Ultimate Canadian Coins
I don’t care how exceedingly extravagant this is, these coins are beautiful.
My dad used to collect coins. He obviously couldn’t afford these, haha, but I wonder if he still pays attention to this kind of thing.
END!
r/place
So if you don’t know what r/place is, here’s some history and info. In 2017, this particular subreddit was home to an experiment that involved a blank online canvas, a limited color palette, and collaboration. Basically, registered users had the ability to place a single colored pixel on the canvas (and had to wait a certain amount of time to place another). People coordinated with each other, fought each other for space on the canvas, and produced overall a very cool looking image by the end of the event.
Fast forward to now. It’s 2022 and there was a new version of r/place with a bigger canvas, more colors, and more collaboration.
ANYWAY.
The reason I’m mentioning this is because the r/ucalgary subreddit was all about trying to get the U of C logo on there. But in the process, they kept bringing up the Canadian flag and how NO ONE COULD DRAW THE MAPLE LEAF. And how Germany drew a perfect maple leaf on their flag just to show that they could do it.
Edit: Here’s a video showing the evolution of the Canadian flag and how terrible that leaf was. Like, oh my god, guys.
That’s hilarious.
Edit again: here’s a really cool video giving a much better description than I can and showing how the canvas evolved:
I love this kind of stuff. It’s so cool.
‘Berta
I got my Alberta driver’s license today!
…am I cool now?
(Sorry not sorry for the short blog.)
Yeah, Pretty Much
And -22 is NOT that cold of a temperature for Calgary. Just sayin’.
GET IT, CANADA
Go, Canada, go!
We got off to a very slow start up here, but things ramped up quickly. Now we’re one of the top countries when it comes to the percent of the population with at least one shot. Hopefully our rate of second shots will start increasing at the same rate.
WOO THERE MIGHT BE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE YET
Speak the Speak
I hadn’t heard “pencil crayons” until Nate said it when referring to my colored pencils. I guess it makes sense, though. They’re like crayons but in pencil form?
I have never heard “garburator” in my life and if I didn’t see what it was referring to, I would think it was Canada’s name for Bigfoot or something.
What kind of nerd is down with “soccer baseball?” “Kickball” is a fairly unambiguous term; you’re kicking a ball like in soccer, but you’re doing so in a game form that’s like baseball. “Soccer baseball” could imply that, but it could also imply that you’re whacking soccer balls around with a baseball bat. Which I guess is kinda cool.
Definitely heard it referred to as “hydro bill” in BC.
Odd.
USAY2K
Not being able to go back to the US for more than a year has made me realize just how much stuff I still get from there. Mostly it’s stuff that I can’t find up here (like my particular brand of deodorant or the ONLY lip balm that seems to work for me), but a good amount of it is stuff that is WAY cheaper in the States. Examples:
- Sunscreen
- Vitamins
- Razors
- Shampoo
- The pens I use when I lecture (though I guess I haven’t been using these since we’ve been online anway)
- Clothes (like even the basic stuff like socks and bras)
- Earrings
That’s just the stuff I can think of off the top of my head.
And it’s too terrifying to go into a Walmart or a Superstore right now, so everything has to be bought at Safeway, which is SUPER expensive.
Yay. I hate this freaking pandemic.
COVID PARTY 2020
Six-digit daily case counts in the States? Yeah, sure, why the hell not.
That is absolutely terrifying, America. I feel like it’s right on the verge of being past anyone’s control and the only way it’s going to slow down is by just chewing through the whole US population.
But Canada isn’t doing all that much better. Here’s our second peak going strong:
Alberta, specifically, has really dropped the ball. We were in new daily case numbers between 100 and 200 for the longest time, then things jumped up to the 500s a few weeks ago. Yesterday? 800 cases. Today? 1,441 cases. People keep gathering and are apparently not staying home when they’re exhibiting COVID symptoms.
Why is everyone so freaking stupid and selfish, I don’t understand.
Like, I get the whole “pandemic fatigue” thing, but holy hell. If people just calmed their tits for like TWO MONTHS and isolated as much as they could, we could probably cut this thing down significantly.
Why is that such a hard concept?
UGH I AM SO FRUSTRATED WITH THIS WHOLE WORLD RIGHT NOW.
Wave goodbye to any sense of normality this year
So we are definitely in the “second wave” of COVID up here. It’s a bit scary because Canada was doing quite well as a country through July and August, but cases are spiking again nonetheless.
