Canada is clearly at an inflection point. We neither asked for nor wanted this, but ignoring it and carrying on isn’t a solution. So, what should we do? I’m in favour of a big rethink, via a Royal Commission. Given how long this would take, though, we need to get going on at least investigating options.
Here, then, is my list. Note that I’m absolutely not an expert and I’d get voted out of office immediately if I ever managed to become a politician. So, I provide these in the spirit of contributing to a national conversation. No doubt there are better ideas out there. Let’s pick some and start trying stuff!
Eliminating inter-provincial barriers to trade is the obvious one and evidently could be done within a month. Simultaneously frustrating and emblematic that something debated for decades could actually make significant progress so quickly, once we got motivated.
While we’re eliminating inter-provincial trade barriers, why not really embrace free trade, including the elimination of supply management?
Actually prioritizing our sovereignty in the Arctic. Our most recent defence policy statement hints at this, but we continue to expect our armed forces to do too much with too little. The recent announcement of working with Australia to upgrade our Arctic radar equipment is a good example of something we need more of. Underpinning all of this is figuring out how to actually procure equipment. Plus anything we do in the Arctic must properly engage with First Nations.
Raise the HST by 1%, offset by income tax reductions, and dedicate the funds to cities. This one would get me booted out of government quickly. That said, Canadian cities remain under-resourced, relative to the services they need to provide. They need a source of revenue that grows with the economy.
The CRA should prepopulate our tax returns. They already have most of the information. Just fill them in and allow us to adjust if necessary. Of course, this would require simplifying our tax system, which is the real point.
The sun rises, seasons change, and I reconsider my note-taking system. Some things are endlessly cyclical.
These days I use a split system: personal notes in Apple Notes (using a simplified Forever Notes structure) and work notes in OneNote, following the PARA method. My daily logs feed into ChatGPT for a summarized weekly note. It’s efficient, structured, and searchable—but also sterile and fleeting.
This week, after a nudge from Lee Peterson in the Hemispheric ViewsDiscord, I dusted off a Field Notes notebook I last used in 2015 and started writing again.
Each day gets a fresh page. I list my two or three most important tasks, then jot down whatever comes up. I’ve even revived Patrick Rhone’s Dash/Plus system.
As plenty of folks will tell you, paper is nice. I also like how it keeps my phone on the charger instead of in my pocket, waiting for me to type something.
I’ve stopped being precious about my note-taking. My needs evolve, and so should my system.
For my fellow, like-to-be-informed Canadians, I recommend the Sutherland Quarterly. As a subscriber, each quarter you get a short book (around 100 pages) on a current, important topic.
So far, I’ve read:
An Emergency in Ottawa by Paul Wells on the trucker convoy
Fleeced by Andrew Spence on Canadian banking
Justin Trudeau on the Ropes also by Paul Wells on Trudeau’s challenges as Prime Minister
Superintelligence by The Logic on AI in Canada
And I’m about to start Jasper on Fire by Matthew Scace. Each has been really good: informative, well written, and relevant to Canadians.
Subscriptions are available for both print and digital, while each book is also available separately.
Over the past three years, I’ve traveled more than 7,600 km through the virtual worlds of Zwift (adds up to a ridiculous 11 days and 11 hours on the saddle). This has all been on my main racing bike in a somewhat awkward setup that I described earlier:
I don’t have enough space in my house for a spot fully dedicated to cycling. So, I’ve got the bike trainer tucked in a corner of the basement and then I slide our basement couch out of the way and move the bike in front of the TV when I’m riding.
The whole setup is a nuisance, especially for some of those really early morning starts. Moving furniture around while in the dark and only half awake isn’t great. So, I’m considering the new Zwift Ride.
I think the pros are (in order):
Always ready without any setup required
Stays inside, so stays clean
Preserves the racing bike, avoiding all the indoor sweat (so much sweat 🥵) and wear and tear
Optimized for indoor riding and for Zwift specifically
While the cons are:
Only works with Zwift. What do I do with it if Zwift goes away or I want to switch to a different platform? (Although, there are developments)
Riding it doesn’t build up comfort and familiarity on my actual racing bike (although after close to 12 cumulative days on the bike, how much of this could be left?)
