My laptop bit it. The button on the mouse stopped working, I started using a detachable keyboard and mouse. Then the computer stopped registering the detachable mouse and keyboard. So now I can turn it on and look at my desktop, and use my mouse to scroll around the screen, but I can't click or type anything. I'm trying to remember how old this laptop is. Less than two years, that's for sure, because I remember using my old laptop where I'm currently staying and I remember talking to an SSW peer about getting the newer one. The laptop before this lasted over six years.
I don't know whether I should get a new one or try and repair the one I have now. I still have access to the school computers until August, so I can kind of make it through.
I got something in the mail congratulating me on graduating and for having completed the program with distinction.
I don't know if I want to register with the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers now or if I should wait until after convocation. The form asks for a date of convocation and there is a section for special requests before convocation. If it's standard to wait until after convocation, I don't mind.
I had two interviews this week. I am officially a bearded man again, as I did not have to shave to be presentable. The interviews included a second round with Facile and a direct support contract with EaF. I am now a member of the Facile team and I have an EaF contract as well.
When Summer Program begins I'm really going to have my hands full working full time and having two contracts. I feel like I'm on the precipice of a new adventure, coming out of a reflective and transitional point after completing college.
Friday, May 29, 2015
Sunday, May 24, 2015
Crow Hop
So I noticed a pattern with the code that my computer searches repeatedly when I try to type things. It's searching for each of the letters that don't work on it's keypad. It's searching for its lost functionality. To avoid it doing the search I just use a detachable keyboard.
And you know how I said my phone deleted half my contacts? ...They came back. Along with a few extra, like "Customer Care" and "US Customer Care". I can't imagine having one specifically for US customers will be of much use to me, since I'm not a US citizen.
I just got back my academic achievement report. I'm officially an SSW grad now. Not only that, but apparently I was on the honour list for HSF, and graduated "with distinction" from SSW. Now I can apply at the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, which is a regulatory body (not an educational institute) that will legally allow me to put letters behind my name. I will become "Gryphon Sibbald, SSW, RSSW".
Do you know what's kind of tough? The Respect Campaign became an academically acknowledged achievement during the year that I worked for it, but even though I'd volunteered for two years and worked in it for one, because in the year it was recognized I was an employee rather than a volunteer, it isn't recognized on my transcript.
Although a Connect Workshop I did two years ago got put on there.
When I was with Healing of the Seven Generations, I had the opportunity to listen to the work of the Chippewa Travellers, live, for the mini powwow that they would host daily for the elementary school children.
Here they are on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER-TBxB1w20
They had a song they called the Crow Hop, which came from Blackfoot Nation and had dancers emulate the movement of a crow hopping. It had a really strong and consistent beat with each drummer striking at once. A dancer would come up and every time their foot fell, the drum would beat, giving the impression that the thunderous sound came from the dancers footsteps. It was especially impressive with a female dancer, who would step delicately with the crashing sound of the drum.
After the dancer's demonstration, they would invite the children to join in. At that point, the children would be really amped up, wanting to feel the power of their own footfalls booming like thunder. Everytime, the children would get way too close to the drummers, though, and the workers would have to stand in a circle around the drummers with their arms stretched out, to build space between drummers and children.
I was standing between drummer and child one time, and with my arms outstetched to maximize my range, I felt like a scarecrow. Then I realized that, with me there warding off the children, and the children emulating crows, I really was playing the roll of a scarecrow. Whoa.
So what would that make the drummers? A garden?
And you know how I said my phone deleted half my contacts? ...They came back. Along with a few extra, like "Customer Care" and "US Customer Care". I can't imagine having one specifically for US customers will be of much use to me, since I'm not a US citizen.
I just got back my academic achievement report. I'm officially an SSW grad now. Not only that, but apparently I was on the honour list for HSF, and graduated "with distinction" from SSW. Now I can apply at the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers, which is a regulatory body (not an educational institute) that will legally allow me to put letters behind my name. I will become "Gryphon Sibbald, SSW, RSSW".
Do you know what's kind of tough? The Respect Campaign became an academically acknowledged achievement during the year that I worked for it, but even though I'd volunteered for two years and worked in it for one, because in the year it was recognized I was an employee rather than a volunteer, it isn't recognized on my transcript.
Although a Connect Workshop I did two years ago got put on there.
