Charger Cable

My laptop's been down for a bit. The charger cable has been acting up for awhile. It wouldn't charge while plugged in, and would only do so if I had the cable sit kind of half-in half-out of the plug. It was giving me flashbacks to my old cell phone, which after gradual deterioration ultimately required me to tape a pen to a charger, then wrap rubber bands around the pen and phone to create a consistent charge. I didn't have any rubber bands large enough to stretch around my beast of a laptop, though.

However, I have a younger version of the same laptop as my brother, so any issue his develops likely happens with me as well. His laptop's charge cable had worn out and he had needed to get it replaced, which gave me hope that I wouldn't need to be getting a new computer or have it repaired in a serious way.

When I was in Guelph for Moss' funeral, we tried my brother's charger with my computer, and it worked fine, which seemed to confirm it was an issue with my charger.

It hit it's last when I was doing a job search. I'd picked up a number of leads, bookmarked them and was ready to start sending applications when I noticed it had stopped charging. I fiddled around with the cable, but couldn't get its sweet spot. Eventually I decided to power it off while it still had a bit of charge and accept that the cable no longer worked.

I went to Wal Mart the next day to see if they had anything. They had a universal charger that was supposed to work with any laptop, and it specified Toshiba. Brought it home and tried each tip. Only one fit, and it wasn't one of the tips that was supposed to work with Toshiba. But even though it fit, it didn't work. Brought it back the next day and went to Best Buy. Asked somebody about cables and described the situation. I'd brought my cable and my laptop but didn't want to show it, because it's so primitive and you know those guys are going to start pitching upgrades, and because they seem so much smarter than you, you often wind up walking away with some fancy thing that isn't all that functional. Happened to me at a Staples where I'd asked for something I knew was reliable and got talked into taking away something more expensive which broke inside a year.

Anyway, so the guy shows me a universal cable that specifies Toshiba. I tell him that I'd just tried a universal cable that specifies Toshiba, but he points out that this one is "Guaranteed Compatibility" and fully refundable. So I bring it home and it doesn't work. I get my brother (who is smarter than me at this type of thing) to look up which type of cable might work. He gives me a name and says it's in stock at the Best Buy I got the last cable at. I return the cable and go to the charger section (I know they're actually called adapters but I can't get used to the word so I'm not using it). I'm staring at the section when an employee walks up and offers her service. I puff myself up, determined to get exactly what I've come for. I tell her I need a very specific charger. She says I'm probably right next to it. I tell her the name and she points to exactly where I'd been staring.

Those displays are so mesmerizing. Too much information, my brain just shorts out. I probably would have stared at that wall, trying to comprehend what I was looking at for another thirty minutes before realizing what I was looking at.

Anyway, that charger didn't work either.

When my brother's had stopped working, he had brought it into an old computer parts store, the guy had looked at his cable, tried a bunch of different chargers, found one that fit and had given it to him at half the price that these chargers were. But I couldn't go to this place because I generally work every day of the week and without a vehicle I can't casually drive to Guelph.

So last Friday I looked up used computer parts stores in Kitchener-Waterloo, choose the highest rated, and head over. They ask if I've got my laptop and they try each charger but none fit. They ask if I've got the cable handy, and the guy gets excited "It's a bullet!"

Apparently my charge cable is rare because there's usually a little piece of metal in the middle that sticks into the computer, but mine is just the casing, like a bullet shell. Back of my mind I'm wondering if this is why mine and my brother's both developed issue.

So they contact the supplier and offer to order one for me, which I accept.

I like these people because they actually looked at my computer, worked out a solution, and described it to me. They also are ordering the cable, but don't require purchase until they know it works, meaning that if it doesn't, they've spent money on a rare cable that they may never need. The guy is very enthusiastic, and in my mind I wonder how a person can stay so excited about everything, but then I remember that my job requires me to be constantly in high spirits and focused on who I'm working with. So it's not that odd.

Met a couple getting something for their son, Gryffin. Poor kid, even with my spelling, the easy observation people always make about my name is that it sounds like "Gryffindor". This kid has the exact spelling. Apparently someone misspelled this guy's name. After they give the correct spelling, I lean over, stick my thumb to my chest and say "G. R. Y. P. H. O. N." They don't get it at first, thought I was trying to correct them. Little awkward. They ask me if I've ever met another Gryphon (All-inclusive on spelling, but I'm sticking to my version for the blog) I say that I've met plenty of people who have known a Gryphon, but not once in my life have I spoken with someone with the same name. Which is true.

