Greetings from 53.5° north after a relatively boring week, at least in comparison to the previous one. This week was filled with reading, riding, and work, with the added milestone of being caught up on The Mandalorian. I have to hand it to Disney. Mando was such a well-done series with a great mix of comedy and tension. Plus the return of Boba Fett, Bib Fortuna, and Luke Skywalker did not hurt of course.
I am actually interesting in watching the upcoming Star Wars content coming out on Disney+, and this coming from a lifelong fan who had seriously soured after "Solo" and "The Rise of Skywalker". Enough geeking out. Time to get on with the rest of the update for this week.
Reading Pile:
Book #2 for 2021 was "Cibola Burn", the fourth book in the Expanse series by James S. A. Corey. There are a lot of reasons why I like the Expanse series. Certainly the action is good and the implications of humanity spreading out throughout the solar system and beyond is always fodder for interesting thoughts and speculations. However the best reason to read the series is that the good guys always win. Someway, somehow, they get things to work, but not with a macho, lone wolf bullshit trope, and not with some deus ex machina intervention. They do it with love and an undying loyalty for each other. They are highly principled people, even Amos who could be considered a killer, and the clarity their principles give them drive the forward to do the right thing and ultimately to be successful. Definitely recommend the series if you are interested in science fiction, space exploration, and humanity. 
Cycling Update:
It was a good week in the saddle. As I mentioned before, the distance I am traveling is not great but I am happy with what I am doing for the distance I am riding. I rode for just over 69 km this week but got some killer hills in and some good top end speed, which feels really good on my heavy winter bike with studded tires. From a milestone point of view on my cross-Canada virtual tour, I made it to Barriere, British Columbia. As I virtually ride north on Highway 5, Barriere is the first settlement of note north of Kamloops. According to Wikipedia, Barriere only became an incorporated settlement in 2007, even though it has been home to the Simpcw people for thousands of years. The other interesting note I could find is that Barriere is at the same latitude as Stonehenge, so they have erected a scaled-down replica in tribute. Here is the updated progress chart. I should be able to easily make it to Clearwater next week. 
New Music:
I wrote about 250 words for all of the great music that I found this week, but then Weebly went and screwed up on me and the whole section was lost. Instead of trying to redo it all, I will give a quick summary.
New Beers:
I had four new beers this week and either they were all not very good, or I am just in a phase where I am not liking beer. These beers seemed average at best and two of them were definitely below average. Beer #713 was the Fat Sherpa porter from Establishment Brewing in Calgary. It came highly recommended and my community on Untappd really liked it. I found it a bit smoky but did not really enjoy it. (3.25 / 5) Beer #714 was Father John's Winter Ale from Howe Sound. This was very aromatic but bland tasting. The winter spices did not really come through for me. (3.0 / 5) Beer #715 was another from Howe Sound. The Megadestroyer Imperial Licorice Stout got points for originality but again I was not overly impressed. The initial shock from the licorice taste did pass quickly but there are many other Imperial Stouts that I would recommend before this one. (3.25 / 5) I have now had three beers from Howe Sound and they are averaging 3.06. I think that is enough of a sample to give them a pass next time I come across them. Last up for Beer #716 was the Sour Citra from Les Trois Mousquetaires out of Quebec.I picked this up thinking it was a Sour Cherry beer so it was a bit disappointing. Nice pithy taste, but the sour was just there and not really part of the beer. To be fair, I might have been a bit biased since I was looking forward to a sour cherry beer. (3.0 / 5) 
New Words:
The first word in the list of new words for this week is right from the title of the book I finished. A few others come from that book and others come from my catch up work with War and Peace. cibola [see-buh-luh] NOUN
codon [ˈkōdän] NOUN
hector [ˈhektər] VERB
chiral [ˈkīrəl] ADJECTIVE
nacre [ˈnākər] NOUN
boojum [ˈbo͞ojəm] NOUN
blackamoor [ˈblakəˌmo͝or] NOUN
mummer [ˈməmər] NOUN
insuperable [inˈso͞op(ə)rəb(ə)l] ADJECTIVE
parterre [pärˈter] NOUN
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Greetings from 53.5° north. Another busy week with all of the COVID support work for the day job, interspersed with a few good rides, some good beer, and good music.
While I cannot, and will not, complain about my life, it is is remarkable how much it has shrunk. I went out today to buy a few groceries and it was the farthest I had been from my house in over a week, bike rides excepted. That might not seem like a big deal, but the grocery store is 1900 m from my house. I am reaching out virtually farther from my house to connect with others than I ever have, but more and more, I am not physically reaching out. I have to wonder if I will be able to connect in person if this continues for another year. But then again, maybe connecting in person is not something that I really want to do. There was some nasty business years in the making at the US Capitol, and close to home there were pro-Trump rallies. I really do not understand this. Trump is American and we are Canadian. What will a protest in Red Deer, Calgary, or anywhere in Canada do to help support any attempts to overturn the US election? My guess is that those protests were less about Trump directly and more about white solidarity. I will leave that discussion for now at least and post this image. Imagine being a black police officer looking at that mob. 
Cycling Update:
It was a good week in the saddle. I cycled for 72 km this week, putting my monthly total at 101 km. More importantly, at least with respect to my virtual cross-Canada tour, I finished the leg from Vancouver to Kamploops. I have now cycled 863 km since I started keeping track in pursuit of the virtual tour. Next up is Kamloops to Valemount. Just an FYI as it was news to me that it is "Valemount" and not "Valemont". This third leg will be 322 km and only has four segments. If you have driven this stretch of highway, you know there are very few towns and settlements along the way. Lots of great scenery, but that is it. Some fun facts about Kamloops according to Wikipedia. The population of the census metropolitan area is over 100,000 people. The word Kamploops is the anglicized version of the Shuswap word "Tk'əmlúps", meaning "meeting of the waters". Kamloops is technically in a desert, and average temperatures for this time of year are just above freezing. The regional airport in Kamploops has the airport code of YKA. The images below are the updated chart of the legs and segments to date, and a map view of the next leg to Valemount (with a U, remember that!). 
