Motion, Modern Marvels and an M41A

The word of the week is obfuscation.

Nov 30 – Motion

What to do…

I ask myself that sometimes, and let my mind wander around to find an answer. It’s a generalized question, one that comes up with some surprising things, depending on what’s going on in my life at the time.

Right now, the answers coming back are: more writing, and a work changeup.

The second answer indeed, was a surprise, considering how much I love where I work right now. The people I work with are wonderful( friendly, efficient, enthusiastic, intelligent… and more! )and I couldn’t ask for a better workspace setup, tucked into my own corner space, beholden to none: I see the spaces other clerks are required to occupy and I want to hug my desk…

But, I could be doing more, making more, with my experience and drive.

I’m not imagining that I need to move on: my co-workers and my office superiors continue to lavish praise on me, to the point where I’m becoming embarrassed every time they do so. Yet it’s genuine, their appreciation of my abilities, and so is their subtle nudging to apply for better positions within the government.

I’m not sure I’m ready for that step yet, but I need to be.

Government is all about movement: taking new positions, challenging yourself, learning and bettering your skills so as to move on to the next opportunity – always up, never sideways, so I hear. While the position I’m in right now seems cozy, it could all too easily become stagnant for me in a year or two, which I don’t want: I love the stability, but with such often comes boredom.

It’s a fine line, and I have to think about my writing, which is the main reason to keep my job as it is: do I want to be bored in some ways, so that my creativity shines at night, with the bonus of not being exhausted from an energy-draining higher-responsibility position?

There’s also my incipient GlowForge business to consider in 2016 too… *sigh* So much to think about!

Dec 1 – Modern Life

Have you ever met a time traveler?

If you did, how would you know? Would they tell you, or just smile and keep their secret?

What if you could see one… right now?

Meet Otis Johnson.

He recently returned to modern society, after spending 44 years of his life away from it all, behind bars. He’s 69 now, an old man compared to the youth of 25 who made a mistake… and we can see that while he’s come to grips with where his life choices took him, the modern world is another thing altogether:

Dec 2 – Homeless Help?

My city has a problem.

Well, more than a few( big and small )but apart from the lack of a sewage treatment plant of any kind, there’s a more human issue at stake… though the treatment of both problems is frighteningly similar: the homeless.

Shunned, ignored, maginialized but always in plain sight, Victoria has a homeless population that numbers in the hundreds. Despite shelters and social programs, many continue to live on the streets, camping in many of the city’s parks overnight, where they are rousted at 7am by police and told to move on.

Except for those in the park right behind the provincial courthouse.



A month and a bit ago, a few of the homeless discovered that the land, owned by the province, was not bound by city bylaws and they wouldn’t be asked to move on. Within a week, a dozen tents sprung up as word got around and to date, dozens of tents dot the grassy stretch of downtown land. I walk by the area every day on my way to and from work and for the most part, it’s quiet and well-organized. The neighbours in the area are wary and though there have been some complaints, police have yet to become involved to any degree. The province is aware, of course, of the camp, but again won’t intervene unless laws are being broken, which since the camp is apparently being self-managed by a ‘mayor’ and some others, seems less likely than you’d think.

The point is, they’re not hiding any more: the issue is plain to see, for anyone passing by. People everywhere in the city can see exactly how many homeless there are, without shelter, and ask themselves: what’s being done about it?

More on this in a later blog entry.

Dec 3 – M41A Win!

YES! Success!

I’ve been patiently searching for parts for the replica Aliens Nerf rifle I’m having built( by a Nerf expert in Toronto, no less )to allow it to look and sound as close to the real thing as possible. I’m aware that such things don’t come cheaply, but also aware that due to the popularity of the Aliens movies, there’s a small supply of ready-made materials out there, for those who know where to look. From forums to obscure websites and videos of finished fan M41A projects, it’s enough to know what’s possible and how much it will cost, depending on what you want.

Today, my patience paid off: I found a pair of ammo counters!

In the movies, the M41A has a glowing red LED ammo counter on the side, which counts down from 95 as shots are fired. Most prop-replica creators opt for a static LED counter, as it’s too much work to make it fully-functional( and reliable! )on top of all the other work needing to be done.

