I’ve been quiet on here. 2022 has not been a great year in this household. I’m not confident that 2023 will be any better. I know people see the new year as a new beginning, I’m much more pragmatic, it’s going to be much the same. I can’t honestly name one fun or extinguish that happened this year. The only good thing I can say is that I’m still employed and can for the most part still pay the bills.

2022 started with a loss, my senior pup Daka passed in Jan and I haven’t recovered. He followed his son who passed in Nov 2021. In March our Ellie came down with something and we spent most of 2022 struggling to get her to eat. I’m happy to report that although still sometimes a struggle she has improved. Sure she misses Daka and Dorje, she is a very senior pup herself so we are loving on her every day.

June I had an endoscopy which didn’t reveal any bombshells but it was not pleasant. July saw me having to have a few teeth taken out at the hospital, since they didn’t do the hard way right off the bat I was left to suffer with tooth pain for SIX weeks. Leaving me to have to do it again in late Aug which had me react to the meds, have an asthma attack and netted me a two night stay in hospital. At least the teeth are out.

Shortly after I got home and recovered our mom ended up in the hospital. She stayed for about a week, about a month later I was in the ER with her, which wasn’t fun, she didn’t have to stay which was good, we got ho,e pretty late. About another month or so after that she landed back in the hospital spending a few days in the ICU. Was a very scary time. She came home and so far has avoided the hospital since, we shall see how long that lasts.

Had the first in person appointment with my Neurologist as I had some issues with my hands and legs. Had normal MRI and was fine, he did a physical assessment and def came to the conclusion something isn’t right. So I won myself another MRI of my spine in Jan. Currently I often drop things, do not have the same feeling in my hands and face I used to. I have always had sensitive teeth but now I don’t feel much, have to be extra careful when eating or drinking hot things. Makes eating ice cream handy. I have issues with walking, if I got at a faster pace I have to THINK about walking my legs don’t move as they used to.

In November my Uncle died, didn’t get a chance to visit him before hand and I’m sure my cousins are cross with me because of that. I. Cross with myself. Miss him so much he was a big teddy bear and such a kind human.

To round out 2022, we all ended up sick. Sister got COVID and stayed at an provincially funded isolation centre (a hotel) where she could rest. Mom and I seemed to get the same strain of cold. So while I had my period and a cold I had to take care of mom, not get paid for 3 days and lose out on a monthly work bonus of about $650 which I could have used. The cold has also made my back issues worse, my lower back now requires multiple times, daily extra strength Advil but that only helps for short periods, really can’t wait to see the Jan MRI.

I hope your 2022 was much more positive. Happy to see 2022 go.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I asked on Twitter what I should write about. It’s been a hot minute since I’ve posted a blog and I wasn’t sure what best to write about. I tend to write when the mod strikes me, when I have an idea or a rant. But I DO feel like writing, just a little light on what to write about. The only response was from someone who suggested “Coffee and Cats”. So here we are; a random blog about coffee and cats.

I DO really love coffee; I was introduced to tea first; at an early age. I was probably 9 or 10; I remember we were at my aunts house and she offered to make my sister and I a cup. With milk and sugar; being young I liked it on the sweeter side but still loved the taste of tea. I remember my mom protesting to my aunt; but my aunt had this way of shutting my mom down and my aunt got her way. From then on we drank tea at her place. I’m sure we started drinking it at home not long after. Unlike tea I’m don’t remember my first cup of coffee; I just remember somehow just drinking at some point. Pretty sure like my tea I drank it on the sweeter side; double double. For all you non-Canadian readers this means 2 cream and 2 sugar. As I got older I realized I wasn’t in to cream, it was kind of gross to me so I switched to milk. I went to 2 milk, 1 sugar. This is pretty much still my standard coffee order when I’m out for a normal coffee. When I’m at home and I make a normal cup of Joe I actually don’t put sugar in. I drink it with just some milk (lactose free milk). As I mentioned I DO love coffee so I do enjoy the fancy stuffs. The lates, cappuccinos, Americano, all that jazz. If I can get it with lactose free milk all the better; otherwise regular milk will do. I’m not a fan of any nut milks so I tend to suffer for what I love. We have here at home a few different coffee machines; (ok we have 3…geez don’t judge me). So we can enjoy a normal coffee or go all out and be fancy AF (which we do love to do). What I don’t love about coffee…glad you asked, I really dislike flavoured coffees or artificial, chemically tasting flavour liquids. I also will and can drink it black but find that really makes my GERD harder to deal with so a tad of milk is <chef’s kiss>. That’s pretty much my view of coffee. I love getting coffee as a gift or gift cards for places like Starbucks or Tim Horton’s. What is your fav coffee place and or how do you like your coffee?