I've always wondered how people with the same name relate with one another, if it's a unifying quality that draws people together, or if it's divisive, with each person somewhere inside wanting to be the more prominent example of their namesake. I've always felt like I'd hate meeting another Gryphon, as if it would take away from my uniqueness. That said, supposedly people with unique names do less well professionally, statistically, and not for reasons applying to demographics. Supposedly just entering a job interview and having the boss  unsure on how to pronounce your name creates a feeling of vulnerability in people who generally enjoy a feeling of authority, and even just that can be damaging. Plus I could see having a common name creating a feeling of familiarity and comfort.

But after being required to remember as many people as I have, I've grown thankful for the Habibas and Nyadukus of the world. There's too much name overlap, and that can actually get confusing. At one time I was working with a Chris, Chrissy, Christy, Christine, Christina, and a Tina. Maddening. I know way too many James', Michelles, Dans, Dannys, Daniels and Danielles.

Anyway, that's unimportant. Back to the charger story. It's ordered on Friday and shows up Monday. But I don't have the foresight to pack my laptop that day and don't have time to drop by my place after work and get to the store before it closes. This means I have to pick it up and can't test it at the store. So I spend all my work shift thinking about this cable, go to the store, pick it up, and start heading back, the suspense just killing me. I run into a friend downtown and he wants some support doing something. Not complicated, I just need to be a presence. But it still requires me to postpone getting home, and the suspense thickens.  As I come back, I miss my bus and I have to wait another thirty minutes. Thoughts are running through my head about how I think it's the cable but I never confirmed it. It's weird that the computer light is shining that says it's plugged in when it actually isn't. I'd powered down my computer when it still had charge but it wouldn't turn on again anyway. Maybe there's a deeper problem. Finally get back and...

...It works. Jeez, this whole saga can't have been more than a week, but it's felt like a year. I'm typing from my laptop right now.

You remember how I said I wanted to get a poster for my door, to cover up a hole that got kicked into it by my old roommate, but that all the posters I could find were too tacky? I eventually settled for a map of North America, which was neutral enough. Went to an art supply store. Everything I liked was a horizontal image when I needed vertical (map of the world, that Japanese tsunami painting with the rowing boat, and some abstract art) and it came down to the map of North America or an image of the Eiffel Tower. There were three takes on the Eiffel Tower, and I couldn't bring myself to do that one that said "See You In Paris". I've technically been to Paris France, but only in the airport. Sometimes I mention having been to Paris casually in conversation and pretend to be surprised that the person I'm talking to has never been, before admitting to only having transferred at their airport. Would be a kind of cute in-joke but I couldn't bring myself to do it. Then they had an image of the building specifics of the Eiffel Tower, which was really cool, but let's be real, I'm no architect and it means nothing to me. Then they had a neutral image of the Tower, but on closer inspection, there were some stars and frills and it was just too gaudy. So I took the map of North America.

But recently I came across a Gryffindor poster! It's great because it's the most common observation of my name, but it's also cool because I put it on my door. So Gryffindor is on Gryphon's door! Hahahaha!

I've had a time getting it to stay up though! I tried Scotch tape, masking tape, and duct tape. first with masking tape rolls in the corners, then with rolls of duct tape dotting the entire frame of the back side with Scotch tape bordering the entire thing, but it just wouldn't stay up! Almost as upsetting as the charge cord thing.

Four rolls of masking tape was enough to keep up my map of North America, even when I pulled it off one side of the door and placed it on the other. The rolls of duct tape fastened strong enough to the poster that I couldn't pull them off without causing damage, but they wouldn't fasten to the door. Thumb tacks wouldn't go in the door, either. Eventually I sucked it up and just framed the whole poster with duct tape. Didn't like the idea of the tape being visible, but it's a deep purple masking tape, which kind of goes with the deep red and gold of the Gryffindor image. It's all royal colours, at least.

Borrowed the duct tape from my roommate after he caught me cussing loudly at the poster, which snapped me back to reality.

Recently, this blog has been having record traffic. Which is pretty cool because I've been neglecting it and when I have posted, it's been done quickly and without much thought. But some recent posts have over 130 views! WHO ARE YOU PEOPLE?!

