The word of the week is reprieve.
April 8 - Short Story Night
Tonight, I was the host of the writers group meeting. The
topic: short stories, one of my favorite types of story!
The evening went very well, as I came prepared with a handout
as well as copies of one of my Nichneven short stories to pass around( it was
my first Nichneven story, as a matter of fact ). There were over a dozen people
there and the discussion was very lively, as quite a few are just as enthused
about short stories as I was. I received some very positive feedback about my
Nichneven story, especially from one woman who said that she doesn't normally
read fantasy stories but that she was fascinated by what I had written in that
it conveyed so much useful information without resorting to exposition AND that
I had layered in subtle humor throughout that set off the rest of the story
elements perfectly. That feedback right there told me I had done exactly the
right thing when I first wrote the story and felt it flow almost complete onto
the page in the first try. That sort of connection between my writer's mind and
my subconscious is what I have striven to attain each time I sit down to write
and I use 'The Nighthunter' story as my benchmark for what I can achieve when
I'm in the right frame of mind.
Going home that night, I was enthused all over again about
writing for a living. The research that I've done for tonight's meeting confirmed
once again that I should focus on creating short stories for the next few
months or year, while I continue to improve my novel with the feedback from my
critique group and see about marketing it to an agent.
Definitely a good day and one of many more such days to come.
April 9 - Smooth Sailing… rocks?
There are many mysteries out there.
Some involve rocks.
Such is the case of the 'racetrack rocks' of Death Valley.
These rocks, some weighing hundreds of pounds, have left long trails in the
sediment of the dry lakebed where they are found. No tracks of man or animal
have been found anywhere nearby, yet these rocks still get moved - somehow. I
like to think that some unusual force is acting on them, something we don't yet
understand… and it's these mysteries that keep us going, spinning stories and
working to grasp a little more about how the universe works.
Plus, they're just darn cool-looking rocks - with tracks!
April 10 - Stress? Not at work!
Things are going well at work, despite them forgetting to
pay me for the two days I spent last week training at home.
I'll work that out with them this week, but it's a minor
hiccup; I've already fit in well with the whole team and in the main, I'm
enjoying my job. Surprisingly, I'm fairly self-directing for a good part of my
days: since I'm not on the technology side, 'all' that I am doing is ensuring
the store is neat and stocked. I'll admit it's hardly full use of my talents,
but it does keep me busy, along with ensuring that I run up to assist at cash
when it gets busy( about every ten minutes; they're obsessive about Not Waiting
In Line )and generally completing one or two main tasks in a shift. If I ALREADY
have some tasks in mind ahead of time, the managers seem to like that even
better, so I can basically structure my own day according to the needs of the
store. It's also good that I'm showing that I'm paying attention to the needs
of the store, but you'd expect that with someone of my experience and skills…
right?
All in all, I've yet to wake up not wanting to go into work,
for any reason. Sure, it's not paying me a whole lot, but what would a stress-free
work day be worth to you?
April 11 - Inward Habits
One thing I do know about myself is that I have an active
inner life; I tend to focus inwardly when I'm busy and some things go by the
wayside when that happens.
Case in point: I realized today that it's been weeks and
weeks since I've done a few things that I normally do regularly, such as
visiting a few favorite websites of mine like io9.com or Lifehacker. I used to
visit these sites daily, gleaning news and tips from all over the world that I
would file away under various bookmarks… but never really get back to visit any
of them save for the occasional blog post or writing tip.
It's strange, but sometimes I find that the act of searching
for the new or different ways of improving one's life isn't really necessary at all.
Constantly staying on the edge of the news - whatever you're interested in - or
trying to find the next best way to tie your shoe can eventually lead you down
the rabbit hole so far that you forget what you originally went in there looking
for. My mind is full of unique things, correlations between thoughts and
memories that are uniquely my own, so when I bookmark something it's more to
note that I've been there and maybe come back to visit eventually rather than
to utilize the method or bit of news immediately in my life.
You can only tie your shoe one method at a time, after all
April 12 - Reprieve
I have to say, today I was feeling rather pressured - from
two directions, no less.
The first has to do with learning SQL, which I've been
struggling with for the last few weeks. It's not sticking and I'm finding it
frustrating to try and adjust my thinking enough to see the logic of the
language's structure. The SQL for Dummies book takes a sharp learning curve
upwards after about page 40 and it only gets more difficult from there.
