In praise of monochrome coloured clothing

After reading these two pieces:

I want to pile on and recommend monochrome. As they say, monochrome dressing (i.e. wearing only one colour at a time) is a good way to simplify your dressing. It’s also a good way to travel too: having only one colour to wear means you need to take less and everything goes together.

You don’t have to be as bold as to wear lime or violet: black, blue and gray all work nicely. And if you are wearing summer clothes, all white or all beige is excellent.

If you kind of like the idea but find it too much, mix in some neutral colours: blue and a bit of gray, black and a touch of white, brown and beige combined. Easy!

However you do it, monochrome dressing makes it easy to get dressed and make a statement at the same time. What’s not to like?

The stunning wall hanging artistry of Alyssa Ki

Over at Colossal they have the brilliant artistry of Alyssa Ki which combines weaving, macramé, and crochet to create such beautiful bouquets such as the one pictured above. Ki selects

yarn and rovings of raw wool dyed in natural pigments, (and she) crafts fiber-based wall hangings reminiscent of bouquets and overgrown patches of wildflowers. The perpetually blooming pieces blend multiple textile techniques and are teeming with macramé, needle-felted, and crocheted botanicals that sprout from a thick, woven foundation. Hanging from a knotty branch or bound by a ribbon, the floral works are ripe with color and texture.

Fabulous. For more on this, go to Colllosal and read up on it.

(Image via the story and the artist)

On the creator economy, access, and monetization


The following quote from an Axios piece struck me as odd:

The creator economy was supposed to democratize media, but it turns out that a small portion of creators still reap the most revenue for their work across multiple platforms.

I wonder how they came up with their assumptions. The creator economy has been going on since blogging and other Web 2.0 technologies, and while it has given creators equal access to platforms, it has never spread the wealth. Ever. There is a reason why books like The Long Tail were successful: they accurately described how things worked. Platforms come and go, from Blogger to Twitch, and no doubt more will come in the future. Everyone will have equal access to them. Likewise, a few will reap the lion’s share and the rest will get crumbs. That’s how it works.

For more on it, see: The creator economy is failing to spread the wealth – Axios

A clock that use literary quotes to tell you the time

I love this Author Clock show above. It…

…uses passages from literature that have mentions of the time in them… so at 9 o’clock, the clock shows a passage from The Great Gatsby that has the phrase “9 o’clock” in it, and at 12, it displays verses from Hamlet when the clock strikes 12. Ultimately, the Author Clock turns something as mechanical as the ticking of hands into something much more whimsical and joyful… especially if you’re a bookworm or a lover of literature.

Brilliant! You might think it’s not possible that there would be a quote for each minute of each day, but apparently it is.  For more on it, see this piece: This absolutely genius clock uses actual quotes from literature to tell the time! from  Yanko Design

If you are thinking of taking an Uber to the airport, take a limo instead

At least if you are in Toronto and are thinking of taking an Uber to Toronto, take a limo instead. I have been to the airport twice in the last month or so. And my daughter went as well. In all cases the Ubers were in the $80-100 range. Not only that, but they were unreliable.

If you get a limo, you get the following

  1. a cheaper rate. Seriously. The same fare for a limo was around $55.
  2. a reliable pickup. I use Airline limo. If you tell them to pick you up at a given time, they will actually be there and waiting 10-15 minutes before hand. It’s great.
  3. a much better ride. Seriously! The cars I were in were all high end cars. They were immaculate and very comfortable.
  4. Also most of the drivers I had were older gentlemen who drive carefully and well.

So skip the Ubers and get a limo instead. You’ll be glad you did.

Likewise, instead of waiting for an Uber at the airport, walk over to the limo line.

Maybe this won’t be the case in a few weeks or months, but right now it is true, regardless of articles like this: Uber wants to make airport trips less messy.

(Photo by Ian Taylor on Unsplash )

 

How to go vegan gradually (or at least become a reducetarian)

The irony is not lost upon me that yesterday I was blogging about Thanksgiving and now I am blogging about this topic.** But hear me out! This is a good piece on transitioning to being a vegan. I know two things: it’s not easy for some people (like me) to become vegan, but becoming more so is a good thing in many ways. At the very least you become a reducetarian and that’s not bad.

For more on reducetarianism, see this piece.

Good eating and good health to you.

(** In my defense, there was a vegetarian menu in that piece, and there was a wealth of meat and dairy free recipes in there. :))

(Photo by Dose Juice on Unsplash )

It’s Canadian thanksgiving. If you have no idea what to cook, Chatelaine has your back

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian readers celebrating. If you are wondering what to make, not only does Chatelaine have a ton of recipes for you, but they have some great menus for you too. All here ==> 8 Easy Thanksgiving Menus, Including An Under-4-Hour Feast | Chatelaine.

