Moustaches, Moderation and Materialism

The word of the week is intriguing.

March 3 - Everything In

Moderation seems to be key for me right now.

Actually, moderation has been something that I've practiced for most of my life, mainly in the form of stress management. It's not a solution in itself; too much moderation and you lose passion, which will leave you adrift in a sea of mediocrity when you should be paddling towards the shore of your dreams.

Yet you should also be careful not to let excess run your life. For me, materialism in the form of collecting things at one time threatened to become a safety blanket that I might never have given up. In the age of eBay, it's all too easy to let retail therapy take the place of actually facing the problems in your life and finding solutions to them.

... said Art Buchwald.

Having moved to BC over half a decade ago and in the process divesting myself of many of my possessions that in some ways had come to possess me, I now understand that the material has its place in one's life - it shouldn't be something that is in the place OF one's life.

Your things are not you, nor do they define you.

You define you, by your choices - and by your dreams.

March 4 - Tea Strainers

I received another mustache complement today!

Ever since Movember ended months ago, I've had a mustache and - if you'll pardon the pun - it's really grown on me. Not only does it keep my face a little warmer in the cool chill wind as I cycle, it also looks rather good, I think.

So much so, that at least half a dozen people have compared it to Tom Selleck's which I find to be a huge compliment. I've long been an admirer of Mr. Selleck, mainly for his well-known role as Thomas Magnum in the 1980s TV series Magnum PI and intrinsic to that character was Selleck's magnificent mustache.

If you've never noticed this before, well... tada!

Recently, Tom was on the The Late Show and set straight the rumor about how he turned down the role of Indiana Jones that went to Harrison Ford. It's quite amusing to watch and of course, the famous mustache is still doing its thing:

March 5 - Poems x2

Poetry has always been a hobby of mine, one that runs in the family.

The mind of a poet is a curious thing, I believe. To be able to marry words with rythym takes a certain special mindset - along with decades of practice - to perfect. There are as many kinds of poets as there are styles of poetry, with new ones being invented all the time along with unique re-workings of the old.

Every so often though, someone comes along and shakes things up a little.

In the case of Derek Nichols, he wrote a poem that can be read two ways with completely different meanings depending on how the words are read. If there read top to bottom, the poem is a social commentary on the disaffected sociability of the current youngest generation. Read bottom to top, it's a fascinating rebuttal of that exact disaffection. Read for yourself and be amazed at the skill that resides in such a young mind:

Our generation will be known for nothing.
Never will anybody say,
We were the peak of mankind.
That is wrong, the truth is
Our generation was a failure.
Thinking that
We actually succeeded
Is a waste. And we know
Living only for money and power
Is the way to go.
Being loving, respectful, and kind
Is a dumb thing to do.
Forgetting about that time,
Will not be easy, but we will try.
Changing our world for the better
Is something we never did.
Giving up
Was how we handled our problems.
Working hard
Was a joke.
We knew that
People thought we couldn’t come back
That might be true,
Unless we turn things around

(Read from bottom to top now)

---

Unless we turn things around
That might be true,
People thought we couldn’t come back
We knew that
Was a joke.
Working hard
Was how we handled our problems.
Giving up
Is something we never did.
Changing our world for the better
Will not be easy, but we will try.
Forgetting about that time,
Is a dumb thing to do.
Being loving, respectful, and kind
Is the way to go.
Living only for money and power
Is a waste. And we know
We actually succeeded
Thinking that
Our generation was a failure.
That is wrong, the truth is
We were the peak of mankind.
Never will anybody say,
Our generation will be known for nothing.

March 6 - For Science!

Sometimes I wonder what might have happened had I been gifted at math.

Like the above entry about the young poet, there's a bit of fascinating news today about a young scientist with quite a few brain cells to rub together.

Jamie Edwards has built his own fusion reactor - at age 13.

Today on March 6, he activated the reactor under controlled conditions at his school and achieve fusion. In that act, he became the youngest person ever to do so, which is pretty darn cool.

He's glowing with pride!

In a thoroughly modern take on the story, the young man blogged his progress as he put the reactor together and took the steps necessary to be trained in its safe operation. It might be noted that quite a few people assisted him in preparing for this venture and ensuring that safety was paramount.

