Theft, Time and Trudging

The word of the week is resolute.

March 9 – Trudgery

It's probably going to get a little boring here over the next six months or so.

Can't be helped, sorry.

I'm going to be consolidating, in many senses of the word, going home from my day job to write and back again, to repeat as needed until I have my trilogy complete.

That’s not going to leave a lot of time for other things, as I see it.

Looking back at my first novel, I made the most progress when I was working on it every single day without fail. At the time, that was made possible by my being unemployed, where my focus was split only two ways: writing and job-searching. I was productive enough to complete a workable first draft in less than six months and I've learned a lot since then. The next two drafts were also completed with months of continuous work, focusing on the writing and little else.

I realize that distractions, however much I think they are necessary, are not helping me towards my ultimate goal of completing my trilogy. I have to simply toss out the extraneous, with the occasional social foray to keep my mental balance and buckle down on what matters to me now.

By the end of 2015, I want to look back and see that the vast majority of my time now earning money at my day job this year was spent writing. Not mooning over hopeful relationships, financial problems I can’t solve with more worrying or all the other little distractions of projects that I’d like to get started / finished /researched etc. I just need my focus to be the writing.

Knowing that, I’ll consider the time well-spent, no matter what else happens.

March 10 – Now I Get it!

Sometimes you need to simplify, especially on the topic of money.

Finances have been on my mind of late, for as some of you know, I’ve been carrying some burdens for a while. 2015 has seen me take much better control of them, but they’re still there. It amazes me that some people have no idea how money works, even in general terms; I don’t claim to be a whiz at financial management, but I do have a decent overall grasp of the system.

Even if it doesn’t work for me at present.

For those of you who wonder how banks, credit unions and other Money-Things Mysterious work, fret no more: the folks who helped make the newer Hitchiker’s Guide graphics to the rescue! Treat your peepers to this lovely anigraphic and you’ll never again wonder where money goes to work:

March 11 – Homeworld is mine!

Well colour me astonished!

Last week, I received an email in the early morning hours, advising me that the Homeworld Remastered Collector’s Edition was suddenly, finally available for purchase in Canada. I popped onto the website immediately, saw that there was still stock and ordered one… and it was confirmed!

Seeing as the HW Collector’s Edition had sold out in the USA months ago, I was a bit agog, but grateful: somehow, the Canadian release had been delayed and I’d managed to score one! Copies have been going on eBay for silly amounts for months based on demand, and by paying attention this morning I’d managed to be one of the first in line for the few Canadian copies. Have a look at what the price / availability had gone up to by the time I arrived back home from work 9 hours later a week ago:

I love the game, but not for THAT price - come ON ?!?!?

I almost never buy Collector’s Editions of games, PC or otherwise, but Homeworld-RM is an exception – especially as this edition comes with the above-pictured foot-high model of the mothership, which lights up! I have many fond memories of Homeworld, for many reasons, not the least of which is that it’s an almost perfect game with Chris-Foss inspired spaceships. I’m going to savour the art book that came with the Collector’s Edition; I just love the art of this game! Lots of inspiration for my creative side to turn into ideas for my books. Thanks to the modding community, anything is possible – have a look at this Homeworld conversion to make a Star Trek massive space battle possible:

Too bad I couldn’t write it off as a business expense. Here’s hoping I’ll be able to soon! In the meantime, I’ll only be able to play it on my laptop at low resolutions, as my main PC’s all wonky with games right now… which is a good thing, as I need to write. I think I mentioned that earlier.

March 12 – Say What?

Okay, I’ll admit it: I was stuck for something to say here. It happens, albeit rarely for me.

I could have told you about some neat articles I discovered about writing this week, but that's a little niche for people who read my blog( thanks for dropping by, by the way! )so I pondered for a bit. 

Then I thought: how about something simple that’s cool and g33ky, with a hint of nostalgic?

Enter: the drone speeder bike! Have a gander at the wonder a g33k hobbyist who loves Star Wars can create:

All I have to say now is: where can I buy one and can I add a speed booster somehow?

