Value, Vexation and Voltron

The word of the week is inscrutable.

June 6 – Aw, nuts..

Well, it doesn't look good.

I heard back from the local repair place where I took my pair of wonky laserdisc players a few weeks ago, and it's not good news: neither of them can be fixed. To add insult to injury, in order to try to salvage one working player out of the guts of the pair of them would cost upwards of $500 - way, WAY outside my tiny repair budget. AND there's no guarantee that all the parts used will work properly, thanks to the a**hole who must have drop-kicked my player's package somewhere along the way hard enough that broke many of the internal components, despite the extremely well-padded box. Motherboards don't crack nor bend at crazy angles from just getting tossed onto a truck - someone along the way was a jackass because they could get away with it and I hope karma gives that particular... person a rough time soon.

That bottom mboard should be FLAT, and the tray's snapped from it's greased groove...

So I'm shelving my laser disks for the time being, as I can't afford to spend any more money on trying to salvage things. Despite my desire to watch my collection of about 50 laserdiscs( about half of which are Babylon 5 episodes ) there's nothing I can do right now. Players like mine of the calibre that I managed to luck into finding a pair of currently go for anywhere from $250 CDN on up on eBay ( I paid less than that for the both of them, with shipping )and the average is about $500 - again, way outside any kind of budget I have for the next long while.

So disappointing, but there's nothing I can do about it.

June 7 – Cool it!

The summer around here has been quite cool so far; I like it.

After a rather warm second half of April this year, things for the next month look to be rather cool and cloudy, which is kind of nice. Victoria has always been known for its moderate weather thanks to our location next to the ocean and proximity to the Olympic Mountains to the south, which have a cooling effect on our climate.

It's been dry June though. Really dry, but looking nice:

Vancouver Island always dries out in the summer, making water rationing and fire safety both mandatory occurrences here. You can tell it's the summer by the color of the grass: everything not on a sprinkler system goes brown around April and stays that way until the cool months of late September, or later.

I've actually had a headache this week, mainly from the air pressure rising gradually as the sunny skies move in. As I am used to this sort of thing, I've been able to moderate it with occasional and judicious use of headache medication. It's not so bad, though I do tend some days to feel a bit tired but not nearly as much as I would if I was sweating like crazy from excessive heat, which I've spoken of a few times in the past due to my increased sensitivity to such these last few years.

I'll take a few Tylenol now and then instead of overheating any a day.

June 8 – Re-Reading

Not half-bad, if I do say so myself.

It's been a year since I last re-read my first book from start to finish, and that's been intentional. It's common advice to writers to let their work lay fallow, so to speak, before re-reading it in order to come at it with a fresh mind.

In my case, I let it sit for a year before reading it in full again, which I've been doing for the last week this June. I've poked at parts of it on and off during that year, but never just read it as a full story until now. I needed time to process things and to think about how everything fits into the next books in the trilogy.

So far in the reread, I've surprised myself by liking far more than I thought about the third draft. While I'm not blind to the fact that writers shouldn't really like their own work too much, the work that I've created in this third draft a year ago still holds up when I look at it with my even-more-experienced writerly eyes.

That's not to say there's no work to be done still; far from it.

The purpose of this reread is to generate new ideas and to let me tweak the third draft in a multitude of places and so come up with the fourth draft. As I read, every few paragraphs I see places where some small changes need to be made and every chapter eyespot places where some major points can be inserted to better serve the book overall.

I'm enjoying getting reacquainted with the entire story all at once, an experience most unusual for the author of any story that they may be far too familiar with.

Plus, it's just plain fun to read it again anew!

June 9 – Cities?

I picked up a new game on sale this week, though I don't know when I'll be able to find the time to really play it.

Back in the day - high school, as I recall - I was a huge SimCity fan, and I picked up most of the sequels over the next 10 years up until about when SimCity2000 came out, and then I got too busy doing other things.

However, the love of creating my own city has stuck with me.

The most recent spiritual successor to the old SimCity game is Cities:Skylines, which has the twin advantages of having been on deep discount this week and which runs happily on my current not-cutting-edge 4-year-old PC system: huzzah! And it looks gorgeous:

I played a little with that this week, with the idea of using it to possibly model some of the cities in my novel. As it stands, it will be a lot more work to do it that way then simply using my imagination, but I like the concept and I may explore that idea later with some other software, should I discover something better suited to the task.

For now, I've added Skylines to my sadly-neglected Steam account and I'll get back to it( along with FAR too many other games ) at some point later this year when I have a little bit more time to just sit down and play some games to relax.

June 10 – Robot Lions!

I'm so excited: Voltron returns today!

I've been a fan of the giant 5-lions-combine-into-1 robot since his debut back in the early 80s, though I admit the old series doesn't really hold up to re-watching it nowadays - you really can't go back to being a kid again in some ways.

However, neither of the two attempted follow-up series( 1998’s Voltron: The Third Dimension and 2011’s Voltron Force )were any better: despite decent animation, writing was simply subpar and didn't do anything to advance the show.

Thankfully, Netflix stepped up in 2016 to deliver a new series!

