Coughs, Cosplay, Cutaways and Cimmerians

The word of the week is affective .

December 3 - Can I hack it?

It's the same old grind: see job, apply for job, hear nothing.

This week, I'm changing things up a bit, by making EVERY effort to get myself noticed by said employers.

I'm going in to three places that have listed jobs to get the names of the hiring managers and targeting the heck out of my cover letters. I'm also going to ensure I make a good impression, but that will depend on how little coughing I can do while I'm there. It's not easy and I really need for this freakin' hacking bought to disappear ASAP before it hurts my chances of getting employment as well as affecting my health in other ways. Not good.

December 4 - Infinite Cosplay!

Do what you love, and sometimes that will lead you down unexpected paths. In the case of one cosplayer, her costuming skills landed her a job!

Not just any job, either: BioWare hired her to play the character of Elizabeth to promote  the upcoming BioShock: Infinite game being released later in 2013.

The resemblance is startling!

Looking at the photos in the article, I have to say the resemblance IS uncanny. It's to her credit that she recognized this and made such timely work of creating her costume. As I'm hoping to go to a convention or two in the next few years( work-dependent )I'm really fascinated by the growing numbers of talented cosplay costumers out there. As far as I know, I don't resemble any characters from any game, movie or novel.

Or do I?

December 5 - Cutaways!

One of my earliest and truest loves are cutaway drawings; I couldn't get enough of them as a kid and I still can't, really. I've collected various technical manuals and actual cutaway books( like the various Star Wars ones )and I'm always on the lookout for more.

But they're not as easy as you might think to track down. I spotted this recent article on io9.com about cutaways and it sparked my interest all over again to hunt down some more intricately complex imagery of the insides of things technical and fantastical. Still with pride of place on my wall is this image of the Enterprise-D:

Click me to see the glorious details!

I'm not sure exactly why I like them so much. Maybe it's because I spent a lot of time as a kid imagining what the insides of those spaceships and other sci-fi places were like. Filled with piles of technology alongside the more mundane things like toasters and toilets, I wondered where the phasers got their power from and how many torpedoes an X-Wing could carry, and where. With that kind of a mind, I'm still surprised that I didn't pursue engineering, though again my grades in math would have to have improved by at least 25-50% on average. Just the same, I still love cutaway tech drawings to this day!

December 6 - My life isn't so bad

Every so often, when my brain starts looping on the things in my life that aren't going well, I have to give myself a mental shake: it could be worse. In so many ways…

For example, I could have this man's problems: Huang Chuncai is 32 and still lives with his parents… brace yourself for the reason and do NOT click the link if you have a weak stomach. DO click it if you want to see what troubles one person has to deal with.

So: when one's problems are of the wallet, or are mental more than physical, you have to stop and remind yourself that YOU CAN CHANGE them.

And when you're feeling stressed, relax. Take a cue from the Daleks:

December 7 - It's Officially Bronchitis

It's that time of year again for viruses to be passed around like candy.

I've already got mine: I've had a cough for three weeks now. As I've said last week, it's been bad enough that I can't talk at times and as long as I don't speak, it's manageable.

Yet I've coughed hard enough and long enough to pull a few muscles in my chest, so that it now HURTS to cough. Quite a bit. So I gave in and went to the doctor( who said it's Acute Bronchitis )a few days ago to get some antibiotics, which do seem to be helping gradually reduce what's clogging my breathing. I'm hoping that by Monday I'll be left just with the semi-shredded feeling of sore muscles in my chest and not the cough. The flaring spike of pain over my right ribs should heal given time, if I'm not constantly coughing. Staying in where it's warm and not damp with constant rain has been helping, as has NOT talking to people. Which I hope will end soon, when someone eventually calls me for an interview.

If you want to avoid getting this long-lived cough, or some other germ, this holiday season, follow this simple advice that I learned long ago: Don't touch your face! Keep your hands BELOW your neck whenever you're out in public and you should be fine. But it's a habit you have to learn; the average person touches their face once a minute, all day long!

December 8 - The Hobbit in ONE WEEK!

For over thirty years, I've waited to see The Hobbit hit the big screen.

The animated version that came out in the 1980's was nicely done but didn't do justice to the material, I felt; live action would be best but that was impossible back then.

This is now.

Peter Jackson's released the WETA crews onto what is now The Hobbit TRILOGY and I'm simply giddy with excitement. Of all the books I read as a child, this was THE one that most fired up my imagination. I think that's why I was disappointed with the animated movie: the pictures in my head were SO MUCH cooler than on the screen. Heck, I remember being repulsed by the ElvenKing when I saw him in the film; in NO way was he what I'd imagined elves to be. It skewed the film for me from that point on.