When I was with Healing of the Seven Generations, I had the opportunity to listen to the work of the Chippewa Travellers, live, for the mini powwow that they would host daily for the elementary school children.
Here they are on Youtube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ER-TBxB1w20
They had a song they called the Crow Hop, which came from Blackfoot Nation and had dancers emulate the movement of a crow hopping. It had a really strong and consistent beat with each drummer striking at once. A dancer would come up and every time their foot fell, the drum would beat, giving the impression that the thunderous sound came from the dancers footsteps. It was especially impressive with a female dancer, who would step delicately with the crashing sound of the drum.
After the dancer's demonstration, they would invite the children to join in. At that point, the children would be really amped up, wanting to feel the power of their own footfalls booming like thunder. Everytime, the children would get way too close to the drummers, though, and the workers would have to stand in a circle around the drummers with their arms stretched out, to build space between drummers and children.
I was standing between drummer and child one time, and with my arms outstetched to maximize my range, I felt like a scarecrow. Then I realized that, with me there warding off the children, and the children emulating crows, I really was playing the roll of a scarecrow. Whoa.
So what would that make the drummers? A garden?
Tuesday, May 19, 2015
Creepy Phone Continued
Yeah, so I'm fine. The phone's curse didn't come to fruition. At the designated time, however, it did delete half my contacts. This isn't the first time it's pulled that, either. Last time, it deleted all my apps and all the contacts that were saved to the physical phone, as opposed to the SD card. So I figured if I just saved to the SD card I'd be okay, but this is pretty random. Oh well, since it saved my conversation history and most of my recent contacts have texted me, and the others are on my old flip phone, the damage shouldn't be too significant. But I don't want to have to plan around this being a regular thing.
I tried taking the suggestions it gave for the demonic-sounding gibberish and it just gave me more gibberish. I realized that I was testing it in a text I was going to send to my friend, felt guilty and stopped. Wouldn't want to send along some kind of incantation.
But this thing has really gone insane. Listen to the suggestions it gives to finish a word when I write "differen" (I was going to write "different")
Differensiasie, Differensiaalvergelykings
What
Okay, so I just want it to be known that after writing that, my computer froze and it started looking up "zdvnk>" in the task bar repeatedly again. Also, my computer stopped letting me write the letters "D" "V" and "N" and it started repeating those specific letters in the task bar as well. So weird.
I forgot to mention that my mom's career development class was taking a tour of the Conestoga Doon Campus last week. Since I live right by the college, I got to come along with them and help out with the tour.
I put in a garden at my place in student housing. I started with indoor stuff because I have a hard time waiting for the Victoria day weekend. Sunflowers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, squash, beans and peas. And since we have a few flower baskets, I put in some flowers. Why not.
The quantity of seeds they offer per packet differs so wildly. The amount of cherry tomatoes were miniscule compared with the regular tomatoes, and there were far fewer zucchini than squash. I looked at the packet because I felt that such uneven distribution was so uncalled for, but there's nothing on how many seeds each packet should have. So I guess they weren't dishonest.
I tried taking the suggestions it gave for the demonic-sounding gibberish and it just gave me more gibberish. I realized that I was testing it in a text I was going to send to my friend, felt guilty and stopped. Wouldn't want to send along some kind of incantation.
But this thing has really gone insane. Listen to the suggestions it gives to finish a word when I write "differen" (I was going to write "different")
Differensiasie, Differensiaalvergelykings
What
Okay, so I just want it to be known that after writing that, my computer froze and it started looking up "zdvnk>" in the task bar repeatedly again. Also, my computer stopped letting me write the letters "D" "V" and "N" and it started repeating those specific letters in the task bar as well. So weird.
I forgot to mention that my mom's career development class was taking a tour of the Conestoga Doon Campus last week. Since I live right by the college, I got to come along with them and help out with the tour.
I put in a garden at my place in student housing. I started with indoor stuff because I have a hard time waiting for the Victoria day weekend. Sunflowers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, zucchini, squash, beans and peas. And since we have a few flower baskets, I put in some flowers. Why not.
The quantity of seeds they offer per packet differs so wildly. The amount of cherry tomatoes were miniscule compared with the regular tomatoes, and there were far fewer zucchini than squash. I looked at the packet because I felt that such uneven distribution was so uncalled for, but there's nothing on how many seeds each packet should have. So I guess they weren't dishonest.