New Music:
The last few weeks have really seen me get into jazz. This week that trend continues with a bit of journey into swing and R&B. The first find in the Music Finds playlist this week was the album "HH" from Lionel Loueke. HH is short for Hang Up Your Hang Ups. I assume that at least since Hang Up Your Hang Ups is the first song on the album. Loueke is a jazz guitarist from Benin and I love his style. The HH track I mentioned above, Cantaloupe Island, Watermelon Man and more are all really good songs. I added the songs and the album to my Tidal favorite list so looking forward to seeing more from him and seeing his music influence my feed. The second find was the album with the journey into swing and R&B. "Last Man on Earth" by Big Boss Man is a fifteen-track album with great guitar, a bright horn section, vocals from multiple guest artists, and a nice clean percussion in the background. I favorited a third of the album so I will definitely be listening to more from Big Boss Man in the future. Note that this was a 2014 recording, so new to me but not new.
New Beers:
Two new beers this week, both from Alley Kat. First up and coming in as Beer #711 was the latest in their Dragon Double IPA series, the Loral Dragon. This one had a striking amber color and had a nice maltiness. I found the taste had a bit too much pepper in it which took away from the malt and the hops. Still pretty good stuff. (3.5 / 5) The second beer and coming in as Beer #712 was their 2020 Holiday beer. This year Alley Kat brewed up a Milk Stout which was a nice change. There was a nice creaminess in this as you would expect from a milk stout but it could have used a bit more flavor. I compared it to the Situation Iconic Milk Stout which I rated at 4.0 out of 5 and this was close but not as good. As with the Loral, still pretty good stuff. (3.5 / 5) 
New Words:
I was going to catch up on a few words I have flagged in War and Peace, but I thought it would be appropriate to only have one word this week. If there was anything good out of the US Capitol Insurrection, it was that I learned a new word watching the news reports. Many of the media reports discussed how Trump had "fomented" the rioters. Apparently you can foment or ferment discord and rebellion, but you cannot forment it (with an r) as forment is not a word. foment [ˌfōˈment, ˈfōˌment] VERB
 Happy 2021 from 53.5° north! I took last week off from writing as I needed time to rest, recharge, and reflect. It seems everyone else had the same thought, especially in regards to reflecting. A lot of content crossed my feeds about how crappy 2020 was, how glad we can be that it is finally over, and that better things are ahead. I have multiple problems with those statements and the underlying attitude that creates statements like that. First of all, it is not guaranteed that 2021 will be any better and I am concerned that people are setting themselves up for a great disappointment. Second, not everything was bad in 2020 and it is important to recognize the good instead of simply bemoaning the bad. The following text was something I sent to a person I got to know somewhat in 2020, somehow who I have followed online for a long time. The pandemic and the disruption to our lives was terrible, not mentioning the impact to human life across the world. However, I was able to take some solid positives out of the past year, and I hope this helps you reflect on your year more positively as well. 2020 was the year that I was able to connect with people from London to Toronto to Perth to Boston to Los Angeles to San Francisco to Seattle to Vancouver to Hawaii. The very fact that I needed to be in my home office allowed me to (forced me to?) reach out and connect. It was not the same people every day. It was new people and new experiences. Granted it was not traveling to meet face to face, but the only way to meet with someone seven time zones away one day and another person four time zones the other way the next was to do this virtually. 2020 gave me that opportunity and for that I am grateful. As 2020 came to a close, news outlets, consulting groups, social media networks, independent journalists and pretty much every other organization came out with a summary of 2020, and of course the focus of many of these summaries was COVID. Two that I really enjoyed were from Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey. I featured the McKinsey charts on changing leadership behaviors from McKinsey a few weeks back. The one chart that really staggered me was the one about how many children are now learning from home. See the image below.  In other news, the cybersecurity industry was stunned by the extent of the SolarWinds breach. From a day-job point of view, I have read a lot about this and have a good understanding of what this means. I also have some information that is probably circulating in the CISO circles globally but is not public knowledge. In addition, I have a few subscription services that I could reference, but those are behind paywalls. As a result, I will stick to information in the public domain. One consistently good source of analysis regardless of topic is Lawfare. In this post, the timeline of the attack is discussed. It is vital to understand that this is not something that was done, discovered, and remediated in a few weeks or months. This was an attack that was planned and executed years ago, and was executed with serious skill. Thus, SolarWinds can be understood as the result of the operational success achieved three and a half years ago. --Dr. Richard J. Harknett, Lawfare Even if we could wave our magic wands and remove the affected versions of the SolarWinds software, the scope and scale of the access this breach provided means we will be working to remediate for years. It is not hyperbole to say that we might never know the impact and cost associated with this breach. I am sure I will have more to say about this in the future. Reading Pile: I had a goal in 2020 to read 52 books, or one a week. I hit a terrible reading drought in September but still ended up with 48. I had to finish four of those books in the last ten days of the year, but a book read is a book read regardless of when it is read. Book #45 for 2020 was "The Great Hunt" by Robert Jordan, the second book in the Wheel of Time series. I finished the first book in the series back