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A Sunday Walk in Victoria

Last Sunday the weather hit a balmy 18C, so I set out to take advantage of the early-spring sun and warmth to do one of my favourite walks, from my apartment down through Beacon Hill Park to Dallas Rd and then over to Clover Point before doubling back via Cook St Village.

This is one my favourite walks, during my favourite time of year, so I thought I’d share some of the (many) photos I took along the way, kind of bring you with me, as it were 😊

This is something I still get giddy over about living in Victoria. I’ll be walking along a regular busy street, glance off to the side, and be stopped in my tracks by a street like this one, lined with cherry trees on both sides, all in bloom. It makes Spring feel kind of magical around here, like there’s beauty just waiting around every corner for me to discover.

More surprise blossoms. This just a little ways into Beacon Hill Park, where it seemed every tree had these flowers gathered around the base of their trunks.

A late winter storm felled one of the younger trees at the top of a hill in the park, so it fell across the trail. I caught a glimpse this web, evidence of a spider that had already made its home there. Wasn’t sure the photo would come out, to get the angle right I had to hold my phone at an angle where I couldn’t see the screen anymore.

The pond at the centre of the park always feel serene to me, no matter how many geese and ducks might be swimming in it at the time. Here I thought the colours in the tree to the right were too brilliant to pass up.

I’ve been through the park on previous springs and seen signs about Blue Herons nesting in the trees above (and warning pedestrians to be quiet and cautious), but never seen them, until this walk. There were a handful of them above me in the trees this time, coming and going with material to build their nests (and sometimes squabbling over the best real estate). Just amazing to see such large birds way up there, in the topmost branches.

At the edge of the park, happened to turn my head and spot this Platonic ideal of a tree in bloom. I thought the framing with the trees in the foreground was a lovely way to put it in context, so I went with this shot, rather than one where the tree looked like it stood alone.

Just look at those mountains.

Another shot of the Olympic Mountains across the Strait, with a ship just barely visible back there, for scale. This is on the way out of the park, towards the Dallas Road trails. Takes my breath away, every time, coming out of the trees and shade into the wide-open view of the sea.

Along Dallas Road. Clover Point is visible as the curving spit of land there, with the beach below and driftwood piling up on the shore.

On the way home now, coming up through Cook St Village, and spotting another one of those side streets all in bloom. A fitting end to a gorgeous day and a lovely walk around my new home, on the Island.

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tfw the entire plot of a new novel drops into your head while you’re brushing your teeth 😬✍️

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Books Read in January and February

Attempting to get back on a more regular blogging schedule here. Maybe not every week, but more often than once a year, at least? 😅

With that in mind, here’s a rundown of the books I read in January and February. As always, they’re listed in reverse-chronological order (so the most recently-read one is listed first, the one I read just before that is second, and so on).

Have you read any of these? If so, what did you think of them?

If you haven’t read them, but end up checking one or more out later, come back and let me know your take 😊

Orwell’s Roses by Rebecca Solint

An excellent and extended reminder of the value of beauty and art, even, or especially, in troubled times.

I’ve been reading Solint’s essays in The Guardian for years, but this is the first proper book of hers I’ve read. Not sure what the others are like, but this one’s variations on a theme (roses, and the cultivation thereof) give the book both plenty of scope but also allows her to go deep on several periods of Orwell’s life and work that normally get overlooked. Part biography, part literary criticism, part manifesto (in the gentlest possible sense), I recommend this to anyone who feels like tackling the major issues of our time — climate change, fascism, corporate power — means we have to forego the many things that bring us pleasure.

Doppelganger by Naomi Klein

Grabbed this one not just because Klein is a great writer (I loved both No Logo and Shock Doctrine), but because I’ve been guilty, multiple times, of the exact doubling she talks about at the start of the book: getting her confused with Naomi Wolf. Which might have been an innocent mistake back in the 90s or early 2000s, but these days, with Wolf firmly embracing conspiracy theories and right-wing fanatics, is a serious category error.

With such a start, this is very different from Klein’s previous books. It’s more personal, for one, with Klein sharing more details about her personal life (her autistic son, for example) that would never have made it into her other work. But it’s stronger for it. Because in making it personal, when Klein talks about the shift in perspectives needed to confront the mirror world that seems to be opening up on the right, she’s talking about work that she’s doing herself, not just finger-wagging (not that she did that in previous books, but with this subject it’s easy to descend to simple shaming).

