we gave them our muscles but they wanted our souls

[the_siobhan]

12 – World Hamster Day: Did you know there are 24 different species of hamsters? Have you ever had a hamster as a pet?
13 – Scrabble Day: when was the last time you played scrabble? Was it on a board or an online version?
14 – Look Up At The Sky Day: go and have a look out the window at the sky and tell us what you see (if anything!)

12. I have had hamsters, gerbils, guinea pigs and rats as pets. Also lizards and snakes. 13. Years ago. I quite liked it but I don't really hang out with people who play board games all that often. 14. Rain.

15 – World Art Day: what is your favourite piece of art? Have you ever seen it or only admired it in pictures?

I don't know that I can say I have a favourite piece of art but art galleries are one of my favourite things to visit whenever I travel.

I'm often impressed by how different art can look when I actually see it in person. In particular I recall one Van Gogh that I always thought was ugly because of the colours, but in person it was striking - the prints could just never capture what it really looked like. 

***

We haven't had a return of the flooding incident in spite of the fact that it hasn't stopped raining, so I'm taking that to mean it is from the shower. I have been doing the water conservation thing where I turn off the water while I soap up, so that has probably helped. Hopefully on the weekend I have will have time to start disassembling things.

***

I went on a two-hour hike around High Park last night. It was pissing down rain the whole time, which meant a lot fewer people, which meant the beavers were hanging out. Also cormorants. I didn't even know cormorants live in Ontario. And I got to see the cherry blossoms without dodging 100,000+ people to do it.

Full wildlife count: beaver, cormorants, egrets, Canada geese (of course, those things are like cockroaches up here), mallards, wood ducks, swans, red-wing blackbirds, and a bunch of other birds I couldn't ID. (Maybe lake gulls? There were some that looked like seagulls but smaller and brown.)



Two hours was a perfect length for a first-time hike, I can feel the places in my feet that were starting to blister but didn't actually get any full-on blisters. I'm toying with the idea of buying proper hiking shoes if I'm going to do this on the regular - I normally wear bludstones and they are super comfortable, but I slid around a bit on the wet grass & mud. When you have shitty balance, good traction is your best friend.

***

My work just created a new training module called "active assailant training". So what to do if somebody shows up with a gun and starts shooting.

The very first thing they said in the training is that the new office tower is designed in such a way - all glass offices and desks with no backs underneath - that it makes hiding from an active shooter very difficult.

Well.

OK then.

 

Comments

[china_shop]

Wow, great photos! My mind is always blown by the idea of seeing animals in the wild. We have a lot of native birds, but all our land mammals (except fruit bats, ha) are invasive pests, so there isn't that same joy / excitement.

[the_siobhan]

This park is like a 20-30 minute walk from my house. I should go there more often.

[sanguinity]

the new office tower is designed in such a way - all glass offices and desks with no backs underneath - that it makes hiding from an active shooter very difficult.

Jeremy Bentham has a lot to answer for.

[ljm]

Amazing photos! There's so much going on in that second one.

[lil_m_moses]

If you're ever interested in playing Wordfeud (online, 1-on-1 Scrabble knock-off that allows up to 72 hours between turns), hit me up.

[cornerofmadness]

Yeah that does suggest the water issue is inside. Good luck finding it. Hope it's not too ridiculously expensive

[elusis]

In case it proves to be useful: our "oh god it is trickling into the basement when we shower, is it a pipe??" problem turned out to be physics "helpfully" illustrating why you should not put down a DIY wooden floor in the bathroom made out of pine seconds from the construction supply store. "Tub with no edging to retain water inside the tile/tub area" plus "soft wood floor laid by an amateur directly underneath" equalled "why is it raining in the basement?" We seem to have improved things greatly by installing silicone edging vertically and horizontally around the tub, but the long term improvements are, obviously, more involved.

[greylock]

I had no idea there were cherry blossoms in Canada.

Can I just shout: BEAVERS!!

We get most of the other animals (in some form), but not beavers!

My work just created a new training module called "active assailant training".

Teh fuck? The US I get, but in Canada?

desks with no backs underneath

Saving tens of cents per desk by removing modesty boards!

[jo]

My work just created a new training module called "active assailant training".

The Legislature introduced that a few years ago -- pre-Covid. We call ours "Active Shooter training". It apparently traumatised a few people who took it. I just spent the next couple of weeks analysing the best hiding places in our office and plotting how to use the photocopier to barracade people in the kitchen so that we could escape out the window. That's when we had windows that actually opened. Then they replaced all the windows and they don't open anymore so...

[the_siobhan]

My mother was a psychiatric nurse and occasionally I would meet her for lunches or after her shift so I would go up to the nurse station on whatever floor she was working to get her. At one point she was stationed on the suicide watch floor, and it was basically a nurses station in the centre of the floor surrounded by glass-walled rooms.

So. Yeah. I guess at least they knew they were being watched?

[the_siobhan]

It was a pretty cool spot. I'm impressed my phone camera did as well as it did.

[the_siobhan]

Yeah, I'm suspecting the caulking is failing to keep the water at bay when it pools on top of the drain. Hopefully not too difficult a fix.

[the_siobhan]

As long as they have created the appearance of having done something I guess.

[the_siobhan]

I think the cherry blossoms are imported. People literally line up to see them every spring.

Canada has it's own nonsense, and it does happen here just not as often. We did have somebody drive down the street in a van and kill a bunch of people outside one of the bank offices not so terribly long ago.

[the_siobhan]

Thanks! Houses are bullshit!

[the_siobhan]

I just went and looked it up. It's a phone game?

[sanguinity]

Youch. It's hard for me to feel that would be a very therapeutic environment for getting well again in. Although I suppose you can't get well if you're dead, either.

[lil_m_moses]

Yeah, or at least that's the only interface I have used, anyway. I'm lil-m-moses there too.

[cornerofmadness]

yes they can be

[greylock]

I'm sure they are pretty. Our Jacarandas are. I guess you have may them in Canada?
They're so purple.


We did have somebody drive down the street in a van and kill a bunch of people outside one of the bank offices not so terribly long ago.

But no mass shootings every day like your neighbours.

[houseof9cats]

I think I mentioned a couple years ago I was working on some school projects with an architect who specializes in design against active shooters. Every school or government workplace design I worked on had this as the #1 or #2 priority.

Kindergarten cubbies that double as bunkers + concentric ring hallway designs. For government, all public-facing areas are now being designed with no extraneous staff in the same room. Everyone possible is locked behind doors in the back with card fob bulletproof doors. Glass with the miniblinds in the middle of the two panes is also popular. Did your employer buy this new space or design it new? I see BMO's new space in the lingerie department of Eatons is similar. Canada is so different in this regard. Naive, but also literally doesn't have the same number of regulatory agencies involved.

[kest]

Remember in case of emergency its ok to break a few windows.

[the_siobhan]

Designed from scratch. And prior to the pandemic, so all the work stations are "hotelling" and there is no place to store your shit.

[the_siobhan]

Actually, you know what your description reminds me of? I went with a friend to the Morgentaler clinic back in the 90s, and they had those safety features.