Tag: fun

How to avoid doom scrolling

One way to avoid doom scrolling is to put down your phone. If you can do that, great.

If you’re not likely to do that, then you need better things to scroll through. That’s likely my route.

To go that route, I am building a list of good sites to visit when I am bored and tempted to endlessly scroll. So far this is the list. I plan to build it up:

Another approach is to play a game. Like Dodge This!

Finally, you can check out Clive Thompson’s mailing list! It’s jam packed with good stuff.

On zines

 

I started making zines again. I made some in the early days of the pandemic, but then stopped. I recently restarted making them because I was inspired by all the current zines posts of Austin Kleon. (You can see his here.)

Kleon’s are mostly the one sheet of paper kind you see in the image above. If you want to have a low key fun thing to make, I recommend making a zine of that kind.

Need more info? Here’s some links on how you can make your own, as well as some other good material:

 

Does all gamification suck? (Why that isn’t necessarily true)

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Is all gamification bad? If you read this piece, How gamification took over the world published in MIT Technology Review, you might come to the conclusion that it is. I thought the strongest criticism of it came from the game designer, Margaret Robertson. She…

 argued that gamification should really be called “pointsification,” writing: “What we’re currently terming gamification is in fact the process of taking the thing that is least essential to games and representing it as the core of the experience. Points and badges have no closer a relationship to games than they do to websites and fitness apps and loyalty cards.”

I think that’s true. If the whole game is just getting more and more points and levels, after awhile the game gets dull and easy to abandon.

So what should a game be, if it’s not just about keeping score? The article goes on to say:

“A game is about play and disruption and creativity and ambiguity and surprise,” wrote the late Jeff Watson, a game designer, writer, and educator who taught at the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts. Gamification is about the opposite—the known, the badgeable, the quantifiable.

Ideally that might be the case, but there is a range of game play, and some great games may only have a modicum of creativity and ambiguity and surprise and can still be loads of enjoyment.

Indeed, that’s the thing about games and indeed gamification. Some games can be engaging and great fun. And some games suck. The same can be said for gamification: some of it is fun, and some — alot — isn’t.

This is especially true for gamification that is imposed on us. We all can recall childhood friends who would say “let’s play a game” and the game turned out to be something that would be good for them and not for you. It was no fun then, and it’s no fun later in life where you are working for a company and your employer wants you to play a game in order to get you to behave in a certain way for their benefit.

If imposed games are bad, so are endless games. Games that never come to an end or that are practically impossible to win also suck. Yet for game makers, it is tempting to engineer the game so that you never leave it (and them). I was reminded of people I know who played Duolingo and who found once they got to a certain level, they were just floating there. Now it was no longer a game to them, but merely an activity. Now some activities can be fun, but it’s no longer a game.

Gaming is a structured form of play, and like any type of play, it should be fun and it should come to an end. Too often with gamification, neither of those things are true. That, to me, is the true problem with the practice of turning non-game activities into games.

(Image is linked from the article in MIT Review)

On futzing around with code

An example of a Prolog program

I was futzing around with code the other day. I wrote some html/css/javascript and then I wrote some unrelated prolog code. None of it had any value. The code didn’t solve some important problem. Some might consider it a waste of time.

But it wasn’t a waste. In both cases, I learned skills I didn’t have until I wrote the code. Those skills have value for the next time I do have to solve an important problem. Besides that, I enjoyed myself while coding. I was proud of myself for getting the code to work. That enjoyment and pride have value too.

Futzing around is a form of play, and any form of play is good for us as humans. Remember that the next time you consider taking on seemingly useless activities.

 

Here’s 10 fun things to check out on a Monday

I get it: it’s Monday and you are busy. Fine. But if you need a break for any reason, then check out these 10 cool /  fun /interesting / useful links:

  1. Need gifts for the holidays? Of course you do. The Wirecutter has a list of the best gifts under $25. Nice.
  2. Not to be outdone, the web site Design Milk also has a list of the best modern gifts under 25 bucks as well. Time to go shopping.
  3. I still use RSS, thanks to the Feedly app. If you do too and are on the lookout for more good feeds, then check out thhe rss feed from the CBC . Long live RSS.
  4. As someone who was a fan of the Whole Earth review, I was happy to see it is all now online. You can check out the whole earth index here.
  5. Want to see Spotify top numbers? Click there and you can.
  6. Eras — not centuries, but eras — from now there will be two Africas. As you read this a major fault line is opening up there and a new ocean is forming in Africa along a 35 mile crack that opened up in ethiopia in 2005. Fascinating.
  7. This is fun. You can use this site to build your own customized pencils.
  8. I thought this story in the Paris Review was great: the sofa.
  9. This is fun: whimsical.club.
  10. Finally, I liked these 10 rules of being human from kottke.org.