Now on to cats (this is prob going to be a short blog). I LOVE CATS! OMG they are such crazy little beings. I love rescue kitties the best but if I could have a specific breed I’d really love to adopt a rug hugger of a Munchkin; have you seen one? They are so stinking cute. I’m not sure I told the story of my cat I had when I was a kid. I’m not sure we really asked for one, lord knows my mom wouldn’t have let us. What happened was we went do a pet store, no clue why; someone that was involved with our family for a while took us. We went and there were two kittens in a open roof cage thing and next thing we knew we were taking both of them because we couldn’t leave just one. Plus there were two of us (my sister and I); so we each took one. We were told they were sister and brother. Crystal took the girl and I took the boy; they were tiny little things with no tails. Both were black and white; and in the car on the way home we tried to think of names. Since they were girl/boy we settled on Pebbles & BamBam; we though we were being cute; but we clearly not that inventive. We were young! I don’t remember my mom’s reaction but I’m pretty sure she was pissed, she was not told about them and here they were in her house. The first night was something with these kittens, we ended up having to sleep with the light on as every time we moved the kittens would ponce and attack us. It was never that bad again but MAN that first night was filled with laughter, yelps of pain and cute kitten cuddles.

After a small amount of time we took them to a vet for a check-up, since they were purchased at a sketchy pet store we were not confident they were in the best of health. Pebbles got a clean bill of health; when it came to BamBam the vet informed us that he was in fact NOT a he, but a she. So for some reason I felt I needed to change the kittens name but wanted to stay with a name that started with a “B” so BamBam became Bubbles. I don’t have easy access to pictures of them because we had them way long ago before cell phones were a thing. The breed we found out were Manx and wow could they jump. Bubbles used to jump from the floor to the top of the fridge with easy even as a kitten. Sadly they have both long since passed but we were lucky to have them for roughly 22 and 25 years respectively; with Pebbles passing first and Bubbles following. Both passing in their sleep of old age. I miss having a cat but I don’t miss the litter box! I’d have all the animals if I could. What was/is your cat’s name?

Well that’s it; a nice short blog. Thanks for reading!

Yesterday just before filming the latest episode of our podcast BoldFaceFriends I saw a tweet from the Toronto Star which was highlight a person charged with tax evasion. Just looking at the tweet I knew EXACTLY what I would see. The world, society has jaded me, condition me. I have defensive system where I imagine conversations, go through all possible scenarios. I wasn’t wrong the tweets below were exactly what I feared.

I’ve talked before, on this blog, on my YouTube channel, and now on out Podcast about the harm caused by portraying villains with facial differences. The tweets I saw are the embodiment of that.

Here is the link to the story. It is most likely behind a paywall but you only need the picture to get where we are going.

Now let’s highlight some of the tweets that appeared under the story posted on Twitter. I didn’t include their Twitter handles as this isn’t relevant.

See a theme? Still think “but they are just movies”? They will always defend themselves saying “this guy is a criminal “ or whatever. But what the person did or didn’t do is irrelevant. I dislike the current leader in the U.S. with every fibre of my being. But I still won’t make fun of his looks. Making fun of someone isn’t funny and it isn’t a joke. Movies have normalized this behaviour. People do not believe that it has real world consequences.

These next few tweets were in response to me calling out their bullshit.

There goes that defence system, I can hear what you are saying as you read this. “Why even respond to them?” “You are beautiful.” “They only says these things because they are insecure”…. I also was surprised by a couple of people who did acknowledge what a shirt thing it is. Here is one example.

