Blossoms, Being Busy and Business Beginnings

The word of the week is fortitude.

March 4 - Business Busy

Whew! I've been rather busy working on both of my businesses this last week, putting together the website for the one and doing market research for the other.

Let me tell you, you don't see 90% of the work that goes on behind the scenes in order to make a business successful. I realized this a few years ago, when I walked into a bakery just down the street and saw all the wonderful confections on display. It was early in the morning and so more delicious things were still being created behind the counter. It struck me that so much had to go into the production of such sweet-smelling treats, from getting talented staff to keeping the books to getting products ordered to paying the rent and the thousand other things that meant the doors could open every day for waiting customers. Tons of hard work for the little the customer sees while purchasing things.

I am at the very beginning stages of getting my business running; I don't have any customers and I'm working on perfecting my products so that when I do open my doors, I'll be ready for whoever walks in - so to speak. I'll be starting on my business plan for my Internet service within a few weeks, once I get the website polished enough so that anyone looking at it sees a professional company ready to provide a service that they be willing to pay for. I think I have a good shot, according to feedback from a few people in the know, so I need to push to get there first before someone else eats my lunch.

March 5 - Winter? Where?

No snow.

I'll say it again: we've had no snow here at all in Victoria this winter. Zip.

We have had some very cold days, with frost on the grass and ice fog on the fields for half a dozen days in total but never anything falling from the sky to sit like a white blanket everywhere.

It's been great.

Now the blossoms are coming out on the trees all over the place:

Looking west along View St towards downtown at dusk

This is why I live in Victoria: to avoid the winter that seems to be such a major part of Canadian psyche but not part of mine. I did enjoy winter activities as a kid but never the cold which always came along with them. Maybe if I was a bigger person or naturally generated more body heat I could tolerate the cold more, but I remember vividly back when I was taking swimming lessons during the summer how viciously cold and the pool water was and how long I shivered for afterwards even after working as hard as I could in the water. I'll be quite happy to spend the rest of my days without seeing a single snowflake except in passing or in pictures, which makes Victoria my permanent home…

Unless they build an indoor beach on a Mars colony in the next 20 years, then I'll be right there to sign up.

March 6 - Groupon Courses

Seems the universe wants me to get a few certificates under my belt.

A Groupon offer came up this week, one that I couldn't refuse: a package of four IT courses online for just $99, instead of the hundreds( or thousands )they usually cost. So I sprang for them, as I figured it's well past time to make my computer skills 'official' and so help me in my future career paths.

I can do the courses on my own time( midnight 'days off' seem best )over the next few months, which is perfect as I'm wide awake the whole time with time on my hands. At the end of it, I'll have something solid to add to my resume, which will greatly help in moving to new jobs that require a CompTIA+ certification( or even just prefer one )like a network support tech or computer technician.

I'll be a busy little beaver for the next while with this on my plate, atop all the other things, but it will be SO worth it. It's been extremely frustrating to have all my computer knowledge but being unable to quantify it on my resume.

Now, I'll be able to!

March 7 - Her Morning Elegance

Art is one of the deepest expressions of what it means to be human.

The thing about art is that it can come from anywhere and do almost anything, bringing people a sense of wonder or creating controversy or doing any of 100 things all at once.

Animation is a fantastic type of art, as it can take so many forms to say so much. The stop motion technique used in the video below shows just how something so simple can be transformed into a lovely comment on our human condition.

If you listen closely to the lyrics, it seems that the singer is talking about something sad while were watching, which again shows the many levels that art can affect us on. Writing, painting, film, sculpture or any of the many other forms of art all speak to us; no one is ever unaffected by art at any level and I hope that as my life continues, I will continue to appreciate even more forms of art so that I can get closer to understanding what our world is really all about.

March 8 - Strong Women

When I write, I like to write strong characters.

Men are easier to write in this regard, as muscles tend to be associated with the male physique and psyche both. Women, on the other hand, are strong in other ways and I find this much more interesting as a writer to explore. Some writers will expound on how a strong female character has to be better than their male counterparts, but I disagree with that path. Strong women are just like strong men: what really counts comes from within.

