There are some lessons which, if you don’t learn them at the usual time, you probably never learn them. Swimming. Riding a bike. Driving a car1. And yet, as a grown adult, I’m finally learning to drive.
Two years ago, I finally got my G1 license (or learner’s permit). The plan was to get the full license during the following summer, but I took a trip to Germany and got turned off the idea of driving. Well, when Meg’s inner ear stuff happened, we went from one driver to zero drivers in the house. It sucked. To put it lightly, I am now highly motivated to learn to drive. So, I’ve been driving as often as possible with Megan’s supervision and both kids.
This week, I had a visit from my cousin, Bram Adey, a tattoo artist and owner of Ritual. It was amazing to connect with a family member. We don’t remember ever meeting before in person. If we had, I probably would have been (at most) three years old2. We caught up about life, went to the community garden, and enjoyed a Sunday evening roti dinner. Very rad! Now, I’m thinking of various ways and reasons to get out to Winnipeg for a visit.
I’ve got on-going shoulder issues.
A few years ago, I talked to a chiropractor and the physio that I got from that consultation really helped.
Work has a new initiative where chiropractors come and visit us via Well@Work.
So, I’ve signed up for a twelve week course of treatment.
Nevermind, we can’t have nice things3.
I am slowly and methodically plugging away at edits for my piece Jayne in Brief. After narrowing the scope, hugely, and leaving out tonnes of research, I see that the end is in sight. It is at the “print physical copies and manually edit the paper over coffee” stage of production.
I keep meaning to write something about Seminar, but never quite get around to it. I’m not sure what kind of publication I want from it. An education piece? A teaching reflection? A manifesto?
The Seminar page hasn’t been updated since Summer 2023 when Mabel was born. It has transitioned in to something much more informal and casual, and I’m really happy with the transition. I want to write about the casual laid back atmosphere of Seminar and how it provides a sort of academic “third place”. Grabbing a quote from Wikipedia:
Open and inviting. You don’t need an invitation or appointment, and you can come and go as you please.
Comfortable and informal. You feel that you belong there.
Convenient. It’s close enough to visit often, ideally right in your own neighborhood.
Unpretentious. Everyone is on the same level, there’s nothing fancy or fragile, and it’s not expensive.
There are regulars. And often there’s a host who greets people as they arrive.
Conversation is the main activity. Discussion, debate, and gossip are part of the mix.
Laughter is frequent. The mood is light-hearted and playful. Joking and witty banter are encouraged.
Yup! That’s exactly what Seminar does.
A little while back, I added a link to the Wayback Machine to the Recently Modified section of the home page. This got me exploring the history of my webpage as it has evolved since 2016. I had totally forgotten about the middle period around 2018. That website layout was visually engaging and elegant.
emmet-vim and we hacked this together.
In my office, I have a heap of papers called The Mound. For years, I felt a little guilty about its very existence. As far as possible, I tried to keep this stack of papers small. I would clean it up once a semester or so and feel like an absolute slob. This week, I just accepted that The Mound is a necessary part of my “workflow”. It serves some kind of purpose. Now, it has a name. I bring all of this up while thinking about my website history because I got an e-mail from joelchrono this week. He wrote:
Your website overall is a bit of a labryrinth (again, in the best of ways) I got lost on it for quite a bit and enjoyed exploring it.
Of all the designs this site has had, the current design is the most labryrinthine or Mound-like. And I’m totally fine with that state of affairs.
Along those lines at some urging from John Tukey and others, I finally adopted what I called “Great Thoughts Time.” When I went to lunch Friday noon, I would only discuss great thoughts after that. By great thoughts I mean ones like: “What will be the role of computers in all of AT&T?”, “How will computers change science?”
As I write this, I am realizing that all of these lessons are about transportation. A couple other things come to mind: whistling, snapping your fingers, or using a lighter. ↩︎
This is the sort of memory thing that I have to check with my mom. “Did I ever meet cousin so-and-so?” I have some fairly strong memories of Bram’s father, Greg, visiting us when he was undergoing brain cancer treatments in London, ON, my home town. I would have been eight-ish during those visits. ↩︎
Someone complained to the president of the univeristy (!) about our in-department chiropractors. It seems like the program is cancelled. ↩︎
Published: Oct 10, 2025 @ 12:00.
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