The result is a book that I’d recommend to anyone on the Left that has spent the last few years watching friends and loved ones disappear down a rabbit hole of conspiracy and lies, and wondering just what the f*ck is going on.

Roman Law and the Legal World of the Romans by Andrew M. Riggsby

I’m currently working on an urban fantasy where the main character is a lawyer, but working in a legal system quite different from both the US and Canadian traditions. I’ve decided to model it after the legal system of ancient Rome, hence this book (which itself was recommendedby one of my favourite blogs on ancient history).

And it was exactly what I needed: a general and readable introduction to both the concepts of Roman law and the sources we have, with an extensive bibliography to serve as a jumping off point for further research.

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix

Another nail-biter by Hendrix. Somehow he’s become my go-to when I’m in the mood for horror. His books hit that 80s-nostalgia-but-updated sweet spot for me, and this one was no exception.

Children of Ash and Elm: A History of the Vikings by Neil Price

Less a history and more of a reconstruction of Viking society. Price is interesting in that he’s an archeologist writing history, so he approaches things from a literal ground-up perspective. But he doesn’t ignore the written sources, either (they’re just not his first choice).

He does, however, eschew narrative in favour of trying to capture the general pressures and changes that drove the Viking Age. The result is fascinating in a cultural sense, but the final picture is more like just a blurry-lined sketch, because without a narrative spine to hang things on, he can’t pull all his threads together to weave a unified image.

Contrast Femina, which zooms in on very individual stories told via archeological and written sources to tell a story of women’s roles throughout the Middle Ages. Each story builds on the ones that came before, finding the universal in the particular, and creating a narrative through-line for the book to cohere around.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

The first in the Murderbot series. I confess I put off picking these up because of all the rave reviews (can it really be that good?) and a bit of snobbery about their length (full price for a novella?).

But it is as good as everyone says. Novella length means all the fat has been trimmed away, leaving nothing but lean prose and tension. Wells is an experienced and skilled writer, and it shows on every page. Doesn’t end the way I expected (or wanted), but can see why it had to.

I’ve already grabbed the next three.

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Books Read in 2023

(yes, this is an extremely late post. it’s been an, um, eventful winter for me)

Apparently I read 37 (!) books last year 😳 That’s a little less than 2022 (45), but still nearly one a week. Goodness.

Anyway, if you’re looking to pick up something new, I thought I’d list them all out, grouped roughly by vibe and in order read.

Books to Get You Through a Breakup

Because yeah, it’s hard.

No Bad Parts by Richard Schwartz: One of the first books recommended by my therapist. I was skeptical going in, but I’ve found its techniques to be incredibly helpful over the last year.

Conscious Uncoupling by Katherine Woodward Thomas: Veers awfully close to the cult of achievement (“If you do your divorce just right, you’ll get a gold star!”), but still a useful set of tools for how to limit the damage when your life blows up.

The Sh!t No One Tells You About Divorce by Dawn Dais: Exactly the kind of cathartic, laugh-out-loud guide to the aftermath that I needed, particularly after having read the previous book.

The Robber Bride by Margaret Atwood: An amazing novel, and a good reminder that men are bastards, and some women are, too.

Books to Put You to Sleep

Sometimes you read before bed for a reason.

The Great Sea by David Abulafia: I swear, I wanted to like this one. Really! I usually love this kind of big scope history. But ye gods is this one dull. Just…could…not…stay…awake.

Books I Don’t Remember

I think both of these were good? But for the life of me I can’t tell you which one is which, or what I learned. Probably says more about me than the books, though.

The Invention of Russia by Arkady Ostrovsky: I think this is a blow-by-blow tale of how the media in Russia changed from the latter Soviet years to the early years of Putin. If it’s the book I’m thinking of, it’s very much an insider’s view, that made me feel both the hope of the early years after the fall of the Soviet Union and the disillusionment that set in afterward.

The Age of Illusions by Andrew J. Bacevich: As Gandalf once said, “I have no memory of this place.”

Books to Radicalize You

In the best way, I mean. A radical for making things better, because you can see how we got to where we are now.

Capital in the 21st Century by Thomas Piketty: Took me a while to get to this one, and I’m sorry I held off on it for so long. A well-researched, readable account of the long-term (200 years!) trends in modern economies, that explains both how things were so different (and good!) in the years just after World War II, and how things have reverted to the mean (which means worse) since then.

Capitalism, Alone by Branko Milanovic: A fascinating thesis about the role of communism in the development of what used to be called the Third World, wrapped in a large work that is completely in thrall to debunked theories of classical economics.