My highest viewed post was the one about Jenga, and the second highest was the one about those 15 guys who showed up in unmarked vans with assault rifles, who took away three guys from the community. That's actually super intimidating, I hope they aren't monitoring this blog now!

RIP Moss

So today my family in Guelph's pet rabbit, Moss, passed away. He was quite an elderly rabbit, I remember adopting him from a friend when I was in Grade Eleven, which was eleven years ago. At that time he was already several years old and since dwarf rabbits have an average lifespan of 7-10 years, so he showed a strong amount of longevity

I was the one who named him Moss. I'm not very good at giving names. We have a cat named Blackavar, which was my favourite rabbit in the book Watership Down. So we had a cat named after a rabbit, and a rabbit named after a plant because of me.

But his name was also Watership Down based, as most of the rabbits were named after plants (Hazel, Blackberry, Dandelion, Buckthorn, Strawberry, Bluebell etc.) Because his origins were a bit rough, I named him Moss because he was able to grow and develop as a fine rabbit despite the craggy, hard, inhospitable circumstances on which he was born.

(Also because I had a rabbit themed online roleplay character named Moss. Nothing too weird, I swear, but I've put that behind me so don't bring it up. Same naming criteria for the character, though)

Moss didn't live in a cage. For some reason, he enjoyed his little section of boxes and carpet to the point he refused to explore further. So we didn't have to worry about him chewing on electrical cords unless they fell on his turf. He even had a kitty liter box on his territory, where he would defecate. He was a free and organized rabbit.

The cats never bothered him. Of note, he had one cat friend who would share his treats with him fairly. He loved broccoli more than anything else, and Luna, his cat companion, would sit side-by-side with him and the two would share their broccoli. Luna also played with him, rolling on her back and batting at him. When she walked on his territory, Moss would bounce up to her and tuck his face in her fur.

In the end, his passing was gracious. I wasn't there, but the night before he passed, he apparently suffered what appear to be a stroke. He wasn't able to stand up and his eyes were clouded over. He accepted liquid food as a dropper from a syringe, administered by my brother.

One of our cats, Thor, apparently lay beside him until the moment of his passing.

Tonight is the night of the Supermoon, a full moon that is brighter and larger than any other for the past sixty years. In some of Eastern Asia, including Japan, China, and Korea, as well as the ancient Aztec civilization, they see what we interpret as the Man in the Moon, formed by shadows created by craters, as the image of a rabbit.

I might be reaching, since Moss wasn't Japanese, Chinese, Korean, or Aztec, but the brightest symbol in the past sixty years representing a rabbit shines on the night of his passing. Let me feel this is significant. who I woul,

Let me hit you with this. The Chinese moon-rabbit is grinding the elixir for eternal life. Let me think this represents Moss's longevity, and the reminder that this event is not a symbol of an end, but a celebration of life and new beginnings.

By the by, I can't help but take notice in regard to my readers from the United States, that you have elected Donald Trump as your president. It's not much my business, since I'm from a separate nation, but because of our geographic proximity and trade agreements, I can't help but feel this choice in leadership will impact us as well.

Since I'm not all that politically savvy, I trust in you voters as having perceived some stronger qualities within President Elect Trump than I have. After all, I've only known Trump as a guy who ran a reality TV Show, where he tried to trademark the common phrase "You're fired". When he tried to build a golf course on marked Scotland soil. When he was attacked by a bald eagle, representing everything virtuous about the United States.

Hope the decisions of our neighbors leave us well enough alone!

Halloween 2016

So, a couple of days ago it was Halloween. I decided to try giving out candy this year. Last year, I tried to do this, but wound up watching a horror movie with my roommates, then we had a few friends over, and we wound up eating all the candy I was going to give out.

This year, day of, I decide to give it another go. I figured my area wouldn't be a hot spot for trick-or-treaters. We have enough kids in the area, but I remember when I was a kid, it was pretty common knowledge which areas were more profitable. Generally, it was better to travel out to the higher income neighbourhoods, and so I thought the children living here would take a beeline out of the complex, and I'd only catch them on their cycle back home.

Besides, after they caught that murderer here, I'm pretty sure the kids are like "Let's go to the places where it's only fake scary".

I go to the local grocery to pick up some candy. Usually they have those boxes of fun sized candy bars, little bags of chips, and twizzler packets. Last year I picked up candy bars and twizzlers. I'm sure I've said it before, but as a kid, I'd hate getting those little bags of chips, because there's so much air in them and it's just wasted space. A pillow sack full of candybars was a real prize. The twizzlers were because I wanted a nut-free option, and Twizzler was the only type that could guarantee that.

