This year, Boxing Day was more exciting than it usually is. After spending a low-profile Christmas in Guelph, I went to Lee-Anne's place in Brampton, where her immediate family was gathering. If we need a definition attached to the term "immediate family", that means her parents and her parents' children, their significant others, and their grandchildren.
I got to meet the last of the three brothers, two of the significant others, and two grandchildren.
Her mother set up a stocking for me. Counting everyone else, I arguably fit the 13th spot, which has me apprehensive, because apostle-wise, that is the spot of Judas. But because one of the grandchildren was born after I met Lee-Anne, that means we both make our Christmas-stocking debut this year. I feel uncomfortable competing with a child that is under one year old, but I guess that's just how it has to be.
You could argue that, because one of the stockings was set up for Leo, the family cat, that nobody gets to 13 if you exclude him. But I respect Leo's position in the stocking hierarchy.
The family was very generous in their gift giving, and surprisingly well researched. In my stocking, I got a hat and mittens (because I tend to underdress in cold weather), sunflower seeds (some edible, some for planting), one of those chocolate oranges, hot sauce, peanuts, a jar of homemade soup, among other things. As far as what was left under the tree, I was given a collection of hot sauces and a new laptop!!
They also sent me home with like, three servings of homemade lasagna, a macaroni casserole, some spicy cheese and some olives.
Something else they gave me was the flu.
Not hating. I'm glad that everyone showed up, but there were a couple of people in a recovery stage whne they attended the gathering, and after the festivities ended, it wasn't just me feeling adverse effects.
So yeah, this is my excuse as to why I'm not making my post count goal this year. In an update previous, I said that I wasn't sure of the ethics of it, bit that I would try to at least match my previous record low by jamming December full of updates. I'm taking this flu thing as a divine intervention, telling me to play fair.
So yeah, look forward to my resolutions for 2020, and I also got some stuff in store for because I thought it up when I still thought I could make it into 2019
Monday, December 30, 2019
Wednesday, December 25, 2019
Christmas 2019
It's Christmas Day and I'm in Guelph. In recent years, Christmas hasn't been a very eventful occasion, but we still observed some rudimentary traditions. We would put up a Christmas tree and put gifts under it. We would hang stockings and have a turkey Christmas dinner.
This year, not so much. I didn't bother to put up my Christmas tree in Kitchener, and they didn't put one up in Guelph either, despite the fact that we both have artificial trees that we reuse annually. There are no stockings, no gifts, and we had nachos instead of turkey.
It was a green Christmas this year. We've had a lot of snow, but we got hit by a warm front just for the holidays and most of it melted. Last year I got the Christmas week off, but this time around, I worked Monday and Tuesday and will work Friday. We don't shut down entirely because Christmas still has a base in religion and we aren't a religious organization, but we still get Christmas Day and Boxing Day off. A lot of our members take the week off anyway, and the two statutory holidays make our regular scheduling difficult. As long as we're open, we need to have at least two staff members in the building, and since I took last year off, it was kind of my turn. We had more staff show up than I thought would, though.
I'm sure the loss of Luna plays a part in the more subdued nature of this years' festivities. I'll have some opportunity for a more traditional holiday gathering, though, as I am headed to Lee-Anne's family's place for Boxing Day, in which a number of people in her family network are gathering.
That's all I really have to say about Christmas this year, so I guess I'll just write on some more things I forgot to include in previous posts.
I should say that, this year is looking to be my worst in terms of updating. Previously, the year with the lowest number of updates was 2017 with 39. As of this post, I'll be at 36.
So... I've been wondering about whether or not it's ethical to jam a bunch of updates into the end of the year just to keep up with my goals. I mean, making three more posts in the next week isn't exactly unattainable.
So I think I'm going to try for it. Keep an eye on this blog during the next week for the end-of-year rush.
With that being said, here is a collection of things I meant to speak on but forgot about.
I saw a squirrel fighting a hawk during the summer this year. The squirrel kept running up to the hawk and hassling it, causing it to flap and reposition itself. Eventually, the hawk was at the end of its branch and the squirrel launched itself full-force into the bird. Its' front paws connected with the hawk and knocked them both fully off the tree. The squirrel then free-fell through the air, and caught itself with one paw on one of the lower branches, which bent, then sprang up, launching it safely onto another branch. The hawk flew away.
Probably the hawk was eyeing the squirrel's nest, and the squirrel was being protective of its' young. But still, the initial sight of the prey animal harassing a predator was captivating. Then the strength behind the blow the squirrel gave the hawk was shocking, the fact that the squirrel would launch itself out of the tree and free-fall to get rid of the hawk was touching, and its' acrobatic maneuver to save itself at the last moment was just such a great show of athleticism. The whole scene was captivating from start to finish, and I just happened to see it while I was having coffee in my backyard.
This year, I led a group to J&J's Hobby Store and got a set of Super Big Boggle. I don't mean to brag, but I might be the best Boggle player you'll ever meet. If you don't know what Boggle is, it's a game where letters are randomly laid before you in a square, and you need to find as many words as you can before a timer runs out. The longer the word, the more points you get. It's my favourite board game. A regular set features a 4x4 grid, while this one has an 8x8 one, making it four times as large. Such a simple way to make an already great game that much better. I can make far more words, and much more complex ones with this set.
It's not that important, but I did eventually attach that water filter to my kitchen sink that I got for my birthday. I don't have any particular reason to suspect my tap water, but hey, we were drinking that lead-contaminated water at our place in Guelph for the better part of a decade before we were notified, so I think it's probably better to be proactive about this. Plus, I'm a little skeptical about Kitchener water in general ever since we ran through two water coolers at work in quick succession due to the pipes corroding.
A place called Franky's closed. I meant to mention it in my City Developments post. Franky's was a dive bar, and considered to be the central hub for all of Kitchener's lowlifes. While some people were glad to be rid of the establishment, others thought that it had been useful for pooling together the city's riffraff in a nice, avoidable location, and were concerned that its' patrons would start frequenting other downtown spots. Some people didn't feel strongly about the news, assuming that the Franky's crowd would just migrate to Capers, another dive bar with a similar reputation. Another perspective that has been kicking around is that the closure of Franky's signifies the continued gentrification of downtown Kitchener, and that, even if you didn't care about the bar, it wouldn't be long before other independently owned businesses would be choked out.
One of Extend-a-Family's better-known employees, Nicki, recently retired. Among other things, she oversaw our Summer Program, WALES, and was deeply influential in Bridges to Belonging, previously known as Facile, in which I was an Independent Facilitator for about a year. I have been deeply involved in each of these, and so, her journey and mine have overlapped quite a bit in this past half-decade.
For her retirement, the organization threw a party. It had a High Tea Theme, which is characterized with high-backed chairs, tea, hors d'oeuvres, and fancy clothes worn in sort of an English style. We didn't have the chairs, and fancy clothes were optional, but we did have the tea and appetizers. There were a number of speeches, and probably the highlight was our Executive Director, Al, singing a modified rendition of Justin Bieber's Love Yourself. This is Bieber's really passive aggressive breakup song dedicated to his ex, so the fact that our Executive Director was doing a retirement version for Nicki was really funny.
Speaking of Nicki, one other way that she has impacted Extend-a-Family in recent years is by establishing a relationship with an online training course run through Cornell University, called CCLD. This stands for Citizen Centred Leadership Development, and has been influential in how we at WALES operate. For example, we used to refer to the people we serve as participants, which was considered progressive, as it replaced the clinical model's term, which was client, but now, with the CCLD perspective, we call them members, because they're not simply participating in the development of their own lives. Also, WALES was originally hosted inside a school and followed an education model. I wasn't around during this time, but eventually they moved out and became a day program, but now we're branching away from the day program model and we are considered a community group.
Anyway, point is, it's a 14-week course and my employer funded me to attend it, which I've been doing every Tuesday for the past 14 weeks. So I've successfully completed this training, but never mentioned it on here while it was happening.
This year, not so much. I didn't bother to put up my Christmas tree in Kitchener, and they didn't put one up in Guelph either, despite the fact that we both have artificial trees that we reuse annually. There are no stockings, no gifts, and we had nachos instead of turkey.
It was a green Christmas this year. We've had a lot of snow, but we got hit by a warm front just for the holidays and most of it melted. Last year I got the Christmas week off, but this time around, I worked Monday and Tuesday and will work Friday. We don't shut down entirely because Christmas still has a base in religion and we aren't a religious organization, but we still get Christmas Day and Boxing Day off. A lot of our members take the week off anyway, and the two statutory holidays make our regular scheduling difficult. As long as we're open, we need to have at least two staff members in the building, and since I took last year off, it was kind of my turn. We had more staff show up than I thought would, though.
I'm sure the loss of Luna plays a part in the more subdued nature of this years' festivities. I'll have some opportunity for a more traditional holiday gathering, though, as I am headed to Lee-Anne's family's place for Boxing Day, in which a number of people in her family network are gathering.
That's all I really have to say about Christmas this year, so I guess I'll just write on some more things I forgot to include in previous posts.
I should say that, this year is looking to be my worst in terms of updating. Previously, the year with the lowest number of updates was 2017 with 39. As of this post, I'll be at 36.
So... I've been wondering about whether or not it's ethical to jam a bunch of updates into the end of the year just to keep up with my goals. I mean, making three more posts in the next week isn't exactly unattainable.
So I think I'm going to try for it. Keep an eye on this blog during the next week for the end-of-year rush.
With that being said, here is a collection of things I meant to speak on but forgot about.
I saw a squirrel fighting a hawk during the summer this year. The squirrel kept running up to the hawk and hassling it, causing it to flap and reposition itself. Eventually, the hawk was at the end of its branch and the squirrel launched itself full-force into the bird. Its' front paws connected with the hawk and knocked them both fully off the tree. The squirrel then free-fell through the air, and caught itself with one paw on one of the lower branches, which bent, then sprang up, launching it safely onto another branch. The hawk flew away.
Probably the hawk was eyeing the squirrel's nest, and the squirrel was being protective of its' young. But still, the initial sight of the prey animal harassing a predator was captivating. Then the strength behind the blow the squirrel gave the hawk was shocking, the fact that the squirrel would launch itself out of the tree and free-fall to get rid of the hawk was touching, and its' acrobatic maneuver to save itself at the last moment was just such a great show of athleticism. The whole scene was captivating from start to finish, and I just happened to see it while I was having coffee in my backyard.
This year, I led a group to J&J's Hobby Store and got a set of Super Big Boggle. I don't mean to brag, but I might be the best Boggle player you'll ever meet. If you don't know what Boggle is, it's a game where letters are randomly laid before you in a square, and you need to find as many words as you can before a timer runs out. The longer the word, the more points you get. It's my favourite board game. A regular set features a 4x4 grid, while this one has an 8x8 one, making it four times as large. Such a simple way to make an already great game that much better. I can make far more words, and much more complex ones with this set.
It's not that important, but I did eventually attach that water filter to my kitchen sink that I got for my birthday. I don't have any particular reason to suspect my tap water, but hey, we were drinking that lead-contaminated water at our place in Guelph for the better part of a decade before we were notified, so I think it's probably better to be proactive about this. Plus, I'm a little skeptical about Kitchener water in general ever since we ran through two water coolers at work in quick succession due to the pipes corroding.
A place called Franky's closed. I meant to mention it in my City Developments post. Franky's was a dive bar, and considered to be the central hub for all of Kitchener's lowlifes. While some people were glad to be rid of the establishment, others thought that it had been useful for pooling together the city's riffraff in a nice, avoidable location, and were concerned that its' patrons would start frequenting other downtown spots. Some people didn't feel strongly about the news, assuming that the Franky's crowd would just migrate to Capers, another dive bar with a similar reputation. Another perspective that has been kicking around is that the closure of Franky's signifies the continued gentrification of downtown Kitchener, and that, even if you didn't care about the bar, it wouldn't be long before other independently owned businesses would be choked out.
One of Extend-a-Family's better-known employees, Nicki, recently retired. Among other things, she oversaw our Summer Program, WALES, and was deeply influential in Bridges to Belonging, previously known as Facile, in which I was an Independent Facilitator for about a year. I have been deeply involved in each of these, and so, her journey and mine have overlapped quite a bit in this past half-decade.
For her retirement, the organization threw a party. It had a High Tea Theme, which is characterized with high-backed chairs, tea, hors d'oeuvres, and fancy clothes worn in sort of an English style. We didn't have the chairs, and fancy clothes were optional, but we did have the tea and appetizers. There were a number of speeches, and probably the highlight was our Executive Director, Al, singing a modified rendition of Justin Bieber's Love Yourself. This is Bieber's really passive aggressive breakup song dedicated to his ex, so the fact that our Executive Director was doing a retirement version for Nicki was really funny.
Speaking of Nicki, one other way that she has impacted Extend-a-Family in recent years is by establishing a relationship with an online training course run through Cornell University, called CCLD. This stands for Citizen Centred Leadership Development, and has been influential in how we at WALES operate. For example, we used to refer to the people we serve as participants, which was considered progressive, as it replaced the clinical model's term, which was client, but now, with the CCLD perspective, we call them members, because they're not simply participating in the development of their own lives. Also, WALES was originally hosted inside a school and followed an education model. I wasn't around during this time, but eventually they moved out and became a day program, but now we're branching away from the day program model and we are considered a community group.
Anyway, point is, it's a 14-week course and my employer funded me to attend it, which I've been doing every Tuesday for the past 14 weeks. So I've successfully completed this training, but never mentioned it on here while it was happening.
Tuesday, December 17, 2019
Blue Christmas
I said I might not update again this year since Luna passed away, but I guess since I've been struck with a few other pieces of bad news, I'll just move forward with kind of a Blue Christmas vibe. If you are feeling the holiday cheer this year and don't need someone to dampen it, feel free not to read further.
I have a Great Uncle who is currently recovering from unexpected medical complications. Despite his diagnosis usually being fatal, he managed to overcome the most dire stage, and things are looking optimistic for him at this point. He is not someone I know quite well, but we have met at family reunions, and I remember having conversations with him. It's really interesting how, despite not knowing someone well, if they are family the news will still hit you hard.
We also learned that someone deeply connected with the family passed not too long ago. Again, I did not know this person well, but we would always visit her at family reunions, and she would often house members of our family. She lived to a good age, but it is still sad to hear.