Ok get back at it. Happy Monday!

Let’s have some fish! And fun! And French! (Friday food links for food lovers, September 2023)

Here’s a collection of food links centered on fish, French (food) and fun. I have either made or eaten many of the dishes associated with these recipe links. All are highly recommended.

Cooked Fish: let’s start off with a fan favorite of many, salmon. To get started, we have recipes for salmon rillette and Ina’s salmon tartare. Love both of those. For those who love their spices, consider firecracker salmon, cajun salmon burgers or roasted salmon with zaatar. If you want something fancier, Saveur’s easy sheet pan salmon with dilly roasted potatoes could be what you want, or this sauted salmon in a beurre rouge sauce, perhaps. If you have to cook for a salmon hater, then read how to cook salmon for haters.

As for other seafood, one of my favorite is shrimp and one of my go to recipes is shrimp in a tomato sauce with feta and orzo. Here are four different versions of it — one, two, three and four — and they are all good.

Putting aside the feta for a sec, I love a causal bowl of peel and eat shrimp . But I’ve made this fancier Venetian shrimp with polenta and it’s fantastic (see photo above). I haven’t made this, Louisiana BBQ shrimp dish, but I want to. You fans of stir fries, try this stir fried shrimp and asparagus. And you can’t go wrong when you have shrimp with cocktail sauce.

Raw fish: I mentioned salmon tartare above. Tuna Tartare is also great. For crudo fans, I recommend this sea bass crudo recipe. This is flavorful: fish escovitch salsa. As is this poke sashimi ceviche raw fish. And you can always just get oysters…you don’t even need to shuck them: How to Open Oysters without Shucking.

Favorite fish: Besides the shrimp and feta above, two of my favorites fish recipes are Nigella’s Linguine With Mussels and Smitten Kitchen’s Manhattan style clams with fregola. Just the best.

More fish! If squid is in your sights, make Pan fried Calamari or Extra-Crunchy Calamari. If scallops are more your thing, try seared scallops with jammy cherry tomatoes.

Sole is simple and delicious, and so is this version: sole piccata. If your preference is for seafood that way, consider these Easy Sauces for Fish or these 10 quick sauces fish. Maybe read this Newfoundland Labrador cod memoir while you do.

French: let’s start off with a Southern French squid salad recipe from Saveur. If you crave something Fast and French, these fast French dishes might fill your table. Also fast are these French bistro recipes of which a croque monsieur is one of my favorites. Speaking of favorites, here are Food & Wine’s Favorite Recipes for Classic French Food. Read this with your steak frites or onion soup: How I rediscovered the joys of French cuisine.

Fun: Finally, here are some fun links on food….

 

 

Two fun food posts that might surprise you

Here are two food posts that might surprise you as much as they surprised me. They were also fun to read.

First up is a piece where the writer confesses that everything he thought he knew about Italian food was wrong. Not just a few things about Italian food, either, but plenty of things. Second is a piece on how all those secret family recipes passed down across generations are often just copied from common places like the back of food packaging and other common places!

I liked the Italian piece because it conformed to my belief that food culture is much more fluid and vaguely defined than some like to state. And that doesn’t just go for Italian food.

As for handed down recipes, ask yourself: how unique can that cake recipe or that cookie recipe be? Sure there are some rare ones, and maybe your gramma’s famous dessert is one of those. Or maybe you just have a sentimental attachment to something she copied from the back of a box. And that’s ok. 😊

How I am playing Wordle these days using Wordlebot as a guide and an opponent :)

If you like playing Wordle, then you should make a guide and an opponent of Wordlebot. I check it every time I finish Wordle.

Using Wordlebot as a guide, I noted which words it used first and second. Based on my notes it seems to always use SLATE as the first word. Of the second word I noticed it uses, CRONY is a common choice. That makes sense: those two words give you AEO and Y as well as CNRST. I find I can get a lot of matches this way. And if I don’t, I know the third word has an O or a U, and the remaining letters are easier to choose from.

