A Blog
The City of Vancouver is working on a Villages Planning Program. A public hearing is scheduled for tomorrow, July 14, 2026.According to their timeline, I am a bit late, as they have been collecting feedback since Fall 2024. But here is my submission: Thank you for the opportunity to submit feedback on the Villages Plan. […]
I realised recently that I embarked on my journey to learn playing the trumpet a decade ago in September 2013. At the time, it was a very spontaneous idea, and I had no idea how hard it would be on the one hand, and how much I enjoy playing and learning the instrument. For the […]
I have started to learn playing scales on the trumpet. Mostly because it should be helpful for playing faster runs, and also for improvising. When I play from scores with the usual presentation of scales, I find it difficult from time to time to make out whether the following note is sharp or flat. This […]
You are most likely familiar with wikipedia (wikipedia.org) “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.” In many ways it is an amazing service, and I often find it useful. Some aspects of it are amusing, and here I am writing about one of them. And that is the inclusion of superlatives and world-best about the […]
I was asked yesterday, why do they teach the multiplication tables in school. Wasn’t sure whether this was common knowledge, but here’s how it goes. Once you know how to multiply the numbers from 1 to 9 with each other, you can multiply basically any two numbers by hand; doesn’t matter how many digits they […]
After a long time, we replaced our toilet last week. The old one didn’t work well for years and years! We found these two videos helpful, showing in detail how to remove a toilet, replace the wax ring, and then, install the new one. The second video also comes with written instructions. The videos made it […]
I came across a more or less generic interview with Jeff Bezos, the founder of “amazon,” a few days ago. It took place in May this year; they chat about management questions, how to run a business, this and that, etc. But at one point he uses the I-words: impossible and inconceivable. It is impossible for me to […]
As far as I can tell alcoholism is quite a terrible disease. I think I am ok, but I used to be addicted to smoking. I stopped smoking two and a half years ago. I’m glad to not be addicted anymore. But recently I came across a treatment for alcohol addiction. I found it compelling, so […]
Came up with a new kind of word search. Thing is it turns out a bit differently when your alphabet is only one letter. We’ll require that words cannot overlap. So I’ll show you a few examples, beginning with easy, and going to very difficult. We’ll use the letter A — first one that comes […]
Wanted to do a little test for the Soundcloud player (in a WordPress blog). Here’s a tune I put together 4 years ago. I had made an earlier version where it says, the piece is: based on the essay “On Copying and Owning” by Chris Drost at drostie.org/on_copying.html. With sounds from LMMS and beat similar […]