Comments and Digital Montages

 Housebound now, I do a lot of Zoom and Phone Meetups. I moderate 2 groups on Wednesdays for Sunshine Centre for Seniors, especially the Short Story Club https://eldertalk.ca / I've just Joined North York Centre for Seniors. I take classes and attend the chat groups for the Wiccan Church of Canada https://www.facebook.com/groups/2263465985 I also contribute to and help run the Facebook page for Junction Writers Group here in Toronto https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063537251364

 I use Zoom weekly for: 1. Sunshine for Seniors Coffee, Tea and Chat - which I moderate for one hour on Wednesday mornings. 2. Sunshine for Seniors Short Story Club - which I moderate for one hour on Wednesday afternoons. I bought a domain name and created a website for that https://eldertalk.ca / 3. Junction Writer's Forum every 2nd Monday where I read stories of others and submit some of my own. 4. Family Services Toronto every other week where I kibitz on the social workers and their online clients in an open forum where I may be the only cheerful voice. 5. Toronto Bead Society about once a month. 6. EMCC where we are now having hybrid meetings centered on the Imperial Pub in downtown Toronto. And so it goes....

 Taking a Blogging and Podcasting course at G.A.L.E. with Richard Mansfield.   I've done both for years but there is always something new to learn. It's free with my Library Card from the Toronto Public Library. Myself, the persistent Blogger Since then I have taken a G.A.L.E. Course on Editing and, later this month, I'll be starting a Course on submitting articles to magazines.  My Udemy WordPress Course has been useful and continues. I'm watching LinkedIn videos on HTML and WordPress, also through my e-learning via my library card.

 Still doing Zoom Meetings.  I facilitate 2 on Wednesdays for Sunshine Centre for Seniors here in Toronto. The website is  https://eldertalk.ca/ Free Zoom Reading Club for Seniors, 55 years of age and older in Ontario. Listen with us to classic public domain short stories, then discuss. Wednesday Zoom Meetings last one hour, from 2:00 pm until 3:00 pm Contact us  for information The Sunshine Short Story Club is a peer-led gathering of friendly 55+ seniors. We meet Wednesdays from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. on Zoom to listen to and discuss public-domain and free-to-read stories, ranging from classic tales to modern science fiction. See our current and upcoming stories on our website.

 Starting to crop my Click and Grow lettuce and basil daily. The tiny tomato plant has a blossom but until and 2nd blossom show up I cannot be the bee and pollinate. My Aerogarden has just started a little garden of varied lettuces and salad plants. Going to be a green Summer :-)

My Click and Grow hydroponic unit is not yet ready for prime time, so here's a picture of my cat, Tubby.  He is a very smart boy.  

  My Petunias, on the other hand, have been flourishing for over a year and I bought those seeds from a local Canadian seed company.  I do have to trim them regularly to prevent overgrowth.

 Now have 3 hydroponic units - 2 Aerogardens and a large Click and Grow. Pictures later. Things I have learned: 1. You can't put just any seed in there.  Planted a grape-type tomato plant lately.  It's acting like Jack's Beanstalk.  The skies the limit.  Going to have to try and transplant it outdoors. I suspect the seeds and plants chosen by the companies that sold me the units might be best. I wish regular (Canadian) seed companies like Stokes and Veseys carried seeds suitable for growing in small indoor hobby units like mine. Rampant Tomato in Aerogarden

I changed the name of my Meetup from North York Seniors Discussion Group to Small Talk . I have learned several things over the couple of months that I've been doing this. 1. Don't make your group name too specific since this will limit your audience. 2. It's like fishing.  Sometimes the fish bite and sometimes they don't.      Just take it as it comes, eventually, the fish will start biting again. 3. Learn to listen! Here's the link to my online chat group https://www.meetup.com/discussion-meetup-group/

In a moment of madness, I started a Senior's discussion group for North York in Toronto. Pray for me :-)

 Doing a lot of Zoom Meetings.  My main community is Sunshine Centre for Seniors where I participate and also present in the various online forums.  I also Zoom two plant clubs here in Toronto.  One is the African Violet and Gesneriad Society ( TAVGS ) & the other is Toronto Cactus and Succulent Club ( TCSC ). I also Zoom with EMCC my long-standing computer geeks group. I've added a seniors discussion group.  We'll see how that goes.

