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Do you have a will? You should have a will!
Patrick Rhone writes, in If You’re a G@d D%&m Adult, You Should Have A F*^K*&#g Will, about why we should all have an up to date will: Look, it’s simple. If you are over the age of 18, you should have a will and all of the other important legal documents (medical directives, power of attorney, etc). You should for sure have one if you have any assets over a thousand dollars. You absolutely should have one if you have kids. I remain gobsmacked at the number of people who don’t.
We Had So Much Time
Our beloved Farmacy is morphing into something new, moving to Grafton Street and downscaling to retail-only. They will be missed. Farmacy is where Lisa and I laid eyes on each other for the first time, 5 years ago. It will forever hold a place in my heart. We will still love them in their new form. Tuesday, November 10, 2026 at 3:26 pm
The Smith Brothers Other Leaky House
Our house will turn 200 years old next year. It was built in 1827 for the family of Henry Smith, by Henry and his brother Isaac. Isaac went on to design and build several other less modest buildings in Charlottetown, including our neighbouring Province House. Province House just opened after a decade-long $100 million+ restoration, the root of which, when you get right down to it, was 180 years of water infiltration.
Faber-Castell Pitt Artist Pen FH
Recommended by Kate Bingaman-Burt: This is where I fell in love with the Faber Castell Artist Pitt Pen Family. I was a Super Fine Tip girly from 2008 until 2022, and then they introduced the FH tip, which stands for Fude Hard. It’s like a short, hard brush tip, and I love it. I use the SB (Soft Brush) for the outlines on my paintings and the Brush for fills and for type whenever I need to draw lettering that needs to be vectorized (it transitions to digital cleaner than the Super Fine).
Charlottetown Zine Fest 2026
I had some apprehension going into Charlottetown Zine Fest today: the idea of spending six hours sitting in the same place, on display, subject to all manner of social interactions, wasn’t presenting as “delight” as much as “dread.” Or at least “I’ll power through.” Surprise: I loved it. What I learned, most of all: the people who will go to something called “Charlottetown Zine Fest” are, by and large, my people: weirdos, creatives, unusuals, divergents, the curious and daring.
Drinking Coffee Outside in October
From The Last Terrace Day. by Leo Umilio: Observe the population of a café terrace in the last week of October, because it is not the summer crowd in warmer clothes; it is a different institution entirely. The fair-weather sitters went indoors weeks ago, correctly, comfortably, and nobody blames them.
Mayor Amir Zuccolo
She won! By a substantial margin. In every ward. A victory for progressive values, for science, for data, for compassion, for gender equity. I’m proud, so proud, to live in a city that’s moved—finally!—beyond the same old same old and fully embraced the possibility of someone proposing we take a different tack. Brava Amir. Monday, November 2, 2026 at 9:40 pm
Inventing New Colours
From An Ode to the Return of Standard Time by James A. Reeves: Let’s celebrate the end of Daylight Savings Time, my favorite moment of the year because it brings the night closer. And if you’re staying at a motel, you get a free hour. Changing the clocks should be the year’s biggest celebration with fireworks, parades, and gift-giving. Because if we can rearrange time, we can do anything we want. Invent new colors. Add more days to the week. Reset the internet to 2009. Have a functional government.
Taco Libre Comes to Charlottetown
I happened to catch this graphic on Facebook yesterday, advertising the opening of a new taco place just a few blocks down the street: Of course I insisted that we get takeout for supper, and I walked down in the rain just after they opened to pick it up. The menu, as promised, is taco-focused: I ordered us a couple of chicken tacos, a couple of longaniza tacos, and a carlota for dessert.
Stephenson Blake Grotesque No. 3
One of the typefaces I acquired on a 2012 trip to Montreal was a one I labelled simply “36 pt. Sans Serif” once I got it home. Longtime readers will recall the typeface from my pieces You Are On Mute, and Furiously Curious. Today, in an effort that was part satisfying shopcraft, and part procrastination, I set out to vacuum out that type case, using a DRY Inc. vacuum cleaner attachment.
