Milestones, Maybe and Memories

The word of the week is content.

This is my 250th blog entry, quite a milestone for me. I've written an entry a week since late 2007 and if the average entry is around 2,500 words then I've put over 625,000 words in total into this blog. Amazing.

July 9 - Still searching for a job ...

After the last few months of fruitless job searching, I headed down to WorkBC today to see if I could get a different perspective on things. I've only had a few contacts with employers in the last few months and my EI is at the halfway point this month.

It's been especially frustrating with my arm issues; call it tendonitis or CTS or whatever the specialist in August finds it to be, it severely limits my job searches. I can't lift objects heavier than a glass of water with my left arm or type at any decent speed for long with either, so even the most basic of jobs is out for me at the moment. Not having any disability insurance irks me, but I want to get BETTER, not live with my arms the way they are for the REST OF MY LIFE. I have to believe things will improve.

The same way I have to believe I'll find a job that will be a good fit. I've started on that today with WorkBC and it's my hope that they can help me search in ways I've not thought of yet. They're rather experienced in this sort of thing and though I know they won't hand me things on a silver platter, I have to use every resource available to me. Before I end up just looking for a wage and stop seeing a future for myself in any form of employment. 

At least I can hope that my novel will open a few new doors to me when it's done…

July 10 - Simple pleasures

Before video games, kids had to find other ways to spend their time indoors instead of playing outside. I had a good selection of games as a kid, not all of them of the board-and-easily-lost-pieces variety. Apart from the rather fatal lawn darts, one of my favorite types of games( toys? )were water challenges like the Waterful Ring Toss. It could fascinate me for hours( a LONG time for a kid! )trying to get ALL the rings onto the pegs. I had a half-dozen of these things over the years and I don't think I managed to beat any of them more than once… by then my attention span had waned and I tried my luck with one of the other Waterfuls. Incredible how the addition of water to some simple plastic parts could amuse me.

July 11 - "Met You?"

Catchy pop tunes are nothing new… some get old fast, others bring a smile to your face when you hear them every now and then on the radio long after their debut. Carly Rae Jepson's hit tune 'Call Me Maybe' is one of those tunes, which has spawned many variants as people tweak the melody and lyrics. It was only a matter of time before a Star Wars mix came out, so enjoy:

July 12 - Castle Book!

Back in grade school, I loved our library. It was a big open-plan space that was defined by the bookshelves and tended by the well-bearded Mr. Edwards. I spent a lot of time in there, jockeying for a spot on one of the huge beanbag chairs or a rare turn on one of the monochrome IBM PC's that ran on floppy disks. I devoured books, as many as I could read in a day and I wanted more. Fantastic tales of faraway places were there at my fingertips and I adored every story I read, which conjured pictures in my mind far more real than the pre-CGI shows on television at the time could.

My most vivid memory of that library is when I found the book Castle, by David Macaulay. It is the simple story about the construction of a medieval castle detailed with beautiful illustrations that brought it to life. That book hooked me on all things medieval for life and I was tickled to find a lightly-loved softcover copy of the book this week at nearby Russel Books! The 1983 TV adaptation of the book is below as well, to give you an idea of the magic that Castle awakened in me:

July 13 – THUNDER! LIGHTNING! STORMS!

A view from Esquimalt towards Victoria's Downtown

I was woken today long before 7am by what I thought was CrazyLady upstairs, but turned out to be thunder! Storms here in Victoria are RARE and the clouds wandered around all day. Until late in the evening, when they RUSHED RIGHT AT MY WINDOW! I was watching the stormclouds to the south over Victoria, thrilling to the lightning that lit the dark masses every minute or so, when a bank of clouds starting moving. FAST. It streaked right towards us and then started to… roil. And turn. It must have hit the steady winds that blow around Mt. Finlayson because all of a sudden the clouds were rolling and the winds were churning around… just like when a TORNADO FORMS! Check out the video I managed to get with my so-so smartphone camera; it's in HD and you can see some of the details really clearly especially in the first two minutes:

July 14 - That Novel Feeling

Every day this week has seen a full chapter of my novel produced. It's been incredible to reach the 'teens' in terms of chapter numbers; I feel like the ball is REALLY rolling and I'm trying to stay ahead of it. I'm producing GOOD work; nowhere near what the final quality product will be but enough to keep at it day after day. I want to finish the summer with a finished first draft and what's been appearing on the page has been wonderful: I can feel the world I'm creating coming alive in my mind.

Which is great, because it's a BIG, complicated place. I have a lot of work to do on it still!

It's like building  a house, or filling just a room. Each thing has it's place and while it may appear to be a chaotic jumble at first, if you work at it things begin to get sorted out. Again, like a room full of stuff: you can rearrange things however you like until you're satisfied, even taking large parts of 'stuff' out until everything is balanced and it just feels… right.

I'm getting that feeling already with the 'mud' that I've been producing these last few weeks.

I like it.

July 15 -  BLOG MILESTONES x 2 !!

I've been writing this blog for close to five years now. It's been a journal, a place to express myself and a way for people to keep up with the things I'm up to. 

10,000 pageviews THIS WEEK! W00T!

Today marks the 250th Soronos blog entry. And tomorrow, my birthday, should see my 10,000th pageview. Amazing that BOTH of those milestones should arrive in the SAME WEEK! :-)

Years ago, I wrote a LOT about a LOT of things in my blog; I have a lot of interests and I like to share. I've seen my blog mature as time went on, becoming more focused and less wordy, if that's possible for a writer. These days I feel the need less to document every day, as I realize some days will be better than others. Other days will slip by unnoticed for various reasons, but some days, like today, are worth marking.

Here's to another 250 entries, that will see me go places and do things I'd never thought I'd write about. That's a heady feeling and I want to be able to go back to read my journey many years from now… which is why I'm writing things down NOW.

I've had a long, stretchy day, meaning that I've felt all over the place today. It's my last day before I turn 39 and that silly song '38 Years Old' is stuck in my head. I know I'm young, I know I have an uncertain future ahead of me... who doesn't? I'll be a year older tomorrow and looking back, I know how I got here but when I turn around, I can't see much of a clear path in the near future. The far future where I'm relaxing on a beach with a pair of bionic arms like Luke Skywalker, well... that's not for a while yet. Back to writing...