The word of the week is archery!
April 9 - APPROVED!
Today was Easter Monday, when Good News traditionally arrives. A little before noon today my sister and I received news that our rental application in Victoria on Cook Street had been approved! We were ecstatic, as this is the place we really really want to live due to its proximity to the downtown core, the ocean, Beacon Hill Park and Cook Street Village. I'm especially happy as the building happens to have a rooftop lounge stunning views of both the mountains to the south and the city all around through floor-to-ceiling windows. As an added bonus, the building manager told me that few people ever go up there on a regular basis as it is accessible only by stairs and not the elevator. Can you say "personal writing lounge" for the next six months? I knew that you could! This is the best piece of news yet so far this year aside from my for EI and we're really looking forward to moving in mid-May!
April 10 - Archery... with your feet?
Years ago, when I belong to a medieval reenactment group, one of my hobbies while a member was to regularly participate in archery practice. That went by the wayside as school and work took priority over my recreational activities that it is been years since I shot a bow for recreation; it still hanging on my wall in pride of place for me to get to soon. Sometime later this year, I may search out and join The Victoria Bowman's Club. Though they still will have a yearly membership fee… hmmm. It is also inspiring to see how some people have taken archery to new levels, such as Lilia Steppenova, who can shoot a normal bow WITH HER FEET with perfect accuracy.
April 9 - APPROVED!
Today was Easter Monday, when Good News traditionally arrives. A little before noon today my sister and I received news that our rental application in Victoria on Cook Street had been approved! We were ecstatic, as this is the place we really really want to live due to its proximity to the downtown core, the ocean, Beacon Hill Park and Cook Street Village. I'm especially happy as the building happens to have a rooftop lounge stunning views of both the mountains to the south and the city all around through floor-to-ceiling windows. As an added bonus, the building manager told me that few people ever go up there on a regular basis as it is accessible only by stairs and not the elevator. Can you say "personal writing lounge" for the next six months? I knew that you could! This is the best piece of news yet so far this year aside from my for EI and we're really looking forward to moving in mid-May!
April 10 - Archery... with your feet?
Years ago, when I belong to a medieval reenactment group, one of my hobbies while a member was to regularly participate in archery practice. That went by the wayside as school and work took priority over my recreational activities that it is been years since I shot a bow for recreation; it still hanging on my wall in pride of place for me to get to soon. Sometime later this year, I may search out and join The Victoria Bowman's Club. Though they still will have a yearly membership fee… hmmm. It is also inspiring to see how some people have taken archery to new levels, such as Lilia Steppenova, who can shoot a normal bow WITH HER FEET with perfect accuracy.
Oh, and my regular EI amount came in today: MORE than I thought it would be! Which means I should be VERY able to spend the next 6 months writing my novel. ONLY doing that, EVERY day; it's like a dream come true. Thanks, Government of Canada, for seeing that I worked many years paying my EI dues and sending it back to me now when I needed it!
April 11 - Musical Ballads
After going out for a walk this week and listening to some of my music, I discovered something new about my musical tastes. Apparently, the songs I like are ballads; they tell a story! Most of the music I have is not repetitive in a lyrical sense but tells a story of some kind throughout the song. Well I don't listen to balance like those from Johnny Cash all that often, I think it is telling that the songs I do like appeal to me from an author's point of view. The best songs will always have something new for you when you listen to them as the years pass by, very much like the best stories: you can always come back and reread them two more years experience under your belt. This insight was brought to you by the letter 'Z' which is rather underused in the English language - which starts with the most-used letter, 'E' … weird, that.
April 12 - Classic Video Games!
Crowd-sourcing is the new buzzword nowadays, especially in the videogame industry where many games do not get made because producers don't want to take the risk of creating a flop( similar to the movie industry ). Quite a few indie games and worthy sequels never get made because the funding simply isn't there and most people in the videogame industry want to make a living just like the rest of us. So I'm especially thrilled to see that a sequel to the amazing Wasteland game from the late 1980's has now been massively funded through Kickstarter.com! What's really amazing is that many of the original team members from the first game have come on board for this sequel. I remember playing this game with my friend on his Apple II and just being sucked into the post-apocalyptic game world; it was probably the major reason that I'm so fascinated with that particular genre! Set with a release date sometime in 2013, Wasteland2 promises to give a similar transcendental gaining experience, thanks to the enthusiasm of the indie team it has now! You can download the original game here, as it is long past it's due date...
April 13 - Starbase: Las Vegas??
Sometimes I really wonder about the stupidity of Hollywood executives; no, scratch that - I don't really need to wonder since they keep giving examples of how stupid they can be. Case in point: in 1992, Las Vegas ALMOST built a full-scale replica of the Starship Enterprise as an attraction to revitalize the downtown core. I'm not kidding; this was so close to happening that it came down to the decision of a Paramount executive to give the project a green light. As we now know, stupidity won out over the dreams of millions of g33ks the world over. Incredible, I know: instead of the graceful lines of a starship wreathed in lights and real to the touch, Las Vegas' downtown got giant overhead TV's showing ads and cute patterns. Paramount's top executive at the time, Stanley Jaffe, was solely responsible for killing this dream dead… so if you see him, give him a kick in the shins for me and every other g33k who dreamed of walking the decks of the Enterprise for the price of a day pass.
