The Brown Knowser

Mummies. Vampires. Ghosts. Frankenstein. Ghouls. Zombies. Witches. These are what I think of when I think of Hallowe'en. All Hallows Eve. Superheroes and princesses, in a pinch, though they pander to stereotypes. Sexy nurses, sexy firefighters, sexy nuns, sexy ebola doctors... WTF??? Sexy ANYTHING is not Hallowe'en. My daughter knows. She does her own makeup. Happy Hallowe'en!

It's like they're a different species. But, sadly, they aren't. And when I see these people, I find it hard to believe that I am the same gender. They are the men who think that they have the right to get a woman, who they don't know, to do anything they want, just because they talk to her. They are the men who think that just because they talk to a woman, who they don't know, that that woman must speak back, must engage them. They are the men who think that every woman who walks down a street wants to hear, from this total stranger, that she's beautiful, that she needs to thank them for the compliment that she didn't solicit. They are the men who think that exclaiming "Damn!" and "I just saw a thousand dollars!" would be an appropriate thing to say to another human being. The video is alarming. I find it disturbing. If you haven't seen it, here is the video, by Hollaback! , "an international movement to end street hara...

I remember hearing the CEO of Google once say of his company that in its quest for success, it had to remember its motto: don't be evil. I like to think that this company, that started as a Web search engine, has been gathering information to make life better. I know that, since I purchased my Android phone, that many of the Google apps have made it easy for me to find places, to find information for work and for writing this blog, and for organizing my days. Google, for the most part, I find, is good. But Google is watching you: it knows where you go on the Internet. It knows where you go in your day-to-day life. It tracks your movement. It plots your daily course. And you can see it, through Google Location History . Here is my movement from the day I left Ottawa for France to the day I returned. Obviously, it tracks your movement based on WiFi or when your phone makes contact with a cell tower. It's not 100 percent accurate, but it's close enough. So, whi...

I wish that the song Knocked Up by Kings of Leon had been around, when Lori was expecting our first child. I sang all sorts of songs to her expanding belly, read it several of the Narnia books, and talked to the growth inside every chance I could get. I would have sung this song, too. But I also find it a great driving song, especially on a long stretch of highway, and at night. I don't know why, but when that song comes up through my smartphone rotation and those conditions are met, I crank the volume, settle back in my leather-wrapped, bucket seat, and perhaps press my foot a little firmer on the gas pedal. Here's a live version: Now, get in your car and drive! Happy Monday!

The barricades have come down, the crime-scene tape has been pulled back. It all happened in the hours between when I first arrived downtown and when I headed home. The investigators had gathered all of the evidence that they needed: there was no reason to keep the public at bay. After all, it was a spot that was typically open to the public, one for us to approach, remember, and reflect. We now have another reason to do so. We will always remember. But as Canadians, as citizens of this excellent, strong city, we will also move forward, will show that we can feel the loss but that we will not let it take us down. And so the flowers and the candles have made their way from the perimeter of the War Memorial to the cenotaph and the very spot were Corporal Nathan Cirillo was felled my a troubled, misguided gunman. A soldier, who died at the tomb of the unknown soldier, who will never be forgotten.

As I write this post, on a late Wednesday afternoon, the warm sun setting the yellow fall leaves outside my window aglow, under a clear, blue sky, I know that the story is still ongoing, still unfolding, with many questions unanswered, and a city and country standing in awe. With my city core still in a lockdown mode, with people who began this day like any other day, now a part of this story, I see that Ottawa is no longer the city it was. Just last night, after attending an event in the Byward Market, I drove home, passing the War Memorial and Parliament Hill, and I remarked, as I always do, on what a beautiful city we live in. On how lucky I am to live here. This spot has always been a place to stop, reflect, and give thanks. Now, this spot marks a senseless tragedy. I have stood at the very bus stop where the attacker left his car. Never before have I ever thought that an extremist gunman could pull up, shoot a sentry, run across the vast lawn in front of our seat of govern...

Some of them, I hadn't seen in 25 years. Maybe longer. Our profession had been making memories: taking spent film from people, newly returned from vacations, celebrating a birthday, or wedding, or new life. Photographs captured, made into prints, there for those people to view again, to relive that time. We made memories. We sold the equipment to capture those moments: all the accessories to help make capturing those moments as optimal as possible. We provided instruction on how to best use the cameras, how to compose a frame to make the best impact, how to adjust for light conditions. We sold the film—and it was only film, back then—for the best lighting, or the fastest speed. Some film was better for capturing blues and greens; others, for reds and yellows. We formed bonds with our customers, knew what they wanted. We were entrusted with taking their film and getting the best-quality photo that we could, in the time frame that worked best for them. We earned their trust, ...

