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Tag Archives: review

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QotD: The only obligation of a novel (PWQ00006)

The PolyBlog
April 15 2025
“The only obligation to which in advance we may hold a novel, without incurring  the accusation of being arbitrary,  is that it be interesting.” ~ Henry James
Posted in Quotes | Tagged books, QotD, quotes, reading, review | Leave a reply

Star Trek: Picard – Season 2 (TVR00024) – 🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪

The PolyBlog
April 28 2024

Overview

The authoritarian regime of Altered Earth was interesting to visit, although the trajectory from Point A to Point B is left a bit weak. Where there is actually some action, with an Emergency Combat Hologram and playing hide and seek with newbie, low-end drones, the show is decent. But many of the episodes feel like a VERY long episode that should have been a two-parter like it was on Voyager. Season 1 was way better. And don’t get me started on Picard trying to be the “old wise man” imparting great pronouncements while having NO sense of connection or chemistry with just about anyone. Even Guinan feels very forced.

List of Episodes from Season 2

S02E01The Star GazerNone of our tomorrows are guaranteed. Particularly
when large-scale anomalies appear out of nowhere,
calling your name. However, it might be better
than Q calling you.
🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
S02E02PenanceIn an alternate Q reality, a safe galaxy is a human
galaxy. President Hanson, Rios, the Borg Queen and
others are more confused than present for
Eradication Day.
🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪
S02E03AssimilationLA in 2024? Wasn’t that a Voyager episode? Any
29th century tech sitting around anywhere? No?
Oh, well.
🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
S02E04WatcherGuinan may be a listener, but only when you say
something interesting, like your name. Oh, and
ICE grabs some of the time travellers.
🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
S02E05Fly Me to the MoonPicard’s ancestor probably isn’t helped much with
Q as her therapist. And Data with his child in a
bubble is a bit creepy.
🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
S02E06Two of OneJean-Luc meets his ancestor, gives her a pep talk,
and there’s a bunch of gala stuff going on.
🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪
S02E07MonstersA trip inside Jean-Luc’s head and past is not
particularly interesting.
🐸🐸⚪⚪⚪
S02E08MercyGuinan and Jean-Luc are arrested, everyone else
just wanders around accomplishing nothing.
Good line from Guinan that the boy who met
a Vulcan had to have that experience in order
to grow up to be the FBI agent to arrest them.
🐸🐸🐸⚪⚪
S02E09Hide and SeekOkay, an Emergency Combat Hologram is pretty
cool. As is playing hide and seek with newbie
Borg at Chateau Picard. Hippie love moments?
Meh.
🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪
S02E10FarewellIn the past, double the ancestor, half the risk,
a bit easy; but that project Khan file sounds
intriguing. In the future, Agnes is Guardian of
the Gate? That sounds intriguing too. A bit
shmaltzy in places though.
🐸🐸🐸🐸⚪

The Bottom Line

Not as enjoyable as Season 1, needed more action or a lot of editing.

Posted in TV Reviews | Tagged Picard, review, season, series, television | Leave a reply

Honouring someone else’s goal — Clubbing with Cancer

The PolyBlog
December 31 2023

I don’t often talk about other people’s goals on my blog, only my own. Maybe others’ goals if they are on a similar journey, like a reading challenge or working out. But even then, it’s almost always about my own experience; I try not to tell other people’s stories, leaving them to do so if they wish. Maybe to the extent they inspire me, often I have my own take, but it’s rare I see a goal and want to do the exact same thing.

But I caught an article on CBC two weeks ago about a man who is rating club sandwiches in Ottawa to try and find the best one. Of course, it’s on the news, so there has to be a hook, which is that he has stage four cancer (colon, liver, lungs). The prognosis is dark, no doubt, but as he describes it, he’s “living with cancer”, and part of his mental therapy is to distract himself by finding the best club sandwich.

ARTICLE: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/sandwich-clubbing-cancer-blog-jay-macpherson-1.7055505

RADIOCAST: https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-100-ottawa-morning/clip/16028993-clubbing-cancer

The goal resonated with me. Not because I do reviews, although perhaps that is part of it. Not because I like curating things, although that is part of it, too. I eat out a fair amount, well above average, and I, too, have thought of reviewing “something”. Curating a specific meal, perhaps, or a specific dish. Maybe in Nepean. Maybe in Ottawa. Maybe in the world. Hah!

