Microsoft's New Font

Three years ago, I made a post titled "Microsoft New Fonts". The company was offering its consumers an opportunity to vote on a new default typeface, replacing Calibri. They put forth five options to choose between. Last I did this, I offered a graphic demonstrating each, with a description beneath. Since its been so long, I will do so again.

Bierstadt: A precise serif font suitable for grid-based typography, but meant to feel a bit more approachable and less institutional, with a "human touch". It is also the only serif font on the list

Grandview: Inspired by German road signage meant to be readable at a distance, this font is supposed to be "mechanical but elegant"

Seaford: The look for this one was inspired by armchairs, and is meant to have a gently organic and asymmetrical appearance.

Skeena: This one is described as being "quirky" with the most varied contrasts between thickness in its letters, and exceptionally high strokes

Tenorite: With exceptionally large dots, accents and punctuations, this fonts' creators said they were "craving something round, wide and crisp" and that they didn't "shy away from going large and circular".

At the time I think I felt obligated to support Grandview, because my wife is legally blind and I work with people who have disabilities. It's just the most accessible.

I never followed up on the winner. In fact, I forgot about the competition until I was using Microsoft Word recently and noticed a different default font. I don't know when the change ocurred.

The winner was Aptos. You may be offended because it wasn't listed as a competitor, and think that Microsoft must have betrayed the democratic process. But Aptos is just a rebranding of Bierstadt. Maybe the name seemed too niche, or not accomodating to all ages, as a German phrase referencing beer.

I don't think Microsoft has the culural influence anymore to decide what's considered the global standard though. Nowadays, I think most people use Google Docs as their default word processor, and they use Arial. 

I don't have much to say on this. According to my old post, Calibri was invented as a work-around for Arial, as Microsoft didn't have the rights to it. If that was the initially desired font, it makes sense that Google (actually Alphabet) would want to cling to it while Microsoft may want to distinguish themselves, now being the underdogs.

Aptos/Bierstadt may not have been my top pick, but in my initial post I did give them credit for being a serif font in a non-serif world. My all-time favourite typeface is Garamond, which shares this quality.

Anyway, congratulations Aptos. I don't think you'll be as influential as any of your predecessors, unfortunately.

Now for a garden update:

We have seven sunflower blossoms now! Our last record was eight, back in 2023. So we just need one more to tie the score, two more to beat it. As you can see, we have ample more flowers and it's still early in the year. We also have another plot with nine Kongs. Barring anything unforseen, it looks like we're on the way to a new personal best.

Unfortunately, most of them are facing the patio. Sunflowers look toward the setting sun, so this was mostly an oversight on our behalf. It looks like we have two strains growing and one is quicker to blossom than the other, so I think the ones still growing will be tall enough to peak over the edge.

We have a red tomato! Lots of green ones still on the vine, and a few zuchinis are coming in as well. Looks like pretty much everything we planted is producing this year.

Canadian Vexillology (Flag Review)

Full disclosure, this is a crosspost from Gryphon's Reviews. I wrote it for this blog, but when I finished I realized that it was technically a review, so it should go over there. However, since I passed my 1000th post on here, I don't have a set goal and so I feel less strongly about my posting criteria.

My reviews usually, I think only with this one exception, cover stories of one manner or another. It's by far the least popular thing that I do. Notoriously, my review blog has more posts than views. It's not like I get a ton of attention over here, but I thought this was offbeat and weird enough to give it the opportunity for a little bit of visibility.

I still care about giving this blog some attention, and this year is looking pretty thin, so it's worth the repost I think.

I originally wrote this in March of last year. If you want to force a sense of intention to its reappearance, you can maybe say it reflects our current time because of the changing feelings toward our flag.

Just a few years ago it was being waved by anti-vaxxers in an attempt to ape the patriotism of the US's MAGA movement. Now, after the threat of collonization by our neighbours to the South, it's being waved by people as an indication of our independence from that movement. The people that once supported MAGA prefer an American flag now, regardless of what side of the border they're on.

We're not a month out from Canada Day, where we visited a drone show with lots of Canadian symbolism. The year previous, there wasn't any patriotic imagery.

But really, I just felt like ranking flags and felt it safest to do so for the ones belonging to the country I live in. I highlight my motivation a bit more below.

Everything beneath this was written last March.

The study of flags is known as vexillology. In 2006, the North American Vexillogical Association published a book that included five rules to be kept in mind during the flag-designing process. They were:

1. Keep it simple
2. Use meaningful symbolism
3. Use two or three basic colours
4. No lettering or seals
5. Be distinctive or related

I don't really get why the North American Vexillogical Association gets final say on what makes a good flag, but I do find that some of their points have a cross-section with my own criteria.

Today we'll be rating Canada's national, provincial, and territorial flags on a scale from 1-10. The higher the number, the better the score.

Before I get into it, I should acknowledge that everything is subjective, and different cultures may have different priorities when it comes to design. The ratings I will put forward will be based on my own thoughts, which are informed by a criteria I've developed during the time and place I happen to exist as well as some subjective preferences.

So what do I think makes a good flag? When I imagine an effective design, I think of one that uses symbols that are unique to the area or idea that it represents. Crosses, crescent moons, and stars are meaningful, recognizable symbols but when contrasted against the flags of the world, on their own they do little in distinguishing themselves. For the same reasons, I'm not a fan of tribands without additional imagery, such as France, Germany, and Italy.

Symbols should be recognizable but simple enough for a child to draw them. It should be remembered that these designs are meant to flap in the wind, so make sure it looks good in motion. I agree with NAVA that writing on flags is not the best choice, but I think they were a little restrictive with colours. I agree in simplicity, but the Pride Flag and The Seychelles Flag, for example, expressly go beyond the three colour limit and keep the rest of the design simple enough to accomodate it.

I also have some vexillogical pet peeves that we'll explore throughout this post. I've no special love of flags, but they can be interesting in how they try to express something very complex in the simplest visual way possible.

Before I begin, I want to clarify my rating scheme. For the purposes of this post, 5 is average. When ranking things on a scale of 1 to 10, I find most people consider 7 to be average because in school a passing grade can be anything between 50-65% and barely passing is bad. But in this case we're grading flags against one another and having 5 as average gives more flexibility.

