Don’t be tainted by Suffering

 This is against the ethos of the Canadian regime, but as Mother Angelica says, give it up to God.

Seventh Day of Christmas: More overnight snow so more shoveling

 

It snowed last night again.  

The snow will cover the ice formed from yesterday’s above zero temperature.  There were puddles yesterday.

The question is whether Tony will do his part.

7th Day of Christmas: 5:34 AM

 I hit two milestones this year:  the millennium and the Liu Gehrig.

Tony’s Driving Today

 Tony drove in the neighborhood north of the tracks and we saw a deer.

We then drove in the area behind the old K mart.

Tony then drove on Victoria Avenue.

He went south on 26th street and turned east to get to Neelin where there were poles when he could practice parallel parking.  From there he went to Richmond Avenue which he drove eastward toward 17th street east.  He went south and took a turn to go west to 18th street.  He was doing 90 km/h.  

On 18th street, he drove north passing the cemetery and the shopper’s mall.  He made a left turn at the lights on Richmond and 18th, and proceeded home where he backed the car into the garage.

Books I read in 2025

Here are the books, AKIC and AKIC read in 2025:

Catechism of the Catholic Church

The Liturgical Year: Christmas by Dom Proper Gueranger

Selected Poems of Francis Thompso

The GK Chesterton Calendar

A year with Mary by Paul Thigpen

A Chesterton Calendar

The Book of English Verse 1250-1900

Poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins

The Way by Jose Maria Escriva

Nicolás Gómez Dávila Aphorisms edited by AKIC

Escolios a un texto implicito by Nicolás Gómez Dávila

Scholia to an implicit text by Nicolás Gómez Dávila

Dave Collum’s 2025 Year in Review: Peak Prosperity

The Liturgical Year: Advent by Dom Proper Gueranger

Father Goirot by Honore de Balzac

The Land of the Dollar by G.W. Steevens

The Arabian Nights

An Open Letter to Open-Minded Progressives by Menicus Moldburg

Politics and the English Language by George Orwell

Values by Mark Carney

Reflections of a Russian Statesman by K.B. Pobyedonostseff

The Fellowship of the Ring by JRR Tolkien

The Two Towers by JRR Tolkien

The Return of the King by JRR Tolkien

On Prayer and the Contemplative Life by Saint Thomas Aquinas

Striving towards Being: The Letters of Thomas Merton and Czeslaw Milosz

Orthodox Daily Prayers

Way of the Samurai by Yukio Mishima

Ubik by Philip K. Dick

Miscellaneous Aphorisms by Oscar Wilde

The King of Elfland’s Daughter by Lord Dunsany

Prayers of the Middle Ages: Light from a Thousand Years

Prayers of the Early Church

The Politically Incorrect Guide to Climate Change

Genius of Christianity by Viscount De Chateaubriand

The Characters of Jean de La Bruyere

Lament for a Nation by George Grant

Moments of Insight for Busy People by Sister Angelita G. Marave

I'm afraid there are some books that i read but got deleted when I was coming to Canada.

I made these lists previously on my China blog.

Zero Degrees!

 It snowed last night and the temperature during the day went up to just above zero.

Annoying!

Sixth Day of Christmas 8:50 AM; Mote shoveling to do!

 A pretty sky.

Unfortunately, it snowed overnight.

Good overnight numbers

 These are on the WeChat platform on account of this video:

Sixth Day of Christmas: 5:47 AM

 

Snow everywhere.

Conversation with my Chilean student.  He describes himself as a social democrat.

From my Ukranian students, I learned that Ukrainians celebrate their Christmas now on December 25.  They used to celebrate it on January 7, but because of the war..,

The streak never stops.

Deer and an Aphorism

 Two videos uploaded in the last 24 hours:

Fifth Day of Christmas: what the roads look like

 This is what the less busy streets look like.

This is what the busier streets look like, with an annoying rut forming on the roads.

Sublimation & Snow Pearls

 The Guaprel, aka Snow Pearls, that I took a video of:

The snow pearls were a rare thing.  Someone at Church, who is a longtime Brandon resident, told me he had never seen it before.

