Joy.

DOCTOR: Thank you. Thank you so much. 

(He kisses Missy gently.) 

DOCTOR: I really didn't know. I wasn't sure. You lose sight sometimes. Thank you!

Death in Heaven, Doctor Who

Having finally found a new place to live, Karli and I are faced with the consequences:  boxing up all of our earthly possessions and either moving them ourselves or leaving them for the movers.

Packing is always an opportunity to purge, and if something has languished untouched and unneeded in storage for over a decade, the decision to sell it, donate it to a good cause, or trash it is an easy one to make.

However, some of those decisions are more of a challenge than others.  As per Marie Kondo, sometimes the question is whether or not the object sparks joy - or, more accurately, whether it still does so.

I haven't been consciously conducting this kind of analysis, but there have been things that I looked at and wondered if I only kept them out of habit, rather than any actual continued interest.  For example, I have a shoebox full of postcards from all over the world - my mother's relatives in England would send her postcards, and when they found out that the 8-year-old me kept them, they began sending them to me directly. 

Over the years, I've continued to collect post cards, asking people I knew socially or professionally to send me one when they travelled, and faithfully adding the ones I received to my little collection.  When I got to that point in the packing process, I took a long, long look at that shoebox. 

In the short term, I found a place for it, but it was a near thing.  Not all my possessions were so lucky - it was a little surprising, not to mention liberating, to see how many things failed the test.

The good news? My books spark joy.

It's more of a relief than you would think. As the 12th Doctor so aptly puts it, you lose sight sometimes. It's easy to take things for granted, but as I've started to pack up my little library of science fiction and fantasy, book after book has made me stop and smile appreciatively.

In many ways, my humble collection of dog-eared newsprint and worn 4-colour covers is my life.

It has been my inspiration, my teacher, my doorway into a more enlightened point of view, and, more times than I care to think, it's been my final refuge from the challenges and disappointments of the real world.

In fact, when I think about it, joy hardly seems to be a strong enough word.

- Sid

Legendary Face Mask.

Courtesy of the only place in Vancouver that's worried about your hit points:

I won't lie, I'm a bit tempted.  Hopefully they fixed the typo in the last line for the production version...

- Sid

P.S.  In case this speaks to your inner adventurer as well, the masks are available at:

https://shop.stormcrow.com/products/storm-crow-legendary-face-mask

“Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver.”

For the next five weeks, Vancouver-based game developers Hinterland have introduced a special event for The Long Dark, their quietly apocalyptic winter survival game.  The harsh Winter's Embrace option lowers the already fatally cold outdoor temperatures in the game by an average of 10 degrees Celsius, reduces the indoor temperatures by the same amount, and makes the game's deadly blizzards longer and more frequent.  Players who manage to survive for 25 days will unlock a special achievement badge to acknowledge the extent of their frost-bitten survival skills.

However, it's not all bad news.  Since Canada Day takes place during the event, Hinterland has added a special Canadian twist to things with the addition of two new food items:  Maple Syrup and Ketchup Potato Chips.*  Players are challenged to consume 25 bottles of syrup and 25 bags of chips to receive another achievement badge.

As a final salute to Canada, the game now has a Heritage filter which gives the game a kind of 70s National Film Board feel, if you can imagine such a thing.**   I haven't tried that out yet, but so far I've survived for ten days and eight hours, found and eaten five bags of chips, and drank six bottles of maple syrup.  The tricky part is that I've pretty much cleaned out the local supply, and now I need to make the challenging trip to a new map, rather than hunker down and ride out the storms.  Wish me luck...

Happy Canada Day, everyone!   Be kind, be calm and be safe.

- Sid

* The apocalyptic nature of the game precludes poutine, unfortunately.

** There's also a Noir filter which makes the game monochromatic, but there's nothing particularly Canadian about it.