The Brown Knowser

My backyard looks its best in the winter because you can't see how the weeds are slowly taking over, you can't see how the lawn has been neglected. The bird bath looks pretty, with its thick topping of snow: it looks like a cake on a fancy pedestal serving tray. Only, there is now rust showing where the bolt is revealing its age. The slats of the fence, which I built many years ago with my neighbours, casts shadows and light in the late-afternoon sun. A blue and white pattern stretches over the untouched snow. Who couldn't resist a photo. Happy Friday?

It had been a tough couple of months. Members of my extended family had died: a couple of uncles on my wife's side of the family, plus a cousin, who was only 39. Shortly before he died, a work colleague died only two months after learning he had cancer. Old age had claimed the uncles; cancer claimed my cousin and work mate. Cancer was a bastard. My best friend's mother was also dealing with cancer, but that's not what took her. Death had me stressed out. People were getting sick, dropping like flies. I was realizing that I, too, was getting old, that heart disease and cancer ran rampant in my family. One of them was going to get me: it was only a matter of when. Most likely, I thought, I have fewer years in front of me than behind me. Best to enjoy life while you can. It was at this time, where I wondered about life, that I found myself in the LCBO. It's one of my favourite stores to visit on a regular basis, right up there with book stores. It was a couple of...

A couple of years ago, I picked up a free iTunes download at Starbucks and, as I do every time I see the free song download, I put it on my iPhone. When it first played, I didn't know what to think of Truth , by Alex Ebert, known on the track as, simply, Alexander. It had a haunting whistling, which I liked, and lyrics that were almost presented like rap, which I don't like. I like a song with saxophone, which this song has, but the playing of the sax is simple, somewhat amateurish. At one point, I was going to delete the song from my phone. But I didn't. The song began to grow on me, and I would find myself whistling the tune around the house. One day, at work, while listening to my music, Truth came on and I decided to Google it. In addition to finding out more about Ebert—who comes from Los Angeles and was in the bands Edward Sharpre and the Magnetic Zeros (never heard of them) and Ima Robot (also never heard of)—I also found the video for the song. The video, a...

When I take a time exposure, I never use a clock. My exposures aren't precisely calculated. I guess. I tell myself, "that's long enough." Sometimes, I count, coming as close to seconds as I can. Sometimes, I have songs in my head, and I'll play the tune to myself and think, "when I get to the second verse, that should be long enough." By the time Lori and I got to the Wakefield Mill , last Friday, as a getaway and to celebrate her birthday, the light of the day was waning. It was overcast and a light snow was falling, but I wanted to take some evening photos behind the mill, where the water fell and rolled down towards the Gatineau River. Lori had a spa appointment—a pedicure—and I had an hour to kill until dinner. By the time I set up, there was very little light; tucked into a valley, darkness came quickly. Every shot I took would be a long exposure. I counted. I softly sang to myself, careful not to disturb the couples enjoying the nearby ...

Last night, I sat in front of the computer, ready to create another blog post, but when I placed my fingers on the keyboard, I paused. I was empty. I've been thinking a lot about my current book, Gyeosunim . On Tuesday, sitting at Mill Street Brew Pub , I cranked out a rough draft of Chapter 6 . The week before that, I wrote Chapter 5 and re-posted my cleaned-up, first four. Since I posted the latest chapter, I've been thinking about the next one. I'm going to try and write a chapter a week. This would be great: I've given myself until the end of this year to finish the book. If I finish earlier, all the better. But because it took me about six years to write Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary , doing the sequel in one year will be nothing short of a miracle. But I'm giving my attention to it, which means that I may not have anything left to rattle in my head and come out in The Brown Knowser . If you haven't read my first novel, read Chapter 1 and then ...

Are you getting tired of my Bate Island Project ? With 258 photos of the same view, are you looking forward to the end? With just over seven weeks to go, it'll be over soon enough. But you have to admit: seeing how the weather has changed, how the lighting has varied, how that bush in the foreground has nearly drowned in water, budded, filled out with leaves, coloured, and gone bare again, how birds and people have come and gone in the frames, is all rather interesting. When I chose this subject, I picked my 50mm lens because I didn't want to zoom up on Parliament Hill and I didn't want to go wide and make the cityscape insignificant. But there are times where I wished I could capture more sky. Because, on some days, the sky has been spectacular. Like it was on Tuesday, at sunset. The low-hanging sun set the glass on some buildings on fire, their reflection lighting up the ice on the river. Above my frame, a few lazy, cotton-ball clouds reflected warm pink and coo...

As a writer and editor, words are important to me. Choosing the right word to convey a thought is essential to communication. Sadly, the digital age has brought a steady decline to how words are presented. Take, for example, the word utilize . Utilize means, "to put something to use." You can utilize the wind to power turbines. You can utilize the sun to create solar energy. But it seems that utilize is a word that some take to replace the word use . For example, "you can adjust the tension on the mechanism by utilizing a screwdriver and tightening or loosening the screw." No: you can use a screwdriver to adjust the tension. Utilize can also be used when you are using something that is not typically used to perform an action. For example, if you don't have a screwdriver available when you want to adjust the tension, you can utilize a knife. I know: first-world problem. Just don't get me started on the over use of impact as a noun. Or that ot...

