The word of the week is innocuous.
Jan 4 – Marking Time
I haven't had a calendar in years.
Calendars used to be a big part of my life, as I
marked up all sorts of things on t work schedules, school schedules, when TV
shows are on, plus all the other sorts of life event that we all have.
I think the last calendar that I had on my wall
was back in 2006, something to do with sci-fi or fantasy. In previous years, I
had both wall and desk calendar versions of The Far Side comics, a favourite of
mine for the decade past high school in the 90's: nothing better! Before that,
I was the proud owner of a personalized animation calendar drawn by a friend of
mine, with whom I've since lost touch... but I still have the calendar! I even
had a Babylon 5 wall calendar, still sealed in the plastic; I think it's good
again in 2019, or 2020.
You can go to TimeAndDate.com to create your own
custom calendar( for free! )which you might find handy for making
specialized printouts for gaming and the like. There's a proliferation of sites
out there that can do this, but many limite your options unless you pay, or are
full of ads, or otherwise not as easy to use.
Google Calendar is what I use nowadays, ever
since moving to BC. I dabbled a bit with Yahoo's version, but since Google's
become so tightly integrated into Android for mobile phones, it's a no-brainer
to use it instead. Having reminders for bills, appointments and the like show
up on-time on my phone has been fantastic, making me wonder how I ever did
without such a useful utility.
It's still lacking the nice wall artwork though.
Jan 5 – Wheel me?
In addition to calendars, I haven't owned a car
in over 8 years.
I don't really feel the lack - and I'm not alone.
It used to be, a car was a necessary thing for
me, for both school and work often took me across the city or even down the
highway into the next town. When I was living outside the city for about 4
years during university, it was vital to get me to work, school and to have a
social life driving into town( a 25-minute ride, that ).
Living outside of town while in BC was trickier,
as I didn't have a vehicle and buses didn't run where I live atop a mountain in
one-road-in-and-out community. I sometimes had to leave 2-3 hours early for
work and sit around in a local shop or the library - I made good use of my
time, but it wasn't ideal, not by a long shot.
Nowadays, I don't need a car for work or even
shopping: I can walk everywhere I need, or take the bus directly if I need to
go further afield. Sure, it's easier and quicker to hope in my lady's car when
we want to do things( glad she has it )but in the main things have worked out
here that I just don't need, or want, a vehicle.
That seems to be the sentiment of more and more
people these days, which only makes sense: get what you need. And for a growing
number of folks, cars are not a need. Even automotive manufacturers seem to be
recognizing this, with the research into self-driving cars making a future
where you can rent a car by the minute, hour or day seems far more likely( and
easy! )than it ever has before.
Just start up the app and a car - model type per
your needs - shows up at your door. Presto!
Jan 6 – Dang it, Occulus...
What a dissapointment.
For a few years now, g33ks everywhere have been
awaiting the announcement of the release price-point for the Occulus Rift, a
next-generation VR( virtual reality )helmet. I tried out a model 2 years ago
here in Victoria at the now-defunct GottaCON and was impressed with the 'sense
of being there' though the graphics needed some work.
Today, Occulus announced the price is... $600
USD.
What?????
To add insult to injury, you'll need a computer
powerful enough to run the VR simulation, to the tune of at least another $1000
USD. So in Canadian dollars, that comes out to close to $2500 after taxes.
Um, I'll pass, thanks.
So dissapointing, as I've said. I'll likely have
to wait at least another 5 years until the VR standards are finialized and the
hardware comes down in price enough to be affordable, like 3D TV's( and
those haven't really caught on - I have one and rarely use the feature ).
I'd love to be able to jump into a game of Battlefield 3, almost literally, to
be able to play using a device like the Myo as a controller instead of holding
one... since my arms won't let me do so for very long any more.
Check back here in 5 years for a VR update.
Jan 7 – Feedback!
I'm walking on air today...
As some of you may recall, I sent out copies of
the third draft of my novel to a dozen people, with the request that they fill
out a Feedback Questionnaire. Of that group, 3 people were already members of
my Critique Group, and so were giving me feedback on a monthly basis as it was.
To date, none of the other 9 people have
responded, despite a few reminders...
Until today: a 13th member sent me a
COMPLETE questionnaire!
