Category: Musings

The Age of Doubt

Cults / Musings / Politics / Social media issues / What I'm Reading Now3 Comments

Loading

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. It was the age of scientific advancement; it was the age of flat-earthers and chemtrail fanatics. It was the age of medical discoveries; it was the age of anti-vaxxers and homeopaths. It was the age of information; it was the age of Qanon conspiracies and creationists. It was the age of liberal democracies; it was the age of rising fascism. It was the age of technology; it was the age of 5G paranoia. It was the age of reason; it was the age of fundamentalist religions. It was … click below for more ↓

Back on the Open (World) Range

Culture / Games & Gaming / MusingsOne Comment

Loading

This week, after 300 hours of play, I came to the end of the Ubisoft game Assassin’s Creed Valhalla game. During those hours, I spent my time as a Viking, pillaging and looting, building my settlement, raiding enemy camps, and exploring across a massive map of England, with side trips to Norway, the Isle of Skye, Francia (France), Ireland, Asgard, and Vinland (North America). I hunted game, fished, upgraded gear, went on quests, sailed a longship; boxed opponents; trades insults in flyting contests, assassinated enemies (hence the name…), solved puzzles, delved into underground labyrinths and dungeons, battled monsters, went into … click below for more ↓

Tubes to Transistors to Today’s Chip Crisis

Family history / Musings / Science & Technology / Technology & GadgetsOne Comment

Loading

When I was a young lad, in the latter part of the 1950s (not long after the Stone Age ended…), one of my self-taught technical skills was to be able to replace the tubes in our radios and TV set. I was maybe 10 years old when I started doing this. No training, of course: I figured it out on my own, probably from watching my father do it at home, but maybe from something I read in the public library (there were no YouTube videos to teach such skills, of course). Letting children play with live-voltage electrical devices didn’t … click below for more ↓

Thomas More’s Words Are Still Appropriate Today

MAGA cultists / Musings / Politics / ShakespeareLeave a comment

Loading

I can always find something in Shakespeare’s works to console, inform, delight, or move me, and more often than not, something that is remarkably relevant to current issues and events. His wit and wisdom are timeless. Of course, one often has to see them as euphemisms, allegories, or metaphors and overlook their relevance to events contemporary to the Bard. But sometimes they transcend history and stand on their own in modern times. Such is a speech found in Sir Thomas More, a play that, while not canon, Shakespeare is believed by most experts to have contributed to the revision thereof. … click below for more ↓

The Moreness of Everything

Books & Reviews / Media / Musings / Psychology & Sociology4 Comments

Loading

The title of this post comes from a subhead in Thomas De Zengotita’s book, Mediated: How the Media Shape the World Around You (Bloomsbury Publishing, 2005) in which the author writes about choices, and “how much the screen of human consciousness can register at a given moment.” This is an important question for today, with so many people (younger people, especially) glued to their phones, always online, always engaged, always scrolling, clicking, texting. And scrolling past the headlines, not reading the whole story, getting only a few words before scrolling on to the next headline or jumping to another source … click below for more ↓

Musings on Colour vs B&W

Culture / Film & Reviews / Musings / TVLeave a comment

Loading

I grew up in the technological end of the black-and-white era. In the 1950s and early ’60s, our TV was black and white (technically called monochrome). So was everyone else’s, as were all TV broadcasts for the first decade. I watched everything in greyscale, and the day ended with a test pattern. Movies at the theatre were sometimes in colour, sure, but a lot were still in B&W. Colour filming was a more expensive and complicated process, and ballooning budgets mattered enough to keep many producers using B&W. I remember going to a drive-in theatre with my parents in the … click below for more ↓

Thoughts on (Re)Reading Fowler’s

Books & Reviews / Musings / Style & usage / What I'm Reading Now5 Comments

Loading

I had all but forgotten how delightful it can be reading Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage. It gives me the same sort of pleasure as reading at random through Samuel Johnson’s 1755 dictionary. Although I have had a copy of Fowler’s book on my self since the 1970s, I only returned to it recently, while musing on the dog’s breakfast of the town’s recent communications about its boil-water advisory. I was going to write a post about the event, offering whatever sage advice I still had about how to create effective, far-reaching, and immediate notification during an emergency (and … click below for more ↓

Knee Recovery Final, and Doomscrolling, 28

Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Politics / Surgery & MedicineLeave a comment