You are right, I don’t/didn’t have to respond. My mental health would be better off. However I vowed a long time ago that if I see something, to say something. This couldn’t be ignored. A statement from a great Doctor on her YouTube channel is something I decided to incorporate in to my everyday life. “If what you put out hurts just one person, that’s a net negative”, to me this means I will always try to ensure what I say or do hurts no one directly. I’m not perfect, but I would and never will make fun of anyone. I hope the people who tweeted will get on board.

I took today off Twitter because I honestly needed to recharge. It is really hard to just shout at the void and no one seeming to care.

You are also right, I am beautiful.

Yesterday’s appointment is still weighing on me so to help me work through that, here’s a public blog post.

To get to present day I want to share how I got here. 5 years ago I had a lower left molar removed. It had to removed because there was only about half left, the rest had cracked and who knows where it went. So an oral surgeon was tasked to help me. Since dental work is expensive I opted for just freezing, it remains the single worst thing I’ve ever been through that’s after 30+ surgeries. It wasn’t the doctor’s fault, it’s just how my jaw is. He couldn’t take out the whole thing, he got the roots out but to this day there are bits of that tooth poking out. The healing from that wasn’t great, took a long time and was pretty painful.

About a year after that he took out my sole wisdom tooth. I got fully knocked out with that and that was so easy. Healed well and with little pain. I went on my merry life. Throughout the years my teeth have shifted and with each time it’s been painful.

That pretty much gets us to present. A about a month or so ago I started getting pain in the area where that tooth is. It was low key and I just dealt with it, it got worse, and again I ignored it. It got to the point where it was pretty swollen, really painful and I couldn’t open my mouth enough to put a cracker in. Eating became a challenge, and I finally decided to get some help.

I tried to make an appointment with a new dentist who ignored me. However knowing me, my jaw and from past experiences a regular dentist wasn’t going to help so I didn’t get too angry. I decided to try the surgeon who had taken the tooth out that I felt was giving me problems. His staff is just as great as he is and let me come in. He took a look and said he needed a CT X-Ray to determine if he would be at risk for breaking my jaw in the attempt. Got a script for some heavy painkillers and amoxicillin and waited until I could get this scan done.

The scan was yesterday. It was quick and easy. The amoxicillin has done its thing and has greatly reduced my pain. The painkillers are a no from me. Tried half a pill and, nope.

I sat across from him, he looked at the scan and I knew from the look on his face he wouldn’t be able to help me. Those with disabilities will most likely understand that look, we tend to get passed around like a hot potato. It’s why I don’t seek help very often, because I either hear “I can’t help you” or “no, there is nothing wrong” in either I feel like I’m a bother, what was the point in even trying.

The doctor I saw yesterday wanted to help, I appreciate that he admits that some things are beyond him. It’s not a money grab for him. But it didn’t surprise me, it didn’t even frustrate me. He did ask me about the last reconstructive surgery, which was in 1996. I won’t go in to a lot of detail about it, but it failed. It was the second attempt and with this one I lost a lot more than I gained. The comment/question he asked is if I would want to try again.

That one question has been rolling around my head since yesterday afternoon. Do I want to try for a third time? Do I want to go through the pain, the recovery, for what?

I haven’t had a lot of success with major surgeries. Most times I get some sort of infection or complication. As I reflect about my times in the hospital it would explain why I seemed to need way more time in hospital than other people. I’m getting older and I assume that you don’t heal like you did when you were young.

I think it would be nice to be able to eat without as much trouble as I do now. I don’t much care about how it would change my appearance but I would welcome any positive changes it would have. It I’m realistic, the chances of having a positive outcome would be low.

With all that said I will be going to the doctor he is referring me to and I will go with an open mind but with a healthy dose of skepticism.

Wish me luck.

I was in the progress of writing another post related to this one but I really wanted to dive in to this one. So the other one is safely in my drafts folder to be completed at another time. I also feel that people who follow me on twitter and/or Facebook might think this post is dealing with a recent rant, it’s not. But since there is interest in my views on that subject, guess I will go down that rabbit hole…..eventually.

