This past week was Get Your Game On. Our special Wednesday visitor was someone from "X Movement", an Australian based sports-themed session. We imitated Australian animals such as the kangaroo, platypus, and crocodile, merging into our next game, "Crocodile's Treasure" where we had to sneak up and steal a volley ball from him. It was similar to "red light green light" if you consider the times that the crocodile was awake to be "red light" and the times it was asleep to be "green light" and the crocodile's treasure was the finish line.
We learned to play "Netball" a sport similar to Basketball but without the net. We learned to pitch in Cricket. Steps included "Grip, hip, step, point, rock, roll".
One time he said "Grip on" and I thought he said "Gryphon".
Guy was super charismatic, but the activities didn't include equipment we didn't already have, and we probably could have facilitated all of it. Like, the reptile show guy had reptiles, the magician had magic tricks, and the Karate guy had a blackbelt. X-Movement guy had an accent, which just doesn't come across as a special resource.
The Friday trip was bowling and swimming at the Swimplex. You can't really go wrong with a day like that, because most people love bowling, and most people love swimming, but both activities are common enough that it's a bit less special.
I had my first sick day last Wednesday, breaking my perfect attendance over the past three years. That was a bummer.
Otherwise, we had Soccer Baseball, an award's ceremony, a sports circuit, a mason jar monster craft, and I got to facilitate Mission Impossible. That's a game where participants sneak from one end of the gym to the other to steal bean bags from Program Leaders. Hiding places are set up made from mats, benches, hockey nets etc. Program Leaders shout a number of seconds when participants are allowed to move, then turn around and any participants spotted must return to the beginning point to try again. The team that has the most bean bags in the end wins. Super fun.
The school I work at is air conditioned. Don't think I've mentioned that. Two years ago, the school I worked at was not, even though it had the equipment to. Second year, they had air conditioning... except not in the gym, which is where we spent most of our time. This year, at our new location, we've got an air conditioned school with an air conditioned gym. Pretty awesome. The janitors that work here are also super cool. You'd be surprised how much influence a custodial staff has on the impact of a summer program.
The school I work at has blocked Pokemon Go. I mean, this game only started after school had been let out. It's like, someone saw me waiting on my boss to let me into the school, crouched outside, oggling a Jinx near the principle's office, ready to pounce. And this person thought "Before I let them in, I'm going to make sure they can't play Pokemon Go at work"
Sunday, July 31, 2016
Tuesday, July 26, 2016
Pokemon Go
I'm interrupting the Summer Program formula of having weekly
updates based on themed weeks for this new Pokemon game.
You've likely heard of the new smartphone app, Pokemon Go,
even if you don't have the app and are not a fan of Pokemon. It basically turns
our world into the Pokemon World.
It makes use of the GPS system and places Pokemon
everywhere. By looking through your camera, you can see Pokemon appearing
anywhere on this planet! And it takes environmental factors into equation. For
example, if you're near a body of water, you will find more water-type Pokemon,
if it's at night, there will be more ghost-types, and if it's a thunderstorm,
you will find more electric-types.
Supposedly, Nintendo’s profits have spiked higher than it
has since before I was born. Even the introduction of Pokemon itself was not
this big.
Places where large numbers of people gather become Pokestops
or Gyms. Pokestops allow you to collect random items such as Pokeballs or eggs.
Pokeballs give you the opportunity to catch more Pokemon, and eggs allow you to
place them in incubators that result in them hatching after you've walked a
certain distance. It's pretty fun to find out that the Kitchener Public
Library, the KPL Kids Section, and the sign outside are all Pokestops.
Apparently it’s been leaked that McDonalds branches will all
become Pokestops. Outside of giving people the option to buy Pokecoins with
real money to buy PoGo items, PoGo is hoping to receive income by allowing
large corporations to use themselves as Pokestops to attract customers.
Gyms allow you to fight teams that have been left behind by
other players. Fought in my first Gym today, at the Conestoga Mall Museum. I
didn't know what I was doing and thought I got my team wiped out, but it said I
won.
You can set incense to attract Pokemon to you, or set lures.
At level 5, you can join a team based on one of the three Legendary Birds. The
electric Zapdos of Team Instinct, the icy Articuno of Team Mystic, and the
fiery Moltres of Team Valor. I’m Team Mystic.
It advertises itself as a way of countering our society’s
introverted nature by calling people to go outside, to explore, and interact
with other trainers. It also encourages physical fitness through the
step-counter function of hatching eggs.
