De-finite 

Time can change you, but you can't change time… unless you're travelling but then you're really just changing your watch.

This year is unlike any other year I’ve ever experienced. Reading this now, it seems unnecessary to say but I feel the reminder is needed.

I recently got an e-mail about a training I’m obliged to complete, telling me that time was running out.

Is it? Isn’t time infinite? If 2020 taught us anything it’s that we have all the time in the world, and beyond. Of course, our time on this planet is finite and maybe the time the planet has left is finite. Yet if there’s one thing we can agree on, it’s that time has no master and despite time being infinite for the Universe, for you and me, it is most definitely finite.

A week has 168 hours:

1. I might sleep about 49 hours (including naps).
2. I work roughly  40 hours (ok maybe 45, or 50 on a busy week).
3. I might spend 10-14 hours watching television (eek).
4. Apparently, I spend almost 14 hours a week just looking at my phone (looking mostly at my browser and social media).
5. I spent at least 11 hours eating or prepping food to eat.
6. I probably spend 3-4 hours listening to radio, podcasts or reading.
7. I might spend 7 hours sketching.
8. Maybe I spend about 4-5 hours cleaning, brushing/flossing my teeth, gargling mouthwash, showering.
9. I spend at least two hours cleaning the house.
10. I might spend another hour on laundry.
11. I probably spend another hour or so buying food to prep and eat.

All of this tally still leaves about a couple of hours a day unaccounted for, so why can't I find 30-45 minutes a day to exercise or an hour to read more? I think I spend a good deal of time day dreaming or just looking closely at lint to insure it isn't an alien insect. I might even spend a good deal of time dreaming up blog posts or making "To Do" lists or thinking of new ice cream flavours. I used to spend a lot more time looking at things to cook that I will never cook (who has the time to clarify butter? Just use olive oil for goodness sake). I'm increasingly aware of the time I spend looking at my bookshelf reading the spines of books I have read or plan to read. I definitely spend too much time fretting and feeling guilty for not doing projects I told someone would only take a few minutes. Now I'm spending time trying to imagine where all the my time goes?

Maybe I have the time, but I don't have the energy. Even if time is infinite, my energy is definitely finite.

I've Got a Gut Feeling 

"Does anyone feel a breeze on their colon?" asks man whose abdomen is wide open.

Apparently, a not well understood yet possibly critical measure and factor of your health is in your gut. To be more specific, your gut microbiome, your stomach’s collection of bacteria that not only works in your favour but sometimes against it, and some have speculated it might even be considered another organ. The key to your gut’s health is the diversity of the bacteria therein. Since we’ve all been going to town on what is sometimes called ultra processed food, our collective guts are less diverse than those of people who have not be exposed to a lifetime of Twinkies, frozen pizzas and American cheese. I say they’re missing out. Would you swap all the McDonald’s fries you’ve ever eaten for a better immune system? It’d be nice if you could just pop a pill or supplement full of a few billion bacteria your gut could use to diversify but as is often the case, it isn’t that simple. 

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Seen in May & June

Spectacular lava flows in Werner Herzog's Into the Inferno. Image via The Movie Db.

I must really be enjoying the summer to have let this post slip two months late. Maybe I was too busy, or too sick as a dog, to spend more time in front of a computer than I needed to. Either way, it's here now and I think you'll find plenty to fill your summer nights.

The Gig’s Up
Hot Docs
The Gig Economy is the new reality. It has unlocked the economic potential for many people who may have been shut out of typical financial means. For some it has been a life saver but for others, it may take a life. This short film explores all those aspects and more with personal and intimate insight.

Cézanne
Hot Docs
Visit Cézanne's last studio virtually in this quiet, calming short documentary.



The Mitchells. To know them is to love them. Image via The Movie Db.
The Mitchells vs the Machines
Netflix
Never has a robot apocalypse been so much fun. This animated film is a sci-fi family road trip movie about coming closer through crisis and about maybe not trusting your smart phone quite so much.

Colette
The Guardian
As a young girl in France, Colette joined the Resistance and fought Nazis. Meet the now 90-year-old Colette and the young woman who wanted to share her harrowing and inspiring story as she visits the concentration camp where her brother was killed. This film won the Oscar for best documentary short and it's easy to see why.

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