Blueprints, Bond and Bombshells

The word of the week is stunned.

November 19 - Headaches

One of the apps I use several times a day on my phone is a barometric pressure reader called Barometer Monitor. It charts a graph showing the current and historical pressure readings in my area, in an image like this:

It's incredibly useful, as I can now track real-time how my headaches( as such )develop from the atmospheric changes. Rather than checking a website that's updated only every hour( and when I can GET to checking it! )I can instead just glance at my phone. It's really helped me avoid taking unnecessary medication when the pressure's not climbing or falling rapidly, which I'd rather not do. I love technology and my SIII especially!

November 20 - SHOCK !!!!!

Today was bad.

My sister was let go from her job today, for NO reason other than one of the doctors she works for took a dislike to her. Which, knowing my sister, means he's an idiot. Certainly all the other staff were shocked and angered by the out-of-the-blue dismissal and told her so. She's a wonderful person and GOOD at her job, so to have something so petty cost her so dearly is maddening. But it was made to look like 'You are just not working out' with petty examples, so she can't easily claim a wrongful dismissal...

Which means that we're BOTH unemployed now. With no income.

I've been applying steadily to jobs in Victoria, with no results. Not a single one.

So I need a job, even loading grocery bags.

It's bleak, but reality isn't fair. I'm going to pound the pavement harder, as it comes down to being PERSONABLE: getting in the door, introducing myself to a company and taking it from there. I can no longer afford to rely as heavily on my resume` as just being a sheet of paper to companies looking to hire isn't working.

What a day.

November 21 - A good deal

Obviously right now I'm trying to conserve funds, but some things you just can't pass up. Especially if you've been waiting a while and they're not expensive. So let's be upbeat...

Case in point: a charging stand for my sister's Blackberry Playbook, which she loves. The USB charging port on the bottom has a tendency to wear out and get wobbly over time, so I've been trying for a year now to source one of the 'Rapid Charging Docks' that uses inductive charging and this avoids having to plug a cord into the USB. But the things normally retail for $70 new and even eBay see them go for around $30-40 plus shipping.

But today, a post on RedFlagDeals.com said they were on sale for $14.99 at Staples, though they were going quickly. I called BestBuy( twice, as the first call went dead )and got a price match for TWO chargers, for a grand total of $21.72 with tax and shipping. How? One of my local Staples still had a single charger left in stock, so the BestBuy rep was able to match AND beat the price… plus anything over $20 gets free shipping. So I finally scored a deal for very little, thanks to keeping an ear to the ground and being patient for almost a year. Yes!

It's also likely the last 'extra' money I will be spending before 2013, along with one other exception below on the 24th.

November 22 - Waterfall Hotel

I like waterfalls and forest settings, so when I saw this, I was enchanted by the combo:

It's a hotel in Chile, built to look like it was carved out of a stone hill. It's inside a national park, so the setting is very calm and tranquil. The water from its peak splashes down every few minutes onto the moss-covered surface.

It's just cool. I'd like to go there one day. When I can afford it.

November 23 - Black Friday

I didn't know Black Friday was now a Canadian thing, but apparently retailers here have jumped full-force on the bandwagon to follow the American post-holiday sales frenzy.

Which is good for the wallet, but bad for your health if you get trampled in a store.

Not needing anything this year( and not having the budget for purchases either )I skipped all the sales save for one small purchase of a game I've waited over a year for:

It was on sale for only $19, a real bargain, so I gave in and picked it up. It also helped that I waited long enough to have upgraded my video card earlier this year, so it looks incredible on the TV I have now. Sometimes patience is rewarded; in this case, for the second time this week.

I'm using that as an excuse to feel good and lift my spirits.

November 24 - Skyfall

Today's main event was going to see the new James Bond film Skyfall at the IMAX, though not in 3D. It was a celebration of Fifty Years of Bond and I have to say I think they knocked it out of the park. The pace was stellar, building throughout the film, with nods to the history of the franchise sprinkled expertly throughout. It's more than two-hour running time went by in a flash, with incredible performances from all the cast!

