They have been fantastic this past week!! Just going off like crazy up in Anchorage, AK. Here are some pics I grabbed from Sunday night at around 01:00

First Pubski Post:

Moved from Anchorage, AK to the small but beautiful town of Kenai, AK. My girlfriend and I moved in together here so, big steps! We've been here about a month so far. Enjoying life, happy to be alive and well. Finances were somewhat strained during the move but finally feel like I'm getting back on track. New job down here is great; I moved from a large-small business to a small-small business haha my two coworkers are pretty cool and I think I'll be a productive member of this community.

Both the gf and I have not really found too many friends in our age group. This bothers her more than it does me but I think that with some time here we will both find some people we can get along with and build some friendships. Working on finding some groups/clubs to invest some time into to help this along.

I started a garden! Currently growing a few varieties of squash, broccoli, peas, potatoes, parsley, cilantro, scallions, carrots, snow apples, lettuce, beets, rhubarb, strawberries, raspberries and a whole lot of wildflowers mixed in everywhere.

The king salmon run has been one of the slowest in the last 50 years which has been hurting the freezer a bit but I'm gearing up for dipnetting! Hopefully, I'll be able to get a few dozen for the winter months.

I've taken the following goals to heart this summer:

Enjoy myself.

Work hard.

Strive for personal betterment.

Hope you all are living it up out there!

- Merlin

I live in Kenai, Alaska and would say your outline looks pretty fun! Denali is worth going to because it's Denali and you should be there at least once in your life if given the opportunity. You are also guaranteed some great wildlife viewing. Fairbanks is an interesting place as well although it's really flat and very hot this time of the year. Most people flock to Fairbanks in the winter because of the amazing opportunities for Aurora-Gazing and the fact that it also takes almost a day to drive there from Anchorage (or an all-day train ride). There should also be some good berry picking opportunities there at the time of your visit as well. The railroad is a great way to travel if you are not in hurry and don't mind the cost of a ticket. Going south there are a bunch of options as well! If you guys wanna do kayaking there are excellent options out of Seward to explore Resurrection bay. They have a lot of different things going on for renting to tours, solo, or camping included trips. There are also some great day-hiking options in Seward and then the highway from Seward to Soldotna/Kenai is littered with good short multi-hour to long multi-day hikes. If you are into the water-scene and are feeling a little "extreme" I would HIGHLY recommend white-water rafting Six-Mile river in Hope which is just south of Anchorage. They are very fun but they are also class 5 rapids. They were my first white-water experience so beginners can handle it but you will get physical with the water haha

I'm realizing I'm getting a little rambly, as you can tell, I'm a pretty big fan of where I'm from. It's almost impossible to come here and not have an amazing time so as long as you guys keep your eyes out and explore you should be ok.

Name: Merlin

Location: Alaska, USA

Age: 24

Current Preoccupation: Progressing in billiards and Go, cooking, expanding on my knowledge of vinyl, whiskey

This is why I don't think the library will ever become obsolete. When you want to actually sit down and commit to reading, in and of itself, there is no better methodology than grabbing a hardback and turning a few pages. Being able to read on electronic devices is great too, don't get me wrong, but I think nowadays people's attention spans are too short/sporadic to be able to filter out all the extra stuff the electronics provide. It's too easy to find yourself in a lull in the text and just skip to some other website or article. I tend to read everything fairly analytically and with focus but I think people like myself are the rarity on the web. Most people are just reading out of boredom or they don't really care about whatever clickbait site they just opened. Much like the article said with keyword skimming, just glancing whatever it is over until you find something that catches your eye. Then you just go to that and start the process over again, never actually committing yourself to mentally digesting whatever information is being presented.

Really interesting topic though. Would you say that this change in reading style is going to push classic literature out the door? Maybe ushering in an entirely new style writing? I can't imagine being able to skim-read anything with real depth to the characters and story.

Sounds neat, I personally just picked up the sci-fi classic "Dune" by Frank Herbert. Somehow I have owned it for years but never once sat down and cracked it open. I'm only a few chapters in (Paul is just now arriving on Arrakis) but I have been really enjoying it! I'm excited to dive into some of the worldbuilding aspects and see what makes this the classic it is!

