The Brown Knowser

When I had an account on Twitter, and later, Threads, I got used to blocking people. I would say that for more than a year before I left Twitter, I got into the habit of blocking accounts that spread hate or people who would troll my account. I'd also steadily block sex bots that would start following me. If someone was going to follow me, I wanted them to be real. Similarly, when I joined Threads, I'd have to block accounts on a daily basis. It's like the hatred had found its way from Musk's cesspool into Zuckerberg's platform, and I wanted to shut that noise down. I left Threads the very day that I learned that Zuck had given a million dollars to Felonious Tangerine Turd's * inauguration. I was not interested in supporting an oligarch. Luckily, I found a soft place to land on Bluesky . Overall, the tone of people on this social-media platform is relatively positive. And I know that some have said that Bluesky can be a bit of an echo chamber for the left leani...

My last day is done Nineteen years went by quickly Now, I start anew.

I didn't get to sleep until nearly 3:00. I haven't been this excited in years, when I came to a big break in my novel, Gyeosunim , the sequel to my novel, Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary . I know, I've all but given up on finishing that book, but I'll get there, eventually. I got hung up on one of the storylines and I've since decided that I'll take it out, possibly writing a third novel for Roland Axam. Another time that I became this excited, when it came to writing my fiction, was when I was working on Songsaengnim , and I came up with the idea that explained how Roland found himself in Korea in the first place. When I get excited about writing, I have to see my idea through, and this is the reason why I went to bed on Saturday night but didn't get to sleep until nearly 3 am. I lay in bed with so many thoughts in my head that I got out of bed, grabbed a notebook and pen, and started writing out my ideas—shaping them, making them make sense. On the previous Fr...

I love puddles. After a rain shower, I look for them. When I find one, I crouch low and circle the puddle, looking for something that can be reflected in the shallow water. Nine times out of 10, there's nothing to see. But when I find something, I get as low as possible, getting my camera as close to the ground as possible. With my smartphone, it's even better than with one of my D-SLRs, because I can turn my phone upside-down or on its side, so that the lens is only millimetres above the puddle. That's when I get my shot. I like how the brick of the cobbled ground blends into the shadowy reflection of the historic building that houses Spirit of York Distillery (they make a mighty fine gin!). It's not a perfect reflection but lends to the continuity of the overall image. Happy Friday!

So, I'm brainstorming for my next novel, which is coming together better than I imagined, considering I only started coming up with a basic idea less than a week ago. I'm going to start in earnest, next week, when my job of nearly 19 years wraps up. In case you missed my earlier post, I was laid off, along with my entire documentation team, on Monday. But I digress. This post is about my newest writing project, a crime novel, set in Ottawa. I don't want to give too much away, but I will say that the story starts with the discovery of a body that is floating in the Rideau River, just downstream from the Vimy Memorial Bridge. The dead body is that of a woman, whose identity is introduced shortly after she is recovered from the cool water. Even before I've actually written a full paragraph, I have an idea for the book's cover. Not being artistically inclined in any way, I decided to see if I could use AI to come up with the cover. To that end, I entered the followi...

Last Friday, as DW, Kid 1, and I drove to Toronto to visit with Kid 2 and some of our good friends, who also came to Toronto to spend time with all of us, DW was listening to an audiobook to pass the time. I, on the other hand, had ideas for a new novel floating around in my head. I know, I know. I never finished the sequel to my novel, Songsaengnim: A Korea Diary , but someday, I'll get there. But for now, I'm going to let other stories take me wherever they lead. For decades, I've been a huge fan of crime fiction and I thought I would like to write a murder mystery, but I never knew where to start. I saw myself more as a writer of spy stories and had focused on those in my early days of writing. I've just come off reading three crime novels and so, last week, I thought that maybe it was time for me to give it a try. And that brings us back to this past weekend, where I started coming up with a detective story that is set right here, in Ottawa. Maybe, I'm channelin...

I'm a lot excited for our upcoming vacation. And, I'm a bit nervous. DW's and my last vacation was all about relaxing with friends. We spent a week at our favourite Mexican resort , in Akumal Bay , with our close friends Bee, Marc, Wendy, and Peter. We ate, we drank, we lounged, we snorkeled, we danced, and we repeated. The most exertion we experienced was a walk along the beach to an area where there were a bunch of abandoned buildings —likely, condos or a small resort where the company ran out of money—and another trek all the way to Pueblo Akumal, on the other side of the highway from the beach part of the town and where the real citizens of the town live. Our next vacation will be more adventure-driven. It will also be the first family vacation we've had since 2018, when DW and I took the kids to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia . Since then, with the exception of weekend trips to Toronto , DW and I haven't travelled with our daughters. California, 2016. Our kids ...