I guess the comforting thing (if you want to call it that) is that the second wave seems to be happening in almost every country that appeared to have the virus under control, so at least we’re not an outlier as far as that pattern goes. I mean, it could be worse, right?
(That, of course, is the US)
Canada did really well squelching the first wave. I hope people take this second wave just as seriously.
Edit: okay, just for funsies, Canada has had a total of about 197,000 cases and about 9,800 deaths. That’s about 0.52% and 0.026% of the Canadian population, respectively. The United States has had a total of about 8.1 million cases and about 219,000 deaths. That’s about 2.5% and of the population and 0.067% of the population, respectively. I’d say that’s a decent difference, especially in the percentage of cases.
North of the Border
This is probably going to sound super stupid, but every once and a while I remember that I am not living in the country I was born in and I’m like…oh.
Yeah, that sounds pretty stupid as I’m typing it out. But it’s not something that I consciously think about very often, so when I do actually think about the fact that I live in a country where I’m not technically a citizen, it’s kind of a weird thing. It’s kind of a shocking thing. I never thought I’d be living anywhere other than the US, but HERE WE ARE in a world where I’ve spent more of my adult life in Canada than in ‘Murica.
Kinda wild.
Sorry, that’s all I’ve got for today.
Coronavirus Madness
Take a look at these two different graphs of daily cases of COVID-19.
Which one is the US? Which one is Canada? I’ll give you one guess.
Even with the population difference, Canada is seeing much smaller rates than the US. And we’re flattening a lot more. Will we spike again? Probably. But I don’t think we’ll spike to the extent the US currently is.
Hell, that isn’t even the second wave in the US. It’s still the first wave. It just picked up a lot of momentum.
That’s terrifying. Are you all terrified down there?
Nova Scotia
There was a mass-shooting in Nova Scotia today/yesterday.
That kind of stuff doesn’t happen up here.
It’s getting national news coverage. It’s all that’s been talked about today, even with the pandemic and all its fallout.
But in the US, something like this would probably just be a headline on CNN. Maybe not even the major headline. The major headline would be Trump being an idiot in some form or another. This would be “18+ people killed in mass-shooting” as a smaller headline somewhere further down the page. A lot of people probably wouldn’t even click on it because we’re so damn desensitized to that kind of thing in the States.
Ugh.
US vs. Canada
Hey friends in the United States, is it as bad down there as the news is making it sound? ‘Cause it sounds pretty bad.
Obviously no one is really focusing on Idaho; how’s Idaho? Is everyone walking around in fear of getting the virus? Is Gritman overwhelmed? Are people protesting the shelter-at-home orders to get back to work?
Obviously Canada is getting hit by this as well (just like the rest of the world), but I think the biggest difference between Canada and the US as far as how this is being handled is in how it’s become such a political thing in the US whereas up here, we haven’t politicized it.
At least, not nearly to the extent that the US has.
Like…the crisis is being dealt with despite political differences up here. Political differences are not being deepened by the crisis. Again, at least not to the extent that they are in the US.
It’s interesting and weird and scary.
And this is going to sound really stupid, but I feel guilty for not being in the United States. I feel guilty for living in a country that seems to be handling this quite well while like 99.8% of all the people I’ve ever cared about are getting traumatized by the Trumpster Dumpster and his complete incompetence. It sounds scary down there, and I feel guilty for not having to share that scariness, if that makes any sense at all.
Anyway.
Blah.
Annnnnnnnnnd the border’s closed.
I’m actually surprised they waited so long, but the US-Canadian border is now closed to all “non-essential” travel.
It’s only closed for 30 days, but I suspect it will extend for longer than that.
I know that this closure was a mutual decision between the US and Canada, but if things start to get really rough with all of this (economy-wise, especially), I really hope it doesn’t drive a wedge between the two countries. I’ve posted this video before on here, but I’ve been thinking about it with the recent talk of closing the border (and, of course, the actual closing of the border today).
Oh, Canada…
Also, Calgary has a ton of walking/biking paths.
It’s one of the main reasons I love this city.
I FORGOT TO MENTION…
I got a huge tax return this year. We’re talking $8,700.
What in the actual hell, Canada.
A good portion of that is going to the furnace/water heater we just had to replace, but what about the rest of it?
(Can I buy a Theremin?)
