Sabbatticals, Syrup and Snow

The word of the week is sabbatical.

Feb 17 - Wildlife

Life around here doesn't really stop in the winter.

Sure, the occasional day of snow does slow things down a little bit as people don't want to go speeding around when it slippery. But overall, a little overcast cloud and rain is all we've been getting this year, which I can definitely handle.

For the most part, the plants here on Vancouver Island are green all year long, with flowers stubbornly holding their own against the lower temperatures for the most part.

The wildlife too, doesn't migrate very far. In fact, given the heavily forest and nature of the Island, it's not uncommon to have wildlife come right up to your door, like these:

Can I borrow a cup of sugar?

Aren't they cute? Much cuddlier up close than a cougar would be, that's for sure. The picture was taken at my parent's place over in Cordova Bay on the east shore of the Island. There is a park on the other side of the fence - which the deer love to jump - meaning that quite often, one opens the blinds to find a fuzzy face staring back at you while it chews some leaves.

Definitely better than seeing snowmen, I think.

Feb 18 - Write On!

Lots of novel-writing time this week!

Meaning not so much making-money-to-pay-bills time, yet it seems that it's one or the other for me this year so far. In the last three weeks, I've worked three days each week and this coming week it's likely to be the same. Seeing as the job market here in Victoria is rather flat, I'm seriously looking at writing 12-18 hours a day to break into the freelancer marketplace and sell some articles.

Or doing voice work, or whatever I can to make more than the next-thing-to-a-pittance I'm making now so I can afford luxuries like food, shelter and the internet. The last one is more of a necessity, really; I can fudge the other two.

Yummy! Dig in!

Either that or learn to eat cardboard, which they just recycle at work. Can you believe that? Such a wasted opportunity, given what a lot of fast food tastes like.

Maybe I can invent a line of food made from cardboard?

Feb 19 - Mech Muscles?

Giant robots are a step closer today!

Scientists announce the successful testing of inexpensive, extraordinarily powerful artificial muscles created from of all things, nylon fishing line. Although it sounds simple, the strength of the newly developed muscles relies on the way the line is twisted and the patterns that are created from many lines strung together.

Mesmerizing, isn't it?

This is important, as the development of a low-cost artificial muscle has many, many applications in today's world. While the only one I'm currently interested in involves a life-size recreation of a 50 ton combat Mech from the BattleTech universe, more practical applications for artificial limbs, exoskeletons and humanoid robots for a variety of uses are all now much closer. Myomer muscles from BattleTech are still a cool concept though.

I just thought of another application I like to see these muscles put towards developing: the power loader from Aliens! Which coincidentally I just saw again this week; it's a solid ride of sci-fi action movie that I can't get tired of re-watching every so often, even though I know the ending.

Feb 20 - Three Days

My third week of taking a writing sabbatical wrapped up today.

Not to bore you with the details, but it's going fantastically well.

Apart from the standard fixes to spelling and grammar, there have been major additions and substantial changes to the first two thirds of the book so far. Literally hundreds of fixes and alterations have been made, chapter by chapter and line by line as the editing process has gone on.

One of the wonderful things about working solidly for days at a time on the novel is that such intense focus and concentration means the ideas began to flow together instead of separately. Looking at one aspect of the book can lead to a needed change in another and that sparks a cascade of small fixes that improve the story greatly overall.

Several major changes appeared this week, some of which made it into the text already and many others have yet to be carefully placed when the time comes. Overall, I'm very pleased with the progress being made on the third draft and I'm hoping that it will be almost complete by the time spring rolls around this year.

Feb 21 - Plugging Away

I'm feeling a work disconnect.

More and more, I want to work creatively for living. Donning a uniform and a name tag to dance to somebody else's tune has really lost all appeal to me - not that it ever really had much in the first place.

Conforming somebody else's ideal of what a Good Employee consists of usually ends up in tears for everybody involved; not literally of course, but you likely get my gist. Sales are not something that I find gratifying, although I can perform fairly well day-to-day by putting my mind into it and doing my best to be as honest as possible without shooting myself in the foot, so to speak.

Some people are better at some jobs than others and for me, it's always been about doing the job make a living. I have yet to catch wind of the job that I'd be excited to draw a paycheque for, working full-time 40 hours a week. I suppose that if I was working for myself as an entrepreneur pushing a product, then things would be different, but again I've yet to find something that fits my passion - beyond writing, that is.

And no, it's not selling edible cardboard.

Feb 22 - She's So High

Tonight was a great night!

After a solid day of getting things done around the house, including couple of small projects that have been languishing for a while, I attended a party in the evening.

It was a private function, with 40 or 50 people that I didn't really know. It was by invitation only, through someone my sister knew and I was a little nervous going there as I didn't know what to expect.

As it turned out, a whole lot of fun!