From him, I learned the technical name of a phenomenon I had noticed, where the dry cold air seemed to suck up the snow.  This change of state from a solid to gas is called sublimation.

Fifth Day of Christmas: Tired

 Yesterday was busy.  I was up at five AM. I extended my Duolingo streak. I prepared for my drive to Portage La Prairie. I shoveled the previous evening’s snowfall.  I drove in the snowing and blowing conditions for 80 minutes. I did a seven hour fund raising shift.  I drove back to Brandon for another 80 minutes in the snowy conditions. I went to Mass.  I arrived home and did some paperwork, counted money and put up content.

This morning I did this:

Fourth Day of Christmas: 7:00 PM Mass

 I had enough time to drive from PLAP to get to Brandon and STAUG for 7:00 PM Mass.

Fourth Day of Christmas: Driving to PLAP

 

At 8:00 AM, I left Mom’s house and drove to the Heritage Co-op to fund raise for Access to Therapy.  It was snowing in Brandon but blowing on the highway #1.

 

Fourth Day of Christmas: P La P

 I’m driving to Portage La Prairie for a fund raising shift. Too far.

I have uploaded this video:

NGD on silly ideas.

Third Day of Christmas: Look at me #25

 Tony parked the vehicle.  We bought tickets for a January 1st Wheat Kings game,

Third Day of Christmas: Tony’s second day of driving

 Tony did well today I thought.  He progressed from driving on empty parking lots to driving on the street.  He was at four way stop signs, and traffic lights.  He crossed busy roads.  He backed the car onto the driveway and into the garage,

Third Day of Christmas: 12:19 PM

 

What I have done of the things I said I needed to get did?

Rosary: prayed.

Online Class:  done, did.  I learned that the Maritime provinces are not only poor because of their government but because of the Irving monopoly which is in kahoots with that said government.

Readings: a good portion of them done.

Take Tony driving: not yet.

Preparations for Trip to PLP: begun but not yet finished.  Some decisions not yet made.

Dealing with a grumpy mother:  decision made to withdraw from dealing with that for the time being.

Third Day of Christmas 6:00 AM

 Things I got to do today:

Prepare for tomorrow’s trip to Portage.  I haven’t done the fundraising thing in nearly a month.

Teach an online class.

Go to Mass. I won’t be able to tomorrow.

Take Tony driving.  He wants to learn now.

Monitor Mom.  She’s grumpy, not feeling well, suffering from TDS, and has a martyr complex.

Pray the Rosary.

Do my readings.

I have done this:

North Hill? Why not call it the North Slope?

 We took Tony to the grounds of the Old Mental Hospital to practice driving.

Three Videos

 Smooch & Wendell

The North Hill of Brandon. Though, it should be called the North Slope.

Snow pellets or hail?

Somebody went driving for the first time

 My son Tony went driving for the first time.  He was coached by his father and his uncle.

It’s the second day of Christmas!

 Christmas ain’t over!

Properly done, it started yesterday and lasts twelve days.

Boxing Day 5:26 AM: Plans, Dave Collum, Simone Wiel, Numbers

 No Mass I can attend today.

I do have a few online classes to teach.

I have a fundraising thing to do on Sunday in Portage La Prairie.  I’ll have to prepare for that.

I’ll  have to recover from the three beers I had yesterday.

Page views have been down a lot on this blog recently.  It must mean that my religiosity is warding off potential readers.  Whatever!  My videos still have okay numbers on WeChat,  Though again, they have been getting no views on Rednote.  Rednote is a very censorious platform.  It will ban or block you on chat channels if you speak country names.  It has been blocking me as well when I discuss marriage.  On YouTube, I have my moments. There, I am close to having had three million views.

Here is my latest Youtube upload;

It is a Simone Weil quote on the unreality of evil.  Recently, I have been doing the quotes with multiple cuts.  That is, I have been recording a part of a quote at a time and then splicing the parts together.

I’ve started reading Dave Collum’s 2025 year in review.  You can download it here.

It snowed a little last night.

