Holgrams, Humour and Hunger

Well, we went from 5 comments the week before, to 0 comments for last week; kinda like the yo-yo stock market. Which may be good, as things go, so maybe no news is good news, in these turbulent(-ish) times. So this week's and next week's blog: minimalist. Cue applause.

Jan 12th - Sunshine and Vikings

Just a gorgeous Monday here in Victoria; sunny all day, highs around ten degrees with no snow. Of course, the lovely weather means lots of people out, and I get to see a lot of foot traffic from where I am, stuck in a glass box. Which is nicer than being stuck in a back office with no view on a sunny day, though less cruel in some ways. I really, really like the lack of snow here... makes me smile.

I almost didn't have an entry for Monday, apart from that, until I read about this movie: Outlander. It's a story that took 18 years to bring to the screen, it has vikings in it... and aliens. Looks like quite a film, as it has a ton of solid names attached to it, including John Hurt and Ron Perlman of Hellboy fame. Watch for it!

Jan 13 - Superpower Boxes

The apartment is stacked with boxes now, some of them higher than I am, due to the extreme lack of extra space. Having learned from my last moving experience, the boxes are now simply numbered with a master list kept by yours truly so as to avoid temptations for boxes labelled 'camera' to disappear en route. Fortunately it is a short move, as such things go, so I hope that the two days off I've booked will be more than adequate for everything needed to be accomplished.

No superhuman moving efforts from me this time around, as I've not the energy. Though I could wish for superpowers, sometimes having them is not all it is cracked up to be, as this blog shows us. I have a few books on second-string superheroes, which are great reading; not to be confused with sidekicks, these heroes are stand-alones whose powers are not quite up to playing in the big leagues.

I've always been a fan of the Wild Cards series, edited by George R.R. Martin, which takes the superhero and plunks the concept right down into a universe very similar to our own. If you've never read it, you owe it to yourself to pick up at least the first book in the series and have a read. S'good.

Jan 14 - 7 of 9? I wish...

Existence is a fragile thing, but usually you can get a handle on reality even if you need a few supplements to make the picture sharp. However, a new theory may blow the socks off that: researchers at a German facility studying gravity have found data that suggests the universe is in fact a supermassive hologram - no, I'm not kidding.

Maybe those researchers should call up the writers from Star Trek: The Next Generation... nobody else has greater experience with the ways of holographic life as those guys. Especially how it can go wrong.

Or maybe it doesn't matter, in a world where people are more than willing to escape to such places as Second Life, where they can craft a better reality much more appealing than their dull daily existence here.

Still, life is what you make it( heh - still life! ). Eventually you'll end up surrounded by family as you pass from this mortal coil, or the other extreme: alone in your vast mansion, surrounded by sycophants who are only there to ensure a place in your will for a piece of your vast fortune.

Either way is better than a lot of other alternatives... well, except for immortality, but nobody's quite got that figured out. Yet.

Jan 15 - Day 9 of 9 and a Visitor

Today just rolled by, as I was feeling rather beat on this, the last day of 9 in a row working. I was glad to go home and relax, despite the chaos of boxes all around. Most of my plates and cutlery are packed, with a few left for daily use, along with all my books and DVD's so entertainment is limited to the 'net and the Xbox... which will also be packed shortly.

I had an unexpected visitor at the door today, one who has been by to see me several times already. More on this next week, I hope, when I have pictures.

One nice thing is that the NWN group I game with has seen a rise in numbers since the holidays, with a surprising number of new players dropping in to see the server. I've been stunned to encounter several folk who had actually read some of my Nichneven stories, which tickled me no end, I tells ya. It's good to be 'established' in that regard, in that people arrive fresh to the server and already have a sense of 'place' when they wander around to explore. Warms m'heart, it does.

Jan 16 - Lunch on the Prairie

I was up early today( my 1st of 3 days off )to fill in my passport renewal application, which was a nice change from having to go through all the rigmarole of getting one in the first place. The office was right here in Victoria, which was also nice; it moved into the top level of the Bay Center, which makes it quite convenient to get to and as an added bonus for the employees, it is set next to the food court - lunch breaks!

I didn't have lunch there though; instead, I wound up at the Prairie Inn, a place out in East Saanich that was established back in 1859... which perhaps explains why there is no website for it. The pub decor is eclectic, the ceilings are low and the whole place has that ramshackle feel of rooms added one by one as the space ran out. But the food: that's what has kept this place open. I had a large turkey pot pie that was baked to a perfect golden brown, with just the right amount of thick gravy and a huge side Caesar salad. The chunks of turkey inside the pie were thumb-thick, perfect white meat... my parent's meals were equally generous in portions and equally perfectly cooked. We all left with take-home boxes and the feeling of being quite full.

I spent the afternoon and evening packing more boxes, thankful that I had kept all the old bubblewrap and other moving materials from the last move in my storage locker here. Makes the job easier in some ways, though as always it comes down to fill box, tape, label and repeat. When all is said and done, I expect to have over a hundred boxes all told, plus furniture and bags of various soft items like linens. One can only imagine how much easier this would be if every book I had was an eBook... fifty boxes right there, give or take.

