Family, Faith and Freebies

The word of the week is alacrity.

Sept 1 - Not a Labourious Day

Oddly enough, I didn't end up working today, which was a welcome surprise.

I used the time wisely, getting a fair bit done in the morning before spending the afternoon with my parents. We did an early dinner at The Beach House, choosing to sit outside on a small balcony overlooking the Strait of Jaun de Fuca. There was no wind to speak of and the temperature was perfect, both unusual for being next to the ocean, so it was fantastic to just relax and get some family time in.

A bit on my parents: they're living the good life, at last. I wasn't sure we'd get them to this point, living in Victoria, my dad semi-retired and my mom fully off the clock, both with enough income for me not to worry about them. My mom's health has bounced back after her bad tooth was removed last week, enough that it's a marked difference from how she was doing only last month, I'm pleased to say. The both of them are living low-stress, eating better and working on the exercise thing while taking life at their ease, which I'm thankful for. I'm even happy that they've hired on a maid to clean their place a couple of times a month( affordably )which used to be rather hard on them; the maid does everything in three hours flat AND up to my mom's standards, which aren't on the low-median end of the scale.

Family is one of the most important things in my life, if not THE most important. Not having to worry about my parents, seeing that they're happy and looking to enjoy the next few decades of their retirement has taken a large burden off my mind. We're a close bunch, they and my sister, having been through a lot after our teenage years, so to have reach this point in all of our lives with everyone mostly intact in all the ways that matter seems like a minor miracle to me, and I'm not a religious guy.

I have faith in my family that's well-deserved, and I try to keep their faith in me deserved as well.

Sept 2 - Is It Just Me?

Solitude's been on my mind of late.

Whether it's by choice or circumstance, well... that's what's been bothering me.

As I've mentioned in previous posts, relationships aren't my thing: I've spent twenty years without a meaningful one and I'm frankly tired of the effort being made without any tangible result. While I'm not ready to go all-out to find a partner like one woman did, going on 126 dates as part of her five-year all-out effort to find a husband. Being at the life stage I am, it's hard not to constantly see couples everywhere, not even mentioning the number of friends I have who are married.

I don't even know if I'm the marrying kind, to be honest.

That's a hard truth to face, to have so little success( and experience )with relationships, that the balance has been so negative that even continuing to look - to hope - has been a struggle. Especially for someone who, in most regards, people would describe as a 'catch' in many ways... and also a romantic, which just adds salt to the sore spots.

Growing up emotionally is part of being mature about what's right for each person. Some people make bad relationship choices and stick with them, others can't decide what they want and many more people just can't commit to the long-term realities of being with one person for decades on end, as the record divorce rates over the last fifty years have shown.

In my case, I'm pleased to see myself learning more in the last few years about who I am and what I want in life, so that I can bring that perspective to my desires for a relationship. As I grow, I can't help but see my view on things change as well: is the glass half-full, half-empty or something else entirely I can't see right now, given what I know and who I am? I'm not a shut-in, I go out regularly( not to bars )and meet people socially, rather than depend on online services... those have been a dead-end, one and all. I have this idea that, like meeting like, I should go to more sci-fi conventions, but that's something I'd have to plan ahead of time for to meet up with people from various interest groups. Whether that'd work or not, it's hard to say...

I still hope, in my heart of hearts, to find someone that I 'click' with on many levels. The idea of a soulmate, well... that appeals directly to the romantic in me, as well as a lot of other people. Strangely enough, the search for true love also perfectly ties into the Drake Equation, which is what astronomers use to calculate the possible number of alien civilizations there could be in the galaxy. Don't believe me? Have a look:

Joe, our friend in the video, makes a good point: it's all about not being incredibly picky and maintaining optimism, really. As long as you're not overly choosy about the glass, you just have to decide if it's half-full, or half-empty.

Not so difficult, as long as you have room for either in your life.

Sept 3 - Brainz

What if I'm too smart?

Since I was a very young boy, I've been told I am well above the average intelligence and by many scales, rather high up there on the charts. Early tests that I can recall were fun; I vividly remember one that used cubes, divided diagonally into two colours where I had to create complex shapes according to patterns I was shown. Apparently I did rather well and the idea that I am 'very smart' has stuck with me, for good and bad, all my life. Not becoming a rocket scientist, gifted musician or talented lawyer has admittedly been somewhat off-putting, but I've enough other indications that my brain works well above par not to be too perturbed by my lack of finding a cure for cancer by the time I was thirty.