Ha! My family is all inclusive of BBQ! If it's meat that's on a fire it is welcome in this home. As for the details this one is not a back-breaker at all! Very easy.

Brine: 3.5 hr in 2gal water with 1/2cup salt, lemon zest, spruce tips, dash of soy sauce, and some leftover dried thai chiles.

Beer: Pleasuretown IPA from Midnight Sun Brewing Company (with a shot of blanco tequila)

Rub: Melted butter and olive oil inside and out. Salt/Pepper/Garlic & Onion Powder inside and out.

Time/Temp: 2hr at 325°F over apple wood pellets.

Sides: Steamed asparagus, purple potatoes, grilled corn, and margaritas.

Thanks for the reminder of how amazing my girlfriend and her family is! And so sorry you had to put up with so much shit! You are a better man than I, for I would've certainly been unable to avoid causing a scene!

I mean Herbert's "Dune" is an absolute classic and can easily be taken in as just one book without delving into the series. I'm also a big Kim Stanley Robinson fan and really loved his book "2312" for its seemingly very realistic depiction of humanity in the far future. Very hard-science fiction which can make it a little dense at times but well worth it in my opinion.

One of my favorite parts about this story is how each section in time is defined by Man's curiosity. In the beginning, constructing a massive, super-impressive machine in order to ask it questions and work on things we can't. Continuing to make the machine better and better so we can ask harder and harder questions and do ever increasingly complicated tasks. All so that we can satisfy our irreparable desire to know what is unknowable.

I think this trait of humanity is what keeps science fiction in our hearts generation after generation. The fact that even though a portrayal of the future from something created over fifty years ago looks so different from a portrayal of the future created in the present time; it retains this same sense of curiosity about what is to come, what kind of tasks will need to be accomplished. One could probably argue that for a lot of stories/genres, I suppose. To me though, the curiosity of science fiction will always be my favorite aspect of it.

So local breweries around my town do these things called "crowlers". It's a 32oz. can they fill and seal right there on the spot with your beer of choice. I believe this is pretty common in breweries. My favorite one here will let me bring in hunter sticks/brats and put them in the can before they fill it up with beer. So the final result is a sealed 32oz. can of beer marinated brats.

1: bring camping

2: Open can set by the fire

3: Wait until bubbling over and hot

4: Profit

Good read. Interesting and little scary. I had to admit I chuckled a good bit about Adam Neumann's company WeWork transitioning to WeCompany in order to start up real-estate and education missions. It automatically brought to mind the book We by Yevgeny Zamyatin. Maybe he wasn't so wrong in his prediction....

I was told that the best way to start out learning was to lose your first 100 games as fast as possible haha sounds a little weird but trying to do that actually helped a lot

The whole smorgasbord! Two turkeys and a ham this year. Ham was roasted. One turkey injected and roasted. One turkey brined and deep fried. This year was easily some of the biggest turkey successes I've had. Will be doing two small turkeys from now on instead of one large.

Not pictured: Sweet and Spicy Bar Nuts, Smoked asparagus, bourbon ginger glazed carrots, shrimp fresh rolls, and all the desserts (there were a lot)

Perta - From Fire

Valiant Vermin - Sunday Best but honestly anything by her. Been completely addicted!

I missed them last night but hoping to catch them again tonight

I've never gotten around to watching The Martian Chronicles. I'd give that a go. Anybody have a quality download link?

He's definitely shot up on my favorite author list! Can't wait to read the sequels!

And you know you have a good friend when they recommend books like this!

I'd love to hop in on this Sci-Fi Club! Not sure how often material is picked but this showed up as the latest material selection post under #scificlub

If it needs to be short and free and easily accessible I would put forward The Last Question by Isaac Asimov. It is one of my favorite short stories and a really great conversation starter!

So I never measure for sauce; I just freestyle and taste as I go. A mixture of some locally made base sauce touched up with a dash of soy, some white wine, a wee bit of scotch, and a hit of Cholula and lime juice. I only sauce on the smoker/grill and then brush the inside of the foil before wrapping. All about that bark!

