Balance, Batteries and Being Me

The word of the week is acquiescence.

Sept 2 - Beer and Nostalgia!

After work today, I went to a craft beer party.

Actually, it was a mini-beerfest which turned out to be a celebration for the two hosts who got engaged and announced it yesterday. Which is also a very good reason for drinking beer, one would think.

The party got off to a good start with a few people there and after a few hours we had about a dozen all told, all of whom brought unique local beers with them. I had to be careful as I don't know which local brews contain copper, which unfortunately is a headache trigger for me… but tonight it didn't happen, which was great.

What was also great was that I ended up being a video DJ of a sorts. The place we were in was not large, was just a kitchen and a living room to hold us all and the conversations tended to break up into small groups, which is natural. I was sitting over at the computer and decided to add some background to one of the conversations by pulling up some intros to popular 80s cartoons - definitely a g33k crowd tonight.

A hint to what my Halloween costume is this year, is in this image.

That proved to be incredibly popular with everyone and I spent a few hours searching and playing various videos from shows that people remembered, ending with a Top 25 countdown that I found of the greatest 80s and 90s cartoon shows. We were all surprised to find out that the number one cartoon on this first list was… GI Joe, which I somehow guessed ahead of time, to everyone's amusement.

It was a great evening and I really enjoyed chatting with everyone there, most of whom are g33ky to one degree or another. I hope to see them all again soon, or at least when we have a Halloween party, which was held at the same place last year.

Did I mention I already have my costume? It's pretty sweet.

Sept 3 - Did you say Free Car?

I almost got a free car this week, believe it or not.

It turns out the building superintendent got himself a new vehicle, a nice Toyota SUV. He had no need of his other older vehicle and as he wasn't going to get anything for it in trade, he disposed of it.

When I ran into him today, he exclaimed regretfully that he thought of giving the old vehicle to me only after the fact and apologized. I told him that it was wonderful of him to think of me and unfortunate that he did so too late, at which we both had a chuckle. It really was nice of him to consider giving me a vehicle and it may have worked out differently with better timing, but oh well.

The thing is, I don't really need a car here in Victoria. I can ride my cycle for most of the year, even in the rain, which is fine by me as it definitely keeps me in decent shape. Sure, it be nice to be able to just hop into a set of wheels and trundle about town, yet there's not too much speed advantage traveling distances under 10 km from my home - especially when I have to try to find a place to park downtown. It is a little easier with a car when I need to carry things that are a little bulky, but as the photo below shows, it's not always necessary if you plan ahead a little:

Balance in one's life really helps when dealing with odd things...

Sept 4 - Holding Relationships

Four of my friends got engaged this week.

Well, two couples, but still I'm really happy for them all. They've managed to beat the odds by both finding love and seeing it strengthened to the point where making it official is the next logical step. It's a beautiful thing to see.

For myself, I can only hope that I'll be as lucky someday to find someone who's a good match for me. I've said before that I don't need someone to 'complete' me or to help me become a better person; I think I am well-covered in both those regards and most people who know me would agree with that self-assessment.

I'll break my usual silence on this topic to say this: while I'm not closing the door on love, for the next long while I'm just pulling it softly closed and moving on down the hall towards other things.

This isn't a sad or bad or even pitiful move but instead, something needful.

I've been looking for a few decades now without even a hint of success and some recent developments have got me to thinking that right now, I need to focus on other things. Far too much of my mind has been occupied with this particular 'unsolvable' subject and it needs to stop, as it's taking its toll on my emotions far too often. Online dating services, meeting friends of friends and other avenues of locating love have all proved fruitless and I've been totally uninterested in the few advances that have been sent my way... they were completely wrong fit for me in far too many ways to list here. Settling for something isn't my nature.

Maybe one day I'll run into someone who I can talk to as an intellectual equal( I know that sounds massively egotistical, but it's a bald truth ). Who also shares many of my interests, attitudes and outlooks on life. Who I find as attractive, interesting and compatible as they do me. I know that in order to find what I want, I have to find it within myself first and this year has been all about that, moreso than at any previous point in my life. What I want, what I need, is within as much as without. We'll see what happens. 

In the meantime, I have lot of other things to do.

Sept 5 - Book Update

This week I started the revision process on my book, to create my third draft.

It's been slow going, as I sort through all the notes that I've been given from half a dozen people who've read most or some of the book - in detail or in general. There's a LOT of info to go through and collate, from basic spelling errors on up to concerns with thematic issues and plot.

Tackling this third draft will be best done on the scene by scene basis, working paragraph by paragraph as I build up a better book. I have developed a ton of ideas thanks to the wonderful feedback I've received so far and that extends into the next two books as well.

There's isn't much more say this point, save that I won't be doing much else this fall save working my day job and writing. My social outings will be the exception to this rule but for the most part I'll be spending my free time doing revision, which is as it should be. Writing a better book should and will consume my full attention if I'm going to make it my best work possible and so enable me to catch an agent's attention once it's done. If you're doing anything halfway, then you'll never finish.

Otherwise, it's just a hobby and always will be.

Sept 6 - Fuel+ For My Cell

My cell phone's battery continues to underwhelm me with its performance.