Often I will play SLATE and then play CRONY even if I have matches with SLATE. My goal these days is to get it in three. I will only go for it in 2 if there is a good chance I can. (Like one day this month when the word was PLATE.) Currently the majority of my scores are 4: my goal is get the majority to 3. I am not sure that is possible, but it is what I’m aiming for.

While Wordlebot is a good guide, I also use it as an opponent. My hope here is to win by getting the word in less tries than Wordlebot. It does not happen too often. My next best hope is to tie Wordlebot but get a lower luck score. If we tie in tries but it has a high luck score, I also consider that a win.

One reason it is hard to beat Wordlebot is due to the eliminate process it uses. While the first word it uses tends to be SLATE, if it gets matches, it may play a word that comes from out of the blue but it is not. Wordlebot seems to calculate what possible words could solve the puzzle and then play a word to help eliminate them. If I had the ability to do the same, I would! Most of the time I do something less mentally taxing.

Wordle is a fun game, still. I especially love that people still post their scores on twitter. I consider it watercooler material. (“How’dya do on Wordle last night, Bob?” “Got it in 3” “Whoa, nice. Ok, have a good day” :)) Like Wordle, I don’t take Twitter too seriously either. The two go good together, like chocolate and peanut butter.

For more thoughts on the game, take a peek at this: Wordle is fun again. Here’s why that is for me…. | Smart People I Know

 

Happy Friday! Have a lovely weekend


It looks like it is going to be cloudy but warm here in Toronto this weekend. That’s fine. I am happy for the warm weather and the lack of snow. It’s tulip time and I love tulips, so one thing I might be doing is either getting some more or just window shopping for them.

Lately I’ve been trying to read more, despite my limited attention span. Because of that, this list of 30 of the best short films and novels you can do in less than an hour and a half got my attention. I might be able to get through something before Sunday evening.

Of course weekends are also good for sleep. If you are trying to catch up on yours this weekend, here’s some guidance on  how to fix broken sleep schedule.

Fun stuff: check out these pictures kids took of their parents. Priceless and true. Something that was fun but no more is Looney Tunes: HBO is removing Looney Tunes online. Sad to see that happen.

Do you know someone moving into their first apartment? If so, they might appreciate this checklist . They might appreciate more than that, but it’s a start. 🙂 If they need a new sound system for their place, maybe they’d like this new Sonos speaker.

Fans of minecraft and Chromebooks: it seems that Microsoft is going to release a version of Minecraft for Chromebooks. Nice!

Something moving: these final words of Darren Barefoot are as splendid as the things he writes about in the end:  they were all splendid.

If you want to get away from it all,  this all white minimalist cabin is the flexible and functional tiny home on wheels you need.

Enjoy Spring…and your weekend, as you head out into it.

Running light without overbyte: lightweight web sites are a good way of getting caught up quickly without the bloat of video, javascript and more (less is more)

Once upon a time, web sites were simple. Now they are complicated and sometimes bloated. Just go to the web site of news organizations like CNN or the New York Times and you will know what I mean.

But there is a way to avoid that. Just go to the light/lite versions of their web sites. This is lite CNN. This is a lighter New York Times (TimesWire) And here is an aggregator site that does something similar for a number of topics, like tech: The Brutalist Report – tech.

If you want to find more sites like that, check out: A List Of Text-Only & Minimalist News Sites at GreyCoder.

Kudos to companies that build lightweight versions of their web sites. Not everyone has high speed Internet connectivity. And not everyone needs lots and lots of information. Keeping it simple is cool.

(The title is an extract of the original title for the computer magazine, Dr. Dobbs Journal. It’s original title was: dr. dobb’s journal of Tiny BASIC Calisthenics & Orthodontia (with the subtitle Running Light Without Overbyte))

Things I can’t live without – Bernie Michalik edition

So I came across this section of New York magazine called The Strategist which asks people: what can’t you live without? They wonder “what famous people add to their carts. Not the JAR brooch and Louis XV chair but the hair spray and the electric toothbrush.” I enjoyed this one in particular on Rhiannon Giddens Favorite Things, but it also got me thinking: what can’t I live without? If I lost everything and was told by insurers to go out and replace things, what are the things I really miss that I would go out a get right away? That led me to come up with this list. It’s not my answers to the Proust Questionnaire, but it was much fun to do and equally revealing. Here goes:

Roots leather goods. I’ve bought a number of Roots leather goods over the decades and they truly last a lifetime. I have a tan leather jacket that just gets better year after year and a weekender bag like the one below which is perfect for short trips. Get something classic from Roots and it will serve you for life.


