Over the next year, I aim to read at least one poem a day to see where it takes me and what I can discover in terms of authors, genres, forms. 📚
Today’s poems: A Far Cry from Africa and Nights in the Gardents of Port of Spain by Derek Walcott.
Currently reading: The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2) by Liu Cixin 📚
Celebrating the end of the week with Signal Hill whisky from St. John’s.
This was the end of my sixth week of the summer hearing online piano exams, with one more week to go before leaving for Winnipeg and Calgary to hear two weeks of in-person exams.
Oliver Burkeman in The Imperfectionist: Lists are menus
And here’s the kicker: aren’t all to-do lists really menus anyway, whether I choose to think of them that way or not? After all, if there are vastly more things I could do with any given hour or day than I actually can do – if there are a million ways to do good work, be a better parent, spouse or citizen, live healthily, and so on, yet only time for a handful – then in fact we’re always picking from a menu, even if we delude ourselves that what we’re doing is getting through a list.
Evening walk.
CJ Chilvers: Creativity vs. Productivity
Meta permanently ending news availability on its platforms in Canada starting today
As a Canadian, this is pretty serious news and it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming months.
Traffic in downtown Toronto is terrible. Why does it seem that there is construction in every single street? No, I’m not driving.
A view of the building in Toronto used as the Khan Noonien-Singh Institute featured in Star Trek Strange New Worlds S2E3 (Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow). This is where I work. 🖖
Evening walk.
How to Learn Antyhing Fast: Teach Your Brain to Focus
Elizabeth Filips on science-backed ways to trick your brain into staying engaged.
Today’s haul from the Toronto Pen Shoppe at the Distillery. 🖋️
Great weather for spending time at the Distillery District this afternoon.
Using AirPods as a Hearing Aid
I know of several musicians that might find this useful. Fortunately my musical work doesn’t put me in a high-noise environment at present.
Sunday morning. ☕️🖋️
Sinéad O’Connor - I Am Stretched Out on Your Grave
Still haunting after all these years.
From a conversation earlier today on Facebook. “It federates into Mastodon” has got to be one of the most 2023 things I’ve said all year.
This is almost the end of my fifth half-week of remote working this summer, with three more to go. It’s still difficult to get used to, and now I see why so many people lost their minds during the pandemic. For me it’s a constant battle to either keep physically active or intellectually stimulated during my downtime.
Currently reading: The Creative Act by Rick Rubin 📚
You might imagine that the outside world is a conveyor belt with a stream of small packages on it, always going by. The first step is to notice the conveyor belt is there. And then, anytime you want, you can pick up one of those packages, unwrap it, and see what’s inside.