A Little Rusty

 

The last time I spoke in any kind of professional manner was about almost four years ago when a medical website was looking to interview someone with Joubert syndrome.

Last week, I presented to my team at work, and saying my speaking skills were lacking would be an understatement. I made out okay, but I was all over the place. I was totally nervous, stammered a lot, and was somewhat forgetful.

I've been asked to speak with LiveWorkPlay later this month as part of a panel on disability and employment. It's just a brief Q&A from the sound of it, but I'm definitely going to need to synch back up with that part of my brain if I want to do well.

Cheers!

A Spooky Story

 

*This is just for fun. Tongue-in-cheek, no offense meant to anyone.*
 
X-Files has always been one of my all-time favourite shows, and a few years ago I started getting it on DVD, partly as motivation for weight-loss/exercise.
 
Halfway through the first season is the episode “Young at Heart.” It involves agents Mulder and Scully investigating a murder in a prison. This eventually leads them to the National Institute of Health and the case of a doctor who, years earlier, had been performing illegal, genetic experiments on children with Progeria in an attempt to reverse the aging process.
 
In and of itself, it's not a very scary episode. However, I was watching this early in 2016, mere months after the Joubert syndrome conference in Chicago. The National Institute of Health (NIH) is a major centre for research of Joubert syndrome and several specialists are regular conference guests. Many individuals, including myself, have been seen or monitored by someone from NIH at the conferences, with some going to the facility for testing. 

While watching the episode, I heard "rare disorder", "children" and "testing", and horror scenarios started playing in my head, involving myself or others I'd only just gotten to know getting microchips, symbiotes, or some other kind of nefarious implant. I stopped the episode immediately and haven't been able to watch it since! Scarier to me than "Home", the infamous inbred hillbilly episode.

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So, I know nothing like this would ever happen in real life. No doctor I've ever met is going "mad scientist" on anyone with JS. It's just the disabled and geeky parts of my brain coming together in a twisted way, and a story I've wanted to share for many years, but haven't had the guts to.

Cheers! 

Awareness at the Office

 

With my manager's approval, I've been using a slightly modified version of the above image as a background for virtual meetings at work this month for Joubert Syndrome Awareness Month. 

I've already had fellow team members ask about it and have been curious about my story, and my manager asked if she could use the image for herself in additional meetings to spread the awareness further to other employees.

Just a quick something worth sharing.

Cheers!

Reflecting on a Rural Childhood

 

I’ve been living in the city for fifteen years this past summer. The occasion’s made me feel like looking back on my former home.
 
By the time my parents put our house up for sale in 2010, I hated Winchester with a passion! It was in the middle of nowhere, there was nothing to do aside from renting the occasional movie, and I was completely reliant on my family. While I was taking Scriptwriting, I took every single opportunity to stay in the city.

 
When the time came to move that summer, I missed parts of the house like our pool and my room, but I was overjoyed to become a city-dweller and permanent resident of Ottawa.
 
Eventually though, things happened that made me slowly start to appreciate my former rural existence. During Scriptwriting, I got a burst of interaction and communication on Facebook from people I’d gone to high school with more than five years earlier. I’d never been really social back then, so it was a nice and welcome surprise.
 
Second, and one of the few times I’ve seriously missed Winchester, was during the family’s first Christmas in the city. For many Christmases in the old house, I would spend part of the afternoon on Christmas Day laying on the floor of our living room, where we opened presents earlier that morning. I’d have a pillow underneath me, reading whatever large book I’d gotten (usually a Star Wars Essential Guide) munching on a bowl of whatever snack I’d gotten (Doritos or Clodhoppers). Our new living room, with its hardwood floor, made doing this pretty impossible.
 
The rural life sure had a lot of negatives, but I have to admit that I did have a good child/young adulthood. Lots of places to walk to, safely. School, for the most part, was okay. And the small town vibe was pretty nice. 

As I work towards my second decade in the city, moments like the ones above have given me a greater appreciation for where I grew up. 

Cheers

Return to The Scooterverse

 

Past Blogtobers, I'd have a lot more done and shared by now, but the month's been a wee bit busier than I anticipated with work and planning for some near-future events (speaking opportunity, work retreat, and a rock concert, all of which I will write about when done!)

The busyness though, has put me in an extra-creative sort of mood and sucked me back into The Scooterverse.

