Real Life Is Going To Kick My Butt

Next summer I’ll have graduated and, with any luck, be entering the workforce. While I am kind of excited to do that and evolve into a Real Adult, I am scared – no, terrified – to deal with everything else that comes with this. I am brutally, b r u t a l l y unprepared for life, as this summer has rudely hinted to me, no matter how well I can pretend to adult.

I started off the summer helping with my grandparent’s estate. I heard my parents and my aunts discuss lawyers, inheritances, taxes, mortgages, and so much more. All those things are things that have ZERO knowledge on. It’s kind of scary to think that if my parents were to die early or something, my brother and I would have to muddle though that on our own.

Recently, my family also sat down with a banker to discuss a few saving accounts. The banker asked my father a bunch of questions about account types and RESP’s and investments and a bunch of other finance questions that went waaaaaay over my head. I understand money basics like interest and…well, just interest. In high school, my best friend, who struggled with math, took a more basic math class just to get the credit, and while I was learning about parabolas and airplane trajectories, she was learning how to balance a cheque book and how to budget and a bunch more great life skills. And that’s good for her and all, but here I am, having passed the advanced math classes, with no useful knowledge.

And this summer at work, my coworker was in the process of buying a house with her boyfriend, so she told me a lot about dealing with the real-estate agent and going to design meetings and all that fun stuff that I’ve also never had to deal with as all I’ve done is rent a room for a few months while at school.

I’ve also never had to deal with cars or insurance or anything of that sort, and I know I’m lucky in some senses, but these are all things I know one day I’ll have to deal with, and I won’t know where to start. I’m a year away from being done with school so I know I won’t be learning anything there, and it’s not stuff that I’m eager to sit down and learn about in my free time, so….yikes.

I’m grateful to have a father who will happily help me understand cars or whatnot, but I can’t rely on him for the rest of my life, right? I always wonder about people who aren’t as close to their families and how they learn about life. And honestly, young adults shouldn’t have to rely on their parents like that. We should be taught this stuff in school. Frankly, society has failed us bigtime.

There should be a class. Like every Sunday night for three months people who want to learn about Real Life Things can get together at a library or something and learn about taxes and lawyers and the stock market from someone who knows what they’re talking about. I’d attend something like that.

I guess my feelings on all this can best be described with this lyric:

I don’t know what I’m doing but come in and ruin me – ‘I Could Be In Love With Someone Like You’ from The Last Five Years

That’s all for now!

 

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High Fives Are Gay

Everyone high fives. Everyone knows what a high five is. Watch any sport on TV and you’ll surely see at least a few high fives. High fives are so common that it’s weird to think that they were invented, and more recently than you think. Today I’m summoning my inner Album and sharing some fun facts on a topic that you wouldn’t think to look up yourself.

First of all, high fiving is gay. And I mean that literally. High fiving was, and maybe still is, known as a symbol of homosexuality because the guy who basically invented the high five was gay and was a bit of a gay icon in a small community. He was also an athlete. Glen Burke played baseball for the LA Dogers and on October 2, 1977, his teammate Dusty Baker hit a home run, ran the bases, and when he came back to home plate, Burke was waiting there with his hand held up. Baker didn’t know what to do, so he just reached up and hit his hand.

And you must be thinking, there’s no way that people weren’t slapping hands before 1977. And you’re right. They were giving fives, just not high fives. Their hands weren’t held up, they were held down or held out. The low five has dated back to the 1920’s, and I’d guess that similar gestures probably date back long before that too. But it’s so weird to think that my parents weren’t high fiving people when they were growing up in the 60’s and 70’s.

Look at this historical inaccuracy in Hamilton. What do you have to say for yourself, Lin-Manuel Miranda?

Back to Glen Burke. As I said, he was gay and therefore faced a lot of prejudice in the MLB, being one of the first openly gay athletes. When he retired, he lived in the Castro district of San Francisco, and because of him, the high five became a symbol of gay pride there, especially after he started playing (and became a star) in a local gay softball league.

Now, high fiving seems simple. Just…hit someone’s elevated open hand with your own. I don’t think this is an action that needs a lot of description or visuals. And yet, the high five Wikipedia page (where I got a lot of the information in this blog post) has gifted me with this amazing series of pictures:I can’t decide if “Victim misses” or “with finger guns” is my favourite part of this set. Were these taken specifically for this Wikipedia page? Was this guy like “Honey, I have an idea. Come here, I need your help for some pictures.” This lady doesn’t seem too happy, especially when this trickster of a dude pulled his hand back and taunted her with those finger guns.

Same, girl, same.