Unless you find someone who makes those counters( WARNING - the music is awful! ):

Which I did, a year ago… and I’ve patiently waited for his items to come on sale again, which happens every 3-4 months or so. He only makes a few, as a hobby, and sells them for extremely reasonable prices… they don’t do anything else, but they are designed JUST for M41A props!

I scored two of the LED’s, pre-programmed and ready to be wired up, for $30 CAN each –a steal! One is a spare, to be used in a future prop when funds allow… and I am so excited! It’s rare to find one of these counters for sale, anywhere, but my dedication was rewarded tonight in spades!

In a few month’s time, it will be all worth it – you’ll see it here first, in a video! Huzzah!

Dec 4 – Thoughts

The New York Times hasn’t run an editorial on it’s front page since 1920 – until today.

Have a read, and ponder:

I'm building a prop rifle from a scifi film, and it sickens me to think that people in the USA can so easily get the real thing for less than I'm paying overall for a non-working toy replica.

But hey, I don't live there, as I've been told a few times: they want to solve their own problems... yet so far, I've seen nothing but "thoughts and prayers" offered as solutions.

Dec 5 – Windows Weekend

Not a bad day, all in all: very productive!

A good part of the day was spent setting up my desktop for what amounts to a brain transplant: removing the old SSD main drive( where Windows 7 lives )and replacing it with a newer SSD of the same size I recently picked up for a flash-sale price( far less than the one it’s replacing! ). It’s a long process, relatively speaking, but less fraught with peril than trying the same thing ten years ago – even with backups, things Can Go Wrong.

The problem that has forced the upgrade is simple: part of Windows 7 is broken, so that I can’t run most software programs( like games )nor will it allow the PC to be upgraded to Windows 10.

Also: the ‘free’ upgrade to Windows 10 will expire on July 29, 2016, so that’s a buzzkill.

Since 2016 is looking to be a busy, busy year for me, I took it upon myself to fix things Sooner rather than Later – like, today sooner. I’ve been planning to do this for a while, but one thing has always been top priority: I would have to keep the old SSD drive intact for a while, until I was certain All Was Well with the new install and that there was no crippling oversight on my part.

So today, I formatted the new drive and installed Windows 7 on it, which didn’t take all that long. Then I hit the ‘Update’ button… which essentially took the rest of the day, with various resets as new Updates downloaded themselves. Since I didn’t manage to save a newer copy of Win7 anywhere on my system from years ago, I had to go the old-fashioned time-sucking Update route.

At least I had a laptop to use while the desktop was chuckling to itself all day today.

The Lighted Truck Parade tonight was a bit of a letdown, despite our having primo window seats: a perfect view of the road from inside La Taquisa, out of the cold and wet. The trucks started sailing past around 7:15pm… and I do mean sailing: they were going at a fair clip, probably 40kph, which was hardly a speed one could admire them at! There were many great displays, but it only took about 15 minutes, a far cry from the leisurely crawl I recall from years past when I saw them near Bear Mountain.

Of course, I was freezing cold and wet then and had to walk back up the mountain afterwards… so tonight’s bevvy of fast trucks was just fine, thanks!

Dec 6 – Mastery

Windows 10 on my desktop at last!

Well, mostly. My desktop updated itself last night while I slept, and I woke to a Windows 10 logon screen this morning. With some trepidation, I logged in and looked around… and all seems well!

Except that none of my programs are installed.

My choice to upgrade from a ‘clean’ install of Win7 means that I have to install all of my programs again, one by one… a mind-numbingly tedious task, exacerbated by the design of the Windows OS: thanks to the incredibly complicated Registry, where all program settings are stored, it’s impossible to install a new OS and transfer over all your programs easily these days. I’ve looked at various solutions, spoke to more than a few software companies and been told ‘Nope!’ every time. There’s at least a week or two of software installations looming ahead of me right now…

Needless to say, once things are set THIS time and working perfectly, I’m going to back up THAT image all over the place, so that I don’t have to go through all this again.

On the bright side: I managed to win a laserdisc player today, for a modest sum to boot!