Pizza has long been an obvious choice for many people. Yet, IMHO, pizza is almost impossible to be definitive about, well, almost anything. Suppose I choose a chicken pizza from Colonnade Pizza, a worthy choice no doubt. But too many variables are subjective…thick, stuffed or thin crust? Are they all the same ingredients or different? Is it a chef’s unique favourite or something common to all pizza shops? I like anchovies, but I likely wouldn’t order it often nor with other people who likely wouldn’t. I am amused by the advertising where people tout that they were chosen the best pizza in a competition but then don’t explain WHICH pizza variety / combination they had as their entry. Was it a Mediterranean with a thick crust or a simple pepperoni with thin? Obviously, not EVERY pizza combo they sell “won”.

Wings would be a popular choice, but like pizza, there are a lot of variables. You might not think so initially but there are, and no, I don’t mean the seasonings. You can do boneless or bone-in, for example. Very different flavours with the bone removed, often more like a cutlet or chicken strip than a wing. Others make them almost like popcorn chicken. Or they offer split or still-connected or drumstick-style, large or small, frozen or not. I prefer non-frozen, oven-baked, bone-in, but that’s just me. The REAL test most people think of for wings is the sauce. Which is a worthy viable consideration, but to me, I don’t really care that much. If I was rating sauces, sure. But if I’m rating wings, comparing a salt-and-vinegar dry rub split frozen wing to a suicide wet sauce fresh boneless wing makes almost no sense. Most people rating wings ignore that, they’re really just rating the coatings. Which as I said, is viable but doesn’t excite me. Perhaps if I was rating them all at one place, say all four wings in a pub for the best ones in that pub or the best combos at a wing place with 50 different toppings. It should be relatively comparing apples to apples, oranges to oranges, and across those two restaurants makes no sense but I could see it within one restaurant. If I were to do wings, I think I’d have to make it the same wing everywhere, likely mild or no sauce at all. I would want to rate the wing, not the sauce. As you can see, I’ve thought about this before. A little too much, but I digress.

I have also thought about doing wonton soups, maybe limited to Nepean. Or places designed for take-out, not dine-in. We used to frequent a Vietnamese place with awesome wonton soup, but alas, it was a victim of COVID’s decreased business. We were trying to order somewhat frequently, yet some nights, ours was the only order they had had by about 7:00 p.m. Not good. And so I no longer have a “go to” option for wonton soup. I’ve been tempted to find every place in Nepean that offers the soup for takeout and give it a taste test. I could deal with chicken or shrimp wontons, or pork, for that matter. I am not sure about those that leave out the bok choy as a “necessary” element, though. I suspect that shrimp wontons, with bok choy and green onions, along with a decent broth, would win hands down over just about any other combo for me. I don’t even know if I could rate one without bok choy above a 6 or 7 out of 10. Ah-hah! A standard!

So, since I have thought of something “similar”, I love both the premise of Jay’s goal and his approach. It is concrete, limited variables, and a relatively standardized menu option. I wish I’d come up with it.

Building off his two lists of clubs so far

Jay has a FaceBook group called “Clubbing with Cancer”, which is an awesome name too. A touch of whimsy in a bit of darkness. I only recently joined the group, and there are currently over 2000 members, with a lot joining as I did after the CBC article and podcast. Under his featured posts, he has his current running total / rankings of club sandwiches with 15 listed; there are six turkey clubs and nine chicken clubs on his “best of” so far. I managed to knock off two of them in the last two weeks (I’ll blog about them separately), and so far, both were solid options.

I don’t know if I’ll make it to Arnprior or all the south Ottawa ones. But maybe. I also don’t know if I’ll start a rumble ordering a club at a restaurant that specializes in smoked meat (#2 on the chicken list). Again, maybe. 🙂

Reference #MeatRestaurantLocationMy rating
1TurkeyKal’s Place Family Restaurant & PizzeriaKanata
(Hazeldean)
8/10
2TurkeyRoyal’s RestaurantRichmondTBD
3TurkeyThe Village CafeKanata
(Hazeldean)
TBD
4TurkeyTony’s Chip WagonRichmondTBD
5TurkeyAntrim Truck StopArnpriorTBD
6TurkeyThe Sandwich FactoryKanata
(N.Terry Fox @ 417)
TBD
1ChickenCountry Fresh Food and Take OutBeckwithTBD
2ChickenMarkie’s Montreal Smoked MeatKanata
(North)
TBD
3ChickenFil’s DinerWestboro7/10
4ChickenTommy’s Dining LoungeKanata
(by McQuade)
TBD
5ChickenScotty’s Corner DinerBell’s CornerTBD
6ChickenBusters Bar & GrillKanata
(Hazeldean)
TBD
7ChickenSTACKED – Smoked Meat & GrillBank St. SouthTBD
9ChickenZak’s DinerKanata
(Hazeldean)
TBD
9ChickenMarlborough Pub & EateryNorth GowerTBD