My grocery had absolutely nothing and I didn't have time to go to another. I tried a nearby dollar store, and they were stacked. Last year, I obviously overdid it with the candy (since no children came), but this year was even worse. I dropped $40 on candy! I wish somebody was with me, to tell me when to stop. I'm a cheap but festive person, which leads me to spend hard and then moan about it afterwards. It was nostalgic, because there were all those cheap little candies, like the tinfoil-wrapped chocolate balls with the Jack-o-Lanterns on them, caramel squares, toffee pieces etc, that you tend to forget because they aren't bad, but they also aren't the prize of the night. Yet, you usually only see them on Halloween, and they add to the atmosphere. I finally learned where all those adults were getting their festive, mediocre candy. The dollar store.

The dollar store is far better than the grocery when it comes to nut-free candy. Last year, only the twizzlers were nut-free. Even candy without nuts would get that little warning (may contain peanuts and tree nuts) This years, two thirds of my candy was nut-free, and honestly, the nut-free stuff was generally better. My weakness was the fruit chews.

I left the door open with the light on to signal to prospective Trick-or-Treaters that I was available. One of my neighbours, an older woman, shouted into my door "Don't eat all the candy Gryphon!" I said "Do I hear a Trick-or-Treater?" and went to try and make her take some candy. She called out both the children in her unit, who had retired early, and they picked out some candy. Then I pushed some candy on all the adults living in that unit, too. I'd never managed to hand out Halloween candy before, so I was wondering if this counted. But then some kids with costumes came by and walked up to us.

I was so awkward. I was like, "Uhhhh, how do you want to do this? You want to pick the candy or should I just give you a handful?" My roommate came out with the second bowl of candy, so it looked like he was from another unit, and he managed to give out a second serving.

So I managed to give a kid going door-t-door on Halloween night some candy. Cross that off my bucket list. But the children didn't say "Trick or Treat" so I'm not sure it counts. Drat!

New Roommate

My new roommate moved in today! I feel like this one's a keeper, or at least, I feel like he'll be sticking around a bit. As opposed to that last couple's five day stay.

He had more stuff than he'd estimated, which is to be expected. People generally don't realize how much stuff they own. I remember mentioning on this blog how, moving into student housing, all I had were two suitcases and a backpack, but moving out, I had three suitcases, two backpacks, like six garbage bags full of clothing, and several bins. And this is when my only living space was one room and a kitchen cabinet. I'd stated before that I only ever owned what I could carry on my back, and this was still true, but there's no way I could carry all that on my back at once. I even abandoned a mattress, night stand, and bookshelf (I'd later get my mattress back)

I moved that couch bed into my room. For the past few years, I've only been sleeping on a mattress on the floor. This seems to be an indicator of your socioeconomic status. Soon after we first got our furniture at the place I'm staying at, I ran into someone I knew, whom I'd seen when I didn't have furniture, and told her the good news. Her first question was "Do you have a bedframe?" When I told her I didn't, she said "That's okay, I don't either" kind of like saying that I'd risen to her socioeconomic status but hadn't surpassed it.

And I know a couch bed isn't the same as a proper bedframe, but I was talking to a friend who is a floor-sleeper like me, and she was quite proud of having adopted a couch bed as well (through the same people who were moving out), denouncing the mattress she'd been sleeping on. This tells me that a couch bed is a step up from a mattress, even if it isn't the same as a bed that was constructed to be a bed.

But to be honest, I don't know what society's obsession is with slightly elevating yourself above the floor. Me and my old roommates got some furniture from a secondhand store, and they disassembled the legs. We never bothered to put them on. Why would we? Just creates a trap for dust and miscellaneous items that might get kicked under there. Same concept for a bed, why do people need to feel like they're hovering above the floor?

But the truth is, with all the new furniture being moved in, as well as the influx of furniture I received not long ago, it's hard to find a place for everything. So just in the interest of space, it makes sense for me to use the couch bed.

