Fairs, Figures and Feeling Fine

The word of the week is glissade.

Aug 29 – Math Hustle?

Math has never been my strong suit.

Anything more complicated than basic addition or subtraction, with maybe a few percentages thrown in, always makes my brain hurt. I put it down to a combination of the lack of practice and a it's a rare thing in my life when I need to deal with mathematics more complicated than can be found on your basic five-dollar calculator.

But, sometimes you need the math skills on your side:

I’ve tried, and I still can't figure out who owes what to who in the above example. Unsurprisingly, the internet hasn't been any help either. I'm probably overlooking some simple aspect of the problem, like wondering how many watermelons I have left...

In a very rare reach-out, I ask you: who owes who what, from the above comic? Feel free to use the comments at the bottom of this blog!

Aug 30 – Life Levelling Up?

What if life was a video game?

I really like it when creative folk make informational videos about topics that people take for granted, or summarize things neatly in a graphical way.

This particular video below looks at the average human life as a character in the videogame, and treats their lifetime accordingly with brilliant satire:

Aug 31 – Drafting

Two years ago, I finished my first novel's third draft.

This year, I set a goal to finish by the time the left for vacation, or at least by the end of August... and if I hit the first goal, I'd take the remaining time off!

By working hard( and continuously )for the last two months, I hit the earlier date, meaning I have rewarded myself with the last 2 weeks 'off' from writing, including the time I spent down in the USA for the eclipse with my girlfriend's family.

In the meantime, I printed up / emailed out a half-dozen copies of my fourth draft for beta readers to review and give feedback on. I've included with each an updated copy of a questionnaire I hope will zero in their feedback on specific parts and aspects of the draft, such as plot, character and so forth: things that I'm concerned that I've improved properly without going overboard since the previous draft.

It'll probably be about a month before anyone gets back to me, so in the meantime I'll be digging back into the draft for Book 2, which has been waiting for almost 2 years... but I now feel better qualified to be working on it again, as its complexities meant I needed to become a better writer before I could finish it.

Time, as always, will tell.

Sept 1 – Healthy Normalcy?

I've been feeling really balanced this week.

An ultrasound on Monday revealed no abdominal abnormalities, though the subject of my right kidney came up again in that there's a small abnormality still inside. But since it hasn't changed since it was first detected in 2014, there's little cause for concern apart from keeping an eye on it on a yearly basis or if anything changes - I'm not worried, and neither is my doctor, so no need to get anxious.

My weight's almost back to normal, around 155lbs, which is excellent! I'm eating a full range of normal-sized meals again without effort or getting full too soon. While I'm still taking digestive supplements, I've cut them back to 1/2 or even 1/4 doses with each meal, as my 'throughput' seems to be perfectly fine at those levels.

I'm also far more energetic this week, waking up at the same time each day and getting tired at the same time consistently, with solid energy levels throughout the day. I'm getting in around 10K steps a day with NO pain from my right leg; only the occasional twinge, and I'm sitting easily at work without needing to shift around, which has NOT been the cast for the last six months! The massages in particular have helped loosen my psoas tendons, which had shortened due to my sitting at my day job for too long without compensatory exercises to counter...

My abdominals have also been solid, so much so that I've had to remind myself NOT to just jump up or twist around: it's been a LONG time since I've forgotten that ab pains are only a bad move away, and I'm hopeful that this will be the norm again soon. I credit lowering tension, weekly massages and nightly treatments with a heating pad all with helping my abs loosen their crazed grip!

Overall, I'd say I'm feeling around 90% normal, and should be back to 100% within a week or two, with caution and patience. I'll be getting back on my exercise bike, as I've already said, with caution and more patience, determined to get myself back into a healthier level of fitness by the time 2018 rolls around.

No more daily pain, anywhere, is the goal!

Sept 2 – Saanich Fair Pt.1

My lady and I went to the fair today... and WOW, it was hot out!

We were planning on going anyway, but our friends in the Victoria Model Shipbuilding Society were doing their annual demo at the fair and needed volunteers to man the demo pond, so we signed up and got( well, I did anyway )free tickets to the Fair.

We showed up around 1pm, taking our place at the end of  a long line of traffic, since today is the busiest day for the Fair. We proceeded fairly quickly to park at one end of the extremely-large field, hauling our boat and gear to the front entry:

Once inside, we found our way to the boat pond in the middle of the Fair rather easily, and were gratified to see that it was at the rear of a large building that shaded it nicely for most of the morning until late afternoon. There were a dozen club members there, and we set up our gear, then popped out briefly to get some lunch. I was rather hungry and grabbed some nearby Ali Baba pizza, while my lady opted for some asian food( Korean? )that she said was perfectly delicious.

The afternoon was HOT, getting up to around 35°C but at least the humidity was low! The fairgrounds were packed with people, and you could see everyone was really feeling the effects of the sun by late afternoon, as there was limited shade and no cool breezes as the grounds are located in the middle of the Saanich Peninsula away from any bodies of water. Hot, dusty and sun-baked!

We really enjoyed ourselves, just driving the boat around( I hit the sides too damn often because of the limited space / turning radius of my large boat ) and entertaining curious passers-by, especially the kids. We had hourly rubber band boat races just for them, which proved quite popular:

I was also really impressed with the new battery I've purchased this summer, a 5000 mAh  3-cell unit that I've got an incredible deal on from an Amazon dealer in Turkey, of all places. For the price of onebattery from a seller like Venom, I received TWO batteries... and even though one of them failed after a few days, the seller refunded my entire purchase, so the battery was essentially free! It ran the boat for hours today yet the voltage barely dropped( by a mere 0.4V )after all that, which is really incredible! It bodes well to running my more powerful PT boat in the future, once I get replacement motors installed in a month or so.

My lady and I headed out before 6 PM, feeling hot and tired and slightly sunbaked, so we made a beeline for Bubby's Kitchen in Cook Street village where we sat on the patio and soaked in the cool breezes from the nearby ocean - it was the perfect way to wind down from a hot day!

Sept 3 – A Day Out

It was a bit of a busy relaxed-Sunday today.

After spending the morning catching up on chores at home, my girlfriend met me after lunch and we headed out to find a good spot to play some boardgames for the afternoon. We settled in at Union Pacific Coffee in the area north of downtown, seated on their cozy back patio that's mostly shaded from the Sun, with an overhead arbor and plenty of green growing plants. We played our newest game, Treasure Lair, which we picked up in the states and is a good deal of fun once we'd become familiar with the rules. It was quite enjoyable, being a card-based game where you form a party of heroes to try and complete the randomly-generated quests in each game. We managed to get through a full game despite a very determined wasp who wanted my cookie - no way, fellah!

After that, we popped over to the Marble Slab Ice Creamery, where we shared a banana split while playing a few games of Hive. Out of five games, I won three, which I think is a new record for me as my girlfriend would regularly best me up until now. We finished off the evening with dinner at Azumi Sushi, where I really enjoyed the huge bowl of go to sleep chicken teriyaki soup, and promptly forgot to take the leftovers with me - doh!

This is the long weekend, I have tomorrow off as well, and I'll be back at the Saanich Fair again in the afternoon for a second shift with my lady will be better prepared( I'll have a sound speaker for the boat ) and I expect will be able to see more of the fair, since it's not likely to be as busy as yesterday.

I had to actually close my windows while writing the blog this evening, as the microphone I'm using was picking up the loud voices of passersby, which was the first.