March 13 – Unlucky

My bike was stolen today.

It made me realize that yes, theft can happen to anyone, even to someone as careful as I am.

My bike was securely locked up 1 foot away from the main entrance door, a well-lit area with lots of people around all the time. My guess is that a pair of pros used a HUGE set of bolt cutters to get in and out in 60 seconds, sometime in the dead of night – there’s no filing or shatter residue( ie. hacksaw or liquid nitrogen used on the lock ). Have a look at how easily giant cutters eat locks:

It’s gone, and there’s little chance I’ll ever get it back. Most stolen bikes end up as parts.

On the one hand, I’m extremely pissed off; the quality lock I always used might as well have been a pretty fabric ribbon. I had the bike for 7 years and in the last year, I spent probably another $200 on top of the $400 adding new tires and a tune-up to get it in shape for the next 7 years. Money wasted. Sure as skinny they can’t sell it whole, due to the overall ‘disrepair’ and surface rust I encouraged to discourage theft, which obviously didn’t matter to these scumbags.

On the other hand, I am able to walk to work now, so I’m only in for a long hike of an hour round-trip for groceries… or anywhere else I don’t want to take the bus. And I dislike transit, for reasons I’ll not get into here. What’s really been violated here is my freedom. I can’t just ride any more when I want to go somewhere: now I’m dependent on transit, or my feet, both time-wasters. There are many other victims out there who know how I feel right now, some of my friends among them.

Today’s theft has taught me that yes, I have to be EVEN MORE prepared, and cautious than I have to date. That’s so immensely frustrating, as I stress so much about forgetting that one little detail that ends up tripping me up that ALL the details start to get muddled and I’m still screwed. Perfection, as they say, is unattainable and for 2015, so is another bike: I don’t have any place secure to store a replacement. I can’t afford a decent $200-$400 model, nor will I eat my pride thanks to faceless thieves by trying to make do with a $50 junker and end up even more angry than I am right now.

That’s the thing: a theft like this leaves you unable to do anything with your anger, save redirecting it into purposeful energy and not letting it eat at you as disappointment in how I ‘failed’ … I didn’t fail, I was robbed. The only failures in this situation are the criminals who took my property.

Anyway. I’ll be updating my insurance info, writing down wayward serial numbers on newer items and general preparing for the next disruption, whenever that happens.

March 14 – It's Pi Day, but I don't care...

Not having wheels of my own any more, I spent the morning going around, dropping off ‘Stolen Bike’ leaflets to every bike store and pawn shop in Victoria( thanks Dad! ). It was a lovely sunny day today and I felt much better, as most of my anger has fled to be replaced by resignation… and a determination not to let some faceless scumbags ruin my spring.

I’m still here, sans wheels, and I have a lot to do this year. I’ll just have to be even smarter about using my time, now that some of it’s going to be wasted in walking or busing. So I told myself...

It’s funny, in a way, when I think about hearing other people mention their bikes were stolen over the years. We put a lot of value on houses, on the material things they contain( and the same with cars ): they’re our personal space and when that’s violated by theft, we’re shocked and hurt.

Bicycles, well… why can’t you just buy another one?

That seems to be the feeling most people have towards bike theft and it’s odd, given that many of the bikes out there cost $1000 or more. If someone stole a TV from my home or a computer worth that much, the theft wouldn’t likely be downplayed. My bike meant a lot to me, in that it was my freedom to go where I pleased, when I pleased, in a manner that saved me time and was healthy.

Unfortunately, all that came crashing down on me again this afternoon and I struggled for hours to turn my feelings of anger and frustration into something more useful. I wrapped up a few minor tasks around the house, then went to sit on the patio at Moka House for a few hours in the sunshine, listening to Enya and sipping tea. I finished some editing feedback for Monday’s critique group, all the while not thinking about my lost bike and ignoring all the happy people biking around on Cook St.

Yeah, that’s going to be hard to take this summer, with all the bikes around Victoria.

