Weekly Report: January 13th - January 19th 2025
The Week in Summary:
- Amid an otherwise normal and eventful week for myself, the news was anything but normal. For starters, Team Canada worked towards a national response to President-Elect Trump's looming economic tariffs against Canada. As our federal, provincial, and territorial leadership scrambled, Premier Danielle Smith refused to sign onto a unified plan involving the imposition of energy export tariffs on the United States as retaliation. This was made more audacious by her continued skullduggery down in the U.S. with unsavoury characters like Kevin O' Leary and Jordan B. Peterson. This has dominated my attention throughout the week, especially with the inauguration set for next Monday.
- With the recent news cycle and my frequent use of BlueSky, I have been finding myself doomscrolling a lot and my nerves have been fucked lately. I decided to deactivate my BlueSky account and try to avoid checking my news apps as often, but holy shit, it is really addicting. I feel like a become a different person after scrolling for awhile. Just a weird synergy of rage, anxiety, and numbness.
- Adding to this anxiety is the oddly primal disconnect I am feeling between what January looked like in my memory and what it looks like right now. Though we were blessed with colder temperatures and snow by the weekend, our winter has been scarily lacking. I am worried about the impact of climate change on our water security. If the mountain snowpack is still lacking by spring, we are heading into another year of drought. I know folks appreciate the mildness, but trust me, as our water security worsens in the decades to come, you'll be rooting for winter blizzards and season-long cold spells.
- This week, given my continued mental health challenges, joint pain, and muscle stiffness, I have decided to start yoga. I am beginning with Yoga with Adrienne on YouTube to get basics down and eventually I hope to head to a yoga studio to get more practiced. For now, it is difficult to start and maintain the habit, but I am enjoying it by the time I end the session.
- Taylor and I finished Season 7 of the Circle this week - likely one of the best seasons they've done so far. I really enjoyed Rachel and Gianna throughout their time on the show. Beyond that, I played Elden Ring and Lethal Company as per tradition.
- Over the weekend, I started coming down with an illness with fatigue, muscle stiffness, and a sore throat all being symptoms. Mostly, I laid on the couch listening to an audiobook and played games. I did manage to write my first non-weekly report blog entry for 2025.
The Week in Images:
The Week in Links:
Beyond Doomscrolling
The internet we have, and the one we want
Charlie Warzel
Biden warns of dangers of ‘oligarchy,’ ‘tech-industrial complex’ running country in farewell speech
U.S. President Joe Biden delivers final Oval Office speech as he caps his half-century political career
Zeke Miller, Chris Megerian and Colleen Long