Challenges, Changes and Constants

The word of the week is obsolescence.

Sept 23 - Settling In For the Season

Now that the fall is here, things have settled down into a pattern somewhat.

Four or five days a week, I go to work and try to get some writing in at some point on those days. My days off, I generally catch up on other things and try to set aside a solid block of time to also get some writing in.

So far, that's being of limited success, as I've been very stressed and very tired for the last few months. With learning all the hundreds of details in Copy, along with the insanity of back-to-school, it's been very wearing on me. Add onto that getting the dozens of copies of my novel printed and distributed along with all the usual fun things that cause one's money to disappear and I've been rather occupied. Time is vanishing far too quickly right now.

On that related note, most people have by now got their copies of my novel's second draft. However, there's still over a dozen people who, for various known( and unknown )reasons, have yet to pay for their books( and thus pick them up to begin reading them ). It's a little frustrating to me as I've gone to great lengths to print the books out of my own pocket initially, at cost, and then arrange to have them sent out for as little cost as possible so that people can pick them up. I've got at least two dozen more people who would like copies of the draft but I have none left to give nor have I the funds to produce more, especially as I'm still waiting for some of those same funds to come back to me through the people who haven't paid yet. At some point I'll have to put my foot down and make their copies available to other people, as I can't wait indefinitely for someone to get around to sending me payment.

On the bright side, those folks who have received their novels and have read a good portion of them have been glowing in their feedback. I am always thrilled to hear people ask me things about my book and I believe that I will never grow tired of that feeling as an author.

Sept 24 - Failure

Why is it that silly things happen on my days off, when I want to get work done?

Like a RAID hard drive card controller failing - again. Ironic, as a RAID is supposed to allow for one drive of a pair failing without losing any of my precious data. In this case, the drives themselves are fine - it's the CARD that's controlling them which has died. It's under warranty, thankfully; heck, it didn't even make it a year before dying and I have an extended warranty for it on top of all that, which is useless now as it's non-transferable. So much for that aspect of trying to be prepared for data disaster.

Once the replacement arrives, I hope that I'll be able to just plug in the card and my drives will be back to normal. However, I'll be shopping for a new brand, as Rosewill's not cutting it in keeping my days off stress-free regarding my PC. 

Definitely not.

Sept 25 - Boardgames, New and Old

By now, you probably know that I am a Car Wars fan.

Yet it's probably been over a decade since I last played the game with anyone and even then it was one of the later versions. I'd almost given up hope that such a game would be re-released in any form, tabletop or even as software. But then I heard that Steve Jackson Games had put Car Wars on the table as part of a 2012 Kickstarter for another one of their games( the futuristic Ogre system ) to be re-released if Ogre was fully funded.

Mines, oil slicks and weapons fire: those were the days!

Thankfully, the Ogre Kickstarter smashed it's goal many times over, raising close to $1 million which definitely qualified for getting Car Wars re-released. After checking out a whole bunch of message boards, I discovered that until the new Ogre game is complete, there will be no funding for Car Wars, most likely putting it off until 2015 or so. But: the important part is that it's going to happen! And that makes me very pleased.

Now all I have to do is introduce my board gaming friends around here to the joys of vehicular combat…

Sept 26 - Future Rez

I just can't get small houses out of my head. It could be a mental bug; I'm not sure.

One of these days I'm going to trip across a plot of land here in Victoria and that will be it; all have to purchase it somehow and then figure out what tiny home I'm going to plop onto it to live in. Problem is, there's just so many of the darn things to choose from.

Apart from ones I've already mentioned in the blog, there's also student residence concepts to consider - at least the individual ones and not the gigantic blocks of cubbyholes stacked together that you may think of.

One interesting concept is the Tengbom Student Flat, which has some unique features, including the fact that it's made entirely out of wood. In keeping with the tiny home philosophy, everything that a person needs to live comfortably by themselves is contained within the structure. Sleeping area, eating area, bathroom, living area and some storage are all present in various forms. Space is as always at a premium and function seems to have been given priority, which is fine if you don't have much in the way of possessions.

Maybe I could put two of these together, to have space to keep MY stuff?

Sept 27 - Twilight Imperium

After a long day of work, gaming with your friends is a great way to unwind. Especially if you're taking over the galaxy!

