Dungeons, Dreams and Determination

The word of the week is confabulation.

Nov 4 -Upswing

Balance has mostly returned to my life.

By which I mean that my focus has narrowed to where things are easier for me on a daily basis. I work, I write, I deal with the small things that life throws at me and I'm not worrying about much else on purpose.

 I'm also eating much better, with numerous healthy snacks each day in addition to regular meals which I'm finding is helping balance my energy levels. Coping with work stress is always done on a day-to-day basis but stepping outside the moment helps get me some perspective on situations that might otherwise upset me.

The new year is coming up fast and I have to finish up my Dark Crystal project before I can dig back into completing the third draft of my novel. While it disappoints me that I'll have to miss my own self-imposed deadline, common sense tells me that this is the correct thing to do right now.

That and the fact that I'm sleeping better tells me it as well.

Nov 5 - Remember, Remember

Today is Guy Fawkes day, which is not so big over here in North America.

Yet the reason that the day is celebrated over in the United Kingdom is a very valid one anywhere in the world: that those who rule over us should do so in a just manner and should be removed from power if they do not. However, it should be with reason, not violence.

In a democracy, those who are not worthy of their position are voted out of office. Strangely, voter apathy has long been something that the Western world has tolerated and even encouraged, which will keep those who are not worthy of power still in their office.

We need to learn and never forget that to give away power over ourselves is to make worthless the sacrifices of those who fought and died for the freedom our society currently enjoys today.

Nov 6 - Azarkant

Modern computer technology continues to amaze me.

What was possible only a few short years ago on multimillion dollar hardware can now be done by computers that anyone can afford, albeit still on the range of thousands of dollars.

This puts incredibly low-cost technology in the hands of artists who can do wonders with it. 

One such person is the creator of Azarkant, a short CGI film who lose graphics rival that of Hollywood's best FX houses. Have a look:

Azarkant from Andrey Klimov on Vimeo.

In the future, a team of astronauts are sent on a ten year journey to a distant planet to find new life. On their way, they encounter a large, abandoned spaceship that is drifting in the orbit of a mysterious planet. They board the ship with anticipation of the great discoveries to uncover inside. However, they do not know what terrible secret this spacecraft keeps...

Nov 7 - Writing Life

You have to be observant to learn from life.

Here in my building, for example, I met two other writers. Both are at different stages of life from myself and both have taken different paths from the ones that I think I'll tread in my own journey.

One writer was formerly an actor and the books that he's written to date are more memoirs than anything else. His life was not easy and his current situation is far from ideal, yet he still perseveres in putting pen to paper to get his thoughts out for the world to see.

 The other writer in residence here is near the end of his life, having published nine books in various genres. He's lived a very full life and appears to have no regrets, being content to spend his final years living simply and occasionally enjoying the company of the grown family that he brought into being.

It's sobering and joyful at the same time to see how the lives of these two writers have worked out. My own path as a wordsmith has just begun to accelerate and I've no idea where it will end up.

I hope its place that I'll be able to say I had no regrets in reaching.

Nov 8 - Prophetic Dream?

I dreamt vividly tonight.

My dreams usually are not this intense or specific, especially ones that deal with my current life as it stands. There was obviously a lot going on in my subconscious and it manifested itself tonight in a dream that remained quite memorable after I'd woken at my usual time these days.

While I won't go into details, it was interesting to see how a 'solution' was presented by my back brain in terms of a possible future that I might have lived. Instead of living with what if's right now, my brain simply skipped ahead 10 years and showed me what had already happened and how I've moved on.

Fascinating stuff, and one more indication that my gray matter is juggling quite a few things that I'm not quite fully aware of each day. Pretty neat.

Nov 9 - Dungeon Keeper

After 15 years, it's back!

One of the most enjoyable games I've played in years, Dungeon Keeper was a fun light hearted management game where you play the role of the evil dungeon Master who is expanding his lair. It was released for the PC in 1997 and had several sequels, but nothing more for the last decade.

Now the Canadian android app store is the first to see the new Dungeon Keeper - sweet! Check it out:

It's a fun game that I've enjoyed for the last couple of days, though it's not as quick to get into as the original. The current game requires you to have a longer initial curve to get started, unless you pay real money to skip ahead of the initial levels to get the good stuff.

Since I'm cheap and don't have a lot of time right now, I'll just play it out as it comes and enjoy it for longer. I'm just tickled that it's back in a recognizable form and still just as enjoyable on my tablet and android smart phone. I'm all for bringing back simple fun games instead of fancy graphics that are over far too quickly.

Nov 10 - FireFox Fixed!

G33kdom has triumphed - I finally fixed my Firefox!

My Firefox browser has not functioned for more than 60 seconds at a time for the last year. While I'm not sure exactly what the problem was, I ended up installing a few ad blockers and other programs that allowed me to turn off various features of the browser.

Which seemed to work, as now I can use it just fine - hooray!

Firefox is my favorite browser because of its ability to be modified so easily to exactly suit my needs. I'll be digging back into all the neat little things that I can do with it in the new year, once I have a little time to go back to my customizations and update them all.

For now, I'm just really happy that the darn thing works again!

My left wrist has been bothering me for the last couple of weeks, but that's nothing new to me. It just means that I can't do much writing at all apart from using my voice and while that's frustrating I'm quite used to it by now. It does make it tricky sometimes at work however, in order not to strain my wrists any further and it makes any sort of video game time an impossibility, which saddens me.