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Greetings from 53.5° north. Another very laid back week, one in which I jokingly told a friend that I did so little I barely kept a pulse. It was good to do essentially nothing for a week though beyond a little cooking as I am heading into fall with a very centered perspective on what is important to me and what I want to do. More on that in future weeks. One interesting point of note regarding tea. I had run out of oolong tea and decided to head to a close-by David's Tea to pick up some of their tie kwan yin. The first shock was that the location was closed. The second shock was that David's Tea has effectively shuttered 90% of their bricks-and-mortar locations including the three that I visited. The catalyst for this seems to be COVID but I suspect they were in a weak financial situation going in to have made such a drastic move.  As sad as that made me, I thought that I would be able to at least shop online. But then the third shock was that David's is discontinuing their tie kwan yin oolong tea! I did some research to see how long oolong tea can be stored, and was happy to get confirmation that it ages well. Maybe not as long as the bricks of pu'erh tea that can be aged for a century, but this article on Tea How states oolong can last up to 40 years. Emboldened by that, I ordered 500 grams of tie kwan yin. I figure that might be able to drink that tie kwan yin for the rest of my life. That of course really hit home - I just bought tea that might outlast me. Mortality is not something I spend time brooding over, but having entered my second half-century this week, it is definitely on my mind this week. Of course, I could die tomorrow and then of course my tea purchase will outlast me, but I could reasonably expect to live into my eighties which is now thirty to forty years into the future. I can now imagine my elderly self finishing my last cup of tie kwan yin, thinking fondly back across the years of my life, and settling contentedly into my chair or bed to fall asleep one last time, smiling at how I at least lasted longer than my tea.  New Beers: The only new beer this week was actually a mead. Check-in #685 was Mr. Pink from Fallentimber Meadery. I have quite liked their other meads, although I just realized I have not checked in their Meadjito on my Untappd profile. (Spoiler alert: 4.0 / 5.) This one was pretty good, but it was not as good as their Meadjito or Honey Buck. I think it needed more cinnamon flavor to give it more of a kick, but it did have a very nice aroma and color. (3.25 / 5) New Words:
Very little reading this week - reading would have distracted me from focusing on maintaining a pulse - so once again, very few new words. One I thought I knew but only had half right. calumny [ˈkaləmnē] NOUN
vacuous [ˈvakyo͞oəs] ADJECTIVE
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Greetings once again from a laid back 53.5° north latitude. The trend of simple weeks without much to report continues, although this week was more interesting than the last few. One thing I have not mentioned for quite a while is the groups I am in and playing the world's greatest roleplaying game. My work group sadly has only met once since COVID started, but I am running a group every two weeks that I pulled together via Meetup, and starting next week I will be playing in two groups with individuals I met through that Meetup group. I am also playing a Humblewood campaign with my daughters. I posted about the Meetup group and Humblewood back in February, and reading that post makes me realize how much I have learned in the last seven months. I posted how the group I am now running was delayed in starting because I was nervous. I was worried about meeting with a bunch of strangers to play a game. As time progressed though, these strangers have become friends that have in turn introduced me to other people. I have pushed myself outside my comfort zone and the rewards have been immense, and the experience has reinforced how much better moving forward is over stagnating. The pressure to do a good job is still there, but I now know I can do it. I have confidence in my ability to plan and improvise. My writing is improving weekly, and I am finding ideas that I want to express in both stories and in the game. The other remarkable learning since February is how to use technology to interact and connect. Undoubtedly, getting together in person with the group I run will be a magical moment, if and when that can ever happen. But in the meantime, we can still meet and chat and play. The technology combination of Roll20 for displaying maps and allow for token movement with Discord for voice and video really works well. Add in a good digital character sheet either from Roll20 or with the Beyond20 Chrome extension to connect Roll20 and D&D Beyond, and this is a hobby that can work independent of physical location.  The Roll20 login screen, the map of the Humblewood campaign, and my character for the upcoming campaign I will play in. As I look back at the post from February, I notice my comments about the Kickstarter campaigns I have backed. Since February, I have backed thirteen more projects, ten of which completely successfully and three which have hit their funding goals but have not finished the campaign yet. Of the thirteen, one is a collection of board games, one is a tarot card deck that I thought would be useful as a game prop back when we were planning on playing in person, and one is an audio book. The other ten are all supplements or add-ons related to the roleplaying game of choice. I want to mention the audio book specifically as it is important and has a chuckle-worthy story. Cory Doctorow is publishing and audio book of his latest novel, Attack Surface, and in order to combat the Amazon / Audible monopoly and their requirement to use their Digital Rights Management software on audio books they distribute, Doctorow is self-publishing the audio book. Attack Surface is the third book in the Little Brother series. If you recall back in May, Little Brother was Book #18 for 2020 and I did not recommend it to the casual reader at the time. The message around digital surveillance and the need to fight for the right of privacy and security is important though and I really want Doctorow to be successful so I happily backed this project. The chuckle-worthy story relates to what I posted in May. There were some scenes in Little Brother that were awkward to read to my daughter and so I posted a comment on the Kickstarter page. Doctorow's response is pasted below.  