The word of the week is glissade.
Aug 29 – Math Hustle?
Math has never been my strong suit.
Anything more complicated than basic
addition or subtraction, with maybe a few percentages thrown in, always makes
my brain hurt. I put it down to a combination of the lack of practice and a
it's a rare thing in my life when I need to deal with mathematics more
complicated than can be found on your basic five-dollar calculator.
But, sometimes you need the math
skills on your side:
I’ve tried, and I still can't figure
out who owes what to who in the above example. Unsurprisingly, the internet
hasn't been any help either. I'm probably overlooking some simple aspect of the problem, like wondering how many watermelons I have left...
In a very rare reach-out, I ask you:
who owes who what, from the above comic? Feel free to use the comments at the
bottom of this blog!
Aug 30 – Life Levelling Up?
What if life was a video game?
I really like it when creative folk
make informational videos about topics that people take for granted, or
summarize things neatly in a graphical way.
This particular video below looks at
the average human life as a character in the videogame, and treats their
lifetime accordingly with brilliant satire:
Aug 31 – Drafting
Two years ago, I finished my first
novel's third draft.
This year, I set a goal to finish by
the time the left for vacation, or at least by the end of August... and if I
hit the first goal, I'd take the remaining time off!
By working hard( and continuously )for
the last two months, I hit the earlier date, meaning I have rewarded myself
with the last 2 weeks 'off' from writing, including the time I spent down in
the USA for the eclipse with my girlfriend's family.
In the meantime, I printed up /
emailed out a half-dozen copies of my fourth draft for beta readers to review
and give feedback on. I've included with each an updated copy of a
questionnaire I hope will zero in their feedback on specific parts and aspects
of the draft, such as plot, character and so forth: things that I'm concerned
that I've improved properly without going overboard since the previous draft.
It'll probably be about a month
before anyone gets back to me, so in the meantime I'll be digging back into the
draft for Book 2, which has been waiting for almost 2 years... but I now feel
better qualified to be working on it again, as its complexities meant I needed
to become a better writer before I could finish it.
Time, as always, will tell.
Sept 1 – Healthy Normalcy?
I've been feeling really balanced
this week.
An ultrasound on Monday revealed no
abdominal abnormalities, though the subject of my right kidney came up again in
that there's a small abnormality still inside. But since it hasn't changed
since it was first detected in 2014, there's little cause for concern apart
from keeping an eye on it on a yearly basis or if anything changes - I'm not
worried, and neither is my doctor, so no need to get anxious.
My weight's almost back to normal,
around 155lbs, which is excellent! I'm eating a full range of normal-sized
meals again without effort or getting full too soon. While I'm still taking
digestive supplements, I've cut them back to 1/2 or even 1/4 doses with each
meal, as my 'throughput' seems to be perfectly fine at those levels.
I'm also far more energetic this
week, waking up at the same time each day and getting tired at the same time
consistently, with solid energy levels throughout the day. I'm getting in
around 10K steps a day with NO pain from my right leg; only the occasional
twinge, and I'm sitting easily at work without needing to shift around, which
has NOT been the cast for the last six months! The massages in particular have
helped loosen my psoas tendons, which had shortened due to my sitting at my day
job for too long without compensatory exercises to counter...
My abdominals have also been solid,
so much so that I've had to remind myself NOT to just jump up or twist around:
it's been a LONG time since I've forgotten that ab pains are only a bad move
away, and I'm hopeful that this will be the norm again soon. I credit lowering
tension, weekly massages and nightly treatments with a heating pad all with
helping my abs loosen their crazed grip!
Overall, I'd say I'm feeling around
90% normal, and should be back to 100% within a week or two, with caution and
patience. I'll be getting back on my exercise bike, as I've already said, with
caution and more patience, determined to get myself back into a healthier level
of fitness by the time 2018 rolls around.
No more daily pain, anywhere, is the
goal!
Sept 2 – Saanich Fair Pt.1
My lady and I went to the fair
today... and WOW, it was hot out!
We were planning on going anyway, but
our friends in the Victoria Model Shipbuilding Society were doing their
annual demo at the fair and needed volunteers to man the demo pond, so we
signed up and got( well, I did anyway )free tickets to the Fair.
We showed up around 1pm, taking our
place at the end of a long line of
traffic, since today is the busiest day for the Fair. We proceeded fairly
quickly to park at one end of the extremely-large field, hauling our boat and
gear to the front entry:
Once inside, we found our way to the
boat pond in the middle of the Fair rather easily, and were gratified to see
that it was at the rear of a large building that shaded it nicely for most of
the morning until late afternoon. There were a dozen club members there, and we
set up our gear, then popped out briefly to get some lunch. I was rather hungry
and grabbed some nearby Ali Baba pizza, while my lady opted for some
asian food( Korean? )that she said was perfectly delicious.
The afternoon was HOT, getting up to
around 35°C but at least the humidity was low! The fairgrounds were packed with
people, and you could see everyone was really feeling the effects of the sun by
late afternoon, as there was limited shade and no cool breezes as the grounds
are located in the middle of the Saanich Peninsula away from any bodies of
water. Hot, dusty and sun-baked!
We really enjoyed ourselves, just
driving the boat around( I hit the sides too damn often because of the
limited space / turning radius of my large boat ) and entertaining curious
passers-by, especially the kids. We had hourly rubber band boat races just for
them, which proved quite popular:
I was also really impressed with the
new battery I've purchased this summer, a 5000 mAh 3-cell unit that I've got an incredible deal
on from an Amazon dealer in Turkey, of all places. For the price of onebattery from a seller like Venom, I received TWO batteries... and even though
one of them failed after a few days, the seller refunded my entire
purchase, so the battery was essentially free! It ran the boat for hours today
yet the voltage barely dropped( by a mere 0.4V )after all that, which is really
incredible! It bodes well to running my more powerful PT boat in the
future, once I get replacement motors installed in a month or so.
My lady and I headed out before 6 PM,
feeling hot and tired and slightly sunbaked, so we made a beeline for Bubby's
Kitchen in Cook Street village where we sat on the patio and soaked in the
cool breezes from the nearby ocean - it was the perfect way to wind down
from a hot day!
Sept 3 – A Day Out
It was a bit of a busy relaxed-Sunday
today.
After spending the morning catching
up on chores at home, my girlfriend met me after lunch and we headed out to
find a good spot to play some boardgames for the afternoon. We settled in at
Union Pacific Coffee in the area north of downtown, seated on their cozy back
patio that's mostly shaded from the Sun, with an overhead arbor and plenty of
green growing plants. We played our newest game, Treasure Lair, which we
picked up in the states and is a good deal of fun once we'd become familiar
with the rules. It was quite enjoyable, being a card-based game where you form
a party of heroes to try and complete the randomly-generated quests in each
game. We managed to get through a full game despite a very determined wasp who
wanted my cookie - no way, fellah!
After that, we popped over to the Marble
Slab Ice Creamery, where we shared a banana split while playing a few games
of Hive. Out of five games, I won three, which I think is a new record
for me as my girlfriend would regularly best me up until now. We finished off
the evening with dinner at Azumi Sushi,
where I really enjoyed the huge bowl of go to sleep chicken teriyaki soup, and
promptly forgot to take the leftovers with me - doh!
This is the long weekend, I have
tomorrow off as well, and I'll be back at the Saanich Fair again in the afternoon
for a second shift with my lady will be better prepared( I'll have a sound
speaker for the boat ) and I expect will be able to see more of the fair,
since it's not likely to be as busy as yesterday.
I had to actually close my windows
while writing the blog this evening, as the microphone I'm using was picking up
the loud voices of passersby, which was the first.