The Great Transformation by Karl Polanyi: This book, combined with Piketty’s, completely flipped my understanding of the last few hundred years of economic history. Completely demolishes the idea of the “market” as something separate from society, and demonstrates how the pursuit of the impossible dream of a “free market” has resulted in so much destruction and misery.

Books to Catch You Up with The Atlantic

No tea, no shade, but these books are, let’s say, more pop, less substance?

So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed byJon Ronson: I like to believe that Ronson is coming from a good place here, trying to put a human face on public figures that have gone through a very public shaming on social media. Which is a laudable goal! We should all keep in mind that what’s on the other end of the “Post” button is a human being. But I did some digging on his profiles, and he turns out to have left out a lot of the most damning parts. So, definitely a skewed view.

Twilight of Democracy by Anne Applebaum: An extremely serious subject, a serious (and good) writer. And yet. A slight book that left little impression on me.

Books to Ruin Your Friend’s Gladiator Viewing Party

Because how are you going to be that jerk if you haven’t done your research?

The Inheritance of Rome by Chris Wickham: Incredibly readable account of the six hundred years following the fall of the Western Empire. This was a re-read for me, and it’s even better than I remembered.

Mortal Republic by Edward J Watts: Picked this up after hearing Watts on the excellent podcast “Subject to Change.” An excellent account of how the (very much not inevitable) choices of Rome’s elites led to the end of the Republic.

Thebes by Paul Cartledge: True, this is about Ancient Greece, not Rome, but bear with me. At least, bear with me long enough to warn you off of this book. It’s readable, it’s written by an expert, but for me it never really gelled into a coherent picture of Theban society.

Books to Fight the Patriarchy

Because patriarchy is a trap, my friends, for all genders.

Trojan Horses by Page DuBois: Fantastic explanation of how so many of the ways ancient societies are presented are based on flawed, racist, assumptions.

The Once and Future Sex by Eleanor Janega: Accessible and short corrective on some of the many (many!) myths we moderns hold about gender in medieval society.

Femina by Janina Ramirez: More medieval history, this time bringing to life the stories of women — warriors, rulers, saints — who shaped the Middle Ages in Europe.

Books to Get Lost In

Sometimes you just need a good story to dive into and not come up for a few days, yeah?

Daughter of the Moon Goddess by Sue Lynn Tan: Fantastic world-building, a passionate and ass-kicking heroine, with a story that puts the fate of several heavenly kingdoms on the line. Looking forward to the sequel.

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix: Scarfed this down in a single day’s binge read. Warning: Puppets.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes: A classic I re-read for a book club. Still hits me right in the feels, but, um, beware the very-60s treatment of its female characters.

Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky Brothers: Classic Soviet-era sci-fi. VanderMeer’s Southern Reach series is basically a re-telling of this book. In my opinion, the original (this one) is better.

The Searcher by Tara French: Every novel I read by French leaves me wrung out and gut-punched, in the best way.

Middlemarch by George Elliot: This might become a yearly read for me.

Station Eternity by Mur Lafferty: The first of a new series by the mighty Mur. It’s a noir murder mystery set on a sentient alien space station, need I say more?

The City & The City by China Miéville: Wow. Felt like an allegory for Israel/Palestine, Europe/Africa, and the latter stages of the Cold War, all wrapped in a paranoid thriller where archeology plays a starring role. Not sure anyone but Miéville could pull this off (but he does).

Books to Rediscover Your Inner Hippie

In these days of shifting climates and ecological loss, there’s never been a better time to reconnect with the natural world (so we can save it).

The Arbornaut - Meg Lowman: Fascinating recount of a career spent literally in the trees, to explore the top of the forest (an area which is still not fully understood). Made me look up more, past the trunk of the trees around here, to their crowns.

Finding the Mother Tree - Suzanne Simard: Another career retrospective from a top-class scientist (who happens to be local to my neck of the woods). I loved the descriptions of her research, and her findings (about how linked up the trees in a forest are, how interdependent) changed the way I see anything that grows.

Books to Help You Understand Others

Because sometimes the only thing you need to stop arguing with someone is to see things from their perspective.

The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman: As I move through my fourth decade of life, I find myself interested in learning more about what was happening in the larger world while I was growing up. I was hoping for both a memory boost and a larger viewpoint on the decade. I definitely got the memory boost, but the larger viewpoint was lacking.