Reading Pile: My reading time continues to ebb, and I really have not dug into anything in about a month. I did finish one book though this week. Book #35 for 2020 was a re-read of "The Wheel of Time" by Robert Jordan. We own hard copy versions of each book in the series but I have only read the first seven of the fourteen books. I am hoping to read them all over the next year or so. I read this one with my daughter and it was a great experience, and we just started into the second book last night. I mentioned in August 2019 that my friend Cam gave me an Advanced Reading Copy version of this book. I did not read through that version in case there were differences in the text. Regardless, it was great to read and I am now more excited to plow through the series than I ever have been.   New Beers: Just one new beer this week, and once again it is from my local and much-loved brewery, Alley Kat. The latest sampled ware from Alley Kat, and beer #684 unique check-in on Untappd, is the most recent in their Dragon Double IPA series, the Southern Star. Alley Kat continues to get the DIPA series right. Great hops and citrus but without having the bitterness overpower the taste. Really enjoyable. (4.0 / 5) New Words:
Not a lot of reading, so not a lot of new words, except of course all those words that Jordan created for The Eye of the World. sodality [sōˈdalədē] NOUN
desideratum [dəˌzidəˈrädəm] NOUN
whelm [(h)welm] VERB
Greetings once again from 53.5° north latitude at the tail end of a week filled with work and reading but little else. There was a bike ride before 06:00 one morning that was pretty magical as it was warm, quiet, fog-filled, and through muddy trails, but it was pretty quiet beyond that. Quiet is probably the theme of the week. Quiet leads to more time to talk and contemplate, and it allows for a more relaxing life. I had not fully internalized that point until I was able to visit my favorite coffee shop, Coffee Bureau, the other day. I asked the owner-barista how life was treating him and he said that COVID means a more relaxed lifestyle. When he said that, I realized how true that was and how much I am enjoying a more relaxed life. No more getting up and rushing around all weekend or every weeknight. Everything is still getting done but we are playing more games as a family, having longer discussions with family, friends, neighbors, and work colleagues. Instead of rushing to go somewhere to do something, we seem to be happier to find something to do close to home. A friend and I were talking about kayaking and he said COVID has provided him the opportunity to finally paddle the various segments of the North Saskatchewan river. Over a few weekends, he is going to paddle from Devon to Highway 41 south of Elk Point. That route via roadways is 251 km, so not an insignificant distance.   Alberta Government COVID stats This is not to say that COVID is a good thing, of course. Here in Alberta our numbers are rising fairly dramatically. We have had over 100 new cases each day for a week now, and the numbers in Central Alberta went from essentially zero to 167 in the last ten days or so. But I am trying to be a glass-half-full kind of person, so I'll take whatever good I can out of this. That said. Getting out is important. I understand that seeing friends and family, being outside, trying to find normalcy in our routines is important for our mental health. But gathering en masse to watch hockey does not seem to me to be a smart idea, however that is what the Oilers Entertainment Group (OEG) is working on. Earlier this week, CBC reported that OEG was working on building a drive-in and beer gardens for fans to watch the hockey playoffs from. In the run-up to the announcement that Edmonton would be one of the hub cities for the playoffs, Alberta was touted as a safe place because we had not hit 100 cases a day since May 2, but we now know that is not the case any longer. How many cases will it take to shut down the playoffs in Edmonton? How many cases will it take to shut down the mass gathering of jersey-wearing fans flocking to downtown Edmonton?  Reading Pile: This week saw me finish one book, my second memoir in a row. Book #29 for 2020 was "The Rainbow Comes and Goes: A Mother and Son on Life, Love, and Loss" by Anderson Cooper and Gloria Vanderbilt. There are a couple interesting items to note about this. First, good on Cooper for building his career and life without leaning on his Vanderbilt lineage, and then explicitly calling out that even with being a Cooper that he has lived a privileged life. Second, this book originally came from an email conversation between son and mother, so throughout the book the narrative switches back and forth between perspectives. It is a very interesting way to learn about two people, especially as they learn about each other in the process.  The third and most interesting point in my mind is how messed up Vanderbilt's life was, especially in her earlier days. It would not be inappropriate to label her as hopping from bed to bed after reading how she describes her sex life. The relationships she had is studded with famous names like Howard Hughes and Frank Sinatra (but only for three weeks with Sinatra apparently). On top of this, or maybe the cause of this, was the tumultuous life and custody battles she was thrown into by her scheming family. I had no idea who Vanderbilt was outside of the recognition of her name, but now that I know her life story, it is fascinating if only in a morbid and sad way. In order to explain herself, Vanderbilt frequently relied on quotes from famous people and authors. Early on in the book, Vanderbilt relied on quotes such as "Perhaps someday it will be pleasant to remember even this" by Virgil, but as the book progressed and her writing warmed up and she opened up, it was her own words that were the true insight into who she really is. I'll leave you with the one that sums her up