Toronto, Ontario; Vancouver, BC.
St. Michaels Cemetery from 95 St. Clair Avenue West. Landlocked Catholic cemetery from 1854, near Deer Park. Gates from Yonge Street locked, land is visible from the north side via parking lot off 95 St. Clair West. West and south sides are bordered by residential homes, children and dogs playing in the southwest corner, behind sign that prohibits recreation. Should graves be forgotten by locking visitors out? (Toronto) 20110901 1848Ryerson U Quad. Quadrangle facing southwest inside Kerr Hall at Ryerson University. A quiet spot before Labour Day, surely to be overrun by undergrads next week. Banking towers in the background (Toronto) 20110903 1655Driftwood Drive downhill. Biked up steep hill after following Don River north on the west bank. Route past the Police Department canine unit. Definitely bicycling as exercise, could choose other routes that don’t require huffing and puffing. Driftwood Drive put me back on the east side of town. (Toronto) 20110906 1849Orchard View Blvd market. Touring bike to Northern District Library on Orchard View Blvd., missed on first pass with street blocked for market. Temporary public space with farmers market on Thursdays until October. Looked at book in library, but didn’t check it out. Market was just packing up at 7 p.m. (Toronto) 20110908 1910Cabbagetown Festival. Neighbourhood crowd scene looking south on Parliament Street, north of Winchester Street in the annual Cabbagetown Festival. Unlike summer festivals, didn’t seem like out-of-town tourists. Local businesses, small tents with community organizations, side street lawns selling odds and ends. www.cabbagetownfestival.org/ (Toronto) 20110910 1828YVR Flying Traveller. Fiberglass artwork of passenger with luggage running through airport terminals by Patrick Amiot and Brigitte Laurent doesn’t reflect reality in Vancouver International Airport domestic terminal. Landing here, the west coast laid back style was evident as soon as we touched down. (Vancouver) 20110912 1600Approaching Vancouver via Seabus. Business travel luxury to return from North Vancouver via Seabus. Much faster than riding in car north over Lions Gate Bridge, and then west through construction on Marine Drive. (Vancouver, BC) 20110913 1525Pacific Cod, Sole, Halibut. Full sized fresh fish on ice at the Lonsdale Quay Market, North Vancouver. Seafood envy for tourists from inland homes. 20110914 1611Dundas Square fountains. Dancing fountains at plaza on a sunny fall afternoon when no formal events have been scheduled. Tourists stop to have their photos taken. Busker hawks his skills to draw a crowd. A chance for bicycling without coat, forecast is rain over next few days. (Toronto) 20110922 1826St. Matthews Church, Riverdale. Toured St. Matthews Anglican Church. Built in 1890, original church first one east of Don River in 1876. Congregation peaked at 400, now 75. On tree-lined First Ave., west of Broadview Ave. Riverdale Historical Society guide said long history of poor funding means building almost the same as when constructed, bricks donated by 11 local companies, laid with red bricks facade over rubble brick walls. Could be a good downtown location for a wedding. www.stmatthews-riverdale.com/ (Toronto) 20110924 1250St James Cemetery Ross marker. Durable grave marker from 1871, John Ross, Canadian senator. Inscription clearly legible. At St. James Cemetery, the oldest cemetery in Toronto still in operation, opened in 1844 for people in Upper Canada of the Anglican faith (Toronto) 20110925 18:01 See photo of inscription.Outer Harbour Marina. Poorly maintained lighthouse at mouth of Outer Harbour Marina. This peninsula is shorter than for Tommy Thompson Park (Leslie Street Spit) just beyond, practically swimming distance across. Marina is for small pleasure craft, so larger investment in infrastructure probably isn’t justified. Peninsula is available for film shoots. (Toronto) 20110926 1733
Flemish Beauty Pears. Local Ontario Flemish Beauty Pears in season. Mislabelled as Barletts, I recognized them on sight. Sentimental fall ritual for me. (Foodland on Danforth, Toronto) 20110928 1836
I started work at IBM on January 2, 1985. Following a tradition of a Quarter Century Clubs in the company going back to 1924, the beginning of 2010 marked my 25th year of service. With a choice of venues for lunch, I made an unconventional choice with a Korean restaurant, Seoul House. We got a private room that turned out to include karaoke, but were disinclined to sing. We gave a few guidelines to the waitress for ordering, resulting in a sushi appetizer in a large serving that could have been more than a whole meal.
I had a cross section of friends attending over the 25-year period. Norm was a mentor when I first started in headquarters plans and controls, and retired prior to IBM becoming a services company. Diana and I married during my first year on the job, and she coincidentally became a coop student at IBM during her work terms at Seneca College. I met Greg in the days of the late 1980s in the retail branch when he was a systems engineer, and he later became my manager in IBM Consulting Group. Anita was a colleague consultant in the early 2000s Business Consulting Services, once assigned a task of extracting a linear storyline out of my convoluted thinking to produce a report the customer might understand. Stephen joined the company only 6 months after me, and we became friends while working together in 2008 in Industry Solution Sales.
Before we started the grilled beef main courses, Mary Ellen snapped this group photo. She was my current Canadian manager, matrixed to Antonio in the U.S. Other colleagues that I had invited unfortunately sent regrets, as they chose to escape the Toronto winter with sunny vacations.
It’s official. I’m now one of the “old guys” in the company. I never intended to be at IBM for 25 years, it just happened. I’ve been fortunate to have a long series of good managers and great colleagues. I don’t expect to retire any time soon, and continue to enjoy the professionalism and camaraderie in the IBM culture.
Toronto, Ontario.
Almost finished double lobster: Down to the last pieces of shellfish from the double lobster portion of the dinner. Started with peking duck, then shark’s fin soup, whole steamed fish. Grand Ocean Seafood was my father’s choice for a well-executed family (Scarborough, Ontario) 20110801Blood pressure 129 over 84. Had acupuncture to relieve fatigue. Mental and visual acuity restored. Afterwards, Dr. David Lam took my blood pressure, finding it 129/84, which is normal for me. In May, after trip to Las Vegas, blood pressure was low, at 109/84 (Toronto) 20110802Urban forestry on Booth Avenue. Sounds of chain saws across the street, as crew removed tree from back yard. The tree in the front yard is owned by the city, and thus cared for by municipal employees. The tree in the back yard is at the property owner’s prerogative, so it’s not much different than any other plant with a life cycle. (Toronto) 20110804 1640Danforth, east of Chester, Taste of the Danforth. Despite intermittent rains and swampy heats, mobs still flock to Taste of the Danforth late on Sunday afternoon. Our family went to the first and second years’ events, when there was more community participation. Now, it seems to be mostly a local small business event. To avoid crowds and summer heat, we prefer to patronize the businesses for lunch in the dead of winter. (Toronto) 20110807 1740Toronto nightline from Polson Pier. Avoided heat by bicycling at night. Southbound to Portlands, west to Polson Pier. Cool view of downtown Toronto. Steady stream of taxis dropping off clubbers. (Toronto) 20110808 2111Withrow Park evening softball. Rode bike past Withrow Park, where a friendly game of softball was being played on a cool summer evening. On the way uphill to deliver foo jook soup to a friend. (Toronto) 20110810 1950Toronto Necropolis Mary Watson 1869. Grave marker for Mary Watson, died 1869 at age 6 years, 11 months. The oldest legible date that I saw at Toronto Necropolis, originally opened in 1850. A tranquil spot in today’s downtown Toronto that would have been far from the harbour so many years ago. Northeast of Wellesley Street and Parliament Street (Toronto) 20110811 18:05View southwest from Birchmount Road. bridge north of Ellesmere Road. Rail tracks straight shot southwest to downtown Toronto, towers in the distance. From an overpass on Ellesmere Road., which might otherwise be a flat bike ride southbound on a slow slope down to Lake Ontario. for a change of scenery, I rode subway to Kennedy station, then loaded onto front of bus up to Huntingwood Drive. Don fuelled me up with spaghetti and conversation, so I felt so much better on the ride home. (Scarborough, ON) 20110812 2002Pretzel Logic Lakeshore Mardi Gras 2011. Steely Dan cover band plays at a summer community festival in Etobicoke. If the you’re going to play covers, making ridiculously difficult content seem easy is a challenge worth taking. pretzellogic.ca (Toronto) 20110813 1841Torrential downpour at Regent Park. Should have checked the weather radar before going cycling. Rode to other side of Don River before rain started pouring down. Took refuge under big trees for five minutes until rain lightened. My preferred time for exercise coincides with after rush hour, so today’s air may have been cleaner than usual. (Toronto) 20110815 1801Brass Transit at Unionville Bandshell after dark. Sidestage at the Unionville Bandshell to hear Brass Transit covering Chicago, over 2 hours of music. Audience gave standing ovation. Bands in Toronto rearranged, as saw Paul De Long (drums), Don Breithaupt (keyboards) and Bob McAlpine (guitar) with Pretzel Logic playing Steely Dan just 5 days earlier (Unionville, ON) 20110818 20:43Edward Gardens 26th Renewal of Vows. For the 26th consecutive year, DY have returned to renew our vows at the same fountain where we were originally married, at Edward Gardens. The answer was, again, that we’re committed for another year. It pays to reflect on the year past, and look to the year forward on our relationship as a regular event. Forecast for tornado later in the evening didn’t deter us, we can’t remember ever being rained out. (Toronto) 20110824 1815Ryan checking in for YYZ-PEK on Air Canada. Family saw off son #4 to Renmin University of China. Following the pattern of three older brothers, with Noah halfway through his two years in Beijing. Will expect to hear from him on Skype by tomorrow morning our time (Toronto) 20110830 1120
Seicho no Ie temple, Scarborough, Ontario. Striking modernist temple with Japanese touches is Seicho no Ie, the world’s largest New Thought group. Never heard of this religion, had to look up on Wikipedia. In eastern Toronto, on Victoria Park Avenue just north of Danforth Avenue, encountered bicycling south from St. Clair (Scarborough, Ontario) 20110831
There can be a difference between vacation photos and travel photos. Seven days in the UK in five cities wasn’t a leisurely plan, and business called for a few more train rides than originally planned. For a coordinated series of research meetings, I arrived at Heathrow from Finland, and Gary arrived almost the same time from the U.S. We took the tube to Waterloo station, and dragged our luggage to our hotel along the scenic South Bank of the Thames, seeing Westminister Abbey across the river.
With the history of the Tavistock Institute at top of mind, we rode the tube up to Swiss Cottage to look at the Tavistock Clinic. The Institute and Clinic used to be colocated, but are now independent entities. On a late Sunday evening, the facilities were closed.
As a change from riding the London underground, we decided to return to the hotel on a double decker bus to see more of the city. We rode from Swiss Cottage on a path including Wellington Road, to Victoria Station.
The next day, I acted as scribe while Gary conducted an interview with Sir Richard Bowlby, on the ties between the research between by John Bowlby and cybernetics. Upon learning that the Bowlby archives are at the Wellcome Library, Gary and I decided to change our travel plans to reroute back through London for one day.
Toronto, Ontario; Hull, UK.
Overlook from the O’connor Drive bridge. Greenery in the city, bike path through Taylor Creek Park, view southwest fron the O’Connor Drive Bridge. (Toronto) 20110709 1800French cannon aimed at Ontario Parliament. One of two cannons aimed westward at the Ontario Legislature Buildings from 23 Queen’s Park Crescent. Presumably not loaded. Plaque says “part of the armament of the French warship Le Prudent captured and burnt by the British under Admiral Boscawen on July 26th 1756 at Louisbourg” (Toronto) 20110711 1900Fountains at Sherbourne Park, Water feature on plaza at Sherbourne Patk, with Toronto Harbour just behind. Hot summer day, but no children playing, neighbourhood still developing (Toronto) 20110712 1830Front year garden in Hull England. Flowers stretch westward, hoping for the sun on a rainy Saturday afternoon in Hull, England. A typical residential street, with two-storey houses in rows. (Hull, UK) 20110716 1700
Systems Science welcome reception at ISSS Hull 2011: At #isss2011 , great minds put to work during the welcome reception, synthesizing knowledge and experiences on synthesizing better futures. This was preceded by drinks and appetizers to lubricate an early integration. We’ll be at the Hull University Business School for the week (Hull, UK) 2011071
With a visit to the UK and Finland planned for the same trip, summer air fares led me to fly direct from Toronto to Helsinki, with a side trip into Heathrow and back. I arrived in Helsinki just in time for the start of SEM 2009 — Service Engineering and Management Summer School — attending for the fourth time. The classes were scheduled for the Otaniemi campus, as usual, but the first meeting was held at the Helsinki School of Economics downtown.
I had booked a flight arriving that morning, so the introductory lecture was a big foggy.
The welcome dinner was held at a restaurant just across from Senate Square.
In a game depicting the Finnish heritage, a competition of hammering …
Walking through Vancouver West End, encountered creatively designed public space officially opened in 2022. First new park in 10 years, full of visual interest with skybridge, play areas, pavilions, coffee shop. High urban density, serves 30,000 residents within a 10-minute walk. (Rainbow Park, Richards Street, Vancouver, British Columbia) 20250504
Still a free thrill to carefully descend and ascend the arc of the bridge, holding handrails to moderate speed. Posted sign says closure in the fall, maybe time for resurfacing that happens every 10 years. Valley for the Lynn Creek is separate from the larger Capilano River, where we visited the fish hatchery. (Lynn Canyon […]
Dyadic waterfalls may follow Shinto style of complementary Odaki (masculine) and Medaki (feminine) forces of the natural world. Original small memorial garden with kasuga style lantern honouring diplomat Nitobe Inazō builtin 1935 did not survive vandalization when Japanese Canadians were sent to internment camps in the 1940s. Norman Mackenzie, president of UBC (1944-1962) recognized Nitobe […]
Overhead sculpture, light projection onto floor, + audio recording Yuan Wen (2025) Play in the Field, part of Impos(s)able Impositions: UBC Master of Fine Arts Graduate Exhibition. At end of hall, drawings on xuan rice paper. Noises were intruding from the installation just over the wall, with sounds set for the opening night reception two […]
Outstanding view of North Vancouver mountains, and West End city centre from second floor patio on south shore of English Bay. Club is private for sailors, but upstairs is open for public. Can't remember visiting this venue when I lived in Vancouver in the 1980s. (The Galley Patio and Grill, Jericho Sailing Centre, Discovery Street, […]
Hoist from 1930s industrial heritage was moved opposite Sea Village in 2022. Prior location was hidden by Emily Carr University site 1980-2017 at 1399 Johnston Street, a building still vacant. Tower has become a landmark near southeast end of street, visible from Public Market. (Historic Yellow Crane, Johnston Street, Granville Island, Vancouver, British Columbia) 20250503
Leisurely Saturday morning breakfast with scrumpet (crumpet variant) and crepe. Observing not only are visitors smiling and unstressed, but also the worker teams seem happy. Purchases from Muffin Granny, a food stall original in the market since its 1979 opening. (Muffin Granny Crepe & Bakery Cafe, Granville Island Public Market, Johnston Street, Vancouver, British Columbia) […]
Malaysian cuisine may not be found in Seattle, so sampled roti canal, beef rendang, carmellized ginger fish, and Assam curry tofu at steadfast Vancouver restaurant. Last time together may have been 16 years ago in Toronto. Catching up on years that have passed. (Banana Leaf, Davie Street, Vancouver, British Columbia) 20250502
SUCCESS Care Home: Entertaining mother with crafty folding of paper butterfly. Since last year's visit, we were advised against offering food and snacks. Pushed wheelchair around the circular hallway. (SUCCESS Care Home, Carrall Street, Vancouver, British Columbia) 20250502
Touring halls during preparation for The Show at ECU, 5 days before official opening. Background right painting Jesse Ward (2025) Mundane Presence. Installation on the floor yet unlabelled. (Emily Carr University of Art + Design, East 1st Avenue, Vancouver, British Columbia) 20250502
Two years after submitting an academic manuscript and responding to double-blind reviews, “Rethinking work, with the pandemic disruption” has now been published in the International Journal of Organization Theory and Behavior (IJOTB) as earlycite. The article has a DOI (Document Object Identifier), and should be streamed with an official volume and issue number soon. The […]
The 128th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario was convened in person. The classroom was filled with current students, alumni, our regular participants, and a few curious newcomers. Moderated by Zaid Khan, the conversation was sparked by Stephen Davies and myself (David Ing) on the evolving styles in learning systems thinking. Stephen has been leading SFIN-6011 […]
The “Understanding Systems” SFIN-6011 course is a requirement in the master’s program in Strategic Foresight and Innovation at OCADU. For winter 2025, the class is now led by Stephen Davies, breaking the incremental evolving of content since 2008. While still on faculty at OCADU, the original course designer Peter H. Jones is now a Distinguished […]
In the 1970s, five ways of knowing were established by C. West Churchman in The Design of Inquiring Systtems. In the 1990s, his student Ian Mitroff carried on the tradition and extended that work in The Unbounded Mind. Now in the 2020s, the technology of Generative AI opens up opportunties to query or request responses […]
For readers with an interest deeper than the 15-minute presentation given in August, the Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Socio-Technical Perspectives in Information Systems (STPIS 2024) have now been formally publishied. The invited paper on “Reifying Socio-Technical and Socio-Ecological Perspectives for Systems Changes: From rearranging objects to repacing rhythms” was reviewed by the […]
The 125th meeting of Systems Thinking Ontario coincided with the closing day for the RSD13-RSDX online program. As a regular systems convening group, we’ve had monthly meetings since January 2013. Zaid Khan moderated a discussion including me (David Ing), Tim Lloyd, Allenna Leonard, and Kelly Okamura. We recollected starting as a spinoff from Design with […]
Rhythm and pitch are primordial to language. Susan Rogers, after a career becoming Prince's recording engineer, turned to complete a PhD in psychology focused on music cognition and psychoacoustics.Read more ›
David L. Hawk (American management theorist, architect, and systems scientist) has been hosting a weekly television show broadcast on Bold Brave Tv from the New York area on Wednesdays 6pm ET, remotely from his home in Iowa. Live, callers can join…Read more ›
Following the first day lecture on Philosophy of Chinese Medicine 1 for the Global University for Sustainability, Keekok Lee continued on a second day on some topics: * Anatomy as structure; physiology as function (and process); * Process ontology, and thing ontology; * Qi ju as qi-in-concentrating mode, and qi san as qi-in-dissipsating mode; and […]
The philosophy of science underlying Classical Chinese Medicine, in this lecture by Keekok Lee, provides insights into ways in which systems change may be approached, in a process ontology in contrast to the thing ontology underlying Western BioMedicine. Read more ›
In conversation, @zeynep with @ezraklein reveal authentic #SystemsThinking in (i) appreciating that “science” is constructed by human collectives, (ii) the west orients towards individual outcomes rather than population levels; and (iii) there’s an over-emphasis on problems of the moment, and…Read more ›
In the question-answer period after the lecture, #TimIngold proposes art as a discipline of inquiry, rather than ethnography. This refers to his thinking On Human Correspondence. — begin paste — [75m26s question] I am curious to know what art, or…Read more ›
Timothy F.H. Allen, president of International Society for the Systems Sciences 2008-2009, passed away peacefully in his home, surrounded by his family, on May 1, 2025. With his work on ecosystem ecology, I learned more about living systems than anyone else in the systems community. After his retirement, he was proud of putting together a […]
In 2024, WordPress Studio was released, making installation on a local computer simpler. The instructions were modified from MacOS to Ubuntu Linux, by Daniel Kossmann, “How to install WordPress Studio in Ubuntu Linux” | Jun 15, 2024 at https://www.danielkossmann.com/how-to-install-wordpress-studio-ubuntu-linux/ I already had NVM installed, but in Terminal, with the result “command not found”. In the […]
The appreciation of change is different in Western philosophy than in classical Chinese philosophy. JeeLoo Lin published a concise contrast on differences. Let me parse the Introduction to the journal article, that is so clearly written. The Chinese theory of time is built into a language that is tenseless. The Yijing (Book of Changes) there […]
In trying to place the World Hypotheses work of Stephen C. Pepper (with multiple root metaphors), Nicholas Rescher provides a helpful positioning. — begin paste — Philosophical perspectivism maintains that substantive philosophical positions can be maintained only from a “perspective” of some sort. But what sort? Clearly different sorts of perspectives can be conceived of, […]
Finding proper words to express system(s) change(s) can be a challenge. One alternative could be diachrony. The Oxford English dictionary provides two definitions for diachronic, the first one most generally related to time. (The second is linguistic method) diachronic ADJECTIVE Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “diachronic (adj.), sense 1,” July 2023, https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/3691792233. For completeness, prochronic relates “to […]
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