I see a little silhouetto of a ham
HEYOOOOOOO so this is something I just thought of checking (I should have done it earlier, it turns out), but I was wondering today if I’ve spent more than half my adult life in Canada yet. Some important info I needed to figure this out:
- I turned “adult” on February 2, 2008
- I spent 686 days living in Vancouver (the longest damn 686 days ever)
- I spent 70 days living in London
- I’ve lived in Calgary since August 15, 2014
So after a little bit of wizardry (math), I found out that January 5, 2017 was the first day where I’d spent more than half my adult life in Canada (1,631 days in the Canada compared to 1,630 in the US).
So that’s kind of cool! Wish I would have thought to check this a few years ago so I could have actually live-blogged it, but whatev.
Do I ever live-blog anything anymore?
I got a perm(anent resident card)
I am now an official permanent resident of Canada!
WOO!
It sounds like this means I can do everything that Canadians can do except 1) vote and 2) hold high-level security clearance jobs.
It also means that the next step is applying for citizenship.
ONWARD!
Pokemens
Hahaha, these are fantastic. I’m assuming “Canada” is the next Pokemon region, right?
IDES OF APRIL
Remember that map thingamapoop that you can color in based on where you’ve lived and how long you’ve lived there?
Probably not, ‘cause that’s not super descriptive or specific. So here’s mine from 2013.
Here’s the updated map to reflect my current state.
(Or province.)
(That was a really stupid joke, sorry.)
That’s…not as different from the 2013 one as I thought it would be, haha.
OH, CANADA
Yesterday: 12+ inches of snow
Today: -33℉ temperatures
Fun Canadian winter is fun.
Fun at the Border Crossing
Crossing the US/Canada border with my mom is always some sort of adventure. Talking to the border guards—especially going back into the States—always makes my mom nervous, and I have trouble keeping from laughing because every time we cross the border I remember all our previous border incidents where my mom was in panic mode and I had to answer the border guards’ questions for her.
But today’s crossing was extra special.
Let me set the scene for you, ‘cause you need to be able to visualize all of this.
When we pulled up to the crossing, the lineup to get through wasn’t especially long, but there were a decent number of vehicles in front of us. There were enough, in fact, for one of the border guard dudes to open up one of the other lanes. He guided a few of us towards it, and we ended up pulling behind a truck that had a very prominent pair of truck nuts hanging down from the rear.
If you’ve never had the pleasure of experiencing truck nuts before, they are these things:
(pic from here)
And these exist because…?
I honestly have no idea. Maybe because mounting a 10x scale model of one’s penis to the front of one’s hood is illegal.
But anyway. Mr. Truck Nuts McDangle is now right in front of us, and my mom, never having seen the monstrosity that is a pair of truck nuts before, is taking pictures of it with her phone and laughing while doing so.
I’m pretty sure she’s going to get us arrested by the border guards, but even they seem to be amused by the nuts. There are a few of them circling around the vehicles, just making sure we’re all actually in lanes, and I see a few of them looking at the truck in front of us and laughing a little.
Anyway. Nuts Dude finally pulls up to the crossing window, talks to the guards, and goes on through. As they’re pulling away, I see the two guards outside the booth laughing a bit—probably about the nuts.
So then we pull up.
My mom, nervous about the border as always, had rehearsed questions with me. She always brings a cooler with her whenever she comes up here, so she always has me rehearse with her what to say if they ask her what’s in the cooler.*
And of course they ask. “What’s in the cooler?”
Now keep in mind that we’ve all been primed with giant-ass truck nuts just moments ago.
My mom takes both hands, holds them like a foot and a half apart, and says, “I’ve got a biiiig zucchini.”
I honestly don’t know how those border guards kept straight faces; I had to turn away because I was losing my mind laughing. The guards managed to finish asking their questions and sent us on our way, at which point I totally lost it.
My mom had no idea what was so funny, so I explained it to her as we were driving out of the border crossing area, and we almost had to pull over ‘cause we were both laughing so hard.
I know it may not sound as funny just typed out like this, but holy hell, that was fantastic when it happened.
It’ll be hard to top this border crossing.
Edit: I had to check out the “truck nuts” Wiki page just to see what it had to say, and one of the sentences has the phrase “truck nuts exploded” and I can’t handle this universe anymore.
*We had a “carrot incident” once coming back from Vancouver…it’s still one of the funniest things that’s ever happened to us.
Canada + News = Crazy
Canada’s Global News: always entertaining.
I love how that artichoke dip thing from last Christmas had even more of an impact in the Calgary studio than the original clip showed.
The Calg
I really do love it up here.
Eigenblogger 