Given all of this, I’m leaning towards getting the Zwift Ride. There’s a spot in the basement with enough room for it and I like the idea of just getting on and riding. However, the recent tariff nonsense seems to have cleared out the Canadian inventory. So, I have some time to think this over, before making the investment.
For more on the Zwift Ride, DC Rainmaker has a good video.
I’ve been a happy AeroPress user for many years now. A few weeks ago, I was gifted the Flow Control Filter Cap. The cap acts as a pressure activated valve that prevents any drip through the filter, until you press on the plunger. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by how much of a difference it has made to the consistency of my coffee
Before trying the flow control cap, I would not have said the AeroPress was unduly inconsistent. So, this isn’t a complaint about the original design. Rather, I now have fewer errant grounds making it through to the mug, can hold the brewing longer for a more robust flavour, and am less likely to make a mess while brewing. I can also reliably generate a nice foam at the end of the brewing.
The only small downside is that it is more challenging to get the used filter and grounds out of this cap. The filter tends to stick to this cap much more than to the original.
To complete my transition to coffee influencer, here’s an unnecessary, slow-motion video of making coffee 😀
There’s an odd glitch with my Apple Watch: anytime I finish a swim interval, it claims there are still two meters left. Then after about five seconds, it realizes I’ve stopped, decides I’ve finished a lap after all, and moves to the next interval.
It isn’t the pool, I’ve tried several different ones. Even stranger, it isn’t accumulating by lap. If I finish a 25m sprint: two meters short. A 500m interval: also two meters short. So, it isn’t caused by misestimating the length of the pool.
Anyway, not a big problem. The only real impact is that my intervals are always slower on the watch than in the actual pool, since several seconds get added to each one. This makes it look like I’m much faster on longer intervals, since the delay has a bigger impact on short swims.
Thanks to a pre-Christmas flu and general busyness over the holidays, my triathlon training took a dive.
This past week, I’ve really tried to get back into it. As a result, my watch and phone have been pointing out that my training load has spiked and are suggesting caution.
At the same time, my readiness to train has been correspondingly increasing. I’ve been using this increase, plus generally feeling good, to keep the training intensity at the right level without overdoing it.
Seems to be working so far. Now that I feel like I’ve regained momentum, I’ll ease off on the training progression to stabilize on a more modest increase over weeks. I don’t need to relearn the lessons of overtraining and injury!
Göran Winblad has a good video on how to use RTT and HRV as one indicator in training. Worth investigating for your training too.
I lamented recently what a mess my Apple Music library had become. I was tempted to delete the whole thing and start again, only to end up doing nothing. What’s the big deal? It’s just a collection of songs. I search through them, find something I like, and hit play.
I just, I find that I have this, like, abundance blindness where I have an infinite number of songs.
So, it kind of wraps back around on itself to be like, who cares about any of it?
It’s just way too much.
And the urge to clean everything up came back. So, I did it: deleted every album and playlist! It feels nice to start all over, add back in the essentialalbums, and appreciate the scarcity of good music again. I’m continuing to use the great Albums app to keep the focus on actual albums, which are the proper way to appreciate music.
Last month, I posted a series of album covers for music that shaped my preferences. The gimmick was that there was no context or explanation, just an album cover. Now, I’d like to provide a few notes.
As part of the overall framing, these are influential albums for me. They aren’t all necessarily my favourite albums by these artists or ones that I still listen to frequently. Rather, what I listen to and enjoy now, are strongly connected to these albums.
The list is also available on Album Whale, if that’s preferred.
Led Zeppelin III: My Dad had this record (this will be a theme) and there was a dial you could turn that would rotate the images within the album art. That was cool. More than that. though, what an opening track! Immigrant Song just launches the whole album. Rock is my default genre (with an inclination towards alternative and indie) and that has to start with listening to Led Zeppelin as a kid.
