Mount Royal University pandemic LOCKDOWN

On By Rick McIn videoLeave a comment

Police brought me home when I was a kid. Brian and I were caught climbing the construction site of what’s now Mount Royal University in Calgary. We jumped from … 3 FLOORS DOWN, the cops told our parents.

Over the decades, Mount Royal’s been my coffee shop and office. Just 5 minutes walk from my brother’s place in Glamorgan, the neighbourhood where I grew up.

It’s bizarre and eerie to see the huge complex deserted. Unsettling. Like some dystopian science fiction movie.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube. Best for me is the audio.

I’m still studying and practicing video editing almost every day.

This one includes several (new to me) techniques:

  • colours: white & sterile, progresses to golds, and finishes with optimistic multi-colours
  • deliberately tilting videos 5-10 degrees to convey … something is wrong
  • rapid zoom introduction montage

Canadian Vaccine Passport?

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, travelLeave a comment

Though Trudeau is worried about unintended side effects, vaccine passports are inevitable for some months and years to come. International airlines will require them, for example.

About 250k Canadians have already downloaded the most popular app — so far:

CANImmunize app

High privacy standards.

The app is available for free on iOS and Android devices and on the web at canimmunize.ca.

I manually added my 1st COVID vaccine. That can’t be in any way official.

But governments may eventually adopt this app for travel. I’ll be ready.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Police at the Station and They Don’t Look Friendly

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

Another great Adrian McKinty book.

He’s one of my favourite authors.

#6 in the Sean Duffy series (2019).

Duffy is now a father. Less self-destructive than ever.

He’s cutting down on booze and cigarettes.

Belfast, 1988.

A man is found dead, killed with a bolt from a crossbow in front of his house.

This is no hunting accident. But uncovering who is responsible for the murder will take Detective Sean Duffy down his most dangerous road yet, a road that leads to a lonely clearing on a high bog where three masked gunmen will force Duffy to dig his own grave. …

Amazon

The audio version is best as reader Gerard Doyle is superb.

Click PLAY or listen it on YouTube.

The title comes from a Tom Waits song called Cold Water.

Staying Quiet helps the Oppressor

On By Rick McIn ethics, government, human rightsLeave a comment

Elie Wiesel was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986. 

Immediately after they were sent to Auschwitz, his mother and his younger sister were murdered.

Wiesel and his father were selected to perform labor so long as they remained able-bodied, after which they were to be killed in the gas chambers.

Wiesel and his father were later deported to the concentration camp at Buchenwald. …

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
     Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.

Quote by German Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller 

Skiing March 2021

On By Rick McIn health & fitness, travelLeave a comment

Pandemic seemed a perfect time to get on to the slopes.

Staying in Banff for 5 nights, I enjoyed 1 day at Louise, 2 at Sunshine.

Loving my new Shady Ray ski goggles.

It was ALL great. But my favourite run is the (easiest line) on Eagle Creek coming off Goatseye.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

All Systems Red by Martha Wells

On By Rick McIn books1 Comment

All Systems Red is a 2017 science fiction novella by American author Martha Wells. The first in a series called The Murderbot Diaries …

The series is about an artificial construct designed as a Security Unit, which manages to override its governor unit, thus enabling it to develop independence.

It calls itself Murderbot, and likes to watch unrealistic soap operas. …

I don’t think I’ll continue with the Murderbot Diaries.

The Alienist – season 1

On By Rick McIn TVLeave a comment

The Alienist is an American period drama television series …

… an ad hoc team assembled in mid-1890s New York City to investigate a serial killer who is murdering street children.

The series incorporates fact with fiction by including the characters that are historical figures, such as Theodore Roosevelt, who held the post of police commissioner from 1895 to 1897. …

Dakota Fanning is good as Sara Howard, Roosevelt’s secretary and first woman employed by the NYPD.

The cast is believable aside from Luke Evans as John Schuyler Moore.

The plot didn’t work for me.

But I loved the setting and seeing technology of that day.

In fact, an Alienist in NY City in that era is what we’d today call a psychiatrist.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Heaven, My Home by Attica Locke

On By Rick McIn booksLeave a comment

The 9-year-old son of a jailed white supremacist disappears.

A black Texas Ranger is called in to assist with the investigation.

Interesting plot.

Interesting setting – Lake Caddo, a sprawling, irregular inland sea divided between Texas and Louisiana.

Interesting timing. Trump was just elected. It’s Texas.

I don’t envy this cop.

Oh. He has a cruel mother. A wife with whom he is trying to reconnect.

Overall, this book is quite good.