Art, Animation and Adjustment

The word of the week is musing. No 'a' prefix necessary...

June 18 - Crystal Caves

You have to admit it, Superman had the coolest hangout pad at his Fortress Of Solitude, though it could have used some more fireplaces and throw-rugs for warmth. In a strange case of life imitating science fiction, the following is not: a cave in Mexico that is FILLED with giant crystals, just like in Superman! They even got the heating bit correct… actually no, they overdid it, as it's over a hundred degrees inside( Celsius!!!! )so you'd boil to death in less than thirty seconds unprotected. Go have a virtual look at this wonder of nature that surprised scientists when it was discovered only a few short years ago and dream of what it'd be like to visit the Fortress Of Solitude for real…

June 19 - Life without microwaves

Believe it or not, I don't have a microwave at my new place. This was a conscious decision, as we( my sister and I )both wanted to move towards eating healthier and not 'nuking' our foods. While I'm certain that a half-century of use has shown us that microwaves won't make your insides glow with regular use, I'm less certain that it's the best thing for my health. After getting our first electric bill, I was pleasantly surprised to see how LITTLE power using our stove has consumed to date. It's also rather easy to reheat things with just the stove, so eliminating a lot of 'nuke-and-serve' dinners from our repertoire will contribute towards making simpler, healthier meals.

June 20 - You want HOW much for that doll?

It's fortunate that I'm not a collector in any serious way, as I'd be so poor I'd have to house my collection in cardboard boxes in an alley next to me. I suppose if I was collecting toothpicks it'd be another story, but in the main I like anything to do with science fiction, fantasy or other things that are Just Really Cool. Things like this Black Widow 'statue' from The Avengers - yes, it's a posable doll, but I still prefer the term 'action figure' for coolness purposes. Take a wild guess how much it is… then double that figure to around what a well-tricked-out laptop would cost. Unbelievable… and there's LOTS of these kinds of collectables out there! I think they call them 'collectables' so they can charge more money, because I know that if it was ME I'd NEVER spend that kind of money on a mere new TOY that wasn't really rare and made me think of my childhood.

 But still: she looks damned cool all the same. So does the Iron Man poseable figure. Ah well.

June 21 - Victoria in Paintings

Living here in Victoria, I tend to take some of the views for granted like a lot of people do for the cities and places they live in. Heck, I was born near Niagara Falls and didn't go on the Maid Of The Mist until only a few years ago! Which is why we need artists: they view the world around them as art and try to bring our attention to it via their talents. Such is the case with Robert Amos, who has painted some lovely local visions of Victoria - check them out. I've always liked these kinds of paintings growing up, as they make 'mundane' aspects of the local area stand out for all their unique qualities - as art.

June 22 -  Pets are alien spies?

Yes, I do enjoy watching the animated show Kit Vs. Kat, in the main because it's just fun and not too serious. Which is a good thing in a show about cat-like aliens trying to invade earth. Which led me to an odd internet find: a site that purports that earth's pets are actually spying on us for their alien masters. It's obviously tongue-in-cheek, but the discussion on the site is lively and quite amusing at times. Also, now that the thought's in your head you'll never quite look at pets in quite the same way again, will you?

June 23 - TRON: Uprising

Today I tuned into a new animated show, thanks to the Disney XD channel - TRON: Uprising. And it's wow… I mean, incredible! The character design, the story, the graphics - all top-notch and it hooked me immediately. The music is stirring, the computer world of TRON is incredibly detailed and, well… ALIEN. As it should be. While my other favorite CGI animated series Reboot took a different path over a decade ago, TRON: Uprising has taken nods from our world but goes it's own way, yet still allows viewers to relate to what's going on. It's really just amazing to watch, minute by minute, to see how the story develops. I'll be there for the rest of the season as it comes out, for certain, not the least because the show has the voice talents of Elijah Wood, Lance Henriksen and Bruce Boxleitner - who was TRON in the original film!

June 24 - Inspiration through exercise!

Today was a good day for my novel; not in terms of actual words produced due to my left arm still being gimpy but in terms of IDEAS falling into place neatly. I went for a LONG walk today to the A&W waaaay north on Douglas, almost 5km distant. On the way there I cleared my mind as I listened to music( Enya )and thought about a few things as I ate. It was on the way BACK home that my Muse responded and popped out a dozen GREAT ideas that tied a lot of the story, characters, setting and more together. I think it was the semi-hypnotic state I was in, watching just the sidewalk move in front of me and paying attention only to staying safe at lights and roads. It was similar to the state I used to get into while reading in the car: I'd totally ignore the outside world passing by and just dive mentally into my books. Needless to say, I am excited about the ideas today and am working hard to integrate them in a meaningful way into the novel - also NOT to forget them, which is also a challenge as the mental state I was in when they came along is extremely important as well. I saw scenes and characters visually and  emotionally both listening to the music as I walked, which was fantastic; my Muse was really on today!

However, I have to be careful to be original and not fall into using an SF cliché ( like these )overmuch in my work, while NOT falling prey to the "Hey, that's been done before…" syndrome. Heck, look at the SIZE of that cliché list! I'm reading through it a few lines at a time so I don't poison my own work… sheesh.

 

It's coming into the last week of June now. I have a solid basis for my novel, a few chapters under my belt and no job at this time while EI figuratively breathes down my neck. All while my wrists continue to plague me and prevent me from digging very deep into my novel each day. I have an appointment with a sports injury specialist after seeing my doctor this week, but it's not until August. *sigh* It's a challenging time for me, to say the least… but I'm still FAR happier than I was this time a year ago; just check the blog to see. Until next week, I'll be adjusting to things as usual, so: adios!

Time, Tension and Takei

The word of the week is trepidation.

June 11 - Levity

June is looking to be another lean month; my sister hasn't been able to find steady work yet( and neither have I )so we're both relying on my generous EI - for now. Unfortunately, I was at a meeting last week( with a dozen other EI recipients )where I learned that EI will possibly audit me soon, in which they'll ask for tangible results from my search for jobs. So far, that's been pretty sparse: I do NOT want to go back into the financial world, nor do I want to work retail or in the food industry… which doesn't leave a lot for me to choose from. So this coming week I'm going to talk to one of the placement services here in town to see how they can help better direct my job search. To be honest, it's NOT something I want to do, as I desperately wanted the freedom to finish my novel over the next few months… but since my wrists have been making that dubious at best, I'll likely have to abandon the effort( at least as a primary chunk of each day )to focus instead on making ends meet for the rest of 2012.