Moving the couch bed was pretty exhilarating. I don't tend to ask for help when I need it, and moving a couch up a flight of stairs with a landing in the middle is easily a multi-person effort. But somehow someway I managed it on my lonesome.It isn't something I brag about much on this blog, because I've done little to maintain my bragging rights, but I'm pretty physically powerful just naturally. Even for my body type, which suggests I'm pretty strong, I beat expectations. It almost feels like cheating. Like, I'll look at something like that couch bed and think "I need another guy to do this" and then I'll think of a number of people I might call, and then I'll think "Oh wait, I forgot, I'm Gryphon" and then I'll just do the whole job on my own
 
I've been looking around for posters to cover the hole in my bedroom door. Wal Mart only had a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle poster, and while I've nothing against TMNT, I don't know if I want to put it on my door, telling anyone who may see that I define myself as a TMNT fan. Other places I've seen posters are movie stores for the most part, and the same issue arises. I don't want to define myself by a band or movie. . I've got a number of paintings that are scenic or nature-focused, but posters don't like to do this. But I don't want to fix a painting or mirror to a door, since it's a swinging surface and might come off.

I'm probably going to have to get rid of a couch and loveseat, which is fine. New roommate has better stuff than my older things. I'll get rid of the old batch left from my old roommates and keep my new stuff. With the sudden influx of new furniture as well as the new roommate and his stuff, my place is looking way better than it has a right to, considering my income. I do hate throwing things out though.

After my initial 4 responses to my room for rent after the first night of posting it, my add was pushed back by newer ones, I stopped receiving responses and forgot about it. Recently though, I started getting a bunch of emails, as people became more desperate and started digging through the archives. I admittedly left my advertisement up, seeing how many responses I could get even though I've recently made a commitment. I'm like an unsatisfied and insecure girl on a dating website.

We found out why that one unit got raided a while back. Murderer in Montreal was on the lam and subletting from someone in my complex. Here's an article on the topic:

 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/ferdinando-belmonte-shooting-death-laval-kitchener-ontario-1.3793623

New Furniture 2

Today I scored a free dining room table, four dining room chairs, two loveseats, with one extending into a bed, and a reclining chair. And later, in the same day, someone offered to deliver me a free Lazyboy chair. I don't know what this is, October 22nd, the Day of Furniture I guess. The unit's going to be crowded, but everything being offered is better than what I currently own, and it's so against my nature to reject opportunities of great value.

I have a roommate for next month. An acquaintance from Conestoga's Social Service Worker program, same as me, but he was from a different year, So now I've got his furniture moving in as well as all the new furniture I just got.

It was kind of fun doing tours of my unit. I've been in the position where I was looking for a place to live inside the second half of the month with no fallback solution twice before, and I gotta say, it's a lot more comfortable being the one offering a space in their home, than it is to be the one hoping to find a space in someone else's home.

Everyone else is like "Please, I need a place ASAP, or I won't have anywhere next month" while I'm all "I need someone by next month, or I won't have a place to stay... in four months."

Okay, it's a little depressing because I can relate with some of the people that I need to reject, but it's still nice to see the challenge present, without addressing itself to me.

I moved into the large room. My first set of roommates were a couple, so even though I found the unit, and even though I was the largest, I got put in the small room. At my interrim sublet place, my roommates called dibs on the larger rooms and I got put in the small room just the same, since I was away for the Extend-a-Family Summer Program Overnight Program when they found the spot. In my current place, after my roommates moved out, I was planning on subletting to an elderly woman in the community, which would have required me to give her the larger room out of respect, but  that didn't work out because of lease agreement technicalities, and then after that another couple, but that didn't pan out either. When things turned into me trying to sell the room without leads, I realized it was ridiculous that I was still sleeping in the small room despite having been the only person in the unit for a month and a half. So now I'm in the larger room and I feel like a king. I haven't had such a nice room since I was in highschool.

I still need a coffee table for the living room... And I guess kind of a coffee table for my room. And I need two more paintings of faces in the landing between floors. I have a painting of an elderly Native Canadian man, and a painting of a young African female. I want two more belonging to different demographics so that I've got a hallway of faces.

My old roommate once knocked in his bedroom because he'd locked himself out of it. By the time that I am currently occupying this room, the hole in the door is still a reminder of times past. It was my most difficult explanation for tours of the unit. I found a Bob Marley poster from my old roommates, and wondered what was more acceptable, having a suspicious large hole in your bedroom door, or being a Bob Marley fan.  Despite Marley's popularity, I decided to hold off my poster in favour of something a bit more generic.

