I enjoyed one of Freddie Deboer's recent posts: Some Friendly Advice on Reviewing Books (or Anything Else Really)

In particular, I liked one of his footnotes:

For the record, the “well who are you to judge” response to artistic criticism is stupid and fundamentally misunderstands the purpose of reviews. The critical impulse doesn’t stem from an assumption that the critic could do better. The critical impulse stems from the belief that the artist could have done better, that a superior work of art lay within their grasp, and they didn’t produce it. It’s entirely immaterial if the critic could do better than the artist. All that it takes to think critically is to imagine a better work of art than what we got.

As someone who often has insecurities about my own reviews for exactly this reason, I'm going to save here this quote for future reference.

From VNexpress: HCMC Finds the Going Tough as Covid-19 Control Deadline Looms

I think Vietnam is doing everything they can to stamp out this virus.  The question (which perhaps is of theoretical interest for the rest of the world) is whether the virus can be defeated by strict lockdowns.  Last year the answer was definitely yes.  But with the much more contagious Delta variant, the answer remains to be seen.  

Also from the article:

For the final goal of expanding the green zone, mass testing has been ramped up across the city to isolate all possible infections in the community.

Yes, lots of testing going on.  Our apartment complex got tested on Saturday, so I've now personally participated in that 2021 rite-of-passage--The Covid Test.

Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss: ESL Listening Storytime

(TESOL Materials--Storybooks ESL Listening)

Wacky Wednesday by Dr. Seuss: ESL Listening Storytime

What he said.

This has been on my mind a lot especially with Afghanistan. The critiques/protests levied at the war from the left in 01/02/03 (ie it'll be an endless quagmire costing trillions) were dismissed by Very Serious People as hysterical nonsense, but they nailed it beat-for-beat.

— Mike Duncan (@mikeduncan) September 2, 2021

Finished: Grimms' Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm  (It's probably going to take me a while to collect my thoughts on this one--maybe a week or two--but hopefully a review will be coming out before too long.)

Started: The BFG by Roald Dahl

Video HERE

More linking to Steve Donoghue on Star Trek:

Book Trek 2021: Encounter at Farpoint! #booktrek2021

As always with Steve Donoghue, the strong opinions are half the fun.  Like many people I had a hard time warming up to TNG myself (as I've mentioned before), but I definitely came around to TNG by the time it came into its own in the 4th season.

This is the House that Jack Built: ESL Listening Storybook

(TESOL Materials--Storybooks ESL Listening)

This is the House that Jack Built: ESL Listening Storybook

On November 4, 2020, Whisky Prajer wrote about the election

Yours truly showed up in the comment section:

On a related but different note...

Just caught up on Steve Donoghue, and realized how alarmist he is getting. I normally respect this guy's opinion, but this seems a bit far fetched. Or is it?

https://youtu.be/r-mDhgHfV7g

The video is here.  It's a 30 minute video, but you only need to watch the first 10 minutes.

A Friday MegaStuff Video: Tech, Books, NaNoWriMo, and, alas, the US Election!

However, when I see news like this, it makes me think that maybe Steve wasn't being alarmist after all.  It appears there is a Nazi insurgency waiting in the wings.  And we are apparently already at the stage where elected representatives are already telling us that if the Trump party doesn't win the next election, they will start the insurgency.

Rep. Swalwell: Madison Cawthorn Should Face Consequences For 'Bloodshed' Warning

Addendum: In spite of all this, I don't believe Cawthorn should be expelled from Congress.  I don't believe any of these crazies should be expelled from Congress.  They were elected by their voters.  I don't like it, but voters have the right to choose the representative they want to choose.

New episode of Revolutions Podcast out today: 10.67- The April Crisis

It's a few days late this week, but it's worth the wait.

Like I've said before, I know almost nothing about the time between the February Revolution and the October Revolution, so this is all new stuff to me.  Very interesting.

I'm learning a lot from this podcast.  And yet, one gets the sense that each of the events covered in this episode could be a whole episode in itself.  (Of course I say this as someone who doesn't know the actual history, but it certainly feels like there's a lot of big events.)  I wonder if this would have been better as 2 or 3 episodes?  But I suspect that the urge not to get too bogged down in April is a good one.  

I also confess to having lost track of a lot of the names in the story.  ("Wait, who was that again?" I said a lot this episode.)  But once this series is finally completed, I plan on re-listening to all the episodes again, so maybe it will stick the second time.

Officially pulled the plug on trying to get this episode out on time. Did so much publicity, interviews, writing for Hero of Two Worlds this week, Episode 10.67 just isn't done. But! Never fear there is plenty of Mike Duncan #content to hold you over a few days...

— Mike Duncan (@mikeduncan) August 30, 2021

Hey folks finally dropped 10.67 for ya. Enjoy!

— Mike Duncan (@mikeduncan) September 1, 2021