That sucks.

June 12 - Jude Rocks!

With my wrists holding me back from my writing talents, I've been giving serious thought of late to voice acting: all I have to do is read my parts, not write them, so no wrist tendons are involved. I'm well-acquainted with the work of several dozen voice actors, having followed their careers from part to part with interest over the years. I've come to realize it's a serious business, like many other careers, and there's aspects to it that some might not find glamorous. But hey, if you can make a living from it, why not? I stumbled across a blog entry over at NT3R called "A Day In The Life" where the lucky writer gets to go in for a day at the studio with Christian Potenza, of 6Teen and Total Drama Island fame. It makes for some fascinating reading to get an inside look at the world of voice acting, where the emotional base of a character comes from for each episode of a show. Go Jude!



June 13 - Roll20

Well heck, I KNEW they'd come up with this eventually; I certainly didn't think it'd be as cool as it turned out to be. What am I talking about? Roll20, that's what: a simple bit of software to let ANY gamers playing ANY game do so online, with their pals, for FREE. Man, I wish I still had a gaming group to try this out with, but we've all moved on with things - no more Sundays At Simon's rolling dice and supping on salty snacks and beer. Though we did tend to play more Halo than DnD, as the years went by. Still, it would have been VERY easy for all of us to game, wherever we were, using this software… and I just love that it's FREE. Heck, that's always worth repeating!

June 14 - World Enough And Time

Incredible. Brilliant. Stunning. Those words and many more similar ones flew through my mind as I watched this fan-made episode of Star Trek; it was so well-done that I thought it was one of the OLD episodes that I'd somehow missed all these years! Seriously, it's really fantastic… AND it has George Takei in it PLUS his daughter! The acting in spots needs a little help and there's some MINOR plot twitches… but that's just me being picky. This episode ranks right up there with the best of the old Star Trek series, it's THAT good. The story alone had me taking notes; I'd LOVE to produce work of this caliber and see it make it to the screen intact! Bravo, Star Trek New Voyages - more, please!



June 15 - Novel Breakthroughs!

My writing was going nowhere all week, so today I had a brainstorm: why not try to set some scenes to music and see what happens? I have all these bits of scenes in my head, waiting to be blocked into place and written, but I'm having a VERY HARD time getting any sort of emotional attachment to the characters and the story in parts. So I went through my music collection today, listening to songs I knew and others I was less familiar with, trying to match songs with scenes… and succeeding! I came up with a few DOZEN songs to link to various scenes to play them properly in my head: I could visualize the action as I wanted to see it happen and so then was able to WRITE about it with the right emotional currents! At last, I have a handle on parts of the novel, far more than I had months ago. Getting a connection to the characters will be the next step as I keep fleshing out the plot points and working on their voices. Good news indeed!

 

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June 16 - Personal Space

Rainy, windy and cold: that's June in Victoria and today was a prime example. At the best of times today we had some back-lit clouds fighting the sun, on-again / off-again rain and general windy-blah-ness. I did get some good writing done up in the SkyLounge for a few hours, in the main trying to escape the pint-sized elephants that started trampling around 7am today and didn't stop all day - glad I have the SkyLounge to escape to! With some earplugs or music, it's VERY tranquil and relaxing up there. I'm alone with my thoughts with few distractions save some curious birds or the occasional siren or loud passing motorcycle. Definitely a blessing to be able to write up there, when my arms are co-operating.

A good portion of the evening was again spent fiddling with my computers. I installed quite a bit on my Linux box, which looks like it's going to co-operate to host most of my TV shows, movies and other media. I may even be able to get an old ATI wireless remote working, which would be sweet; there's a LOT you can do with a Linux box and I'm slowly going to add to it in the next few months. From what I can see, I can even add a TV tuner card to the thing( used / cheap, of course )and turn it into a PVR… but that presupposes that I have the time to WATCH the shows I record in the first place. As it is, I have hundreds of hours of shows on DVD that I have yet to convert to .mkv files for the 'Media Box' as I'm calling it - what's the sense of going to all that trouble if I'll never even watch 1/10th of the shows? Makes me wonder sometimes about what my brain wants to spend my time on…

June 17 - Thanks, Dad!

It was Father's Day today and we took my dad out to Venus Sophia here in town, an amazing place that can best be described as a boutique restaurant. It serves breakfast, lunch and tea sittings and is just the most elegantly relaxed place I can think of that doesn't feel pretentious or crazily expensive: both are right up my alley! It's also vegetarian and serves gluten-free foods, by staff who are quite obviously very happy and are very attentive to your needs; again, amazing for the prices they charge! It was a lovely relaxed lunch and my dad simply loves the place, which is located in Chinatown( but it's not Chinese, they have a rather multi-ethnic staff - very Canadian! )in the heart of downtown Victoria. After lunch we gave him a Father's Day gift: my sister's laptop, all freshened up and unloved now that she's latched onto the Blackberry Playbook I introduced her to a month ago, which is perfect for her needs and a LOT more portable than the laptop. Faster too, in many ways, but I digress. It was a lovely Father's Day, some of which we spent just sitting at Clover Point watching kite-surfers dodge whitecaps and seagulls making the wild winds look like child's play. The rest of the day was a blur of writing( novel and blog )topped off by watching Dodgeball with my sister AND the first episode of Arrested Development( she's never seen either before! )and that's about it. An early day tomorrow; maybe my alarm will wake me before the beasts above do.

 

Here's hoping.

I've a doctor's appointment tomorrow morning about my arms, to see what can be done to diagnose the continuing pain in my tendons. I can't go on like this, unable to lift more than a glass of water or to type a few dozen words pain-free. Crossing my fingers doesn't hurt, so that's what I'm doing tonight…

Rockets, Ramsey and Return Of The Jedi

The word of the week is depreciation.

