ports of entry

I started writing this (and have been updating it) at a boarding gate awaiting travel to Sin City to attend a gala this weekend. For someone in active pursuit of an ordinary sanctified life, what I'm about to do is go to the belly of the beast. Belly of the beast. I just saw that from someone's email message and I thought that it was the perfect expression to describe my excitement and feelings of uncertainty. I'm mostly excited to see folks at the event and be all dressed up in traditional wear, but it is a place of immense temptation. The last time I was there was when I was a teen and I only ever remember the buffets. Hah! This trip is going to be a whirlwind and I'm sure it will be filled with great memories. I will find time to take a photo of certain places like the fake Eiffel Tower and the Sphere. Or I'll just let things flow and experience whatever I experience based on the set itinerary. Bonne chance to moi. Cheers ❤️.

Here's Emily Dickinson's "Forever is composed of nows" : https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52202/forever-is-composed-of-nows-690

drops

Yesterday, a man with a mobility device, at the end of his appointment, told the lady behind the counter: "Can I ask you one last favour?"

Lady: "Yes."

Man: "You go have a wonderful day! You didn't see that coming, eh?"

Lady laughed.

I smiled. Did I eavesdrop or simply overheard? One thing's for sure, it was nice to witness. 

You have a good day. Here's Chopin's Raindrop Prelude: listen here.

'Making each day of the year'

I'm sharing my favourite song of all time as a way to end my birthday week. I've posted about my Beatles fanhood in the past, but I have to admit that the degree of said fanhood is much lesser now compared to when I was in grade school about thirty years ago. Also, I'm looking forward to that new Beatles biopic. This post is quite random and the truth is that I just bought a new wireless computer mouse and I'm breaking it in. Of course, that's not my birthday gift to myself (though I think it's a practical thing to get for one's birthday). My gift was a cupcake cake with a fall theme design that I saw and purchased at a local Fortinos. The base was a dozen chocolate cupcakes with buttercream frosting. It was one of a kind and they didn't have anything else like it in their selection. I could have gotten a traditional birthday themed cake, but I thought, why not get the less obvious choice? On hindsight, I wonder whether the bakery unintentionally made too many cupcakes and had to whip something out of it. If that were the case, this makes it even more cool. Cheers to another year!

P.S. You know what's frustrating? Having to minimize my usage of the em-dash so that you wouldn't think I'm AI-ing my post. AI-ing. Hah. You know what—here—there—everywhere. Next thing you know they'll accuse the ellipsis...

A bout of nostalgia

I've been seeing random clips of AI-generated videos of old scenes. You know those POV clips of a typical local mall in the 90s or Sunday mornings in the province? I love those. I'm writing this as I let my smart speaker play songs by Air Supply to set the mood (a typical weekend-morning staple on radio stations back then). Another thing I always feel nostalgic about is food. I missed Filipino style deep-fried breaded pork chops and so I decided to make it this evening for the first time and it was immensely successful! We had the fortunate experience of having a household cook when I was younger and her pork chops were savoury, crispy on the outside, and juicy on the inside. Thanks to the interwebs, I learned that the key to success is the marinade. I only had white pepper, sea salt, minced garlic, and apple cider vinegar. I poked the raw slices of bone-in pork chops with a fork then bathed and soaked it in the marinade. Before deep frying in canola oil, I dredged each slice in a mixture of flour, Old Bay seasoning, and white pepper. Dinner was like being transported back home in the late 80s to 90s at our dining table with everyone present and alive. As a nostalgia booster to Earth, Wind & Fire on this 21st night of September, here's Air Supply:

For leisure

'Idleness in this sense does not mean inactivity, but instead nonproductive activity. “Leisureliness,” says Daniel Dustin of the University of Utah, “refers to a pace of life that is not governed by the clock.' (Headlee, Celeste (2022). Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving. Harmony Books, p.xix)

How I've been trying to ameliorate the feeling of being overwhelmed is by borrowing books and magazines that are meant for leisure from libraries. We're talking about a variety of magazines like Cosmopolitan, Hello, Scientific American, Wired, or Consumer Reports; books like an atlas, The Magical World of the LOTR, or the book I just quoted above. An equally important part of the borrowing aspect is the act of walking from one library to another. That's not a surprise to you, because I've written about it before. 

My eldest currently has an affinity for libraries in terms of his program of study and part-time occupation. I'm immensely proud of that. He also just recently returned from an esteemed university in England for a summer course on Shakespeare. They weren't allowed to use devices in many of their sessions. And he was able to visit The Bod Old library! I'm super proud! I'm equally proud of my other children who also have their own different interests in the humanities. Libraries are all around you! You can borrow anything for free! Support your local library...including your nearby university library that likely offers public patron options. 

My eldest gave me this tote after he came back from his trip!