On a less personal but more geographically relevant note, there was another homicide by gun violence in my neighbourhood a few weeks ago. Within eyeshot of where I live. It happened in the early hours, and may have been connected to another incidence, in which a vehicle with Quebec license plates was found burning in a nearby parking lot a few hours later. Police later confirmed the identity of the victim and said they had reason to believe that the attack was targeted.
That was the 19th shooting incident in Waterloo Region this year, and the fourth homicide.
However, I guess we wanted to celebrate the new decade with round numbers, because just the other day, we had our fifth homicide and our shooting incident number 20 to usher in 2020. Wasn't in my neighbourhood this time. It was in the early hours and said to be targeted again. Hopefully people chill out until at least the new year, if only for the number pattern.
I have a Great Uncle who is currently recovering from unexpected medical complications. Despite his diagnosis usually being fatal, he managed to overcome the most dire stage, and things are looking optimistic for him at this point. He is not someone I know quite well, but we have met at family reunions, and I remember having conversations with him. It's really interesting how, despite not knowing someone well, if they are family the news will still hit you hard.
We also learned that someone deeply connected with the family passed not too long ago. Again, I did not know this person well, but we would always visit her at family reunions, and she would often house members of our family. She lived to a good age, but it is still sad to hear.
On a less personal but more geographically relevant note, there was another homicide by gun violence in my neighbourhood a few weeks ago. Within eyeshot of where I live. It happened in the early hours, and may have been connected to another incidence, in which a vehicle with Quebec license plates was found burning in a nearby parking lot a few hours later. Police later confirmed the identity of the victim and said they had reason to believe that the attack was targeted.
That was the 19th shooting incident in Waterloo Region this year, and the fourth homicide.
However, I guess we wanted to celebrate the new decade with round numbers, because just the other day, we had our fifth homicide and our shooting incident number 20 to usher in 2020. Wasn't in my neighbourhood this time. It was in the early hours and said to be targeted again. Hopefully people chill out until at least the new year, if only for the number pattern.
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Rest In Peace Luna
Last Thursday, December 12, 2019, we lost a beloved family pet.
Her name was Luna. She was a little over ten years old. She passed before her brothers, Blackavar and Thor, both of whom are sixteen. We have a strong history of longevity amongst our animals, so this was a surprise.
I mentioned in a previous post that Luna was ill, and had visited the vet. They believed it was an anal abscess and gave her a shot of antibiotics. She seemed to be doing better for awhile, but eventually regressed. She was brought into the vet again, and it was determined that she was suffering from pretty advanced liver failure. We decided that the kindest option was to put her down.
We had adopted her, along with Thor, just before I was accepted into Canada World Youth. Initially, we wanted a cat to keep Blackavar company, since Penny, his previous companion, had passed.
To my understanding, Luna had been abandoned. After that, Thor's then-owners decided to adopt her to keep him company since they had just had a child and couldn't give him the attention he needed. But Thor and Luna didn't get along (at first) so they decided they needed to get rid of Thor, and Luna just became an additional challenge.
Luna was funny-looking. Most cats are elegant and appearance-focused. It's rare that you see an ugly cat. But Luna had a small head, with a nose and ears that seemed too large for her face. She had wide hips, dainty paws, and a little stick tail.
She was the funny-looking little screw-up cat that nobody wanted.
But I loved her.
She's the only cat I've ever known to figure out the laser pointer. She did like to chase the dot, but she would bring the pointer to someone so they could use it for her.
She made best friends with the pet rabbit. She would often groom him and sometimes they would wrestle.We often worried that she might take things too far, but Moss the rabbit would always give as much as he got and would always initiate play whenever she was around. Both of them loved broccoli and whenever we gave her some, she would carry it over to Moss and they would share it.
She was clumsy, and sometimes she would back off of surfaces and fall on her butt.
She always wanted to know what the humans were eating. Sometimes, you would know that she wouldn't like what you were having, and you would try and talk her out of it, but she would beg until you at least let her smelled it. If you were having anything with mustard, she would theatrically gag, and I remember her at least once running away terrified by a banana.
She was a grey tabby on the surface, but she had tawny brown roots, so she would frequently have little brown tufts on her coat. When she was curious, her tail would curl into a question mark, and when she was surprised, it would point out like an exclamation mark.
She would groom my beard like it was fur. Despite being the most likely to groom people, she had a harsher tongue than Thor or Blackavar. And she really liked to lick peoples' eye lids.
She didn't like to sit in someone's lap or be carried, but she loved it if she was in a bin, so we had some kind of bin that she would sit in, which she would go into to indicate that she wanted to lay on your lap or be carried.
Whenever she took catnip, she would get real feisty with the boys. Blackavar would get paranoid and Thor would become chill, but Luna was there to disturb everyone else's buzz.
Even without catnip, she would sometimes initiate play-fighting by falling on her back and batting upward at her opponents.
She was the one who inspired my "stupid cat voice" which is mostly a high-pitched baby-voice that manifests around cute cats.
Despite having developed a dynamic with her, it's just a matter of time that between my education and career goals, I was less available around the Guelph location. So she really developed a dynamic with Mom.
Whenever Mom would nap, Luna would cuddle with her. When Mom was on the computer, Luna was always in the "Co-Pilot Chair" next to her. The two really developed a dynamic.
In fact, even during the time when she wasn't feeling so good, I remember her crawling up to the couch Mom was napping on and just staring at her, not able to climb up. I picked her up, which she was receptive to, and just cuddled with Mom. Even during her last days, she was still purring and receptive to physical affection.
Goodbye my darling, my sweet pea, my little one. I will miss you more than you could ever realize
Here's a picture of her with Mom. I can't dig any deeper at the moment, or I will cry again. This is a cold Christmas season for me. I don't want to ruin anyone's holiday cheer, so maybe I will put off a post on coping until after the New Year. I wouldn't count on too many new posts from me in 2019. Maybe I will do a Christmas update, but otherwise, I just feel too consumed with the loss of our beloved Luna
Her name was Luna. She was a little over ten years old. She passed before her brothers, Blackavar and Thor, both of whom are sixteen. We have a strong history of longevity amongst our animals, so this was a surprise.
I mentioned in a previous post that Luna was ill, and had visited the vet. They believed it was an anal abscess and gave her a shot of antibiotics. She seemed to be doing better for awhile, but eventually regressed. She was brought into the vet again, and it was determined that she was suffering from pretty advanced liver failure. We decided that the kindest option was to put her down.
We had adopted her, along with Thor, just before I was accepted into Canada World Youth. Initially, we wanted a cat to keep Blackavar company, since Penny, his previous companion, had passed.
To my understanding, Luna had been abandoned. After that, Thor's then-owners decided to adopt her to keep him company since they had just had a child and couldn't give him the attention he needed. But Thor and Luna didn't get along (at first) so they decided they needed to get rid of Thor, and Luna just became an additional challenge.
Luna was funny-looking. Most cats are elegant and appearance-focused. It's rare that you see an ugly cat. But Luna had a small head, with a nose and ears that seemed too large for her face. She had wide hips, dainty paws, and a little stick tail.
She was the funny-looking little screw-up cat that nobody wanted.
But I loved her.
She's the only cat I've ever known to figure out the laser pointer. She did like to chase the dot, but she would bring the pointer to someone so they could use it for her.
She made best friends with the pet rabbit. She would often groom him and sometimes they would wrestle.We often worried that she might take things too far, but Moss the rabbit would always give as much as he got and would always initiate play whenever she was around. Both of them loved broccoli and whenever we gave her some, she would carry it over to Moss and they would share it.
She was clumsy, and sometimes she would back off of surfaces and fall on her butt.
She always wanted to know what the humans were eating. Sometimes, you would know that she wouldn't like what you were having, and you would try and talk her out of it, but she would beg until you at least let her smelled it. If you were having anything with mustard, she would theatrically gag, and I remember her at least once running away terrified by a banana.
She was a grey tabby on the surface, but she had tawny brown roots, so she would frequently have little brown tufts on her coat. When she was curious, her tail would curl into a question mark, and when she was surprised, it would point out like an exclamation mark.
She would groom my beard like it was fur. Despite being the most likely to groom people, she had a harsher tongue than Thor or Blackavar. And she really liked to lick peoples' eye lids.
She didn't like to sit in someone's lap or be carried, but she loved it if she was in a bin, so we had some kind of bin that she would sit in, which she would go into to indicate that she wanted to lay on your lap or be carried.
Whenever she took catnip, she would get real feisty with the boys. Blackavar would get paranoid and Thor would become chill, but Luna was there to disturb everyone else's buzz.
Even without catnip, she would sometimes initiate play-fighting by falling on her back and batting upward at her opponents.
She was the one who inspired my "stupid cat voice" which is mostly a high-pitched baby-voice that manifests around cute cats.
Despite having developed a dynamic with her, it's just a matter of time that between my education and career goals, I was less available around the Guelph location. So she really developed a dynamic with Mom.
Whenever Mom would nap, Luna would cuddle with her. When Mom was on the computer, Luna was always in the "Co-Pilot Chair" next to her. The two really developed a dynamic.
In fact, even during the time when she wasn't feeling so good, I remember her crawling up to the couch Mom was napping on and just staring at her, not able to climb up. I picked her up, which she was receptive to, and just cuddled with Mom. Even during her last days, she was still purring and receptive to physical affection.
Goodbye my darling, my sweet pea, my little one. I will miss you more than you could ever realize
Here's a picture of her with Mom. I can't dig any deeper at the moment, or I will cry again. This is a cold Christmas season for me. I don't want to ruin anyone's holiday cheer, so maybe I will put off a post on coping until after the New Year. I wouldn't count on too many new posts from me in 2019. Maybe I will do a Christmas update, but otherwise, I just feel too consumed with the loss of our beloved Luna
Wednesday, December 11, 2019
2019 Events
Hi everyone, as this year is coming to a close, I would like to cover some events that I failed to speak on as they were occurring.
The first one I'd like to talk about is Alienstock. A while back, a number of people scheduled an attempted raid on Area 51 for September 20th, 2019, a day before my birthday. Their logic was that, if they used the Naruto Run, they would be able to dodge any bullets coming their way, infiltrate the military base and expose whatever secrets they may have.
For those who don't know, the Naruto Run is a form of running in which you hold your arms straight and back. This is based on the manga/anime series Naruto, which was, at least at one time, the most popular anime internationally. The story surrounds a young man named Naruto who wishes to become the strongest ninja in the world.
The run is meant to make a person more aerodynamic and allows them to keep their hands closer to their waist, where their ninja weapons are located. There is another theory that this style of running is easier to animate, and therefore, it might be a financial/labour decision put forth by animators.
Before the Naruto Run became well known, it was known as the Airplane.
Here is a phrase I've heard to desribe the Naruto/Airplane Run:
I'm a little airplane look at me! I'm a little airplane whee!
Clearly, this running form was never meant to oppose the United States military. The main fear I had going into this was that someone would take this joke way too seriously and actually attempt to perform a military raid. Fortunately, there is a large expanse of space between the border that people are not meant to cross and the actual military base, and since the cross section of alien conspiracy theorists and anime fans don't tend to be the most athletic, there wasn't need for any kind of strong resistance to be put into place. They could basically wait with a bottle of water and an offer to give them a ride back to their camp.
For the most part, people just threw a party near the border with a fake protest. You might be familiar with the phrase "Clap Alien Cheeks", which came from a protester's sign.
Honestly though? Alien conspiracy theories and anime, and right before my birthday? Even if I didn't attend, it felt like a gift.
A while back, we had a few training sessions to teach us about mindfulness. The first day, we had a pretty charismatic speaker who shared a number of personal stories and did a good job of pulling from the audience. The next day, we had someone who led us through a mindfulness experience pretty similar to guided meditation. We were just supposed to identify word thoughts, vision thoughts, and thoughts inbetween.
Well, I wound up seeing:
-Aurora Borealis
-Castles collapsing into sand
-Stars opening into eyes
-Wooden flowers blossoming
-Floating opera masks
Among others. I wrote down everything I saw, but I can't find the list. These are the images that jump to mind.
The guy had told us to straighten our backs to connect with the universe. As soon as he released us, I instantly bent my spine in an attempt to disconnect. I'd felt like I'd been thrown through the cosmos. I was really surprised that such a brief exercise would have such a strong effect. I think I was the only person who was freaked out by it though. Everyone else seemed relaxed.
I learned a little while ago that dairy is off the Canadian Food Guide as a category. Dairy products still exist, but they fall under other sections, such as protein. I hate to toot my own horn, but once upon a time, I questioned the validity of dairy as a food category. I think it may have even been in the blog before this, but I noted that in any of the other food categories, there was a pretty direct consequence to not eating them. However, with dairy, I knew a number of lactose intolerant people who were doing just fine, so what was the point of dairy? I had a comment saying that if you don't eat dairy long enough, that it becomes difficult to consume. But that didn't seem like much of a consequence to me.
I guess what they've been pushing is the idea of calcium and how that benefits bone structure. Well, I guess you can receive those benefits through other categories, because calcium, you are OUT!
The first one I'd like to talk about is Alienstock. A while back, a number of people scheduled an attempted raid on Area 51 for September 20th, 2019, a day before my birthday. Their logic was that, if they used the Naruto Run, they would be able to dodge any bullets coming their way, infiltrate the military base and expose whatever secrets they may have.
For those who don't know, the Naruto Run is a form of running in which you hold your arms straight and back. This is based on the manga/anime series Naruto, which was, at least at one time, the most popular anime internationally. The story surrounds a young man named Naruto who wishes to become the strongest ninja in the world.
The run is meant to make a person more aerodynamic and allows them to keep their hands closer to their waist, where their ninja weapons are located. There is another theory that this style of running is easier to animate, and therefore, it might be a financial/labour decision put forth by animators.
Before the Naruto Run became well known, it was known as the Airplane.
Here is a phrase I've heard to desribe the Naruto/Airplane Run:
I'm a little airplane look at me! I'm a little airplane whee!
Clearly, this running form was never meant to oppose the United States military. The main fear I had going into this was that someone would take this joke way too seriously and actually attempt to perform a military raid. Fortunately, there is a large expanse of space between the border that people are not meant to cross and the actual military base, and since the cross section of alien conspiracy theorists and anime fans don't tend to be the most athletic, there wasn't need for any kind of strong resistance to be put into place. They could basically wait with a bottle of water and an offer to give them a ride back to their camp.