Tripping with Nils Frahm: Definitely my newest musical influence and it isn’t entirely accurate to pin it to this specific album. The reason I chose it, among all the rest, is the live performance. Part of the appeal, for me, is the musicianship and intricate assembly that comes across in the live, solo performance. There’s a whole thread of music from Nils Frahm, through Max Richter, Floating Points, Olafur Arnalds, and Jon Hopkins that I’m really enjoying these days.
Pearl Jam, 10: Grunge is high school and that’s when lasting musical impressions get made. Of all the great bands that came out of the grunge scene (Nirvana, Soundgarden, Alice in Chains), Pearl Jam is the one that has stuck with me, even up to 2024 with the great Dark Matter album. Quite the legacy.
Rush, Roll the Bones: My interest in Rush also starts from my Dad’s record collection. In this case, though, Roll the Bones is the first Rush album that I bought myself and, so, has special importance. I’ve consistently enjoyed their clever lyrics and impressive musicianship.
5. *Radiohead, OK Computer*: Surely on many people's lists. In addition to great music, this was when I started to see the potential for music as art, rather than just entertainment.
Depeche Mode, Violator: Hard for me to believe that only a year separates this from Pearl Jam’s Ten. I listened to this album a lot and it leads to a long enjoyment of industrial music.
Kate Bush, Hounds of Love: I don’t have an origin story for Kate Bush, her music just always seemed to be there: quirky, innovative, and captivating.
Bjork, Homogenic: A spiritual successor to Kate Bush? Definitely exciting, creative, and beguiling.
Peter Gabriel, So: Peter Gabriel has been a consistent favourite and introduced me to many great artists through his Real World record label. For me, this is his definitive album.
Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon: Another one from my Dad’s record collection. How much more needs to be said about this album? An obvious classic that really emphasizes an album as a cohesive product, rather than a collection of songs.
Sarah McLachlan, Fumbling Towards Ecstasy: First of all, a great album. Second, I was listening to this at the same time as some heavy industrial and metal bands. This confused many of my friends, but reinforced, for me, the joy of diverse musical interests.
Afro Celt Sound System, Volume 1: Sound Magic: Via Peter Gabriel, this was an exotic amalgamation of many musical styles and led me to an appreciation of what was then called “world music”. Although I think their third album is their best, this is more influential for me.
The Tragically Hip, Up to Here: Iconic in Canada and helped me appreciate my nation’s history and stories. They followed up with three fantastic albums and then I mostly lost touch with their music until Gord Downie’s epic last tour.
14. *Nine Inch Nail, Pretty Hate Machine*: Starting my angry teenager phase. I've stuck with NIN ever since, though I can't relate now to the teenager that I was.
Supertramp, Breakfast in America: Another one from my Dad’s collection. At the core, it is their musicianship that drew me in and influenced my musical tastes.
The Clash, London Calling: Perfectly captures the primal energy of punk rock.
Massive Attack, Mezzanine: This one started my ongoing affection for bleak, creepy, and paranoid music.18. Yo La Tengo, I Can Hear the Heart Beating as One: Classic shoegaze and indie that is a clear theme of my current tastes. Yo La Tengo was a big part of early grad school which has lots of nostalgia for me.19. Ali Farka Toure, Talking Timbuktu: This sounded really fresh and exciting to me when it was released, especially when contrasted with the mostly industrial music I was listening to at the time.20. Rage Against the Machine: This was late high school and I was ready for music as social commentary, especially packaged as fierce, disciplined rebellion.
Night Sky: A slow build with a sci-fi mystery. Sissy Spacek and JK Simmons are great. Clearly a second season was planned, but it ends okay for a one season show
Dark Matter: A decent multiverse show. Really picks up in the last couple of episodes
Mr and Mrs Smith: An entertaining show, modelled after the movie, though the last episode was disappointing
Shogun: A great historical drama with compelling characters and fine attention to detail
Unchained Season 2: Really makes the Tour de France understandable and exciting. Such an epic event
The Acolyte: Just fine, though uneven. I didn’t like the ending
Adding The Peripheral to the list with Outer Range and Night Sky makes me reluctant to watch sci-fi shows on Amazon Prime. I enjoyed each of these well made and smart shows, only to have them all cancelled.