April 14 - Pebbles and pots?
All right, we're on a g33k theme here, so here's two things that caught my eye this week that I really think I'd like to own in the near future. Both went to Kickstarter.com to fund their creation and thankfully, BOTH have more than reached their goals, so we'll see them become available very soon!
First is the Pebble smartwatch. It's an eInk-based watch that connects to your smartphone via bluetooth and is totally programmable in terms of apps. Meaning that the watch can check emails, display SMS texts, FBook updates and almost anything else developers can dream of creating. It's a greyscale, low-power display that is highly readable in sunlight and makes always checking your phone a thing of the past. Available Sept 2012.. for $150.
The other gadget is one that I've never seen before. Called the PowerPot, it produces electricity via a thermocouple, which means you can use it anywhere that you have a concentrated source of heat such as a campfire or stove. Unlike solar chargers, this is an immediate source of electricity that can be used day or night and won't take most of the day to charge a single device. I think this is especially cool as a survival tool, as it means that you can go completely off the grid and still have access to devices without having to carry masses of batteries around with you. Just boil up some soup and you can charge both your GPS and satellite phone at the same time!
April 15 - Grrr....
Today was very, very frustrating for me in several areas, including the scanner on my tablet malfunctioning so that I can no longer scan any books into my database! In the main though, my WRISTS are STILL a problem: the tendons insiders still like cables, very tight despite the exercises I have been doing daily. It makes it hard to hold things for very long or type OR play video games with a mouse or controller - in effect, to do ANYTHING that I want and need to get done around here daily. So Monday I am making an appointment with the doctor to see about finding a therapist to help me with the physical exercises, as it's been a month and these symptoms are still lingering heavily.
On the bright side, I did manage to rig up my voice dictation software so that it works properly with all my programs and even some games. While using a mouse is still difficult, I can type and write fairly fluently without too many mistakes and my PC can handle it without strain, thankfully. Writing this blog today was somewhat time-consuming, but for the most part I got it done in one pass and then went back to fix things as needed. Some other people have used the same program to overcome difficulties they've had in typing with their hands; in fact, one person use the program to play video games way back in the day when text was King. this allowed me to enjoy the rest of my evening online, where I gamed with a few friends in NWN and left the typing mainly to my voice. It worked, needed a lot of corrections and left my wrists alone, which was good.
This week is going to be make or break for me in terms of my wrists; no, I don't intend to break my wrists, I just need to get them on the road to recovery. I'm trying very hard every day not let my frustrations boil and simmer as the clock ticks ever closer towards the end of 2012 and only a few words trickle onto the page of my novel.
The other gadget is one that I've never seen before. Called the PowerPot, it produces electricity via a thermocouple, which means you can use it anywhere that you have a concentrated source of heat such as a campfire or stove. Unlike solar chargers, this is an immediate source of electricity that can be used day or night and won't take most of the day to charge a single device. I think this is especially cool as a survival tool, as it means that you can go completely off the grid and still have access to devices without having to carry masses of batteries around with you. Just boil up some soup and you can charge both your GPS and satellite phone at the same time!
April 15 - Grrr....
Today was very, very frustrating for me in several areas, including the scanner on my tablet malfunctioning so that I can no longer scan any books into my database! In the main though, my WRISTS are STILL a problem: the tendons insiders still like cables, very tight despite the exercises I have been doing daily. It makes it hard to hold things for very long or type OR play video games with a mouse or controller - in effect, to do ANYTHING that I want and need to get done around here daily. So Monday I am making an appointment with the doctor to see about finding a therapist to help me with the physical exercises, as it's been a month and these symptoms are still lingering heavily.
On the bright side, I did manage to rig up my voice dictation software so that it works properly with all my programs and even some games. While using a mouse is still difficult, I can type and write fairly fluently without too many mistakes and my PC can handle it without strain, thankfully. Writing this blog today was somewhat time-consuming, but for the most part I got it done in one pass and then went back to fix things as needed. Some other people have used the same program to overcome difficulties they've had in typing with their hands; in fact, one person use the program to play video games way back in the day when text was King. this allowed me to enjoy the rest of my evening online, where I gamed with a few friends in NWN and left the typing mainly to my voice. It worked, needed a lot of corrections and left my wrists alone, which was good.
This week is going to be make or break for me in terms of my wrists; no, I don't intend to break my wrists, I just need to get them on the road to recovery. I'm trying very hard every day not let my frustrations boil and simmer as the clock ticks ever closer towards the end of 2012 and only a few words trickle onto the page of my novel.
