Random Synaptic Activity

Different Strokes

2012-01-28T20:26:00.000-08:00

While suiting up
for an evening of non contact hockey,
Stay at home Dad of a young girl
tells me how surprised
he is at how many of his friends
hit their kids.

Two other Dads say,
"Of course!
You have to let them know who's in charge."

I believed this growing up
And I lived in fear of doing the wrong thing.

Now I believe
it is simply inadequate persuasion,
a failure of imagination.
It models 'might is right.'

I want my girl
to question authority
even if
it is me,
even when
it makes my job harder.

Surprises

2012-01-24T20:08:00.000-08:00

Turns out I received more than just honourable mention in the Geist Erasure Poetry Contest, they kindly sent me books and stuff too. The one I really like is their book of these maps of Canada where they extract names that are connected to different themes. I don't know how they do these, it must be a lot of work. r liked the book of Don Cherry quotes because it was a small book and her best friend's name is Cherry. I let her keep it but I hope it doesn't have any inappropriate content in it.

Hugo

2012-01-21T22:42:00.001-08:00

The book was amazing for its alternation of wordless pencil drawn scenes with a dreamlike quality with pages of text. Watching this, I'd forgotten enough of the story, to still be intrigued by what would happen next. The movie has its own magical qualities, including the use of 3D to make it, the early film footage, the clockwork and other mechanical metaphors and multiple subplots of love. The idea of using film to capture dreams made me want to make something. The idea of everything serving a purpose and fitting together felt nostalgic and hopeful, if hard to believe.

Bookkeeping

2012-01-20T22:14:00.001-08:00

Not that I have a very high cash flow, but I'd like to keep track of it. I had bought a substantial program, but it ended up being a bit clumsy and perhaps more than what I needed. Then I went to creating my own spreadsheet, but this wasn't quite as elegant as I'd like. So with the beginning of a new year, now getting old, I'm looking for a convenient program for the Mac that will track my income and expenses in the various categories to make filling out the tax forms slightly less onerous.

Coldness

2012-01-19T20:53:00.001-08:00

I'm not sure about other units of the metric system, but I think Celsius is a good idea. It makes sense for zero to be when water freezes, so you have a sense of when you can expect snow. It's been below zero all week, and the lovely frosting of snow has lingered. I like the brightness of the light, the freshness of the air. Hearing the muffled crunch of my footsteps through my various layers, I feel like I'm in a cocoon. It's like we're really a part of Canada for a little while.

Squeak

2012-01-18T20:11:00.001-08:00

We have an elliptical machine that has been squeaking. I keep dousing each joint I can find with lubricant. But still it squeaks. I can't seem to tell where the squeak is coming from and because of the way everything is connected, I can't just move one part at a time to find the source. This may have been my problem as a scientist. Some of the most interesting questions can be difficult to isolate and test in the classically scientific way. So you just catalogue the squeaks I guess, but you can't do much about them.

News

2012-01-17T20:28:00.001-08:00

We now subscribe to the Globe and Mail only online. In addition to less newspaper recycling, this new routine allows me to pay more attention to how full I am when I eat. I get some things from the Globe through Facebook, and a CBC feed through Google Reader. I don't feel a need to know much more. At the same time, I am listening to the long novel 1Q84 while I exercise in the morning and find it interesting to immerse myself in another world for a period of time, rather than flitting from one thing to another.

Connections

2012-01-14T20:37:00.001-08:00

I have been listening to 1Q84 by Haruki Murakami, a profoundly strange book, which might turn out to be a romance. Anyway, it is set in 1984, not long before I was actually in Japan. This character decides to look for a girl he knew when he was ten. He has to look through volumes of telephone books to no avail. Then on Facebook, I saw a picture of someone I'd wondered about since high school. Does this make for a better world? I don't know. But it seems like it could be like finding a lost treasure.

Outcomes

2012-01-11T23:09:00.001-08:00

In the movie Arthur, the true love is a whimsical woman who writes children's books. She gets published because he buys the company. The Lemony Snickett guy thought he would be bad at writing for kids because he kept thinking of bad things happening to kids, but that turned out to be a good thing. And in a discussion about the viability of verse novels and other forms by published children's writers, they suggest just going for the joy of writing, since you can't depend on the outcomes. So I just have to send the stuff out.

The End in Mind

2012-01-08T20:50:00.000-08:00

I love listening to Wiretap on CBC. It is so eccentric. He does monologues and scenes where he talks to odd people on the phone. I assume it is written but it just sounds like crazy people. Anyway, he told a slightly peculiar tale of a man who wanted to know when he would die and was obsessed and waited after getting an answer from an oracle. He was relieved when the day passed and he was still alive. Which just seemed dumb. I started thinking though of my own limited time and what I want to do before then.

Interactivity

2012-01-07T20:53:00.001-08:00

On CBCs Spark, a philosopher talked about how strange it is that people now expect things to happen when they touch a piece of glass, having been conditioned by smart phones and tablets. He suggested that we are in a sense reverting to a belief in an animated world. He suggested that back in the day, people believed in spirits everywhere and expected the world to interact with them. Things became more rational and materialistic, but now technology is creating a world in which we interact with things. Some days, I feel like making offerings to appease my capricious router.

Hark! A Vagrant

2012-01-04T22:59:00.001-08:00

This was the last copy at the bookstore and I decided to get it for myself as a belated Christmas present. The Canadian cartoonist Kate Beaton has been getting much press and now lives in States. She used to work in museums. I like the way she plays with historical or literary figures. I heard her saying that she tries to make it entertaining for those who know the subject and those who don't. After watching Jane Eyre I enjoyed her cartoons on that. One day I would like to do something like this with things I know about.

Offputting input

2012-01-03T20:42:00.000-08:00

When I bought my imac last summer, they were out of the trackpads, so I took the mouse. I got used to the mouse, but I'd heard the trackpad was better. I went back a couple of times to replace it unsuccessfully. Finally, I replaced it the other day, without actually trying out the a trackpad. So today I realize I do a lot of cutting and pasting, which involves a more awkward pressing down that is tiring out my wrist. Maybe I will get used to it. Or maybe it will remind me not to be so stupid.

