happy new year

Listening to bands like "Useless Eaters" makes me wish I could spend a week being a 23 year old guy. I would be such a dick.

Is almost the New Year, time for resolutions...

Here's my first one, continue to seek personal meaning and truth. So far, this decade has been the best of my life and I think it's largely due to having found purpose and fulfillment within my finite existence. Am going to continue with that approach despite the sometimes overwhelming urge to conform to society's zombiefication process. Theme for 2014: F*** the system! I can do whatever the f*** I want!

Second, my children...I want to continue to raise them in a kick-ass style that will ensure they can think for themselves and connect with other living beings with empathy and objectivity. I will teach them how to live happy and to take life one day at a time while creating the reality that they want. Make time for them everyday, listen to them, respect them, grow with them...love is all we need.

Today was my last run of 2013. Since mid-November I have logged over 200km culminating in today's 18 km run where I gained 519 meters of elevation and completed in under two hours. I've been averaging 11km per run, three times a week...no wonder I've been so happy lately. So, 2014 is going to be the year of running...more. My goal is to run 1000 miles this year...completely achievable if I continue doing 10-ish km three times per week. The real challenge for me will be to stay injury free, nutritionally fit and motivated. Resolution #3.

Four...find happiness everyday. Because it's everywhere.

#yesthisishappening

writing and speaking in hashtags when not using twitter. people are doing it. i get it. it's handy to be able to quickly and succinctly categorize your thoughts, to communicate your theme effectively. but seriously, the english language is vast and expressive. are we really going to make orwell right about everything?

my new year

My new year begins tomorrow...the last year of my thirties. At least I know I don't have to worry about having a mid-life crisis; the one that started when I was 15 hasn't ended yet.

Beautiful run today; still snowy and cold up there, so quiet and still. Merry Christmas!

xmas spririt

Amazing, snowy run today through the beautiful forest...love it, but also wishing the mountains were more packed with snow so I could get up for some boarding. Seems like every Olympic year is low on snow.

Was downtown last night drinking in the Christmas spirit that only a busy city can impart; so many people about! Walking from the Seabus to the West End, I found myself seeing the Vancouver of my youth superimposed on the Vancouver of 2013...the traffic free streets, the old library on Robson, the pre-renovated art gallery, Granville street when it still had Orientique and the small leather-smell laden John Fluevog, the site of the old Underground thrift shop...I could see it all. It all looks so different now and decidedly futuristic. Very cool. Anyway, all the retail Christmas porn on display has finally catapulted me into the Christmas spirit...bring on the treats and wine.

frosty

The days will begin to get longer this weekend...at first just by a few seconds, but by end of January we'll see a difference. A great snowy day today, such a perfect end to the first term of school. Since we'll be away until the 15th of January I get my kids, school-influence-free, for a whole month now! Let the unschooling begin...

A2 and I made this guy this afternoon; she was thrilled to be out in the snow and reminded me once again to acknowledge gratitude and fun everyday the way kids inherently do.

moments in time

Breakfast conversation with the kids this morning revolved around: infinity and the concept of numbers never ending, desire to live to infinity, how cool it would be to have the power of invisibility and the ability to fly.

Had a thought while driving today that my children will never know the unadulterated joy of cars; the freedom of being a new driver, of having your own car to go wherever you want, the expressive power of driving a machine that encompasses freedom and control. The automobile truly was a remarkable invention...what a shame that we all have to feel so guilty about using them now.

This is what just happened outside...

man salad and the end of the world

Last Friday, J and I got to go out for dinner...alone. The restaurant we chose was busy, and oddly, since the restaurant is actually more of a bar/lounge, it was packed with families. High chairs were everywhere; tired, listless looking parent's with giant glasses of red wine staring off into space while their kids played on their iPhones...it was really creepy. Anyway, we bucked the trend and sat next to each other on the bench at our childless table and settled in for a nice cozy chat without a single, "mama? mama? Mama!?"

We noticed things from our perch. The manager was hands-y with his wait staff...the girls tried to avoid him, but he was everywhere. At the table next to us sat a family of three, a son in his mid-twenties and his parents. The mother didn't shut up for the entire meal. Seriously, I don't even know how she managed to eat her food she was talking so much. The son would say two words and suddenly she would be telling what he had do, what so-and-so would or had done, what she would do, blah, blah, blah. The husband looked resigned. The son, to his credit, just took it. He didn't even look at his phone ONCE until the dinner was over. He must have been asking them for money. There were two aging men having drinks together across from us. They were dressed young, younger than they could carry, and one of them was obsessed with his smart phone; he kept trying to show his companion things on the screen but neither of them could see well enough without their reading glasses. He tried the pinch-zoom, but it wasn't working for him. As with most older users of technology, he was unwilling or unable to use his thumbs (used only his index fingers)...rotary telephones really fucked with the Boomers ability to use their thumbs productively.