Given today's media craze about celebrities, I find it disconcerting that so much emphasis is placed on people who have no redeeming qualities as role models. The Kardashians, Honey Boo-Boo( who IS that, anyway? )and their ilk as well as the many inhabitants of reality television shows all contribute exactly nothing to the world and simply take up space to catch the eye, much as people will slow down to boggle at a roadside accident. Useless.

Which is why I love strong characters, especially strong women and thankfully there are quite a few of these in science fiction, including much of recent television. There are also many examples of excellent female characters in many written works I admire, but I find it easiest to bring to mind those characters who have been brought to life by excellent actresses over the last few years.

March 9 - Running and Interests

Finally, all the factors came together today and I went for my first run. Ever.

Which went fairly well, all told. My hands were cold as I forgot gloves, but the new shoes I picked up a few weeks ago were very comfortable, with my feet and legs feeling fine as I ran along the paths around Beacon Hill Park. I worked up a good sweat and was done in less than half an hour, though I found that I had the most trouble with proper breathing techniques and as such had to walk intermittently instead of running at a steady pace. 

Which is probably a good thing, as this was my first run and I knew I didn't want to overdo it out of sheer enthusiasm. The next day my knees were aching, so I'll have to keep a close eye on them to avoid any long-term damage caused by running improperly or just general wear. All in all, it was easier than I expected and I hope to get out at least a couple times a week if my joints will allow.

Something else I should mention are my many interests that occupy my mind and keep it active alongside my body.

As an example of how many interests I have, today I actually looked at how many tabs I had open in Firefox today.

Four hundred and twenty five. Wow.

That's a LOT - but I refer back to many of them, independent of bookmarks. Of which I have, at last count, upwards of 6,000 even after a recent 2012 cleanup. What can I say? I like to know about a lot of things, keep up with the latest developments and pursue my many interests… which at times denotes to me a lack of focus, perhaps, but it keeps my brain active. I believe the reason I'm never bored is that I can simple reach out and turn over a new interest to see what's going on. I can also consult The Renaissance Man's Guide to Doing Everything, which is free!

There's something to be said about being able to do that.

March 10 - No loss, no gain

I haven't lost any more weight this week, but neither have I gained any back.

My meals have increased in size and frequency, though not all that much more as I don't want to overreact and overeat, thus causing another problem. My motto over the years has always been "everything in moderation" which is both sensible and easy to achieve if you think  ahead.

I have found that I've been sleeping better at night when I've ridden my bike to work and back again. This makes sense, as combined with work I've had a fairly busy time of cardio exercise and my bike ride, while taxing, is not exhausting, especially when compared with the route I used to take which climbed some rather steep hills on a daily basis. I'm finding that it's already easier for me to get to work with less effort, which just goes to show that I know what I'm doing when it comes to moderate exercise.

At least I know that I'm not losing weight from stress, as both my sister and I are working again now. Taking a look at our near future planning, things look fairly decent even when I don't factor in additional  income from one or other of my businesses or similar things.

No, 2013 is really turning out to be a good year, as long as I keep my nose to the grindstone. 

Hard work is something I'm familiar with and as long as I remember to work smart as well then I should see some results fairly shortly. I just have to remember to work on my novel too, which I can't just leave to founder untouched while I focus on more practical and immediate things. The story is still there, waiting to get out and seeing as I know I can do more than just pay my bills now means that my creative side can come out of the wings where it's been waiting and get back to improving my third draft once more.

After all, I don't think I could imagine anything better than a publisher's acceptance letter dropping through my doors mail slot one afternoon later this year. 

Can you?

Midnights are going apace now: I'm wide awake from midnight to 7am, though I start to feel the tired creeping up on me around dawn. I'm not having more than one mug of tea a night, so that's been great as I don't want a caffeine crutch to be what's keeping me going. A few more weeks of this and I should be able to switch back to a daytime schedule, as I'll find out tomorrow if they've hired someone for midnights. More updates as they develop!