Remember how I made a big deal out of curtains? How I'd accidentally bought a set that advertised their patterned side, but had a light pink underbelly and were too short for the living room windows to boot?And I had to buy a complete new set for the living room because of this. Well, because the larger bedroom has posts to attach the curtain rod to, it invites curtains to be hung, while the smaller room only has a few bent-up nails in which you can place a curtain rod, but the metal rungs of a curtain will be incompatible. My solution when living in the small room was to sling an elephant-patterned sheet over the curtain rod set by the pair of upturned nails. In the larger room this wasn't an option, so I wound up using those detestable curtains.

I had the choice of setting the curtains so their desirable, advertised side faced me inside the room or alternatively to the rest of the world. I got to choose who would be subjected to the nauseating, Pepto Bismal colour. Would I choose to prioritize how I saw myself, or how the world saw me? It was quite a poetic conflict.

In the end, I chose to set the cool-looking pattern to face inside the room, and the Pepto Bismal to face outwardly. Quite like a Social Service Worker, to take care of what is happening internally as the first place to look

Coffee Filter Baskets and Coffee Basket Filters

I've lost the coffee filter basket for my coffee maker. That's the plastic bit that holds the coffee filter. It's different from a coffee basket filter, which is the filter that goes into the basket. Plenty of people sell coffee basket filters, but no one seems to sell coffee filter baskets. I accidentally bought a reusable filter because of the similarity in name. The only place online I've found that sells coffee filter baskets is Mr. Coffee. You can get this part directly through their site, or over ebay. But the part is $3, and they charge $15 shipping and handling. I mean, I can afford the part, but I could buy a whole new coffee maker for that price. My pride won't allow me to buy a part that's transportation fee is five times its value. But I also can't bring myself to buy a whole new machine for a piece of plastic when I've got a perfectly fine machine otherwise.

So in the meanwhile I've bought one of those single-serve coffee things. You put the grinds in and pour boiling water over the top. It's as fast as instant coffee, but it's made from legit grounds. So long as I'm living alone and not entertaining, this is a decent substitute.

I've started advertising for a new roommate a couple days ago. First night, and I get four responses. I've got one view set up next week.

Here, you can take a look at my advertisement. Bump up my views:

 http://www.kijiji.ca/v-room-rental-roommate/kitchener-waterloo/looking-for-roommate/1208020922

 I started using the bread maker my neighbour gave to me. This thing must be ancient. It's instructions are on a VHS tape, which means it must have been constructed from before DVD technology was introduced. That means it must be over 20 years old! But I'm pretty sure no one has ever used it. It sounds like it kept changing hands between people who liked the idea, but never used it and eventually realized they were never going to. Until it reached me. Just finished my third batch tonight.

From one perspective, it takes four hours to bake one loaf of bread, while I can bake six loaves in half that time by hand. From another perspective, it takes a degree of attnetiveness across several hours to bake a batch by hand, while with the maker, I can literally just put the ingredients in and forget about it. It does all the mixing, kneading, baking, it decides the necessary temperature and amount of time, and it even turns itself off after it's done. You can set a loaf to bake, go to sleep and wake up to the smell of fresh baked bread.
 It's pretty cool.

I think in the past, I've mentioned that Kitchener has the largest Oktoberfest celebration in Canada, and second largest in the world. This year, Justin Trudeau came to do the honours at our Tapping of the Keg. I had forgotten that it was Oktoberfest, and I hadn't heard Justin Trudeau was going to be there until day-of. By some quirk of fate, I happened to be in the area he would show up, around when he would show up, when I heard about it. So I dropped by and got to see J.T. Not a great view, I kind of had to squat to see him, and I had to leave to catch a bus for a work shift before he tapped the keg, but at least I got to snap a pic of the crowd where I saw him before leaving for work. Second time I've seen Trudeau in person (first time was at Conestoga, where he did a speach before he was elected).

Scary Moment

So, remember how I had two roommates moving out, and two roommates moving in? And I wasn't willing to elaborate on the reasons behind my old roommates moving out? Well, my new roommates didn't permanently move in, and I'm unwilling to talk about that, too. So it's just been me in this unit these past three months.

I hate to admit it, but being alone hasn't been very discouraging. The community I live in is very engaging and invested in what everyone is doing. If I come home with groceries, I can expect to be asked what I bought, and to have that information spread around the complex and repeated back to me by someone I hadn't told.

