Mill in the Woods

Pulling the Plug

I closed my account, without a word, just minutes before midnight, on Saturday.

Without a goodbye. Like a stranger in the night, I slipped silently away.

I left Twitter. I've done this once before but for a different reason.

I left Twitter in July, 2016, sort of as a reaction to information overload. That time, I did say 'goodbye' before I deactivated my account. My departure wasn't long-lived, as less than a week later, I was back. I've been on vacations that have kept me away from the social-media site for longer than that.

Ultimately, it was FOMO and missing friends that made me resume my account.

But that was in 2016 and a lot has changed since then. There was information being shared in my feed that would make me angry. I would see posts that would promote hate and other posts that delivered misinformation, and even though I would try to block and mute people who shared these tweets, it was impossible to avoid.

And that was before Elon Musk took the platform over.

I have seen the return of people who had been suspended for spreading hate and misinformation. I've learned of people being suspended for calling out these harbingers of negativity. And it causes me anxiety.

There's a lot of anger out there.

Mastodon is not perfect. It lacks some features that I valued in Twitter. But there's a different atmosphere to this alternative platform. People seem supportive. If somebody wants to share posts (usually, that originated from Twitter) that are controversial, they tend to tag it with a content warning, meaning that if I don't want to look at it, I don't have to. The content is hidden behind a button and images are blurred.

I find that after spending a few minutes on Twitter, I am stressed or angry. So far, I haven't felt that way by reading the various feeds on Mastodon.

So I've pulled the plug on Twitter. I've dumped Musk for the Tusk, as they say.

It's going to be hard, as many of my peeps are sticking with the bird site and I'll be losing contact. There are news sources that I have yet to find at Mastodon. And there are people I follow purely for entertainment value, who I will simply lose.

But I'm prepared for that.

On Friday, I posted my final goodbyes to my Twitter followers. Today, I couldn't even share this blog post on Twitter, even if I wanted to (I realize that many of my old followers won't know about this post: hmm...). I'm gone.

I couldn't wait until the end of November, as I said I would. On Saturday, for every positive tweet that I read, there were at least two others that were angry or otherwise negative. I didn't want to scroll my feed any longer.

If you followed me on Twitter and want to keep in touch, you can find me on Mastodon (@BrownKnowser@mstdn.ca) or on Instagram. If we've been friends through Twitter and you want to stay in contact, you can reach out to me by e-mail at BrownKnowser@gmail.com.

They say that all good things must come to an end. I just hope that the connections I had made on Twitter haven't reached that point but if they have, it's been great.

Until we meet again...

Image: Google

Friday Fiction: Reunion

The following passage is a rough-draft excerpt from my upcoming novel, Gyeosunim, the sequel to Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary. Be warned that there are spoilers and you may be missing some context. Passages are in no particular order and are subject to change.

Thursday, May 16, 2019

“You are fat, Lolan-duh.”

“And you are even more beautiful than I remember, Su-ah shi.” I added the familial shi to the end of her given name. It was how I had addressed her, all those years ago, as my Korean improved and I went from addressing her by Miss Kang to using her first name, as I used to hear Kwon call to her from his office. Only, he was addressing her as his inferior: I, on the other hand, was addressing her as a friend.

Indeed, Su-ah was beautiful, ageless. Now in her early forties, she did not develop into the stereotypical ajuma, or aunt, that we had seen in so many middle-aged women in the late 1990s. Her hair was long and straight, tied into a ponytail. The last time I had seen her, her hair was shoulder-length and permed into a fashionable wave. Her new hair style had kept her face in a time capsule, unchanged over the decades. She was slimmer, which made her look taller.

Indeed, the passage of time had been kind to Su-ah.

She smiled, her hand moving to delicately cover her mouth, as it was not considered lady-like for a Korean woman to show her teeth. “It is good to see you,” she said from behind her hand.