They have a menu for everyone:

  1. A Thanksgiving dinner in under 4 hours
  2. Their All-Time Favourite Thanksgiving Recipes
  3. a Vegetarian Thanksgiving
  4. a Rustic Thanksgiving
  5. a Modern Thanksgiving
  6. a 1-hour Thanksgiving for 4
  7. a Roast chicken Thanksgiving
  8. and a Classic Thanksgiving

So if you have always wanted to do a full on proper Thanksgiving meal, now you have lots of options to choose from.

This year I’m going to do their turkey recipe with gravy (with a dry brine), their brown butter green beans, their yukon gold mashed potatoes, the fig and radicchio salad, chestnut and sausage stuffing, and the chocolate-bourbon pecan pie. (I’m also sliding Alison Roman’s Harissa and maple roast carrots in there too because why not. And canned cranberries because I just love them! 🙂 Eat what you love.)

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

(Photo is not my meal but close! I took this from Chatelaine).

For people who love art and need inspiration to make it. (What I find interesting in art, October 2021)


I am a gently frustrated artist. I collect links and study them and try to use them to get me to make art, not always successfully.

Here are 29 art related links that I have found lately to be interesting and helpful to me. I hope they do the same for you:

  1. I liked this:  A Closer Look at Frank Gehry’s House.
  2. This is beautiful: Mysterious and Deserted City at Night.
  3. This was cool I thought:  Candid Murals by Street Artist Escif Cleverly Respond to Political Issues and Current Events.
  4. The wooden sculpture of  Richard Scherr are amazing and worth a look.
  5. This was a really good piece on Norman Rockwell.
  6. Also great:  the eyeless girls.
  7. Thank you David Bowie for this: on making art.
  8. Does art make a difference? Here’s a good essay on it: Why Art Fails to Make a Difference on Its Own: More Thoughts on Hans Haackes Urgently Relevant Survey at the New Museum .
  9. The endless debate:  Is art dead? Nope.
  10. Agree with this: Why collage making is great.
  11. Yes to this:  Make bad art. It’s a good thing.
  12. A good reminder:  Why make art.
  13. In case you need it:  More art making encouragement.
  14. Good stuff here:  Advice for young artists.
  15. In case you need more encouragement:  Make art even if you don’t like your output.
  16. Art making during the pandemic. Not surprising, some artists have been productive while others struggled.
  17. What Makes An Artist? David Hockney explains as only he can.
  18. One of my favorite artists:  Gerhart Richter.
  19. This piece thinks Titian is controversial. I dunno. I think this argument is anachronistic.
  20. A Collector of Antiques Asks: Can Something Be Racist and Also Be Beautiful? Of course. Also somewhat anachronistic as an argument but less so, I think.
  21. Want to watercolor? Read this:  Watercolors Made Simple.
  22. A cool way to make art:  The Lyrical and Funny Art of Erasing Words From Books.
  23. MoMA’s Online Courses Let You Study Modern & Contemporary Art and Earn a Certificate. Worth considering.
  24. Got Poetry? Memorize it!
  25. Cartoonist Lynda Barry Teaches You How to Make a Visual Daily Diary . Lynda Barry is an inspirational teacher of art.
  26. Great advice:  Keep calm and make ugly art.
  27. The goodness of Sickert. An artist you should get to know.
  28. Awesome:  Behold the Newly-Discovered Sketch by Vincent van Gogh Sketch.
  29. I am a fan of  Tom Gauld. Here’s a tweet that shows how to make a NewYorker cover. At least if you are Tom Gauld.

(Photo by dusan jovic on Unsplash )

How to get rid of those things you can’t seem to part with? Use the Box and Banish method

If you are trying to declutter and you are struggling, why not grabs some boxes and practice the Box and Banish Method? Essentially what you do is take all those things you consider “maybes”* and put them in a box and…

 … close it up. Yep, close it, and put it somewhere out of the way, like the back of a closet. Then set a reminder on your phone or in your calendar for a date about six weeks from now.

And after six weeks (or six months, but not six years), take those boxes and either trash them or give them away.

If you don’t trust yourself, recruit someone to do it for you. You’ll be glad you did.

(* Maybes are all those things you aren’t sure of that you may want to keep but aren’t sure.  )

Friday Night Music: Paris Match (Style Council with Tracey Thorn vocals)

If you are a fan of the Style Council, as I am, I highly recommend this: Long Hot Summers: The Story of The Style Council (2020) | SHOWTIME

It’s an excellent review of the career of the musicians that made up the band, and a fine reminder of how great they were.

While there were many people interviewed for it, Tracey Thorn didn’t appear, sadly. I would have loved to hear more about how she crossed paths and became a Councillor for a time.

Watch the documentary: you’ll be glad you did. Meanwhile, check this out:

Great films you can watch in 90 minutes or less!