Cruised | ruk.ca
We’re down to the last six cruise ships of the season here in Charlottetown, with three in port today. This is the view down Prince Street this morning. Monday, October 26, 2026 at 9:50 am
Amir Zuccolo for Mayor
I’ll be voting for Amir Zuccolo for Mayor of Charlottetown in the November 2, 2026 municipal election. Of the seven candidates on the ballot, Amir has the best combination of intelligence, experience, creativity, consensus building, and compassion. She will be an excellent mayor, and her election will mark an important inflection point for the city. In the 171 years since its incorporation in 1855, Charlottetown has seen a woman in the mayor’s office for only four years.
My Own PHP Interruption
Ton writes, in The PHP Interruption: This site, and my other ones, and my business ones (including our NextCloud), were offline as precaution since yesterday afternoon. I was at LegoWorld in Utrecht with E and Y, when I realised what was going on, and left for home to take my stuff down.
“It is as if they have been sailing on a boat all their life...”
Aidan Walker, among other things , writes about his appearance on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. I don’t understand what exactly he was there to talk about, other than that it had something to do with memes. What saved the piece for me, though, was this paragraph, referring to Maher: You must feel empathy for the Boomer marooned in a world he is not adapted to exist within.
“It is as if they have been sailing on a boat all their life, a boat which they understood had some problems and was not always pleasant...”
Aidan Walker, among other things , writes about his appearance on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. I don’t understand what exactly he was there to talk about, other than that it had something to do with memes. What saved the piece for me, though, was this paragraph, referring to Maher: You must feel empathy for the Boomer marooned in a world he is not adapted to exist within.
Province House in OpenStreetMap in 3D
With Province House reopening this week after a long restoration, I thought it high time to improve the rendering of the building—and Queens Square around it—, in three dimensions. OpenStreetMap is not, at its heart, a 3D map, but it supports tagging buildings and other objects with information about the third dimension—height, roof shape, etc.—and there are experimental websites that will use these tags to render in 3D.
Jacinta‘s Blog | ruk.ca
I found my way to Jacinta Palud’s blog through a link in Stephen’s guestbook. It’s a blog in a very old-school sense, and I enjoy the mix of links, photos, and Winnipeg insights. Subscribed.
Stephen’s Pika | ruk.ca
My old friend Stephen has started a blog, Sout.ca, using the very simple (and inexpensive) Pika platform. From his first post: Anything except the fact, for me, that social media is heartbreaking. And sickening. So to some degree, this is a replacement for social media for me. And that means that I hope to hear from people. I will tell my funny little stories and in response many people will finger paint. I might finger paint myself.
Managing Our Agents
Peter Bihr, in Do we all want to be middle-managers for AI assistants?, writes: These AI assistants are like putting an intern in charge of your life. Do you really want to middle-manage all of this, focus on quality control and all, rather than just do the thing yourself? The doing, that friction that it brings, that is the life, that is the work! I mean, who wants to be a middle-manager for their own life? An echo of a similar sentiment from China that I linked to yesterday.
Province House, No Fence
For the first time in 9 years, there’s no fence surrounding Province House in Charlottetown. The building re-opens this weekend following extensive restoration. Tuesday, October 13, 2026 at 10:39 am
Frictionful Encounters
From chinese period of my life (a visit to China pt.1) by Spencer Chang: I can’t imagine giving up my frictionful everyday human encounters. The inconvenience is the cost we pay to encounter each other, to stumble onto a new discovery, to expand our ways of seeing. These kinds of things can’t be engineered. The post is about the lack of friction in everyday China, but it could equally as well be about the lack of friction when we us AI to answer all our everyday questions.
Notebook with Handmade Paper Cover
A few weeks ago Lisa and I made some heftier handmade paper, and experimented with pressing previously carved lino blocks into the still-wet pulp. Today I took one of those sheets and used it for the cover of a notebook. Monday, October 12, 2026 at 7:24 pm
Thanksgiving Day Paper Making
We gathered in the print shop today with niece A. and sister-in-law K. to make some pink paper. The pulp is simply recycled paper shredder tailings, mixed with water, coloured with acrylic paint in a household blender. The hanging-on-J-cloth method was Lisa’s idea. Monday, October 12, 2026 at 5:14 pm
“We Made It Through, Though Not All of Us Did”
From Of Triumphal Arches by Margaret Atwood: When I heard A Certain Orange Person say that every country had a Triumphal Arch and so the United States had to have one too, I wondered if Canada had a triumphal arch. It does have an arch of sorts in Ottawa, but it’s not a triumphal arch: it’s a war memorial, put up after WW 1 and adding several other wars in which Canadians punched above their weight.