for me. I have no respect for those who harbor self-pity and I have none of it in reference to myself, but the rage is there, burning hot, deep in my core. --Gloria Vanderbilt New Music: I added a few things to my Music Finds playlist for this week. First was an album called "Mordechai" by Khruangbin that was a mix of funk and laid back electronic sounds. Decent stuff and probably worth another listen, but not really my thing. Next up was "Xoxo" by The Jayhawks. I admit I was surprised how varied their sound could be as the album ranged from country rock to folk with a female lead vocal to a song that was reminiscent of late Beatles. Good stuff for sure. The third album was "And It's Still Alright" by Nathaniel Rateliff. This was not new as it was released on Valentine's Day in the BeforeTime, but it was new to me. I really liked this album and will come back to it repeatedly. Last up was a single called "Racing Stripes" from Bombay Bicycle Club which was a live release. Racing Stripes came from an album they released in January, again in the BeforeTime, that I missed. I have not yet dug into that one, but will get to it in the upcoming week. I will suspend judgement on the song until next week.   New Beers: Just one new beer this week. I wrote a couple weeks ago how Phillips Brewery was not that great in my experience, with their average being pretty mediocre. It would then be completely apropos that I would find a beer from Phillips that I really like. Their Oro Blanco Grapefruit Sour was really nice with lots of citrus flavor that did not overpower or get too pithy. Definitely worth trying if you are into fruit beers and sours. (3.75 / 5) New Words:
A small handful of words this week, largely from the words of Gloria Vanderbilt. expiate [ˈekspēˌāt] VERB
septicemia [ˌseptəˈsēmēə] NOUN
lineament [ˈlinēəmənt] NOUN
oblation [əˈblāSHən, ōˈblāSHən] NOUN
alethic [əˈleTHik] ADJECTIVE
Greetings from 53.5° north latitude, where the rain has subsided and the COVID numbers are starting to head back up. This week was populated with lots of reading, a bit of listening, a new beer, and a handful of new words. I listened to two really interesting podcasts this week. The recent Longform interview with Maria Konnikova was a particular treat because I had just discovered her writing based on her endorsement for David Epstein's book "Range" that I wrote about a couple weeks ago. Being the kind of reader that takes stock in book endorsements, I had looked up Konnikova when I read her name on the cover of Range. So being a fan of Longform and having some knowledge of who she was, I was very interested in this interview. Konnikova had some good insights in physchology, poker, luck, and human nature. My biggest takeaway though was her comment about her podcast, "The Grift". She said that she wrote 10,000 words for each episode, and at ten episodes for the series, that totals 100,000 words. According to Konnikova, that is a full book. So a full book at 100,000 words is a good metric for an aspiring writer, or someone who would like to develop a podcast. I'll be sure to pass this learning on if I ever find someone who fits either or both of those criteria.   The other podcast episode worth mentioning this week was the "Tick Tock for TikTok" episode of Rational Security. Of particular note was the discussion about Huawei. I have written about Huawei on this site a few times (here and here). As usual, the team at Rational Security highlight a number of issues while discussing the various and important nuances of the topic, in particular how the US has seemingly forced the UK to abandon its long-standing approval of Huawei technology through the use of sanctions. I got the impression from the discussion that this approach has the short-term win that the Trump administration is looking for but at the cost of long-term erosion of a very important relationship with the UK. Huawei and China aren't going away - we need to figure out how to address them soon. Reading Pile: I was able to plow through two books this week. The first for this week and Book #27 for 2020 was Eddie Izzard's autobiography, "Believe Me". I really like Izzard's comedy, especially his bit about the Death Star Canteen. Watch that here, or watch the totally clever Lego adaptation here. This autobiography was a bit of a rambling story that almost came together to communicate Izzard's personal life vision. The description of what he went through when he first came out was gut-wrenching, and it was interesting to read about how many failures and setbacks he had in his life to get to the point where he is an internationally celebrated comic, actor, and activist. I would totally love to meet him and have a chance to chat with him, but I'm not going to recommend his autobiography. Book #28 for 2020 was "Artificial Condition", the second book in Martha Wells' Murderbot series. The first Murderbot book was #2 for 2020, and for that I wrote that "the protagonist and narrator is an augmented human designed to be an It instead of a Person, but it has decidedly human impulses and concerns." The second Murderbot builds on that theme, having our hero explore its background while simultaneously struggling with wanting to connect with humans and detach into the void of "media", i.e bing-watching on the future equivalent of Netflix. Really good stuff with a bit of humor, some touching emotional scenes, and enough hooks to make me eager for the next book in the series.  New Music: There are two interesting finds to point out this week. First, I missed adding a song to my Music Finds playlist for last week. One of my favorite finds in 2019 was a band called Future Islands, and they released a new song on July 8. "For Sure" is another boppy and poppy song with a great backbeat and the unique vocals of lead singer Samuel T. Herring. I'm biased for sure (see what I did there?), but I liked this new song from the first listen. I added three albums into my Music Finds - Week of 13Jul2020 playlist. I had listened to Yo La Tengo a few times and liked some of their stuff. However, their album "We Have Amnesia Sometimes" was like Emo Gregorian Chants. Hard Pass. I also gave The Chicks, fka The Dixie Chicks but they apparently thought that was a stupid name, a listen with their new album, "Gaslighter". That was pretty good, with a few songs like "Sleep at Night" and "Julianna Calm Down" to be quite catchy. The highlight of the week though was definitely the Bluenote release of a previously unreleased studio album from Art Blakely called "Just Coolin'". Recorded in 1959, the six tracks are a rare treat. Cool era jazz previously unreleased and now available on MQA format on Tidal. It's great living in the future, especially when you can revisit something from the past that only came out in the present.   