Tight-knit

The last time I mentioned the show Criminal Minds was in 2009 and one of my posts that year was entitled enumeration and I literally enumerated quotes from several episodes that stuck with me. We just rewatched seasons 1-5 and we're currently on season 6. It's impressive that the show is now in its 19th season. Thus far, I've added these two quotes to my list of impactful quotes, especially since these currently ring true for me:

"Experience is a brutal teacher, but you learn. My God, do you learn."-- Spoken by JJ (Jennifer Jareau) at the end of Season 5, Episode 13 ("Risky Business")

"Poet Haniel Long said, ‘So much of what is best in us is bound up in our love of family, that it remains the measure of our stability because it measures our sense of loyalty.’"-- Spoken by Hotch (Aaron Hotchner) at the end of Season 5, Episode 9 ("100")

I'm writing this just a few hours after watching The Odyssey, which I liked very much. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it in the "oh it was so entertaining" sense. I liked the storytelling and the mini emotional odyssey I went through. I think the two quotes above can be connected to the message that I took home from watching the film. It's as if the TV show we are watching and the film we just watched is the current real life anthem. 

Another interesting connection that I just thought of right now is how both Criminal Minds and The Odyssey have female characters with traits that I'd like to emulate, and they have the same name: Penelope. In 2008, I wrote about how I thought Penelope Garcia (this is the blog post) was so cool and smart that I wanted to learn how to code. Almost twenty years later, I code daily for work--a different programming language, but that's a big part of my current occupation. The other Penelope--the wife of Odysseus--is a woman of strength, courage, intelligence, and incomparable loyalty. She was full of love for her husband and son, and this was intertwined with her love and sense of duty to Ithaca. What amazing fictional women. 
Life is tough. Sometimes, there are those who deliberately make it tough for others primarily for self-interest...sometimes their own survival. 

"All through history, there have been tyrants and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall, always. (Gandhi)"-- Spoken by Aaron Hotchner at the end of Season 2 episode 9 

"Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he wrongs you seven times in one day and returns to you seven times saying, 'I am sorry,' you should forgive him." -- Luke 17:3–4 

The Fade Warm filter is on

Source: Wikimedia Commons – Toronto Air Quality during 2026 wildfires

I'd much rather the sky looked like it had an Instagram Fade Warm filter. Instead, it's wildfire smoke. Thinking of everyone affected by this.

The air isn't as orange today, but the smoke smells even stronger. Many of us were wearing masks while walking outside on the way to our destinations.

As I take a brief coffee break at the cafe in this academic library, I'm reminded of how this pale blue dot we call home is a remarkably fragile spaceship. And we all breathe the same air.

Autoreplies are on

I'm on vacation in the next few days, but I woke up too early this morning. It's still way too early to do anything at this lakeside location, so I've decided that I will take a morning siesta about 2 hours post-dawn breakfast since everyone's still asleep anyway. I could take a walk by the lake, but why spend this energy now when I can go all out later? So here I am, writing on my old, home button-equipped mobile phone, with my eyes progressively becoming heavy. The point of this post is to encourage you to listen to your body. If you ever feel guilty for resting, turn that imaginary volume control knob to the lowest setting and maybe turn it all the way until you hear that click signifying it's off. Close your eyes and drift to dreamland...or as I prefer it, no-dreamland-REM-deep-sleep-cycling nirvana. Here's REM's Daysleeper for inspiration: https://youtu.be/uUcKeKt8C1k?si=pssmq_yWav8EwvAn

Antilibrary

I just checked out two books from Robarts Library for leisure. I hope I end up liking and finishing at least one of them. Currently, as I write these words, I have a Margaret Atwood book open in my Kindle app, and a browser tab containing Pope Leo XIV's first encyclical, "On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence." I have Monday off, so this qualifies as a form of hoarding...of reading intentions. Honestly, I have a lot of chores and other things to do so realistically, I won't be able to finish any of them this weekend. I enjoy having these physical and virtual books around me, and I'll enjoy the feeling of the possibility of reading.

A fun fact is that a collection of books that one possesses is termed an antilibrary, which was popularized by the writer (and fellow statistician) Nassim Nicholas Taleb (Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antilibrary). Taleb further states that the those who are interested in antilibraries can be referred to as antischolars.

The Bar is now Sky High

I've allowed myself to be algorithmically persuaded. How can one not find Mary Bennet and Tom Hayward charming (from the series entitled The Other Bennet Sister)? The fourth episode is probably my favourite, with a particular scene involving Wordsworth's Composed Upon Westminster Bridge. A version of this poem was recited by Jonathan Pryce below.

A good reference article to read that nicely explains the relevance of the scene in the series can be found here https://theconversation.com/the-other-bennet-sister-this-fresh-take-on-pride-and-prejudice-transforms-the-overlooked-mary-278555