On the way home, I stopped at the little video store nearby for a movie; I asked a clerk for suggestions and he pointed me to a movie I didn’t know existed: About Time, from the makers of Love Actually. An odd choice when I’d asked for a romantic comedy, but given the funk of angry I was barely holding in check, I went with it.

What a great choice, by chance!

I won't spoil them before you, but I will say that by the end I was in a much better mood than when I had started watching. There was the point anywhere in the movie where I was knocked out of the experience and that's fairly rare for me.

Perhaps it's exactly what I needed today and I'm quite thankful that the movie found me.

March 15 – Relative-ity

It's been a few years since I've seen any of my family from out east. Not since 2013, in fact, which considering that I live on the other side of the country isn't all that long, I suppose.

All the same, I grew up with a large and very social group of relatives in Niagara. It seemed that I was always over at one house or another with my extended family when I was younger, all the way up until high school started taking over my social time and the visits faded away to regular holiday traditions a few times a year… not counting funerals or marriages, of course.

This week we were gifted with the visitation by one of my father's two sisters, who was only too glad to take a few weeks to visit us here in B.C as a break from the heavy grip winter has back East.

Visiting with her today for lunch over at my parents place, it was very easy to slip back into the old patterns and imagining myself slipping back a few decades to visits to my grandmother's house. Crowded in with many cousins, aunts and uncles, we'd catch up on each other's lives and in an era long before e-mail or FBook.

Listening to my aunt stories today, I heard some tales that had not come up before about my grandfather and other relatives. Being the age that I am now, I realize that these are the sorts of conversations that you can't have until you get a few years of life experience under your belt so that you can understand the importance of knowing about your family’s past and so relate it to your own future. Being a writer, I stayed quiet for most of the afternoon, listening to my sister and mother chat with my aunt and quietly reveling in the simple joy of having family visit us out here.

Sooner or later, I’ll manage to get back to Niagara, to visit my friends and family. I realize that the old days of crowds of relatives packed into my grandmother’s house are gone; everyone’s getting on with their lives( those that haven’t passed on already )in various cities scattered across the country. There are fewer of the ‘old guard’ left now and so for today, at least, I smiled as I heard a familiar voice conjure up pleasant memories from our shared past.

I'm not back to balanced yet concerning being robbed, but I'm better, thanks to my family and to About Time - perspective and moving on instead of brooding are my watchwords this week, as I say goodbye to another old friend and get on with my life as it is.

Delightful Days, Double Features and Dumb Decisions

The word of the week is resolute.

March 2 – Say what?

It was too good to be true.

For one brief night of glory, our writing group last week was treated to the luxury of meeting at the Ground Control Café, housed in the Tectoria building downtown.

This week, when he tried to meet, we were told that the space was in use and that we have to go elsewhere for the evening. Frustrating, but then that's the life of a Meetup group: when you don't pay for your facilities, you have to take the lumps when those facilities are in use by those who do.

I think that's probably the reason that the Elks Lodges got started in America back in the 1800’s.

Unfortunately, word came down that until a final decision is made by the higher-ups at Tectoria, the Victoria Creative Writing Group will not be allowed to use the facilities at Tectoria to meet. There's no timeframe on that word coming down either, though I expect it will be a few weeks at most.

Until then, we're back to meeting at the spacious-yet-loud Atrium, replete with its back-breaking seats and the random company of the general public using it at the same time as our stalwart band. Definitely no comparison to the amazing accommodations available at Tectoria…

We were so close to paradise, only to have the doors locked in our faces this week. Sigh.

March 3 - Why I Love Canada

Here’s a story that personifies honesty, a trait close to my heart.

This week in Toronto, a business closed up for the day but the employee forgot to do three things: lock the door, set the alarm or put the Closed sign up.

Normally, this would be a recipe for theft and an unhappy ending to the story.

Thankfully, we’re in Canada.

The security camera at the door recorded no less than five customers entering the store after business hours, looking understandably confused when nobody appeared to serve them. Four of the customers left again, empty-handed, honest folks that would be back the next day.

