The word of the week is Fanexpo!
April 16 - Weathering my novel
Work on the novel is progressing slowly, as I can only type a few words an hour before my wrists force me to switch to the voice recognition software. That is also painful in its own way, as my creative methods do not include speaking a story in the form of a novel. I can TELL a story, sure, but that doesn't translate well to a printed version. So I'm spending my time thinking about plot development, characters, setting and the sundry other details while the story itself slowly flows out onto the glowing screen. It's slow going overall.
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April 16 - Weathering my novel
Work on the novel is progressing slowly, as I can only type a few words an hour before my wrists force me to switch to the voice recognition software. That is also painful in its own way, as my creative methods do not include speaking a story in the form of a novel. I can TELL a story, sure, but that doesn't translate well to a printed version. So I'm spending my time thinking about plot development, characters, setting and the sundry other details while the story itself slowly flows out onto the glowing screen. It's slow going overall.
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The weather this week hasn't done much to get me outside, either. Fitful minutes of sun and many hours of gloomy overcast make for a trapped feeling sometimes. Which I do my best to alleviate with my sunlamp and doing other things( not video games though! )to help the hours flow by in a relaxing and productive way. One thing I am not doing though, is diving into my DVD collection; I'm setting myself some goals and one of those is not to trade off working on the novel for a few hours of entertainment. If I'm going to do this, I have to treat my available daily time as working hours and put in enough of them
April 17 - Tax Deadline? I'm done already!
A word on taxes: do them yourself with a little help and save a LOT! I've been doing my family's taxes for almost ten years now with ease, using TurboTax. It's an online service that allows you to work through your taxes step-by-step and review any part at any time, plus has a running total of your return amount… or amount owing. Best of all, with the link above you can file a single tax return for less than $15.00 with tax - an incredible bargain!!!!
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April 17 - Tax Deadline? I'm done already!
A word on taxes: do them yourself with a little help and save a LOT! I've been doing my family's taxes for almost ten years now with ease, using TurboTax. It's an online service that allows you to work through your taxes step-by-step and review any part at any time, plus has a running total of your return amount… or amount owing. Best of all, with the link above you can file a single tax return for less than $15.00 with tax - an incredible bargain!!!!
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As I've mentioned before, you can find many good hints and tips for saving money each year on your taxes at sites like TaxTips.ca, Canadian Living (weird, I know) and the HUGELY useful 78 Tax Tips For Dummies all spell out strategies and overlooked ways to reduce the amount of money you have to pay to the government each year. My own simple advice is just this: do whatever it takes to balance to ZERO: you don't owe the government money AND you haven't given them an interest-free loan for most of the year before they give you back a 'refund' once you've filed. As the old adage goes: "Neither a borrower nor a lender be." Good advice, that.
April 18 - Passing Genius and Creativity
Fifty-six years ago today, one of the greatest minds of our age died: Albert Einstein. He was only 76 years old. Einstein was in the same class of genius as Leonardo DaVinci, Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking: minds that truly helped to re-shape the world through their work. I hold minds like theirs in the highest regard, as examples far better for my life and beliefs than celebrities with passing fame or sports stars with fading accomplishments. Genius is the word I have heard all my life that truly resonates with me and reminds me with every utterance that I too, have great things within me that are waiting to be done.
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April 18 - Passing Genius and Creativity
Fifty-six years ago today, one of the greatest minds of our age died: Albert Einstein. He was only 76 years old. Einstein was in the same class of genius as Leonardo DaVinci, Isaac Newton and Stephen Hawking: minds that truly helped to re-shape the world through their work. I hold minds like theirs in the highest regard, as examples far better for my life and beliefs than celebrities with passing fame or sports stars with fading accomplishments. Genius is the word I have heard all my life that truly resonates with me and reminds me with every utterance that I too, have great things within me that are waiting to be done.
