ROBERTWMARTIN.COM
  • Show Notes (Archive)
  • Gaming
  • Long Form
  • About

Show Notes - Week of June 28, 2021

4/7/2021

0 Comments

 
Greetings from 53.5° north latitude. As I write this on Sunday morning, it is more than 20°C cooler than it was at the peak a few days ago. The hot weather has definitely slowed me down this week. In addition, I received my second COVID vaccine dose and it laid me out for a day and a half. With those two impacts, not much was accomplished but I did finish two books and tried two beers. Like I said, this week was definitely slower. 

There was some disappointing COVID news earlier this week. In Calgary, Alberta Health Minister Tyler Shandro and his family were verbally assaulted at a Canada Day parade.
My first point is that the behavior of the protesters was repulsive and I feel sorry for the entire Shandro family. One person said to Shandro's son "Sorry buddy but your father is a war criminal." It is a remarkable leap from instituting public health restrictions to being a war criminal, but I do not claim to understand the mindset of those individuals.

​The second point is that Alberta is home to increasingly farther and farther right-wing ideas and personalities. There is no single unified right-wing group in Alberta, and maybe there has not been one since before the days of the Wildrose party. But you must think that a subset of the people that voted for Shandro in the 2019 election are now okay with the concept of verbally assaulting him and his family. I wonder how united the United Conservative Party will be in the 2023 election. 
Reading Pile:
I finished two books this week, one was grabbed at random from the library and the other was a re-read with my younger daughter.

​Book #21 for 2021 was "The Last Human" by Zack Jordan. I randomly picked up the book at the library and read it in four days. It is hard to describe the genre of this book. It is about a young person, but it is certainly not YA. It is set in space with myriad aliens, but I am not sure it is a space opera. It is about unanswered questions, but it is not a mystery. It is, however, completely enjoyable. The pacing shifted a few times as the plot progressed and twisted, and it twisted a couple times. I was unsure how the story would play out up to the very end, but in the end, it was very enjoyable. If you like books with big ideas and new concepts, grab a copy of "The Last Human".

Book #22 for 2021 was a re-read of "The Emerald Atlas" by John Stephens. Unlike the other book I finished this week, this is unquestionably a YA book as it features three youth between the ages of 14 and 11 as the protagonists. Most YA books are not worthy of a re-read, but I wanted to read this book with my younger daughter as I read it with my older daughter in 2017. There is a lot of emotion in this book and most of the characters are quite memorable. If you are looking for a good book to read to a tween child, "The Emerald Atlas" is a great choice. 
Picture
New Beers:
Neither beer this week was from Alberta, which is definitely not the norm. Beer #775 was the Three Seasons Saison from Quidi Vidi Brewery in St. John's, Newfoundland. This was a straight-up saison - dry and crisp with a bit of tartness. (3.5 / 5)

Quidi Vidi is an interesting brewery. Their website logo highlights their twenty-fifth anniversary which means they have been around since well before the craft beer surge in the last decade. Kudos to them for their longevity. Their website lists upcoming live events at their brewery including a pro wrestling event. Take a look at their promotional poster. The two wrestlers in the top left look like they could beat the crap out of anybody, but the rest do not seem to be much of a threat. One guy look super stoked to see you, man, and one guy looks a bit baked. And then there is the one guy with the pose. I wonder if he used his Tinder profile picture for this poster. But to each his own and if you are into wrestling, you may as well do it with some good beer. 
Picture
Come to think of it, incorporating Tinder into your pro wrestling name would be pretty cool. "The Terror from Tinder". "He knows more holds .." Okay, back to the beer.

Beer #776 was the Good Monster DIPA from Collective Arts. I have commented previously that Collective Arts is my favorite brewery outside of Alberta. I have also expressed disappointment in a couple of their beers in recent months. Good Monster was a good step in restoring my faith in Collective Arts. This had a boatload of hops and flavor in a beautiful hazy beer. I liked that the fruit tastes without it being a boozy juice box, and the level of carbonation was spot on. A beer definitely worthy of being from one of my favorite breweries. (3.75 / 5)
Picture
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    April 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019

    Categories

    All
    Afro
    Alberta
    Autobiography
    Beer
    Beers
    Birds
    Book
    Books
    Canada
    Capitalism
    Censorship
    China
    Climate
    Club
    Coffee
    Comics
    Covid
    CRISPR
    Cryptography
    Cycling
    Data
    Daylight
    Disaster
    Drawing
    Drugs
    Economics
    Edmonton
    Equality
    Family
    Festivals
    Fire
    Fishing
    Food
    Freedoms
    Fundraising
    Games
    Gaming
    Genealogy
    Goals
    Healthcare
    History
    Hockey
    Holidays
    Humanism
    Hunting
    Idiot
    Information
    Innovation
    Intelligence
    Internet
    Interviews
    Introvert
    IT
    Kickstarter
    Knowledge
    Language
    Law
    Lawsuit
    Leadership
    Lego
    Life Lesson
    Longevity
    Morals
    Movies
    Music
    Nature
    Negotiating
    Nuclear
    Philosophy
    Phonetic
    Podcast
    Politics
    Prediction
    Pride
    Privacy
    Quote
    Quotes
    Racism
    Ramen
    Reconciliation
    Reddit
    Religion
    Research
    Retraction
    Russia
    Satire
    Science
    Security
    Skills
    Sociology
    Space
    Speaking
    Star Wars
    Stream
    Surveillance
    Tea
    Theory
    Throwaway
    Tour
    Transit
    Us
    Vacation
    Volunteering
    Vote
    War
    Weather
    Wisdom
    Word
    Words
    Work
    Wrestling
    Writing
    Youth

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Show Notes (Archive)
  • Gaming
  • Long Form
  • About