For the most part, people just threw a party near the border with a fake protest. You might be familiar with the phrase "Clap Alien Cheeks", which came from a protester's sign.
Honestly though? Alien conspiracy theories and anime, and right before my birthday? Even if I didn't attend, it felt like a gift.
A while back, we had a few training sessions to teach us about mindfulness. The first day, we had a pretty charismatic speaker who shared a number of personal stories and did a good job of pulling from the audience. The next day, we had someone who led us through a mindfulness experience pretty similar to guided meditation. We were just supposed to identify word thoughts, vision thoughts, and thoughts inbetween.
Well, I wound up seeing:
-Aurora Borealis
-Castles collapsing into sand
-Stars opening into eyes
-Wooden flowers blossoming
-Floating opera masks
Among others. I wrote down everything I saw, but I can't find the list. These are the images that jump to mind.
The guy had told us to straighten our backs to connect with the universe. As soon as he released us, I instantly bent my spine in an attempt to disconnect. I'd felt like I'd been thrown through the cosmos. I was really surprised that such a brief exercise would have such a strong effect. I think I was the only person who was freaked out by it though. Everyone else seemed relaxed.
I learned a little while ago that dairy is off the Canadian Food Guide as a category. Dairy products still exist, but they fall under other sections, such as protein. I hate to toot my own horn, but once upon a time, I questioned the validity of dairy as a food category. I think it may have even been in the blog before this, but I noted that in any of the other food categories, there was a pretty direct consequence to not eating them. However, with dairy, I knew a number of lactose intolerant people who were doing just fine, so what was the point of dairy? I had a comment saying that if you don't eat dairy long enough, that it becomes difficult to consume. But that didn't seem like much of a consequence to me.
I guess what they've been pushing is the idea of calcium and how that benefits bone structure. Well, I guess you can receive those benefits through other categories, because calcium, you are OUT!
Sunday, December 8, 2019
WALES Staff Christmas Party 2019
Saturday was the annual WALES staff Christmas party. Lee-Anne came as my date, and since she also came to the Summer Shutdown Staff BBQ, which is pretty much the summer equivalent, this signifies that we've been together for about half a year now.
Last year, I spoke at length about how I botched making blueberry tarts and wound up settling for storebought ones. I hypothesized that one of the reasons I was dissatisfied with my product was because I was comparing it to my grandmother's wild blueberry pie, which I grew up on, and was usually made with berries that I myself had hand picked. Fresher berries, memories of grandma, and a sense of personal investment during my early life creates a nostalgia that is hard to compete with. However, I honestly think I screwed up the recipe a bit last year (it has you eyeball a lot of stuff, and I just think I overcooked the filling a bit), and since then I've made blueberry tarts that, while not as good as my grandmother's, were at least satisfactory. I'd given these to my staff team, along with pumpkin tarts. However, being able to present them at the Christmas party after my failure last year, still gave me a sense of accomplishment.
Lee-Anne made a batch of homemade butter tarts, which are apparently a fairly Canadian-exclusive dessert. To my non-Canadian readers, a butter tart is a creamy, sweet tart, made with butter, sugar, eggs, and syrup. Specifics vary based on recipe. I thought we both did well, but honestly, hers' moved quicker than mine. Kind of like how my pumpkin tarts moved faster than my blueberry when I brought them to work. Try as I might, blueberry is just not as much of a fan favourite, but I have an emotional connection with it, so I keep making them.
I visited Guelph last week. My brother has been traveling again, which means it was just me and my mother. I honestly can't say I recall a time when I've been in Guelph and my brother hasn't.
However, I happened to show up just when some neighbours were moving. They had literally no one helping them, and somehow, I wound up agreeing to assist. I may be out of shape, but that weekend, I at least learned that I can still move an entire household worth of stuff with just one other guy.
My G1 Driver's license finally came in the mail a little while back. Despite having renewed it and having updated my address at least once, they never bothered to retake my photo. So basically, until now, I've been using a piece of photo ID that used a picture of me when I was 19, pre-beard and pre-male pattern baldness. This time around, they retook my photo.
On a similar note, you're not going to catch me participating in that Ten Year Challenge trend that's going around. It just so happens to cleanly separate me from 20 and 30, and I was handsome when I was 20.
I wanted to speak a little bit more on my MESH Diversity. I noticed in my last update, that each category did not have an equal number of subcategories. Personal Baseline had six subcategories, Performance and Social Baseline had five, and Leadership had seven. You would think that each category would have an even number of subcategories, right?
Well, it turns out they do. It's just that not every subcategory fell into an Area of Strength, Area for Growth, or Area for Disparity. Each category had nine subcategories, and if I didn't seem especially strong or weak in a subcategory, and I didn't particularly disagree with my invitees, I didn't get a result with an expanded explanation. The areas in which I received kind of middling results include:
Introspection, Receptivity, Confidence, Motivation Style, Agency, Optimism, Determination, Empathic Accuracy, Clarity, Compassion, Commonality, Follow Through, and Openness.
So that's 13 non-noteworthy characteristics, 15 areas of strength, 2 areas in need of improvement and 6 areas of disparity. Still not bad.
However, I wouldn't have minded a more expanded explanation on my results for Optimism, which seems to show that other people consider me considerably more optimistic than I see myself. Clarity and Confidence also show a bit of a disparity, even though they weren't called out for it.
Last year, I spoke at length about how I botched making blueberry tarts and wound up settling for storebought ones. I hypothesized that one of the reasons I was dissatisfied with my product was because I was comparing it to my grandmother's wild blueberry pie, which I grew up on, and was usually made with berries that I myself had hand picked. Fresher berries, memories of grandma, and a sense of personal investment during my early life creates a nostalgia that is hard to compete with. However, I honestly think I screwed up the recipe a bit last year (it has you eyeball a lot of stuff, and I just think I overcooked the filling a bit), and since then I've made blueberry tarts that, while not as good as my grandmother's, were at least satisfactory. I'd given these to my staff team, along with pumpkin tarts. However, being able to present them at the Christmas party after my failure last year, still gave me a sense of accomplishment.
Lee-Anne made a batch of homemade butter tarts, which are apparently a fairly Canadian-exclusive dessert. To my non-Canadian readers, a butter tart is a creamy, sweet tart, made with butter, sugar, eggs, and syrup. Specifics vary based on recipe. I thought we both did well, but honestly, hers' moved quicker than mine. Kind of like how my pumpkin tarts moved faster than my blueberry when I brought them to work. Try as I might, blueberry is just not as much of a fan favourite, but I have an emotional connection with it, so I keep making them.
I visited Guelph last week. My brother has been traveling again, which means it was just me and my mother. I honestly can't say I recall a time when I've been in Guelph and my brother hasn't.
However, I happened to show up just when some neighbours were moving. They had literally no one helping them, and somehow, I wound up agreeing to assist. I may be out of shape, but that weekend, I at least learned that I can still move an entire household worth of stuff with just one other guy.
My G1 Driver's license finally came in the mail a little while back. Despite having renewed it and having updated my address at least once, they never bothered to retake my photo. So basically, until now, I've been using a piece of photo ID that used a picture of me when I was 19, pre-beard and pre-male pattern baldness. This time around, they retook my photo.
On a similar note, you're not going to catch me participating in that Ten Year Challenge trend that's going around. It just so happens to cleanly separate me from 20 and 30, and I was handsome when I was 20.
I wanted to speak a little bit more on my MESH Diversity. I noticed in my last update, that each category did not have an equal number of subcategories. Personal Baseline had six subcategories, Performance and Social Baseline had five, and Leadership had seven. You would think that each category would have an even number of subcategories, right?
Well, it turns out they do. It's just that not every subcategory fell into an Area of Strength, Area for Growth, or Area for Disparity. Each category had nine subcategories, and if I didn't seem especially strong or weak in a subcategory, and I didn't particularly disagree with my invitees, I didn't get a result with an expanded explanation. The areas in which I received kind of middling results include:
Introspection, Receptivity, Confidence, Motivation Style, Agency, Optimism, Determination, Empathic Accuracy, Clarity, Compassion, Commonality, Follow Through, and Openness.
So that's 13 non-noteworthy characteristics, 15 areas of strength, 2 areas in need of improvement and 6 areas of disparity. Still not bad.
However, I wouldn't have minded a more expanded explanation on my results for Optimism, which seems to show that other people consider me considerably more optimistic than I see myself. Clarity and Confidence also show a bit of a disparity, even though they weren't called out for it.
Sunday, December 1, 2019
MESH Diversity
If you haven't read the previous post, please do so. It's an important one, in which I formally introduce my Girlfriend, so if you only have time to read one update, make it that one.
Recently, Extend-a-Family has required its employees to complete a personality assessment called MESH Diversity, which, among other things, evaluates our Emotional Intelligence.
In this assessment, you answer a number of questions that determine how you perceive yourself. Then, you get a group of people that know you to answer the same questions about you. They mash together the data they got from your invitees, and then they calculate the differences between how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you.
But they aren't normal questions, where there are obvious indicators as to which answers are better than others. Instead, they ask questions about how you would react or respond to different scenarios, or if you are answering for someone else, how you think that person would react or respond. Then, somehow, they mine data from the answers and put them on a 1-to-10 scale for a number of categories and subcategories and compare how you ranked yourself, and how others ranked you.
The takeaway from this is supposed to be that we perceive ourselves differently than how even the people closest to us perceive us.
I found this test fascinating, and even if I didn't shine in all areas, and even if my own perception didn't align with others at all times, I'm going to share my results.
First of all, the test was separated into four categories. They were: Personal Baseline, Performance, Social Baseline, and Leadership. Within each category are subcategories, which we will get into.
Personal Baseline: When people know what they are feeling in the moment, why they are feeling it, and how these emotions affect their judgement and behaviour, they tend to be very successful. Ranking highly in Personal Baseline means these people tend to be highly accomplished both socially and professionally, well positioned to grow in potentially any situation.
Then there is an assessment of how you ranked yourself within the subcategories, how your invitees ranked you, and where there was a disparity between how you and your invitees ranked you.
So, for Personal Baseline, the subcategories and results were:
Areas of Strength: Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Objectivity (both me and my invitees ranked me highly in these areas)
Areas for Growth: Boundary Setting and Growth-Focus (Me and my invitees agreed that these are areas I should improve on)
Areas of Disparity: Emotional Awareness (Me and my invitees disagreed. In this case, I ranked myself significantly higher in this area than they did)
Performance: This is best understood as how we best rally our emotional and executive resources to work together toward a positive end goal even under high stress. This is what allows some individuals to see beyond the challenges of the moment and drive toward a future that is both hopeful and full of possibility. People with high degrees of Performance hold themselves accountable for their actions, therefore their behaviour tends to be very consequence minded.
In this area, my subcategories were:
Areas of Strength: Divergent Thinking and Composure
Areas for Growth: N/A
Areas of Disparity: Enthusiasm, Ambition, and Versatility
Social Baseline: This details how effectively we negotiate the complexity of our everyday social environment. Just like those who tend to cultivate healthy personal relationships in their home life, workplace success is closely tied to how much of a premium people place on developing inter-personal capital. Leaders with strong skill sets in this tend to spread their own good mood around, and research tells us that people in a good mood are not only better at taking in and processing information, but that they also respond more nimbly and creatively under stress.
Subcategories:
Areas of Strength: Empathy, Curiosity, Attentiveness
Areas for Growth: N/A
Areas of Disparity: Rapid-Cognition and Meta-Perception
I should note that these Areas of Disparity contain subcategories where others ranked me weakest among my results. A low Rapid-Cognition and Meta-Perception mean that I have difficulty picking up on subtle physical cues, with "reading the room" and with seeing myself through the eyes of others. I am told to ask myself "What do others see that I don't?"
And lastly we have...
Leadership: Formal authority is not a requirement for good leadership; influence is. As a leader, whether in a family, with friends, in the community or at work, it's important to understand that real influence is is neither forced nor purchased. Leadership is about how one develops relationships that leave people inspired, working at their best and committed to both personal and communal end goals. In this manner, strong leadership manifests as a process of social influence through which one wins the support of others in the execution of a common goal or task. We firmly believe that leading by example is the only way to lead; whether you are in your home, your community or in a workplace good leaders don't drag their people behind them; good leaders are willingly followed.
Subcategories:
Areas of Strength: Principle, Candor, Consideration, Civility, Approachability, Appreciation, and Persuasiveness
Areas for Growth: N/A
Areas of Disparity: N/A
So clearly Leadership is my strongest category.
And since this is my blog and I control the release of information, I'll include two subcategory descriptions that show me in a really positive light. In these areas I was rated as a perfect 10/10 by others:
Principle: With only a minor discrepancy between you and your invitees, you're results suggest that you're an exceedingly authentic person who is greatly protective of your integrity. As studies suggest, when we plot principle on a behavioural continuum, the vast majority of people land somewhere inbetween hardly ever walk the talk to most of the time. It's very few and far between that we find people this high on the positive end of the continuum. You are very comfortable in your own skin and in what you believe, and this almost always allows you to act on your principles with confidence. Your actions are very congruent with what you believe, and people know this. As a role model, your willingness to do the right thing makes you someone that people will follow, even if doing so is inconvenient or unpopular. Your principled actions don't just speak louder than your words, they amplify them and the people tend to listen, both at home and at work.
Civility: With only a minor discrepancy between you and your invitees, your results suggest that you're extremely skilled in the fine art of disagreeing without being disagreeable. Even when you're in the midst of a heated debate, you always seem able to voice your thoughts and opinions in a manor that invites dialogue. At times when most people would not be at their best, you may tend to be thoughtful and controlled. Even during heated altercations, you still generally manage to proceed without personalizing the disagreement. You are skillful at moving past your needs in order to focus your message on both the demands of the conversation and the needs of the people involved. At work, you're seen as a supportive team member that encourages innovative thinking and open dialogue. You are able to lead people through errors and challenges without making them feel either put down or shut down. This is a solid foundational skill and we believe that honing it further could have enormous positive impact for you and your relationships
So there you have it. In total, I had 15 areas of strength, 2 areas for growth, and 6 areas of disparity. I had a lot of anxiety when reading my report. I didn't think my coworkers would rate me negatively if it gave a clear scale, but the incalculable nature of the questions made it more likely to accurately reflect peoples perceptions, and I was worried it would turn into a roast show.