The highlight of the evening was a private performance by Tal Bachman, who performed such songs as "Ten Ton Earthquake" and "Master" which were new tunes sung in the persona of a comedic rock-star character he created named Ian Starglow. The songs were wonderfully moving, especially the ones from the second set, which definitely showed Bachman's maturity as a songwriter and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them.

It was definitely a privilege to be there to see Starglow perform!

Afterwards, I ended up talking with Tal for quite some time about the craft of writing, as it turns out he's working on scripts for a few projects. It was astonishingly refreshing to be able to speak to someone who's been in the entertainment industry and have them listen to what I have to say, given my admittedly small knowledge of such things. However, the conversation often rounded back to passion and truth, which are universals in any sort of creative art and along those lines, I was quite comfortable in speaking my mind about how my writing and my life intertwined. Tal was of the same mind in a lot of ways, thus time flew by until it was time to go and I left with a silly grin on my face from such a stellar evening.

Feb 23 - A New Narrative?

This evening I had the pleasure of watching a movie produced from Syrup, an edgy book I enjoyed a decade ago at the recommendation of a friend. Starring the exceptional Amber Heard, the movie is a comedic sendup of the entire world of corporate marketing and was rather enjoyable on the whole, though it did deviate from the book a fair piece.

He makes an interesting point, for artists...

One of the marks of a good writer is being able to present the truth through the eyes of the characters you create. I remember thinking when I first read Syrup that although I knew very little about the world that the characters in the book were inhabiting, I quickly was able to grasp the rules that they lived by and how they viewed their reality. That sort of literary magic is what I hope to bring to my own writing and I was pleased to see that the visuals of the movie were fairly close match to what was in my head from I read the book by Max Barry all those years ago.

BONUS: Another wonderful bit of news arrived this evening, by e-mail. I'm going to be narrating a story for a scifi/fantasy podcast in the near future! Once everything's been confirmed, I'll mention more details in the blog but as you can imagine, I'm rather excited!

As good a way as any to end the week, I think! 

A last-minute phone call from a coworker means that I'm now working for shifts this week, which is good. It does put a bit of a cramp on my writing, but that just means I can focus more on each of the two days now I have left to work. I'm hoping that in March, things will return to more normal hours, but I'll still be asking for no more than four days a week to leave me three in which to edit my novel… on top of pursuing other forms of income and creative outlets as well!

Milestones, Marathons and Midlife

The word of the week is inchoation.

Feb 10 - Generalities

This week I've been feeling… awkward.

Not in terms of tripping over things or being generally klutzy, but rather in a personal and general sense.

Maybe it's just a midlife thing, or something else; I'm not sure. In this new year, I've been consciously redirecting my rather-busy-brain from ruminating about things over which I have no control and to instead focus on the good things that I can direct my energies into.

Life's a beach ...

Oddly, it's the small things that we tend to notice when we' re not trying to constantly redraw the big picture of our life or re-examine it through a microscope.

Do more and worry less; I think that's a good place to start each day from.

Feb 11 - Writing Marathon

My writing bonanza continues this week!

Having three days off in a row is a wonderful thing for my creative side. Today was the first of three consecutive days that I spent writing, spending at least 8 to 10 hours a day editing my novel.

It's a fantastic feeling to fully immerse yourself into one's own creative world and have nothing else on your mind all day long. Chapter after chapter spent by as it was edited, helpfully input by my mom who has volunteered her time as before to type my dictated words as I go along.

The method works wonderfully, freeing me to visualize what I need to in my head and the word simply appear on a computer. Having someone else as familiar as I am with my creative work is also hugely beneficial, as I can bounce ideas off them and we can reach a better understanding together of how the work can be improved.

Simplify.

At the end of this week's session, we made it almost halfway through the book in a solid pass - one of many, of course. My previous week saw us create over 30 pages of notes to help improve the book on the next few passes, as we look to tidy up plot threads and many other aspects of the novel to make it a beautifully cohesive whole for the reader.

I'm very excited to continue the pushing this process each week this spring until my third draft is complete!

Feb 12 - Comix?

This month I'm trying something new: digital comics.

There many popular digital comics applications and programs out there, which can make it a little hard to choose. I ended up picking the high-rated Comixology app, in the main because it has a fair few free comics on a regular basis. Not to mention things going on sale for very low prices, which I also like.

You'd think that I would've got into digital comics earlier, but truth be told, I don't really read or collect comics. Sad to say, I speed through when I read, generally not paying too much attention to all the gorgeous artwork in order to read the story in the word bubbles.

That is to say, I read my comics like I read my books. Which is admittedly a disservice to comics, as the whole point of the medium is the visuals that will convey the story as well as the words.

All the same, comics are wonderful in that you can find unusual stories that you wouldn't be able to find in the printed word alone. Such is the case with one of my purchases: Robotech - Voltron, which is a crossover story that is quite common in the comic book world. While I thought it had a less-than-promising start in the first issue, and I'm concerned that the stories a little thin, it looks like it's made by loving fans so I'm willing to follow it for a few issues to see where it goes.