Created by DreamWorksSKG, the series looks to be a winner, with executive producer Joaquim Dos Santos, and co-executive producer Lauren Montgomery ( who both brought us  Korra and The Last Airbender )taking a hand in the creation of the new  Voltron. The best part is that they greenlighted an entire series to view at once, in the now traditional bow to the binge-watching crowd.

I will be watching it that way though: I'll be treating myself to one episode a week, preferably on Saturday mornings... just like I watched it as a kid.

If you're also a fan, you can check out this stellar interview that Nerdist.com did with the show runners here - it's a fantastic read for anyone who likes Voltron!

June 11 – Patience Pays!

Holy manifestation, Batman!

After lending my sister my noise-canceling Parrot Zik headphones today to use while she was at the too-crowded Moka House patio today, I wondered if there was a second pair floating around eBay that she might be able to use.

Shockingly, there was, and for a mere $100!

Before anyone else could, I snapped them up, hardly able to believe my good luck. Normally, these headphones go for anywhere around $300, as their some of the best of their type that you can get to do what they do. I'd actually stopped looking for them two years ago, as the prices always seem to be at least that or more. They're perfect for tuning out distractions and annoying noises, which help you to focus on work, or also to relax and even help to reduce anxiety by removing environmental annoyances.

Yet somehow, I immediately managed to find a pair today that the seller listed as being in perfect shape and even came with all the original accessories. There was no way I was going to wait even a minute after finding that before buying it; even with two newer models on the market from Zik, my original pair still retain their value.

Which is why I'm so happy with my lucky find today, and so too will my sister!

June 12 – Apocalypse Meh?

After lunch, I went to see the newest X-men movie.

 X-Men: Apocalypse has garnered many mixed reviews to date, so I reserved judgment until I actually got to see it myself. I also managed to avoid any spoilers, which is actually kind of hard to do these days if you're on social media in general.

So: minor Spoiler Alert for what follows below.

The movie is a continuation of the franchise( obviously ) to introduce many familiar characters in new ways, some of which have new back stories... and some of those stories I don't particularly agree with the new tack that has been taken.

The movie follows the re-discovery of the all-powerful First Mutant Apocalypse, as he rises from his ancient tomb where he was buried after being betrayed to try to remake the earth in his own image... which is apparently is the first thing to do when you've been buried for thousands of years and out of touch with everything.

Overall, I think the movie will make a decent rental: it's visually pleasing, makes sense in terms of plot and story choices and has a decent cast. There's no slow spots, which is a lot safer something that's two hours long and the story progresses decently from start to finish without any majorly strange sidetracks or conveniently-overlooked plot holes. I wouldn't say I would go back and watch it again anytime soon, but I nod my head to a job well done, more than can be said then for the mediocre Batman Vs. Superman I saw earlier this year: the less said about that movie, the better.

What impressed me the most about the movie came before it even started: there was a personal "Thanks for coming to see the movie!" From the actress who plays Storm in the movie, which I found endearing. In this age of internet downloads and Netflix, it's refreshing to see that some people in Hollywood recognize that the audience who goes to see movies in the theater is changing and that important demographic needs to be recognized: we're stepping out of our homes to go somewhere for an experience that needs to deliver on the tickets we buy.

Well-done, X-men... you may have seen the 'Theatre Apocalypse' coming, and may just help to stave it off for a while.

These posts are getting earlier and earlier, which is fine by me as I get more time to relax before bed: this one's been published at 8 PM PST, easily three or four hours earlier than posts from even a year ago. Enjoy!

Avatars, Anime and Apps

The word of the week is ruminate.

May 30 – App-B-Gone

Crash, crash, and crash again.

Sometimes, you don't realize how often checking FBook is as part of your day, when you suddenly can't do it anymore. Like when my phone's official FBook app decided to stop working completely after the latest update, as well as after an uninstall / reinstall.

Ah well. Made me look up alternatives, which is always fun.

After looking askance at more than a few apps that purported to 'do it better' than the official FBook app, I settled on one called Swipe, which hooks into FBook's mobile site to display information about your social account. From the reviews, it looked to be solid, regularly updated( with far fewer bugs than the official app )and most importantly, light on phone resources - unlike the official app.

Using it all this week, I was impressed enough to shell out a few dollars for the Pro version, which among its better features allows you to exclude keywords from your newsfeed. So Trump, Kayne West and all their ilk are now blissfully missing from most of my daily reading, which alone is worth the price of the app.

It makes me wonder how a huge, deep-pocket company like FBook can't manage to improve its bloated app while others can do so with seeming ease...

May 31 –  Korra

I've been a bit distracted the last few months, but in a good way.

Watching The Legend of Korra on NetFlix has been an eye-opener for me, in that I had no idea how good the series was. Airtight writing tied into fully developed characters and wonderfully laid-out plots awaited me when I finally got around to watching and I've had to limit myself to a few episodes every other day to avoid the dreaded phenomenon known as Netflix binge-watching.

Kudos to those responsible for making the show.