New Beers: Just one new beer this week. I was not planning on trying any new beer this week as I wanted a break, but a friend gave me this to try mainly because he found it undrinkable. The Hack Weight Imperial Stout from O.T. Brewing was decent, but it was quite boozy especially since it was only 8% ABV. I can see why someone (most people) would not enjoy it. It was pretty well done, but not my favorite in this style. (3.0 / 5) New Words:
As I mentioned above, a handful of new words, mostly from the Izzard autobiography. quean [kwēn] NOUN
stem-winder [ˈstemˌwīndər] NOUN
contrariwise [kənˈtrerēˌwīz] ADVERB
crèche [kreSH] NOUN
tragopan [ˈtraɡəˌpan] NOUN
A water-logged hello from 53.5° north latitude to you. It was a rainy week, which meant it was a pretty quiet week without a lot of time outside. But that was okay because it was a very relaxing week as a result. I did not make a lot (i.e. any progress) on my projects, but again, that is okay. It was probably the most relaxing single week vacation I have ever had. There was a particularly dorky milestone this week. I do all of the daily challenges in the Microsoft Solitaire game every month, but for June I decided to plan it out to get my points to the even thousands from 1,000 through through to the end which ended up being slightly over 28,000. Visual proof of the achievement is below. For those who may claim that I need to get out more, I say pshaw!   And besides, I did get out this week! I decided that I was hermitizing too much so I made a few deliberate moves to get out, including river valley walks, picnics, and fishing. Plus I got my hair cut for the first time in 100+ days. Time to start living again while the weather is nice, or at least not snowy, and before any COVID second wave descends. Beyond that, the week was filled with reading, a couple new beers, and a solid stack of new words. Without further ado, here is what happened this week. Reading Pile: I was able to finish two books this week, and I might actually finish a third later today (July 5) but if I do, it will be after I post the entry for this week. Assuming that I only count the two books this week, I am now on pace for 49 books this year. Finishing that third book this week would put me on pace for 51, so my goal for this year is clearly achievable. Book #24 for 2020 was "Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World" by David Epstein. I really enjoyed this book which helped me feel good about my lack of super deep skills in any one area, and reminded me of a favorite quote of mine from Robert Heinlein that "... specialization is for insects". I printed that quote back in university, so maybe 1992 or so and it has been hanging in my home office for years. But enough about Heinlein, and back to Range. There were a number of takeaways from the book but two really stood out for me. First, was the notion that "we learn who we are only by living, and not before," which is a reminder to live and engage with the world. The second was a quote from a firefighter Epstein interviewed about the difference between making decisions and making sense. "If I make a decision, it is a possession, I take pride in it, I tend to defend it and not listen to those who question it. If I make sense, then this is more dynamic and I listen and I can change it." --Paul Gleason, firefighter, quoted in "Range" Book #25 for 2020 was "Poached" by Stuart Gibbs. This is the third book in the FunJungle series I have read with my younger daughter in the past four months, and it was every bit as enjoyable as the other two. (To be clear, it is the third book we have read, but it is the second book in the series.) There is probably not a lot to say about this, but as with "Belly Up" and "Panda-monium", I recommend this if you are looking for a thrilling mystery for a young reader and something that will be enjoyable to read aloud.  Book #24 and #25, plus the Heinlein quote. New Beers: Two new beers this week, with one coming from a great American brewery and the other coming from a Canadian brewery that maybe is great and maybe isn't. See below for an explanation on that. The American beer was the Ommegang Adoration Belgian Strong Dark Ale. Thought there was too much taste at first sip, but the impact of the spices mellowed over the duration. The 10% ABV really snuck up on me, which might have caused the mellowing effect. (3.75 / 5). The Canadian beer was the Phillips DinoSour Blackberry Sour Ale. I didn't find this to be that sour at all. It had decent fruit flavor, but was pretty thin. (3.25 / 5) I was thinking that this particular offering from was an outlier in how low I rated it. However, when I checked my ratings of the 15 Phillips beers I have checked in over the years, it came in at 3.23 so this was a pretty good indication of what I think of Phillips (Technically speaking: Arithmetic Mean = 3.23; Geometric Mean = 3.20; Median = 3.25). It is interesting how the data can show a different picture than the perception, as when I told my friends on a Zoom call the other night that I was having a beer from Phillips, we all agreed that you can't go wrong with Phillips. That seems to be true, but it also seems like there isn't a lot of standouts from them either, at least to my liking.  New Words:
Although it is fair to say my mood in previous weeks was less than hospitable, this week my reading habit was untrammeled and as a result I was limned like a gaggle of serried teenaged boys finding themselves in a seraglio. bursar [ˈbərsər] NOUN
cresset [ˈkresət] NOUN historical
untrammeled [ˌənˈtraməld] ADJECTIVE
antimacassar [ˌan(t)ēməˈkasər] NOUN
eructation [əˌrəkˈtāSH(ə)n] NOUN formal
limn [lim] VERB limned (past tense) · limned (past participle)
