So now that my country's birthday is over with, we can get back to our regular fun and games. There's Deathwish Dark Roast on in the coffee pot. For teas we have Cream of Earl Grey and Kenyan Tinderet (a really nice African black tea). And there's the usual assortment of cold drinks in the fridge.

I am struggling a bit with writing. I'm producing, but it's all for another site and I'm despairing of ever being able to get a project for here to the finish line. They just all seem to languish or ramble on. I was reviewing some of my options yesterday and I am still not really sure which one to pursue. Or just toss the lot and start something new. Part of my problem is my penchant for starting to write with a scene or general idea in mind but no real sense of where it should go or how it will end. Or I have an idea of how it will end but grow to hate it as I progress and halt before I get there.

I like both but pork does have a bit more flavour, I find.

Card game or board game for a lazy summer afternoon?

Quote by verbal
The bill passed the Senate. The billionaires are in charge now.

Thought that a different version passed the House and reconciliation would be needed? So it may not yet be over. Keep fighting. I was a bit po'd at the revocation of the Digital Service Tax. Giving Trump his way make ape grumpy. I am not a big fan of some of the regulatory moves Canada has made around digital services (like enforcing Can-con on services like YouTube), but using a tax to keep some of the profits in Canada was one I could handle.

It's Canada Day up Canada way on the first day of July...

So sang one of this country's great songwriters, Stompin' Tom. In honour of the day, here's pancakes with real Canadian maple syrup. Coffee is Timmy's Dark Roast (because Canada) and teas are Canadian Breakfast and Vinyl Cafe, both genuinely, authentically Canadian from my local tea shop. There's fresh lemonade and unsweet iced tea in the fridge. Sodas are stocked up, including a selection from Canadian legends, Pop Shoppe. There's actually been two runs of that brand. The first started in London, Ontario (Yay!) in 1969 and I remember them from my youth. They went bust in the eighties but the brand was revived in Burlington, Ontario in 2004. Have not actually tried them since the revival.

And some Canadian music. The Globe & Mail, one of Canada's biggest papers, did a list of "101 Canadian Albums You Need To Hear" for Canada Day this year. It's a real mix from classical greats like pianist Glenn Gould to the great Canadian singer-songwriters from the sixties and seventies (Young, Mitchell, Lightfoot, Cohen) to popular contemporary stars like Drake and The Weeknd. But one metal band made the list. Anvil started in 1978 and are cited as a major influence on thrash metal (Metallica, Megadeath, Slayer).

Here's a live performance of the title track from Metal On Metal by Anvil, one of the 101 Canadian albums you need to hear.

And forty plus years on, they are still at it. This is from last year's One And Only.

Watched a couple concerts from last week's Hellfest, big rock and metal festival in France. The Warning (Mexican power trio consisting of three sisters) and The Hu (Mongol folk metal).

Interesting, the headings reversed after I saved. So do they have the Markdown backwards and more # creates higher, rather than lower, level headings?

Test 2

Decent weather today. Still muggy but the heat is taking a break. Back to 30C tomorrow, though.

Got something out for another site. Gave up on my idea of writing in Obsidian. Too limited and Markdown imposes some weird limitations compared to a conventional word processor. Though I have realized that Markdown is actually the underlying language for the editor on this site. For instance, if you type a "*" followed by a space to start a line, it becomes a bullet. That's Markdown syntax. "# " creates a heading, and you can do Heading 2, Heading 3, etc. by using more "#"s (eg. ## creates a Heading 2 line). Examples of Heading 1 and Heading 2 below. Wish that was made clear somewhere on here. Sorry for the boring geeky stuff. I'm still a paid professional IT nerd so I do stuff like that from time to time.

• point 1

• Point 2

Car (Heading 2)

I'm wondering if tackling the recent Kings will get my reading mojo back. I hear he got good again. The fact that he now has a recurring character in Holly intrigues me. He used to have characters pop up as cameos or background characters in his novels, but never a real recurring character outside the Dark Tower, but that was an actual series.

Broccoli in a pinch, but both are good. My wife does an amazing stir fry with cauliflower and either white or shitake mushrooms.

Cooked veggies or a salad?

Quote by gillianleeza
looks a lot like a remake of the Gary Oldman version from 1992.

Added a few words to make it more accurate. I mean, did Besson actually read the book at all or just watch Coppola's version over and over? Looks like he's moved the setting from London to Paris so that might change the atmosphere a bit, but in general, it looks and feels like the Coppola. Maybe Dan Curtis', too, which used the "Mina is the reincarnation of Dracula's wife" plot long before Coppola did, though it was grittier and less over the top given it was a TV version and lacked a feature film budget (Jack Palance made a remarkably good Count, though). And I'm not sure Curtis was even the first. IOW, I'm not sure how excited I am for this version. The recent Nosferatu remake stirred more interest, to be honest, and I haven't even seen it yet.

Quote by verbal
In other news, got a flat after running over a nail while picking up my grandson from school.

One day I was driving somewhere on a Sunday and felt a tire going. Fortunately, I had to pass my office so I pulled into the parking lot. Put my donut on and went to Canadian Tire which is pretty much the only service bay open on Sundays here. Turned out I picked a broken piece of a metal spoon. No idea how that happened, but it stands as the strangest reason I have ever visited a garage.

Jazz-pop star Laufey continues her ascendence in the pop world. Her new album is due later this summer. She's announced an arena tour (seriously), which is amazing for someone singing in a style that was already considered "old people music" in my youth. I love it myself, but it's hardly what I expected would drive a stellar career in the 2020s. The next single from her upcoming album dropped yesterday and it's another of her forays into bossa nova, the hybrid of American Jazz and Brazilian music introduced by figures like Antonio Carlos Jobim and Stan Kenton in the 50s and 60s. She recently played in Brazil for the first time and was very thankful to them for their contribution to her music.