Canada

Let's start off with the national flag. Like I said, I'm not especially patriotic but I think we got it right with this one. The maple leaf is unique among its contemporaries, instantly recognizable even without context, and yet simple enough that a child could draw it. Red represents the changing colours that occur in the fall, iconic to our local foliage. Clean, simple, recognizable, and applicable. We're starting off real strong.

9/10

Ontario

This is my home province, and the most populous region in Canada. Right here, I have to share a vexillogical hot take of mine. I don't like flags-on-flags. If the design is balanced enough to stay interesting but not cluttered, then it won't be able to effectively integrate another flag's design. 

The Union Jack itself is already like, three flags merged into one. It has St George's cross for England, St Andrew's white saltire for Scotland, and St Patrick's red saltire for Ireland. So it's already a little busy, and it's by far the most common to be used as a flag-on-a-flag. I know it's because of the legacy of the British Empire, but that historical context doesn't endear me to it anyway.

The shield on the flag of Ontario gives some flag-on-flag energy too, although not quite as egregiously. The top portion is St George's Cross, a little redundant since that's already included in the Union Jack, and the bottom portion is three maple leaves. I think this was one of the originally proposed designs for the national flag. It looks fine.

This flag says to me England-Scotland-Ireland-England-Canada. Too much.

Not the worst design I've ever seen, but it's built entirely out of bad habits.  

2/10

Quebec

Quebec is Canada's second most populous province. The Fleur de Lis are rooted in its French history, and having one in each quadrant, separated by a white cross feels balanced. Part of me wonders if it would be better to have a single, central Fleur de Lis with blue bands on either side to parallel the Canadian national flag. Considering Quebec's multiple attempts to separate, perhaps that would symbolize nationhood, even while existing within the Canadian framework.

But maybe they don't want to be so closely associate with the national symbol, favouring their own unique culture. Separatism is, I believe, a divisive topic within Quebec. I guess I'm just looking for an excuse to recreate the national flag's pattern in a new context, since I like it so much.

All in all, I find Quebec's symbolism unique within Canada, iconic, and balanced. Really nicely done

8/10

Nova Scotia

The blue "X" is St Andrew's Cross, and the lion at the centre is based on the Scottish crest. I do like that old style of drawing animals. I find it works a bit better on crests though, which allow for a bit more detail.

I think that regional flags get away with a bit more intricacy than national ones do. They're kind of like middle names on children. People are less likely to know about them, but that means you get to have a bit more fun.

It's a pretty simple lion, so I'll allow it. I do find it odd that so many places represent themselves with lions when they aren't part of the native climate. Canada has mountain lions, but the animal depicted here appears to be the better-known African variant. Another thing that confuses me is that on the Canadian crest, there's a lion and unicorn, and the Scottish one is the unicorn. Why would it be a unicorn there but a lion here?

Also, in the Union Jack, St Andrew's Cross is a white "X" while here it's a blue one.

If it were simply St Andrew's Cross, I would say the design here is too simple. Unfortunately, that means I'm also saying the Scottish flag is too simple. I know I said national flags should have simpler designs, but come on, just a blue X?

I'm tempted to score it lower for the confusing symbolism, but I don't have an intimate enough understanding to confidently let it impact my scoring. My ranking is purely based on visual design

5/10

New Brunswick

Top portion is a lion in that kind of medieval style, but it's squashed and stretched out, almost like an image in MS Paint that's been manipulated to fit into a frame. To be fair, when this flag was invented, stigma based on ease of access to such image manipulators wouldn't have been a factor. Still, due to the time I grew up in, this looks very awkward.

The boat beneath it is cool. Some people don't like curved lines on flags, which would make the waves a problem, but that's not an issue for me. The boat is just simplified enough to get a pass from me. No child is going to get every detail, but they can probably draw a recognizable boat based on this design.

Without the distorted lion it could have been good.

4/10

Manitoba

Way too similar to the Ontario flag. The only difference is it has a buffalo instead of the three maple leaves. Buffalos are cool, but so are maple leaves. This is really a lateral difference and isn't enough to change it from Ontario's score one way or the other. Don't have to think too hard about this one

2/10

British Columbia

The nation of Colombia spells it with an "o" after the "l", but our province of BC spells it with a "u". Just saying that up front so I don't get accused of misspelling.

Not only is half the flag the Union Jack, which I've already said is a bad habit, but they squashed it and made it even busier with a crown in the centre,

The bottom half has some cool waves and a sun, which are recognizable if generic. I'd instantly know it represented a place near water with cool sunsets, but it would take a while for me to guess it was British Columbia. Still, if the bottom half was the entire flag, it would do better.

As it stands,

3/10

Prince Edward Island

The trees look like an attempt to draw actual trees, not symbolize them, an art style that clashes with the squashed, distorted lion above them. The red trim looks kind of cool.

I guess the patch of grass looks like an island, which is topical. I don't know if the trees are supposed to be some unique variant to that area. If so, it's not intuitive. The lion might represent Scotland, as it does on the Nova Scotian flag, or it could mean England, like it does on the Canadian Crest. Eveyone wants to be represented by a lion.

If this is supposed to depict an island, they could have used a little water. It would have been cool if they showed some red earth, as that is something unique to that area.

Between the contrasting artstyles and non-intuitive symbolism, I'm going to have to rank this low. Still better than Ontario and Manitoba

3/10

Saskatchewan

The shield is simple enough that it doesn't look too much like a flag, and the lion doesn't look obviously distorted (it might be a little squashed). The red of the flower shows up well against the green, and all the colours are distinct enough from each other that everything is clear. 

Exception would be the stem of the flower against the green band, but since you see it leading up through the yellow to the blossom, it's clear enough what it's trying to show. The fact that it briefly disappears against the green band indicates that this part of the flag symbolizes plantlife. 

I get caribbean vibes for some reason. Don't think that's what they were going for.

You know what? This design didn't give me a good gut reaction, but the more I look at it and think about it, the more I like it.

6/10

Alberta

The shield gives real flag-on-flag vibes. It's hard to tell what's going on in front of the grassy hills. A lake with islands? 

