It is a race against time to vaccinate the world against COVID-19, especially as case numbers rise and many countries are forced into their third or fourth lockdown. The new virus variants are expected and are a reasonable cause for concern. Some vaccines can slow the spread of it, but others are not as effective. However, this shouldn't be surprising, as even a 100% effective influenza vaccine is impossible to make, and we've been working on that since 1933.

For the sake of this article, however, we aren't talking about the COVID-19 vaccine or the possible "vaccine passports" that might soon be a reality. Instead, we are talking about current vaccine requirements that restrict international travel.

There aren't a lot of vaccine travel requirements, or "vaccine passports", in North America, Europe, or Antarctica (which kind of goes without saying, but I know somebody would ask), but in developing countries, it is very common. It is recommended to get vaccinated for illnesses like Hepatitis A and B, measles-mumps-rubella (MMR), diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, varicella (chickenpox), influenza, rabies, and others, but it is not required. Some countries have additional recommended vaccines too, like Japanese encephalitis, but these are only recommended and are also not required.

Bananas are the second most popular fruit in North America, second only to apples. However, unlike apples, bananas in North American often only come in one flavour... or at least they do now. If you were eating bananas during the 1950s and 1960s, you were eating the Gros Michel banana, which is a sweeter, almost artificial tasting banana. However, because bananas were mass replicated and are so similar, they are also prone to disease. As a result, the highly destructive and deadly Panama disease attacked the bananas and wiped them out, causing a world-wide banana shortage.

The solution was to start selling a new type of banana. These are the Cavendish bananas and while they look similar, they don't taste as sweet. In fact, you can compare the difference between them by simply having a real banana and having candy bananas or banana-flavoured medicine or ice-cream. The banana flavour was extracted from the old bananas, which have a much stronger taste.

But banana flavours aside, what about the radiation? While I don't know if the Cavendish bananas are any more radioactive than the Gros Michel bananas, both are full of radioactive potassium. As bananas decay, they release K-40 atoms, which are slightly radioactive and can cause skin tissue damage. How severe is it? Bananas release 0.10 µSv / hour, which is equivalent to 1% of the daily amount of radiation you receive normally. This means if ate 100 bananas in a single hour, you double your daily amount of radiation. You'd also get a stomachache from all the fiber.

"Life, I say, is short and the sword is always hanging over us, and we do not know how soon it will drop. It is not worthwhile to be sinful then. That is all I have to say. Good-bye, and God bless you all." ­

Those were the final words John Morrison spoke before a black cap was pulled over his face and the Lord's Prayer was said to him. He would then croak "Deliver us from evil" and with a dull thud, he was dead.

John Morrison was executed on January 24, 1901, at the North-West Territorial Jail and Lunatic Asylum in Regina for the murder of a family of eight. He was not a good man.

The year is 2022 and the COVID-19 pandemic was so last decade. Regina, like most cities, is trying to revive its incapacitated tourism industry. People want to go to festivals and concerts but are still leery about getting too close to strangers. After all, they might not have COVID, but they might have something else, you know?

But Regina is special. They will be hosting the first Grey Cup in three years (sorry Steve). People will be swarming into the city from across the country – and beyond – to celebrate the great game of football. Every sports camera in the country will be watching the city.

But just like before the pandemic, Tourism Regina is underfunded. It is staffed by passionate, determined, hard-working individuals, but they do not have the funding to prop-up a battered tourism industry alone. Instead, grassroots programs and small businesses must take the lead. So, with that in mind, here are some ways I would improve Regina's tourism industry in 2022 and beyond.

Valentine's Day is quickly approaching and if you forgot to get something for your significant other (or yourself), I don't blame you. With everything going on these days, it is tough to remember a holiday that was made to capitalize on something as priceless as love. But I think we can all agree that if you are going to spend money telling somebody you love them, you'll want to spend that money locally. From bakeries to candy stores to charcuterie boards, there is something in Regina for that special person in your life.

In December I bought a $50 chocolate box from Dessart Sweets with every intention of unboxing it and make a video about it. However, the chocolate temptation got the best of me and I ate the entire box in a single sitting. The box has a wide variety of chocolates in it, ranging from specialty-flavoured KitKat bars to European specialities to unique chocolate bars like the Charleston Chew.

If chocolate is not your thing, Dessart Sweets also has miscellaneous candy boxes for the same price. They also have imported chocolate and candy boxes for the broken-hearted globetrotter in your life.

As of last week, I am officially in the final year of my 20s. That has me a little worried because they say it is the 30s when you are forced to finally grow-up... and I really do not want to do that. So, with that sense of impending doom in mind, I decided to embrace my inner child and find some birthday "freebies" around Regina.

There was just a pesky little pandemic in the way.

Because of this, I didn't feel it was right (or safe) to visit a dozen stores around the city, many of them restaurants, asking for free things. A lot of small businesses are hurting right now and asking for free things "just because" doesn't help them at all.

To say 2020 was a different kind of year is an understatement. On one hand, I want to celebrate my accomplishments and the success of my blog this past year, but on the other hand, I want to mourn those who passed, the businesses that closed, and the livelihoods that were ruined. We all saw some very new and very terrifying things this year. We saw a once in a century pandemic, global lockdowns, silent streets, empty skies, and still oceans. We saw dolphins in canals, elephants sleeping in fields, goats trotting around streets, and monkeys jumping on empty highways. We witnessed the comet Neowise, the Great Conjunction, the evolution of Starlink and some even saw a lunar eclipse.

This past year we saw the best, and the worst, and it changed us. With nearly two million people dead in less than a year, this global pandemic made us question a lot. It made us question why pandemics happen, how we can prevent them, how we handled them in the past, and how we can move forward with them. COVID-19 was a wake-up call. Previous pandemics like SARS, MERS, and Swine Flu all showed us we had flaws, but COVID-19 blew those flaws wide open. We are fortunate that COVID-19s main threat is mass hospitalization, not mass fatalities. We are overdue for the next deadly pandemic, and this showed us that we are not at all ready.  

Because of the pandemic, my travels this year were limited. Instead, I did more local articles, did some unboxings on my YouTube channel, became a licensed drone operator, and focused more on my brand than on my travels. I also worked on building my YouTube channel. I had hoped at the end of 2020 I could launch a new website with a new logo, but it didn't work out that way. I think we can all say that about 2020: "It didn't work out that way".

There are not many positives that have come out of 2020, but one thing that has is the urge to support local businesses. Although many people were shopping locally before the pandemic, the past few months have shown just how fragile many of these businesses are. Local businesses are what make cities flourish. They are the flavour that makes each city different than the next.

From the Prairies acknowledges this and decided to use the current crisis to showcase some of Saskatchewan's homegrown talent. They offer a wide variety of different boxes, each that showcase different products all either made in Saskatchewan or supplied by a Saskatchewan producer. The products are thoughtfully curated by Brandi to engage all five of your senses -- touch, smell, sight, sound, and taste.

The box I got from From the Prairies was their "Prairie Goddess" box. This box is full of things for the goddess in you or the goddess in your life. Although many of the items in this box are items I would not use, there are people in my life who would use them.