The fifth customer popped behind the counter to rifle through something: the store’s address book. The customer, unable to find the owner’s phone number, took the time to change the store sign to ‘Closed’ before leaving and contacting police to let them know that the store was unlocked and vulnerable. The police contacted the store owners, who arrived to find not a single thing had gone missing in the hours since the last employee mistakenly left the business unlocked.

Being an honest person myself, I'm heartened by this story, glad to see that there are so many honest people still out there and that an honest mistake wasn't repaid by disaster.

I'll never get tired of hearing about things like this.

March 4 – 80’s Fantasy Films!

It’s nostalgia time! Or fantasy time. Or both.

Growing up in the 1980s was fantastic for me, in the literal sense of the word, given all the amazing films that hit the silver screen during that decade. Ones that jump immediately to mind are The Dark Crystal, Krull and yes, even Star Wars( the later two films ) all of which helped shape me firmly into the g33k I am today. Which I'm pretty happy about.

Fantasy films are just that: complete breakaways from our normal reality, escapes if you will, that allow us to indulge our imaginations to the fullest and the company heroes on adventures in worlds totally apart from our own.

There was a great list this week over at Tor.com, ranking all of the 1980s fantasy films. I was pleased to see that I've seen every single one of them( except number 18 ), some of the more than once. I also agree with the rankings, for the most part, though I would toss a few up or down the list based on my personal preferences.

The list also got me thinking about listing the great fantasy films of the 1990s and 2000s, but strangely none really come to mind. Maybe I'll have to think about it a little bit more this week, but it's comforting to know that many other people feel the same way that I do: the 1908’s were the best time for fantasy on the silver screen.

Perhaps a Dark Crystal re-watch is in order! 

March 5 – Meals and Me

Food and I aren’t fancy friends.

Neither are we fashionable fellows. While I like a good meal, I often begrudge myself the time needed to fix up one for myself or a few folks, something that’s been a bugaboo to me over the years. Hence my rather basic cooking skills and a lack of desire to putter about in a kitchen.

It’s been good for the restaurants around where I’ve resided, however.

Now that I’ve freed up more time by having just one job with regular hours Monday to Friday, I find myself reluctant to give up a portion( ahem )of that time to improve my cooking skills.

Weird, eh?

I think what symbolizes this lack is a book that's been in my possession since moving here to BC in 2007: Cook With Jamie, by none other than the masterful chef Jamie Oliver. It was my intent after purchasing the rather thick tome to work my way through this book, recipe by recipe, to build up my basic skills to the point where I would have a working knowledge of how not to embarrass myself in the kitchen. As it stands, I pulled out the book every few months, read through it and then put it back on the shelf with the firm intent to Do Something with it.

Maybe once my trilogy’s done, I’ll wrote a cookbook: Cooking For Procrastinators.

Ask me about it in a few years.

March 6 – Double Feature

Two brilliant animated films for the price of none? Bring it on!

With every other Friday shaping up to be a Fun Fest with a Friend for the foreseeable future( FFwaFFFF? )I was looking forward to tonight: two film’s I’ve not yet seen, astonishingly enough. The pair of them were on the menu tonight for their visual aesthetics more than anything else.

First up was The Prince Of Egypt, hailing from the early era of animated CGI films: it led the way in many areas, with stunning visual effects well-suited to its epic storyline. The voice cast was top-tier as well, with the likes of Natalie Portman, Danny Glover and Val Kilmer, among others. Watching it, with such a familiar story, I thought the film jumped its pace a few times, especially towards the end, when things just sort of fizzled out… there wasn’t really an end, in my opinion. Just a setup for ‘Moses: The Ten Commandments’ if you follow my drift. Still: my eyes loved it!

The second film was The Road to El Dorado, which was a visual treat. Bright colours interspersed with groundbreaking( at the time )CGI animation made it a delight for the eyes and the soundtrack, courtesy of the team that made The Lion King, was far above par as well. The story, well… in the producer’s own words, it was about the two sidekicks having an adventure, which doesn’t say much about having much to say. It was a feel-good buddy film and knowing that, I enjoyed it more than I though I would – the visuals carried me along in the parts where the story fell flat.