High Conflict - Amanda Ripley: Got this because I was in a high conflict situation with a co-worker, and hoped it would help with that. Book turned out to be a bit deeper than I expected based on its business-suit packaging; actually shed some light on how society in the US (and other places) has split since 2016, and how such conflicts can become self-sustaining, long past when the initial grievance occurred. Well worth the read.

Tribe - Sebastian Junger: I picked this up thinking it would be “just” a look at soldiers and PTSD, but it turned out to be much more. An interesting study in how humans in groups react under extreme stress, from Londoners during the Blitz to trapped miners as well as soldiers returning home after war. One of those I’m going to have to re-read, I think, to fully absorb everything in it.

Books to Pass a Lazy Afternoon With

Curl up with one of these (and a blanket and some tea) on a rainy day.

Danubia - Simon Winder: The second of Winder’s three books on middle European history, which I read out of order. Rambling in the best way. I retain almost nothing of the history of the period or the region after reading this, but I was never bored, either, and he doesn’t shy away from the problematic history he has to cover.

Germania - Simon Winder: The first book of Winder’s series, and the most apologetic of the bunch. He seems compelled to apologize, both for being bold enough to write a narrative history at all, and then to write about Germany (which his generation, and mine, were raised to see as inherently suspect). Once past the throat-clearing, though, we’re off to the same rambling (but entertaining) stories as the other two books.

Books to Make You Want to Write More

If you need that kind of motivation, that is.

The War of Art - Steven Pressfield: If you’ve ever wanted a drill sergeant to yell at you about your writing, this is the book for you. If you get turned off by such gung-ho chest-beating approaches, this is not the motivational book you want.

Books I Couldn’t Fit Anywhere Else

Not everything fits neatly into a category.

The Medieval Archer - Jim Bradbury: A bit dry, but still an interesting counter to several myths about archery as represented in popular media. Not least of which is that women weren’t hunters; not enough books print medieval illustrations of women hunting with bows, but this one does!

The Bonfire of the Vanities - Tom Wolfe: Okay, so I picked this one up because I read The Devil’s Candy, which is the (fascinating) story of how making the movie version of this went completely off the rails. After reading that take, I watched the movie (which is indeed a hot mess) and decided to read the book. Which I bounced off of, several times, before deciding to force myself to finish it. It’s, um, a very 80s thing, which is both the best and the worst thing I can say about it. I can’t really recommend it, though it was better than the movie, I suppose.

How to Astronaut - Terry Virts: Exactly what it says on the tin. Runs through Virts’ recruitment, training, and experiences as an astronaut over the last few decades of space flight. Virts sometimes reads like a high school jock made good (which is a trigger for me personally), but his love for his work and his pride in his part in advancing our understanding of the environment of space shines through.

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At the Dawn of a New Year

We made it, everyone! Congrats and welcome to 2024 🎉

So much has changed. So much is going to change.

I’ve been away from the blog for a long time, and for that I apologize. I’ve been going through some life changes, culminating in a split from my wife.

I’m also been in therapy for several months now, for the first time. It’s both cause and consequence of everything I’m going through. Therapy for me is like going to the gym, but for my emotions. It’s hard, and I’m always sore afterward, but I’m stronger and glad I went. Would recommend.

Some things haven’t changed, though. I’m still living in Victoria, BC, and still feel incredibly lucky to be here. This city has welcomed me in so many unexpected ways. I’m grateful, and I can only hope I can pay it back someday.

I’m also still working my day-job as a programmer, and toiling away at my novels and short stories on the side. Still living without a car. Still trying to get the right amount of seasoning on my roasted vegetables. Still buying way too many books (I know, “too many books” is a category error. There are never enough books).

I want to start this year off with gratitude. Both of what I’ve accomplished over the last year, and for what’s to come. So, as 2024 rises and stretches, like a cat waking from a nap in the sun, let me list the things I’m grateful for:

My writing group, with whose help I’ve finished editing a novel for the first time. And not just finished, but synopsis written and everything ready to submit to agents, starting this week.

The organizers of the Surrey International Writers’ Conference, who put on such a welcoming and stimulating conference. And because of whom I was able to meet an agent that gave me the injection of confidence I needed to finish up that novel synopsis.

My co-workers at Cisco, who every day demonstrate to me how a non-toxic technical culture can work.

The folks at IRCC and BC’s Provincial Nominee Program, who gave this middle-aged guy a shot at permanent residence in Canada.

My D&D group, who opened their gaming table and their arms to this immigrant.

