So, first I’m very grateful for everyone’s participation & interest and for simply remembering me after i disappeared with illness and other life conundrums.
Keeping Expectations Balanced with Priorities
Next, extending a warm invitation to come meet us at various parks and gardens where we’ll be with a picnic blanket and a thermos of coffee at checkpoints in:
Langley/Surrey: current til April 19
West End / DT Vancouver: April 19 ~ 25
Metchosin: April 25 ~ 29
Victoria / Oak Bay: April 29 ~ May 3
Pender Isle (Woods & Sparrow): May 3 ~ 10
Fairview / Kits: May 10 ~ 12
North Van / Lynn Valley: May 12 ~ 17
Langley / Surrey: May 17 ~ 25
Home to Tsuchida Cottage: May 25/26
“Main point” of the trip is for my darling wife and adorable son to meet family as well as to reconnect with hugs and gifts with so many of you wonders.
Especially eager to meet kids for Ichiro to hang with at wonderful playground. Also, so grateful for recent friends coming to visit and participating in our life.
My big concern is “crashing” with this illness which puts me out of action for days/weeks. Good news is: doing the best i have in years thanks to some recent treatment protocols and modalities.
I’m doing my best but/and if we can’t meet, no big deal – its complicated and folks have lives/jobs etc, please come to Japan! A safe, efficient, interesting, amusing, and somewhat affordable destination where we will be happy to welcome you with tea and goats.
It’s March, and I’m so tired. But I was tired and February too so I guess nothing’s changed :) but hey, April is going to be a beauty
This is not a postcard, it’s a cassette tape but hey, it might be traveling from Cartagena to the Carolinas or maybe just to Japan ++ there is a minor chance that the typed liner notes don’t match the actual contents (i started this project before holidays and ended up with a bunch of scattered sheets of different tracklists so I hope I matched the right one up)
Went out for medical treatment today (seitai), had a lovely chat with 2 elder ladies also waiting in tatami mat room clinic, also scribbled some postcards.
Wife and kiddo went for lunch and afterwards, we all went to the park. I sat on the bench.
Now resting in bed.
Noting postcards are mostly for folks who are having a rough time with health challenges themselves. I know how much it means to me when I get a note in the post wormhole so I try to always remember to share a piece of magic paper with a specific thrifty sticker on it with others
I think postal mail c/should be made as though they were generational artifacts. This is not required, just a thought I like to think.
So much fun dropping off letters with the kiddo. Chance to talk about where the letters/cards are going, who the recipient is, and why you’re sending. Geography, communications, empathy, friendship… All in one lesson <3
[Update} Gosh, craziest dreams last night… So vivid and all over the place.
Hit up seitai again and holy smokes… That fccked up vertebrae (lumbar number two) is finally starting to move after a couple years of working around it and today my entire nervous system is buzzing with electricity. Going from my left second toe tracing lines up through my shoulder blade into the back of my skull
Completely wild, I’m trying to lay still but feel like I got jumper cables attached
Just needed to tell someone in case I levitate and float up to outer space
I guess thoughts of passing of a friend combined with seitai treatment, changing of seasons, + medications all cooked up a perfect stew of mental chaos (plus lingering anxiety of leaving in Japan for a trip)
Scenes in Cartegena & Carolinas, various cargo transport airplanes, clues hidden in a smuggled menus, hitchhiking in Spain & meeting up with a band who were partying hard before doing a show at 4 AM at a festival a long way away. Nothing I haven’t done before but still… collaged
Ergo: *finally* getting some L2 nerve compression released after decades of doctors saying “oh it’s nothing, here’s some painkillers” Neural synapses reconnecting is a completely psychedelic & exhausting experience. However i am unable to explain this to my doctor (esp in Japanese)
A picture of the cottage and the tool shed and carport snapped to explain where the solar panels will go but for now… it’s just a picture of the cottage, the tool shed and the car port
Other dis-intermediated maybe semi-related but probably not notes:
Indeed, we’re not “standing on the shoulders of giants” were “leaning against normal sized humans” - like *us* who have just done other things similar before us… Reminds me of cultures passing from shiitake log to shiitake log as they’re leaned up against each other in the woods
(life in Japan is a constant barrage of “wait what? Seriously, they can do that?”)
Just on this day we’d gone to a park with an octopus slide, a medical treatment in a tatami room, a 7-11 for ¥900 lunch/world tour of food, stopped at a bakery that looked like was airdropped in from provincial France… while listening to Wes Anderson’s Isle of dogs soundtrack.