“It’s good to see you, too.” The last time that Su-ah and I had seen each other was in the spring of 1998. After the hagwon had closed, she had been able to secure a job with Hyo Lee’s engineering firm, acting as Mr. Lee’s personal assistant. Like the teachers, Su-ah hadn’t received her final payment from Kwon. When Mr. Lee had found out that I was out of a job, he used Su-ah to keep in touch with me, to arrange for me to be his private teacher. In return, he gave Su-ah a job and even paid the amount that Kwon owed her until Kwon was finally able to pay her.

When Mr. Lee became too busy to attend our lessons, I lost contact with him and with Su-ah.

“Do you keep in touch with Mr. Lee?” I now asked her.

“I work for him for about two year,” she explained. “I go to school, part time, to be teacher. When I get job at school, I not see Mr. Lee again.”

“Do you know if he still lives in Chŏnju?”

“I think so, yes,” she said. Her English was rough but I had no problem understanding her. “I see his wife maybe six month ago. She with daughter, who is now marriage.”

“Married,” I repeated, but out of surprise rather than to correct Su-ah’s grammar. The last time I had seen Mr. Lee’s kids—he had a son and a daughter—they were in their early teens. They now had to be in their early thirties, likely married and well into their careers. “Does she have children?”

“Two sons,” she answered.

“Mr. and Mrs. Lee must be very proud.”

“Yes.”

We were sitting in a Shin-po Woori Mandoo, a chain restaurant that was one of my favourites when I had lived in Chŏnju. One of the restaurants had been across the five-split intersection from our hagwon and we used to frequent the place. Just the other day, as I explored my old city, I passed the intersection and discovered that the old restaurant was now a shoe store, the kitchen long-gone. But Su-ah had given me directions to this one, in the narrow streets that ran near the old Core Department Store. I had to give myself some extra time to try to remember exactly where the department store had been and then find the street that had this restaurant. I had to circle a couple of blocks but I found it, nonetheless. I was desperate to have an authentic dolsot-bibimbap—a hot, stone-bowl dish of rice and mixed vegetables. I hadn’t enjoyed a bowl since I was in a Korean restaurant, on Preston Street in Ottawa, nearly ten years ago now, and even though that restaurant had been owned by a chef from Chŏnju, the ingredients weren’t quite the same. Plus, because of Ontario health regulations, the egg, which is traditionally served raw, on top of the vegetables, and is cooked by the heat of the stone bowl, was served fried, sunny-side-up, on the Ottawa restaurant dish. At the sight of the dolsot-bibimbap placed in front of me, in the city from which it was made famous, I was transported back in time.

Su-ah, who also wanted the same meal, allowed me to order it for the both of us. I suspected she wanted to see if I could still speak her language. “Dolsot-bibimbap, du-gae, chuseyo,” I said, much to her surprise and our server’s amazement.

“You sound Korean when you speak Hangul,” she said.

“I had ordered this dish enough times to never forget.” When our dishes arrived, I was all too eager to stir the raw egg into the rice and vegetables and allow it to cook, stirring in a vegetable broth, served on the side with fresh green onions. When both Su-ah and I deemed it done, we began eating. It tasted as fresh as I remembered it. After a few bites, our conversation turned to our main purpose.

“How is he?” I asked.

“Very sick.”

“Is he going to die?”

“Soon, I think.”

With those three words, all of the contempt that I held for Kwon dissolved. Even though twenty years had passed since I had left Korea, since I had felt that any chance of getting the money that was owed to me had vanished, since I had even stopped thinking of Kwon—after all, I didn’t need the money, not that that was the point—I couldn’t hear his name without conjuring negative thoughts of a man who had lied to his employees, had kept them on staff, even though he had no intention of paying them when the time came.

Several times, in late 1997, we had given him a chance to let us go, but he had insisted that he could pay us. Even when he declared that he had no money to pay us, he thought that we would continue to work, for the sake of the students.

And he had the gall to deny paying us because we complained to the labour board.

In the end, he just wanted us to go away, quietly. But I stayed. I had made many connections while I worked for Kwon. Many of his adult students had remained loyal to their teacher, had found me work at the university, had kept me as a private teacher. In time, I put the thought of fighting Kwon out of my head. And when he did enter my thoughts, he was nothing but a failed businessman and a cheat, who had lost face—something that is devastating to a Korean.

