The best part about books this year was discovering Octavia Butler. But the most important book I read was definitely Hillbilly Elegy. ________ Aurora – Kim Stanley Robinson – Jan 2, 2016 Dawn – Octavia E. Butler – Jan 26, 2016 Her Smoke Rose Up Forever – James Tiptree, Jr. – Mar 20, 2016 Matter…

Books listed with date of completion. This was a year with a massive change in reading style. I only read 10 books in 2014, not including texts skimmed for the sake of picking up something for my PhD. All my spare time was saddled with PhD obligations, and spare time outside that I really did…

All my income is in the States, and all my student debt is in Canada, so I’ll be regularly be transferring pretty hefty sums of money to Canada for probably the next decade. The support for this is pretty terrible. While money transfer within countries seems very easy, as soon as you cross a border,…

Tejo is a sport played in Colombia. It’s like curling, except you throw the weights like 60 feet instead of sliding them on the ground. The target is like a sandbox, except it’s filled with clay, and tilted on its side. Inside it, are explosives; little pink triangular envelopes filled with paper. These make very…

Yes I am not real https://t.co/HK33uFG6SG — mikeseymour (@mikeseymour) March 18, 2015 Putting on academic tweed jacket, sandals and socks… In 1936, German cultural critic Walter Benjamin wrote an essay entitled The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (entire text translated here). This post is an updated, and more specific view on…

This represents the phone/DSL box of the 10 units in my building. Each cable has a business card of a different technician attached to it; implying that if you’re making a change, you’re supposed to CALL ME FIRST. So, if you want to make any electrical change, you have to get, like, a half-dozen people…

I was at my cottage this weekend hanging out with a few younger male relatives and their friends. At one point, one of them jokingly said that I, with my beard and square-framed black glasses and plaid shirt, “kind of looked like a hipster”. They didn’t know that I lived right next to Queen Street…

Once I moved to my semi-permanent apartment flat on Sleaford Street, the bike each day to Microsoft Research Cambridge was about 20 minutes. There was lots about the unique -ness of Cambridge I wanted to capture, so I got a hold of a helmet-mounted camera, and started recording it. The video shows four rides over…

I’ve arrived in Nice, France and I’m just getting my shit together before I head out for the night. So, I’ve discovering couchsurfing, and it’s awesome. If you’ve traveled and you’ve never used couch surfing before, you’re an idiot. I’ve seen more of the places I’ve been, I’ve stayed in proper houses instead of in…