June 4 - Why Buy New?

Buying used technology has been a mantra of mine for years, moreso because I balk at paying full price for products I know I can get for less elsewhere and else-when, for that matter. Used cars, older video games, computer hardware or cell phones that are a year old… all cost a LOT less than buying new and usually work just as well. I've felt the urge to have cutting-edge tech less and less as I usually don't have a full grasp of what I can DO with it right off the bat… or in the case of video games my current tech can't run it at full speed anyway. Why buy a game for $70 right at release when I can get a used copy for less than half that price in only a few months? I love to surf sites like Kijiji, UsedVictoria, Craigslist and RedFlagDeals.com to search for bargains and giveaways… heck, FreeCycle.org DOES have people giving things away that are perfectly usable! You can also head out to garage sales or swap meets locally… the possibilities are many and the costs low… why buy new, if depreciation costs so VERY much, I ask?

June 5 - Fan Pics from the desert

While I count myself a Star Wars fan( I've been one as long as I can remember )some people go FAR above the call of duty… without being slavering fanboys. Such is the case for a small group of fans who, back in the 1980's, traveled over TEN DAYS into the desert to find the secret set where Return Of The Jedi was being filmed. Incredibly, they FOUND it… AND were allowed to STAY! George Lucas told them they could film all they liked as long as they kept beyond the security fence and didn't interrupt the filming process - absolutely amazing compared to modern sets with private security forces and lawyers on standby. Here's a slideshow of what they found… and below is the video they took!



June 6 - Goodbye, Ray Bradbury

When I was a young boy in grade school, I devoured books; not literally, but I read everything I could find that was science fiction and later added fantasy once I discovered Tolkien. I remember finding a book called 'R is for Rocket' that was filled with SHORT stories… by Ray Bradbury. These were smaller flights of fancy more easily digested by a young reader, and I was hooked on the format. Ray( I feel that close to him )had a wondrous way with words, simple yet so powerful. His stories have stuck with me my whole life; 'A Sound of Thunder' introduced the consequences of time travel to my mind and it's never left. I think what I liked the most about Ray Bradbury though, was that he never lost the ability to just be a kid… and to a kid, this was a revelation: that a famous, successful author could STILL allow himself to just have fun. I've held on tight to that part of myself as well, and I have Ray to thank for it.

June 7 - Words…

This week has seen some positive gains in writing my novel. The backstory is really taking shape, with lots of ideas pouring in from my muse and creating a lovely balanced structure for the plot, characters, setting and more. I've re-worked Chapter 3 into a MUCH larger chapter and made inroads into Chapter 4, which should see our first look at the society of the invaders, from within. Putting it all together is very slow though, as I'm trying NOT to edit things as I go, just to GET them onto the page. Ideas keep percolating and turning into solid story bits, so getting those all down and shuffling them into a shape that supports itself is not easy. I am happy that the ideas are flowing so well, especially as they're not derivative or uninspiring… I just have to hammer the overall plot into place to know where I'm going and that's taking the most time.

June 8 - Out with the New, In With the Old

Over the years, I've sold, recycled or tossed a fair number of things. But I have held onto most of my favorite video games despite the problems they have running on modern systems. Even sites like GOG.com don't have some of my true favourites, like Klingon Academy, which came out in 2000. No amount of tweaking on my part could make it work once XP vanished from my PC's but I kept it still, hoping. It seems my yearning was shared by others, as a small group of folks over at KlingonAcademy.com have tweaked, patched and otherwise made the game perfectly playable on modern systems, under Windows7 even with multi-core CPU's( always an issue with old games ). Now Klingon Academy plays smoothly and has barely any hiccups whatsoever. It's better than it was when I first played it on my old Pentium system with barely 64 megs of RAM - sweet! I'll have to spend a little time in the next few months checking up on some of my other older games, to see if similar groups have managed to quietly make them work again with their coding magic.

June 9 - Writer's Conference and Meg Ryan

After spending the evening out last night at the local Beagle Pub, I was up early today to attend an all-day Writer's Conference hosted by my recently-made local friend Matthew. It was at the Ramada Inn here in town and went from 9:30 until dinnertime, with a break for lunch. I was one of a dozen people there, all of us writers( obviously )and we all got along quite well for the entire day. Matthew presented quite a few things to us, concepts that perhaps some of us hadn't thought of and on topics that we were all interested in, for becoming author's and successes. He answered questions as we went along and I found myself taking copious notes, as there was a lot to think about that I hadn't yet discovered in my own researches as well as spending time with the local Victoria Writer's Group. It was a day well-spent and apart from my shoe finding some fresh dogflop on my lunch break( it was a BIG dog too... *sigh* )the entire day was a total success in my eyes.



Too bad my wrists hurt enough by day's end from writing that I couldn't do much work on my novel in the evening, apart from picking at a few ideas as I could manage. I ended up watching a good portion of You've Got Mail, which is amusing for its 1998 tech as well as for the expressions on Meg Ryan's face… her OLD face, not the new post-surgery creation that bears little resemblance to the lovely one she had back then. As a quote from her 1994 movie When a Man Loves A Woman says, she has "600 different smiles" - so far, I've only seen 156, but I never get tired of trying to spot more in her movies.

June 10 - Cooking Success

There were a half-dozen back-to-back episodes of Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares on BBC Canada today, which I had going in a PiP window as I wrote. I find the UK episodes of the show FAR better and more honest than the sensationalized and dressy US series which plays up the drama far too much( like a reality show, in some ways ). One thing I was curious about was if ANY of the restaurants portrayed in the UK series were still open; it's been five or six years since the episodes aired and I wondered if some had survived or even prospered. I found this list of restaurants listed by season for the UK and the US and I was pleased to see some HAD survived: Momma Cherri's especially made me smile to see that they were still going. Sadly, most of the places had closed or been sold, though a little looking showed that some of the owners had re-opened new places to go on to better things. I find the UK series a refreshing look at the honesty that restaurant operators HAVE to have with themselves in order to be a success, which can apply to any walk of life, not just in a commercial kitchen. Take your lessons where you find them.