The CLD-97 goes for a LOT more than I paid for my CLD-79!

And not just ANY player: it’s a Pioneer Elite, Model CLD-79, considered to be an excellent / Above Average player by those in the know in various laserdisc forums the world over. Normally, Elite models of any kind go for anywhere from $300-$1000 USD if they’re in solid working order, which this one is… yet only one person bid against me! I think I won perhaps because of two things: that the auction ended at 4pm PST( before dinner on a weekend )and that the other bidder was brand-new to eBay and wasn’t wise to my being able to bid at the last second – tadah!

I’m extremely pleased, as the Elite’s going to give me the best possible picture under the circumstances. While its price isn’t exactly on a level with a thrift-store buy, it’s head and shoulders above any such player in terms of quality: I daresay that the odds of finding such a player for the same price again are very unlikely, to say the least.

Happy, happy day!

Yep, I'm tired... it's been a busy weekend indeed, even with my day off on Friday, of which a too-large chunk was wasted on the phone talking to Telus. Turns out there's no provision for trading in my old tablet for a credit towards a new one, so scratch that plan - too bad I can't get my time back from talking to disinterested / un-knowledgeable reps. So frustrating to know what I want, to make it crystal clear... and still watch people run around looking for answers.

Life, Lemons and Laserdiscs

The word of the week is somnolent.

Nov 23 – Life

Things are going well these last 6 months.

My job’s stable and not too stressful( though busy ). My girlfriend’s all kinds of superlatives( wonderful / amazing / incredible / brilliant )and we’re very happy to spend our free time together. While my writing has been on hold since the summer, the ideas are still percolating in my brain and I'm pleased to know that the characters are being patient with me while I wait to get the story threads in order. I'm even finally getting my finances in order, to the point where I might even start to be able to put money away again beyond what I'm saving for retirement.

Wouldn’t that be something?

I really do need to exercise more, however. I've noticed that since I've stopped biking altogether the last six months, my energy levels have dwindled significantly of a day. By early evening, I'm feeling tired and my bedtime has crept forward to well before 11 PM most nights – or earlier.

While that also means I get up correspondingly early, it does tend to throw me off, in that while it up well before 7 AM every day, I don't seem to have enough time to do much productive work before I have to leave in the morning to get to my job.

Some changes may be in order. I'm thinking I may block out a half-hour( or more ) in the morning to do some writing every day, in order to catch myself when I've first woken up and thus in closest to my creative dreamtime. I may even be able to put myself to bed the night before with certain thoughts on subjects and see how those ferment overnight into the morning writing sessions.

Nov 24 – Laser mania?

This week, I’ve become a bit obsessed… over image.

Image quality, that is.

I possess the complete series of Babylon 5 on DVD, along with the DVD movies, and I've always been dissatisfied with how poorly the video effects were transferred. There's all sorts of  distracting video artifacts, juddering, moire patterns and other ugly things that stem from poor editing decisions by those who put the DVDs together from the original source material. Admittedly, there wasn't a lot to work with, as all of the original masters are lost somewhere in the Warner Bros. media archives - nobody seems to know where they are and as the archives of the size of a small city, it's not likely that they will ever surface before they completely degrade in another decade or so.

Enter the laserdisc.

Back in the early 2000's, some of the B5 seasons were released on laserdisc, which was still the highest quality video storage medium at the time. I didn't realize that enough of the disks were released that some are obtainable on eBay now and then, so I've been looking for the last few weeks to see what I can scare up as well as what has been on sale in the last few months. I'm hopeful that I can find a fair number of the laserdiscs for not-too-much outlay each, which from what I've seen would be around $20 or less individually and far less than that if I managed to find a lot-sale.

The laserdisc players are a different story. While there's quite a few of them for sale, the video quality of most is nothing to write home about and unlike DVD players, laserdisc players are far more prone to breakdowns due to the combination of high rotational speed and the inertia of such a large disk spinning at said speed. Meaning that the supply of players, while substantial, has shrunk every year as parts wear out and people don't bother to repair them due to their obsolescence. The average laserdisc player runs about $100 with shipping, which is reasonable, but the better quality players( of which there aren't all that many left )cost easily 3 to 4 times that amount – ouch!