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Hand-in-hand with genius is creativity, an elusive element that many artists possess but few can articulate the origins of. Creativity is the thing that enables one person to look at a formation of rocks to see the remains of an ancient kingdom of mysterious people, while another just sees a rock pile. Myself, I am creative most every day in small and large ways, as my mind is always working and observing. Ideas are easy to come by for me but the focus and execution of those concepts are where most people fall down. John Cleese gave an amazing speech on creativity a few decades ago; it appears below and I URGE anyone who wants to make better use of their creative side to watch it in full:
April 19 - It's WHEN?
Very last-minute, I discovered( told, actually )that FanExpo is happening next door in Vancouver in 2012... THIS weekend! After a quick calculation, I realized that I could travel there and back with a 1-night stay for a relative pittance, so I jumped online and bought tickets for myself and my sister. I used Hotwire.com to search and found a STEAL of a deal: for a mere $100 after taxes, I secured one night in a double-bed room in a 3-star hotel only 20 mins walk from FanExpo - wow! So then it was a matter of checking on the BC Ferries tickets and planning the weekend trip.
I've only been to 2 other conventions like it, Baltimore in 1998 and TorCon in 2003. Both were fabulous experiences and ones I am eagar to repeat more often in the future, once I get my novel off the ground. I'm not sure I would want to attend more than one a year, at most, as that might take the magical shine off these events, which are 25% g33k-celebrity-fest and 76% cool-stuff-for-sale-take-my-money-please vendors. Fortunately I am not impulse-buy driven and I have little desire to collect signatures from every celebrity that stars at a convention. I'm content to take it all in and be thankful for being there, among people who to various degrees share my love of many things g33k. Like finds like and at conventions like FanExpo it does so with a vengeance! I'll post my pictures on FBook later this week!
April 20 - Creative Comments!
These days I don't put much stock in Yahoo's news stories, as they tend to recycle things from months or even years past and often have misleading titles on a piece - sure signs that their days online are numbered. Yet I still go there every few days to browse through story comments, which are often FAR more insightful and informative than the stories themselves. Case in point: a piece on a couple who 'accidentally' created a $10 million / year business, which as it turns out isn't the case. But apart from the so-so story, the comments on the piece are HILARIOUS as people banter back and forth about entrepreneurship, the economy and money in general. It's definitely worth a read and easy to see which are the best comments, as people will 'like' the better ones and 'thumbs down' the irrelevant or idiotic. Makes me smile to see how the 'hive mind' as it's called reacts to mediocre journalism with very funny results:
April 21 - FanExpo Vancouver, Day 1 !
Up WAY too early today for the trip to Vancouver; we were at the Ferry terminal for the 7am boarding, bleary-eyed but excited. Moreso for me, as my sister has only a passing interest in Things G33ky, but wanted to come along for the chance to spend time with me in Vancouver - what a sis! I did make a somewhat silly decision in purchasing round-trip bus tickets while on the ferry, but it turns out my worrying at the overall cost was unnecessary (more on that later on). We were in Vancouver and dropped off at our hotel a little before 10am and managed to check our bags into our room already (that was great!). I went to the Vancouver Conference Center and waited in long lines for about 30 mins to get in... and wait a little longer in more lines. But all went smoothly and by 11am I was on the floor, looking around. These sorts of events usually end up being mostly a vendor's show, seasoned with some cool events and celebrity guests. This weekend had people like Lou Ferrigno (he look barely at the end of his 40's!) as well as Adam West, Burt Ward and many, many comic / anime-related guests.
But the highlight of my schedule was the chance to talk to Spider Robinson while he made a leisurely appearance signing books. I brought along old copies of his books, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon and Time Travelers Strictly Cash and spent almost ten minutes chatting with him about things author-ly. It was great, but I left a little disappointed in that I couldn't ask him about what it was like to dive into being an author while shedding all other types of work. I also talked briefly with John DeLancie ('Q' from Star Trek: TNG) who was VERY low-key, almost standoffish yet still likable. I also briefly chatted with Gary Chalk, an actor / voice actor with over 30 years in the business, as well as Shirley Millner, both of whom worked on one of my all-time fave shows: ReBoot. Gary gave the impression of putting in time, but Shirley made up for that by being absolutely sweet and very thankful for her fans.
