Why am I bookmarking everything that I read online?
I’ve decided to stop archiving all my online reading and focusing on capturing meaningful content.
🎶 What the kids are listening to
Hearing my kids' music, now that they can drive, reveals they have good taste
Harmonizing my heart rate zones ❤️🔥
Using a portfolio of fitness apps can lead to inconsistencies in heart rate zones, so one solution is to standardize them based on a preferred app’s method for more precise workout intensity tracking.
🏃♂️ Snowshoes would have helped with parts of today’s run. My Arc’teryx kept my feet warm, but extra effort for a relatively slow pace
Willibald Farm Distillery & Brewery. 📍
Delicious lunch at Willibald Farms. I recommend the When Pigs Fly stout and BLT.
🏊♂️🚴🏃♂️ Filling in the 2026 race calendar by adding in the Guelph Lake Olympic-distance triathlon
Annual polar bear swim
In what is now an annual tradition, my son and I went for a polar bear swim in Lake Ontario. We usually go on January 1st, but yesterday was -20°C which seemed almost dangerous. “Only” -10°C today so much more reasonable 🥶. I’m often asked why I would do such a strange thing. Part of it is for the tradition and challenge. The more thoughtful reason is symbolic. The bracing cold, excitement of running into the lake and back, and bonding with my son feels like a great way to shake off last year’s residual complacency and start the New Year with an adventure.
My first day back at work and the internet went down. Maybe I should take the hint?
Year in books for 2025
2025 was another great year for reading, even if only to get away from mindless scrolling on my phone. My favourite non-fiction book was Waves in an Impossible Sea by Matt Strassler and fiction was Shroud by Adrian Tchaikovsky. Those are narrow favourites though. I could have happily picked other books from the list. No major changes planned for 2026. Maybe just some more targeted books on Canada, given the state of my nation and the rest of the world.
📚 Thanks to my family for a great set of books for Christmas this year.
Finished reading: Breaking Point by Darrell Bricker and John Ibbitson provides a very clear description of Canada’s challenges. Thankfully it also provides good ideas on how to fix them. Pairs well with Andrew Coyne’s recent book, though they disagree on electoral reform. Although daunting, I’m optimistic that this is an exciting time for Canada’s rejuvenation 🍁📚
🔗 The Telemetry - by Angus Hervey - Fix The News
This gap, between the world as it is and how we’re told to see it, comes down to a choice about what we do with our attention. Mission control doesn’t ignore danger. It’s acknowledged, monitored, taken seriously. But knowing which emergencies require immediate action means you need to watch all the instruments, not just the alarms. That’s the difference between panic and an effective response.
An important reminder about the sensationalization of news
Finished reading: The Random Universe by Andrew H. Jaffe is an interesting exploration of probability and models in physics and cosmology. I also appreciated the historical context that showed how the models developed 📚
🏃♂️ Burning off some Christmas cheer on today’s run
Finished reading: As a Canadian public servant, I’m not the target market for Scaling People by Claire Hughes Johnson. Nonetheless, I found the sections on managing teams and navigating conflict useful 📚
12 Days of Winter Wonder Photo Challenge - Day 12: Home
❄️ 12 Days of Winter Wonder Photo Challenge - Day 11: Feast
🎄Merry Christmas!
❄️ 12 Days of Winter Wonder Photo Challenge - Day 10: Travel
🎶 II by Voices from the Lake is good for getting focused