Looking it up, this is based on the Coat of Arms of Alberta (all shields appear to be Coat of Arms') and apparently it's supposed to be the prairies.  The order goes: Rocky Mountains, foothills, prairies, wheat fields. In the image this is based on, the praries are yellow, while here they're grey for some reason.

The surounding flag, a "field of blue" creates a bit too much negative space in my opinion. Makes you wonder why they don't just expand the design of the shield to encompass the full flag. I suppose because it would then be merely a Coat of Arms and offer nothing unique. I think it's hard to call the "field of blue" unique though. Visually it's fine, but it really offers nothing new.

According to the article I referenced, the North American Vexillogical Association ranked this as #35 out of 72 flags across the US and Canada, beating all other Canadian flags except for Ontario and Manitoba?

Yeah, me and NAVA apparently have vastly different tastes despite a cross-section in criteria.

4/10

Newfoundland and Labrador

I like this. Playing with some basic shapes to make something that feels new and fresh. Seems the most modern of the provincial flags, which is a weird thing to say about Newfoundland and Labrador. I don't know how representitive it is of a province known for being simple, laid back and pleasant, but I still like it.

I don't quite know how I feel about the arrow being filled in yellow while the triangles flanking it are just outlines. I don't even know if that's a complaint, just an observation.

Looking it up, the gold clouring is supposed to represent confidence in the future, as is the forward pointing arrow. I don't really understand how gold communicates confidence. Maybe faith in economic prosperity?

The overall image is supposed to be reminiscent of the Union Jack. I agree with this, and even think it looks a little cleaner. I appreciate this as a nod to our ties with the UK more than just slapping a Union Jack in the corner like so many others have opted to do.

7/10

Northwest Territories

Now onto the territories. We've got the national style of a verticale triband with symetrical colours on either side of a white centre. We've got a shield in the centre which I don't love but it's better than a Union Jack and the symbols on the inside are simple enough.

5/10

Yukon

Horizontal tribands again with a white centre but the framing colours are not symmetrical. We've got another shield, but this one has a dog on it and is hovering above flowers, making it a little busier. All in all, I don't think this comes together as well as Northwest Territories.

4/10

Nunavut

Finally, we finish off with Nunavut. The symbol of the Inukshuk is simple, relevent to the territory, and instantly recognizable. I was able to tell that the star is specifically supposed to be the North Star without looking it up. The contrast of the red vs the yellow would have been a bit rough, but the black outline clears it right up. I love everything about this flag except for the low contrast between the yellow and white. The inukshuk dividing it in half helps a bit but it still looks a little awkward.

Looking it up, it says the yellow and blue were supposed to represent the bounty of the land, sea, and sky. Since those are three qualities it would be easy to assume that the white or red would represent one of them, but it's not mentioned. I would have liked this flag better if the background were fully yellow or white. Probably yellow since it has an expressed purpose

Overall it's clean, simple, unique with instantly recognizable symbolism applicable to what it represents. I just don't like the low contrast. Still a very cool flag

7/10

In the end, the only flags that made me think "Oh hey, that's pretty cool" were Canada, Quebec, Newfoundland, and Nunavut. Maybe Saskatchewan after a bit of thinking. Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia, and Prince Edward Island all desperately need a redo. 

Small-Scale YouTubers

In the past I've been heavily critical of algorithms and targeted advertisements on social media sites. One reason for this is that I don't trust the people running these systems to ensure they remain unbiased. The claim is that they keep track of what people are watching and then offer a selection curated to the interests of the customer. If a person's algorithm is promoting unhealthy content, the idea is that it is merely a reflection of the person's already unhealthy mindset, and the system remains a benign tool.

However, it seems impossible to prove that they haven't been tweaked to promote more commercially viable content. Indeed, my suspicion is that they likely do. It's been proven that hitting the "dislike" button on YouTube will encourage more suggestions of that kind than if you "liked" it. That in itself seems like the system is artificially weighted to promote certain emotions over others.

However, experiences I've had this year have indicated that my criticism toward these systems may have been a little over-stated. As much as I hate to admit it, it does indeed look like the rage-bait and fear-inducing content that my algorithm curates for me is indeed a reflection of what I choose to engage with. I say this because without conscious effort my suggestions have become, I would say, healthier as of late.

Earlier this year, YouTube started recommending a lot of small-scale creators. Normally, the channels it suggests have a million + subscribers, but these guys had anywhere from a few hundred to... zero. Also, the length of the videos would be significantly longer than most of the content I used to get.

I subscribed to a handful of these people, because I liked the small-scale feeling they gave. So many videos seem over-produced, and short-form media can feel like it's eroding your attention span.

But why would the algorithm decide that I had gained a preference for long-term content with lower viewership? I have a theory. Just before these suggestions started popping up, I had written my 1000th blog post. If you don't recall, this was an overview of each year I'd covered since I started it. This means that I read 999 of my own entries in a row.

This blog is hosted by Blogger which is owned by Google, which also owns YouTube. And what kind of content do I make here? Long-form thoughts with low viewership (averaging like, 15 views per post at the moment. A little over 600 in its hayday. My Gryphood blog actually gets more traffic). So my theory is that Google saw a stark change in behaviour from me in favour of myself, and so with its other branches started to promote creators that make similar content.

(small note that Google is just a search engine owned by Alphabet, which owns Blogger and Youtube, but I'm using the name Google beccause it's more recognizable)

This is the end of the post, but I'll just slip in a brief update on our garden. I know I did that with my last update, but there have been a couple developments.

We already have three sunflower blossoms! There are a few others that appear to be on their way as well. It seems really early, but we planted several strains and I suppose one of them must have been an early bloomer.

Unfortunately I have to give a disappointing update about one of the notable flowers that I highlighted in my previous post. The one that we didn't plant, but which sprung up just to the side of the Kongs. It had grown a second stem after getting its top leaves torn off, but it looks like it's been put down in a more permanent way. Yesterday afternoon, we went out to the garden to find just a little green stump at the place it used to be. We'd seen it just that morning, so whatever happened must have occured just before we discovered its fate.

No evidence of animals scratching or digging, and the main body of the plant was fully vanished. I had thought that it had grown to the point where it was no longer perceivable as food. It's a little peculiar.

