need to catch up on last weeks episodes of peaky blinders and banshee. I think the new x men might be coming out soon too.

I generally am fine with my job, its a bit boring but better than summer restaurant jobs in the past. However, being in digital customer service means that some people are still in the 17-21 year old mindset. Yesterday I sat with someone who despite being 30 to my (straight male) 26 definitely fits that description.

My cooking skills are basic if competent but I made a large amount of chicken madras curry with chickpeas, white mushrooms and basmati rice and froze it for my dinners at work. I'm on the afternoon-night shift at work for the next while so it beats sandwiches for dinner every night. I'm probably going to do a…

peaky blinders is back and it'll be interesting to see how the storyline this season progresses. Also Banshee and I've been streaming S1 of vikings, almost done that.

Congrats on that, mine is on father's day but I haven't been doing much training beyond cardio at the gym so I want to step it up a bit.

Had the new pilsner from Fort Garry (microbeweryish) on the weekend, it was alright. Also Original 16s wheat ale, Beck's and Holsten premium.

I'm on a night shift schedule until the 29th so I can post here again.

My brother and his girlfriend of 3 years got engaged in BC on the end of a vacation they took to LA and Victoria. I'm happy for them as they're both artists/creative types and compliment each other (I've been fine with his other exes but this relationship is much more mature). They haven't set a wedding yet but…

Probably not taking any vacation of any length this summer because I started a new job 3 weeks ago and its my probationary period. However, my family rents a cabin in Lake of the Woods Ontario every year for 2-3 weeks in July-August so I'll probably drive or greyhound out on my days off.

Due to my new job I won't be able to post as much for the next two weeks at least. I'm about 150 pages into Europes tragedy: a new history of the 30 years war. I started the gladiator by Simon Scarrow. Its a historical novel set in Ancient Rome with a Bernard Cornwell flavour.

Finally got a bloody job. It's a customer service representative position for lyft that involves responding to emails and customer chat. Its not what I want to spend my career doing but it'll do while I try to save up and get into other positions. Plus at least its not dishwashing or working at a seafood counter,…

From Winnipeg: half pints is a local microbrewery. Their bulldog amber ale and stirstick stout (stout with espresso) are really good.
Canadian microbrews that I enjoy: Creemore springs premium lager (techically not craft beer anymore) okanagan springs 1516, Amsterdam blonde.

After finishing Bernard Lewis (which I won't return to) I started Europe's Tragedy:a new history of the Thirty Years War by Peter H Wilson. The subject matter is pretty self-explanatory; right now he's detailing political and sectarian developments in the Holy Roman Empire pre 1618. Interesting stuff although at 851…

Continuing to watch the new season of Banshee and might get back into the first season of vikings. there's a new series on netflix about the 1916 easter rising in Dublin that I might check out.

I liked the first two but then started losing interest after (spoilers)

I haven't done much reading this week for personal reasons. Still working on what went wrong by Bernard Lewis and the last days of Newgate by Andrew Pepper. I'll probably read more on Pepper; ghoulish as it is the history of sectarian conflict in Ireland and British politics circa 1829 interest me.

The latest season of Banshee. I look forward to the next episode on Friday. Despite my misgivings about the direction of the latest episode that I discussed elsewhere, its still one of the better examples of pure genre tv currently (in a good way).

Thanks for the recommendation.

The provincial election in my home province is coming up and its honestly one of the most disappointing elections i've experienced. The choices;
a. NDP who have been in power since 1999 and really lost their way in the last term. There's been a major caucus revolt that didn't oust the premier and a lot of backroom…

Yes, I should add that I'm a left-of-centre agnostic secularist. That is to say that I am receptive to criticisms of the role that religion and "traditional" values played in the recent past in a way that some more radical thinkers wouldn't be. However, Lewis still strikes me as being removed from the subject matter…