This causes me to reflect on my Think Implicit results. Think Implicit is another test, in which it shows you symbols or phrases concerning people of different demographics, such as race, gender, sexual preference, level of ability, age, etc and it also shows you phrases of varying levels of positivity. It then judges how long it takes you to pair the positive phrases with the demographic based symbols, and through this it determines what implicit biases you have, and to what severity. The common takeaway from this is that, while the vast majority of us claim not to discriminate based on demographics, in reality, almost everyone has their preferences.
However, my results showed that I have next to no implicit biases. I think that, comparing my MESH Diversity results and my Think Implicit results, I am pretty much scientifically proven to be pure of heart.
Recently, Extend-a-Family has required its employees to complete a personality assessment called MESH Diversity, which, among other things, evaluates our Emotional Intelligence.
In this assessment, you answer a number of questions that determine how you perceive yourself. Then, you get a group of people that know you to answer the same questions about you. They mash together the data they got from your invitees, and then they calculate the differences between how you perceive yourself and how others perceive you.
But they aren't normal questions, where there are obvious indicators as to which answers are better than others. Instead, they ask questions about how you would react or respond to different scenarios, or if you are answering for someone else, how you think that person would react or respond. Then, somehow, they mine data from the answers and put them on a 1-to-10 scale for a number of categories and subcategories and compare how you ranked yourself, and how others ranked you.
The takeaway from this is supposed to be that we perceive ourselves differently than how even the people closest to us perceive us.
I found this test fascinating, and even if I didn't shine in all areas, and even if my own perception didn't align with others at all times, I'm going to share my results.
First of all, the test was separated into four categories. They were: Personal Baseline, Performance, Social Baseline, and Leadership. Within each category are subcategories, which we will get into.
Personal Baseline: When people know what they are feeling in the moment, why they are feeling it, and how these emotions affect their judgement and behaviour, they tend to be very successful. Ranking highly in Personal Baseline means these people tend to be highly accomplished both socially and professionally, well positioned to grow in potentially any situation.
Then there is an assessment of how you ranked yourself within the subcategories, how your invitees ranked you, and where there was a disparity between how you and your invitees ranked you.
So, for Personal Baseline, the subcategories and results were:
Areas of Strength: Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Objectivity (both me and my invitees ranked me highly in these areas)
Areas for Growth: Boundary Setting and Growth-Focus (Me and my invitees agreed that these are areas I should improve on)
Areas of Disparity: Emotional Awareness (Me and my invitees disagreed. In this case, I ranked myself significantly higher in this area than they did)
Performance: This is best understood as how we best rally our emotional and executive resources to work together toward a positive end goal even under high stress. This is what allows some individuals to see beyond the challenges of the moment and drive toward a future that is both hopeful and full of possibility. People with high degrees of Performance hold themselves accountable for their actions, therefore their behaviour tends to be very consequence minded.
In this area, my subcategories were:
Areas of Strength: Divergent Thinking and Composure
Areas for Growth: N/A
Areas of Disparity: Enthusiasm, Ambition, and Versatility
Social Baseline: This details how effectively we negotiate the complexity of our everyday social environment. Just like those who tend to cultivate healthy personal relationships in their home life, workplace success is closely tied to how much of a premium people place on developing inter-personal capital. Leaders with strong skill sets in this tend to spread their own good mood around, and research tells us that people in a good mood are not only better at taking in and processing information, but that they also respond more nimbly and creatively under stress.
Subcategories:
Areas of Strength: Empathy, Curiosity, Attentiveness
Areas for Growth: N/A
Areas of Disparity: Rapid-Cognition and Meta-Perception
I should note that these Areas of Disparity contain subcategories where others ranked me weakest among my results. A low Rapid-Cognition and Meta-Perception mean that I have difficulty picking up on subtle physical cues, with "reading the room" and with seeing myself through the eyes of others. I am told to ask myself "What do others see that I don't?"
And lastly we have...
Leadership: Formal authority is not a requirement for good leadership; influence is. As a leader, whether in a family, with friends, in the community or at work, it's important to understand that real influence is is neither forced nor purchased. Leadership is about how one develops relationships that leave people inspired, working at their best and committed to both personal and communal end goals. In this manner, strong leadership manifests as a process of social influence through which one wins the support of others in the execution of a common goal or task. We firmly believe that leading by example is the only way to lead; whether you are in your home, your community or in a workplace good leaders don't drag their people behind them; good leaders are willingly followed.
Subcategories:
Areas of Strength: Principle, Candor, Consideration, Civility, Approachability, Appreciation, and Persuasiveness
Areas for Growth: N/A
Areas of Disparity: N/A
So clearly Leadership is my strongest category.
And since this is my blog and I control the release of information, I'll include two subcategory descriptions that show me in a really positive light. In these areas I was rated as a perfect 10/10 by others:
Principle: With only a minor discrepancy between you and your invitees, you're results suggest that you're an exceedingly authentic person who is greatly protective of your integrity. As studies suggest, when we plot principle on a behavioural continuum, the vast majority of people land somewhere inbetween hardly ever walk the talk to most of the time. It's very few and far between that we find people this high on the positive end of the continuum. You are very comfortable in your own skin and in what you believe, and this almost always allows you to act on your principles with confidence. Your actions are very congruent with what you believe, and people know this. As a role model, your willingness to do the right thing makes you someone that people will follow, even if doing so is inconvenient or unpopular. Your principled actions don't just speak louder than your words, they amplify them and the people tend to listen, both at home and at work.
Civility: With only a minor discrepancy between you and your invitees, your results suggest that you're extremely skilled in the fine art of disagreeing without being disagreeable. Even when you're in the midst of a heated debate, you always seem able to voice your thoughts and opinions in a manor that invites dialogue. At times when most people would not be at their best, you may tend to be thoughtful and controlled. Even during heated altercations, you still generally manage to proceed without personalizing the disagreement. You are skillful at moving past your needs in order to focus your message on both the demands of the conversation and the needs of the people involved. At work, you're seen as a supportive team member that encourages innovative thinking and open dialogue. You are able to lead people through errors and challenges without making them feel either put down or shut down. This is a solid foundational skill and we believe that honing it further could have enormous positive impact for you and your relationships
So there you have it. In total, I had 15 areas of strength, 2 areas for growth, and 6 areas of disparity. I had a lot of anxiety when reading my report. I didn't think my coworkers would rate me negatively if it gave a clear scale, but the incalculable nature of the questions made it more likely to accurately reflect peoples perceptions, and I was worried it would turn into a roast show.
This causes me to reflect on my Think Implicit results. Think Implicit is another test, in which it shows you symbols or phrases concerning people of different demographics, such as race, gender, sexual preference, level of ability, age, etc and it also shows you phrases of varying levels of positivity. It then judges how long it takes you to pair the positive phrases with the demographic based symbols, and through this it determines what implicit biases you have, and to what severity. The common takeaway from this is that, while the vast majority of us claim not to discriminate based on demographics, in reality, almost everyone has their preferences.
However, my results showed that I have next to no implicit biases. I think that, comparing my MESH Diversity results and my Think Implicit results, I am pretty much scientifically proven to be pure of heart.
Monday, November 25, 2019
Girlfriend
Hi everyone, it is November 26th and this is my first time updating this month. I've been doing okay with five posts per month during September and October, but I really dropped the ball this month. I still have the opportunity to beat May, the month with the lowest number of updates this year, which had an impressive number of one post. If I update again before November is done, I get to tie with August, July, April, and January, all of which had two posts.
Today, I am going to be speaking on my current relationship. In a lot of my content recently, I've referenced somebody that I am connected to, first as "the person I am seeing" and later as "my girlfriend"
She's the person that I said came to the staff barbecue with me. I mentioned we went to the CNE together and to Ripley's Aquarium. I mentioned that I went to her family's place in Brampton, and that I've missed several Pokemon Go Community Days because of her (not her fault, I only told her after the fact, and last time I visited her, she was cool with me dipping for a bit to attend Community Day and even checked in to see how it was going)
She's the reason I was pumped to have sprouted sunflowers in my backyard for the first time in three years. She was with me on my luckiest full moon day and Friday the 13th, which happened to occur on the same day this year.
She found this blog a while back, after I mentioned that I wouldn't give her the address but that it's really easy to find if you know my name. A Google search later and she's able to call me out on the fact that I didn't eat for a full day because I was in a Greyhound crash, then showed up for a meeting held at a place that later had an open mic night which hosted a number of people I knew, and later I ate a whole pizza as my one meal of the day (remember that?).
So you can probably expect a decline in "one pizza, full day" updates from now on.
Recently she asked me when I would introduce her on this blog, which I take as permission to do so.
So here she is, photographic evidence and everything:
Her name is Lee-Anne. Make sure to include the hyphen and that the "A" in "Anne" is capitalized. She is like Spider-Man in this regard.
This is a selfie that I took outside of Walmart. It was a romantic Sunday afternoon, and we had registered to Canoe the Grand River. The weather was perfect, and we were more than halfway through when our boat came to a halt because of shallow waters. We got out, carried it somewhere deeper, and got back in. The boat was backwards, so we tried to correct it, and it seemed like it was working, but while we were still sideways, we hit a rock and capsized.
We fought the river for a bit, then realized we could drag the canoe to the coast and dump the water out. We managed to lose both of our shoes, our canister with emergency provisions which the canoe rental organization had lent us in case we had a collision, a paddle, and weirdly, my life jacket but not hers, even though I had been wearing it.
Some dude yelled at us from shore that help was coming, but some other canoe people found us first, lent us a paddle and we made it back without being rescued.
Everything we had lost had floated back to our base, except for one of her sandals, and this is how this photo came to be. I bought her a pair o $5.00 sandals, then we cuddled outside a Walmart.
I'd earnestly given up on relationships before I'd met this woman. For a while, I figured that because I was the son of someone with schizophrenia, and because my mother never attempted to be in a relationship, I had no male role model growing up or any conception of a healthy romantic dynamic. I also felt that, because personality tests prove that I'm an introvert, there was little reason to pursue relationships that would impede on my solitary way of life.
So I had fully committed to this solitary lifestyle when I met Lee-Anne, who inspired me to give this way of living another chance. She had been a placement student with Extend-a-Family (she's only four years younger than me though) and I waited until her placement was done because I thought that if I had asked beforehand, it would have made things weird if she said A) Yes, or B) No.
After her professional involvement with us, I asked her if she would like to get bubble tea and catch up outside of a professional involvement. I didn't like my chances, but apparently she had read my intentions from about eight months back and had already decided that she would be cool with going out with me.
And that's it! That is how I am in a relationship now
Today, I am going to be speaking on my current relationship. In a lot of my content recently, I've referenced somebody that I am connected to, first as "the person I am seeing" and later as "my girlfriend"
She's the person that I said came to the staff barbecue with me. I mentioned we went to the CNE together and to Ripley's Aquarium. I mentioned that I went to her family's place in Brampton, and that I've missed several Pokemon Go Community Days because of her (not her fault, I only told her after the fact, and last time I visited her, she was cool with me dipping for a bit to attend Community Day and even checked in to see how it was going)
She's the reason I was pumped to have sprouted sunflowers in my backyard for the first time in three years. She was with me on my luckiest full moon day and Friday the 13th, which happened to occur on the same day this year.
She found this blog a while back, after I mentioned that I wouldn't give her the address but that it's really easy to find if you know my name. A Google search later and she's able to call me out on the fact that I didn't eat for a full day because I was in a Greyhound crash, then showed up for a meeting held at a place that later had an open mic night which hosted a number of people I knew, and later I ate a whole pizza as my one meal of the day (remember that?).
So you can probably expect a decline in "one pizza, full day" updates from now on.
Recently she asked me when I would introduce her on this blog, which I take as permission to do so.
So here she is, photographic evidence and everything:
Her name is Lee-Anne. Make sure to include the hyphen and that the "A" in "Anne" is capitalized. She is like Spider-Man in this regard.
This is a selfie that I took outside of Walmart. It was a romantic Sunday afternoon, and we had registered to Canoe the Grand River. The weather was perfect, and we were more than halfway through when our boat came to a halt because of shallow waters. We got out, carried it somewhere deeper, and got back in. The boat was backwards, so we tried to correct it, and it seemed like it was working, but while we were still sideways, we hit a rock and capsized.
We fought the river for a bit, then realized we could drag the canoe to the coast and dump the water out. We managed to lose both of our shoes, our canister with emergency provisions which the canoe rental organization had lent us in case we had a collision, a paddle, and weirdly, my life jacket but not hers, even though I had been wearing it.
Some dude yelled at us from shore that help was coming, but some other canoe people found us first, lent us a paddle and we made it back without being rescued.
Everything we had lost had floated back to our base, except for one of her sandals, and this is how this photo came to be. I bought her a pair o $5.00 sandals, then we cuddled outside a Walmart.
I'd earnestly given up on relationships before I'd met this woman. For a while, I figured that because I was the son of someone with schizophrenia, and because my mother never attempted to be in a relationship, I had no male role model growing up or any conception of a healthy romantic dynamic. I also felt that, because personality tests prove that I'm an introvert, there was little reason to pursue relationships that would impede on my solitary way of life.
So I had fully committed to this solitary lifestyle when I met Lee-Anne, who inspired me to give this way of living another chance. She had been a placement student with Extend-a-Family (she's only four years younger than me though) and I waited until her placement was done because I thought that if I had asked beforehand, it would have made things weird if she said A) Yes, or B) No.
After her professional involvement with us, I asked her if she would like to get bubble tea and catch up outside of a professional involvement. I didn't like my chances, but apparently she had read my intentions from about eight months back and had already decided that she would be cool with going out with me.
And that's it! That is how I am in a relationship now
Monday, October 28, 2019
2019 Federal Election, Girlfriend's Convocation and Birthday
So last week we got our election results. We're going forward with Justin Trudeau as our Prime Minister, winning with a minority government, and Marwan Tabbara, also of the Liberal Party, representing the riding in my area. I said I'd like to keep this blog politically neutral, so I won't go into my perspective on this turnout. I don't think any voters got exactly what they wanted this time around though, haha. Trudeau lost the popular vote and his majority government, and Scheer lost the election. NDP and the Peoples' Party both took hits. The Greens got an extra seat, so maybe they're the only ones celebrating. The attitude of the nation right now is kind of like, let's keep doing what we were doing before, but with less enthusiasm.