Because it has shown such resilience, recovering from what I believed to be a fatal wound, a small part of me holds out hold that it will somehow sprout leaves and grow a third stem. But I don't think it will.

At least we still have the flower with the loop in it's neck, and the one that recovered from having its stem snapped.

Garden Update and Crow Magician

 The other day we got the first harvest from our garden

That's a green bell pepper and a bunch of snow peas. I wasn't quite sure when to harvest the pepper. I've heard that the orange, red, and yellow ones are just matured versions of the same crop, but eventually I didn't want to keep risking it to the insects. So far just the one has come in, but that's a lot better than nothing and the season is still young.

We've also managed to harvest some parsley and arugula. There's a lot of green tomatoes on the vine. Our zuchinis are healthy but they haven't produced anything yet.

The sunflowers are looking very promising.

I think our record is like, eight blossoms. At this rate we will far surpass that. I think that of the nine kongs that sprouted from the ten seeds we planted, each of them is still living. They don't seem much larger than the regular ones, though.

We have a few weird sunflowers that I'm rooting for. One of them has a loop in its neck.

I've not seen anything quite like it. For a while, a lot of the flowers were having trouble supporting their own weight, so I staked up the ones that were really struggling. I found this peculiar plant and tried to correct its posture, but in doing so I accidentally split a seam in its stalk. Seeing that I'd do it more harm than good by forcing it, I just tied it to a piece of bamboo and decided to see what it would do. Right now it isn't the largest of its peers, but it's still showing a lot of zest for life.

Not far from it, there was a flower that was broken and laying on the ground. I propped it up, its stem connected by a sliver. The next day its leaves were pointing to the sky. Now, weeks later it appears to have mostly healed.

In an even more extreme example, we found a regular sunflower growing just off from the Kongs. We know it wasn't one of them, because it grew outside the shelter we initially built for them, and it happened after we transplanted them. Maybe a seed came loose from a previous years' crop.

Anyway, one day it's top leaves were fully decapitated. Its bottom leaves were still healthy though, and here it is now.

It may be hard to see, but it actually grew a second stem from its bottom leaves! The first new set were crumpled looking, but the new ones are normal. Don't know if this setback will prevent it from blossoming, but I'm really impressed by the effort!

Also, I've tried my hand at painting again. I've only done one, so it's not quite worth a Gallery blog post. But I took photos of it in graduated sequence, which is kind of cool.

It's The Magician tarot card, but as a crow guy! I replaced the table with a stump, mostly because I didn't trust myself to angle the table in a way that it wouldn't look weird. The fact that a stump is more crow-like was a happy side effect. For a similar reason, I have the sword standing up, piercing the wood. I do like the way it causes the eye to follow a height gradient from the staff to the scepter in the Crow Magician's talons.

One of my biggest pet peeves in the tarot is that Cups and Pentacles are both gold in colour. For this, I made each of them distinct. Reddish-brown for the Wand and element of fire. Gold for the Pentacle and earth. Silver-blue for the Cup and water, and a green-handled Sword to repesent air. I know that the blade of the Sword is actually just a lighter silver-blue than the Cup, but who's ever heard of a green-bladed sword? Also, green isn't a primary or the colour of air so it's a stretch, but at least each symbol looks different, which is mostly what I cared about.

My cat Kieran bit my ankle at one point, which is why there's a black smudge in the first three images. I managed to cover it up with some foliage, thankfully.

The figure is actually based on an Australian crow. I had an image in my mind of eye whites against dark feathers. I thought that if this were true of European or North American crows, it would be fine because it would either be where I live, or where the tarot originated. But both those locations have black-eyed crows, and the ones I imagined are from Australia. Oh well, I still wanted the light-dark colour contrast.

WALES Recipe Book

At the start of 2025, I did say that I was going to focus less on this blog due to meeting the milestone of 1000 posts. So as a rule I no longer apologize for failing to update. I do admit, it's rare that I go this far into the month without writing anything, and I do think I made some kind of dedication to post a certain number of times in my New Year's Resolutions.  

I've probably been a little distracted by a work project that I've been doing. About a month and a half ago, the idea of throwing a goodbye celebration for someone at the main office was floated. In the past, I'd joked about making a recipe book for the WALES members using their cooking goals in a similar way to how I have my Gryphood binder. One of my coworkers suggested that it might be opportune to go through with it and give a copy to this person who is moving away, since she had hosted a food event for us some time ago.

So I've been working on that. In the end, I got 18 recipes with 20 contributors (two entries were collaborations). Each page has an image of the person alongside their food. I interviewed each contributor to give a description of their entry and the context for which they made it. The first edition has now been given away but it looks like there are more people that want to work on a continuation. I've saved all my files so it's not hard to keep building on it, but perhaps now at a more relaxed pace since we've reached the first deadline.

I'd already used a few of the recipes and posted them on my Gryphood blog. I got to try some more, and in fact have four updates to make based on this project. This will bring me to my 100th post over there.

In an abundance of caution I will not include a picture of the WALES cookbook, since the faces of some of our members are on the title. They've all given me permission to use their image, but I'd still rather not. This is nebulously social media, and talking about individuals that I serve on this medium can be a bit of a murky area.

I will include a picture of my Gryphood binders though. At some point I showed my initial version on here, but since then, as I've said I have more recipes now. It was getting a little crowded to keep all in one binder, so I got another and divided them into a "Main Course" and "Snacks and Sides" versions.

The first time I posted, I had six images on the title page and I've divided them into three each here. I think it's okay that there are fewer examples per cover, as it gets buffed out a little with the secondary title, which the first one didn't have. The only image that is different is the centre one on Main Courses. It used to be shepherd's pie, but I changed it to bulgogi. 

The reason for this is that I went back and redid the latter recipe. First time I cut the meat way too thick. On discovering a technique to achieve thinner slices I tried again and took a photo of it grilling in the pan over my charcoal barbecue, which is a fun change from the more generic shot of a plate. I felt it added a bit of diversity in setting when placed between the butternut squash soup and cheesesteaks on the cover.

One funny thing I discovered when looking for attractive shots of food I've taken, is that snacks seem a lot more photogenic than meals for some reason.

