The Writing Life of a Tadpole

Today I choose to reboot my to-do list (TIC00056f)

September 21 2020

If you’ve read my blog more than once, you probably tripped over posts of mine about goals. Including the goal of TODAY I CHOOSE, which is about making conscious choices each day and recognizing the effort of doing so rather than simply drifting along.

All the way back to the late 1990s, I’ve been anal about goal-setting, tracking, performance, making progress, etc. I’ve worked my way through Harvard Daytimers, personally-designed schedulers and to-do lists, bullet journals. I have tried dozens of electronic tools for tracking tasks, from the best one ever (Palm Pilot Task Manager) to some pretty awful ones (hello? Microsoft?). Ones that will synch with my phones, ones that will synch with Andrea’s phone, ones that are shareable across firewalls.

Over the last 6-7 years, I have been using online calendars that are shared with Andrea, a phone app like TickTick to keep track of grocery lists, and a three-column layout in MS Word for my master to-do list. » Read the rest

Today I choose deer and wolves and bears, oh my (TIC00055f)

September 20 2020

We have been planning an outing for several weeks now to Parc Omega on the Quebec side, near Montebello, about an hour from Ottawa. We postponed it one week when the weather wasn’t cooperating, another time when we weren’t feeling well. And generally had delayed committing to it for most of the summer while we waited for some of the COVID protocols to iron themselves out.

I saw some friends on FB had gone in the interim, and it seemed like everything was working. So we went for 10:00 a.m. this morning, and although we had a lot of trouble getting Jacob going this morning (he is complaining a lot recently of not feeling well in the morning, sigh), we made it in time for our pre-booked slot. We had also stocked up on carrots from the local supermarket so that we wouldn’t have to go through any lines while we were there, but since they only had organic carrots at the store, we probably didn’t save anything on the pre-purchase. » Read the rest

Today I choose to celebrate a milestone (TIC00054f)

September 19 2020

If you’ve been reading this blog, you probably already know that Jacob was not really enjoying school that much last winter. French immersion, social isolation, a split class with a bunch of Grade 6 kids, winter…he wasn’t feeling it. So he was resisting big time in January and February, on top of the strikes that were going on.

The shutdown was like a dream come true for him. No commuting, less work, a new laptop to do everything on, no need to argue about recess activities, better lunch options. His teachers adapted and coped with what they had to work with, but there wasn’t a lot of support out there for them. The end of the year was a “thank god it’s over”-type moment.

Normally we celebrate first day of school and last day of school milestones. For the first day, Andrea takes pictures either at the bus stop or the front of the house; for the last day, we always leave early from work, go do something and then out for dinner wherever he wants. » Read the rest

Today I choose to figure out my TV reviews (TIC00053f)

September 18 2020

I headed out of town for a few days, and while I had planned to keep blogging while I was away, I didn’t have a good internet connection on my laptop. This is starting to annoy me a bit…several times I’ve been hoping to write something, or work on a project, and my laptop is just struggling to do anything with the internet. I have a good tablet, I have a good phone, but I need to figure out a different option for online access where I need to be typing stuff. I was offline essentially for 5 days, so I figured I might as well drop the TIC series, it was just too hard to write.

And yet it wasn’t just about the writing. I was also struggling in the environment I was in, a basic holding pattern, to really feel like I was making conscious choices. All I could do was hold still. » Read the rest

Continuum – Season 4 (PWTVR00012)

September 18 2020

Overview

The premise for the series was always about Keira getting home, and what she would find when she does. Will it be the future she left, with the timeline intact? Will her husband and son be waiting for her? In most shows, the answers would be obvious, and simple. This one recognized the complexity of time, and introduced the idea of a time war with two different factions fighting to keep different timelines intact.

Episodes That I Liked

E05 brought the reality of a time war home, and the time soldiers really started to shift Keira’s politics. Whose side is she on? Liber8 or the soldiers? Over the course of the series, Liber8 moderated some of their positions, seeing it wasn’t as clear-cut as they initially thought, or that their tactics weren’t so justified, while Keira started to see some of their point of view too.

Episodes That Were Watchable

E01, E03, E04, and E06 were pretty solid outings, showing some of the shifting alliances and political viewpoints. » Read the rest