The word of the week is presence.
June 9 - A Few Weeks In
This week finds me a touch work-weary.
I'm definitely earning my pay this week. My 'work folder'
that I pick up every morning with the day's tasks has been more full each day,
with some of that being leftover tasks from the previous day or two.
Part of my job is learning, on my own, how to balance my own
workflow. Again, I should mention that I don't get a 'quota' every day that I
have to meet; the work I have is added to each day accordingly based on what I
got done the day before. From what I've been made to understand, this is a
normal state of affairs and I'll only get direction from the team leaders if
I'm falling behind their expectations.
So far each day, I've been left to work in peace.
Of course, I have the regular questions that need answering;
I'm in no way experienced enough to figure some issues out on my own, not yet
anyway. I'm managing to puzzle through about half the things I come across in
good order and still finishing each day feeling like I've become better at what
I'm doing. I'm also not comparing myself to any of the other new hires in terms
of workload accomplishments; this isn't a race or a competition, just the bunch
of us learning our new jobs in our own efficient ways.
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| I'm seriously thinking about getting one of these... |
Unfortunately, I was moved across the office this week, far
away from the windows. I'm stuck under a glaring set of fluorescent tubes which
hasn't helped my efficiency any. Compensating with some bright lights brought
from home as helped, but I'm definitely feeling MUCH more tired by the end of
the day right now. We'll see if my request to have the lights turned off( most
likely )or replaced with sunlight-spectrum tubes( less likely )will go through
in the next few weeks.
For the moment, I've just got to ignore the light and focus; it's my job, after all.
June 10 - Searching
Be yourself: Good advice, but it's far too vague.
Being yourself can be easy and also extraordinarily
difficult, frustrating and generally annoying. I'm a nice guy, being told quite
often that very phrase and wondering every time what it really means. Does
it mean I'm nice? Does it mean I'm a pushover? Does it mean I'm wishy-washy? The term leaves a lot to be desired.
Being cursed with a brain that never stops ticking over, I
am one of those people who never assumes and never take things at face value.
At least, my brain never stops thinking about things and for the most part
that's good; anything important and my subconscious will get my attention in
one way or another.
However, it does mean that sometimes my brain runs around in
circles.
Of late, I've been doing very little save work and write,
with not much time or thought spared for other things. There's very little room
in my life right now for much else, to be honest and with my thoughts being so
focus, I doubt that there's much that my subconscious wants to discuss with me
right now.
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| "Hey, someone dropped their wallet back here..." |
Such as: wallets. How's that for a non-sequitur?
Alas, my wallets of twenty years( zounds! )have finally liven
up the ghost, both around the same time. I've had to look around for some new
ones to replace the old faithful pair and discovered that men's wallets are a
paltry concern of most every retail establishment I've visited in the last few
weeks.
Truly, it's disheartening. From The Bay to Walmart and
everywhere in between, a few pitiful shelves of pawed-through wallets are the
entirety of the lackluster selection men have to choose from. Compared to the
sweeping aisles devoted to ladies accessories, from purses to clasps to
handbags and shoulder bags plus all the variations in between, there's no
comparison. I liken it to a car dealership: a hundred new cars all shiny out
front for the ladies, with two used claptraps off to the side for the men.
Good thing I'm a hunter, not a gatherer: it looks to be quite
the challenge.
June 11 - Oh, The Hu-Spam-ity
On the subject of intelligence and creativity, I received
this 'legitimate' e-mail today:
Attention ;
How are you today? You may not understand why this mail came to you.
This email is to individuals who have suffered from the notorious Internet scams, the UN have agreed to compensate them with the sum of One Hundred and Fifty thousand United States Dollars each.
This includes every foreign contractor that may not have received their contract sum,people that have had unfinished transactions or international Fund transfer that failed due to Government problems, Checks scams, etc.
Contact Mrs. April Rosa, Head of Foreign Remittance of Guarantee Trust Bank Plc,for your Bank Draft of USD$150,000.00.This funds are in a Bank Draft for security purpose. So she will send it to you by Courier or Wire Transfer.Therefore, send her your Name, telephone number, mailing address.