Alvin

2012-01-02T20:21:00.001-08:00

I made one of my greatest fatherly sacrifices today by taking r to see Alvin and the Chipmunks against my better judgement, while L was taking advantage of the sales at the Bay. I did my best to analyze it for story structure and evaluate the marketing strategy. They have the transformation of understanding by the various characters and it ends happily. Mostly cute, bland humour with a few references to Castaway and maybe Raiders of the Lost Ark for the grown ups. r enjoyed the music, some of them apparently Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber tunes with chipmunk voices.

Jane Eyre

2012-01-01T15:37:00.001-08:00

I hadn't read the book and didn't have a clue what this was about. I was a little disoriented by the time jumps in the film, and wondered if it was written like that. I liked the cinematography but I have trouble sympathizing with these period romances hinging upon absurd social conventions. I wonder if anyone has written a sequel. Seems to me that those two passionate people are just in for a heap of trouble in the long run. Also, all the lamps and fires made me recognize the importance of technological innovations on improving social conditions.

Significant Memories of 2011

2011-12-31T20:47:00.000-08:00

1) My writing mentor/friend Anne passed away. 2) Hosted the 50th anniversary party for my Mom and Dad. 3) Risa got her orange, then green karate belts this year. 4) Risa has started grade two. 5) Lenora went back to work full time so I decided to stay home. 6) Did a family road trip out to Drumheller. 7) Organized a week long cultural camp for kids at the Nikkei Centre. 8) Interviewed Karen refugees from Burma for an exhibit. 9) Took a course on writing a verse novel. 10) Inherited L's ipod and started listening to podcasts.

The King's Speech

2011-12-28T21:26:00.001-08:00

The title seems to refer both to a particularly important speech King George VI gives at the beginning of the war and at the end of the movie, as well as his ongoing struggles with stuttering. The therapist, to prove a point, makes the guy whom insists on calling by his first name Bertie, read Shakespeare while listening to music. I was both intrigued by the technology of a recordable record and also the idea of how listening to what you say messes up the way you say it. When I speak in public it just seems to come out.

A Christmas Carol

2011-12-26T20:06:00.001-08:00

Watched the computer animated Christmas Carol featuring Jim Carrey in various roles. The animation is dramatic and imaginatively surreal sometimes. Sometimes, the human characters look weirder than intended, but the weird parts are awesome with the wild changes in perspective, scale and speed. I remember seeing another animated version as a kid and various other incarnations and remakes over the years. I always wonder if he becomes good out of fear for the consequences or recognition of its intrinsic value? That is my question of religious morality in general. But I like reflecting on my values once in a while.

Legitimacy

2011-12-23T19:24:00.001-08:00

In a recorded talk by Malcolm Gladwell, he talked about how oppressed people will rebel not because deterrents are not strong enough but because the system finally seems no longer legitimate, because it is arbitrary and unfair. I wondered why Japanese Canadians did not rebel and then someone mentioned Gandhi's protest. Gladwell said that behaving with dignity can be a powerful weapon for the oppressed by underlining the illegitimacy of the powerful. This can take time, but eventually things change. I wonder if that is what happened. If so, I need to learn more about the changes after WWII.

Tanabe

2011-12-22T22:56:00.001-08:00

I happened to be in Burnaby for various reasons and decided to drop into the Burnaby Art Gallery to look at the Takao Tanabe exhibition. I was surprised by the diversity of his approaches, from detailed realistic depictions of nature, to abstracts to things in between. And also the intermingling of studying sumie in Japan and various Western techniques. I feel inspired. But I am too cheap to go and buy canvases and paint or even big pieces of paper. I think I should find some digital way to paint more often, even though it doesn't feel the same.

Gold Star

2011-12-21T22:23:00.001-08:00

I only get my skates sharpened maybe twice a year. I take them to the shoemaker down the street. Today when I went to pick them up he said, "You've been coming here for a while, eh?"
and I said, "A few years." And then he said, out of the blue, "Well, I'll do these for free today." I told him that wasn't necessary (because I have wondered how he stays in business), but he insisted. "I'll charge you next time. Merry Christmas." So I thanked him. It softened the sting of dry cleaning bill later.

Hiroshima

2011-12-20T19:37:00.001-08:00

Today I saw the Hiroshima exhibit at the Museum of Anthropology. I had no idea what it would be about, but since family connections, I was curious. A Japanese photographer took photos of personal items, mostly clothing left when the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Apparently the museum there has tons of stuff. A film explains her purpose and process. Without this, frankly, it would have just been pictures of old beat up clothes. Often I feel the process of making art is much more interesting than the finishes product. But this connection between objects and stories intrigues me.

Paying Disrespects to Dead People

2011-12-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

I've heard of Christopher Hitchens with respect to atheism, but I haven't actually read him. That might say something about him or me. I am a little suspicious of people known mostly as trouble makers. And then there's Kim Jong Il. I must admit that I'd first heard of him by watching Team America: World Police the crazy Thunderbirds-style marionette movie. And his people were mean to James Bond. Doesn't that sound so politically astute? Hitchens also crusaded against dictatorships. Imagine how furious he would be to meet Kim Jong Il in some afterlife.

The Trip

2011-12-18T22:28:00.000-08:00

This road trip of Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon is funny and strange and poignant. It reminded me of the trip I took with my parents and brothers so long ago, at least some of the scenery. It seems like a travel documentary of their road trip with the amazing and sometimes antagonistic banter between them with comic impressions with recitations of poetry and historical and even geological anecdotes. Steve Coogan is so weird how he portrays himself as an insecure jerk, but also struggling to get on with life. What surprised me most was the fine cuisine they ate.

American Born Chinese

2011-12-18T09:39:00.000-08:00

I once asked at a cartoon workshop how to make non-caricatured looking Asians and no one had an answer. This one does. This graphic novel intertwines a Chinese myth of the Monkey King who trains himself in kung fu so he will not be seen as a monkey, an American stereotype of squinty eyed buffoon, an a teenager struggling with girls. He seems to suggest more overt racism than I recall experiencing, but it does reflect the issue of relationships are a political statement, which people who see themselves reflected in mainstream media do not often seem to recognize.

What is the Meaning of This?