During the pandemic, I did a lot of free writing and creative challenges. One month, I combined ideas from a couple Scriptwriting projects like a one-act play and TV series-turned comic book pitch, as well as characters I created messing around on Heromachine, a character creation website that's sadly no longer functioning, to create my own fictional universe, The Scooterverse, writing profiles and mini origins for the various characters and creatures I made.

Suffering a bit of writer's block a couple weeks ago, I opened a few Scooterverse documents up and expanded on things here and there, just for fun. I've been writing since, and just turned one of my origins into a four-page story, The Trial of Sekhmet. Nothing to post, share, or submit anywhere (sorry), and could use polishing, but it looks pretty good!

I'll still try and write one or two Blogtober posts, but I also want to try and write at least one more story too.

Cheers!

Where to Next?

 

In the last three years, I've been to The Royal Tyrrell Museum in Drumheller, Science North in Sudbury, and The Biodome in Montreal. 

So, where do I go next??

There's the Joggins Fossil Cliffs in Nova Scotia, where I could also squeeze in some family visits. L'Anse aux Meadows Viking settlement in Newfoundland is still high on the destination list. Or do I go big for my 40th and plan for the Smithsonian? All good choices.

Something to think about.

Cheers!

Biodome/Insectarium 2024

 

I never took much of a vacation over the summer, so a few weeks ago my father and I took a fairly spontaneous day trip to Montreal’s Biodome and Insectarium.
 
We had a lunch lovingly made and packed for us the night before, left early the next morning, got breakfast, and drove to Montreal.
 
The Biodome is part of Montreal’s former Olympic Stadium (the velodrome). 

A lot of walking to and from where we wanted to go, but worth it.

 
The Biodome contains five ecosystems representing life in parts of the Americas: the Gulf of St. Lawrence, Sub-Antarctic Islands, Labrador Coast, Tropical Rainforest, and Laurentian Maple Forest.
 
Dad and I did the Gulf first, which was two levels. The top level was a few tidal pools with starfish, urchins, and anemones, then rocky outcrops and perches for ducks and seabirds. 

The bottom level was an aquarium. There were small tanks with lamprey, more starfish and anemones, and shrimp, and a much larger tank with bigger fish, chief among them several black sturgeon.

 

At first I thought they were sharks! Photos don’t do justice to just how massive and prehistoric-looking these things were.
 
Next, we went into the shared Sub-Antarctic and Labrador environ. Freezing cold with icy walls, but nice on a hot day. This was filled with puffins, murres and my Dad’s favourite, penguins!

All different species of them, from one or two gigantic king penguins to smaller rockhoppers, some of which were pretty good at showing off for people.

From there, we went into the incredibly humid rainforest. Pro-tip: do this BEFORE the cold stuff!
 
In the main environment, we saw macaws, an alligator, tamarins (tiny monkeys), very well-camouflaged capybaras, and a couple odd-looking birds. Attached was a darker exhibit with poison dart frogs, bats, and piranhas.

Lastly was the Maple Forest, basically the same ecosystem as where our family’s cabin is. A beaver lodge, raccoon, a couple river otters, and a pair of lynx (one of my favourites!)

That was it. I bought a little souvenir magnet before leaving.

We then walked back to where we parked, looking at various Olympic displays on the way.

Inhaled our lunch and drove to the Insectarium, located in a nice little park around the corner.

A very random place, but probably more fun than the Biodome. The entrance is modeled after a termite mound. Very tight and narrow, brownish stucco looking like dirt and almost pitch black, with little tunnels (obviously made for little kids).

Around certain corners are little visual treats like flower-shaped lights on the floor and a Bug's-eye View simulator.

This leads to a room full of mounted insects, collected together based on themes like colour, size, antennas, and horns.

Camouflage

The final part of the Insectarium was a giant greenhouse, teaming with butterflies and other insects. I got dive-bombed more than once, and had one or two briefly land on me.

One of the employees was showing a group of visitors a Caribbean stick insect. When they were finished, I approached to learn more, and she asked me if I wanted to hold it. Tickled a little bit, but otherwise didn't feel weird at all!

 Right before the exit, we saw a tree full of leaf cutter ants, actually cutting, eating, and marching with leaves!

We drove to a deli for a smoked-meat sandwich before driving home.

Another year, another fun trip, and sciencey place I can say I've visited.

Cheers!