Replaced by a computer

I’ve been struggling lately with a new schedule and the reality that my early mornings spent drinking coffee and running through the trails near Cardigan are coming to a close. I knew it would be a tough year, but waking at 3 so I can drive Camren to early morning training has worsened my cognitive decline due to lack of sleep. All this also means that I have found myself way behind schedule.

I was sitting at my desk with a story due 3 hours later on Tuesday afternoon. I didn’t have time to continue a series I had started, and I was stuck trying to come up with anything else. So, I relented and opened ChatGPT.

I subscribe to ChatGPT, and it has saved me from having to pay someone to do research or spend an hour on Google so I can write one sentence based on fact. It’s pretty good at giving me ideas for AD copy, too.

If someone asked me, and I realize no one would, what are you good at, I would say, nothing really. I might add I am empathetic and have some creativity (like we all do).

I entered into ChatGPT a long prompt asking for story ideas, and it returned a list that was so complete I didn’t feel qualified to write them. I asked for something simpler, and it delivered again. It’s more creative than I am.

Defeated, I went and prepared dinner.

I’ve already been replaced.


Visitors

It was great to connect again with Guy, and meet Yan Yan and Jing when they visited from Brooklyn this week. Guy and I went to Grad school together in Taiwan and haven’t really been in touch, with the exception of one social or another, since.


Ghosts in the machine

I sometimes think there are ghosts that inhabit the space between receiving an email and entering that data in a Google Spreadsheet: there are so many errors and missing info. Not a week goes by without a mistake.

One of the popular features of Sleep Tight Stories is the weekly shoutouts and birthday wishes to kids from all over the world. Kids love hearing their names on the show, and many more find it interesting to hear where other kids are listening from. We do this once a week, and often, there will be 20 or more messages to go through. You must be a supporter to get mentioned, but we seldom turn anyone down. A few other podcasts put a $50 US price tag on these, but that seems too aggressive for our tastes.

The process is entirely manual. Parents sign up for premium or send a donation, then reach out via email, and I reply telling them when the shoutout will appear. The data is then entered into a Google spreadsheet. It’s laborious, and I have struggled with all the emails this summer as my focus has been spending as much of my mornings outdoors as possible.

I should automate, but setting up a secure form is a pain, and then we lose this opportunity to ask questions and hear feedback. If we continue to grow, this will be unsustainable, so I hope a solution will present itself in the coming months.


Andrew Shue

我的好友非常懂得欣賞生活中一些美好的事物 (食物、藝術和文學)。更令人值得敬佩的是,他天生有種讓身邊的人感覺溫暖、備受愛護的感覺。 他展現的智慧和仁慈寬厚,對我的人生影響很大。 因為他的緣故,讓職場有家的感覺,且同事關係如家人一般。 若當初沒有遇見他,我在臺灣的生活絕不會如此充實。 他的英年早逝令人感到十分婉惜。


Catriona in Taiwan

Catriona has been in Taiwan this past week or so, living her best life. She has always considered Taiwan her home, so this is a homecoming for her, with lots of time spent with friends, shopping and eating.

She also met one of our dogs, who must be close to 20 years old, if that’s even possible.

Knowing my sensitivities to the high cost of living here, she sent us a note mentioning she paid the equivalent of $10CAN for a fancy meal at an all-you-can-eat hotpot restaurant. You can’t get a freezer-burned hamburger for that price in Charlottetown.

Taiwan telecoms make it easy to keep in touch. She got a local sim with unlimited data for $15 at the airport. As a result, she has been liberal with the pictures of fresh mango and other delicious fruits, helping Sheryl and I pine for when we can return.

Catriona returns next week, but I half expect her to call and say she is going to finish her degree there, such is her love for the place.


The Post Office That Doesn’t Sort Mail

The last time I went to the post office, I thought I just met an employee that was having a bad day and had a penchant for exaggeration. It turns out that that is her normal demeanour. It also turns out that they were quite serious about automatically returning mail-to-sender if there is no post office box in front of the address.

