Old Guelph Neighbourhood

 Last weekend, me and Lee-Anne visited Guelph and toured some of the old places that I knew growing up.

First thing I noticed was that Riverside Park appears to have been rebranded as Royal City Park. For some reason, Guelph is known as The Royal City. It doesn't make much intuitive sense as I think our original function was as a farming community meant to feed Toronto. There's a reason for the nickname, and I've looked it up, but I always forget.

I don't mind the rebranding. Cambridge has a Riverside Park, and it was slightly awkward that the two cities had the same name for their main parks.

We checked out the house that burned a year ago.

 It appears to be occupied now, and there's a second door at the front of the house. The top portion was always sectioned into two, but one part was only accessible via the side door.

We went all the way back to the apartment that I lived in between ages 3-16.

We lived in the one second to the top. Unfortunately, a tree that I felt a connection with as a child, that I named Spikey is no longer there. He was a young tree that I saw planted, so he must not have reached his natural lifespan.

We went to the plaza across the street.

Not much changed to be honest. Then we visited my old elementary school.

In this pic, we're standing at the top of a hill. This was the spot for sledding during winters. My old school is the small, low structure at the bottom.

Then I showed Lee-Anne an area off the side of the hill. It connected to the child author Robert Munsch's old neighbourhood. He would visit our classes on Pyjama Days and read us stories and he used to give out miniature versions of his books to Trick or Treaters on Halloween. Recently it's been made public that he has requested Medical Assistance in Dying. I think he's been unwell for awhile.

There's a patch of forest around this area that my classes would sometimes take trips to. I remember being told that one of the trees was the oldest in Guelph. I don't know how closely they're keeping track of that, but I did find the one that this claim was put to.

Then we walked to my old middle school. Everything was so familiar, like I'd been there yesterday. It almost seemed like I was in the wrong body.

We visited the old forest that I used to walk in with my friends after school. This was the main draw of the trip. Most of it had been cut down. This wasn't news to me, it happened shortly before I graduated. But when I left, the land hadn't yet been developed. Now, the area where I used to walk in the woods was covered in houses.

I knew that some of my old forest was protected wetlands, and indeed, I found a significantly sized patch.

Apparently it's known as Ellis Creek Wetland. I never knew it to have a name before. It now has a maintained path through it. The sign says that it's a "sensitive", "Provincially Significant" silver maple swamp and has guidelines for how homeowners can protect the land. It feels funny that some respect has been put on it after most of it was cut.

Sometimes I reflect on my childhood and think how there used to be lots of ladybugs, but I don't see them anymore. Since extinction of flying insects is considered one of this planets most impending threats, I thought that maybe this was due to climate change. But there were ladybugs in the forest. Also, lots of burs, which caused me some grief when I got them tangled in my then-long hair. I guess these were just staples of the wetland microclimate.

We did get off the maintained path and scrambled through the wilder area, more familiar to my memory. We saw the knobbly roots of trees accustomed to flooding. I took a rock home with me as a souvenir.

September Whirlwind

This September has been a real rough month. Not bad, just busy. That's why this is the first, and likely only, post for September this year.

Me and my coworkers hosted a wedding shower for someone on our team. They did something similar for me and Lee-Anne two years ago. We even still had one of the decorations from then still on display, although it came down after.

It was also mine and Lee-Anne's second anniversary. I made falafels and she made fattoush. Apparently September is the most popular month for weddings, and the 16th, which was when we did it, statistically has the highest rate of the entire year. 

We got two new students at work, which I'm acting as a supervisor for.

We had the annual EAFy Day event at work. It was time-themed with a bunch of optional activities. I wound up going to a museum and doing a walking tour of historical sites in Waterloo Region.

We also had the March of 1000 Umbrellas hosted by United Way. Two years ago I wound up on the front page of the newspaper. I didn't actually go this year, since we needed a couple of staff to take care of the building, but it still required some planning.

