New Cats

We got two new cats. We didn't get them from the humane society... That's where they were originally from, but we got them from a couple who were looking for a new owner, since they had recently had a child, and were concerned that they weren't able to give them enough attention. We were originally only looking for one, but this seemed really opportune. During my lifetime, I think we've only had cats in pairs. They've been single during periods after their partner's death, but two has been our comfort zone. The new cat was, from my perspective, supposed to be my replacement, and to fill the void in my family's hearts while I'm gone, although I'm sure that's needlessly narcissistic.

We got a one-year-old black tabby female named Luna, and a six-year-old fluffy black male named Thor. Both are fixed, microchipped, and all that.

They're both super-mellow. We're keeping them separate from our old cat for now, so they can sniff at each other from under the door and get acquainted a bit before formal introductions. Nobody's acted hostilely. We've already introduced them to our rabbit with no issues.

Turns out, CWY expects me to organize my own transportation to our meeting point. Our meeting point is in Montreal... Why'd they talk about covering travel expenses, and asking me where the nearest airport from me was, using a drop-down menu, if they were going to completely disregard it? Oh, well.

Did I post about going to get my criminal record check? I'll need to check the archives, and see if I can get a date. They said it would be two to three weeks, but I still haven't got it, and I'm pretty sure it's well over. Same with my driver's license with the updated address. There's a postal strike over here, and it's come at a really inopportune time. Even when I get my check, I still have to send it into them, and it's already overdue. If I had to reorder, I'd be done. Not enough time.

Here's the link to that Personal Support Worker course I was interested in taking, if you're interested: http://www.conestogac.on.ca/fulltime/program.jsp?SchoolID=3&ProgramCode=1165&v=1101&p=o

Reviews Blog and Humane Society

I just added four reviews to my reviews blog. I probably won't link them, because you probably won't read them. That's not me having a cynical view of how many people read my reviews, it's only because, if you're a relatively longstanding reader, you've probably already read them. I know I've said this before, but there have been some things that I've written on this blog that could count as reviews, but which I just sort of didn't realize at the time. I went back hunting for Yume Nikki and Plants vs. Zombies, picked up My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and curiously decided my Twitter rant counted as a review.

So I've at least posted in both of my branch blogs since coming back. I'm happy.

It was weird reading over all that stuff I'd written It was better than I thought. I always think my newer content is worse than my old content in terms of writing quality... and I think my old stuff is factually or ideologically bad, but when I look over them, I tend to find them positive surprises and consistent quality.

I also changed the name of my Katima-Gryphon blog to The Migrating Gryphon and changed the subject from "A blog on my experiences in Katimavik" to "A blog on my experiences in Katimavik and Canada World Youth". I'll only be able to update it when I'm in Quebec, though, and then I'll have to use one of those screwy French keyboards that gimps English punctuation. My Malian placement has no electricity.

Knowing me, I'll probably keep a written journal, and mean to copy the entries onto my blog, but I'll be too lazy after I come back, and just shelve it.

We're looking into getting another cat. We visited the humane society recently... It was really depressing. I can sort of understand the necessity of having one, I guess... But no matter what rationale you put for the reasons on why they do the things they do, I'm never going to feel warm and fuzzy inside by the presence of so much imprisonment, castration and murder.

And even if you're there to rescue one... You come out feeling worse than otherwise, because you weren't able to rescue them all.

I'm going to see a number of old friends tomorrow, for a farewell get-together.

OD'd on Caffeine

Hey guys, I had a caffeine overdose. I... didn't know that could happen. But it can, it did, and it was bad. I got dizzy, my heart started racing, I started yelling, and even partially collapsed. This happened in public, too.

And no, I'm not saying “caffeine” as a code word for a less legal substance. It was seriously just caffeine. And not even through those hyper-strong energy drink like Red Bull... Just coffee. I had three cups, but didn't realize each of them had the strength of three, so it was more like nine.

Coffee is the lamest thing to OD on... It's so innocent... It's like ODing on fresh air!

I got better, though. Got to a quieter place, drank lots of water, found some shade...