Today saw an oddly placed ramen & gyoza vending machine. no idea how it works nor why *here*
From the van window. We called the van Agnes. Shall I post a zoomed in shot? OK.No, I do not know how this works and I would investigate but the placement is very strange and inconvenient. So we go on
Just remixing some passports from Romania and Albania.
Remixing expired passports from Romania and Albania into “dossiers of mystery and tactical intrigue” complete with endorsements, visas, assignments, sightings, safe houses, maps, aliases, poetry, ephemera, snippets, stamps – both ink and postal – musings, memos, codes, secrets.
Completely usual behavior – carry on with your diligent efforts.
Checkpoints include: Sri Lanka, Nepal, Diego Garcia, Vatican, Athens, Kyoto… etc + green beavers and diligent dogs
Everything old was new again / same as it ever was, same as it never was.
Ergo: L: 1987 trying to look like mix of Mike Mills of REM & SusannaHoffs of Bangles = super cute M: 1982 when basically i had one choice of frames to fit my dashing glass executive bi-focal lenses R: 2022 last week at 130 yr old optical in provincial Japan, comfy as a eccentric renegade poet/papa
Various annotations Nov. 25~27ish
Glasses: my super cool vintage clubman glasses are broken after some roughhousing with kid (and also from being old) / back up pair gives headaches & delicate. This means, going to spectacle shopping again. Yes, I’ve spent approximately 14% of my lifetime earnings on glasses.
these old soldiers, purchased in Guam 1994 with brand-new “transitions” tech, re=fitted last year but alas, the frames too fatigued and broken twice
My back-up pair (purchased in Victoria) never quite dialed in with lenses maybe because wide-ish and so my don’t call me lazy left eye is always pulling to the side ?? the frames were bought with insurance meaning came from the “b-pile” and are flimsy :(
currently wearing these specs, just not *great* though (i am the one on the left)
Circumnavigation: Progress on my poetry book project has kind of stalled out due to some logistical complications of broken spectacles. That said, I did a tremendous amount of work getting a new routine going for transcriptions and definitely have a foundation laid as I’ve sorted out my concept.
current work bench set-up for poetry book project
Visitor: And, hey! we have our first foreign tourist guest coming tomorrow since the “before times“ (we had another international guest but technically on a business visa).
So, i’ll take bus into city to meet up > streetcar to lunch with a view of the castle > coffee in the park > bus back to the house, wife will probably make tea, check out barn studio ++ make a woodstove fire nabe (stew) pot with duck meat. Mac the goat farmer & in-laws will join the festive board.
more sundry tasks of late:
new orthotic inserts for shoes, great!
made chicken stock from beauty beer can roast chicken
ordered new year cards and stamps
IV “cocktail” infusion
brought in firewood
called a friend
Further details
Specs: Ordered new glasses from a very specialized optometrist with a store started by his great grandfather in the 1800s, yes, 130 years ago. Also had an interesting assortment of clocks/watches and a Yamaha hi-fi similar vintage to mine. Head spinning from all the eye tests. Now home in bed resting.
Ole Eye guy put me through extensive battery of tests. Optometrist, ophthalmologist, opticians etc. are always fascinated/amused/amazed by my eyes. Left eye w/ astigmatism and surgery, is my weak eye but also dominant. Eyes constantly switch back-&-forth but never work in tandem.
a variety of uninspiring frames but fortunately i have a “face for glasses” so will work it out
Selection of frames was certainly * not fantastic* but over 50 years of doing this, I’m good at sorting through and finding something unique, utilitarian and features my pretty face rather than specs. Also smart enough to know chasing around to different stores is fools errand.
previous time spec shopping – didn’t buy any of these and instead retro-fitted olden set, sharing to show my consistency with documenting process
PS grew up wearing “executive bifocals” with heavy glass lenses with straight across lines like maybe your grandpa rocked. As such, I truly celebrate all advancements in optical technology. Lenses are so much lighter and thinner now. But still hard getting “centerpoint” dialed in
#daveo50 ~ 1972 / Lansing, Michigan
Have a week to wait for manufacture (incredible variety of coatings, filters and customizations possible now, not to mention the thinness of the lenses!) and then these two will retire to the crate of disused soldiers. Sigh. $10000s spent on finicky eyes. Skimping is unwise.
