Weekly Report

Weekly Report: May 20th - May 26th 2024

Good Morning Magpie

26 May 2024 — 4 min read

The Week in Summary:

On Victoria Day, Taylor and I went out for lunch with their parents. We have been so excited about the Porch lately, that we decided to introduce them to the restaurant. It was a fairly dreary day, so we all enjoyed sourdough grilled cheese sandwiches with tomato soup. Afterwards, we spent the afternoon playing some backgammon and chatting.
For Tuesday evening, we hung out with one of our friends to get Yemeni food at Taste of Yemen on 17th. Afterwards, we went to Made By Marcus and Punk Rock Bingo night at the Ship & Anchor (none of us won). Neither Taylor or I have ever played Bingo before, but I cannot imagine a better place to try it for the first time. The energy in the pub was really welcoming and chaotic.
After work on Friday night, we went out with a couple of friends to Class Clown, a new trendy burger joint off 17th Ave. We had to be put on a wait list for around four hours, so we spent that time hanging out at PinBar and got some oysters at Pigeonhole (which I had never tried before). Once we finally got in we enjoyed some fantastic food and exceptional cozy vibes.
On Saturday, Taylor and I went to Confluence Park (or West Nose Creek Park) to join experts from Nature Calgary and Alberta Native Plant Council for a botanical survey of the city park. Neither of us know very much about our native plants to this region (or plants in general) and it was really rewarding to give attention to some of the botanical wonders found on the Canadian Prairies. It was fairly fast-paced for plants, so we did not get to know all their names obviously, but we picked up a field guide to learn a bit more next time we went out with folks or on our own. After getting home, Taylor hosted their D&D group whilst I relaxed in the other room.
On Sunday morning, Taylor's parents delivered a new (old) dinning table. We spent the rest of the day enjoying a rhubarb ginger cider, listening to an audiobook on tomatoes, and watched The Banshees of Inisherinas.
Throughout the week, Calgary was blessed with daily rain. It is needed right now and I am hoping it continues to alleviate the drought going into the summer. Though according to experts, we are far from getting to that point and will require a lot more precipitation.
We finished the second season of Heartbreak High and it was dreadful. I normally love shows like Degrassi or Euphoria (the entanglement of youth issues and drama has always been interesting to me), but this show did so little justice to any of the issues explored. Whether it was examining a character's experience with asexuality, gangs, autism, sexual trauma, or toxic masculinity, it missed the mark every single time and left me questioning if the show was being intentionally dense. If I wanted to watch a circus, I would do that.

Recommendations:

The 'Redmonton' party no more: Alberta NDP's base has shifted to Calgary by Jason Markusoff (Article): An overview of the recent shift in the Alberta New Democratic Party's party membership from Edmonton to Calgary over the past few years.
The Banshees of Inisherin (Movie): I've wanted to watch this movie for quite some time and it did not disappoint. It was a beautiful melancholic story of a disintegrating friendship and a quiet examination of male loneliness.
Calgary population surges by staggering 6%, Edmonton by 4.2% in latest StatsCan estimates by Robson Fletcher (Article): An article discussing the recent population surge in Alberta's two major urban centres.
OpenAI Just Gave Away the Entire Game by Charlie Warzel (Article): An argument that Open AI's recent Scarlett Johansson scandal indicates a further entrenchment of the ongoing undemocratic data-scrapping development of generative AI technologies and the ideology of "manifest destiny" inherent in Open AI's vision for the future.