I've got this feeling right now, like there's a billiards ball in my chest where my heart should be. When I'm highly stressed or feeling panicky, I get this sensation. It's just anxiety, though... Not anything new for me.

First time I slept deeply after the panic, I had a very vivid dream...

There was a party at our place, and Mr. T was there. He'd taught me Karate for a month and acted as judge in a competition I'd performed in. I didn't know if he'd remember me, but he did, and we really hit it off.

Then I went downstairs and took off all my clothes for no reason, and then realized that that floor was full of open windows and I was standing in front of one which had Mr. T's group outside of it. I thought they might not have seen me, but that guy from the "punching people before they eat" skit on Saturday Night Live or Mad TV made eye contact with me, smiled and nodded.

I quickly dressed and told Mom and my brother about this embarrassing occasion, but there were people listening everywhere. So, to avoid further embarrassment, I started changing key words in my story to "pig", which kind of made sense because there were pigs everywhere for some reason.

Then my Grandpa, who'd been listening in, said that he "didn't have a problem with pigs". I said "Yeah?" and he said "No, the problem I have is with this guy Nick and how he treats you."

Then I recalled that I had told my grandpa a fake story earlier to cover another embarrassing story. I had said the first lie to jump into my head, which was that a guy named Nick would beat me up and tell me what to do frequently.

When I woke up, there was a huge lightning storm... There was so much lightning it wasn't even dark out, though it was night. It knocked the light out in the city all night long.

My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic

Hey, so have you heard of the latest craze among guys in my age bracket? A show by the name of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I don't want to bother getting making an Imageshack account and uploading a picture right now, so just trust me... it's exactly what it sounds like. Here, I'll post a link: http://www.avclub.com/articles/my-little-pony-friendship-is-magic,55168/

Wait. That links to another blog, with a different review. No, don't read that one. Read this one. Look at the picture that he bothered to upload, and then come back.

For emphasis, the main cast includes characters with the following names: Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Fluttershy. And it's really mainstream. If you talk to any young adult male about it, you're expected to know.

I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, it's nice to see guys during their machismo-focus years learning to value qualities which are, but should not be, considered exclusive merits of the female gender... Qualities like honesty, sharing, kindness, loyalty, friendship etc. I was way ahead of these guys on watching girly kids' shows, too. I started up as soon as it looked ironic (16).

But that's the thing... All these guys like this show unironically. For instance, I knew these two guys who got into a pretty bad tussle over something... They both walked away feeling sore. One of the guys left and watched some My Little Pony to cool down. Then he remembered the value of his friendship, gained perspective on his friends feelings, and came back to sort things out productively. My Little Pony actually helped these guys overcome an actual, real-world conflict that would have likely otherwise been damaging.

And that's great. If My Little Pony helps make this a world where people can reach out and understand each other better, who am I to complain?

In fact, it's not so surprising that it would be quality... It was created by the makers of Powerpuff Girls and Fosters Home for Imaginary Friends, both little kids shows with a surprising amount of appeal.

But, after watching two episodes, I have to say, I think both PPG and Fosters are vastly superior. It's not that My Little Pony is bad... It's just really, really average. It is everything you'd expect of a show that preaches basic morals to little girls. I don't see the appeal at all.

And I want to... I want to see the ground-breaking series that turned a bunch of hard manly-men to seriously consider the values of more a more sensitive and considerate lifestyle. But whatever they see in it, it just flies over my head.

I should have probably posted this in my reviews blog, but I won't.

Oh, I'm going to be in Toronto this weekend, and probably won't be able to update.

6-Months French Immersion

I got a message from my PL the other day. She sent it entirely in French, with a small English explanation, saying that she hoped we were resourceful enough to find a way of translating it, either through someone with strong enough French, or through French/English dictionaries. So I copy/pasted it into Google Translate, and this is what I found out.

La Pocatier uses "very little" English, and in Karaj (that's how it's pronounced and an acceptable spelling, it seems) English is "almost nonexistent". All activities and events will be in French.