in September and was really glad I read the second book. I have had issues with the length of the series and a few of the gender stereotypes but I think this read of The Great Hunt helped clarify what Jordan was trying to do with his characters. Yes, the brooding-emotionally-distant-male and feisty-but-emotional-female tropes do exist, but the characters do have depth beyond the stereotype. I am glad I re-read this and am looking forward to the third book in the series. Book #46 was the sixth and final book in the FunJungle series, "Tyrannosaurus Wrecks". My younger daughter and I read all six books in the series in 2020, and I said in late November I was not sure that I needed to finish the series. However, the final book in the series popped up as a loan from the library and so we decided to plow through it. In the end, it was an enjoyable book, and a great series, and I am glad we read it together. But six YA books in one series in a year was a bit much. Book #47 was the Tolstoy classic, "War and Peace". I started reading this on January 1, 2020, and finished it on December 31, 2020. I did not read a chapter a day as I suggested a year ago, but I did follow along with the Reddit book group for a large portion of the year. This was a book that made me think a lot, and I think that reflection was worth the 1224 pages and 366 days of reading. There is probably an entire long form post about War and Peace, but I am not sure I could say anything that has not already been said. Let's leave it at the fact that I am glad I read it. Book #48 and the final book for 2020 was "Wyrd Sisters", the sixth Discworld book from Terry Pratchett. I really wanted another Rincewind book as I find him a wonderful if hapless protaganist, but the Witches were really interesting characters - funny, intelligent, completely stupid, all at the same time. I am looking forward to reading at least a couple more in this series in 2021. And finally, we need to get into the books for 2021. Book #1 for 2021 was "K for Killer" the eleventh book in the Kinsey Millhone series by Sue Grafton. This was a really enjoyable story with a few gasp-worthy moments and a decent enough story to keep me up late two nights in a row. The elapsed time in the book was less than a week, so the story moved along quite quickly, and that kept me reading. It was not the tumultuous ending that some of the other Millhone / Grafton novels have had, but in a way that made this one more satisfying. With that book started and finished in the first three days of the year, I am on pace to read 121 books in 2021. I probably will not get quite that many, but you never know what the year will bring.  Cycling Update: I felt pretty good about my cycling in the last two weeks, even though I only rode for 112 km. The fact that I am getting out is part of it, but my rides are getting more challenging. It feels good to push myself up a hill, especially on a heavy, old bike with studded tires in the middle of winter. I finished the segment to Merritt and am twenty per cent of the way to Kamloops. According to Wikipedia, Merritt has a population of about 7,000 people, with an economy focused on ranching, farming, forestry, transportation, and tourism. Being only 87 km to Kamloops and 270 km from Vancouver, it is probably close enough to other centers to have what it needs and far enough away to remain a small town and close community, but honestly on the drive to the coast, it has never been more than a pit stop for me.  New Beers: Looking at this entry, it might seems like lots of new beers in the last two weeks. However, five beers in fourteen days is a new beer every 2.8 days which is only a bit faster than my pace since I started logging on Untappd. (For the record, my pace is one new beer every 2. 98 days) The five beers this fortnight were a dark ale, a strong ale, a scotch ale, a sour, and an IPA. Definitely winter beers in that selection. Beer #706 was the Squid Ink Cascadian Dark Ale from the Olds College Brewery. Not bad, a bit bland but I think that was by design - a dark ale without the big booziness or powerful flavors of a winter stout. Decent enough to drink the four pack, and happy to support our local great agricultural college and brewmaster program. (3.25 / 5) Beer #707 was the Hot Summer Nights IPA from SYC Brewing in Edmonton. This was a really good beer. There was a lot of juiciness, and the hops were strong but not overpowering. Easy to drink fast but watch out for the relatively high ABV for an IPA. (3.75 / 5) Beer #708 was another 2020 Alberta Beer Week Unity brew. This one was led by Railyard Brewing out of Calgary. A decent beer with a lot of flavor. Seemed a bit flat but might have just been my can. I will look out for other beers from Railyard after this one. (3.25 / 5) The fourth beer in the last fortnight was another Alberta brew. Beer #709 was the Haskap Aromatica Sour from Odd Company Brewing in Edmonton. I really wanted to like this one more than I did. Great color and aroma. The flavor seemed a bit off though, but that might have been because it was not cold enough. (3.0 / 5) The last beer in the fortnight was from British Columbia. Beer #710 was the Hopraiser West Coast IPA from Howe Sound. Howe Sound is a brewery, a brewpub, and an inn in Squamish. Sounds like my kind of place. Back to the beer, the Hopraiser was not bad. It had a fair bit of hops and a fragrant aroma. Got a bit of malt in the taste but other than that, it was a bit bland. (3.25 / 5)  New Words:
Lots of new words this week, partly due to all of the reading and partly due to the fact that I am catching up on all of the flagged words from War and Peace over the year. hie [hī] VERB
insuperable [inˈso͞op(ə)rəb(ə)l] ADJECTIVE
homunculus [həˈməNGkyələs, hōˈməNGkyələs] NOUN
odalisque [ˈōdlˌisk] NOUN
passel [ˈpasəl] NOUN
hikikomori [hiˌkēkəˈmôri] NOUN
emesis [ˈeməsəs] NOUN
cep [sep] NOUN
obstreperous [əbˈstrepərəs] ADJECTIVE
mansard [ˈmanˌsärd] NOUN
holographic [ˌhäləˈɡrafik] ADJECTIVE
ingenuous [ˌinˈjenyo͞oəs] ADJECTIVE
cotillion [kəˈtilyən] NOUN
chibouk [CHəˈbo͞ok, SHə-] NOUN
balalaika [ˌbaləˈlīkə] NOUN
Greetings from 53.5° once again. What's new, you ask? I suppose anything that will get registered here is less new and more of an extension of previous weeks. But that is not necessarily a bad thing, especially when the country is in pandemic lock-down.
