The Brown Knowser

I've made a decision. Two weeks ago, I talked about how I had joined the social-media platform, Bluesky, and how I was now juggling three different places . Not being a good juggler, I was sure that at least one of these platforms would fall. While I was sick, I often turned to social media to feel like I was keeping in touch, even though I was otherwise isolated and unable to truly socialize. My folks on Mastodon, Threads, and Bluesky were great for lifting my spirits and keeping me company. Thanks to all the well-wishers and even to those who were simply posting, unaware that I was reading your content. I had time to think about how I use each platform and I discovered that I didn't find Mastodon as engaging as I first did when I joined it, two years ago. I had a small handful of people who regularly responded to my posts or who I would look for, but the majority of content in my feed was distracting and overwhelming with information and opinions about what's going on in...

I was certain that I was going to miss it but according to Ottawa Public Health, I was okay. We bought our tickets months ago; so far in the past, I almost forgot about them. But I remembered them over the weekend, when I was down with COVID-19. "You're going to have to go with someone else," I told DW on Saturday. As yet. I hadn't felt the worst effects of my illness. That would come on Sunday and into early Monday. "Wait and see how you feel," assured DW. We had purchased our tickets with two other friends, so worst-case scenario, she wouldn't go alone. And, perhaps, Kid 1 would go in my stead. The 80s Show was to feature four bands from our teenage years: Spoons, Men Without Hats, A Flock of Seagulls, and Honeymoon Suite. I had seen Spoons perform three times in the past; most recently, in 2018, and they were still going strong. I had seen Men Without Hats about 40 years ago. I loved that band in the early 80s and was looking forward to see Ivan on s...

She's making me wait. I've been sitting on the fence for so long that my arse is getting sore. Ever since I bought a small drone as a Christmas present to myself, in 2016, I've wondered if I should invest in a better drone. The drone that I bought was essentially a toy: it weighed practically nothing (about 135 grams, I believe) and had basically no automatic control, which meant that everything was up to the pilot, from hovering in place to all movement. And, in a gust of wind, it went flying off course and was sometimes hard to bring back. I lost count at how many trees it flew into. When it finally hit a tree, crashed to the ground, and lost the micro SD card somewhere in the grass, I was done with it. It's been gathering dust in my basement for a couple of years. I looked at other, better drones but I was concerned about the cost, the amount of time it would take to master flying it, and crashing or losing it. My first drone cost me just over $60 so I felt no pain w...

Well, here I go again. I know that the pandemic isn't over but I've really let my guard down. Not that I've been out a lot in public, other than weekly trips to the grocery store or the occasional visit to a restaurant. In the past 10 days, I've met with a friend at a brew pub, which was practically empty, with only three tables occupied during our stay, though we did chat with the owner and brewer at our table for a while. A couple of days later, I was in a photo studio with five other photographers and a model. We were in a relatively small space, standing close to one another, and over the two hours, it got very hot from the light projector (even the model, who was naked, was glistening in sweat). The next morning, DW, Kid 1, and I went to breakfast at a cozy restaurant that was full. No one even thinks of wearing a mask in a restaurant nowadays. For the rest of the past week, I've stayed home. But the same can't be said for DW, who makes several trips to the...

She seems to have settled in quite nicely, as though she hasn't been gone for the past two years. When Kid 2 left for university, there was no question that she'd be taking Lily with her. Lily was her cat, and with the move into the isolated room at the University of Toronto, during the pandemic, Kid 2 was going to need her more than ever. Of course, when Kid 2 came home for the holidays or for class breaks, Lily would come home, too, though it wasn't an easy transition for her to go from being the only cat in a dorm room to being one of four cats in a big house. For the first couple of days, Lily would growl and hiss, and hide from the other cats. She had been really close to Camille, Cece, and Finn, but after a long drive from Toronto, Lily needed her space. It would take about two or three days for her to remember that she loved the other cats, and then things would go back to normal. Because Kid 2 is living between apartments , bumming couches from friends and living ou...