I was going to include my new Gryphood binder on my post about the DVD player as a tie-in to physical media, but I forgot. I also didn't remember to include a list of DVDs that I was planning to buy, contrasting it with my older collection that I found surprisingly traditionally masculine.

Off the top of my head I'd planned to buy Disney's Encanto, Pixar's Coco, and Studio Ghibli's Grave of the Fireflies. Lot of cartoons. I haven't gotten around to buying anything though, kind of satisfied with my old collection for the time being. Perhaps I haven't moved further from my old tastes than I'd thought.

Neil Gaiman is a Monster

The dawning of the Internet changed the way we interact and perceive others significantly. Massive amounts of information were no longer held behind the paywall of purchase or the requirement of patience. It was no longer as easy for organizations to safeguard knowledge. People became able to connect with each other behind the veil of anonymity and the fear of social repercussion reduced.

Then social media changed the Internet landscape. We became able to maintain connection with people we knew in real life that would have fallen out of our circles otherwise. It became common to have a list of hundreds of friends. Keeping up to date with people no longer required interaction, as individuals would make generalized posts about their life to the public.

With this development, suddenly the Internet transitioned from being about anonymity to the death of privacy. Every update you made was timestamped and preserved indefinitely on an account locked to your identity. Social media companies like Meta were outed for preserving even deleted information, and it was revealed that governments were invasively tracking the digital activity of private citizens.

But many high ranking people were not quick to sense the shift in environment. Abuses that were previously held behind closed doors and subject to he-said she-said dialog were now being committed via the medium of the Internet. Victims gained the ability to preserve evidence far more efficiently, ultimately acting as a Catalyst for the Me Too movement. The world could no longer ignore the prevalence of sexual abuse in many of our industries, and pessimism regarding previously aspirational individuals grew.

When it came to corrupt famous people that were responsible for creative works, fans were asked the question "Can you separate the art from the artist?" When large quantities decided that they could not, the phrase "Cancel Culture" emerged. A term often used condescendingly for the phenomenon of monstrous but talented people losing the opportunity to distribute their work based on moral failing.

For a long time I was lucky. No one that I admired was outed as an abuser. Until now.

Neil Gaiman has, until maybe recent events, been full-stop my favourite contemporary author. Of his novels, I'd read Neverwhere, American Gods, Anansi Boys, Coraline, Stardust, The Graveyard Book, and his collaborative work with Terry Pratchet, Good Omens. I'd seen the film adaptation of Stardust as well. I'd been planning on getting around to watching his short TV series for American Gods and Good Omens, but I don't know if I'll bother now. Neverwhere was for a long time one of my top five books, but it has been long enough that I would need to revisit it to see if my adult self agrees. Before everything came out, my mother gave Lee-Anne a copy of Watership Down and Neverwhere as a birthday gift, figuring that they were the two most beloved novels on our side of the family.

All this to say, this year five women have come forward with accusations against Gaiman. The claims are too grizzly for me to be comfortable detailing here, but they are of a sexual nature and extreme.  Legal systems have yet to come to a conclusion, and obviously just because someone makes claims, doesn't mean they're true. If you're famous, inevitably someone is trying to tear you down. However, Gaiman has admitted to some wrongdoing while denying the bulk of it. Even the stuff he's confirmed is enough to end his career, and it evokes the question of whether or not he's only shared what he knows he can't get away from.

He's said that there are things in the accusations that he "half-recognizes" and some that he doesn't. He's said that he's never knowingly engaged in non-consensual activity. He's cited the fact that he polyamorous, involved in fetish communities and was in an open relationship at the time.

In terms of his claiming ignorance to the consensual nature of his relationships, I am not willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. If he were a famous athlete or chef or something, maybe. But he's an author. One that has proven adept at writing female perspective. He understands women, yet he still acted the way that he did.

As far as the open relationship, fetish, and polyamory thing goes, I think it should be obvious that those are not excuses for abuse. He's being honest in that he was a part of those communities and had spoken at length about it before all this came out. I don't have any issues with people engaging in that lifestyle. In fact, in my opinion it's fully disconnected to his behaviour and he's dragging those communities down in an attempt at redirection.

Both him and his wife at the time have chosen to be mostly silent, saying that their primary responsibility is to their son. I could respect that, but if some of the claims are true, then the kid was involved in ways that I would qualify as child abuse. It doesn't give the impression of a history of protective parenting. Gaiman has fully denied those claims though, for whatever that's worth.

It wasn't a spike in ego that came with his rise to fame that corrupted Gaiman. These accusations span a very wide breadth of time and implies that he's been like this for as long as he was able.

It makes you kind of side-eye Terry Pratchett as well, a fellow author with a similar writing style who collaborated on a book with him. He's now passed and has maintained a pristine reputation. There's some hope for Pratchett's authenticity, as he only did one collaboration and it was Gaiman's very first novel. The two of them were sort of famously friends, though.

It might be argued that at a systemic level, JK Rowling, author of Harry Potter has done more damage. She leveraged her fame to attack the trans community, impacting a larger quantity of people. But at least she can speak to her views and believes in herself, whereas Gaiman's behaviour is unambiguously monstrous. He knew that he had to hide his actions because there's no way to justify them.

Some people claim that his true self was reflected in his works but I feel like that's confirmation bias at play. I can only speak for myself, but I was completely blindsided by the news and hadn't pick up on a hint of it from his novels. It tempts an old perspective that I used to have, which is that talented people are usually immoral. Depressing. With the rise of AI and the question of the value of authenticity, I think this is a point against humanity. While Gaiman is human, he created great works that, in my opinion, communicated nothing of his true self.

The only thing I can claim as far as my ability to detect his cloaked evil nature, is that I always said he was the perfect example of a "backpfeifengesicht", the German word for "Face that needs a fist". I'm on record as saying that, despite loving his work, there is no one else that evokes in me as much of an urge to clobber them. No rationalle, just a vibe. I was emphatic enough about this that I was told a few times that I was weird about it. With recent revelations, that impulse seems more justifiable.

Outdoor Cats

Nowadays, it's frowned on to have an outdoor cat. If you're adopting from the humane society, they will disqualify you as a potential owner for saying that you won't keep them indoors. It was the same for the place I got Kieran, and where my mother and brother got Cassidy.