However, merging the virtual and real worlds has had its
hazards, with people too focused on one or the other. For people too focused on
the game, there’s been reports of people walking into busy streets or other hazardous
areas because Pokemon have appeared there. People too focused on this world and
how they can exploit a game have set lures in obscure locations, not to lure
Pokemon, but people, resulting in robberies and kidnappings. And the random nature of Pokemon spawning has
had people wandering out into obscure locations and finding dead bodies and the
like.
In Kitchener, a Lapras showed up in Victoria Park.
Apparently some course was taking place there and everyone dipped mid-session
for the opportunity to catch it.
Of the Summer Program team, I am now one of four of us to
have it. Unfortunately, I’m the only one of the four to not have a cell phone
plan with data, That means I can only play in areas with wifi. It really takes
away the feeling of being on a Pokemon hunt, when your friends are out on
nature trails, and you’re wandering around Wal Mart. When I got my new cell
phone plan, I got this righteous deal where I got Canada-wide anytime minutes
and unlimited texting for $10 less from my previous plan, just without data.
The guy pitching it tried really hard to convince me I needed data and I
insisted I didn’t. If I knew that the Pokemon World would become a reality for
people with data, I would have reconsidered. They don’t even let the pedometer run
offline.
My brother got a smartphone just for this game. He’s got a
plan with data.
As it is, I’ve got 20 Pokemon registered in my Pokedex. My
rarest Pokemon is probably my Jinx, since I’ve only run across one and in the
original games they were decently rare. I found a Ghastly in my room, so I
guess my room is haunted.
Your Pokemon Trainer name needs to be unique, meaning no one
else in the world can be using it. After I tried “Gryphon”, I figured any
variation would be taken, so I used MisterAliphant, because my Malian name is “Ali”
and I was called the “Elephant”. Merge those names and you get “Aliphant” but
sinc e”Ali” is often a girl’s name over here, I felt the name was a bit androgynous,
so I made it MisterAliphant. I explained this at lunch at work and the room
exploded into laughter. Don’t really know why it caught such a reaction.
But I really messed up, because I’m the only “GryphonSibbald”
in the world. I had the opportunity to put that on lock when nobody else would
find their names available, and I missed it.
Right now they’re only using the original 150 Pokemon, but
just you wait, they’ll be putting every generation in with time. I guarantee
it.
Friday, July 22, 2016
Hidden Talents and Vibrant Volunteers 3
Well, I've been meaning to do a Hidden Talents update, but life's kept me busy and now we're into the Friday of Vibrant Volunteers week.
During Hidden Talents, I busted out the fanny pack. As it was a symbol of last year's group, I was hoping for a dramatic time when I would have to call on the strength of the Fanny Pack. But as things moved forward, I came to realize things were not going to go out of hand, and that a fanny pack is really useful for keeping attendance sheets and weekly schedules.
On Tuesday we had a Karate blackbelt come in to teach us a few basic techniques, give us a history of the art, show us some katas (fights against imaginary opponents, kind of like a dance), and show us some weapons. This person was related to someone on the team, so we got a free show. It was pretty cool, like a second Wednesday special visitor.
Our special Wednesday visitor though, was Five the magician. Two years ago we had Five, and he dazzled and amazed us. I know I've said this before, but I find magic shows all the more incredible as an adult than as a child. As a child, I would just write it off as being magic and accept it. As an adult, I know magic in this form is not real, and I've watched videos and heard things on how it's done. But even when you try to look in diagonal motions when he's moving linearly, you're still left to wonder how he made a balloon turn into a rabbit when the rabbit is larger, or how he turned a fire into a live dove. It taunts you.
But while Five's tricks two years ago were amazing, his stage presence was lacking. One time, he pulled one of our people from the crowd, gave her a cup of water and told her to throw it at him when he shouted "Red Alert!" Without prompt, the cup of water got thrown into him and he had to stand awkwardly in his soaking suit.
He tried to be a mind reader for one of our guys, and the person who came up lied about his name, exploiting his inability to read minds. Five tried to give humorous fake-out predictions "You're thinking about eating lots of vegetables!" but our guy would just say, "Hey, that's right!" making his obvious attempt to be wrong fall flat.
He put a bunch of scarves into a hat and upturned it, letting them all fall out, which was supposed to be an intentionally bad show before moving on to more convincing tricks. But our group gave him an applause, to which he stammered that he'd never been with an audience so kind.
