Making Music
View allAll Photos Tagged loves_trips
POSE:
[Ebano Poses] Love Trip @ Winter Spirit (Comes with many animations and car included)
LEFT BUILDING:
[Bad Unicorn] Brooklyn Brownstone - Graffiti @ Collabor88
SANTAS & TREE:
[Apple Fall] Heritage Christmas Tree - Flocked / Lower LI
[Apple Fall] Happy Santa Figure (Berry)
[Apple Fall] Happy Santa Figure (Holly)
Featuring Ebano Poses: Love trip available at Winter Spirit
Backdrop: Varonis Sombe Skybox
Balloons: Disorderly light me up
Hair: Doux - Noah
Dress: Blueberry Demi dress
The brick construction work, of the "Possums Eel Cave" storm water drain beneath Brisbane, is beyond amazing. The quality is top notch. We decided to shoot a star burst, and show the beautiful quality, hand laid bricks from the late 1800's, early 1900's.
We just keep going and going, trying to see as much beauty as possible.
- Cinque Terre, Italy (August 2016)
Tourists love trips on the Mar from Halifax and I am sure they had a blast being in the Parade of Sail on July 20...large view: View On Black On explore at 397 July 28/09
Sun Lit graffiti. Big Bastard was filled with graffiti murals and pieces. This photo lights up the long stream of graffiti!
On Thursday night I left for Chicago and ended up having the most amazing 4 days of my life. My only regret is that I didn't have any time for shooting, with sight-seeing, teaching workshops, hosting a meetup, etc. If it had been just me on the trip I would have probably not done the sight-seeing, stayed out of Chicago city, and sat in abandoned houses....so I'm glad I had my friends with me to make me see the sights, because I actually did like them a lot!
I shot this during my second workshop there and used a miniature house that the workshop space had in the lawn. I was excited by it because I could see how it would come together, and I know I couldn't find a house like that in real-life (at least not anytime soon). Ironically, the day after shooting this, I went to the Art Institute of Chicago and saw the most incredible set of miniature scenes depicting life from different time periods in Europe and America. All of this renewed my desire to shoot in miniature, so I might explore that more now.
I love trips like the one I just had...reminds me how being open to new things can be so good for creativity, and I feel totally renewed and energized! Going out to shoot self-portraits today, woohoo!
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Taken on a recent trip to North Wales. I love trips to Wales so many hidden gems, if you get off the beaten track, but I guess that applies to a lot of places.
Among-st the building materials, and all other sorts of DIY equipment, sat this lonely button-up Tee.
Beneath the large, abandoned, hoarders house sat piles worth of DIY equipment, wood, doors, paints, solvents, and heaps more!
This street is not only known as a shopping paradise in Singapore but also a place of street art attraction in the evening that entertain the visitors and pedestrians.
I love Trips!
I have 9 of them, so I am selling this one off for Christmas.
Taken with Pentax K-01 + Sigma 18-125mm DC HSM
If you go to Brighton and the surrounding coastal towns you'll usually see people swimming in the sea early in the morning, even in the cold and rain. It's easy to see them as crazy, but perhaps they're just cherrishing the sea whilst they can. My early years I grew up by the sea, so I miss it now and love trips like this to Brighton to see it again.
The original crop of this was landscape and had the pier in, which I liked, but I don't think it's a strong enough image to hold up to too many elements, so I lost it for this simpler shot that tells the story more clearly.
As the new decade is about to dawn on the Western hemisphere, here's my little summary of 2019.
It's not little, by the way, because it's me and I like to write a lot :D
Andrew’s Summary of 2019 - Flickr version
It was a year.
*This essay contains a Star Wars spoiler around two-thirds down.
Gather round, ye Flickr friends, and hear this year’s edition of “This is what Andrew did during the past year!” Because this year was full of ups and downs, I’ma just get right to it:
The most prominent event of 2019 for Ally and I was her father (Paul)’s fight against lung cancer, which he eventually lost on July 29th — 7 years to the day from when I first met him. Like last year, it’s no longer possible to consider my year separately from Ally’s experience of it, even though my year was certainly easier than hers. However, life goes on for those who continue living.
