The word of the week is resplendent.
June 2 - Writing Folk
Having a 'real day job' is great!
My plan is to work with numbers by day and words by night,
to get my second book finished in the next six months. While I won't be writing
every single night, the majority of each week's evenings we'll see many words
put to page initially for revision later as I progress through each chapter as
I go.
Without my writing group however, I wouldn't even be close
to being finished my first book. The support and feedback I've received from
the people there has been instrumental in my initial growth as a writer and I'm
really hitting my stride now as one of the people who run the group
month-to-month.
I've mentioned previously that many of the local writers who
belong to the group have been effusive in their praise of how well it's being
run. I'm not letting that go to my head, save as a goad to do the best job I
can( for free, after all it’s a voluntary group run through Meetup.com )to
ensure everyone has a good time and come away from the meeting with a few more
tools for their 'writers toolbox.'
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| It feels like this... only in colour. |
Tonight's meeting was another rousing success along those
lines. There was no set topic, it was just a 'Meet And Greet' where everyone
could get together and discuss the craft of writing… or anything else that
struck their fancy. For me, it's been a fascinating exercise in leadership, reading
body language and generally learning to run a group while shedding my fears of
speaking in front of others. For the most part, I believe I've succeeded in all
those areas, especially in gaining the confidence in my own abilities to allow
me to speak with that same confidence in front of others. If I was a D&D
character, I definitively would have seen a few points being added to my
Charisma score… but I'm no Narcissus, that's for certain.
The results have spoken for themselves: people keep coming
back to hear me speak. Huzzah!
June 3 - New Job Goodness
Here's a quick lowdown on how my new job's going...
There's a ton of details for me to remember, but that's just
me learning how to do what I'm being paid to do now. The tools that I've been
given, the space that I'm working in and the people that I'm working with all
make a world of difference to how I go about learning and doing every day.
Take my standard-issue desktop work computer for example: it's a fast i5 CPU with plenty of memory,
running software that is fairly quick and bug-free, if seeming somewhat
complicated to me after only a few weeks. I don't have to twiddle my thumbs
while I wait for it to process, or come back after a crash that happens every
few minutes; honestly, it's such a fantastic difference to have a computer that
is up to date to do my job with.
There's also that strange( to me! )lack of CONSTANT pressure
to 'perform or else' while I'm learning my new job. I'm expected to do work,
sure, but nobody's leaning over my shoulder every few minutes to see that each
keystroke I make is up to what they expect me to be doing that particular
minute of the day. I can ask questions of my coworkers at any time without
fearing they'll tell me they're too busy or looking at me like I'm an idiot for
not immediately guessing what I'm supposed to do in a certain situation.
It's a wonderful work environment; I am SO not used to that.
Breaks, well let me tell you: being able to simply leave my
desk and go to the bathroom whenever I want( within reason, of course )is
hands-down fantastic. Having often stood at the counter serving customers by
myself for six to eight hours straight without a bathroom break at MMart, this
whole 'go whenever you need to' is a hard thing to get my mind around. Especially
combined with taking my scheduled breaks like clockwork every day AND not being
watched like a hawk to ensure that I come back without having taken an extra 30
seconds of the company's time without their prior leave.
The real kicker that makes me smile every time I think about
my new job is this though: I can listen to music all day long at my desk
through my headphones. Whatever I like. I can enjoy long mixes of classical
music from YouTube that are wonderfully soothing to my training mind as I learn
my new tasks. I've never had a job where that was possible; at most, I was able
to choose a radio station to blare in the background and generally ignore
during a busy workday.
Not here at my new job. I'm re-discovering all the classical
musicians every day, and loving it.
June 4 - SNOT Brick Masterpiece
Okay, I'll admit it: I like Lego. A lot.
When I was younger, I had a whole suitcase full of Lego. That's
still in storage here, though I haven't dragged it out in many years; unlike
those who kept their Lego skills and sharpened them into adulthood to become Master Lego Builders, I was always a dabbler by comparison.
Especially in comparison to the person who built this:
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| Click the article link for the incredible detail about this SD model! |
I'm not afraid to admit that I don't know the first thing
about how to start a project like this, let alone complete it within a year
with such stunning results. According to the article at io9.com, the model's
creator goes by the name of Jerac. He lives in Poland and it took him a year to
create the model which is over 2 m long, costing around $5000 US in materials -
50 kg of Lego bricks, if you must know.