He kept trying to use the program leaders as examples for tricks until we rejected him. Then he wanted our coordinator to select people who could perform his tasks. Then he had to check in to see if they could stand in a line for balloon animals.
Next year, we had two magicians who were more charismatic but with weaker tricks. One moved around a puppet and pretended it was alive, then started pulling coins out of peoples ears. Like every Mom ever doesn't know that one.
This year, Five's tricks were as spectacular as ever, and his stage presence was so much stronger. He really blossomed into a beautiful magician. He gave a list of balloon animals he could make at the end, which I respect. Nobody should leave themselves vulnerable to whatever the requester decides for a balloon animal. But when someone asked for a squirrel, he said he couldn't do it and offered a rabbit. But when someone asked for an Incredible Hulk, he went for it. Like come on Five, just make a rabbit with shorter ears and a longer tail and call it a squirrel.
Our Friday trip was bowling and a movie. I got my one mandatory strike in while bowling, so I was satisfied. The movie we watched was Secret Life of Pets, a story about how pets are more intelligent than we give them credit for, a theme I feel I've often seen revisited. The other option was Finding Dory, which I've seen before, so I was happy to see something new just for the diversity.
Last year we watched Minions, which I really did not enjoy too much. But because of the nature of my work, I wound up watching it four times.
For Vibrant Volunteers, I got to facilitate for a flower pot painting activity. Last year, I may have mentioned that we did a flower pot painting activity and that it produced a great revelation inadvertently surrounding pen theft. We leave our crafts on our front desk to be picked up by participants. When they are not picke dup, they kind of remain as a decoration. Our flower pots are made of painted flower pots, artificial flowers taped to pens with green painter's tape wrapped around to give the impression of a stem, and marbles to replicate earth. This year we got fake moss to replicate the earth.
But in years previous, people would pluck a flower from its pot and write from it. We never had a pen thief using this method, because nobody would absent-mindedly leave a pot empty or expect someone not to notice. Like the gentlest way to discourage people from stealing pens.
We have two beautiful tarps for tarp toss, which was made by staff from last year. This year I got to present it. Like a gigantic target board. |Somebody suggested that for Wacky Water Week, the Program Leaders put their face through the bulls eye and have people try to hit them with water balloons. I've pitched this to the rest of the team,
We had a volunteer group go out to a community centre and help facilitate activities for children on Tuesday and Thursday. We got to make Froot Loops bracelets, construction paper puppets, build cities out of boxes, design a banner, and make melt bead art.
On Wednesday we went to the Family Centre, where we had a number of stations, including baking cookies, cleaning, visual art, pinwheel or benner making, and a musical piece. The musical piece we chose was Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Arguably the most daring choice stacked up against "Twinkle twinkle little star" and "Mary had a little lamb".
On Friday we went to the Moluntsberg Conservation Area, where we attended a Bird of Prey show, went to a petting zoo, and had access to an all-purpose fun zone.
We got to see another camp use teal-green for their shirt colour before we saw anyone else use pylon-orange. This validated my suggestion t o change the shirt colours. We had another group have a number of counselors have differing shirt colours depending on who was in their small group, including Pylon-orange, but it didn't catch on. It was a fantastically hot day though. Somehow a group coaxed me into being the only staff to play Manhunt in their adult-sized playground.
During Hidden Talents, I busted out the fanny pack. As it was a symbol of last year's group, I was hoping for a dramatic time when I would have to call on the strength of the Fanny Pack. But as things moved forward, I came to realize things were not going to go out of hand, and that a fanny pack is really useful for keeping attendance sheets and weekly schedules.
On Tuesday we had a Karate blackbelt come in to teach us a few basic techniques, give us a history of the art, show us some katas (fights against imaginary opponents, kind of like a dance), and show us some weapons. This person was related to someone on the team, so we got a free show. It was pretty cool, like a second Wednesday special visitor.
Our special Wednesday visitor though, was Five the magician. Two years ago we had Five, and he dazzled and amazed us. I know I've said this before, but I find magic shows all the more incredible as an adult than as a child. As a child, I would just write it off as being magic and accept it. As an adult, I know magic in this form is not real, and I've watched videos and heard things on how it's done. But even when you try to look in diagonal motions when he's moving linearly, you're still left to wonder how he made a balloon turn into a rabbit when the rabbit is larger, or how he turned a fire into a live dove. It taunts you.
