The word of the week is alacrity.
Feb 24 - Vertical Mice?
After much searching, I've at last found a mouse that's
different.
For many years, I have used a Logitech trackball instead of
a mouse, finding it more versatile in daily desktop use than trying to shove
the mouse around a semi-stable surface.
Called a vertical mouse, it's been rather tricky to find one
that's both highly-rated AND not ungodly expensive: from highs of over $100, I
scored one from Perixx for $20 all told.
The essential difference between a regular mouse and a vertical mouse is that the user's hand position is much more natural. When
using a normal mouse with buttons located on the top, the user's wrist is
twisted to one side, which is not a relaxed position and puts pressure on the
tendons, leading to fatigue:
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| My mouse is similar, but the idea's the same: less arm strain |
In my case, using a trackball was no better, as my hand was
not actually resting but instead hovered above the trackball for the most part,
supported by the outer two fingers of my hand more often than not. Needless to
say, using it in that position wasn't all that comfortable for long periods of
time.
I've been using the Perixx 713 vertical mouse for about a week now and I
have to say that I really like it. Apart from the need to have a small area on
the couch for movement, it works on any surface, which is fantastic. While
using the mouse on surfaces other than a desktop isn't ideal, for the most part
it works and I'll figure things out as I get used to it. The important part
is that it's already made my wrist feel less fatigued as I use my computer and
that's the vital part.
Feb 25 - Farwell, Egon
A great comedian has unexpectedly passed on.
Harold Ramis, star of such seminal films as Ghostbusters, Stripes, Groundhog Day and many other others that are cultural touchstones
passed away at the age of 69 today.
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| 'Goodbye Egon' by local Victoria artist Ash Vickers |
Part of a Saturday Night Live group of comedians who
transitioned successfully from television to movie fame, news of his unexpected
death today was rather shocking to me.
I grew up with Mr. Ramis on the silver screen, so to speak,
starting with the blockbuster film Ghostbusters and then discovering his wide
range in many other films since. His gentle humor, impeccable comedic timing
and creative spark all meant that this star will be sorely missed. I especially
liked his small cameo role in Groundhog Day as a doctor who tends to Bill
Murray; small roles like that showcased his wonderful versatility and likable
sense of humor.
We should all be so lucky to remembered so fondly, should we
pass too soon.
Feb 26 - Don't Grow up
More excellent advice came from Neil Gaiman today.
I stumbled across it during an Internet search and it jumped
out at me like a blazing signpost. The odd thing was, I was just thinking about
how the life of an author can sometimes be divorced from reality and yet at the
same time deeply involved in its observation.
I was also thinking about how life of an author more often
than not doesn't mesh well with the reality of life as an adult. Creating your
own worlds doesn't often pay the bills and quite a few authors have
struggled in their lives while balancing their financials with their fiction.
In my case, I'd just like to make a living being creative and
not selling people things they don't need.
Feb 27 - Aaron Allston
Another bright light went out of the world this week.
Aaron Allston was an American science fiction author and
game designer who wrote or designed many of the things that I grew up with,
including some parts of the Car Wars world. He was well known for the Star Wars
books that he wrote in the X-Wing series, all of which I own and still enjoy
from time to time. The reaction of the gaming community has been touching, as many there saw Aaron as wholly one of their own.
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| Aaron contributed regularly to ADQ, which I read as a teenager. And still do. |
What I found most interesting was that Mr. Allston's passing
was noted by several authors that I also admire: R.A.Salvatore and Michael A. Stackpole were good friends with Mr. Allston. It's though-provoking that the same small group of authors whose work I find admirable and who are also genuinely likable
human beings should strike up friendships that last decades; that sort of thing
tells me that I'm admiring their work for the right reasons.
As for Aaron, I hope he's been put back into the universe somehow to
foster the circle of creativity a little more. I think that be fitting.
Feb 28 - AUTHORQUEST TOP 25!
Some GREAT news came down the pipe early today!
As many of you know, I put an entry into the Dark Crystal AuthorQuest contest at the end of 2013, submitting a story in hopes of having
it picked up to be developed into a novel by the Jim Henson Company. As there
were nearly 500 submissions in the contest, the judges had to take the last two
months to read every entry thoroughly and the news of the top 25 choices were
supposed to be released March 1, 2014 which was tomorrow.
But, they released them today and MY NAME was one of the 20
Editor's Choice picks!