Since the election, my girlfriend had her convocation and we also celebrated her birthday. I got her flowers and chocolates and a gift, and I made dinner. Dinner involved the use of my charcoal barbecue, and I intended this to be its' last meal before being replaced. This intention was confirmed when, after picking the last piece of food off the grill, the whole thing collapsed, dropping burning coals everywhere. At least I got to demonstrate my attitude during a crisis for my girlfriend, which turns out to be an incredibly calm, borderline apathetic attitude. I just picked up the coals with my tongs, dropped them in a bucket and poured water on them until they were submerged.
I like that the barbecue managed to complete the meal before collapsing. Like it held on just long enough for a final performance. Really used that thing to its fullest extent.
Convocation was interesting. They modified the Canadian anthem. Instead of saying "In all thy sons command" they said "In all of our command". I've heard talk of modifying some of the lyrics, I know other controvesial lines are "Our home and native land" (some of my aboriginal friends think "Our home on Native land" would be more honest) and "God keep our land" (non-Christians sometimes feel this isn't representative of our religious diversity), but I'd never heard an actual modified version until that day.
...Actually, after doing some research, it looks like the anthem was officially modified in 2018. This is our authentic version at this time.
Two of the most influential people at The Working Centre were receiving their doctorates. The Working Centre is an organization focused on employment, inclusion, and community that has a number of different branches. Extend-a-Family is deeply connected with them, and I have spoken face-to-face with one of the people receiving their doctorates. As they made their speech, I felt very much like I hadn't left my organization.
Another person that was graduating was someone that I vaguely remembered as making waves back in the day. He was a gay student who wanted to bring his boyfriend to prom at a Catholic school. the school denied him, so he took them to court and won. I think it's this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_v_Durham_Catholic_School_Board
They made a movie about him too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prom_Queen:_The_Marc_Hall_Story
There was someone who graduated posthumously, which means that even though they passed away, they still received their degree. I'm not certain the circumstances that lead to this conclusion. I can make assumptions, but I simply found it interesting that such an arrangement is possible.
As the graduates were marching out, they played an orchestral version of the Star Wars theme. This reminds me of when, as I was graduating from HSF and marching out, they played an orchestral version of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. I wonder if it's some kind of tradition to make a fancy version of some pop culture piece as graduates are walking out.
After the ceremony, we went for lunch at a local diner that my girlfriend has fond memories of. The next day, I had dinner with her family celebrating both her birthday and her brother's, which are spaced pretty closely together.
Since the election, my girlfriend had her convocation and we also celebrated her birthday. I got her flowers and chocolates and a gift, and I made dinner. Dinner involved the use of my charcoal barbecue, and I intended this to be its' last meal before being replaced. This intention was confirmed when, after picking the last piece of food off the grill, the whole thing collapsed, dropping burning coals everywhere. At least I got to demonstrate my attitude during a crisis for my girlfriend, which turns out to be an incredibly calm, borderline apathetic attitude. I just picked up the coals with my tongs, dropped them in a bucket and poured water on them until they were submerged.
I like that the barbecue managed to complete the meal before collapsing. Like it held on just long enough for a final performance. Really used that thing to its fullest extent.
Convocation was interesting. They modified the Canadian anthem. Instead of saying "In all thy sons command" they said "In all of our command". I've heard talk of modifying some of the lyrics, I know other controvesial lines are "Our home and native land" (some of my aboriginal friends think "Our home on Native land" would be more honest) and "God keep our land" (non-Christians sometimes feel this isn't representative of our religious diversity), but I'd never heard an actual modified version until that day.
...Actually, after doing some research, it looks like the anthem was officially modified in 2018. This is our authentic version at this time.
Two of the most influential people at The Working Centre were receiving their doctorates. The Working Centre is an organization focused on employment, inclusion, and community that has a number of different branches. Extend-a-Family is deeply connected with them, and I have spoken face-to-face with one of the people receiving their doctorates. As they made their speech, I felt very much like I hadn't left my organization.
Another person that was graduating was someone that I vaguely remembered as making waves back in the day. He was a gay student who wanted to bring his boyfriend to prom at a Catholic school. the school denied him, so he took them to court and won. I think it's this guy:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hall_v_Durham_Catholic_School_Board
They made a movie about him too:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prom_Queen:_The_Marc_Hall_Story
There was someone who graduated posthumously, which means that even though they passed away, they still received their degree. I'm not certain the circumstances that lead to this conclusion. I can make assumptions, but I simply found it interesting that such an arrangement is possible.
As the graduates were marching out, they played an orchestral version of the Star Wars theme. This reminds me of when, as I was graduating from HSF and marching out, they played an orchestral version of Lady Gaga's Bad Romance. I wonder if it's some kind of tradition to make a fancy version of some pop culture piece as graduates are walking out.
After the ceremony, we went for lunch at a local diner that my girlfriend has fond memories of. The next day, I had dinner with her family celebrating both her birthday and her brother's, which are spaced pretty closely together.
Monday, October 21, 2019
Thanksgiving 2019
Well, I should get a post out before tomorrow, because I missed the Thanksgiving update and Canada's having a federal election, which will warrant it's own post.
So... Thanksgiving was a couple of weeks ago. I went up to Guelph and had the standard turkey dinner with my mother and brother. It was a pretty low-key event, but we had a more traditional family gathering this past weekend. Last Friday and Saturday, my grandparents, my aunt and my cousin all visited in Guelph.
If you don't believe I was in Guelph for some reason, here's some photographic evidence:
It's a Gryphon with a gryphon!
That's our famous gryphon statue, situated outside the University of Guelph. We paid some significant coin for that thing. Worth every cent, I say.
Unfortunately, the good feelings of the visit were dampened a little by the fact that one of the Guelph cats, Luna, was sick. She had been acting a little odd, at first seeming a little uncoordinated, and then having a reduced appetite, and then seeming lethargic. So we brought her to the vet, and it turns out she has an anal abscess.
Turns out, having an anal abscess makes a cat not feel like drinking, so my mother had to learn how to force feed her liquids. She was also prescribed antibiotics, and last I saw her, she was active, sociable, purring, and eating and drinking voluntarily, which is great.
Did you guys know that I've been living with a Chilean woman for the past four months? Probably not, since I haven't mentioned it. This has more to do with my roommate than me, but she did make me a bunch of empanadas and gave me a reiki massage, and she has offered to host me if I ever choose to vacation in Chile.
I guess I'll also report in this update how my garden did this year, since we're past our first frost and the harvest season is basically over. Last I spoke to you guys, I said that my pumpkins had become huge and were bullying the other plants. I wasn't sure if I should be glad that they were as healthy as they were, or if I should be mad that they crowded everything else. Well, it's pumpkin season, and let me tell you, right when they were at their most glorious and had dominated the rest of the garden, they suddenly died. So I'm a little miffed at them, because they flourished at the expense of their neighbouring crops, then perished before giving me anything.
Wasn't a total waste. We got more snow peas this year than last. There was one day, where I was sitting by the garden, vaguely noticing that the snow pea plants were more full than usual, and suddenly realized that many of what I had taken for leaves were actually peas. Ate most of them fresh and gave the rest out.
The cherry tomatoes also eventually started producing on a regular basis, even though it was late in the season. The regular tomatoes, just like last year, produced but way too late, not giving them a chance to ripen. Looks like fried green tomatoes again this year.
The cucumbers didn't produce like they have in previous years, but I will give them this: I had taken all the crawling plants, such as the watermelon, honey dew, cantaloupe, and cucumbers to be dead after the pumpkins choked them out, but of all of them, the cucumbers survived, climbed bamboo stalks and flowered, even if they didn't produce.
But of course, my crowning achievement this year were the sunflowers. I've already spoken on it, but after a tough season and having failed twice before, I managed to bloom three Lemon Queen Sunflowers. The sunflower is an important symbol to me, and it made the entire gardening endeavor worth it this year.
And at the end of this season, I have today done my civil duty and voted. For some reason, I never get my voter card in the mail. My roommate got his, and I didn't get mine even though I'm the leaseholder. Wasn't much of a deterrent. Between my health card and some government mail, I was able to vote. I don't want this blog to become hugely political, so I won't speak on who I voted for. However, I already have a feeling that, no matter what the results are, emotions are going to run high, and when I speak on the winner, some of my views might leak out. This is a big election. Our neighbours to the south aren't the only ones with divisive politics.
That being said, anybody who knows me, my line of work, and my values wouldn't be too surprised by my political opinions, I don't think.
So... Thanksgiving was a couple of weeks ago. I went up to Guelph and had the standard turkey dinner with my mother and brother. It was a pretty low-key event, but we had a more traditional family gathering this past weekend. Last Friday and Saturday, my grandparents, my aunt and my cousin all visited in Guelph.
If you don't believe I was in Guelph for some reason, here's some photographic evidence:
It's a Gryphon with a gryphon!
That's our famous gryphon statue, situated outside the University of Guelph. We paid some significant coin for that thing. Worth every cent, I say.
Unfortunately, the good feelings of the visit were dampened a little by the fact that one of the Guelph cats, Luna, was sick. She had been acting a little odd, at first seeming a little uncoordinated, and then having a reduced appetite, and then seeming lethargic. So we brought her to the vet, and it turns out she has an anal abscess.
Turns out, having an anal abscess makes a cat not feel like drinking, so my mother had to learn how to force feed her liquids. She was also prescribed antibiotics, and last I saw her, she was active, sociable, purring, and eating and drinking voluntarily, which is great.
Did you guys know that I've been living with a Chilean woman for the past four months? Probably not, since I haven't mentioned it. This has more to do with my roommate than me, but she did make me a bunch of empanadas and gave me a reiki massage, and she has offered to host me if I ever choose to vacation in Chile.
I guess I'll also report in this update how my garden did this year, since we're past our first frost and the harvest season is basically over. Last I spoke to you guys, I said that my pumpkins had become huge and were bullying the other plants. I wasn't sure if I should be glad that they were as healthy as they were, or if I should be mad that they crowded everything else. Well, it's pumpkin season, and let me tell you, right when they were at their most glorious and had dominated the rest of the garden, they suddenly died. So I'm a little miffed at them, because they flourished at the expense of their neighbouring crops, then perished before giving me anything.
Wasn't a total waste. We got more snow peas this year than last. There was one day, where I was sitting by the garden, vaguely noticing that the snow pea plants were more full than usual, and suddenly realized that many of what I had taken for leaves were actually peas. Ate most of them fresh and gave the rest out.
The cherry tomatoes also eventually started producing on a regular basis, even though it was late in the season. The regular tomatoes, just like last year, produced but way too late, not giving them a chance to ripen. Looks like fried green tomatoes again this year.
The cucumbers didn't produce like they have in previous years, but I will give them this: I had taken all the crawling plants, such as the watermelon, honey dew, cantaloupe, and cucumbers to be dead after the pumpkins choked them out, but of all of them, the cucumbers survived, climbed bamboo stalks and flowered, even if they didn't produce.
But of course, my crowning achievement this year were the sunflowers. I've already spoken on it, but after a tough season and having failed twice before, I managed to bloom three Lemon Queen Sunflowers. The sunflower is an important symbol to me, and it made the entire gardening endeavor worth it this year.
And at the end of this season, I have today done my civil duty and voted. For some reason, I never get my voter card in the mail. My roommate got his, and I didn't get mine even though I'm the leaseholder. Wasn't much of a deterrent. Between my health card and some government mail, I was able to vote. I don't want this blog to become hugely political, so I won't speak on who I voted for. However, I already have a feeling that, no matter what the results are, emotions are going to run high, and when I speak on the winner, some of my views might leak out. This is a big election. Our neighbours to the south aren't the only ones with divisive politics.
That being said, anybody who knows me, my line of work, and my values wouldn't be too surprised by my political opinions, I don't think.
Friday, October 11, 2019
City Developments
I was in Brampton last weekend seeing my girlfriend and her family, and I got to learn a few things about the city.
One is that they have a large Indian population. We were thinking about seeing a movie, so I went online to check Brampton's only local theatre, which was a Silver City (sounds untrue, and admittedly, I'm going off some stuff I heard, as well as a quick Google search). After looking through their options, I asked if they had a large Indian population, which caught a few laughs. More than a few of their featured films were in Hindi or Punjabi, and when we went to the theatre, we were definitely in a distinct racial minority. However, the film we wound up seeing (a movie-length picture of the television show Downtown Abbey, held in England about 100 years in the past) attracted a Caucasian majority. My girlfriend assured me that only this specific film could bring together so many white people in Brampton.
Honestly, the Indian/Nepali-to-European-Canadian ratio didn't really make me uneasy, as it pretty accurately reflects the population of my townhouse complex. Felt right at home. I also think it's kind of cool that even a large corporation such as Cineplex Cinema's Silver City will tailor their film choices to the preferences of a local community.
Another thing I learned is that a certain area of Brampton, called Bramalea, is sorted into even smaller areas based on alphabetical order. So it starts with an A-section, where all the street names start with the letter "A", then moves to a "B" section, and progresses all the way to "P". Outside of the letters they never reached, it seems they never made an "I" area.
While we're looking at city development, there are a few things happening here in Kitchener.
First off, I'm not sure if I've already mentioned this some time back, but they're tearing down the Sears building that used to connect to one of our largest malls. I wouldn't have expected this to be controversial, but apparently a number of people considered this to be a heritage building, which commemorated "50's Shopping Culture".
The 50's still feel a little too early to be historic, but I guess historic things only get to be the way they are because nobody tears them down when they are only slightly old. I wouldn't have thought that "shopping culture" was something to protect, or on the way out, but I guess online shopping is now currently endangering the mall experience. It doesn't feel like it was too long ago that everyone was against Wal Mart for choking out local businesses. Now it seems that Amazon gets all the attention.
They are putting in a new Conestoga College campus where the old Market Square used to be. Market Square was this old shopping centre that used to be an Eaton Centre (Old Quebec Street Mall in Guelph apparently was also an Eaton Centre, so I feel like the age of Eaton Centres is passing). Because I have lived near, and have provided support close to this area, I have some knowledge of what remained of Market Square before these current events. When I subletted near it five years ago, their food court was full. Since then, everything except Mr. Wok and Grill Inn shut down. Two restaurants inside an otherwise empty food court.
