People, Phones and Pressure

The word of the week is passion.

Sept 3 - School Of Life

Holy Guacamole, is it September already?

While I don't have to start school, I do have to ramp up my job search as I only have a few months of EI left.

 

No pressure.

Now that I've been 'armed' with the information from the WorkBC seminars last week, I feel fully prepared to dive into my job search with focused efforts - no more blanketing advertised jobs with resumes and hoping for an interview. Given that I've been awake well before 7am for the last few months, I feel like spending the day job hunting will be just like having a day job, which is the whole idea - and you can insert that old saw about writers not quitting said jobs here, thankyouverymuch.

I want to find a good job. Not necessarily the perfect job, but one that I can enjoy going to every day, to be valued and to get value for the effort I put in. Just to make a living from it and to pull ahead a little each payday is all I'm looking for; if I find more, all the better. My focus for the next year is to finish revising my novel and to publish it in some major form; the job will serve that end and to keep me from editing from a cardboard box in an alley somewhere. 

It's going to be an interesting year…

Sept 4 - NEW PHONE ARRIVES!

Imagine my surprise when the doorphone rang and it was a delivery: my new Samsung Galaxy SIII was here a week early!

Excited, I took a few pictures before unboxing it carefully and checking it out. It was a LOT lighter in the hand than I had expected, a practical featherweight compared to my brick of an HTD Desire HD( 134g vs 164g ). It is sleek and very sexy-looking and FAST: the screens zip under a touch and apps load in an eyeblink.

There's a LOT of features that come with this phone which I won't bore you with( THIS ARTICLE covers them exhaustively, if you feel so inclined to find out ). Needless to say, I'll be happily fiddling with it for many months to discover them all. One feature I LOVE is that it has a built-in barometer, a rarity among smartphones and tablets still - meaning I can FINALLY check to see what the local air pressure is like in real time to help manage my headaches more precisely. It's a revelation!

I'll try not to wax too poetic over what amounts to a new toy, but at the same time I have to say this: if it does WHAT I want WHEN I want it to and FAST, then it ceases to be a toy and instead becomes a useful tool. Heck, the bonus 48gigs of Dropbox space alone makes my head spin! :-)

 

Sept 5 - Remembering Ray Bradbury

Two months ago, Ray Bradbury passed away, leaving a legacy as a writer equaled by few.

I was surprised to learn that he and I shared something in common: we both felt that the only long-term solution to the survival of the human race was to leave Earth and settle other planets. Bradbury is well-known for his support of space exploration and the settlement of Mars in particular: his Martian Chronicles were read by many of the early astronauts and are still popular today, though I myself have not read them for decades. As to what we shared: I remember way back when I was in grade school being horrified to learn how fragile Earth was and deciding firmly that I would design some spaceships "to get people to other places in case of disaster" with the same though in mind as Bradbury. To get people OFF this planet and onto others so as not to have too many eggs in one basket, so to speak.

This week I scanned almost all of my early artwork and posted it to my FBook account. It's work I've never shown anyone save my parents and sister over the years and that sparingly; you ask why? It's that for the longest time I was ashamed of the pictures, that they were juvenile and not 'art' per se; I had( and still lack )any skill at drawing. What little I do have comes from being precise and patient with a ruler, as you may see from the picture above: I love detail. I took great pleasure in drawing what I did, when I did and I didn't do all that many over the years; most of my imagery remains in my mind, unable to be expressed by my hands onto a medium save through words.

Which is why I'm a writer, not an illustrator. :)

 

Sept 6 - Mega… VOLCANO???

You know those Big Things that might be changing the world yet you don't take too seriously since they aren't happening in front of you, like global warming ? You can add the Yellowstone Supervolcano to that list. I just found out from this article on io9.com that the magma chamber under the park is MUCH more MASSIVE than previously believed. So big, in fact, that it could lead to an Extinction Event.

Scary!

There's the consolation that if the thing goes off, it won't matter where in the world you are - the ash and smoke it will release will make Mount St. Helen's look like a preview trailer for the Yellowstone Main Event. Makes me wonder if the people on Doomsday Preppers know about this yet…?

Sept 7 - TED Success

The TED Talks are wonderful things: ideas from the top minds in the world that ANYONE can listen to and watch without having to pay huge fees. I've installed the app already on my new phone and I try to watch whenever I can.

One of the more interesting ones I've come across is 'The 8 Secrets of Success' which seems simple enough. Have a look at the video, or the poster below:

You can download a PDF to rate yourself in each of the eight categories here.

Going through each of the steps, I can see some areas where I need to improve and others where I'm actually doing rather well. Getting myself up to speed in all eight categories will take some work but I'm a LOT closer now than I was even five years ago when I first set foot in BC.

That makes me rather happy. :-)

Sept 8 - Jarring

For over a month now I've been waking up at 6:30-6:45am. Involuntarily. I've tried to find out WHY it's been happening, from things I've been eating the night before to light from the almost-closed curtains to noises. In the last week, I've woken up on my bleary-eyed own around that too-early time to hear NOISE. Specifically, what has sounded like a door slamming close at 6:45am. Today I set my alarm again for 6:30am to be up in time to LISTEN for whatever's making the sound… and I succeeded!

It's the next door neighbour, not the ones above.

Since the kids usually have had me up around 7:30am regardless since we've moved into this place, the difference of less than an hour may seem trivial - it's not. There's a HUGE difference between waking naturally and being jarred from your sleep, over and over again - right now, I'm feeling that difference. It's affecting my health and it frustrates the HELL out of me that a good night's sleep is beholden to the ignorance of others. I do NOT enjoy feeling like I'm not in control of my life and that feeling is only intensified by a lack of sleep - the bags under my eyes don't need more company.

I spent ALL of the afternoon on a patio at Moka House on Cook St with a new friend. It was wonderful. :-) To the point where it was dinnertime and I was reluctant to go and eat; I didn't want it to end. What a lovely day, the last gorgeous weather we will see of the summer, so I hear. I'm glad I spent it outside.

Sept 9 -Dullness

Ugh, from blue sunny skies to overcast and raining in the afternoon today; what a difference!

I didn't get up to much today, as the weather change had me feeling tired and blah. As well, the hint of a headache threatened to go full-bloom for most of the day, but thankfully it didn't do more than that.

Some of the day was spent prepping and listing my HTC Desire HD phone for sale on eBay. I reset it to factory defaults and checked it as best as I was able to ensure it is in salable condition. Amusingly, once it had been WIPED it was perky and fast again, a good indicator to me that I was asking too much of it. Then again, I wanted it to do the things I NEEDED it for daily; since it couldn't hack it, it's going 'bye.

The evening saw me watch my copy of There's Something About Mary, which I haven't seen in many years. I was less impressed with it this time around, perhaps because I saw the 'Extended Edition' which focused in the main on slapstick antics and less on making the story more solid. I'm a writer, so go figure I was more interested in that then seeing Ben Stiller get mauled by a small dog. Cameron Diaz was a lovely vision as always and she really shines in this film; I think that's why I've kept it around so long… it can't be for the zipper scene, which I ALWAYS thought should have remained visually in the minds of the audience - they should NEVER have show the frank and beans! A little mystery goes a long way…

It's nose-to-the-grindstone week; lots of searching to do and a time deadline on top of that. Not to mention getting the novel manuscript whipped into shape and sent out to my beta readers… I'm not sure which I'm more excited about: finding a great job or getting some much-needed novel feedback!