2011-12-16T18:45:00.001-08:00

On the podcast This American Life, a woman who used to be a Mormon, talks to a guy who, along with six other men, supposedly saw a UFO and one of the group was supposedly abducted and came back. Anyway, while she is talking to this guy, he evidently finds meaning in every little thing. And she said it reminded her of when she was little and was a believer. She missed that feeling. By coincidence, or perhaps it was meant to be, I saw that well-known religion basher Christopher Hitchens has died. I wonder if encountered any surprises.

The Crazy Man

2011-12-14T20:06:00.001-08:00

Took a verse novel workshop with Pamela Porter who won a Governor General award for this book. I didn't know much about writing a novel in verse. But it doesn't rhyme. I had negative associations with poetry, but this book reads so cleanly, with no wasted words, so vivid. I have been doing some free verse posts, but they take much longer than just doing this. I tried one on my Science World blog but it got pulled for being too sensitive for a sponsor. Oops. Anyway, now I'm working on my Japan memoir in free verse.

Head Space

2011-12-13T21:03:00.000-08:00

They say
too much stimuli
and
autistics
shut
down.

Don't know what
exactly
autistic children are.
But I hear
they are
growing in number.

Are they
but canaries
in a coal mine?
At least
they don't twitter.

In our world,
quiet reflection
gets the shaft.

Silence
has
no place.

Always, everywhere
such a bounty
of ideas,
of information,
of fear.

Our minds
are overloaded
and undermined.
More, more, more.

Pull the ear buds.
Plug the flow.
Lose the noise.
Save your mind.

We are not devices.
We are animals.
Return
to the forest to
return
ourselves
to ourselves.

Lincoln Lawyer

2011-12-11T22:47:00.001-08:00

Could I have been a lawyer?

Deducing the truth,
arguing the best case,
within the law.

Fascinating.

But of course it's just movies.

I've known some
who went into law later.

But I'd have issues with
the moral ambivalence
and the
long
hours.

Maybe in another life.

This lawyer
defends criminals
for big bucks
in his chauffeur-driven
Lincoln.

Is he cut throat
or the good guy?
Of course he's good -
it's Matthew M

Still, I enjoyed the twists and turns.

Maybe I need to watch it again
to see if it actually
made sense.

Confessing

2011-12-08T21:05:00.001-08:00

Looking after small children can bring out ugliness in grown-ups. It can be embarrassing or shameful to acknowledge that you get angry for no good reason, that you behave in immature ways, that you do not always have the best motives for what you do. It can be stressful to carry this in your heart. You cannot share it with just anyone. You fear non-parents will judge you. Or even if they are parents, they might have different values that don't jive with yours, so it can be awkward. It feels great to be able to share.

What If

2011-12-07T20:19:00.001-08:00

The more I learn about Japanese Canadian history, the more I wonder about alternative scenarios. What would have happened if Japan had never bombed Pearl Harbor? It is interesting to visit Hawaii and see the soy sauce on restaurant tables. Maybe this would have been Vancouver if all the Japanese hadn't been sent away. I might have been part of the majority by now. I might have inherited a corporation. But then again, it seemed like pressure was building in society back then, so that something had to give eventually. We can never know if our efforts really matter.

Time

2011-12-06T22:25:00.001-08:00

On a nice day after school, r will play in the school yard until no one is left to play with. If I see someone I know I will chat with them to be civil. But I could be out there for more than an hour on my own. I could be getting some work done but it's too cold to be typing and I don't have a wireless connection out there. So lately, I listen to my audiobook 1Q84 by Haruki Marukami and think about what I would do if I noticed two moons in the sky.

Beliefs about Belief

2011-12-03T20:05:00.001-08:00

Today I interviewed a man of Karen descent from Burma. He is a pastor here. I do not believe in God but I find religion fascinating. He noted the similarities of Christian stories and Karen stories. This seemed to allow him to blend the two without concern. If anything, it seems like it helped him believe in the validity of Christianity. Also it seems that for these people who have had to leave tropical jungle threatened by the horrors of war, the church has helped them find some common thread to help them adjust to all the changes here. Hm.

New York

2011-12-01T21:12:00.001-08:00

A friend of mine just came back from New York and is all keen about moving there for the stimulating environment and engaging people she met. When I visited long ago, I found all the theatre and art so exciting as well. But more recently, friends with a young boy r's age came back from there and mentioned how they had no playground and everybody was obsessed with overachievement for their kids. So for me, on my current life path and stage, New York seems like a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there.

The Autobiography of Red

2011-11-29T19:37:00.001-08:00

I've never read anything like this. It was described as a verse novel. A modern story, yet using characters from Greek myth, Herakles and Geryon, a red, winged creature. It was relatively thin book, but thick with content. I read each section twice and thought some more. The whole story is metaphorical about something. Identity, love, isolation. I'm not sure what exactly. But some searing emotional images. I wonder if the Brokeback Mountain person read this. And some scenes from Peru reminded me of our trip there. Seeing soccer on the beach, Inca Kola, a roasted guinea pig.

Anonymity

2011-11-24T20:22:00.001-08:00

Recently, while r does karate I have been checking out coffee shops, four within two blocks of the dojo. At one, the fellow seems remarkably meticulous and friendly and he knows that I either have an herbal tea or hot chocolate. I know that song from Cheers about everybody knowing your name is supposed to sound warm and fuzzy, but actually, this creeps me out a bit. Some people like to go to the same places and order the same things and we know the people in the sushi place down the street. But being known comes with certain expectations.

Pocket Full of Rain

2011-11-23T23:11:00.001-08:00

I hadn't heard of Jason but his animal headed people intrigued me because I had been doing some of them before. I was in that phase once when I proposed it for an educational guide. Maybe it was a little too weird for them. This is weird too. Lately I've been buying more comic books and thinking more about this. I think they somehow lose more in being converted to electronic forms, the effect of the page turn and so on. I'd like to do more graphic stories but they take so much time. Need more practise.