I think it's a stunning achievement and perhaps one day I'll
even traveled to Poland to have a look at it with my own eyes.
Though I'm pretty sure that Jerac won't let anybody play
with it.
June 5 - We Lost Ray 2 Years Ago Today
It's been two years today since we lost Ray Bradbury.
One of the luminaries of the science fiction world for
decades, Ray was an inspiring figure in many ways. Today, on the anniversary of
his passing, I learned something new, thanks to his wisdom:
"The great thing about growing up with science fiction is that you have an interest in everything." - Ray Bradbury
Unbelievably, this simple sentence from the science fiction
master sums up a philosophy I've held inside myself for many years but could
never fully articulate in words - until today. It helps explain why I have such
wide-ranging fields of interest in so many things and why I'm constantly trying
to keep up with what my mind tells me it wants to investigate.
It also shows how a truly great writer can reach out from the
beyond, bridging the unimaginable distance and time itself to impart truthful
messages to their readers. Thanks to Ray Bradbury, I have another example of
this wonderful form of time travel, of allowing an author to reach a new
audience many years after their passing beyond the veil.
Thanks Ray. We'll always miss you.
June 6 - D-Day +70
Lest We Forget.
Today was D-Day, on which in 1944 the Allies launched their
invasion of Normandy which began the downfall of the Axis powers in the West…
and led to the victory of the Allies, leading to our present world that we
enjoy without the threat of a world-spanning conflict.
Below is unique, FULL-COLOUR footage taken of WWII. It is
extraordinarily rare and most likely, you've never seen it before. Colour
brings a whole new level of meaning to remember the war and the sacrifices made
by those who gave us what we have today.
June 7 - The Return of Bill
Holy cow!
Bill Watterson, of Calvin & Hobbes fame, guest-drew a
comic recently!
As noted over on this blog entry by Stephan Pastis, the famously
reclusive Watterson secretly drew three of the recent releases of Pearls Before
Swine, a webcomic of some renown online.
I'm flabbergasted and thrilled to hear that Bill Watterson put
on his artists hat once more, almost 20 years after leaving the comics world in
1995. Here's the comic he drew( and you can see more about the guest spot here
):
My evening after work was happily spent gaming with my new D&D
group.
It was another wonderful session, although again too brief
compared to those of many years ago that would often run the entire day until
late evening but that sort of time is hard to come by nowadays. As it turns
out, I've been gaming entirely using my phone and a small Pathfinder app to
keep track of my character… necessitated by the fact that I still can't find my
dice bag, darn the luck! The group games with anywhere from 5 to 7 people at
any point, each of whom appreciates a good pun and all of whom have relaxed
attitudes. Meaning they're there for the fun and the social enjoyment more than
anything else, which is exactly what I need in a gaming group right now. It's a
great experience and though I miss my friends from my years playing Neverwinter
Nights online, this is as good an alternative as I've been able to find in many
years.
Now, if my thief can just get his hands on some decent loot
next session…
June 8 - Rest!
After working six days this week, including yesterday, today
was a welcome day off.
It was also my parent's 45th wedding anniversary, so my
sister and I took them out to a lovely lunch at a local restaurant in Cordova
Bay. We sat in a cozy sunroom next to a sunny patio, enjoying each other's
company and listening to them tell us more about their recent trip to England.
Hearing their stories, I knew that I'm going to have to make the trip myself
someday, to touch the stones of so many historic places with my own hands and
to feel the ghosts of those who live there standing nearby.
There's not a lot more to say about today, other than to
comment on how life seems to be a series of fortuitous convergences lately. A good example
of which would be when I went down to Moka House late this afternoon for little
break from preparing tomorrow evenings presentation for my writers group. No
sooner had I sat down on the patio but who should come along but two of the
newest members of the group? We ended up chatting for several hours before we all
had to part ways and I was struck again by how fortuitous a choice living in
Victoria has been for me both as a person and as a writer. Good things have
headed my way for the last little while and I'm quite enjoying each day as it
comes.
Especially if it brings cookies.
A few new people have been added to the blog this week, so
I'll remind folks that you can click on ANY of the date-links on the left side
of the blog to view the entries for that year. You can also use the Search bar
at the top of the blog to browse through the 350+ entries by keyword; pick
something and see what results you get. I'll bet they're interesting. See you
all next week!
