Night Owling.

If life accommodated my internal clock, it would let me to go to bed past midnight and wake up after 9AM.  This week was a bit sleep-deprived but totally worth it.

This past weekend I was in Toronto for a bachelorette party.  Loved the city! Stayed downtown and the weather was fantastic - I was in a fabulous hot concrete jungle.  It was an interesting change chatting with folks who work in industries not so directly affected by oil prices.  And out of all the people I met, only one lightheartedly made fun of me for being from "Deadmonton," so not too much of that stereotypical Centre-of-the-Universe snottiness at all!

Shortly after I came back, my sister and I started playing the very last Dreamfall Chapters game, which pretty much ruined any chance of recovering more sleep when combined with work and kettlebells/dance/climbing/calisthenics/Hachi.  It took us a few nights to finish and felt bittersweet when we finally got to the end ... we so love the story and didn't want it to stop.  Ragnar Tornquist did such a great job with the storylines - I would love to pick his brain one day regarding globalism, feminism, technology, corporations, culture and all that good stuff.  Both my sis and I are actually going through a bit of withdrawal!  I guess when a video game spans over a decade, the loss hits kinda hard.  Ok, no more gamer talk.
 

I watched Metro Manila on Netflix and loved it.  It definitely doesn't sugar coat corruption and poverty in Manila but still manages to capture how loving a Filipino family can be.  One of the main actors, Althea Vega, is breathtakingly beautiful and makes me think of what Filipinos must've looked like to their first Spaniard visitors - a ton of inky black hair, cat eyes and smooth brown skin.  

Check out Althea Vega in this movie still:

Check out this photo of a Filipina from the 1800's:

Similar, right?

To the Psychotic Murderer that Killed 50 People in Orlando:

This moronic selfie is fitting for you to be remembered by.

Photo from CBC.

Despite the current level of technological advancement, I believe more and more that the true measure of society's advancement is the level of empathy present - especially towards those that are more disadvantaged and helpless (non-humans included).

WHY CAN'T WE USE IDIOTS LIKE HIM FOR ANIMAL TESTING?  Sorry, rant over.

On a happier note, I received Hachi's official pet therapy scarf today :)  It even matches my pants for some odd reason.

A New Balance.

So I guess I'm kind of dancing again :)  I performed with some ladies from my dancehall class and it was fun! I'd forgotten about that pre-performance, during-performance and post-performance rush. 

I decided to place yoga (both Ashtanga and Iyengar) on the back burner.  I joined a kettlebell/calisthenics gym to help my pulling strength and holding up my bodyweight strength.  Which probably stems from trying to get better at rockclimbing ...

... yeah I'm spinning my wheels a little.  Prioritization is in order.  In addition to my full-time dayjob, seven days a week doesn't seem enough sometimes. 

Plus *drumroll*... Hachi will become certified to be a therapy dog! He rocked all the practicums between my sister and I.  So now we have to figure out when and where we want to take Hachi for visits :) There's a big demand, but we also have to be careful not to overcommit.  Turns out the little guy is a natural at this stuff :)  It's great to be able to take him almost anywhere.  Last weekend we took Hachi with us to Jasper and stopped by the area close to where he was found (near Nordegg) on the way to watch his dad run the Banff Jasper Relay race.  It was pretty much effortless to have him with us despite crowds and hotel rooms and get-togethers.  It was also great taking him on walks in the beautiful Rockies - on-leash the whole time of course.  

Watched Warcraft last night - thank goodness I haven't played the game because I can see myself getting addicted to magical worlds of humans and orcs.  Speaking of magical worlds, I even checked out some Ant-Man comics - hilarious!  I also watched the new Avengers movie and was intrigued by the superhero ex-convict with a master's degree in electrical engineering.  

I Kind of Have to Read This Now.

Imagine my delight when I saw this BBC headline this morning.  A combination of things that fascinate me have collided wonderfully and now I'm frothing at the mouth: Korean culture, Vegetarianism and Beautifully Written Books! 

It's already unavailable at the local library. URGFHFHFHFJFJHDDHHS.. I'm twitching so bad to read it! This might warrant a purchase :)

This So Awesomely BADASS!

I know, they weren't "supposed to" and it may have been dangerous.. But they did it and saved animals in the process :)   And of course let's not forget that there is ongoing efforts to free these trapped animals by city-designated teams as well.  200 rescued animals arrived in Edmonton today :)

Stories like this give me faith in humanity. Thoughts of trapped pets have been haunting me and even though donating money to the humane society (and Red Cross) makes me feel like I'm helping at least a little bit, I still feel really helpless. 

But reading these articles made my day :) Between entering the world of pet therapy and learning how many distraught pet-lovers there are around me, one cannot underestimate the power of the human-pet bond.  

..the Power of Man's Red Flower (c)the Jungle Book

The scale of the Fort McMurray fires is unbelievable.  I can't even imagine trying to drive away from this:
 

Picture from Reddit.

Worst of all, I know there were pets that weren't able to be rescued and this just crumples my heart (as I type this Hachi is sleeping peacefully on his dog bed).  That is truly one of my worst worst nightmares - not being able to save my pet in a situation like that. I would've lost my mind. 

It might've been a blessing in disguise that there aren't as many workers at the camps due to the low oil prices.   At least evacuees were able to take refuge at the work camps.  Despite being called "camps" these facilities can be quite nice. I've stayed in one with a huge cafeteria and gyms (including a separate women-only gym) and a huge game room and movie room.  Now it is probably housing not just parents but kids and pets too.   

Even though I see stupid anti-oil-sands and anti-government comments about the fires, I'm extremely impressed with the warmth and kindness pouring out of not just Alberta but the whole country. Even at my office there are people opening their homes.  The oil companies are housing evacuees in camps and flying them out. Businesses are giving away profits to help.  Firefighters are risking their lives around the clock.