I had my three month check in with my doctor, requiring a day trip to Guelph. Because Mom now has similar issues as me, we organized it so that we could go at the same time and sat in on each other's meetings. This is likely how we'll plan it going forward.

We had the Walk or Wheel event. This is an annual fundraiser that Extend-a-Family holds. People collect pledges, and then branches of the organization are designated stations where they offer an activity for the attendants. Because of its proximity to my birthday, I've never actually attended. But this year, pretty well all the other staff were busy, so I stepped in.

Our activity was a "rock snake". This was something that became popular during the pandemic. People would paint rocks and line them up when they were socially isolated for a feeling of connection and contribution.

Because we are WALES, we made a "rock whale" instead. Doesn't make a ton of sense because it's still shaped like a snake but I thought it was fun. I made a head and tail and used the community contributions to build the body.

The event was four hours. Somehow, I decided we needed 150 rocks. Despite consistent engagement, we only needed 32. If you're the type to count how many are in the pictures you might notice we don't quite have that number. That's because two people wanted to take their rocks home.

The rocks came from our backyard. At some point, one of our neighbours had a surplus of them and offered them to Lee-Anne for free. We tried placing them in an area with a lot of weeds to try and prevent growth, but they came through even stronger. They've just been sitting there since and finally found their use. We still have more.

The WALES members are continuing to paint the leftover rocks and adding to our whalesnake.

I got both of the stuffies from a local thrift shop. I set them out with a whale painting that I did during the pandemic. Between that and the rock snake, it weirdly felt like a reflection of five years ago. 

The painting got a little marked up, but I wasn't too mad about it because it felt like it was made to show up for the event.

When it was over, I put the disrupted whale on display in my office.

It was my 36th birthday the day after. Lee-Anne bought me a couple of books: Is a River Alive, and Finding the Mother Tree. Both are kind of in the genre of "The Hidden Life of Trees". I heard a radio interview of Is a River Alive which piqued my interest, and I found Finding The Mother Tree in a local coffee shop. The latter sounds pretty similar in content to The Hidden Life of Trees, but from an Indigenous perspective. 

My mother and brother bought us an air fryer. This is helpful because it has an oven setting. The one we have now runs a little hot, so if we want to bake anything, we often go to my mother and brother's. Now we can do it at home again. I also have a stated value of not deep frying at home. To me, it's too wasteful, messy, unhealthy and dangerous to justify at a single household level. The air fryer bypasses those barriers. I'll probably learn how to make samosas and spring rolls.

And just this past week I needed to do my trainer recertification for Safe Management. This meant that I did a day trip into Oakville. Everything went smoothly but it was a long day. 

The only somewhat stressful thing left in the month is that I'm hosting a training for students tomorrow and the day after. This is pretty routine, except that we have two new facilitators for which this will be their first session. As the senior trainer, expectations will just be a bit higher for me to keep things running smoothly.

Fourth Date Redo

Mine and Lee-Anne's fourth date was doing something called Canoeing The Grand. We rented a boat and paddled down an established route through the Grand River. Despite it being entry-level, we managed to capsize. Lee-Anne has referred to this as a make-it or break-it stage in our early relationship.

We pulled our canoe to the side and were lucky enough that some more experienced people checked in on us and offered one of their paddles, since we had lost both of ours. After this, we managed to make it the rest of our way to the landing point.

This story was popular enough that, when my coworkers threw our wedding shower some four years later, we received gifts themed after it. These included chocolate boats, "Broken Canoe" branded peach drinks, and a gift certificate for "Canoeing the Grand".

It's been two years since our wedding shower. Luckily, the gift certificate didn't expire and we finally got around to it.

When we arrived, the person that met us gave some pointers on how to stear through it. She said that ripples on the water mean rocks. Makes sense. I don't remember getting this advice last time though.

When we were signing the wavers and processing the gift certificate, she gave us our emergency kit and said that on the route we were doing she "promised we wouldn't need it". It wasn't worth telling her that last time we not only managed to get ourselves in a situation where we would need it, but we also managed to lose our emergency kit in the process.