Monday, May 18, 2015
Creepy Phone
My phone is seriously bothering me. It has a function so that when I'm texting people, it will make suggestions as to what it predicts I'm going to say. At first, it makes guesses based on the texting patterns of the general population, and then as I get to use it more, it suggests based on my own personal texting history. By offering suggestions it can make it faster for me to message people, because I'll be able to just click the suggestion instead of typing the whole word.
But recently it started suggesting "die" after almost every word I type. Sometimes it will start suggesting gibberish, too, as if it's speaking in tongues. And sometimes the consecutive suggestions or the three suggestions lined at the top will form together to make a sentence. So a couple days ago it was charitable enough to say "Probably won't die" but yesterday it said "Die later tomorrow". Oh, and once I die, it said that I "Won't be honoured".
I've had other people watch it, and they're like "Did your phone get hacked?"
My flip phone never did this to me.
I'm even making this post right now because if the prediction is true, people can be like "Oooh, how did the phone know?"
But when I tried to log into my computer (I have it password protected) my "D" key stopped working. So I couldn't type my password (and yes, now you know there's a "D" in my password, you're one step closer to guessing it) and even if I got in, the first letter of "Die" is "D". It's like something's trying to silence me.
I just borrowed my brother's detachable keyboard to get in.
My computer's been weird too. It uninstalled Windows 8.5, it started putting any character written with the shift key into a search bar, and it would randomly and automatically search a specific combination of letters and symbols that didn't get any results when I Googled it.
Then it reinstalled Windows 8.5 and everything went back to normal.
I hate modern technology.
But recently it started suggesting "die" after almost every word I type. Sometimes it will start suggesting gibberish, too, as if it's speaking in tongues. And sometimes the consecutive suggestions or the three suggestions lined at the top will form together to make a sentence. So a couple days ago it was charitable enough to say "Probably won't die" but yesterday it said "Die later tomorrow". Oh, and once I die, it said that I "Won't be honoured".
I've had other people watch it, and they're like "Did your phone get hacked?"
My flip phone never did this to me.
I'm even making this post right now because if the prediction is true, people can be like "Oooh, how did the phone know?"
But when I tried to log into my computer (I have it password protected) my "D" key stopped working. So I couldn't type my password (and yes, now you know there's a "D" in my password, you're one step closer to guessing it) and even if I got in, the first letter of "Die" is "D". It's like something's trying to silence me.
I just borrowed my brother's detachable keyboard to get in.
My computer's been weird too. It uninstalled Windows 8.5, it started putting any character written with the shift key into a search bar, and it would randomly and automatically search a specific combination of letters and symbols that didn't get any results when I Googled it.
Then it reinstalled Windows 8.5 and everything went back to normal.
I hate modern technology.
Saturday, May 16, 2015
Finishing Up With Teaching Circles
I finished my two weeks with Healing of the 7 Generations. I wound up memorizing most of the presentation that precursed the friendship bracelet workshop
There are 7 main clans which are universal throughout most First Nations people. They are:
The Crane, Loon, Fish, Bear, Martin, Deer, and Bird Clans.
In that order, the Ojibway terms for these clans are Ah Ji Jack, Maang, Gi Goonh, Maakwaa, Wa Bi Zsa Shi, Wawazskazsi, and Be Nays.
Although I admit I'm not 100% on the spelling.
The Crane and Loon Clans are the chief clans. They create a dual government to keep things balanced and serve to keep each other in check.
The Fish Clan are the intellectuals. Sometimes called "star gazers", they devote themselves to meditation and philosophy. They manage disputes between the two chief clans.
The Bear Clan is the police force. They also study medicines and are the adoption clan, taking in those that don't know their background.
The Martin Clan is the warrior clan, serving to protect the people.
The Deer Clan is the gentle people. They are pacifists and won't even use harsh words. They are the poets.
The Bird Clan is the spiritual leaders of the people.
Now, there are a lot of sub-clans that fit into these 7 categories. For example, the Eagle Clan is part of the Bird Clan, the Otter Clan is part of the Martin Clan, the Wolf Clan is part of the Bear Clan, and the Turtle is part of the Fish Clan.
