I know what you’re thinking.

You’re thinking “Man, I really miss Jenny’s hilarious and witty insights into the jetsam and flotsam of the human experience”. I know, because that’s what I was thinking, too.

Believe it or not, there’s actually a reason why I haven’t been updating much since the new year. Read on!

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

–Antoine de Saint-Exupery, author of Le Petit Prince

This quote pretty much sums up what’s been going on in my life the past two months. There are so many crazy changes coming and I wish I could talk about them all–I’m of that peculiar brand of Millennial who thinks that if something isn’t documented on the internet it didn’t really happen–but…not yet. I need to wait for the dust to settle first; don’t want to tempt fate, after all. But soon.

I’m prepping a series of really exciting blog posts and I can’t wait to start pushing them out. Hurray for progress.

I think I’ve figured out the reason why, for all my love of pretty things and for all my care of aesthetics, I’ve never been able to fully get into what I would consider “high” fashion.

I’ve written before about how I think much of the disdain directed at fashion is unwarranted. Fashion is, at its core, a form of self-expression, and I don’t begrudge anyone the choice to spend money on something that makes them feel at home with their identity.

But my identity is shaped by the drive to do things. Anything. I feel most like myself when I’m putting out fires or cycling through seventeen windows to formulate a blog post or running around directing a legion of minions to do my bidding. I can’t run around in heels. I can’t immerse myself in code when I’m wearing a blazer or a jacket, because the presence of that piece of clothing is noticeable against my arms in the way it pulls when I’m typing.

Read on!

I’ve had more time to draw recently, which is awesome.

This is what Hermione would be like if she were a dude.

Me? Arrogant? No way.

One of my coworkers.

Some more sketches while I was really bored.

I had some time free for the first time in a while, so my friend and I decided to walk around downtown Toronto.

I had to get the internet installed in my place recently. It was a surprisingly difficult process, primarily because my place had no phone hookup.

I talked to several of my neighbours who knew the previous tenants, and they confirmed that my place was, indeed, capable of supporting a phone. I looked on the wall where they thought the phone might have been, and discovered the remnants of a phone cable, and a notch in the paint that looks like it might’ve once supported a phone jack. Read on!

A lot of things are changing. It’s not just because I’m moving and starting a new job; I’ve also been finding that this blog doesn’t fill the role in my life that I want it to fulfill anymore.

I started this blog because I wanted to get back in the habit of writing regularly, but lately it’s become more of an obligation than anything else. I still want to write, but now I want to write for myself: the long-form fiction that I started out with twelve years ago, and more of the vignettes I already post here.

Furthermore, I want my writing to be more than just an exercise in self-indulgence. Former NDP leader Jack Layton’s passing has made me realize that just shouting into the ether isn’t enough for me anymore. I want to start doing something with my opinion.

I still want to blog. Anyone who follows me on Google+ or Mlkshk or Twitter knows that I repost a lot of articles. But I no longer have time for the thousand-word-essays that used to occupy this space. I’ll be emulating the Daring Fireball blog in future posts: a link, a quote, and a single line with my thoughts. Occasionally I’ll still write an opinion piece, but by and large a shorter format will allow me to update more frequently, and be a bit less constrained in what I write about. Sometimes I just don’t have that much to say, you know?

As for the mailing list, don’t worry. I’m not going to send out an email every time I post a link; instead, you’ll only get notices for long posts and a weekly round-up of the highlights.

Hope you guys stick around.

I had a totally unexpected chance to go on a day-trip in New York City last week. Since the only time I’d been there was about 9 years ago on one of those sketchy Chinatown four-cities-in-three-days tours, I was pretty psyched to see as much as I could.

I was staying in Long Island, so I took the fantastic LIRR into town and walked basically all over Manhattan. I hit as far north as 76th and as far south as the WTC memorial, with lots of subway-ing in between. (Totally jealous of the NY subway, for what it’s worth.) I’m not totally sure how far I walked, but I do know that I was on my feet non-stop for about 9 hours, so…

I only had a cellphone camera with me, but I think these turned out alright for what they were.

The site is done! Hurray! Hurrah!

That only took me four solid days of coding, no big deal. At least I learned a bunch about how to use WordPress.

I still need to slowly add art to the ‘et cetera’ section over the next little while, but by and large it’s ready to face the world.