Chris Bentzen

Poster with green background and images of flowers, butterflies and gardening tools. poster text reads: VOLUNTEERS NEEDED COMMUNITY POLLINATOR HABITAT ENHANCEMENT PROJECT Saturday August 30 10am - 12pm Needham St & Haliburton st Tools Provided A joint project with South End neighbours & Nanaimo & Area Land Trust

Nanaimo! We’re getting together to clear out a very overgrown boulevard. If you’re in town this long weekend, we’d love to see you. Tools provided!

This fall we’ll be planting out hundreds of beautiful and pollinator-supporting native plants at this site. #nanaimo #vancouverisland #snuneymuxw

What’s your budget?

Panoramic photo of 80ft Nanaimo bar on a table in a large building at VIU with chefs in white coats and crowds looking on.

80ft Nanaimo bar beating the previous world record of 8ft is a vibe.

Are they available on a black t?

Drew Young: How to survive opening an art studio "Brown bag it."

I’m thankful people like Drew Young are still working hard to make art spaces and events happen in Vancouver despite the bureaucracy and cost of a place determined to be “no fun city” www.straight.com/city-culture...

338Canada poll results showing Conservatives with a projected win in Nanaimo Ladysmith with 35%, Green with 23%, NDP with 22% and Liberals with 16%.

What’s really wild is that in the 6 years I’ve lived in Nanaimo it’s gone from Green, to NDP, to now projected for Cons.

Oh good, I thought I was on a list of Bluesky handles in Congress. This is a list of X handles and closest to my name is Cliff Bentz. Thanks for sending this.

I get it but where’s this list and how am I on it lol

lol how did I end up on this list?

Channel 4+VPN=Kevin Heaven

This does make me wonder what basic reference info or imagery should I get as a tattoo? Ya know, just in case.

I saw that job post this morning and laughed. Arts spaces are challenging to run but this is not the way.

THIS IS HUGE! Researchers have developed a nasal COVID-19 vaccine that BLOCKS transmission of the virus. This suggests vaccines delivered directly to the nose or mouth could play a CRITICAL role in containing the spread of respiratory infections. Phase I clinical trials HAVE BEEN APPROVED! 🧪🧵⬇️

a vending bike shaped like a hot dog with an umbrella

Congratulations to the wiener of the war on cars

YouTube video by Aaron Read Soft Bug Ego - Jazz (Full Comedy Special) By Aaron Read

If you like absurdist humour about goblins Vancouver comedian Aaron Read has a new stand-up special on YouTube called Soft Bug Ego-Jazz youtu.be/MM_DBlVO8N4?...

🚨BREAKING🚨

Leonard Peltier Granted Executive Clemency

After 50 years of unjust incarceration and the tireless efforts of intergenerational grassroots organizing and advocacy, our elder and relative Leonard Peltier has been granted executive clemency.

Yup, it’s dumb as hell. But also means artists don’t have to rely on gate-keepers, galleries, and luck for success so 🤷‍♀️

I used to tell artists that they should spend 50% of their time making art and the rest is admin and social media. That was at least 8 years ago. Now would def be less time making art.

Photo of a table with these books stacked under a lamp: Tender is the flesh : a novel / Agustina Bazterrica Fire weather : the making of a beast / John Vaillant The light eaters : how the unseen world of plant intelligence offers a new understanding of life on Earth / Zoë Schlanger The mighty Red : a novel / Louise Erdrich

Starting 2025 with these books on my bedside table

5/7 screenshot of the list of books I read in 2024: I thought it was just me (but it isn't) : making the journey from "What will people think" to "I am enough" / Brené Brown Material world : the six raw materials that shape modern civilization / Ed Conway Knife : meditations after an attempted murder / Salman Rushdie Imminent : inside the Pentagon's hunt for UFOs / Luis Elizondo The sentence : a novel / Louise Erdrich You'd look better as a ghost / Joanna Wallace Somehow : thoughts on love / Anne Lamott Burn : a novel / Peter Heller Cibola burn / James S. A. Corey Quietly hostile : essays / Samantha Irby Zero stars do not recommend : a novel / MJ Wassmer We should all be feminists / Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie The wretched of the earth / Frantz Fanon Clay's ark / Octavia E. Butler

6/7 screenshot of the list of books I read in 2024: A paradise built in hell : the extraordinary communities that arise in disaster / Rebecca Solnit May it have a happy ending : a memoir of finding my voice as my mother lost hers / Minelle Mahtani The power of now : a guide to spiritual enlightenment / Eckhart Tolle Liberalism and its discontents / Francis Fukuyama Shift / Hugh Howey The new Leviathans : thoughts after liberalism / John Gray Voices for the islands : thirty years of nature conservation on the Salish Sea / Sheila Harrington Never too small. Volume 2, reinventing small space living / Joel Beath & Camilla Janse van Vuuren The message / Ta-Nehisi Coates We / Yevgeny Zamyatin Fugitive telemetry / Martha Wells Less is more : how degrowth will save the world / Jason Hickel Real Americans : a novel / Rachel Khong