Last week I wrote about really great long films. Those are great, Bernie, you say, but what about those times when you don’t have much time? In that case, you need this list of films you can watch in under 90 minutes!  Yes, Rashomon is on the list. And so many more great films. Proof that longer isn’t always better.

Fun fact: Spike Lee has a film on this list (“She’s Gotta Have It”) and on the long list (“Malcolm X”). Check out both of them!

It’s 2021. Why are you still using spreadsheets to manage your project plans? Use this instead

It’s 2021 and I still see people managing projects using Excel spreadsheets. Sure you CAN do it, but you can do better. I am a fan of OpenProj and I use it often. If that is not for you, consider this online version: Build Gantt Charts Online.

What I like about these tools is you can tie tasks together which have dependencies (as shown in the image). This is very helpful and something not easy to do with spreadsheets.

Speadsheets are great for many things: for managing projects, use a better tool.

BBQ is over! :) It’s time for autumn cooking. (My cooking interests for early Fall, 2021 )


If you are thinking: Bernie, I could really use some good recipes to cook this fall, can you help me? Why yes, I think I can. (I even have some grilling recipes because hey, keep BBQing if it makes you happy.) Here’s my fall list of food links (mostly recipes) I’ve found interesting and that I think you will find interesting too!

Recipes

Fish: first up, here’s a feast of fish recipes. I love clams, and I want to make this: Clams with chili and limes. Speaking of fish with citrus, try this: Citrus Shrimp Rice Bowls. If you are still grilling: This Fish Is Sustainable Cheap and Delicious on the Grill. Or maybe you want to roast: Roast Fish with Cannellini Beans and Green Olives. Do you like cod? If so, here are two for you: Rice Bowls with Flaky Cod and Green Seasoning Baked Cod. Back to shellfish with Quick Calamari With Garlic Mayonnaise  and Spicy Garlic Lemon Butter Shrimp with Parmesan Corn Polenta. Finally, this sounds fun if you want something sushi-like: DIY Hand Rolls Are My Last-Minute Dinner Party Savior. And this is worth a look: The Best Fish Cakes.

Vegetables: when you want carbs and veg: Greens and Beans with Fried Bread. This sound delicious: Vietnamese Tomato Salad. How about some dishes with emulsions? Here’s Carrot and Beet Salad with Scallion Emulsion or Roasted Red Pepper Emulsion. Or how about soups? This sounds amazing: This Lentil Soup Is So Good One Nurse Has Eaten It for Lunch Every Workday for 17 Years  and this sounds classic: make Any Vegetable Soup. If you need dips: Make a Ton of Impressive Dips With This Simple Formula. Or chickpeas: Warm Chickpea Bowls with Lemony Yogurt. Feeling like beans? Here’s 12 Easy Ways to Cook a Can of Cannellini Beans. If you are still grilling: Grilled Mushrooms and Carrots with Sesame. Maybe you are using the oven again…then make Sheet-Pan Ratatouille.  Or bake a pie: Golden Root Vegetable Potpie close. Put your kimchi to work with Kimchi-Fried Grains. Or your last summer tomatoes: rice-stuffed tomatoes.

Chicken: sticking with the lighter items, let’s move to chicken. Here’s a fantastic and varied list of chicken dishes: Chicken Braised in Lime and Peanut Sauce,  Chicken Schnitzel with Crunchy Salad (read this too:  The BA Sandwich Primer: Saltie), Stir-Fried Noodles With Chicken, Coq au Riesling, Curry-Poached Chicken with Rice and Scallions and finally Peperoncini Chicken.

Pasta/Noodles/Grains: are an excellent trio. Let’s start with gnocchi…I highly recommend this: Five Delicious Reasons to Always Have Gnocchi in Your Pantry. I also keep wanting to make these noodles, so I want to try one of these: Dan Dan Noodles, or this (it’s different) Dan Dan Noodles. Pasta Aglio e Olio Gets a Plus One is good for fans of it. Here’s a simple pasta dish: Macaroni and Peas Is the Desperation Meal That Always Satisfies. As is this: Pasta with Sausage and Arugula. Maybe you want to make your own pasta: Make Pasta From Scratch with Two Ingredients. Kudos to you!

What else? If none of those catch your fancy, what about you try this: Make This Pork Roast on Sunday Eat Well All Week Long. Or make this and have them on standby: 4 Homemade Spice Blends That’ll Level-Up Your Meals. This sounds amazing: Burnt Orange and Coriander Roast Pork. Same with this:  Maple Chicken ‘N’ Ribs. Finally there’s Lamb Meatballs With Pecan Romesco and .the Absolute Best Way to Cook French Fries According to So Many Tests.