In addition, it is holiday time right now, or at least holiday-lite time. There is so much going on at work that I will get some time off, but certainly not the next two full weeks as I had hoped. While the amount of work is overwhelming, it is important work and keeping that in mind helps me get through the intense hours and multiple competing priorities. Before I get into the regular sections, I want to highlight a podcast that helped me with understanding the appeal of Trump. The November 20 episode of On The Media from WNYC had a segment titled "The Ancient Heresy That Helps Us Understand QAnon". Having a roommate in university and a friend for the last twenty-five years who both studied religion in university gave me some awareness of Gnosticism. At a very high levels, gnostics value their own personal experience over the authority of experts and institutions. You could listen to that segment, but it is likely that last sentence perfectly explains for you Trump and Trump's followers. My summary: Do not trust the experts (deep state) because only I (Trump) have the real knowledge. Search for the knowledge yourself and come to your own conclusions (flat earth, QAnon, etc.) Call me a pessimist, but after listening to the segment and in particular the quote from the segment below, I do not think there is an easy path forward. ... when you take the red pill and you see the true nature of reality past the institutions and so on, that's an epiphany. I think, for those who really been red pilled, who have been born again into this Trumpian Gnosticism, there is no reason to let go. And anything that we would suggest as proof will become to them proof of our deception. And that makes for a dangerous situation that the best case scenario is going to simmer and simmer for a long time if it doesn't boil over. --Jeff Sharlet 
Reading Pile:
With under a fortnight to go in 2020, I am doing what I can to get my reading total for the year over 50. I am confident I will hit 48 for sure, and 49 is looking pretty good. 50 or more will be tough though, especially if I have to work more than a day or two before New Year's. Book #44 for 2020 was "The Better Mousetrap" by Tom Holt. Holt was an author I had no visibility on until this last year and we bought three or four of his books at used books stores and EPL book sales. The Better Mousetrap was an interesting book about two people drawn to each other, a magical world living out of view of most of the world, time travel, and insurance. It would be hard to give any sort of plot synopsis in under 250 words that would not spoil the book so I will not even try. I will just say that it was a good book and I am looking forward to diving into Holt's other books.
Cycling Update:
The weather was pretty good this week which allowed for some longer rides and faster times on those rides. I am still nowhere near the weekly distance of the most dedicated cyclists I know, but most of them these days are spending their saddle time indoors on Zwift and I am hammering out the kilometers through the snow and ice. I suppose I can claim a modicum of moral superiority for that fact, even though I know their fitness levels are way above mine. I did make it to Hope in my cross-Canada virtual tour. According to Wikipedia, Hope is the easternmost point on what is called the Lower Mainland of British Columbia, which accounts for the average temperature this time of year being 3.5°C. It is also a meeting point, being the confluence of the Fraser and Coquihalla rivers, and the Coquihalla and Crowsnest highways. The Stó:lō First Nations peoples settled in that area between 8,000 and 10,000 years ago, and were nearly wiped-out by smallpox in 1782. Here is an update of my progress chart for the virtual tour. 
New Music:
Work got in the way of diving into the Art Blakey album I had queued up in the Music Finds playlist for this week, but I did give the new album by Kid Cudi a few listens this week. It is pretty clear that "Man on the Moon III: The Chosen" is not my typical music. The picture on the home page of my Tidal app caught my attention and after reading Kid Cudi's bio, I thought I would give it a listen. There were a few songs that I did not like of course, but that is the same as on any album I listen to. Of the eighteen tracks, most were good and "Else's Baby Boy (flashback)" and "The Void" were particularly good. Some of the other songs were musically great even if I could not get into the lyrics. Standouts in that category include "Rockstar Knights" and "Sad People". I am glad I dug into this album. I will seek out more albums by Kid Cudi and maybe the likes on the songs on this album will help suggest new albums and artists that are out of my regular rotation. 
New Beers:
Just one new beer this week, although you could reasonably expect that I would have had more based on my last Visa bill. Beer #705 was the Dandy Lager from Dandy Brewing out of Calgary. Dandy is a great brewery that has interesting and unique beers. I have checked in three from them so those are the only ones I have evidence for, but looking at their beer list it is clear I have had others that I have not checked in. The Dandy lager was a bit hazier than expected for a lager, but quite good. A bit of citrus. Nice and crisp. Definitely worth having again. (3.75 / 5)
New Coffees:
I dug into a new coffee this week, happily moving past the Salt Spring Metta Espresso that was thin and bland. The Cliff Hanger Espresso from Kicking Horse has a glossy, black bean and much more taste than the Metta. I am not super happy with the flavor though. The packaging mentions cocoa and fruit flavors and I think it is the cocoa that I am not fond of. A couple months ago, I mentioned the Old School Espresso from 49th Parallel and I indicated that I liked the cocoa flavor, so maybe it is not cocoa that is the problem, but the amount of cocoa in the flavor. Also of note are the gloss on the beans. Like the 49th Parallel beans, the Cliff Hanger beans from Kicking Horse are quite glossy as compared to the matte finish of the Metta from Salt Spring. In addition, 16 grams of these beans completely fills my espresso portafilter and it took 18 grams with the Metta. I need to play with the amount of beans to grind because the Kicking Horse site suggests using 18 to 21 grams. I will keep track of the next few coffees but I think I am settling on glossy beans with a bit of cocoa as components of the winning formula. 
New Words:
Two new words this week. I think we should all celebrate the winter solstice (tomorrow) but am willing to debate that suggestion. dialectical [ˌdīəˈlektək(ə)l] ADJECTIVE
sabbat [sab·bat | \ ˈsa-bət]
Greetings from 53.5° north latitude. The week was crazy busy, but I managed to find time to read, ride, listen, and sample a few new beers. So all in all, a good week. Let's dive right in.
Reading Pile:
I was able to finish three books this week. I think that will be the strategy for the rest of the month - finish up all of the books I have started. That is the only way I am going to hit 50+ books this year, plus it will be a mentally liberating feeling to have that shelf cleared off. Book #41 for 2020 was "Talk to the Hand" by Lynn Truss, of "Eats Shoots and Leaves" fame. This second book from Truss about manners and kindness was nowhere near as memorable as her book about punctuation, which is a phrase that feels very weird to type. Talk to the Hand was okay, but did not really hold me. On a personal note, it was a book I borrowed last fall from a co-worker who has since retired and now the book is mine since we felt it would be too hard to meet up right now. Bill, thanks for the book! Book #42 for 2020 was "Deep Work" by Cal Newport. This was my third book by Newport in 2020 and as I have reported previously, I really do not like his books. To be clear, I think his ideas are fantastic and are remarkably important, but the concepts are so much better suited to an HBR or Medium article and not a full book. Deep Work, So Good They Can't Ignore You, and Digital Minimalism are likely still worth reading even so, but be warned as you dive into them. And finally for this section, Book #43 for 2020 was "Lion Down" by Stuart Gibbs. While writing the last paragraph, I thought it was remarkable that I read three books by one author in 2020, but topping that is the five books I read by Gibbs. Lion Down is the fifth book in the FunJungle series and is another book I read to my younger daughter. This was not my favorite of the series, but it was still enjoyable enough to read. I suspect it must get pretty hard to find interesting story ideas to write about when your protagonist lives at a zoo. I imagine we will still read the sixth and I think final book in the FunJungle series just to wrap up the series. I do recommend this series for the young readers in your life, but you might not want to read five of them in under a year. (Well, that might work for you if you are 10, but maybe not if you are 50.) 