No, I'm going to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey this coming weekend when it opens, with open eyes. I expect I'll be doing it alone, as the last time I tried to get people around here together for a film it ended up just being my sister and I at the theater.

But for The Hobbit, I'll gladly sit alone in the dark to see my childhood dream on the screen.

December 9 - Amiga Games for sale too...

Today, I had little bouts of nostalgia while preparing four different lots of 15-20 Amiga games( most boxed )for sale on eBay. One of them in particular had fond memories: Warlords, a turn-based multiplayer( meaning you and your friends in a room )game similar to the old 1994 Warcraft game series… but predating it. I pulled out the save disk from the box, remembering how we five friends had sat for hours at a time for many months in a row one summer, taking turns attacking each other's kingdoms. It was a blast, all the more fun because you didn't have to go anywhere or pay anything; it was 'offline' in the very earliest days of the internet when 56K modems were still extremely rare and costly beasts. 

BONUS: I found a browser-based spiritual successor to Warlords called Warbarons! Best of all, it's FREE!!! Anyone want to start up a game with me?

Speaking of costly: I discovered that I possessed an EXTREMELY rare Amiga game! Conan The Cimmerian is apparently a much sought-after 1991 release for the Amiga, worth many hundreds of dollars… IF it has the original manual and the map in the box.

Mine has neither, just the box and manual. *sigh* So it's in effect, worth maybe ten dollars. Doh! Where did they go, I wonder? I'm going to search every box I have, in storage and otherwise, to find that manual… it's worth the effort and I have the time, for now.

Which I hope will change soon. It has to.

My chest hurts whenever I cough now, like I've been punched in the ribs for hours on end. It's moderately bearable when I breathe shallowly, but I really need to get this bronchitis under control or I fear it will start to hurt to breathe at ANY level. I've called TeleHealthBC tonight( Sunday )and they've told me to go see a doctor tomorrow morning if the pain is still present to ensure it doesn't get any worse or indicate more permanent damage… not what I wanted to hear. For now I've bound up my ribs with elastic bandages, which helps somewhat when I cough. I'll probably be able to sleep tonight.

Nerves, Nostalgia and Neat Stuff

The word of the week is beneficence. 

November 26 - Ears and birthdays

Today was a milestone… a little early. As my sister was leaving for Calgary tomorrow, my family went out today to celebrate my father's 65th birthday. It's been a long road getting to this point, to where both my parents have reached retirement age and their pensions have kicked in… which means I no longer really have to worry about them and can fully focus on my own life, such as it is.

So it was a happy day; we went out to John's Place for lunch and had a great time sitting in one of the rear booths, chatting happily about the past and looking forward to the future. Even though it's very uncertain as to what my sister and I will be doing job-wise right now, we both feel very blessed to still have our two wonderful parents around and to have them both now come fully into their retirement years.

But I almost missed the lunch: for the first time in my life, I managed to get water stuck in both of my ears during my shower this morning. How weird is that? I managed to clear my left ear, but my right remained stubbornly plugged… and it was bad enough that I spent most of my morning sitting at the walk-in clinic down the street. Fortunately the doctor there was able to clear it up easily( if noisily )and said that I was right to come in, as I'd never have been able to unplug it on my own.

I was all ears after that.

November 27 - The Hobbit Production Videos

Only a little over two weeks until December 14th, when the first part of the Hobbit Trilogy( wow! )premieres!

I've started re-reading The Hobbit this week; it's been years since I last sat down with the book and the feeling of wonder I had when I first read it as a child is still fresh as I let the words run past on the page.

The movie looks to be utterly fantastic, as it should: Peter Jackson has applied all he learned on the LOTR movies to The Hobbit and I expect to sit in blissful enchantment throughout each of the films. I've been following along on the production videos since they first appeared and what's on the screen looks truly incredible:

November 28 - Illusionary cough?

Somehow this week, I've developed a nervous cough. I've never had one before.

My dad did as well, on and off, a few years ago. I firmly believe it's due to stress, which is unsurprising given the lack of success I've had in landing a job for the last half of this year. 

My research so far has told me that it's psychosomatic more than anything else; if I don't think about the cough, I generally don’t. The tightness in my chest only appears when I'm thinking about things like jobs or money or suchlike that causes my breathing to constrict. 

It's frustrating and embarrassing as it makes talking to people a halting process as I try not to wheeze and cough in their faces… just ordering a tea at Moka House today, I sounded like I was asthmatic. I've been concentrating on breathing exercises, staying calm and trying hard to maintain a positive perspective as I plug away at getting an employer to notice me. Just one will do, at this point and I hope that when I do get a call for an interview that this blasted wheeze will be a distant memory of yet another fading source of stress.

