8r4dsfeets Kiss the cook? #heritagefestival #volunteering #crepes

8r4dsfeets A short water break on a long #running adventure

8r4d Despite being on my feet all day yesterday I still owed the #running gods a long run this morning. Only two weeks until the #halfmarathon so luckily the #rivervalley was still cool.

8r4d Day one of #heritagefestival 2024 and between cooking lots of #crepes managing an outdoor kitchen in the #summer #heat and helping with my share of problem solving, I’m definitely ready for a cozy sleep tonight.

8r4d The ‘nlaws have a little permanent #camping site out at a little lake in the middle of nowheres alberta and so we drove out for a Friday dinner and a visit

8r4d As much as my life should be full of free time, I still find myself needing to squeeze in #running training when I can, so a Friday morning 14k brought my through a couple big #rivervalley #hills with some nice sunny views of the valley and distant skyline.

gamerdad I watched this back in January and reviewed it here but the post was lost in the great hack of ‘24. So…

I could strive to tell you something smart about a twenty-year old superhero movie other than that it intersected through my life in a string of coincidences over the last month so much so that I opted to open up my Disney account and watch it again all these years later. I could strive to have some kind of intellectual commentary this movie, or ask if it has stood up to the test of time or has competed in a film landscape of a million other more modern takes on the superhero genre. I could even strive to say something about the quality of Pixar animation, especially considering that not three months ago I was standing at the gate of their main campus in Emeryville, California snapping pictures through the fence and longing to be on the other side. I could, but rather I’ll just say that there is always going to be something timeless about a parenting story, a story about a dad in a mid-life crisis, or a story that lurks on the fringes of social commentary about the role of exceptionalism versus inclusivity. I was more drawn into this movie than I thought I would have been, again, even twenty years later (having seen it in the theatre on the big screen nearly two decades ago now.) It’s not perfect, and Moore’s Watchmen comic will always have tackled this plot in a more nuanced, adult way, but for a movie which is now known as much for the rollercoaster themed after it as for the story, it's not a bad rewatch.

8r4d Kinda just a porcupine sleeping on our neighbourhood fence.

gamerdad There is a grim sort of horror to be found in the depths of toxic relationships that is amplified the victimhood of the invisible trauma unwitnessed by friends and family, cutting a sometimes familiar path across ancient memories repressed by time and distance. Not everything, mind. Not even most of it, or even a lot of it, but enough that after four episodes I needed a break for some weeks to process and work up courage to cap off the series. Weird, huh? You don’t even think about these things for goddamn thirty years and then pop you’re all like well, now shut the front door.

8r4d August #longweekend approaches and with it the annual #heritagefestival where I’ve been #volunteering for nearly a decade making #crepes for the French pavilion. But you’re not French, you reply. Yeah, but my neighbours run the darn thing and we volunteer to support them. Once again I was down there a couple days early helping with setup: running extension cords, setting up the kitchen, hanging things, washing things, bossing people around because apparently I’m a senior volunteer now, huh?

gamerdad It took a couple short first seasons, but the writers have now managed to disentangle the two main characters from their pre-show romantic partners. The long distance engagement fell off a cliff at the end of season one, while Maggie’s dude was crushed by falling space trash at the conclusion of season two. I know the will they won’t they trope is pretty common these days, but I suppose it wasn’t anything new in the 90s either and the same writers likely had some plans about making the central couple struggle for a couple seasons (albeit short seasons) with their connection despite existing romances. I may have mentioned this in a previous post, but I don’t recall much of either these early seasons back from when I watched it if I ever did, nor did my early viewing ever have much respect for order or continuity through my re-runs on cable approach to 1990s television. That is to say, this binge through is all pretty new to me.

8r4d An outdoor concert and poetry reading at the base of a summer ski hill.

8r4d And the Kid is off for her epic summer vacation. #dancedad

gamerdad As often happens when I game, I followed a rabbit hole of interest and was soon thereafter installing something new on one of my devices. I’ve played the first chapter of The Witcher twice before and both times I feel of my horse and went on with other adventures. I’m not sure this time will be any different. But just in case, here is a marker in time to note when such adventure begins anew.

gamerdad A cartoon television show based on a card game based on an internet comic named after a breakfast cereal. Mmm Oatmeal.

I was having some blood drawn the other day and the nurse with a needle plunged into my arm asked me about the cartoon on my shirt. The tee was a relic from when I ran the Beat the Blerch virtual half marathon back a decade ago. Try explaining The Oatmeal and his comic sensibilities in race form to a random human. Now I’m here trying to explain a tv show on netflix with the same premise.

I’ve been vying for the centre of the galaxy for a long time. I mean, for starters it’s just a big tease, isn’t it? The centre of the galaxy? It’s just calling out for you isn’t it?

And for seconds, it shows up as a perpetual navigation destination on the galaxy map, your waypoints always kinda nudging you closer and closer. Go towards the core!

Well. I reached it today. I didn’t even realize it was that close. It suddenly was just: there you go. Click to travel. And it turns out it’s kinda a disaster. My ship is crashed and I’m kinda stuck at the moment. I’m gonna need to play me some macguyver to get back to civilization, I think.

The video… #hike #nationalpark

8r4d It’s been a long weekend on my feet, a sixteen klick hike yesterday followed by a sixteen klick #rivervalley #running adventure this morning before the heat of the day kicked in. We made up a route on the fly, but it worked out well enough.

8r4d scenes from a #hike

8r4dsfeets Cold wet #hike feet

8r4d As our big #hike adventure inches ever closer, another practice was in the cards. We spent nearly five hours doing a long trudge around the mosquito-infested trails of the nearby #nationalpark and wildlife preserve east of the city. The sixteen klick loop circled around one of the lakes and strolled through a variety of forested and open terrain, but it was all pretty flat—well, except for climbing over all the fallen trees from a recent windstorm.

8r4dsfeets Bison spotting and leaping over #bison pie was a common theme on our #hike this Saturday morning.

8r4d I’ve been told that even though this local #nationalpark hosts one of the largest wild #bison herds around, it is pretty rare to see this bit of #wildlife as close as we encountered. I’ll have a story about that in the near future.

8r4d The 2024 #olympicgames started in Paris this weekend and so, of course, the feeds and the channels are filled with little else. Here’s my obligatory (and heartfelt) “Go Team Canada!” post! [read more...]