There is no Wordless Wednesday . Not today. Over the past few days, instead of taking photos and preparing them for my weekly post, I revisited the rough draft of my sequel to Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary , and have posted five chapters. If you've read my first novel, take a look at the continuation of Roland Axam's journey, Gyeosunim . I'm hoping to add a new chapter each week, but I make no promises. Wordless Wednesday returns next week.

Ever want to have coffee with a friend but can't find the time? No worry: now you can share coffee time, virtually. Last week, Starbucks Canada introduced its Tweet A Coffee plan, where you can send a friend, through Twitter, a coffee. Well, not a coffee, exactly. You can purchase a gift certificate, starting at $5, and send it to one of your tweeps. Your social-media friend receives a tweet, with a link to an online coupon, which they, in turn, can print or add to their Starbucks account. The recipient can also take his or her smartphone to a Starbucks, where the coupon can be scanned. I learned about the offer through a friend, who posted the link to her Facebook page with a tongue-in-cheek request for coffee. Interested in trying the tool, I sent her the $5 coupon. Within a matter of minutes, one of my Twitter friends, who knows I love coffee, sent me a coffee tweet. I seamlessly transferred the tweet to my Starbucks app, and before you could say "coffee time,...

Several years ago, before I owned an iPod or other Apple product, I had ripped all of my CDs and stored them on an external hard drive. When I wanted to add a song or album to my MP3 player, I only had to drag the file or folder to my player. Easy. A couple of years later, I purchased an iPod, and eventually, an iPhone, and I had to deal with iTunes to get my music onto my devices. And life became considerably more complicated. Because iTunes sucks. For some reason, when I synch my iPhone, certain songs that I don't want on my phone tend to appear, like Jonathan Edward's version of Three Blind Mice , a song that one of my daughters danced to with her comp team. Other songs were not appearing in my iTunes library: albums that were on my external drive but, because iTunes is so persnickety, they were unavailable for download. For a couple of years, there were some tunes that I started to miss and wanted to add to my iPhone, so to make that happen, I had to create a fo...

Cold temperatures and lots of snow: that's what I remember about winter, when I was a kid. Skiing—cross-country and downhill—in the Gatineau Park. Tobogganing in the Arbouretum. Snowmen and snow forts. Catching giant snowflakes, as they gently fall from a windless sky, on your tongue. Hot chocolate. With marshmallows. Crackling fires in oversized fireplaces. Snowshoeing on the Mackenzie-King Estates. Skating on the Rideau Canal and eating BeaverTails. Winter may not be my favourite season, but it isn't my most-hated. What does winter mean to you? Happy Friday!

It was the summer job that wasn't. When I was 17, my best friend, Stuart, and I decided that for a summer job, we would join the militia, where we would learn valuable skills, such as discipline, and we'd also get in shape, so as to get the attention of the ladies. And, we'd learn how to kill. (I used to tell people that when I grew up, I was going to be an assassin: the militia was my gateway.) Stu joined the Cameron Highlanders and a couple of months later, I joined him. Sadly, because we didn't enlist at the same time, we were placed in different groups. We would have to learn how to kill, separately. In following Stuart, however, I learned some of the rules of the military ahead of my group, because Stuart went to the drill hall on one night early in the week and I would go on another, a couple of days later, and Stu would tell me what he learned. It was almost like getting cheat sheets to an exam from a buddy who had already written it. Because we wer...

Where In Ottawa, January, 2014

So, the holidays are over and a new year has begun. The carols are sung, the gifts opened, used; perhaps, broken. Food has been eaten and spirits consumed. Too much, for some. Friends and family have been visited or have at least tried to keep in touch. Old times remembered, fireworks viewed, dancing, laughing. For the consumers, deals were hopefully attained after the Main Event. Hopefully, without standing out in the cold, without waiting in line. Hopefully, without blowing the budget. And, hopefully, on items that were truly needed. Or maybe there are those who just stayed in and kept quiet. For practically five straight days, I did nothing. Or very little, at any rate. I stayed in bed or sat on the sofa, sleeping, reading, watching marathons on the television. I ate very little—at times, not healthily. I drank mostly soda water: low sodium. From December 29 to January 2, I consumed a total of three bottles of beer. Small bottles. I wanted to keep my head. I lost it, o...

Happy New Year! For my first post of 2014, I want to wish all of you happiness, good health, and prosperity. Being a person who has a preference for even numbers, I expect this year to be spectacular. Because this is the first Monday of the month, and because last month you showed me that my monthly contest is still a favourite post, I will continue to test your knowledge of this great city that I hold so dear. Thank you for showing you care. You have made Where In Ottawa a defining feature to my blog: one that I am happy to continue. If this is your first visit to my blog or your first visit to this challenge, welcome. The rules are simple: The following photograph was taken somewhere in Ottawa. The first person to correctly identify the location wins the challenge. If you were with me when I took the photo, you cannot play. Submissions to the challenge must be made to the Comments section of this post. E-mail or Facebook messages, or tweets will neither be accepted nor ...