Person to Contact : April Rosa
Email: ___________@gmail.com
Making the world a better place!
Regards,
Mr. Ban Ki-Moon
Secretary General
UNITED NATIONS
DISCLAIMER:This message contains information which may be confidential and protected by law. Unless you are the addressee you may not use, copy or disclose to anyone the message or any information contained in the message. If you have received this message in error, please advise the sender by reply e-mail and delete the message. E-mail transmission cannot be guaranteed to be secure or error-free as information could be intercepted, corrupted, lost, destroyed, arrive late or incomplete, or contain viruses.
Now, I wouldn't normally mention a spam e-mail in my blog,
but this one has a few unique features. For one, it's relatively free of
spelling errors and relatively short, not trying to tell a long story but to
hook the reader fairly quickly - as a writer, I can appreciate that, if nothing
else.
I recently read an article about how spam has evolved over
the last decade to winnow out those who are poor prospects for criminals by
keeping a certain level of poor spelling and bad grammar in the e-mail. Anyone
who's the least bit savvy about spotting spam e-mails these days will
immediately delete e-mails containing such obvious flags, leaving just those
who are ignorant of most spam warning signs and therefore are just the kind of
targets that modern Internet scam artists want to find and exploit.
Interestingly, a 'hit rate' of 1 response per 1,000 emails( hence the use of
the word 'Spam' )is considered a good return by scammers and in countries like
Nigeria, there are many illegal companies set up with many departments handling
all the aspects of defrauding people of their money from all over the world -
you can read more here if you want to educate yourself as to how lucrative this
type of crime can be and how to avoid becoming a victim.
However, the most galling thing about this e-mail is that it
cloaks itself in legitimacy by pretending to be part of a beneficial
association dedicated towards refunding money to people who have been defrauded
by Internet scammers. When in reality, it's just another scam trying to defraud
people money.
Welcome to the modern Internet. Believe nothing, trust no one and
set your spam filters to Disintegrate.
June 12 - Book Brainstorm!
My Muse was in full throttle mode today!
Here's a little glimpse into what goes on inside a writer's
head when his Muse takes over.
The ideas for my second book I've had turning around my head
for the last month finally stopped their whirling dance and solidified into a
crystal vision of startling clarity.
It was magical.
I wrote for a solid two hours, seeing nothing but the page
in front of me filling up with the torrent of words. Everything flowed straight
from my mind through my fingers as a narrative, taking the shape of the book as
though I was telling it to an agent as part of a pitch.
Exactly as I wanted it to take shape.
When I was finished, I sat back and looked at what I had:
three pages of solid text that took the prospective reader from the opening
premise of the book through all the major conflicts, hinting at the larger
issues along the way. In my head, all the complex threads of factional
friction, action, theme, character development, setting and a hundred other
things slotted together like the finest clockwork to show me exactly what
needed to be said to convey my meaning.
Needless to say, I'm both thrilled and daunted by what I
produced tonight. The book's scope and depth means I have a LOT more planning
to do ahead of time than with my first novel. Thinking three or four steps
ahead when I'm writing each chapter this time will save me a TON of rewriting
further down the line, so my outline for the second book is going to be much
more in-depth.
I've given myself six months to complete this book's first
draft, by the end of 2014. I'm going to need every minute of that, I think, to
get it right.
June 13 - Lucky?
Luck is a funny and fickle thing.
I've been a melancholy mood this week, for various reasons.
None of which are substantial and none of which by themselves really matter all
that much. In combination with the somewhat gloomy weather, some days have been
better than others but for the most part I simply tucked my head down and
soldiered on despite whatever I was feeling every other hour here and there.
Feeling lucky is a rare feeling for me, but I know that I am
of late.
I'm lucky to have a new job that pays a living wage, lucky
to have the family and friends I do, lucky to have a gift with words that may
allow me to touch the imaginations of others with my stories and lucky doubly
so that I can make time, should I go to the effort, to write those stories
every day for the rest of my life.
Emotions are a funny thing, in that you have to experience
them in order to understand them but while doing so you don't have much control,
at least early on in your life. Even by adulthood, many people are unable to
handle strong emotions or even worse, they suppress them to the point of
damaging themselves.
