Birthdays, Breathing Room and Brad Pitt

The word of the week is anabasis.

July 14 -Fan-tastic!

The things some people do on their spare time - WOW!

Take a gander at this stunning 30-second 3D render that someone created as a tribute to Futurama, which is best viewed in full-screen in all its glory:

Futurama 3d (test shot) from seccovan on Vimeo.

Just incredible.

I mean, even going frame by frame, the level of detail is mind-boggling in its exactitude and variety. The perfect sense of depth conveyed pulls you right into the animated world of Fry, the Professor, Leela and all the others. The artist, Alexy Zakharov, put his own twist on the world of Futurama as well in his 'test shot' - if you look closely at the green Planet Express ship, you can see that it is not all sleek or shiny but rather battered-looking. I imagine this interpretation is due to the poor maintenance efforts of the Planet Express crew, which is justifiable I suppose.

Even in the future, somebody has to wash the ship and touch up the paint once in a while.

July 15 - Breathing Room

Already my new job has borne fruit, in the form of spare change.

Having a touch of positive cash flow again has been wonderful. Being able to purchase small things now and again has really helped lift my spirits daily. Case in point: I've been popping over to a small bakery near work on my morning break once or twice a week to purchase a fresh roll, of which they make new varieties daily. The fresh bread always perks up my day and I enjoy the interaction with the friendly staff, who are always glad to see me. Such are the little things of life, of being able to enjoy each day a little more and not limit oneself by the echoing emptiness of one's pocketbook, week to week.

Anyone else have one of these?

My more long-term goals are fluid, in that I've reduced my expenses to the minimums by not having a mortgage or a car or all the other things I've mentioned in this blog already that tend to bog down one's budget. Reducing debt and keeping myself free of the burdens of the material are my two major fiscal goals for the next few years, so that I can continue to enjoy the little things in life while not worrying about how I'll be able to afford the mid-sized or bigger things. I'll let those take care of themselves, as right now I don't need any of them.

Contest prizes and gifts from billionaires are excepted, of course!

July 16 - 41 Already?

Time really does fly, especially on a birthday!

My day got off to a wonderful start, having breakfast at Denny's with my father on a lovely morning with blue skies and bright sunshine. It also helped that my meal was free, as Denny's traditionally offers a Grand Slam breakfast( or something else of the same value ) free to anyone on their birthday. Sold!

When I got to work, I found this waiting for me at my desk; I love my coworkers!

I spent a very relaxed day at work, with no problems crossing my desk at all and thoroughly enjoying my time working on my birthday, for once. For that alone, I am grateful for my current job.

Getting home, I was soon out again for dinner down at Bubby's Kitchen with my parents and my sister. I was feeling better, as for some reason around noon today I felt lightheaded and nauseous, which I can only presume was a foretaste of some future senility visiting me in an odd moment of time travel. In another odd moment, I saw this at the table next to us:

Dinner next to 'Brangelina' would have made my day - again!

The last part of my evening was pretty quiet, when I got to read a little and just relax. It had actually been a rather tiring day due to my so-so constitution and I was glad to hit the hay somewhat early with a smile on my face at how many people had wished me well on my birthday. I was also very well outfitted, having received a substantial new wardrobe from my family to better outfit me for my office job:

So... much... style... and all mine!

No longer will I have to endure their loving comments that my pants no longer fit me and that my shirts were all at least 10 years out of style. Don't they know that being out of style IS my style?

Thanks, everyone - see you next year!

July 17 - Whose Life?

Well, this could have been dangerous for me to find: a B5 Roleplaying group.

At least, it would have if I'd found it years ago.

Instead, I hung out with a great small crowd in NWN online and never looked back. I was totally unaware that back in 2007, a bunch of people had got together in the VR game Second Life to create Babylon Roleplay, a world dedicated to recreating Babylon 5 in all it's glory - virtually.

Part of the Second Life universe, where literally almost ANYTHING can be created in 3D, the recreation of Babylon 5 was a massive undertaking. 3D models are, by their nature, complex beasts and the ones that were made for B5 Roleplaying in Second Life were just amazing. Have a look:

Unfortunately( or fortunately? )I never got into Second Life and at the moment, I am no curious enough to dedicate what would likely be a too-large portion of my time to finding out if the place still exists or not. While being able to virtually walk the halls of Babylon 5 would be a unique thrill for me, I have the feeling that such an experience might not be all that I expect. Part of any fictional world is its people and while B5 RP might have the sets, I am not sure that anyone's home any more.