And now Kwon was dying, would be gone forever. I didn’t hold any contempt for him: I pitied him.

“Mr. Kwon get more sick now. He in hospital.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I was hoping that we would have a chance to meet.”

“Oh, Mr. Kwon want to see you. He tell me to take you to see him. Can you come tomorrow?”

I had no plans. I had returned to Chŏnju at Kwon’s request, through Brad and Wilma. The whole point in returning to Korea was to get some closure on this chapter of my past. Or was it that Kwon needed this closure? He seemed to need it more than I. “Yes, of course. Will you come with me?”

“Yes. I must teach in day but we can go after.”

“I want to ask one more favour of you, Su-ah shi. Can you please try to locate Mr. Lee? I’d very much like to see him, if he’s available. I don’t know if I’ll ever return to Korea after this trip.”

“Yes, I try.”

Kwon might want to lay his guilt to rest, might need this closure. But for me, I needed some closure with Hyo Lee. I never got to say farewell. He had paid me for two months worth of lessons but never attended a single one. He had helped Tanya and I move when the hagwon came to a sudden closure. He had acted as a friend, not just a student.

To see him would make this trip truly worthwhile.

Beer O'Clock: The Mutants Are Revolting

It's true that these hazy, tropical-fruit-flavoured ales are a mutation of a classic IPA. They are hop-forward ales but they have taken on characteristics that can no longer be recognized as an India Pale Ale.

India has nothing to do with these brews.

Don't get me wrong: I love this style of pale-coloured ale. I love the hazy glow. I love the notes of pineapple, mango, and tangerine. They have become one of my favourite styles of beer. I could drink them all day.

But in no way do they make me think of an IPA.

I know that I've said this before and I know that the ship has sailed for giving this style of ale a name all its own. I guess it's too late to call them a New England/Northeast Pale Ale (NEPA) or a West Coast Pale Ale.

India is a wonderful country but we should leave it be when it comes to naming a beer that doesn't come from that distant land nor is intended for export to that destination.

We should just accept that hazy, juicy ales are a mutant IPA.

Which brings me to today's beer review.

Flying Monkeys, of Barrie, Ontario, has created what they call a "Crushable IPA." Packaged in yet another busy, multicoloured label that is covered in fantastical creatures, this can caught my eye in a Sobey's beer section.

Let's delve into it.

The Mutants Are Revolting Crushable IPA (4.5% ABV)
Flying Monkeys Craft Brewery
Barrie ON

Appearance: a hazy apricot gold with a creamy head that maintains a solid cap and clings to the inside of the glass.

Nose: orange rind and pine.

Palate: pineapple with more orange rind and a sharper pine resin cleanse the palate and leave with a medium, orange zest finish. There is nothing overpowering in the mouth and the body is medium to light.

Overall impression: the label and name gave me the impression that I was in for something big. I must admit that I only ever check the alcohol content after I've had my first sip, unless the beer label loudly defines the contents as a strong beer or alcohol-free. The past ales that I've had from Flying Monkeys have been heavy-hitting with an ABV rating of 8 percent or higher. When this brew filled my mouth, I immediately knew that this was a lighter ale.

It is, as Flying Monkeys states, a crushable ale. Its flavours aren't in your face and it's easy-drinking. It's a decent beverage. But that's it.

Did I like it? Sure. Would I drink it again? If offered, why not? Would I seek it out again? Um... probably not.

It's good, it's fine, but when I'm looking forward to unwinding with a beer, I want something that stands out, and this mutant IPA blends into the vast arena that hosts millions of these hazy, juicy brews. The label gave me the impression that this was a monster ale, and these mutants are tame.

Beer O'Clock rating: 🍺 + .5

Cheers!

Pinhey Forest

Aberdeen Pavilion: Then and Now

I recently saw a National Archive photo of the Aberdeen Pavilion, at Lansdowne Park, from 1903, when the building was only five years old, and I thought that I would share it with you.