7/7 screenshot of the list of books I read in 2024: Marine life of the Pacific Northwest : a photographic encyclopedia of invertebrates, seaweeds and selected fishes / Andy Lamb and Bernard P. Hanby A brief history of intelligence : evolution, AI, and the five breakthroughs that made our brains / Max Bennett Tits up : what sex workers, milk bankers, plastic surgeons, bra designers, and witches tell us about breasts / Sarah Thornton Never whistle at night : an Indigenous dark fiction anthology / edited by Shane Hawk & Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. Erasure : a novel / Percival Everett Revenge of the tipping point : overstories, superspreaders, and the rise of social engineering / Malcolm Gladwell Playground : a novel / Richard Powers Want : women's fantasies in the twenty-first century / submitted by anonymous ; collected by Gillian Anderson

I read a lot in 2024. Nearly 100 books. I’m very thankful for the library otherwise this wouldn’t have been possible. Here’s the rest of the list (2/2)

1/7 screenshot of the list of books I read in 2024: Death Valley : a novel / Melissa Broder The 99% invisible city : a field guide to the hidden world of everyday design / Roman Mars and Kurt Kohlstedt Strong female character / Fern Brady Caliban's war / James S. A. Corey Patternmaster / Octavia E. Butler Let my people go surfing : the education of a reluctant businessman / Yvon Chouinard The twilight world / Werner Herzog The good house : a novel / Tananarive Due The survivalists : a novel / Kashana Cauley Invisible cities / Italo Calvino The internet con : how to seize the means of computation / Cory Doctorow Wasteland : the secret world of waste and the urgent search for a cleaner future / Oliver Franklin-Wallis The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store / James McBride Butts : a backstory / Heather Radke Orishas, goddesses, and voodoo queens : the divine feminine in the African religious traditions / Lilith Dorsey

2/7 screenshot of the list of books I read in 2024: LaserWriter II / Tamara Shopsin. Project Hail Mary : a novel / Andy Weir The new breed : what our history with animals reveals about our future with robots / Kate Darling Raw dog : the naked truth about hot dogs / Jamie Loftus Artificial condition / Martha Wells Every man for himself and God against all : a memoir / Werner Herzog The jungle : the uncensored original edition / Upton Sinclair The creative act : a way of being / Rick Rubin with Neil Strauss Arbitrary stupid goal / Tamara Shopsin VenCo : a novel / Cherie Dimaline Memory piece / Lisa Ko God human animal machine : technology, metaphor, and the search for meaning / Meghan O'Gieblyn The prophet / Kahlil Gibran The leavers : a novel / Lisa Ko Rogue protocol / Martha Wells Wild seed / Octavia E. Butler

3/7 screenshot of the list of books I read in 2024: The tenant class / Ricardo Tranjan Queer little nightmares : an anthology of monstrous fiction and poetry / edited by David Ly & Daniel Zomparelli Laser quit smoking massage / Cole Nowicki Letters to a young poet : with the letters from the "young poet" / Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Xaver Kappus The rare metals war : the dark side of clean energy and digital technologies / Guillaume Pitron American Prometheus : the triumph and tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer / Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin Doppelganger : a trip into the mirror world / Naomi Klein Exit strategy / Martha Wells Niels Lyhne / Jens Peter Jacobsen Abaddon's Gate / James S. A. Corey In the distance / Hernan Diaz All fours / Miranda July Annie bot : a novel / Sierra Greer

4/7 screenshot of the list of books I read in 2024: Utopia for realists : how we can build the ideal world / Rutger Bregman Eve : how the female body drove 200 million years of human evolution / Cat Bohannon You're gonna love this : poems / Dina Del Bucchia Network effect / Martha Wells The extended mind : the power of thinking outside the brain / Annie Murphy Paul The Ministry of Time / Kaliane Bradley Behave : the biology of humans at our best and worst / Robert M. Sapolsky Essentialism : the disciplined pursuit of less / Greg McKeown Reproduction : a novel / Louisa Hall Boulder / Eva Baltasar Count Zero / William Gibson Mind of my mind / Octavia E. Butler Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow / Gabrielle Zevin Moonbound : the last book of the Anth / Robin Sloan North woods : a novel / Daniel Mason Wool / Hugh Howey

I read a lot in 2024. Nearly 100 books. Some were re-reads but most new to me. I’m not going to rate them but I’d say I enjoyed 90%. Here’s the first part of the list (1/2)

I love the Dutch Championships Headwind Cycling, it is is one of the funniest parts of Dutch culture.

The race is done on a single-geared city bike (back-pedal brake), and you have to cross the Oosterschelde Dam. The race happens when there is a storm that gives you direct headwind.

Mr Dressup

And yes budget really limits! That balance of enough food & £/$ is 😬

I’ve seen some folks using ChatGPT for meal planning for themselves but it seems more challenging for groups.

If in doubt, and you have kitchen access, the Food Not Bombs cookbook is great for feeding large groups on a budget.

I usually look at how much 4 people eat then multiply out. Add more for lunch/dinner because (in Canada/US at least) people may not pre-eat if it’s meal time — especially dinner. And as you probably know, more vegetarian/vegan options since meat eaters will also eat veg but opposite not true.

Does Tesco allow returns? Better to buy too much and return extras later than too little. ChatGPT determining what’s appropriate using math may not work for actual human hunger/gluttony. I’m also curious if including the meal time in the prompt would change its recommendations.

Found a Kodak Disc 6000 in a box of old cameras. Even if I can find film, where would I develop it? Also there’s a site that says it’s the 2nd worst camera of all time.

Love it! Also probably the most g-rated @robinbougie.bsky.social art I’ve ever seen

It does look weird. Looks like it centres for 1000+