Limitless

2011-11-14T22:55:00.001-08:00

An intriguing idea - a pill that makes you smarter so you could finish a novel. But then, side effects of physical problems, and the elements of violent crime. Fun. What would you do if you were super smart? The underlying model of reality for this fantasy is that if you had enough information you could predict what would happen next and make lots of money. By coincidence, I am just reading about index funds and how unrealistic and lucky it is to beat the market. Also it made me think of chaos theory and the unpredictability of some deterministic systems.

Hereafter

2011-11-12T23:12:00.001-08:00

I liked how they wove the stories of the diverse characters from different places — the psychic in San Francisco, the journalist in France, the boy in England. Strange the similarities of some elements in biutiful. Also intriguing how they incorporated the Tsunami in Thailand and the subway bombings in Britain to give it a concrete setting of recent times. They even showed how fraudulent psychics can be. But the so-called scientist's analysis of the situation was absurd. And the silly premise of an actual hereafter is irritating. I'm fine if I just accept it as a fantasy.

Destination Imagination

2011-11-08T20:51:00.001-08:00

I enjoyed a workshop for Destination Imagination, a program for enhancing creativity and teamwork. Parents run it in classrooms. Today we met at the lead person's home to try things out. The first task was to build as tall a tower as possible with materials at hand. I happened to be paired with two moms I knew from preschool who are both very smart and we killed the other teams. Of course, it's just for fun. They mixed it up for the second one where you have to come up with a presentation, which was more open-ended.

Powell Street Walking Tour

2011-11-06T22:25:00.000-08:00

This morning, I led a walking tour of Powell Street before the War when it used to be filled with people of Japanese descent. This was longer than ones I'd done before and I was also rusty, but I had the notes and it all went smoothly with a group of eight people of a range of ages who stuck with me for the chilly but sunny hour and a half. A helper had a portable speaker so I could spare my voice over the traffic. Having interviewed my Mom about growing up there also beefed up my presentation.

Essex County

2011-11-04T20:23:00.001-07:00

I've noticed more graphic novels at the used book store lately. This one is a fat one and I see the binding on the softcover is not quite up to the task. But anyway, when I saw this one included hockey, I thought I should get it. Mostly sad stories I think. An interesting element was showing familial similarity in a story that dealt with paternity. The multigenerations and shifts in time is a little confusing but one of them is going senile I guess. The style seemed crude but it grew on me and seemed to fit. Intriguing.

Plumbing

2011-11-03T22:29:00.001-07:00

He has my name
But not my glasses
Or my build.
He is the plumber.
A slim, quiet Chinese man
With neon orange arms on his glasses.
Except for the glasses,
He might be an accountant
But he only takes a cheque, not Visa.
He is our maintenance man
Checking that our hot water arteries
Flow smoothly.
Not our emergency man
With the twenty-four hour service
Extravagant prices
And questionable recommendations.
I trust him when he says,
"You need to the change the pilot light,"
Because life is too short
To Google his words
And question every little thing.

At Bat

2011-10-31T23:03:00.001-07:00

I dressed as a bat to help out with a Halloween activity in r's classroom this afternoon. First, I cut up an empty tissue box to make a head band with a bat stuck to it, all painted black. Then I found a black broken umbrella laying around (yay, clutter!). I cut away the central metal piece, left the ribs in place and taped it up using old black hockey tape. None of the other parents dressed up. Oh well. In the evening, I improved the design with safety pins to my black shirt for giving out the treats.

Son of a Witch

2011-10-30T23:14:00.001-07:00

I thought Wicked was an awesome book, an astounding epic book with a different look at Oz. I had a hard time getting through this sequel. Was it the slowness? Or maybe I felt no sympathy for the protagonist. He seemed clueless. Or maybe that was just me. He is bicurious, which seemed to come out of nowhere. I wondered if that and other themes were part of Maguire's political agenda. So many things didn't make sense to me. This one is so obviously set up for the next one with all the unanswered questions left hanging. Annoying.

History Talk

2011-10-22T20:01:00.001-07:00

I gave a talk on the history of Japanese Canadians at the Surrey Museum which has a photographic exhibit on Japanese Canadian and Japanese Americans during World War II. I focussed on my own family's history to illustrate major points. This way people can't tell me I'm wrong and I tried not to make too many sweeping generalizations. Most of the thirty or so people were seniors and middle aged. One man who was a Veteran wanted to remind me of how Japan behaved during the War. I just nodded, although I thought it beside the point.

Whoa

2011-10-21T19:48:00.001-07:00

I was watching a Nova program yesterday that said they sampled a comet and found an amino acid in it. And they talked about a time when things were bashing around in the solar system including the Earth so the Moon got made. Or something like that. And then I heard on Quirks and Quarks that they've found a whole other group of extinct humanoids in Siberia and that our ancestors interbred with Neanderthals. The power of science is in the transformation of our ideas with new evidence. But it can be disorienting to keep up with all this.

Barney's Version

2011-10-18T22:55:00.000-07:00

Sometimes we have these discussions in our writing group about whether your protagonist needs to be a sympathetic character. I don't know, but I did not really like this Barney character, although Paul Giamatti played him well. His children seem to still love him in the end, although it's not clear why. The mysterious disappearance of his friend turns out to be absurd.Apparently, the book plays more with issue of reliable memory. The movie too, seems to blur the time periods as you bounce around and his mind deteriorates. It reminded me to appreciate what I have.

Oops

2011-10-15T19:42:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about an email request to play goal in New Westminster on Sunday, as I was getting ready to go play with my Richmond gig on Friday. I set up the GPS in the car and selected Moody Park. I plug in my ipod and start listening to a show on writing. Driving. Listening. Driving. About to arrive at the rink in New Westminster when I realize I'm supposed to be in Richmond! Reprogram GPS! Drive, drive, drive! Eventually it all works out OK. I blame it on technology, but I may just be losing my mind.

2011-10-13T22:54:00.000-07:00

I just started watching this series of videos called Don't Fear the Internet, which introduces HTML in short, whimsical but clear bits. I had no idea you could click and see the code that goes into the web page to learn how people do different techniques. I have been meaning to figure out how to do my own web thing since forever, but it has seemed too tedious to get into. Now I am beginning to see a whole new world of possibilities. If I can just get away with not having to buy new software to do it.