Before we managed to secure this PO Box, a client needed to send me a package, and since I didn’t know where we would be living, I thought the safest bet was to give our new address. Unfortunately, at some expense, they sent it by priority post and not by courier. They notified me yesterday that it was returned to sender. Embarrassing.

The same happened with some legal documents that were sent to our address.

I’m not sure what the employees at this particular Canadian post office do, but I can confirm that they don’t sort mail.


Welcome to the community

We bought our first lawnmower recently. Another indication that I must be putting down roots. Our house came with a ride-on lawnmower, but I am determined never to sit my ass on one of those things ever.

I wanted to cut the grass immediately, but Sheryl kept reminding me to think of the bees, think of the bees. So we waited. And there is a bee who comes around a lot, so I will plant some flowers for it later.

Then after filling the new fresh, out-of-the-box lawnmower with oil and gas, I tried to start it, and it wouldn’t start. We both tried repeatedly but had no luck. We were defeated by the most simplistic of machines (I wanted to buy a battery-powered one, but I don’t think they are ready for a field like ours.)

Then the rain started. And the grass continued to grow.

After the grass turned to dandelions, we got our neighbourly welcome note in the form of a letter from the town stating that our grass was too high and must be dealt with or we will be fined.

It’s a somewhat derelict area except for an Airbnb whose owner naturally lives elsewhere and, as such, isn’t a neighbour or neighbourly at all. So I suspect they complained, so we will not sully the look of their $ 450-a-night rental.

Dandelions are a terrible look.


The mailbox

I don’t know if this is the norm for every home across the Island, but where we moved, you must get a community mailbox before receiving mail. So shortly after closing on our house, I went to the nearest post office and asked:

“Hi, I would like to get a mailbox, please. We just moved in up the street.”

“Ok, before I can give you a mailbox, I will need to see one piece of ID and mail with your address on it.”

“I don’t have mail with my new address on it because I can’t receive mail until I get a mailbox.”

We went back and forth with this a couple of times until I suggested I come back with something stating I lived at the address in question.

It took a few weeks to return because they close at 5 pm. But they reluctantly gave us a mailbox (we arrived 10 minutes before 5) but with a stern warning – “We don’t sort mail at the post office. We return to sender if you don’t include the box number in your address.”

I get the feeling that there is some stress at our new local PO.


Four wheels move the body, two wheels move the soul

It’s interesting to be confronted with something different, like values and interests. I’m thinking this as I sit in an otherwise peaceful location as motorcycle after motorcycle thunders by, breaking the peace and disturbing all nearby.

I get motorcycles. It’s fun. But I don’t get the need for the modifications to make them as noisy as possible. The revving to accentuate their power. Especially when they know that it bothers others. Maybe that’s the point(?).

Perhaps, it’s similar to buying an $85,000 big truck when all you ever haul is a bag of groceries or two.

I suspect it’s mostly men. There must be a more constructive way to express your masculinity than by giving the middle finger to those around you.


All men need a drill

We are moving. I’ve written a number of different versions of this over the past month, but due to time and procrastination, they were never finished and now reside in my day-one diary.

At the end of this month, I’ll vacate my Victoria Row office for temporary digs until a more semi-permanent solution is finished.

Next month we leave our apartment in Stratford (finally) for an old house full of old house problems, but problems that we will own. I admire character homes for their quirks, and I look forward to trying to make it an interesting place to live.

The road to this decision was long, starting with whether or not we would continue living here. Health care, the cost of living on a small island, services, etc., have changed since we arrived. Changed for the worse.

We have no ties here, and we’re free to leave, but Sheryl has a job she loves with great people, so that tipped the scales to the side that said stay.

After that quick decision came the realization that every home we looked at was selling for 2 or 3 times what it would have sold for 2 years prior. That’s a tough pill to swallow. Timing is everything, I’ve been told.

Owning this home has taught me that a new vocation may be in order. Goodbye user experience, podcasting or writing children’s stories. Hello, carpentry. The house needs work, and contractors are like unicorns; you are more likely able to find a unicorn in the woods than someone available to help fix something. Despite the shortage of workers, there is only one course on Prince Edward Island to teach the skills you need, and it’s a full-time program at Holland College. Luckily we have Youtube.