Lists: I always come across lists of food more and more each month. These are some good ones:

  1. 45 Healthy Dinner Recipes for Low-Stress Weeknights.
  2. 9 Martha Stewart Recipes We Can’t Stop Making from One-Pan Pasta to Slab Pie.
  3. 30 Refreshing Slaw Recipes for Summer.
  4. 29 Healthyish Chickpea Recipes Here for Your Weeknight Dinners.
  5. These 81 Easy Pasta Recipes Are Your Weeknight-Dinner Saviors.
  6. Our 11 Best Summer Sangrias Including One With Rose.
  7. 30 Juicy Pork Chop Recipes for Easy Weeknight Dinners.
  8. 18 Classic French Appetizers.
  9. 9 Ways To Use Up Overripe Fruit.
  10. Arugula Salad With Shaved Parmesan Three Ways

Not recipes, but interesting: 

For steak lovers, here’s:  Cuts Of Steak Ranked From Worst To Best. For fans of budget cooking like me:  The Healthyish Guide to Low-Waste Cooking. You might ask: Why Do American Grocery Stores Still Have an Ethnic Aisle? Why indeed. Is American BBQ ethnic. I dunno, but here are two good pieces on American barbeque:  The Evolution of American Barbecue and  The media has erased the long history of Black barbecue skewing our understanding. As you know, fermented food is hot:  How Fermented Foods May Alter Your Microbiome and Improve Your Health. Finally, this was excellent:  Chez Panisse reimagined the way we eat. After 50 years is that enough?.

Happy cooking!

When it makes sense to eat your lunch while you work

It’s easy to find articles condemning the act of eating lunch at your desk (for example, this one ). I get it. That said, I believe there are three times when eating at your desk is ok:

  1. You have too much to do and even a 15 minute lunch break seems too much.
  2. You want to downplay lunch.
  3. Your work is not good but your lunch is.

Now #1 is not a good situation, but sometimes that just the way it is.

#2 makes sense if you are trying to decenter or downplay food. If you are in a place where you find it tempting to overeat and are trying to avoid temptation, this strategy can work. (I can vouch for it.)

#3 is often overlooked and is often tied to #1. Sometimes your work is just awful but you have to get it done. At least eating something you like while you do it makes it bearable and even a bit enjoyable.

These three reasons to eat lunch while you work are not ideal, for sure. But not unreasonable either.

(Written while eating my lunch :))

(Photo by Brooke Lark on Unsplash )

On not forgetting George W Bush

I was reading this analysis of a recent speech by George W. Bush (‘The Nation I Know,’ by George W. Bush – by James Fallows – Breaking the News) and it got me thinking about him again.

It’s easy to forget about Bush. Most Republicans act like they have. Many Democrats too. While reviled towards the end of his presidency — so much so that he was shunned by his party at their conventions — there are people who still think positively of him (For example, Michelle Obama Explains Her and George W. Bush’s Candy Exchange and Friendship).

But no one should forget about Bush and all  the terrible things done during his presidency, from torture to war. To see what I mean, read this: The Legacy of America’s Post-9/11 Turn to Torture – The New York Times. While some in America would like to forget all that and think better of him, much of the world likely thinks like this: George W Bush should shut up and go away | US & Canada | Al Jazeera. Even there, the idea is to dismiss him and forget about him.

Perhaps Bush is a genial and charming man. But he will also be the man that brought the United States and the World to a worse place. That should not be forgotten.

(Image above: Official White House photo by Pete Souza – https://www.flickr.com/photos/whitehouse/4291602492/ (direct link))

Yep, it’s the weekend. Time to clean. Here’s how to do it better.

If you are like me and somewhat dread cleaning on the weekend, perhaps you need an alternative approach. One approach to consider is to spread it throughout the week so when the weekend comes it’s not so bad. The problem with that approach I have found is that the week speeds by and you are left with all the cleaning piling up into Saturday and Sunday.

One way to deal with that is having a cleaning schedule. If that sounds good tto you, read this: How to Create a Cleaning Schedule You Can Stick to | Apartment Therapy. Lots of good tips there, such as “throw things out as you go”. After all, why keep moving things around you don’t want or dust things you no longer like. Trash them, or better still, give them to someone who could use them.

May your (laundry) loads feel lighter after you put that article into practice!

 

It’s an autumn weekend: a good time to watch a long movie

 

While short movies are fun, sometimes one wants to settle in and watch a good long movie. The problem with that, though, is many of them draggggggggg. No one wants that. We want to settle, not fidget. We need help.

Help is here in the form of this: 20 of the Best Long Movies That Are Actually Worth Their Runtime. “Lawrence of Arabia” is an obvious choice, but there are many others on the list that are great too, such as “Hamlet” and “Malcolm X”. Check out the list, then block of some time this weekend or next and get some quality screen time in. Snacks are optional, but recommended. 🙂

 

September, 2021 pandemic highlights and ramblings (a newsletter, in blog form)

Happy Autumn to you. It’s the end of September, one of my favorite months. It’s been a good month for me, despite the pandemic. I’ve travelled to Nova Scotia and Montreal. In many ways, travel felt “normal”, save the masks and vaccine passports. If those things mean we get to get around and see the people and places we love, I am all for it.