I was on the second path only a few short years ago, for
various reasons. Since then I have learned to express more my emotions and in
doing so found better ways to both experience and handle them. Feeling what I
feel doesn't mean I have to be ruled by that feeling, whatever it may be and I
know that the feeling will pass if it's bad day and hope that it will come
again soon if it's good.
It seems simple, but again you really do have to be there to
know what I mean. Looking at things this week, I can see that my moods been
rather rocky but that will pass, I know.
A little more sunshine would definitely help, though.
June 14 - Pixels and A Party
I've said it before: I'd give a lot to be able to walk a
starship's decks.
Recent advances in technology like the Oculus Rift( now
controversially owned by FBook, of all companies! )combined with dedicated,
talented fans have resulted in projects like the Voyager Walkthrough, where you
can virtually walk the decks in 3D of Janeway's command - cool!
Exploring an entire starship though, that's an incredible
job of programming best done by a team of people being paid very well for their
time and trouble. At least, it would be difficult if you're trying to make a pixel-perfect
replica of one of the Trek ships( or others from other franchises )as seen on
TV or on the silver screen. For just one ship, you're looking at tens of
thousands of hours of work to make a complete, deck-by-deck replica to explore
in all its glory in high-resolution 3D.
Or, you could go 8-bit to save yourself a whole lot of time
and money.
Which is the case with PixelTrek, coincidentally.
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| Cmdr.Data's quarters: notice the cat. Remember its name? |
From what I can tell, the project is no less ambitious than
a complete re-creation of the interior of the Enterprise-D from Star Trek: The
Next Generation. While limited by the 2-D isometric graphics in some ways, for
the most part the layout idea presents a novel way of exploring the vast interior
spaces of the Enterprise-D. In addition, the creator of PixelTrek has placed
many small touches, some of them quite humourous, into the layout for people to
discover and enjoy while they explore. It's a delight.
Briefly in the evening: I went to a triple birthday party,
meaning it was a combination party for three people, only one of whom I knew
even peripherally. However, I was tickled to be invited and since it was less
than a ten minute walk from home, it was easy to get to after work( at my old
job )today. There were a few friends from my other social circle there, whom I
was glad to see and the feelings were mutual. We g33ked out for a few hours,
watching Knights of Badassdom starring Peter Dinklage, whose ringtone
incidentally was also being used by another of my friends there this evening.
It was pleasant and relaxing and I was home well before midnight, being tired
and of sound mind, in the main.
June 15 - Family Father's Day
Today was all about family.
When you consider all the ways that families form, change
and break up over time, it's amazing that any family stays strong and together
over long periods of time.
I know I am quite fortunate that my family has stayed
together after all that we've been through. That we are especially lucky that
were all essentially the same people who still love one another for the same
reasons and have all grown richer for experiences despite the hardships.
Celebrating Father's Day today brought that home in many
ways. My sister and I spent the day with our parents, going out for a relaxed
lunch and then spending some time with them at their place in the afternoon. We
reminisced about our family's many positive experiences, talked about how our
extended family was doing and dug a little into the family history for gems
that some of us may not have known about. We also watched a lovely film called
Hugo, which was perfect for spending quality family time together. It was
emotionally moving, perfectly directed and acted to perfection by the cast.
My father is a fantastic man: gentle, calm, kind and fair. I
can't imagine having had a better father to grow up with and to have as an
example of what kind of a man I could become. While I'm not the man my father is
in many respects, I know I'm a man he's proud of and I know I've become what I
am with his guidance, taking my own path without interference or hindrance. I've
been fantastically fortunate to have my father in my life from the day I was
born, always there for me but never in my way and never with a harsh word that
wasn't said with love.
What man wouldn't be proud to be this man's son?
Yep, I'm tired and it's the start of another work week tomorrow. Still, I'm excited: this week should see BIG strides made in getting the first chapter of the second book out and done in some form or another, I hope. There's a lot to do, as usual, with little time to spare, so I'll sign off... now. See you next week!
PS - No, I didn't watch the GoT season finale tonight, as we're only just up to Episode 7 and well, we want to catch up ASAP. So, no spoilers, please!