Library and Archives Canada

It hasn't changed much.

I've wondered: has it always been painted yellow? For as long as I can remember, the Cattle Castle, as it's nicknamed, has been some light shade of yellow.

Now, nearly 125 years old, I can't imagine Ottawa without this heritage landmark. Can you?

Happy Tuesday!

The New Place

Three weeks in and I'm still learning new stuff on Mastodon.

There are things that I miss about Twitter—besides, obvs, the friends I made over the last dozen years. I miss the direct messages (DMs) that seem to be missing: at least, on the instance to which I subscribe. I miss being able to schedule messages: I mainly used Hootsuite, which doesn't seem to be compatible, at the moment, with Mastodon, but I also used to write tweets that I'd schedule to post at a later time.

It doesn't seem to be the case with Mastodon, which is a drag for when I want to schedule announcements of new blog posts. I have to manually publish them to my instance.

But I don't miss the ads and other promoted tweets. I'd end up either muting or blocking the person or company that would post these messages, which would repeat themselves over and over in my feed. And when I blocked one, another would take its place.

It was like playing Whack-a-Mole.

I thought I'd feel overwhelmed by Mastodon's local timeline, which shows posts by everyone who is signed up to my instance, mas.to, and even more inundated by the federated timeline, that shows everybody on all instances. But I don't.

For the most part, I ignore those timelines unless something becomes visible and catches my eye.

I love how I can follow hashtags, as well as people. I follow the photography hashtag,  as well as the Ottawa, cycling, and craft beer hashtags. It's nice to meet people with similar interests without following the people, directly.

I'm trying to follow new people and appreciate those who have started following me. I'm trying to be less of a presence online, opting to only post a couple of times each day. I announce my new blog posts only once and I share a random photo of the day—something I've taken at some point, that I hope is interesting for others.

I don't automatically follow people who start following me, unless I was following them, previously, on Twitter. My criteria for following someone remains the same: when I see that I have a new follower, I check their bio and timeline. If you seem to share similar interests or if I find you interesting, it's likely I'll follow you back.

But if you don't post anything or you only re-post (boost, I think Mastodon calls it), I likely won't follow you back. If anything, I might follow the people whose posts you've shared.

I'm close to closing down my Twitter account but I'm not ready to do it yet. First, there are too many people who I follow who have not left Musk's crumbling platform and I want to keep in touch with them. I'm not ready to cut any ties from my Twitter peeps.

And who knows? Maybe Twitter will make some sort of recovery that will bring me back.

And maybe Twitter will add an Edit button (I can edit a published 'toot' in Mastodon!).

If you have a Mastodon account and wish to follow me, find me at @BrownKnowser@mstdn.ca.

Happy Monday!

Air Traffic Control

It is quite the sight to see a large flock of Canada geese come in for a landing in a small body of water--one that is already filled with their fellow birds.

But when DW, some friends, and I hiked through Morris Island Conservation Area, last weekend, that's exactly what we saw. And it appeared to be a highly organized action.

Several squadrons of the birds flew over the inner bay, an offshoot of the Ottawa River, the flock forming patterns and taking various courses to avoid flying into one another. Then, as a signal to one another, each group would take turns going in for a landing.

It wasn't just a feat of aerial maneuverability high above but also skill in landing in the water without striking another goose.

We watched several flocks perform these landing moves, as though they had one or more air traffic controllers signalling them when it was their turn. There were even some go-arounds as the flock decided to abort their landing and try again.

All the landings were successful. No casualties.

Happy Friday!

Beer O'Clock: It's a Stout

I should have never opened my first can when my kid was in the kitchen, making chocolate pudding.

I should have known that the intoxicating aromas of sweet chocolate would interfere with my senses as I tried to discern the bouquet of my glass of stout that was infused with roasted cocoa nibs. But man, did those two aromas ever mix well.