Pandemic: It seems like a weird time in this seemingly never ending pandemic.  In many places there has been great progress. But there have been terrible exceptions. Generally wherever there are right wing governments with ideological commitments to “freedom”, people have lost out. For example, Florida. Here’s a story on how Florida’s massive Covid-19 spike got so bad .In other places like Kentucky,  schools overwhelmingly keep mask mandates even after Republicans scrapped state requirement. Not that Canada’s provinces are necessarily better: even the New York Times is writing about the failure that is Alberta. To make it worse, covidiots are still being a menace to society. Fortunately,the public is forcing timid governments to get tough with vaccine resisters. I am sure there are a small number of them are genuinely afraid of the vaccine. Mostly though you have fools who will take Ivermectin even though it doesn’t work and is meant for animals.

Governments aside, businesses continue to try and get back to normal, but many companies like Apple are throwing in the towel until January 2022, citing the COVID-19 surges. The fact that remote work may last for two years worries some bosses. On the other hand, who wants covid-19 outbreaks occurring when workers get together? That’s right: no one.

Not only are businesses having trouble getting back to “normal”, but many of them cannot find enough workers to do the job. In the restaurant industry, many former worker are tired of the job and are more than happy to say so. But it’s not just restaurants: lots of industries including the gig industry are losing out. Here’s a good analysis by Noah Smith on why that is. As for Canadian workers, most picked up side hustles during lockdown and plan to keep them.

Finally, it’s no surprise that people are a lot less happy during the pandemic. There’s plenty of data to back that up. And we may stay that way for awhile, if you take into account people are still burnt out from this terrible time. Some argue a 4-day work week might fix that. I’m not so optimistic. Sure, a 4 day work week would be good , but more is needed.

Non pandemic stuff: Here in Canada we just had a federal election and…not much changed. Just check out these charts and you’ll see.

Toronto continues to develop new buildings everywhere. There are so many signs for new developments that someone decided to have fun and came up with a  fake development sign trolling an area with giant tower in middle of Toronto park. Many were not amused.

Homelessness continues to be a problem being struggled with everywhere, especially in Toronto. During the pandemic there were encampments forming everywhere.  Eventually they were  driven underground with a wave of summer crackdowns  that supposed cost Toronto nearly $2 million. Sad, to say the least.

People continue to do crazy stupid things with NFTs because there is crazy stupid money involved. For example, this boy 12 made 290 000 pounds in non-fungible tokens with digital whale art. People are now working on NFT blockchain video games. Meanwhile, an Insider Trading Scandal Hits NFT Industry. Things are just insane, but whenever easy money is to be had, it’s not surprising.

Two of the most underestimated and successful politicians continue to make news. Angela Merkel is exiting the stage, while Joe Biden is suffering politically. I think Merkel will be one of those politicians that rises in stature historically, while Biden will recover from his current doldrums.

That’s it for this newsletter. Enjoy your Autumn all. It’s a time of harvests, and get togethers, but it is also a time of colour and beauty. Enjoy it while it lasts.

 

Webcams! Still going! Still a great idea!

If you were around during the early days of the World Wide Web, you remember webcams. People would point a camera at something like the sky or a coffee pot and others would use their browser to check it out.

You might be thinking no one does that any more, but if you did, you’d be wrong!

To see what I mean, go here. That is specifically for the Northern Lights, but if you scroll down you can see many others as well.

Still a nice way to see the world without leaving your room.

 

 

How to easily redirect your Netfirms domain to another domain/web site

Recently I wanted to take a new domain registered at Netfirms (netfirms.com) and point it to another domain, so that if people put the URL of the the Netfirms domain in their browser (e.g. berniemichalik.ca), their browser would get redirected elsewhere (e.g. blm849.github.io).

I thought: this should be easy to find out how to do in 2021. I was surprised it wasn’t easy or obvious. Much of the advice was dated and not useful.

Now that I found out how to do it, I will show you what I did to get it to work in 7 easy steps:

  1. First, login to netfirms. It should take you to a web page like this: https://www1.netfirms.com/controlpanel/foundation/
  2. Click on “Domains” on the top left of screen
  3. Look for your domain (e.g. berniemichalik.ca) Click on the “Manage” button underneath it
  4. On the left, look for “Pointers and Subdomains” and click on it
    The web page your browser will go to will look something like this:
    https://www1.netfirms.com/controlpanel/foundation/berniemichalik.ca/pointers-subdomains.  And the page you see should look like the image at the top of this post.
  5. Click Under “Pointer Type” and set the value to “URL Standard”.
    In the box to the right, under “Directory”, put in the URL of your web site (note, put the entire URL, including http:// or https://).
  6. Click the “Save” button.
  7. Test it. Point your browser at the Netfirms URL and see if it gets redirected. (For me, if I type in berniemichalik.ca I get redirected to blm849.github.io). It may take some time, up to a few hours. But it will work. (If it doesn’t seem to be, try different browsers or ask someone else to try.)