It hasn't changed much over the 30-odd years. As I walked along the path that connected Gilbey Drive to Leaver Avenue, I noticed that the path had changed slightly, from when I last walked it. The Merivale Market mall had encroached onto the wooded area and trees seemed to fill in the pathway once again. Only, it didn't seem so ominous. Not in the daytime, anyway. In my late teens or early 20s, I had walked along that dark pathway, my eyes struggling to adjust to the darkness—I had exceptional eyesight in my youth and needed only a bit of light. I did carry a small but powerful flashlight on me, just in case I needed to see anything. I felt a presence along the path. My footfall was silent: I often joked, in high school, that I'd make a great assassin, though I justified that statement by saying that I would only kill bad guys, men (or even, women) who deserved their fate. I switched on the flashlight and had stumbled upon a conference. A secret meeting. And stumbled i...

There was a path that started across the street from my old house and cut into woods, opening into a marshy area before coming out onto Gilbey Drive, which, itself, led out to Merivale Road. It was a dark, creepy path that was unlit and made you want to stay away after dark. Over the years, trees were thinned and the path received a top coating of crushed gravel, making the path a bit more inviting. The marsh was cleaned up and made into a bit of a water reservoir. At about the midway point of this path, a concrete and metal water access point was added, providing a sewer drain from Merivale Road to the reservoir. As the reservoir tunnel stands today. It was hard, as a teen, to resist checking it out. My friends and I were into playing the game Dungeons & Dragons, or D&D, as most gamers called it. We started playing it in our early to mid teens and continued into college and university, with some of my friends continuing the game even today. I stopped playing, for the most part...

I didn't abandon DW. I just walked away. DW has a habit of falling. Sometimes it's because she isn't looking where she's going or is moving in the dark: like, the time she went to our basement without turning the lights on, and tumbling down the stairs, breaking a bone in a foot. I installed light-sensor bulbs the very next day. She also fell down a short flight of stairs while looking at her phone while walking in Toronto's Eaton's Centre. Luckily, she only suffered a bruised knee. The other weekend, we were with some friends at a VR room in the Merivale Mall, fighting reptilian pirates, and DW really threw herself into the game. So much so that she fell, twice, stepping over obstacles that weren't really there. Two falls, landing on the same knee. She was in a lot of pain but pushed through it, continuing on through the rest of the week, only feeling the pain if a cat jumped on her legs or if she accidentally applied pressure to specific spots. She had bru...

When the Paddlefolk and I took our kayaks along the Barron Canyon, in early October, I already had it in my head that it would be the last time that I'd take my 360-degree camera with me. I knew—or rather, I felt—that it wouldn't be the last time that I took my Delta 12.10 kayak on the water, that the weather would hold out and I'd get at least one more paddle under my belt for 2024. It was my last paddle video , not my last paddle. DW, our Paddlefolk, and I went out in our kayaks one more time, on Muskrat River and Muskrat Lake, near Cobden, Ontario. The fall colours were still vibrant and it was a nice paddle. A few weeks ago, I shared a few photos from that outing but I had taken quite a few. I didn't have my 360-degree camera with my but I had my smartphone, and captured lots of photos that day. One of the things I've learned with my new smartphone, which has three lenses, is that it takes fairly decent telephoto images. But in a kayak, there's the added ch...

I have always had excellent hand-eye coordination but I could never juggle. I can throw two balls in the air, with one hand, catching one at a time, but if you add a third element, I get lost. I can't hold concentration, and in no time all three balls come crashing to the floor. I wonder if the same holds true for social media. When I left Twitter, I wasn't sure of where to go but I learned that some of my peeps had moved to a site called Mastodon , and so I followed. Joining this Federated, multi-instance platform seemed a bit tricky at first, but I got the hang of it. I reconnected with some of my old Twitter friends, who also jumped ship, and made virtual friends with new people. It didn't seem as robust as the Twitter of old—I can't schedule a post and I still haven't got the knack of sending private, direct messages—but it allowed me to share thoughts and read posts of my connections. About two years after joining Mastodon, I still use it daily. And then, Threa...