But this time we managed not to capsize! I was much more alert to potential hazards so I didn't take many photos, but here are a few.

We saw ducks, geese, and cormorants. I counted maybe 11 herons and a couple flew right by us. I think I may have seen a couple red-breasted merganser, but I don't know if I was wishful thinking. A hawk or turkey vulture followed us for a bit. There were a lot of people fishing but I only saw minnows.

We did grind to a halt in shallow waters and needed to get out and pull the canoe a bit. There were two other people that started at the same time as us and had the same issue. All in all I think today was an example of redemption.

Trip North, 2025

Me and Lee-Anne recently got back from a trip up North to see my grandparents. We did this last year too, and I made three posts about it. Since there was such a significant gulf of time between then and the last time I'd been up, there was a lot to talk about. This time I'm pretty sure I can condense it to one post.

I took two weeks off work. I often run into an issue where, because I don't like scheduling, I put it off and wind up with excess vacation time at the end of the year. I once heard someone say that taking two weeks off at a time is preferable, because if you take only one, then people postpone things until you get back. If you take two, people need to figure out how to handle it themselves.

It also just makes scheduling easier. We figured we'd be up North for about a week, and taking two off allows for some flexibility and a bit of unwinding time after getting back.

We took the bus up. Last year, we had the same driver there and back. He recommended that me and Lee-Anne get the pizza buns at the rest stop in Bracebridge, and told us to ask for them microwaved. We took his advice, and he checked in with us to see how we liked them. He said that this was his dinner every day.

The affection he had for that little rest stop and his friendliness was very sweet, and his reflection that it's his dinner every day was slightly sad. Overall, he left quite an endearing impression. He didn't drive us either way this time, but we did see him at the layover in North Bay.

Last year, we came in the Fall. This time, we aimed more at the Summer, the express reason for this being that it's more seasonal for blueberries. Unfortunately, late frosts combined with harsh heat spells made for a poor turnout. I still found some wild blueberries, enough for me and Lee-Anne to get some satisfying samples, but not enough to make into jam or pie.

If you want to see the pictures I took, I made a Gallery post here:

http://gryphonsgallery.blogspot.com/2025/08/kenabeek-pics-summer-2025.html

I did some driving lessons with my grandfather. I don't remember if I posted about it or not, but last year I almost tested for my G2, but I'd needed to get an extension on my G1. I did this successfully, but I mistook the receipt for the license itself and showed up to test with the wrong documentation. So I never got to try, and just renewed my G1.

I'd planned on taking lessons through the Summer and testing again, but somehow the last couple of months feel like they've just melted away. Driving up North was my first time at it this year, but I refamiliarized pretty quick. I'm still holding out hope to get some lessons and testing for my G2 this year, but I just feel fated never to get it.

Me and Lee-Anne made dinner one of the nights, partly to showcase my growing culinary prowess. The item available was shrimp, so we did our yellow coconut curry. Based on this old recipe:

https://gryphood.blogspot.com/2022/01/yellow-coconut-curry.html

We used up their curry powder, so we made a custom spice blend to mimic it. The result was passable, but a bit sweeter than usual. I think because the honey we used was local stuff produced by one of their neighbours.

I'd finished reading The Children of Hurin on the bus ride up, which is a prequel to The Lord of the Rings based on the notes of J.R.R. Tolkien, edited and published by his son. I wrote a review of it while I was up there. Since there isn't a reliable Internet connection, I typed it into my computers Notes app and copy/pasted it into my Reviews blog when I got back. You can access it here:

http://gryphonsreviews.blogspot.com/2025/08/the-children-of-hurin-book-review.html

This led to some discussion about Middle Earth, and then me finally watching The Hobbit movies, which my grandparents have the DVDs for. I hadn't bothered to watch them previously because while The Lord of the Rings movies being a trilogy made sense because they were based on three books, doing this for The Hobbit, a singular book, just felt like a cash grab to mirror previous success. Fortunately, the films did retain the whimsy and adventure of the book instead of attempting to impose the stakes and grandeur of their previous work. Maybe I'll make a review at some point.