But while Five's tricks two years ago were amazing, his stage presence was lacking. One time, he pulled one of our people from the crowd, gave her a cup of water and told her to throw it at him when he shouted "Red Alert!" Without prompt, the cup of water got thrown into him and he had to stand awkwardly in his soaking suit.
He tried to be a mind reader for one of our guys, and the person who came up lied about his name, exploiting his inability to read minds. Five tried to give humorous fake-out predictions "You're thinking about eating lots of vegetables!" but our guy would just say, "Hey, that's right!" making his obvious attempt to be wrong fall flat.
He put a bunch of scarves into a hat and upturned it, letting them all fall out, which was supposed to be an intentionally bad show before moving on to more convincing tricks. But our group gave him an applause, to which he stammered that he'd never been with an audience so kind.
He kept trying to use the program leaders as examples for tricks until we rejected him. Then he wanted our coordinator to select people who could perform his tasks. Then he had to check in to see if they could stand in a line for balloon animals.
Next year, we had two magicians who were more charismatic but with weaker tricks. One moved around a puppet and pretended it was alive, then started pulling coins out of peoples ears. Like every Mom ever doesn't know that one.
This year, Five's tricks were as spectacular as ever, and his stage presence was so much stronger. He really blossomed into a beautiful magician. He gave a list of balloon animals he could make at the end, which I respect. Nobody should leave themselves vulnerable to whatever the requester decides for a balloon animal. But when someone asked for a squirrel, he said he couldn't do it and offered a rabbit. But when someone asked for an Incredible Hulk, he went for it. Like come on Five, just make a rabbit with shorter ears and a longer tail and call it a squirrel.
Our Friday trip was bowling and a movie. I got my one mandatory strike in while bowling, so I was satisfied. The movie we watched was Secret Life of Pets, a story about how pets are more intelligent than we give them credit for, a theme I feel I've often seen revisited. The other option was Finding Dory, which I've seen before, so I was happy to see something new just for the diversity.
Last year we watched Minions, which I really did not enjoy too much. But because of the nature of my work, I wound up watching it four times.
For Vibrant Volunteers, I got to facilitate for a flower pot painting activity. Last year, I may have mentioned that we did a flower pot painting activity and that it produced a great revelation inadvertently surrounding pen theft. We leave our crafts on our front desk to be picked up by participants. When they are not picke dup, they kind of remain as a decoration. Our flower pots are made of painted flower pots, artificial flowers taped to pens with green painter's tape wrapped around to give the impression of a stem, and marbles to replicate earth. This year we got fake moss to replicate the earth.
But in years previous, people would pluck a flower from its pot and write from it. We never had a pen thief using this method, because nobody would absent-mindedly leave a pot empty or expect someone not to notice. Like the gentlest way to discourage people from stealing pens.
We have two beautiful tarps for tarp toss, which was made by staff from last year. This year I got to present it. Like a gigantic target board. |Somebody suggested that for Wacky Water Week, the Program Leaders put their face through the bulls eye and have people try to hit them with water balloons. I've pitched this to the rest of the team,
We had a volunteer group go out to a community centre and help facilitate activities for children on Tuesday and Thursday. We got to make Froot Loops bracelets, construction paper puppets, build cities out of boxes, design a banner, and make melt bead art.
On Wednesday we went to the Family Centre, where we had a number of stations, including baking cookies, cleaning, visual art, pinwheel or benner making, and a musical piece. The musical piece we chose was Michael Jackson's "Thriller". Arguably the most daring choice stacked up against "Twinkle twinkle little star" and "Mary had a little lamb".
On Friday we went to the Moluntsberg Conservation Area, where we attended a Bird of Prey show, went to a petting zoo, and had access to an all-purpose fun zone.
We got to see another camp use teal-green for their shirt colour before we saw anyone else use pylon-orange. This validated my suggestion t o change the shirt colours. We had another group have a number of counselors have differing shirt colours depending on who was in their small group, including Pylon-orange, but it didn't catch on. It was a fantastically hot day though. Somehow a group coaxed me into being the only staff to play Manhunt in their adult-sized playground.
Monday, July 11, 2016
Around The World 3
So last week was my third trip Around The World at the Summer Program, which kicks off with a themed week on traveling.
Pretty traditional. We had a reptile show, where someone came in and we got to look at, and often touch, some pretty interesting creatures including a tarantula, a tortoise, a caman, multiple lizards, several snakes, and a giant toad (we didn't touch the toad).