dispositive [dəˈspäzədiv] ADJECTIVE
hostler [ˈ(h)äslər] NOUN ostler (noun)
saturnine [ˈsadərˌnīn] ADJECTIVE
seraglio [səˈrälyō] NOUN historical
serried [ˈserēd] ADJECTIVE
Greetings from 53.5° north. I did not post an entry last week to allow for some down time, but also because there just wasn't much new to talk about. This week wasn't much more exiting to be honest, but I wanted to make sure I posted something this week to not allow the habit of writing to atrophy. First of, I was negligent in my last post in not retracting a previous comment. In my entry for the week of May 18, I commented that there was clear evidence that hydroxychloroquine "is worse than ineffective; it is actually deadly." I felt confident in amplifying that message because it came from a reputable source, The Washington Post. Even more than that, the WaPo article referenced a study in The Lancet, which is a publication that I would never have questioned, but now maybe I should. As the controversy increased around what was being called #LancetGate, a friend forwarded this article from Peter Ellis, an Australian statistician and data scientist. Ellis dissects the study in The Lancet stating the unequivocal conclusion that there was a "very high probability the data behind that high profile, high consequence Lancet study are completely fabricated". Soon after this article and other pieces of high-profile analysis were released in media across the world. The Lancet retracted the study. In the end, it was a win that the global community could still out a fraud and ensure that the integrity of the scientific process is intact. But it was also a loss because an institution as highly regarded as The Lancet failed so miserably. I can only wince in anticipation of the blow this is to science and the scientific process, and to those who will use this as fodder for the fake news campaign pushed by Trump and his media handlers. But regardless of all of that, I quoted something that turned out to be incorrect and I needed to address that point.  Reading Pile: Book #22 for 2020 was "Belly Up" by Stuart Gibbs. This is the first book in the Young Adult FunJungle series, but the second book in the series that I have read with my younger daughter. As I said a few weeks ago when reviewing the previous book, the first-person narrator and protagonist is twelve year-old Teddy Fitzroy, a modern version of Encyclopedia Brown. This is definitely a good series to pull the younger readers into the mystery genre. It is also important to note YA series like this that are not filled with the tropes of stupid and incompetent adults. Belly Up delivers on this again, and offers some genuinely funny scenes while dealing with difficult concepts such as lying, fraud, and murder maturely and seriously. I have now read two of the FunJungle series and look forward to reading the rest with my younger daughter. With 22 books read in 25 weeks, I am falling behind the pace required to read 50 books in 2020. My general lack of energy and enthusiasm of late has leaked over to my reading. I made zero progress with "The Name of the Wind" last week, I haven't touched the "Rogues" fantasy anthology in three weeks, and I have completely fallen off the wagon for both of my reading groups for "War and Peace" and "The Count of Monte Cristo". I need to rejuvenate and refresh my outlook, but what will come first? - the chicken (reading more) or the egg (the energy to read more). New Beers: Fourteen days, five new beers or about one new beer every 2.8 days. That is close to but a bit lower than my pace for the past six years. The five new beers puts me at 669 unique beers checked into Untappd. The first of the fortnight was the Sierra Nevada Tropical Torpedo. This could have been great but had a bit of chalky or astringent aftertaste that took away from it. I really liked the hops and citrus flavor though. (3.5 / 5) The second was Bob's Your Dunkel from Alley Kat. Really good stuff. Nice caramel flavor with a great malty base. Quite enjoyable, and a shame this is not a permanent offering. (4.0 /5) The third beer for the fortnight was the Bent Stick Electric Boogaloo IPA. It was pretty good. It suffered a bit following the Bob's Your Dunkel, but I would have this again. (3.25 / 5) Unfortunately the next beer I had was a total disappointment. The Final Test Batch for Blindman's Kettle Sour before they finalize on a recipe was nearly undrinkable. It was chalky and bitter and I didn't really think it was sour at all. Too bad as I was really looking forward to this. (2.5 / 5). The last beer was better though. The Waltz Pilsner from 2 Crows out of Halifax seemed more bitter than 22 IBU, and had a nice peppery taste. I'll seek out more beers from 2 Crows going forward based on this one. (3.5 / 5)  New Words:
Only a few new words over the past fortnight, which is of course a clear indication of how little I have read recently. One for sure is a repeat, and a very recent repeat at that. praxis [ˈpraksəs] NOUN formal
sojourn [ˈsōjərn] NOUN
droshky [ˈdrôSHkē] NOUN (historical)
protodeacon (prō′tō dē′kən) NOUN
rapacious [rəˈpāSHəs] ADJECTIVE
argali [ˈärɡəlē] NOUN
Greetings from 53.5° north latitude where your humble blogger is happily officially COVID-negative (for now, at least), and is the still-proud-but-aghast father of an officially-in-her-teens-now teenager.
The past week was spent much the same as the previous weeks. A couple bike rides, some reading, some guitar, a lot of work. The news that the playgrounds were open again was definitely well-received in our house. Seeing the garbage can containing the old signs announcing the playground was closed was itself a bit of a tonic for my younger daughter, almost as good as being able to run in the park and get on the swings.
The only COVID item worth posting this week is this story about how Trump's COVID "game changer" hydroxychloroquine is worse than ineffective; it is actually deadly. The article is based on a study published in The Lancet. The most interesting quote from the article highlights the disconnect between Trump's declarations and the actual facts of this matter: "these findings provide absolutely no reason for optimism that these drugs might be useful in the prevention or treatment of covid-19."