While I was getting changed to go home today around dinnertime, I got a message from a fellow writer friend: what I like be the fourth in game of Twilight Imperium tonight? Of course I said yes and since their place was very close to my work, I was able to get there fairly quickly after they messaged me.

I'm the green player; appropriate, as I played a race of slimy bugs...

The only problem was, we didn't actually GET to the first( and only! )combat until midnight, 6 hours after we started playing. It's also similar to the vastly popular Settlers of Catan game, that I've not played enough of over the years. The majority of game time was spent expanding our respective little empires, planet by planet, as well as building up our forces as we prepared for contact with each other. I have to admit that I do enjoy that stage of the game, but it shouldn't take more than a few hours to complete, in my opinion.

Next time, I think I'll suggest that we streamline the building phase in order to get up to the combat phase fairly quickly. I think that's the most enjoyable part of the game, where one matches one's resources, wits, skill and luck against other players to see who comes out victorious in the end.

After all, the galaxy can only have one supreme ruler@

Sept 28 - Daze Off

Last week I neglected to mention that on Friday, I attended a wonderful comedy evening at the Royal Victoria Theatre. It featured the cast of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" doing improv for a few hours on stage:

Whose Live Anyway returns to Victoria with an all new show. Join Ryan Stiles, Greg Proops, Jeff Davis and substituting for Chip Esten - Joel Murray (star of Dharma & Greg and Mad Men) for 90 minutes of hilarious improv comedy and song made up on your suggestions.

It had been many years, probably more a decade, since I attended any kind of comedy night and it was fantastic. I laughed longer and more heartily than I have in quite some time and really enjoyed the live aspect of the show, as only improv can provide. The audience was very enthusiastic and receptive, with several members been brought up onto the stage at various times who really added to the verisimilitude of the performance - in other words, the comedians got lucky in their choices. 

It was really great. :-)

Domestic chores and other catching up duties took up a too-large portion of my day today, along with a nap that turned into 90 min. of total exhaustion collapse on the couch. I didn't even hear the alarm I'd set go off; I slept right through it, which was unusual for me.

In the evening, I caught a ride to my end-of-summer workplace barbecue, hosted by the store's general manager. It was a relaxed and funny time with my coworkers, most of whom came out despite the rain and the distance to the manager's home - the offer free food probably has something to do with that. I was reminded yet again how extremely fortunate I am to have found a workplace with such wonderful people and such folk make the daily job stress much easier to bear, as I've said many times before. I did call it an early night due to my being rather tired and I was home again easily several hours before midnight.

Sept 29 - The Weather And Me

Today was a long day at work for me, mentally.

It's difficult for me sometimes, realizing that I'm starting over in the work world after 20 years. I have a ton of experience and I know a fair bit more than most people about various things, yet I'm still on the lowest rung of the company ladder. There's still far more for me to learn then I currently know and it's discouraging some days when I think about how I went from a position where I knew most every aspect of the job thoroughly to one where I'm constantly having to perform my job on the fly, with only partial knowledge of what I'm doing. 

That sort of thinking leads quite quickly to a mindset of being behind everyone else in life and I don't want to go there. I have things to do and I know that just having a job right now should be enough, considering where I was a year ago: unemployed. It's true that I'd like to be a lot more comfortable in my positional knowledge at work and like anyone I'd like to be earning more( especially compared to what I was making previously ) yet I have to focus on the many positive things about my workplace and not let my mental mumblings get the better of me.

Getting home tonight was rather interesting, as the winds had picked up substantially and along with them came quite a lot of driving rain. Although I had my full set of waterproof gear on, it was still an uncomfortable ride as my face was exposed and the direction of the prevailing winds made cycling very strenuous. There was a fair amount of debris on the road and since I wasn't able to wear my glasses, it was a constant challenge to be able to see things before I ran over them with my slippery bike tires. 

Fortunately I made it home without incident, despite a couple of serious wobbles, and I hope that evenings like this will be a rarity as the weather turns wetter and colder for the winter here. I'm also thankful that I'm not trying to ride my bike through snow and ice along the same route, which would frankly be impossible for me. 

Good thing I live where I do: in Victoria!

There's not much else to say about this week; my left arm's been bothering me while the right' s still healing at a steady pace, which is good. According to the forecast, it's going to rain all week long, which should be an excellent test of my gear and wet-weather cycling skills. See you all when the sun's shining again.