A thought occurred to me a couple days ago, and it wasn’t a complete thought really, but a bit of a thought, a seed of a thought to be sure, a possibility that might grow into a something. It was accompanied by another thought which was “You should write this down before you forget it” but I hear that thought so much I only barely acknowledged it and then promptly forgot the first thought.

I didn’t even realize I had forgotten the original thought until much later that night, as I lay in bed staring at the ceiling, enjoying that brief moment of calm before trudging off to slumberland. That’s the time the brain does the bookkeeping. It came up short. “You had a thought of great potential but you neglected to write it down and now you have forgotten what it was,” it said “goodnight.”

Anyway that was days ago, and the search party is still out.

Hey! If you dig this dumb sketch, you might also like the comic it turned into. It was called Future Tense, and while longer than this tiny postcard, I’m not convinced it was better. Just different. Certainly less colourful, in the literal sense.

9 brains and still no sense of personal space

The last couple of weeks have been a blur. The kid’s elementary school had a bbq on the 22nd. Spare and Cracker Jack are in the school band, so we watched their performance for the first hour, then starved for the second because they ran out of food. We came home and grilled hot dogs. Omega had a 10th birthday party on the 24th. Cracker Jack graduated grade 8 on the 26th. Lizzy had a birthday on the 28th. Today we celebrate the previously mentioned graduation with a buffet lunch, then later this evening continue celebrating Lizzy’s birthday at an escape room.

Wait! There’s more! Omega’s actual birthday is next week! Only after that can we rest. 🙂

While I search for my calm, please enjoy this watercolour sketch thing of Robot and Francis hiding from a space octopus. I’m sure they’ll be fine.

The universe is really big. And unimaginably weird.

An adventurous young astronaut discovers things can get very strange (and fishy?) in space.

You might ask “Ryan, what’s the point of this?” and I’d reply “I don’t know!” Because that’s what happens when you go into a thing with no real purpose, and no real reason, just a kind of wistfully floating along until you decide it’s all completely wrong but just add fish and a weird light source and it’ll be fine. Like life.

Set phasers to stylish, yo

Unique science fiction and fantasy shirts like this one are available on my Etsy shop.

I want a big life. I want to experience everything. I want to break every single rule there is. They say ambition is an unattractive trait in a woman. Maybe. But you know what’s really unattractive? Waiting around for something to happen. Staring out a window, thinking the life you should be living is out there somewhere but not being willing to open the door and go get it. Even if someone tells you you can’t. Being a coward is only cute in The Wizard of Oz.

The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, Four Minutes (S05E09)

Her entire 4 minute set was superb, and the lead in adds more context, but this is the meat of it. A superb finale. Excellent advice all around.

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.

They may not mean to, but they do.   

They fill you with the faults they had

And add some extra, just for you.

But they were fucked up in their turn

By fools in old-style hats and coats,   

Who half the time were soppy-stern

And half at one another’s throats.

Man hands on misery to man.

It deepens like a coastal shelf.

Get out as early as you can,

And don’t have any kids yourself.

Philip Larkin

I was watching Ted Lasso (S03E11) last night, and Mae recited this poem to Ted, as he was clearly having trouble dealing with his mommy issues. I hadn’t heard it before, and thought it was kind of great.

The Poetry Foundation has more on Philip Larkin.

You’re just so convinced that you don’t deserve anything good in your life, that you’d rather eat a bowl of shit soup and then complain about the portions. Get out of your own way, man. Cause this whole “woe is me” thing you’ve got going on is just fucking ponderous.

Rebecca Welton, Ted Lasso – La Locker Room Aux Folles (S03E09)

Good advice all round. And an excellent use of the word ponderous.

Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?

Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

Rereading the Guide, and was reminded of this excellent observation.

This little piggy is living it’s best life. I’m so jealous.

So the last few weeks have brought many changes. The snow is gone, replaced by rain and a couple of unusually hot days for April, but mostly rain. The trees are budding, the grass is greening. The birds are loudly proclaiming their availability to make more birds, I assume. The union is striking.

We took the kids downtown on Friday evening to see some art at the Ottawa Art Gallery. It is an excellent gallery, and I left full of inspiration. I highly recommend you go, when in town. We followed that up with a bite to eat at the Rideau Centre food court, because apparently I needed a reminder why we never eat at the Rideau Centre food court. Let me never forget that again.

If you aren’t dressing up your cat for Easter, I don’t know why you have a cat

It’s that time of year again, when I get very anxious for winter to end, and anything else to begin, but winter’s like “Nah, I’m good.”

Hybrid work started last week for my department, which for me means I’ll be commuting to the office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. But then by some stroke of meteorological good luck, an ice storm happened, which I swear I had nothing to do with (unless my emotions control the weather?), and we were told to work at home on Wednesday. So I guess hybrid work starts next week, unless we get more inclement weather, which seems like a fairly significant loop-hole to hybrid work, if we could figure out how to control it. I’m absolutely not doing an inclement-weather-on-Wednesdays-dance over here, so stop spreading rumours and hand me my rain stick. Cha-cha-cha!

Apparently some folks lost power, especially in Quebec, so that’s not great. But it was nothing like the ice storm of 1998, which Lizzy assures me some internet people are comparing it to. If you were in Ottawa during the 1998 ice storm you wouldn’t be making that comparison, but this is the internet so reality has no place here.

Garden update!

I got off my rump and started some seeds indoors:

• Jalapeño
• Bell pepper (mix)
• Chili pepper
• Manitoba tomatoes
• Monster tomatoes
• Tarragon
• Kohl rabi (white and purple)
• Broccoli

Jalapeño seeds are from a pepper bought at a grocery store, so it may not sprout. I’ve had mixed results with growing seeds from store bought peppers, but it’s free and a fun experiment. I think it has to do with the maturity of the seeds, but I’m not entirely sure. Tarragon I’m going to keep inside. First seeds to sprout after only a few days was broccoli. That was a pleasant surprise. Monster tomatoes followed, then Kohl rabi and the Manitoba tomatoes.

So spring has sprung – indoors at least.

Happy Easter, bunnies!