The other Big Thing for me today was meeting almost ALL the crew of Electric Playground: Victor Lucas, Scott Jones, Briana McIvor, Shawn Hatton and Marissa Roberto. I stood in line for most of an hour and was not disappointed; all were exceedingly nice and interested in what I had to ask and to say. Brianna was graciously interested in my questions on working in the game industry, Scott was intrigued by my choice to pursue writing and to try to translate that into games and Victor remarked that I had a great voice for doing voice-acting work. I even spent some time with Shawn, chatting him up about his experiences working with EP and how he liked working on the show. It was definitely worth the lineup and confirmed to me many reasons that keep me watching their show: they honestly love what they do and don't make a big deal about the show, only that it exists because of the fans. Exactly what FanExpo was all about.
I was out of the convention well before five, so I met up with my sister and we both went back to the hotel to drop off our bags and then went in search of dinner. We ended up searching via UrbanSpoon( Yelp! was offline? ) for inexpensive places downtown and wound up with Pacifico Ristorante, a nice little Italian place - the shared pizza was great! The rest of the later evening was capped by cold drinks on the patio at Milestone's by the beach at English Bay, where the view across the water was the best thing about the place.
April 22 - FanExpo Vancouver, Day 2 !
Another early morning had us checked out by 8am and walking downtown to beat the rush after 9am for the 10am convention opening. Vancouver on a Sunday morning downtown was surprisingly clean and quiet, with most folks just out for walks or jogging. The Tim Horton's we'd found yesterday was in no way crowded for breakfast and we easily made it to the Convention Center for 9am. The ticket lines moved rather quickly and we were on the floor by the 10am opening, amused to yet again see the throngs of people lined up to buy at-the-door tickets instead of the online ones which get you in faster. The place didn't really start to fill up until 11am, by which time we'd had a leisurely stroll around the place to check out all the vendors. At noon we split up to cover two different events: my sister went to the ReBoot reunion and I went to the Professional Voice Acting 101 Q&A, which was packed! There was a panel of five people, including a voice-acting agent and a young woman who had used VoiceRegistry.net to break into the business just recently to find success and a happy career path. Fascinating, useful information that I'll take to heart when considering my own voice-acting career path; one tip was to take as many acting and lesson classes as one can, as the ENTIRE worth of your performance comes from your voice. Being flexible and capable of taking direction are two of the keys to success - I'll be dipping my foot in the waters later this year once the bulk of my novel is complete.
After that, we had lunch and I attended another seminar on voice-acting with Christian Potenza, of 6teen and Total Drama Island fame. Who also happens to be a friend of someone I know, which is cool. After the seminar he was very busy on the convention floor with fans but took the time to let me introduce myself when he had a moment. I was happy to find that he a very cool laid-back guy; I'll be talking more with him again on FBook and hope I'll be able to run into him again soon.
My sister and I caught the Skytrain from downtown before 4pm and disembarked at the bus station early, which was no problem as there was a tiny Starbuck's tucked just under the station. We boarded the bus with no problem and a short while later we stepped off into the vehicle deck on-board the ferry and relaxed for the journey home. Thankfully the waters were very calm and we made it to the ferry terminal as darkness fell. I have to say that the weather in Vancouver was amazing this weekend; one fellow passenger remarked that it was the FIRST time he'd ever been in Vancouver in decades that it didn't rain two days in a row, so we lucked out with only cloudy skies for a few hours and a chilly wind once in a while.
That was it; an amazing weekend made possible last-minute thanks to a whole combination of factors and good company in the form of a sister who was willing to indulge her brother's g33k-out tendencies to head to the big city next door for a bit. It was my first time in Vancouver and the city was great: very tidy, very green, with lots of unique architecture, a wide variety of shops and restaurants and a transit system that was clean and efficient. I'm not sure I'd go back anytime soon just as a tourist, but it's definitely way above places like Calgary or Toronto on my Canadian destination list. Nice!
The tendons in my forearms are still too tight, but thanks to the muscle relaxants the doctor prescribed this week they're no longer achingly painful all day and night. I'm trying several techniques to relax them each day and I hope that by the time I have to move house in mid-May that I will be fully back to normal. Especially as I need to increase my daily typing quota ASAP!