I’m now off to the hardware store to buy a drill because my 92-year-old Uncle said that all men need one, and I’m sure there will be lots of drilling in our new old house.


Goals achieved

Catriona and Camren have been talking about specific goals for a couple of years, and it’s wonderful to see that they have achieved them.

For Catriona, this means embarking on her first solo trip to Taiwan this summer. She’s planned, arranged and paid for everything herself, and aside from visiting friends, eating good food and doing the usual touristy activities, she plans to set aside a day for a health check-up. She finds the medical system here as dysfunctional as I do.

Camren will start working as a lifeguard on the North Shore and is spending hours each week taking more courses in preparation. His days of working at Sobeys on Allen Street have come to a close.

The environment they’re growing up in is more challenging than when I was their age, which makes me all the happier that they can still follow and achieve their dreams.


Data

This chart indicates my weight gain since 2016, with the big jump representing when we moved to Canada. In total it represents about 12kg.

Unfortunately I don’t have as convenient a chart for activity level and amount of calories burned, but that data shows unsurprisingly a drastic decrease in activity levels. I went from a daily average of 12km of running a day to 5 – sometimes less than 5.

I have no convenient way to track what I eat, but when we lived in Taiwan, for the sake of expediency we would plan our our meals for the week. So I have that data in my calendar. We ate far more fish, green leafy vegetables and fresh fruit than we do now. Partially because they were far more readily available and affordable. We don’t plan our meals now, as the cost of food here is much much higher than we imagined possible, and variable. It was pretty much consistently cheap before, though there might be the odd sale on imported goods.

Data is a wonderful way to understand the changes in your body, and a great tool to change behaviour. I would love to eat like my son, it’s a lot of fun to continuously eat, but my body just doesn’t require it. One of the pleasant side effects of being really active, is you get to eat more. And eating is one of the greatest pleasures.


April will be better

March felt like a difficult month. Perhaps because I was out of my groove due to all kinds of distractions, it may have also had to do with the lousy virus I suffered through and the then lack of any kind of meaningful exercise. Or perhaps I am just tired of winter. While my March sucked, it certainly doesn’t compare to Catriona’s.

One of the factors influencing our decision to move back home was to provide better educational opportunities for the kids. COVID ruined that for a time, and now the UPEI faculty strike is having much the same effect.

I haven’t been generally impressed with the classes that Catriona has been taking at UPEI. Some were online only, others were “just read the PowerPoint,” and others seemed like a complete waste of money. Catriona’s very introverted, so it goes against her nature to continually chase her professors for answers to her questions. Her introversion also makes for a sub-par social experience, though I’m not sure what opportunities there are for that anyway.

With the strike, I’ve tried to convince her to seek education elsewhere, but she’s not ready to leave home yet. She doesn’t also share my views towards the classes she is taking and generally supports the faculty’s efforts towards better treatment from the administration. The emails she receives from the administration about the strike are so asinine. I can’t imagine why they bother sending them.

While I can’t convince her to seek a better education elsewhere, there is no doubt that Camren won’t attend UPEI in the fall. He sees the experience she is having and will go abroad to experience something more.


Subscription nonsense

In trying to create a living out of our creative efforts, there are few things that annoy me more than credit card charge disputes in Stripe.

Yes, subscriptions are hard to manage, and some companies count on customers being absent-minded enough to continue subscribing to their service even if they aren’t using it. That’s not us. I want people who subscribe to our paid feed to listen and engage with us.

And yet I just spent 20 minutes filling evidence that we didn’t defraud a credit card holder of a $7 payment to our service. Win or lose, this costs me $15. Ridiculous.

This wasn’t the first time this happened, and it likely won’t be the last.


We’ve joined Airwave

Airwave Media, the leading edutainment podcast network, announces a major expansion into the Kids & Family category with the acquisition of popular children’s podcasts What If World, Tumble Science Podcast for Kids, Sleep Tight Stories, Sleep Tight Relax, and Sleep Tight Science.