But let's not dwell on the negative. Instead, let's focus on the sublime wit of Bike Edmonton and how they completely destroyed this monstrosity of a kid's bike.
Reading Pile: I spent a few days plowing through about half of a short story anthology, and then picked up the absolutely amazing "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. I'm only about one-fifth finished it so I probably won't finish it until early June. Unless the quality of the writing decreases in the upcoming chapters, this will definitely be a contender for the best book I read in 2020. I am also a week behind in my War and Peace reading, and completely negligent in the reading of Monte Cristo. If the world is opening back up, I suspect EPL will open soon as well and that means I have to finish a few of my library finds as well, including that anthology. 
But for this week, I was able to finish one book with my younger daughter. Book #20 for 2020 was "Lord and Lady Bunny - Almost Royalty!" by Polly Horvath. This was an enjoyable story to read with a younger family member and had an decent story. Unfortunately though, it started out much better than it ended. By the end, we were constantly commenting on how moronic the characters were. Their shortsightedness was actually distracting. Not that there was a real sense of verisimilitude in a story about talking rabbits interacting with a young girl and her hippy parents, but whatever immersion there was in the story was lost by repeatedly asking if the characters could do anything any more idiotic. So maybe read this to an eight year-old and not a ten year-old.
New Music:
Most of my listening in recent months has been limited to artists that I already knew about and albums I already knew. However this week I turned on Track Radio in Tidal on a Foals song and was really happy to hear a track from Kurt Vile. I have been listening to his "b'lieve i'm going down..." and "Bottle It In" albums repeatedly for the last few days. Bottle It In is much more laidback and b'lieve has more enthusiastic guitar sounds, but both are solid albums with great lyrics and music.
New Beers:
Three new beer this week, bringing my total lifetime unique beers logged on Untappd to 658. The first was another from The Wild Beer Co. in the UK. This time it was the Jambo Imperial Stout. As you would expect with an Imperial, this had lots of flavor with dark raspberries if dark raspberries are actually a thing. Might have been too much flavor though as it took a lot to think through this one. It wasn't too boozy though, which was nice. (3.5 / 5). 
The other two were both from DAB, or Dortmund Actien-Brauerei. DAB touts themselves as the "ambassador of the famous Dortmund Beer style", and while they are "only" 152 years old, they claim a much older provenance by brewing in compliance with the Purity Law of 1516. I think it is fair to call them a macro brewery, but from what I have tried, they produce decent beers.
The first was their Export lager, This was a well made beer with a nice bready malt and a bit of hops. Pretty happy with this one. (3.5 /5). The second was their Maibock, which is a style I don't have a lot of experience with. I feel this was better than most of the average beers that I rate at 3.25, but it wasn't good enough to be 3.5. I guess I will have to branch out to the bocks and maibocks and see if I can find a really good example of this style. That is the beauty of being on a lifelong quest to drink one of each beer in the world. (3.25 / 5) 
New Words:
Very few new words this week, even though I read a lot. syllogism [ˈsiləˌjizəm] NOUN
wain [wān] NOUN (archaic)
Greetings from 53.5° north latitude where the week that was was worse than the week that was last week. In short, I felt bad at the start of the week, felt worse as the week progressed, and have now been tested for COVID. So yeah, pretty much sucky. I won't talk about that here because I am trying my hand at a long form diary for my maybe-COVID-journey. There were some interesting highlights from this week, a couple new beers (back earlier in the week when I didn't feel quite so bad), and a list of interesting words. Upward and onward! First up were two interesting experiences in online media consumption. Early in the week, I watched both an opera from The Met and a concert from The National. The Met streamed "Werther", and The National released footage of a concert from last August on YouTube. To be able to watch both of those on the same day was quite remarkable. The National will continue to be one of my favourite bands so they will get money from me from albums and (hopefully one day!) concerts, but I will have to think about sending some money to The Met to support their choice to stream from their archives..  No, I didn't actually watch them at the same time. But I could have!  In the category of self-promotion, I was part of a webinar with three other security executives and a current Board-level moderator. Thanks to Securonix for inviting me to speak at the session which covered general info and cyber security areas, but also highlighted a few healthcare-specific topics as well.  If you are so inclined, it is available on-demand here, and here is my little behind-the-scenes look at how I set up my recording area. It was difficult to get the camera set up properly, and I am constantly struggling with how the image width changes between video conferencing tools. Skype for Business barely showed any of the bookcase behind me, but BrightTalk showed all the way out the door. I have another session on May 29, so I have a bit of time to make improvements.  One more note before we move on to the beers and words. In early- and then mid-April I mentioned a reading group pulled together by Adam Greenfield. This week we read Donna Haraway's "A Cyborg Manifesto", which was more of an essay than a book so I won't count it in this year's reading list. Manifesto was thought-provoking and much easier to read than most of what we have delved into, but was still pretty dense. This was our last meeting of our reading group unfortunately, but I am definitely happy for the experience.  New Beers: Early in the week when I felt decent, I tried a couple new beers. The first was the Tyskie Gronie lager out of Poland. Decent. Did the trick but nothing more than that. Then again, if that's all you ask and you get what you ask for, then that's a win in my book. (3.25 / 5) The other beer was another from Postmark. I tried out their Juicy Pale Ale a couple weeks ago, and was quite happy with it. This time it was their Westerly IPA which started out great. Nice citrus and hops but a disturbing amount of sediment. The sediment knocked the rating down a peg or two. (3.25 / 5) New Words:
A handful of new words this week, largely from the reading and discussion in Greenfield's reading group, and I am pretty sure one is a repeat. theodicy [THēˈädəsē] NOUN
bower [ˈbou(ə)r] NOUN
speculum [ˈspəkyələm] NOUN
circumlocution [ˌsərkəmˌləˈkyo͞oSH(ə)n] NOUN
semiotics [ˌsemēˈädiks] NOUN
teleological [ˈˌtelēəˈläjəkəl] ADJECTIVE
telos [ˈteläs] NOUN (literary)
 Alberta Premier Kenney laying down the law before the Snowbirds return home. Greetings from 53.5° north latitude. This past week was a bit of downer, not gonna lie. Seven weeks of COVID work-from-home quasi-isolation is definitely straining psyches. But let's not fool ourselves - what we are experiencing here in Canada is definitely NOT a quarantine. To get a feel for what a real quarantine is like, the Lawfare team interviewed one of their own in Beijing. Sophia Yan recently returned from Wuhan to Beijing and reported on her 14 days of quarantine. From house nannies getting alerts every time her door opens, to a full escort from airport to home to ensure she doesn't nip out for some groceries, to family members being forced to quarantine apart from their family, Yan lays out what strict enforcement really looks like. In fact, even though we are several weeks earlier into our pandemic response than China, we are contemplating what the Kenney government has labelled our "relaunch" strategy to be in place as early as May 14. The full document has been saved here for posterity. The Alberta government relaunch strategy is built on seven conditions to be met. They are (as copied directly from the document):
 As you can see in the second bullet, one tool that various jurisdictions including Alberta are utilizing as they relaunch or reopen is some form of "contact tracing". In the early stages of an outbreak with small numbers of people infected, this can be very manual - figure out who a person met, call them, call who they talked to, and so on. This gets significantly more difficult in the mid- to late-stages of a pandemic due to the vast numbers of people who are or could be infected, and that of course sounds like something that technology can help with. Contact tracing apps like the one that Singapore open-sourced and that Alberta has adopted sound like they could be privacy nightmares. This article out of the UK outlines how those issues could manifest into significant concerns, but the fact that they are not mandatory means the number of people potentially impacted could be small. Further to that. Brookings and Bruce Schneier both complete pan contact tracing applications, saying that they just don't work. Assume you take the app out grocery shopping with you and it subsequently alerts you of a contact. What should you do? It's not accurate enough for you to quarantine yourself for two weeks. And without ubiquitous, cheap, fast, and accurate testing, you can't confirm the app's diagnosis. So the alert is useless. If this is all true, then the promise of a contact tracing application freeing people from, as Brookings put it, the "terrible choice between staying home or risking exposure" is nothing but a false hope. If the only real tool we have to stay safe until we have a vaccine is full-on quarantine, then it looks like the Chinese might have the only solid plan. China continues to come up nearly daily for me. Looking at China closely over the past two decades has evolved from a personal interest, to a hobby, an investment strategy, and now into the realm of core fact of life. Understanding what China is doing is as fascinating as it is essential, and so it was with great interest that I read this article about China and technology futures and the China Standards 2035 initiative. As the article states, while the Chinese Communist Party is "authoritarian to a fault, its machinery of innovation should not be underestimated." It closes by saying that "ultimately China’s ability to rejuvenate itself following the pandemic will likely be superior and more strategic than the rest of the planet."  Coverage on China Standards 2035, on the China Market Regulation News site New Beers: I'm going to skip the Reading Pile section this week as I did not finish the Mark Urban or Simon Sinek books that I am currently reading. I should be able to review both of them next week. As for the new beers, there were two this week and they were both quite memorable. The first was my first from Vancouver's Postmark Brewing. Their Juicy Pale Ale had a nice taste and citrus aroma, lots of citrus pith, and a long lasting foam. Good stuff. (3.5 / 5). I'll be sure to search out additional offerings from Postmark based on this first try. The second was yet another from Collective Arts. I have been going through the Collective Arts offerings lately because (a) they are typically quite good, and (b) they are available as singles at one of the stores closest to my house. The latest was their Blueberry Sour with Cocoa Nibs and it was, in a word, purple! And in more than one word, this was a really great beer. A bit fruity, a bit chocolatey, a bit sour. A great combination that I never would have thought of, and the first beer I have rated at 4.0 / 5 in probably a couple years.  New Words:
Just two new words this week. There should be a fair number next week after I finish those two books by Urban and Sinek. sagacious [səˈɡāSHəs] ADJECTIVE
ineradicable [ˌinəˈradəkəb(ə)l] ADJECTIVE