Only two things bothered me though, so stop reading here if you haven't seen the film.

Ready?

One: the fact that one of the women that Bond was involved in was so… casually… disposed of, irks me. She's killed and forgotten about almost immediately, which is not acceptable as she was rather memorable, as all Bond Girls should be. It annoyed the writer in me, who wanted her death to mean something at least; instead, it was empty.

Two: the idiotic use of a flashlight in the ending action scene was, well, dumb. I mean, if you're fleeing the bad guys in the dark, don't wave a BRIGHT LIGHT around on an empty field! Sheesh.

November 25 - Epic Blueprints

Sonofa…

Sometimes, life likes to waggle its fingers in your face, saying "Nyah-nyah!" and today was one of those days. Why?

Because Star Wars: The Blueprints Book went on sale for 50% off until Nov 30th.

This is the ultimate, no-holds-barred, Thing That I've Most Wanted since I first saw the films as a kid. I've collected all sorts of details in pseudo-blueprint form from many sources over the years, but never has there been so MUCH technical goodness crammed into a single volume until Epic Ink created their masterpiece last year.

For $500 USD. And it's half-off right now; still pricey.

I'll just sit back and admire the thing, knowing that there's only 5,000 of them out there and eventually, one day, a copy MAY make its way onto AbeBooks.com or eBay. I hope.

Because I sure as heck can't afford the thing right now. But I can dream.

Which means I'm going to bed now and waking up to a new, positive week, I hope. All I need is one phone call to bring me in for an interview and I know I will knock their socks off, in all the good ways. Just one call. Hear that, universe? Ring me up this week!

Deals, Dell and Doldrums

The word of the week is patience.

November 12 - The Fionivar Tapestry

There's quite a few fantasy series I've read over the years, but few that I would re-read every few years. The Fionivar Tapestry by Guy Gavriel Kay is one of those and this weekend I read the trilogy straight through.

The original three books I picked up back in 1990.

It was even better than I remembered! It's been at least six years since I read it last and this time it was an emotional roller-coaster ride. I'll admit I was brought to tears more than a few times as I read the three books of the trilogy, something that rarely happens with me. Kay's writing taps deep emotional roots in the reader while drawing on many myths and legends from various cultures to create a literary tapestry in truth. His world is convincing, his characters compelling and his story engrossing… so much so that my entire weekend went by in a blur as I read. It was wonderful and I hope that when I read the books again in a few more years, I'll bring a different experience to them and treasure the experience all the more.

 

November 13 - Lucky Oskar

For many years, we had a blind cat named Truffles in our family who was a medical miracle. He was a sweet, quiet cat who had the most amazingly huge spread of whiskers I've ever seen, compensation for his lack of sight perhaps. His blindness didn't stop him from living normally in all of our homes, as he memorized the positions of furniture and made sure to stay out from underfoot. He was a wonderful pet and companion.

I've just found a video of an amazing cat named Oskar( see below )that brought back memories of Truffles when I saw it. The fearlessness I see in Oskar reminds me that disabled pets don't know they have a disability and just go at life with all they have anyway. Oskar is very lucky that he was found by a couple who could see what a wonderful animal he is and not be blinded by his simple lack of sight.

November 14 - My stolen PDA returns after 2.5 years!!!

Out of the blue this morning, I received a call from the Langford RCMP: they had recovered the PDA that was stolen from me on a bus in April 2010! Apparently it was part of a cache of stolen items recovered in a raid and since it's a fairly unique item, they tracked it down to me from the report I'd filed at the time.

I met with an officer a few hours later and confirmed that the PDA was mine, from the still-present Hitachi 4gb Microdrive inside - the thing's very hard to remove, so nobody had bothered! I was ecstatic as he gave it back to me, as the PDA looked to be in great shape and I hope that the battery will still function, once I get a charger from eBay for a few dollars. In the meantime, I wrote up a report on the incident again and gave it to the officer, in the hopes that it will help with their current investigation... I'd love to see the guy who took it face justice, as I can still see his smug face on the bus. On a side note, the V51v is almost the exact size and weight of my new Galaxy SIII phone… I smiled when I noticed that detail.

