The Gryphon's Perch

I recently rebranded this blog's name from "Lair of the Gryphon" to "The Gryphon's Perch". I was initially opposed to rebranding while my viewership is in decline, since it might look like a desperate attempt to "revamp" the blog. But really, viewership has never been the goal of this blog. It was initially a self-motivation tool to inspire me to regularly do things worth talking about during a time in my life when I was struggling with stagnancy, and it turned into a way of keeping a few key viewers updated on my life, as well a practice in self-discipline. I guess keeping my writing skills somewhat fresh has been a secondary function, and then random views from people going to Karadie for CWY, or people doing SSW, or people Googling my name (the three reasons I've been contacted by people I didn't know were readers) was a tertiary function of the site.

I'm turning 30 on the 21st of this month, so instead of thinking of this as an attempt to rebrand for viewers, I'd rather think of it as a.... reframing of my own life perspective. I'm leaving behind the edgy, dark, overdramatic "lair" of my youth and settling into the more understated, practical, observational.... "perch" of a more stable adult.

I probably don't need to explain it, but a gryphon is a flying mythical beast, and a perch is somewhere that a flying creature settles from a high height. It would make sense for a gryphon to perch somewhere.

Recently, I went to Ripley's aquarium in Toronto with the person I'm seeing.

I've been wanting to go to this place for so long! I feel like everyone managed to get there before me, but I finally made it!

Takeaways:  Flounders are great. I always thought of them as fish that lie on their bellies, but they actually lie sideways and swim sideways. They have a body that is built for relaxing. Sloths of the sea.

Stonefish are jerks. They couldn't decide between being venomous or to use camouflage as a defense, so they decided to pretend to be a rock, and if anything falls for that, punish them for it.

Biggest "wow" moment was when a sawfish swam overhead when we were riding through the tube with the moving sidewalk and aquarium on all sides. I remember seeing a shark swim toward us and overhead and saying "That was it. That was the moment I came here for". But then there were stingrays and sea turtles after that which also gave great moments. When the sawfish lowered itself above me, from my peripheral I thought it was a prop and a gimmick from the aquarium. When I looked up and registered that it was real, I actually screamed. Felt magical. Wasn't even a big sawfish fan before this.

I'm a big fan of the pistol shrimp, which is a species of shrimp that can clamp their claw so fast that it creates a void in the ocean that temporarily burns as hot as the surface of the sun, and is loud enough to disrupt submarine communications. They didn't have any of those, but they did have mantis shrimp, which are a similarly intimidating species that can punch with the force of a .22 calibre bullet. They looked so modest...


After the aquarium we went to the Canadian National Exhibition (CNE). A fall fare that happens in Toronto. Biggest moment that happened there was riding the ferris wheel, which wouldn't sound like a big deal to most people, but I'm deathly afraid of heights.

You're sitting in a cup that sways back and forth, and you're not secured with a seat belt or anything. They don't allow single rides, so that made me feel like they were depending on your ride partner to balance your weight, which wouldn't work in my case, as I am a good bit heavier. The only thing you can hold onto is the cable in the centre, but if the cable were to break, it would break from above, so that wouldn't help you. The whole ride through, I was thinking about the cable breaking or the cup we were sitting on flipping upside-down.

The person I'm seeing has also pointed out a number of mispronunciations that nobody has called me out on before. When I say the words "calm" and "palm", I make sure to voice the "L" sound. Apparently, most people say "com" instead of "calm". So "calm.com" would just be two words repeating. Also, a "pom pom", like what cheer leaders use, is like saying "palm palm" twice.

That one actually makes me wonder if "pom poms" are based on the word "palm" because cheerleaders are showing their "palms" when cheering, but it's twice as good with the sparkly thing, so they have to say it twice.

I've been saying "sriracha", the spicy tomato-based sauce as "sree-racha". Apparently it's supposed to be "Sir-racha". So why is there an "R" after the "S"?

This is what happens when you read more than you talk. I remember when I was younger, I used the word "finicky" and pronounced it "fih-nicky". My brother said "Fin-icky". I said, "Duncan, quit being so "fih-nicky".