Desmond Rivet - Lifestream

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I made another book nook!

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Yet again, my annual Christmas tree snap

Implementing a Reading List in Org Mode

I joined Goodreads in 2012, at roughly the same time I joined Twitter, in what might be called a more innocent age of social networking. The idea of a social network for book readers appealed to me at the time. Fast forward to 2025, and the world looks different. Twitter/X has turned into a hellscape run by a super villain, and Goodreads, though not quite a hellscape, is slow, dated and run by a…

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"The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power. Not wealth or luxury or long life or happiness: only power, pure power"

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There is something to be said about the connection between ChatGPT, John Searle's Chinese Room thought experiment and Dan Dennett's response to it, but I'm not totally clear what that would be. I'm leaning towards Dan Dennet being wrong, though.

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It's that time of the year in Montreal, when you have to alternate between wearing your winter coat and spring jacket several times in the same week.

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If I have learned anything from the Trump tariffs imposed yesterday it's that we've obviously all been underestimating penguins. Sneaky little devils.

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I saw my first cyber truck the other night, "in the flesh" so to speak, and I was unprepared for the level of revulsion I would feel.

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I have downloaded an app called "Buy Beaver" and I can't believe it's come to this

It's Not Nostalgia, Exactly

I have spent most of my life in Montreal but there was a decent sized chunk in the middle, spanning high school and university, when I lived in Toronto. I still visit Toronto not infrequently. I have a soft spot for it; at the very least, I don't harbour quite the same level visceral hatred a lot of people seem to lob at the city. But I haven't lived there for over 20 years. Obviously, a lot has…

I Never Considered Myself Naive

I never thought that the law applied equally to rich people and poor people. I never considered myself that naive. I had always understood that rich people could break the law in ways that poor people simply couldn't. But I had always assumed that the way this worked in practice was that being rich just came with a heightened ability to cover your tracks. I had always assumed that, rich or poor,…

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Annual Christmas tree snap

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This is the year for tech upgrades, I guess. New tiny computer, new customizable keyboard and new smaller external storage. 4 photos

Anatomy of a Post

My blog is based around Eleventy, which means I write my entries in plain text, using Markdown and YAML front matter, a combo which I'm sure is familiar to most users of static site generators. I also participate in the IndieWeb, which means I post many different kinds of content other than your standard blog posts - notes, likes, photos, etc. I find it useful to divide my content in two main…

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First real snow fall of the year. Boot weather is here!

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I can't be the only one who often catches himself saying "When I graduate" when I mean to say "When I retire", right?

Madrid Is the Toronto of Spain, and That's Okay

Madrid marked the end of our trip to Spain. Our plane home flew out of there and so we decided to spend the evening before exploring what we could of the city. We boarded a train from Seville and arrived at our hotel around 4pm that day. I would argue Madrid is the Toronto of Spain from the point of view of visiting Canadians because, like Toronto, it's the largest city in the country as well as…

A Distinct Lack of Barbers

I'm 47 years old, and most of the people I work with are much younger than I am - often in their 20's and 30's. Cultural references that I think are universal sometimes turn out to be pretty specific to my age group in ways that surprise me. Take something like Bugs Bunny. Most people, young and old, have of course heard of Bugs Bunny but it turns out that not a lot of young people grew up…

Looking for Paella in All the Wrong Places

The COVID-19 pandemic put a cramp in my travel habits, as it did with everyone. The last overseas trip that Evelyn and I went on was to Poland in 2016 for a wedding and the last one that we actually planned was to Greece in 2015 (and, my God, it's hard for me to accept that Greece 9 years ago ). We've been to a handful of relatively local destinations in the interim (Vancouver, New York, PEI) but…

Spain (September 2024)

Evelyn and I took a 10 day trip to Spain in September 2024. 11 albums

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Barcelona: Noisy, gritty, vibrant. Surprisingly many vermouterias. Seville: Beautiful, charming, fun. Surprisingly few barbers.

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There is a glut of vermouterias in Barcelona, many of them with their own house blends and...I kind of love it?

Yes, I Know That Chai Means Tea

Yes, I know that the word "chai" literally just means "tea" in Hindi (and other languages) and that the term "chai tea" is therefore technically redundant. I don't care. I will still occasionally say "chai tea" and I don't feel like I'm committing some kind of linguistic sin by doing so. The English translation of "chai" is, of course, "tea" and it refers to a very generic category of usually hot…

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I mean...not quite everyone is welcome, right? Man, solicitors get no respect!