We must have stayed home on New Year’s Eve, since I don’t have any pictures hinting at an event, which is just as well because I have no interest in partying late anymore. Aging, what what!
The year started with me being worried about abdominal pain. After some tests, it turned out to be nothing concerning.
Throughout the winter, I (like many other Canadians) had to put up with the bullshite Polar Vortex again on quite a few days. There are pictures of my face completely covered, like some sort of militarized local cop, due to the cold. But yeah, climate change is a hoax from Tchaina! ChinaCHINAchinaCHAI-NAH!
I continued with my guitar lessons on Tuesdays, walking up the ***** Avenue hill to my lesson after my early-start day at work, and walking back again. Although I did learn some things in my lessons and became more proficient with my right-hand fingerstyle technique, I felt like my guitar teacher just wasn’t listening to my feedback. I found that I was coming home angry more often than not. That was definitely not the outcome I was going for when I signed up for lessons. I had my last lesson in June, and I decided not to go back.
On February 2nd, Ally and I went to the big fundraising gala with my main workplace, escorting a former client as the featured speaker. It was quite the fancy event. I won an Italian stovetop covfefe maker for Ally at the silent auction, which she uses on the regular.
On March 2nd, I bought my first (and thus far only) L-series lens; an old-design Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L USM model. The guy at the store suggested that it wouldn’t be much better than my 55-250, and that it’d be better to get the $1,500 IS version, but fudge that — I wasn’t about to spend $1,500 on a lens. Not yet anyway. The one I got was about $800. The guy was right; the image quality isn’t much better than the 55-250, but my motivation for buying the L was mainly for the prestige…feeling like after all these years as a photographer, I deserved it. And you know what? I do deserve it.
On March 7th, my 23andMe results came in! What would it say? Would it reveal what part of Greece my ancestors came from? Would it have any other really interesting results?
Well, first off, it showed that I’m very white. The results have updated a bit since they first came in, but as of this writing, I’m 99.8% European. Surprise surprise; I’m fully Shitlord! I’ve commented recently that for most of the last few hundred years, people in the Bestern world (the Western world) would have said “Oh thank god; I’m completely white!”, whereas now, white people are like “Oh…there’s nothing interesting here. I’m completely British.”
The breakdown as of December 27th, 2019 is:
• 51.6% British and Irish (only 51.6% eh? The fact that it’s barely more than half certainly makes me wonder where the rest of my ancestors came from!)
• 25.6% French and German (it’s all French; no German. But more importantly, who are these French ancestors?? 25.6% is way too high to be an error!)
• 4.3% Scandinavian
• 13.3% “Broadly Northwestern European”
• 0.7% Italian
• 0.2% Spanish and Portuguese
• 2.6% “Broadly Southern European” (Is this the only percentage of Greek in my ancestry???)
• 1.5% “Broadly European”
• 0.1% “Broadly Western Asian and North African”
• 0.1% “Unassigned”
The three most interesting aspects to me are:
• If only 52% of my ancestry is British/Irish, where does the rest come from?
• Who are the people who came from France?
• Do I actually have Greek ancestry?
• If so, why is it so distant?
• If not, why is my last name **********?
I haven’t really done much searching since getting the results, but it certainly provides just as many questions as answers.
Another question focused on a relative, whose relationship to me was hinted at being very different from what we thought. But another family member then took the test, and their results corrected that error. I’m obviously censoring this!
I also found out through my results that I’m more likely to get the adult-onset diabeets, so I need to be careful about weight gain, and making sure I exercise on the regular.
On March 13th, I went to my sister’s apartment and did two fluid art paintings; this time with silicone to get the bubbly effect. She has gotten quite good at that style.
At the end of March, we saw Ejaculate From Away (Come From Away), which was surprisingly good. As everyone knows, I hate musicals, but I was willing to give this one a chance because it was about two things I’m interested in — Newfoundland and September 11th. Although the accents weren’t all bang-on, it was very well-done.