I first heard Of Monsters and Men on Saturday Night Live, when they performed the song Little Talks . I liked the song so much that I looked them up on iTunes and had their album downloaded before the song on the television was over. I really like the sound of this Icelandic band, with their call-and-answer-styled lyrics, sung by Nanna Bryndís Hilmarsdóttir and Ragnar Þórhallsson (I have no idea how to pronounce their names). Little Talks is a fun song with an equally fun video that Terry Gilliam would be proud of. Have a watch and listen. Over the past year, my friends and I have gathered downtown on certain Saturday nights for an evening of karaoke . When Lori and I decided to sing a duet, this was the song we sang. It's been a while since that night, so perhaps at the next karaoke evening, we'll sing it again. Happy Monday!

The colours have really popped this season. Red, yellow, and orange leaves of the maples and birches have contrasted with the evergreens in the Gatineau woods. And though the weather has been agreeable, the rain at a minimum and temperatures well above normal values, some still cannot resist the urge to put a log on the fire and cozy up. It's autumn, after all. If you have a chance, get out this weekend and see the leaves before the wind takes them from their treetops. Happy Friday!

The other week, as I was cleaning the house, I found myself rummaging through a spare dresser drawer that I use to store items that I come across but neither have a dedicated place to put them nor wish to throw them out. It's my odds-and-ends drawer. In it, I am currently keeping a candy tin filled with pennies, a red rubber duck with horns (don't ask), a Star Trek:TNG communicator badge, my dad's old pocket watch, empty money belts, a Ziploc bag containing paraphernalia and cash from my last trip to Scotland , two other Ziploc bags that each contain my kids' teeth ( tooth-fairy collections ), and various business cards. I know: I keep a lot of crap in that drawer. But what caught my attention, particularly because I'm writing about Jeonju University in the sequel to my novel, was this card. This is my old ID card from the university where I taught English language in 1998. I was 33 at the time. I can still read Korean—that is to say, I can sound out w...

Almonte, ON

I could never cut it on Masterchef . To prepare a restaurant-quality dish in one hour is way beyond my culinary skill level. I'm not saying I can't cook: I just can't plan a dish, gather the ingredients, and organize my time in order to get  something from scratch onto the table in a short period of time. And yet, I did manage to join two other parents and prepare a lunch for a contest on CBC Radio One's afternoon show, All In A Day . Earlier last week, listeners were asked to submit menus for school lunches that would be child-friendly: that is, allergy-free and healthy. When the top-three menus were selected, the folks at CBC wanted to know how easy these menus were to prepare, how readily available the ingredients were, and most importantly, how these food items tasted. So host Alan Neal put out the call to parents to make these meals and present them on the show. The judges would be those parents' children. Based on feedback from the parents—the ease a...

Back at the end of the 19th century, when Nepean was a town on the western outskirts of Ottawa, its town hall was situated in what is today known as the neighbourhood of Westboro. In fact, the old town hall was one of the previous locations for Where In Ottawa . When the municipal offices for Nepean moved further into rural Ottawa, all the way west, into Bells Corners (which was named after Hugh Bell, who owned a tavern in that area from 1834–63), the original bell was taken from the Westboro city hall and erected on a three-legged stand outside the new offices. Each leg represented a family component: father, mother, and child. Nepean was seen as a community in which a family could prosper. This statue was eventually recognized as the symbol for Nepean and from 1978 was used as a logo on street signs and other city property and stationery. In 1988, when Nepean City Hall was relocated to Centrepointe, the bell came with it, and that's where it sits today. But this is not...

My smartphone has a built-in feature for the camera that I remember every once and a while, usually when I'm somewhere that doesn't warrant that type of shot. It's called Photo Sphere, and it allows me to pan 360 degrees, plus up and down. The screen directs me where to move: I line up a ball in a circle, and then the camera automatically snaps the shot and tells me where to point to next. When it's done, it automatically balances out the light and stitches everything together. On my camera, I can view the photo and scroll anywhere, and see the photo as though I was still standing where I shot the images. I know there are a lot of apps that do this, but how many of you have used them? Flattened out, the photo can look quite bizarre. I took the following photo in Sarlat-la-Canéda, in the Dordogne region, while we were looking for a place in which to dine. Unfortunately, people wouldn't stand still for me, and so they would be cut off. A few weeks a...

I love to read, and the types of books I read vary. I love a good story, so be it contemporary fiction, historical fiction, science fiction, fantasy, or humour, I will read it all. But just because I pick up a novel or download one on my e-reader, it doesn't mean that I will read it to the very end. Because life is too short to read a book that gives you no pleasure.  I've never read my own book end to end.  There are times when I will read a novel and get to the end of the first chapter, when I realize that it is a good story, but I may not be in the mood to read that type of story at the time. For example, if I read a story about strife and woe when I'm personally stressed or depressed, I realize that, while the story is well-written, I may be more receptive to an uplifting or humourous tale. And so I'll put that book back on the shelf and wait for a better time to read it. If I am in the mood to read that book, I will read it with the full intention o...