Dan, David, Baamonde, Alex, and Haywood, friends who have stuck with me over many years, through many ups and downs.

My family, particularly my mom and older sister, who have never held my lack of phone calls or texts against me.

The Victoria Creative Writing Group, without whom I would not have met my writing circle.

The Victoria Bowmen Club, who taught me what’s it like to really wield a bow (after years of me writing about it).

The folks on social.linux.pizza, mstdn.ca, and tenforward.social, who helped me find my footing (and friends) in the fediverse.

So many gifts, from so many people. Thank you, all, for everything you’ve given me, everything you’ve taught me.

May your new year be a bright one.

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Ok! Think I’ve got all the DNS issues straightened out; everything in the blog should be accessible at mindbat.ca now 🎉😅

(Seems there was a CNAME record I forgot to add yesterday, which was part of the trouble. Note to self: read all of the instructions next time!)

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Heads up that there might be some weirdness with the blog over the next few hours. Will be switching the domain over from mindbat.com to mindbat.ca.

Wish me luck! 🤞😬

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The planet’s atmosphere would feature something akin to Earth’s water cycle, but instead with sand cycling between solid and gaseous states.

So cool to see discoveries like this coming out of the James Webb Space Telescope.

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My heart breaks to see Premier Smith’s government show such contempt for Albertans.

Folks don’t want to leave the CPP, but she’s going to spend millions trying to convince them before she rips them out of it.

People want input on green energy projects — and need the jobs and wealth they create — but instead she’s brought a hammer down on the province’s economic future.

Now she’s set to blow up the AHS, just as nurses and doctors struggle to recover from a generation-defining pandemic.

Albertans of all political stripes are in for a rough ride over the next few years. 💔😔

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Things I’m grateful for this morning:

Six chapters edited in the novel

Up and showered by 7:30am on a work holiday (so more time to read & write & play video games)

Safe and warm in the apartment while chilly rain falls outside

Leftover pizza in the fridge, ready for dinner tonight

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Alberta UCP Says the Quiet Part Out Loud

“Our party needs to be entirely about what our members want, what our constituency associations want, and that comes up to the provincial board and that makes the policy and the decisions and the direction gets set,”

This is a chilling quote, to me. Political parties are run by the membership, sure, but in a competitive democracy, they’re supposed to be about what’s good for society. All of it, not just those who happen to be party members.

Not to be too alarmist, but a “party run only for the good of its members” is how we describe communist and fascist governments.

www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/al…

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If the story of this attack begins on the holiday and Sabbath morning of Oct. 7, it becomes a 9/11 tale of innocent victims exposed to the unprovoked violence of barbarians. The plot then unfolds as the struggle to overcome the shock of a devastating blow, and then to defeat and punish the aggressors on behalf of an outraged humanity.

But if the story is seen as starting in 1948, when it was the grandparents of Gaza refugees who lived in the areas to which their armed descendants returned so briefly and violently, then the moral of the story and the requirements of a satisfying end to the narrative change drastically.

In this wider temporal framing, Hamas and Islamic Jihad did not start a war; they launched a prison revolt.

A timely piece by Ian Lustick in Foreign Policy that reminds us that Gaza is technically part of Israel, not separate, and thinking of what is happening (and has happened, and will continue to happen until something changes) as a terrorist attack or a war is not a useful framing for understanding why.

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It is a deep temptation in moments like this to run and accept the embrace of nationalism. It seems to provide a sense of warmth and solidarity that compensates for the cruelty of the world on display. …But it is just another trap: nationalism is the source of this all to begin with.

John Ganz on refusing to fall into The Trap

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When we see headlines that affirm our prior beliefs — for example, that the NFT industry is a huge racket that deserved to go to zero — it can be tempting to reshare them without a second glance. But misinformation benefits no one, and accurate and honest reporting should be far more important than an attention-grabbing headline.

Molly White debunks the “study” making the media go-rounds about most NFTs being “suddenly” worthless (as she points out, most of them were always worthless)

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I am lingering here because it highlights a major problem with Isaacson’s biography. We are dealing with not one but two unreliable narrators: Musk and Isaacson himself.

An insightful critique of Isaacson’s new biography of Elon Musk.

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And that’s a wrap on the edits for this novel! 🎉✍️

Seven drafts, six years, and 95,088 words 😅

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To its credit, Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government has, over the past five years, accelerated the settlement process and directed officials to resolve as many of the outstanding claims as possible.

It’s not near enough, but it is good to see.