Snippets, thirty-two

Here are some short pieces based on things that have happened in my life recently. 

Albino Alligator

So there was this albino alligator at the California Academy of Sciences named Claude. Claude passed away recently, and I shared a story about it (quick side note, the image I used for this post is NOT Claude, but another albino alligator in, I believe, Chad).

It made me think about the time, years ago, that I went to San Francisco, but opted out of going to the California Academy of Sciences. This was before I knew about Claude, though he would've been there at that time.

I wish I had gotten to see Claude. The photos I've seen are ensnaring. There is something so striking about an albino creature, perhaps, especially a reptile (at least to me). For those that don't know, one of my grandfathers was albino, but I didn't know this for a long time because I had never wondered as a child why my grandpa had white hair. 

But there is something about all white scales that I just wish I'd seen.

Canada

For those that don't know, my father was a dual citizen of the US and Canada. This, or at least the fact that my grandparents were both born in Canada (my dad was born in the US), gave me the opportunity to claim I was a Canadian citizen. I went through the paperwork and, after some waiting on certain legislation to figure itself out, I got proof of my Canadian citizenship.

Next step is a passport, but that's even more paperwork, so it'll take some time.

I wanted to get the proof of citizenship for a few reasons. The largest being that I do worry for our country and, specifically, I do worry that there may be legislation related to IVF that would endanger my frozen eggs (and I didn't go through all of that to lose them!). I also wonder if the US stands to lose some of its standing in the world which could then make a Canadian passport an easier one to travel with.

Anyways, just a small life update.

Dropout

I have been watching a lot of Dropout lately. Mostly what I've watched is their show Game Changer (which I do keep calling Game Changers). It's a game show where the rules change every episode so the contestants don't know what they're in for. It is hilarious and the budget has just grown impressively from season 1 to season 7 (yes, I have now seen all episodes). I still think the episode "Sam Says 2" is my favorite, but there are so many good ones.

I will, at some point, expand to watching their D&D content (Dimension 20), but for now I'm exploring their show Dirty Laundry (which I will mention again in my final snippet of this post), where guests have to supply secrets of theirs to the show and then guess who submitted what. Just goofy fun!

Harassment Prevention Training

So the day that I drafted this post was the same day that I had to do my work's annual harassment prevention training.

What.

A.

Nightmare.

Now, don't get me wrong, I think harassment prevention training is important and can be great.

But this was not great.

The videos were weirdly narrated with AI voices (with like one exception) and this was so jarring. It made me think a few things:

1. My job does not care enough about these topics to spend the money or time to have a real person narrate these videos
2. My job does not even care enough to spend money on a convincing AI voice
3. My job chose to withdraw humanity from a series of topics that require even more humanity

Furthermore, the "training" was just a series of videos that you could click away from while they'd keep playing. They were followed by absolutely no questions or even key takeaways for me to reiterate. This just encourages all employees to ignore the videos (I didn't try, but you might even have been able to mute the videos and still get the credit for watching them or just skip forward in them to the end).

I just wish they could even pretend to care.

Two Truths and a Lie

So, as I mentioned before, I've been watching Dropout's show Dirty Laundry. This has encouraged me to start up a rousing game of "Two Truths and a Lie" with my friends on Discord. Dirty Laundry made me think about what little secrets or fun stories I have that I'd be willing to share.

I chose the "Two Truths and a Lie" format over the exact Dirty Laundry format because that format would require me (or someone else) to be the keeper of the secrets, the scorer, and the doler outer of secrets. And that seemed like too much work that would make it not fun.

So, now I gotta start brainstorming my lies and truths. 

Best of luck to those that'll play!

(Prompt by Kimisha Cassidy)

Photo by David Valentine on Unsplash