We've done this routine the previous two years. Many participants and several staff were too uneasy to pet the animals, and most people who did still needed to pluck up their courage to do so. It's funny, I'm afraid of A LOT of things. I'm afraid of heights, small spaces, water where you can't see the bottom, etc. but I don't think any kind of animal, including insects and reptiles has ever bothered me.
This year, after hearing my name, later on the presenter accidentally called me "Phoenix". This was cool because when I first ran the "What's In A Name" icebreaker activity during training, I said that if I had to change my name, I'd just change it to another mythical creature, "such as 'Dragon' or 'Phoenix'". Since then I've been occasionally called "Dragon" by the rest of the staff, and getting called "Phoenix" was a sweet callback to my other proposed alternative name.
It also showed he knew the mythology behind my name, and made the mistake based on that context, instead of a name that sounds similar, such as "Griffith" or suchlike.
Our Friday Day Trip was of course to African Lion Safari, which is beginning to feel like an annual tradition. I'm sure in years past I've spoken on the unfortunate vulture show, where they try to show how fast some slow, cheating vultures are on foot by challenging a bunch of kids to race them. The vultures always cheat by using their wings, the children always win regardless, and the announcer sometimes tries to swing it as a win for the vultures or a tie. This year the announcer properly admitted the vultures lost by a good margin. I really don't know why they've stuck to that routine since I was a kid and got cheated by the vultures myself.
This year Chuck, the smaller elephant, couldn't win a round of soccer against his trainer. First time I ever saw that.
At the I Choose Dignity Rally, somebody who had been to African Lion Safari at the camp two years ago asked me what the name of the brown cows with the horns was. Without thinking, I said "Watuzu Cattle". Several people seemed impressed at how I could pull out a name like that. At the actual safari, turns out the actual name is "Watuzi Cattle" but I was close enough that everyone just assumed I was right and I got credit for it.
Otherwise... My Personality Bingo got another makeover. The first icebreaker activity of the week is like my baby and is improved annually. First year, it was a "Personality Scavenger Hunt" where people had to find characteristics in each other that matched the corresponding questions. First person to fill the list wins. Next year, I put the questions on a grid and called it "Personality Bingo". This gave the added thrill of allowing people to shout "BINGO!", and gave me the freedom to shout new requirements, "ONE LINE!" "TWO LINES!" "FULL CARD!". Personality Bingo also had questions tailored to the theme of the week, so that the game wouldn't become redundant for people coming multiple weeks (although there had still been variety, since the group would always differ somewhat between weeks).
This year, we have graphics for the questions, which helps people who have difficulty reading, and we've got special, larger-than-average paper. Personality Bingo has never looked better!
We had a scavenger hunt where people tried to find matches of paper animal cutouts. We played "Four corners of the world" we invented our own islands.... All good stuff.
We needed a filler activity when things were moving ahead of schedule. I dug up a memory of a game where people were sorted into pairs, had to stand opposite of each other and complete shouted commands, meeting in the centre of the room and returning to their side afterwards. Staff didn't know what I was talking about, but asked me if I'd facilitate it. When I was presenting, I said "This is a super fun game, but I don't remember the name of it, so I'm calling it 'the Gryphon Game'" As I explained the rules, someone said "Oh, Huckle Buckle!"
It was Huckle Buckle. Smash hit.
So far everything has gone so smoothly. Even when things don't go according to plan, things just fall together. Reception has been really good this year. I need more pressure. I need more hardship. The Summer Program is supposed to push my limits and force me to rely on my team members, resulting in bonds that can never be replaced. This year kind of feels like I'm just clocking in, chatting with my coworkers, going out on the field, and just completely owning everything flawlessly.
Bus route is a drag, though. In previous years, our Day Program was held a 50 minute bus ride from student housing. This year, I'm living walking distance from the usual Day Program location, but they changed venues, and are now a 50 minute bus ride from my new place. How tragically poetic.
I have to get up so early, I've no way of having it together to make coffee before rushing out the door, and there's no nearby coffee shops at the location that I go. Thought I was going to be forced to break my caffein addiction. But the school has a keurig. Never used one before. When I asked the rest of the staff if using one was hard, the room was full of suppressed laughter. It's supposed to be easier than a drip coffee maker.
So now I know how to brew a K-Cup and my coffee needs are in place again. Hey, did you guys know that dark roast coffee has less caffeine than traditional? Somebody in our staff team that worked at Tim Horton's ruined Dark Roast for me, and made me revisit the idea that my caffeine addiction might be partly psychological. I've been able to call out weak roasts in the past, but dark roast always did it for me. Of course it doesn't anymore. Placebo effect has been ruined.