I worked on and off on my novel today, but the words weren't flowing nearly as they did on Friday; the few bits I did get down felt in no way related to the chapter as a whole, so it was a creative bust today. I did manage to get some computer gear going, but the one 'found' computer stubbornly refuses to give me a picture despite a new power supply. So I messed around with my home network today and managed to double the wireless speed, added in a secondary router and got my media server running - briefly, as I think a hard drive failed after an hour. Meaning it's back to the drawing board tomorrow - I'm done.

Tendons, Tech and Temptation

The word of the week is practical.

May 28 - Science Fiction

Tonight I was at my writer's group meeting, with a special guest speaker I had arranged to have there. Ben Coles, author of The Virtues of War, is a local Victoria author who self-published his book to critical and financial success. He gave us a wonderful two hours, speaking on his experiences as a new author and how his road took him from his initial draft all the way to having his novel on store shelves. It was extremely interesting to me especially, as the journey he took parallels my own to come as my novel progresses - I have a lot to learn but talking to someone like Ben makes me less fearful of the unknown road ahead. Ben also runs his own self-publishing company, so I have that resource to draw on in the future should I choose that route. E-publishing was also part of the discussion, which did a lot to de-mystify the subject: having an eBook doesn't hurt you in any way and can really boost the sales of your traditional book, according to Ben. It was a great, informative evening and I feel very privileged to have had Ben there to speak to us with good news and valuable tips from his experiences.

May 29 - Two for the price of Free!

In the last few days, I've been trying to get my 2nd PC working, with no success. It's a cheap old P4 that I've scrounged from eBay along with some old parts I've kept for just such a thing. It will be my 'media server' PC, that I can shove old spare hard drives into and use to serve TV series, movies and the like to the TV, as well as music... all that and probably some network backup too. I've been looking forward to having a 'spare' PC to play around with and given that I have a few terabytes of old hard drives here, there's no shortage of space to work with. Of course, I have to get the thing working first... and tonight I did, after discovering ALL my efforts were wasted: I looked inside the case to discover that the twerps at the factory had FORGOTTEN to hook up the power button's cord! ARGH! Such a simple thing and it cost me days of head-scratching... and this case is from Zalman, a company KNOWN for it's fine cases. To have them mess up such a simple thing is almost unbelievable.

Know what the irony of all that is? Today I found TWO complete PC's sitting out by the back dumpster, completely intact! One was missing the power supply, but otherwise they EACH still had their CPU's, RAM, DVD-ROM's and TWO hard drives each! I rather giddily hustled them inside and after dusting them out, I powered up the one - it ran perfectly AND even had Win7 installed! I'll as like end up wiping them and selling them on eBay for fifty bucks or so, but still... it boggles my mind that some people just toss things like these out, in perfect shape!

May 30 - Space Command is go!

The old space TV serials are a little before my time, but I can appreciate the contribution they made to getting science fiction into the mainstream. I loved Flash Gordon's adventures, so the idea of a new similar series making it to the screen in this modern age was rather appealing to me. Imagine my delight when I heard that a Kickstarter project with JUST that ideal in mind recently found itself fully funded in just 3 days - huzzah! Space Command is a series idea that springs from the mind of Marc Zicree, who has extensive credits working with television and science fiction in general including Babylon 5. He is a huge fan of the old space serials, like Space Patrol, and wants to create a series that is positve and hopeful of the future while having fun with some drama for spice. Check out his video pitch for Space Command, it's great:



May 31 - Happy Early Birthday, Mom!

Dinner tonight was with my family at the Waddling Dog Pub in Saanich, as tonight was All-You-Can-Eat Pasta night! Being part Italian, this spoke to me on many levels… I was just too busy eating to reply. We were out tonight to celebrate my mother's birthday two days early, as my dad had to work the next few days and it would have been impossible for all of us to have dinner together in the evening otherwise. Just like the last time we were there, the pasta was dimply delicious: we were able to add in any of two dozen ingredients as well as a dozen spices to make each dish exactly suit out tastes. And the portions! We needed two hands to hold the metric ton of good food that was served up; I was hungry for a change and STILL had to take half home with me! I can well see some people slipping into food comas eating this much… but I was merely pleasantly full and enjoyed the company of my family even more.

June 1 - Summer's Here

It's been a LONG time since I mentioned BACON in my blog, for various reasons. As some of you may know, I love bacon a LOT… and I don't like coffee a LOT. So I had to really stretch today when I picked up a Bacon Latte at Moka House Hillside - Bacon yay, coffee not so much. The fact that I got it for a dollar was icing on the cake: as part of a FBook promo, any drink was a dollar! Which was good, as the bacon latte… wasn't. It tasted very strongly of coffee and had no bacon-y taste I could detect; I was rather disappointed. Seeing as it was the first coffee I'd deliberately had in several decades, I was glad to be having it in the afternoon so as not to affect my sleep. Which it didn't. Bacon = zero, coffee = zero. Dang

Also on people's minds lately is the weather; it's rather cool here for late May and now early June. It brings to mind 'June-uary' back in 2010, which was rather cool as well - local news channel CTV ran a story about it this week. Brrr! 

June 2 - Day Out And About! 

Today turned into a total day out unintentionally, which was great. I did breakfast at the Blue Fox with my friend Kevin, then headed out of town to Langford to spend a few hours people-watching at the Starbucks on Goldstream. The sun was shining and a ton of people were out thanks to the good weather. I visited my mom for a few hours as well, as it's her birthday today and I'm again thrilled that she's still here to enjoy it given the crazy events of the last year with blood clots and the like. 2012 could have been a VERY different, sadder year...

Later in the afternoon I saw The Avengers for the second time and enjoyed it just as thoroughly. A lot of smaller details stood out this time around, as did the humour - the Hulk stole the show again. The shawarma scene at the end was still just priceless and well worth sitting through all the credits. You can really see on the screen all the effort that has been poured into the film and I'll enjoy it again a third time when I pick it up on Blue-Ray before the end of the year. High-Def Marvel goodness, yeah!

June 3 - Torn by Tech

It's so cool, but do I have a use for it?