We'll see what the next few months of searching brings. Here’s hoping!

Nov 25 – Creative Nibbles

My muse has been stirring of late.

Having recently taken care of the many bothersome details of things financial, coupled with the improvements I've been cultivating in my personal life, has meant a reduction of stress – in general – overall.

Less stress means less worry and therefore more time for creative thoughts.

Time is a tricky thing when it comes to writing: let too much pass and things you thought you knew tend to get muddled, while pushing your creativity often jumbles those same thoughts all up. There's a certain wisdom to knowing how your creative process works and how the timing goes.

Right now I'm in an in-between place, waiting to kick-start the slumbering fires of my Muse back into full burn sometime early in the New Year. More thoughts have been surfacing of late concerning my trilogy, tiny little pieces clicking together here and there, over and over, feeling in the smaller gaps around the main question marks still remaining in my head.

That's a good feeling, a sign that my Muse is beginning to stir again in earnest.

Once I get back into my writing, I intend to finish off my second book in one continuous shot, probably in a timeframe of no more than a month or two maximum. I have to inhabit the world completely while I'm doing that, with very little else on my mental plate so that I can simply step into it as needed while things are fresh and bubbling in the creativity pot of my brain.

It will be full steam ahead in the New Year, very soon indeed.

Nov 26 – Tablet Travails

My tablet experiment has been a mixed bag.

On the one hand, I’ve managed to upgrade my ASUS TF300T to the latest Android Lollipop 5.1 version, which has made it snappy and responsive again – almost like a new tablet.

Unfortunately, it also resets randomly. Often.

So often that it got stuck in a loop this week so unrecoverable that I had to let the battery die in order for me to be able to even diagnose the problem. Such are the foibles of custom ROM installs.

While I may be able to burn a different ROM onto it, I don't want to have to keep doing that, as it's a long and involved process that I'm finding me still have nasty bugs hidden inside due to the fact that these are ROM software packages designed by enthusiasts and not major companies.

On the other hand, I could try to get a newer tablet…

Except that I don't want to pay many hundreds of dollars for something that I'll use perhaps once a day: reading ebooks, a few games, checking email… small tasks and ones well-suited to an older tablet like I have, albeit one that doesn't suddenly reset at the drop of a hat.

I did find out today that Telus has just started offering a ‘Tablet Plan’ where you can purchase a newer tablet for less than $20 /month… over 2 years, which is reasonable. I have my eye on a Samsung Tab A which has decent specs, better than my TF300T and there's no goofy reset bug to boot as the software is the original that comes installed with the tablet. I could upgrade to a Samsung S2 tablet, but that would mean a substantial outlay in addition to the monthly cost and I think I'd be better off just looking for last year’s Galaxy Tab S on eBay.

Any of the Samsung tablets I’ve mentioned would be plenty fast enough for me to use without frustration and avoid the issues of limited space, as they have expandable SD card slots. I just have to decide how much money I’m willing / able to spend for what I want to do with them daily.

Nov 27 – Seven Years

My musical tastes are… eclectic, to be kind.

It may surprise you from interventionists, as I don't usually talk about music. I like things that are mainly top 40s, with some indy bands, classical music… and Enya.

Enya’s my go-to artist when I need to relax and shift my mind into creative gear – bar none. Her music has been a mainstay of my mind’s happy places for twenty years, and happily so.

Today she released a new album, her first in seven years.

It’s interesting to be an Enya fan /enthusiast, as I am at once looked at askance by other people while knowing inside that the music really connects with me on many levels. Kinda like a metalhead zen practitioner who paints rolling fields of peaceful grass and flowers.

I was surprised, nay delighted this week to discover this article that delves wonderfully well into the private artistic world of Enya. It gives a rare insight into how she's managed to have her music means so much to millions yet avoided all the pitfalls and trappings such fame usually brings while retaining her creative freedom. Her contract allows at least three years between albums, and she's always worked with the same creative team since her very first album release in the 1990s.

I'll most likely be picking up her Dark Sky Island album in the next few days to give it a listen and added to my extensive playlist on my phone. By now so many of the songs are part of my thought processes that I think some of my neurons are tuned to each note pattern.