Pretty traditional. We had a reptile show, where someone came in and we got to look at, and often touch, some pretty interesting creatures including a tarantula, a tortoise, a caman, multiple lizards, several snakes, and a giant toad (we didn't touch the toad).
We've done this routine the previous two years. Many participants and several staff were too uneasy to pet the animals, and most people who did still needed to pluck up their courage to do so. It's funny, I'm afraid of A LOT of things. I'm afraid of heights, small spaces, water where you can't see the bottom, etc. but I don't think any kind of animal, including insects and reptiles has ever bothered me.
This year, after hearing my name, later on the presenter accidentally called me "Phoenix". This was cool because when I first ran the "What's In A Name" icebreaker activity during training, I said that if I had to change my name, I'd just change it to another mythical creature, "such as 'Dragon' or 'Phoenix'". Since then I've been occasionally called "Dragon" by the rest of the staff, and getting called "Phoenix" was a sweet callback to my other proposed alternative name.
It also showed he knew the mythology behind my name, and made the mistake based on that context, instead of a name that sounds similar, such as "Griffith" or suchlike.
Our Friday Day Trip was of course to African Lion Safari, which is beginning to feel like an annual tradition. I'm sure in years past I've spoken on the unfortunate vulture show, where they try to show how fast some slow, cheating vultures are on foot by challenging a bunch of kids to race them. The vultures always cheat by using their wings, the children always win regardless, and the announcer sometimes tries to swing it as a win for the vultures or a tie. This year the announcer properly admitted the vultures lost by a good margin. I really don't know why they've stuck to that routine since I was a kid and got cheated by the vultures myself.
This year Chuck, the smaller elephant, couldn't win a round of soccer against his trainer. First time I ever saw that.
At the I Choose Dignity Rally, somebody who had been to African Lion Safari at the camp two years ago asked me what the name of the brown cows with the horns was. Without thinking, I said "Watuzu Cattle". Several people seemed impressed at how I could pull out a name like that. At the actual safari, turns out the actual name is "Watuzi Cattle" but I was close enough that everyone just assumed I was right and I got credit for it.
Otherwise... My Personality Bingo got another makeover. The first icebreaker activity of the week is like my baby and is improved annually. First year, it was a "Personality Scavenger Hunt" where people had to find characteristics in each other that matched the corresponding questions. First person to fill the list wins. Next year, I put the questions on a grid and called it "Personality Bingo". This gave the added thrill of allowing people to shout "BINGO!", and gave me the freedom to shout new requirements, "ONE LINE!" "TWO LINES!" "FULL CARD!". Personality Bingo also had questions tailored to the theme of the week, so that the game wouldn't become redundant for people coming multiple weeks (although there had still been variety, since the group would always differ somewhat between weeks).
This year, we have graphics for the questions, which helps people who have difficulty reading, and we've got special, larger-than-average paper. Personality Bingo has never looked better!
We had a scavenger hunt where people tried to find matches of paper animal cutouts. We played "Four corners of the world" we invented our own islands.... All good stuff.
We needed a filler activity when things were moving ahead of schedule. I dug up a memory of a game where people were sorted into pairs, had to stand opposite of each other and complete shouted commands, meeting in the centre of the room and returning to their side afterwards. Staff didn't know what I was talking about, but asked me if I'd facilitate it. When I was presenting, I said "This is a super fun game, but I don't remember the name of it, so I'm calling it 'the Gryphon Game'" As I explained the rules, someone said "Oh, Huckle Buckle!"
It was Huckle Buckle. Smash hit.
So far everything has gone so smoothly. Even when things don't go according to plan, things just fall together. Reception has been really good this year. I need more pressure. I need more hardship. The Summer Program is supposed to push my limits and force me to rely on my team members, resulting in bonds that can never be replaced. This year kind of feels like I'm just clocking in, chatting with my coworkers, going out on the field, and just completely owning everything flawlessly.
Bus route is a drag, though. In previous years, our Day Program was held a 50 minute bus ride from student housing. This year, I'm living walking distance from the usual Day Program location, but they changed venues, and are now a 50 minute bus ride from my new place. How tragically poetic.