So it's six months of French immersion for me. In Katimavik, the French participants always complained that us English couldn't understand the psychological barrier of always holding conversation in a language you didn't think in, or of being completely isolated in it. Even when we reached our French placement, it was in Cree Nation, with English as primary, Cree secondary, and French... tertiary? The most us English ever had to complain about was learning to communicate with people who had English as a second language, through English. Now that I'm going into a program with French as the dominant language, and I'm less prepared for it than any of the French participants that I knew,I'll be sure to let them know if their complaints were justified.

My PL also seems to have crazy credentials. She's dealt with people a lot tougher than... me, at least. And from what I've found out about the other participants, and from what I'd expect of students in a program like this, them, too. She's been to a lot of places, and extensively. And she'll be traveling with us.

French is the official language of Mali, but the "language of trade" is Bambara, and MyFile changed my program language to French/Bambara.

I'm starting a new bank account. I hate banking. I don't get it, and people get irritating when they talk about it. When I first started out, the person who was teaching me about banking told me to get an account at some trendy new banking... thing. Then a lot of people got irritated at me, and someone else got me to start an account somewhere else, but that place also got people angry. Every time it starts getting people angry, then the people who reacted positively at first are all like, "It was a bad idea and I always knew it was!" No, you didn't! And then, when you ask why it's a bad idea, or what's bothering people,they start using words I don't understand, and then they start talking about completely random things.

And every time I start somewhere new, there's some complication, and they grill me like a job interview, and everything is just very uncomfortable.

So I'm starting one at the most mainstream bank I can find, and maybe everyone can shut up.

I forgot to say yesterday, Yellow Belt (3rd rank) is, along with Brown (8th rank) the Belt with the highest dropout rate. So getting past Yellow is kind of a big deal. I'm not considered a beginner anymore. I'm now intermediate, and I'm qualified to spar.

1st Degree Black Belt is though, I guess, another one of the belts with the highest dropout rate, if you can count it. Hitting Black Belt is such a goal for everyone that, once they get it, they might say they're going for their 2nd degree, but most people don't feel the motivation to work so hard for something that doesn't get them a new belt.

Got My Orange Belt

I got my Orange Belt! Remember my description of the last grading? All frowns and intensity and pain? And that I was the only white belt grading in a group of all adults going for advanced ranks? Well, this time it was a huge group, with lots of kids. I was one in four Yellows, three of us adults. The two other adult Yellows were the only adults grading this time around.

So, because of that, the super-tough attitude of the last grading didn't come through so much. No, "Who feels like more push-ups?!" "Me sir!" "I can't hear you!" "ME SIR!". Apparently they don't do that so much with kids. I even got to see some kids do that advanced kata that, in the last grading, included a blackbelt beating the tar out of you while you had to keep dancing. It didn't come across as a real beat-down this time around. It was more like, applying pressure to a shoulder here to test their balance, pushing on their fist as it extended to test strength... If that had been the first demonstration of the kata I'd seen, I wouldn't have called it a beat-down... I would have called it a series of technique checks.

But even with the lighter attitude, the endurance testing wasn't any easier. It was slightly humiliating, seeing some of those kids looking better than me during that testing. I broke a couple times on the slow push-up. Last time, I told you that I held a wall sit until my shaking knees shook the wall, and the shaking wall shook a picture frame, and it's clattering attracted the attention of blackbelts. No matter how long and painful, I've never broken on a wall sit. It'd be so dramatic and obvious, while, with a slow push-up, you break, and you're up again in a split second. Plus, you've got things to concentrate on and do, and that might trigger the collapse, whereas a wall sit is just holding one stance. But even so, I feel like I had a bit more lenience with myself this time than last time.

Last time, I thought there was a good chance I wouldn't get the belt if I screwed up, and everyone around me was so pro, I thought I needed to live up to their standard. This time around, even though I was concentrated on doing my best, with more people, and less judges, the focus taken off you, seeing others fail, receiving encouragement and knowing you're going to succeed... It kills that little edge you get from that gut-feeling of adrenalin.