Saag Paneer is one of my favorite vegetarian dishes (Indian/Himalayan cuisine is a great place to look for vegetarian food). There a number of good recipes on the internet, this one is pretty simple and tasty.

You actually punch holes in the top the can, warm it up, and then insert the can into the chicken cavity so it can stand up straight like in the bottom photo. Then supposedly the beer steams the inside of the chicken but, in all reality spatchcocking the chicken is a technically better way to cook the bird. One big advantage of the beer can is to allow the bird to sit up vertically. Creates a nice fat drip flow and makes the skin that lovely golden, crispy brown.

I've always tried to go about life with the motto "I want to work to live and not live to work." So whenever I've been doing something that starts to drain at my wellbeing I ask myself; how am I progressing my life and is it in the direction I want to go? Which I know probably seems a little dramatic but it's a small bit of introspection that I feel genuinely helps me takes that breath you speak of and exhale with new energy. I have no problem when my life has difficulties and is not necessarily plush but I do have problems when I feel like my life holds drudgery and unfulfilling goal orientation. When that happens I'll often try and take a step back to re-evaluate what I'm trying to do in that moment, then that day, week, month. What am I accomplishing? Is it making me a better person? Is this just a time where I need to buckle down and bust ass; or do I need to step away from this and find something new? Keeping personal projects and skills up are a big part of this for me. I want to feel like I'm bettering myself or my surroundings. I loathe stagnation. When I "breathe in" I want to feel movement in every form. This lets me keep momentum for the work I'm doing and feel positive about the outcome I'm working towards. Which does a lot to fight against a general feeling of "everything is random chaos and nothing really matters". A feeling I can sometimes fall into rather easily.

As long as you can share some interests right?! Haha

As for the salmon it is a pretty large part of the way we feed ourselves up here. I try as much as I possibly can to rely on myself for the food I consume so foraging, growing, hunting, and fishing are a pretty big part of my "grocery shopping". Since there are only two people in my home that I need to feed (plus a doggo) the salmon runs have always been enough for me to fill my freezer. Some years it just takes more work/time on the water. The impact will be felt most by native Alaskan communities and the commercial district which, obviously, require a lot more fish than me!

FINALLY!

A book series that has been making me forget adulthood and crawl under the covers with a flashlight in defiance of the coming morning! Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archive has me sucked into a beautifully and meticulously crafted world that I can't get enough of. I am currently on the third book Oathbringer after finished the first two. I haven't been able to find a good epic-scale fantasy in a long time. Honestly, it seems to be difficult to find new books and authors in the fantasy genre that I still find myself engrossed so wholly in. The last being The Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks.

I'm really hopeful for the future of the series as well! It seems Sanderson is a powerhouse of a writer, pushing out about a book a year is quite impressive when working on the scale he does. The fact that he has plans for TEN books in the Stormlight series blows my mind. So much happens in the narrative even between the first three that I can only imagine what the final chapters could include. The characters are so varied and have enticing and believable goals with great room for growth. The world of Roshar, however, seems to be the real star of the series. The environments, landscapes, history, and magic of it has been fascinating and I sometimes find myself flipping through the pages thinking "Can I please just get a geography chapter next?! This planet has 3 different colored moons? What? tell me more!"

Anyways, I highly recommend the series. I am excited to see the other stories Sanderson has told, including the Mistborn series!

A better incorporation of growing food and plant life into our infrastructure. I think a lot of it probably has to do with space planning and the general persons'lack of any food growing knowledge. It seems to me the best solution to instances like the one in the story is figuring out a way to combine housing and food growth. Maybe roof gardens? Garden squares? Hanging gardens between buildings? I think some options could be thought up by designers smarter than I.

St. Paul and the Broken Bones is new to me since last week but their album "Half The City" has been on repeat. Love it!

I can dig it! Audiobooks are pretty great. I wish I was better at retaining plot lines and hooks when I listen to them. I often find myself missing parts when I'm listening instead of reading.

Are you talking about something like audiobooks? What if you are in an area where silence is required/preferred?