TriggerWarning: this post is about death. If this is something that isn’t your thing, please continue to read. I hope that it will help you. But in all seriousness I won’t be offended if you don’t want to read this post. But if you do, I don’t want any negativity.

DISCLAIMER: I’m fine. This post is not some secret post that I’m doing that references my imminent demise. I just want to share my thoughts and hopefully help others. Pretty much the whole point of this bog. So don’t read between the lines, there are NO lines!

I am no stranger to death, if you’ve read my posts before this isn’t surprising. A Disney movie wasn’t my first death experience as it is for a lot of kids. Death has been my constant companion. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the number of people I’ve lost. Death is a part of life.

On the flip side, I don’t want to die, I’d be cool to live forever. Im not afraid of dying, I think. Im curious about life, I want to know what the future has in store. Will humans stop killing themselves in pointless conflicts? Will we explore more of space and colonize another planet? Will we meet other intelligent life? You get the picture, I just really want a time machine to see how or if this story ends.

I’ve never had to plan anything for someone that has passed. All my experiences with death have been with going to services. The most profound experience was with my Aunt June, who passed 11 years ago this past June. I had visited with her a number of times prior to her passing. She HATED hospitals and wanted to die at home. My Uncle Denny called us to advise she passed, he came to pick my mom and I up. We got to their house before the funeral home. I got to say goodbye to her. Other than that we were not involved she was taken away and we just hung around and were there for each other. It was an odd night and I don’t think I will forget the way my Aunt looked. That’s not a bad thing, I’m glad I was able to see her and say goodbye.

The idea came for this post came from a YouTube channel I recently discovered. I don’t know what video I watched for one of her videos to show up in my recommended but whoop one day it was there. I didn’t click on it right away. Like most people I shy away from anything death related. But I’m SO happy I jumped right in.

Let me introduce you to Caitlin Doughty.

Her YouTube channel goes by the title “Ask A Mortician”. She is delightful. Brings the conversation of and about death to an easy to consume thing. She is an advocate for death positivity. before her I’d never heard those two words together in the same sentence. It’s about time that everyone thinks those two words belong.

I’ve learned a lot. I learned what adipocere is. I’m not going to ruin that for you. Google at your own risk.

I also learned that you don’t HAVE to be embalmed. I could see myself believing a not so great funeral director who said it’s the only option. I’m not a fan of confrontation and during a stressful time such as loss of a loved one I’d be apt to go with whatever.

From what I know about funeral, they are COSTLY AF, What I learned is that they don’t have to be.

Having a plan and having conversations about what your wishes are is super important. My sister and I have had fairly informal conversations. I love that we’ve even had that. So many people shy away from that. I will be making sure that I have a plan written out that I can share with the people I trust and I hope you do as well.

At the end of the day however you feel about death is ok, what I hope by writing this and helping people find this amazing channel is that people will get more comfy with just having that conversation while we are healthy.

Here is a link to a great video of hers to jump in to. You can find her on Facebook.

Caitlin has also written a bunch of books, all of which I hope to get.

What do you think, what is something you are or are not comfortable with when it comes to this subject matter?

What do you want me to write about next?

Three things that make me smile

1) Daka

2) Dorje

3) Ellie

Well that was a short blog post. See you all tomorrow.

Just kidding, today’s idea comes to us by my friend Steve. Who asked me to write about the 3 things that make me smile. As I laid in bed last night thinking about what I would write I was met with a wall of anxiety. But not for the reasons you might be assuming. I wasn’t worried about how I would only choose 3. I was worried about finding anything to write about. Contrary to what you might think what lives in my head are dark echos, darkness of many kinds. This makes finding specific things hard. I’m taking a a broad approach to these three things. They encompass the true things that make me smile.

In no specific order here are my picks for the three things that make me truly smile.

I Smile for: Animals

It shouldn’t be a surprise this is one. A look at my social media and you will see three puppers frequently front and centre. When I am having a rough day these three dogs are my connection. But I love all animals. I don’t see any animal as “ugly” I love cats, otters, birds all the animals. I love searching out funny and cute animal videos. I recently found a Buzzfeed twitter handle devoted to animals and LOVE losing myself in their short cute videos. It sponsored but here is their handle. https://mobile.twitter.com/adorably?lang=en

Every time I see a special needs animal not getting adopted I want to rescue them. There are many breeds of dogs and cats I would love in my life. Bylaws here in Waterloo Region prevent me from having more than 3 dogs. Which I guess is ok but if it didn’t exist I’d prob have more dogs. I have more love to give.