Well that was “fun”! The Muskoka Ironman 70.3 was very well organized with great volunteers and an excited crowd of spectators.
I was within a few minutes of last year which I’m very happy with, considering the interruptions to my training with a trip to Portugal and introduction of a new puppy (neither of which I regret).
Not much new to report, relative to last year, in terms of the course. Still super hilly and challenging with some great views of the Canadian Shield. Given the challenges of the run, in particular, I don’t think I’d recommend this as a first 70.3. Definitely should be on anyone’s list that is looking for additional courses though.
As always, a huge thank you to my wife for her continued support and excellent race crewing. And thanks to the One Academy crew for all of the training hours together. These races are not a solo effort.
My third year in a row for this one and, despite pouring rain for the entire race, it was still fun and well organized.
My times across the three have been within minutes of each other. Although this one was slowest of the three, given the conditions, I’m happy with the overall results and ended up 12th in my age group.
At least in the swim, it didn’t matter that it was raining. I think they had less time between heats though and swimmers really bunched up for the last 200m.
As usual the trip up the escarpment is still a brutal climb and trip down terrifying. I maxed out at 70km/h coming down this time. With the poor visibility and slippery conditions from the rain that was more than fast enough.
Plenty of mud through the back half of the run. I almost lost a shoe!
Overall the conditions made for a good test of mental resilience which is always useful.
My only real problem was in T2. I couldn’t find my stuff! The area available for my age group was full. So, I put everything elsewhere and then couldn’t find it 🤣. The 3 minute transition was an embarrassment.
The second half of our Portugal trip was fun too. We stayed in São Vicente, to the east of the historical core. Lisbon is certainly bigger than Porto, so we used the transit system much more extensively and the Lisbon cards came in really handy with their access to transit and attraction discounts
Castelo de São Jorge offered some great views of the city, after a pretty steep hike.
A sailboat tour was a great way to see the city, especially since it included beer.
The Porto half of our Portugal trip was great fun. We stayed on the west side of Bonfim, relatively close to the historic district and walked (seemingly) all over Porto. The one exception was taking the 500 bus out to the ocean for the afternoon.
We also took a day trip out to the Douro Valley for a couple of winery tours and port tastings. Well worth the trip for gorgeous scenery and tasty wine.
Pick in your mind a perfect album. And I think it’s mostly open to interpretation, but I’m kind of thinking an album that you would say you could just start from beginning, let it run all the way through, without skipping songs, without moving around, just front to back and just sit there and do nothing else and just listen to that whole album.
What would that album be?
An important, though fraught, question.
I completely agree with Andrew that OK Computer and Dark Side of the Moon both belong on the list. After that, there’s great opportunity to overthink this. Instead, I’m going with albums that were significant to me and, so, came to mind quickly.
The Joshua Tree by U2 (1987)
Violator by Depeche Mode (1990)
Ten by Pearl Jam (1991)
Us by Peter Gabriel (1992)
The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails (1994)
Yankee Hotel Foxtrot by Wilco (2001)
Give up by The Postal Service (2003)
Funeral by Arcade Fire (2004)
For Emma, Forever Ago by Bon Iver (2007)
I also find it interesting that nothing comes to mind from the last 20 years. Is that because no one makes perfect albums anymore? Seems unlikely. More likely that our musical tastes get set when we’re younger and that I rarely listen to an actual album anymore. I can change this.
I’ve been using Training Today for a whilenow to track my readiness to train (RTT). They’ve recently released a new feature that provides dynamic training for running based on RTT which takes into account your current recovery and health to make sure you don’t overtrain.
Generating the workouts is easy. In the iPhone app, you choose the type of run (speed, endurance, recovery, etc) and then the app shows you the structured workout, targeting your current RTT. There are options to adjust the RTT (though that seems like cheating) and to shorten the run, if you’re pressed for time. Once you select “Create Workout”, the run is sent to your Apple Watch.
