Giant Food

Lee-Anne's doing okay. Me and her parents visited after she had the electrodes implanted under her skull. She was a little groggy from being put under and the anaesthesiologist said that she likely wouldn't remember her first interactions after coming to, but we visited her again the next day and she said she remembered us being there.

On her request, I'm going to cover a topic that she's wanted me to write about, but I've struggled with finding a way to express in an engaging way.

One thing about me that surpises people, and something I don't often think about, is that I've never been to Costco. It doesn't seem like a big deal to me. As far as I'm aware it's just a bulk shopping centre. But for some people the Costco experience is something distinct. I'm told that it's chaotic, and I've heard from otherwise withdrawn people that they "get a little intense" when they go shopping there. 

My mother-in-law brought me there as a belated Christmas present. Going in, what I knew about Costco was that its gimmick is that you can buy things in large quantities. It's got a little restaurant area with suspiciously cheap hotdogs and enough people handing out free samples that you can fill up on them. Apparently they pay their employees decently and their brand, Kirkland, has a policy that none of its products can be released without meeting or surpassing the quality of its highest performing competitor. I don't know how they determine quality, but I can at least confirm that Kirkland brand toilet paper is really nice. A corner store near where I used to live sold it.

Going there, it was basically a warehouse that you could buy things from. Maybe that's part of the appeal for people that haven't worked factories. There were a few places that were overseen by employees, including some electronics and a jeweller. We could have gotten our wedding rings from Costco.

They had some pre-made cauliflower crust pizza shells that we've been gifted by others but haven't been able to find anywhere else. Weirdly, we weren't able to find ground or whole bean coffee. Only K-cups.

Being able to bulk shop at Costco is handy, as grocery prices in Ontario have been insane lately. I've got a full-time job that requires a post-secondary education, I live in a dual income household without children in an apartment with comparably affordable rent, and food prices are still scaring me. Higher end grocery stores like Sobeys and Zehrs seem completely inaccessible now.

My mother-in-law is a creature of habit and comes from an optometrist's household. She traditionally shopped at Sobeys, but has has converted to Wal Mart due to inflation. If they lost her, I have no idea who those stores are targeting.

And yet... should you adventure far enough into a Sobeys you'll find a gigantic sandwich for only $15! It's big enough that me and Lee-Anne can have it for dinner and have enough leftovers for another meal. I thought it would be a lot of bread and lettuce, but they don't skimp on the meat at all. Overall it's weirdly high quality. I don't know what's happening here, it must be a loss lead to just get people into the store.

Apple for scale.

We've had three of these giant sandwiches so far, one in each of the options they provide: classic, donair, and Cubano. 

The donair was good because the meat has the same spices as shawarma, just topped with a sweet sauce. I really want to like the Halifax donair, because then I could claim it as a part of my Canadian identity. But while it's good enough to be in the same conversation as other Mediterranean/Middle Eastern inspired foods, I still prefer classic shawarma, shish tawook, and falaffel. Better than Kofta though. In this iteration, having something that is typically in a pita on a sub roll felt like a weird choice, though.

I like the cubano best. The meat is less processed than the classic sub and the pickle gives a nice crunch.

If you go in further you will find they have an even more ludicrously huge bags of chips. I don't think you could get them at that size at Costco.

Giant sandwich for scale.

Another thing we found at Sobeys were these little Wintergreen flavoured tablets. I really like the taste of Pepto Bismal, the stomach relief medicine. Apparently this is divisive, with some people hating it and others loving it. I've tried a few things that people said taste similar, like strawberry milk, but it's just not the same. I'd long thought that the unique flavour I crave must have something to do with its medicinal quality. But someone mentioned that the flavour is simply something called "Wintergreen". Trying it, it really does taste the same!

Now I can eat so many candies that I upset my stomache, then relieve the pain with Pepto Bismal! Full circle wintergreen

Purple Shirt Day

Today is Epilepsy Awareness Day, otherwise known as Purple Shirt Day. Often, groups of people with issues they want to promote will dedicate a day featuring a special garment. This is commonly in the form of a shirt. Indigenous rights are orange, autism is blue, anti-bullying is pink. Breast cancer is also pink, technically a pink ribbon. Just this month we had World Down Syndrome Day, symbolised by mismatched socks. Men grow mustaches for prostate cancer. St. Patrick's Day is green, although that is more of a party than anything. Considering the history of the Irish, it might have had a more somber motivation at some point. I don't know, I'm not looking it up.

Anyway, epilepsy's colour is purple.

I don't think I've mentioned it on this blog, but Lee-Anne has epilepsy. She gave me specific permission to talk about it for this post.

So I'm invested in Purple Shirt Day. I thought I didn't own anything purple, but when I announced the day at work and lamented this fact, several people mentioned that I did. This seemed likely, as fashion is not a passion of mine and others often have a better awareness of my wardrobe than I do. 