My prescription is really weird so lenses always come in at waaaay too much + due to the changing nature of my eyes, usually have to swap out every two or three years :( I “joke“ that I bought boats for optometrists & paid for orthodontists for the children of ophthalmologists.
i used to donate old glasses until the opticians & eye doctors told me “don’t bother, nobody is going to be able to use these, nobody” / maybe eventually will make a spectacle spinning mobile.
Park and Trucks (and cheese): While I was doing my thing at the old-timey optical, my darlings hit up a park for a session & a snack.
Now one of them is snoring next to me :)
Tea ceremony: In another topic, my darling wife went to a special ceremony tea today // she was the only one they are under probably 70 years old… They all adore her for carrying on the tradition of making tea, rocking kimono etc. She came home with all sorts of treats including yuzu miso(!)
my tea teacher
this little selfie snapshot hardly does her justice but I just love that she keeps me in the loop with her activities when she’s out and about.
Oh here is wagashi:
yes, wagashi “sweets’ at tea ceremony. plating is important
She’s gonna host her own tea ceremony here at the house this month… I really look forward to her doing more in the future… {Now if we can just get that land and make our own tea house & garden hmmm}
I also told preschool wanna be Santa Claus again this year but have to make a few changes. Last year was lots of loud music, bright lights as well as 1-on-1 interaction with the kids which basically gave me a virus salad that laid me out for a month and a half. :( #delicate
Letters: Two absolutely fantastic and heart-touching pieces of mail today from domestic correspondents, yep, from inside dear Japan archipelago from folks “met” here on beleaguered Twtr. Just read both and a little bit spun out by the thoughtfulness and candidness.
New Year Cards: In a sorta semi-related topic: going to try to keep nengajyo / New Year’s cards to 100 domestic and 100 international this year. Ordering the “special magic number“ ¥63 stamps for domestic + ¥70 stamps for international as post office doesn’t generally have sufficient stock.
2021 Insta-Lindas New Year card
Anyhow, I’ve ordered the New Year’s cards and really looking forward to sharing with you.
2020 Time Traveler New Year card
The “usual“ in that there’s fantastically cute picture on the front and quirky poetry and stamp art on the back / but you know, sort of different, I guess :-) the thing that’s different this year is did them all digital and outsourced printing. previous years made all analog and printed at home running through cartridges and making extra complicated this year is a tiny bit more clip arty but will all be hand-addressed/finished w/ <3
New Years Greetings / 2019 + Reiwa 2
The previous “Linda Lindas/Insta“ and “Time Travelers“ and *pink collage* were pretty solid. I hope it makes its way to your refrigerator with a very nice magnet.
The photo we are using this year has been circulated before but was just too good to pass up the chance for a print run with it :-) #hint
Lit mags: Annnnnd I finally received the poster for my Paris Review subscription (which i bought instead of renewing NHL live :)) / glad it was properly shipped in a tube as well
paris review poster (need to find a quality poster frame plan as i have a lot of posters)
I really love getting high-quality print magazines in the mail. Alas, the postage to Japan often makes us a little bit expensive for a pensioner like me but still…
As for Ichiro: 29 months old now, really understanding he’s learning “two codes“ with a different languages/ we’re reading Tintin books (among many others) and in the bath he asks me to do voices for Snowy, Tintin and Captain Haddock (“Blistering barnacles! Thundering typhoons!“)
my lil superstar, at the optical, wondering when he gets specs
Easier: Nov 26
Dear Wonders,
Caught up dishes and laundry, and took out compost.
Plus had a pleasant phone conversation and transcribed one draft poem.
Now resting in bed eating a dried persimmon.
“Things are gonna get easier…“
Ty, dvo
For you & me “Ooh Child”
Bonus:
My pal Trevor sent me a photo of Maca in his record room {pic taken by his daughter Mary} so I immediately did my best to gaze into the distance in front of records like a good sir might.
Monday morning-ish, getting head spinning fluidly by riffing with ya
Just transcribing poetry notebooks, journals, diaries, and so on on a “typewriter-style” computer input device (a gift from Dome Wonderland) and date-stamping pages when done sometimes, while listening to The Matinée’s new album in kura barn studio in provincial Japan – sometimes squinting, something showing the notebooks (trying to maintain momentum).
Poorly lit, no narration, mediocre posture – working on poetry/musings book: “Circumnavigation, of Sorts” Nov. 2022, Tsuchida, Japan. That’s the full real deal.