I Smile for: altruism

I love giving. Whether it’s my time or buying something for someone (or animals). I enjoy surprising my sister when I can with something that she wants. I love being able to get things for friends and always want to give. I got a lot of personal satisfaction from volunteering and hope to get back to it. However right now (not Covid related) I can’t. I’m just so exhausted that I can’t provide the time I want to various causes. I donate money when I can to various charities and GoFundMe campaigns. Giving, making others smile or in some small way blighting their day fills me with purpose and never fails to make me smile.

I Smile for: Scents

This one might be a surprise to some. Those who really know me know just how sensitive I am to scents. Most scents will trigger a migraine, make me nauseous or give me sinus pain that stays for days. However there are a number of scents that when I smell them truly make me smile. Dress cut grass, fresh baked bread, lumber, my puppies after they’ve been groomed. A few perfumes I can still wear are White Musk from The Body Shop, Pleasures from Estée Lauder and Happy from Clinique. A really nice wine and a good dinner are also scents that genuinely make me smile.

Did these surprise you? What are the three things that make you smile.

Another blog idea from the awesome Becky. All about some of my fav recipes. Please if you want me to write about something please leave a comment below.

I’m not the worlds best cook. To be honest if I lived alone I’d most like order in most days. I don’t mind cooking but I even ok not cooking. My sister also hates cooking but she is dang good at it and is the one that primarily cooks in our house. I tend to act as her sous chef, doing as I’m told.

Like most households we tend to have a set of rotating meal ideas and for the most part don’t venture too far from that. We are a meat and potatoes family but we love Asian influenced dishes. We are more likely to explore Japanese, Korean and Chinese flavours.

Tonight’s dinner was not those flavours. My sister and I made our chicken post pie and salad. This came from the one time I did make something all myself. One year after Christmas we had some turkey left over, as one does. And I searched for something to do with those leftovers. I found Jamie Oliver’s leek, bacon and turkey pot pie. So I got the stuffs to make it and made it. It was REALLY good. I made it again when my sister came and she loved it. We didn’t make it on the regular but when we moved to our house we remembered it and tried our version. And now we make our own version that isn’t hard, but is time consuming and tastes so good.

I’m sad I can’t find the OG recipe from Jamie Oliver. But if you google “Jamie Oliver leftover leek” it will provide links to,other people who have recorded the recipe.

The most recent add to our dinners have been to do homemade pizzas. We make dough from scratch and allows us to more customize it. I can’t handle a ton of cheese so by making it ourselves I can control the cheese factor.

Baking is something my sister and I remember our mom doing quite a bit growing up. If she had spare time she was making pies, tarts, cakes or fudge. Mom’s baking was amazing. It’s also something my sister prefers to do. We do not do a lot but we love a good banana bread loaf or muffins, we love a yummy strawberry pie. Also lemon loaf is a staple since the first time we made it.

Classic lemon loaf

It’s so good. You should 100% make it and send me pictures if you do. I’ve made other loaves but the lemon is by far our favourite.

We don’t do a ton for breakfast or make anything specific for lunch either now that I’m thinking of it. We grab some toast or a bowl of cereal. Lunch is a sandwich, hot dogs or macaroni & cheese. Not very adventurous.

We have only ordered in a couple of times other than coffee which we’ve been doing as a weekly treat on Sunday’s.

Do you have recipes that you make on the reg? What are your staples.

Today’s post comes from my friend Becky who texted me a few ideas. One was titled “Storytelling” she followed it up saying should be a “fun, sad or embarrassing story. So looking to bring some light to your day wanted to share my funny poop stories.

I’ve been thinking on and off about writing a book and had this idea that these stories would be placed smack dab in the middle of the book. For the same reason, to add some levity. The book I envisioned is heavier in nature dealing with my life and insecurities so having a funny middle book would be a nice resting spot. So without further ado let me embarrass myself.