To distract myself, I found this neat video of illusory anamorphic drawings - the very same type as those used in forced-perspective chalk sidewalk drawings. Watch the video and be amazed as your eyes are fooled by the simple interplay of colour and light:

November 29 - Giant Robots, for sale?

Robotech was my undoing; ever since I first saw a Veritech fighter transform into a giant mecha, I've wanted a giant robot of my very own. Heck, I'd have settled for one of the destroids, the non-transformable Macross battle units - stomping around in something that big would have been just fine in my adolescent books. But Robotech was fiction, trapped on the screen and in people's imaginations.

But the dreams inspired more than a few people to think about making giant robots a reality. Some of them actually came through with it, albeit twenty-five years after the fact and on a much smaller scale. Kogoro Kurata, Japanese maker of strange machines, is selling ride-in mechanical monsters starting at $1.3 million USD, but you'll need to pay extra for the weapons and cup holder:

Also pretty neat: you can even custom-design a unit in 3D using their website too! If it could get up to a decent top speed with legs and do a few cool diving moves like it was dodging missiles, I'd find a way to come up with the $1.3 million as fast as I could. One can just imagine what an airsoft or paintball tourney with a few of these things would be like!

November 30 - Joy in my life?

While I was ruminating on a lot of things this week, a thought struck me that I'd not had before:

What about joy? Do I have any in my life?

It's not as easy an answer as you think. Happiness is not joy, nor is it anywhere near contentment. When I think about the things I like to do and that make me happy… there's not an abundance of them. Writing, obviously, is up there, as is spending time with my family and friends. But beyond that, things get a little murky… I don't get all sparkly walking on a beach, or admiring artwork, or even watching the sun come out from behind the clouds. It's astonishing to think about it, because the nearest thing I can come up with, feelings-wise, is contentment or amusement.

Not joy, though.

I believe it's because I do a lot of thinking, all the time, and tend to analyze things without regard for their innate nature. Sun on the water, the dance of flowers in the wind… it's a rare thing that makes me break out in a smile and to be honest, I haven't really tried to catalogue them; that seems petty, somehow. All the same, it's a blind spot of mine that bears watching, if only because I'd like to be blindsided by joy one of these days and delight in the unexpected feeling as it happens. 

Soon, I hope.

December 1 - Treehouses

If I could just find the perfect piece of land around here with a solid tree on it, I'd build a treehouse in a heartbeat. A nice, solid place to live with insulation, windows and hopefully a good view.

It's not too much to ask, really. Conventional homes aren't nearly as fun as a treehouse, right?

But it's more than nailing a few boards in a tree and putting a tarp over them; that looks like crap and is dangerous in so many ways. Not to mention illegal. Where does one start, though?

Why not check out How To Build A Treehouse?

It's a tidy little site and reminds me a lot of the books I found on treehouses when I was a kid, decades ago: simple and straightforward. Perhaps it won't let you build a 1,000 sq-ft condo in the nearest Redwood tree, but it's as good a place as I've seen to nail down some of the facts about treehouses - pun intended. Oh, to dream…

 

December 2 - Adios, Amiga?

After years of hauling it around and barely using it, I decided today to put my Amiga 2000 up for sale… and boy, there's a LOT of stuff that goes along with it! Hundreds of diskettes, dozens of boxed games, manuals… I hope that someone out there will appreciate what a bargain the lot really is.

You can't hear the floppy drives click in this picture...

 

As painful as it is for me to admit, there's no point in keeping the Amiga any longer. Technology has moved on in leaps and bounds since the early 1990's and the games no longer appeal to me in any way save the faintest tinge of nostalgia. In point of fact, I know that I can install an emulator on my PC or even my Android tablet and run any one of hundreds of Amiga games, if I wished. Emulators like Amiga Forever can give me my fix if I so desire, for a nominal fee. But right now, I simply desire to clear some space, hopefully make a little cash and let someone else bask in the ceaseless click of the floppy drives as the beige beast of the Amiga spins up its 200mb hard drive and Workbench kicks into operation. The feeling of nostalgia was strong as I fiddled around with the system today and got it ready for auction… knowing that the days when it was my primary computer were far less complicated than the life I am living now, in many ways. Still, change is inevitable and twenty years ago, my Amiga was in its glory.

We'll see by this time next week if anyone out there wants to get a little of that back again.

Last week of November: not one to remember. First days of December: more memorable, I hope. Less waiting for a call and more being proactive, hunting down companies I'd like to work for and presenting myself to them in person, instead of on paper. Will Santa bring me the one thing I wish for this year: a job? We shall see!

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!