Storyboards, Space and Degrees of Stubborness

The word of the week is degree.

June 25 - I'm now a Graduate!

It's been a long road, but as of today I'm officially a university graduate!

Over a decade ago, I gave up on completing my degree for a variety of reasons, in the main time and money - I'd tried several times to finish a stubborn language requirement( in both Italian and French )but life kept poking me hard in the eye. And the wallet. Years passed and things didn't change much, so it was shelved 'for sometime in the future' as I saw it - it's been a nagging shame of mine all these years that I'd never graduated. This spring, I spoke to several people, both at UVic and Brock, about completing my degree. Imagine my surprise when the Brock contact advised me that she thought 'I already had the requirements' to have a Bachelor's Degree issued to me! As it turns out, the university eliminated the language requirement for many degrees in 2011, so it turns out that my waiting was not in vain after all. Heck, I've waited so long that Brock completely changed their logo:

 

The call today confirmed that the Dean has authorized my degree to be granted according to the credits I've earned, which satisfy all current degree requirements. All that I had to do was apply for Graduation( which I did a few weeks ago! )and now with the Dean's approval, I'll have my degree issued for the Fall 2012 convocation. I'm extremely happy, moreso than I've been in years, as I'd never thought I'd complete my degree. Turns out I already had; I just had to wait longer than most!

June 26 - AT LAST! THE ZONE!

FINALLY, I've found a solution to enable me to write creatively and ignore distractions from the noises that constantly batter at the fragile bubble of my writing Zone! While earplugs or headphones have not been enough to date on their own to block out the thunder of feet above my head nor the noise of the street thirty feet from my window, combining BOTH has proved successful! With the blissful tunes of Enya playing at non-migraine levels inside my audio cocoon, I dived HEADLONG into my writing today and didn't come up for air for close to eight hours to give my wrists a rest. I also spoke to a good friend on the phone today to explain my ENTIRE novel, which they kindly listened to for close to an hour non-stop! After that, I was inspired AGAIN to revise and expand my Novel Synopsis, as so MANY points clarified in my head after that call… that saw the rest of the evening vanish as I wrote again almost non-stop. My arms were a pair of burning sticks attached to my elbows and I went to bed utterly spent… but with such a wide grin that I thought my dimples would fall out. That, my friends, is what the Zone is all about!

June 27 - Bookshelf chairs?

Yes, I do tend to go on about small / tiny home design sometimes, but with good reason: design and architecture only advance through innovation, and what's innovative about bloated homes that are all cut from the same mold? Small spaces require creative solutions; this is where designers have to think outside the box, though in this case it's INSIDE the box. Putting functional chairs and a table inside a set of bookshelves speaks to many space problems in a unique form of answer - plus it just LOOKS cool:

June 28 - Storyboard Day!

Two days ago, I put into words the totally summary of my novel… over five pages of densely-packed ideas that spell out the story from start to finish, sparing no major plot detail. Though my arms were not rested fully, I dove in again today to complete my 'Visual Guide' which has been languishing half-finished for three months now. What I've done to aid my muse for the novel is to gather images that come close to matching the pictures in my mind's eye of what many scenes or characters look like, then put them into a 'storyboard' in an Excel file. Today I totally nailed the story from start to finish, adding in many more pictures and making the novel into a visual storyboard with many specific details noted for each picture, just like they do with movies. It was an entire day of fantastic mental puzzle-fitting hour after hour, as solutions I've been musing over came together like magic hour after hour. Nauseatingly happy at the end of the day, that was me!

Ironically, there IS a writing program out there that uses this exact storyboard concept called Scrivener, but it IS a pay program. So I saved money by doing it for 'free' … but after checking out Scrivener, I may end up shelling out the bucks and copy / pasting my info into it to take advantage of the many useful novel-building features. For the price, it looks reasonable and comes recommended by several author friends.

