Okay, this is addictive
Big Ben AND word fun? I’m all about it.
Ultra
GUYS, I DID IT
I ran an ultra-marathon!*
50K (31.1 miles) to be exact. It took me five hours, but I did it. Got a badge on my Garmin, too.
Turns out breaking through that marathon barrier is much more mental than it is physical (though I kind of figured it would be).
Now…any other year, this distance would be sufficient. But because the Calgary Marathon is celebrating it’s 60th year next year, the ultra-marathon distance has been increased from 50K to 60K. So I need to tack on another 10K (6.2 miles) to what I ran today. That’s another hour-ish of running.
Can I do it?
I guess we’ll see!
It’s so nice, though, to have this distance accomplished.
*I guess any distance longer than a marathon is technically an ultra, but 50K is the generally accepted “shortest” ultra distance in most cases when it comes to actual races.
I AM CANADIAN!
Yes, you read that right! I took my Citizenship Oath this afternoon and am now officially a Canadian citizen.
The citizenship ceremony took place entirely on Zoom, which was an interesting experience, because there were about 80 other people/families in the meeting in total. I don’t know if everyone was from Alberta or if they were all scattered around, but the judge that performed the ceremony was in Montreal, so who knows!
The whole thing took about two and a half hours; most of the time was spent waiting for the clerk to do one-on-one meetings with everyone, during which we had to cut up our Permanent Resident cards on camera. Then we all came together, said the Oath, sang the national anthem, and became Canadians.
(I had to pledge my allegiance to King Charles and all his successors, which was pretty wild.)
So no longer do I live in a foreign country. Canada is my country!
Boof
Grilled cheese!
Am I the only one who doesn’t like the crunchy cheese bits? Like…cheese is supposed to be soft and melty. I don’t want that texture interrupted by crusty bits. Ick.
But I’m weird.
Are jokes about voyeurism peek humor?
[You’re getting a lot of YouTube vids right now because I’m super busy, sorry]
ScrubDaddyOfficial means business.
Do not cut the Scrub Daddy in half, lest you be cut in half by ScrubDaddyOfficial.
Pride
Love flag design? Love the pride flags? Check this out:
This is super cool. I love the idea of a “shared visual language” to try to bring cohesion to the flag designs. Even just a consistent color palette, as some of the comments suggest, could be something to unite all the different flags.
Of course, the history behind the flags and the chosen colors still needs to be taken into account (and I know next to nothing about said history for most of the flags), but it’s still an interesting idea.
Edit: an updated vid!
Longest run AND fastest marathon time?
I’ll take it.
I felt really good today. Like…I felt like I could have gone 50k (31 miles), but I figured I should NOT make that big of a distance jump, just to be safe.
This was counting for my (virtual) Seattle Marathon run, too, so that’s neato.
Edit from mid-December: swag shirt! This one looks super cool (that’s the back of it).
Christianity: WTF Are All These Denominations?
So as many of you probably know by now, I went to a Catholic elementary school. I went to church approximately twice a week (once on Fridays with the rest of the school and once on Saturdays with my dad) and was even an altar server. Despite this, though, I couldn’t tell you the difference between, say, what Catholics believe and what Presbyterians believe.
So this little video was super interesting to me:
I can vouch for the “YOU GOTTA DO THE CHURCH STUFF BRO” thing with Catholicism. It was very heavily pushed in our religious studies that you needed to be a part of the church OR ELSE.
Take a Look / Don’t Date a Book
I just realized that unless the weather gets SUPER CRAPPY over the next month or so, the number of books I will have read this year will be really low.
Because yes, I only ever read (fiction) when I’m on the treadmill.
So maybe we won’t get a “Top 5” list for this year, but I’ll at least give a Top 3.
Oh my GOD
THIS LOOKS SO GOOD
(Sorry, I just want ALL THE CARBS thanks to all the running, haha)
AHEM
This is a very natural sleeping pattern for me and something that I will default to if given even the slightest opportunity. Lately I’ve been crashing in my chair around 9 PM, waking up when Nate goes to bed, then going to “actual” bed around 2-3 AM. It just works for me. My phases aren’t four hours long, but that’s because I’m a weirdo and don’t need much sleep anyway.
TWO THINGS TODAY
First: Nate’s surgery went well! He and his mom got back around 5 or so this evening and he’s doing a lot better than either of the previous two surgeries already.
Second: I got an email from IRCC Canada giving me a notice to take my citizenship oath! It will be over Zoom on Thursday, November 30.
That’s wild. I’ll be an official Canadian citizen in a few weeks!
THREE THINGS TODAY
First: I did my longest run ever this morning: 27.2 miles. I also did my fastest marathon time of 4:15. That’s still really slow, but it’s fast for me.