Cycling Update:
It was a good week in the saddle. Distance-wise it was just shy of 60 km, but in the snow and on the ice I feel that is equivalent to 90 km at least. For the second leg of my cross-Canada virtual tour, I passed Abbotsford and ended up 2.0 km outside of Chilliwack. I will obviously get to Chilliwack by next week, but not sure if I will get to Hope as well. Another week like this one will get me there, and the weather forecast looks like it will be another good week for riding. Fun facts about Abbotsford, courtesy of Wikipedia: It has 141,000 people, making it the largest municipality in British Columbia outside of Metro Vancouver. Abbotsford has its own international airport, with an airport code of YXX. The airport hosts a world-class annual airshow, which was designated as Canada's National Airshow by then-Prime Minister Trudeau the First. Here is a look at the progress chart after this week. These small segments are nice as it keeps things interesting since it is so easy to get to a new destination each week. 
New Music:
There were three entries in the Music Finds playlist for this week. Technically it is named the "Music Finds - Week of 23Nov2020" playlist since I created it two weeks ago but did not listen to it until this past week. First up was "Tunnel of Love" by Art Blakey. I liked this one better than "A Christmas Soul Night" perhaps since it was one-sixth as long. Prince Albert was a good track, but I was not really keen on the rest of the album. I have listened to a lot of Blakey lately, and I thought there were three more albums released in 2020 covering his catalogue. Of those remaining, I am really looking forward to two of them ("Is it True ...? and an album with Thelonious Monk). In addition, there were two more released in the last two weeks. So much Blakey, so little time. Next was a jazz piano album recommended by my friend Trent. Aaron Parks "Little Big II: Dreams of a Mechanical Man" was a fantastic album with three standouts. Here and Friendo were really good, but the title track was superb. I am definitely going to seek out more albums from Parks. Last up was my favorite for the week, a live album from Arctic Monkeys. "Live at the Royal Albert Hall" really blew me away. Their live performances are amazing and definitely made me want to see them live, if that is ever possible in the future. All in all, a really good week for music. Looking forward to digging into a 1983 Brian Eno release, and another Art Blakey. Plus I think I will listen to the new song from Elvis Costello and Iggy Pop. What a combo that is!
New Beers:
Three new beers this week, bringing my unique check-ins up to 703. Beer #701 was the 2017 Russian Imperial Stout from Brewsters. This was a good version of a Russian Stout, and was boozy without masking the flavor of the beer. I would really like to see a 2020 version of this beer. (3.25 / 5) Beer #702 was my second beer from Corsendonk. I had their Pater Dubbel a few weeks ago, and I liked that one quite a bit. The Grand Hops (2020) was another high alcohol beer and it did not taste like 6.9%. It had a good taste but I did not really gets much hops taste from it. (3.25 / 5) While a bit of a disappointment after the 3.75 rating for the Pater Dubbel, this was still good and the average for the two beers from Corsendonk is 3.5, so I will definitely look for others from them. Finally, Beer #703 was yet another high ABV and this was my favorite of the week. Part of Alberta Beer Week for 2020, SYC Brewing from here in Edmonton created a Unity Brew Wee Heavy Scotch Ale. Great color and taste, nice foam. A wee heavy that did not lose the flavor due to the ABV. Nice stuff from a local brewery. (3.5 / 5) 
New Words:
Two words this week. Note that I did not say new words, since I am sure that one was a repeat. Forgetting these words makes me feel like a pox on society, and I sometimes wish I could find someone who could supply me with what I need to travel back in time to make it so I learn these words the first time. retrograde [ˈretrəˌɡrād] ADJECTIVE
NOUN
VERB
sutler [ˈsətlər] NOUN
Happy end of the week, and what a week it was. Locally here at 53.5° north latitude, nationally across Canada, and throughout the world, COVID numbers continued to rise at a frightening rate. Our family is now in close contact with at least one COVID positive case, so we have one and possibly two people needing to isolate, and then the whole family depending on the results of the test results of our family members.
The week beyond watching COVID numbers was spent doing a lot of reading and listening, but not much else. I am writing this early on Sunday morning and as of right now I have not finished a book this week and have only had one new beer, and I finished one more segment on my cross-Canada virtual cycling tour but not the two segments to complete the first leg like I hoped. However, I suspect that by the end of the day I will have another new beer to hit the 700 check-in milestone, I will finish a book, and I will go on a ride to finish the leg. But that will have to be in the update for next week.
Cycling Update:
It was a disappointing week for cycling with the outdoor rides curtailed by a flat tire and no replacement tube. Most of the distance this week was on the stationary bike in the basement, which is just not as satisfying as an outdoor ride. I was able to finish off the segment to Duncan this week which was a nice milestone. Like I said above, I expect to finish the segment to Victoria later today as well which will see me complete the first leg in my cross-Canada virtual tour. But for now, here are some fun facts of Duncan according to Wikipedia. Duncan has only 5,000 people but it serves the 84,000 people in the Cowichan Valley; there are 44 totem poles throughout Duncan; the average temperature for this time of year is 5°C; it is the birthplace of former NHL players Geoff and Russ Courtnall; and the current President of the University of Alberta, my alma mater, David Turpin, was also born there. Here is a look at the updated chart for Leg 1, from Port Hardy to Victoria. It will be great to see that whole block green next week. 
