Lego, Long Days and Lassitude

The word of the week is ... fulcrum.

April 19 – Deer Me

There are a LOT of deer here on the mountain around our new condo – they come out at night( vampire deer? )to chow down on the lovely green grassy lawns that line the boulevard. Plus they are completely unafraid of cars, people, bikes or other signs of civilization; I saw a pedestrian jogger trot right between three deer making a meal of well-trimmed grass with no reaction whatsoever. It does make it somewhat hairy when driving at night, as the curves of the road mean you see them by the roadside with less warning... but they’re so darn cute!

What kind of accent do you have? I remember coming across a similar test to this one years ago that had a broader base than American Accents, but the link seems to have vanished( or was mis-named? ). In any case, I took the above test and have a ‘Midlands’ accent, which I think is fairly accurate – you really have to think about HOW you pronounce your words to make the test worthwhile in its results.

April 20 – Mobster Books

The Victoria area was on the lookout for a mobster this week... who loves books, so the FBI alert went out to all local area bookstores. Who knew that loving literature could be dangerous, when I could have found myself in the middle of a police takedown while browsing used books? Weird stuff.

So far, so good with my new glasses: they’re the most solid pair I’ve had, despite a weekend oopsie with the nosepiece that had them digging into my nose until I had time to get it replaced for free today at Wal-Mart. Kind of like acupuncture for the mornings, kept me awake though the red mark will take a little while to fade.

April 21 – Sith Stories

I’ve been slowly working on my stories bit by bit since the summer, as time permits... and even when it didn’t. So far, so little... but thankfully the new condo provides ample space and scenery for productive inspiration. Once I have the work schedule ironed out and don’t have to do overtime every week just to make things work, I hope to take time off to allow my Muse to stop suffocating and start producing again.

All right, there’s a guy who dresses up as Darth Vader and plays the violin for tourists here in Victoria, but I had no idea that the Big Bad Sith had his own Facebook page... of a sorts. Hilarious though!

April 22 - Seeing The Fake City

I may take a vacation in coming years in.... Minnesota? That’s right: go visit the site for Mankato MN, which boasts an underwater city for scuba divers and natural hot springs.... ahem. I should mention that this site has been fooling tourists since 1996, which I find both amusing and frightening.

I loved Lego as a kid( and still do, but have no time or true talent for it )so when I found out that Super Lego Spaceship designer Nate Nielson had passed on from an accident, I was saddened. His was a prolific creative genius expressed in elegant, unique and creative designs, any single one of which I would have been insufferably proud to have come up with myself. Check out Nnenn’s Flicker stream and see for yourself how he took the simple Lego brick to new levels of Sci-fi wonderment.

April 23 – More Work, More Play

It’s official today: I’ll be taking over the Colwood store in addition to running the Millstream branch, which means there is a light at the end of the tunnel... and it’s focused on more paperwork. Still, I’ll have the right amount of staff to handle things and so be able to schedule time off for everyone with no overtime necessary – that’s a godsend in itself. Spending one day a week at Millstream managing things and the rest of the time returning Colwood to a high-revenue branch again will take some doing, but I’m familiar with the strengths of both branches and am confident in the team I’ve assembled for the task. What’s really motivating me is the opportunity to schedule two days off in a row for myself sometime soon....!

What’s this? A radical motorcycle suit... in the style of the Xmen suits from X2: X-Men United?? Now that’s just darn cool... expensive as hell and looks like crap after you take a spill on asphalt, but still – it’d make a helluva Halloween costume. Apparently Universal Designs is also working on an Iron Man suit too ... they’re releasing both by the middle of next month, so check their website for pics then.

April 24 – Doomsday USB

Today was Day 6 of 7, when I had the pleasure of working 13 hours between two stores due to staff shortages – bleh. Thankfully I had the energy during the day to manage it, as it wasn’t that busy at either location downtown( yesterday was Zoo Day, so I missed it – for once! )but by the end of the night I had to hit the hay early as I simply ran down like a pocketwatch someone had forgotten to wind. Ouch.

Like Futurama’s Professor Farnsworth, I have a penchant for Doomsday Devices... but I’ve had neither the funds to have teams of mad scientists create them nor the space to store them. Thank goodness someone has come up with a desktop version that anyone can order online – thanks, ThinkGeek!

April 25 – Facial Hair

I’ve had a beard for over a decade now, mostly in the shape of a goatee, but I’ve never thought about how it compared to other beard shapes all that much. Someone else has, so I present to you: The Trustworthiness of Beards Chart – mine is three from the left, so I am apparently Very Trustworthy.

It definitely felt like a Sunday at work today at Colwood( and it was my first there as manager )in that it was slow but steady. I got a lot of things organized for the coming week( we’re not fully staffed until early May )but by day’s end I was drained. The evening saw me work on getting things squared away at the condo; for the most part everything is in place save my stuff, which I prefer to do myself. Not tonight though; by 10pm my battery was zoned and I passed out waiting for an episode of The Venture Brothers to show up on TeleToon Retro... erk.

All for now... a Monday AM update and then off to work for 10 hours, my last of those shifts at Millstream, finally.