As I said, I really like the goal, and I’m happy to benefit from someone else’s curation. And, gasp, there might even be some controversy in the rankings. Some of the members were discussing if the turkey should be WARM in a turkey club (most say no), but there was general agreement that there should be warm chicken in the chicken clubs. We also can’t all agree on whether the sides affect the rating of the club itself or not. I think it’s an “also ran” item to talk about i.e., that the sandwich should live or die on its own.

Two down, thirteen to go from the best list. Despite the dark underpinnings of the group, the sandwich metrics are fun. Heck, Jay even had members uploading images of their club sandwiches, with ratings too, from Whitehorse and Cambodia. They seem a little far to me. 🙂 Fortunately, I don’t have to wrangle this group. I just have to watch and munch.

Posted in Goals | Tagged review, sandwich | Leave a reply

Series premiere: Star Trek Prodigy

The PolyBlog
November 2 2021

I knew there was a new show coming called ST: Prodigy and that it was animated, with a holographic Janeway to help train a misfit crew. There have been other shows in the ST universe about raw cadets who are unseasoned but manning a star ship, but not animated nor as the full premise of the show. Episodes or books, not shows.

But I figured I knew a little of what to expect, as I’ve watched Lower Decks. I assumed it was similar in concept but with the LDers running the asylum. Star Trek shows are always good for multiple seasons, so I didn’t bother trying to predict renewal, it’s almost guaranteed to run two seasons at least.

Yet the show is nothing like what I expected. The animation and tone is way more like Star Wars’ The Mandalorian than it is traditional Star Trek. If it wasn’t for Janeway showing up at the end of the premiere to say hello, it could be AnyShip Inc.

The main character, Dal, is on a prison planet. There’s no explanation of why or how he ended up there, nor any of the other people in prison. Most of them can’t speak to each other as translators are forbidden. When a special psychic prisoner called Prisoner Zero shows up, Dal gets involved, a couple of them find an abandoned Starfleet vessel hidden deep in the planetary core, they recruit some other prisoners, and they try to get off the rock. Along the way, they kidnap the warden’s daughter.

The voice work is all well done, although I don’t recognize any of them from other stuff. The only one I do recognize is the warden, called the Diviner, voiced by John Noble. He’s always great to see/hear, but hard to say if it’s simply more of a show-by-show cameo or a regular full character.

As a Star Trek show, it fails completely. It is unlike any of the other shows and doesn’t even feel like it’s in the same lexicon. As a Star Wars show, I’d accept it in a heartbeat. It’s watchable, I’m curious to see where it goes. And I know there will be cameos of other ST characters (Chakotay shows up soon too, apparently). But is it Star Trek?

Posted in Television | Tagged premiere, review, season, series, tv | Leave a reply

Series premiere: Invasion

The PolyBlog
November 2 2021

My first reaction to Apple TV’s “Invasion” series was based on the description and the trailer. And I was completely confused by two totally different marketing approaches.

Invasion on Apple TV is about an alien invasion, but seems like it is more about how one woman copes, trying to keep her two kids and herself safe, since the father is useless. But I can’t be sure as the description going around looks like “family-during-crisis” while the trailer looks like “monsters-are-here”. Pass, predict cancellation.

I gave EP01 a go, and well, I have NO idea where the woman’s storyline went. The episode looks like simply a generic “aliens are bad” plot. With completely unconnected storylines all over the place.

The only storyline that was mildly interesting was a sheriff who investigates a simple disappearance, assumes it’s the local yokels, and finds a strange crop circle and some crows. Later, there’s a storm of locusts, I think, and it looks almost biblical.

To be honest, I have no real idea what the plan is for the show. It jumped all over, nothing was really happening, and it was slow as molasses. I didn’t care about ANYBODY in the pilot. Well, maybe the crew going to the space station, but that lasts no time at all annnnnnd they’re dead.

Yawn.

I am giving it a hard pass, maybe the writers have some amazing story arc planned, and it takes several EPs to get going. In the meantime, I’m out. And I can’t see it getting renewed, despite the high budget commitment up front.

Posted in Television | Tagged premiere, review, season, series, tv | Leave a reply

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