Sonya's Patates Braavos: Edition #10 💌🥔

TLDR: pirates, heroes, sakura

welcome note 👋 

Hello, brave patates! I am feeling personally victimized by the windy cold temperature in Toronto today. I wore my thick wool fisherman knit sweater and a real down-puff coat. WHY is it still so cold. Do you ever ask yourself why you live in Canada? I do… Speaking of cold, I am returning to Ottawa this week - let’s hang!

Anyway, what was your #BravePatate moment of the week?

random cool things corner

• I wrote a 100-word microfiction for NYC Midnight’s new challenge. It was about 1530s Jewish pirates avenging the Spanish Inquisition (true story - Moses Cohen Henriques is my fave 😂). If you want to read it, DM me. Let me tell ya, a complete story in 100 words is HARD. My genre was historical fiction.

• See: Sakura Blooms on the U of T campus. 70 trees planted in 2005 as a symbol of friendship between Japan and Canada.

  

• Eat: $19 sushi & taco & gyoza bento lunch box at The Haam in the 6ix.

• Watch: The Circle (Netflix). Season 6 has a ChatGPT player 😂 Also, Drink Masters, a bartending competition that’s one-part cocktail-making and two-part magic science and potions… Very cool! AND, finally watching S2 of Our Flag Means Death (Crave) (do you see the pirate theme here?) - did you know this is based on a real story of the Gentleman Pirate and Blackbeard?

• Read: The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell - a delightfully complex narrative weaving the Hero’s Journey with symbolism = through time immemorial it’s served to help us process our deep unconscious psychological patterns, fixations, and limitations

• Cook: I made fresh challah from scratch and it’s delicious. I also made Campbell’s mushroom soup chicken bake with egg pasta.

• Attended a wonderfully positive event and finally met Eitan Chitayat in person. Only had 3 cups of (free) red wine, don’t judge me.

business updates

• I published a new case study about the work I’ve done for a cool B2B high-tech design agency.

• Telfer hired me for another project.

• Had a meeting with the Chinese design software AI company and our expectations didn’t align right now so they will follow up later.

• I edited students’ op-eds for Honest Reporting Canada—which combats Israel bias in the media—& Allied Voices for Israel collaboration.

PSA 🇮🇱🇮🇷

• I won’t cover every Middle East military exchange BUT I am following the situation closely through firsthand information on Telegram channels which report every word Israel says, Iran says, and the others. SO, if you are curious, or have questions, please ask me. Happy to share and have a discussion as a person with a direct connection and lived experience 🙂 ✡️