New Music:
There were three albums in the Music Finds playlist for this week. A couple weeks ago I mentioned the Azymuth JID004 album and the track "Friendship Samba". I listened to the album a few times this week and really liked its sound. "Surnamé" and "Pulando Corda" were other standouts, but I really think this album needs to be listened to in whole and not as a collection of singles. As I said a couple weeks ago, there is some serious talent on this album. The second album was another Art Blakey. "A Christmas Soul Night" is a 3'49", 30 track collection with a mix of live and studio recordings. I have to admit that I found this to be an oppressively long list of songs. The only song I favorited was "Prince Albert" and that was the second song of the thirty. It was a slog to get through which was really disappointing after how much I liked "Flapping Wings" and "Just Coolin'". Last up this week was "Shapeshifter" by Sean De Burca. De Burca is a finger-style guitarist who can really pull out a number of sounds and melodies from his guitar. Shapeshifter is an 18-track album, with nine acoustic guitar songs followed by the same nine songs re-recorded with an electric guitar. I listened to this album a lot this week, and liked it more each listen, and much preferred the acoustic versions. Really amazing stuff from an artist I will check out more in the future.
New Coffee:
I started a new coffee this week, the Metta Espresso from Salt Spring Coffee. Salt Spring Island is close to Duncan, the location noted from the virtual cycling tour, and was the location of last year's summer holiday. Back to the coffee, I really wanted to like this but am struggling to get into it. I find the flavor to be very thin. I even bumped up the amount of ground beans used from 15 to 17 grams but that did little to improve the taste or the amount of crema. The picture in the far right below is the 17 g pull. Looking at the beans, they are very dull and matte finished, which is a definite contrast to the other beans I have used recently. As I learn more, I will look for a correlation between the color and gloss of the beans and the flavor I like. This is not a terrible coffee, but I have a lot of cups of it to go through before I can move on to a new bag. 
New Beers:
Just one new beer this week. Beer #699 was the Super Saturation Pale Ale from Cabin Brewing out of Calgary. It is a hazy, citrusy pale ale with a bit of pepper spice coming through. It was nice to have a hazy beer without a lot of sediment, so that was a plus. I have rated three beers from Cabin on Untappd and all three have been 3.75 out of 5. Clearly a brewery to follow more closely. 
New Words:
Just one word this week, but it is a spicy one! betel [ˈbēdl] NOUN
Week 45 for 2020 is done and already at the curb waiting for the trash man to come haul it away. What happened for Yours Truly and His Cohort in the last week? There was very little profound to report on, but I have come to realize not all weeks need something earth-shattering or mind-blowing or any other hyphenated-adjective. It can still be a good week without it needing to be memorable. I certainly did not need another election week after last week, and so a week where reading and cycling were the most dramatic moments of the week was just fine by me. Let's dive in.
Cycling Update:
I had a good week in the saddle with 56.9 km made in my cross-Canada virtual tour. That is not a lot of distance, but I got out twice despite the ice and snow, and hit the stationary bike twice, which is even less desirable than riding on ice. In addition, I finished on the segment to Nanaimo while setting myself up to finish both the Duncan and Victoria segments in the upcoming week. Fun facts about Nanaimo, courtesy of Wikipedia: over 90,000 people live there; the original population of the area was the Snuneymuxw First Nation and only 25 people today speak their native language fluently; the average high for this time of year is 9.3° C; and, the airport code is YCD. Here is a look at the progress bar so far. Hopefully all of this will show green in next week's update and I can start on the second leg from Vancouver to Kamloops. 
New Music:
There were two albums in the Music Finds playlist for this week. The first was an operatic vocal offering from Deutsche Grammophon (DG) featuring the Latvian mezzo-soprano, Elīna Garanča. She sings Schumann’s Frauenliebe und Leben song cycle and a selection of Brahms Lieder. Now before you go and think that I know what I am talking about, please note that I just copied all of that text from the DG site for this recording. I know very little about opera and classical vocals, but as I mentioned in mid-October, I am learning a lot from listening to Ben Heppner on CBC's "Saturday Afternoon at the Opera". It would have been nice to listen to Heppner explain the story behind what Garanča was singing, but for now I will be satisfied with simply listening and enjoying. The second album as another release from Art Blakey. I mentioned last week that I was excited and shocked to see a number of "new" releases from Blakey available on Tidal. I dove into another this week, the "April 1957 Sessions". This was a good album, and the drum solo intro on the first track "A Night in Tunisia" was amazing, but overall this album did not hold my attention nearly as much as "Flapping Wings". It is still worth a listen, especially that drum solo. I have the next Blakey release, "A Christmas Soul Night" queued up for next week. Hey, look! I am not sure if I missed this or if it is a new feature of Tidal, but now I can embed HTML code instead of just copying a link to the playlist. 
New Beers:
Just one new beer this week, unfortunately. I really want to crack the 700 check-in mark on Untappd. I have a couple new beers in the fridge so maybe the update next week will be able to celebrate that milestone. Beer #698 was the Estrella Damm lager. I was pretty happy with this as I went in with low expectations given that it was under four bucks for a big can and was clearly an international macro. I was pleasantly surprised and got a bit of pepper in it and overall enjoyed the taste. Could have had more flavor and malt, but still worth a try if you have not had it before. (3.25 / 5)
New Words:
Four new words this week. On a completely random tangent, I absolutely hate how some people think that people of different races should not be allowed to love each other. I wish we could come together and understand how love is more important than a misguided notion of color, even if just for brunch. (Seriously, even though I just made up a sentence to get the definitions in, that is something I really cannot stand.) miscegenation [məˌsejəˈnāSHən, ˌmisəjəˈnāSHən] NOUN
execration [ˌeksəˈkrāSH(ə)n]
execrate [ˈeksəˌkrāt] VERB
cohere [kōˈhir] VERB
levee [ˈlevē] NOUN
Greetings from a snowed-in 53.5° north latitude. The snow fell hard on Friday night and then through Saturday. It was not a snowfall of record amounts, but the amount raised the question of whether or not it was a blizzard. A quick search on The Weather Network came up with this handy mnemonic of the 4-4-4 Rule. Winds over 40 km/hr, visibility less than 400 m, lasting for 4 or more hours. So yeah, we had our first blizzard of the season.