That’s it. I hope this helps! Good luck!

 

On Toronto’s Love Park and the lost pillars

First off, if the upcoming Love Park being built looks as good as it does in the drawings of it, it should be a great place to visit. Toronto has many great parks and this looks like a fine addition.

That said, it’s too bad the new park doesn’t include the pillars that were left after that section of the highway was torn done. I was working down at Queen’s Quay when the demolition happened and they were left standing. There was something beautiful about them. They represented a transition, not just of the road to a park, but the potential transition of the city from being car oriented to being people oriented. I liked that about them. Plus they had a natural sculpural quality about them. I liked that too.

To read more about them and see more pictures, read this: Beloved Gardiner Expressway remnants torn down for new heart shaped Toronto park in BlogTO

On the deadly leadership of Jason Kenney and Scott Moe regarding the pandemic

Here is Jason Kenney on twitter in July, 2021, celebrating removal of health restrictions:

Here is a tweet from Robson Fletcher of the CBC on Kenney’s  province and Scott Moe’s province in September of the same year:

I mean, if people in your province are dying at 4X the rate of the other provinces because of direct policy changes you made, you are essentially killing people in your province under your leadership. I don’t know how else to put it.

Also, Jason Kenney should not speak for the Prairies or the West. Both Manitoba and British Columbia are doing better than Alberta and Saskatchewan. It’s not just right wing leaders either. Other right wing provincial parties have been much better stewards of their regions. Kenney and Moe and their leadership are to blame here.

It is terrible when leaders fail their provinces. But this is way beyond typical failure.  I feel great sympathy for the people of this province who have died unnecessarily on their watch.

 

A different kind of notebook: The Anti-Anxiety Notebook

Yesterday I recommended a paper planner. Today I am recommending a different type of paper product, The Anti-Anxiety Notebook. If you suffer from anxiety and cannot get the help you need to deal with it, such a notebook can help you. If you can get help, this notebook could supplement it.

It’s a well-designed book for dealing with anxiety and the approach they recommend I found useful in my dealings with my own anxiety. If you are interested but unsure, talk to a medical professional about it. But please check it out if you or someone you love suffers from anxiety.

(Photo by Ashley West Edwards on Unsplash )

It’s Monday. You need help planning. Maybe a better planner can help

As someone who does most of his planning digitally, it seems weird proposing people use this paper planner I found in a piece at Yanko Design. Even weirder, this planner comes to you via a kickstarter promotion, and I am reluctant to promote such things given my own bad experiences. But weird or not, this is a very nice planner at a very nice price, so if you are the type of person who likes paper, I highly recommend you go to their kickstarter and check it out.

The planner has many different types of pages: not just to-do lists and calenders. I can see it really helping people to get better organized and helping them to come up with new ideas and approaches. It might just be what you need to get better focused with your planning.

Head over to the kickstarter and decide for yourself!

On restaurants loved and lost: Cafe Cancan


I can’t remember how I came across Cafe Cancan on Harbord Street, Toronto, but once I did, I couldn’t wait to go back. I love French food, and their menu was full on French. They had classic dishes, but there were also innovative ways of cooking that felt both new and traditional at the same time. I wanted it all.

One of the things great about Cancan was their prix fixe. It was reasonably priced and extensive. You’d order and sit back while the servers brought out dish after dish of delicious food. Even better were all the extras. You might believe you would get five dishes with the prix fixe and you would end up with 7 or 8. Plus you would get an amuse bouche when you sat down and once while settled in at the bar they brought me a little additional sweet at the end of the meal. I felt pampered everytime.

The restaurant itself was a gem. The tables were fine, but it was equally fun to sit at the bar. What was especially great was sitting on the back patio during the warmer months. Whenever I was sitting there I wanted to stay all night.

The wine was always good, and they had Tawse rose on tap for cheap. Oysters were plentiful too, but even here they would come up with innovative mignonettes to make them extra special.

Sadly the pandemic hit it hard, as it hit other restaurants. In the first summer they opened but the menu was very different. Now they are gone.

It seems like a new place that is going to open that is related to Piano Piano. I am sure it is going to be good. But I am going to really miss that lovely pastel French restaurant on Harbord. I had so many lovely meals with lovely people on one of my favorite streets of this city of mine.

(Images from the articles in BlogTo linked to here).

Friday night cocktail: tonight’s is actually a mocktail.