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| That's ME at the bottom there! :-) |
Now, that means I didn't make Final Five, which means I'm
out of the running for the novel and the $10,000 contract, but that's all
right. I'm extraordinarily thrilled to have had my work recognize out of such a
large field of submissions; I made it into the top 5%, which is unbelievable!
Here's the feedback my story received: brief but
very telling:
From the first line, I was right in there - seeing, smelling and feeling every word that was written.
While not everyone needs validation, as a writer you definitely
need feedback, especially that from people who don't know you personally. Your
writing should to be able to move strangers as well as friends, to convey in words
everything that you are trying to say without being physically present to say
it.
Getting noticed by the judges of the Dark Crystal
AuthorQuest is a wonderful thrill for me and goes to show that my authorial hard work can
take me places. I just have to keep improving and not give up; I now know that
the creative spark lives within me and my writing is the kind that other
people want to read.
March 1 - New Month, New Goals
Yesterday's wonderful news means I can start March with some
better goals in mind.
Apart from completing my novel this spring, I do want to
transition to freelance work of some kind. It seems to me that in my research
of those who create themselves as successes, they never really stop working
except to sleep and relax once or twice a month as rewards for their hard work.
Writing is much the same way: if you don't write every day,
you can't expect to improve enough over a given time to be satisfied with
continuing to put words to paper. I have to ingrain in myself the habit of
writing every day, creating something new or editing something already in place:
every time I write I should be moving myself forward, which is what I have to
do for myself at this point in my life.
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| Maybe I should run away and join a circus? |
Another goal of mine is to exit my current workplace as soon
as possible, as each day there is becoming increasingly stressful for me. My employer
treats me as though I'm fully trained, highly motivated by the leadership team
and well-paid... except that I'm NONE of those things.
Thus, several of my workdays in
the last few weeks have been extremely difficult for me to bear up under. I'm
extraordinarily intelligent, highly empathetic and hard-working, but being
spoken to as though I am a brand-new employee who can't figure out how to open
the store's front door is not something I can put up with for very much longer. I've already had enough of working under tin gods to last a lifetime from my previous jobs.
When I'm self-employed, I'll have nobody to blame for a bad
day but myself.
March 2 - Games and Strange Brew
Today I attended a gaming convention and a movie festival!
In the afternoon, I walked to the nearby convention center to
spend a few hours at GottaCon, which is an annual gaming extravaganza held here
in Victoria. There's a heavy emphasis on miniatures as well as video games,
neither of which hold much interest for me at a competitive level but seemed to
make close to 4,000 other people quite happy. There were several dozen vendors(
to not buy things from )as well as a fair number of tables dedicated to other
games, both of the board and role-playing variety.
I ended up chatting with a writerly friend of mine for a few
hours there, as she is quite busy putting out both games she's
designed and novels she's written under her own flag. The latter is definitely
something I have to learn how to do, so it's great to have friends like her
around. Being full of energy also helps too.
Around dinnertime, I trotted on over to the Vic Theatre
next door for a double movie feature being put on by the annual Great Canadian Beer Fest. The first film was appropriately titled Beerfest, which was a romping
farcical comedy dedicated to a far-fetched premise revolving around a secret
beer competition much akin to the film Fight Club but without the serious
aspects. There was a lot of gratuitous yet harmless nudity and despite that, I
found myself liking the film in the end as it made me laugh.
Which brought us to the second film: Strange Brew starring
Bob and Doug McKenzie aka Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas. This was the titular draw for
the festival and everyone there in the theater was definitely a fan of the
movie, with quite a few folks dressed up in toques and hockey jerseys. Given
that I haven't ever seen the movie in its entirety since its release in 1983, I
was surprised to find it was a different film from the bits I remember
catching on TV here and there over the years. It was dumb and the
characters were likable and I was laughing nonstop for good parts of it, which
was good for me in many ways. I really enjoyed myself and it was a stellar way to end my tumultuous week.
It's been a week of ups and downs; from some very low places
at work to very high points in my writing, I feel like a yo-yo on a roller
coaster. More and more I want to spend time creating and be forced to count how
to someone else's tune less, especially when that kind of dance makes no use of
my talents. Placing as well as I did in the AuthorQuest contest is a form of
validation I welcome; while I don't want to live exclusively for validation, I
can definitely use it as a stepping stone to lift myself above my daily
troubles to catch a glimpse of the bright future I see for myself ahead.