As the winter months draw near, I tend to move from lighter, fruitier beer to those with more body and depth—not that an IPA can't have that and still quench my thirst on a hot summer's day. But I tend to go with darker, malty brews in colder weather.

This week, with Ottawa's first snowfall of the season (yes, it's still autumn), was the perfect time to dig into a new stout. And while I had my first can of this stout when Kid 1 was making that rich chocolate pudding, before the snow, I had my second sampling of it yesterday, with no other aromas to interfere.

Some of my initial observations, regardless of the pudding's interference, still hold true.

Let's take a look at this stout in detail.

It's a Stout (5.8% ABV)
Kensington Brewing Company
Toronto ON

Appearance: dark walnut, like black coffee, with a foamy, crème brulée head that settles to a creamy, thin, taupe cap that clings to the side of your glass as you tilt it forward to drink.

Nose: the first time that I stuck my nose into my glass and took a sip, I detected a rich, roasted coffee and perfectly contrasting milk chocolate, but that was the pudding interfering with my senses. The second glass, a day later, still gave me the espresso notes but they were backed by more pronounced cocoa and hints of malt. Still intoxicating.

Palate: the coffee comes first and foremost, a product of the roasted malts. The cocoa is there but is not as strong on the tongue as it is in the nostrils. The cocoa comes more into play with the dry finish that includes a bit of tobacco.

Overall impression: this is a beauty of a stout, and it's no wonder. It took the gold medal at both the 2021 and 2022 Canadian Brewing Awards. It reminds me of a classic, dry Irish stout, with the added flavour of cocoa.

It went perfectly with the pudding, by the way.

If Kensington Brewing doesn't mind, I'd like to quote their label, as it really did strike a chord with me and summed up my thoughts as well:

Face it, summer's over. Get ready for another 5 months of getting up in the dark and coming home in the dark. Do you like wet feet, frozen fingers, and salt stained shoes? SURE HOPE SO! Look, we didn't ask for this either, but we've got something that'll do the trick.

I agree. Kensington's It's a Stout is the perfect brew for the upcoming winter, when we tend to spend our evenings in the warmth of the indoors, hopefully with friends and loved ones. If you love stout, you'll love this one.

Beer O'Clock rating: 🍺🍺🍺

You can pick this brew up at select grocery stores or your friendly neighbourhood LCBO. Of course, it's also available for online orders directly from the brewery.

Cheers!

Morris Island

Holiday Booze

For most of the year, I take my pleasure in drinking beer or wine. They are my 'grown-up' drinks that I've been consuming since before I was a grown up and I love pairing them with a meal—a solid IPA with a curried chicken or a Chianti and a barbecue-grilled steak—or slowly sipping while enjoying a good flick on the TV.

I'll occasionally enjoy a good malt whisky but only do so if I have company, usually my father, who shares my appreciation of a smoky, peaty Islay malt.

And I enjoy tropical cocktails on a really hot day, such as when I'm lounging on a beach. A margarita is usually my drink of choice, though I'll indulge on a cola with dark rum from time to time.

But I don't often go for other alcoholic beverages during the year, except during the Christmas holidays. And I don't usually get into these drinks until December or, as I like to refer to it, the egg-nog season. At this time of year, I'll slip an ounce of Irish cream into my coffee or top up my egg nog with Kahlua (or rum).

I drink responsibly for the most part. Moderation is the key to enjoying life.

But there's one alcoholic beverage that our friends introduced us to, last summer, that made me want to start the holiday season a little early.

Our friends, Bee and Marc, allowed DW and I to invite ourselves over to their home to share in a vintage ale flight, and we sat in their lovely back yard on a beautiful summer afternoon. I brought eight bottles of Fuller's Vintage Ale, ranging from 2008 to 2016. Because it was too much beer to consume on my own and because flights are too special not to share, the four of us partook of these wonderful ales.

But our hosts were generous enough to first share a bit of a special bottle of rum and a bottle of something that became an instant favourite: orange-cream vodka.

Or Vodkow, as it is called.