Monday morning-ish, getting head spinning fluidly by riffing with ya
Working on establishing rhythm / maintaining momentum by not overthinking + rocking a routine (incense, meditation, tea, lighting, music) and staying on course by writing mantras, keeping great books (both form and content) at hand (Gord Downie, Jack Micheline, Larry Harper, Jason Emde, Isabella Mori, Jack Kerouac), recalling the importance of exploring new forms (recalling REM’s Fables of the Reconstruction), flashback to Grateful Dead, Eugene 1990, and remembering why i am doing this (for Stanley, for Me, for Pals / you) – not like anyone else is obliging me right? – whilst in the Kura barn studio, working on poetry/musings book: “Circumnavigation, of Sorts” Nov. 2022, Tsuchida, Japan.
With froth about Twitter recently, many “behind scenes” stories i’m tempted to riff from an owl-themed-social-media-corp, especially about open/closed APIs, translation/localization, advent of “promoted tweets”, scrapyard acquisitions etc, but I’m gonna hold off, for now anyhow.
Memento: Reggie Watts and “Hootsuite Guys” / Tectoria, 2012
The early days of Hootsuite was a wild barrage of excitement and activities including a lot of semi-related speaking gigs which were on “my own time” but often relating to experience gained while doing start-up companies including this particular social media software project.
In this example, my co-conspirator and fellow vice president (me community, and him business development) Greg Gunn went back to Greg’s hometown of Victoria, BC (where i later lived for a bit) for a “Experience Tectoria” event which ran in tandem with the fantastic Rifflandia festival (for which we received VIP passes and a fancy hotel).
We did a Keynote on a Boat at Experience Tectoria (spiel with orcas and beers) – Roundup in the lovely harbour with “12 pieces of wisdom” learned from doing this and other start-ups. It was one of the funniest and most fun speaking gigs ever and, was interrupted as a pod of orca whales (seriously) was breaching off the side of the boat, so we could pause to see the grandeur.
There was abundant food and beer on offer during the talk, and at the end I was given a case of “bomber” bottles which, shockingly and only time ever, I had to decline as I had an opportunity to rush over to the music festival to catch my buddy Dan Mangan perform – at the time a rising star, now a solid presence, Juno-award winner and a start up founder himself.
As part of the programming, Reggie Watts also performed and had a chance to hang out with him for a “session” plus Wayne Coyne from The Flaming Lips came to check out the event (but sadly wasn’t at our talk – though i did say hello and later rocked out to his band’s stellar outdoor performance) – I also judged a start-up pitch panel, choosing a winner and went on to be at on their advisory board (Kiind / Giftbit).
Audio: Some years afterwards, some video clips surfaced, I extracted some audio, cleaned it up and released for educational use as Keynote Aboard a Boat.
PS Goes without saying neither Greg nor I are with Hootsuite anymore.
Project: Upon turning 50 years old on August 16, 2020, Dave Olson (me, hello) is posting a photo (or maybe photos) a day / per year – starting with 1970 with intent of chronicling existence through various primary evidence sourced from studio portraits, class photos, ID / passport photos, or occasionally other “casual/group/random” shots when the above don’t exist in my archive (note: not “artificial intelligence,” really me, pulled from shoeboxes, journals, wallets and whatnot – diligently scanned and dated via glasses and haircuts, lightly annotated).
There was a period where I worked for certain owl-themed social media software company and, as part of building internal community goodness, there were occasional festive parties/activities put on by various departments who were allotted at $300 budget and attempted to constantly one up each other with what they could pull off.
My beloved department (community) was paired with another and chose the theme of 1980s homecoming dance.
I played the role of principal, making various announcements and instigating various contests and hi-jinks including a poorly executed “king and queen” election which was thwarted by an incompetent accountant.
As usual, there’s more to say and more artifacts exists but this gem of an invite shall be your guide.
And yes, the theme was very familiar to me because indeed I attended these sorts of events in the 1980s right out of the pages of Napoleon Dynamite. Evidence follows:
Mark Swenson (back far left) and Dave Olson and various wonderful ladies at Orem High School (UT) graduation. Note: i was there as observer as i did not graduate with this class, rather with Alpine School District Adult High School
PS We made a video time capsule that night where folks could riff their memories or thoughts or well, who knows… but the time capsule is really legitimately lost to time. In fact in those days of the company, I also created old office tours, various messages and other community videos which have been scrubbed from the Internet. Maybe one day some things will surface again, probably not.
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