Amazing. I'm just thrilled, as I never thought I'd see my PDA again!

November 15 - Pert isn't a Plus after all???

I've been using Pert Plus shampoo for many years, like millions of other people. It does a good job and I make it last, which helps my budget.

Yet it seems that the stuff has some hidden nasties in its formula, according to an article on Yahoo! this week. The items of concern are 1,4-Dioxane( a carcinogen )and phthalates( causing male reproductive issues ), neither of which show up on the list of ingredients. Most worrying is that the toxins build up over time, so for all these years I've slowly been adding to their levels in my body.

Which means it's time to start looking for a new brand of shampoo. I'll be sure to check the lists for chemical content before deciding, as I don't want to trade one problem for another.

November 16 - Living Freakin' Dolls ???

Body modification is not my thing, but I can appreciate to some degree why people want to adorn themselves with tattoos or body jewelery as forms of artistic expression and individuality.

But to modify yourself so extensively that you look like a living Barbie Doll? Really?

Read the article for a fuller coverage of her alterations

Valeria Lykyanova is only twenty-one and she's already had more plastic surgery than most people on this planet would even contemplate in a lifetime. I can't fathom the reason why she would do this to herself, though I might guess that she has image and confidence problems? Still, that's an extreme way to deal with them. 

Yet she's an adult and if she wants to( and can afford to )modify herself to suit her tastes, who's to say otherwise? Having freedom of expression in one's culture is a benefit for most, but I wonder what her life would be like if Valeria didn't have all the attention she's getting from millions of people. According to this article, she doesn't seem to live in a reality like that of most people… which perhaps would explain part of why she changed herself in the first place: reality isn't that interesting to her.

Right now, I can kind of relate... but I'm not going to make myself look like Ken.

November 17 - The Bright Side

While there's been a few hours of sunshine here and there this week, for the most part it's been overcast and/or raining every day. I've made use of my sunlamp every day to stave off the doldrums; the bright light does help mitigate the ceaseless grey outside to a degree.

Sometimes though, you need a little more, and this ditty pops into my head regularly when I'm feeling a little down. It perfectly suits my sense of humour, far moreso than dancing kittens or the like:

November 18 - Auctions

Today I had two items being sold on eBay: one was the Motorola RAZR phone that I won last month in a contest and the other being a lovely set of Logitech Z-5500 speakers. I decided a few weeks ago that I was going to keep my Samsung SIII phone, as it has far too many cool features I liked and felt lighter in the hand than the RAZR did; otherwise, they had very similar specs, though the RAZR does have a Kevlar back surface!

This is what buyers saw on eBay - quite a deal!

As for the Logitech Z-5500's, I've never really had full use of them. They're a wonderful set of equipment, but I've never been in a place where I can turn them up and enjoy their crystal-clear sound at a level of my choosing. So rather than have them sit around for another five years underused, I put them up for auction last week, along with the Motorola RAZR.

The RAZR sold, and the Z-5500's didn't, which was still good as the RAZR went for a good sum; I was very pleased!! However, I was biting my nails by the end of the auction, as I'd forgotten to restrict WHO could bid on the phone! eBay allows you to list what countries you will ship to AND limit bidders to people who are registered IN those same countries, as well as such things like ensuring bidders have a PayPal account and no majorly bad Feedback. As it turns out, a guy from France with a Quebec shipping address won… and paid immediately via PayPal, so I let out a breath of relief when THAT email came in ten minutes after the auction's end. Live and learn… even though I've used eBay for a long while, I still have to remember that when there's a fair bit of money involved, little things can make ALL the difference to a seller's stress levels. I'm just glad it worked out well in the end and that my luck has turned into a good deal for someone else. 

In the meantime, I've relisted my speakers and I hope one of the dozen 'watchers' from the last auction will bite, this week.