April 19 - It's WHEN?
Very last-minute, I discovered( told, actually )that FanExpo is happening next door in Vancouver in 2012... THIS weekend! After a quick calculation, I realized that I could travel there and back with a 1-night stay for a relative pittance, so I jumped online and bought tickets for myself and my sister. I used Hotwire.com to search and found a STEAL of a deal: for a mere $100 after taxes, I secured one night in a double-bed room in a 3-star hotel only 20 mins walk from FanExpo - wow! So then it was a matter of checking on the BC Ferries tickets and planning the weekend trip.
I've only been to 2 other conventions like it, Baltimore in 1998 and TorCon in 2003. Both were fabulous experiences and ones I am eagar to repeat more often in the future, once I get my novel off the ground. I'm not sure I would want to attend more than one a year, at most, as that might take the magical shine off these events, which are 25% g33k-celebrity-fest and 76% cool-stuff-for-sale-take-my-money-please vendors. Fortunately I am not impulse-buy driven and I have little desire to collect signatures from every celebrity that stars at a convention. I'm content to take it all in and be thankful for being there, among people who to various degrees share my love of many things g33k. Like finds like and at conventions like FanExpo it does so with a vengeance! I'll post my pictures on FBook later this week!
April 20 - Creative Comments!
These days I don't put much stock in Yahoo's news stories, as they tend to recycle things from months or even years past and often have misleading titles on a piece - sure signs that their days online are numbered. Yet I still go there every few days to browse through story comments, which are often FAR more insightful and informative than the stories themselves. Case in point: a piece on a couple who 'accidentally' created a $10 million / year business, which as it turns out isn't the case. But apart from the so-so story, the comments on the piece are HILARIOUS as people banter back and forth about entrepreneurship, the economy and money in general. It's definitely worth a read and easy to see which are the best comments, as people will 'like' the better ones and 'thumbs down' the irrelevant or idiotic. Makes me smile to see how the 'hive mind' as it's called reacts to mediocre journalism with very funny results:
April 21 - FanExpo Vancouver, Day 1 !
Up WAY too early today for the trip to Vancouver; we were at the Ferry terminal for the 7am boarding, bleary-eyed but excited. Moreso for me, as my sister has only a passing interest in Things G33ky, but wanted to come along for the chance to spend time with me in Vancouver - what a sis! I did make a somewhat silly decision in purchasing round-trip bus tickets while on the ferry, but it turns out my worrying at the overall cost was unnecessary (more on that later on). We were in Vancouver and dropped off at our hotel a little before 10am and managed to check our bags into our room already (that was great!). I went to the Vancouver Conference Center and waited in long lines for about 30 mins to get in... and wait a little longer in more lines. But all went smoothly and by 11am I was on the floor, looking around. These sorts of events usually end up being mostly a vendor's show, seasoned with some cool events and celebrity guests. This weekend had people like Lou Ferrigno (he look barely at the end of his 40's!) as well as Adam West, Burt Ward and many, many comic / anime-related guests.
 |
| Spiderman, not Spider Robinson |
But the highlight of my schedule was the chance to talk to Spider Robinson while he made a leisurely appearance signing books. I brought along old copies of his books, Callahan's Crosstime Saloon and Time Travelers Strictly Cash and spent almost ten minutes chatting with him about things author-ly. It was great, but I left a little disappointed in that I couldn't ask him about what it was like to dive into being an author while shedding all other types of work. I also talked briefly with John DeLancie ('Q' from Star Trek: TNG) who was VERY low-key, almost standoffish yet still likable. I also briefly chatted with Gary Chalk, an actor / voice actor with over 30 years in the business, as well as Shirley Millner, both of whom worked on one of my all-time fave shows: ReBoot. Gary gave the impression of putting in time, but Shirley made up for that by being absolutely sweet and very thankful for her fans.
