Heroes, Hard Work and Happiness

The word of the week is antithesis.

Nov 11 - Be Remembered

Unlike last year, I worked on Remembrance Day today.

It felt a little odd, with so many people crowding into the store instead of attending today's ceremonies. I wondered what people would be doing 50 years from now, when even fewer members of the world's population would remember the time when war had gripped the globe and peace seem like a dream.

The lesson that those who take things for granted are often rudely disappointed by the universe is perhaps lost on the young. Which is also something that every generation has lamented for as long as humanity has humanity and refused to learn the terrible truths that war teaches.

I'm not a pacifist, nor my warmonger. I'm someone who is extraordinarily grateful for those who gave their lives long ago to ensure that my life's choice is my own and that the world was not forced along a different path towards a darker future.

I'll remember that lesson for the rest of my life.

Nov 12 - A Blue Dot

Sometimes we forget about perspective.

It takes people like Carl Sagan to make us realize just how small spaceship Earth is in relation to the cosmos - and how lucky we are to be aboard her. Listen to what he has to say:

For myself, I've always thought from a very early age that there has to be more out there. More worlds, more intelligences, just more than we can imagine with our limited perspective, despite the realms that the human imagination has conjured into being to date. I've always wanted to be one of the explorers to set foot out on another planet, far far removed from our own solar system, but I quickly understood the only way I would get there in my lifetime was to write about it.

Good thing I'm already started on my way to that dream.

Nov 13 - Libraries

I spent a lot of time reading growing up and libraries were my treasure houses - along with bookstores, of course.

Only those people who developed a love of reading will know what I'm talking about. Wandering into a row of shelves and discovering new books is still a thrill for me, albeit my pace has slowed dramatically in the last couple of years, mainly as my focus has shifted from reading to writing.

Yet many people see the library going the way of the dodo bird in the electronic age, when paper books lose out to the likes of the Amazon Kindle or the Kobo e-reader. However, I believe the opposite will be true: books will always have their place, cradled in a reader's hands alongside the more portable electronic copy of the same book. Browsing electronic shelves can never( and never will )take the place of a library.

One person who truly understands this is Neil Gaiman, who recently gave a speech on the very subject. It's powerful and contains many truths that I hadn't realized I'd known until he gave voice to them.

It's definitely worth a read.

Nov 14 - NaNoWriMo

It's now two weeks into National Novel Writing Month.

I'm not participating this year, mainly because I'm working steadily on my submission for the Dark Crystal Authorquest contest that's due in two weeks time. Across the globe, thousands of people are writing furiously, accumulating words daily towards the goal of completing a novels worth of creative output by the end of November. It's my hope that next year, I'll have completed the third draft of my novel and can participate in the crazy writer's novel creation push. It sounds like a lot of fun.

On a related note, my moustache is fairly solid now, two weeks in, for Movember in support of prostate cancer awareness. It's interesting how this particular awareness campaign has spread and grown, to the point where at work we have received boxes of mustache-shaped USB drives - which is really cute, I think although I wouldn't buy one myself as I don't need another one to lose in a drawer.

Besides, I've already grown a decent mustache of my own.

Nov 15 - Buffalo Hero

Do you know your local heroes?

They're all around us, waiting for the opportunity to act.

One such hero is Darnell Barton, a bus driver in Buffalo, NY. He was doing his daily drive when he spotted someone who needed help immediately and acted:

I think he's a wonderful example of someone who saw another human being in need and did what they had to do without driving on or taking too long to consider other action. He acted and in doing so saved the life of the woman in the video.

Now if we can only extend such heroism to everyday acts, to bring those who are downtrodden and diminished in our society back into the fullness of our community with small heroic acts from all of us.

Nov 16 - Starstruck!

I met an astronaut today!

A few weeks ago, I learned that Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield would be signing copies of his new book "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth" right here in Victoria today - and I had the day off!

Needless to say, I was extremely excited, as it's always been my boyhood dream to become an astronaut. Sadly, my mathematical skills were never strong enough to make that possible and I'm not the healthiest person in the world, so my chances of becoming one of the elite few to leave the bonds of earth were rather poor. However, my love of all things space has continued with me throughout my life to date and the notion of meeting an astronaut simply thrilled me.

As I suspected that it would prove to be quite a popular book signing, a friend and I got to the Hillside Mall five hours early to get in line. We were successful in getting one of the first 25 spots, with only a few other people ahead of us, some of whom had arrived at 6 AM - way too early, in my eyes, as this was a book signing and not a limited giveaway of some kind.

Those five hours passed fairly quickly, as the line soon grew to enormous proportions and we were quite entertained by chatting up our neighbors on all sides. Everyone was in a fantastic mood, eagerly awaiting the arrival of said astronaut; there were even a sprinkling of young air cadets, all of which had the gleam of space-struck dreams in their young eyes.

The line started moving at 2 PM and within 10 minutes I was standing in front of Chris Hadfield, shaking his hand. Did I mention he has a very impressive mustache to go along with his impressive personal presence and very firm handshake? He looked me in the eye, thanked me for waiting so long and I said it was quite a pleasure to meet him, along with some babble about proving dreams could come true. He had the grace to smile and then I stepped away to take a few pictures before moving aside to let other people have their moment too.

It was definitely worth it and I've been enjoying his book enormously. He has a very honest writing style, which perfectly fits his telling of his journey from the first days of realizing he wanted to become an astronaut to the end of the his third and final trip into space to the present day. I highly recommend it, as it's filled with wonderful insights into the human condition from a person who has met every challenge thrown at him to stand as one of the finest examples of what humans - and Canadians - can achieve when they pursue their dreams.

Nov 17 - Changes Coming

Today I struggled to remain stress-free… and succeeded.

Work has been difficult for me, in the main( as I've mentioned before ) because it's so busy and I've received only haphazard training in such a variety of areas that I'm still not confident in my skills. It's becoming apparent that in order to function properly minute to minute in such an environment, I'm going to have to invest a considerable amount of my off-work time to online training and to be quite honest, I don't feel that it's worthwhile considering the wage that I'm being paid.

However, I am finding a balance at work, in that I'm becoming more proactive in seeing problems before they arise and thinking three or four steps ahead in order to smooth things for myself. As well, I'm doing my very best to have answers ready to questions thrown my way, but it's hard when I am run off my feet every single shift.

For the last few months, I've been looking for other employment and as yet I haven't found anything that I want to take. At this point, given that any other job will pay me as much as this one, I believe it's in my own best interest to find something that is less draining of my energy so that I can devote more of it towards my creative output: writing for living.

That's my best route towards creating my own self-sufficiency, I believe. Definitely not working for far less than I'm worth and coming home too exhausted to write, mentally and physically, every day.

I've a full work-week ahead, both at my day job and writing, so I'm going to need all the energy I can get. Right now I'm getting tired well before 11pm and though I've rested it, my left wrist is still dodgy... so it's to bed early and up early, which is a change for me too. Maybe when I spend a few more years doing it, I'll be healthy, wealthy AND wise...