On April 12th, we got on a flight and took our second trip to New York City. I had been jonesing to at least plan a trip for this year (since I love trip planning), but Ally was very reluctant due to Paul’s illness…which had only been diagnosed in November of 2018. But somehow, Ally was able to suggest going on a short trip to New York (yes, it was her suggestion). I was happy that she was willing to get away for a bit, so in February we started planning and buying advance tickets. New York has so much stuff to see, and so many ways to get around, so I was happy to figure that part out. We bought contingency-class plane tickets in case we had to fly back if Paul went downhill.
This time, we flew out of Pearson (taking the You-Urinate Express train to get there) and landed at LaGuardia. We stayed at an AirBnb in Brooklyn this time — a tiny little space tacked on to the back of an old house in between Green-Wood Cemetery and Prospect Park. It was about an 8-minute walk to Fort Hamilton Parkway station on the G train. Unlike mid-April in Toronto, it was Spring in New York, which was nice. Lots of trees were flowering.
On Ally’s birthday (an unseasonably warm day that peaked at 24 degrees), we walked through Prospect Park and saw the Frida Kahlo exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum, then walked under the Brooklyn Bridge, which was much bigger in person than I expected. We saw the World Trade Center memorial again the next day and went up in the new tower (which was still under construction when we went in 2013), and Ally demolished a huge plate of nachismo for mid-afternoon lunch. She said she should enter a nacho-eating contest. We also had various subway adventures, which I made sure to document in my trip journal. We didn’t plan as many things this time, and so we were able to have a somewhat slower pace compared to the 2013 trip. But of course, with me, things can only go so slowly. Unless I’m getting a shower — then it can be as slow as time crawls on a quiet night shift. Which I thankfully haven’t had to do in a few years.
When we came back from New York, we found out that Paul had been admitted to the hospital on the day we left for New York. We visited him in the hospital in Newmarket. He had responded badly to a new type of treatment, and was in the hospital for a few days.
The day after we came back from New York, I went and saw a counsellor to try and figure out how to mediate an ongoing conflict. I wasn’t really satisfied with the conversation, although I suppose it helped a little bit to talk about it.
Toward the end of April, my coworker Melinda resigned, moved to Napanee, and got married shortly afterward. I moved upstairs and took over her little office with two big windows, and I have to say, I’ve generally been a lot less annoyed at work. The floor I’m on now is much quieter, so I don’t hear my coworkers and the resident clients yelling at each other all day long, although I don’t think moving offices has improved my productivity. But it has definitely improved my mood, which is worth something.
On May 24th, we had a staff potluck at work, and I made delicious chocolate chip oatmeal cookies.
In early June, I started work on a blue painting of some black-and-white triangular figure. I haven’t finished it yet.
On June 11th, thanks to the influence of a friend who I collaborated with on some work-related projects, I started playing Pokémon GO again. My first catch was a Snover, which I thought looked like a Klansman. I was at level 27, and in the time since then, I’ve gotten up to level 36. I’ve met a lot of people playing Pokémon GO this year, who take it way more seriously than I do. I think the game is better than it was in 2016, in that people who aren’t level 40 can now stand a chance in gym battles, although the game is no longer hyped up the way it was. But it’s provided some entertainment and competition for me throughout the second half of 2019.
On July 12th, Ally started painting her Bell Box mural. On July 14th and 21st, I joined her in the painting, and took some videos throughout. One of those days was very hot, with little shade, but it was a nice way to spend time together and contribute to something relatively permanent in the city. Several people walked by and complimented Ally on her work. On July 22nd, I met Ally and Tina at the mural after work, and they had just finished it.
On July 13th, we went for a very flooded bike ride on Toronto Island with Andrew, Emily, Will, Agnes, and Agnes’s cousins. On July 15th, for our 7th dating anniversary, we went to Karma’s Kitchen for Indian food.
On July 18th, I painted a retirement card for Phil at Halton, as he was set to retire on July 20th and move to Cape Breton Island. He loved the card, and when I saw him at Halton around November, he said he loves living in Cape Breton, so I’m happy for him.