I scoured my home, and the next day wore my purplest colours. The people at work told me that while I could pass, my clothes were more burgandy. Since then, I've considered having burgandy as my favourite colour. Believe it or not, presently it's purple.

I decided to go to Wal Mart. Clothes shopping can be kind of difficult for a guy my size. Not so much finding clothes that fit, but finding variety. Clothes developers tend to think big guys just wear plaid button-ups or solid T-shirts. To be fair, this is pretty much my comfort zone.

Wal Mart reliably has T-shirts in a spetrum of sizes and colours. But when I went, I couldn't find one in purple. So, big guys tend to wear solid white, grey, and black T-shirts.

It took me a day to conjur a memory from my childhood. I remembered an activity that would allow me some autonomy in colour choice despite a limited market. Tie-dye!

So I went back to Wal Mart and they didn't have a Tie-dye kit either. In the end, I found one at Michaels (targeted arts and crafts store). While I was there, I was sketched out by the lightness of the dye box. Despite promises that it contained bottles, dyes, gloves and rubber bands, it felt empty. So on a whim I bought a bottle of regular purple dye as well.

The tie-dye kit delivered on its promise but in the end I opted for the regular dye. As per the instructions, we stirred it in hot water, rinsed it until it ran clear, put it through the washing machine and dryer

Going into the wash, it was an eggplant purple. Coming out, it was splotchy and uneven. After drying, it's a pretty uniform lilac. Definitely not burgandy though.

Anyway, the reason that I've been so adament on having something purple to wear is because today, on Epilepsy Awareness Day, Lee-Anne is having an intra-cranial observation done. As I write this, she is undergoing surgery to have electrodes put on the inside of her skull. This is so they can pinpoint the location of the seizures. If they get the right data, we may be able to make an effort to cure her epilepsy entirely.

She will have to be in the hospital for two to three weeks, and she will need to have several gran mal seizures while there (those are the bigger ones, the ones you likely picture when you think about seizures). It won't be fun.

We've been through something similar once before. She had to do an initial observation where they put probes on the outside of her skull. This also took a few weeks. We watched most of Orange is the New Black over video chat during this time. They found enough information to qualify her for this further, more invasive observation, which may in turn qualify her for full treatment.

Aside from Purple Shirt Day, last Sunday was Palm Sunday. I'm not a religious guy, but the literary symbolism seems to mean... something. She'll also be in for Easter and April Fools. Today is also the day after the full moon. I dunno, seems like a bunch of significant stuf orbiting around this day.

Anyway, no promises that I will talk much on the details of this going forward. These are sort of special circumstances, but usually it's kind of a personal topic.

Anyway, happy Purple Shirt Day!

Akira Toriyama Passed

This week it was anounced that renowned mangaka (Japanese comicbook writer) Akira Toriyama passed away. It shocked the world as there weren't any signs that he was in ill health, and at the age of 68 he was still active in several projects.

Toriyama's influence was such that I've seen articles on his death at the top of Reddit's News and Worldnews forums. It's big enough that my grandmother heard about it, remembered that me and my brother used to be into his work, and emailed us her condolences. I keep seeing other successful artists in the industry releasing letters on how he impacted them.

Toriyama achieved success with his series Dr. Slump, of which I've never read a chapter, and rose to legendary status with his later series, Dragon Ball. More specifically, it wasn't until the beginning of the latter half of that series, which he termed Dragon Ball Z, that he would develop his legacy.

After all his fans had grown and he was old enough to retire, he started another series, Dragon Ball Super, made out of spite directed at a terrible live action adaptation that he didn't want to be the final entry. This was one of the projects he was continuing to work on at the time of his passing.

For many people, Dragon Ball Z was their entry into anime and manga. I remember watching it in the Saturday night cartoon lineup on YTV (Canadian channel, stands for Youth Television). At the time, we didn't even perceive it as an anime, it was just a cartoon.

Even as an elementary school child, it was easy to see that Dragon Ball Z was not a refined work. It had plenty of inconsistencies and traits that were easy to make fun of. It was a series about martial artists and the fights often felt like flexing competitions. Power ups were indicated by changing hair colour.

I spoke on The Lord of the Rings in my review blog, and how modern day fantasy has carried forward both good and bad habits from it. The same can be said of Dragon Ball Z. With the concept of power levels and ki, it popularized the idea of a quantifiable internal energy that grants power and can be increased with hard work. The next three most popular mangas all had iterations of this, with chakra in Naruto, reiatsu in Bleach, and haki in One Piece (come at me One Piece fans, haki's not an exception).

It's funny, because of all the series' I listed, Dragon Ball took its power system the least seriously. It wasn't introduced until halfway through the series, and in the first fight that it was used, the guy with the massively higher power level lost. On entering Earth, Vegeta tells Nappa that Earthlings have a fluctuating power level, and that overreliance on calculating it is pointless. The good guys learn to conceal their ki, and after the Frieza saga, it's stated that scouters aren't capable of calculating the new baseline power level. It was only relevent for like, two story arcs.