Merry Christmas from David Warren

My favorite blogger wrote a Christmas entry. 

Warren had this to say about politics:

Nothing is ever achieved by politics, except mild disappointment, or sometimes major disappointment and catastrophe. The man who takes his politics seriously deserves this result. If one has acquired any idea about oneself, and one’s fellow human creatures, one knows that every human project will end in disaster. Sanctity offers the only strange exceptions. But without sanctity, democracy is merely a means to speed the disaster along.

What can be done about this?

Says Warren: Christ.

Christmas Day Snow

 Why dream of a White Christmas?  It’s actually happening.

Christmas Day Mass

 The Church eventually was packed and I eventually became squeezed in because of a family that sat next to me.  Trying to fight a feeling of annoyance, I tried to think of the restricted seating room as a deserved penance for me.

After the Mass was done I stayed in my seat.  Eventually, the church emptied so I could take these photos of how the church was decorated for Christmas:

Before I took the photos, I sat and waited, and had a lot of people wish me Merry Christmas, including this Irish lady who said: “So, you’re joining the church!” in a lovely Irish brogue.  The conversation was a blessing for me.

Amen

 

Christmas 6:03 AM

 I have extended my Duolingo streak.

Uploaded the same video twice:

All truth is born between an Ox and an Ass

One of my favorite Nicolás Gómez Dávila aphorisms.

Merry Christmas!

 

Christmas Eve 6:52 PM

 I was thinking of going to Midnight Mass. It’s too late for me.  I’m bushed.

Scratched by cat

 I’ve got on a band aid on my tight big toe.

My brother’s cat was growling at me and attacked my foot.

To say simply that a certain thing is good or bad

 I am quoting:

Coffee with Ray

 I had coffee with Ray on his birthday, so he had to have coffee with me on mine.

As Yogi Berra said, if you don’t go to other people’s funerals, they won’t go to yours.

12/24 6:30 AM Novena Mass

 I attended the 9th Novena  Mass “Simbang Gabi” at Augustine’s.  It was doubly special for me because I had Father Oliver do a birthday blessing for me during the Mass.  I had found out at the other 6:30 AM Mass, I attended  that they did these things and I thought why not do one for myself.  So I did it, and I felt gratitude and I felt guilty at the same time.  I have to give my birthday up to others.

That’s me and Father Oliver.  He presided over the Mass and was assisted by Father John: a rare time to see both fathers at the Same Mass.

The darker lighting at Staug made it great to take a photo of the four lit Advent candles:

And the music & singing were wonderful.

The above is under review on a Chinese website.

12/24 5:45 AM: Roger Maris

 I turn Roger Maris today.

Hello from Brandon

 On WeChat, I had an exchange with an ex-colleague who is now in Kenya.

He said:  Good morning from the green city  under the sun.

I responded: Good morning from the Wheat City under the Snow.

8:22 AM: Scatter Brained

 Later than usual for me to be doing my first view photo of the day.  What can I say?  I’m a little scatter brained this morning.

I am going to have to repair the charging port on my Iphone this morning.  I will need it to work starting on the 28th.  If I stayed at home all the time, I could kept my phone charged using the wireless charger I have; but, I have to be on the road for hours at a time and so that wouldn't be good.

I was on a chat channel in Rednote, a Chinese social app, this morning.  My mic was suddenly blocked by the platform.  I am not sure what I had said to have this done but it is not the first time.

So i said that Trump was wrong to have made the social media post he did about Reiner's death.  Nothing Trump said in the post was incorrect, but it could have been said at another time.  But i have learned that it turned out that Reiner had wished publicly for the Trump's potential assassin to have been successful, and for Trump's head to have been in the right position to have been fully impacted by the bullet.  No one on the progressive, liberal TDS side was clutching their pearls about that.  Still, two wrongs don't make a right.  

What happened to my beard.  I bought a train trimmer and  i ,put it on the wrong setting.  I trimmed off more than I wanted to, but it will grow back, so fear not.

GK Chesterton on Tyranny

 So true what he has to say about it,

Back Yard Photo

 I liked the shadow of the tree on the surface of the snow.