On a super-hot July 19th, Ally and I went on a summer boat cruise with my main job. We had lunch in an enclosed buffet with little air movement, but once we went up on deck, it was cooler. Overall a good time.
This summer had quite a few days that were too hot to be considered “normal” summer heat. However, it was less consistently super-hot than last summer.
Later in July, Paul moved into a hospice in Newmarket. On the evening of July 26th, Ally came home, and soon afterward got a message that she should go back to the hospice…so I drove up with her, and we stayed there overnight, with her mom and brother. I went to Cora’s for breakfast with Ally and her mom around 6:00am, and then we came back and drove home. It was the last time I saw Paul alive.
At some point, Ally went back up to the hospice, and stayed there with him and her mom on the night of July 28th. On the morning of July 29th, as I was getting ready to go to work, Ally texted me and told me that Paul had just passed away. That evening, when we were sitting on the bed at home, she said “I don’t have a dad anymore.” It was the saddest thing I’d ever heard.
On August 3rd, we went to the cemetery, and Paul’s ashes were buried, in a plot near Ally’s grandfather’s. It was sad, but Ally didn’t shed a tear. I think she had spent so much time thinking about it over the previous 8 months that she must have been ready for that moment; as ready as someone could be.
On August 4th, we hopped on the VIA train and went to Montréal for another short vacation. I had booked a trip to Newfoundland with Mom, David, Heather, Matt, and Matt, in which we were going to go to the Regatta, see Nanny, and meet more of Mom’s birth family, but I cancelled it so that I could be physically present for Ally as Paul had moved closer to the end. Ally graciously granted us another trip, partly to replace the one I cancelled, and probably partly to just escape the stress of the home front for a few days.
I had never been on the VIA train before. It was more comfortable than a plane, and slightly faster than a car. I had loaded up on snacks at Bulk Barn, so that helped. On our three-day trip, we got some decent pictures; hiked up Mount Royal, saw the Oratoire Saint-Joseph du Mont-Royal; went on the Grand roue de Montréal, and did some walking around in the heat. This trip to Montréal was much better than my previous two trips, and so it improved my opinion of Montréal.
On August 9th, Ally and I went to my friend Rick’s Zoo Reunion in Pickering, which was a great time. We saw V-Ron, Little Andrew, Rick, Amanda, Sarah, J-Fox, Allen, Drew, and a few other people.
While we were driving home, Mom called and said that Heather’s boyfriend Matt’s mother had died — earlier that day. Heather started a GoFundMe page to help, and within a few days the cost of the funeral was covered.
On August 10th, Ally’s family hosted Paul’s celebration of life at the funeral home. Lots of people showed up, and some of Paul’s favorite baseball and shooting memorabilia were on display.
On August 17th, we went to Matt’s mom’s funeral in Burlington, and then went back to Toronto that night for our second KISS concert; this time at the former ACC. Gene Simmons screwed up by shouting “Montréal!” during one song, but otherwise it was a good show.
Between Ally’s dad, Matt’s mom, and my friend Sarah’s dad, the summer of 2019 was the Summer of Death.
On August 24th, Dad and Robin got married at the cottage. I was the official photographer, and I got some pretty good shots — not bad for my first-ever wedding photography gig. We went to their favorite restaurant for supper, and back to Dad’s house for the after-party.
On August 29th, we went to the Ex, and saw Séan Cullen do standup, which was funny. It was good to have a laugh after a heavy summer.
On September 8th, I took a “ten years later” picture of the Toronto skyline from Riverdale Park, since I had first done that in August of 2009. The skyline is a lot fuller now, with all the new condos. I’m glad I had the presence of mind to do a before-and-after shot.
Throughout the summer, Terrance ate almost an entire box.
On September 14th, we went to the McMichael art gallery with Susan and saw the Maud.Lewis exhibit, which inspired me to do a totally-unrelated painting, of a tree framed by little blue circles of sky.
We went to the Keg Mansion for my birthday, and Heather made me a Froot Loops cake.