Which is a good thing, as my creativity is tangled up in there too.

Nov 28 – Black Friday Blahs

What happened out there yesterday?

While Canada seems to have adopted the US commercial-crazy Black Friday moniker in the last few years, it doesn't seem like the discounts seen south of the border have made it up here as well.

Looking over the flyers this week, I didn't see a single thing I wanted to spend money on.

Sure, there were some cool things, but not at prices I was reluctantly willing to part with cash or credit for. For whatever the reason, most of the tech products I saw could be found at very similar prices during other times of the year on sale - there is no compelling reason to get out of bed today, sale-wise, that I could see.

It makes me wonder what Boxing Day’s going to bring.

Not that I'm really into shopping for technology these days; I simply like to keep my toe in the water so I have an idea of what's out there and what the general price ranges for items are - just in case. I have pretty much everything I need and everything else is basically a luxury or unnecessary save for the g33k factor; who the hell really needs a curved 4K TV right now, anyway?

Well. There's always next year, though we'll see if the retailers learn anything from US sales practices: you can't bring in customers if they’re savvy enough to shop online and educate themselves enough to see that your prices aren't actual incentives but merely window-dressing.

Nov 29 – Bright Sun Day

What a gorgeous weekend!

I spent most of it with my lady, enjoying the cloudless blue sky( not so much the cold ) and reveling in the fact that I didn't have a headache from the high pressure, for once. We got out and about, seeing the city while the Sun was up and keeping our toes from freezing after had gone down at a far-too-early time in the afternoon. Babylon 5 has figured prominently on our watch list of late.

I also was at the optometrist’s today to get my eyes checked out, as it’s been a year since my last visit and I really need to get a prescription for reading glasses. AS my eyes have aged, in the last couple of years my minimum focus distance has been moving further and further away, so reading's tricky and I have to take off my regular glasses just to focus up close.

The optometrist did give me a jolt today while examining my eyes: he said my optic nerves looked ‘a little odd’ which made my heartrate jump. Fortunately, he immediately followed up with “But it’s nothing to be really worried about and probably related to the early stages of glaucoma’ which he then said is easily controlled nowadays.

Argh.

Here I thought my being light-sensitive and experiencing the effects of post-age-40 nearsightedness was enough to keep on top of… but heck, why not add glaucoma to the list? I told myself on off today that I needn't worry and by the evening, I've managed to convince myself of it.

Later, my family went out for dinner to celebrate my dad’s 68^th birthday in style, dining at Il Covo in James Bay, which is a lovely Italian restaurant tucked away in one of the quieter sections of Victoria:

I’d never been there and I was impressed with both the decor and the food, which combined with the excellent service made it a memorable evening. Happy Birthday, dad!

That's about all I've got; it's nearly 10:30pm and my eyes are getting pretty heavy. I've a lot to do this week, including ordering some new glasses, writing a presentation on poetry and maybe even rebuilding my desktop PC, in addition to work and regular writing. For which I need my sleep...

Relief, Review and Relaxation

The word of the week is ecstatic.

Nov 16 – Stress Relief

Over the course of my day, I went from highly-stressed to smiling-blissed.

In the service of fixing up my finances this month, I've had several appointments with various places talk about various plans for my future. The biggest one was with my former primary bank of 20 years and I've been awaiting word from them for a week now, not helped by the banking holiday last Wednesday. It's been stressful just waiting around for word to arrive.

Today, after lunch I received a phone call, that told me to make another phone call to talk about options and I fretted all over again: would what I want to be possible?

After work, outside the downtown library in the late afternoon growing darkness, I made the phone call. I wandered around in a circle in front of a window, phone clutched to my ear as I spoke to a lovely lady named Margaret, who was perhaps the nicest person I've spoken to about finances in the last 10 years, even including my more recent forays into credit unions.

By the end of the phone call, I was all smiles and my knees were admittedly a bit wobbly: what I wanted was in deed possible and have been made to happen, helped in no small part by the smart choices I've made over the years to keep my nose clean and persevere no matter what. The smaller progresses I have mentioned since coming to BC( as well as all the setbacks )pale in comparison to this major step. Apologies that I can’t be more specific, but I don’t want to disclose too much personal info, despite this being a personal blog - it is on the internet, after all.