Feb 13 - Back to the normal

It was a tad difficult easing back into reality today.

Spending the last three days living inside the world of my novel was very intense and rewarding. Climbing back out of that creative cubbyhole was a little difficult, but I had things to do today that could be put off any longer - boring things, to be sure, but still necessary for daily life.

It's thrilling to imagine myself writing for living, as it comes to me more naturally every time that I immerse myself in the art of the written word. Being able to create every day and earn a living at the same time would be a wonderful, almost unimaginably fantastic and financially fun thing to do.

Small steps to get there though, I know. Part of what I do now is researching the business side of things, getting my head around what needs to be done to give my creative work the boost it needs to reach an audience( or five! )around the world. As a famous inventor once said:

Right now in 2014, I'm sweating the hard work weekly to make good things happen!

And on a related note, for your amusement: "Let It Go" as sung by the cast of Star Trek First Contact - it's genius!

Feb 14 - Keyboard Lucky

After seven years, I've finally replaced my computer keyboard.

Actually, that's not true; I purchased a new keyboard and I'm still keeping the other one, which still works fine. Both are made by Logitech and both are wireless, which is essential as I don't like wires which restrict where I can sit in the room.

The problem is that my old keyboard, isn't backlit and it's difficult to see in the dark - doubly so when half of the keys have had their letters worn away.

It glows in the dark!

The new keyboard is a Logitech K800 and it's stunning! The keys are well-shaped, the backlighting is adjustable in its intensity and it has enough additional features that it's almost as useful as my previous keyboard. The battery life isn't as good though, as it uses a rechargeable battery that lasts only about a day compared to my trusty old Logitech LX710, which uses rechargeable AA's that last months.

All the same, it's wonderful to be able to type and see exactly what's under my fingers again. Even though I use DragonDictate to type longer entries of text, having a keyboard is still essential to the operation of my computer and to being a writer in general. I highly recommend the K800, when you can get on sale, as I did this week… 

It definitely makes me happy!

Feb 15 - Twice Thankful

Today marks two middling milestones for me.

The first is my one year anniversary at Staples. It's an important thing to me as I spent a year looking for a job before Staples finally took a chance on me; it was very wearing, as I'm sure regular readers of this blog noticed from my post during that difficult time. While my current job is still stressful some days and doesn't do much to reduce my bills overall, I've been very very fortunate when it comes to people I work with and to have a job in general which are not all that available here in Victoria, still.

The second milestone today was when this very blog logged its 20,000th hit!

On average, this blog gets almost 10 hits a day, which is decent considering it's just written for personal reasons and not commercial. Interestingly, if I'd decided way back in 2007 to monetize my blog using Google AdSense, I'd have earned an astonishing $23.00 a year - not really worth it, I think, to annoy people with ads.

I'm just happy that people are reading it on a regular basis, usually a dozen or two people from trackable sources a week, which is fine. It's up here to be read, by whoever wants to read it, with whatever I've decided is important to share that week.

See you after another 20,000 hits!

Feb 16 -Beep Boop Drip?

There was an update from the Tricorder Project today!

For those of you don't know, there's a extremely talented hardware enthusiast named Peter who back in 2012 decided to share with the world his dream to build an actual working Tricorder device. Ever since then, he's made remarkable progress in bringing his vision to life.

Currently, he's developed the Mark 5 Tricorder, which has an abundance of sensors and is extremely configurable - meaning people can add their own creations to his work. I think it's incredible to see how skillfully this extremely skilled person has progressed in his project. It's inspiring and quite simply the dazzles me with how much knowledge has been applied by one person to create such an intricate technical device that will benefit many people around the world.

I also know that I definitely want to purchase one if they ever become available.

On a work note: it's been getting better lately, in that I'm not feeling as stressed I have been previously, day-to-day. Prioritizing seems to be the key as well is planning ahead, so keeping on top of things means I have to be at 100% concentration all day long, which is rather wearing. However it does mean that by the end of the day I'm not a frazzled all of tense muscles waiting to crawl home at the end of my shift.

Unless the roof leaks at work during a heavy rainstorm. Again.

That happened today, with strong winds driving rain in sideways through a ventilation system that can't cope with that level of water. Meaning a lot of it worked its way down and into the store, soaking things that should not be exposed to water. Resulting in my getting home two hours later than planned, a little tired and a lot hungry but strangely not stressed; these sort of things don't really bother me anymore.

Which makes me smile, as I now tend to sweat the small things and not the big, in life.

Not much to add here; apart from writing and working, it's been a slow week and since I don't have much of an active social circle around these parts, there's been nothing going on in that area. However, I should have a lot more to say in that department next week; stay tuned!