In late August, I had noticed that my weight was down to the lowest it had been for a few years. I had it checked out and it seems to be nothing. Not a fascinating story, but it’s part of my year, so it go-eth here.
On September 24th, I got new glasses, after 5 years of the old Hack Them Optical pair. They were Ray-Bans, but the arms cut into the tops of my ears, so I took ‘em back and exchanged them for a pair of Ralph Laurens instead, which are much more comfortable.
On September 27th, Ally and I won tickets to a Thom Yorke concert through work. It was certainly different than his Radiohead stuff.
Also in late September, we all got wind of Justin Trudeau’s blackface controversy. I turned it into a bunch of dark jokes (pardon the pun) with coworkers, friends, and Ally. And thankfully, it didn’t seem to affect the election that much. The Liberals won the federal election again. I would have preferred the NDP to win, but better the Liberals than the Conservatives. Justin Trudeau hasn’t done a great job in the last 4 years, in my opinion, but a Liberal who says they’re gonna do fair, responsible things and then doesn’t do them is better than a Conservative who outright says they’re gonna do evil things and then goes and does them. Paying lip service to giving a shit about the environment is much better than saying “Durr, we like oil jerbs, so fuck the environment!”
Also in political fuckwaddery, the impeachment of Donald Trump. I don’t think he’ll be removed from office, but at least he’ll have another stain on his record. Unlike the cum stain on Bill Clinton’s record, Trump’s stain will be a total disregard for human decency, across the board. I hope Bernie crushes him in 2020…or whoever the Democrats nominate. I was wrong before…the planet can’t afford us (the righteous liberal majority) to be complacent a second time.
Also in ***censored until I figure out what’s happening with my job contract***
Also in political headshakery, Brexit. It seems dumb, but I haven’t taken the time to figure out what either side’s argument for leaving or staying actually is.
Going off topic a bit, I’ve seen a few “summary of the decade” articles recently, and while that’s beyond the scope of my 2019 summary, I will say that the last few years are characterized more and more by masses of people trying to avoid other people. My generation, it seems, is being defined by its utter discomfort with the concept of “waiting”. Of being seen unoccupied. Take a look around on any public transit vehicle, or at the bus stop, or in a waiting room — almost everyone whose hair isn’t totally grey will be looking at a cell phone. I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again: Due to the invention and proliferation of the smartphone, we can now conclude that there’s nothing people wanted more than the ability to insulate ourselves from face-to-face human contact while in the presence of strangers.
On October 10th, I brought home a hilarious kitchen floor mat of the Labrador ferry, as a joke on Ally. Her reaction was just as funny as I expected.
On November 3rd, Ally did the CN Tower stair climb. Not my story, but still exciting for her!
On November 10th, I finally took a trip to see the new subway stations on the Spadina extension. It was a chilly and dreary day, but I got good pics of the stations. Hopefully I’ll post them on the Internets (to paraphrase my previously-least-favorite American president). I’ve been so far behind on my posting now, it’s ridiculous. I’m still posting pics from my honeymoon, which was two years ago, and chronologically (in terms of my unposted iPhoto pics), I’m only caught up to the fall of 2012.
Also on November 10th, I baked Nanny’s chocolate chip cookies for the first time! They were a little off (probably because they were gluten-free), but overall they tasted pretty similar to the real thing.
On Remembrance Day, winter began. We had a week of brütal February weather that week, and then it went back to normal. Then it got cold again. The last week or two of December have been pretty mild, which is nice. We’ll see what the rest of the winter holds.
On November 22nd, Ally took me to the City and Color show. I wasn’t really interested in going, but I went, and it was alright. One guy in front of us was drunk when he got there, and in between arguments with his girlfriend, he’d shout “Save your fucking scissors!” They left early, and the band never did play “Save Your Scissors”.
On December 6th, Ally and I went to Medieval Times for my work’s Christmas party. It was reasonably entertaining, and the food was good.
On December 7th, Ally and I went to see A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood with her mom in Nieuwmarquet. It was a pretty sad story, but uplifting at the same time.