The Almonte, Ontario producer of vodka-based cream liqueur, Dairy Distillery, produces several flavoured cream beverages, but their orange cream liqueur was our first foray into this type of sippable treat. If you like Irish cream, chances are that you'll like Vodkow.

The orange cream tastes very much like a Creamsicle frozen treat, with a bit of a kick. It is sweet and juicy and goes down easy.

Too easy. My first encounter with Bee and Marc had me drinking most of the bottle.

DW and I searched the LCBO for a bottle of the orange Vodkow, without luck. Our best bet would be to visit the distillery the next time we found ourselves in Almonte, but apart from a kayak adventure on the Mississippi, one late summer afternoon, we haven't been to this small town since.

Finally, in October, I thought I would visit the Dairy Distillery Web site and place an online order. I learned that orders of $100 or more received free shipping and that an order for that amount isn't hard to do: three bottles should cover that prerequisite.

I was going to order three bottles of the orange cream when another flavour caught my eye: egg nog. I ordered two orange creams, one egg nog cream, and called it a day. Two days later, the bottles arrived on my doorstep.

Usually, I don't buy egg nog until December. For me, it's associated with the Christmas season and I don't like my Christmas season to extend beyond two weeks—three weeks at the extreme maximum. The tree goes up two weekends before December 25 and comes down the first weekend after New Year's Eve.

But I was tempted to try the egg nog Vodkow and so I cracked the bottle open just over a week ago. It lacks the yellow hue of egg nog and looks more like... well... cream. Except, when you swirl it in your glass or take a sip, it leaves legs down the side of the glass that tell you there's some serious alcohol in it.

It tastes exactly like egg nog with a modest dose of alcohol. The alcohol isn't overpowering, especially if you sip it, which is what you're meant to do. When I pour myself a glass, I use a small one and fill it with no more than two or three ounces.

And try to resist the temptation to pour a second (I don't always succeed).

The egg nog Vodkow also tastes great in coffee. I added less than an ounce to my cup and it was heavenly.

As the bottle came toward its end, I knew that I wanted more and wasn't sure how long Dairy Distillery would offer this holiday-inspired drink, so I placed a second order. This time, I added two more egg nog creams to my list, with two more orange creams (even though we have an unopened bottle in our beer fridge), and I've decided to try the chocolate cream Vodkow (though, I'm going to save that for December).

Though the orange cream is amazingly special, the egg nog cream is my favourite so far. I plan to make it the star of my holiday booze list, assuming and hoping that Dairy Distillery makes it again, next year.

What about you? Have you tried any of the Vodkow flavours yet? If so, which is your favourite?

If you haven't tried it yet, you can find the egg nog cream at the LCBO (where you can also find the plain cream Vodkow and straight vodka, as well as a sampler pack). As far as I've discovered, the orange cream and chocolate cream are only available directly from Dairy Distillery. I suggest you give them a try.

Cheers!

Sooner Rather Than Later

Okay, it's only been a week.

I feel as though I'm a teenager again (sort of) and have moved to a new high school. Some of my friends have also been transferred to this new school but most of the kids are new to me and none of the teachers are familiar.

It's exciting, in some ways; in other ways, it's terrifying.

I've made the decision to leave Twitter. Last week, I mentioned how I was planning to make the switch from this popular social media platform, with which I've been a member for more than 12 years, to another platform—either Counter Social or Mastodon. I had created accounts for both but knew that eventually, I'd choose one over the other.

On Friday, I made my choice: I'm moving to Mastodon. I can be found at @BrownKnowser@mstdn.ca. On Saturday, I let the folks who followed me on Counter Social know that I was moving and encouraged them to make the move to Mastodon as well.

It's worth a shot.

Actually, some of my Twitter friends followed me on Counter Social and Mastodon, and I'm hopeful that even more will do the same.

I know, Mastodon seems intimidating at first, especially when you try to create an account and the first thing you have to do is pick a server onto which to hook your wagon. Which server do you pick, and why?

