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  • I Really Tried My Best.

    I Really Tried My Best.

    My favourite day of the whole summer. I did.  I absolutely gave it the old SFU try.  I documented it in this blog post, where I managed to somehow pull myself up and out of the summertime blues–blues?  More like suicidal despair–and do my damndest to embrace it.  Morning Seawall walks!  Amusing public art!  Meditations! …

  • I’m Writing!

    I’m Writing!

    It’s like my brain has been completely broiled by the worst season of them all.   …but the only reason I can actually sit down and type something out today is because I actually woke up to some cool, cloudy weather after being slowly roasted to death over the last several days, and so I am…

  • Bitchin’ and Beachin’: A Canada Day Harangue

    Bitchin’ and Beachin’: A Canada Day Harangue

    This Canada flag kinds of says it all about my country: a bit screwed up for now, but eventually it’ll unfold back into admirable functionality. It’s my second annual Canada Day blog entry, and I have to say, the overall energy this year is shockingly different from last year, when everyone felt pretty defeated and…

  • Update and Epiphany: I hate being on camera, so what was I thinking?

    Update and Epiphany: I hate being on camera, so what was I thinking?

    Even as a tot–and a very cute one–you can see how enthused I was to be dressed up and have my picture taken. Did I actually think I was going to voluntarily put myself on YouTube? I did.  And it was one of the more preposterous ideas I’ve ever had.  And that’s a mouthful coming…

  • I Am The Cosmos

    I Am The Cosmos

    I’ve been tackling my (first) book with enthusiasm, and it’s been pretty astonishing how readily the stories and experiences have been rushing back to me, all of them in a helpfully linear fashion.  I have duffel bags and duffel bags containing years and years of journals (“diaries” just sounds so juvenile) to aid me in…

  • “Giving Tuesday”: A report from the field

    “Giving Tuesday”: A report from the field

    That’s the face I wore in Vancouver on Giving Tuesday. It was like hanging a Renoir in a Dadaist museum. Also, I’m not sure what Samsung filter is making my forehead look so enormous, but I’m determined to find it. One of the most satisfying things about having some of my writing online is being…

  • The Bastardly Broth of the West End

    The Bastardly Broth of the West End

    I don’t ask for much in this world.   I really don’t.  I’m accustomed to living on very little money, so pricey material possessions have never factored into my life.  I’ve known how it feels to completely bottom out on alcohol abuse–right down to having the shakes so badly, I rummage through my bag of empties…

  • The Highly-Paid Hole Standers of Vancouver [UPDATED WITH NEW LUDICROUSNESS!]

    The Highly-Paid Hole Standers of Vancouver [UPDATED WITH NEW LUDICROUSNESS!]

    (Earnest crow-eating as an introduction:) Look. You need to know what is happening in Vancouver, and pretty much every city, town, village, and community in Canada. This country has cratered and collapsed all the way to the molten core of the globe we call Earth; Canadian citizens are howlingly conflict-averse and unflinchingly passive; and there…

  • The Great Grime of Granville Strip [UPDATED ONE DAY LATER…]

    The Great Grime of Granville Strip [UPDATED ONE DAY LATER…]

    I’ve been immersing myself in all sorts of things Vancouver-related, largely because I’m stuck here.  I know, I know: there are worse places to be stuck, and no matter the myriad challenges that life can throw at you (my second cousin, a Saskatchewan boy and therefore one of the most down-to-earth people I know, listened…

  • The Ongoing Ennui of Davie Village.

    The Ongoing Ennui of Davie Village.

    The West End of Vancouver isn’t huge at all.  It’s a neighbourhood consisting of a handful of blocks in a grid, the furthest area west of downtown you can go, mere steps from English Bay and Stanley Park.  It is not to be confused with West Vancouver or the West Side of Vancouver, which I…