I always wondered how the food court did so poorly when they were basically the cafeteria for Trios College, which is a little, less-renowned college that still seemed to hold a consistent attendance. They also had a successful and attached Goodlife Fitness gym, but those guys are never hungry.
On the first floor, there used to be an athletics shop that closed down and was never replaced. Otherwise, there was a spa, an electronics store, and a watch store.
They are calling the new Conestoga Campus "Kitchener Campus". Despite my school's building falling inside the borders of Kitchener, it is called Doon Campus, because "Doon" used to be it's own place before Kitchener absorbed it.
At Frederick Mall, they are closing Imagine Cinemas, which isn't a huge surprise to me, just because I couldn't see how they were possibly pulling a profit to begin with. They sold the cheapest tickets in town, at like, $7 a piece. They had two screens, and more often than not, I would have the theatre to myself. One time, they forgot to turn the lights off 20 minutes into a movie because they forgot anybody was in the audience. Somehow, they managed to keep themselves open since long before I arrived in Kitchener, but I guess it couldn't be sustainable.
Charles St Terminal has finally closed. I've felt pretty strongly about keeping you guys informed on this, even though it is completely uninteresting, just because this terminal was a place that I have spent a lot of time in over the years.
After the terminal stopped being used for local transit, they left the Transfers cafe and bar, and the information desk open. At this point, I really wondered if these businesses could remain open without the main local service running. Then, the information desk relocated to a nearby hotel, but the bar and cafe were still open, and business was better than ever. I guess just because of sentimentality as everyone knew they wouldn't be around for long. Then, the desk and bar closed, but they still had security custodial staff, working bathrooms, and a working drinking fountain. The homeless people that used hang around the terminal were also still there. However, this past month, they closed their doors entirely
Not everything is being torn down. In my neighborhood, they just opened a shawarma spot. Shawarma has become a popular fast food option in Kitchener, and I'm really glad that it has. However, somehow down the line, shawarma joints all decided to adopt poutine onto their menus, with "shawarma poutine" as a local, expected fusion food. I just wonder how Canadian Soul Food and Middle Eastern Cuisine managed to merge together so consistently in my area.
I mentioned in the past that Guelph paid big money to have these giant cement pigeons built near their bus terminal, made intentionally old-looking and with the same material as the city's Church of our Lady. Here is one of them:
I guess when building the new bus terminals to accommodate our Light Rail Transit, KW decided to take a leaf out of our book and decorate one of their main terminal with its most prevalent pest.
They don't get their own perch in the sky, but they are more vibrantly cloured! And for some reason, they put mulch under their feet, as if they are expected to grow like a plant. I'll let you guys decide which city has the more iconic representation for this common pest.
One is that they have a large Indian population. We were thinking about seeing a movie, so I went online to check Brampton's only local theatre, which was a Silver City (sounds untrue, and admittedly, I'm going off some stuff I heard, as well as a quick Google search). After looking through their options, I asked if they had a large Indian population, which caught a few laughs. More than a few of their featured films were in Hindi or Punjabi, and when we went to the theatre, we were definitely in a distinct racial minority. However, the film we wound up seeing (a movie-length picture of the television show Downtown Abbey, held in England about 100 years in the past) attracted a Caucasian majority. My girlfriend assured me that only this specific film could bring together so many white people in Brampton.
Honestly, the Indian/Nepali-to-European-Canadian ratio didn't really make me uneasy, as it pretty accurately reflects the population of my townhouse complex. Felt right at home. I also think it's kind of cool that even a large corporation such as Cineplex Cinema's Silver City will tailor their film choices to the preferences of a local community.
Another thing I learned is that a certain area of Brampton, called Bramalea, is sorted into even smaller areas based on alphabetical order. So it starts with an A-section, where all the street names start with the letter "A", then moves to a "B" section, and progresses all the way to "P". Outside of the letters they never reached, it seems they never made an "I" area.
While we're looking at city development, there are a few things happening here in Kitchener.
First off, I'm not sure if I've already mentioned this some time back, but they're tearing down the Sears building that used to connect to one of our largest malls. I wouldn't have expected this to be controversial, but apparently a number of people considered this to be a heritage building, which commemorated "50's Shopping Culture".
The 50's still feel a little too early to be historic, but I guess historic things only get to be the way they are because nobody tears them down when they are only slightly old. I wouldn't have thought that "shopping culture" was something to protect, or on the way out, but I guess online shopping is now currently endangering the mall experience. It doesn't feel like it was too long ago that everyone was against Wal Mart for choking out local businesses. Now it seems that Amazon gets all the attention.
They are putting in a new Conestoga College campus where the old Market Square used to be. Market Square was this old shopping centre that used to be an Eaton Centre (Old Quebec Street Mall in Guelph apparently was also an Eaton Centre, so I feel like the age of Eaton Centres is passing). Because I have lived near, and have provided support close to this area, I have some knowledge of what remained of Market Square before these current events. When I subletted near it five years ago, their food court was full. Since then, everything except Mr. Wok and Grill Inn shut down. Two restaurants inside an otherwise empty food court.
I always wondered how the food court did so poorly when they were basically the cafeteria for Trios College, which is a little, less-renowned college that still seemed to hold a consistent attendance. They also had a successful and attached Goodlife Fitness gym, but those guys are never hungry.
On the first floor, there used to be an athletics shop that closed down and was never replaced. Otherwise, there was a spa, an electronics store, and a watch store.
They are calling the new Conestoga Campus "Kitchener Campus". Despite my school's building falling inside the borders of Kitchener, it is called Doon Campus, because "Doon" used to be it's own place before Kitchener absorbed it.
At Frederick Mall, they are closing Imagine Cinemas, which isn't a huge surprise to me, just because I couldn't see how they were possibly pulling a profit to begin with. They sold the cheapest tickets in town, at like, $7 a piece. They had two screens, and more often than not, I would have the theatre to myself. One time, they forgot to turn the lights off 20 minutes into a movie because they forgot anybody was in the audience. Somehow, they managed to keep themselves open since long before I arrived in Kitchener, but I guess it couldn't be sustainable.
Charles St Terminal has finally closed. I've felt pretty strongly about keeping you guys informed on this, even though it is completely uninteresting, just because this terminal was a place that I have spent a lot of time in over the years.
After the terminal stopped being used for local transit, they left the Transfers cafe and bar, and the information desk open. At this point, I really wondered if these businesses could remain open without the main local service running. Then, the information desk relocated to a nearby hotel, but the bar and cafe were still open, and business was better than ever. I guess just because of sentimentality as everyone knew they wouldn't be around for long. Then, the desk and bar closed, but they still had security custodial staff, working bathrooms, and a working drinking fountain. The homeless people that used hang around the terminal were also still there. However, this past month, they closed their doors entirely
Not everything is being torn down. In my neighborhood, they just opened a shawarma spot. Shawarma has become a popular fast food option in Kitchener, and I'm really glad that it has. However, somehow down the line, shawarma joints all decided to adopt poutine onto their menus, with "shawarma poutine" as a local, expected fusion food. I just wonder how Canadian Soul Food and Middle Eastern Cuisine managed to merge together so consistently in my area.
I mentioned in the past that Guelph paid big money to have these giant cement pigeons built near their bus terminal, made intentionally old-looking and with the same material as the city's Church of our Lady. Here is one of them:
I guess when building the new bus terminals to accommodate our Light Rail Transit, KW decided to take a leaf out of our book and decorate one of their main terminal with its most prevalent pest.
They don't get their own perch in the sky, but they are more vibrantly cloured! And for some reason, they put mulch under their feet, as if they are expected to grow like a plant. I'll let you guys decide which city has the more iconic representation for this common pest.
Thursday, October 3, 2019
Solo SMG and Creepy Doll
This past weekend, I was asked to lead a Safe Management session. It was a recertification (people doing it the first time have to do 12-hours between two sessions, while people recertifying only have to do one six-hour session). There were only four people attending, which is the smallest course I've ever taught, and so far as I'm aware, there has never been a course taught with lower attendance.
I guess because of the low number, it was decided that only one facilitator was necessary. Normally, sessions are co-facilitated, but maybe because of the last-minute call to have me do a solo-session in June because my partner was sick, and because I did relatively alright, this has resulted in the organization having faith in me to lead my own sessions.
It helped that I knew most of the people in the course (I'm trying to be ambiguous, but "most of" four has to be three, so I knew three of them) and also, because the board room and I guess the resource room at the main office were booked, this means the session would be taught at WALES. My home turf.
During the session, we went over the Functions of Behaviour, abbreviated as SEATC (Sensory, Escape, Attention, Tangible, Communication). These are the five basic motivators for anyone to take action. It's not impaortant, but I feel that they missed out on the opportunity to use the abbreviation SCATE or STEAC.
I used the example of smoking as being a behaviour that serves multiple functions, being a Tangible (something physical) and also Sensory (release of tension). From there, it was brought up that it also serves as Escape (being able to take breaks from work), Attention (having a support group that comes together during smoke breaks), and Communication (having a group to bounce thoughts off of). From there, I had to concede that smoking apparently meets every function of behaviour.
At work, we found this creepy little doll attached to a magnet on our refrigerator. Here's a pic:
I later found it in our tuck shop cash register with a note attached to it "Hide me".
So I put it in our safe, which holds some of our members finances. Since then, it has been hung from a hook on the ceiling, it's been attached to our fire safety policy, it's been put in a glass cabinet beneath our TV, and it's been assimilated into a wall hanging, which is where I last found it.
In the past, I hung it from a bird feeder in our laundry room. This time around, I can't tell you
I guess because of the low number, it was decided that only one facilitator was necessary. Normally, sessions are co-facilitated, but maybe because of the last-minute call to have me do a solo-session in June because my partner was sick, and because I did relatively alright, this has resulted in the organization having faith in me to lead my own sessions.
It helped that I knew most of the people in the course (I'm trying to be ambiguous, but "most of" four has to be three, so I knew three of them) and also, because the board room and I guess the resource room at the main office were booked, this means the session would be taught at WALES. My home turf.
During the session, we went over the Functions of Behaviour, abbreviated as SEATC (Sensory, Escape, Attention, Tangible, Communication). These are the five basic motivators for anyone to take action. It's not impaortant, but I feel that they missed out on the opportunity to use the abbreviation SCATE or STEAC.
I used the example of smoking as being a behaviour that serves multiple functions, being a Tangible (something physical) and also Sensory (release of tension). From there, it was brought up that it also serves as Escape (being able to take breaks from work), Attention (having a support group that comes together during smoke breaks), and Communication (having a group to bounce thoughts off of). From there, I had to concede that smoking apparently meets every function of behaviour.
At work, we found this creepy little doll attached to a magnet on our refrigerator. Here's a pic:
I later found it in our tuck shop cash register with a note attached to it "Hide me".
So I put it in our safe, which holds some of our members finances. Since then, it has been hung from a hook on the ceiling, it's been attached to our fire safety policy, it's been put in a glass cabinet beneath our TV, and it's been assimilated into a wall hanging, which is where I last found it.
In the past, I hung it from a bird feeder in our laundry room. This time around, I can't tell you
Tuesday, October 1, 2019
Bus Crash
Let's start this month right... with a blog post.
Last weekend, when I was coming back from Guelph, I was scheduled to have a meeting with the initial member of the Community Men's Group. I was going to catch a Greyhound bus at 2:00 and my meeting was at 5:00. The bus from Guelph to Kitchener is often an hour late (no exaggeration) and travel time is about half an hour. So even with an hour and a half buffer, I'd be getting in at 3:30, with the meeting being downtown, so I could attend it without going home first.
Predictably, the Greyhound was half an hour late. Unpredictably, on our way over, we were in a roundabout, and someone with a trailer swung out and took out our side mirror.
Trailer guy took off, but our driver had to stop, ask us to fill out some paperwork, contact local police, and get a new bus to pick us up.
I was unharmed. I'd heard the screeching of metal against metal, and that caused me to look up. I don't know who was at fault, but the fact that the guy with the trailer didn't stop is not a good look for him.
So they manage to have us get picked up by the next Greyhound passing us. At this time, I haven't eaten all day. I'd hoped to do so when I got to Kitchener, but by the time I arrived, I'd had just enough time to make it to my meeting.
The meeting went well, and we made plans for next week. However, it turns out that the place and time we held our meeting transitioned into an Open Space group, which is a spot where people come together to chat and play board games (mostly Uno). It's meant to be a spot where everyone is invited, but it has a bit of an emphasis on people with disabilities.
This particular night was Open Mic Night, and it turns out that I know a ton of people who perform on Open Mic Night. I didn't want to dip on anyone, so I wound up staying until 9:00.
Wound up ordering a pizza as soon as I got in, and that was my one meal for the day.
Last weekend, when I was coming back from Guelph, I was scheduled to have a meeting with the initial member of the Community Men's Group. I was going to catch a Greyhound bus at 2:00 and my meeting was at 5:00. The bus from Guelph to Kitchener is often an hour late (no exaggeration) and travel time is about half an hour. So even with an hour and a half buffer, I'd be getting in at 3:30, with the meeting being downtown, so I could attend it without going home first.
Predictably, the Greyhound was half an hour late. Unpredictably, on our way over, we were in a roundabout, and someone with a trailer swung out and took out our side mirror.
Trailer guy took off, but our driver had to stop, ask us to fill out some paperwork, contact local police, and get a new bus to pick us up.
I was unharmed. I'd heard the screeching of metal against metal, and that caused me to look up. I don't know who was at fault, but the fact that the guy with the trailer didn't stop is not a good look for him.
So they manage to have us get picked up by the next Greyhound passing us. At this time, I haven't eaten all day. I'd hoped to do so when I got to Kitchener, but by the time I arrived, I'd had just enough time to make it to my meeting.
The meeting went well, and we made plans for next week. However, it turns out that the place and time we held our meeting transitioned into an Open Space group, which is a spot where people come together to chat and play board games (mostly Uno). It's meant to be a spot where everyone is invited, but it has a bit of an emphasis on people with disabilities.
This particular night was Open Mic Night, and it turns out that I know a ton of people who perform on Open Mic Night. I didn't want to dip on anyone, so I wound up staying until 9:00.
Wound up ordering a pizza as soon as I got in, and that was my one meal for the day.
Sunday, September 29, 2019
ID
So... I did something really silly. I let most of my ID expire. Normally, I use this blog to talk about my accomplishments, adventures, and commentaries. Less often do I speak on my mistakes and shortcomings. But today, I'm going to talk about this.