But it was the system in place when it gained global popularity, and the reason why me and my friends would scream "I'm only using 5% of my power!" while roughhousing.

Another unfortunate habit in Dragon Ball was its misuse of side characters. In the original series, Goku grows in strength alongside rivals of similar ability, such as Yamcha and Krillin, has to transcend his mentor and presiding strongest martial artists, Master Roshi, and needs to defeat, and often later befriend, villains such as Tien, Taopaipai, and Piccolo. 

After Z established that Goku's unnatural strength comes from being from an alien race called the Saiyans, giving him access to the form of a Super Saiyan, none of the previously established side characters quite manage to bridge the power gap, try as they might. One of the saddest things about being a Dragon Ball fan is watching your favourite characters slowly lose relevance and then give up. Explicitly because of their humanity. How am I supposed to relate to a character whose strength is derived from alien lineage?

The series also felt like the stakes got lower and lower over time. The Dragon Balls, which the series are named after, are seven magical orbs that, when collected can grant a wish once per year. It's hard to feel tension when you can just wish away any damage after the fact. The Earth blew up? No worries, just wish it back (this actually happened). 

Their version of heaven, Otherworld, is so explicitly shown that it makes the characters feel displaced instead of dead. Also, Fortune Teller Baba's ability to revive people for a day, and Senzu Beans that instantly heal stamina and injuries. There are just too many tools that deplete lasting consequences.

But Toriyama notoriously never took his work seriously. The Saiyans are all named after vegetables. The lead family of scientists are named after types of underwear. The Gods of Destruction are types of alcoholic beverages. The antagonists of the Buu saga are named after a nursery rhyme. 

He changed the lead antagonists of the Cell Saga twice because of his editor's comments, and redesigned Cell twice for the same reasons. When a major supporting character from Dragon Ball didn't return for Z, on questioning he infamously said that he'd forgotten about her existence. He based the design of two powerful and influential characters on his cats. The reason Goku's hair turns blond when he transforms was to cut down on ink for the black and white manga.

This off-the-cuff, spontaneous, nonchalante writing style led to many inconsistencies that sometimes felt like the series was following a sort of dream logic. It tempted fans that took the series more seriously than he did to accuse him of not respecting his own work. But I think we have to reconcile ourselves with the fact that it was this lackadaisical attitude that not only caused the flaws within the series, but also its virtues.

After all, Toriyama never advocated for taking anything very seriously. While he became best known for writing tough warriors fighting grudge matches, the man was fundamentally a comedian. All of his previous works, including most of the original Dragon Ball series, were silly adventures. He got famous during the most tonally serious he'd ever been and seemed to feel an obligation to fans of that work, but it seems like he always wanted to brings things back to comedy.

This can be seen in the other project he was working on, Dragon Ball Daima (translates to Dragon Ball Magic), an alternate timeline where all the main characters revert to childhood. This series would have much sillier designs and a more cartoony artstyle. Super was for the fans, but Daima was going to be for himself. Unfortunately, he's passed before Daima was published. We can console ourselves with the fact that if it was his personal project, he lived to see its creation if not publication.

I'm not above the bitter fans though. His works beg to be refined because there's so much that seem almost right. When Super introduced the Tournament of Power, a sprawling battle royale with 80 contestants including fan favourites that hadn't shined in ages, I was pumped about the potential. The fact that Universe 7, home of our main characters, was considered relatively weak, with Goku losing before the tournament in a fight against someone who wasn't even the strongest in his respective universe, the scale seemed incredible. There would be characters capable of challenging our strongest heroes, as well as fighters weak enough to be realistic opponents for old fan favourites.

Unfortunately, despite the setup it lapsed into the pattern of Goku and Vegeta breezing through most of the opponents, taking most of the panel time, and only having one substantive new opponent. The intense aggravation this caused in me forced me to rewrite the entire tournament. I wanted to do it in a way that made each dimension feel like a relevant threat and gave space for weaker characters to contribute. I don't think Toriyama would resent this, he seemed to be of the opinion that his works were meant to be played with.

Another way the series has influenced me is that it helped me develop a motivational tool for my workout routine. It's cringey to admit, but I created a story for a character in that world, and everytime I work out I write an entry progressing his adventure.

The wide span of time that the three iterations of the series spanned in real time allowed me to bond with some of the kids at the group home I used to work at. We shared lamentations about Saiyan supremacy, and I teased them about their generation borrowing my generations' media.

Well, for whatever its worth, the Dragon Ball series had a large impact on my childhood, as well as for many other young boys. It introduced us to a medium that we didn't even perceive as existing, and it impacted the works of artists we would later follow.

Rest in Peace Toriyama. Complain as we might, you inspired us to play, write stories, and exercise. As adults, you gave us common ground with a younger generation. Even acknowledging its flaws, our lives were richer because of your work.

Thank you. It's been fun.