Tuesday, October 21, 2025

Featured Links - October 21, 2025

Things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about. 


Monday, October 20, 2025

Bluesky PSA

If you are on Bluesky, you may want to have a look at this blocklist. On Friday the Trump regime tried to spam Bluesky by setting up a whole bunch of accounts and then posting the usual odious crap. Fortunately, Bluesky makes it easy to block accounts and even easier with blocklists, which require only a couple of clicks to block the whole list. Here's one you can try.


Sunday, October 19, 2025

Photo of the Week - October 19, 2025

This week's photo is another of the world's longest pedestrian-only bridge, in Pickering, over Highway 401 and the rail corridor. I edited this with Google's Magic Eraser tool to remove a black box sitting on the floor beside the window. As far as I can tell, it worked perfectly. The original photo is also below.

I took the photo with my Pixel 8 Pro and edited it on the phone. So far, the AI tools haven't made it to the desktop version of Google Photos, perhaps because I'm in Canada. 

The Pickering pedestrian bridge (edited)


The Pickering pedestrian bridge (original)



Saturday, October 18, 2025

Saturday Sounds - Chicago Jazz Philharmonic - Havana Blue (Live)

For this week's musical treat, we're back to jazz with a lovely album by a group with the unwieldly name of Orbert Davis' Chicago Jazz Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble. This is another find from SiriusXM; I was struck by the song "Sabor" and had to find more by the group. There isn't much, two albums: Havana Blue (Live) which contains "Sabor" and The Chicago River, which is a tribute to, you guessed it,  The Chicago River. Of the two, I prefer Havana Blue (Live). 

As you might guess from the group's name and the album's title, this big band orchestral jazz with a Latin flavour. It's quite lovely and is now on my Spotify jazz playlist. 


Tuesday, October 14, 2025

Featured Links - October 14, 2025

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about.

Lake Ontario with a rocky shore and grey waves glinting in a patch of sunlight
A grey Lake Ontario

Saturday, October 11, 2025

Off for t he Thanksgiving Weekend

It's Thanksgiving weekend up here in the (soon to be) Great White North. We celebrate earlier than our US cousins because our growing season is shorter and harvest earlier. So I'm taking the weekend off to do things like getting the garden ready to plant garlic, cooking a big dinner for the family, and watching the Blue Jays in the ALCS. I''ll be back on Tuesday. 

A part of a garden dug up and turned over but not yet ready for planting
Future home of next year's garlic crop


Friday, October 10, 2025

We're Toast 63

This post is a collection of links that support my increasingly strong feeling that the human race (or at least our technological civilization) is doomed. 

A small, old graveyard
Our future





Tuesday, October 07, 2025

Photo of the Week - October 5, 2025

This week's photo is of Highway 401 facing east taken from the Liverpool Road overpass. The bridge in the background to the GO station happens to be the longest pedestrian bridge in the world, according to Guinness. There was very little traffic, even for a mid-week afternoon, on one of the busiest highways in North America. Taken with my Pixel 8 Pro. 

Highway 401 looking east showing the pedestrian bridge over the highway to the GO station  on the right
Highway 401 and the Pickering pedestrian bridge

Monday, October 06, 2025

Featured Links - October 6, 2025

Links to things I found interesting but didn't want to do a full blog post about. I didn't post last week, so here's a baker's dozen for you. 

GO Train tracks looking east from the Pickering GO Station
GO Train tracks out of Pickering

Saturday, October 04, 2025

Saturday Sounds - Stevie Ray Vaughn - Live at the Capitol Theatre - October 4, 1985

This week's musical treat features Stevie Ray Vaughn playing at the Capitol Theatre in Passaic, NJ on October 4, 1985. I saw Vaughn in the summer of 1985 when he opened for Dire Straits in Toronto. I wasn't a big fan before seeing him play, but I was when I left the concert. There isn't a lot of quality footage of his concerts, so this is a treat. Video and sound quality are first rate.

 

Wednesday, October 01, 2025

Movie and TV Reviews - September 2025

Movies and TV shows that Nancy and I watched in September. I do these posts mainly so I can keep track of what we've been watching, so the reviews are cursory. Now that it's baseball season, there will probably be fewer items here.

Movies

No movies this month. We were watching too much baseball.

TV Shows

  • Countdown: Another slick and expensive-looking thriller from Prime. It would have been better if they simplified the plot a bit and cut it back from thirteen to six or eight episodes. And toned down the American jingoism which really got on my nerves. (Amazon Prime)
  • Foundation (season 3): I didn't much enjoy the first two seasons of Foundation, though it had some interesting ideas (not all of which were from Asimov's stories). The third season is quite good though I could have done without silly bits like the speeder chase in the one of the early episodes. Visually, it's absolutely first rate. Coupled with Apple's streaming quality, it's occasionally stunning. (Apple TV+)
  • Ballard: A Bosch spinoff about a detective trying to solve cold cases who discovers police corruption. One of the better US police procedurals. (Amazon Prime)
  • Alien: Earth. This is probably the best of the Alien stories since the first two movies. They've expanded the story and developed the background elements while maintaining the original 1980s (almost) steampunk aesthetic. It's very dark, both visually and thematically, and the fast-cut action sequences are hard to watch, but overall it's very well done. Like the original movie, it's not for the squeamish. (Disney+)
  • Lynley: This is a reboot of Inspector Lynley, a British police procedural about two mismatched detectives that we watched a few years ago. We liked the original and we like the new version. (BritBox)