On the watch, the Training Today workout shows up near the top of the list in the Workout app and behaves like any other workout. The interval times and heart rate zones with alerts are passed along, making it easy to follow the workout.
There are a few obvious enhancements, which the developers have already promised. The first is the addition of cycling and swimming workouts. The second is creating actual fitness plans across multiple days.
I’m really intrigued by an app like Training Today. Our smartwatches are continuously monitoring us and tracking our fitness. Why not have them also program tailored workouts? That said, I have an actual triathlon coach that creates a comprehensive fitness plan while also providing expert advice and motivation. My watch isn’t this sophisticated — yet.
I have 9,698 entries in DayOne across 4,312 days. This is one of my favourite and most consistently used apps. And, yet, somehow I am tempted to switch to Apple’s Journal app. This post is to remind me why that is a bad idea.
So, here’s a list of DayOne features I use that Journal doesn’t have:
I use DayOne on my iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and the web. Journal is only on the iPhone.
DayOne is my memory archive. I can search for entries with many attributes (like dates), while also organizing with tags and separate journals. Plus, the On This Day feature is great for revisiting old entries. Journal only lets you filter by entry type. There is no search feature.
There are many ways to get content into DayOne, including via Shortcuts. Journal is much less accommodating and, oddly, has no Shortcuts support. A related feature in DayOne is templates, which I use frequently and Journal lacks.
Given how valuable (to me) content is in DayOne, I appreciate the broad set of export features. Best I can tell, there’s no way to export from Journal.
Given all of this, why am I drawn to Journal?
The primary answer is an appeal to simplicity (which Journal certainly has). I do worry sometimes that my structure of separate journals, tags, and templates in DayOne is unecessary complexity. A secondary answer is my policy of favouring default apps when they’re good enough. Journal is likely quite adequate for many people, especially those that journal to get ideas out of their heads, rather than as a memory archive that they review.
Having written this down, the answer seems clear: keep using DayOne. Perhaps, though, I should revisit my DayOne structure to get some of that appealing simplicity from Journal.
There is absolutely no shortage of productivity methods and content out there, especially in the “influencer” racket. I’m quite sure that there is no one true way to be productive. In fact, I think there’s some merit to switching up my approach on occasion, just to reinvigorate my interest.
To that end, I’ve really appreciated the MacSparky Productivity Field Guide. I find the roles based approach suits me really well, as I try to juggle multiple parts of my life, while the intentionality it creates helps with prioritizing and staying engaged. This isn’t about any particular tasks app or zettelkasten setup. Rather, the emphasis is on the why and making tough choices about where to focus attention.
There aren’t many “quick wins” here. In following along, I had to think carefully, document my intentions, and track all of my commitments over a few weeks. All well worth doing and now paying off. As with so many things, upfront investments payoff in the long run.
I kept busy in 2023 with triathlon training. As a reference point for next year, here’s a comparison of 2023 with 2022.
My running was surprisingly consistent. Although the totals are almost identical, I do think that my structured workouts were much better in 2023. Each run had a purpose and all were part of a bigger plan.
There was a trade off for cycling between indoors and outdoors. In 2023, I couldn’t quite get aligned with most of the outdoor group rides. So, there was a lot more indoor riding on Zwift. I’d like to switch this around in 2024.
I’m surprised by my relatively low swimming distances in 2023. This is my strongest of the three. So, I tend to take it for granted. I should bump this up in 2024.
As a follow up to my Duel of the Defaults post, I’ve made a few changes. These are all based on further adopting app defaults to simplify things.
📰 RSS: I’ve swapped out Feedbin for iCloud as the backend for NetNewsWire. Although I really like the Feedbin service, my primary use of it is to access my feeds via a web browser at work. In an attempt to limit my feed reading to just once in the morning and once in the evening, switching to iCloud means that only my personal iPhone has access.
👓 Read It Later: Switching to Safari’s Reading List for this. The feature is well integrated into the system and more than sufficient for my needs.
🎧 Podcasts: After some back and forth and back again, over to Apple Podcasts.