I was first made aware of my situation when I was trying to purchase beer and was asked for ID. Doesn't happen too often, and I'm sure I don't look under 19 (our legal drinking age) but they have to ask if they think you're 25 or younger, and sometimes they send people out to sting servers that don't ask. My male pattern baldness is too progressed to belong to an 18 year old, but maybe I pass for a rough looking 24 year old out on a sting.
So I gave her my driver's license and she asked if I had something that wasn't expired. So I asked if she could take my Health Card, and she could, but when she looked at it, she asked me if I had anything that wasn't expired. I didn't, and got denied for being under suspicion of being 18 years old or younger.
Just went to a nearby beer store where people are familiar with me. Even so, I was super nervous and feeling like an underage kid trying to score some forbidden drink. Wound up acting real nervous purchasing from a guy I've known for four years. I mean, if I was underage during that time of purchase, I would have had to have been 14 when I started buying from that guy.
Want to know something really lame about me? I never attempted to purchase alcohol underage. Not once. Even still, there's a small part of me that worries I'll get ID'd every time I go to the liquor store.
Anyway, turns out it's a bit difficult to get photo ID if you don't have valid photo ID. Usually, you need three pieces of identification to prove you are who you say you are. I'm not going to look it up to confirm, but I believe they were something along the lines of one piece to prove your identity, one to prove your citizenship, and one to prove your address. I believe I was able to prove my citizenship and address, but not my identity. I could use my health card to prove identity for my driver's license, or my driver's license to prove identity for my health card. But I didn't have either.
So, turns out, you can use your birth certificate as proof of identity for your health card (but not driver's license). One problem, though. I had left my birth certificate in Guelph, and I guess it got lost during one of the times that the family moved. So I needed to get my birth certificate to get my health card, and my health card to get my driver's license.
To get your birth certificate, you need to have a reference from someone who has known you for five years and who is in a profession considered "trustworthy". I used to use my grandfather, but he's retired now, and apparently the Canadian government no longer considers you "trustworthy" the moment you retire. I wound up using my boss.
It's funny, because one of the "trustworthy" professions is Social Service Worker, which is what I am, and I am even registered with the Ontario College of Social Work and Social Service Work. So, I am a prime candidate to prove someone's existence, but I can't prove my own existence.
Anyway, sent in the application. Cost me like, $160. Got it in the mail, then hit up Service Ontario for my health card application. Thought it might take me a while, but I only had to wait like, 15 minutes.
I'm an organ donor now. They asked me at the counter and I okayed it. I had the option of donating just to save people, or to save people and use them for research. I said they could use them for whatever. The lady at the counter seemed like she was encouraging me to donate to save lives but not for research, but I was like "If I'm dead, I ain't usin' 'em. Just use them for whatever people need."
I acted cool, but I've honestly been a little creeped since that conversation. I've always thought organ donors were cool, but it was a real spur-of-the-moment conversation about what to do with some of my possessions that I use quite regularly. Overall, I'm happy with my decision. Just a little creeped out with it as well.
A few weeks later, and I have my new photo health card. Now I just need to renew my G1 (first stage of a graduated licensing system). Some people are suggesting that I get an Ontario ID card (generic photo ID for people that can't get alternative identification) because they don't believe that I will be graduating through our licensing system, since I have made a number of attempts throughout the last decade and it hasn't happened. But FORGET THAT! I WILL get my driver's license! I WILL!
This is our fifth post of the month, which means that, pathetically, September is 2019's month with the most posts. Lot of accomplishments this year, not a lot of posts.
I wound up having three sunflowers this year, by the way.
I was first made aware of my situation when I was trying to purchase beer and was asked for ID. Doesn't happen too often, and I'm sure I don't look under 19 (our legal drinking age) but they have to ask if they think you're 25 or younger, and sometimes they send people out to sting servers that don't ask. My male pattern baldness is too progressed to belong to an 18 year old, but maybe I pass for a rough looking 24 year old out on a sting.
So I gave her my driver's license and she asked if I had something that wasn't expired. So I asked if she could take my Health Card, and she could, but when she looked at it, she asked me if I had anything that wasn't expired. I didn't, and got denied for being under suspicion of being 18 years old or younger.
Just went to a nearby beer store where people are familiar with me. Even so, I was super nervous and feeling like an underage kid trying to score some forbidden drink. Wound up acting real nervous purchasing from a guy I've known for four years. I mean, if I was underage during that time of purchase, I would have had to have been 14 when I started buying from that guy.
Want to know something really lame about me? I never attempted to purchase alcohol underage. Not once. Even still, there's a small part of me that worries I'll get ID'd every time I go to the liquor store.
Anyway, turns out it's a bit difficult to get photo ID if you don't have valid photo ID. Usually, you need three pieces of identification to prove you are who you say you are. I'm not going to look it up to confirm, but I believe they were something along the lines of one piece to prove your identity, one to prove your citizenship, and one to prove your address. I believe I was able to prove my citizenship and address, but not my identity. I could use my health card to prove identity for my driver's license, or my driver's license to prove identity for my health card. But I didn't have either.
So, turns out, you can use your birth certificate as proof of identity for your health card (but not driver's license). One problem, though. I had left my birth certificate in Guelph, and I guess it got lost during one of the times that the family moved. So I needed to get my birth certificate to get my health card, and my health card to get my driver's license.
To get your birth certificate, you need to have a reference from someone who has known you for five years and who is in a profession considered "trustworthy". I used to use my grandfather, but he's retired now, and apparently the Canadian government no longer considers you "trustworthy" the moment you retire. I wound up using my boss.
It's funny, because one of the "trustworthy" professions is Social Service Worker, which is what I am, and I am even registered with the Ontario College of Social Work and Social Service Work. So, I am a prime candidate to prove someone's existence, but I can't prove my own existence.
Anyway, sent in the application. Cost me like, $160. Got it in the mail, then hit up Service Ontario for my health card application. Thought it might take me a while, but I only had to wait like, 15 minutes.
I'm an organ donor now. They asked me at the counter and I okayed it. I had the option of donating just to save people, or to save people and use them for research. I said they could use them for whatever. The lady at the counter seemed like she was encouraging me to donate to save lives but not for research, but I was like "If I'm dead, I ain't usin' 'em. Just use them for whatever people need."
I acted cool, but I've honestly been a little creeped since that conversation. I've always thought organ donors were cool, but it was a real spur-of-the-moment conversation about what to do with some of my possessions that I use quite regularly. Overall, I'm happy with my decision. Just a little creeped out with it as well.
A few weeks later, and I have my new photo health card. Now I just need to renew my G1 (first stage of a graduated licensing system). Some people are suggesting that I get an Ontario ID card (generic photo ID for people that can't get alternative identification) because they don't believe that I will be graduating through our licensing system, since I have made a number of attempts throughout the last decade and it hasn't happened. But FORGET THAT! I WILL get my driver's license! I WILL!
This is our fifth post of the month, which means that, pathetically, September is 2019's month with the most posts. Lot of accomplishments this year, not a lot of posts.
I wound up having three sunflowers this year, by the way.
Thursday, September 26, 2019
EaFy Day 2019
You might not remember from last year, but EaFy Day (Extend-a-Family-y Day) is an annual event that occurs at my organization. We all gather together for a day full of team building, and each year has a different theme. The theme and specific events within it, as well as the location where it is held, change each year. Apparently there has been a Harry Potter themed EaFy Day, and a Murder Mystery one. The only one other than this year's that I have attended was, Choose Your Happy.
Choose Your Happy was held at St Jacob's Market, a sort of popular but old-fashioned shopping area just outside of Waterloo. People ride horses and sell organic food out there. I ultimately found my Happy by going to a store called Taste, which is a house of sauces that allows you to taste a product before purchasing it. I asked for their hottest sauce, and they presented me with a bottle of Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Pepper Puree and told me if I wanted to buy it, I had to taste it first.
Despite never having tried a Super Hot (anything spicier than a Habanero) I knew well that the Scorpion Pepper was the second hottest pepper in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. I had been to this store before, but only as a support worker, and I had always felt that, should I succumb to the heat, I might rely on the person I served to support me for the rest of the day, so I'd never pushed myself.
But I was alone, with nothing to lose. So I danced with the Scorpion and found it surprisingly palatable (It's a slow burn that allows you to taste it before the heat sets in). I wound up developing a hot sauce collection because of this day.
This year's theme was Choose Your Own Adventure. So, another theme that values choice. It was held at a campsite, the pamphlet explaining the day was written like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, "If you enjoy nature, turn to page three, if you like competition, turn to page 4, etc." It was small enough that you could read the whole thing, though.
Scheduled events of the day were a Thai-Chi class, canoeing (Did I tell you guys about my canoe accident this summer?), and a camp fire. They also provided board games, some choose-your-own-adventure books, and a photo scavenger hunt.
The adventure I chose for the afternoon was to run around worrying about whether or not I was still doing CCLD (Citizen Centred Leadership, an online course that my organization has paid for me to take) as a session was supposed to happen during EaFy Day hours, and my ride there was leaving before the course would end.
It all worked out. Three of my classmates were also attending EaFy Day, we got the WiFi password from the camp (never been at a campsite with WiFi before), we shared a laptop, and one of them gave me a ride back.
But during the morning, I completed the photo scavenger hunt, in which you have to take a selfie...
...with a tree
...with a pinecone
...with a sign
...with three types of leaves
...with two types of sticks
...in the sunlight
...in the shade
...with something smooth
...with something bumpy
...with a trash bin
...with a red car
...with something round
...eating something
...smelling something refreshing
...with something red
....with something colourful
....with animal tracks.
I'd like to point out that, to win the scavenger hunt, you only needed to get ten out of seventeen, but I got every one. The most difficult was the animal tracks. I was at a loss until somebody gave me a tip in that a person won the year previous by using someone's paw print tattoo. Then it just took a little networking to find someone with such a tattoo. Barring that, I was going to use a shoe print and argue that humans are animals.
I made a self-imposed rule that I couldn't use the same item for two images. For example, I had already taken a selfie with a red leaf and a red car, but I required myself to find something new for the "with something red" photo. I also could have just smelled and then eaten the orange slice for "smelling something refreshing" and "while eating", but instead I used a muffin for one of the images.
I think I might have technically failed the trash bin one. I think the exact wording was "in front of a trash can" and I don't know if what I got qualifies as a "can" and I'm beside it, not in front. But I had my list verified by the person who made the activity, and she didn't burn me for that.
There were like, four other people playing, but I think I'm the only one who got all seventeen, so I'm declaring myself the winner.
Choose Your Happy was held at St Jacob's Market, a sort of popular but old-fashioned shopping area just outside of Waterloo. People ride horses and sell organic food out there. I ultimately found my Happy by going to a store called Taste, which is a house of sauces that allows you to taste a product before purchasing it. I asked for their hottest sauce, and they presented me with a bottle of Trinidad Moruga Scorpion Pepper Puree and told me if I wanted to buy it, I had to taste it first.
Despite never having tried a Super Hot (anything spicier than a Habanero) I knew well that the Scorpion Pepper was the second hottest pepper in the world according to the Guinness Book of World Records. I had been to this store before, but only as a support worker, and I had always felt that, should I succumb to the heat, I might rely on the person I served to support me for the rest of the day, so I'd never pushed myself.
But I was alone, with nothing to lose. So I danced with the Scorpion and found it surprisingly palatable (It's a slow burn that allows you to taste it before the heat sets in). I wound up developing a hot sauce collection because of this day.
This year's theme was Choose Your Own Adventure. So, another theme that values choice. It was held at a campsite, the pamphlet explaining the day was written like a Choose Your Own Adventure book, "If you enjoy nature, turn to page three, if you like competition, turn to page 4, etc." It was small enough that you could read the whole thing, though.
Scheduled events of the day were a Thai-Chi class, canoeing (Did I tell you guys about my canoe accident this summer?), and a camp fire. They also provided board games, some choose-your-own-adventure books, and a photo scavenger hunt.
The adventure I chose for the afternoon was to run around worrying about whether or not I was still doing CCLD (Citizen Centred Leadership, an online course that my organization has paid for me to take) as a session was supposed to happen during EaFy Day hours, and my ride there was leaving before the course would end.
It all worked out. Three of my classmates were also attending EaFy Day, we got the WiFi password from the camp (never been at a campsite with WiFi before), we shared a laptop, and one of them gave me a ride back.
But during the morning, I completed the photo scavenger hunt, in which you have to take a selfie...
...with a tree
...with a pinecone
...with a sign
...with three types of leaves
...with two types of sticks
...in the sunlight
...in the shade
...with something smooth
...with something bumpy
...with a trash bin
...with a red car
...with something round
...eating something
...smelling something refreshing
...with something red
....with something colourful
....with animal tracks.
I'd like to point out that, to win the scavenger hunt, you only needed to get ten out of seventeen, but I got every one. The most difficult was the animal tracks. I was at a loss until somebody gave me a tip in that a person won the year previous by using someone's paw print tattoo. Then it just took a little networking to find someone with such a tattoo. Barring that, I was going to use a shoe print and argue that humans are animals.
I made a self-imposed rule that I couldn't use the same item for two images. For example, I had already taken a selfie with a red leaf and a red car, but I required myself to find something new for the "with something red" photo. I also could have just smelled and then eaten the orange slice for "smelling something refreshing" and "while eating", but instead I used a muffin for one of the images.
I think I might have technically failed the trash bin one. I think the exact wording was "in front of a trash can" and I don't know if what I got qualifies as a "can" and I'm beside it, not in front. But I had my list verified by the person who made the activity, and she didn't burn me for that.
There were like, four other people playing, but I think I'm the only one who got all seventeen, so I'm declaring myself the winner.
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Thirty
Yesterday was my 30th birthday. To celebrate, I went to Guelph, and my girlfriend came to visit. She had already met my mother, so it wasn't too much of a gamble, but she got to meet my brother and see my family's home, which was pretty cool.
My mother and brother got me the dried up head of a Kong sunflower, which is a ridiculously huge breed of sunflower that grows multiple blossoms, and which I've always dreamed of growing. One of their neighbours grew them this year, and I didn't really believe he'd managed it until I saw them for myself. They were small Kongs, but unmistakably the real deal. With this dried up Kong head, I should be able to harvest the seeds and grow my own next year.
