What's Inside This Mental Breakdown of Writing? Here, you'll find my wandering thoughts on economics, geopolitics, culture, technology, and daily ideas. Plus, I'll be dropping little peeks behind the curtain on my novel and nonfiction projects.
It feels like Canada keeps accidentally kicking its own shins and then acting surprised and shocked when the best players limp south.
The world's most sophisticated fighter jet, the Avro Arrow, was created here in 1959 by people who were essentially slide rules rock stars. The government then abruptly terminated the entire program one morning in February. Before lunch, 13,000 engineers and technicians received pink slips. They drove across the border, and (no joke) assisted Apollo in landing on the moon. In essence, NASA wrote a thank-you note to us in lunar dust.
After 65 years, we are…
Imagine a 34-year-old data scientist in Vancouver who was raised in Halifax and hopes to "make it" back home. After taxes, daycare for one child, and a mortgage on a 700-square-foot condo that somehow costs $1.2 million, she has less disposable income than her brother slinging code in South Carolina on $220k U.S.
Date nights are long gone, groceries seem like a luxury, and every April she gives the government another five-figure check while she waits nine months to see a dermatologist.
Her friend, an immigrant surgeon, recently accepted an offer in Minnesota that practically doubled her…
Sunday’s rolling along like a soft, steady heartbeat. Nothing’s setting the world on fire, but nothing’s crashing either. Just a calm parade of decent essays marching across my desk, most of them sitting comfortably in that “hey, you actually get it” zone. A few nice turns of phrase sneak in every now and then, enough to keep me from going cross-eyed.
The coffee’s still warm, the dog’s snoring under the table, and every check-mark feels like quiet proof that the week’s readings actually landed somewhere in the middle of their brains. No drama, no despair, just the gentle hum of…
A midday stroll and run around the school with my large black-and-white tuxedo pitbull. After navigating the shops where the welding sparks fly, we enter the actual adventure, which consists of six floors of pure joy (two down into the basements and four up).
Over time, she wags her tail and prances like she owns the place. The sound of her joyful fingernails clicking down the deserted stairwells, the way she stops on each landing to see if I'm keeping up, and those large brown eyes staring back at me like "Come on, Dad, one more floor!" are the best ways to start over after a demanding…
I must admit that Proton recently released a feature-rich spreadsheet program that is truly end-to-end encrypted, something I was unaware I had been waiting for. Like Docs, it resides inside Proton Drive and is known as Proton Sheets.
It has the same feel as Google Sheets or Excel, but no one can see your data, not even Proton. Pivot tables, formulas, importing CSVs, and sharing with particular individuals (or password-protected links for outsiders) are all helpful and not merely a privacy ploy.
Having a genuine alternative that doesn't force me to choose between functionality and privacy…
The gas lighting language of the President of the United States of America on his Truth Social platform Donald Trump openly accused members of Congress of seditious behaviour punishable by death, branded them traitors who should be arrested and tried, and then amplified the threat by reposting a call to hang them in the manner George Washington supposedly would.
Clearly, there is a mental health concern with Trump. This language and behaviour is distorted and dangerous for the American society.
His earlier statement that General Mark Milley should be executed for ensuring a legitimate…
I just tore through some of Brianna Wiest’s 101 Essays That Will Change The Way You Think in a few hours flat (less reading, more mainlining thoughts I didn’t even know I’d been starving for).
It’s not one of those preachy self-help books that lectures you from a pedestal.
This book of essays feels more like sneaking into your own brain and finding someone already there, calmly handing you flashcards of every half-formed belief you’ve ever wrestled with.
Some essays were four pages, others I skimmed and thought “eh, not today,” and that’s exactly why it works: you don’t have to agree…
You wouldn't believe the conversation I eavesdropped on the other day. It was between two local contractors, the kind of hardworking folks who keep this city running. And the subject? A group of incredibly wealthy, professional hockey players we'll leave nameless.
The frustration was absolutely boiling over. One contractor, who handles landscaping and snow removal, was at his wit's end. He said, and I quote, literally every player on the team, except for the captain, hasn't paid him in over two years. Imagine that: two years of sweat, snow plowing, and lawn care, all unpaid.
The other…
The globalization era's belief described as a compelling gospel was that prosperous supply chains, trade, and investment would unite nations and make large-scale conflict unimaginable, resulting in shared wealth and peace. This ideal was a potent delusion that is now clearly broken by circumstances such as the one in Venezuela. What was once optimistically referred to as "interdependence" has turned out to be a very powerful tool for political influence rather than a preventative measure. A country has unintentionally created a way for itself to be strangled by permitting pipelines, bank…
As PM Carney somewhat said... Canadians, we will work harder for our country, we will work harder for Canada.
PM Mark Carney, staring directly into the camera. He recently informed Canadians that Donald Trump's impending tariffs would deplete our Canadian economy by about $50 billion, or $1,300 for each individual.
He insists Trump's administration does not want our oil even though 90% of it historically goes south at less than 50% of the cost.
The oil and gas emissions cap has been lifted, clean electricity regulations have been put on hold, and pipelines and carbon capture technology…
One of the most significant and multifaceted issues in Canadian energy politics at the moment is the proposal for a brand-new bitumen pipeline that would reach British Columbia's west coast. To make this happen, a significant Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was recently signed by the Federal Government and the Alberta government, led by Premier Danielle Smith.
The objective is straightforward: construct one or more new pipelines to transport a minimum of one million barrels per day of "low-emission Alberta bitumen" to a deepwater port in British Columbia for export, primarily to Asia. I…
Life takes on a different emotional texture in societies where gun ownership is openly encouraged and gun laws are lax. Beneath everyday activities, a subtle tension permeates the air, as though everyone is preparing for an unknown threat. People frequently tell themselves that having more firearms makes them safer, but underneath that assurance is an unspoken fear that danger is always present and that survival depends more on personal preparedness than on group support.
Widespread gun ownership can shatter trust rather than strengthen it, making neighbours potential threats rather than…
The Karl Ove Knausgård book I'm currently reading has me completely engrossed; it's amazing! He is referred to as a "common day Proust," and to be honest, that description is accurate. His writing style is simply amazing; the sentences flow naturally and the paragraphs are long, meandering thoughts. He seems to be genuinely capturing the untidy, raw nature of the human mind. He can begin with something very commonplace, like driving the kids or preparing breakfast, and then that same sentence will simply spiral out into this enormous, profound philosophical idea or a specific recollection…
Sometimes a person finds that they have been lying to themselves instead of trying to trick the world. Thomas King carried a secret claim from a distant parent that he carried like a charm, and he lived inside a story that he inherited as a child. That narrative eventually evolved into identity, purpose, and the cornerstone of a famous "Indigenous" author career worth over $5 million.
We cling to anything that makes us feel like we belong, especially when our lives start with absence. This is the silent machinery of human nature. We don't realize how thoroughly we've been woven into our…