I took several days off work in the second half of December, and on December 20th we saw Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. As with the previous movie, there were a few moments of “Okay, yeah right”, like the Death Star and Palpatine partially surviving the massive explosion… (these are in the trailer, and so they are not spoilers) — but overall I was satisfied with
SPOILER BELOW! SPOILER BELOW!
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Rey killing Palpatine and choosing to become a Skywalker.
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END OF SPOILER
But I doubt the Skywalker saga is truly over. It’s too lucrative, amirite?
I’ve noticed in the last year or two that Star Wars is no longer relegated to being a “once every few years” thing — it’s an everyday thing now. Whenever I use “Explore” on Instagram, Star Wars memes pop up…although this year I’ve noticed fewer funny prequel memes about Anakin and Palpatine and more stupid “Star Wars Fact” memes, which are based on derivative works that didn’t have theatrical releases, and are therefore of questionable importance.
On December 21st, I unknowingly took my last ride on the old CLRV streetcar. I had been playing Pokémon with my friend Matt downtown, and took it along Queen Street from around University Avenue (that’s “Avenyou”, not “avenoo”, by the way) to Leslie Street. On December 29th, the TTC ran the CLRVs on their final jaunt before retiring them. I’m glad I’ve taken several good pictures of those old streetcars over the years, and that a few of them will be preserved at the Halton County Radial Railway.
On Christmas Eve, I made maple glazed carrots for the first time.
For Christmas, I got a Tupac (two-pack) of Zildjian low-volume cymbals (hi-hats and a crash-ride) from Ally, Mom and eHeather, which I had first seen in Cosmo(s) Music with Ally in Novembuary. I’m a long-time Sabian guy, but these admittedly sound a bit better than the Sabian equivalent, and they look better too. Plus I’m the only one who gives a shit what brand of cymbals I play. A few days later, I ordered a 16” crash to go with them, because I played them and realized that if I was recording (or just jamming) with actual drumsticks and hit my regular crash, it would be way too loud. So, I ordered the low-volume crash to kind of “complete” my low-volume set-up. Ally also got me a pair of socks with eTerrance’s face on them, which is pretty funny. Mom also brought me some old film pictures, including several of my Hawaii and Japan 2002 pictures that I thought were lost, so I’ll be uploading those in the future!
We went up to Dad’s house for supper, where I found my lost (and now cancelled) credit card, wedged in between the seat cushions where I expected it would be. After gorging ourselves on food, Elliot taught us how to play dreidel. Dad got me a Blue Yeti microphone, since I had discovered earlier in December that my iMac’s built-in microphone is beyond terrible — my old MacBook Pro’s mic was way better. Anyway, now I’ve got a big honking microphone to record music with, and the sound quality is great.
We drove to Susan’s house that evening and stayed there overnight. We had Boxing Day supper there, whence I ate a lot of cookies.
A few days later I recorded parts of “Saltwater Joys” and “If I Fell” — stuff that never woulda fit in with my old bands. Let’s see if I actually end up recording them completely, now that I have all the gear that’s needed, and the only barrier would be my own excuses.
It’s hard to believe that it’s been about 7 years since I was in an active band…Adam & Evil faded away in late 2012 (see my 2012 summary). Alex is still playing live music with newer friends in Oshawa, and I recently saw a pic of him playing my old drumset on stage, so I’m happy he’s been able to carry on playing shows, even if I only see him once or twice a year now.
On December 29th, I baked onion rings for the first time. They didn’t turn out great, but the concept worked, so I may try it again.
In terms of ongoing stuff, I continued working at my older job pretty much every other weekend, and passed the 7-year mark on December 14th. It’s now the job I’ve held the longest. At my main job, I continued becoming better at not getting stuck when helping my clients. We still aren’t seeing a huge number of new clients, but I was still able to do meaningful work with the many who keep coming back — similar to last year’s summary, I know! My work life in 2019 was pretty similar to 2018.
