In the shadow of last week’s Farm Day in the City, I had this idea that we should organize City Day on the Farm. Avocado toast and Boosted Boards go to Central Queens.

I set out to try to illustrate the idea last night, but only got as far as sketching a barn.

My favourite blog-find of late is that of Austin Kleon, author of Steal Like an Artist.

Not only do I appreciate Austin’s sensibilities, but I appreciate that he takes what others might toss off as pithy asides and instead develops full-throated blog posts in the classic tradition.

Kleon is delivering the keynote at Sketchkon in Pasadena in November.

It’s a busy weekend for Catherine: she’s working hard to finish up an important art piece. And so Oliver and I were left to our own devices tonight for Thanksgiving supper.

Fortunately this also happened to be the day that the Cymbria Lions Club was holding its Hot Turkey Supper. So late this afternoon we got in the car and headed to the north shore.

Oliver got a little overwhelmed by the fact that we were seated across from strangers and, lest his anxiety boil over, we quickly switched our order from sit down to take out.

When we got out to the car, we realized that we didn’t have any cutlery, and so we stopped up the road and I bought 24 forks for 99 cents.

Which is how we came to eat our Thanksgiving supper in the parking lot of Gallant’s General Store.

Oliver and I rendezvoused with Premier MacLauchlan yesterday morning at the Charlottetown Farmer’s Market and he kindly presented Oliver with a certificate recognizing his 18th birthday. A passing Kevin Yarr helpful snapped a photo of the occasion.

Warren Ellis at Thought Bubble:

From time to time, some of us will give up our seats and go hang out with the ghosts for a while. If you take our seats, then you know the deal – find new seats for new people to come and sit down with you. Keep growing. Keep moving forward.

He was speaking about comics, but it’s also good general advice.

Ooti Billeaud built himself a BMX ramp. City regulations required him to build a house in front of it.

Although I’ve described myself as “printer, developer, writer” for many years, I haven’t written professionally since my days as the restaurant reviewer for The Buzz, many years ago.

Until this week, when I contributed a piece to the Lady Baker’s Tea blog.

Gloria is a new song from Henry Jamison. From The Fader, Jamison writes:

I realized that I was writing a parallel story about the ways in which boys in our culture are “recruited” into a toxic fraternity, by each other, by their fathers, by video games etc. I try to sing myself and others out of a simple resistance to the nefarious male ego and into a sense of inviolate self-worth.

In Leiderschap in de nieuwe netwerksamenleving, Marco Derksen writes (machine-translated from Dutch to English):

In an era of uncertainty and rapid technological change there is a great need for leaders who, on the one hand, are not afraid to outline a vision for the long term, but on the other hand also dare to be vulnerable. By returning to previously made decisions, by admitting mistakes made and by being open to the input of otherwise-minded people. Organizing and being able to deal with diversity is perhaps the most important leadership competence in the complex world of today and tomorrow!

I couldn’t agree more: having ideas—vision—is easy; everybody’s got ideas. Humility is a rare commodity, rarer still in leaders. When you witness the two together in one person, it’s delightful to behold.

And organizing and being able to deal with diversity is so seldom discussed, a skill few have, and yet without it we’re left with an intellectual monoculture incapable of evolving.

Edward Hasbrouck has written a delightfully exhaustive review of the Gemini PDA:

A year after my initial review, and six months after I received my Gemini, here’s a detailed update on what works, what doesn’t, what Planetcom needs to do to deliver on the promise of the Gemini (and the promises made to Indiegogo backers), and — most importantly — how to decide whether you should buy a Gemini to use on your travels.

The Holy Grail for many travelers-who-work-while-traveling is a compact, always-connected device, with a big (enough) screen and a big (enough) keyboard, running open source software.

As Edward’s review makes clear, the Gemini is a device tantalizingly close to this ideal, but with some serious issues, especially software-related, that would make it difficult to rely on as the only device in your travel bag.