Life, #Twittereen, #Movember, And Other Things

Last Updated on: 28th December 2016, 03:34 pm

Hi there. It’s me, ya know, the absentee blogger. I haven’t really had much to say in the last little while. Not on email, not on Twitter, not on the blog, not anywhere. But that’s ok. I’m surviving, that’s what matters. I’m surviving, and attempting to expand this very little brain. By consequence, when I do talk, I ramble, and ramble, and ramble some more.

The job is still going well…although I’m constantly afraid I’m not moving fast enough. Everyone keeps telling me not to worry. All of this worry is completely self-inflicted. I’ll get over it, I swear. But I have learned my way around my floor pretty well, which is friggin liberating. Too bad I get to learn a new floor in a couple weeks. But hopefully they can help me by telling me that my new destination is just under some old destination that I know. At least I have points of reference, which is awesome. And I have very patient, awesome coworkers.

Hmmm. More updates. I did not win that iPod in the Twittereen contest, but Steve and I did win *something*. Remember that ice cream/waffle place I was talking about? Well, a bunch of us won a waffle stack! This is awesome, because we can probably coordinate rides and all go together, which means Steve and I have a chance in hell of getting to this place in Cambridge. YeaWaffle Stacks!

But even if I didn’t win an iPod, work has lent me one so I can learn how to use it. And amazingly, I’m making some pretty good progress. I managed to write the sentence “This is a test” on the touchscreen keyboard, which to me is a pretty good feat. Soon I will have mastered iThings, mwa ha ha ha ha. But I couldn’t have done it without my fellow iThing users helping me out over Twitter. I’m sure people thought there were perverted things going on, what with all this talk of flicking, scrubbing, finger-twisting and other stuff. No really, I’m just trying to use my iPod!

Jennison, a blind guy I know, wrote a tweet that I think is very very true. It read: “One of the true tests of trust when you can’t see is when you have to find a new barber.” I would like to add another test of trust. Going to the shoe store. Here’s why.

A while back I started to notice that my poor old running shoes were starting to bite the big one. Then I noticed there were holes under other holes. Um, eek? This is getting pretty bad. So, I headed out to the Shoeper Store. I wanted to buy a pair of running shoes. Simple running shoes that could fit my orthotics and were comfy and wouldn’t make me look like a child.

I told the girl at the store my needs, and she trotted off and came back with a pair of shoes. All she said was “How do you feel about grey and blue?” Since I told her I wanted plain and simple, I thought hmmm maybe it’ll be a dark blue with a grey stripe on them. I said ok. I put the shoes on, and damn did they feel good! They fit my orthotics too, so I was double happy.

I came home, wore them around with the tags still on, and thought I think I’m satisfied. But now I have learned a very valuable lesson. Next time, I must wear the shoes, with the tags on, down to someone possessing functioning eyes and good taste. Here’s why.

I cut the tags off, triumphant that I had a new pair of shoes. Awesome! And I headed downstairs with the Trixter, at which point I ran into the huppy’s dad. “New shoes?” he asked. “They must be new, I mean, they shine so much!” Excuuuuse me? Shine? I asked him to elaborate. It was then that I learned that the blue was not dark, but bright, electric, in fact. It was so attention-grabbing that they were the first things he noticed.

Oh dear dear. Now, for the foreseeable future, I must wear these stupid shoes. I don’t even want to have mom and dad see them, because they probably look butt ugly. Maybe they’d be ok if I were a teenager doing some kind of jogging through the woods or something, but that was not what I was going for.

So, sighties, if someone asked you for a plain, simple shoe, would electric blue honestly fit in? Would it not cross your mind to tell me the shade of blue? I knew I should have been worried when her next words were, “Or, how do you feel about purple?” Purple shoes? I reflexively said no when she said purple, but that should have been a great big warning sign. If I’d only left the tags on, I could have taken them back to the store and gotten another pair. I wanted white, maybe black. Nothing crazy like, oh, say, electric blue that draws your attention immediately on sight.

I kind of feel betrayed that this lady sold me electric blue shoes and didn’t tell me. I don’t always have sighted folks to bring along when I need a pair of shoes, and I’m putting a hell of a lot of trust in the salesperson to listen to what I’m asking for and find something accordingly. I mean, I can’t see the shoes. They do feel good, which I guess should be the most important thing, but I’m sure I could have found a pair of white runners that were still comfortable. But now, since I cut the tags off, these electric blue shiny things will be what I wear for the foreseeable future. Maybe I should take a picture of the damn things and put it up.

It’s November, or should I say Movember. I swear, this whole Movember thing has gone and pulled a Google in the brain-invasion department. I knew of its existence last year, and I sort of understood what it was all about, but this year, it is everywhere. Granted, I’m seeing a lot more of it on Twitter, but it appears it’s really taken off! It’s been so everywhere that I dreamed that Steve decided to grow a mo, and was so pissed that he was having so much trouble. I woke up chuckling.