I love cool technology... and yesterday I spotted the above laptop at Future Shop on the way out to see The Avengers. It has TWO 14" touchscreens instead of the normal screen-keyboard layout, which got my attention. What made my fingers twitch was that it was marked down from $1,199 to $699 ... $500 off - gah!! All day long today, my mind whirled with the question "What can I use it for?" as it usually does when I see tech I haven't come across before... and sadly, I couldn't find a solid answer. There is NO compelling reason for me to jump on this deal( aside from the still-hefty price )apart from simply looking cool while sitting in the local coffee shop. Which would get old fast, especially as the thing is easily twice the size of my current ASUS TF101 tablet, which DOES have an actual keyboard and so makes it comfortable to type compared to tapping on a screen. Much as it pains me( yep )I had to set aside my g33ky wants today and let the Needs dictate my actions... while making a mental note to keep an eye on eBay for the next few years to see if any of these Acer units pop up!

I slept in fitfully today, as I've rather tired for some reason of late. My arms have begun hurting again as well, so this week I'll be digging DEEP into all I can learn about stretching and recovering from CTS - I am tired of being unable to type more than a few hundred words an hour while in pain. I'm willing to suffer for my novel but not to the point of crippling myself into a state where I have to learn to type with my toes.

Burgers, Books and BrockU

The word of the week is graduate !

May 21 - BURGER DEAL!

Oooh, a discovery today! While I despise karaoke, I found out that a local dive( "restaurant" )called Soprano's has a special EVERY Monday night that just can't be beat: $5.00 for a burger, beer AND fries. Yes, that's right: a 'complete' meal for FIVE BUCKS. My sister and I checked it out for dinner tonight after a long day. The place is literally a hole( well, door... )in the wall. Inside, it reminded me of The Lion Tavern in Port Dalhousie: a bar that someone put together out of leftovers from other bars, painted brown every other year and replaced the TV's showing sports games when they burned out. I was surprisingly comfortable there, but perhaps that's because it was mostly empty. Also, the burgers were HUGE and tasty, probably due to the 'extra' bacon and cheese we each had( adding $6.00 to the total ). The beer was a house draft that went down well and the fries were both plentiful and tasty, in good portions. In the end we were both stuffed and the bill came to $17.50 after taxes... least expensive dinner and drink I've ever had. While we won't be back any time soon, we WILL be back, as a deal this good can't be passed up too often before it's gone. Unbelievably, they made CraveOnline's Top Ten Canadian Sports Bars… which is why I won't frequent the place, as sports bars AND karaoke together make my brain ache.

May 22 - Voices

Yes, voice acting is still on my 'career' horizon; again, it's something that doesn't have a built-in age limit to it. Heck, Stan Lee is STILL narrating things! So far, I've discovered that the best part about voice acting is getting to work with OTHER voice actors. When you line up a whole bunch of top voice acting talent like Billy West, Tara Strong, Maurice LaMarche, John DiMaggio, Kevin Conroy, Jess Harnell and Rob Paulsen at a convention - it's magic! Especially when they're reading the ENTIRE script to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope!



May 23 - Creative Thinking

You can put in all the hard work you want, but if you have the imagination of a doorstop, then you're going to plateau sooner or later. On the other hand, creative folks often lack the nose-to-the-grindstone work ethic that Gets Things done; I fall into this category some days as it can just seem like too much. Even so, I do manage to get a fair piece of my mundane day-to-day challenges finished. These past two weeks of moving have seen a lot completed domestically, but creatively it's been a bust, especially thanks to my friggin' arms - burning cables do not a comfy typist make. But I AM persevering and typing a little every day... even when my creativity ebbs low. One way to help get the creative juices flowing, to paraphrase an old metaphor, is to think outside the box. Five Embodied Metaphors That actually Foster Creative Thinking looks at five phrases you've probably heard a hundred times each, REALLY looks at them, to extract the useful truth that often hides in such simple things.

May 24 - What a difference a week makes: Degree?

When I last spoke to my adviser at Brock, she said she'd get back to me "in a week or so" - a month ago. I had been putting the thought of finishing my degree on the back burner as I said last blog post, so I was surprised to get a call today from her. She said she had some news…

I have already qualified for my English degree, she said to me.

Stunned, I gabbled out something like "That's nice. Really?" and tried to get my brain into gear to listen to her. Apparently since I'd last attended Brock back in the day( circa the year 2000 )they had eliminated( in 2011 )the language requirement, which is the only thing I was lacking. Current degree requirements were all met, she said; all I needed to do was to apply to graduate this fall… for a mere $35 and I didn't have to attend, if I couldn't.

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My smile nearly split my face all morning. I'm going to be a university graduate, at last!

Take that, naysayers… good things DO come to those who wait. Or procrastinate while attending the School Of Life. With that thought, here's Neil Gaiman giving an AMAZING speech to new graduates; HE never graduated( or went )to university either! :-)



May 25 - My feet and the street

Walking is going to be a big part of my daily activities for the next few months, at least until I can get access to an outside locker to store my bike at. I live within 30 minutes walk of almost everything I need here, which is one of the main reasons I wanted to be in the Fairfield / Cook St area. I refuse to take public transit for several reasons, in the main because I am cheap and my feet can get me most anywhere given that the weather here is excellent for walking almost every day. Once I get my bike relocated I can venture further afield, but again walking will easily take me to what I need close by; a bike will just make it faster and right now I don't need speed, I need exercise daily.

Today I walked almost ten kilometers, to get to various places - I have to plan ahead a bit, which I like anyway. I've been diligently using Endomondo to track my walks, so that i can get a solid grasp on how MUCH walking I'm doing in a week or month. One thing that's frustrating is that my phone( HTC Desire HD )tends to stutter when playing music while doing other things( like running Endomondo )so that's been a struggle - taking five minutes at the start of every walk to set up Endomondo and music and wait for the GPS to lock makes me wonder about when I should next upgrade my phone( when my novel is done sounds good! ). Still, just HAVING a phone that can do so much is wonderful as it cuts down on all the gadgets in one's pockets - so I'll learn to adjust to things, for now. Though I do covet the new Samsung Galaxy III...

May 26 - Yoga?

