Talking a walk in the forest listening to a Dhamma talk contemplating wisdom, surrounded by many handfuls of leaves. ☸️
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!