At this time of year, at this time of day, in this part of the country?
(Sorry)
What the sun is doing to the earth right now:
(Screenshot of – what else? – a SolarBalls video)
Anyway. I was afraid we wouldn’t get a cool aurora show here because 1) it was kind of cloudy, 2) it seemed like everyone else in the world was already posting pictures of their light shows and we were still in complete darkness, and 3) that would just be my luck.
However, Nate picked the perfect time for us to go outside and we caught the lights just as they started to appear.
I took 100 pictures, but here are my favorite five:
This was my first time seeing the northern lights. WOO!
No One Nose
AYYYYYYYYYYY it’s Anosmia Awareness Day.
Go hug a non-smeller.
And watch this review of a really weird-ass water bottle.
This sounds absolutely horrible. Why are y’all with working noses so weird?
Family Day: Song Version
(Sung, of course, to this tune.)
It seems this month that all you see
Are snow and ice and temps in the negative degrees
But where are those good old lazy off days
That we all need to survive?
Lucky there’s a Family Day!
Lucky there’s a day that
Makes us want to take back
All the times that we said…
“Why can’t it be May?”
It’s our Family Day!
I am OLD
Doesn’t 36 sound way older than 35 to you?
It does to me.
Also, I still think of myself as like 32 because the freaking pandemic made the past four years just suddenly…pass without my realizing it.
But they’ve somehow simultaneously been the longest four years that have ever existed.
Y’all remember 2019? I miss 2019.
Anyway.
Edit: HAHAHAHA oh my god this is exactly how it was when I bit it on my run last June and screwed up my Sartorius. This is the funniest thing I’ve ever seen, holy crap.
Well, hell.
So you know how I sent in my application for Canadian citizenship back at the end of July? And how we all figured the process would take like six months minimum so that I’d have some time to study up for the Citizenship Test before I got called in to take it?
I got called in to take it.
I have until October 23rd to take it, specifically.
Have I studied at all? No.
Do I have time to study at all? No.
Is this the worst possible semester for this test to happen? Yes.
But I want citizenship, so I’ll have to GIT ‘ER DONE somehow.
Oof.
A Few Days Late But…
This is really interesting.
I know it’s been 20+ years, but I can still very distinctly remember how that morning unfolded and how all we did during that whole week in school was watch the news.
Conflicted
What I want: to go to the Vancouver Coldplay concert in September
What I don’t want: Covid
What will probably be at the Vancouver Coldplay concert in September: Covid
Yes, I know I can wear a mask. And I definitely would if I end up going. But you need to understand something: I’m going to be at a Coldplay concert. All I’ll want to be doing is screaming and singing and crying, and none of those activities jive very well with wearing a mask.
Like…I REALLY want to go, but do I want to risk possible lifelong issues due to Covid for a two- or three-hour window of absolute bliss?
I don’t know.
Guess what I did today?
I APPLIED FOR CANADIAN CITIZENSHIP!
I’m finally eligible and I finally got around to filling out the application, so now it’s on its way and I get to see how long this whole process takes now.
At least it was easier (and cheaper) than permanent residency.
BRO MY TOENAIL FELL OFF
Jesus Christ, FINALLY
Okay, so it didn’t actually fall off. I was putting my shoes back on after my run this morning and noticed that the toenail could basically bend all the way back while still attached to my toe by the cuticle. So I thought screw this nonsense and just started twisting it the way you’d twist a stem from an apple.
And it finally, FINALLY came off.
BEHOLD:
Look at that monstrosity. I’ve been carrying that around for…well, technically my whole life…but in monstrosity form, it’s been YEARS. Like, if you look at the “feet” tag on my blog (please don’t), you’ll see this bugger’s been giving me issues since like 2018.
Now I’m…I’m free.
I’m free.
Now I know how the genie in Aladdin felt.
Sub
So I guess they found the remains of the imploded sub now, which was probably the best way for them to go anyway, given the available options.
Not a fan of the jokes people are making, honestly. You can hate on the idea of the billionaire and hate how much time/resources was used to try to rescue these five people, but I think joking about their deaths is pretty tasteless. They had people who cared about them.
Anyway.
Why “The Titan,” Though? Like, Really?
So this missing submersible that went to view the Titanic? This is 100% the plot of one of Cape Cod Radio Mystery Theatre’s episodes. Specifically, my favorite one: “Mr. Hugo’s Night to Remember.”
It’s actually kind of scary how similar the two stories are at the surface level (OH MY GOD NO PUN INTENDED), though I suspect a lot of the specifics of the CCRMT episode were drawn from the rescue of the Pisces III that happened in 1973. Though that’s not mentioned in the liner notes.
Freaky.
Badding Break
It’s summer, so for whatever reason, that means I’m back into watching my aviation documentaries.
It’s a tradition, yo.
Anyway, today I watched a video about the 1986 mid-air collision of Aeromexico Flight 498 and a small aircraft over California, and I was immediately reminded of the similarities between its story and the mid-air collision depicted in (*looks it up*) season 2 of Breaking Bad. The one where the air traffic controller is distressed over the loss of his daughter and makes an error, causing two planes to collide and the debris to fall on Walter White’s town.
Like…watch the documentary. If you remember the scenario in Breaking Bad, they are freakishly similar. The actual air traffic controller’s name was Walter White.
Believe it or not, though, it sounds like the creator of Breaking Bad didn’t know about this incident. I don’t know if I completely buy it. I notice in my own life that there are a lot of things I think of or create seemingly out of the blue and then later, upon reflection, realize how many little bits and pieces are actually derivatives of things I’ve seen in the past.