So I don't get lonely. I step outside the door, someone pulls me into conversation. I step inside the door, I'm left to my own thoughts. It's a pretty good balance, from my perspective.

The roommates that didn't stick paid for their stay (they stayed five days). They left behind a pack of pork chops, a pack of bacon, some chicken strips, half a box of those hash brown patties, and a dozen eggs. I didn't know how to cook the pork chops, so I contacted my mother. She sent me a recipe, I put it ina pan, and it exploded into a ball of fire.

I wanted to turn off the heat, but the path to the knob was too covered by flames. I wanted to take the pan off the heated element, but the handle was covered with sizzling, spitting cooking oil. I dumped out the kitchen garbage pail and filled it with water, but as I prepared to toss it on the flames, I noticed the fire was subsiding.

If a camera had been angling at me, and I hadn't dumped a trash bin on itself, the flaming pork chop may have been considered a culinary technique. You known how on those cooking shows, they have those chefs playing with fire in their pans? The end result was a delightful sear, but I chose not to be so adventurous next time, and with the remainder of the chops I just had them heat at the same time as the oil.

I am baffled how my technique wound up the way it did. Apparently my chops erupted because I'd failed to thaw them first. But how could ice, which is solidified water, result in fire? How could more frigid temperatures caused by being frozen, result in unexpected heat? I don't get it.

Recently, I became incapable of making pancakes. I don't understand. I used to find pancakes a fun and natural way to start the morning, especially if I was making them for someone else. But for some reason, now when  I try to slide my spatula beneath the pastry, it caves in on itself, unless I burn oneside to a crisp. I just purchased a waffle iron and am experimenting with it, but the first batch hasn't been promising.

My neighbours recently gave me a breadmaker. In the past, I've scoffed at people who own breadmakers (Do I need a breadmaker? I AM a Bread Maker!) but I never gave one of these machines a fair try. I will, and I will let you know.

They also gave me some board games: Connect 4, Monopoly, Snakes & Ladders, Trivial Persuit, and something called Shuttles. I love my neighbours  <3 3="" p="">
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I recently applied for several positions. I was accepted today as a Safe Management Instructor. I will be teaching courses on escalation and de-escalation, relationship building, enviro-scans, and self-defense techniques.

Recently, we had a really scary moment in our complex. It started (from my perspective) at the Talize (secondhand story across the street). Somebody walked in who I assumed was a police officer. Put someone to the floor without asking questions or reading their rights, went on pulling their pockets inside out. Person pinned was hollering that they didn't know what was happening, and the person applying force was putting too much pressure on their finger.

Someone I knew from college wandered over there and started listing things on his finger. I wanted to snoop, but they were at the children's section and I had no reason to be there. the authority figure is joined by four other people of his rank. I'm beginning to wonder if it's standard practice to have five people on one guy.

The officers pull him out on the street and pin him. Just so happens a Girl Guide is trying to sell cookies there. As the persecuted is being dealt with, the girl is shouting "Girl Guide cookies, five dollars!". I go up to buy cookies, but hope to overhear something from the commotion nearby. The girl tried to sell me three boxes for five dollars, several nearby people overhear this and take issue, since apparently she'd only given them one box for the same price. I don't know why she did that, maybe she was trying to pad her numbers.

So anyway, I go home with one box of Girl Guide Cookies and notice the same unmarked van and at least two of the same authority figures that were inspecting across the way are in the complex. Someone asks what they're doing and they say it's "So boring, you don't even want to know"

But they're in full defense gear, and they're carrying assault rifles.  Apparently at the same time as someone got pinned at Talize, someone else got pinned by the bus stop. Another unmarked van shows up with another group of authorities. In total, 15 authorities armed with assault rifles show up in undercover vehicles.

<3 p="">As soon as I see the rifles, I duck into my unit, deadbolt all the doors, turn off all the lights, curl into the fetal position and pretend I don't exist. I don't even peek out the window, because I'm afraid one of those guys might think I'm a sniper or something. In contrast to this, a group of my neighbors watched it all happen, sipping beer.
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<3 p="">Everyone in the unit got arrested. There's rumors surrounding the reason, but I don't think anyone really know. One of my neighbours who watched it happen while drinking beer on his porch said it was all an act to scare us. I don't really think they would plant undercover cops in a unit for months, then have 15 men  show up in full gear to stage a fake raid, so that they could spook some people living in a townhouse complex.