Loading

So it ended today, Thursday. My physio sessions are over after seven weeks. I achieved 119° knee bend and, with a push from the therapist, got to 120°, the magic number to which patients are directed to aspire, and which usually mark their graduation from therapy. There was no ceremony, simply goodbyes. They should have a bell for people to ring when they finish their course, like radiation departments have for cancer patients who finish their course. From now on, I am on my own: I am expected to continue to exercise three times a day until at least late … click below for more ↓

Recovering Knee and Doomscrolling, 27

Daily life / Memes; Internet & Social / Musings / Politics / Surgery & MedicineLeave a comment

Loading

Tuesday morning, not long after I finished my morning knee exercises, I drove to Barrie for my annual visit to my urologist — and the surgeon who removed my cancer-riddled prostate, back in 2020. You can read more about my journey with prostate cancer here. I also visit my oncologist once a year, usually in the spring. Both visits involve a prior PSA blood test to check if I have any of that hormone showing. And I don’t. Haven’t had a positive PSA result since my surgery. What matters for me about today’s visit is that I drove there and … click below for more ↓

Doomscrolling Notes, and Knee Recovery, 26

Daily life / Memes; Internet & Social / Musings / Personal ReminiscencesLeave a comment

Loading

Well, I am happy to say I was wrong. Despite more than seven million people (possibly as many as 8.2 million) participating in the USA’s No King’s protest, the events were all peaceful, and the dictator Trump was unable to use any of them as a pretext to invoke the Insurrection Act, declare martial law, and start shooting and jailing American citizens. Trump spent his night posting AI videos and images of himself wearing a crown, including a video in which a crowned Trump in a fighter jet bombs No Kings protestors with feces. Yeah, he’s that childish. Can you … click below for more ↓

Knee Replacement Recovery, 24

Daily life / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Surgery & MedicineLeave a comment

Loading

Saturday: Today, October 11, was the last day for this year’s Farmers’ Market, and it was a good last day for the market, weather-wise. I used to really enjoy going to the downtown market before my surgery, but I’ve been avoiding it because of the crowds, including kids and dogs, that always show up. Too many chances to be bumped, my cane bumped, maybe even knocked down. I’ll go back next year when it reopens and I am more stable. We never bought a lot there, but I liked to get some pickles, bread, and maybe some Indian food for … click below for more ↓

Knee Replacement Recovery, 23

Daily life / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Surgery & MedicineLeave a comment

Loading

Got up to another unseasonably warm October day here: 29C, the third hot day in a row. But tomorrow it’s predicted to fall to 16! I dropped by the local bookshop today (after my session with our dental hygienist) to pick up a used copy of Hilary Mantel’s Wolf Hall. I had read the book a few years ago and even seen the superb BBC mini-series, plus I’ve read the two sequels. I had an urge to read the books again (and maybe re-watch the series), but I remembered I had lent the first in the trilogy to a friend … click below for more ↓

Knee Replacement Surgery: Recovery, 22

Daily life / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Surgery & MedicineLeave a comment

Loading

Today, I drove to a small, dead-end street near the trail where we parked, so we could walk Bella on the trail at the western edge of Harbourview Park. We came back along the boardwalk, and exited onto the trail again. We stopped on the observation platform that juts out from the boardwalk to see how much further down the water level in the harbour is. We were shocked at how low it has dropped: at least 1.5m, if not 2m below the maximum. The rocks you can see on the ground sticking out like dolmen stones used to be … click below for more ↓

Knee Replacement Recovery, 21

Daily life / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Surgery & MedicineLeave a comment

Loading

Thursday: I started the day with a 20-minute pedal on the stationary bike, then the first of my three exercise sessions, and a 600 m walk — shorter than usual because we had to get to the hospital for an X-ray and my second follow-up meeting with the surgeon. I was pleased to have him tell me I’m doing well, nothing is wrong, and my progression is as expected. We were at the hospital for about one-and-a-half hours; the X-ray and meeting took perhaps 10 minutes of that. The rest of the time was waiting. Good thing we both brought … click below for more ↓

Knee Replacement Recovery, 20

Daily life / Musings / Personal Reminiscences / Surgery & MedicineLeave a comment

Loading

I have an old man’s legs. I was looking at my still-swollen leg where the surgery had taken place, and where the skin has been smoothed out by the swelling. It looked years younger. And then at my other leg with its bony shin, knobbly knee, and crinkly alligator skin. An old man’s leg, for sure. And soon enough, my operated leg will deflate back to that aged state. I suppose at 75 I should not be surprised to look my age, at least in the legs. And then there’s that old guy looking at me in the mirror. A … click below for more ↓

Back to Top