As always, striking the balance between life and writing presents challenges. When I’m not meant to be cooking dinner I generally get on my bike for an hour or more – which will go up as the rides go outside. On the days I ride my bike to work I don’t read so I spend more time reading at home. I know, making time to write is the only answer – just as I did for making time to read.
Here are some good things happening in various realms:
In my life:
I’m really pleased with myself for figuring out cycling in the winter. Yes, it’s been challenging to the point of not riding when the snow is heavy, but on cold days it’s not bad – especially for the 20 min or so it takes to get there. Speed limits are no more than 40 km/hr so traffic is mild and as you can see, though it’s a little longer, if I feel like taking a break from traffic, it tends to be pretty nice. The other day it was -16°C and felt like about -25° with the wind but with just a normal winter jacket, gloves and a big neck gaiter pulled up over my face and ears I was fine. It was so sunny and beautiful I would’ve been sad to have missed it.
But some days it isn’t possible to get out. That’s when I ride indoors. My road bike sits on a smart trainer which connects to my computer via bluetooth. When a hill happens on the screen, I feel it on the bike. When I pedal harder or faster, so does my avatar. Once in a while I race though my last one happened a few days after donating blood and I was lucky to place 11 out of 14! Still, it’s nice to have something to look at and interact with. And though this ride was solo except for folks I passed by I’ve really enjoyed group rides.
Good in the world:
This one is close enough to home that it almost qualifies as “in my life”. Nearly all of the time we have lived in Toronto we have been very close to the Don River – sometimes just a few hundred metres away. Even now one of the river’s branches is just a kilometre or two from here. Here’s one of them:
For decades, and certainly all of the time we’ve lived here it’s been known as a nightmare of pollution. The mouth of the river was straightened out in the 1800s after its slow moving and polluted waters were declared a public health hazard. Over the years, though, cleanup efforts have been underway including reduction of industrial pollution, stormwater management and even tracking down sources of human waste piped directly into the water instead of the sewer system. Most recently a huge project completed, naturalizing the mouth and undoing the straightening. And the good news is that it seems to be working as tons of fish are returning to the river including species not recently seen there.
Good you can do:
The influence of big technology companies from social media companies manipulating public opinion to companies requiring subscriptions to use software rather than purchasing them or worse, making repair not just difficult but actually illegal. (For example, even if you fix your John Deere tractor yourself you must still pay to have a technician come out to “service” it or it won’t work. Bypassing that lock is illegal – as is enabling the heated seats on your BMW without paying the proper subscription fee to warm your bottom. All the while, gathering all the data they can on you so that they can market more products to you or determine what features you use regularly so they can charge for it later.
And of course lots of these tech firms are investing in AI which is plagiarizing copyrighted media, eliminating jobs all while it uses incredible amounts of electricity and water.
But many are pushing back against this tide – many European countries are giving up Microsoft software, for example. We can do the same at home as well, and the DI Day movement aims to do that. DI Day stands for Digital Independence – replacing big tech solutions, often subscription based, with self-hosted or those provided by small companies. We’ve given up most google services, no more search or gmail, I’ve turned off all of their data collection. YouTube and maps are next though those are harder.
With spotify investing in AI military technology, accepting ICE recruitment ads, promoting alt-right podcasts, sharing tons of AI-generated music, often similarly named/sounding to actual groups while changing policies for their already-low payment rates such that about 85% of artists now get nothing from them. You can read more here. Daegan and I have switched to Qobuz who are one of the highest paying services for artists. Sage has gone one step further, going back to purchasing music instead of streaming it, often putting it onto a cassette that she can listen to on her portable cassette player. What’s old is new again!
Thanks, as always for reading. I hope you’re finding a bit of hope among the craziness of today’s world.
Meanwhile, if you need a bit of an escape, why not go watch the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy – a cozy, funny and calm TV program from 1981. It’s all on archive.org and you can stream it all for free.