And how is this
related to pressure?
This afternoon, I received a phone call from my friend who
said he needed my resume sent to him ASAP by email, as his boss was very
interested in having me in for an interview - would I be ready this coming week?
I said I would try my best and get back to him, then hung up the phone and
glared at the SQL book before diving back into it for a few hours. My friend
called again as he was leaving work and told me some news: it would now be a
few weeks before I needed to think about an interview, as the HR manager had
just confirmed she was leaving on vacation on Monday. So, as she would be the
one doing the interview, I now had several more weeks to pound SQL into the
corners of my brain - a nice reprieve and I mean to use the time wisely. From
what my friend has told me, the job will be about 20% SQL and the rest will be
investigative work, mostly learning on the job with proprietary software / GUI,
which I can definitely do. The hard part is just going to be learning the SQL
so that I can pass their tests.
What was the second pressure, you ask? Completing my group
critiques for Monday as well; I had two chapters still left to finish for my critique group meeting. Fortunately, my writer friend in the same
phone call told me that we had to delay the meeting by a week as one of the
members was still unwell. Again, this worked out well in giving me some more
time to devote to doing a proper edit of my fellow authors works and not
feeling rushed while tired.
As it stands right now, I only have three shifts this coming
week and so the rest of my time will be devoted towards learning SQL, finishing
my critique at its, working on my two businesses and getting some writing done.
Oh and in there somewhere I'll be organizing my apartment, as I've sent three
book shelves along with their contents to be stored at my parents place in
their new and very spacious den. This frees up a lot of space in my apartment
and though I have to do some organizing, I think it's a very positive thing; I
just haven't been reading much in the last year as I'm focusing on the creative
side of things instead of filling up my mind with more things… I already have
more than enough up there to fuel a few dozen novels, so I'm not feeling the
lack right now.
April 13 - Space Battleship Yamato 2199!!
All right, all right; by now you must know that I
LOVE Space Battleship Yamato - Star Blazers to those of you who saw it on television
decades ago.
Well, as the old saying goes: what's old is new again and in
the case of SBY, there's a new animated series coming called Space Battleship
Yamato 2199. Yes, it's a reboot but done very closely along the lines of the
original with a few tweaks, which makes me giddy with happiness as I simply
love the original series. The decision to stick with the solid story, characters
and overall design philosophy means that for me, it's going to be like watching
the original show again for the first time. That makes me very very very very
happy and I can't wait to get a copy of the series, even if it's dubbed in
English. Watching the video below gave me the same feeling I got when I first
saw the show 30 years ago; even the hairs on the back of my neck rose!
April 14 - Time
There was some odd weather this week here, including some
hail and quite a lot of rain in large concentrated doses - so much so that I
had to go out and purchase some covers for my shoes so that I wouldn't arrive
at work with soaked feet after cycling in the rain.
Today was not such a day however; it was crisp and sunny in
the morning and again in the evening when I headed back home from work. I find
that after having cycled an average of 8 km daily for the last few months that
my main challenge is not trying to fight the wind to maintain my speed so much
that I arrive in a sweat underneath all my waterproof gear. Unfortunately, the
prevailing wind tends to flow from the south, which is the direction I have to
ride home; not easy after a long day with little energy left.
I was enthused though, when I arrived home as we were
watching the second season finale of Game of Thrones! I've been looking forward
to this for a few weeks now, having watched the season on and off for a few
months now with my sister; our schedules haven't meshed enough for regular
viewing on even a weekly basis. Without spoiling anything, I have to say that
the finale was very well done in most every aspect and left me wanting to see
the third season all the more. If I can find the time, I will pick up the books
from one of the used bookstores downtown this week and make a start at least in
reading up to the point where the third season begins - I realize there's a ton
of detail that's been left out of the TV series and I'm itching to find out
what's not been shown on the screen.
When I get the time, that is.
This week's blog was created in just a few hours, well
before midnight. Unlike a lot of posts from years past, I'm mainly writing it
entirely in one evening, with only a few snippets from my week already written
down to guide me. I find that using the voice dictation software has allowed me
to write in a much more free-form manner, which gives my posts a much more
natural flow that I find I like.