Story #1: don’t take candy from strangers

You learn from an early age to NOT accept anything edible from strangers. I have no doubt my mom said this. But being a kid that was always around adults who were strangers who did offer me things for which my mom never took away I got some mixed messages.

The scene: sister and I sitting on a giant tire swing on the playground of our school. I was probably in grade one. I was a tiny, tiny kid. I was usually older than the kids in same grade but half the size. I remember sitting on the swing feet never touching the ground. My sister would have to help me get on the swing. We were just sitting on the swing and these older kids come up to us. They were not adults most likely teenagers that didn’t go to our school. Our school faced the street and it’s easy for strangers to interact with the kids. Sadly I can’t find a picture of what the playground used to look like. They came up to us asking if we wanted a piece of chocolate. I said yes and promptly ate it. My sister had taken one but smarty decided not to eat it. I remember saying “if you don’t want it I will take it” and I did, and I ate it. If you don’t see where this is going….I don’t know what to say. I ate two whole squares of what I’m sure was exlax. I don’t remember much of the rest of the day. I know I had a number of accidents. One of my most vivid memories was after school. Clearly the school called my mom but my mom didn’t get me early. Instead I walked from the side of the school to the back. Attached to the back of our school was an entrance to the back of the gym and a set of stairs. On those stairs sat my older sister and my mom. I walked over shyly, as soon as they saw me both of them burst out laughing. We lived in a house right beside the back of the school so wasn’t a long walk home which was nice. That laughter still stuck in my head. Needles to say I learned the hard way NOT to take candy from strangers.

Story #2: I blame the meds

I had major surgery in 1996 when I was 16. After getting out of the ICU and having been in my room for a bit. Being independent and knowing how hard nurses work I though I could take care of myself. So when I had to go the bathroom I didn’t call for a nurse. I got my feet over the edge. I stood up and things just lined up and I shat myself. I was so mad at myself I cried as I called the nurse. She was super sweet and helped me clean up.

Story #3: The trouble with Tim Bits

I’m not sure the exact year this happened but was not more than 15 years ago. I lived about a 5 minute walk from the local neighbourhood Tim Horton’s coffee shop. One evening as I often did I decided to walk and grab a coffee for my mom and I. I decided at the last minute to grab a couple of chocolate glazed Timbits. I was feeling ok, just as I got to Tim Horton’s I had felt some rumbling but ignored it. Got my order and went on my way. The Timbits were fresh, indeed still warm. As I transitioned from the parking lot pavement to the concrete of the sidewalk, something off happened. My tummy rumbled and well….they emptied. Walked home in my soiled jeans. Soon as I got in the house I called for my mommy like I never had before.

Well that’s it those are my poopy pants stories. I hope you enjoyed them and laughed alongside me as I wrote them. These are just a few embarrassing stories. If you want to know more or think I should actually write a memoir let me know.

Problem with setting a goal to write every day means I run out of ideas. My life isn’t exciting to write about every day so I crowd sourced some ideas. Today’s came from an awesome Twitter follower who wanted to know “Things that people elsewhere misunderstood about Canada?” I asked her if she had any specific questions and I love her question. So today’s blog post I’m going to try and answer her question (listed below).

I’m by far not the only one to write about this. Or talk about this. In fact one of my fav YouTubers is putting together a Podcast exploring this very topic. They are releasing it next Tuesday so I will link to it when I can.

I live in Waterloo, part of the region of Waterloo in the province of Ontario. I do say sorry and eh a lot, sorry. I also love poutine and maple syrup. Winter sucks!

The question posed by Belinda on Twitter is “How do Canadians draw Canada with all those islands” she was referring to growing up in school. I had to think but I’m almost positive I never had to actually draw Canada. We were always given maps that were printed out. We coloured them and had to identify the province, territories and capitals. Now I kind of want to try to draw that. If you want to see that let me know, I will make a YouTube video with that.

