Brains, Boardgames and Beginning A New Job

The word of the week is polymath.

May 19 - Start with a Laugh

It's Victoria Day today!

While today is traditionally a celebration of Queen Victoria, according to the calendar and tradition, I like to think of this particular holiday as a celebration of my adopted city. It's a day to relax, be with friends and/or family and to just generally appreciate the wonderful luck that has allowed me to stay in this most beautiful of cities perched tranquilly on an island in the Pacific Ocean.

I did spend part of the day today with some friends, playing Munchkin. If you haven't heard of this particular g33ky card game, it's a lot of fun as it's basically a send-up of Dungeons and Dragons where victory is achieved by doing dastardly things to your friend's characters - all in good fun:

Behold -= Epic Munchkin! I'm the green one...

Unfortunately, after a decent evening editing my novel, I didn't manage to get a good night's sleep. For whatever reason, my subconscious was obviously excited and nervous about my new job tomorrow, going into it blind essentially as I have no reference for working for the government...

What I should have done is laughed myself to sleep:

May 20 - First Day!

Today I started my new job - YAY!

Walking to work was a new thrill for me, as I've never lived this close to any of my employers. It takes less time for me to walk to work now than it does to cycle to Staples; mind blown! It's a nice walk too, through lovely quiet residential areas, park zones and the quieter sections of downtown. The main entrance to the building is an atrium, with a large glass-covered courtyard open to the breezes that's just perfect for taking breaks in during the summertime. I'm told that musicians often perform in the space and I was treated to a lovely violin solo on my second day this week, which really sent my mood soaring.

The job itself is going to be intensive for a while, as there's lots to learn, which comes as no surprise. It's initially going to be myself training with numerous staff members, each of whom will show me various parts of the software packages that I'll be using to view invoices and other clerky things to earn my pay. I do have to say that the learning curve is not pressured in any way, nor am I being forced to learn things on the fly at a breakneck pace as I have been at Staples, so that is a fantastic change of pace in itself. Everyone in the office is very friendly and quite knowledgeable, with all of them seeming to be quite focused on their jobs which is excellent in a traditional office layout with cubicles everywhere:

My office is a lot more colourful than this...

Did I mention I have my own desk, within a few feet of a long bank of windows that allow lovely natural light into my work area? I couldn't have asked for a better spot, as it's not at a window which might prove distracting but it's also not buried so deeply in the work zone that there is no natural light at all. I've never worked in office environment before and I suspect it will take some getting used to, especially the scheduled breaks where I simply put down my work and head off to wherever I choose for my time. I don't even have to punch in or punch out at any point, though my own personal standards mean that I'll always show up on time and never take longer than I'm allotted for my breaks or lunch.

That's all I have to say for now, as this week is simply initial impressions and some basic training. I've been told that it will take me some months to become decently proficient with the system, at which point I'll have my workload increased commensurately, which is fine. With the solid support from my trainers, ample job aids and a distinct lack of time pressure to 'learn my job by or else' I'm still in a little bit of shock about the change in work environments.

Which will probably turn to joy any time now… what else can I say?

May 21 - Passing Roars

The sounds of summertime are many.

Birds chirping early in the day, people laughing as they stroll along the sidewalks late in the evening while the light is still out and the happy laughter of children playing all day long as they enjoy their months-long break from school.

Then there's motorcycles.

As soon as the weather turns nice enough to let people ride their steel horses, the road seemed to fill with the coughing beasts. Now, before you think that I'm biased against motorcycles in general, I happen to admire the mechanical aspects of these two wheeled vehicles and the many works of art that are part of the motorcycle culture. It's not personal.

What I don't admire is the unnecessary noise.

Maybe it's just me, but I don't understand why motorcycles have to be so damn LOUD? We live in a day and age of high technology, where quieting mufflers are easily available and many designs of which actually increase the power of the engine. Technically, there's no reason why a motorcycle can't be as quiet as a standard automobile of the same engine power. Which leaves hubris as the answer: many motorcycle riders have an innate need for people to pay attention to them. In fact, the louder the bike, the more people will pay attention, as the logic seems to go. 

Then there's this popular theory:

I'd like to see some stats on this, please...

Living next to a main road, I generally tune out to the ambient noise of passing vehicles, with the occasional large truck rattling the windows reflect. What I find very difficult to tune out are the monstrous roars of passing motorcycles, which often times can be heard long before they can be seen. Much like cigarette smoking, I find it offensive that I'm forced to endure the noise created by these vehicles from early in the morning until late at night along with everyone else within earshot. I don't choose to have my quiet day interrupted constantly by the racket of passing bikes, which is too loud to ignore most times. It's frustrating to realize that everyone within earshot of most motorcycles is at the mercy of their riders, who don't seem to give a hoot about everyone else's right to enjoying their day as they choose. Quiet parties, naps, reading time and all the other aspects of low-noise environments go out the window whenever motorcycle nears and I find that offensive.

So don't offer me a ride on your motorcycle if you own one, because I'll just ask you to turn it off and take the bus with me instead.

What do you folks think? Are motorcyclists bullies, deep down?