Second: Nate’s mom came up to take him to Canmore for his surgery. They should be back tomorrow afternoon. I hope everything goes well!
Third: I made layer cookies!
The end.
Chicken Ran
I hate how much nostalgia bait is being used for my generation. I hate how everyone from musicians to filmmakers to…well, every corporation, basically…has decided to use nostalgia to get money from Millennials.
I know we’re not uniquely targeted by this tactic, but the tail end of Gen X and us Millennials seem to be the ones who are most highly targeted by the “hey, remember [insert thing here] from your childhood? Well, it’s back! NOW GIVE ME ALL YOUR MONEY!” ploy.
And I hate even more how so many people seem oblivious to it and blindly play into the manipulative game.
I mean, it’s like all those damn Disney remakes. “Hey, you! Yes, you in that generation that’s either got young kids or is in the process of crapping out spawn! Remember The Lion King? Remember how much you loved that as a child? Well, here it is again, except with all the CGI and none of the emotion or heart! You’d better buy $60 movie tickets for the family so that your spawn can have the same warm fuzzies that you associate with the original!”
And so many people shell out for it without giving it a critical thought!
Sequels are just as bad, too. We did not need Toy Story 4. WE CERTAINLY DO NOT NEED TOY STORY 5.
UGH. Stop feeding the nostalgia-baiters money, you fools!
Anyway.
This whole rant was inspired by this:
Chicken Run is a fantastic movie. Does it need a sequel TWENTY YEARS LATER? I don’t think so. Though I have more faith in Aardman than I do in, say, Disney when it comes to quality control.
But still.
The Great Purge
I have trouble getting rid of stuff.
This includes stuff that is no longer of practical use, like my dozens of old Kinvaras that I’ve worn down with 500+ miles each.
But there are too many old pairs in the house; they’re really starting to clutter up the back room where Pepper’s litter box is (and the recycling bins and the furnace and the water heater), so I finally (with a lot of prompting by Nate) had to get rid of them today.
Here is a picture of them all before the purge:
That’s 45 pairs of shoes. You can see Pepper sitting next to the pile for scale, haha.
Now it’s time to start a new pile!
ZoDiAc
Accurate.
(Sorry, that’s all I’ve got for today. The end of the semester is busy.)
Flashback
Today I did something that I have not done since 2019: I walked to Westbrook Mall.
More specifically, I walked the route that used to be my absolute favorite walking route. I’d go out into Bowness and then come back, pass the bottom of our hill, and then walk on to 14th street. I’d then walk down 14th street to 17th avenue and head up towards Westbrook Mall. From there (usually after some shopping at the Walmart and/or Safeway) I’d take the #9 bus either home or to campus, depending on what I was doing the rest of the day.
Because of my class schedule in Winter 2020, I didn’t get a chance to do that walk before Covid hit.
And then Covid hit, which meant malls and buses were FORBIDDEN for quite a while.
But today, I finally got the chance (and courage) to give that walk another shot. Made sure I had my N99 for the bus back (plus like ten backup masks because I’m a weirdo like that) and headed up there.
It was a GREAT walk. I LOVE that walk.
And taking the bus back (to campus) wasn’t that bad, either. I was afraid I’d get motion sick because it has been so long since I’ve ridden a bus, but I was fine.
WOO!
500 Days!
Check it, I just hit 500 days on Duo!
Here are some examples of the level of French I can comprehend at this point:
I’m excited for my second French class this coming winter!
Pulse
This song still slaps EVEN WHEN IT’S SLOWED DOWN
I love how chill this is.
I am a FREE RADICAL
Today was a 27-mile run into a new region of Calgary. Behold!
(Also my fastest marathon time)
(Also, it’s wild that I’m still running in shorts in mid-November)
The area circled in blue is new to me. I’m right up against the edge of the city!
Am I going to apologize for posting a running blog every weekend?
No. No I’m not.
I want carbs.
I ALWAYS want carbs.
I’d blame the running, but I think I’ve always just wanted carbs, haha.
Anyway, have some carbs:
Also, this is the first time I’ve ever heard of blooming spices. Interesting.
LOOK AT THESE FREAKING CUTE CHIPS
That is all.
Claudia and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Blood Circulation
So the temperature has tanked here and OH MY GOD I AM SO FREAKING COLD
My hands can’t handle this, yo. My hands can barely handle 40-degree weather, let alone teens or negatives.
I don’t know how I used to go on 15-mile walks in like -15 degrees back in like 2018/2019. I suspect doing so is what’s destroyed my fingers, though. They are SO sensitive to cold now it’s actually kind of scary.
I should probably go to the doctor and see if I actually have Raynaud’s (even though I don’t get the color-changing skin) or if there’s something else going on.
Eigenblogger 