What all this double talk and insinuation means is that my monthly costs have now dropped significantly, to the tune of having about half a paycheque freed up on a regular basis if I play my cards right. Since I've been bleeding money for a few years now every month, this is a hugely significant step forward for me financially and I'm determined to combine this progress with the arrival of my Glowforge in the New Year to put myself firmly in the black for my future.

I slept supremely soundly tonight.

Nov 17 – Improvement By Degrees

I've been trying to eat better lately.

After the weird digestive experience I had a few days ago with a deep-fried fish dish on a patio, I've kept away from anything similar as well as cutting out any remotely greasy dishes from my diet. I haven't had a hamburger in over a year, with the same going for hotdogs as well as super-sugary desserts, soda pop or fast food in general. Organic foods of all kinds including salads, soups and simpler sandwiches have all been the order of the day for me and for the most part, my stomach has been settled - stress again can have an effect on that of course and I've been under a lot for the last month or so, as noted in yesterday's entry.

What I would like to do is to get more exercise as well as eat better, but that's been a little bit harder to do with whatever's going on with my leg muscles. A visit to a specialist a few weeks ago didn't turn up any answers and for the next while, I'm just going to take it easy, as even some normal-seeming stretches in in about of a day can lead me feeling like I've pulled muscles in my legs to the breaking point. Needless to say, riding a bike around town at full gallop - or even a casual glide - isn't the best idea right now until I get a handle on whatever's going on down there.

On the other hand( pardon the pun )my wrists seem to be hanging in there overall, with only the occasional strain-pain when I carry something too heavy for too long or do too much repetitive work at my day job. I still can't type for more than 20 or 30 min. of the time, but at least the pain is now at ‘uncomfortable’ levels instead of ‘it hurts for a few days to a week afterwards’ which is an improvement of sorts.

Apart from figuring out some sort of exercise program that doesn't involve using my arms or legs overmuch, perhaps I should look into volunteering for the first human brain transplant into an android body…

Nov 18 – T3ch Updat3

Non-g33ks can skip this entry, if you wish. J

There's been a few things, tech-wise, that I've added to my daily life for the last year and for one reason or another haven't updated my blog about - until now.  

My Pebble Time smartwatch has been a fantastic purchase overall, proving flexible and quite valuable on a regular basis to making my day easier. Apart from the usual functions of telling time, checking the weather and controlling my music on the way to work / home / wherever, I've been discovering what else I can do with it. I have to say that playing games on it is difficult for the most part, as the button layout( being on the sides ) isn't conducive to gaming, where controllers have much more ergonomic placement of their buttons. 

What is useful are the many customizable apps, which let me add things like flexible timers, GPS nav apps, battery monitors and the like, depending on what I'm up to that week: I can just add or remove things at will from my phone. Being able to see notifications on my wrist from various apps, like Facebook, Email and SMS is so much easier than pulling out the phone, unlocking it and getting into the programs to see much the same thing. I think the feature on the Time that I appreciate the most is the ability to reply to text messages by voice, again far easier and much more efficient than tapping them out by hand.

My OnePlus One smartphone has been almost as good a purchase, though with some glitches that slightly mar the overall experience: it will randomly reset a couple times a week for no reason that I can determine and the phone does get rather hot when doing too much at once or charging for too long. Apart from those minor gripes, the phone is everything I could want and I don't see myself replacing it for at least one more year, having got it a year ago in October. It is speedy, has plenty of storage( 64gb )and the full HD screen is gorgeous to look at it almost any light.

The third tech item is my Samsung Ultrabook, now upgraded with a speedy SSD drive and Windows 10. The combination makes it a joy to use, as I can just flip the lid open, use whatever programs I need to on the fly and close it again. It’s almost as fast as using my smart phone but with a larger screen and a keyboard for tasks better suited to such, like word processing.