So, the man salad...the waiter who came over with our dinner, salad with seared tuna and an extra cheesy pizza, assumed that I was the salad and J was the pizza. Of course, it was the other way around. Pre-conceived notions about people are inevitable. All the "ism's" exist because human brains love hierarchy and are built to classify, predict and prioritize. I like making up stories about people I see around me, but I certainly don't like being judged by others...hypocritical, yes.

The power went out at the office today. Had a fleeting thought, when I walked into the bathroom and stupidly tried the light switch anyway...what if the power never went back on? That's how the end of the world would likely happen - there would be no build up, it would just occur. Yes, I started another apocalyptic sci-fi book..."Fiend". It's actually really good (it's a zombie apocalypse with a side of meth addiction), but it's fucking with my head. Looking to my immediate future I don't really see an end to this literary theme since I requested books by Eggers and Coupland for Christmas. Maybe there is such a thing as a "merry apocalypse"?

oh pascal!

Have been thinking a lot about Pascal's Wager...ever since I saw the YouTube video by that nerdy guy who applies the same type of probability theory to the climate change issue.

See it here.

I think it's a great application of the argument model, and I don't think there are any huge holes in the logic however, since when does humanity ever play it safe? There is no way to get people to plan for the future appropriately, especially when it's a future that they themselves won't be a part of. Humans are too myopic. The argument still does nothing to convince people who truly just don't believe in climate change either. Just like the original model (belief in god), if you are an unbeliever, either by choice or circumstance, the argument carries no weight.

Dreamt that I got a new job last night. It wasn't so much the job that made the dream significant, it was the salary...$178,073.00 per year. Pretty specific number for a dream, but again I don't think it's the number that is significant. It's the fact that even though I truly believe we should be moving toward income and class equality I still secretly want to be stinkin' rich ;)

I'm injured. IT band again. Without running, and my regular hit of endorphins, things are going to get morose and nihilistic around here pretty fast. How much longer do I have to wait before bionic technology can make me super human?

mine are all "strong"

Woke up this morning wondering...how many passwords does the average person have? Between work and personal I have nine memorized for countless sites, but then I also use variations within those nine sometimes. This will undoubtedly become a problem as I age and start to forget which password goes with which site; it's already confusing if I haven't logged in somewhere for a while. Maybe I have finally found the perfect tattoo...

70's vibe

I recently came across this lovely short film by Jim Henson. It's a four minute, low-tech holiday back to a simpler time.

See it here.

Sweet nostalgia for the public television ideals that were in favour when I was young. And for the notion of playing outside...seriously, can kids even run like that anymore?

I have been thinking a lot about nature deficit in children (officially called nature-deficit disorder, like we need another disorder). My children are lucky to have nature at their doorstep and parents who take them out to experience it daily, but our situation is unique to our geography. For kids who live in more urban environments there are serious consequences associated with their lack of exposure to nature; chief among them are lack of confidence, self worth and sense of life purpose. How can we expect people to comprehend the need to protect an environment that is foreign to them?

There are times when I feel so optimistic about the future of humanity. I see that there are smart, motivated and passionate people driving the forces of change. But, if I am feeling more realistic, I also see the real truth which is, we're probably f***ed. 7 billion of us...there is no way to sustain that.

Again, to reiterate, I need to take a break from speculative fiction ;) Bring on the chic-lit.

r.e.m.embering

I dreamed up a new superhero last night. I was sitting at an old-timey diner counter on a red swivel stool drinking coffee out of one of those tiny coffee cups with matching saucer and eating a scone; sitting on either side of me were two superheroes. Pixel Man was made up of red, blue and yellow specks (almost like tiny spheres, which YES I know that is not how pixels would look, but it was a dream for pete's sake). Pixel Man could retain a featureless, human form or he could allow some of his "matter" to swirl up around him in a cloud formation. The other guy was lame in comparison. He looked like an mod rocker from the '90's but with a face much like the Anonymous masks. Pale face, black eye make-up, a leather dog collar around his neck, long black coat and boots, long black hair (think the Crow with Joker smile). As far as I could tell his only power was annoying people and trying to get free stuff. He was reminiscent of the type of creep that used to hang out at the Twilight Zone.

Have very clear picture of Pixel Man...wish I was a decent illustrator because he was visually stunning. was such a great dream, so much detail and richness of colour. Has been a while since I have remembered anything so dynamic from my dreams...super fun way to wake up :)