In a nutshell, a server is no different than the service that you choose to receive your e-mail. You might be using G-mail or Yahoo! or one that is provided by your Internet service provider. It doesn't matter which service you use because you can still send and receive e-mail messages from friends and family, even if they are using one Internet service provider and you're using another.

You still get your e-mail.

The same thing works for Mastodon. Because it's a federated platform, meaning that it isn't centrally controlled and is an open-source platform, many people can create a domain and it is shared throughout federation space.

(If you didn't know I was a Trekkie before, you know now.)

Each server is basically dedicated to one or more areas of interest. There's one for developers; another, for gamers; one, for photographers, writers, and news media; and others, many others, for general social interaction. Pick a server that interests you and create an account on it.

In your local stream for that server, you'll see other people sharing their thoughts and ideas, centred on that instance (what the server is called). But you can also follow people who have accounts in other instances.

For example, I am located on the mstdn.ca instance. It's a general social chat group, of which there are many others, like mastodon.social or mstdn.social, but set up with Canadians in mind. So, to find your friends, all you need to do is know their user name (@BrownKnowser) and their instance (@mstdn.ca), put them together (@BrownKnowser@mstdn.ca), and you can follow that person. You'll also see who they like and you can get your following list to grow.

I've watched a couple of videos on YouTube to help me get familiar with the ins and outs of Mastodon, but the one I like the most is one that's three years old, presented by Ryan Kawailani Ozawa. Ryan explains this federated platform, and gives the basics of creating an account and working your way around the interface, which is a lot like TweetDeck or Hootsuite, if you've used those Twitter interfaces.

Here's Ryan's video:

I've also watched a couple of videos by someone who calls himself the Explorographer, and he gives some good tips on getting the most out of the Mastodon Web interface app. His videos are only a couple of weeks old as of the writing of this post, so some of his information is more current than Ryan's.

If you're thinking of leaving Twitter, I recommend Mastodon. There are no ads and I've found most of the conversations to be positive. There aren't a lot of political rants (none that I've seen).

If you do join the Mastodon federated universe, I hope you'll seek me out. I have a few Twitter friends and some new ones, but I'd love to see more of the friends I've made over the past dozen years.

Last week, I said I'd be off Twitter by the end of the year, at the latest. Now, I'm choosing to not post as much on that platform and am focusing more on Mastodon.

Come join me!

The Brownfoot Sphinx

I take a lot of snapshots of our cats. I mean, who doesn't like to capture memories of their household pets?

But this is one of my favourite recent shots of our little princess, Cece. As Kid 1 describes it, this shot is of our cat posing like a sphinx.

I can't argue. With her body stretched out on the kitchen floor, her forepaws supporting her upper half, and her head held up, she does strike a distinct pose.

I captured this image with my smartphone, held upside down so that the lens was as low to the floor as I could make it—the top of the phone is actually resting on the ground. I used the wide-angle lens (my smartphone has three lenses) and angled it upward, slightly.

The trick was to keep Cece still and to hold her pose long enough that I could get the shot. I said nothing to her and moved so casually so that she wouldn't move away. Within seconds of snapping this photo, she was up and on the move again.

It's so much easier to capture her when she's asleep.

Happy Friday!

Beer O'Clock: One Hop

There are lots of single-hopped ales out there, and that's a good thing.

By focusing on one hop, you can learn the subtleties of that variety and be able to detect it in future brews. If a label doesn't list the hops that are used in making the beer that you're drinking, you can at least pick out that hop by the flavour profile.

And so, today's review is going to focus on a single-hop pale ale by a brewery that I had never heard of before I happened upon one of their pale ales in my local grocery store. And while I wasn't fussy about that brew, I quite like this creation.

Mosaic Single Hop Pale Ale (5.2% ABV)
Furnace Room Brewery
Georgetown ON

Appearance: a glowing, hazy apricot-orange with a foamy white head that pours thick and then settles to a thin cap.

Nose: limes, pineapple.

Palate: flavours of pine and grass make up the bulk of what you feel in the mouth, and it comes to a short, clean finish. 