The present opinion of experts is that this form of ownership creates too much risk for stress, disease, and injury coming from exposure to the elements, as well as malicious animals and humans. Me and Lee-Anne follow this line of thinking and keep our guys indoors, even though it's tempting to give into their pleas to follow their animal instincts into the world beyond the kitchen window.

Because we are so up to date on the recent studies, it is our right to turn up our noses in judgement when we see evidence of owners that have not done likewhys. But I must confess, it's pretty gratifying to get to know the neighbourhood cats.

There's a big tabby named MJ who sits on the porch of his owners. He's extremely social and will often let out a high pitched mew and wander to the bottom of his front steps to be patted and scratched. Despite being quick to approach, he won't follow you far.

It's always funny to see him come up to other people in the neighbourhood. He treats everyone with fairly uniform affection, but most people seem to think they have a special relationship. I saw a post on the Kitchener subreddit with a photo of him, asking if he was a stray. There was a flurry of posts naming him and assurances that he was cared for.

We learned MJ's name when his owner was outside with him one day. We asked for the name of the cat but forgot to ask for the man's. Despite the initials usually being a shorthand for "Mary Jane", apparently MJ is a male cat.

This is Bell, maybe Belle. Like MJ, he's a boy cat with a feminine name. He comes from a home with a few small children and their house flies the Progress Pride flag. So I imagine a scenario where the parents let the kids give the name, and when, not yet biased by gender norms, they suggested "Bell", they went with it instead of encouraging something more traditional.

Bell is friendly, but not quite as outgoing as MJ. He'll watch you from a distance, and if you call him, he'll approach with caution. He often goes on walks with his family, who also own a dog.

Every once in a while, Finn and Kieran will get into a row with something in the backyard. Very different reaction to how they acted when introduced to Castor and Pollux. Eventually I learned that the outdoor entity is usually Bell. He's got a wider range in terms of territory compared to MJ. Now when I shoo away the invader, I call him by name.

There's another cat that is often in proximity to Bell. They're a bit smaller with longer fur. A bit more shy but with some coaxing I've managed to give it some pets. I don't know the name of this one. One time, it jumped down from a tree when I was walking by and startled me.

Far up the Iron Horse Trail, there is a black cat that greets passers by. Possibly more affectionate than MJ, it will meow and pressy face, bask around on the ground and show its tummy. I've struck up conversations with other trail walkers about this cat, as it's so well known and trusting. A curious trait considering the area territory is a high traffick place for dogs.

During our first year in the nieghbourhood, we used to see this grey cat a lot. Just as affectionate as the black one, but it's been a while. Hopefully, the owner just moved away.

We met this multi-coloured cat outside the cherry festival last year. It was very affectionate, but this was just a one-off encounter. We don't spend as much time in that area though, and we're going again this year, so maybe we'll see this guy again.

Garden 2025

It's the Victoria Day weekend and therefore time to put in the bulk of the garden. It doesn't feel like it, as the weather is still oddly cool. We had our first barbecue yesterday and it was chilly enough to see my breath. 

We got seeds and seedlings yesterday but we're putting them in the ground today. We already have a lot of sunflowers going. Last year, I tried three batches of them with very poor luck. The first round were planted directly in the soil but squirrels dug them up. The second two were grown in jiffy pots to get them past the seed stage, but something still found them appetizing. 

I built a shelter around them that I weighted down with rocks, but every day I would see a pile set aside and a couple of sunflowers munched on. The usual suspects were squirrels but the way the barrier was dismantled made it look like the work of something with hands. I imagined a raccoon but that doesn't seem like their behaviour.

Eventually I put enough weight on that whatever was doing it got discouraged. But the third round of flowers were slowly eaten by insects. This was all after the previous year, where we had a record number of blossoms.

So in 2025 I've been a little discouraged and Lee-Anne has subsequently taken most of the initiative. She has had a shocking amount of success and I'm not too proud to say it, but I've been slightly miffed that she's done so well when she keeps making what I perceive to be mistakes.

She started with jiffy pots in the stairwell with indirect sunlight, causing them to grow spindly and unable to support their own weight. We put them out long before recommended, and due to the uncharacteristic cold weather, they've had to survive multiple frosts. But they've somehow managed to correct their posture and brave the elements. I think they've grown beyond the point where animals perceive them as food.

 We have, I think, 9 kong sunflowers growing strong, reduced from an attempted 12. Those are the ones that grow taller than people. I've always wanted them but I haven't seen them available. One of my old neighbour's managed to grow them from random birdseed and he gave me a head one year, but I've never managed to grow second-generation flowers.

As far as our other plants go, as usual we have cucumbers, snow peas, and tomatoes. The latter are Early Girls as that's what I've had success with. This year we're trying a bell pepper. I've attempted hot peppers in the past without success, but it seems people consider bell peppers as being at a similar level of difficulty to our three standard crops, so I'm hesitantly optimistic.

We're trying herbs again. We didn't have much luck last year, but Lee-Anne thinks the issue may have been the soil, so we're correcting that and making another attempt. She's got parsely and mint, and I got chamomile because I know a rookie gardener who's having some success with it.

When Googling easy outdoor plants, I saw a suggestion to get marigolds. Apparently they encourage pollinators and discourage pests. So we got some of those, and I think Lee-Anne got two other types that have a similar nature.

It's fun to continue experimenting with different garden formats!

This last bit is off-topic, but the 12th of this month was my mom's 60th birthday. Me and my brother made her cannelloni, since I recently learned that was once her favourite food. My brother got her an outdoor table and chair for their patio, and I got her a bookcase. The last things they needed to unpack were all books, so I thought it was practical.

The reason this birthday is worth pointing out is that it was the night of the Flower Moon. This, coupled with the fact that it's the year of the Wood Snake, which she is, really makes it seem like it should be her year.

DVD Player

We recently got a DVD player. In this age of streaming services, it's not uncommon for households to go without devices for physical media. When Netflix was dominating the market, this seemed ike a pretty good deal. Unlimited, on-demand, ad-free shows and movies at a marked down price. 