National High Five Day is on the third Thursday April, so make sure to celebrate that, but even that day has a wild story tied to it. The creators of the day made up a high five origin story, claiming it was real, and giving credit to a guy named Lamont Sleets. But it was all fake, just a publicity stunt for National High Five Day.

Honestly, I’ll be thinking about Glen Burke and the other weird interesting high five facts every time I see a high five, let alone participate in one. It’s really cool that there’s such a neat history to such a common action, and no one knows. I’d guess that even people in the LGBTQ community are unaware of the ties. I found all this information out while looking up trivia for a project at work, and I just had to share the goodness.

And for more high five goodness, Barney Stinson from How I Met Your Mother was a high five king.

http://himymgif-s.tumblr.com/post/138038088795/the-high-fives

That’s all for now!

 

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Monthly Look Ahead: August 2017

The last month of summer is upon us. Summer has flown by, and it’s weird to think that this may be my last ‘summer’ as after this upcoming school year, I’m graduating and hopefully finding full time work. But let’s not stress out about that now. Let’s instead look at the fun things I’ve got going on in August. There’s not a lot, but there never is.

• Of course my number one is The Defenders, hitting Netflix on the 18th. I’m done work by then so I have nothing stopping me from waking up at 3am to watch it. I can’t wait to see the four heroes team up and fight together because I’m sure their dynamic is going to be hilarious. I’m also very excited to see all the secondary characters. I’ve missed Trish and Foggy and Claire. I hope we see a lot of them.
  
• The band Neon Trees announced last week that they are back and that in early August (like, in the next few days) we’ll be getting a taste of their new music. I loved their last album, Pop Psychology, so I’m hoping their new music is just as good.
• I finish my work term in the middle of the month. Though I wouldn’t complain if I worked for a bit longer (mo’ money), I guess it would be good to relax for a few weeks before school starts up. Maybe finish my novel editing before I get others to read it.

So that’s it. Not an exciting month at all. I was supposed to also be going to New York state for a weekend away, but I don’t think that’s happening for me, so…I’ll just be at home, taking in the last of summer in front of the TV, like usual. I know I got a great job over the summer that I am grateful for, but I do wish I had done something fun this summer, gone somewhere exciting, even for a few days. Summer 2017 did not impress. But I’ll stop being bitter now. I have a whole month with essentially no plans, so who knows what may happen! There, that’s positive!

Hopefully you’ve got exciting plans for August? Let me know in your own MLA post!

That’s all for now!

P.S. I’m still looking for a fall internship, so please pray for me, y’all. I need them good vibes.

 

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5 Feel-Good TV Shows

There are a lot of TV shows out there these days, and I enjoy watching so many of them, but not all the shows I watch are feel-good shows. Even the ones that are my favourites, like Agents Of SHIELD, stress me out more than they do calm me. I love it, but it's not exactly the kind of show you want to watch right before bed or when you're having a bad day and just want to relax with some TV. So I decided to compile a small list of shows that are 100% always feel-good and if you're ever in a situation where you just want or need to watch a pure, happy show, I hope you'll choose one of these.

1. Cash Cab

Obviously the version I watch is the Canadian one (which is the best one!), but I assume the versions around the world are just as feel-good. This show is great, and you learn some things while watching. The show is about a taxi cab driven by a host who, as he takes people to their destination, asks them a bunch of trivia questions. If they get the questions right, they win cash. If they get three wrong, they have to leave the cab. This show is great because you get these fun groups of friends who didn't expect to be in such a cab, and they always get so into the game. They're never mean to each other, and even if they lose, they're just glad to have tried.

2. Say Yes To The Dress

Okay, so maybe this show isn't that appealing to men, but if any of you ladies haven't seen this show, then you are missing out. At a fancy bridal shop, consultants help bride-to-be's find their dream gown. I'm not even a big lover of dresses but I do like seeing all the different styles and how different people respond to them. And while there sometimes can be a bit of drama from the family/friends accompanying the bride, it's never too annoying or intense. This show is also so positive. No matter what the bride looks like or what kind of dress they want or what their budget is, the consultants are always ready to do their best and make the bride happy. It's so inclusive and nice. Say Yes to this show!

3. Hollywood Game Night

This show has jumped around a bit in terms of scheduling and also doesn't get a lot of notice, but it's great. Jane Lynch hosts a game show featuring two teams, each team made up of three celebrities and a regular person. They play a bunch of fun games and money is donated to charities and it's just a good time. It's never too competitive, and everyone is so nice, and it's fun to see celebrities having fun playing the games. And speaking of the games, they're so creative and unique and entertaining to watch, really making this show stand out from other game shows. I'm laughing every episode. Currently it's on this summer, Thursdays at 8 in America and Tuesdays at 9 in Canada. Sometimes game shows can get too intense or awkward, and HGN never is.