Large Banff Bag Cervino | Roots US – $598 US

New Balance Shoes. For a long time I’ve been a fan of New Balance for running. Great shoe maker, I thought, but typically not very fashionable. I changed my mind when I saw the 327 models shown: a great shoe that’s also very stylish. I have them in Black on Black and they’re great, but New Balance has a wide selection of color combos. Perfect for being out and about.

327 – New Balance – $99 USD

Apple Products. I really can’t live without my Macbook, my iPhone, or my Apple Watch. I am inseparable from them, literally. I’d still have a Shuffle too if Apple still made them. I’m fortunate enough to get a Macbook Air and an iPhone 11 from work, but I would get them again even if I did not. To go with that I have the Apple Watch Series 8: the health features alone make it great. Like Roots or New Balance, there is not just ONE product from this company I rely on: there are MANY.

Apple Watch Series 8 – Apple (CA) – $529 CAN

IKEA French Press Coffee Maker: I love this thing. I have a small one that makes me my afternoon coffee and it’s the perfect thing to get me through my day. I will generally use a drip coffee maker in the morning to make a large pot of coffee, but this makes a better cup of coffee, I believe. Maybe I need two of them.

Pro tip: get a small wooden spoon with a flat end on an angle if you can: it makes cleanup super easy. Another tip: IKEA sells coffee for the press and I think it’s pretty good.

UPPHETTA French press coffee maker – $14.99 US

Lodge Cast Iron: recently I got over my hang up with cast iron and started cooking with again. I am so glad I did: food just comes out better in cast iron, I think. And taking care of it is less trouble than I thought. I am a fan of Lodge cast iron in particular and I have a number of their pieces, including this skillet with the hot handle holder (the holder is very useful – trust me).

12 Inch Cast Iron Skillet with Handle Holder – $29.95 US

J. Stark Bags and travel cases: I love my Roots weekender bag. When I am travelling, I’ll fill it with travel bags from J Stark. Plus I’ll use their Sentinel backpack and store it under my seat with all my valuables. Not only is it great for travel, but I can use it once I get on the ground. (Not to mention using it when I return.)  I love the quality of their goods: plus the people that run it are really fine people. If you can get to Charleston, drop by. Meanwhile, visit their site to see what they have to offer (a lot!).

Sentinel Backpack in Navy Heavyweight Canvas  – $195 US

Grado SR80x Prestige Series Headphones: I have not stopped using Grados since I bought my first pair of 60s many years ago. I’ve tried more expensive ones, but as someone who uses them mostly with an iPhone (and formerly an iTouch), the 80s are the ones I find suit me best. In Canada you can get them at Bay Bloor radio and other fine places.

 

Grado SR80x Prestige Series Headphones – $189 CAN

Pilot v-pen Fountain pen: I love pens. Pens of all sorts. However when it comes to writing cards or notes or even cheques, I am a huge fan of these disposable fountain pens from Pilot. Sure, they aren’t Mont Blanc, but you can get 10 for just under $18 at Amazon! I also have found very few problems with leaking, and I also find they work better than cheap fountain pens elsewhere. I usually get mine at Deserres because I like to support local art stores, but you can find them everywhere.

V-Pen – Fountain pen – $2-4 US, depending on where you get them.

Muji Notebooks: I use Muji notebooks to go with my Pilot Pens. I have them in all shapes and sizes, but this particular one shown I love. I get one out every work day and write down whatever I need to capture quickly and focus on. But honestly they have a notebook for every use.

Double Ringed Plain Notebook – $2.90 US

The Lenovo Smart Clock with Google Assistant: I depend upon Google Assistant more than I care to say. And while Google has their own devices, if I had to have only one such device, I would pick this one. I have one near me at all times when I work at home: it’s a one stop shop for quick information and tasks.

Lenovo Smart Clock – $79 US.

I am sure if I sat her more I could come up with more items and even services.  There’s many things I have that I can’t do without, but I would be worse off  without the things on this list.

What things are on your list?

 

Going to see “the lights” at Christmas

When I was young, every Christmas my family would drive around our area in Cape Breton to see “the lights”. The lights was a shorthand description for the houses that would be decorated for Christmas. Cape Bretoners were not well off, but when it came to seasonal decoration, they went all out. It was always a happy trip to slowly make our way through the many streets full of festive lighting. It filled us with the Christmas spirit.