Head Space

2011-10-11T22:36:00.000-07:00

I wonder if listening to podcasts all the time is decreasing the amount of time I have for my own wondering by always having someone else's voice in my head. This can be a tricky balance but it seems so much fun to have all these outside ideas pouring in to fertilize my brain. But maybe I am just getting overstimulated. Writing this blog is an attempt to pause every once in a while and reflect. Today I listened to tips on writing a graphic novel, reasons for the decline of hitchhiking and how computers could take over culture.

Thanks

2011-10-10T16:53:00.001-07:00

Things I am thankful for. Family, inherited, chosen, and extended for a sense of belonging and reasons to be. My home for keeping me warm and dry. My Apple products for enabling my creativity and amusement. My car. My writing group. Most of the people I have ever worked with. Most of my teachers. The people I play hockey with. Canada. Toronto for being where I was formed. Japan for being where I was forged. Vancouver for being where I am. Every creator whose work I have enjoyed. The ozone layer. The Earth's orbit. Water. Oh yeah, and friends.

Scratch!

2011-10-09T19:47:00.001-07:00

Someone somewhere seems to have decided they should scratch the side of our car. One scratch on each of the two doors on the passenger side. It's not through to the metal, so maybe it can be touched up somehow. I just don't get why someone would do that. I imagine a teenage boy, frustrated with life, decides to take it out on a fairly new shiny white car on a side street to sense a feel of power or control or something? I wonder how accurate my assumption is, and if it is true, why is it?

Horse Chestnuts

2011-10-08T23:09:00.001-07:00

Leaf raking has begun. I leave much of them in the garden as mulch, although others seem to assume I'm just lazy. Then there's all the horse chestnuts. I was hoping to find some good use for them. Recently, I heard they keep spiders away, but couldn't find any convincing evidence of this. Maybe I could make one of those beaded back rests. But probably too much work. They have such a nice colour it's a pity to chuck them. I could whack them together to play conkers, but then I'd probably lose an eye.

Surprise

2011-10-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

On the DNTO podcast, they talked about how although people usually say they don't like "spoilers" to stories or movies, when tested, researchers found they enjoyed the experience as much or more. I have been wondering about why r likes to watch a movie over and over. And I know some people like to read books over and over. One point was that when you know the ending then you can focus on other things like they ways in which things were structured and aspects of style. I suppose as a writer, I should read things more than once.

Entropy

2011-10-04T20:31:00.001-07:00

First it was the gas grill. Then the pivot peg for the folding door on our hall closet broke off. Then the vegetable drawer in the fridge cracked. They don't seem easily fixable. It seems stupid to just throw the whole things out, except they all seemed designed that way. They are combinations of things that don't seem recyclable. I am tempted to use them as materials to make sculptures for the garden, although they probably leach noxious chemicals. I hate wasting my time and effort figuring out how to deal with junk I don't care about.

I Give Up

2011-10-03T22:35:00.000-07:00

A Freakonomics podcast talked about Quitting; sunk costs and opportunity costs. This, even though perseverance is usually a valuable attribute. I think of it as being able to distinguish a hurdle from a brick wall. I tried fixing our vintage gas grill. I bought a replacement burner. Then I had to buy a new ignitor. They wouldn't fit together. And I got an electric shock from testing the ignitor. The instructions said it could explode if I didn't do it correctly. So I took it all back to the hardware store and they gave me a partial refund.

Fair Game

2011-10-01T23:19:00.000-07:00

I never understood the war on Iraq. I have also never understood how you could be a secret agent and still have friends and family. I liked how this movie focussed on a woman who was a covert CIA agent dealing with intelligence on Iraq and her husband, an outspoken former ambassador who spoke out against Bush Administration's fabrications of uranium shipments from Niger to Iraq. Her cover is intentionally exposed by the government, endangering her family and all those she worked with. Unbelievable how the Bush administration disregarded all the CIA intelligence. But what is the truth anyway?

Roam

2011-09-29T22:46:00.001-07:00

Went down to Steveston to do some research on the Japanese Canadian fishing exhibit I'm working on. It was a gorgeous day. So after doing what I needed to do, I had lunch at a restaurant overlooking the water and had fish and chips. It felt like I was on a mini vacation, so then I decided to have an ice cream on a waffle cone. Also bought a ten dollar loaf of bread baked in a wood oven by a slightly crazy man. Working alone can be hard, but I savour these little episodes of free, unpredictable time.

Do Do Do

2011-09-26T22:37:00.001-07:00

It might be a waste of time, but I am always reworking my systems for keeping on top of what I need to do. I have been using Wunderlist to sync my tasks on my imac and my ipod and I like the GTD method of having separate lists according to context. But I use Google calendar for L and r's schedules. I'd like my appointments in the same place, but I haven't found a good set-up yet. I don't want to have to test everything, I just want something that does what I want.

Steel Cut Oats

2011-09-25T22:58:00.001-07:00

For the past year or so, a central part of my breakfast routine has been steel cut oats. I like that it is warmer than cold cereal and chewier than quick oats. They take about a half an hour to cook, longer than most people seem to be willing to spend making breakfast. But I set the pot on the stove and then do r's breakfast and put away dishes. Sometimes the unwatched pot boils over, which annoys L because it gums up the burner. And I don't measure the amounts exactly. It's part of the game.

Local Issues

2011-09-24T19:58:00.000-07:00

The local business association has been creating events for local residents to presumably drive local shopping. After collecting swag, eating popcorn, cake and a hot dog, I spoke to a man at a both on transitioning societies which seems to be interested in growing food and living more sustainably. I am all for their long term goals. I asked him, however, whether a preoccupation with local issues can separate us from others and whether it is just a bit self indulgent for affluent neighbourhoods and societies to spout this approach. I don't think the old days were so great.

And I hope no one was seriously hurt

2011-09-23T20:05:00.000-07:00

After school, I heard a loud heavy bang and then another. I looked up and across the schoolyard on the road, I saw a car smack into a parked car. It had knocked over the fire hydrant and leaving a fountain of water flooding the street. The driver had Parkinson's. Aha! But another car stopped at the light had also been hit. An Asian woman. Aha! But apparently, witnesses reported that a mystery van had sped through the intersection but did not stop. Aha? I was trying to figure out the vectors, but couldn't make sense of it.

