“The children […] actually rule the Blue Planet of Earth. They are more intelligent than the older people and outrun them on bicycles.”
William Kotzwinkle, E.T. The Book of the Green Planet
Part-time prevaricator
“The children […] actually rule the Blue Planet of Earth. They are more intelligent than the older people and outrun them on bicycles.”
William Kotzwinkle, E.T. The Book of the Green Planet
Half an hour’s worth of Earth’s rotation, along with the headlights of three or four vehicles traveling down Manitoba PR 468, under the bright light of October’s full moon. Also I think there are a couple airplanes crossing the sky. And clouds.
I’m not sure anyone but me will care about this, but so it goes.
~200 images, 10s each, f/2.8, ISO 800. WB was set to “Daylight”.
Lightly edited in GIMP: I copied and pasted the main layer as two more layers, and set the middle one to Grain Merge, the top one to Hard Light. This darkened the background a bit and enhanced the lights.

We just got in from They Might Be Giants’ Winnipeg concert.
What a great show.

A song, from my French immersion schooling, about sunflowers. (Every time I see a field of sunflowers, this song comes to me.)
Le tournesol, le tournesol
n’a pas besoin d’une boussole
ni d’arc-en-ciel, ni d’arc-en-ciel
pour se tourner vers le soleil
In English:
The sunflower, the sunflower
has no need of a compass
nor of a rainbow, nor of a rainbow,
to turn its face to the sun
One thing I didn’t remember from elementary school music sessions in the library at École Laurier: that bassline.
McNally Robinson, my favourite bookstore, is curating a photobook of the province, to be titled Manitoba by Manitoba. To that end, they’re seeking photos taken outside the Perimeter (for the non-Manitobans, that means, essentially, “not taken in Winnipeg”). You can submit up to 5 photos.
It wasn’t easy, trimming my submission down to five. Here are the ones I sent in.





Wish me luck!
On the way home from Winnipeg, I pulled over and snapped a few photos of this photogenic little creek.
I think this one might end up being a submission for McNally Robinson’s Manitoba by Manitoba photo book.

Brandon University, as part of its Homecoming this year, brought Colonel Chris Hadfield to Town to give a talk.
It was amazing. I came away inspired and hopeful.
My wife and I still have “Major Tom” stuck in our heads.
Also apparently I never quite gave up the boyhood dream of going to space.


So this is a real thing that I can hold in my hands now. I have a real, actual, physical copy of Parallel Prairies.
Maybe soon you will too.
Ten years ago, in August, we had geothermal heating and cooling installed for our house.
Ten years ago, we had our natural gas cut off permanently, because we no longer need it.
Happy 61st birthday to the Space Race.
October 4, 1957: Sputnik 1 becomes Earth’s first artificial satellite.
Now. When do we get back to the Moon?