A couple of weeks ago, DW and I visited with our financial advisor to look at our current situation and to make plans for the future. And because I've recently turned 60, my thoughts naturally fell to retirement. For a couple of years, I thought it would be nice to retire at 63. There's nothing special about that number, though I would be one year younger than my dad was when he died. It's just that, two years ago, when I really started wondering if I'd be able to retire in the near future, five years crept into my head. Two years down: three more to go, by that reckoning. In visiting with our financial planner, DW and I found out that we're in good shape. If I retire at 63, I should be able to live under my current quality-of-life standards for 30 years. Mind you, I don't expect to live to 93. It's just not in my genes. "What about if I were to retire tomorrow?" I asked, but DW shut me down. Her plans are to work for another five years and she doe...

I had such a great time at karaoke night at Stray Dog Brewing, last Friday. But then again, I always do. The talent pool is quite deep, with so many great singers, including Brewmaster Marc Plante. Even my karaoke buddy from Hummingbird Hall —and before that, the man who invited me to join his singing peeps at Conspiracy Theory —James, came along and added his voice to the participants. Stray Dog is in my top three breweries in Ottawa, right up there with Broadhead Brewery and Bicycle Craft Brewery . But there are two things * that I'm not crazy about with this beer shop: first off, it's too damned far from home. In good traffic, I can get there in just over 30 minutes, half of which is highway driving, along the Queensway and Highway 174, out to the far end of Orleans. If traffic isn't ideal, I'm looking at almost 45 minutes. If I want beer from them, I tend to order it online and have it delivered. But I'll almost never drive to check out a new release. It...

I avoided Bluesky. I kept the radio off. I didn't even visit YouTube because the algorithm knows I'm a news junkie and suggests videos from CBC and other news outlets. Because our clocks had sprung forward, overnight, I slept in later than my body was used to. But DW was up early and I heard the garage door open as she was heading out to the gym. I lay in bed for nearly another hour before I headed downstairs. I was emptying the dishwasher as she came back home. "I can't believe that Trump..." "NOOOO!" I screamed, cutting her off. "We're not supposed to say his name. We agreed we wouldn't talk about him." Nine fourty-three. We only made it to 9:43 in the morning. "It’s okay," said DW. "You still haven't said his name." "That's not the point," I said. "The goal was to get through the day without hearing or reading his stupid name, without seeing his ugly face. This day is ruined." "Don...

In 2011, social media was still pretty new to me. Sure, I had been running a blog since 2008 (not this blog, which I started in 2011) but I really didn't get into Twitter until early in that year. In 2011, Twitter was in its glory days. But once I started on social media—Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Untappd—I was hooked. I seemed to spend all my free time checking out what I had missed since the last time I put my phone to my face. Kid 1, who was as sharp as a tack (and still is), noticed that I was missing life around me while I was looking for what was going on in the social-media universe. And she pointed out that I was addicted to my phone while we were on vacation, in Cape Cod, in 2011. For the most part, I was taking shots of our vacation, but instead of taking the snap and moving on, I had to edit it right away and post it on Twitter, or Instagram, or Facebook. And for her, it was getting to be too much. So she had an idea for a picture I could take: DW would be lo...

Within days, I just wasn't feeling it. I love Wales. Though I have only been there once, and that was more than 30 years ago, it has left an impression on me that hasn't faded. The beauty of the landscape and the kindness of the people will stay with me forever. When I completed the Te Araroa trek of The Conqueror Virtual Challenge , I told myself that I didn't feel inclined to participate in another of these virtual journeys: not, unless, I discovered one that would be so enticing that I couldn't refuse it. Nearly a year later, one challenge caught my attention and made me think of my short but memorable time in Wales: the Wales Coast Path . The 1,300-kilometre trail would take me past Conwy , Beaumaris , Caernarfon , Harlech , Cardiff , and more, before ending in Chepstow —all places that DW and I visited all those years ago. I started the trek at the beginning of August, last year, and put some actual kilometres on my bike, in my kayak, and on foot while I virtu...

I couldn't help but have a flashback. I wrote about this before, when I had a birthday party and decided to pick up a microphone and sing while friends danced around me. But that party was 52 years ago . A couple of days ago, I celebrated turning 60. It wasn't my actual birthday: that's this coming Wednesday. Like in 1973, because my birthday is on a weekday, we held the celebration the weekend before. DW asked me what I wanted to do to mark the end of my sixth decade and I said that I wanted to be surrounded by family and friends, to be with the people who mattered so much to me. We talked about reserving space at a favourite brewery, as it would have the space to accommodate everyone, and I liked that idea. Secretly, she had already contacted Conspiracy Theory Brewery, as I had been frequenting the place, as of late, but when she told me, I was reluctant. While I liked going to Conspiracy Theory for karaoke, it wasn't a favourite brewery, nor even in my top 10 for Ott...