Eurgh. I couldn't fall asleep easily last night for some reason, probably due to the lingering excitement about my degree - still! So with barely six hours of sleep behind me, the kids above me pounded out of bed well before 7 am - yippee. They kept running and pounding and dropping things, so I dragged myself to the front room and endured it for an hour with earplugs, then headphones. Just when I couldn't take it anymore, my sister suggested I join her for yoga up in the Skylounge( as I am calling it ). I've never done yoga before in my life and while it was relaxing, the pain in my arms kept me from fully embracing it - for now. I can see it becoming a fairly regular part of my life, as I badly need to both relax AND improve my flexibility.

For the rest of the day I battled a simmering anger, which I knew was wrong but my lack of sleep kept me from dispelling totally; even a furtive nap didn't help. So I went back up to the Skylounge and wrote for a few hours, alone but for a few passing birds in a place with NOBODY on the floor above and with a view of the city, mountains and sky there at a glance. It was glorious. Soon, I will have worked out how to easily get some internet connections up there on the cheap; right now I am talking to Shaw about their EXO WiFi service, which would see FREE wifi for all the neighbourhood Shaw customers 24/7 if I can wrangle it. That'd make me very happy too!

May 27 - Being Elsewhere

The joys of living with kids… I feel like the ones in the apartment above are my own, since I'm up when they're up. I listen to them run around the place, drop things, jump off couches… touching, really. But since I can't take so much joy so early in the mornings, well before 7am, I am planning on being up and elsewhere well before then. Probably the SkyLounge, with a portable breakfast of some kind and my ASUS tablet so I can get some writing done instead of focusing on the various ways that I don't like being woken rudely.

 

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Since this was the second day in a row I'd had less than 6 hours sleep, I felt bleary-eyed and lethargic all day; even a short walk didn’t help. I didn't game online, I didn't do much around the place save read and take a much-extended nap during a quiet period above - boring, but that's all I had in me. The evening was more exciting, in a way, as I watched The Goonies( got it for $4.00, new! )with my sister for a nostalgia kick. What was GREAT tonight was that I FINALLY got to see the brief deleted octopus scene as one of the bonus features! And boy, was it cheesy, but that's what I expected. I still loved it. After, I watched a stellar episode of The Simpsons entitled 'The Book Job' which by chance was ALL about the business of writing… AND it had NEIL GAIMAN in it! I'd say the universe today was trying to tell me something, not subtly either. My arms are feeling better with a week's worth of mostly-rest, so I'm going to try to type more than a few paragraphs this week and see how it goes. I'm not comfortable talking to my computer, despite what you'd think, so being able to sit and type in my own unique half-trained way is very appealing to me. Catch you next week!

We're fairly well settled in at the new place now, so this week I'll make some time to take some decent pics of the place. My sister's interior design skills have really made it seem like a home, I think you'll agree when you see the images!

Darkness, Degrees and Difficulties

The word of the week is steadfast.

May 14 - Connections

I've been offline, save for my phone's connectivity, for most of last few days. Today I took the time to hook up my network gear, which surprised me by working fairly well spot-on right out of the box. At my new place I have a 25mBps connection, which is MUCH faster than what I had before; I'm more excited about the upload speed which should be 10x's my old limit, great for using online storage and other services. What I'm most pleased about is the deal I swung for cable TV and internet: for a total of $30 / month, I get basic cable AND the blazing-fast internet bundle guaranteed at that GREAT price for the next two years! Considering I was preparing to pay twice that for JUST internet alone, I am thrilled to bits... if you'll pardon the pun.

Moving: yesterday saw a TON of things removed from the storage unit, with less than half remaining today. So it was my dad and I taking two loads to Victoria, as my sister in still in Seattle until tomorrow. We managed fairly well, with me doing minimal lifting, though I can push things just fine, like a balanced loaded dolly. By day's end all that was left was the artwork, which is both heavy and large - so large that it won't fit into our van. I spent the rest of the evening unpacking as best I could.

May 15 - Doubly So: Just Moving thoughts

Today's the middle of the month, when we would have normally taken possession of our new place. Thanks to a very generous building super, we were in as of the 11th and have had 4 'extra' days to move in - I'm always astounded by the generosity of people I encounter and never take it for granted. The extra few days, along with moving from my parent's place, have meant that we didn't have to scramble to get everything done within 24 hours before the doors were locked behind us. It's still been a LONG week so far…

I rented a U-haul van today for a single trip to Langford and back to the storage unit. What I hadn't counted on was just how HEAVY the art was; between the large 72"x58" frame and the almost-as-large mirror was probably 200 lbs. My dad and I struggled to get those to the loading platform on the dolly, but were stymied as to being able to get them into the van itself. I had thought to roll the dolly right into the van, but the size of the art meant they had to be slid in sideways. Luckily another storage unit customer was there and helped us easily move them all into the van; kindness of strangers! Once we were in Victoria, we were again surprised with help, as my as-yet-unmet upstairs neighbour chatted us up as we arrived and offered to help us in with the art - again, amazing! Once that was squared away, we went up to my parent's place after dropping off the rental van( total cost: $40.57! )and loaded up a lot of odds and ends. That took us into the late afternoon and we finished up to go pick up my sister from the ferry after dinner.

May 16 - Degrees

Sometimes everything happens at once. Having left my job of nearly 12 years, I was eager to put the bad experience behind me and move on. One thing that came up recently was my returning to school for my degree, something I have put on the back burner for a long while as a pipe dream for when I had both the time AND money to do so. For the past few weeks I've made inquiries at UVic and Brock to see about finishing off my mostly-complete degree. It made sense to look into it, as I'm not working and have the time… sort of. Thinking about it, I'm not certain it would be a good idea, as I'd be taking a lot of time away from writing my novel to complete a degree that would have little impact on my life personally or professionally. So for now, it's still shelved… but not as far back as before, when I thought it would be almost impossible to budget for it. Maybe in 2013? We'll see.