To see what I mean, check out that video above. The local media has more on it, here: Want to see holiday lights in Nova Scotia? Our map is here to help. | SaltWire

Over the las few years in Toronto I’ve noticed people keep their lights up and on well into the winter. I like that. I like that Christmas Lights have evolved to become Winter Lights. For winter needs more light and more warmth.

 

Happy Friday! It’s the weekend!

Woo! It’s Friday! If you are American, then there is a good chance you are participating in Thanksgiving activities! May your days be joyous and your feast plentiful. As for me, I’m in Canada, where we celebrated our Thanksgiving weeks ago. I suspect I will be gearing up like many Canadians for that other festive time that is coming soon: Christmas.

Speaking of feasts, here’s a cornucopia of things for you to check out and enjoy as you head into the weekend.

How cool is this  Balmuda speaker? I just love it. Move over Sonos! (JK I love my Sonos One speaker too.)

Also cool: this public bench. I wish my city had such great places to sit.

This artwork by  Rafael Lozano-Hemmer (below) is stunning. Plus it is related to your pulse. Intriguing, yes?

Speaking of stunning, check out these bold black houses. I just love to look at them and to imagine staying in them.

As for imagining things, how great it would be to take some time and do this 750-Mile Bicycle Route from New York. That’s a good bucket list item.

Or perhaps that’s too much effort. In which case, why not daydream about climbing on board The Venice Simplon-Orient-Express for one of their Winter Journeys? That sounds fabulous.

If you can’t afford that, then maybe you just want to stay at home and have a low key meal tonight. I recommend you look into what Austin Kleon does every Friday. He has these Pizza night blockbusters with his family that you might want to try (this link even has his wife’s pizza recipe). It’s a great idea and the pizzas look delicious.


Or maybe you can’t even decide what to eat. Kavall, a Swedish grocery delivery company, understands.  See that button? You press it and they will  randomly selects a recipe and have the ingredients delivered by bike in around 10 minutes. Amazing! You can read more about it here!

Want to impress your kids after dinner? Show them the metal rig Jelle Seegers built with a handmade fresnel lens on top that can concentrate solar rays tightly enough to smelt metal. You can see it, here. It will blow their mind.

Or show them this small paper microscope that works!

But don’t show them this McDonald’s gaming chair because they might want one! Unless you too like it…I dunno. 🙂

I have written often on cat furniture. Perhaps too much. But I can resist sharing this one called Igloo that is a side table that also gives your cat a cozy home.

Have fun on the last Friday of November! This year is flying by. Have a great weekend.

 

 

 

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The Santa Claus parade returns to TO this weekend!


What are you plans this weekend? As for me, I think anything I do outdoors will involve warm clothing because the weather is getting colder. And while I won’t be attending this year, I will be thinking of all the parents and their kids who will be bundling up to go downtown this Sunday and attend the Santa Claus parade! It has been on hold due to the pandemic, but now it’s back! Yay!

I love the Santa Claus parade. When I was a kid, I always wished I could attend. In my 20s I remember seeing it in person for the first time and being a little kid again as the floats and bands went by. And then I got to take my own kids. Some of my best parenting memories are with them at the event. It’s one of those  things that makes Toronto great.

(I also use the Santa Claus parade as a reminder than Christmas is coming soon and it’s time to get planning! Perhaps this will be a good reminder to you.)

If you are thinking of going, here’s the official site for the parade. (Map above is from the site.) Have fun!

P.S. Here’s some tips I found to having a success Santa Claus parade:

When I would take my kids, we would go stand to Bloor and Avenue Road. There is lots of space around that area, so there’s a chance you can see the parade. As well, it is near two subway stops (Museum and Bay), which makes it easy to get to and easy to leave if you take transit. Finally, the parade has to turn there which gives you lots of ways to enjoy the view.

Instead of hoping right on the subway, I would find a place to get a coffee / hot chocolate. (There used to be lots of Starbucks and other coffee shops all around Bloor and Cumberland.) My kids loved this ritual, as did I. Just as good too was the fact that it was easier to get on the subway after your drinks since the crowds had dissipated by then.

If it is going to be cold, bring hot pockets or things to warm you up. You might be ok when you first get there, but after standing around for hours, you will get very cold. Be prepared.

 

 

 

Have a great Autumn weekend!