June 29 - Space Nostalgia

I'm not sure where this fits into this week's blog, but it made me smile all the same. I've spoken a few times over the years about an old game called Earth and Beyond which was one of the first space MMO's. It had several firsts, including the ability to customize( some aspects )of your character AND your spaceship! The graphics at the time seem crude by today's standards, but I loved it. I also loved the community that was present for most of the game: there were a LOT of roleplayers, who could spin amazing tales when on a space station or the few other social hubs in the rather cozy universe. I was sad to see it go, as it was the first place I developed the character basics that would later become Nichneven - a futuristic warrior / monk with crimson hair and a deadly electronic bo-staff. I was in heaven… for a few short months playing the free beta. By the time the game went live I now had NWN to enjoy and I never went back - sadly the EaB game was cancelled in 2004 after only two brief years.

June30 - Wiped Out Brain And Body Day

The week's writing exercises took their toll on me: today I felt completely exhausted, as well as nauseous, possibly from something I'd eaten yesterday disagreeing with my twitchy digestion. Though it was a gorgeous day, I didn't have a speck of energy and took several shorter naps as the day wore on, getting out only for a short walk around the block before coming back home all too soon.

Since it was a day in, I ended up checking out the new MMO Dungeons and Dragons Online which is free-to-play. It looked gorgeous on my PC( and large HDTV )thanks to my new video card, running smoothly with no glitches. I played for a good part of the afternoon, with minimal use of my arms as it's a PC game not dependent on twitch-reflexes, for the most part. I found the game to be interesting but not overly so, as it's obviously designed for multiple players and to take up a LOT of time, along the lines of Worlds Of Warcraft… which is not my thing. Also, the chat system seems to be disabled at low levels, as I saw nobody speaking to each other; again, not my thing as that makes roleplaying a lost cause. All in all, it was a good way to pass a day when I was feeling like crap apart from sleeping, reading or watching movies… I always like to check out new things and DnD has always had a soft place in my heart. But I'll still stick to NWN.

July 1 - HAPPY CANADA DAY!

I thought today as part of the celebrations for our nation's 145th anniversary, I'd talk about tolerance. Not to put it in the form of complaints, but to illustrate a uniquely Canadian trait: to abide others poor behaviour( to a point )without getting in their face, which perhaps makes us the well-known diplomats we are to the world. I'll pull out the example of motorcycles: I dislike them for their noise. I think many are works of art, they're amazing mechanical marvels and a great mode of transportation. Yet the noise they generate is imposed on everyone within earshot… and that's a LOT of people for some of these ear-blowing street-rattlers. I know the noise is purely cosmetic; motorcycles can( and some do )run just fine without announcing their arrival minutes ahead of time. What it comes down to is rights: everyone has the right to enjoy a relatively  peaceful day, hence the term 'disturbing the peace' in the law books. I'll also argue that people have the right to enjoy fresh air in their home… but when the prevailing wind blows in the smoke from a neighbour's balcony constantly, who is infringing on whose rights, I ask? Do I not have the right to have my windows open on a nice day to enjoy the fresh air, as much as other people have the right to smoke a pack of cigarettes a day out on their balcony?

It comes down to tolerance, in some ways. How much intolerance will you tolerate, before something is done? As much as I'd like to wish otherwise, I doubt very much that if the balcony-goers were aware they were forcing their downwind neighbours to keep their windows closed, they would change their ways. On a related note, the partiers upstairs managed to shatter the doorway to the stairs here not long after dinnertime, prompting a mass exodus from the apartment before blame could be brought to bear. Idiots; no way to spend a Canada Day, dropping in on friends only to cause them trouble through ignorance and making a spectacle of things on the front lawn of the building as people urge others to jump from the second-storey balcony. Yet we're all Canadians and it's all 'in good fun' as long as nobody's hurt.

Right?

I went out Canada Day evening with a couple of neighbours( the friendly ones )to see the fireworks down at the Inner Harbour. It was a big but fun crowd, with quite a few people not dressed for the chillier night( down to 13C degrees ). The fireworks were wonderful, with a finale of brilliant red flares set off against white sparks that made the gigantic crowd go wild with applause. Afterwards, we went up( literally )to Vista18, a restaurant I didn't know existed until tonight. We caught the end of a jazz solo and enjoyed the night views of the city from the 18th floor over a few drinks; I'll be back to see what the city will look like from the day. All in all a good way to start July and to celebrate the country I love to live in; Happy Birthday, Canada!