It's been a dull week for me emotionally; I'm definitely feeling down, despite the thrill of getting my Dell Axim back intact and the sale of the RAZR for a good sum. The lack of a decent job is really wearing on me and with only a month left to go for my EI payments, the pressure is mounting. But all I can do is search, do my due dilligence and apply, then hope for a call before I do a followup. So far, there's been utter silence from the Hiring camp. 

Injuries, Interests and Improvement

The word of the week is patience.

Note: I've decided to use Georgia as the blog font as of now. It's easier to read on most devices and just looks good. Enjoy!

November 5 - Another Manageable Monday!

My job club at WorkBC today was excellent: we were 'sent out' again to talk to people and try to network( without being annoying )in the downtown area. I went over to a nearby Telus store and had a wonderful conversation with one of the senior staffers there; not a manager, but it was very illuminating. I'm finding that I'm losing my inhibitions about walking up to people and introducing myself, which is great to discover! My professionalism, personable manner and simple friendliness are all coming to the fore, which is what I'll need if I'm to find a job sooner rather than later. A good few hours!

The evening was spent at my local writing group; it was Meet N'Greet night and we player some very amusing games! One of them was to create a story by having each person contribute three words, going around the table until we felt the tale was done. It was hilarious! Here's what we came up with… and don't try to make sense of it, just go with the absurdity( which is what I love about the group ):

Cats, Cracks and Toenails

The killer was a tall man hidden in the closet, where he held a knife and cut toenails of his murder victims. Until he cut himself badly and bled all over the carpet. The cat licked fervently at the pool of blood until it died from the poison that the murderer had consumed earlier in a crystal goblet he bought for his victim. This was Lucky, who was a ferret. He was always the gate of Helle in his heart and his pyjamas - this was lucky, as his toenails were so well defined in shape that they fell into the posh red velvet chair which was weird. Normally, velvet chairs did not exist in closets. But: the velvet was Helle's Finest Brand, Satan's gift to Lucky. He pulled apart the chair that stupid Lucky had chosen to do his business. Undead cats were purring madly outside, which made the velvet chair tremble in pleasure. Suddenly the murderer looked in the garbage and found a nervous ferret dropping a soul-stealing three-pronged fork. The demonic fork hit the ground clattering in a ruckus, opening up an old wound from past toenails found buried in the chest of Lucky. Cats and poisoning paraphernalia were sucked into a red velvet crack. The killer screamed with rapturous joy as everything disappeared.

November 6 - Wrist update

Just a brief update about the tendon tension in my wrists: it's easing, but only gradually. I still can't pick up heavy objects properly or hold things for very long, but the day-to-day pain has eased a fair bit. It still becomes very noticeable when I type for too long or try to game( none of my rare Xbox sessions lasts more than 60 mins )so I'm still far from where I'd like to be. But I'm treating each wrist( especially the left one )daily with heat and cold, so I hope that that's the reason for the gradual improvements I'm seeing. Maybe by the summer I'll be able to carry groceries all the way home without resorting to a backpack…

November 7 - A live Book Launch?

Today was very interesting, come the evening: I attended a live book launch on FBook.

Or tried to. There was a lot of enthusiasm on the author's part, but the planning sort of fell down in the face of having 400 people trying to keep up with a refreshed FBook fan page. All too soon, I scooted off to a TinyChat channel with about two dozen other people, and there the fun began!

Turns out that a few of those folks were friends with the author, one of the Babylon5 main cast whose book memoir launch it was this evening. It was totally unexpected and I ended up hanging around with them for quite a few hours, apart from the time spent trying to get my chat client to work properly. In the end, I was blathering merrily along on my webcam to the others, being an entertaining wit and managing to tie the discussion together quite neatly throughout the evening. I made a few new friends and felt quite good, as I felt that people were people no matter who they knew and that for myself, I was a person they enjoyed talking to, despite not being famous - I was just myself.

That made it a very bright evening indeed!

November 8 - Meeting People

The book launch yesterday got me thinking: how do I meet people? What do I do to meet people, online or off, and who am I when I do that?