My Private War Against Japanese Knotweed
In the thick of early-COVID grief-fog, I sought a much-needed achievement badge by contacting The Macphail Woods Ecological Forestry Project about its landscape consulting service. Catherine had always been the sexton of our churchyard and, in a move to establish dominion, I thought I should get to know it, and perhaps plan for its future. A few days later I was lucky to take MacPhail’s Gary Schneider on a tour of the backyard.
StreetComplete | ruk.ca
StreetComplete, heretofore an Android-only app, is now in beta for iOS, and I’ve been using it, and enjoying using it, for the past few days. StreetComplete is a “questing” app, with a goal of filling in missing details on OpenStreetMap, things like house numbers, business hours, and accessibility. In the screenshot above I was prompted to add the level above ground of Kent Street Market, and responded with “0”, as it’s on ground level.
Lia Pappas-Kemps at Trailside Music Hall
An unexpected delight at last night’s True Mountain Laurel gig at Trailside Music Hall was opening act Lia Pappas-Kemps. This is her song A Thousand Times Over, recorded from too far away; go find the real deal online for full fidelity. Her opening few songs were reserved, but as she got going she opened right up, and by the time she joined True Mountain Laurel on stage for her new single I Want It Easy, she was there.
Autumn Through the Upstairs Hallway
The leaves on the sugar maple tree are starting to turn in earnest. Wednesday, September 30, 2026 at 11:30 am
True Mountain Laurel
I saw True Mountain Laurel at Trailside last night, and loved it. You should seek them out. The group is singer-songwriters Haley Blais and Sam Lynch, formidable talents in their own right, who turn out to have a synergy when they write music together and perform it: they’re witty, relaxed, talented players, and, despite a too-small-for-such-greatness crowd last night, they managed to weave a scene out of the evening. If you can’t see them live, find their debut album Angel So Bad.
Three Good Interviews
Three interesting creative people interviewed by curious interviewers, each worth a listen:
Animated Gym Hours
The mobile app for GoodLife Fitness has charts for each day of the week showing how busy the gym is. I grabbed the charts for Charlottetown and animated them by way of understanding the flow from day to day, and the differences between weekends and weekdays.
Early to Bus | ruk.ca
I grew up in the small village of Carlisle, Ontario. While it’s not like I grew up on a remote farm, or in the wilderness, during the years before I was able to drive it felt like the ends of the Earth. Fortunately, by lucky happenstance, there was a Canada Coach Lines bus to Hamilton that stopped directly in front of our house on Progreston Road, twice a day, a lifeline to the pleasures of the city that my brothers and I took maximum advantage of.
Yugonoć | ruk.ca
You had me at “retro Balkan pop music night.” Thursday, September 24, 2026 at 10:34 am
“There are seven Futura Ligatures”
Sending an email to myself with Siri. Thursday, September 24, 2026 at 7:47 am
Merchant Category Codes
I happened by a page that listed cashback rewards for a particular credit card the other day, and at the bottom I found this fine print: To earn the rate in each category, eligible purchases must be made with merchants assigned to that category. Categories are assigned based on merchant category codes (MCC) set by Mastercard. The payment networks assign each merchant to one MCC, even if they offer a variety of products and services.
Tree to Pie | ruk.ca
Remember our backyard plum tree, the one felled by Hurricane Fiona? The remediation of the tree to vertical didn’t work out—we followed advice from our Siberian handyman that, untethered, it would find its way back; it didn’t.
System Protocols
From The Rest of Our Lives, by Ben Markovits (emphasis mine): The X-ray department seemed completely deserted, but then there was a light at the end of the hall, and a woman was waiting for me. What happened next I can’t completely account for. Maybe it was because I hadn’t eaten all day, and then I took a lot of steroids, and then I had a lot of calorie-rich food.
“it reads like the kind of book someone thought they were supposed to write”
Craig Mod writes: Here’s a good example of two books in similar genres, but one full of platitudes and one of unmistakable voice: Simon Boas’ A Beginner’s Guide to Dying — it’s fine, but it reads like the kind of book someone thought they were supposed to write, rather than a book that embodies the weirdness of who they were when confronted with death’s knock.