When I’m watching films such as these, I can’t quite manage to turn off my inner writer who cringes at the really soggy spots in the film. I’m well aware that any major motion picture making it to the theater is a minor miracle every time it happens, given the hurdles they have to leap time and again during production. Millions of dollars and thousands of hours of work are poured into every film that we see released, the product of years of labour and love.

Yet the inner writer says: can’t you make it just a little better here? And there? And… I guess that’s why it’s so easy to be a critic, rather than a creative type.

March 7 – Want My Advice?

The weather outside’s delightful…

I'm walking quite a lot lately, partially to make up for not riding my bike nearly as much in the last few months( no need to, as I’m working so close to home ). Days like today are a delight for the pedestrian, with the warm temperatures and sunshine lending themselves to shirtsleeves in the afternoons. Note that this was the first really lovely day in a while, as such things go here.

Sitting on a patio with a fellow writer, I found myself in a quandary, of a sudden.

Having been asked to coffee by a younger writer, after a few minutes I was struck by the realization that the fellow was asking my advice on a number of things, not all of them writing-related. As someone who is careful about the advice I take myself, I of a sudden had to step back mentally and take stock. Who was I to advise this earnest young man in his 20’s?

The answer that flew back to the forefront from somewhere inside my head was: speak from experience and relate, then don’t babble about it. Listen, but don’t spin it into being about you.

He’s the one asking for advice.

In the end, I spent a few hours on the patio, chatting about writing and life and choices and in the end, feeling like it’d been mostly worthwhile. While I can’t pretend that I made a huge impression on the other guy, I think that he listened to most of what I had to say and took what he needed from it. It was an odd feeling, being ‘interrogated’ for my experience, especially as I recognized the same lines of questioning that I’d employed myself, here and there, with others over the years.

I don't take myself for granted, nor do I speak lately to others about important matters when they ask. I tend to listen far more often than I reply, as I make a good sounding board for people to souse out their own answers from their mixed questions that tend to bubble out. Whatever it is about me that gets people to talk, I try my hardest to make what I say meaningful to them.

Hopefully someone will answer a few of my questions like that, some day. For now, I’ll just keep on listening and racking up experience, until my next level.

March 8 – Squishy Under The Sun

Today went by fairly quickly, but a lot was accomplished.

Being another sunny day, I spent a few hours on the patio down at Moka House, concentrating on writing up edits for my second book while tuning out the chatter around me. I was out mainly for the bright sunshine, as last night I'd had trouble staying awake and had dozed off more than a few times during the evening which was unusual for me.

For whatever reason, I think my brain needed a break.

It's funny: I'm getting into the weekend routine now, where I think I have all the time I need waking up Saturday morning and then by Sunday afternoon I realize that I still have a few more things to do than I have time for. I always budget at least three hours in the evening to do my blog, which may or may not take as long as that; sometimes less, sometimes more depending on what I'm writing and how long it takes me to tidy up with the visuals and so forth.

I'm still pretty lucky, in that my time is my own to do with as I please, for the most part. Sure, I have to get the mundane things done on a regular basis like groceries or laundry or cleaning( or even cooking )but overall, my weekends are pretty clear right now.

I intend for them to stay that way, for most of 2015.

Committing as I have to the VCWG, my Monday nights are pretty much spoken for. Of the rest of the week, the occasional Tuesday sees me at a movie, or a Thursday playing a boardgame with friends – this past Thursday, I had a rousing game of Risk with friends at the Integrity Café, which ended in a 3-way draw due to time running out. I think we all did well, considering none of us have played before - go figure.

Makes me wonder what everyone else is going to be up to this spring.

Anyone?

Argh. The weather’s shifting again and the barometer’s plunging, meaning my head’s decided to require medicating more than usual. Should make for an interesting week… though I expect things to settle down from here on in, with my concentration on ramping up work on Book 2 in favour of most other activities.