From history and science to arts and wellness, Airwave has quickly built a reputation as the go-to network for fun, smart podcasts for the “constantly curious” listener. They are excited to expand that brand into children’s programming with these first shows and plan to grow Airwave Kids with additional deals and original content in 2023.

“Kids content is a natural fit for Airwave.” says Ben Mathis, Head of Content for Airwave. “We believe in the power of podcasts to make us better, smarter human beings, and that starts when listeners are young. Parents who listen to our podcasts that educate and inspire want the same things for their children.”

Source: PodNews


Where Are The Greens?

We certainly miss the assortment of green vegetables that we used to cook and eat in Taiwan. We’ve tried to find some here, but it just isn’t as good. Greens used to be a major part of our diet, I suspect our health has suffered in their absence.

In the endless debates on the Internet over what the best Taiwanese food is, nobody ever mentions greens, but they should

But luckily we have greens. You can have your bubble tea and twice-cooked pork and Ding Tai Fung. They can’t touch Taiwan’s best dish: a perfectly cooked plate of leafy greens stir-fried with garlic and served bright and crispy by boss auntie, who is already ignoring you to move on to the next customer.

Notes from Central Taiwan: Taiwan: green paradise


That Cold Night

The Maritimes are recovering from the freezing cold we experienced last Friday into Saturday – lots of frozen pipes. Against common sense I decided to run to CrossFit Friday night across the Hillsborough bridge. I did so because I didn’t want to, if that makes sense, and to experience a new challenge. At early evening we hadn’t hit peak cold yet and luckily the wind was for the most part at my back.

The next day Sheryl took Camren to Sackville for a swimming session across the other bridge returning just before they closed it down. It wasn’t a pleasant drive.

Stafford takes great care in making sure all the sidewalks and trails are safe for walking during the winter. Charlottetown considerably less so, and it’s easy to see which buildings in the downtown are short/long term rentals as they seldom take care of the snow in front of their properties. My traction aids have been an important part of me staying upright so far this season.


No Ones Coming

I had no idea who the person behind this phrase, “no one is coming … to help you,” that the Instagram algorithm kept serving me for some time. Her interesting sound drew me to find the person behind the voice.

Her message is the same schtick that many keep proposing on social media. Which was something we lived through for all those years in Taiwan. The government was at arm’s length, we had no social safety net, and in the early days, if we lost a job, we had to leave within 2 weeks. We lived under constant threats of natural disaster and Chinese sabre rattling and raised two kids constantly exposed to various endemics. We did have access to the world’s best healthcare. Self-reliance was required.

Returning to Canada, we thought we could relax now that we were under the umbrella of a comprehensive social safety net, but it has been proven on a few occasions that this is not necessarily true. Especially tonight when the City of Charlottetown has made more effort to ensure that people know that no help is coming from the city during the coldest night in memory. For those in need in Charlottetown, truly, no help is coming.


Crispiest


Taken this morning when it was a relatively balmy -10 or so. I’ve got multiple layers for the run home, but with the windchill threatening to bring the temps down to the -40 range, running across the Hillsborough bridge to Stratford might not be wise. At that temp, my exposed skin might suffer frostbite.


Our Overlords

I was stuck on a paragraph so I asked ChatGPT for help:

Write a paragraph detailing what two characters experience while walking through the forest.

As the two characters, Alice and Bob, walked through the dense forest, they couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe and wonder. The tall trees towering overhead created a natural canopy that filtered the sunlight, casting a warm and peaceful glow on the forest floor. They could hear the gentle rustling of leaves and the chirping of birds all around them, adding to the serene atmosphere. Suddenly, a rabbit scurried across their path, breaking the stillness and making them jump. Laughing at their own reactions, they continued on, admiring the diverse array of flora and fauna that surrounded them. As they walked, they also couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched, causing them to stick close together. Despite the eerie sensation, they were both grateful for this chance to explore the beauty of the forest together.

As Sarah and Jack walk through the dense forest, they feel a sense of wonder and tranquility wash over them. The rustling of leaves and chirping of birds create a symphony that fills the air. Sunbeams peek through the treetops and dance across the forest floor, creating an ethereal glow. The smell of damp earth and pine is strong and invigorating. As they wander deeper into the forest, they come across a small stream that winds its way through the trees. They stop to listen to the gentle trickle of water and take in the peaceful surroundings. They continue on, feeling refreshed and at one with nature.

