I had hoped last week, as the symptoms I’d been feeling didn’t seem to be worsening (and in fact, certain muscle aches had eased off), that I’d be getting better within a day or so and be able to continue on as normal.  Instead, this thing morphed into a longer term flu or very nasty cold (COVID-19 test did say negative, but many places are reporting that the home-tests are not terribly responsive to new variants as well.  And since Alberta no longer provides lab testing, I’m going to stick with flu) that the worst effect of was preventing sleep, since you’d quickly fill up with mucus regardless of your position and suddenly wake choking.   Let’s just say I was not pleasant to be around.

Fortunately, it started waning Thursday night, and today I’m feeling mostly back.  Although tired.  The end result, however, is that commitments made last week have yet to be fulfilled.  On the bright side, I did manage to get the Voice Magazine up online this week.  And with any luck, this PDF will be done before the end of the evening.

And I’m happy I’ve managed to get that done, because I wouldn’t want you to miss out on our latest student interview, this time with a student born in the Netherlands and now living on a farm in Ontario and attempting to meet the standards set by her sister.  A bit of a traveller, she was nice enough to include some pictures.

Also, we’ve got the continuation of Alek Golijanin’s dealings with the police and related structures which lead him to conclude that the ‘defund the police’ movement isn’t the strategy we need to deal with the problems noted in the police force.

And I decided that our third feature is going to be the second installment of [blue rare], in part because I want to talk about it here.  You see, part of what I generally require from writers for The Voice Magazine is that if they make assertions, those assertions be able to be backed with some sort of evidence.  So much of the misinformation and bile that I see these days on the internet, often seems to have its origin in someone claiming that person A or group B has a specific motive for an action that they do.  Trudeau not mentioning Alberta in a speech is because he hates Albertans is one I’ve seen, for instance. That specific assertion takes a bit of mind-reading I’m generally not willing to entertain in The Voice Magazine.  Especially when he’s declared otherwise, and it’s just as likely that he simply wasn’t thinking.  If you don’t like Trudeau, there are plenty of reasons based in fact to do so, I don’t care about that, but there’s no need or reason to try to assume a person’s state of mind.

So getting back to the point, you’re likely going to read the [blue rare] column and go, “wait a second, this can’t be real!”  And it isn’t.  But it’s a retelling that’s as much about a mood as it is the story.  Take it literally and you’ve followed the wrong path, as the more and further ludicrous assertions should hopefully make clear.  But I know there are some who will wonder.  I’m trying to find a way to label or mark these pieces, these ones that sway into creative fiction rather than our strict fact based reliance.  Ideally something that isn’t too overt or takes away from the piece, but I’ve been having trouble doing so, so far.  So instead, at least this time, I’m just going to let you know here, and I encourage you to enjoy the read.