While cocktails are great, it is good to see the rise of mocktails too. Once they were rarities at a bar; now more and more places are serving them up. If you feel like you want to make some yourself this Friday evening, here’s 25 Booze-Free Mocktail Recipes That Aren’t Just Juice from Bon Appetit. That list has a range of drinks, from lemonades and others that are perfect in the summer, to the PG-13 Singapore Sling shown above.

It’s Friday. Time to relax. Make yourself a drink. The booze is optional. Cheers!

How to overcome the mid-afternoon energy slump


If you find you are depending more and more on beating your midday slump with lots of caffeine, you may want to read this:How to Beat Your Mid-Day Slump Without Caffeine. In a nutshell:

  1. Limit your carb intake—and hydrate
  2. Work while standing (and inhaling good smells)
  3. Turn off your phone early—and get enough sleep
  4. Move your body for 15 minutes
  5. Incorporate music and meditation

I find #1 especially hard, because I will often eat a carby treat with my afternoon coffee to keep going. But it doesn’t last long.

A variation of #4 is stretch. While you may not have much room to move around, stretching is always possible and may help you in other ways.

Good luck!

The fascinating history of the word “lox”


I thought this piece was great: The English Word That Hasn’t Changed in Sound or Meaning in 8,000 Years. It turns out the world “lox” has not changed meaning in all that time. As the linguist in the piece explains:

One of my favorite words is lox,” says Gregory Guy, a professor of linguistics at New York University.  “The pronunciation in the Proto-Indo-European was probably ‘lox,’ and that’s exactly how it is pronounced in modern English,” he says. “Then, it meant salmon, and now it specifically means ‘smoked salmon.’ It’s really cool that that word hasn’t changed its pronunciation at all in 8,000 years and still refers to a particular fish.”

That’s a great piece. Not just for the story of the word “lox”, but on the study of language and its origin. Recommended. It makes me want to run out and get a plate!

(Photo by Patrick Perkins on Unsplash)

No time to mediate or do other relaxing things? Why not try making risotto?


Yes, making risotto is a highly relaxing thing. It’s a dish I love to make just for the way it calms me down (not to mention it is delicious). You have to be mindful when making risotto. You don’t have to be constantly stirring it, but you do need to be attentive to it. Steam rises off it as you cook it, and that is relaxing. Once you get the hang of it, being mindful of the transformation of the dish is also relaxing.

Need more persuasion? Here’s the chef and owner of the River Cafe who thinks the way I do: A Chef’s Advice for Relaxation: Stir Some Risotto – The New York Times.

If the idea appeals to you, here are 20 Easy Risotto Recipes To Make All Season Long from Chatelaine.

Start off with a classic parmesan risotto and go from there! It’s really not that hard. Plus, as I argue here, it’s a great way to use up veg. Enjoy!

(Image by Roberto Caruso: linked to in the Chatelaine recipe.)

 

 

On the recent moot election, September 2021. A brief note…

Well that was an odd election. If anyone came out ahead, I can’t see who it was. The Liberals did not get their majority, yet none of the other parties made any significant gains at their expense. Canadians voted to maintain the status quo and maintain it they did.

The one significant thing I noticed was line ups on Election Day. I’ve been voting for decades and I’ve never seen anything like it. As for me, I voted in the advanced poll and while I saw lots of good measures in place to limit the spread of COVID-19 the whole process was still pretty quick. I imagine those good measures slowed things down on Election Day.

It will be interesting to see if there is more voting via mail and via advanced voting in the next election. I expect we will have another one in a few years from now, though I would be surprised if the Liberals will be the ones to bring it on.

The next thing to pay attention to is what happens to the leaders of the various parties. I expect the Greens are going to have to make some difficult decisions. As for the other parties, I have no idea. I thought the leaders all performed well, but members of their parties might think differently. Let’s see.

After that, I’ll be very curious to see what Trudeau and his team do next. I hope they focus on the pandemic and what is needed to get to end of job in that with an eye on the economy and other promises they made.

I tend not to touch on politics on social media: it’s tends to be all downside with little upside. But this election was so odd I had to comment.

It’s Monday. You should update your resume (especially to deal with bad AI) and your LinkedIn too


It’s Monday. End of Summer. There are many things you could be doing in the last quarter of the year. One of them should be updating your resume, regardless of whether or not you are looking for a job.

A challenge with updating your resume these days is running into AI that filters you out for jobs you are applying for. To see what I mean, check this out. How to find a job and make your search for work less terrible – Vox. Some of that I disagree with but I found these two suggestions helpful:

Don’t leave off skills, even if they seem basic. Are you proficient at Excel? List it. “Your odds of getting an interview and a job if you have a facility with Microsoft Office goes up hugely,” Fuller said.

Don’t leave unexplained gaps. If you took a year off to write the Great American Novel, say so. Otherwise, it will look like you were doing nothing, and you might be screened out.

