Foursides

The meandering thoughts of an urban hermit, in abbreviated form. Full blog at Foursides.ca

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It may be the bourbon I’m drinking, but I swear my feed here is just endlessly repeating itself, including the ads.

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60 Days (Mainly) Without Twitter

Nearly two months later after planning to avoid Twitter, lead me to question the value of social media in my life. Here is what I discovered about my absence and return.

I recognized last fall how much time I was spending on Twitter and social media in general. The cycle of scrolling, swiping down to reload, then scrolling more was endless and mindless. I found myself thinking, “What am I getting from this?”— Let’s Communicate Over a month ago, I set out the goal of wanting to spend less time on Twitter and social media in general. At that time, I was…

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Let’s Communicate

Today is #BellLetsTalk Day, and I thought it was an appropriate time to talk about where I am at mentally and where I would like to see myself in this coming year.

Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become. No single instance will transform your beliefs, but as the votes build up, so does the evidence of your new identity.— James Clear Today happens to be Bell Let’s Talk day in Canada. I thought it was an appropriate time to talk about where I am at mentally and where I would like to see myself go in this coming year. The…

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Turning 12 Years Old

Turning 12 Years Old

In many respects, she is still in a kid; but in so many others, she isn’t. She has truly come into her own and grown in so many ways this year that this post of over 2,000 words still can’t quite convey. The coming year will be full of new challenges with us both, namely middle school starting next September. Turning 11 The predictions I make in these birthday posts have almost become a jinx of…

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42

Today is my birthday. For the past eleven birthdays, I have been sitting down to write about the last year and reflect on what has happened.

A tough year with more challenges ahead as COVID rears its ugly head once again. Through it all, the fire still burns within me. The last thing I want is for it to be extinguished.For the next year, I’m going to keep this fire burning within me and keep it growing. Burn, baby, burn.— 41 Today is my birthday. For the past eleven birthdays, I have been sitting down to write about the last year and…

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Sunday Listening - Ryan Holiday

Sunday Listening – Ryan Holiday

Ryan: What do you do when you first wake up? Bari: I look at Signal, I look at Twitter, and I look at my email. Ryan: So you’re starting the day at the mercy of things that you don’t control. Your Inbox is a to-do list put together by other people. You’re not starting the day thinking about what you want to think about, reading what you want to read about, doing what you want to do… you’re…

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Checking In

It’s been awhile. It would be easy to create excuses for the lack of writing, but the honest truth comes down to me not making the time and adapting to the changes that occur in life. I had intended to write this before now. I woke up with a major headache earlier in the week from the forest fire smoke sinking into the Okanagan valley from Kamloops and other areas of the Interior. Last week,…

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Infrastructure in Life

I think the beauty of infrastructure is that you figure out a way to acknowledge that everything can be difficult, and will be difficult at some point, especially if you’re trying to lose weight or quit smoking. I’m going to do what it takes to account for the times I’m going to fail at this, what happens when things fall apart. Infrastructure is a way to make something that will be difficult or…

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Reflections

The days are blurring together for me lately. It’s hard to tell when one day ends, a new one begins. Things that I happened last week only happened the other day. A lot of events seem to be cyclical, as well. I feel like a task is complete, only to have something happen and I have to start that process all over.  As busy as the days tend to be, I am doing a much better job of carving out time for…

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New Surrounding Old

I drive around the city of Kelowna quite a bit for my various appointments and enjoy taking in all the new development happening. Things change so quickly around here that it is hard to keep up with what is going on. The major developments that are happening, like the One Water Street towers in the image, are a little easier to track. The process from site acquisition to building approval to…

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Downtown Kelowna - Spring Break

Downtown Kelowna – Spring Break

A nice walk downtown, starting spring break the usual way through Kasugai Gardens and along the boardwalk. Nice to see spring is just around the corner here with crocuses and tulips started to come up. One of the many reasons why I love living in Kelowna. —foursides.ca

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Turning 11

After getting her own phone last year for her birthday, she has spent more time discovering things for herself than in past years. It’s something that I had written about before, and likely something I’ll write again next year, but this year really was a step up from a year ago.Turning 10 If past me had only known what was going to happen in 2020. It was a tough year for everyone, but I…

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41 - All Fired Up

41 – All Fired Up

Last year, I wrote about walking into the fire. It seems like such a long time ago after what has happened in the world. For me, it feels even longer. Needless to say, it has not been a good year.

I am not one to dwell on the challenges and failures of the last year, however. I strive to not let one single moment, decision, or person drag me down. Instead, I try to find the positives in the…

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Thought for the Day: Garbage

Thought for the Day: Garbage

2005-02-24 01:33:26

Lately, I’ve been subjecting myself to a lot of different kinds of music to see what else is out there besides the usual rock radio crap and the same bouncy dance anthems. What I’ve been discovering is some pretty interesting work, some addicting stuff, some bizarre but good stuff, and then stuff that should be classified as garbage. But I have a hard time of labeling…

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Thought for the Day: Technology

Thought for the Day: Technology

February 20, 2005

Today, I was reading the Business section of Monday’s NY Times (I was too ill to finish it last night) and came across several articles talking about the technology sector. I zeroed in on one article in particular. To sum up the article, it’s about the ongoing battle between Sony and other media technology groups about the next format for movies and media. The secondary…

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Thought for the Day: The Death of Art

Thought for the Day: The Death of Art

2005-02-20

As an artist, I find it hard to admit this, but I think art as we know it is dead.

In the thousands of years of human history, art has always existed alongside such things as violence, sex, religion, consumption, etc. As we’ve evolved, art has become increasingly more important to us but the scale has tipped too far now. In the past where art was splendid, beautiful, and…

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Unfinished Thoughts

post_date: 2005-09-27 23:12:01

Limiting Progress

Why is there such a constant movement in our society today to stop progress? If our society today cannot deal with the differences between races, gender, sexuality, religion, and so on, how are we to deal with future societies when there are robots, cyborgs, intelligent life other than humans, longer living humans, people who have adopted…

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