To live a good life, there are 7 Grandfather Teachings. They are: Honesty, Truth, Wisdom, Respect, Bravery, Humility, and Love. Pretty self-explanatory, I didn't memorize the Ojibway terms for them though.
Some Ojibway:
Hello (to a peer): Anii
Hello (to an authority): Boozoo
Thank You: Miigwech
No: Kaawiin
Yes: Enh
And there's no term for "you're welcome" because they felt that "miigwech" was acknowledgement enough.
Ojibway is the hardest language in the world to learn, according to the Guiness Book of World Records, as a result of its many dialects.
There are four sacred medicines. They are: tobacco, sweet grass, sage, and cedar.
There are three sister crops which were the staples of First Nations agriculture: corn, squash, and turnip.
Aside from friendship bracelets, I got to play Lacrosse, do Metis jigging, use Inuit yoyos, and help build a Teepee.
What a cool experience!
There are 7 main clans which are universal throughout most First Nations people. They are:
The Crane, Loon, Fish, Bear, Martin, Deer, and Bird Clans.
In that order, the Ojibway terms for these clans are Ah Ji Jack, Maang, Gi Goonh, Maakwaa, Wa Bi Zsa Shi, Wawazskazsi, and Be Nays.
Although I admit I'm not 100% on the spelling.
The Crane and Loon Clans are the chief clans. They create a dual government to keep things balanced and serve to keep each other in check.
The Fish Clan are the intellectuals. Sometimes called "star gazers", they devote themselves to meditation and philosophy. They manage disputes between the two chief clans.
The Bear Clan is the police force. They also study medicines and are the adoption clan, taking in those that don't know their background.
The Martin Clan is the warrior clan, serving to protect the people.
The Deer Clan is the gentle people. They are pacifists and won't even use harsh words. They are the poets.
The Bird Clan is the spiritual leaders of the people.
Now, there are a lot of sub-clans that fit into these 7 categories. For example, the Eagle Clan is part of the Bird Clan, the Otter Clan is part of the Martin Clan, the Wolf Clan is part of the Bear Clan, and the Turtle is part of the Fish Clan.
To live a good life, there are 7 Grandfather Teachings. They are: Honesty, Truth, Wisdom, Respect, Bravery, Humility, and Love. Pretty self-explanatory, I didn't memorize the Ojibway terms for them though.
Some Ojibway:
Hello (to a peer): Anii
Hello (to an authority): Boozoo
Thank You: Miigwech
No: Kaawiin
Yes: Enh
And there's no term for "you're welcome" because they felt that "miigwech" was acknowledgement enough.
Ojibway is the hardest language in the world to learn, according to the Guiness Book of World Records, as a result of its many dialects.
There are four sacred medicines. They are: tobacco, sweet grass, sage, and cedar.
There are three sister crops which were the staples of First Nations agriculture: corn, squash, and turnip.
Aside from friendship bracelets, I got to play Lacrosse, do Metis jigging, use Inuit yoyos, and help build a Teepee.
What a cool experience!
Sunday, May 10, 2015
Mom's 50th
Yesterday my grandparents visited for an early celebration of my mother's 50th birthday. We went out for lunch and had dinner at some friends of the family's. For lunch, we went to a place called The Boathouse. I'd never been except for once when I got an icecream cone from their little icecream side operation. I've heard that you're not a true Guelphite until you've been to The Boathouse. So I'm glad to be a true Guelphite now.
Have you ever heard of the site how-old.net? You can upload images of yourself and it estimates your age and gender. It's gotten pretty big, and I don't know why because it's not exactly a new concept. But I decided to put in my collection of facial hair styles and see how it effects the estimation.
Have you ever heard of the site how-old.net? You can upload images of yourself and it estimates your age and gender. It's gotten pretty big, and I don't know why because it's not exactly a new concept. But I decided to put in my collection of facial hair styles and see how it effects the estimation.
Age 45 for the pencilbeard. Not too much younger than my mother.
38 years old at my standard look. By trimming my beard, I trim off 7 years.
37 for my fundraiser selection. Losing that chin and neck hair doesn't do as much as losing the excess of the pencilbeard.
37 again. The muttonchops didn't effect outcome.
37 again. It's all in the moustache.
24, a year younger than I actually am. This thing is prejudiced against facial hair. It never got my gender wrong, though.