So maybe that’s it. It’s almost too big of a coincidence to NOT be that.
Calgary Marathon!
I finally did my first official marathon!
It was the virtual version, sure, but I did it on the same day as the in-person marathon and ran next to the marathoners during a part of it, so it counts, right?
My mom also walked the (virtual) Calgary Half Marathon, so we’re both too cool for school.
Pics!
(I was really slow because it was hot, haha)
The medals have the Calgary Central Library on them, which is one of the prettiest buildings ever.
Woo!
Edit: stupid freaking COVID, this looks so fun:
Google Knows
Google ALWAYS knows.
It’s fire season and I’m terrified of it, so guess what YouTube recommended for me?
Yup.
Happy Anosmia Awareness Day!
As per tradition, here’s an anosmia-related video. She discusses the very important difference between smell and taste and how anosmics can taste things (the five basic tastes) but miss out on flavor (the mingling of taste and smell).
END!
OH GOD I’M COMMITTED NOW
The very first marathon I’ve ever signed up for!
Now I HAVE to do it, which is a little intimidating.
I ran 21 miles today, though, so that’s a start.
(I also signed up for the Vancouver Half Marathon, but that’s easy.)
Burfday
I am now THIRTY FIVE!
What’re you gonna do about it???????
(Sorry, there’s not much to say today)
Oops, we did it again!
So first item of interest: MORE COLDPLAY TICKETS! Got up early to treadmill so I could run over to my compy as soon as the queue option became available. Got tickets for the newly-created Saturday show, which will be a lot easier for us to get to than the Friday one. Now all I have to do is sell the Friday tickets and we’re good.
The second item of interest: while waiting for and purchasing said Coldplay tickets, I started to feel a little crappy. Nothing too bad – just some shivers and some general blah. I thought I was just excited for Coldplay, and when I said this to Nate he joked that maybe I was feeling bad because we’d run the humidifier overnight and, given our poor track record of keeping it clean, maybe it was infested with whatever bacteria/mold that made us sick the last two times.
But no way, right? Surely we had been taking better care of the humidifier after TWO incidents of the same sickness from previous gross tanks. Plus, this time we hadn’t let the water sit in it for an entire summer. So there was no chance there was another crop of bacteria in there, right?
RIGHT????
I go to school and feel like absolute ass all day (and ended up puking with a mask on, that’s a fun experience). Then I get home and Nate tells me that he was also feeling the same sickness he’d felt the last times we’d screwed up the humidifier. His was delayed because he’d been in the bedroom/back room all day, whereas I’d slept in and exercised in the same room as the humidifier.
So yeah. We did it again.
A
THIRD
TIME
What the hell is wrong with us?
I think I’m going to start calling the humidifier-induced sickness “Fauxvid,” since the symptoms are so similar to COVID.
We’re responsible adults, we are.
MOVE OVER, SWIFTIES
CLAUDIA’S BUYING COLDPLAY TICKETS
I got up early to get my miles in so I could be in the ticket queue as early as possible. I’ve never bought tickets for anything like this before, so I was nervous about the process. But we got tickets!
I have no idea if the location will be ideal or not, but the floor tickets were already sold out once I got the option to pick (I don’t know if I’d do the floor anyway; I’m short and fighting my way to the very edge of the stage sounds stressful if they just let us all in at once), but I think based on how I’ve seen their show setup in other venues, this should be good.
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
What the HELL, Moscow?
Possible (likely) quadruple homicide? That’s…terrifying.
(Yes, I know the actual murders happened like a week ago; things are finally starting to filter through the news enough that I feel like we can trust what’s being said about the situation.)
Creepy stuff. Please stay safe, Moscow friends.
Wow
You can see what various channels were broadcasting the morning of 9/11 – before, during, and after the attacks. It’s so wild how this all unfolded and how everyone reacted.
How quickly and drastically things changed that day.
NOPE ON A ROPE
Okay, so I was going to type out this entire morning’s ordeal in excruciating detail, but then I realized that it would be super gross and super embarrassing to do so – even for me, the queen of super gross and super embarrassing blog posts (how many times have I talked about my feet/toenails now?).
So I’m just going to say this: the following gif represents me in the bushes beside the river walk at about 7 AM this morning, except replace the solid poop with something a little…less solid. And throw a pair of unsalvageable underwear somewhere in the picture, too.
And then imagine this occurring THREE MILES OUT from home.
It was a rough morning.
A Friendly Reminder:
Just in case you’ve forgotten, we’re still in the midst of a pandemic. As much as some people/politicians/media want us to believe we can go back to normal without any consequences, we’re not there yet. Especially with these new variants.
The number of friends I’ve seen who are just out doing what the fuck ever – with no apparent safety precautions, including masking indoors – as if this whole thing is over – is utterly distressing.
I am disappoint.
And angry.
(Mostly angry.)
How do I not remember this?
The Grenfell Tower fire occurred in London on June 14, 2017. The fire broke out on the fourth floor, rapidly spread, and burned for 60 hours. There were 72 casualties and more than 70 people were injured.
I have no idea why I don’t remember this. 2017 wasn’t that long ago, and surely this received some sort of international coverage, right?
Structural fires are terrifying to me, so this is like nightmare fuel. Granted, there were several circumstances and mistakes that came together to make this an especially dangerous situation that could have been much less catastrophic, but it’s still pretty horrifying.
Timeline
Want to plan for the next quadrillion+ years?
Here ya go!
The fact that Chernobyl won’t be safe for another 20,000 years is wild.
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