Oh, and Battlestar Galactica had its season premiere tonight... which I didn't see, and don't plan to until after the move. For now, I will content myself with a few BSG webisodes, which may be the wave of the future: smaller, less expensive side-plots to the main show that fill in unanswered questions and such.

Jan 17 - Star Wars Nerds love bacon?

While g33k culture has flourished, the stereotypes of the geeky cousin, the nerd living in his parent's basement, remains strong in today's society. While I don't normally endorse ridicule of such unfortunates, I did come across a hilarious mockumentary of the D&D gaming nerd called Fear Of Girls, which oddly has a very spartan companion website - odd, given the series' popularity. The comic writing is spot-on, and the production quality is rather high overall, given the medium. Go have a laugh.

If you liked that, you'll snort milk from your nose when you see this: The first Star Wars Trilogy as told by someone who hasn't actually seen it... in less than 4 minutes.

And what would this blog be without mention of bacon? This week, for those of you with a BBQ gleam in your eye for the first day of spring( months hence )I present: the Bacon Explosion!

Jan 18 - Half-Life 2

While I was out yesterday, I picked up The Orange Box fairly cheaply at EB Games. I've been waiting a while to get this compilation set, simply because my old PC couldn't handle it: it contains HalfLife2, both expansion Episodes, Team Fortress2 and the award-winning Portal... well, HL2 won a bunch of awards too, you know. I played it on and off all day, in between packing various things, and eventually played it well into the late hours of the night. I have to say I loved the graphics for the characters, but the background objects left something to be desired: often ladders and such appeared, well, flat... which is bad for a 3-D game. The story is decent, and the gameplay itself is solid... there are even such notable actors as Lou Gosset Jr and Michelle Forbes, who is also voicing a character in the upcoming Chronicles of Riddick videogame. Eventually I stopped playing, due to a combination of fatigue and the onset of a headache... the high pressure system here is still hanging around, which is great for the weather bu lousy for my constitution.


More cardboardy goodness next week, as I discover where I hid those missing parts for my computer... plus tell you about my visitor. Don't forget, you can always review my past blogs from the menu on the left, by year and by month - click on the triangle / arrows to see a month-by-month listing, etc.

Irony, Illuminations and Characters

All things considered, a fairly pleasant week. Alligator-wresting coming up in August.

July 21st - Sleeping in Light

Opening the store was no chore today; I stopped at Subway for both breakfast and lunch on the way to work, so that was nicely different from the norm. Too bad their 'Breakfast Stuffers' are so greasy... but then, most fast-food breakfasts are just that: grease. Ah well.

After a pleasant day at work, I hauled out my portable hammock to shady spot in the front of the building by a nice hedge, to read and relax. I even chatted a bit with my neighbour Laurel, who spotted me in the tree-shade from her window across the way. Great neighbours here!

That evening, I watched the final episode of the B5 series, "Sleeping in Light" which I have not seen for nigh unto a decade now. It was amazing; the sheer emotion of the actors performances got to me now as much as they did then. It was a long, moving and fond farewell to the series that swept you along, closing doors gently for the last time before the lights went out and we left the place for good. Having watched the entire series from end for the last few months, I was quite moved by the episode. Saying 'goodbye' to those characters, who had been constant companions each day for the last little while, was not easy now or back all those years ago. Which is what I have always loved about the series: that the writing was of such a level that the characters were ones I could truly care about, and not just think of in terms of plot constructs or mere character traits. As a writer, it's just amazing to watch, even for television. And JMS is still going strong on other new projects.

Oh, and did I mention he wrote SpiderMan for 6.5 years? *grin*

July 22nd - See Above...

I re-watched "Sleeping in Light" today with the DVD audio commentary by creator/writer/producer JMS, which was moving in itself. It was his show, his baby if you will, and this was his commentary on letting it go; as he said, he'd not seen it either since it was last aired in 1998( another eventful year for myself, I might add... ).

It was amusing to see JMS briefly play the part of the tech who turns out the lights on B5 at the end of the episode - something he'd apparently wanted to do since the first day of shooting. Poetic, in a way, and touching. Now I'll have to wait a few years to re-watch the series, though in the meantime I have Crusade, as well as the B5 Movies to watch... but in a little while, as I need a B5 Break. Maybe some Alias...?

July 23rd - Weather and Writing

Wow, rolled out of bed with bleary eyes and a loggy head. Could be the weather: we've clouds here for the first time in weeks. Not that it's made much difference to the temperatures; still cool in the mornings and evenings, with a decent patio-level warmth for lunchtime. Just hard to get used to cool summer nights in July; sitting out at the Kilt and watching the beer glass sweat at midnight seems so far away right now... oh wait, it is!

My writing has been progressing nicely, with ideas popping up all the time to be madly scribbled down or typed into the PDA. It's a sign of a relaxed mind, free from idea-killing stresses, when the creative thoughts flit fast and furious at times during the day. I am trying to get in at least an hour of writing a day, be it blog, tech articles, stories or just plain idea-gathering for later.