 |
| Spider Robinson |
The other Big Thing for me today was meeting almost ALL the crew of Electric Playground: Victor Lucas, Scott Jones, Briana McIvor, Shawn Hatton and Marissa Roberto. I stood in line for most of an hour and was not disappointed; all were exceedingly nice and interested in what I had to ask and to say. Brianna was graciously interested in my questions on working in the game industry, Scott was intrigued by my choice to pursue writing and to try to translate that into games and Victor remarked that I had a great voice for doing voice-acting work. I even spent some time with Shawn, chatting him up about his experiences working with EP and how he liked working on the show. It was definitely worth the lineup and confirmed to me many reasons that keep me watching their show: they honestly love what they do and don't make a big deal about the show, only that it exists because of the fans. Exactly what FanExpo was all about.
 |
| Victor Lucas and most of Brianna McIvor from EP |
I was out of the convention well before five, so I met up with my sister and we both went back to the hotel to drop off our bags and then went in search of dinner. We ended up searching via UrbanSpoon( Yelp! was offline? ) for inexpensive places downtown and wound up with Pacifico Ristorante, a nice little Italian place - the shared pizza was great! The rest of the later evening was capped by cold drinks on the patio at Milestone's by the beach at English Bay, where the view across the water was the best thing about the place.
April 22 - FanExpo Vancouver, Day 2 !
Another early morning had us checked out by 8am and walking downtown to beat the rush after 9am for the 10am convention opening. Vancouver on a Sunday morning downtown was surprisingly clean and quiet, with most folks just out for walks or jogging. The Tim Horton's we'd found yesterday was in no way crowded for breakfast and we easily made it to the Convention Center for 9am. The ticket lines moved rather quickly and we were on the floor by the 10am opening, amused to yet again see the throngs of people lined up to buy at-the-door tickets instead of the online ones which get you in faster. The place didn't really start to fill up until 11am, by which time we'd had a leisurely stroll around the place to check out all the vendors. At noon we split up to cover two different events: my sister went to the ReBoot reunion and I went to the Professional Voice Acting 101 Q&A, which was packed! There was a panel of five people, including a voice-acting agent and a young woman who had used VoiceRegistry.net to break into the business just recently to find success and a happy career path. Fascinating, useful information that I'll take to heart when considering my own voice-acting career path; one tip was to take as many acting and lesson classes as one can, as the ENTIRE worth of your performance comes from your voice. Being flexible and capable of taking direction are two of the keys to success - I'll be dipping my foot in the waters later this year once the bulk of my novel is complete.
After that, we had lunch and I attended another seminar on voice-acting with Christian Potenza, of 6teen and Total Drama Island fame. Who also happens to be a friend of someone I know, which is cool. After the seminar he was very busy on the convention floor with fans but took the time to let me introduce myself when he had a moment. I was happy to find that he a very cool laid-back guy; I'll be talking more with him again on FBook and hope I'll be able to run into him again soon.
 |
| The very classy Bus Terminal |
My sister and I caught the Skytrain from downtown before 4pm and disembarked at the bus station early, which was no problem as there was a tiny Starbuck's tucked just under the station. We boarded the bus with no problem and a short while later we stepped off into the vehicle deck on-board the ferry and relaxed for the journey home. Thankfully the waters were very calm and we made it to the ferry terminal as darkness fell. I have to say that the weather in Vancouver was amazing this weekend; one fellow passenger remarked that it was the FIRST time he'd ever been in Vancouver in decades that it didn't rain two days in a row, so we lucked out with only cloudy skies for a few hours and a chilly wind once in a while.
That was it; an amazing weekend made possible last-minute thanks to a whole combination of factors and good company in the form of a sister who was willing to indulge her brother's g33k-out tendencies to head to the big city next door for a bit. It was my first time in Vancouver and the city was great: very tidy, very green, with lots of unique architecture, a wide variety of shops and restaurants and a transit system that was clean and efficient. I'm not sure I'd go back anytime soon just as a tourist, but it's definitely way above places like Calgary or Toronto on my Canadian destination list. Nice!
The tendons in my forearms are still too tight, but thanks to the muscle relaxants the doctor prescribed this week they're no longer achingly painful all day and night. I'm trying several techniques to relax them each day and I hope that by the time I have to move house in mid-May that I will be fully back to normal. Especially as I need to increase my daily typing quota ASAP!