My English degree is a good example of how I use my brain: it's not what I know, but how I got there and what I'm going to do with it that matters. Being able to pick things apart mentally, to see the many sides of things, to envision other perspectives and to pull disparate thoughts together: all these skills have fountained from my love of English and I'm grateful for how they've given me a wider window on life. I'm also grateful for having the brains to see how much of the world is visible through that window.

Using what you've got is what it's all about. I think Einstein put it best with this:

You have to discover your talents: try things, make mistakes, test your skills and move on to sample a wide range of life to see what fuels your passions. For me, math was always a stumbling block, so science wasn't really in the cards and music, well... tunes I can barely carry in a paper bag. And we won't talk about my understanding( and lack of passion )of legalities: a Law & Order fan, I'm not.

Writing, well... that's a different story.

I'm smart enough to realize that I do well with words, enough so that by applying myself to the craft, I might make a living at it. Heck, if I can really put in the time and effort, I may even find success after a few decades of wordsmithing, if I don't treat it as a hobby but ensure that I give it all the time I can to really hone my skills and get my work out there.

I'd be stupid not to.

Sept 4 - Parklets and Pizza!

I ate lunch for free today - on the street!

Literally, on the street: I was sitting in what's called a 'parklet' which is a seating area created when a curbside parking space is blocked off, carpeted, then has several tables and chairs emplaced along with some nice potted plants. As part of 'Fabulous Fort Eat On The Street' even here in Victoria, where merchants all along one block of Fort St had a 'celebration of specials' about half a dozen parklets were created.

My free lunch came from Ali Baba Pizza, who - incredibly - were giving away FREE slices of pizza, one to a customer! I bought one extra, found an empty seat in a parklet across the road and enjoyed my lunch in the beautiful, blazing sunshine for half an hour. It was marvelously memorable, all the moreso for the uniqueness of where I say: set aside from the sidewalk, out of the way of passersby, it felt luxurious, somehow. Complementary bottled water, chilled in ice-filled buckets, were at every parklet as well.

The balloons were a nice touch

The free pizza just made it all the better!

On a similar happy note, I applied for a permanent government posting today.

It's for the same position that I currently hold, on contract, for another two months still. There's five positions total and I believe I have a good shot at snagging one in the upcoming competition. I have to say I've been rather stressed the last couple of weeks, polishing up my resume` and cover letter, but thanks to my sister I had both looked over by a competition expert and was assured I would at the least be screened for the position based on what I'd painstakingly assembled. So that was a relief, along with applying late in the evening tonight - I'll still be applying to other positions, but where I am right now is what I want to be doing and where I want to work, no question; there's just too many good points.

Free pizza today AND a solid job application? I slept well tonight, I have to say.

Sept 5 - Finally Friday

For only having worked four days at my weekday job, this was a LONG week!

By day's end today, I was whipped: I'd spent the last three evenings working overtime at my government job, which after a solid day of data entry was really wearing. I'd definitely had enough by tonight and from my time spent working overtime ALL the time with MMart, I know that too much OT just means a bigger tax bite when tax season rolls around. I also know that overtime doesn't come up all that often, so a few nights every three or four months should be fine; I set two personal bests this week for productivity, as I measure things, which pleased me. Bonus: I've not had not a lick of eyestrain this week or last, as my new close-focus computer glasses have turned out to be PERFECT to spend staring at a screen all day through, alongside regular eye-breaks along with the sensible 20/20/20 method. Score one for me!

There was also this from yesterday, which made me chuckle:

Oh no - will I still have enough space?

My 'free' 48gb of storage( part of my Samsung S3 phone purchase 2 years ago )expired yesterday, meaning that my space 'dropped' down to just over a terabyte( or 1,000 gigabytes )with the new plan I'm on, priced at $11.00 CAN / month. Very reasonable, given that I'll be uploading ALL my photos to the service... once I get them organized a little better, whenever I manage to find the time here and there to do that piecemeal.

It's funny, but I've finally gone from worrying about losing all my data to a crashed hard drive to wondering where I'll find the time to organize it all. I've got everything backed up in at least three different locations, with automatic software running to ensure every bit is duplicated( triplicated? )safely around the clock. Pictures, videos, documents, emails and the like cannot now disappear unless I deliberately remove them from my file system, which is a far cry from twenty years ago, when I spent hours every month backing everything up on magnetic tape, just in case. Now, I have the equivalent of 1,000 of those tapes available 'in the cloud' to store my data at speeds that take no more time than a few mouseclicks.

What a world.