One of the ideas that I really like, from one of my favorite blogs, are the posts they have every Friday. Posts like this: Have a Lovely Weekend. It’s a great idea. Who doesn’t like a nice positive and update piece to read on before you start your weekend?

On that note, here are some links that I think are positive and upbeat and perfect to read on a Friday:

If you are going to try and get a better sleep this weekend, here are some sleep tips from experts that might surprise you.

I might use my free time to take a walk in the Dundas West area of Toronto. It’s been highlighted as being one of the coolest neighborhood ever, and I can see why.

Or maybe I’ll go and get some steak frites (here are some of Toronto’s best, though they did not include my fav, Cote de Boeuf, shown below).

Did you know that asking yourself  one simple question can change entirely how you feel? It’s seems too much, but I agree with it.

Do you fear that people thing that you are a bit much? I think that’s a good thing. So does that piece. Also a good thing: A gratitude zine from Austin Kleon.

Does Arthur Brooks Have the Secret to Happiness? I don’t think so, but you might read that and think differently.

If it’s time, you may want to read this first:  How to Clean an Oven by Wirecutter.

But maybe you’d prefer to read something lovely instead of practical. If so: The Ponds poem – Mary Oliver poems.

Kudos to this artist who puts mosaics in potholes.

How crazy is this: a Fish tank for cats!

If you want to watch a classic this weekend, I recommend: All that Jazz.

Here’s the opening:

(Top image is a link to Toronto Life. Second image is a link to BlogTO).

It’s Hallowe’en! Here’s everything you need to know about the Home Depot 12 foot skeleton!

For Hallowe’en, people have become more involved in decorating their homes. Nowadays a mere jack o’lantern is not enough. Instead, homes have yards filed with things, from fake tombstones to inflatable animals. A new member of those  spooky menageries and a favorite of many is the 12 foot skeleton from Home Depot.

People love the 12 foot skeleton. They are making Tik Toks and Reels with them driving around town. Other people leave them in their yards all year round. They have a weird likability to them, those bony giants.

If  you have one or want to get one, then read this: How to Maintain Your 12-Foot Skeleton and Other Giant Halloween Decorations – The Home Depot. Home Depot has all the info you need to take care of the new addition to your home/haunted house.

Do you not have fun any more? Well, here’s how to have more fun as an adult

As kids, having fun seems natural. As adults, it can be hard to come by. Worse, some forms of fun actual harm of us. So how can we have good clean fun as an adult?

Alan McKee has written a book on the subject. In an article in the Times, the writer says that He…

…defines fun thus: “Fun is pleasure without purpose.” In other words, the same qualities that seem to make it so hard for me (the writer) to have pure fun — I need purpose! — make it hard to optimize for; put it under a brain scanner, and it has a tendency to disappear.

Fun is pleasure without purpose. Adults, especially responsible adults, often look to assign purpose to events. That may make them educational or beneficial, but it often robs them of their fun. If that is you, perhaps you need to set aside time for an activity that is purposeless. Play a kazoo.  Make playing card towers. Doodle. Solve a puzzle and then throw it away. Go for a slow walk. Dance badly. Sing out of tune. Whatever you enjoy, do it without any aim in mind, other than to enjoy it. Guess what? You may be having fun.

For more on this, read: Here’s How to Have Fun. Also, What Is Fun? in The New York Times. (That’s where the blockquote comes from.)

Coffee tourism: why coffee lovers should visit Toronto (and Torontonians should go to College St.)


For many years I’ve actually visited places partially because of my love of coffee. Really! I went to Vienna where the coffee was amazing and Costa Rica where it was less so*. I am sure there are many people like me who make good coffee a reason to visit a place.

If you are one of those coffee lovers, I recommend you visit Toronto. Just one street alone, College Street, has a wealth of diverse coffee shops to make you happy.

To see what I mean, read this: Toronto’s College Street is a destination for global coffee | The Star. Not only are there many great coffee shops, but they serve a wide range of coffees, from Italian to Vietnamese.

I live here, but I might act like a visitor and do a College Coffee Run soon. Meanwhile I will satisfy my need for great coffee at De Mello near me. (Coffee lovers, go there too.)

* Costa Rica fans, take note. Costa Rica exports amazingly good coffee in my opinion. I just couldn’t seem to find it there. Fortunately there was so much beauty everywhere, I didn’t mind too much.

It’s Monday. How much “fun” have you scheduled in your calendar?