Of course, there were two more paddles after the Barron Canyon. But this was the last time that I attached my video camera to the deck of my kayak. And it will be the last video that I make in my red Delta 12.10. Next season, DW and I will be in new kayaks. New lengths. New colours. We're looking forward to our new boats and I've already had ideas of how I'm going to capture next season on video. Bur for now, please enjoy my final kayaking video of 2024. As always, if you like the video, give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel so that you don't miss the next video as soon as it comes out. I'll be giving my attention to our Costa Rica adventures—finally—and I have more ideas to continue with my channel until the ice melts and we can get back in the water. Stay tuned.

I messed up. A bit. Yesterday, I posted the third clue of my Where In Ottawa? photo challenge, not realizing that about 18 hours earlier, the challenge had been solved. I did make the photo a bit difficult by adding a separate event at the site. Last Friday, some members of my Ottawa Photography Meetup club and I showed up under the Bronson Street bridge at the House of PainT , to capture images of burning steel wool. It was my first time capturing these sorts of long-exposure shots but something I've wanted to do for years. And under a concrete overpass, in a spot known for arts and cultural events, I thought it was the perfect setting for my photo challenge. Call it a two-for-one event. Here are the clues for my challenge, explained: Where creativity thrives : this section of concrete, under the George Dunbar Bridge, near Brewer Park, is the central location of an annual HipHop Jam that showcases graffiti, breakdancing, DJs, poets, and more, from across Canada. Not a home but a...

In August, when I received my DNA makeup from Ancestry , I had learned that I had no Scottish blood in me, a fact that disappointed me because my mother had once told me that I have a trace of Scots in me and I had grown to love the country through my fictional character, Roland Axam, and my visits to that beautiful country. With the initial DNA results, I was told that I had Irish blood in me, which I had never suspected, plus a lot of Scandinavian blood, which surprised me. The rest of me—English, Welsh, and French—was of no surprise to me. One of the things with Ancestry is that the more data and more connections with relatives you make, the more your genetic makeup changes. And last week, I learned that my makeup has changed quite a bit. I'm still mostly made of English and Northwestern European blood, I've found out that I have more French blood in me than the earlier results showed. I've gained Germanic roots but I've lost most of that Scandinavian connection. I...

It's been so long that I've all but forgotten about it. The last time I ran a Where In Ottawa? photo challenge was in May, 2019. The number of viewers to those posts was dwindling and fewer people participated, so after about eight years of running it, I stopped. But lately, I've noticed that people are looking at the old Where In Ottawa? posts, almost as though someone was playing the game on their own. In fact, one of my old posts has had so much attention that it's become one of the most popular posts of this past month. For those of you who haven't played it, I would post a photo that I shot from somewhere in the Ottawa area; sometimes, even crossing the border into Gatineau, Québec. The challenge was to leave a comment on the post with a guess to the location. The first person to leave the correct guess would be awarded a copy of my novel, Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary . On a couple of occasions, some businesses got in on the deal: Mill Street Brew Pub offered...

"Next time," I told Kid 2, on Saturday, as we finished moving her into her new apartment , "find some strong friends." I was talking about the next time that she moved. I was getting too old to help her and this move left me utterly drained of energy. DW and I were supposed to paddle the Barron Canyon, the next day, but I awoke with a migraine and aching muscles. It took a couple of days to recover from that move. We knew that the house that Kid 2 and four of her friends had rented had small bedrooms. Some looked as though they were closets. But Kid 2 and her friends had signed the lease anyway, and it wasn't our business to say anything. But by Monday, the roommates found a few problems with the place and learned that some of the rooms didn't stand up to building code. Some were actually in violation. So, they made the decision to break the lease. The real-estate company that advertised the unit was understanding, and said that they would refund the roommat...