These choices are largely motivated by an attempt to limit the number of inputs and potential for distractions. That said, these default apps are still powerful and effective.
Here’s my list. I’ve really shifted to defaults over the past year. I’m conflicted about this: I really like a good indie app, yet find my needs don’t justify the complexity of using non-defaults.
There’s a bewildering array of fitness apps out there. Here’s an attempt to document what I’m currently using.
I have some criteria when considering a fitness app:
Available on the Apple Watch, ideally as a first class app, rather than just presenting data from the phone
Suitable for multisport. I’ll consider a highly specialized app, though prefer one that covers at least running, cycling, and swimming
Consolidated and local data. I prefer one location for all of the data and certainly not locked into a web service
With these in mind, my current portfolio of fitness apps is:
Apple Health stores all of my data. Not really an app, rather this is the foundational data store that integrates across all sources
The Apple Workout app records my workouts. Although there are some better, specialized apps, pressing the Action Button on my Ultra and starting a workout is so convenient that I’m sticking with Workout. The onscreen stats on the watch are more than sufficient for my needs
HealthFit is for viewing workout data and general fitness trends. I prefer HealthFit’s details to Apple Health’s. As the screenshots below demonstrate, HealthFit provides useful overviews of everything I’ve done recently. I also use HealthFit to selectively send completed workouts to Strava
Strava is for my local community. Seeing what my friends are up to and cheering them on is part of staying motivated for the training. Strava does have a good set of statistics and summaries. Overall, though, I prefer HealthFit’s design and privacy
Recover sends me targeted mobility and recovery sessions, based on my recent activity. This is the only reason I’m currently paying for a Strava subscription. However, Strava is rather expensive if this is all I’m paying for and Recover breaks principles 1 and 3. So, I don’t think this one will last much longer
Training Peaks is exclusively for getting workouts from my coach. There’s way more potential with this app. I’m just not using any of it
Zwift Companion is well named. I use it to join Zwift events and as a second screen while Zwifting.
That’s currently it for the portfolio. Being able to consolidate all of my data into Apple Health really frees me up to try new apps without worrying about data lock in. Despite this freedom, I’m comfortable with the current set and don’t plan to switch things up anytime soon.
Discussions about transit often end up about funding. To help make these discussions productive, I was pleased to co-author a paper through the Transportation Association of Canada titled Importance of Transportation Funding: Framing the Issues.
Transportation funding is becoming an important topic of discussion at all levels of Transportation Association of Canada (TAC) councils and committees, reflecting discussions that are taking place throughout the Canadian transportation community. The fundamental needs are to maintain and upgrade the country’s aging transportation system while adding new infrastructure to meet the demands of a growing population and economy. These needs are evolving in the face of new challenges, notably changing funding sources and priorities, climate change impacts on infrastructure resiliency, changes to how the system is used, and accommodating new transportation and communications technologies. These challenges have become sharper with the COVID-19 pandemic-induced disruptions in how people and goods move and in shifts in revenues and funding priorities. These needs and challenges cover a broad range. They vary across the country, by mode, ownership, responsibility and more. All told, these complexities mean that the needs and challenges are not fully understood. This briefing describes and categorizes these key challenges and opportunities and provides an initial, high-level assessment of the broader range of potential funding sources, approaches and needs. From this review, the briefing identifies knowledge gaps and potential research directions for consideration by the TAC Transportation Finance Committee and other committees and councils to address these gaps.
I think that Apple’s Podcasts app is great for anyone new to podcasts, given it has a strong focus on discovering new shows. I’m looking for a podcast app that simply plays my carefully curated, short list of podcasts. With Apple Podcasts, I kept finding new episodes of shows I didn’t intend to subscribe to in my queue.
Adding in the nice audio features in Overcast that boosts voices and trims silences, makes Overcast the right app for me.
![The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]](https://cdn.micro.blog/photos/300x/https%3A%2F%2Fbooks.google.com%2Fbooks%2Fcontent%3Fid%3DrffwDwAAQBAJ%26printsec%3Dfrontcover%26img%3D1%26zoom%3D5%26source%3Dgbs_api)