That might seem like a dumb idea, but chances are your calendar is full of events you have scheduled for this week: meetings, appointments, get togethers with friends, workouts. Is fun anywhere there?

It may be. Perhaps going for your regular workout is fun for you. Or that murder mystery you watch each week is fun. If so, that’s great.

If you can’t find fun in your calendar, I recommend you read this piece: Why We All Need to Have More Fun in The New York Times. It can help you figure out how to get more fun into your life. Have you forgotten what fun is? It can help you there, too.

Let me add: keep track of the fun you are having. Some of it — maybe most of it — will actually come up accidentally in your week. Note the circumstances which lead to having fun. Try to include them intentionally in your next week.

Likewise, note the events you planned that turned out to be not so much fun. Perhaps you need a break from them.

Life can be hard and painful. It can also be fun. Make sure you get as much of the latter in as you can. Scheduling your fun can help there.

The history of the 80s as it first appeared in Usenet groups

Images from the 1980s
Before the Web, there was Usenet. And like the web, it had everything. Just in text form. 🙂

Someone has mined Usenet to find the first cultural references in the 1980s to famous events. It’s an fascnating list of when things first started to gain prominence. For example:

  1. May 1981 First mention of Microsoft
  2. Dec 1982 First thread about AIDS
  3. Jul 1983 First mention of Madonna
  4. Nov 1989 First post from Berlin after the wall came down

Check it out for some major 80s flashbacks.

PS. If all you are thinking while you read this is “what the heck is Usenet??” then read this.

Good fast cheap: pick two

In IT we have a saying for anyone wanting a new IT system: good, fast or cheap…pick two (of them). Everyone wants all three of course, but you can never get that.

This fun little site puts this into effect: Fast Good Cheap

Try it out!

P.S. This is also a great example of a one page web site! Everything including the CSS seems to be all in one page. So view the source too!

How would you like a cube of titanium, or copper, or even uranium? With the Luciteria web site, you can!

How cool is this Luciteria web site? Well if you are a geek like me, very cool indeed. Among other things they sell are cubes of each of the elements in the periodic table. As they say:

Cubes of each of the elements are our most popular sellers. And it’s not hard to see why. Precision machined and labeled each one is a self-contained ambassador of the periodic table. From the small cubic centimeter up to the hefty 5cm these cubes practically define the ideal desktop gadget for anyone who loves to nerd out on science. So get one as a conversation starter, a few as a clever means to spell out a name or phrase or go for broke and get as many as possible to make your own “real life” periodic table!

Some of them, like copper above, are pretty harmless and common. Others, like the uranium cube below, not so much.
I think these would be a great gift for anyone into science, or for teachers teaching the elements.

My first thought when I went there was that they would only have a few of the elements, but no, they have pretty much all of them. (With some reasonable exceptions.) Very much worth checking out.

With the pandemic still going on, is it time for dinner parties again? If it is, consider this

It must be time for dinner parties again, pandemic be damned, because Bon Appétit had a bunch of pieces on the topic recently:

Now if you thinking of throwing a dinner party soon, those are worth reading. That said, lord they do overthink a dinner party. Rules! Playlists! Cultural relevance! I mean….

For what it’s worth, if you haven’t had people over for dinner in some time, the KISS principle applies (Keep It Simple, Stupid). If you need rules, here are some low stress ones:

  • invite people you know well and who you are comfortable with. Not too many.
  • know what they can and can’t eat.
  • pick dishes that they can eat and you can make in your sleep.
  • have people help you.
  • have as much of it prepared ahead of time as you can.
  • have a variety of food so that if someone doesn’t care too much for something, they can still fill their eat enough.
  • have a dessert if you can. It leaves people with a nice impression. Plus it is great for people who are still hungry.
  • have some appetizers if you can. It lets you buy time with early guests and hungry guests.

Ugh. Too many rules. Remember: it’s just dinner! People need to eat! Give them food! That’s it!

Unlike Bon Appétit, the blog Cup of Jo has the right approach to low key dinner parties. Two pieces of theirs I liked were:

And if you are still stressed by things, then make yourself throw a “crappy dinner party”. It’s zero pressure and 100% enjoyment.

If you want to read more about dinner parties, I wrote a ton of things and you can get them here.