Biutiful

2011-09-17T23:16:00.001-07:00

Gut-wrenching, both to see a sketchy but loving Dad dying of cancer desperately trying to find a way to care for his children and to see the ghastly living conditions of the Chinese and Africans he thinks he is helping. Makes me worry about the conditions of the refugees I'll be working with on an exhibit. Do Spanish people actually believe in people seeing the spirits of the dead? He has this power and his taking money for it make be the source of his undoing. Is it metaphorical? Certainly softens the inevitable. Maybe that is the point.

Too Much

2011-09-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

A friend who reads a lot of books told me of a book (The Shallows) about how the internet is making us dumber, at least this is what I got from it. When you read a book, you have a chance to reflect upon it and develop a better understanding of a concept and it can be incorporated into your long term memory, which helps you function and perhaps develop a more interesting self. Information overload takes time, but you get no value from it. Maybe like empty calories. So I cut out most of the blogs I followed.

Surrealism

2011-09-07T14:37:00.001-07:00

I loved the exhibition on Surrealism at the Vancouver Art Gallery. I knew of Salvador Dali and some of my own drawings have been described as surrealistic, but I didn't really know much else. I didn't know about their interest in west coast First Nations art, the influence of early film, and even scientific ideas. I have always enjoyed doodling during meetings but I don't if those things have any significance. I am intrigued with the idea of images that communicate on different levels. And the surreal objects they created were so funny. I must try some.

Behavioural Spectrum

2011-09-05T22:37:00.000-07:00

Funny juxtaposition of movie endings today. In Casino Jack, Kevin Spacey plays high-powered lobbyist Jack Abramoff who comes off as arrogant, delusional and sociopathic in his self-confidence. The only difference between him and others in DC seems to be who happens to get caught. He always claims to be helping others. In It's Kind of A Funny Story, Keir Gilchrist plays a stressed-out, depressed wimpy teenager who checks himself into the mental ward of a hospital after feeling suicidal. He has trouble dealing with his Dad's high expectations. Of course, a cute girl changes everything.

The Elegance of the Hedgehog

2011-09-01T23:07:00.000-07:00

This book is set in France and originally French. The class perceptions certainly feel non-North American yet reminded me of Japan. The story alternates between a middle aged female concierge who enjoys cultured things but conceals these interests from the wealthy tenants of the building at which she works, and a bright young girl from one of these wealthy families who is contemplating suicide. They are kindred spirits. A Japanese man turns out to be a kind of saviour to them. I cannot claim any similarity to him, but I enjoyed the book, its ideas, humour, sadness, and hope.

For Whom Do You Cheer?

2011-08-31T22:49:00.001-07:00

The Radiolab podcast talked about games and how sports can be engaging as a whole reality onto itself. Apparently, most people root for the underdog. Maybe people identify with them. But Malcolm Gladwell said he thought that when those who should win, lose, that he feels like it is a great injustice, and it offends him. I have never been a dedicated fan of any team. I usually look for the quality of the play, maybe because in hockey I always sympathize with the goalie. I asked r which side she would cheer for and she said always the winner.

Fossil Road

2011-08-28T22:10:00.001-07:00

Survived our family road trip to Drumheller. Vague flashbacks of driving the Aquavan so long ago. So much easier now with a GPS, at least since L knew how to program it. Remember graduating when Tyrell was opening and wondering what it would be like. Wonderful to finally see it. Also found out about Drumheller's foundations in coal mining. r said her favourite thing was climbing the hoodoos. They have a protected section which is much smaller than what we've seen in Utah. The Rockies were breath-taking, partly for the mountains and partly for driving the roads.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

2011-08-20T23:10:00.000-07:00

This book is probably not read much these days because of the relentless use of the N word, although it clearly criticized slavery. The attitudes about slaves was appalling but Huck Finn's understated compassion highlights the hypocrisy of society. Using the ignorant homeless Huckleberry Finn as the narrator was brilliant. All the period details and Southern dialects were fascinating. The actress on the serial podcast told the story well. Reintroducing Tom Sawyer into it all was perhaps contrived but all his lying and scheming was hilarious and delightful. I loved how he complicates things to optimize his flow experience.

Fishing

2011-08-19T19:07:00.001-07:00

Some weasel called me this afternoon claiming he noticed my computer was sending out a virus. He said he could tell by the IP address. He said he was hosting my internet. I asked if he had a web site. He gave me a URL and it was some kind of security software site but I realized he could be just setting me up. Then he asked me if I was using Internet Explorer. Are you insane? Besides, I have a Mac. So I hung up. L later looked up his phone number which is linked to some scam. Yikes.

Unpoetic License

2011-08-18T22:55:00.000-07:00

I renewed my license today. Another benefit of a freelancing is being able to do these things on off-peak hours. I noticed that I weigh the same as I did two years ago, instead of 5 kg less as I had suggested I ought. Same height. Same address. Less facial hair. The clerk says I now look younger. He must say that to all the renewers. But the disturbing thing is this — my identity in this society is established by my license to operate a vehicle plus my credit card. Is that not somehow kind of sad or creepy?

Motivation

2011-08-17T22:57:00.000-07:00

The Freakonomics podcast was going on about how people with kids are less happy than average, so why do it? Seems that obsessiveness with creating a perfect future creates a lot of stress. On the whole, what parents do don't matter so much as who they already are, that genetics matter more. So I hope r got some good ones. I've always felt someone else would probably be more patient or whatever, but that it was a good, character-building experience for me. So no matter how she turns out, I feel like I am a better person.

Sayonara

2011-08-12T23:04:00.001-07:00

My last official day at the Museum. I was attempting to make sure I'd left enough notes for the next person to carry on and tried to get rid of enough stuff so that it would not look overwhelming. The things I did not quite get to deal with were a pile of kimono I didn't know what to do with but couldn't throw out and a box of origami I didn't know what to do with but couldn't throw out. It has been a wonderful learning experience and I have met some amazing people.