On coming back, we stayed overnight at a different grandmother of mine. The next day we all went to the Art Gallery of Ontario and looked at an exhibit of Joyce Weiland, a feminist Canadian artist. It included a rendition of a moving map of her brain once she'd developed dementia, showing first the impacts of the condition, and then the healing factor that took place as she did her art.

Since it isn't in the Gallery, here's a picture of me and Lee-Anne in front of an elephant made of old couches.

Lee-Anne observed that, between the discussions on music and literature with my Northern grandparents, and the art museum in Toronto, every side of my family is "artsy". 

A Year in Kitchener

Tomorrow, me and Lee-Anne will be going up to Kenabeek. It's a little earlier this time than last, but it still marks roughly a year since my mother and brother's house burned down.

After, they stayed with us for a bit before finding a new place in the same neighbourhood. Though the circumstances were grim, it has given opportunity for them to experience the city where me and Lee-Anne live. I'll be going over some of the local highlights today.

In previous visits, they'd already been exposed to Belmont Village and the Iron Horse Trail. We live in Kitchener, but we're only about a five minute walk from the border of Waterloo. In fact, we're fairly equidistant between Downtown Kitchener and what is known as Uptown Waterloo. It makes sense then, that the locals refer to our area as Midtown. The heart of Midtown is known as Belmont Village, a strip of independent businesses. I've mentioned it on this blog a bunch of times

They had both already tried a restaraunt called Thai Bistro. Now, we introduced them to Graffiti Market, a place that does deep dish pizza in a way I've only experienced there, and Relish Shawarma, which I've talked about a lot on here. Mom has grown a deep fondness for Relish.

They had both been on the Iron Horse Trail previously as well. It's the longest paved route in the tricity and previously was a rail line for workers to get to factories. This was a prominent enough feature that the buildings that my family currently resides in were initially developed explicitly for users of the Iron Horse Rail. My mom still plays Pokemon Go (as do I) and on seeing the consistent distribution of gyms (game feature) she said "It's like being on Victory Road!" (common end location, leading up to the game's final challenge).

The first new place I showed them was Uptown Waterloo. I did this because they had some specific wants that were best served in that area. I came to regret this though, because first impressions are important and for awhile it became a comfort zone. It's a nice place, but while we have easy access to both cities, me and Lee-Anne both strongly identify as culturally Kitchener, so it just irked me a bit to see Waterloo become the baseline for my family.

My brother, needing a mattress, went to Fairview Park Mall and so got to try our Ion Light Rail. More consistant and with more frequent arrivals, it's definitely a step up from Guelph's city buses, and he has grown to enjoy its utility. Soon after this, my brother left and stayed elsewhere for a few months, so Mom got to experience a few things ahead of him. 

They became aquainted with our closest grocery, which is an independently owned place called Central Fresh Market about a 15 minute walk from where we both live.

Waterloo may have become the touchstone, but Kitchener claimed a win with it's signature park. Me and Mom went to Victoria Park and she got to try a Polish sausage cart that has some measure of fame around here. We also got to see the two swans that inhabit the area. Later, a friend of her's from Guelph would visit and this is where we would go. She said that it's better than Guelph's Riverside Park.

Here's a blurry picture of a weird, duck-like diving bird we saw. I would eventually learn that it's a cormorant, and I've seen many more since.

Mom came with me and Leee-Anne to the Bestival. I think that name is an amalgamation of Belmont Village and Festival, with the happy coincidence that it also has the word "best" in it. She got to try the Fo Cheesy food truck which frequents local events. She bought a bag from a local artist and we listened to some music.

After my brother came back, he joined me and Lee-Anne in participating in a community cleanup event and has signed up to volunteer for future things.

We all went to the Multicultural Festival together. I ran into a coworker who was coincidentally doing a show and we got to watch that. My brother got to try some spiral potato thing. 