Moving: today was my 'Techie Day' when I assembled and connected all my tech gear: TV, computer, xbox, DVD player and all the rest. While there's fewer cables now than there were in my setups even 5 years ago, there's still a LOT to be sorted. One thing about technology: it moves fast, so there's always new types of connectors, power-warts to plug in, etc. By late afternoon I had it all tested and working again, with everything in it's place. Just having my computer again was great, making it seem more like my home.

May 17 - The Boob Tube Lives?

I'm of two minds when it comes to having TV at my new place here. On the one hand, it's cheap entertainment at the push of a button without having to leave your home. On the other, it's SO easy to flick on the TV and lose hours of your day to non-creative activity, if you can call it that. I have hundreds of hours of shows on DVD( only partially converted to digital on my PC )plus dozens of movies, so I can't say I'd be bereft of entertainment if I didn't have cable. I was prepared to do without, and now I have TV with dozens of channels… tempting me away from productivity. Maybe I'll just lock the remote into a box with a timer set for 8 hours and see how that works out…?

Moving: still lots of running around today, helping my parents with shifting things around at their place( minimal lifting involved )as well as assembling a bed frame they had in storage. Still collecting bits and boxes of things like kitchen foodstuffs and other things tucked into corners and mixed in with stuff that's not mine. However it's been a GLORIOUS week for moving in terms of weather: sunny and warm EVERY day with no rain. At all. Perfect… if I wasn't busy moving, that is. But it's worlds better than slogging away in the wet!

May 18 - Writing and working for myself!

I've given some more thought to my novel this week, in between going box-blind and sorting-crazy. Self-publishing looks to be my route, firmly so; it makes no sense to sit and hope that my work makes it out of a slush pile somewhere onto the desk of an editor, when I can strike my own path on places like Kindle and Kobo. This article on i09.com does an EXCELLENT job of outlining the case for self-publishers making a living at their craft without needing to beg at the tables of the Big Six publishers for a handout. I'm very tickled at the idea of working from home, running the business of Me day to day and not being beholden to a corporation or even just someone else. I'm the one accountable; if I fail, then I'm only failing myself. If I succeed, then I'm sharing the spoils with nobody but myself and my audience. I like that.

Moving: today was just a whole lot of sorting, as most everything is unpacked. Going through all the things and getting rid of anything that didn't make sense to keep helped to pare down things to find permanent homes for here. I wish I'd had time to do it before the move, but when my family accelerated the schedule there was no time to do ANYTHING save pack it all into boxes. So today saw a lot of things tossed, recycled or donated as I worked my way through everything in my room, setting a fair bit aside to fill our closet-sized storage unit down the hall until I am able to see to it- a lot will be sold off on eBay or just donated as well.

May 19 - Dark?

You know your life is becoming more domestic when you get excited about... curtains. For me, they mean a DARK room I can sleep in on my own schedule, instead of waking with the dawn. Or the kids in the room above me, whichever gets me first. All this week it's been wakeup calls around 7am, which is not my usual bed debarkation hour, so I'm a bit knackered. I think for the summer I WILL make it my regular wake-time, as the short-legs above have no concept of walking softly. At all. So if you can't beat 'em( with a stick? )then join them, which I think will be better for my creative streak anyway; typing new words at the end of a long day well into the night hasn't really worked for me in the past. Maybe taking a hot tea up to the deserted sun room on the 5th floor might be a good habit to get into...?

Today my sister and I took a mid-afternoon break to go down to Cook St. Village to unwind in the glorious sunshine, the last bit of good weather for the week. We sat at Mocha House on the patio, taking in the activity; there was a group of schoolchildren all playing violins right out front with a sign that say 'Playing for ice cream' and they were rather decent for all that. I treated myself to a specialty of Mocha House called a Hedgehog, which was a ball of chocolate cake rolled in various nuts; it was heavenly. Being able to do things like that a mere five minute walk from my new place makes me so very VERY happy!

Moving: today most everything was completed; the living room, kitchen, bathroom and my room were all completed by late evening as both my sister and I by unspoken agreement just wanted to Get It Finished. I was very happy to soak my aching arms in a bath and collapse into bed with a satisfied sigh.

May 20 - New Home

The new place is great. Lots of room for my sister and I, as well as our things. As I've said previously, I'll be reducing my Stuff over the next few months, working my way through things to sell or donate. My goal is to eliminate the need for a storage unit, with the additional goal to open up more storage within the apartment once that's done. We're close to MANY great places: Beacon Hill Park, Cook St Village, Fort Street's shops, the ocean and downtown is only fifteen minute's walk. The area is lovely: lots of trees, incredible gardens, simply lush greenery that smells so fresh every morning. I'll post some pics on FBook this week, now that it's mainly put together and looks like a home with art on the walls and a distinct lack of boxes. 

Yes, the tendons in my arms still ache. No, I won't bore you with the details. Yes, it makes it HARD to type without pain. No, I won't give up writing my book because of it. That is all... for this week.

Moving, Mother's Day and Morlocks

The word of the week is MOVING !

May 7 - About my novel

Good news for my wrists: I played a few hours of Xbox on and off yesterday with no ill effects as of this morning. Considering that I did a lot of typing over the weekend( with many breaks )including typing out the blog Sunday night, I am quite hopeful that my CTS symptoms are in remission and I am well on my way to recovery. I hope that the next few weeks of moving will not be TOO hard on my wrists as I intend to do a LOT of writing immediately afterwards for the rest of 2012!

On the writing front, so far I have completed two chapters of my science fiction novel; a third chapter is mostly complete. I have outlined much of my world, in more words than I currently have in chapters, which is good: detail makes or breaks a novel. Too much and you overload or bore the reader; too little and the reader thinks you're not doing your job of telling a good story. So far I am VERY happy with the way my novel is turning out!

May 8 - Change of plans!

After much discussion today about time frames for moving, it was decided as a family that we would Move Early. As in, 'Not by May 20th, a few vanloads a day' but 'Get most of the book boxes and ALL of the furniture done on Friday.' Yes, THIS Friday, May 11th, a full week less than planned, which will make my mom happy. Seeing as she's helping to foot the bill for the movers, I'm inclined to go along with the plan. So I booked the movers today, same ones we've used the last 3 moves, though just 2 guys and a smaller truck this time.

