Hard week, good weekend—snow’s coming

Whew, hi! After a very busy week with some serious ups and downs, it’s been a good weekend, including:

• Woke up early (naturally!) and spent a few hours sharpening tools. (Slowly learning what to focus on and care about when sharpening—and worrying less.)
• Visited the Lansdowne Christmas market with S and V’s visiting parents, then had dinner together afterward, with many delightful attempts at discussion between their Spanish and my Italian. (T also got to build a flower out of LEGO which was awesome.)
• Did responsible stuff like cleaning appliances, draining the outdoor water line, and buying a bunch of meat on sale.
• Bought books at Perfect Books: Menewood, by Nicola Griffith (the sequel to Hild, one of my favourite books read this year); The World-Ending Fire: The Essential Wendell Berry (next is to get more of his fiction); and Seeing Like a State, by the late James C. Scott (one of those classics I’ve read a lot about but have never read in its entirety—looking forward to correcting that!).

Still not reading as much online, which I’m okay with. But, some good ones:

• It’s a bit surreal to read about the extreme weather happening across the continent compared to the relative mildness of our week here in Ottawa.
• “Pi plays Pokémon” finally catches a Pokémon after more than 80 million digits. (via Andy Baio) First, cool concept in general. Second, love the enthusiasm in the livestream chat you see onscreen.
• Be careful in ascribing too much meaning to metrics that measure things you don’t control (or can’t control consistently).
• Who knew that lions and other big cats climb trees? (via Jason Kottke) We showed this to Arthur the other night, but as a fellow orange cat he seemed unfazed. “Duh, of course we can all climb trees, now just let me outside and I’ll prove it!”
• Thoughtful write-up by Gabe about why and how Civic Tech Toronto is moving away from Meetup.
• While woodworking has opened my eyes to how wooden things are made, it’s also deepened my appreciation for what feels (to me) like the comparatively dark arts of metalworking—even though it involves many of the same tools and techniques as woodworking. So I particularly appreciated this simple walkthrough of modifying a screw using metal/woodworking tools.
• This sleuthing for a buried public toilet is a good example of a multi-source historical search, including aerial, news, and archival photos, and modern-day GIS of city utility lines (!). (thanks Dad!)

It seems snow’s in the forecast—at least it’ll match the lack of leaves and general slowing down of the season. All the best for the week ahead!