I'm going to upload these fundraiser photos to my gallery blog. I haven't put anything on there in ages...
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Healing Circles
I'm helping out with a two-week project for Healing of the Seven Generations, an aboriginal services agency. A friend of mine works there and helped me get in on the opportunity. For two weeks, they are hosting healing circles at a local museum. Elementary schools have classes come in for field trips and the classes rotate around to different stations to learn more about First Nations, Metis, and Inuit people. I'm specifically stationed at the Ojibwa, Chippewa, or Anishnabeg point. After a presentation on the Seven Grandfather teachings, the clan system, and a lesson on the Ojibwa language, we do a friendship bracelet activity, which is where I come in. I'm one of the people teaching the children how to do friendship bracelets, just learned how to do them myself. Somebody actually made me a friendship bracelet awhile back, and so now I know a bit more about them. Been doing this for two days.
We have daily miniature powwows, with a drum circle and dances separated in Grass, Women's Traditional, and Women's Fancy. Tomorrow I'll supposedly be building a teepee. Haven't done that since Chisasibi. It's all pretty cool!
One of my old roommates moved back in. He moved out after first semester of last year so it's really a blast to the past to have him back in the house. He's a Canadian boy, so I'm not in such a stark minority anymore. This means we're back up to six people in the house again. Almost full capacity.
Even though I finished my classes, my student card is still good until September, so I managed to get afinal discounted four month bus pass from the college. Funny to still be using college resources.
We have daily miniature powwows, with a drum circle and dances separated in Grass, Women's Traditional, and Women's Fancy. Tomorrow I'll supposedly be building a teepee. Haven't done that since Chisasibi. It's all pretty cool!
One of my old roommates moved back in. He moved out after first semester of last year so it's really a blast to the past to have him back in the house. He's a Canadian boy, so I'm not in such a stark minority anymore. This means we're back up to six people in the house again. Almost full capacity.
Even though I finished my classes, my student card is still good until September, so I managed to get afinal discounted four month bus pass from the college. Funny to still be using college resources.
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Rock Wall
I got into my old exercise routine recently. During the last stretch of college I really wasn't able to follow it and I was really worried that I had completely regressed. It wasn't so bad. I could almost complete my entire routine, and I think I just need to break myself in before I'm able to do the whole thing. Definitely capable of doing more at this time this year than I was at this time last year.
My goal is to do better climbing the rock wall in summer program training than last year. Honestly, that's what inspired me to start looking after my health. Last year, I was the only summer program leader that couldn't climb the rock wall.
My house has three refrigerators and three bathrooms. Since my two remaining roommates live in the basement, I figured I'd have my own private fridge and bathroom. But both of my roommates changed rooms to a higher level. So I thought that we'd wind up sharing space despite having two sets of unused resources.
Doesn't really matter though, since I've got two roommates moving in this week. Back up to five people, the house is filling up and we'll use it to full capacity. They're a couple of girls from India. Since the two people I'm living with right now are Indian girls, I'm really going to be a minority.
Really parallels last year. My two roommates that I'm living with now are the same I was living with last year. Between summers, we've had many people filter through, but we ended up together again. Now they've swapped rooms, and these two new girls are moving in at the same time of year, and moving into the same rooms that they used to live in.
Got my indoor garden started. Growing some stuff inside to transplant on the May 24 weekend.
My goal is to do better climbing the rock wall in summer program training than last year. Honestly, that's what inspired me to start looking after my health. Last year, I was the only summer program leader that couldn't climb the rock wall.
My house has three refrigerators and three bathrooms. Since my two remaining roommates live in the basement, I figured I'd have my own private fridge and bathroom. But both of my roommates changed rooms to a higher level. So I thought that we'd wind up sharing space despite having two sets of unused resources.
Doesn't really matter though, since I've got two roommates moving in this week. Back up to five people, the house is filling up and we'll use it to full capacity. They're a couple of girls from India. Since the two people I'm living with right now are Indian girls, I'm really going to be a minority.
Really parallels last year. My two roommates that I'm living with now are the same I was living with last year. Between summers, we've had many people filter through, but we ended up together again. Now they've swapped rooms, and these two new girls are moving in at the same time of year, and moving into the same rooms that they used to live in.
Got my indoor garden started. Growing some stuff inside to transplant on the May 24 weekend.
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