But as time ticked forward, rivals got introduced. Content got divided between them, so being subscribed to only one service wasn't enough. Prices kept climbing. Ads got incorporated. They even put in tracking systems to make sure you weren't sharing your account over multiple households.

Many sports fans have stuck to cable because streaming doesn't offer the live experience. However, I watched one of the US presidential debates over Disney+ as it happened, which make you wonder what's holding them back. Later, an attempt at documenting a young Youtube star box an elderly legend of the sport showcased the limits of what streaming can do. I didn't watch it, but apparently the quality was bad.

An expensive service that requires access to multiple paid channels, with ads, and is anchored to your home address? Thats just cable with extra steps. At least it's still view-on-demand.

But a big problem with these streaming services is that they need to pay the original creator a certain amount regularly. This has sparked an increase in content made by the streaming service itself. However, demand for new work has shrunk. Old classics draw more attention than new works and even modern titles try to reflect old hits, acting as sequels, prequels, or reinterpretations. I've got some theories on this phenomenon but we won't get into it now.

So, streaming services are still beholden to works belonging to others and must pay regular fees to survive. This means that anything you enjoy that isn't owned by the organization may be removed if it stops being profitable. Just yesterday I looked up The Joy of Painting on Netflix and it wasn't there anymore.

So you can only guarantee available, unedited media if you have a physical copy. Ergo, we got a DVD player. This led me to explore my old CDs and VHS tapes that I still have from the pre-streaming age.

I didn't remember how... masculine a lot of the media I consumed was. Not manly per se, just marketed toward a male audience. This includes:

The entire Seinfeld series (I saw a video of some People of Colour attempting to guess their friends favourite shows and movies. Since he was White, they guessed Seinfeld and Its Always Sunny in Philedelphia)

Taledega Nights (A mid-range move about racecars starring Will Ferral. It did spawn some iconic quotes)

Inception (I was encouraged to buy this because "I'm smart" but the actual content of the movie is pretty easily replicable because you just have to say "That was a dream" to explain anything")

I Pity The Fool (Made by Mr. T. It's a subversion of masculinity, done by someone perceived as macho who engages people in solving their problems by more introspective means. Still marketed to men)

The Rocky movies, one to five (Classic movies of resillience, about boxing. My brother has referenced it often)

The Godfather trilogy (controversial opinion, but only the first one was worth watching. In the recent Barbie movie, when they're trying to thwart the Kens by appealing to their male ego, they ask one of them to explain the Godfather trilogy)

Jaws (just stay out of the water please. The shark can't get you on land)

The Aristocats (Sole example of something I owned that was actively not marketed to a male audience)

Me and Lee-Anne were recently watching Call the Midwife and I said to her "If this were up to my college-aged self, we would probably have wound up watching some White male garbage" and she said "Well, now you have me, so you get to watch some White female garbage"

Goblincore

Recently on Reddit, my algorhithm has started suggesting posts from a place called /r/goblincore. At a glance, it appeared to be a place celebrating the less conventionally attractive aspects of nature. Lots of mushrooms, moss, snails, frogs, rats etc. I remember seeing an image of some roots tearing through concrete titled "I just love seeing nature destroy the works of man" and a piece of wood riddled with holes eaten through by insects. Lots of fashion with murky greens and browns, plenty of trinkets, things with spikes and jags, animal bones. 

I asked Lee-Anne if she'd heard of the concept but she hadn't. Most of my coworkers had. My mother and brother both said they were aware of it. Overall, I was slow to pick up on Goblincore. Makes sense, since my social group is mainly women, and most phrases that end in "core" are a form of aesthetic. Generally those attract primarily female audiences.

Wikipedia says that it's a type of "Maximalism" and that thrift shopping is a big part of it. It appears to have grown in recognition after Spotify was maybe a little liberal in its definition as a music genre.

Here is an example of Goblincore music: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIyl9bCp6W4

"Come with me to the borogroves. Come with me and the slithy toves

Come come come along now,

Come with me to a place that is safe from,

Greed, anger, and boredom"

Those are maybe my three least favourite things!

I became intrigued with the community when I saw a post from someone saying that her boyfriend had told her that they'd gotten the concept all wrong. In The Lord of the Rings and Dungeons and Dragons, Goblins were malevolent, violent creatures influenced by dark magic. Even before Tolkien's works, in ancient tales they were a type of dark fairy. Not some mischievious group of people that love nature.

A lot of people chimed in to say that her boyfriend and his fellow "Tolkienists" were misguided. In The Lord of the Rings, Goblins were driven to evil from being marginalized, and in modern Dungeons and Dragons, rarely are any of the "Goblinoid" races considered wholly irredeemable.

This is a perspective that I've held for a long time. As a child, I was always deeply uncomfortable with the idea of an "all evil race". There is a small mention in Return of the King, where Sam overhears two Orcs discussing their plans for when the war ends, and they wanted to set up a farm together. It's brief, but I really clung to it because they simply couldn't all be bad.

I've recently read The Silmarillion, basically a history of that world. The Orcs were originally Elves that were convinced by Melkor, a powerful and manipulative deity, to stay behind and work for him in Middle Earth instead of joining the Maya over the sea. They were then twisted by dark forces into the Orc race, known sometimes as Goblins.

So I've got issues with the Orcs being considered evil based on the fact they were manipulated and then tortured. Then it doesn't seem fair that all their descendants would be held accountable for their ancestors' actions. Mostly, The Silmarillion is about inherited sin.

I hadn't seen my perspective taken up by anyone until this thread in /r/goblincore.

As I was further exposed to the subreddit, I began to see comments like "At this point, if I see someone here saying that they're neurotypical, I'm like 'how did you find this place?'"

A while back, I made a post on an AI system called "Goblin Tools", marketed toward people that were capable of living on their own, but still struggled with day to day tasks. Many of the phrases used in the marketing for this resource resembled language I'd heard in neurodivergent communities. This included a pepper scale to determine how "spicy" a thought might be, and the simple premise of being a tool for its user base, the "Goblins".

I hadn't noticed it before, but on reflection, a shockingly large number of neurodivergent people that I've known have, in various ways, compared themselves to Goblins. For being born born wrong, for not being able to live up to social norms, for being wild, chaotic, and natural. For being beautiful in an unconventional way.