Which also meant we have 3 days to pack up all my things in the condo. ALL of it into boxes, carefully and in good order. That's where I made a few trips today to bring a few loads of boxes INTO the condo; fortunately I am an old hand at that and know that most liquor stores are happy to get rid of their uniformly-sized, solidly-made empty boxes, for free. In fact, just ONE store today in Victoria provided ALL the boxes we needed for the move, which was great; one-stop shopping at it's best!

--> I have to say the weather has really turned around this week as well; cool days and on / off clouds have given way to blazing sunshine and blue skies, warming things up. It should be a glorious weekend for moving, if it keeps up!

May 9 - Pack and pack and pack

Packing took up ALL of my day today, into the later afternoon. I have a LOT of books, but I already knew that.

However, I took a break and went into Victoria today after 4pm to meet a former MMart friend for coffee. We tried to sit outside but the wind was gusting very strong and VERY cold in from the ocean so the patios were all empty for good reason. I ended up visiting at his place for a few hours, as we had both been invited to another ex-MMarter's birthday tonight. Happily, it was literally across the road at the 5th Street Bar and Grill, so we headed over there well after dinner to meet about a dozen more folks. We sat 'outside' on their covered patio, which was a square space with a four-sided fireplace in the middle and a few heaters that made it very comfortable. The food was all right( I had some stylish Mac N'Cheese )but it was the company that made the evening special. Everyone ended up sharing all sorts of NON-work-related stories, which was great. I headed home feeling full and happy on many levels.

Which meant when my crazy downstairs neighbour banged on the ceiling angrily after I had been sitting quietly in my chair surfing the 'net for over fifteen minutes, I wasn't really put out. From what I can deduce, they go to bed early, around 10pm, as they are up early. Being sensitive to sound, things like my walking softly in stockinged feet, or closing my mini blinds, apparently are over their sound threshold. I am SO GLAD that the place I am moving to has NO-ONE on any floor below save earthworms and Morlocks! I won't miss the last 3 months of walking on eggshells in my own room, afraid to make any sound above a tiny whisper after 10pm!

May 10 - More Weekday Packing

Going through my things as I packed ALL day today, I am again reminded of how Stuff can subtly come to rule our lives.

We work long and hard to afford to BUY Stuff. Better Stuff, cooler Stuff, fancier Stuff.

We then put a lot of the Stuff away after a while, as it's no longer Better or Cooler or Fancier. But we still keep it, as we paid a LOT for it.

My weakness are books, paperbacks in the main: I have over 2,000 books or thereabouts. I've mainly stopped buying them, due to space restrictions.

Other stuff I've hung onto for mainly sentimental reasons, but things like my old DnD books, some collectables and the like I will be letting go... but the dollar value, if any, that I regain will be a pittance.

But I'll be glad to see some Stuff gone, if only to clear space. Not for more books, though that's a thought...

May 11 - Moving Day!

The movers were here at 9:15am and we got to work; well, my mom and I did, as my Dad had to work and my sister was in Seattle for the weekend( her plans couldn't be changed when the Moving Plans were upped by a week ). Still, we had two efficient moving guys plus two of us and that made things go fairly well. A king AND a queen-sized bed were both loaded along with a couch / chair  / loveseat combo, plus other bits of furniture and dozens of packed boxes. We were on the road at noon and unpacking by 12:30pm. Most of it went smoothly, with little or no damage to anything, but the large couch was another matter. Having spend a fair deal of time removing the feet( due to my wrists I couldn't )the movers still couldn't get it in the front door of the place due to the low ceiling and cramped walls. So I went outside, measured and told them to put it through one of the front windows; bonus for living in a ground-floor apartment!  A few screws and a set-aside screen later and it was in!

The movers were done by 3:15 and we paid them gladly, as a week's worth of daily grind was done in 6 hours flat; huzzah! My mom and I spent most of the rest of the evening unpacking things

May 12 - Weekend un-boxing

Not much to say today: it was all about emptying the storage unit. My dad and I managed to get a few vanloads done and my friend Kevin spent the afternoon with my mom and I helping to unpack and move around boxes as my wrists were not in great shape. I could push boxes along the carpet( I have carpet now! )but not pick up much of anything with weight to it. By day's end we'd all managed to unpack forty boxes or so, plus another twenty I did in the late eve in a burst of energy; most of those were books, so I could just shove them along and unpack them en masse to the shelves in my room. Efficient!

Pics of the new place will come later next week, once most everything is squared away and nary a box can be seen...

May 13 - Mother's Day

My mom has been central to this move all week, tirelessly helping to pack and organize and unpack things. So today was a very special day, low-key as we always are with Mother's Day - we all gave her small things, with a mutual gift of a trio of different violets in a lovely planter; she loves those things. Just like we do her.

Back to moving... breakfast at the Fountain Diner was great, we left just as it was getting crowded well before 10am to take JUST my TV into town - it was the only aspect of the move I was worried about and it went flawlessly. My buddy Kevin helped us again to empty most of the storage unit today, a MAJOR accomplishment. We loaded probably forty boxes between my Mazda5 and his Mazda3 hatchback, which I nicknamed 'The Black Hole' because it kept taking in box after box. Fully laden, we headed to Victoria before 2pm again and spent a few hours unloading and sorting things. Kevin volunteered to do the lifting and pulling of the boxes onto the dolly, as my wrists had quit yesterday, especially the left one - I have to be careful for a while longer, it seems. The rest of the evening saw me go back  to Langford for another load of odds n' ends, especially electronics that my mom had packed very carefully. We waited until after 6pm to head into Victoria, as I'd noticed on the way out before 5pm that the highway into Victoria was jammed for kilometers with people heading into town for the evening with the fantastic weather - it was 24 degrees C here and as sunny as it's ever been. Another few dozen boxes were unpacked and the place is really starting to look like a home.... with boxes in the corners.

That's about all I have in me right now, as my wrists just can't take any more typing. So no pics or fancy aspects, just a blog... I even had to email it into Blogger as my tablet can't use the new Blogger interface to edit online, which stinks. Ah well - hopefully I will be better next week, as I am BEAT after a week of 14-hr days, with another day to go still...