Blog
You live the story you write
But you don’t remember that you wrote it… and that is what makes life fun
Gorgeous documentary on kathina featuring Wat Marp Jan (Ajahn Anan’s monastery). Anumodana! 🙏
#Buddhism
Currently reading: Deadhouse Gates by Steven Erikson 📚
Here’s to the next thousand pages …
Last night we gathered community builders to ideate on how we can rebuild Vancouver’s once-thriving meetup scene. 🥳 What resources can we pool for the betterment of the ecosystem? 🤔 It was a total blast and we are collating our findings and planning Stage 2. 📈 If you’re an organizer, REACH OUT 🤝
Dosa time
Daddy daughter time at the #archery
Excellent interview with Joe Watkins about his new book “Indigenizing Japan: Ainu Past, Present, and Future” by @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social. I learned about Shakushain’s Revolt. Upopoy is the only National Museum I have not been to. Gonna get this book! 📚
#Japan #history #ainu
Sent out my monthly newsletter a little early. We got everything from reflecting on history, legacy, “moments”, and of course AI — which I am sure you haven’t heard enough about yet 😏
(Oh and also a million photographs, but that is just a given 🤷♂️)
Started The AI Mirror by Shannon Vallor @shannonvallor.bsky.social 📚
GenAI shows us what we already are. A mirror can be useful, showing us what we cannot normally see, but it can occlude and distort.
Also re-reading her Technology and the Virtues which I used teaching Digital Ethics at UBC
Photos from around my city today
Me: Look! Here is a picture of me in 1995! 🎞️
My 16 year old daughter: OMG when you said that the first thing that popped into my mind was World War 1. 🪖
💀💀💀
Started Stillness Flowing: The Life and Teachings of Ajahn Chah by Ajahn Jayasaro 📚
#Buddhism
Currently reading: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolkien 📚
Started the Andy Serkis narrated version. Already 10% in but is it only Ch2! There have already been about 8 prologues and prefaces and various philological treatises. I just wanted to get to the bloomin’ party! 🍖🎇
Going through some old photos. Here’s the Lions Gate Bridge in 1959
#vancouver #history
Sound on. Let’s chant together:
#jomo #jomo #jomo 🧘 😂
Happy Diwali! 🪔
Last year it fell on Halloween which was lots of fun. All the kids would say “Trick-or-treat! Happy Diwali!” 🎃 🪔
This year it falls on the anniversary of us viewing and putting an offer on our house 🏡
And Bandi Chhor Divas is when the offer was accepted 🤝 🥰
Light to you all!
A slip of the tongue talking about social issues in Canada and USA gave me a particularly useful new word: 北米人 → 白米人 😜
The existence of hakubeijin implies the existence of 玄米人 🙃
Vancouver’s “Powerbroker” — a sort of review of “Becoming Vancouver”
Who is the Robert Moses of Vancouver?
🌧️ Raining in Vancouver. Man comes out of a shop with a very large format book 📕 I watch aghast 😮 as he walks slowly towards his car 🚗 with the book open in both hands, reading 💦 📖
He gets to his vehicle and closes the book to get in and I catch a glimpse of the title:
Weather
SMDH ☠️
What is a “moment”?
What is it like to be in one? What are we experiencing when we realize we are having one?
Moments are periods of dis-alienation.
(I think this is from Henri Lefebvre 🤔)
Knowing this makes me want to experience even more moments. Let’s get together!
Re-framing Franz Fanon
Lewis Gordon on Frantz Fanon This is a beautiful interview with Lewis Gordon, scholar of the work of Franz Fanon. Gordon contends that many people mis-interpret Fanon, especially around his views of political violence. Gordon’s reframing of Fanon is succinct and captures a side I didn’t get before. Here are couple of choice quotes, but the episode is short and I encourage you to listen tot he whole thing. Dr Gordon is a great speaker.