the yak occidental

August is my birthday month! Here are the happenings of this deep summer situation. Painting above:  BLACK MESA LANDSCAPE, NEW MEXICO/OUT BACK OF MARIE’S II (c. 1930) by Georgia O'Keeffe. August Excursion: The Book of Distance VR Experience at Powell Street Festival The Powell Street Festival is an annual event celebrating Japanese Canadian cultures. In 2020 they were entirely online, this year was a hybrid with a very small programme of events happening at the Japanese Language school on the DTES.  One of those events was the incredibly moving and powerful VR game The Book of Distance by Randall Okita , which about Okita's family experience with WW2 in Canada and the human rights violations and war crimes the Canadian government enacted on Japanese Canadian citizens. I got to play it and despite not really liking video games/VR, I found it very powerful and haunting. Most-Liked Chore: Brushing Liberty Bell Liberty Bell is my domestic longhair (we thought she was a maine coo...

Here are some conclusions that I have come to a couple years into my third decade. Painting above: Self Portrait (c. 1934) by Georgette Chen It will be my birthday in a few days! Naturally I'm feeling rather reflective and celebratory. Here is a list of a mix of conclusions I have come to about various things,  and few  observations about myself.  Being right has very, very , rarely helped improve any of my relationships. Respecting people's choices has. I don't stand on ceremony much It is possible to get along with and even enjoy the company of people who have political and social beliefs that are the polar opposite of my own As it turns out, I am much more of a redneck than I would ever care to admit. You can take the girl out of the country... I have inherited a really messed up view of what forgiveness is. These quotes have helped me start to figure out what forgiveness is all about. Never say never. I don't take a lot of risks and I live a very predictable, routin...

This is not a drill, you read that title correctly. I have have an inexplicable fondness for TV shows about Catholics who solve crimes - Murdoch Mysteries and Father Brown , that is. Yes, I am secretly a sexagenarian.  In all seriousness, I enjoy the clothes on Father Brown. The era of course, is one thing, the other is the colour and accessories. Very rarely do we see any of the characters in black, the neutrals they wear are navy, browns, etc. Black, of course, is reserved for our very own Father Brown in his cassock. I also enjoy the gloves, belts, necklaces and earrings. It's also nice to see the more rural stylings vs. say, the big city styling that we see and love in Mad Men or Marvelous Mrs. Maisel .  I appreciate that the older characters (anyone above the age of 30 in TV land of course) are regularly shown in colourful, eye-catching getups rather than fading into the background in greys and beiges. My only issue with the styling is that I resent they don't put Bunty ...

Our latest experiment adulting: making commitments to incoming guests in our home Painting above: Drinking Party with a Lute Player (c.1623) by Nicolas Tournier I recently observed to my spouse and friends that the idea and discourse around boundaries seems to very much be a generational thing that has changed a lot in our lifetime.  For example, my friends and sister are raising their kids in a culture of consent and boundaries, and I couldn't be happier for it to be honest.  It really is different from how folks my age in North America were raised, and I have found that people in our parent's generation tend to struggle with the idea of boundaries a lot more. Like what if your grandkids don't want to hug you? What if I don't want to hug you? What if we decide that the healthiest thing for us at a certain time is to not talk with a given member of the family? It's complicated and also not. The conversation is changing and it's interesting/exciting to see. R...

Summer is my least-favourite season of the year, nevertheless, here is what happened during this month which I consider the height of summer. Painting above: Lighthouse and Lobster Trap (late 19050s) by Maud Lewis July Excursion: Second Dose I woke up on Saturday, July 10th late - we had slept in til like, 11:00 then had a leisurely breakfast. We had no plans for the day, maybe a nice walk through the park. I finally get around to checking my phone and see a text message from actually 3:46 AM - I was eligible to book my second vaccine!! So then we are on to furiously booking an appointment and lo and behold, there was one available for that very night at 6:50 PM! We take it, and next thing my day has turned upside-down with the excitement of getting my second dose much sooner than expected. What a thrill! I'm very grateful. The vaccine itself went very smoothly, I had an excellent person named Simran who gave me my shot and my arm wasn't nearly as sore as it was the first tim...