it. I held the arm up and noticed more silver spots appearing. In the dream I guessed it was an allergic reaction, though silver spots are a dream allergy AFAIK. Then the dream took a turn for the very weird as my arm turned entirely translucent, allowing me to see light through it. I woke up at that point, but my final thought in the dream was something clever, like, “This is weird.”
  • The fourth one I have suddenly drawn a blank on, but it started with P, so it may come back to me. I told Jeff all four dreams, but he doesn’t remember, either. Note to self: Write these things down at the time, other people’s memories may be no better than your own. 😛

2020: The Review

I could make this easy by saying “1 out of 10, would not do again” and be done with it, but in this most unusual year, let’s take the time to review the good, the bad and the ugly, because while there was a lot of bad and definitely some ugly, there was also good, and it may be instructive to see how good can come out of even very bad things.

This list may be updated as I think of more stuff. It is also a mostly non-personal big picture kind of view. I may focus on my own stuff in another post.

The Good:

  • No nuclear wars or massive asteroid impacts
  • Only one pandemic
  • Trump was not re-elected
  • Work from home meant saving lots of money and time on the daily commute
  • Trail running is a relatively safe pandemic form of exercise

The Bad:

  • There are still two days left for nuclear wars or massive asteroid impacts to happen
  • Only one pandemic is still one too many
  • Trump still got 74 million votes. What is wrong with America? It’s complicated.
  • Work from home also meant suffering through online meetings (still worth it, though)
  • Two words: Plantar Fasciitis

The Ugly:

  • All the people who died who probably wouldn’t have died otherwise
  • The dummies crying about “freedom”, refusing to wear a simple mask and helping to spread a virus that has literally affected the entire planet. Bonus points to the ones who think the whole thing is a hoax.
  • Social media continues to be a net (ho ho) negative on the world. More blogs, less Facebook.

A random list of favorite songs

These songs are all silky smooth pop confections. And old, like me.

  • Dreaming, Blondie
  • Vacation, The Go-Go’s
  • Don’t Answer Me, The Alan Parsons Project
  • Roam, The B-52’s
  • Good Vibrations, The Beach Boys
  • Got to Get You Into My Life, The Beatles
  • Get Through to You, Blue Rodeo
  • The Logical Song, Supertramp
  • Coming Home, Prism
  • New Sensation, INXS
  • Don’t Stop Believin’, Journey
  • Ray of Light, Madonna
  • Something About You, Level 42
  • Gemini Dream, The Moody Blues
  • Graceland, Paul Simon
  • Sean, The Proclaimers
  • Catapult, R.E.M.
  • More Than This, Roxy Music
  • Birdhouse in Your Soul, They Might Be Giants
  • End of the Line, The Traveling Wilburys
  • Buddy Holly, Weezer

Work from home: The good, bad, and ugly

I have been working from home (WFH) for about eight months now and here’s my list of what is good, bad and ugly about it.

The Good

  • My commute has been reduced from just over one hour to 30 seconds
  • I get 90 minutes more sleep per night
  • I can finish my shift, go for a run and be home before I’d normally complete my post-work commute (this still works in winter, the running is just done on the treadmill instead)
  • Breaks allow me to do or start chores that would otherwise be impossible until I was off work, including:
    • Starting/folding laundry
    • Starting/unloading the dishwasher
    • Baking bread. The office never smells like fresh-baked bread and this is a tragedy.
    • Sweep, mop
    • Run down the garbage or organics
    • Check the mail (the physical kind that comes in envelopes)
  • I can listen to music while I work (I don’t do it often, but I do it occasionally)
  • I never have to wait to use the bathroom
  • I never have to worry about someone else making the bathroom a giant stink bomb
  • Snacking is easy and convenient
  • Co-workers and other people cannot walk up to your cubicle and trap you in long, painful conversations

I will point out that the first three items listed are huge quality of life improvements. Almost life-changing, really.

The Bad

  • Some tools that must be relied on are not great. To be fair, this would be true at the office as well, it’s just that when WFH you can’t just go to someone’s office to have a look because the remote support tool refuses to elevate privileges.
  • Online meetings. These are often even more soul-draining than in-person meetings. To the person that asks, “Can you hear me?” at the start of every meeting: Yes, we can hear you. If you don’t suddenly start putting your mic between your feet or attaching it to your cat, we will hear you every time! Also, even when people are on video, it can be challenging picking up on body language and other visual cues.
  • Let’s just say some people are not exactly timely in answering messages
  • Can feel isolating at times, given the lack of face to face interaction

The Ugly

  • Knowing that this will eventually end and most people will just automatically go back to doing everything the old way, taking no lessons from what we learned. Or in other words, people will be people.

Overall, I love WFH. I don’t miss the office at all. The air in the office is bad, the commute is long, there are numerous distractions, I am forced into contact with others and this inevitably leads to a series of colds and other bugs through the year.

A scattered focus

I came across this video on YouTube last night from Struthless, in which he discusses the drawing advice given to him in 2016 that changed his life.

Leaving aside how quaint the world seemed in the long ago time of January 2020, I found this advice resonant, especially when I look back at my creative shenanigans when I was younger. Here are some of the things I did:

  • recorded audio plays/skits
  • acted, directed and wrote skits in school; acted in school plays
  • worked with clay (and plasticine)
  • painted
  • sketched
  • wrote short stories, started several novels
  • wrote and drew multiple comics
  • learned to play one song on acoustic guitar
  • played the recorder in music class (to be fair, I had to do this)

That’s a pretty extensive list. And for a kid, it’s actually okay to be scattered. I was trying stuff out. Looking back, I enjoyed pretty much all of it, too. I was a Renaissance Lad.

But as an adult, with much more limited time to not just do stuff, but to learn to do stuff, I need to focus. I can’t do everything.

I kind of still want to, though.

But with my fiction writing currently in a comfortable coma, blissfully unaware of the hellscape that 2020 has become, I have decided to focus on drawing and sketching, first by honing my analog (pen and paper) skills, then moving into the digital realm of pen and tablet. I’ll occasionally tell myself, “But I could learn acoustic guitar, like, actually learn it this time” and then I have to remind myself, “No, stay focused. Do one thing well, not ten things using 1/10th of your ass on each” (ass analogies have been popular ever since that one episode of The Simpsons).

This video makes that point and goes even farther, by showing how he (Struthless) initially focused on not just drawing over other creative outlets but drawing just one thing–ibises. Many, many ibises. By narrowing his focus, he was able to do this one thing really well, and used it as a means to expand beyond, creating more elaborate tableaus around ibises.

It’s a good way to approach art.

I am not going to draw ibises.

But I do have my own thing: Gum Gum People.

And now I own the domain for them. This will eventually become my home for all art, not just GGP-specific stuff.

We’ll see how it goes. For now, I am putting writing on the backburner, guilt-free. If I get drawn (ho ho) back to it, it was meant to be. If not, well…hopefully I’ll have settled onto something even more rewarding. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life watching cat videos.

(Though I probably could.)