The character I was writing about was sitting at a table doing some math homework. I don’t really know what a child his age does for math. Normally finding this out would require the annoying experience of filtering through the garbage from paid placement or content farms on Google search, but ChatGPT provided a clean and good enough answer for the purpose at hand.

Describe a math problem that a student would study in grade 6.

In grade 6, students often study a wide range of mathematical concepts and problem-solving strategies. One example of a math problem that a grade 6 student might encounter is:

A rectangle has a length of 12 meters and a width of 8 meters. What is the area of the rectangle?

To solve this problem, a grade 6 student would use their knowledge of basic arithmetic and the formula for finding the area of a rectangle (length times width). In this case, the student would multiply 12 by 8 to find the answer, which is 96 square meters. This type of problem helps students practice their computational skills, as well as their understanding of basic geometry concepts such as area and perimeter.

I’ve heard people discuss this topic ad nauseum, but I haven’t had the opportunity to try it for myself until now.


Crisper

Taken during yesterdays running commute to the office. The weather has made running an adventure. The day before (?) I was wading through ice cold water that was up past my ankles, yesterday I was climbing snow banks in search of a sidewalk. Stratford does a great job of maintaining their trails but once you get off the bridge the sidewalk ends and you are on your own until you find a maintained sidewalk or take the risk of running on the road. Today we have another rain storm, which I didn’t feel like dealing with, and so I drove the car.


At what price

One of the many reasons we left Taiwan, specifically and life abroad generally, was the desire to have a sense of permanence that we didn’t feel we had where we were living.

We wanted a home. A physical and emotional place that we knew would be there whenever we returned from where we had been. Taiwan provided that, but there was always this undercurrent of uncertainty and the feeling that despite our best efforts, we might forever be considered “honoured guests.” We had an extensive social network there, were involved in the community, and knew the place better than perhaps this Island we again call home.

I knew the costs of leaving. I had access to my mother’s finances and knew the cost of living here was much higher. Amongst many things, we would likely have to forgo the luxury of cheap fresh fruit, vegetables, and meat and fish. My mother was always amazed that we could comfortably afford to eat salmon and steak regularly at breakfast and dinner.

Other places in the world had a lower cost of living and much better health care, but none could compete with the desire to return home after over 20 years abroad.

We created spreadsheet after spreadsheet to help plan for the move. Was it possible to live the lifestyle we were accustomed to? Not entirely, but it seemed close enough. Most of our decision-making has little to do with numbers and more to do with emotion. In work and life, I have always preferred qualitative measurements vs. Quant.

None of our thinking or calculations could have foretold a pandemic and the rocketing cost of housing.

When we finally realized there was a housing supply problem, we considered buying a house sight unseen. But we have become risk-averse, and most places we saw were houses, not necessarily homes. We never really understood the Canadian obsession with real estate as an investment. So we decided to wait.

Since then, houses we might have bought before have doubled in price. Some tripled. And with nothing in the way of upgrades that might justify such a lofty valuation. We have terrible timing.

We are now in a position where we are ready again to buy a home. Where we live now has served us well financially, but I get the feeling that no matter where you rent on the Island, you will always face with some regularity neighbours who seem hell-bent on making other neighbours’ lives difficult. That’s been our experience.

But I am faced with a question. Is it worth it? If we are fortunate to live so long, over the next 20 years, we could spend over $500,000 to live in a small house on the Island. That’s a heady increase over what it was just 3-4 years ago. And with the high cost of living and lack of health care, it gives me pause.

I don’t have a definitive answer to that question. The quant side of my brain says no. The qualitative side is unsure.


Crisp

It’s great to be relying on my feet again to get places. We drove to Halifax on Friday in the midst of a snowstorm which added an extra 90 minutes to an already long drive. It must be 20 years or more since I’ve driven in that kind of weather.


Pot of gold

It’s a strange world we now live in.