May 22 - That Smarts!

It's a weird thing, intelligence.

While I don't claim to be among the world's most intelligent people, I deftly got more than a few brain cells to rub together. However, just being smart isn't enough to cut it in today's world: you have to know what to do with what you got and even then there's no easy road to follow.

Intelligence has always intrigued me in this respect: what's it good for, anyway?

Neil Degrasse Tyson( along with Neil Gaiman ) had this to say about how genius informs what one does with one's life:

If everyone had the luxury to pursue a life of exactly what they love, we would all be ranked as visionary and brilliant. … If you got to spend every day of your life doing what you love, you can’t help but be the best in the world at that. And you get to smile every day for doing so. And you’ll be working at it almost to the exclusion of personal hygiene, and your friends are knocking on your door, saying, “Don’t you need a vacation?!,” and you don’t even know what the word “vacation” means because what you’re doing is what you want to do and a vacation from that is anything but a vacation — that’s the state of mind of somebody who’s doing what others might call visionary and brilliant.

For me, I've never thought of myself as being better than other people. Rather, I see myself as have been given a gift unique unto myself, to do with as I will however I can manage. The insights I clean, the conclusions I make based on my own observations and my ability to link my many fields of interest means that I can pour all of that back into my writing and in part my life in general. It's not about being smart, but rather being smart with what you know and knowing what you don't in order to straddle the line between the two, with eloquence.

Which probably explains why I have such a terrible sense of balance.

May 23 - Fatigue and Horror

Today was my second day of working over 12 hours in total, which was quite tiring.

Given the short notice that I had in accepting my new job, there wasn't enough time for Staples to fully adjust my schedule for this week and I ended up with two shorter shifts in the evenings yesterday and today. Meaning that I started my government job in the morning and then cycled on down to Staples for the evening, working until 10 PM and trying to stop from yawning constantly. The last time I pulled long hours like these, I was working for MMart...

Fortunately, these double shifts were only for the two days. Unfortunately, I'll be working seven days a week between the two jobs for the next two weeks until I get my days off confirmed with Staples and I book them off for the next few months in advance. I'll be continuing to work at Staples for one day a week, for various reasons, the major one of them being the continuation of my benefits until as such time that my probationary period at my government job is over with. There's no sense in going without coverage, in my opinion and the extra little bit of money can't hurt, though it does cut slightly into my writing time.

Which is what this is all about, really: having a solid day job that will allow me to have regular writing time in the evenings that is stress-free in terms of financial worries. I can concentrate on being creative every evening, plugging away at my second novel while working to get the first book into the hands of agents who will take it from there.

Eventually, I won't need a day job and I can just write for living.

Or I could create neat alternate montages from popular films, such as this one which rearranges scenes from Frozen to turn it into a horror film:

May 24 - Tick, Tick ...

Time is a strange thing, don't you think? I imagine it would look something like this, if we could picture it:

Try not to stare too long at this or you might lose track of time...

I won't go into the details, but there's a great article over at Brainpickings.org on how time is really a perceptual thing and not a constant, as science would have you believe. It's definitely worth a read, if only to get you thinking about how we perceive the universe we inhabit and how we can actually shape it with the power of our minds. Neat stuff.

And since we're on the topic of reality, how about this one to throw you for a loop:

I found it on Facebook today and to be honest, I laughed when I saw it. Then I thought about it… and laughed again. After all, scientists recently posited that the universe we live in is actually a giant hologram… which means Star Trek is actually closest to being right about how everything works, with their Holodecks.

How's that for a weird thought?

May 25 - This time last year: AZ!

A year ago today, my life changed.

I had managed to make the trip to Arizona, to attend the 2014 Phoenix Comicon. The convention was a whirlwind of fantastic experiences and the crowning one of all was the release of decades of stress and guilt during the 20th anniversary reunion of Babylon 5. I knew that I had to make it to this convention but I had no idea that the experience would be so profound for me.

It was, in the truest sense of the word, an epiphany.

Coming back here to Victoria, I was in a changed state of mind, which for those of you who know me is a Big Thing. My outlook on life changed, for the better, thanks to my brief time spent under the desert sun. I redoubled my efforts to gaining positive control of my life and achieving my dreams.

It's also worth noting that 37 years ago today, Star Wars premiered in theaters. Thinking back, I don't remember much about the experience of seeing the film save being overawed and that feeling stayed with me every time I saw the film again. It became a touchstone in my life and as I've said before, is one of the few films I can watch again and again without becoming bored; that's magic, in my eyes.

Today is also International Towel Day, a celebration of the life of Douglas Adams who is another major influence in my life. His zany sense of humor is one that I completely identify with and love and I plan to try my hand at inserting my own sense of dry humor into my works in the future, thanks to his influence.

Besides, he's the only person I know of who has claimed to have the answer to Life, the Universe and Everything. 

What's not to like about that?

Settling into a regular schedule with my day job and my writing is a priority for me over the next few weeks. As I mentioned in last week's blog, I've a LOT on my plate this summer and fall and I need to get going on things ASAP!