Happy Thursday!! Bit dark and wet around here but at least the temps have come down. Still a bit warm for my taste, but not unbearable. Holidays loom next week on both sides of the border. Canada Day is Tuesday and Independence Day in the US is Friday. Get ready for some celebratin'.

Tinkering with a new story but it's one of those ones where I have a scenario and some plot points but not an actual developing plot. I'm writing away, hoping one appears. That's worked sometimes in the past.

Well, I don't ski, but if I did, I could be happy with either. I've hiked the Colorado Rockies and visited the Alps, albeit on the Swiss side. Probably Colorado, though, if it was just for skiing. Closer to home.

Bake a dessert or buy one at a good bakery?

And the director of the first Bond movie of the Amazon era appears to be ... Denis Villeneuve, director of Arrival, BladeRunner 2049, and the current Dune series. He's got a pretty full plate already, with another Dune movie (Dune Messiah) planned, along with a new movie about Cleopatra so who knows when this will happen. And I've heard nothing about writers and actors, either. Villeneuve involved is good news given the quality of his past work and really suggests a hard reboot might in the offing. He's going to want a lot of creative control and won't want to be saddled with the past, even if he will likely pay homage to it. I remember hearing a lot about Villeneuve when he was still a rising star here in Canada so seeing him land another big franchise is quite amazing.

Finnish heavy metal band Battle Beast are an incredible band and a lot of that is due to the powerhouse vocals of Noora Louhimo. She screams, shouts, belts at volumes seemingly beyond what a human voice should be capable of. Has some absolutely wonderful over-the-top stage costumes, too. From their new live album, Circus of Doom - Live in Helsinki 2023.

Depends what I am learning. If it is a subject requiring a lot of interaction, like a philosophy seminar or class, still think a classroom works best. If it is straight-up learning a skill or something, then virtual or even self-study (I got my MS certification by self-study, for instance).

Host a party or be a guest at a party?

Coffee is always on. I just don't always post about it anymore, just when I change the coffee variety. Think of it as a bottomless pot. 😊

Here's some goodies for hump day or something like that. Someone somewhere must be celebrating something.

Quote by gillianleeza
The Crouch End is in one of his story collections, Nightmares and Dreamscapes, but it is supposedly slightly different from the one in the anthology.

He does that a lot. I think The Mist got edited between its first appearance in the Dark Forces anthology, where I have it, and it's publication as a novel. That's actually one of my favourite King stories. Never got around to the movie.

Quote by verbal
Cool and rainy and the good kind of gloomy today. It’s been hot as a tin roof here, so the cool-off and rain are welcome.

Someone I know in Alberta is reporting near freezing temps. She was worried about frost last night. 😲

Quote by WriterGirl

Don’t mind me as I stick my whole head in the freezer! Hot flashes on days like this aren’t for whimps!

Oh Lord, a hot flash in this weather sounds like a form of torture.

The only thing hotter than the weather is the coffee. Got some dark roast Nicaraguan brewed. For teas, there's Irish Breakfast and Buddha's Blend. Pitchers are washed and refilled with iced tea and lemonade. Sodas are stocked. There's ice in the freezer if you need to chill your drinks more.

Quote by verbal
The 8 hour ferry ride sounds like a trip.

I know the ferry she's talking about. You can actually book a berth and do it overnight.

Quote by WriterGirl
Hi everybody. In the words of the Wicked Witch… “I’m melting!!!!” It’s gonna be hot all next week.

As I just commented to a business contact in Boston, it seems to be most of Eastern North America. We are burning through (pardon the pun) heat records around here. High of 35C forecast here today. Current record for June 23 is 32.5. 😲

Bowl. I like ice cream in any form but the stick stuff gets messy.

Read a novel or a short story anthology?

Quote by gillianleeza
I recently watched a series based loosely on the short story Jerusalem's Lot. It's called Chapelwaite and stars Adrian Brody. It is supposed to serve as a prequel to the novel.

I have read the short story. Not so much a prequel as a first try at some of the ideas. It was one of his first published stories. IIRC it ends up being a Cthulhu Mythos story, something King toys with every now and then. His "Crouch End" (I have it in a mythos anthology but I am pretty sure it appears in one of his own collections too) is excellent modern mythos storytelling.

Well, that's a bleeping mess. I think our domestic air system sucks but that's mostly expense. I can fly to Europe for less than it costs to fly to the West Coast of my own country.

Quote by verbal
That Cali-Colo flight always ends up taking a couple of days before it finally lands in the correct city.

Just going from California to Colorado? Seriously? I can get a direct non-stop from Toronto to Vancouver or Calgary with no problem. Or was she not in a major city in California? I know to get anywhere from where I am, I have to connect because there's very few direct flights from our airport even domestically.

And lots of goodies to celebrate:

Summertime, and the living is easy.

Well, sometimes. Welcome to summer (solstice is officially 10:42pm EDT this evening, which is GMT 2:42am tomorrow). And here is Southern Ontario, we are getting some summer weather this weekend to kick it off. 33-34C Sunday through Tuesday. Even tomorrow is looking pretty steamy at 29C.

Still, I know some need their hot beverages whether it's glacial or tropical. There's Tobermory Grotto coffee on. For teas, we have David's Breakfast and Cream of Earl Grey, both from David's Tea. I washed the pitchers and made up fresh lemonade and iced tea. Sodas are stocked. There's cold filtered water in a pitcher, too.

Now to go celebrate the solstice in appropriate style.