Finished reading: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is very well done. Really fleshes out the Achilles myth and brings Greek heros and gods to life 📚
Microposts
George had a busy day
🔗 Why the Online Harms Act is the Wrong Way to Regulate AI Chatbots - Michael Geist
Applying the Online Harms Act to AI chatbot conversations now risks reopening the very issues policymakers previously sought to avoid. In fact, it is difficult to see the difference between something posted to an AI chatbot or similar content entered into a search query or included in text message or email correspondence. If proactive monitoring of searches, emails or texts is subject to privacy safeguards, so too should be AI chatbot engagement.
I’m all for smart regulation of AI, but agree that this isn’t the way to go.
Vereda Central. 📍
☕️ Tried a new (to me) coffee shop nearby: Vereda Central. Good coffee!
Great advice from Greg Morris in Noticing, Not Performing
Noticing your life doesn’t require depth. It requires attention.
Once I stopped trying to use my journal as a memoir and just captured daily thoughts, feelings, and happenings, my journal became useful and enjoyable.
🔗 Boredom Is the Price We Pay for Meaning - The Atlantic
But boredom needn’t be destructive. The discomfort of boredom, even the anguish of it, can spur us into flights of imagination, resourcefulness, and invention. It can prod us to seek more absorbing circumstances: a career more aligned with our interests, a partner more aligned with our needs, a livelier town, better hobbies, new forms of beauty and inspiration.
Boredom is the price we pay for a life rich with meaning. Recognizing this makes the feeling more endurable.
Even though my meditation practice helps with this, boredom is still tough to embrace. My best strategy so far is to generally leave my phone by the door, rather than always carry it around. Then, those moments when I’m tempted to pull out my phone for a distraction, can’t be avoided.
🎵 Song of the week for my daughter — Don’t Swallow the Cap by The National from Trouble Will Find Me. Likely my favourite song from them.
Losing Everything (feat. Anaïs Mitchell) by Donovan Woods from Squander Your Gifts is a highlight of a great new EP 🎵
I’m looking forward to this season of For All Mankind 🚀
Thanks to my colleague for this nice card
🎵 Song of the week for my daughter: With or Without You by U2 from The Joshua Tree. Kind of ridiculous to pick a single U2 song, but I chose this one.
Finished reading: I really enjoyed The Bees by Laline Paull. Such an imaginative story about a bee hive 📚
🏃♂️ Winter was back for today’s run
🚴 Worldwide by Snõõper got me through some tough intervals on today’s ride 🎵
The office dishwasher broke and my colleagues have reverted to university dorm habits. Eventually someone will have to wash these
🏊♂️ 10 weeks since my last swim. This might be tough.
Although I am feeling better after a couple of weeks of being slightly off, this seems a bit too enthusiastic for me
Wednesday, February 18, 2026 →
⛑️ Recertified my first aid today. Although I’ve never handled more than a small cut over a few decades with first aid, I feel better knowing I’m at least partly ready if something goes wrong. A good reminder of how fragile we are and how just a small amount of training can make a big difference
Finished reading: Mavericks by Peter C. Newman is a fun collection of vignettes of infamous Canadians throughout history 📚
🎵 Song of the week for my daughter: Possession by Sarah McLachlan from Fumbling Towards Ecstasy
Fresh supplies
A nice video from Becca Farsace about leaving home without your phone.
The portable tape player was especially nostalgic. Reminded me of my bright yellow Sony Walkman. I used to make mix tapes by recording songs from the radio. Took great patience and precision. Hovering over the pause button, waiting for your favourite song, and hoping that the DJ wouldn’t talk over it.
My version of leaving without my phone is taking only my Apple Watch. Far fewer distractions, but I still have music, messages, maps, wallet, and notes. The main missing piece is photos, which was an emphasis in Becca’s video.
🚴♂️ Getting back into a routine with today’s ride
Finished reading: In Lament for a Literature: The Collapse of Canadian Book Publishing, Richard Stursberg gives a stark review of the collapse of Canada’s book industry. Tough to maintain a culture without a literature and ongoing national conversation. Fortunately he includes recommendations for how to fix it 📚
Colleague brought in a large box of delicious doughnuts and were having a Chinese Lunar New Year team lunch. I can do this!
Wednesday, February 11, 2026 →
Uh oh, I seem to be immune to caffeine this morning. This better be temporary 😴
Wednesday, February 11, 2026 →
Boilermaker by Royal Blood from Typhoons helped me finish off a too early Zwift ride 🎵
Etobicoke Olympium. 📍
🏊♂️ Spending the day at regionals with kid #2
Finished reading: The Dollar A Year Men by Allan Levine is an impressive reminder of what Canada was once able to accomplish by connecting government with industry. I like to believe that something like this is possible again, though it seems much harder now and required an existential war then 📚
🎵 Song of the week for my daughter: Weighty Ghost by Wintersleep from Welcome to the Night Sky. We listened to this one a lot when she was little.