Overall impression: this is a thirst-quenching, easy-drinking pale ale that goes down nicely on a late-autumn afternoon

Beer O'Clock rating: 🍺🍺

Furnace Room Brewery gets bonus points for calling this ale a "pale ale" and not an IPA. Too often do breweries play fast and loose with that name for this style of beer that an India Pale Ale has started to lose its identity. If you've read my reviews of yore, you may have heard me complain in the past.

So good for you, Furnace Room!

You can find Mosaic Single Hop Pale Ale in the LCBO or you can order it directly from the brewery.

Cheers!

Ferguson Forest

Dirty Lens

This is why I'm still a rank amateur.

I take my equipment for granted far too often. I assume that I can just pull a camera out of its case and start using it without doing simple checks.

Like, whether I have a data card in it or whether that card has enough storage space. I've gone out to do an entire photo shoot, only to discover, when I returned home, that the SD card wasn't in the camera. I've also had to cull photos that were already on the card so that I had room to shoot the photos that I had set out to take.

I've left the house with a camera that had a dead battery. The camera was essentially a paper weight. Fortunately, I haven't done that for any organized shoot with my photo club and I've had my smartphone as a backup.

But still...

And recently, I set out on a kayaking adventure with my 360-degree camera without doing a final lens cleaning before rolling. This blunder happened a couple of weeks ago, when DW and I had a friend join us on a beautiful late-October paddle of Calabogie Lake.

Of course, I could see the lens that faced me and knew that it was clean. But because I couldn't see the lens on the other side of the video camera, I didn't notice a greasy smudge on it, likely from a misplaced thumb as I was securing the camera to my kayak deck.

We paddled the afternoon away: me, capturing video throughout our trek. In the end, as I downloaded the video from the camera onto my phone and edited the files, I couldn't quite notice that some of the footage was blurry. It wasn't until I imported the files onto my computer and added them to my video-editing software that I could see I had a problem.

I had imported just over 19 minutes of video, but most of it was unusable.

I still wanted to create a video of our afternoon, so I whittled down my footage until I had just over three-and-a-half minutes of video, and even some of that was blurry. I didn't want to just include footage with me in the frame.

A week ago, I posted the finished video on my YouTube channel. Here it is:

Note to self: do a final wipe of your lenses once the camera is firmly mounted in place.

Happy Tuesday!

Lifeboats at the Ready

In April, when Elon Musk was threatening to buy Twitter, I wondered where I would go if and when the sale had been completed. On Friday, October 28, the deal was done and I held my breath to see what my next steps were.

I had already created an account on Counter Social (@brownknowser), an alternative social-media site. There was a bit of a learning curve but the toughest challenge was to connect with any of my Twitter peeps who had also joined this platform.

Within a week, I had sort of forgotten Counter Social and stuck with Twitter, for the time being.

One week ago, after Musk cut all the executives (or they had jumped ship), I knew that my time on Twitter was even more limited. I could see an end in sight.

But many of my peeps had cast a rope to another social-media site, Mastodon, so I had a look, myself, and created an account there (@BrownKnowser@mstdn.ca). It's a bit more complicated, in that you must choose a server upon which to attach your profile, and you must know the server of your friends to find and connect with them.

I don't like complicated but I'll see.

I've actually started posting messages, links to my blog posts, and have shared thoughts on both CS and Mastodon, though I still maintain my Twitter account. Starting today, I'm only sharing links to my latest blog posts and I'm tweeting my morning greeting and evening sign off.

I'll engage in conversations with my Twitter peeps, for as long as they remain on the platform, but I won't initiate a conversation. I expect, if conditions with Twitter deteriorate, to close my account by the end of the year.

Or sooner, if Musk starts implementing fees or carries on with other shenanigans.

It's too bad: I've made some great friendships on Twitter and I've found it engaging and informative, though at other times it's angered and frustrated the hell out of me.

What about you? Do you use Twitter? Will you stay? Have you already jumped ship? Where did you land? Leave me a comment. If you've joined CS or Mastodon, let me know how I can connect.

Happy Monday!