The word of the week is autarky.
July 24 – Headphones 24/7?
I really love my Parrot Zik
headphones.
They create a 'sound bubble' that I
can take with me anywhere, protecting me from sounds that I would find
irritating or even painful. I especially like using them on the bus, as it cuts
out the low-frequency rumbling from the vehicle. The same can be said when I'm
walking downtown, as the often-loud noise of traffic( especially large
trucks! )almost vanishes, though I always keep the volume low enough that I
can still hear exactly what's going on around me to stay safe. And don't get me
started on how many motorcycles there are around here...
However, I've also noticed of late
that my head hurts.
Specifically, the top of my head
hurts if I have my headphones on for more than an hour or so, and it's only
started in the last week. Because I'm paying such close attention to my body's
idiosyncrasies, I've been able to moderate it with the addition of a thin
sponge underneath the headphones while also taking them off as often as
possible during the workday. The same goes for when I'm writing at home, where
they cut out much of the road noise and other distractions for me.
I'll be keeping an eye on this, as it
could a sign of mild occipital neuralgia( not that I'm looking for more trouble! )which
also notes a particular sensitivity to light, which I have in spades. I'm going
to try just using regular headphones at work for part of each day, to see if
that helps relieve pressure on the top of my head.
It won't sound as good as my Ziks,
but I think I can live with that if it means fewer migraines and less
sensitivity to bright light( am I a mogwai? ).
July 25 – Sound and Goblins
Ah, what might have been...
Thinking back to Spider-Man, the movie that came out in 2002 when Toby McGuire was all the rage along with Kirsten
Dunst... the villain was a bit of a let-down.
The Green Goblin should have been a
great nemesis for Spider-Man, but he ended up being a bit 'meh' and then got
killed off for the rest of the series. Boo!
The Goblin's suit was okay, as was
his glider, but it didn't hold a candle to the in-your-face Halloween Monster
that was the Goblin of the comics. Crazy AND clever was the order of the day,
and William DaFoe wearing a performance-hindering mask in the film didn't help.
Which is why they should have gone
with this instead - HOLY CRAPOIDS:
While we're on the on the subject of
movie magic, the flipside of incredible special visual effects are the sounds
that support them.
Some sound however, are sneaky and
underhanded in what they do. I just learned this week about something called
the 'Shepard Tone' which Christopher Nolan uses in his films to create tension
in the audience. I called sneaky, because it's a device that the director can
use that has no audible limit: it just keep going and going! You can listen to
a bit of the tone below, but be warned: you should not listen to it for more
than a few minutes at a time or you won't be able to stay calm for a while
afterwards!
July 26 – Stop-motion Superheroes!
Holy action-figure action antics,
Batman!
It's really amazing how easy it is to
create incredible works of animated art these days with just the off-the-shelf
low-budget tools available to consumers. One type of animation that I love are
films made with stop motion, which tend to expensive only in terms of the time
it takes to pose each frame for each figure. There's no costs for drawing
involved and while the production values may be low, the story and style of
animation can elevate things far above grade-school level antics.
Look at this epic battle between
Batman and the Joker, and tell me it's not entertaining:
July 27 – A-Hah AR!
One of my favorite music videos of
all time is 'Take On Me', by a-ha.
Released in 1985, the music video was
the group's only song to reach the Billboard Top 100, due in no small part to
the breakthrough rotoscoping animation. I think it still holds up today, even
in this age of over-the-top CGI:
But reminiscing about a favorite 80's
video of mine isn't why I'm posting this particular piece: it's the as a
preface towards the next step in immersive video - Augmented Reality.
And what better way to illustrate the
power of immersive Augmented Reality than using a video like Take On Me( itself
about the power of shifting reality )to show it off? Check out the new AR app from Trixi Studios( sadly, just a prototype right now and not
available yet )that is mind-blowing in how it can 're-shape'
the reality that you see through VR glasses:
Most exciting of all, there's news
just this week that Wingnut AR, which is film director Peter Jackson's,
has been playing with next-gen AR tech... whoa!
July 28 – Blogging Benefits
Why does one write?
Unsurprisingly, the answer is
different for everyone.
Some people do it for pleasure, the
act of creation itself giving them satisfaction. Others do it for purely
financial reasons, putting 'bread on the table' through their writing. Some
writers want to educate their readers, passing on their knowledge and skills
through the words on a page. There's even some writers to write to be famous,
though usually they're disappointed by how that turns out in the end. Those are just a few of the reasons why some people write.
For me, there's a mix of reasons, but
the primary one is to tell a good story.
What I'm deep in the process of
creating a good tale, nothing else exists outside the words I'm creating from
the story in my head. I enter a sort of mental fugue-state, where I am a
conduit between what my minds eye seeing and the words appearing on the page.
This is the 'Flow State' that I've mentioned before in this blog, and when I
manage to reach it on a good day, it's an incredible feeling.
I also write to relieve stress, to
work through my thoughts and feelings, to reach out through my blog for those
who want to know how my life is going... these and other reasons all inform my
writing. They also help to ensure that I'm writing every day, as every good
writer should!
It seems like there are as many
reasons as to why people write as there are people. Here's a great list of 30
reasons, many of which I can identify with, especially number 25. The list is
worth checking out if you have any inkling towards the written word... because
one thing a good writer never does is to stop learning and refining their
craft.
