Ok.

So I'm not calm and logical *all* the time.  That would be a bit boring now wouldn't it?

Mind Farts

-Cafe Mosaics = fantastic veggie burgers and amazing vegan cupcakes = delighted drooling me

-mucho vegan cooking in my household and it's not by me. my sis has been trying out the vegan lifestyle as an attempt to thwart getting sick. I'm only too happy to sample all the homemade deliciousness (this is kind of a win-win situation)

-still gaming late into the night.  damn you, new graphics card!  my sis and I have been driven to dig into Ragnar Tornquist's roots and play the Longest Journey, which came out in 1999 - the very first game in the Dreamfall series.  playing it in my thirties, I now notice many relevant real-world issues that this game highlights.  behemoth corporations and the power they have, technology addiction, pollution, refugees, colonialism, racism, religion ... 

-just found out Avaaz's founder came from good old Edmonton, has Indian and Jewish blood, grew up on a First Nations reservation, was bullied, kicked ass at Oxford, travelled the world to see first-hand injustice and suffering then went on to start a global activist network that encompasses tens of millions of members.  Call it slacktivism or activism, but I do believe it is a valid movement. anything that makes people of all ages and regions think with empathy and be more aware about the rest of the world is a step in the right direction 

-Tesla now offers non-leather interiors.  thanks Elon Musk :) and thanks vegan badass race car driver Leilani Munter for making the request.  bonus points to beefcake for sending me the NY Times article.  one of the cons (opposing the many pros) of me getting my car was the leather covering on the steering wheel, shifter knob and brake handle. my next future ride will for sure be fully non-leather inside!

-I am a dualist.  just like how I just *had* to learn Cuban and LA/NY salsa, I now am dabbling in Iyengar and Ashtanga yoga. I'm hoping that just like salsa, these two will make learning in parallel challenging but complimentary.  climbing is another hopefully complimentary thing (a "pulling" to yoga's "pushing")

-checking out the Ice Castles last weekend as part of a double date was a great winter activity.  extreme freezing temperatures at the time, but still worth the visit.  super busy too (good job Edmontonians)!  and now while the east is hit with crazy snow, we are back to these strange mild temperatures.  global warming?  or just crazy Alberta weather?

Really?

I was lunching with coworkers this past week and we got into the issue of the government allowing 'biological boys' who self-identify as girls into the girls' change rooms at schools.  My male coworkers seriously believed there would be a problem with more sexual assaults and also some very uncomfortable girls.

Yeah.  That was a huge reminder that I am in the land of right-wing conservatives.  I mean, these guys are even younger than me!

I told them I didn't think it was a big deal, and that people should be able to change wherever they want.  And that sexual assaults towards girls do not arise from 'boys' that self-identify as girls.  And that the LGBTQ community has enough crap to go through and that people cannot be "cured" of the gender or sexual orientation that they truly identify with.

They were surprised and couldn't believe that I wasn't bothered by this "crazy" new rule.

They expressed their concern for girls who have been traumatized by sexual assault and so I responded that I've been a victim myself and and I *still* don't care if a male changes near me in a change room.  I used to be on a salsa team that travelled together for crying out loud! 

I then got called a "unicorn."  More "calm and logical" than the usual female.  They were trying to compliment me, but it does weird me out when guys do that.  I've had other guy friends tell me the same things, usually after they make some type of generalization about women and I try to correct them.

"Oh, but Angel you're different.  You're not like the others."

"You're like this female anomaly."

"You're just like one of the guys."

Maybe if more men would actually entertain the thought of women being as varied as *gasp* men,  they'd come across more "unicorn anomalies."  Just saying.

Call me a left-wing hippie, but moments like these makes me feel like I'd just "belong" much easier in a more liberal and progressive cosmopolitan city.  Cue in daydream about me walking out of a vegetarian restaurant and into the sunshine by the dog-friendly beach, kale smoothie in one hand and a yoga mat under the other arm, laughing with my friends of ambiguous race and sex.

Uh Oh. What Have We Done?

Thanks a lot, Ragnar Tornquist, creator of the beautiful and addictive video game that is Dreamfall Chapters.  Despite the crazy freezing weather, my sis and I went out to see if we could upgrade the graphics card on my current home PC by ourselves.  Turns out we needed to get not just a new graphics card but also a bigger power supply.  After a few grunts and hand scrapes, we proudly installed both components ourselves.  Almost.  The fantastic techs at Memory Express helped us figure out that we missed one connection. 

We hurried back home to plug everything in again and install the right drivers.  As we booted up the game, we gasped at how beautiful and smooth everything looked. We giddily nearly lost our minds.

Terrified of our addiction, my sis and I forced ourselves out of the game to do four hours of "productive" work (me = office work, her = homework).  And sure enough we gamed the rest of the night and finished Book Four of Dreamfall Chapters.  And so now we are able to go back to functioning in real life as we pine away for Book Five.

I admit, I'm a bit scared of how awesome video games now look on my computer.  Gaming can be a Pandora's box that is tough to close.

A Dose of Campus.

I started climbing at the new campus climbing gym last night for the first time in a looooong while.  My palms and forearms were sore after only an hour. It's time to build up some protective calluses and strength again!

If you are university alumnus, you get a climbing discount. So I went to the campus mall today to get a new university ID card. Seeing all the students and the studying flooded me with nostalgia. Ahhh, to be a student again ...

At least now I can kind of pretend! I have my own U of A ONE card again :)

I must've been pretty stressed in engineering school because I'm 99.9% sure my ID card photo now looks way nicer and smilier than my photo back then (which might have looked more like a mugshot).