It'd be a stellar irony if the B5 in Second Life vanished like all the other Babylon stations did…

July 18 - Volleyball!

It's been a while...

After work today, I joined several dozen of my coworkers( yes, there's a lot of us who like each other! )to relax in the sun, have a few drinks and play beach volleyball at The Rooftop Surf Club nearby.

Situated atop the expansive( and not too expensive )Sticky Wicket here in downtown Victoria, the Rooftop boasts not one but two beach volleyball courts along with a very high netting fence to catch stray volleyballs. We had control of one court and very quickly had a game going, with five people on each side doing their best to serve up defeat to their opponents:

We played with true grit - in our eyes!

I was right in there from the start, smashing and bashing smartly as I had in years past. Probably at least 10 years past, from what I recall and I was pleased to see that I hadn't lost my touch, though I had to be careful not to faceplant myself occasionally. Everyone was in great spirits and no one was inclined to bully, meaning that every game was just sheer fun for all the players on the court. I made myself quite a name as a superior server, placing the ball into the gaps between players almost every time. I also held up my end in returning and blocking balls, with some fantastic saves that scored big points with my teammates.

The high winds meant that players rotated out regularly to wash the grit from their eyes but most were still game when I called it quits about two hours into the evening. I had had several rests off-court and by then I knew my arms were not going to take any more, even with my careful attention not to overuse or abuse them in each game. I excused myself and left quite happy with my performance and the evening in general. Fun!

At home, I iced my arms for several hours on and off, as well as applying an anti-inflammatory cream a few times before bed. My careful attention worked, as I woke the next day with only the barest trace of fatigue in my arms and no pain whatsoever, for which I was incredibly relieved and grateful!

Having fun shouldn't hurt and today that proved very true in a most welcome way!

July 19 - Write!

A fantastic scene just about wrote itself this afternoon.

I say this because it's how my process works when I'm writing my novel. I know in general what the scene is to be beforehand, thanks to my detailed outline, but it's up to my Muse in my mind to work together to bring everything to life on the page.

Today that happened so smoothly that it was like I was simply quoting a book I'd already written. The scene unfolded in my mind and I dictated it as it happened, sentence after sentence flowing out from my lips to land in perfect sequences that sounded completely right to my ear.

After only two hours, over 1,000 words had appeared and I was extremely pleased with how the scene turned out. It was one that I wasn't sure about it at all going into was just my outline and what resulted was even better than I'd hoped, with characters revealing themselves exactly as I wanted them to from my mind.

Now, I've heard it said that 'beginning writers' see their works as 'films in their heads' wheras more seasoned writers build of their stories block by block like master masons do with stonework. From what I can tell, this is a disparaging view and one that I do not share, as the scenes in my head are vivid and I can build from them( with a fair effort on my part ) I complete story piece by piece as though I'm an observer - just as I've said previously in this very blog. I do wish though, that I had a Writing Retreat, kind of like this one:

I believe that whatever method a writer uses to connect with their Muse is correct. There's no one way of creating art. However an artist chooses to create, it is the results at the end that matter almost as much as the process and as long as the artist learns along the way from that process then Art is well-served.

So why aren't you creating something right now?

PS - I played DnD again for the second week in a row tonight and it was Very Good indeed - we found L00t!

July 20 - Zip, there goes the day!

It was my second consecutive weekend off today and I was very busy!

Along with finishing and edit of a story for my critique group tomorrow night, I worked on some marketing materials for my first novel. I created some cards to hand out to people, with the idea that they could be passed along and serve as bookmarks, to create good word-of-mouth before my book's eventual launch in the misty near future.

Here's a preview:

For security reasons, I've blurred part of the image, as I don't know what an Agent or Publisher might require in terms of contract obligations regarding the reveal of imagery or plot or other details regarding the books. At least online, I won't be giving out any details officially, though you can feel free to contact me directly if you have any questions or just want to chat me up about my novel a bit - I love doing that!

Days like today can be tiring when you mix in catching up with one's week in terms of chores, obligations, bills, paperwork and all the other sundry things that chip away at one's time budget. Yet the sense of satisfaction that you get from finishing a solid days work and collapsing into bed at the end is something I can't quite describe. Perhaps this says it best:

That about sums it all up for me right now.

Amazingly enough, I wrote this week's blog in two hours flat, including pictures searches and formatting. That's a new record for me, given how busy I've been with a day job to pay the bills and an evening job writing my novel. I'm almost up to Chapter 5 of the second book which is really taking shape, though I have a lot of work left to do hammering out the specifics of the outline for the chapters to come. I better put my head down and get to it; have a good week, everyone!