They also got me a water filtration system to attach to my tap at home, because I don't trust my Kitchener pipes. It's the same filter that the city got for them to eliminate the lead that had been detected in their pipes, so it should be good. I found this to be a very appropriate gift for turning thirty, because concerns about water quality seems like quite an "adult" issue to have.
My girlfriend got me a journal to write down my dreams, because I'd said that I wanted to start doing a dream journal again, as well as to write down bucket list items (growing a Kong sunflower is on my bucket list), and some tickets for doing a "paint night" on her, since she knows painting is a hobby of mine, and she found out I'd never heard of a "paint night" before (it's like a painting session with a prompt given by an instructor).
My girlfriend treated me to Crafty Ramen, which is a restaurant in Guelph (much higher quality and more dressed up than Mr. Noodles, more akin to an authentic Japanese ramen spot). I had the Gryphon Bowl, which is something I've wanted to try for a long time, but for some reason, while it is often featured, it's never been available while I was in town. It was good. It was spicy at a comfortable level, and had pork and corn.
Birthday dinner was a barbecue. It was only the second time my mother had used the barbecue I got her for her birthday. She said she needed the inbetween step of watching me and listening to my instructions, and me watching her while she does most of the work. She seemed to be fairly comfortable with the process by the time dinner was ready.
Annual reminder that the 21st isn't just my birthday, it's also the International Day of Peace:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Peace
This year's theme was "Climate Action for Peace" in acknowledgement that sustainable global peace doesn't just come through reducing physical violence, it's also about caring for this planet that we all share.
Also, check out this wacky guy:
https://twitter.com/electrolemon/status/1175445355992797184
He does a video clip based on the Earth Wind and Fire song, September which is based on the "21st night of September". This year, if you buy a shirt from him, 100% of the proceeds go toward Climate Action for Change"
I'm not opposed to turning thirty. I'm not saying that I want to get old, or that I don't wish I'd accomplished more, but honestly, my twenties gave me a pr etty fair shake. Let's review the decade:
I entered the Katimavik program, where I was stationed in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Chisasibi, North Quebec. In this time I worked for Community Connections, a day program for adults with developmental disabilities, the Regional Food Distribution Association, otherwise known as the food bank for food banks, and then a series of projects in Chisasibi, such as looking after children for a summer camp, helping facilitate a powwow, and living on Fort George in a teepee for a week. We also did workshops and volunteer events on evenings and weekends and took turns acting as House Manager.
Then I came back and worked factories in three different Linamar Branches, moving from being an Assembly Line Worker, inserting springs and rocker into car axles and clutches, to being a Machine Operator.
Then I did Canada World Youth, where I lived and worked with a citizen of Mali, a country in West Africa, in a host family in La Pocatier, Quebec, acting as a horticulturalist for three months. Then we moved to Karadie, a village of 800 adults without English or electricity for three months.
Then I came back and did the Human Services Foundation program at Conestoga College for a year and earned an Ontario College Certificate before entering the Social Service Worker program, which I did for two years and earned an Ontario College Diploma.
I did two years of student placement at WALES (Working Adults Learning Empowering Skills), a community group run through an organization called Extend-a-Family, made for people diagnosed with developmental disabilities, helping them develop and actualize their goals and dreams.
I worked for a year as an Independent Facilitator for Facile (now Bridges to Belonging), helping people diagnosed with disabilities build their futures while working in the community.
I did four years of Summer Program (a recreational program run through Extend-a-Family), doing both a Day Program and an Overnight Camp.
I've done four years of Direct Support (one-to-one work in the community with people diagnosed with developmental disabilities)
I've been a Safe Management Instructor, teaching crisis intervention and prevention techniques for three years.
I worked for the better part of a year working night shift at a group home for displaced youth through Hatts Off.
I did a year of education at the University of Waterloo in the Social Development Studies program, and then realized that my old student placement, WALES, was hiring, and quit higher education to become their In-House Facilitator, which I've been doing for a little over a year now.
Katimavik through Canada World Youth, my family (mother and brother) has changed their residential setting three times (and I have lived with them at each location). I lived in the Conestoga College Residence for a year, then lived in student housing (not connected with the college, but still marketed to students) for two years. After graduating, I subletted for five months, and then moved to the place I am currently at, where I have been for three, going on four years.
This means that, not including Katimavik or CWY, I have lived in seven locations in the past decade. Including my youth programs, I have lived in twelve (I changed host families in my Quebec rotation during CWY)
During my time in student housing, which included a place where I had six roommates at a time, I had twenty roommates overall. After moving out, I have lived with six more people (not including a couple from Newfoundland who I spent less than a week with and ultimately decided Ontario living wasn't for them), bringing me to 26 roommates overall, not including my youth programs. Including my youth programs, I initially had ten roommates in Katimavik (but two dropped out in the first three weeks, so we won't count them, and we won't count Project Leaders either), and one in CWY (not including host families), meaning I've had 35 roommates.
Near the end of the decade, I got a cat, something I'd been wanting to do for seven years. Then I got a girlfriend!
So yeah, I don't feel like my twenties cheated me.
My mother and brother got me the dried up head of a Kong sunflower, which is a ridiculously huge breed of sunflower that grows multiple blossoms, and which I've always dreamed of growing. One of their neighbours grew them this year, and I didn't really believe he'd managed it until I saw them for myself. They were small Kongs, but unmistakably the real deal. With this dried up Kong head, I should be able to harvest the seeds and grow my own next year.
They also got me a water filtration system to attach to my tap at home, because I don't trust my Kitchener pipes. It's the same filter that the city got for them to eliminate the lead that had been detected in their pipes, so it should be good. I found this to be a very appropriate gift for turning thirty, because concerns about water quality seems like quite an "adult" issue to have.
My girlfriend got me a journal to write down my dreams, because I'd said that I wanted to start doing a dream journal again, as well as to write down bucket list items (growing a Kong sunflower is on my bucket list), and some tickets for doing a "paint night" on her, since she knows painting is a hobby of mine, and she found out I'd never heard of a "paint night" before (it's like a painting session with a prompt given by an instructor).
My girlfriend treated me to Crafty Ramen, which is a restaurant in Guelph (much higher quality and more dressed up than Mr. Noodles, more akin to an authentic Japanese ramen spot). I had the Gryphon Bowl, which is something I've wanted to try for a long time, but for some reason, while it is often featured, it's never been available while I was in town. It was good. It was spicy at a comfortable level, and had pork and corn.
Birthday dinner was a barbecue. It was only the second time my mother had used the barbecue I got her for her birthday. She said she needed the inbetween step of watching me and listening to my instructions, and me watching her while she does most of the work. She seemed to be fairly comfortable with the process by the time dinner was ready.
Annual reminder that the 21st isn't just my birthday, it's also the International Day of Peace:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Day_of_Peace
This year's theme was "Climate Action for Peace" in acknowledgement that sustainable global peace doesn't just come through reducing physical violence, it's also about caring for this planet that we all share.
Also, check out this wacky guy:
https://twitter.com/electrolemon/status/1175445355992797184
He does a video clip based on the Earth Wind and Fire song, September which is based on the "21st night of September". This year, if you buy a shirt from him, 100% of the proceeds go toward Climate Action for Change"
I'm not opposed to turning thirty. I'm not saying that I want to get old, or that I don't wish I'd accomplished more, but honestly, my twenties gave me a pr etty fair shake. Let's review the decade:
I entered the Katimavik program, where I was stationed in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Thunder Bay, Ontario, and Chisasibi, North Quebec. In this time I worked for Community Connections, a day program for adults with developmental disabilities, the Regional Food Distribution Association, otherwise known as the food bank for food banks, and then a series of projects in Chisasibi, such as looking after children for a summer camp, helping facilitate a powwow, and living on Fort George in a teepee for a week. We also did workshops and volunteer events on evenings and weekends and took turns acting as House Manager.
Then I came back and worked factories in three different Linamar Branches, moving from being an Assembly Line Worker, inserting springs and rocker into car axles and clutches, to being a Machine Operator.
Then I did Canada World Youth, where I lived and worked with a citizen of Mali, a country in West Africa, in a host family in La Pocatier, Quebec, acting as a horticulturalist for three months. Then we moved to Karadie, a village of 800 adults without English or electricity for three months.
Then I came back and did the Human Services Foundation program at Conestoga College for a year and earned an Ontario College Certificate before entering the Social Service Worker program, which I did for two years and earned an Ontario College Diploma.
I did two years of student placement at WALES (Working Adults Learning Empowering Skills), a community group run through an organization called Extend-a-Family, made for people diagnosed with developmental disabilities, helping them develop and actualize their goals and dreams.
I worked for a year as an Independent Facilitator for Facile (now Bridges to Belonging), helping people diagnosed with disabilities build their futures while working in the community.
I did four years of Summer Program (a recreational program run through Extend-a-Family), doing both a Day Program and an Overnight Camp.
I've done four years of Direct Support (one-to-one work in the community with people diagnosed with developmental disabilities)
I've been a Safe Management Instructor, teaching crisis intervention and prevention techniques for three years.
I worked for the better part of a year working night shift at a group home for displaced youth through Hatts Off.
I did a year of education at the University of Waterloo in the Social Development Studies program, and then realized that my old student placement, WALES, was hiring, and quit higher education to become their In-House Facilitator, which I've been doing for a little over a year now.
Katimavik through Canada World Youth, my family (mother and brother) has changed their residential setting three times (and I have lived with them at each location). I lived in the Conestoga College Residence for a year, then lived in student housing (not connected with the college, but still marketed to students) for two years. After graduating, I subletted for five months, and then moved to the place I am currently at, where I have been for three, going on four years.
This means that, not including Katimavik or CWY, I have lived in seven locations in the past decade. Including my youth programs, I have lived in twelve (I changed host families in my Quebec rotation during CWY)
During my time in student housing, which included a place where I had six roommates at a time, I had twenty roommates overall. After moving out, I have lived with six more people (not including a couple from Newfoundland who I spent less than a week with and ultimately decided Ontario living wasn't for them), bringing me to 26 roommates overall, not including my youth programs. Including my youth programs, I initially had ten roommates in Katimavik (but two dropped out in the first three weeks, so we won't count them, and we won't count Project Leaders either), and one in CWY (not including host families), meaning I've had 35 roommates.
Near the end of the decade, I got a cat, something I'd been wanting to do for seven years. Then I got a girlfriend!
So yeah, I don't feel like my twenties cheated me.
Sunday, September 15, 2019
Harvest Moon Friday the 13th
This past week we had Friday the 13th falling on a full moon night, a phenomenon that occurs about once per twenty years. I don't like to admit it, but I'm a bit superstitious and like to lay low when either of those events occur. When they pair up like that, you know I'll be playing it safe. Unfortunately, I'm an adult and I have a job, and my girlfriend is visiting that day. Can't skip either of those.
Specifically, the full moon was the official annual Harvest Moon, which was once valued by agriculturalists that relied on the moon's light to work into the night during the harvest season. People tend to call any large and yellow moon a harvest moon, but turns out, there is only one that is officially named so per year.
Anyway, work was fine. No strange hiccups. Got home, met my girl. I'd been playing up the romantic connection between my life and sunflowers, and the significance of the fact that, despite my best efforts, I had been unable to grow any over the past three years, but that, after meeting her, they had finally started developing.
Well, guess what happened?
First blossom happens on Friday the 13th, on the day she visits! What a stroke of luck!
That day, I also decided to buy a mattress. I had been using the same twin-sized mattress I'd been using since student housing, which I'd adopted from a previous owner. No idea how many people had used it previous to me, or what had been done on it. Time for an upgrade.
Transportation is always an issue, since I don't drive and neither do most of my friends. I found a vacuum-sealed mattress in a box with wheels. Felt like something custom-made for me. Like, how do we make a large mattress that can be transported long distance on foot.
When we were walking home, a storm broke out, but luckily we were near somewhere we could take shelter. When we felt we could chance it, we headed back. Luckily, it only started to rain again once we got into my townhouse complex. The handle on the box broke off when we got to my front door, and the wheels fell off as soon as I lifted it in. The box lasted exactly as long as it needed to. Lucky us.
The mattress I got was queen-sized and the type of sunflower that blossomed was Lemon Queen. Day of Queens. Best Friday the 13th ever!
My new mattress is made of foam, but it's like, part memory foam, part firm foam, and part hard foam, or something like that. Guarantee you my old mattress was only one layer of like, ancient foam. I wound going for the queen size, not so much for width but because the double was 75 inches long, which is 6'3" and my height. The queen is 80 inches in length, which is 6'8", and I'd like my mattress to be longer than me.
Specifically, the full moon was the official annual Harvest Moon, which was once valued by agriculturalists that relied on the moon's light to work into the night during the harvest season. People tend to call any large and yellow moon a harvest moon, but turns out, there is only one that is officially named so per year.
Anyway, work was fine. No strange hiccups. Got home, met my girl. I'd been playing up the romantic connection between my life and sunflowers, and the significance of the fact that, despite my best efforts, I had been unable to grow any over the past three years, but that, after meeting her, they had finally started developing.
Well, guess what happened?
First blossom happens on Friday the 13th, on the day she visits! What a stroke of luck!
That day, I also decided to buy a mattress. I had been using the same twin-sized mattress I'd been using since student housing, which I'd adopted from a previous owner. No idea how many people had used it previous to me, or what had been done on it. Time for an upgrade.
Transportation is always an issue, since I don't drive and neither do most of my friends. I found a vacuum-sealed mattress in a box with wheels. Felt like something custom-made for me. Like, how do we make a large mattress that can be transported long distance on foot.
When we were walking home, a storm broke out, but luckily we were near somewhere we could take shelter. When we felt we could chance it, we headed back. Luckily, it only started to rain again once we got into my townhouse complex. The handle on the box broke off when we got to my front door, and the wheels fell off as soon as I lifted it in. The box lasted exactly as long as it needed to. Lucky us.
The mattress I got was queen-sized and the type of sunflower that blossomed was Lemon Queen. Day of Queens. Best Friday the 13th ever!
My new mattress is made of foam, but it's like, part memory foam, part firm foam, and part hard foam, or something like that. Guarantee you my old mattress was only one layer of like, ancient foam. I wound going for the queen size, not so much for width but because the double was 75 inches long, which is 6'3" and my height. The queen is 80 inches in length, which is 6'8", and I'd like my mattress to be longer than me.
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