Sheryl is suffering from a nasty respiratory infection, which, while not life-threatening, makes sleep difficult, prolonging the whole getting well process. Attempts to find medicine to provide relief failed, with one pharmacist telling me she expects more supply in April. Not being able to find basic cold meds is something we have never experienced before, one of many weird firsts since returning to The Island.

I tried to book her an appointment with a doctor, but you have a greater chance of winning the lottery than getting into a walk-in clinic in Charlottetown.

Fortunately, when out buying groceries last night at the Superstore, I saw in the distance a couple of stray packages amongst the out-of-stock stickers in the medicine aisle. It felt like I had found gold.

Hopefully, this medication will bring her some comfort so that she gets some rest (the only real medicine) and finds herself back to normalcy.


Someone is enjoying my specialty coffee

“Again our apologies on behalf of our shipping partner.”

This is a quote from Detour Coffee who I have a coffee subscription with. My order was picked up on the 19th of December but has been lost ever since.

This message is a variation on a theme from many online retailers including Amazon (when they ship out east), and notably Happy Ears, who said when they’re ordered shipped, that concludes your experience with us, or something to that effect. Eight Ounce Coffee does not use this language and likely has me as a customer for life.

The experience you have with a company does not conclude when whatever low-cost logistics company you have chosen comes to pick up the package. It continues until that package arrives safely and long after. Eight Ounce Coffee sends an email after a period of time to ask about your experience with the product you ordered. Amazon spams you with review requests and buy more emails. Others add you to their email lists. We send our subscribers an email a week later checking in (although it hasn’t scaled, and we haven’t been able to continue).

There is a huge difference between having your package set carefully at your door and a neighbour finding your box in a nearby snowbank (Amazon). Which company would you want to do business with?


Looking for Charlottetown

Much of the Island is closed today due to weather. The run across the bridge to the office wasn’t so bad, but the poor visibility meant running on Water street was not a risk I thought I should take. I slide across Water to Grafton in search of a sidewalk of some sort, and eventually found one when I arrived at Holland College. Running in weather like this beats driving and I’m happy that I live close enough to my office that it’s possible to do so.


A year in podcasting

I’m in the beginning stages of updating our media kit for Sleep Tight Stories and am compiling some data for the last year. We’ve had this data on the web for some time but it seems that our partners prefer a pdf file to pass around.

With a lot of projects that need to be done this month I am procrastinating, but I thought I would share this pithy bit of data from our year in podcasting.

In 2022:

  • > 19,000,000 million downloads
  • 1st month download: ~50,000 (Sleep Tight Stories)
  • ~ 80 original stories written
  • ~ 10 science episodes written
  • ~ 310 episodes published

Most popular episodes overall:

  1. Nibbles The Mouse 🐭,
  2. Bobby and the Dinosaurs 🦖🦕,
  3. The Magical Book of Dreams – P1 📖,
  4. Sparkle Gets Her Stripes 🐻🦄,
  5. Willie Bakes a Birthday Cake 🎂

  6. Top episode in Sleep Tight Science:
    Our Solar System ☄️

    Top episode in Sleep Tight Relax:
    Forest Breeze: Gentle Sounds for Sleep 🌲


January Blues

January is my least favourite month. I’m at my most pessimistic, usually a bit glum, and generally feel like sitting by a wood stove and reading until the weather warms.

This dislike of January has never abated, even during those days many years ago when we would travel and spend time on a warm beach.

It makes me less enthusiastic about work, which might explain all the emails I have yet to deal with. And my reluctance to do more than what is required.

Doctors recommend light therapy, meds, and other things I don’t have time for. What I will do is try to continue running, eat more and realize that this January, like all the others, will soon pass and bring with it more sun and warmth.


Cold

This was taken yesterday as we experienced what I consider the first real winter day of the season. Today crossing the bridge into Charlottetown Siri stated that the windchill was a chilly -16˙C. The run wouldn’t be possible without tractions aids snapped on to my running shoes, it’s too cold to salt, but at least the active pathway was plowed and safe. Where the sidewalk off the bridge connects with the rest of Charlottetown is a bit iffy as there is nowhere to run but the road or a snowed in patch of grass.