Since, as I mentioned, most communities attached to the suffix "core" are majority female, I might guess that the people who align with Goblincore are mostly part of the onrush of adults diagnosed with ADHD and autism. This is because until recently, testing largely disregarded many of the more female-specific expressions of neurodivergence.

That would explain why such a large portion of my social group is familiar with Goblincore.

Thundersnow Part Two

In recent posts, I mentioned the absurd amounts of snow that we had at the tail end of winter. I showed pictures of buried benches and fire hydrants. Kitchener needed to send truck loads of snow out of the city just to get by, and there were still areas where paths were tamped down over large drifts, that we had to scale in order to access regular areas.

All of that melted away, almost overnight. Suddenly, the world was transformed into a normal, temperate Spring atmosphere.

Then, on April 2nd we left for Brampton so that Lee-Anne would be better positioned to go to Toronto for her surgery the next day. That evening it was snowing fiercely.

Here's a pic of our communal Neuron scooters. They had just been put out for April. You know, because it's Spring.

There was also consistent thundersnow. I had experienced this phenomenon for the first time a few years back, and blogged about it. The fact that we're having it again in a comparably short amount of time gives me pangs of climate anxiety, although I still don't really understand what causes it.

The weather matched the condition of our hearts. Namely, chaotic and unwanted.

In honour of the scenery, I chose to bring a book titled The Weather Detective with me for the trip. It's written by the same guy who did The Hidden Life of Trees, which I read last year when Lee-Anne was in the hospital for her intracranial observation. I guess it's a tradition that every time she goes in, I read a Peter Wohlleben book. So even though I love his stuff, let's hope I never have cause to read another of his works. I do have two more of his books on my shelf though, let's hope that isn't a premonition.

When she was in hospital, I returned to the park where we had our engagement photos and took pictures of some of the backdrops. Obviously I was limited by lack of skill, professional camera, and time of year. Here they are, with the professional versions for contrast.

The day before, Brampton had been accosted by thundersnow to nearly the same degree as Kitchener. As you can see, it left as soon as it came.

I also decided to do a one-card-draw from my Tarot deck for any potential insight into how things were going. I got the Judgement card. Not going to lie, that isn't one that you hope to see if you're looking to be comforted. It represents the end of a significant journey. It indicates reflection, and receiving the deserved results of how one's conducted themselves, whether that be good or bad.

Pretty ominous, but it doesn't specify that the judgment has to be bad. And it was in the upright position, which could mean a more positive outcome.

Now we're back in Kitchener and Lee-Anne is feeling okay. I've taken the day off to spend it with her, which is how I'm posting at this time. Hopefully the card meant reaching a positive outcome sooner than expected.

On the Other Side of the Treatment

Yesterday Lee-Anne went in for probably the most intensive treatment she'll need in her epilepsy journey. I've resisted going into detail about it, but I suppose its time.

A while back, we went to see a neurosurgeon to discuss the results of last year's intracranial examination and the available options. I think I've mentioned that the most surprising thing we learned was that her seizures weren't coming from the left temporal lobe, but rather from a place called the insula, just a bit beneath it.

Because the activity was ocurring somewhere deeper than expected, this meant that traditional surgery was not an option. Instead, they would have to use a laser, called LIT.

The machine for this is rare. I can't remember if it's the only one in the country, province, city, or hospital. But whatever the parameters, it was the only one within them.

For this reason, it only gets used once a month, and only by a very specialized professional. The positive side to this is that, due to the rarity of her epilepsy, she gets special access to this sophisticated procedure that is more precise and with less chance of side effects.

The negative side is that, unlike human fingers, lasers can only move in straight lines. This means that it doesn't have the same dexterity, causing a drop in chance of success. So its' more low risk but also low reward compared to traditional surgery.

 Experientially this procedure should be less uncomfortable than the intracranial examination. Most of the pain comes from the incisions in the skull. Last year they had to do 11, this time it was only one or two, and instead of being stuck in the hospital for 19 days, she should be out much sooner.

Existentially it's creepier, because the science is that the treatment works by heating up the effected part of the brain until it burns a little bit of it off. The laser sounds so elegant until you hear the details.

She will likely need another visit for the final operation after a waiting period, but there's a small chance that she will fully recover from her epilepsy without further intevention. However, regardless of the efficacy of the surgery, there's a chance that it will cause an uptick in seizures over the next two weeks. I hate when treatments cause an increase in the thing they're supposed to get rid of. Like every depression or anxiety med with a potential side effect of increasing stress and anxiety.

But I've seen Lee-Anne on the other side of the surgery now, awake and feeling well enough. I took a couple days off to stay in Brampton at her parents' place so that we could visit her.

Purple Shirt Day 2025

This past Wednesday was Purple Shirt Day, AKA Epilepsy Awareness Day. Last year Lee-Anne spent it getting an intra-cranial exam for her seizures, which even the surgeon called "auspicious" timing. 

She was offered to have her first procedure done on the same day this year, which felt like fate. However, due to the short notice and some things happening on our end, she felt she couldn't do it at the time. Didn't take much speed out of things, it just got scheduled a week later. 

Obviously I've been supportive in her taking the lead on how this is managed. Still, a small part of me wished it would happen on Epilepsy Awareness Day. I'm a little superstitious, and the fact that she would be getting treatment for her seizures on such a day twice in a row seemed like a writer's choice. Even taking the aspect of fate out of it, there might be a psychological component. No doctor wants to screw up a treatment for a condition on the day its dedicated to.

But she still spent March 27th doing epilepsy-adjacent things. Before the big event happening this coming week, she needed to have a few tests done to make sure she's in condition to do it. This means that she travelled up to Brampton to stay with her parents on Wednesday so that she could transport herself to the hospital in Toronto on Thursday and Friday.

I wore my tie-dyed purple shirt for Epilepsy Awareness Day. I forgot to remind people at work about it so participation wound up low. A few of the members did wear purple though. When one of them saw what I was wearing, he even said "Epilepsy Day!" He definitely made an intentional outfit choice. 

However, another member saw that he matched us and chimed in to announce his contribution. I asked him why he was wearing purple. He threw up his hands and shouted "It's Wednesday!"