Memories, Mobility and Mutability

The word of the week is factotum.

Sept 9 - Tired Balance

I've noticed that first entry of every blog for the last while seems to be one where I give an update on how things are going in general for me, so I won't buck the trend this week either.

Life right now has narrowed down to the very basic: work, sleep, write. Toss in some socialization and there you have it; there's not much else to say. Though we've recently regained cable television, I've been watching very little and recording only some things, not nearly as much as I had in recent years - I don't know when I'll find time to watch those taped shows this year with all the work I have to do.

In terms of balance, my life has settled down somewhat from the emotional roller coasters I've been going through. I'm focusing extraordinarily hard at work in order to do a better job every single day than the previous shift, which drains my energy but I know will pay off once I get all of the thousand little details down into habits. In my previous jobs, it was those habits that allowed my unconscious mind freedom to play with ideas during the day while I went about my work day, as just that little bit of mental freedom was all I needed to get my creativity out when I got home.

Unfortunately, with the craziness of the last two weeks due to Back to School, I've been exhausted every single day when I got home. The most I've been able to do is collate the many notes I have on my book, as well as organizing ideas I've had spring up in the last six months. It's been very frustrating not to have the energy to focus on my writing, but I've got to come up with some plan to get in the hours I need every day or I'll find myself six months from now with only a few chapters of the third draft revised.

That's not acceptable to me.

Sept 10 - Underground cities?

I love the idea of underground cities; the idea just appeals to me.

There are numerous examples of such cities in Earth's history, with some of the largest being located in the Middle East. One such city is Kaymakli, which could hold at its peak thousands of residents living quite comfortably below the surface.

Definitely not the place to live if you like suntanning

In my novel, I used underground residences as part of a story point for one of my alien races. I came up with the concept of living below the surface as being a normal part of their life and went from there. While we as a human civilization have developed the need for living on the surface or a planet in order to cultivate crops and conduct our doings, there's no reason why that has to be the same template elsewhere in the universe.

For all we know, we are the aberrations and everyone else lives below grade.

Sept 11 - Memories

Some scars may never heal, and others may take time.

I'll be brief about today's remembrance, as it's been over a decade now and the emotions still run high for many concerning the attacks. Now that the construction is complete and the memorial is in place in New York City, I hope that the healing will begin.

I also hope that the lessons from the horrific tragedy will be learned someday. That the reasons for the attacks still linger just below the surface in many places in the world, meaning that understanding and acceptance are still quite far apart from the reality that Westerners live in currently.

Perhaps in the future all visit New York again, but I'm not sure that all visit the memorial. There's still a vivid image in my head of turning away from the lobby of the World Trade Center to stand by the fountain in the center and gazing up, so far up, at the towers that symbolized America's dominance of the world.

I never took the elevator up to the top to gaze out upon the city from that vantage point. Perhaps if I had, I might have a better understanding of what was lost. But I know that even if I did, and even if many people had made that same journey, most of them wouldn't have come away with a different understanding completely from my own. Simply just because of who we are.

It's that lack that still means we have a long way to go today.

Sept 12 - Laptops dying?

Less than five years ago, I bought a shiny new laptop.

It was the second new computer I've ever bought, having assembled everything up until that point from various parts I ordered save the one I purchased as a whole to play Neverwinter Nights… back in 2002. So needless to say, I was excited to get a brand-new machine to game with, especially one that just looked so cool - it had orange accents!

I even upgraded mine 6 months before it died - it was SO shiny...

It lasted barely 2 years before dying completely and utterly, beyond hope of repair.

Because it was a laptop, there was no easy solution to find, as the parts are not easily available from local stores. Unlike a desktop, you can't just swap out a bad power supply or get a new motherboard but instead have to order expensive parts more often than not directly from the manufacturer.

So reading this article today that laptops are better than ever just made me chuckle; there's no mention of how easy they are to repair compared to desktops but there's a whole lot of information about how everything is becoming far more mobile in today's world.