Interwoven

2011-08-06T23:04:00.001-07:00

Freakonomics podcast on family succession in business. In Japan, some heads adopt good candidates to keep them in the family. My grandfather was adopted to carry on a name, but screwed up that plan when he came to Canada. Coincidentally, we met a family with an adopted daughter today and got invited to a birthday party by one of our China group. Then this evening we started watching Young Victoria, filled with familial intrigue. A podcast by de Botton talked about how parenting is different today because society is different. But on DNTO that parents don't matter that much.

Powell Street Festival Buzz

2011-07-30T20:22:00.001-07:00

Had a partial shift for the Museum down at the Festival. Perfect, sunny day. Went early to see Nina Matsumoto who gained notoriety for doing a Manga version of the Simpsons. Had chikara udon and later a gyoza dinner. Saw the opening of new historical exhibits at the Japanese Language school and the Open Doors project. Chatted and met people while staffing the Museum display table. Realized I'd forgotten my ipod at the manga talk and raced back there. Amazingly they had it. Gave the volunteer a twenty. Whew. Seeing familiar old faces, makes me feel like I belong.

Tom Sawyer

2011-07-22T17:54:00.001-07:00

I enjoyed this through free downloads on ITunes U on my drives back from the Museum. I'd heard of it before and maybe even saw a cartoon of bits before but I wasn't familiar with the text. Twain's used of the sophisticated narration is in contrast to the wonderful dialogue of the kids. Fascinating and disturbing to hear about how much freedom the kids had back then. It reminded me a little of what my Dad said of his boyhood. It pokes fun at religion and some social habits, though others seem galling to a modern ear.

Happy Anniversary to Us

2011-07-14T22:21:00.000-07:00

Somehow it is our tenth anniversary tomorrow. Time flies. And yet it almost seems like a lifetime ago. It's been easier than I expected. Maybe that's a guy thing. I did an erasure poem for a Geist contest. You have to remove words and or letters from an existing passage, keeping them in the same order. From our first date –

Evite dragonboat grew friendly

Vent on Star Wars delight

Red highlights surprise

Indian food

French film nonsense

Cheesecake imagination

Runs down teaspoon milky mood

Drugs legal

Mysterious day

Fresh companion

God? No!

Delight at monsters

Gratify curiosity

Animals for Perspective

2011-07-10T10:58:00.000-07:00

Alain de Botton seems to write about how cultural experiences can make your life better. He mentions how, thanks to his young kids, he has been learning more about animals by visiting the zoo. He does not get all tangled up with the issue of animals in captivity but he complains that zoos do not appreciate their adult visitors. If you are only ever exposed to other people, you can think that we are the only things that matter. He suggests that adults could use a stronger connection to animals as a means to put their own lives in perspective.

HST?

2011-07-09T22:49:00.000-07:00

This referendum in BC on the HST is confusing. On the one hand, it seems logical to have a harmonized sales tax instead of two. But the government completely misrepresented its impact and have increased taxes on many things, most significantly to me, in restaurants. But Bill Van der Zalm led the anti-HST campaign and this fallen leader has a serious credibility gap. But this seems to be a way to send a message to the government about responsible governance. But they said they are going to reduce the actual percentage if it is kept. I don't know.

Nookie

2011-07-02T23:02:00.000-07:00

So I finally got L's castoff Nook working. Now I have so many ebooks I don't know what to do. I started reading the opening chapter of one after another, about a dozen in a row. So fun. Books are so much more satisfying than reading blog posts but now that I am used to flitting from one thing to another I am treating ebooks the same way. Perhaps I will be able to create some sort of beautiful synthesis, but I suppose it is more likely it will simply all dissipate into more noise in my brain.

Hamish X and the Cheese Pirates

2011-06-21T22:29:00.001-07:00

I have seen Sean Cullen do stand up. He is a strange man. This book for kids is also a strange book. You can kind of hear him talking to you through it with these funny little footnotes. Another story about orphans and kids against adults. It ends but leaves questions and plenty of room for a sequel. Made me think about how to write for kids who read books with mostly words but some pictures. People do get killed in this story. But no swearing. The role of the narrator as a character reminds me of Lemony Snicket. Cheese!

Forces With Us

2011-06-19T20:33:00.001-07:00

We went to a neighbourhood fair. r loves rides. Dads got to ride for free today. Or maybe they always do and they just said that today. Like fat free soft drinks that never had fat in them anyway. So r's favourite is this spinny thing. I wonder if there's a name for the path we followed. I don't remember how those centripetal or centrifugal force vectors are supposed to work but they do indicate that the larger person is supposed to be on the outer part. But my inner ear fluid kept swirling for a while.

The Elegant Universe

2011-06-18T16:58:00.000-07:00

The author, who also researches string theory, used all kinds of simpler illustrated metaphors to explain how, without mathematics, we live in about ten dimensions, most of them curled up and invisible. This just seemed silly to me but supposedly, it could eventually explain how everything is interconnected. Different particles are different vibrations of these strings. I spoke with a physicist who was skeptical of an approach that seemed to be mostly untestable mathematical models. These string theorists dream of an elegant universe, for which they can calculate not only the how but the why. That'll be the day.

Modern Primitives

2011-06-16T23:09:00.000-07:00

Watching sports is fundamentally a waste of time. I might have higher marks in school if I hadn't watched so much playoff hockey. It must tap into some primitive need to feel connected to a tribe. Mostly young men wreaked the destruction, like the wild horsemen in Game of Thrones. That kind of raw energy used to be valued but now it just seems ugly and embarrassing. But we are animals after all. I didn't watch the end of game 7 because I was giving r a bath. Guess I'm too old for that kind of nonsense.

Arroyo

2011-06-12T20:39:00.001-07:00

Like the elementary Spanish vocabulary Dora spouts while Exploring

But no, something geolographical

More like the dry terrain of the American southwest

Where the ancient Pueblo people once roamed to and from their

Stone villages

Giant caves

Did some kind of climate change sweep them away or

Push them out?

Do global changes connect the decline of

The Maya, the Egyptians and others?

And what of the Mississipians or over in Petra?

What will we have to show in a few hundred years?

