Weekly Report: August 11th - August 17th 2025

The Week in Summary:

• Monday was Taylor's birthday and they found themselves working for the entirety of the day. For myself, since I do not work on Mondays throughout the summer, I meandered around doing effectively nothing except finishing my reality TV book. But relative to other weeks, the work days were more productive, which was nice. Outside of work, I stayed on top of household chores (caught up on laundry), read more, and played some video games (including Victoria 3 with Dylan - I am playing as Iran and he is playing as Oman). It should be noted, that in general, there is a frenetic energy in the condo as we come closer to the festival.
• On Saturday, I started off the day by biking around Glenmore Reservoir. I stopped at Weaselhead Flats to explore muddy trails. Along the way, I found snails, bugs, and wildflowers. After getting home, I went to a nearby neighbourhood event, CRASHOUT. The celebration is a finale to BUMP Festival 2025, but I was just there to enjoy the vibes whilst lining up for Scozzafava Deli's Philly Cheesesteak! For the rest of the day, I stayed at home listening to music and reading.
• On Sunday, Alida and I biked for four hours from downtown Calgary to Chestermere (and back) along the Western Headworks Canal Pathway - a pathway I have wanted to bike for awhile now. In total, thefour-hour bike ride was around 73 kilometers and it meandered through industrial parks, warehouse districts, and countryside fields. Once back in the city, I signed the Forever Canadian petition and we got lunch at Scozzafava Deli. I spent the rest of the day at home feeling a healthy degree of soreness, reading more about the canal itself (and gypsum recycling), and listening to the Talking Heads.
• With my flip phone experiencing excessive battery drain during phone calls, I purchased a Mudita Kompakt last week (check out the cringe millennial-coded advertisements for it). It's a minimalist touchscreen dumbphone with an e-ink display and I love it instantly. My favourite feature is that I can call and text people. Paradigm-shifting. Groundbreaking. Revolutionary.
• This week, I finished reading Emily Nussbaum's Cue the Sun! The Invention of Reality TV and read most of Marc Berman's Nature and the Mind: The Science of How Nature Improves Cognitive, Physical, and Social Well-Being.
• I also ended up trying out the demo for Endless Legend II. Though I am vaguely familiar with Amplitude Studio's Endless franchise, I found myself very captivated by the world-building packed into this demo. The 4X turn-based strategy game takes place on the fantastical oceanic planet of Saiadha. Different factions (all with unique game mechanics) duke it out on a planet defined by powerful monsoons and dramatic tidal cycles. For the demo, I played the Aspects, which is born "from a symbiosis of the organic and the machine", in which "the Aspects are suffused by a coral growth that connects all of them in a vast gestalt mind – The Chorus." Honestly, they are pretty cool. The game releases into early access in September.

The Week in Images

The Week in Links:

The Rise of the New Romanticism

On our culture and its discontents

Political Currents by Ross BarkanRoss Barkan