During this time of lockdown, I live much as usual since I am, by nature, a solitary soul.   I'm doing a lot of Zoom Meetings with my senior's group, my 2 plant groups, my longtime computer geeks group EMCC and a Canadian Science Fiction Writer's group on Meetup.  Because of my Broadcast and Podcast experience, I shine during these events.  In fact, I am doing hour-long presentations for my senior's group based on my podcast transcripts where the formula is while I am speaking anyone can interrupt with a question or comment and there are frequent pauses for discussion.  Since my 'stories' are, in some sense, universal they tend to evoke a response. The hope is that the listeners will tell their stories as well. Other than that I don't leave my premises except for a cab ride to my Podiatrist every 6 weeks.  Have to look after those diabetic feet :-) I'm writing a bit after taking a short writing course with my  Sunshine senior's group.

Resistence I remember street agitation in New York City in the late 60s.  I was living then on the Lower East Side.  There were demonstrations around and about us.  The sight I most remember were tanks rolling by on Houston Street which I could see from the back window of the apartment. This was gunboat diplomacy i.e. a show of force meant to intimidate rioters/demonstrators. It's happening again!  June 4, 2020

When I first came back to Canada from New York City, I was shocked by the audience's reaction to performers. They just sat there and then, at the end, they would clap, sometimes politely, sometimes very heartily, but just clap. Nobody moved to the music. Nobody grooved to the music. They just sat there and, at the end, they clapped. In New York, on the folk scene in the 60s, those were our people up there on stage and we were listening to them and watching them make mistakes but hearing what they were doing. It was a creative period happening with people we knew personally up on a stage and singing songs that we were familiar with. It was part of our subculture, I guess you could call it. I had the good fortune to attend several performances at New York City's Apollo Theatre up in Harlem and I saw there an audience like you would not believe. The black culture there was embodied in the music. Embodied is a good word for it. What was going on there on stage was refle...

As promised Barbie with my Raspberry Pi mini computer running  Raspbian Linux

My latest venture was to put together the bits of hardware surrounds a really tiny Linux computer called an Raspberry Pi. Most expensive part was the adapter to connect the tiny motherboard to a computer monitor.  Got ripped off by a company I will not name for both the price and the delivery fee. When put together it worked just fine.  Stay tuned for a photo of a Barbie doll holding the CPU :-)

Reading Oxford History of Biblical Lands but I have supplemented it with a fine volume (strange to call it thus when it is an ebook) on ancient Sumeria. Such scholarly texts are a relief from more ephemeral fare. They require concentration and thought. I am less pleased with the Biblical characters and society and more inclined to see the larger picture. What defines the bible cast is a book of carefully crafted propaganda, beautifully written about folk more legendary than real.

I have 3 eReader devices,, 2 Kindles and an Kobo, plus 4 desktop applications which also allow me to peruse the world's literature. My shelves are crowded with books made of paper and I wish there was some way to bequeath them all since my reading lately is electronic through my devices and on my computer desktop Perversely, I seem to prefer reading material from 1912. I am now reading H.G. Wells' "Lost World", an interesting series on common life in Victorian London and have just purchased a Neal Stephenson book "Quicksilver" set in Colonial times.

Still reading a lot. The 'touch' Kindle is slightly heavier but I'm getting used to it. I tried the text to speech but found it unsuitable because it did not have the actor's voice that makes listening a pleasure. Must be a great boon to the blind though. Fellow I knew in my salad days used to go regularly the the Canadian National Institute for the Blind to read out books and texts. Now, any book at all can be heard at will. I see from the CNIB website that " Classic Serbian Literature is coming soon to CNIB Library", so I guess the need is still there for foreign language readers.

Reading so much now that I have become accustomed to my Kindle. Daily life in Victorian London The Prague Cemetery by Umberto Eco The Oxford History of the Biblical World I'm taking an NYU free course on Biblical archaeology Writing Steampunk by Beth Daniels And on it goes. After years of reading mainly from my HTML browser I have rediscovered books through my eReader