A Brian Burke Through the Floor Grate
Lisa and I drove out to Murray Harbour yesterday for one of the final days of the Brian Burke exhibition, Light Before Shadow. I spotted this piece on the first floor through the floor grate on the second. Friday, September 18, 2026 at 4:21 pm
Week Without Driving
Charlottetown is organizing Week Without Driving from October 1 to 8, 2026: How would your days change if you had to give up your car for a week? The Week Without Driving experience was created to give firsthand knowledge to those who have the option to drive about the barriers and challenges that non-drivers face. This initiative is about more than just avoiding the driver’s seat.
Core Web Vitals | ruk.ca
Back on August 12, I made tweaks to this blog’s setup with a goal to improve its speed. I can now see the effect of these changes in Google “Core Web Vitals” report: This chart shows that before I made the changes, every single page tested by Google was rated “Poor.” Starting in late August, Google started to pick up on the changes I’d made, and by early September, all pages were reported as “Good.” Tuesday, September 15, 2026 at 8:20 pm
Living Grace Café
I’d passed by Living Grace Café, on Belvedere Avenue in Charlottetown, hundreds of times over the years, but had never even thought of going in. Yesterday, brother Mike proposed it as a spot for an impromptu family lunch, and so we went. Not at all what I expected from a place that : tasty sandwiches, all-day breakfast, friendly service, at very reasonable prices. All in a space that is transformed completely from its earlier life as the Charlottetown bus depot. Recommended.
David Sedaris on Crystal Meth
Oh, it just gives you, you know, you’re brilliant when you take crystal meth. You know, you’re just brilliant. And you have a lot to say. And you feel amazing until it wears off. And then all you care about is getting more. And then when you crash, it’s like awful, you know, it’s just the lowest you’ve just ever been. So you just got to keep it up. So you don’t ever feel that way. And you, you know, in my case, you know, you wake up a year and a half later. And I mean, I just lucked out.
“The Loved Ones”
A few years ago my friend Stephen and I were on a drive back from visiting the Kingston, Ontario hospice where his later mother had once spent time. Stephen pointed out a house with a blackboard out front: “they have a different Wendell Berry quote there every morning.” Had I heard of Wendell Berry before? Surely I must have, what with my connection to The Old Farmer’s Almanac and the Whole Earth Catalog.
Moon Over Charlottetown Harbour
We took a quick, late walk through Victoria Park tonight for Art in the Open. The night was beautiful, and lit by the Moon over the harbour. Saturday, August 29, 2026 at 10:26 pm
Stubby Kombucha | ruk.ca
First spotted at The Rustico Cannery in North Rustico last week, I saw it again today at The Gallery in Charlottetown: kombucha from Farmacy + Fermentary in tiny, perfect stubby bottles.
RTYUI | ruk.ca
I am using the typewriter that Catherine Hennessey gave me to type gallery labels for a show that Lisa and I are mounting on Monday. It’s a very satisfying machine to use, and I’m very happy with the results. Come to The Gallery starting Tuesday to see the show, Layers of love, which will include new work from me, from Lisa, and from our collaboration. Thursday, August 27, 2026 at 3:34 pm Add new comment
Summer Meals at Helsinki Playgrounds
From Palvelukeskus Helsinki: Helsinki offers a free-of-charge hot lunch for children under the age of 16 at its playgrounds, which are open during the school summer holidays. Here on PEI we have the Children’s Summer Food Program, which serves a similar role, the key distinction being that “all you will need to bring is a plate, a spoon and a mug for yourself,” whereas you need to demonstrate financial need, and apply, including provincial health number and household income.
Well-used Tympan
May I never be accused of wringing every last drop out of my tympan. Monday, August 24, 2026 at 2:20 pm
The Weekend AI Came for Us
Two notable things happened this weekend: I received beautiful an email from a reader of the blog telling me that they’d spent a week reading through the archives here, and providing a lovely summary of my zeitgest. It warmed my heard. Some basic research revealed that the email came from an AI bot. Lisa noticed a photo with one of her prints in the background appearing in a promotion on Facebook.
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