Sept 6 - Weekend Warrior

All in all, it wasn't a bad day; even a flat tire couldn't spoil it.

Yes, another flat tire, despite my efforts to thwart such an event happening again: new tires and kevlar armour inserts, neither of which were proof against what I believe to be a random( and malicious )puncture caused by a passerby. It's the only explanation, given that I checked on my bike yesterday( as I always do before I need to use it )and both tires were perfectly fine. When I tried to pump up the tire today, an hour before I had to be at work, a loud hiss told me there was a substantial-sized hole in the tube: I've never heard one that loud, which is why I suspect random foul play. Thanks to a nameless jerk, I was out the cost of a cab to carry me to work as well as the repair, not to mention being late and missing out on a leisurely ride to work on a perfect day.

Hopefully karma pays them back three-fold, in some ironic way.

Reading: best done in solitude

What makes my brain itch though, is the fact that I didn't care all that much about missing the fantastic weather. Right now, I really don't have anywhere to go, or anything to do, outside - outside in the sense of the outdoors, but also in the sense of outside of work or writing. There's no significant other, no major social obligations apart from my writer's group, no regular get-togethers with pals at the local pub on Fridays or trips to sports events( no thanks )... nothing along those lines. Even seeing my friends is occasional: once or twice a month I do my Saturday gaming group or see a movie with a couple people.

All in all, any beautiful day that I miss, I generally spend by myself, doing my own things... Solitude, as a lifestyle, is not the same as what I've got going on in my life at the moment.

Whatever that is - I'm not sure I can define it right now, but when I have a better idea, I'll let you know.

Sept 7 - Sunny Day Sick?

Ah, sunny days: perfect for enjoying outdoors.

Which is probably what a few people at Staples did when they called in sick today and I filled in for them. I can't help but think people who are ill on weekends with perfect weather should be required to bring a doctor's note into work or lose a shift from the next schedule - a few bad apples have spoiled it in my mind for everyone, I guess. I hope, if those folks are sick, that they're recovered soon; one girl was there today( and yesterday )who was rather ill, but she sucked it up and got on with her job like a trooper regardless to pull her weight.

Being the sort of guy I am, I helped out this afternoon to keep those who showed up for their shifts from burning out, as sunny weather always means a busy day on weekends. It was a generally enjoyable day, though I was running on fumes by dinnertime from having worked over fifty hours in the last six days… I definitely banked some karma today.

Plus, I got my bike back from the repair shop across the parking lot from Staples: the tire was fixed and the tech had tuned up a few things, seeing as I was a regular customer; they're good to me there.

I couldn't get home fast enough tonight, with the sun falling fast in the sky after a day of perfect temperatures and nary a cloud to be seen. I skedaddled in the door, changed my sandals and shorts for jeans and a sleeved top, then skedaddled down to Moka House to enjoy a few hours on the patio. The sunset was spectacular - what I could see of it over the rooftops - with long streamers of clouds turned bright pink against a cerulean sky that seemed to glow forever. The patio somehow became MORE crowded after the sun went down... by the time 8:30pm hit, there wasn't a spare seat outside, with all sorts of people conversing and laughing as though they could ward off the end of the weekend if they tried hard enough.

I wrote most of this blog there quite happily, isolated from the majority of the noise by my now-treasured Parrot Ziks, piping tunes in from my laptop wirelessly and just generally enjoying the heck out my evening. Normally, with that many people around me chatting things up, I'd be hard-pressed even with solid-foam earplugs to be able to keep my thoughts ordered. With the Ziks, it's a breeze, as they make the music the ONLY thing I hear, as long as I'm not sitting next to a table of tone-challenged chatoholics. Now that I have a couple of spare batteries for the Ziks, I should be able to spend all day writing in all but the noisiest environments, distracted only when I choose to be.

They do kinda feel like this...

It was really enjoyable being able to sit and write outside on the patio, rather than tucked away at home on the couch composing these weekly words; I may have to do it again a few times a month, weather-depending. As the patio at Moka is equipped with huge heaters, there's no reason I can't make it my 'Third Space' now that I can write in comfort among the general chatter.

Again: totally worth what I paid. Too bad you can't pay for things using karma...

Oops - I was tired enough from working 7 days this week that I forgot my phone at Staples today, which is a first. I'll have to do without it until tomorrow evening, when I can cycle up there now that my bike's roadworthy again. So I'll bring a book to read on my break tomorrow, skip checking any FBook updates and generally stay offline during the day - it'll be like the 90's all over again, only with better hair.