On a final note, I did purchase another SSD drive( from AMD, on super sale! )for my desktop PC. My intent is to spend a few evenings next week installing Windows 10 from scratch on the drive, in order to bypass the unrecoverable Windows Update glitches on my Win7 OS on that system. Essentially what I'll be doing is creating a new computer image using Win10 and then installing all of my relevant programs, a process I am not looking forward to as it is time intensive but it will ensure that I finally have a glitch-free desktop PC I can play games on and use as my main media Center. It also means that I will lose quite a few free programs that I've downloaded over the years( courtesy of the amazing GiveAwayOfTheDay.com and BitsDeJour sites ) but I'm willing to make that sacrifice in order to have a full-usable machine after almost 2 years of glitchy operation.

/end T3chUpdate3

Nov 19 – Too much is how much?

What’s your caffeine of choice: coffee, tea or energy drinks?

Do you know what your daily limit is?

My consumption of caffeine through tea over the years has varied, from over a pot a shift on nights to one Timmy’s XL tea a day while writing my novel and back up to almost a full carafe a day at my current job. While the bitter-stomach acid effect of excess consumption is quite familiar to me, I was less aware of how caffeine itself in larger quantities was affecting my body.

Enter the caffeine calculator.

By using the simple tool, inputting your caffeinated drink of choice and body weight, you can see what you're maximum ‘safe’ number of drinks per day is. I was quite surprised to see how low that number was, relatively speaking and a little disturbed at how close I've come to hitting it too often.

Reading up on the effects of caffeine withdrawal, I was heartened to see that apart from my minor headaches for a few days during my caffeine-free weeks in August, I had no other ill effects. It does worry me that I have been drinking more caffeine in the last month or so, so I have made conscious efforts to cut back what I drink per day and when I drink it. As I've said before, it's far too easy to add another cup of caffeine beverage or two without realizing it to your routine and if you don't keep an eye on things, all too soon you'll be shocked at how much you're consuming daily.

Stay informed, don't stay caffeinated.

Nov 20 – Happy Happy!

A glorious day off with my lady!

It seems almost scandalous to have a weekday off, all the more so because my girlfriend was able to take a vacation day today as well – time for a short road trip!

We started off by having lunch with my parents in Langford, which went very well. From there, my lady and I traveled to Butchart Gardens, located about halfway to Sidney. Today was the perfect day to go, as it was brilliantly sunny out and although colder than I'd like, still manageable with the proper clothing( including earmuffs ).

Another vantage to going on a weekday: there was almost nobody there!

We practically had the place to ourselves when we arrived in the early afternoon. There was a larger group ahead of us, so we detoured slightly and waited until we could barely hear them in the distance. It was a new experience to walk around the Gardens while surrounded by the quiet stillness of nature; the almost total lack of wind made it even more surreal.

We did make a stop at the merry-go-round, which has been complete for several years now. We were the only ones on it and I was surprised by how fast it went at top speed; my last experience on the merry-go-round was back in Ontario about 15 years ago and I certainly don't remember it going around fast enough to feel the wind in my hair, so the operator must have cranked it up as we were two adults and not kids. Exhilarating!

If winter does grace us with some snow in the next month, we'll be back to see the Twelve Days Of Christmas, which I saw a few years ago in the snow and have been looking forward to seeing again ever since. The Gardens are one of the few places I've been that I can say I really have experienced the magic of Christmas, fully apart from the crazy commercialism that seems to grip people this time of year. The beauty of the well-tended Gardens, combined with the careful lighting and seasonal decorations makes an experience like no other and I hope to see it this year soon.

Nov 21 – Twice the fun!

What's even better than spending an entire day with my lady? How about two?

As the weather was still quite bright and sunny, we decided to go for a drive today up island to the small seaside town of Sydney, a popular tourist destination and a place I haven't been recently.

It was a great drive, and we stopped on the way to briefly watch a few members of the Victoria Model Aircraft Society fly a few planes in the wonderfully clear sky at the Michell Airpark. One pilot was controlling a power glider, a large craft with graceful lines that soared in graceful circles around the thermals coming out from the surrounding farmland. What was intriguing was that the craft shared the sky with a large bald eagle, and the two played a gentle game of long-distance tag as they shared the sky. It made me regret not bringing my new camera with me in order to record the rare sight.