I think I did well, though. At the end, when you go through, shaking hands and bowing with each judge, I got a lot of specific praise outside of the traditional "Congratulations". The guy who let me squeak through let me know ahead of time he'd be paying attention to the stance he almost held me back for. He let me know afterwards that I did way better than I had during striping. The head Sensei said this was my best grading yet, which I didn't honestly feel had too much impact as a complement, since I've only ever graded one time before. It still means I improved more Yellow-Orange than White-Yellow.

In the self-defense section, because there was an uneven number of students, they had me practice on a blackbelt judge. That means I perform twice as much, and I constantly attract the attention of at least one judge. That happened last time, too.

I got corrected once, and a judge caught my eye at one point and gestured a suggestion for one of my stances, but that wasn't too bad. Two advanced ranks needed to be talked through their katas at certain points, and one guy got pulled aside to be given advice on his performance.

On my way to the dojo, a muskrat charged me!It bounced out of the tall grass, ran at me, and then, when it was about two feet from me, it flipped sideways and disappeared into the grass. I guess something must have startled it, it ran out in a panic, ran into me, and booked it in a different direction. Or maybe it was a mother and it's young were nearby, so I just accidentally stepped too close and it tried to scare me off. I was so focused on Karate, I just registered it as a low strike and I automatically moved into my low block. But good luck blocking something that's a foot high! Would've ran right under my fist. It would have been better self-defense just to boot it.

Made an impression though, apparently, because that night I had a dream about a friendly, fuzzy, cute-looking creature biting me, turning into an eight-foot tall body builder, and charging me. I guess it symbolizes something cute and sweet-seeming suddenly gaining an intimidating and ferocious appearance, like it did in real life. Strangely, though, in my dream, a friend of mine kicked it in the back of the knee, causing it to stumble, and I swept it's legs over my shoulder and flipped it, making it tumble down a flight of stairs and be ultimately defeated. I then reached out to it with words and helped it overcome it's psychological problems which caused it to attack me (a raccoon tricked it into thinking something untrue about me), and it turned back from the bodybuilder into it's fuzzy woodland creature self.

Also, that creature wasn't a muskrat. It was a shrew. And the dream started with someone telling me that you can't trust shrews, and me telling them they were wrong. The moral of the dream seemed to be that you can trust shrews, but you need to have good communication.

Well, that doesn't sound so related to my muskrat anymore. Whatever.

Showing Up in Too Many Searches Nowadays...

Today, I did a little bit of research on Karadjé, and you know what I found out? If you Google, "Karadjé Canada World Youth" the third hit is my blog! Specifically, theGot My Green Stripe entry just prior to this! It's an obscure thing to search, but do you know who would? People in my group looking for info, same as me! Gaah! I hope no one from my group sees it, and blackmails me by threatening to tell Sensei of my underhanded dealings!

Otherwise, it looks like Karadjé only became a CWY placement last year, with only two groups having moved through it before me. Also, it only has a population of 750. These facts help explain why info on it is so difficult to dig up.

I haven't posted in my Reviews blog since coming back. I must have become less critical. That's no good. I just haven't been feeling it. I hope my brain didn't bust from doing that factory work.

I watched a movie in-theater a little while ago... I watched The Simpsons Movie... Watched another movie with a friend... I read Green Grass Running Water by Thomas King... I played Pokemon White... I haven't reviewed anything.

Plus, it's Spring... I have a photo gallery for Winter,Summer and Fall on my Photos blog... Only season left out is Spring... I'm not working, and I've got a digital camera... How lazy have I got?!

I want to copy/paste that stuff I said about Yume Nikki and Plants vs. Zombies. Those were basically reviews, but I did them because it was a slow news day and I still had enough integrity to try and post daily... And because of that, I neglected to appreciate them for what they were... Reviews, ripe for a far more needy blog. But this site doesn't have a convenient serch bar, and I'm kinda too lazy to look for that post manually.

Here's a cat and dolphin playing together:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rynvewVe21Y

Cat and barn owl being friends:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iqmba7npY8g

Two otters holding hands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epUk3T2Kfno