The other big news, arguably way bigger than a simple blizzard, was the US election. After waiting for votes to be counted in Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Nevada, the election was finally called for Joe Biden. Now Biden might not be your guy, just as Trump might not be your guy. But regardless of who won, there are some really interesting and important concepts being discussed this week because of the election.
The first came on election night on the 538 election live blog. 538 contributor Julie Azari commented on how much energy was being expended in discussing the shortcomings and nuances of the US electoral college system, and how little was being discussed about the actual issues. 
The other point that really stuck with me was the post from 538 Editor-in-Chief Nate Silver about the average voter versus the average reader of 538.
With a caution about stereotyping, I think the guy in the "BBQ, Beer, Freedom" shirt in this news clip pretty much sums up average. Don't believe me? Remember that in this election Donald Trump became just the second presidential candidate to receive over 70 million votes. Barack Obama won 69.5 million in 2008 which was the record until this year.
I have to say how much I admire the man in the purple polo shirt. Joe Gloria, the election registrar for Clark County, was holding a press conference when the "BBQ, Beer, Freedom" guy interrupted by yelling how Biden was stealing the election. Gloria calmly let the man yell, waited for him to leave, and then turned back to the reporters and said, "Where were we? What was the last question?" That is a real pro doing his job.
Switching gears, I had never heard of Eddie S. Glaude Jr. before election day, but this 2'58" speech from 2019 was in the feed of several people on Twitter during election day. Glaude's speech was so powerful and so passionate that I immediately proceeded to buy his latest book. Watch the whole clip and feel the pain in Glaude's words. That hatred that causes that level of pain is what Trump released in America.
There was not much else happening this week beyond some cycling, great music, and some new beers. I did a lot of reading, including Glaude's newest book mentioned above, but did not finish any books.
Cycling Update:
It was a pretty good week for cycling. I had three solid rides including one after work on Friday that beat the blizzard by a couple hours. I might hop on the stationary bike in the basement and crank out a couple more segments, but the image below charts my progress as of the time of writing (just after noon on Sunday). 
New Music:
I really enjoyed a number of songs I put into my latest Music Finds playlist. The latest album called "Arm in Arm" by Steep Canyon Rangers was enjoyable, with Sunny Days, A Body Like Yours, and Afterglow being really solid listens. I do not think it was as good as their 2015 album "Radio", but still worth a listen. "Azymuth JID004" (JID standing for Jazz is Dead) has a song called "Friendship Samba" that popped up in my Tidal feed that I really enjoyed. I need to put the whole album in my playlist for next week. This album is an collaboration between a Brazilian jazz band nearly as old as me (Azymuth), A Tribe Called Quest's Ali Shaheed Muhammad, and Adrian Younge, who is a composer, producer, and (wait for it) law professor. Some serious talent on this album. I also gave "Existential Reckoning" a listen on a recommendation from a friend. Maynard James Keenan, front for Tool, put together Puscifer to explore his 'darker and more personal musings" according the artist bio on Tidal. I did not find the album to be my style, although I do admit "Apocalyptical" was pretty catchy, so maybe the entire album will grow on me after another listen through. The best find for this week almost went to a cover of Leonard Cohen's "There is a War", done by Nathaniel Rateliff, Kevin Morby, and Sam Cohen (apparently no relation to Leonard). This cover has it all, from a great opening guitar note, scratchy solo vocals, and retro vocal harmonics in the chorus. Really great stuff, and easily my favorite single in recent weeks. With this single and his February 2020 release that I mentioned back in July, Rateliff might be my favorite artist of the year. But even better than that was another release from Art Blakey. Earlier this week, I thought I should play that new release of material from 1959 that I also mentioned in July. I typed in "Art Blakey" into the search field in Tidal because I could not remember the name of the album (Just Coolin', as it turns out) and was excited and shocked to see five (FIVE!) more releases this year since "Just Coolin'" was released in July. I only had time to listen to to "Flapping Wings" but I will get to the rest later. Flapping Wings was great, and solidified Blakey in my mind as one of the greatest jazz drummers of all time. 
New Beers:
I will not admit to day drinking due to the US election, but I will let you draw your own conclusions based on your experiences in the last week. Three news beers, and I was pretty happy with all three. Beer #695 was the Leisure Lagoon Hazy Pale Ale from Coronado Brewing. A whole lotta grapefruit and pith. More translucent than hazy, as in not a lot of suspended particles. Very nice. (3.75 / 5) Beer #696 was the Black Tusk Ale from Whistler Brewing Company. Whistler is pretty hit-and-miss for me, and actually more miss than hit. The first seven beers I checked in average slightly over 3.1 out of 5, which is significantly lower than my average of 3.2-ish. It was therefore a pleasant surprise that I liked the Black Tusk as much as I did. It was dark and malty, with a bit of bitterness in a good way. I might have rated it higher because I was excited to get back into the dark, heavy beers of winter, but this was still good even with that bias. (3.75 / 5) Beer #697 and the final check-in for the week was the Pater Dubbel / Abbey Brown Ale from Corsendonk out of Belgium. This had big brown foam, with a bit of booziness in a good way. and a bit of caramel. Smooth and easy to drink even at that ABV. Good stuff. (3.75 / 5) I am closing in on 700 check-ins on Untappd. As that is a fairly significant milestone, I think I will throw them a few bucks again to get the updated stats. It would be interesting to see how my average rating has fluctuated over the past five and a half years. My guess is that it has gone down, with my ranking of lagers going up over that same period. We will see how well that holds up under detailed scrutiny. 