This whole thing of it taking off like crazy is simultaneously great and bad. I think it’s great that so many men are getting involved in promoting men’s health and raising money for the cause. But it’s bad for me! I know so many guys doing it that how on earth do I choose who to donate to? I can’t possibly donate to every dude I know sporting a mo for Movember, I’ll go broke!

So, I’ll do the next best thing, I’ll suggest a bunch of people I know who are doing the Movember thing. If you feel moved to do it, toss ’em a few bucks. I donated to this guy, he’s one of those awesome colleagues I keep talking about. But work has a whole honkin’ team, so there’s another way to go at it. Look at that! 63 people doing the Movember thing!

But I know people outside of work who are doing this too. There’s our buddy Sean Yo, at least I think it’s him, so if you’re one of his honeybunches, throw him some dough. Then there’s Joel, who saved my butt the first week of work and gave me a ride on the first day. I will always be a biiig fan of Joel for allowing me to, um, get to work on my first day, so he’s always a good guy to donate to.

Next up are two guys whose pages I can’t find, but would love to. Hey peoples, not everybody can see pictures, so DO NOT USE YOUR PROFILE PICTURE AS YOUR SOLE WAY OF IDENTIFYING YOURSELF. Please please please give me something else to grab onto. Anything. For example, if you’re Cam Guthrie, say you’re a Guelph city councilor. If you’re Dan Gillis, maybe mention where you work or something. Give me something! Unfortunately, you’re not the only one with your name, and even if you were, how can I be sure I’ve got the right dude? I’m about to donate, I’d like to know I’m donating to the right guy.

So as soon as I find those guys’ pages, I’ll link to them, and then if you feel so inclined, huck them some dough. Good luck everybody doing the Movember thing.

Last Friday, the Guelph Community Foundation was promoting Random Act of Kindness day. On one level, I think it’s a really sweet idea. But on the other, I have to wonder. Do we need a day? Can’t we just see something and do it? Is it really that hard? And do we need to be given a cookie for doing a good deed? It always bugs me when someone who’s giving me a little bit of help says “Ah, I’ve done my good deed for the day.” I’m sure they’re just joking, but it always makes me feel just a wee bit like they want a medal or something.

Speaking of cookies, is it wrong that when I saw that one of my Twitter buddies was handing out cookies at a bus terminal, I couldn’t help but think “If I received a cookie randomly, would I eat it? Wouldn’t Random Acts of Kindness Day be the most perfect coverup to poison random people if you’re that kind of person?” Then another part of me slapped myself hard for being so synical. But I still wonder if I would eat a random cookie given to me by a random stranger. But then again, I accept help from random strangers all the time. What’s the difference between accepting help and a cookie? I think my brain just exploded.

And another thing that made my brain explode was I saw that Guelph Transit was giving out $20 bus passes with the following instruction “If you get one of these, pass it on!” So, does anyone ever actually use the things? Or do they just keep getting passed around?

I did a couple of random acts of kindness, but sadly neither of them fell on Random Acts of Kindness Day. A bunch of seniors got on the bus I was on and asked if this was the right bus to get them to a certain church. The driver had no clue, and didn’t really try to figure it out. So I picked up my phone, looked up information and found them an address. Once I gave that to the driver, she knew exactly where it was and told them they were on the right bus. I didn’t do it because it was Random Acts of Kindness Day, I did it because I felt it was the right thing to do, and I felt really good about helping some folks out.

Another time, I found out a friend of mine had a really shitty birthday and said “Oh if only I had some cupcakes!” She didn’t know where there was a place near her that had them, so I googled out a shop that would deliver, found a delivery service, and she got some cupcakes delivered to her house a couple days later, which I paid for. I didn’t need a bracelet or a card to do it. I did it because I wanted to give her a smile and it made me feel good. Isn’t that all the motivation we need?

I guess if it brightens someone’s day, then that’s all that matters. But wouldn’t it be great to move to a kind of community where people did little things for each other all the time just because?

I’ve noticed something as I follow more people on Twitter. Some of them appear to spend most of their time tweeting about tweeting. Seriously. I guess if thinking about thinking is called metacognition, would this be metatweeting? Don’t get me wrong, a little is fine, but these people do it all the time! They tweet about tweetups, effective tweeting, social media conferences, and they hella retweet, but they don’t seem to say much of their own…and they have scads of followers! How does that work? I don’t get it. I’ve actually unfollowed a couple of them because I just spend more time skimming their tweets. What am I missing? Somebody help me.

And I think that’s about it for now. I’m afraid this will be the trend. Long silences followed by barrages nobody will finish reading. Hope somebody enjoyed this.