On arriving in Sidney, we started out by the waterfront and began our meandering. The very first shop we entered was an antique store with a huge selection of books taking up one wall. My girlfriend immediately sat down in front of the fairytale / folklore section, enchanted by the selection of titles while I wandered around, noting to my slight disappointment that they did not have any paperbacks or scifi / fantasy. Yet to my delight I soon discovered a huge tome of a book dedicated to the history of fighter aircraft: a 1994 edition The Complete Book Of Fighters, which weighs a massive 8 lbs and purports to be “An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Every Fighter Aircraft Built and Flown.” All that in perfect condition with a clear dust jacket protector for only $25 after tax – score!

Sidney BIA - Booktown from Distinctly Sidney on Vimeo.

Setting aside our finds behind the counter to pick up later, we continued our tour of the town's main street, stopping in at various shops to poke around wall the sun slowly slid across the sky. In another of the town’s ubiquitous bookshops( this one called ‘The Haunted Bookshop" - Vancouver island's oldest bookshop )was another massive tome that was waiting for me: The Unabridged Mark Twain, with a foreword by Kurt Vonnegut Jr –for only $12.50! Having been an admirer of his for many years, I was  overjoyed to find this book to add to my personal collection for reference and sheer enjoyment.

We had a late lunch in a weirdly 1980’s-esque cafeteria, then browse to a few more shots before heading home for the evening after the sun had dipped below the far horizon( and made it far easier to drive back home without it blazing in our eyes! ). We spent the evening watching most of the second season of ReBoot, which my lady has taken an instant liking to - one more reason I adore.

What a fantastic day we had.

Nov 22 – Sunny Outlook

All this week, new fire alarms have been going into the apartments in our building as part of a modernization to bring the system up code. Each room now has an AC-powered smoke detector, linked to a high-decibel alarm with flashing light that is in turn linked to the building monitoring systems. When everything is complete, the concept is that alarms will be able to be determined per unit and if necessary the entire building can be alerted for evacuation. There was a similar system installed in the building where I lived in Bear Mountain a few years ago and I can't recall any false alarms going off. Unfortunately, the wiring installation for modern upgrades in old buildings leaves a lot to be desired aesthetically, as you can see by the plastic wiring runs and alarm-tech now 'gracing' our walls:

On an amusing note, as I was walking into the apartment this afternoon, one of the other residents stopped asked me how installation of the alarm system had gone, as they saw that my unit was one of the first to get one in the building. They were none too pleased to learn that it's far from pleasing to the eye, but it was another unrelated comments of theirs that raised my eyebrows, as it showed that you never know what other people are observing are thinking about you. He said ‘Hey, I saw that you have a girlfriend now, way to go buddy! How are things otherwise of late?” – this coming from a tough-as-nails married contractor.

I was a little startled, but I managed to mumble a coherent reply and we parted ways. I thought about what his comment meant and where it was coming from and in the end, I took it as a simple complement. He’s seen me around the place and we've talked about life in general over the couple of years that I've lived in the building, so he must have seen that I wasn't all that happy from time to time as well as never mentioning a lady in my life or being seen around the building with one on my arm.

It's funny how you never think about what other people are thinking about you when you're going about your daily life, at least those people who you don't have a regular interaction with. I was flattered, in a way, by his comment, as it shows that he'd taken an interest in my well-being enough to ask about how things were going, despite having no real connection with me apart from being neighbors. In doing so, he elevated himself from nodding acquaintance to friendly passerby as in, though I doubt that we'd ever go to get drinks in the same kind of place – I’d get beaten up in the first 5 minutes if I hung out at his choice of suds-serving establishment.

Doesn't really bother me, whatever he thinks; he seems like a decent guy and that's all that matters when you're being neighbourly. Nice of him to say something nice, I say!

It was a relaxing day of writing my blog, editing chapters for tomorrow’s critique group and generally just achieving various degrees of relaxation. My sister is doing the same thing, being out for the day after completing her months-long involvement with the local TED conference for this year that just wrapped up last night. We’ll both be a lot less stressed, for different reasons, after this weekend.