After you update your resume, make sure your LinkedIn is up to date and consistent with your resume. If you say you have five years experience doing XYZ and XYZ does not show up on your LinkedIn, employers will wonder why. So be consistent.

One article to improve your sleep, dozens of books to improve your life

If you feel the pandemic has messed up your sleep, you are not alone. Read this and with any luck you might find you can improve your sleep: How To Get a Better Night’s Sleep – The New York Times

The website FiveBooks.com will pick a topic and highlight five really good books on it. They have done it again with self help books. However, they seem to have decided that there are many types of self help books, so this piece has dozens of the best Self Help Books by various experts. You will no doubt find something there to help.

Get some sleep. Read some books. Make a good life better.

What this potentially leaked image of the iPhone 14 tells us about the flaws of iPhone design

I’ve complained before about the design of the iPhone with it’s bulges, not to mention the notch. Apple and it’s fans have continually made excuses for them, but that’s doesn’t excuse these flaws imho. This potentially new design of the iPhone 14 (below) shows that they may be finally dealing with problems by eliminating the notch and smoothing out the back of the phone.

Now who knows? Maybe this leak is fake and that’s not something Apple is going to do at all. Read this piece over at Yanko Design and decide for yourself.

Friday night cocktails: G&T++

Sure, I have written about gin and tonic before. It’s a simple cocktail, you say…what else can you write about it? Well, bear with me and check out this article: 4 Ways To Make A Perfect Gin And Tonic in Chatelaine

You may have a great way to make gin and tonics and that’s great. But if you want to shake things up a bit (pun intended), check out that article. You’ll be glad you did.

Cincin!

(Image: a link to picture in the article above)

What I find interesting regarding privacy and security, fall 2021


Yesterday I wrote about the new glasses from Facebook from a design AND privacy point of view. Here are seven more links to articles on privacy I thought you might find worthwhile reading:

(Photo by Lianhao Qu on Unsplash )

On Facebook’s new glasses

So Facebook has teamed up with RayBans to make the glasses seen above. One of the features of these glasses is you can tap them and record pictures and videos. Mike Isaac has a good write up on them, here. I’d like to highlight one quote from that piece:

“Facebook is not naïve to the fact that other smart glasses have failed in the past,” said Jeremy Greenberg, policy counsel for the Future of Privacy Forum, a privacy nonprofit that is partly financed by Facebook. But, he added, “the public’s expectations of privacy have changed since the days of previous smart glasses releases.”

Yep. Pure Facebook. An org funded by Facebook indicated that people are cool with potential invasions of privacy.

From a design point of view, this partnership has made a better looking pair of glasses than Google did with their Glass product. From a privacy point of view, however, these things things are at least as bad if not worse than Google’s product.

I can’t predict how well these will do. I can predict, however, that we will see abuses of privacy as a result of them. For more on them, see: Smart Glasses Made Google Look Dumb. Now Facebook Is Giving Them a Try. by Mike Isaac in The New York Times.

One last thing on AOC and the Met Gala

The best thing written on AOC and the Met Gala was written here: Activism Is Now In Fashion – The Atlantic.

I had planned to write something, but that piece is so good I can’t possibly express my meh feelings to the empty activism and her presence there better than that piece does. For example, this is just one sliver of goodness from the Atlantic piece:

 Ocasio-Cortez has fired up her base, raised her profile, and reminded everyone that she is the standard-bearer for today’s activist left.

At the same time, the Met Gala is essentially a costume ball, which removes the potential for actual subversion…the Met Gala red carpet is now an arena where people go to make statements, which inevitably robs those statements of their power. No one here is rebelling against the Man. The Man loves the extra publicity; it helps sell more $35,000 tickets to socialites who love a frisson of revolution as long as it’s safely divorced from the threat of actual tumbrels. … The Met Ball is … a safe space for political statements that all attendees will applaud, regardless of whether they truly believe them. … no one gets booed, or thrown out, or shunned by their peers for wearing an ensemble supporting any progressive cause to the Met Gala. … So what is the risk of wearing a sloganeering outfit to the Met Gala…? For Ocasio-Cortez, that’s just a day ending in a Y. (Emphasis is mine)

I like AOC for her intelligence and her seriousness and I like the Met Ball for it’s vapid ridiculousness. The two don’t mix. I am glad she got to enjoy the party and wear a great dress and support a good designer, but either go and acknowledge you are part of the ridiculousness, or stay serious and avoid it.

Image from the New York Times. Their piece on it is worthwhile too.

Gardening: not just a summer activity. Read this to see what I mean

Sure, summer is a great time to garden: that goes without saying. If you are still wanting to do more gardening after summer winds down, here are two links you may want to read:

Gardening is great for many reasons, not just producing things to eat and display. If you find that to be true, don’t limit yourself to one season: try to do it year round.

(Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash )