Richard Le Sueur

Tears And Laughter

These are indeed interesting times.

On occasion when I actually have contact with people, which is quite seldom these days, they will say some version of “how are you doing”. My normal response is “I’m still above ground, I guess that’s a good sign”. They will laugh and we move on to something else.

Actually though, it is often hard for me to describe how I’m doing, even to myself. I go through various ups and downs, both mentally and physically.

I tend to spend considerable time online, knowing that there are a number of things I want to achieve, one being my Wee Internet Empire, and another building my Ancestry information. For both I try to do a good amount of research in a number of areas. As well, often I spend time on YouTube or Vimeo watching videos to learn stuff, or to be entertained. A number of these videos watched for entertainment produce emotional reactions which, in past times, I would not have had.

For instance, I have become a viewer of The Voice, from around the world, particularly the blind auditions. In The Blinds, as they are referred to, not only are the singers good (usually), but they often have quite interesting back stories as well. I have found there are many occasions when I have seriously teared up when watching.

This is just one description of when I find myself crying, there are certainly others, and they have become more frequent in recent years. I’m not sure if the increased isolation of the last couple of years has added substantially to it or not, although perhaps it has made me more aware. As well, I would imagine the aspect of aging and experiencing reduced ability to do certain things, and awaiting hip surgery, are factors also.

Of course, life is not all bad, and earlier today I came across a video which reminded me there are good things to enjoy as well. Today I caught a video clip called Best Carol Burnett Show Bloopers, which I share with you now. The Carol Burnett Show was regularly watched in our house as I was growing up, and remains a good memory for me. As well, the actors, particularly Tim Conway, will forever be enjoyed.

Coming across the Carol Burnett video today prompted me to create this blog post. I’m quite aware that my experience is not unique, and that there are many people with similar experiences in all parts of the world. Perhaps my sharing will do me some good, and perhaps others will know they are not alone with the feelings they may have.

For all, please be safe. Stay healthy. And happiness heals.

Is It Really Worth It?

What to write, what to do, how to proceed, these are the questions I’m dealing with at this time. The blog post title says it all.

I had this grand vision to share my thoughts, words, photos, videos and experiences, and, to have fun doing it, by creating what I called my “Wee Internet Empire”.

I started out fine, was excited, and began putting things together. My blog, this blog, had been in place sporadically for a good many years, with this being the 68th blog post. I have posted about half a dozen stories on this blog as well.

My YouTube, Vimeo and Flickr were in place for a number of years, however were not connected to each other nor was there any inclination of a theme.

My Facebook originated about fifteen years ago, as did my Twitter. I don’t use my Twitter all that much these days, one reason being the platform content has changed so much. As for Facebook, the constantly changing Facebook Algorithm really causes a kerfuffle there. Imagine Frank Sinatra trying to “start spreading the news” on Facebook today.

I have been on LinkedIn for a very long time, using it to maintain contact with a great number of people, even though I am now retired.

In August, after talking with our son, and my friend Rob, I figured I would enter the podcast arena and have twelve podcasts published up to this point. Rob and my sister have provided some suggestions for the podcast moving forward.

I had been on, and off, Snapchat a number of times and have started a new account recently, however this time I am trying to use it as part of my entire program.

It seems that half the world is on Tik Tok. I joined Tik Tok primarily so that I could support our son who uses it to promote his business. One of our daughters is also on Tik Tok, however just for the cat videos. I have had a bit of fun posting so am still going to continue with it.

I got a Discord account so that I would have another avenue to communicate with a youth group I’m an advisor for. Then I thought, I could maybe do something here as well, so I created my own Discord server, which now has other members.

My latest addition was a newsletter. I came across a newsletter on Substack from a friend and saw that there was a good possibility I could use my own newsletter to tie everything together for my “Wee Internet Empire”.

So now we get to the crux of the issue. Is it really worth it?

I don’t have any expectations of going viral, becoming world famous, having thousands of subscribers. That, of course, is totally unrealistic.

Currently I am retired, staying at home for the most part as I am a bit mobility challenged awaiting hip replacement surgery and being very careful going out anywhere due to the potential risk of Covid.

As a result my primary daily focus is this “Wee Internet Empire” thing, and feeding Otis the cat.

That all being said, there are times, more often recently, when I find myself in a vacuum. Some of you may have heard some version of the expression “my get up and go has got up and went”, although there are times I feel my get up and go decided not to visit me in the first place.

I have long been able to successfully support and motivate others when they had times of disappointment, frustration, or were feeling down, however am very unsuccessful at doing the same for myself. As many of us are aware, there is nobody who can beat us up more effectively than ourselves.

While I am typing this all out, I am talking to you, my readers. At the same time, I am also talking to myself, something that is medically proven to be a good thing (Talking To Myself).

Even so, something I feel is lacking a bit, is feedback from others. It is for this reason that I always ask people to take a moment and visit one or more of the platforms that I use. Visit my website, read my blog, listen to the podcast, look at some photos, watch a video, read the newsletter, whatever. And then, perhaps take a moment, like it , maybe make a comment, share it with a friend, and best of all, recommend it to a friend.

I have been thinking through, working on, Googling thoughts, for this blog, for a couple of hours now. Then reviewing, checking for typos, or other errors. As I do so, I am feeling a little better, being active always has that effect, so my target is to be as active with this as possible. I really hope my get up and go will visit more often.

Once again, thank you for reading this blog post. I invite you to check out my “Wee Internet Empire” by visiting my website, LeSueur.ca. Any comments, recommendations or criticisms that you may have are always welcome.

虎年 – Year of the Tiger

2022 年 2 月 1 日

February 1, 2022

新年快乐！恭喜发财!

Happy New Year! Wish you prosperity and wealth!

对于我们家来说，农历新年是按照中国传统来庆祝的。我们是一个混合家庭。我的妻子是来自马来西亚的华人，我们有两个女儿，他们的孩子住在马来西亚。在我这边，我们有一个女儿和她的丈夫在加拿大，一个儿子和他的妻子在英国

For our family, the Lunar New Year is celebrated with Chinese traditions. We are a blended family. My wife is Chinese from Malaysia, on her side of the blend we have two daughters, with their children, who live in Malaysia. On my side of the blend we have a daughter with her husband in Canada and a son with his wife in England.

由于农历新年对我们家来说是一件重要的事情，所以我选择用中英文写这篇博文。我使用谷歌翻译，它做得非常好（虽然不完美）。

Due to the fact that Chinese New Year is an important event to our family, I have chosen to do this blog post in both Chinese and English. I use Google Translate which does a most excellent (although not perfect) job.

在新的一年里，我代表我自己和我的家人，向所有人致以健康、幸福和成功的祝福。愿我们在和平、和谐与理解中生活在一起，共享这个地球。

For the coming year, on behalf of myself and my family, I sent along wishes for good health, happiness and success, to all. May we live together, sharing this earth, in peace, harmony and understanding.

谢谢！- Thank you!

Mayhaps An Olympic Like Endeavour

Most likely because the Winter Olympics are starting in Beijing next week, the movie “Eddie The Eagle” was on television today. I didn’t get to see the entire movie, however I did catch the end. Also, I had the experience of attending some aspects of the 1988 Calgary Olympics, but unfortunately not the ski jumping.

What caught my eye at the end of the movie was a quote from Pierre de Coubertin, considered to be the father of the modern Olympic games, as given in the paragraph below.

“The important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win, but to take part; the important thing in Life is not triumph, but the struggle; the essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well. To spread these principles is to build up a strong and more valiant and, above all, more scrupulous and more generous humanity.”

― Pierre de Coubertin

His quote of course applies to the Olympic Games, however I feel it can be applied to most any endeavor that a person undertakes. This got me thinking about this “Wee Internet Empire” that I aspire to, and have undertaken. Will it be massive, viral, hugely successful, thousands of subscribers, and widely recognized? Highly unlikely one would suppose. But I am working at it, I am learning and applying myself, and I am doing it to the best of my ability. As such, I would like to think that de Coubertin’s quote can, in some way, apply to this project.

My efforts at my “Wee Internet Empire” may not be ‘higher, faster, stronger’ than others have done, however it is a challenge that I have not before undertaken and I am venturing into areas I have heretofore not experienced.

With these thoughts in mind, I will press on, appreciative of the support extended to me by some of the folks who indicate their interest in what I’m producing, and who have offered their thoughts to help me make it better.

I do know that my wife Kim has been very supportive and understanding as I work on this endeavour, putting up with me puttering along, while talking to my computer (and at times, the cat), and not always being as patient as perhaps I could be while learning new aspects of various application software. This Pickles comic strip, done by Brian Crane could, but hopefully doesn’t, apply in our case.

Regardless, thank you, once again for reading this blog post.

You are more than welcome to share your thoughts in the comments.

If you would like to join me on my journey, please visit my website “LeSueur.ca” or you can subscribe to my newsletter, “Old Guy, New Ideas”, if you have not already.

Thank you.

Melaka Morning Memory

Today I am trying something just a bit different as I experiment more during the building of my wee Internet Empire. I am using this blog to show you a couple of videos and using the audio from them on my podcast. Both will be referenced in my newsletter. We’ll see how it goes.

Three years ago I traveled to our place in Melaka, Malaysia, this time for a three month stay. This morning, up popped one of my memories of awakening on my first day there. I had taken a couple of videos during my early morning coffee, and they were quite poignant considering how the world has been the last couple of years.

Of course, not being able to travel to Malaysia and spend time with our daughters, grandchildren and friends, due to Covid, provides the type of unhappiness that millions of people around the globe are feeling.

As well, another aspect of being at our place in Melaka is that I miss the mornings, having my coffee, watching the sun rise, and listening to the sounds.

That is the memory which I am highlighting today.

This first video is taken about 5:50am, it is still dark and you can hear the frogs, crickets and the praying at the local mosque. As a country boy at heart, I really enjoy these sounds.

Melaka Apartment Pre-Dawn

The second video is taken just after 7:30am, the sun is just above the horizon and you can hear the birds as their activities increase.

Melaka Apartment – Sun Rise

Thank you for allowing me to share these memories with you today. It is my hope that soon we will all be able to once again actually experience these types of moments instead of simply reviewing memories of them.

Want to follow me on my journey as I develop my wee Internet Empire? You can do so by subscribing to my newsletter, Old Guy, New Tricks, and be notified of new posts and updated on what’s happening. You will find the link to today’s podcast there.

Your comments are always welcome. Please have a safe and healthy day.

Internet Empire – The Back Story

Firstly, for clarification, I am using the term “Internet Empire” in a fun way.

As I have indicated in a previous post, I have been doing things on the world wide web for well over 40 years. I have been doing blogs, in various forms, as well as Facebook and Twitter, since 2008, for work, volunteer organizations, and myself.

As we all are quite aware, life has changed, some would say drastically, over the past couple of years. For me, it goes a bit further back.

I retired from my final job at the end of 2018 with the plan that I would spend some of my winter time in Malaysia and my summer time enjoying my motorcycle here in sunny Alberta. That worked to a degree for a couple of years, but, as often happens, life got in the way.

The pain I had been experiencing in my hip got worse and was eventually diagnosed as arthritis, to be remedied at some time by a hip replacement. This impacted a number of things, one being my overall mobility, and another my motorcycle riding. It’s hard to ride when one cannot swing one’s leg over the bike. For a biker, not being able to ride creates an unhappy place to be. Over the course of the next two summers I went through two more motorcycles, eventually coming to the one I have now. It is a trike that I am able to mount properly and now I don’t have to worry about my leg strength for stability.

Then, along came COVID-19 (followed by how many variants we have yet to find out). Now traveling to Malaysia is out, for who knows how long. It has also put a severe crimp on social and family gatherings, motorcycle events, volunteer group activities and activities with my local veterans group. As well, it has created another factor into the potential scheduling of my hip replacement surgery.

As a result, I’m literally sitting like a bump on a log at home, retired, mobility challenged, Covid restricted, and in the middle of a -30C (at times) Alberta winter.

Quite honestly, it was depressing, and I found myself imitating Jerry Seinfeld and doing nothing, although it seemed to work way better for him than for me.

I would like to say, then came an epiphany, however that was not the case. It was more like a gradual thought process. It started with the thought that, as an amateur photographer for many years, I might have some photos or even some videos that folks might like to see. Obviously, they are not doing much good just stored on my computer or in a trunk in the garage. Then came the thought that I like to write, and I do have some good stories to tell from the last 70+ years. After working with different youth groups over the last 15-20 years I have become familiar with various smartphone apps like WeChat, WhatsApp, Telegram, SnapChat and so on, so that I could stay in touch with them. They were impressed that the Old Guy could actually do that.

After pondering these thoughts for a while, I figured, maybe I can put all these things together (and perhaps some others as well), give myself something to do, and have fun doing it. Maybe even provide a commodity others may find interesting as well.

Hence came into being, the concept of an Internet Empire. It may not be grand in scope, however it is meaningful to me, and in the end, maybe that’s the most important thing.

This Internet Empire is moving along. I now have a website, LeSueur.ca, with links to my various internet platforms. Just recently I have have created a newsletter, Old Guy, New Tricks, where I can notify folks when I update any of my platforms (like this blog) or share other information. I invite you to subscribe.

As this process has moved forward, I find I am contacting with more people from all over. Now I subscribe to a good number of blogs (as you can see off to the right), quite a few YouTube channels, Flickr sites, and such. In addition to being very interesting, I have been able to learn many new online techniques as well.

So, this is a bit of the back story for my Internet Empire. You are welcome to have a look around, comment on things and share with your friends. All are welcome.

To The Unvaccinated

A friend of mine posted this on his social media today. After reading it, I asked him if I could use it for a blog post, and he gave me his permission. Thank you to Matthew Rogers.

I’m fully vaccinated and done with my booster shot.

No, I don’t know “what’s in it”. Neither this vaccine nor the ones I had as a child. Nor do I know what’s in the 11 secret herbs and spices at KFC. I also don’t know exactly what’s in Ibuprofen or any other painkiller– they just treat my headaches & my pains. I don’t know what’s in tattoo ink, botox and fillers, or every ingredient in my soap, shampoo or deodorants. I don’t know the long term effect of mobile phone use, or whether or not that restaurant I just ate at REALLY used clean foods and washed their hands.

There’s a lot of things I don’t know.

I do know one thing: life is short. Very short. And I, personally, still want to do things. I want to travel and hug people without fear, and find a little feeling of life “before”. Throughout my life I’ve been vaccinated against many diseases: measles, mumps, rubella, polio, chickenpox, hepatitis, influenza, tetanus, rabies. We trusted the science, and never had to suffer through or transmit any of those said diseases.

I’m vaccinated.

Not because I’m a sheep or to please the government. Not to make other people do it.

But I don’t want to:

die from Covid-19
clutter a hospital bed if I get sick
not be able to hug my loved ones
not be able to travel & enjoy events
live my life in fear

Can’t say it any clearer. I’m vaccinated for me and I wear a mask for you!!!

Do the same and knock some sense into people.

As is regularly the case, your comments are always welcome.

Melaka Home – High Waters

As I spoke about in my podcast earlier this evening (link here), our second home is in Melaka, Malaysia. I am retired and my wife is close to retirement, but still, since 2015 we have been spending part of each winter there, except for the last two years (thanks to Covid). With children and grandchildren in Malaysia, it is a natural place for us to go, not to mention all our friends, and oh yes, the food. This photo is a selfie of me standing on our balcony in 2020. Behind you can see the small farm I talked about and in the distance are the buildings of downtown Melaka.