My average walking distance was nearly identical to last year’s. I didn’t ride my bike as much this year, which is disappointing, but it’s because I spent a lot of my outdoor free time playing Pokémon. In 2020, I’d like to ride my bike more and spend less outdoor time playing Pokémon.
We didn’t watch much TV during the first half of this year, but in the fall we finished The Pacific; watched the third season of The Crown, (which I liked for its development of Prince Charles’s character) and watched the first season of The Medichlorian, er, I mean The Baby Yoda Show, er, I mean The Mandalorian. I also streamed a fair bit of The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, whose Donald Trump impression I’ve gained a reputation for nailing. Two of my other favorite videos of the year were both Trevor Noah’s: The one about Africans giving advice for when white people invade the Arctic, and of course the one about Mexicans stealing Trump’s wall, which truly is fucking hilarious.
As previously mentioned, I got a kick out of the Palpatine memes this year (especially “Mountain DEW IT”), and birb memes as well. I even bought Ally a @chickenthoughtsofficial t-shirt for Christmas!
Once again, I didn’t get into a whole lot of new music this year, but a few of my favorites included:
• “Crazy” by Patsy Cline
• “Please Please Me” by The Beatles
• “I Guess That’s Why They Call It The Blues” by Elton John
• “String Quintet in E Major, Op 13: Minuet” by Luigi Boccherini/London Philharmonic Orchestra
• “Christmas Time in Hell” by “Satan the Dark Prince (South Park)
• “The Ballad of John and Yoko” by The Beatles
• “And I Love Her” by The Beatles/Fred Benedetti & Peter Pupping
• “Another Day in Paradise” by Phil Collins
• “Story” by Chon
• “Blackest Eyes” by Porcupine Tree
I also burned my 33rd Random Mix CD, after a year and a half of not making any due to not having a CD drive on my iMac. I used the old ManBearPig, which still works after almost ten years. There’s a purchase from which I definitely got my money’s worth!
In 2019, I read more books than any other recorded year. This is only a half-truth (or as Emperor Trump would call it, “Fake News”), because as a pre-teen, I’m certain there were years when I read more Goosebumps books than the total number of books in my 2019 list. But to be fair, back then, I didn’t have a cell phone or my own computer to compete for my time. So, here’s the list of books I read in 2019:
• Finished Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation by Bill Nye
• Becoming by Michelle Obama
• The Day the World Came to Town by Jim Defede
• Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
• A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking
• Canada by Mike Myers
• America Again: Re-Becoming the Greatness We Never Weren’t by Stephen Colbert
• Man’s Search For Meaning by Viktor Frankl
• Fear: Trump in the White House by Bob Woodward
• Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life: A Sortabiography by Eric Idle
• Bernie by Ted Rall
• Star Talk with Neil DeGrasse Tyson (a library book! I never read those!)
• Freedom is a Constant Struggle by Angela Davis
• Started Inside Rehab by Anne Fletcher
What do I want to do in 2020?
• Go on a big trip (two weeks or more).
• Join a gym (yeah; me and 100 million other people!)
• Spend less outdoor time playing Pokémon and more outdoor time riding my bike.
• Post more pictures on Flickr.
• Eat less chocolate and more vegetables (I’m deliberately leaving this undefined so that I can’t hold myself accountable).
• Record more music with my new microphone and drum gear.
And so, my friends, thanks for taking the time. I don’t know what 2020 holds for me, or the planet. My job contract is set to expire in the spring, so we’ll see what happens with that. As for civilization as a whole, I’m encouraged by the level of dedication that lots of people are showing in fighting climate change and making more sustainable choices on an individual level, even if it sometimes feels like the pendulum has swung a bit too far. I’m still looking for an alternative to plastic cling wrap and Ziploc bags that are just as sanitary as factory-made plastic, but better for the environment. However, I am hopeful that even in the face of climate change denial by a small faction of losers, the correct people of the world will prevail. Even if the current American (and Ontario) governments won’t show leadership, the rest of the planet gives a shit. Nothing can stop the green revolution. The tide has turned — #sciencebepraised.
Happy New Year!
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