I have to get up so early, I've no way of having it together to make coffee before rushing out the door, and there's no nearby coffee shops at the location that I go. Thought I was going to be forced to break my caffein addiction. But the school has a keurig. Never used one before. When I asked the rest of the staff if using one was hard, the room was full of suppressed laughter. It's supposed to be easier than a drip coffee maker.
So now I know how to brew a K-Cup and my coffee needs are in place again. Hey, did you guys know that dark roast coffee has less caffeine than traditional? Somebody in our staff team that worked at Tim Horton's ruined Dark Roast for me, and made me revisit the idea that my caffeine addiction might be partly psychological. I've been able to call out weak roasts in the past, but dark roast always did it for me. Of course it doesn't anymore. Placebo effect has been ruined.
Saturday, July 2, 2016
Compromisers
We just finished our Summer Program training, and our first official week begins on Monday. Here's a picture of our Summer Program team.
Remember how I said that I moved to change the colour from green to orange? Yeah, well they came out a bit brighter than we were expecting. This is on me.
For our team building activity this year, instead of going to Chicopee and climbing on rock walls and vertical playgrounds, we did Adventure Rooms. This was fine by me, since first year Chicopee ruined me, which inspired me to train and challenge it again next year, doing much better. I felt I'd already got my revenge on Chicopee, and it was satisfying, but I don't need to do it again.
If you don't know what Adventure Rooms are, basically, you're locked in a room with a group of people with one hour to escape. Clues are set all around, and you have to figure out puzzles made with unorthodox equipment to escape. I can't describe what happened in there, because they discourage you from doing so, as it could ruin the experience for someone else.
At the end, they tell you what percentage you completed. We made it 55% of the way to escaping. Sounds bad, but only 20% of groups manage to escape. We were about average.
And then you're required to have your team photo taken, with your team name, and they post it on their Facebook page publicly.
Here's our team pic.
Caption reads, "The Compromisers solved their way through 55% of The Vault."
The reason our team name is The Compromisers, is because our team did a Conflict Resolution Styles test, and all but one ranked as Compromising. The one person who wasn't Compromising ranked Avoiding and she avoided the conflict by taking the name despite it not applying to her.
We've got someone pitching the name "Team Pylon" since the first group to have pylon-coloured shirts, but I don't think she's going to pitch it hard enough to replace "The Compromisers" since it's this established.
The five conflict mediation styles are as such:
It means I'm the best at managing conflict, because I can see both sides of any argument, but I'm the worst for self-doubt because of my inner conflict (should I do what I think is right, or what I feel is right?)
I learned this year that while Green and Blue contrast each other, Gold and Orange contrast each other similarly. Green-Blue is Head vs. Heart, while Gold-Orange is Order vs. Chaos. Green-Gold, Green-Orange, Blue-Gold, and Blue-Orange don't have equivalent struggles.
We did Love Languages too, but for professional environments. This test is for how we prefer to receive appreciation. For anyone who doesn't know, the five categories are Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, Physical, Gift Giving, and Acts of Service. I ranked highest for Words of Affrimation. Usually everyone ranks Quality Time, which is why I find the test boring. This year we were split between Quality Time and Words of Affirmation.
My garden's wrecked. The weeds in the community garden are just so awful. My transplants are doing well (my tomatoes and impatiens) but I only have a few zuchini plants and snow peas, and my sunflowers are completely choked out. They aren't selling vegetable transplants, althought they are still selling flowers. So what am I supposed to do? Grow a flower garden? Amongst all the vegetable growers in the community garden, I'd feel like a rebel.
I'm not even mad. You want to know why? Every year, I've tried to prophesy the coming year based on how my garden did, specifically by my sunflowers. For example, one year, all my sunflowers in Guelph died while I was absent, but one grew in Kitchener, suddenly, and just after news of my other sunflowers fate. I interpreted this to mean "What you plan will fall apart, but you will receive unexpected good fortune in a place you hadn't considered" Yeah no, everything went according to plan that year. I also had a romantic story from my first sunflower, which I don't remember if I shared publicly, but it ended in a reverse outcome as well. And last year, I had seven sunflowers, which was supposed to mean seven fortunes, but instead I got seven hardships.
So I've developed a new theory that life is balanced, and if I experience misfortune in my garden, I will experience the opposite, good fortune in my day-to-day living, to maintain the balance. So this wretched year of gardening should equate to a great year for me!
Remember how I said that I moved to change the colour from green to orange? Yeah, well they came out a bit brighter than we were expecting. This is on me.