It was exactly what I'd hoped for: a set of frank
and honest answers, as detailed as necessary for completeness but not so brief
as to leave me wondering too much. Here's just one of the parts that tickled
the author in me to near-giggles:
Which characters do
you find especially memorable? Were any of them forgettable? Why?
Most memorable
characters in order:
1.
The Prince (can’t
forget this guy…he’s very fascinating in a disagreeable sort of way)
2.
Aviilaar (omg so
lovable)
3.
Niishe (obviously
the central character, a coming of age warrior who I’d like to know more about)
4.
The Queen (can’t
get enough of her!!! So interesting and deep)
5.
The Chamberlain
(although my favourite, because I sense a like mind, maybe not as memorable as
others)
It's exactly this sort of feedback that
keeps me going, as I've mentioned before. Just like reviews for
already-published stories, getting something back from one's readers is an
accomplishment: while you can write in a vacuum, it's far better for an
author to hear back about how their readers have been affected by their
stories.
I'll just go and do some more air-walking now...
Jan 8 – The Valley Of The Wind
My girlfriend showed me a wonderful scifi movie
tonight: Nausicaä of The Valley Of The Wind by
Studio Ghibili.
It's a masterfully stirring tale about a young
woman whose fate is to stand between the old world of Earth and the new. It's a
post-apocalyptic story, which I wasn't aware of or I would have speedily
watched it long ago.
The titular character, Nausicaä, reminds me of my
own character creations for my scifi novel series: a young woman who is
fearless, confident in her own abilities and plain fun to watch as she deals
with all the challenges that come to face her.
It was a fun watch, and I think I'll see it again
sooner than I imagine.
Jan 9 – Podcasting
I was part of a podcast today.
Back in 2014, I was invited to do a
podcast for Trial By Stone, a fancast for the world of The Dark
Crystal. It was a great experience, as I'd just come back fresh from my
trip to NYC to tour Jim Henson Studios as well as attend the Puppets On Film / Dark
Crystal Fanfest in the fall of 2014.
Fortunately, my phone didn't ring partway through
the podcast this time.
I found the experience more relaxing this time
around, seeming just to be five people having a fun discussion about a subject
we all loved. We discussed the recent issuing of the second graphic novel
called Creation Myths, a 3-part series exploring the world of The
Dark Crystal before the events of the movie.
What I found interesting was how many questions
everyone had, which indicates to me that the writing was as thought-provoking
for me as it was for the others in the podcast. Good writing raises more
questions than it answers, though in good ways: it shows that there's depths to
the story being told and that those are worth exploring further.
We ended up running long on the podcast, over 90
minutes and so we'll have to reconvene to finish up in a few week's time. I'll
be re-reading the second issue of Creation Myths, which I have as a
digital file, to see if there's anything else I can glean from its pages.
Jan 10 – Bang Nuts
Some people are just so... stupid.
This afternoon, my mother heard what sounded like
gunshots coming from the woods next door to where they live on the western
shore of the island. After peeking out the window, she spotted a man standing
in his backyard, firing a rifle at his back fence( 12 shots, target
practice? )which backs onto the woods.
Firing ANY guns inside the city aren't allowed,
in case you wondered.
The RCMP showed up incredibly fast, and after
checking out the area they pilitely knocked on the man's front door to see what
was going on.
Apparently he told them rather colourfully what
he thought of the ban on discharging firearms within city limits - which
doesn't change the fact he was either ignorant of such( plain ol' stupid )or
chose to ignore it( even stupider ).
This comes back to my thought that if people want
a gun, they need to pass a stringent series of checks, tests and otherwise
prove they are qualified to own one - apart from proving a need for one,
should it come to that.
For Mister Trigger Happy today, that might have
saved having police open a guns-watch file in his name. Better yet, it might have saved him from
injuring someone walking in the park behind his house, as people do on a
regular basis; hadn't he known this?
Anyway, nobody got hurt, which is all that
matters.
Can't say the same about anyone getting smarter...
I'm in a bit of a mood today; I've a lot on my
mind and as I've said before, I don't want to air it all here as a 'complaint
journal' - that's not what this blog is about. Should it become necessary, I'll
go talk to someone, but as in years past, there's nothing that anyone can do:
it's up to me to pull myself up by my own bootstraps, and that's that.
Tomorrow's Monday, the start of a new week, in a new year: I'm going to make
the best of it.