4. The Ellen DeGeneres Show

Ellen is the best. Let's get that out there first. She's so nice and funny and kind. I watched her show after school for most of high school, always looking forward to it, no matter who the guests were. Ellen encourages so many good things, from being active to being kind to helping others, all while being so casual and hilarious. Even when she is broaching sensitive topics or being serious, she always does it with respect. I wish I had time to watch this show every day again, or even more often, but I know that whenever I can catch it, or even just a clip, it's always going to be so great. She and her show deserves the record breaking number of Emmys she has.

5. Face Off

Reality competition shows are often drama-filled and forced, but not this one. It's never rude or harsh. Contestants compete with their amazing makeup and prosthetic skills to create characters and designs under weekly themes and are then critiqued by a panel of three judges. As someone who can barely do her own eyeliner right, watching these amazing makeup designs and unique characters come to life is really cool. These people are so talented, and are often their own worst critic. If you ever want to just sit back and watch amazing creations be made right in front of you, then this is the show for you, especially if you're a fan of fantasy/sci-fi things.

 

Believe it or not, even listing five shows was kind of hard. I also consider comedies like Parks And Rec to be feel-good for me, but I can understand if aspects of it are not feel-good for everyone. These above shows are as pure and calming as they come. I enjoy watching them at all times because I never walk away feeling anything other than pleased.

What are your feel-good shows?

 

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Designing For The Future: Accessibility

First, a disclaimer: this post was written as an entry for CGTrader’s Design Blogger contest which I was invited to enter (but it’s a cool topic that I’d probably be writing about anyway). If you’re a blogger with an interest in design, you can enter too!

I’ve never really known anyone who has a physical disability. I’ve never had to think about wheelchair ramps or automatic doors or anything of the sort. And I’ve never broken a bone and needed even temporary accessibility help. But this summer I’m working at a place that is really accessibility friendly and I’ve been immersed in a whole new environment as I see and interact with people of many abilities. I’ve learned so much about accessibility and how much of a difference even the littlest things can make to someone who has to rearrange their life to get around.

Wheelchair parking is very common now. Parking lots are designed with those in mind nowadays, which is great. Similarly, having a larger bathroom stall to accommodate a wheelchair or other assistive tech is also common in a lot of public bathrooms. They too were designed this way. Designing for the future means designing with accessibility in mind, and I believe it’s only a matter of time before we live in a world where accessibility is commonplace. But there’s a lot that needs work.

Take websites for example. Think about how many websites there are and how many are accessed on a daily basis. There are a lot of aspects to a website that are not accessibility friendly. Of course there are simple things, like font size or clashing colours background, but there is also so much more. I’ve seen websites where site visitors can manually increase font size, change the sites colours to black/white or black/yellow (fun fact: yellow is not only one of the most eye catching colours, but it’s also the most easily seen colour by people with vision loss), or get text read out to them. I wish I could add some of these features to my blog, especially the colour changer, but that’s not an option for me with the free WordPress plan. Maybe one day that’ll be a free widget offered. But for those of you who self-host, look into widgets and plugins to make your site more accessible. Another website fix that even I need to work on (and I swear, from here-on out, I will make more of an attempt) is alt-tags in images so people with text reading technology can find out what your images are of no matter what.

And that’s just online. Think about how much work needs to be done to the outside world to ensure accessibility for all. Door frames need to be wider, the Open Door buttons need to be larger, signs need to be clearer, brail needs to be more common, and so much more. It’s a lot, but slowly, as more awareness is being raised, our future will entail this.

And progress is already being made. In December, Google Maps released a feature where users can make note of wheelchair accessible places. And there’s an app that will, via the camera, describe to a blind user exactly what’s in front of them. I know there are so many more examples of our wonderful technology making a real difference in people’s lives, and I can’t wait to learn about more. There’s some tech that’s been around for ages but people like me, who apparently has lived in a bubble, aren’t in the know.

I don’t blame you for not being aware, as I wasn’t either. Unfortunately, as I’ve come to learn, society has pushed issues like these to the back (literally – a lot of wheelchair entrances are at the back of buildings). So it’s great that there are so many advocates and places and organizations that are trying to educate and help and design. I could honestly write so much more about the technology, movements, issues, and campaigns I’ve learned about, all to do with accessibility.

In short, no matter what you’re designing or doing, think about how you can make it more accessible. Be a part of the future by designing for everyone.

The future should be rated E for Everyone

That’s all for now!

 

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