Canada Day is tomorrow (July 1), in case you celebrate. My calendar says it is also Memorial Day in Newfoundland, but I don’t know the significance of that. Some Chinese Canadians call it is Humiliation Day, referring to when the Head Tax was first implemented.
Incidentally, If you notice any accidental double ds, it is because my beautiful ergonomic keyboard has been acting up lately.
Monday
Bridgerton is a soap opera about rich people from olden times in a parallel universe, where people of colour are treated as equals, but women still have to find ways to outsmart the patriarchy. I find it funny to think that under all the fancy clothes and convoluted etiquette, they are just a bunch of horny animals.
Tuesday
Lately, my Facebook feed has been filled with clips from Game of Thrones. Even though I read the books before watching the first part of the show, once they ran out of source material, I was surprised by how some things turned out. A lot of people were not happy with the ending, but I think it made sense, given the characters as the story established them. And now I know all their fates, so interpret the clips differently now.
Wednesday
I had not really been thinking about going anywhere, but my spouse found this fall tour to Japan with the UBC Alumni group which looks interesting. My spouse has never been to Japan and I have not been since I did my Master’s degree in marine ecology a few emperors ago, when it was a different place and I was a different person. Do you have any tips for travelling in Japan?
Thursday
I have been freelancing for about twenty years now. Though I don’t make much money, I enjoy the variety of things I have been involved with. I enjoyed the social ecosystem of the places where I worked, but I don’t mind missing all the unnecessary meetings.
Friday
The problem with natural selection as a mechanism for evolution is that it does not plan ahead. Or maybe this is actually a negative feedback loop in which we become the agents for adjusting our impacts on the environment. I am just looking for excuses for my bad decisions.
Saturday
I was not familiar with the manga or the anime, but found Golden Kamuy entertaining, though I didn’t know it was just the first part of what seems to be a longer story to at least find out what a Golden Kamuy is. This scene was not a main part of the story, but I thought it was funny. I should warn you that you might find it gross how the plot involves tattoos on the bodies of multiple criminals as a map to finding a big stash of gold. Not that the tattoos are gross, but they do not always remained attached to the bodies.
Sunday
This mess is supposed to be our raspberry bush. It is a complicated. This year it seems to be bearing fruit earlier than in the past. I don’t know how much to read into that. If you like raspberries, let me know, so I can gloat about our crop.
So that was my week. I hope you had a good one, with a better one to come.
Oh your first trip to Japan in 35 years! Great! I found a UBC alumni group travel page starting in Fukuoka and ending in Kyoto, is that the one you’re thinking of joining? it all depends on your flight arrangements but I guess before you join the group in Fukuoka you could visit Nagasaki and Kumamoto and your old school area. The glover house on the hill in Nagasaki harbor, the setting for madame butterfly, is quite nice with a nice view. Going up Mount Aso is terrific though it was closed or still maybe is closed because of some volcanic activity there.
after you finish in Kyoto it’s well worth going to see the great Buddha in Nara and you could go up Mount Koya, the huge cemetery among the cedars trees is quite amazing. A short visit to Osaka might be interesting, walk around Dotonbori though it’s really full of “inbound“ i.e. foreign tourists, and maybe go up the Harukas tower for the view. You’re welcome to visit me in my apartment near JR Amagasaki!
I don’t know if you’re interested in visiting Tokyo or near Mt. Fuji or Nikko. The sky tree in Tokyo is terrific!
I like your raspberry art & yes, I like raspberries too! I have to buy mine from the store. So go ahead & gloat! 😆