Greetings from 53.5° north latitude. If my weeks had themes, this week's theme would have to be "The Triumph of the Introverts". I could see the struggle and the fatigue in the faces and hear in the voices of my friends and coworkers this last week. What seemed like a holiday a few weeks ago, a chance to hang out, try some new tech, ignore the commute, turned this last week into the slog of quarantine. The fact that we haven't hit the peak yet, that we have a significant amount of time before isolation ends, the fact that we should mentally prepare for another wave in the fall, has all taken its toll on those around me. But not everyone is doing poorly. Some of us, the introverts especially, are faring much better. One might even argue that we were made for these times. If you have a deep-seated need to be in physical contact with someone, you are going to be in a much worse place right now than if connection via video conference is sufficient for you. Mental health issues will be paramount while and after we deal with the physical issues. I'll point out the same mental health support videos that I highlighted in last week's entry. Watch them for yourself and those close to you, and share those with others in case they might benefit as well. Even if you are doing better than most because of your innate personality and genetic makeup, it is highly unlikely that you are immune from mental health concerns. Take care of yourself.  There were a few other COVID-related items worth highlighting this week. The first was this combination sun hat and face shield. My spouse is looking seriously at getting one, but for some reason I just cannot take it seriously. The company selling these hats has various other "Health Protection" items for sale, but the main categories of their products on their web site include "Spring Fashion" and "Accessory and Beauty" so I can't help but feel that this is nothing more than a cash grab. 60 Minutes broadcast an interview with Peter Navarro, who US President Trump appointed to lead the initiative to distribute Personal Protective Equipment. Watch that interview for a quick lesson in deflection and redirection, and to see pushback in action instead of leadership. In the end though, 60 Minutes comes out on top with this interview with their mic-drop moment when they highlighted their previous reporting on pandemic response after Navarro openly challenged their role and leadership.  And speaking of a lack of leadership, take a read of this article and a look at the picture below to see what happens when poor leaders lead poorly. Note the vitriol of the Trump supporters with their MAGA hats and their "Don't Tread on Me" flags, all because of the American cellular-level need for loudly protecting personal freedoms, rekindling the "age-old U.S. debate over government regulation vs. personal liberty", fueled by a leader who just cannot lead.  You can almost see the respiratory droplets coming out of their gaping mouths.  There is more to life, well my life at least, than COVID, so let's talk about something else for a while, shall we? Cybersecurity is important to everyone, and I would be remiss if I did not pass on this note about CIRA's new Internet protection service they call "Canadian Shield". CIRA touts their DNS privacy service, ransomware blocking, and pornography filtering service as "enterprise-grade protection for all Canadians". It is super easy to setup and free. If you are Canadian and don't already have access to a similar service or commercial offering, there is no reason why you shouldn't configure your home network using CIRA's Canadian Shield settings.  Reading Pile: There was a lot of reading in my life this week, and I was able to finish one small book. Book #14 for 2020 was Susan Sontag's "Illness as Metaphor", the third book in our social science reading group hosted by Adam Greenfield. We only read excerpts of the first two books, but this week we read the whole book from Sontag. To be fair, it clocked in at a paltry 88 pages, but I will count it as a full book regardless. There was a lot of very powerful language in this book; language that made me think about the social "value" of diseases, and how two diseases can be viewed so differently. A lot of the book is focused on tuberculosis, and early in the book, Sontag discusses how the consumption and wasting comes from TB has lead to the skinny mindset in the twentieth century. Twentieth-century women's fashions (with their cult of thinness) are the last stronghold of the metaphors associated with the romanticizing of TB in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Sontag then contrasted the new waifish chic brought along by TB with how their male contemporaries stereotyped themselves. Gradually, the tubercular look, which symbolized an appealing vulnerability, a superior sensitivity, became more and more the ideal look for women—while great men of the mid- and late nineteenth century grew fat, founded industrial empires, wrote hundreds of novels, made wars, and plundered continents. I'm glad we read Sontag's book, but I couldn't help but feel it was dated. The book quotes Kafka a couple times as he ultimately died from TB in 1924. One quote from him from 1920 said that he had an illness of the mind that had moved to his body. Sontag's book was written in 1978, meaning there is a span of 58 years between his quote and Sontag's book. At present in 2020, there have been 41 years since Sontag wrote this book, which is getting close to the gap between Kafka and Sontag. Think how much has changed in collective thinking in those 41 years, and it seems that a 2020 Sontag book on the same topic would arrive at new conclusions. It is unfortunate that Sontag passed away so many years ago, as it would be insightful to read a 2020 version with a new foreword by the author. New Words:
Lots of new words this week from a combination of War and Peace, The Count of Monte Cristo, Sontag's book discussed above, and a new science fiction book that I will hopefully be able to finish this week. corvée [kôrˈvā] NOUN (historical)
hortatory [ˈhôrdəˌtôrē] ADJECTIVE
etiology [ˌēdēˈäləjē] NOUN
enervate [enervate] VERB
garret [ˈɡerət] NOUN
parvenu [ˈpärvəˌn(y)o͞o] NOUN (derogatory)
rachitis [rəˈkīdəs] NOUN
philippic [fəˈlipik] NOUN (literary)
autophagy [ôˈtäfəjē] NOUN (biology)
laity [ˈlāədē] NOUN
exemplum [iɡˈzempləm] NOUN
orgone [ˈôrɡōn] NOUN
apposite [ˈapəzət] ADJECTIVE
semiotic [ˌsemēˈädik] ADJECTIVE
lacuna [ləˈk(y)o͞onə] NOUN
orthorexia [ˌôrTHəˈreksēə] NOUN
perspicacious [ˌpərspəˈkāSHəs] ADJECTIVE
pediment [ˈpedəmənt] NOUN
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