Went to a drone show for Canada Day. Neither of them had seen one before. Me and Lee-Anne have been to a few. The first time was for a show held by our local hospital, and it was really trippy. Crazy to see all those tiny glowing robots fly around and create moving pictures in the sky. 

The second time was for Canada Day the year previous. It was pretty subdued, and I wondered if it was one of those things that is only good once. Despite the occasion, there wasn't any Canadian imagery. I think that the recent discovery of mass graves of Indigenous children beneath residential schools had soured the national image at that time, and so the celebration came across as confused and noncomittal.

However, this year patriotism has resurfaced in a big way as threats of colonization and trade wars have been issued from our neighbours to the South. So there was plenty of Canadian imagery when my mother and brother went.

First image was a Canadian flag but it was followed by Turtle Island and an Inukshuk as a gesture to Indigenous communities. Hopefully showing we haven't forgotten them after emerging worries from the South.

Waterloo is the goose-hating capital of the world, but it's become such an integral part of their identity that it's warped around to a sort of love.

Me and Lee-Anne waited an absurd amount of time at a German food truck. I'd been wanting to go to it specifically for currywurst, since me and her had tried it during Christkindl Market and we didn't know it was the featured food. But they didn't even have it this time around so we got a schnitzel sandwich and schnitzel poutine.

My brother, who came after us, was stuck in the line for the entirety of the show. Luckily, it was big enough that he could still watch it in full view.

We all went to the Cherry Park festival, which is a more targeted event to our neighbourhood. We got cherry icecream, served by our former MP, Mike Morrice. We  also got cherry tarts, strudels, and jam. We got a little clay pot, and they got some magnets by local artists. 

Recently my brother discovered an authentic East Asian grocery called New City Supermarket. I'd already been in a handful of times. He also found a health food place called Full Circle Foods, which I've been to once. He was very enthusiatic about both.

He also found a local garden store that I didn't know about. He also got his hair cut at The Green Room barbershop, where Lee-Anne has been trying to get me to go, and now he's pressuring me too.

That's what I can think of so far. They both still need to go to Christkindle Market, at least one of the Art Walks, the Kitchener Farmer's Market, and the Clay and Glass Art Gallery. I don't think they've been to the Kitchener Public Library. Mom was close, because my cousin hosted an event in the courtyard, but it was outside of library hours. Maybe The Museum should be on there, but I don't think it's anything special.

I'm the only one of the four of us to have gone to the Butterfly Sanctuary, so that's on the list too. Buskerfest, Bluesfest, and Ribfest are all big around here, and I've not been to any of them. I've no interest in the latter though.

Gryphon at the Downtown Community Centre

Last week I was waiting for someone at the Downtown Community Centre. I was sitting on a bench and looking at my phone. Suddenly, my view of the screen was replaced by the face of a tiny, grinning child.

"What's your name!" he said.

"Gryphon"

He clasped his hands to his mouth and staggered backward, staring at me in pure astonishment.

His father arrived and encouraged him to introduce himself in return. Instead, the child blurted out "But how can you be a gryphon?!"

I said "Oh, you know about gryphons?"

A shy smile crept across the boy's face, eyes still wide in amazement, and he nodded.

For the unknowing party, I told the father that it was a mythical creature.

It was obvious at this point that the child believed sincerely that I was somehow a half-eagle, half-lion  that had disguised itself as a human. To clarify things, I said "Well, I'm actually not a gryphon. I'm a human named Gryphon."

Which is, of course, exactly what a magical animal undercover in the world of humans would say.  From the look of the kid, this did nothing to persuade him. My confident introduction as a gryphon was far more convincing than my awkward attempt at taking it back.

His dad encouraged him to continue on to whatever scheduled activity they were going to. As they left, the child shouted "Bye Gryphon!"

I don't think I've ever felt as magical as when that kid looked at me with sudden realization, full belief, and awe in that I was some fairytale being. It was like he had randomly run across Santa Clause at the Downtown Community Centre.

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.