A recent confession made me think of the strange meandering that dating has taken over the last few years. I have been on lot's of dates in the last year and they are very much different than they were the year before. Hell, the most common thing I've dealt with lately is a complete wholesome innocence from most people. Almost like people have had a complete reset of their lives and are dating/hanging out for the first time. People with kids are completely different as well. They're not clingy to their kids or their parenting lives like I have ever seen it. Maybe being cooped up for so long dramatically changed them, but I've gone on enough dates lately with parents who haven't even mentioned their kids. It's almost felt like they're kids, or teenagers or something getting their independence for the first time as well. Many of my dates have ended in friend zones, but not forced, much more organic. like "I'm your age, we get along, maybe this isn't romantic, but this is something I want to continue." I've even been set up on dates from dates. It's all f*cking weird, but also kind of amazing. Toxicity will return I'm sure, but whatever... this spring is lovely.

I recently had an ex try to come back into my life. They have been diagnosed with a life changing ailment. However, they trashed my life and lied relentlessly about me when we broke up. They even messed with my career at that point. It's been a few years since that and I had moved past it, but their recent communication just seemed self fulfilling and shady. Your actions when you're healthy don't change when you get sick.

It seems that every 30 years of so, the youth of today rise up in artistic revolution. I was a kid in the 90's, my mom in the 60's, my grandma in the 30's. Well, it's the 20's and we're right on track. The youth of recent went through something none of us olds will know what it's like. Isolation in ones formative years will create pain for some, but it will also bring some sort of youthful artist revolution. I am excited to see what they do. When I was a young peep, NWA and Nirvana were opposites, and equally revolutionary. The early days of internet made art go global and the implosion was a beautiful spectacle of a generation. I am excited to see where this generation goes and what they dance to.

considered how the original Indigenous inhabitants of these Unceeded Territories feel when they hear the hate-filled comments of the children of immigrants calling down their misguided wrath on recent immigrants? How about this for an idea? People of good will put their hands and hearts together to help avert the perils of today's World from the massive destruction of a pending WW3 and environment collapse .... OCM Coast Salish affirmations

In recent years I have accomplished some things that few thought I could do, and many tried in vain to prevent. Throughout it all, people close to me are the ones that kept me trying even when things were bleak or when first attempts failed. Throughout February of this year so of those people took motivations from me and tried to fly themselves. One of those things happened to be something that floored me and even I thought "there's no way they could do that". At first it was almost envy. Sure they took their motivation from me, but what they did trumped anything I did by a long shot. After a few days emotion turned to pure pride. Somebody I've never really looked up to has done something that I now gaze upon with proud envy eyes in a way I never thought possible. Life and people's feats are beautiful.

I was never a catch. A dreamer never is. However, in recent years and through unconventional ways I have acquired a house, a car and my career is stable. In the last ten years I had a bout with detox over a 12 month span, but that was the outlier, not the trend. If anything, it IS a skeleton in the closet, rather than a hidden. I read many confessions about women with kids and their struggles. Part of my scenario is similar, my generation seems to get married multiple times and somehow every one they've been in has been abusive(men and women). By the time they're in their 40's it's like they've become teenagers all over again, and partial victims. My parents generation generally seemed to have their shit together by their 40's. The pandemic seems to have crashed things even harder. I own a house so I get lots of people trying to get action, but mostly people who don't pay their bills or something. When you've been married before, when you've had kids, and you still are "finding yourself" in your 40's.... you're the red flag. I was the red flag. born and bred. I acknowledged it about myself. The people who said I wasn't good enough to be married to apparently weren't either

I confess the recent postings from the egotistical 'baller' who claims he has amassed a plethora of possessions and money makes me burst out laughing. The fool doesn't realize that at the end of it all it doesn't matter how much shit you've accumulated but how you treat people and humanity and that your health is the most precious of all. Some believe that the ultimate accounting takes place in the after life. This hapless individual hasn't lived out his days yet and as fast as he has acquired all of this 'stuff' the braggart can just as quickly lose it. Pride goes before a fall they say. I predict some serious lessons are yet to be learned.

I have always been kind of a drifter through life, no clear goals or ambitions, a recent wake up call happened when I learned the job I had for 15 years may be ending soon and I have been sending out resumes. I am in my 50s so the prospect of looking for new work is bad enough but I have come to the realization that I have no "hard" skills. I don't speak another language, don't know how to touch type, can't computer code, have the barest understanding of MS Office and Excel, only vaguely know a few computer programs all of them art related. Back when I was in my 30s friends, who's career paths weren't working out went back to school and learned different skill sets. Since it took until my 40s to pay off my student loans, the idea of going into debt again filled me with dread. On top of that, I'm terrible at networking and I don't play well with others. So yeah, I'm screwed. I'm a few credits away from a BFA, I'm thinking dipping into my savings and going back to school so I can say I accomplished something. however minor. Heed these words people in your 30s and 40s, it's not too late to change paths if things aren't working out for you, don't paint yourself into a corner like I did.

As a proud prider I find many of the articles these days very interesting. A recent article highlighted the associated of Davie street with white men. I suppose it is a positive that today's youth of pride do not have to go through the AIDS/HIV epidemic to the point that they can associate the recent past as "white men." When people have become more concerned with intersectional issues, it likely means they no concept of having sex, feeling like shit a few weeks later and then having the doctor(there was specific community of dr's and healthcare providers on Davie street) come in, give the 50 yard stare before telling you, "you're gonna die relatively soon." The word BIPOC wasn't part of our dialogue because it was prefaced on inclusion of our community.

I'm disturbed by the decampment resulting from the Centre-Right new municipal government policy toward E Hastings, which is very well stated by some recent articles on this website. They nail the issue fairly well (IE: there is nowhere for people to go, and housing is inadequate) However, I think the former policy of "Laissez faire" is an abysmal failure... which was the status quo under governments of all levels from the Feds, Prov and local, under all sorts of left, centre and right parties all across the spectrum. The idea was that homeless people need a place to live and congregate, what this really meant: let people do whatever they want. Simply letting people do whatever they want is not a long term solution... We need a multi-pronged solution that draws on various approaches that may ideologically conflict with each other: - Sufficient FREE housing needs to be constructed and provided ASAP (this should be a top policy objective at all levels of govt. Urgently breaking ground to build the actual homes) - FREE MONEY to live: guaranteed liveable income. - Disperse the homes (and social services) around various neighbourhoods around the city to avoid creating a ghetto (see: East Hastings currently) - enforce existing laws: use of drugs and alcohol in public view should be illegal. Smoking crack, shooting heroin etc. should not be allowed in public view. Do you want children walking to an event with their parents seeing overdosing and open air drug sales and use? - allow social services like Insight and other therapy services, with robust funding to incentivize people to enter and stay in the industry. Make social work attractive to highly educated college grads by offering high salaries (funded by taxing the rich, closing offshore tax loopholes etc.) - legalize and sell safe supply of drugs at retail outlets, but again emphasize it is illegal to consume in public - discourage "congregation" of a criminal element (buying, selling, using drugs) in public spaces. This is one of the most complex issues. Even when people have homes. - educate the public that there will always be drugs and homeless and we need compassion Take a read of Malcolm Gladwell's the tipping point where he talks about what NYC did to combat street crime. Not perfect... but they actually solved the problem.