EDIT: somehow, my first blog draft didn't mention going out tonight....
In the early evening, my lady and I went to the Sticky Wicket, to bid some good friends goodbye, as they were moving to Ottawa this weekend. There were a good number of folks there, many of them g33ks, and we had a really good time catching up with people.
It was particularly good to chat to people when they asked about my book, since I love to talk about it. I'm thrilled that so many people are keenly interested in reading it, and that acts as incentive for me to finish it soon... and properly.
But, it can't all be work, so nights like tonight are a balm to a writer's soul. It was fun!
July 29 – Saturn-Day Night!
After spending the entire morning and
afternoon editing, I needed a break.
Thankfully, my wonderful girlfriend
had suggested that we attend a 'STAR Party' tonight at the Dominion
Astrophysical Observatory. I've been meaning to go there for almost ten years
now, its white dome gleaming high atop a hill at the edge of the city.
We were joined by several other
people from my lady's poetry group and we all arrived at 7:30 PM, just as cars
were being admitted through the main gate. We lined up on the winding road just
beyond and soon enough were on our way to the top, where there turned out to be
ample parking for dozens of vehicles. What a view!
 |
| Left: Downtown and Mountains Right: The Observatory! |
Our group went into the main astrophysical building ( pictured above )for the 'adult tour' of the impressive facility. Built in 1918, the Dominion Astrophysical Observatory was a scientific wonder at the time, remaining one of the world's main astrophysical research centers until the 1960s. The telescope itself was impressive, a huge piece of heavily engineered equipment that moved at the touch of a button with silent grace to point at the skies above.
 |
| Big Telescope on the left, model of the Dome on the right |
After the 45-minute tour, we walked a
short distance over to the Centre Of The Universe( love the name! ), the public
interpretive center for the observatory. It's worth noting that the Centre has
been run since 2015 by volunteers from the Friends of the Dominion
Astrophysical Observatory Society (FDAO) since funding was canceled for COTU
operations by the federal government in 2013.
 |
| The glowing dome on the left held 20 people inside! |
My lady and I attended a short
30-minute 'mini-planetarium' session, where young eager volunteers read us
through a amusingly cringe-worthy script to take us on a tour of Venus. The
little fiberglass dome was rather stuffy from too many people and too little
ventilation, but we got through in decent shape. I went looking for a bite to
eat, but I was surprised to find that the facility only had a water fountain
and some odd-looking ice cream bars for sale. You'd think that the FDAO would
have thought a snack machine and a coffee / tea counter would bring in money
from the public...?
Once full dark had fallen, we went outside
to look through a telescope set up by the volunteers. Right outside the front
doors of the COTU was a large refractor trained on Saturn( how appropriate
for today, Saturn-Day! ). The image was bright and crisp, allowing me to
easily see the distinction between the planet and its rings - wow! Soon enough,
the telescope was switched over to Jupiter, showing a large bright dot with
four tiny bright beads on a plane along with it, which were just some of its moons!
 |
| Left: Presentation at the dome Right: A friend was at the COTU! |
We then went back up to the
observation platform inside the observatory, where a presentation had been set
up showing the live feed from the telescope. It was crowded and the acoustics
were terrible, so we didn't stay too much longer after that, as it was getting
late.
Heading home, our group was enthused
and excited by our evening. It was inspiring to have been brought so close to
touching the stars, making them real in our minds and reminding us that we're
very small in a very big and fascinating universe.
July 30 – Feeling... good?
I haven't been in pain much at all
this week, apart from a stiff neck - yay!
Yesterday, I had my third deep-tissue
massage session and it was again revolutionary in making me feel human once
more. Although uncomfortable( as expected )and at times painful during
the sessions, afterwards I felt a looseness and limberness in my body that I've
been missing for far too long.
As a result, this week I've been able
to sit in my chair at work all day( with regular breaks! )without more
than the occasional twinge of discomfort. I've been sleeping at night on my
angled cushions without any pain whatsoever, which has been a huge blessing, as
I've felt my abdominals relaxing to where they are unnoticeable in the course of my day - a far
cry from the tight springs of pain waiting to stab me if I moved in certain
directions or just too quickly.
 |
| Pretty much... so DO something about the ouches! |
I'm hoping that this means that the
massage sessions have finally loosened my core muscles from their
wound-too-tight-for-months stasis. If so, then I just need to focus on building
them back up again slowly through light exercise and paying close attention to
any twinges that are happening.
It's also vital that I don't stress
out again, but I believe I'm now on the right path in focusing only on my novel
edit( 33% done as of today! )and work. No distractions, no unnecessary
financial worrying, nothing to cause my core to wind up... I will not subject
myself to that again, now that I know it's a possibility if I don't pay
attention to how my life stresses can so adversely affect my physical self.
All day today, there’s been numbers
of crows hanging around outside my building. They haven’t stopped cawing since
6am, and frankly it would have driven me bonkers hours ago if it hadn’t been
for my headphones – yay! I’ve no idea what’s got them upset, as it’s well past
nesting season / no babies to fall on the ground, so I’ve just ignored them
behind a wall of musical sounds as I wrote and edited today. Magical!
