The night before the 1st

'twas the night before Canada Day and all was silent on this Friday

One of my cats settled down beside me at my computer chair and continued his incessant purring

I feel content this evening, even if I lead a lonely life

I still write here because it helps keep me accountable

I could have gone out this evening, to a jazz festival with a co-worker but chose to stay in instead. I guess I could blame the really poor air quality for not going, but really, it's because of my habits that I don't go out much.

I'll go to the islands sometime, get some fresh lake air if possible.

Song in the Head

I did a "Song of the Day" for a while on this blog, where I updated practically daily on a song I've listened to. I've stopped doing that because I'm not listening to as much music on the daily, but I still get songs stuck in my head from time to time.

Currently, I've got "Turn It On Again" by Genesis (with Phil Collins) stuck in my head and for good reason: it's catchy as hell and the lyrics are easy to belt out.

I was actually first introduced to this song without knowing what an iconic song it was when I discovered Dream Theater (a progressive metal band) as a teenager. They cover the very end of "Turn It On Again" in "The Big Medley" which is basically a 10+ minute metal cover mashup of popular rock songs. It's good, but the original is the one that's now stuck in my head.

I can't pretend to fully understand the social commentary behind the song, but there's something there for sure. Here it is if you wanna listen to it:

Reddit protest

You know, it's odd that I don't mention reddit very often here considering how much time I spend on that website. Maybe I feel embarrassed about how much time I've wasted, or maybe it's because browsing reddit can get pretty exhausting - especially if you're not tailoring the content to your interests - and I just don't have the energy to write something about all the posts I've read.

Now seems like a good time to write about reddit, because as of today, there's a huge protest going on and many of the largest communities are "blacked out" in solidarity with 3rd party apps being forced out by API changes. It's a little bit complicated, and I haven't really delved too much into the details, but the gist of it is people are angry because reddit is charging developers for access to the content whereas before it was mostly free. So these apps will no longer work. It's kind of boring to talk about, but I agree with the protest because reddit is trying to limit how we interact with the content we, as internet denizens, create for free.

Anyway, it's kind of interesting to see masses of people agreeing to protest this, and reddit is definitely far less interesting at the moment, which is a blessing in a way for me because I spend way, way too much time on there just endlessly scrolling.

I don't post or comment very often because although reading all this content is exhausting, getting into internet arguments is exponentially more so. And also, the fake internet points that you get from other people upvoting or downvoting what you write can get pretty silly. If you say something that redditors in a particular echo chamber disagree with - even if you're clearly contributing to the discussion! - you'll find your comment buried and with a negative score. And they're just fake, internet points, I know, but it still feels like you're being told "no, what you wrote isn't valid".

On the other hand, you can learn and have really interesting discussions with people, or learn vicariously through the really interesting discussions that people post, and I feel that's when reddit is at it's best: a place where people can share and discuss with some degree of anonymity and you get to see how others view the world, essentially.

I personally have filtered out a lot of content on there. I really despise the public shaming aspect of reddit, where endless videos of people doing stupid shit gets uploaded and they get all the visibility because, well, it's shocking and gets people talking. I try and avoid political communities too, and just overall places where there's too much negativity and not enough room for constructive discussion.

Among some of my favourite communities are the "what is this" communities, where people post pictures of plants, or insects, or man-made objects and ask for help in identifying them. It's really cool seeing the process of these things being identified in real time by casual hobbyists or even experts, and I don't end up feeling overwhelmed by negativity.

I also like the gaming subreddits, because there's no better place to find hidden strategies, or to discuss how fun a game is than these forums. Plus it's easy to help out noobs, and feel a small sense of accomplishment in helping them discover a game that you love. The Path of Exile daily discussion thread comes to mind. The gaming subreddits can get toxic, however, so watch out.

Anyway, it'd be nice if this reddit protest accomplishes something, but given the corporate nature of reddit now, it's hard to say what will happen. Either way, it's got me thinking critically about how I engage with the site that I use Every. Single. Day.

Burning sky

The past couple days have been interesting, weather-wise.

For starters, it literally smelled like smoke yesterday morning. You could walk outside, and it'd smell like a faint campfire.

It was also foggy. If I looked toward the end of the avenue, I could see a gray haze not unlike a fog, this without a hint of rain in the air.

This morning, the smokey smell remains, and instead of a sunrise, the sunlight literally looks like an orange sunset. It's quite strange.

Of course, the air quality is terrible, and thankfully I don't suffer from any respiratory conditions, but I know that people who have those conditions are seriously advised to stay inside while the smoke blows over.

Yeah, it's smoke from forest fires out in Quebec and Northern Ontario blowing down smack in the centre of the city; it's quite a phenomenon.

Kinda bummed that I still don't have great picture-taking capabilities, but I'm budgeting kinda tight with my money and a new phone or camera isn't really a necessary expense for me so it'll have to wait.

Doom & bloom

Listening to Doomsday by MF Doom it kind of makes me want to write improvisally; making up words, rapping makes it sound pretty. Don't really care if I'm no good at making things sound good; can't rap can't finish my day without my green dope.

See my words on the screen that I freewrite for thee; is the next sentence free or do I have to make it rhyme perfectly? I need to catch up on vocabulary, maybe even read the dictionary. Trying to express as best I can with a beat in mind and a vape in my hand. I'm gonna keep rambling a bit to the tune of doom, but don't expect anything too great or a silver spoon.

I tire of the negative buzz in my head; if I care to sum it up it's all about comparing myself to the common ideal; the glass circus, the identity politics. Sure I might not be rich or fully independent but I still try to improve my present circumstance in the small ways that I can. Not constantly, not even primally; just living day-to-day with some stability. 

So I'll end now with my session done; feeling good, but should still go outside and feel the burning sun.

Word on the Street '23

I had a Saturday with nothing planned last weekend, so I decided to check out the Word on the Street festival. I would simply describe it as a big outdoor book fair: there were tents representing publishing houses, editors, independent bookstores; individual authors, poetry collectives, and even the Toronto library's own bookmobile which was my favourite part.

The bookmobile is basically a big bus that's been converted into a library on wheels. You climb inside, and there's enough space for half-a-dozen people to browse books comfortably before it feels a little too crowded. Air-conditioned, too, which was good because it was a rather warm spring day. The books are lined up on shelves attached to the sides of the inside of the bus, and I perused them for a while before deciding to borrow a random mystery book. The bookmobile was parked smack in the middle of the festival, which ran along the east side of Queen's Park, with a couple of streets being closed for pedestrians to wander through the various exhibitions.

I didn't really recognize any of the authors (unlike the last time I went to the festival, pre-pandemic, where I got my copy of Silverwing signed by Kenneth Oppel!), so I didn't attend any of the author readings or panel discussions; rather, I just enjoyed wandering in the crowd and eventually just chilling under a tree in Queen's Park to vape & listen to music.

Not getting a bike flat on my commute there & back was also a positive experience!

Really, the least enjoyable part of the festival was that there were some "F*ck Trudeau, lock Freeland up" wackos on the north-western side of Queen's Park, really, just like... 3 of them... blasting some Neil Young & other ironic music beside a big white van and waving provocative flags. They eventually drove past the festival, honking annoyingly before heading off to wherever else they were planning to "protest".

Anyway, I don't have any pictures to share. I know I keep saying this, but I really want more pictures with my blog posts. Makes them a bit less dull. I'll get around to it... eventually.