Recently, Melaka, along with much of Malaysia, has been receiving a great deal of rain, very much more than they have seen for many years, particularly when one considers that January is typically one of the driest months of the year, whereas November can be one of the wettest.

What I have done here is to provide you with a number of photos taken around Melaka and posted on the Melaka Facebook Page, so that you can see the impact that the flooding has had.

While many in Canada or the US would typically experience vicious storm conditions associated with flooding, that is not always the case here. The flooding comes from a large amount of rain, causing the rivers to overflow their banks. As well, Melaka is a coastal community, hence ocean tides can have an impact also. The lunar new year is approaching, and generally this is the time of the year’s highest tides.

Regardless of whether the water comes from a storm surge or constantly rising levels, it manages to do a considerable amount of damage and create many issues. The photos in the gallery below will certainly give you an idea of that.

I know a number of the areas shown very well, and am hopeful that our family and friends will not be greatly affected.

With Covid still playing it’s games, we have no idea when we will be able to return to our second home, however we have been assured by our daughter that all is well there up to this point.

Thanks for reading this blog post. I do appreciate any thoughts or comments you may have, so please do share them. I also invite you to visit my web page and check out some to the other sites that I share.

My Internet Empire – Yeah Right!

I have been active online in some fashion for many years, beginning in the mid ’80s with an IBM PC (Intel 8088 @ 4.77mhz, 16KB memory, 5MB hard drive) and a 1200 baud modem. Pretty impressive at the time but Stone Age when compared to today.

Now, being a Old Fart, it seems I have experienced numerous different events, and taken a large number of photos as well as quite a few videos.

The result is many stories, in my head, and photos/videos, on my computer, that I could share with anyone who may be interested. If they remain in my head, or on the computer, they are not doing much for anyone.

So… it occurred to me to create an Internet Empire, a vehicle to share with all who may see, read or listen as I post on a number of different platforms. Now, to be clear, I have no expectations of having a large following, however I would be quite pleased if I have folks who enjoy what I produce and share.

Now I have a blog, a podcast, accounts with Flickr, YouTube, and Vimeo, in addition to my Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Just recently I have added Tik Tok and SnapChat, just for fun. They are all tied together by my website and LinkTree.

Some of these things have been in place for many years, Facebook and Twitter since 2007, blog since 2009, while others have been more recent. As many of you may have found with your own internet activity, some things tend to be a bit sporadic, often with various gaps in activity, some quite large.

As I am trying to build my Internet Empire, reducing these gaps is something that I feel I need to accomplish. Which leads me to my latest podcast.

Last evening, for the first time in well over a month, I put together a podcast, the title of which was “Nothing”. I talk about doing nothing, not by deliberate choice, but rather by lack of action. To listen, just click the graphic to the right.

With all of this in mind, my plan of action is to involve, if possible, you, my audience, in the process by sharing my empire building progress. My thought is, that by doing this, I will also press myself to help avoid these doing nothing times.

To this end, I welcome any feedback you would care to pass along. The only way that I can know if you like something, or you don’t, is if you tell me. I may be an Old Fart, but I have still been able to learn new tricks.

Thank you. May you all have a safe, healthy and happy Christmas, followed by a hopefully much better 2022.

Farewell My Friend

Just over two weeks ago I did a blog post and a podcast about attending a special Remembrance Day Ceremony for Mike, a friend and fellow veteran, suffering from Stage 4 prostate cancer. It was a very special event.

Today I got the sad news that he passed away this morning.

Mike was a loving husband and father, a caring friend, a distinguished soldier, a proud veteran and a patriotic Canadian.

He will be greatly missed by all. Condolences and love to his family.

Bravo Zulu Mike, for a life well lived.