Fortunately, I keep an eye on various tech sites as well as weekly sales of said same technology by Canadian vendors. This enables me to pounce on the occasional happy confluence of the right product at the right price at the right time, such as happened today, when I found a USB battery pack on sale for half-price: just what I was looking for.

It's the Fuel+, made by the reputable Patriot company, who also manufacture RAM of various kinds and a few other things that they're known well for. Five years ago I purchased a small USB battery pack from APC, but advances in smart phone technology have meant that it can no longer fully charge my current Samsung galaxy S3 and so I purchased the FUEL+ today. The version I bought has a 5200mAh battery, which holds a lot more juice than the SIII's standard 2100mAh battery, so I can charge it several times during the day or just leave it plugged in. Reviews of the unit have been rather positive, so I got one for myself.

Basically, I'll keep the Fuel+ with me during the day instead of taking my charger with me as it will charge the SIII just as fast. Also, I don't have to leave the phone plugged into a wall socket where it's vulnerable to damage or even theft, if it comes down to it. It's a good solution for me, as I didn't want to buy a bigger battery which would add bulky weight to the phone in addition to making the cases that I have for my SIII worthless as they wouldn't 

fit any more.

Plus, I just love getting a deal( inexpensively )and this definitely qualifies!

Sept 7 - Struggling in my head

Balance is a tricky thing, as any high-wire performer will tell you.

Case in point for today's lesson: applying a screen protector to a mobile device. Normally, this is a straightforward process, albeit one fraught with the potential for failure, should a small dust particle get under the screen as it's applied. If that happens, you're stuck with a little dot or other visual irritant under the film.

Last week, I purchased( on the cheap )a trio of protectors for my phone, my sister's and for my TF101 ASUS tablet, all of which are meant to cut glare for using them outside. They arrived yesterday and today was the first day I had time available to apply them. The first application on my sister's phone went well, but localized distractions in the apartment meant that the second, on my TF101… didn't. I ended up with multiple particles stuck under the screen.

This annoyed me out of all proportion, as I dislike wasting time and money for no good reason and said distractions were nothing I could control.

After getting myself calmed down, I wisely set aside the third screen protector for application another day and assessed things from a forced calm. Sure, I'd wasted about an hour's time, as well as about $12.00, but those weren't the issue. What bothered me was my inability to control the distraction source, enough that I envisioned being unable to work on my book without being disturbed on a regular basis. Just like last year, when I had to leave the apartment to get any worthwhile writing done.

I'd rather not mention any more here, but suffice to say the thought that I'd be working under similar circumstances ignited a firey furnace within me that it took some time to quench.

I want to write my book. I don't want to do it outside of my apartment. It's that simple, and I came to terms with it today while wrestling my inner goblin into quiescence.

It wasn't easy, and shows that I'm still not able to recapture that perfect zen I felt when Arizona three months ago.

I'll work on that some more.

Sept 8 - The Next Forty Years

As a writer, you have to be observant. Not to mention thinking a lot, about many things, all the time.

One thing that I've been observing and thinking about a lot for the last little while is the other half of life. By that, I mean the years to come rather than those that have already passed. This line of thought was brought on by my recent acquaintance with another writer in the building, who is well into his 80s and lives alone -by choice or by circumstance, I don't know.

Specific or general, my line of thought is this: where will we all be in another 40 or 50 years? I'm not talking about flying cars or cities on the moon or other prophetic things, but rather who will be in our lives at that point.

For some, it will be their children and grandchildren and all the attendant family that comes with them. For others, it will be a small group of friends who have gathered and stayed in regular touch by meeting at a local hangout or a similar social get together that takes on the trappings of a ritual as the years pass. Still others will be making new friends and going new places, perhaps traveling the world for the doesn't time with their partner just to see something new in a corner they hadn't found before. And finally there will be those who sit by themselves on a park bench, remembering those they knew and who have passed on when nobody else does, with the sharp clarity that sometimes comes with well-honed memory.

Where will I be in that matrix? To be honest, I don't know. I certainly didn't think I'd be were am today, here on the West Coast, blogging with my voice rather than my hands. Thousands of miles away from my old friends where I grew up in Ontario and among new friends here in BC, keeping in touch with both groups as best I can while keeping my head above water, so to speak. With my family, yet without a committed other.

It may be that I end up with someone and we have a family together, or not. It may be that I walk a path of my choosing towards an unknown destination, stopping quite often to see what's around the corner or under a rock and to write about it. Whatever the path I walk, it will be of my own choosing; of that I'm certain, for as of this point in my life, the only person I'm making decisions for is myself, which is fine.

Sometimes I think being a writer means being a little apart from the world, sitting and watching and writing down all the ten thousand little details that make up a day. Many people don't notice these, caught up in the menu today of simply existing and getting through the hours until it's time to sleep again and start fresh once more. For me, I have universes and worlds my head that I need to find a way get out for others to see, somehow in the spaces between earning a living and being social and quieting the clamor of worrying emotions inside. Yet I know if I didn't worry, if I didn't think about half a hundred things that lead to other things that I didn't know I needed to think about, then I wouldn't come up with the stories that are uniquely mine.

It's those stories that I need to tell, to leave behind me for others to find, no matter where I end up.

The last week's been exhausting, as it's Back-To-School at work and that's been tiring, to say the least. I've got a lot to do, so I'll head to bed, with plans to start my week early tomorrow... and to see what it brings me.