One of the things most joked about when people talk about Canada is how NICE we are how polite we are. I don’t know where this came from but if I had to take a guess and NOT google it I would say we are a nation that welcomes people. We have a history of being open to those in need. I’m sure the reputation is well founded but not entirely true. There are plenty of people who are assholes. I just need to go out in public to prove this.

Some weird random things I can think to mention are:

~ In Ontario where I live our milk comes in bags. Why you ask? Well it’s better for the environment. I like having bagged milk my sister does not.

~ Our $1 and $2 comes as coins. The $1 is known as a Loonie and the $2 is known as a Toonie. We also did away with the penny since it cost more to make than it was worth.

~ Our healthcare isn’t “free”. We do have what is called Universal Healthcare. This means a portion of our taxes goes to supporting healthcare. Having Universal Healthcare is absolutely amazing. When I visit my neurologist, respirologist, or local ER I don’t leave worrying about a bill in the mail. If an ambulance is required it’s about $40. Medication is not covered nor is services such as massage therapy, optometrists, chiropractor and the like. A tweak to this optometrist are covered for kids 16 and under, seniors 65 and older or if you have specific medical conditions. My visits are covered, I go once a year, most go once every two years. Most employers will offer benefits which reduce cost of medications, cover portion of other services. My employer covers $200 every two year for eye glasses and a decent lump sum to divide amongst other services. There are exceptions for seniors over 65 getting government support, they pay between $0.11-$6.11 per prescription in Ontario but pay $100 yearly deductible. Other programs exists to help those in need.

~ In Canada we differentiate between University and College. Mostly you go to collage for more trades or certificate level trainings but not always. It used to be Nursing was offered at colleges that’s still the case but there is more connection with a University for a degree instead of a diploma or certificate. University is for degree programs. We don’t use their term collage for all/any post secondary school education.

~ There is no where in Canada that minimum wage is lower than $11.

I’m a very proud Canadian. There are lots of things to like but I wouldn’t sugar coat the bad. This land was taken from the indigenous population and the treatment of our indigenous lands and people is nothing to celebrate. We have a lot of work to do to make up for that.

If there is something specific about Canada you want to know just leave a comment below. Maybe a part 2 will be required.

An online friend Carly who is a published author and overall amazing human recently reached out to me. She wanted to know my opinion on filters used by various social media platform. I won’t share here what I shared with her but once she published what she is writing I will link it. Whatever she says is going to be what I think, just written 1000 times better.

Her questions did get me thinking about something else that has been becoming more of a trend. Those custom avatars. A lot of my FB friends have been posting them. I’ve enjoyed seeing them. However I do kind of feel left out. I can’t get one to look like me. Because as with anything to do with these, they are not friendly to those with differences.

Yes, I know these things might be trivial for you. Not a big deal, not worth my time. I’m not overreacting or being childish. With how fast technology is developing I don’t think it’s unreasonable to think that in 2020 I wouldn’t still fell like I’m in school being shunned.

When technology doesn’t include everyone it’s failing. Those with disabilities are always the last thought, an afterthought or at worse not given any thought. That’s how I feel when I see my friends posting their cute avatars that they’ve created. They are sharing them and using them in every day interactions. I’m just as always on the outside looking in.

Please don’t take this to mean I don’t think people shouldn’t use them. Have fun. Share them, I love seeing how cute you would be in a cartoon. I don’t need or want anyone’s pity. I just for once want companies to provide a more inclusive experience.

It’s the same when I try to use the Animojis or Memojis through Apple. It can’t really track my face and the end result does nothing for my self esteem.

As soon as Apple announced that these would be a feature I instantly knew they would be useless to me. There isn’t a way to get them to work I’m a way that makes me smile. Again it’s a random silly little thing and yet it angers me. Makes me sad and is something I’ve thought about going to the Apple store to actually complain about. But my better sense comes along and I go about my day.

I use facial recognition to unlock my phone and I can tell you the process for that was about what I expected. To this day when I use it it’s at odd angles that I notice my sister and her BF don’t have to use. In some cases mine lets me unlock my phone from quite a distance which isn’t half bad. It makes me wonder what surveillance type facial recognition would see me as. Would it dismiss my face as little more than white noise?

What tech do you get frustrated with?