Which is ironic, as I'm typing this blog entry using voice recognition on software loaded on a very large and very un-portable desktop. Which I've customized quite extensively by adding tons of storage and other peripherals internally, for which there's lots of space - unlike in a laptop.

I'll still be thinking about getting a portable device in the future, but right now I'm quite happy with my desktop as it fits my needs perfectly. Other people may drive the market by choosing or portable devices, but I'll bet you that they'll be buying them more often than I'll be replacing my desktop -probably a factor of 3 to 1 or greater.

Those odds are in favor of the manufacturers, making them lots of money. Right?

Sept 13 - Andre Norton

Decades ago, I read a story by a Golden Age science fiction writer entitled Daybreak 2250 AD.

It was a post-apocalyptic novel and I loved it from the first. What I didn't realize was that the author had many more works in the same vein, which I wish I had followed up upon years ago.

Just LOOK at that cover! It makes me want to read it right now!

Back to the present day. On my Kindle e-reader last month, I was cruising various books to be had and came across a 'Megapack' collection from Andre Norton for a great price, so I grabbed it. Once I started reading it, I was entranced, as Norton's work has shown me she had a fascination with the future and the post-apocalyptic in particular. Many of her stories feature themes regarding ruined cities and discovering the past, both big things in my own psyche that I just can't get enough of. As well, she attracted a large female readership with her Witch World series, which I have had on my 'to-read' list for years now.

I'm really enjoying reading her work and I'll be digging around to find more books of hers in the local shops once I clear some room on my shelves here. It's nice to be able to have a substantial number of them on the Kindle already, as I can read them wherever and whenever I find the time, including breaks at work.

It just goes to show you that what you thought you knew isn't always correct and there's a lot more below the surface of many things in this world. I'm glad I discovered this fascinating detail about Andre Norton and I'll be enjoying her work for years to come, being terribly glad that the gap of years between us has been bridged by a common love of certain themes.

Isn't that kind of connection to the reader one that every writer hopes for?

Sept 14 - Swooshy Blimps

Dirigibles are making a comeback, in a sleek new package.

The Aeros Corporation's new blimp, called the Pelican, completed successful test flight just recently. This is an important milestone, as it means that their design may be shortly approved for commercial and military use. There are currently only a tiny handful of similar craft being used for work around the world and that's unfortunate, as such vehicles have many advantages over fixed-wing aircraft, the primary one being their ability to move cargo very very cheaply. If not very fast; generally their top speed is less than 50 KpH.

This is also shiny, but on several other levels.

Years ago, I played a game called Car Wars by Steve Jackson Games, which some of you may recall. There are many supplements for the game including one called Aeroduel, which had rules for aircraft and included designs for solid-skilled armoured dirigibles. Those designs in particular I always found fascinating, as they seemed like ships of the sky, bristling with guns as they slowly drifted across the land below... and like ships of the sea, occasionally falling prey to pirates:

I think that's a pretty cool image, and we may see something similar soon in the air, minus the guns.

Sept 15 - The Impermanence of Chalk

Today was about timing, or more accurately: bad timing.

The annual Victoria International Chalk Festival was being held this weekend, with artists coming from all over the world to showcase their work. Since I had the day off, I planned to head downtown and see the wonderful works, which I had done last year as well.

What I hadn't planned on where clouds rolling in the end dumping rain all over everything before I got there. Which left very little to see when I arrived in the afternoon. fortunately, there were some wonderful photos taken yesterday by local photographers, which you can see an example of below:

All this means is that I really have to pay more attention to what I'm doing during the day and look outside once in a while to see if the weather's decided to play a few tricks. In the case of this afternoon, the rain was a prelude to thunderstorms, which rattled windows a couple of times here - another rarity.

Despite being tired for most of the month so far, I've been maintaining my weight around hundred and fifty pounds for the last month, which I'm pleased about.it's not ideal weight, but it's a place to start from. Just like going from my current 'just enough' levels of energy to 'plenty for both working my day job and writing otherwise' levels, plus time for exercise and socializing. There's not much else on my agenda for the rest of the year, so I should be able to get everything organized as needed.