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.
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