What's next for Jamie? Maybe he'll build the world's first true artificial intelligence out of shoelaces.

March 7 - Spring!

Things are warming up fast around here this week!

Riding to work down View Street today, I was thrilled to see that all of the cherry trees had burst and the blossom already! It's not even halfway through March and all the plants around here are quite green already, though the new shoots haven't opened on most of the trees - yet.

With daylight savings time happening this weekend, the combination of an earlier, brighter morning and warmer weather means that people will definitely be feeling the joys of spring sooner here in Victoria.

It's worth all the difficulties it took to get here to this city when I see pictures like this:

Flowers in front of a Monkey Puzzle Tree!

March 8 - Fantastic Feedback!

Part of the writing life is how one's work affects people.

Getting feedback, for good or bad, is a vitally necessary part of the process as I've mentioned before. It's so for several reasons: apart from helping to improve one's skill as a writer, it's personally rewarding to hear that people truly enjoyed what you've shared from the intangible reaches of one's muse.

Today I received a lovely e-mail, from a complete stranger, who read my entry 'Darkening Light' on the Dark Crystal Forums - you can download the story and read it here, if you like. Here's what 'Jen' had to say in one of several emails to me:

I am not a very good writer.  I love reading a good book though and your story was lovely.  If you ever do write more let me know because I would enjoy hearing the ending.

After my ego stopped shouting with joy, I thought a bit and realized that this was high praise indeed, coming from someone who by their own admission has low confidence in their writing skills. For me to have reached them through my carefully-crafted words meant that I had done my job right, because they were eager to read more about the story I had set down from the unique space of my imagination.

Confidence comes with time, and positive feedback from people familiar with only my work, not me personally, is incredibly uplifting. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then praise is worth ten times that… and goes to show how a little can go a long way towards inspiring an author to create!

March 9 - Good Things Come in Threes

Today was a triple pleasure!

The first third of the day was spent to work, which went rather quickly and easily from start to finish and so surprised me quite a lot. There was no stress to speak of and I left smiling for the first time in a while, in the main because I was not sharing a shift with said tin god, for a wonder.

I zoomed straight from work to Murchie's Tea downtown to meet the members of my critique group. We had decided that it'd be nice to meet a few times a month outside of the critique group, so that we didn't spend so much time catching up with each other instead of actually critiquing. 

It was wonderful to just be able to sit down and talk with people who are widely read and of high intelligence, who deftly fit into the G33ky category and are unashamed of it - rightly so! Yet again I was happy to be part of the solid conversation, where I listened as much as I was listened to and nobody made any motion to seem as though they wanted to be elsewhere. I could happily spend every Sunday afternoon doing this, much as I realized that my time is best spent writing if I want to get anywhere in the craft.

After getting home and having a touch of dinner, a surprise phone call came!

My sister called to say that I have been invited to get together tonight with the same diverse group of friends that she's cultivated soon after here in Victoria and that they had been asking about me. I headed over soon after her call to her friend's stylish home in nearby Cook Street Village, arriving at the party to find about 40 people shooting the breeze over wine and the remains of a sumptuous meal. I found an empty chair near a few folks that I knew and soon was deep into a conversation covering the intricacies of Japanese vending machines and military camouflage techniques involving albedo light levels. 

To my utter delight, several of the people there pressed me for an update about my novel, which I happily obliged them in. They all seemed quite taken with having a science fiction writer in their midst and wanted to hear all about my book in particular, which I told them about quite passionately and they made quite a rapt audience. I did take care not to enthuse at too great a length, though I was quite pleased to talk about my experience writing the book and the art of wordsmithing in general. I left quite contented after a few hours to head home and finish my blog with the glow of praise for my pursuit of the writing life. 

It was heavenly.

Apart from dropping my cell phone on the way home today, it's been a decent enough week. I worked six days in total, double the number I thought I might and most went fairly well overall. To be sure, I'd have rather been writing, but considering the realities of current earnings vs possible writing monies, I'll have to take what I can get and fit in my worksmithing as I can around my day job - nothing new there.