Thoughts – Page 3 – By the River

2021-03-05

Google is Your Friend, So is Talk Radio

During these times of isolation, I am forever thankful for an old school medium called talk radio.

I started listening to talk radio when I was 10 years young. I had crawled into bed and was scrolling through the radio for something to listen to. I stumbled upon what was then known as CFRB 1010.

Fast forward to adulthood and I am still listening to that very same station, now known as NewsTalk 1010. I also began listening to another station called 640 Toronto when I started working at what was then a small software company start-up.

I would alternate between music, NewsTalk 1010, and 640 Toronto during my shifts at work. Talk radio had been helping me get through my workdays for as long as I had a career in the software industry.

The year 2020 will go down in history as one of the worst years ever. An awful pandemic swept around the world and impact all of our lives. I found myself isolated at home all alone. I was fortunate to be able to work from home.

During isolation, I had some trusty and reliable friends to help me get through the hard times. Listening to talk radio while I worked at the computer helped me feel like I was not alone. It helped me feel like I had friends with me in my beautiful home.

During the early days of the pandemic, I found myself feeling really depressed and worried about the future. Eventually I started getting tired of listening to talk radio. The hosts were just as grumpy and worrisome as I was. I wanted to quit listening and actually did shut the radio off several times.

I realized that the hosts are people just like you and I. The pandemic affected them just like it affected you and I. The constant complaining and negativity by some of the host was not unlike those exhibited by the rest of us.

I continued listening to talk radio and feel as though the hosts are my friends. They have been invaluable in making me feel like I am not alone.

I would like to thank all talk radio hosts for providing a fantastic service to the public. I thank them for making me laugh, making me think, making me reflect, even making me cry. Toronto and area has a great set of talk radio hosts.

Thanks to my friends Jim Richards, Mike Stafford, Jerry Agar, John Moore, Ryan Doyle, Jeff McArthur, John Oakley, Kelly Kutrara, Alan Carter, Jamil Jivani, Richard Crouse, Jay Michaels. I am forever thankful for your service and how you keep me company during these trying times.

NewsTalk 1010
https://www.iheartradio.ca/newstalk-1010

640Toronto – Global News
https://globalnews.ca/radio/640toronto/

2021-02-242021-03-01

Side-effects of a Pandemic

Oh no, the dreaded P-word. I’ll be honest, I have been avoiding video games and movies with ‘pandemic’ in the title. I am sick and tired of the altered lives we have been forced to live for nearly one year, but this is not the reason for this entry.

Let us focus on the positive side-effects of this pandemic. It is hard to believe that anything “positive” has arisen from this nightmare, but hear me out.

It is winter in Toronto and I have yet to brave the nasty weather commuting to work. I have been working at home since March of last year. We can take this as one of the positives.

I always loved video games but have not really played since high school due to time constraints. Prior to the pandemic, I would spend the vast majority of my time on the road. I simply did not have the time to play video games.

Since the pandemic began, I find myself at home with plenty of time for games. Video games help me take my mind off the pandemic. Since travel is severely restricted, I find I can travel virtually via video games.

I can to explore the United Kingdom and Germany via Train Simulator and Train Sim World. I fly around the world via X-Plane 11 and Infinite Flight. I drive around Italy and France in Euro Truck Simulator. I drive around the western United States in American Truck Simulator.

I explore Victorian London via Assassin’s Creed Syndicate. This game is underrated and a lot of fun. The architecture is beautiful and being able to scale any building in the city via parkour is a thrill.

I fight for survival in a post-nuclear war Russia, beginning in the Moscow Metro and exploring the monster-ridden forests. Metro Exodus is a fantastic game with unbelievable graphics.

I experience the difficulties reintegrating into society upon returning from the Vietnam war in Mafia III. This open-world game is set in a fictitious city called Bordeaux, modelled after New Orleans in the 1960s.

Medieval fantasy is explored via two of the most highly-regarded RPG games of the past 10 years… Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and The Witcher 3. Both offer the ability to escape the real world and live vicariously through the characters throughout the vast lands they inhabit.

Those who know me know of my deep connections to Asia. I travel virtually to Hong Kong by playing Sleeping Dogs. This is a game where you play the part of a triads gang member who ends up working undercover for the police. The streets of Hong Kong are incredibly replicated in this game. You feel as though you are really in Hong Kong.

While in Asia, we cannot forget Tokyo and Osaka Japan. Yakuza 0 is a fantastic game set in both cities. Walking the streets to me feels so authentic due to the time I have spent in both cities in real life. This game makes me want to go back to Japan so bad.

Gaming has been a lot of fun for me and has taken my mind off the isolation brought on by the lockdown. Another positive side-effect is cooking.

Now that I am home, I have time to cook every single meal I eat. Although my community contains hundreds of restaurants, and we have easy access via delivery applications, I have rarely eaten takeout food this past year. I can count how many takeout meals I have consumed.

I am enjoying cooking all the foods I love every single as opposed to weekends only. Another side-effect if you can call it that, is the fact that I have lost weight due to eating healthier and maintaining an exercise regiment at home.

Friends tend to be temporary items in our lives. Only some friends remain with us through thick and thin, year in and year out. I have been blessed with having a lot of wonderful friends. The pandemic has allowed me to realise who my true friends are. It has given me more time to actually speak with friends who I have not spoken with much over the past few years because we all lived such busy lives.

My favourite side-effect of this pandemic is that isolation has given me more time to focus on writing. I have much more time to contribute to these blogs and my books. I love to write, as most of you can tell by now. Be on the lookout for many more products on the horizon.

2021-02-22

The Healing Powers of House Music

House music has been around since the 1980s and is still growing stronger today. It has spread its wings around the world from its humble beginnings in New York, Chicago, Detroit, and New Jersey. It is now a force to be reckoned with hailing from London, Berlin, Johannesburg, Central African Republic, Iran, and many other places in addition to its origins in the USA.

This form of music has the ability to uplift your spirits regardless of the mood you are in. I find this to be a very therapeutic genre of music. It has spawn dozens and dozens of sub-genres, my favourites being Garage, Soulful, Tech, Afro, Deep, and Ancestral Soul.

This evening, as I sat by my large living room window writing and viewing the city skyline, a song called Transitions featuting Ade Alafia (AfroKillerz Remix) by Boddhi Satva began to play as the last track on a 90-minute mix-set created by me a week ago Friday.

Despite the pain I have been experiencing all day, something made me jump out of my seat and start dancing around my living room. I found myself dancing in a traditional Yoruba style and simply enjoying this wonderful song. The pains which had been nagging me all day were completely gone as I danced to my heart’s content. I whipped up a good cardio pump in the process.

How many times have you found yourself feeling down and then found happiness when a certain song begins to play? Music can be uplifting. Music can help us relive good memories. Music can be comforting.

Around 2016, I decided to stop listening to negative music. I listen to uplifting music every day and it has done wonders for my psyche. I have now also discovered that music may actually heal us from our pains, both mentally and physically.

I am now listening to a song called In & Out of My Life by the legendary House diva, Adeva. This song contains strong, beautiful vocals along with an infectious piano riff. I absolutely love the piano. I enjoy listening to the piano in house, Korean ballads, and classical music.