Hello there! 👋
(Shipping this a little early since we will be busy tonight for Halloween.)
This month saw the anniversary of putting in the offer (and it getting accepted!) on our house. We didn’t get the keys until January, and didn’t move in until March, but it still feels like a significant date — the tilling and watering of the soil before we really put down roots in this community.
To wit, I have no idea how many kids we are going to get tonight for trick-or-treating, so that is exciting. 🧙♀️🧛♀️🧟♂️
But to return to roots: I finished reading Becoming Vancouver which helped me situate myself in the regional history (a sort of review linked below). On top of that, I had a hundred year old hand-carved wooden dining table from Quebec arrive to my house. You see, my aunt who lives nearby downsized from her home of 52 years. She had inherited the dining set of my great-grandparents. They moved to the Dunbar neighbourhood of Vancouver from Winnipeg way back when and ordered this dining set from Quebec. Many years later I now have it.
Along with the table and chairs my aunt also gave me a big box of old photos to sort through. I spread the photos all over my office floor and started organizing them into little stacks: photos of me and my cousins as toddlers, square photos with rounded corners of my uncles and aunts in the early seventies, black-and-whites of my young parents and grandparents, faded sepia baby photos of my great grandparents from the 1800s, and a large stack pictures of people I don’t know (and may never be able to identify).
Seeing pictures of a 4 year old me sitting at the exact table that is now in my dining room hit a chord. I did not grow up in Vancouver, but visited many times since I was a baby and lived here for a few stints (from 1997-2002 and again in 2010-2011). After so many years floating around, as we settle here permanently, there is something comforting in knowing my roots here actually go back three generations.
That said, these photos also raise many questions of the past. Next month I will spend some time with my aunt and see if I can’t get some answers.
But tonight is one for a different merry mystery! Stay safe out there, and may all your candybars be full-sized.
👻 Chad 🎃
🖋 From the Blog
You live the story you write
But you don’t remember that you wrote it… and that is what makes life fun.
Vancouver’s “Powerbroker” — a sort of review of “Becoming Vancouver”
Who is the Robert Moses of Vancouver?
Re-framing Franz Fanon
On the sick society, violence, and idealism.
Exploring AI and American Fascism
A nuanced understanding of AI, its usage, and its relationship to a hollow power.
New Kit! Ricoh GR IV
Got a new camera!
🧭 Elsewhere
🥃 Best way to drink whiskey Video →
A rainy story Link →
Old picture story Link →
What is a “Moment”? Link →
Updated my Uses/Don’t Use page. Share me yours! Link →
These words hit me hard Link →
Moved my Bluesky PDS to a small box in the co-working space Link →
Some photosets for you:
- 🌔 Tsukimi Moon Viewing celebration at Vancouver Public Library Photos →
- 🍢 Richmond Night Market Photos →
- ⛵ False Creek Yacht Club marina Photos →
- 🩸 A walk in the forest Photos →
- 🐕 A walk in a different forest Photos →
As always, every pic and more are on Flickr.
📖 What I’m Reading
THE AI MIRROR: How to Reclaim our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking by Shannon Vallor (29% Complete)
GenAI shows us what we already are. A mirror can be useful, showing us what we cannot normally see, but it can also occlude and distort.
Vallor uses the mirror (as opposed to the stochastic parrot) as an analogy for analyzing our relationship to “thinking” machines. I am also re-reading her Technology and the Virtues which I used when I taught Digital Ethics at UBC a few years ago.
Connect with me on GoodReads → or on Bookwyrm →