For our team building activity this year, instead of going to Chicopee and climbing on rock walls and vertical playgrounds, we did Adventure Rooms. This was fine by me, since first year Chicopee ruined me, which inspired me to train and challenge it again next year, doing much better. I felt I'd already got my revenge on Chicopee, and it was satisfying, but I don't need to do it again.
If you don't know what Adventure Rooms are, basically, you're locked in a room with a group of people with one hour to escape. Clues are set all around, and you have to figure out puzzles made with unorthodox equipment to escape. I can't describe what happened in there, because they discourage you from doing so, as it could ruin the experience for someone else.
At the end, they tell you what percentage you completed. We made it 55% of the way to escaping. Sounds bad, but only 20% of groups manage to escape. We were about average.
And then you're required to have your team photo taken, with your team name, and they post it on their Facebook page publicly.
Here's our team pic.
Caption reads, "The Compromisers solved their way through 55% of The Vault."
The reason our team name is The Compromisers, is because our team did a Conflict Resolution Styles test, and all but one ranked as Compromising. The one person who wasn't Compromising ranked Avoiding and she avoided the conflict by taking the name despite it not applying to her.
We've got someone pitching the name "Team Pylon" since the first group to have pylon-coloured shirts, but I don't think she's going to pitch it hard enough to replace "The Compromisers" since it's this established.
The five conflict mediation styles are as such:
Competing Collaborating
Compromising
Avoiding Accomodating
We do this every year, so I may have mentioned it once or twice before. But the ones on the top are more aggressive, and the ones at the bottom are more passive. The ones on the left are "more about me" and the ones on the right are "more about you"
So Compromising seems like a good balance, but really, each conflict style is important and teams do best when there's a variety of different styles within them. Compromising is "We split the pie" style thinking. It means both parties get part of what they want, but neither gets everything. It's good for short-term solutions.
In my Personality Dimensions test (where people are ranked as Inquiring Green, Authentic Blue, Resourceful Orange, and Organized Gold) I came out as a perfect Green-Blue split! I'm sure I've said it before, but I started out as a hard Green (intellectual) with a distant secondary Blue (empathetic) but my Blue kept creeping up and up on me, until last year it overtook. Since I've always identified as Green, and since I was quite content as a Green-Blue split, which I'd had the year previous, I was worried that my empathetic self would only continue to grow, and my intellectual self continue to fade (which is appropriate for a Social Service Worker, I guess)
But this year I ranked that perfect Green-Blue balance again (I call it turquoise.)
It means I'm the best at managing conflict, because I can see both sides of any argument, but I'm the worst for self-doubt because of my inner conflict (should I do what I think is right, or what I feel is right?)
I learned this year that while Green and Blue contrast each other, Gold and Orange contrast each other similarly. Green-Blue is Head vs. Heart, while Gold-Orange is Order vs. Chaos. Green-Gold, Green-Orange, Blue-Gold, and Blue-Orange don't have equivalent struggles.
We did Love Languages too, but for professional environments. This test is for how we prefer to receive appreciation. For anyone who doesn't know, the five categories are Quality Time, Words of Affirmation, Physical, Gift Giving, and Acts of Service. I ranked highest for Words of Affrimation. Usually everyone ranks Quality Time, which is why I find the test boring. This year we were split between Quality Time and Words of Affirmation.
My garden's wrecked. The weeds in the community garden are just so awful. My transplants are doing well (my tomatoes and impatiens) but I only have a few zuchini plants and snow peas, and my sunflowers are completely choked out. They aren't selling vegetable transplants, althought they are still selling flowers. So what am I supposed to do? Grow a flower garden? Amongst all the vegetable growers in the community garden, I'd feel like a rebel.
I'm not even mad. You want to know why? Every year, I've tried to prophesy the coming year based on how my garden did, specifically by my sunflowers. For example, one year, all my sunflowers in Guelph died while I was absent, but one grew in Kitchener, suddenly, and just after news of my other sunflowers fate. I interpreted this to mean "What you plan will fall apart, but you will receive unexpected good fortune in a place you hadn't considered" Yeah no, everything went according to plan that year. I also had a romantic story from my first sunflower, which I don't remember if I shared publicly, but it ended in a reverse outcome as well. And last year, I had seven sunflowers, which was supposed to mean seven fortunes, but instead I got seven hardships.
So I've developed a new theory that life is balanced, and if I experience misfortune in my garden, I will experience the opposite, good fortune in my day-to-day living, to maintain the balance. So this wretched year of gardening should equate to a great year for me!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)