It's an interesting line of thought, really. To a stranger, you're a totally new person - hence the need for a good first impression. But it's more than that: why would they still want to talk to you, if you're you?

Alex Debelov, co-founder of The Kairos Society, puts his money where his mouth is. As one of the creators of the invite-only entrepreneurial group of college students aiming to direct the future of their generation, he's done some pretty amazing things so far. Have a look at his words on how he met Steve Wozniak and the Russian president, using only honesty and bring straightforward about his goals. It's inspiring and like last night in a way, shows that you really can meet people from anywhere, anytime, just by being yourself.

November 9 - BSG: Blood and Chrome!

YES! After a LOT of back-and-forth, the SyFy( argh, that name! )Channel in the US finally released the pilot for the now-cancelled Battlestar Galactica: Blood And Chrome as a webseries today! The two hours is cut into twelve-minute chunks, making it a treat to watch; there's so MUCH eye-candy that it's nice to take it in smaller doses. Pin on your Viper wings and see what's waiting for you:

November 10 - New duds and LEGO

All right, it's been a VERY blah week for me, so two things to cheer me up.

One: a new winter jacket, the first I've bought in almost a decade. Yes, that means I'm either cheap or I take care of my things… or maybe both. It's warm, waterproof and best of all: stylish! For those of you who know me, my fashion sense can be, er, underwhelming at most times. So to wear something that fits perfectly AND looks good is a real ego-booster for me. I might even post a pic to FBook, I like it that much!

Two: LEGO! Yes, I admit I have a soft spot for the plastic bricks, but only because people can do so MANY amazing things with them! Check out this incredible meter-long ship, inspired by the Homeworld series of PC games from a few years ago. Incredible! Be sure to check out the rest of the photos from this fantastic set...

Click for a HUGE image to check out the details; those are real lights inside!

As well, there's gallery of a Stargate Atlantis diorama( if you can call it that )made by a fifteen-year-old boy! The detail work on the ship is magnificent, so make sure you check out the other pictures in the link. In the meantime, I give you the Daedalus:

You HAVE to click this to see the details!

 November 11 - Beauty Remembered

This morning I attended the Remembrance Day ceremonies here in Victoria, down at the Parliament Buildings - the first time I had done so anywhere, in many years. 

It was overcast, with occasional raindrops appearing here and there. A large crowd had gathered by the cenotaph at the end of Parliament's front lawn, silent save for low-voiced conversations. At the appointed hour, the ceremonies began and a quiet settled over the crowd; even the children were muted in their cries. At the time when two minutes of silent remembrance began, a wind rose across the gathering. Leaves from the trees fell in gentle showers in the silent crowd as the Canadian Flag flew at half-mast on the great flag post above them all. The only noise came as the wind died and a flight of five military prop-planes flew over in homage to the fallen. As the speeches of the Lt. Governor began, a gun crew let off shots once per minute, booming across the harbor as the skies poured a gentle mist of rain onto the peaceful gathered citizens. It was a beautiful experience and one I'll not soon forget, if ever.

The rest of my day was spent out, trying to gather some sunshine into the clouds of my life of late. It helped to be out with a friend, talking over coffee and enjoying the bustle of people going about their day despite the gloomy clouds. Being inside, among smiling faces, did me some good and I went home late in the afternoon in a mood changed for the better. Not a perfect one, but much improved, I think.

I managed to injure myself today - twice. The first was smashing my shin on the end of my bed, leaving a nasty gouge and quite a lot of pain. The second was when I passed out in the kitchen a few minutes later, probably from concern over the nasty-looking injury and stress. In doing so, I knocked a cast-iron frying pan off the counter… and onto my other leg: instant egg-sized bruise. Luckily I didn't smash my head into anything when I landed on the floor. What worries me was that I woke in a cold sweat. That's not good, especially as I'm not prone to passing out for no real reason; I handle shocks / stress very well. I'll be seeing the doctor ASAP about the cause, but it's a lousy, painful and worrying start to the week.