• Alcohol in parks letter posted on 18 May 2022

    Text of an email I sent to council today, after they discovered we don't have an "alcohol in parks bylaw" and Ward 8 councilor JP Danko motioned looking into responsible ways to allow it.

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  • 2021 election leader abbreviations posted on 10 Sep 2021

    Review of abbreviations people use when writing about the leaders on Twitter:

    JT: Sounds like an 18-year-old played by a 27-year-old in a prime-time soap.

    EOT: ASCII char 04, End Of Transmission

    YFB: Which airport is that again? Oh, right, Iqaluit.

    Singh & Paul: Short last names means no fun abbrevs.

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  • LRT Letter posted on 15 Jun 2021

    Hamilton City Council is voting on the LRT tomorrow (Wednesday, June 16th). What follows is a lengthy letter I sent to them.

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  • Covid Cocktails 7 posted on 01 Jun 2021

    I bought some Canadian brandy.

    Covid cocktails 7.

    Covid cocktails 7 collage

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  • Covid Cocktails 6 posted on 15 May 2021

    Well, it's been a 4 month hiatus from cocktails, seems like a good time to start mixing new drinks again. I've picked up a stack of new ingredients, so this is fairly exciting.

    Covid cocktails 6 collage

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  • #HamOnt Police Town Hall posted on 26 Jan 2021

    I'm a luddite with a land-line.

    At 7:30PM today (2021-01-26) I was called to participate in the Hamilton police town hall. I was honestly hoping not to get called because I'm prone to being a wishy-washy centrist and I have a lot of online friends that are much further left I respect the hell out of them, and I feel like I need to fight the good fight for progressive values.

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  • Covid Cocktails 5 posted on 24 Jan 2021

    Even though I just finished a round of cocktails around Christmas, in honor of New Year's Eve I pivoted right into Covid Cocktails round 5. The main reason was sparkling wine, so there's a lot of it here.

    Covid cocktails 5 collage

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  • Covid Cocktails 4 posted on 30 Dec 2020

    Hokay, taking a break from being awful arguing with strangers on the internet (seriously folks it's a filthy habit I'd rather I smoked) to restart back on my less-awful vice:

    Covid Cocktails

    For the winter holiday, I decided to do another round of Covid Cocktails. This time I'm trying to do something thematic - a focus on savory cocktails... and of course, some festive ones too, because it's that time of the year.

    Covid cocktails 4 collage

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  • Covid Cocktails 3 posted on 20 Nov 2020

    After a break, I'm back with a 3rd round of Covid cocktails. First off, I finished off the sweet vermouth and bought some proper Dolin.

    Also, Collective Arts gin is pretty expensive as London dry gins go, but I bought myself a bottle as a treat... and then my wife bought me another bottle as a birthday present. So I have a lot of gin to use.

    Covid cocktails 3 collage

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  • Council and the Integrity Commissioner posted on 10 Oct 2020

    Okay, so let me just make sure I'm getting the latest City of Hamilton council misadventure straight. It's been hard to keep track of this overlaid in all the pandemic pandemonium.

    edit (2020-10-12): Thanks to Ryan McGreal for helping me out with some details.

    Cameron Kroetsch is a local activist who is an unpaid volunteer on the city's LGBT advisory committee. He's butt heads with the city before, like when said the city shouldn't fly the rainbow flag during Pride because they hadn't really stood up for the city's LGBT community properly. This attitude of his was vindicated when the police failed to protect the Gage park pride event from violent homophobic activists, despite (according to Kroetsch) having been specifically told exactly where and when to be. The police defend this because Pride's leadership had asked the police not to patrol the interior of the event or set up a recruiting table (the violence was on the edge of the park).

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