Deathlands, Digression and District 9

The word of the week is ignominious.

May 10 - Relax, it's just an MMO...

So far, so good this week – plugging away at work while managing some relax time at home has been the plan that’s worked so far. I’m down to a box or two of things in the condo that still need a final home, but for the most part everything that is still in storage can stay in storage until I decide what to do with it – more on that further down the page in this blog. I’ve found pretty much everything I needed, and that’s a good thing; making the trek down to the storage locker at the far end of the parking garage  is a lot further than the basement was at the Langford Lake house.

For quite a few years now, MMORPG.com has been sending me regular updates via email, about all the current and upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying games that are worth mentioning. Alongside the much-anticipated MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic from Bioware( yay! )there is buzz about Fallen Earth, a post-apocalyptic game from a smaller developer. It has mutants and radiation and, well... it looks interesting, so I think I’ll give it a try this week. From what I can tell, it’s free apart from the regular game purchase price – sweet!

May 11 - Quiz me, Monkey!

Facebook is overflowing with all sorts of quizzes, tests and suchlike ways to find out more than you ever wanted to know about things you didn’t know you need to know about. Rather than bombard my friends with dozens of quiz requests and the like, I head on over to HelloQuizzy.com and browse for the more interesting ones, like the 3-Variable Funny Test, to check out your sense of humour. S’great!

Some years back, I found an interesting site: The Monkey Shakespeare Simulator which sadly has since gone offline – you can read a little about it here. In essence, the site was created to determine how long it would take an ever-increasing group of monkeys to randomly type the collected works of William Shakespeare, commonly known as the Infinite Monkey Theorem. Given the nature of the problem, the universe would likely end before they accomplished the task – but hey, you never know with monkeys, right? I should really add it to ChurchOfTheBanana.com as a historical footnote, albeit a recent one. And hey, someone out there noticed that Bananas Can Be Worshipped too!

May 12 - Lazers on eBay

Hmmm... it’s been a while since I last shopped on eBay; how about the rest of you? Having moved as often as I have( every 2 years or so )has meant I’ve had to take a long look at what I want to keep and what I want to get rid of. To date, they’ve gone into the following categories: Sell, Recycle, or Garbage as well as Keep as Too Expensive to Easily Replace, Keep Because of Fond Memories, or the largest category of Keep Because It’s Still Useful. Over the next few months I will be sorting and storing lots of things so that when the next inevitable move happens I’ll have even less to worry about. Or have to put on eBay after the move, which is never a good idea – why pay to move things if you don’t have to? I have to admit, I like the idea of NOT owning something now and being able to find it later( maybe )on eBay or Craigslist.

One of the things I sold off before moving to BC was my Lazer Tag collection, which I had hung onto for years past when it should have gone; I really loved the stuff, despite the massive number of AA and 9V batteries it required. I really liked the white Starlyte Pro Rifles, which I managed to acquire 3 of from various NY toy stores as they went on sale after Worlds of Wonder went under – no mean feat, as those things were hard to get in the first place. Still, I sold off the entire collection to a family in SK, whose large numbers of youngsters promised to give the gear many more years of good use than I could. The only thing I kept was the B.L.A.S.T. Bazooka... it was just too cool to part with, really.

May 13 - Day Off Digression

My second Thursday off in a row! I feel like I’m playing hooky from work, to a small degree, but surprised all the same that I can take the time off considering how crazy this last month has been. I made a point of spending time outside for a few hours in the afternoon, actually falling asleep in the sunshine at one point in the lovely quiet of the nearby golf course and the almost total lack of traffic noise nearby. In the evening I spent a few hours putting up much-needed curtains in both bedrooms, as the earlier light in the mornings has been tough to sleep through  – being on a mountain means we get the first rays of the sun before anyone else. So it’ll be good indeed to sleep in, instead of fitfully dozing past 6am.

Four Simple Financial Rules are some good advice to follow when planning your own financial future. I don’t claim to be an expert in any way when it comes to finances, but I do know how to learn from my mistakes AND to recognize good advice when I see it. The simpler, the better, in my eyes.

May 14 - Iron Man, Tin Authors

Last week Iron Man 2 opened to strong sales across the country, and while critics may not have loved it as much as the first one, reviews are still decent. I think I’ll take it in at the IMAX downtown in a few weeks on my next day off, as I really liked the first one and have added it to my burgeoning Blu-Ray list for next year( or the year after ).

Last month, I parted ways with my large collection of Deathlands books which I realized last year I was no longer reading. I’d collected them for close to twenty years, at first because I thought the post-apocalyptic stories were cool and later on as examples of poor / inconsistent writing to help me along with my own development as an author. I also liked the fact that they were published by Gold Eagle Publishing in Fort Erie, which was just down the road from me back in Ontario. Though I lost interest in ever applying there as an author, given what they let hit the stands in some of the Deathlands series. I’m glad to see that James Axler.com is alive and well, which collects all the current Deathlands lore in one place; good to see it’s in good hands for when I want to surf back on occasion for a look-see.

May 15 – Martin Visits!

Today I finished work early, heading downtown a little after 1pm to rendezvous with Martin in Victoria. Yes, that’s right: today marks the first time in over two years that one of my friends has managed to make it to BC for a visit! I was thrilled, and met up with him on the streetside patio of The Irish Times Pub on Government street, where he had procured a table in the sun. We caught up over beers( my first Guinness since July, I believe )and some delicious food, while watching the world go by. Even after the sun had moved to leave the patio in the shade, we chatted whilst the world trotted, cycled or drove by mere feet away under a gloriously blue summer sky. Towards departure time, we took a short tour of Victoria with an emphasis on the scenery: Dallas Road and Oak Bay’s fabulous streets made an impression, I think. We made it back to the downtown in plenty of time for Martin to catch his island-hopper plane flight back to Vancouver, which I think I will use myself when it comes time for me to hop off the island – 30 minutes vs 4 hours of driving / ferry / bus transfers. I was sad to see Martin leave, as it had only been a short visit, but I was escatic that he had taken the time to come out my way to see how I was doing. I only hope it is the first of many visits by my friends as they are able, in the years to come.

The evening’s entertainment was District 9, another film I’d not got around to seeing until tonight. The FX were incredible, all the more so as they took a backseat for most of the film which was concerned with the issues at hand, being shot more as a documentary / news special about human-alien relations. I found myself watching it in large chunks without interruption, something I usually don’t do at home – pausing the DVD player at many points to do other things has become fairly routine for me of late.

May 16 - A Paper Concorde?

Mike Hogue’s Newt and John weekly webcomic was updated today( er, Mondays! )again – with more on the supersonic paper airplane! Seriously cool, seriously funny work... how can you not like a 3D model of the world’s largest paper airplane that goes faster than the speed of sound? Make sure you check it out and prepare your belly laugh...

Ahhh.... Sundays. Pancakes for breakfast, then some long-missed Call of Duty MW2 for a few hours with Lucas, Simon and Dave. Good times. I quickly got back into the groove, with only one game in the whole day being a wash – I felt very good by the time I called it quits to head outside and read in the lovely afternoon sunshine.

The  month of May marks 2.5 years  of writing this weekly blog... so far, so good. It’s great to have a deadline( of sorts )to prepare for each week, ensuring that I keep things up to date with my life while not retreading old ground or relating the trivial. To that end, the blog has worked very well, I believe.