Disparate pebbles of trivia

Lay scattered on my dry bed of understanding

Just don't mention aliens

Inception

2011-06-11T23:17:00.001-07:00

The Matrix introduced me to the meme of existing at different levels of consciousness, although I hardly ever remember my dreams. This movie pushes it further. The director Nolan must have a particularly disciplined mind to be able to keep the multiple layers going in relatively coherent ways. I wonder if the idea of the guy's children being the primary motivator is a mark of a contemporary film. Plus the guy they are infiltrating has issues with his father. Maybe I have a skewed perspective that way. It was a fun ride, but slightly ambiguous endings always bug me.

Umbra

2011-06-10T16:31:00.001-07:00

Sidling up the sidewalk

My meat shadow stomps on the

Vulnerable

Exposed head

Of my cast shadow

Ow! - jest I

To camouflage my projection

Into the tall, unkempt grass

Detouring

Laughing,

My mini me

Lunges at another opportunity

Animated scenes of

Peter Pan

Battling his shadow

A meme with a life of its own

The movie unwatched

The play unseen

The book unread

So does it mean anything

That

Our dark sides

Stand up

Most stark

When the sun shines

Most bright?

Or is it just another one of those

Self-organizing

Pattern seeking

By-products,

Emergent

Yet signifying nothing?

Art gallery field trip

2011-06-06T22:50:00.001-07:00

Today I wore a pink chaperone tag at the Art Gallery. This may be an indication of how often Dads go on these things. Anyway, the challenge was finding parking downtown and then getting my cheeky charges to where they were supposed to be without getting run over. They told me they were in grade one so I didn't need to be telling them everything to do. The program itself ran smoothly with one docent for seven children. They were mostly attentive and responsive in learning about surrealism. I was relieved they didn't deal with sexually explicit stuff.

Foist

2011-06-04T07:15:00.001-07:00

I am still foisting upon myself this exercise of writing some based on the dictionary.com's word of the day. I find it interesting to accept what you are given and seeing where it takes you, a byproduct of our pattern seeking minds, where random words can get you thinking about things in new ways. This 'going with the flow' seems to also be the basis for improv. I am perhaps addicted newness, choosing the dish I've not had before, the restaurant I've not been to before. I know I am not the "foist" to mention this.

Raising Big Blue

2011-05-31T21:49:00.001-07:00

I went to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum today for the media showing of this documentary. I don't know how I received the invite. They didn't really have many there. But it was a fascinating story of digging up this blue whale skeleton that had been buried on the beach twenty years ago after it washed up. The challenges of excavating the huge thing and how much flesh was still left on it. Then the difficulty of extracting the oil from the bones, which almost destroyed the whole thing. It's skull was bashed, they think by a ship.

The Kids Are All Right

2011-05-29T20:50:00.001-07:00

Maybe this title was intended as ironic (and nothing to do with the Who album I think), since it seems to be the grown-ups who are maybe not so alright. You have a lesbian couple with a daughter about to leave for college and a son with questions about his sperm donor father. They contact him and it like a chain reaction of events, a cue ball crashing into everything else and changing everything. All of them have their own arcs of dealing with self, their relationships with each other and the idea of family. Fascinating, if slightly irritating.

Church

2011-05-25T14:48:00.000-07:00

Sitting in a church for Anne's funeral, I was thinking that it is nice to sit in a beautiful building, with nice music playing and presumably nice people sitting there listening to someone talk. Now if only he had said something of interest, something that inspired me, something that wasn't nonsense and hocus pocus. Wouldn't it be nice to have a place to regularly meet people with shared values or at least who are willing to discuss them, not connected with consumerism or polemical ideology. It might help build community and a more civil society. But how?

the social network

2011-05-23T20:36:00.001-07:00

This revenge of the nerds was fascinating. This Zuckerberg evidently has social deficiencies but he is focussed and driven. The idea of creating a virtual world seems to be suitable for people who are not good at dealing with real people. This is a model for social networking - to make something really good and popular before attempting to make money off it. And how much is the luck of being in the right place at the right time? It made me think of Malcolm Gladwell's analysis of other successes in Outliers and the importance of both skill and opportunity.

Longueur

2011-05-23T16:54:00.001-07:00

This word for the long tedious bits in story or a piece of music just sounds like "longer." Things that are boring do seem to take longer. I am reading Douglas Coupland's Massey Lectures as a story Player One. He has some characters making extra mental copies of their stressful experiences. I heard of another experiment that showed your senses aren't faster at stressful times but they seem to take more in, which has the effect of things seeming to go slower. But I don't know why time seems to pass quickly when you're enjoying yourself.

Anne

2011-05-21T23:26:00.000-07:00

Today, a day when some strange people thought the world would end, my oldest friend passed away. She was eighty-one. She would have given them hell. She was not one to mince words. I will always be grateful to her for inviting me to join our writing group over ten years ago. It transformed my view of myself and what life could be. We were scheduled to have a meeting at her senior's home next month. She told me she had just started on a new story. I trust she did not go gentle into that good night.

Foofaraw

2011-05-20T22:37:00.000-07:00

Excessive ornamentation is probably the opposite of traditional Japanese aesthetic. Perhaps Thai temples would be like that. I find compelled to use it when making cards, as if to prove that I had put in enough time into the job. But for art, I think the bold is more interesting. Except I read about the quality of material for a tailor-made shirt should have details that become interesting only as you get closer. Maybe it is a bit like a fractal. And maybe like studying anything, that as you look into something, it has more and more to it.

Autodidact

2011-05-13T21:07:00.000-07:00

I don't think I am self-taught at anything. I like taking courses and reading books and finding things out from people who have figured it out already. I don't seem to have time for courses lately, but I know I have some big holes of understanding. Like investing. Except money doesn't seem to interest me enough to pay attention. Today the students at a Heritage Fair where I got to be a judge taught me many things. So fascinating. Also, too bad I didn't teach myself about cars, then I could be an auto autodidact.

Zeitgeist

2011-05-12T08:27:00.000-07:00

The spirit of the times seems tricky to grasp when you are in it. Perhaps especially now, because of the apparent choices the internet offers, people seem to live in their own bubbles of viewpoint. When I read of other times or see movies, it does seem as though the times have distinct feels, not just in the technologies but in overall attitudes about the world. I was just reading an interesting book called The Social Animal and one character develops tours to Europe which deal with the culture of different periods, to describe not the fish, but the water.