(Photo is of the Canadian Thanksgiving dinner party in 2021 in Charleston, S.C. I broke some of my own rules but hey, rules are made to be broken. 🙂 )

Friday night cocktails: the marg’

Ok, a marg(arita) may be more of a Saturday afternoon cocktail on a hot summer day, but here on my blog we only write about cocktails on Friday night. Regardless, as the days heat up, you need a cool drink to help you stay chill and relaxed and the margarita fits that description to a tee. If you’ve never made one before, or if you want to try new versions, Bon Appetit has the advice you need.

When was SNL at it’s best?

The joke is that SNL was at its best the years you watched it as a teen. I have literally been watching it since it started — Yes, I am old — and I kinda agree with that. SNL is really such an uneven thing that even back then there were good and bad parts of the show. (Usually anything after the second musical performance is throwaway). As well, SNL is best as much for individual performers as it is for the entire show. From Catherine McKinnon all the way back to Gilda Radner, there have been individual performers who made a good show great. (My favorite of all time is Bill Murray, but there are too many to mention here).

For another take on it, here is a someone more objective study on when SNL was at its peak. According to this piece in OpenCulture, this YouTuber took a systematic approach to deciding the best of SNL. He…

… decided to withhold judgment on the overall quality curve of Saturday Night Live, his favorite show, before putting in the time and effort to watch at least one episode from every year in its run

The article has a link to his YouTube results. As OpenCulture concludes,

He may not change anyone’s mind about the best, and worst, seasons, episodes, cast members, and hosts. But he does demonstrate an admirable willingness to dig into SNL’s history and give years of comedy positively antiquated by 21st century standards a fair shake.

Yes, you can run broadband over wet string (which is how my home internet feels lately)


Remember tying two tin cans together with string to communicate? Well according to this article at BBC News…

Engineers at a small British internet service provider have successfully made a broadband connection work over 2m (6ft 7in) of wet string.

The connection reached speeds of 3.5 Mbps (megabits per second), according to the Andrews and Arnold engineer who conducted the experiment.

The point of the experiment appears to have been purely to see if it was achievable.

Cool! See the article for details.

For the meantime, I think I’ll stick with copper and fiber.

(For more on tin can phones, check out: Tin can telephone – Wikipedia)

It’s Monday. Here’s a good challenge you’ve likely already been doing

The challenge is this: can you get by with 33 articles of clothing for 3 months? Before the pandemic I would have thought: that could be tricky. Now, I think I may be about do 12 months with 20 items!

Why not check out the web site and see if it is for you. Heck, a lot of the clothes you have in your closet you likely don’t want any more as it is. With this challenge, you have a chance to get started on getting rid of them.

Check out Project 333 – Be More with Lessfor more details.

 

Let’s play the game of Five Nice Things

Tulips for sale
This is a game you can play any time, but it’s especially good to play it in a pandemic. What is the game you say? Here’s Siobhan O’Connor to explain in this piece, An Easy Way to Practice Gratitude | Forge. Key quote:

At our dinners, we sometimes played a game we called Five Nice Things. It is what it sounds like: You take turns naming things that are nice. Five is the number. It can be a thing that makes you happy, a compliment for the other person, a win at work, “This broccoli is tasty,” whatever. It’s a bit sappy, but it’s not the sappiest, and the rules were: Don’t overthink it, and be specific. We’d roll it out in other settings: group hangs, work, whatnot. It was, generally speaking, a hit. Even Eeyores can get into it if you bring to the game your Tigger energy. But it was most meaningful when it was just the two of us.

I think the way to make it easy to play is to avoid trying to find the five NICEST things. Five low key nice things are fine. For example five low key nice things for me are:

  1. Waking up in the morning and feeling good and energetic
  2. A bright sunny day after days of overcast skies
  3. Walking by a store with lots of tulips for sale in buckets on the sidewalk
  4. Buying a hot mocha on a cold winter day and sipping it as I walk
  5. Late at night, looking at a yard filled with new fallen snow and seeing how uniform it is and how it sparkles

Just thinking about them makes my brain feel better. I think once you come up with some, your brain will feel better too.

(Photo by Marten Bjork on Unsplash)

How to go skating in Toronto in the pandemic

Liisa Ladouceur (shown above) has written a thorough guide for anyone who wants to go skating in Toronto during the pandemic. No, you cannot just show up with your blades and start skating. You need to do more. And you should do more, because skating is a great way to enjoy winter in the pandemic era. So read this: Where to go skating in Toronto in 2020 by Liisa Wanders. Then get out there! Maybe I will see you at a socially safe distance with a fun mask on too.