July 24th - Late Exercise

I was late today for work first time in a long time. Good thing I was opening the store, and only live 15 minutes away at a decent clip on the bike; I managed to get the store open on time with most of my opening chores done properly too... nice when the job experience pays off. Plus, I felt rested for once..

All this exercise seems to be doing me a world of good, as I've lost a fair deal of weight since arriving in B.C. Not that I was all that large to begin with, but since 2005( when I was at my heaviest, close to 200 lbs )the weight has slowly changed to muscle or vanished. Though I am not in 'fighting shape', I am mostly trim and so have a good 'base' to work from, once I get my 'galling' operation late this fall( I think ). After I am fully healed from that, the planned exercise regimen will begin, to get myself physically in line with where I am mentally. Combine that with some intensive improvement in my cooking skills, and I should be 'sitting pretty' by this time next year. Another long-term Goal Accomplished, hopefully in 2009.

July 25th - Dureena and Nichneven

I slept a little better last night, knowing I did NOT have to be up early in the AM. After a leisurely breakfast( not a brekky, sadly )it was to the keyboard for a few hours, typing away at a few story ideas that have floated around in my head the last few days.

Before work, I downloaded an episode of the Babylon Podcast, and listened to it on and off during my shift. The main feature of the hour-long show was actor Carrie Dobro, who played the sexy Dureena Nafeel on the too-brief B5 spinoff series Crusade. While watching an episode of that series today, I was struck by some aspects of her character being similar to my own creation, Nichneven: both are thieves, both have unusual eyes / exotic appearances, and both kick some ass. Aside from that, the characters are not so similar that I feel I've infringed on a JMS creation, but rather that it's obvious some of Dureena stuck with me some 7 years after I last saw the show on-air. Which speaks well of her design and how she was portrayed by Dobro, who apparently loved the character... which was made with HER in mind by JMS. Symmetry!

I also find it amusing that I seem to stumble across these things YEARS after the fact... like discovering that there WAS such a thing as the Babylon Podcast. *sigh* Irony...

July 26th - Luminara Festival

I did the usual morning laundry, getting downstairs early to get the ball rolling before anyone else. A good thing too; I got a call mid-morning from our downtown store that someone had called in last minute and they needed help... for overtime, no less. So I agreed, as it was only a 4-hour shift and I'd be helping them out, besides. Just like back in Niagara; I'm used to it. Turns out it wasn't a bad shift after all, with only a few crazy customers and only one truly obnoxious person... not a total jerk in sight, which surprised me. Maybe I caught them napping today.

Tonight was the Luminara Festival in Beacon Hill Park, so I stopped briefly at home to grab my camera and cycled over to see if anything was still glowing after 9pm, once twilight hit. It was interesting, and quite crowded: thousands of people showed up, many of them dressed in fanciful costumes with various light sources built-in, the most common being glow-ropes. Thousands of lanterns were all over the park, tended by many volunteers to ensure they all stayed lit.

Again, I love the fact that Victoria has SO MUCH going on all the time. I live in a quiet neighbourhood, yet I am only minutes away from downtown and all the events that usually take place there. Heck, I am minutes away from the Provincial Legislature, for that matter - but politics has never been my thing. Did I mention irony already in this blog yet...?

July 27th - Nostalgic Irony

Sunday was another day of relaxation - go figure. *grin* Again, five of us were online for CoD4, which I didn't embarrass myself too badly in this week. Perhaps because I only gamed for a few hours, at which time things came to a sudden stop when three people left suddenly, leaving Lucas and I holding the controllers, so to speak.

Damn but I miss PnP gaming with my friends, despite the downhill slide it took in its last years. The gathering of friends at various homes on a Sunday afternoon, to vest our time in adventure and take on tasks that took us away from the ordinary of the world we normally inhabited - that was special. All geek-ness aside, it was magical at times, funny at other and always different, despite the inevitable slow days and dull spots. Looking back now, I see that I was often an observer, moreso than a lead-by-example from-the-front in the ways I played my characters. I think this was often due to the way I saw each gaming sessions, especially in university: they were escapes from the stress of the day, which often in those days was intense and unrelenting for me. Yet again it was the shared adventure( albeit imaginary )in the company of good friends that engendered the fond feelings I recall to this day. Some of those stories and memories will always be with me, untarnished by time. I hope to write down a few of them, alongside the copious notes I often took, to preserve the joy and fun I felt before they fade o'ermuch.

Then there's irony at work again: this GREAT animated video of a character similar to Nichneven. Someone out there is tweaking my nose, but I'll take it as I enjoyed seeing a creation similar to my own given 'life' through the magic of animation. Though the accent is a bit suspect... *grin*

I have finally found a free image-hosting site( ImageShack.us )whose services are actually simple AND user-friendly, so expect to see a LOT more images in future blogs. I will ALSO be updating most of my previous entries, as time permits, in the next month, to add pictures to them as well - no sense in just writing about things when I have pictures to go with those words too!