New Words:
Just two new words this week. But after this week, I can tell you I am begging for a break from the news and politics in Canada and the US so that I can get back to reading more, and therefore finding more new words. mendicant [ˈmendəkənt] ADJECTIVE
interregnum [ˌin(t)ərˈreɡnəm] NOUN
Greetings from 53.5° north latitude as we settle into the fourteen-day waiting game to see how much impact trick-or-treating has on our COVID numbers. The week was a good one for reading, exercise, music, and work. Plus the weather improved and we got an extra hour of sleep after the time change on the weekend, so things are looking up. As I look through my previous blog entries to reference previous writings for this week's entry, I cannot help but notice that the average length of each entry is lower now that it was a year ago. I suppose some of that has to do with having less to do, in a purely physical sense. No concerts, no festivals, no restaurant outings, and therefore less to write about. That should be a warning to myself and to anyone reading this as we head into the colder months coupled with an increasing number of COVID cases. It will be imperative to get out, to connect, to find a way to be outside and with others, as much as we safely can over the next several months. Going into a winter with COVID will be much harder and more depressing that going into a spring with COVID was earlier this year.  Reading Pile: Book #39 for 2020 was "Digital Minimalism: Choosing a Focused Life in a Noisy World" by Cal Newport. I really like Newport, or at least the concept of Newport: fact-based reporting, analysis of trends, practical advice. The problem is that his books are boring. I have never been drawn to book summary services, but I honestly think my next Newport book will be consumed via a summary. (Well, technically my next-next Newport book, as I am still fighting through "Deep Work".) Digital Minimalism was a decent book, but it summarized other books and concepts I had already reviewed. Last October I read "Solitude" by Michael Harris, and last September I read "Ten Arguments for Deleting Your Social Media Accounts Right Now" by Jaron Lanier. As a result, Newport's offering was a bit dated as I had already internalized a lot of his ideas. That said, if you have not read either Harris's or Lanier's books, then the concepts in Digital Minimalism might be fresh enough for you to get a lot out of this book. There was a wonderful quote from Newport that I want to share. I hope it resonates with you as much as it does with me. You cannot expect an app dreamed up in a dorm room or among the ping pong tables of a Silicon Valley incubator to successfully replace the types of rich interactions to which we have painstakingly adapted over millennia. Our sociality is simply too complex to be outsourced to a social network or reduced to instant messages and emojis. --Cal Newport, "Digital Minimalism" Cycling Update: I continue to make good progress on my virtual cross-Canada trek. The power of having a goal cannot be understated. The fact that I have a target and want to make progress is getting me in the saddle more often, and for (slightly) longer rides. Last week I closed off the leg to Campbell River, and this week I proceeded to make it forty percent of the way to Nanaimo. My goal for this week is to finish off this leg completely. The weather forecast looks great so there should be no reason why I cannot log 82 km in a week.  New Music: There was a lot of great music this week, with two albums in my Music Finds playlist for this week. Next week is looking to be a big one with a couple new albums that I have already queued up to listen to starting on Monday. For this week, the two albums were "The Weather " from the Australian band Pond, and "New Age Norms 2" by Cold War Kids. The Pond album took a bit getting used to as it is a bit of a somber reflection on the world in 2020, but "Paint Me Silver" and the two "Edge of the World" songs make this an album definitely worth a listen. Cold War Kids are a band I have really started to dig in the last eighteen months or so. "New Age Norms 2" looks like a solid follow up to the 2019 "New Age Norms 1" release, with "You Already Know" and "Somewhere" being the standouts on the initial listen.  New Words:
Just two new words this week. I hope this is not the sign of something bad to come. vatic ˈva-tik
pernicious [pərˈniSHəs] ADJECTIVE
Greeting from 53.5° north. Hopefully you are warmer wherever you are reading this. It was an unseasonably cold week. Life was filled with a number of work related successes, a couple new beers and another coffee to report on, a completed segment in my virtual cycling tour, plus a couple new words. I nearly finished two more books this week, but the summaries for both will have to wait until next week after they are fully completed.
The work success mainly revolve around the launch of our second wave of the Connect Care tool. Connect Care will eventually be deployed across the entire province, but for now it is focused on the Edmonton zone, with the addition of the suburban Edmonton hospitals launching this weekend. Most of the functionality in this wave is the same as in Wave 1 last November, with the addition of labor and delivery. And of course, there was a baby born right after the system went live. This tweet from the official AHS account says it best: the first baby born in Alberta with a fully digital medical record. It is a good feeling to be part of something like this.
New Beers: There were two near beers this week. Beer #693 was the Guinness Hop House lager. Decent stuff, especially for a lager. Nice malty flavor, coloring, and aroma. (3.25 / 5) Beer #694 was a real let down and am riding against the popular opinion on the Jelly King from Bellwoods Brewery. I found it overly sour, with the sourness being the only discernible taste. I was really looking forward to this one based on the reviews of my connections on Untappd. (2.75 / 5) At this point in my five and a half years (2043 days, to be specific) of logging beers on Untappd, I am averaging logging a new beer every 2.94 days. When I started writing on this site, I was averaging a new beer every 2.74 days so I am slowing down. Maybe that is a good thing? I'll have to think about that, maybe over a beer ... 
New Coffees:
This is my second coffee I have written about, but it is one I have drank several times before. 49th Parallel is out of Vancouver and is the coffee served at Square One, the local coffee shop just a few blocks from home. Their Old School Espresso is a wonderful smelling bean that creates a nice crema. The taste is lighter, with just a hint of chocolate. You can see that these beans are much less glossy than the Burnt Timber beans I wrote about a few weeks ago. As I write more about coffee, I am going to figure out what those different characteristics mean - at the most mundane, the ground coffee is much less greasy before going into the machine. 
Cycling Update:
I had to ride indoors three times this week. My winter bike is not yet ready and the roads were covered with snow for most of the week. I only tallied 57 km this week, but I did get in the saddle five different times which was a nice accomplishment. In my virtual cross-Canada tour, I got all the way to Campbell River and will start the trek to Nanaimo and am now about 45% of the way to Victoria. Fun facts about Campbell River: it has been long touted as the Salmon Capital of the World, and its Indigenous name is Wiwek̓a̱m. The average high for October is 13° C, and its airport code is YBL. 
New Words:
Just two new words this week, which does not seem like a lot but at least this list gets to the point quickly. supernumerary [ˌso͞opərˈn(y)o͞oməˌrerē] ADJECTIVE
concision [-ˈsiZHən] DEFINITION
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