It takes a ton of hard work to create something truly worthwhile, and the irony is that the majority of that work goes unremarked by most who see the end result. For an animated television series, there are many components: the artwork, the animation, the voice acting and of course the writing that is the seed from which everything grows...

All these combined perfectly in Korra, and it shows. At no point did I wonder what was happening, what the characters wanted or whether I was interested in what was going on: the show swept me up with gently cradled hands and carried me along with the characters as they experienced the events unfolding.

Just some of the great characters in the show

I found it inspiring as a writer and for that reason alone, I'm glad that I've been watching as much of the shows I have these last few months. With my own inspiration flagging since last summer, it's been a real struggle to visualize the end results of my own creative efforts and seeing a masterpiece such as Korra helps me greatly to talk back into my own hard work that still lies ahead.

And I still have one more season of Korra to finish watching...!

June 1 – More Time

Looking at my calendar lately, it's pretty empty. I like it.

I've divested myself of most distractions, to better concentrate on what's important. Now that another month has rolled around, I'm ensuring that what ends up in the calendar are only vital things, like family and friends and little else. My writing group's activities seem to be self-supporting this year, 6 months in, and I'm looking to keep it that way. Even my critique group is only meeting once a month at this point and since I don't have any new material, there's little I can do to contribute apart from critically reviewing the work of the other members.

It's funny how when I look back, I needed to find time to do so many things yet never felt a sense of accomplishment when I managed to scratch a few things off my ever-growing To Do list. What I've done in the last six months is put many of those things on several smaller and more concise lists: Write Today, Do Now and Get Around To Later - just having three lists means I can better juggle everything overall and not feel a daily dissatisfaction and not getting so much done as I think I should.

It's been a difficult year so far in 2016, for myself and some family members.

My anxiety has, through daily effort, being got under control and I'm making progress towards being much healthier with regular exercise and decent eating. My sleep is still somewhat scattered, though I'm finding that by going to bed earlier and waking up around 6 AM is helping stabilize things for me.

Stability, I think, is my main goal for the rest of 2016.

To date I've managed to achieve mental stability and even a good deal of financial stability, though that's still got a long way to go until I can just watch my bank balance grow without eyeing it askance every day. Personally, I'm doing wonderfully well with my girlfriend and my family - for the most part - seem to be on an even keel though it's been difficult for my sister of late in some areas. But I'm there to help her, as are my parents, and were getting through things together.

My goal is to have a calm summer, full of writing and relaxation and not worrying about the future nearly as much so I can concentrate on enjoying the Now.

June 2 – Building Dreams

It's incredible what people can do when they put their mind to it.

That old saw of a phrase is exactly what popped into my head when I saw this pop up in one of the Dark Crystal FBook groups that I'm a part of:

This extremely talented person is putting together a screen-accurate cosplay of a Garthim from the movie by Jim Henson. It's staggering what he's already managed to accomplish in a few weeks and I think the final result will be essentially mind-blowing in its effect.

Did I mention that this is exactly what I wanted to create back when I was in grade 5?

Back then I didn't have these skills nor the resources to put together anything even remotely like this, plus the proper materials to create it were not widely available - the original suits were made out of fiberglass and weighed upwards of 60 pounds each, far too heavy for the kid to wear or even move.

Decades later, it's simply amazing to see my childhood dream come to life, albeit under another person's hands. All the same, I'll be watching closely to see what the final product's like, with an eye towards re-creating it for myself one day.

There are some costumes that you just have to wear, especially if there are childhood dream come true.

June 3 – Sim Easter Egg

What would my week be like without a bit of Neil Gaiman?

As one of my writing idols( along with Ray Bradbury, among many others )he's always managed to surprise me with his work, and today I discovered a piece of his I had no idea existed... because it was hidden inside a video game!

Back in 1994, the PC game Simcity 2000 was released. I'm pretty sure I have a copy of it, though I can't seem to find it among my collection now( which surprises me )and I had no clue that it contained some of Gaiman's early work!

Apparently, when you selected the library in the game, there is a menu that popped up, one of whose options was 'Ruminate' - when selected, up came a 1000-word whimsical piece about cities that Neil Gaiman had penned! Here's an excerpt:

It's wonderful glimpse into the fantastical world of his mind and I am quite grateful to have run across it in the wilds of the Internet. Even 20 years ago, it's clear that Gaiman's imagination could carry him to places that most others had not dreamt of... and that his ability to so clearly share his experience of those places is what makes him such a great writer.

All the more reason to better my own work!

June 4 – Heat Headache?

What glorious weather!

The temperature shot up today to the mid-20's, with clear skies and blazing sunshine heating up Vancouver Island from the early morning hours: lovely!

My sister and I joined my parents out for lunch at Nourish, a new Vegan restaurant, occupying a spacious century-old home located in swanky James Bay. We were seated inside at a bay window with the sashes open to let in the cool breezes, though I was still rather hot; I seem to be far more sensitive to temperature these days, and even just wearing a T-shirt with shorts was making me sweat today. We enjoyed our lunch together to celebrate my mother's 70th birthday, milestone that were all pleased that she's reach given the numerous medical troubles she's had over her lifetime, including a recent minor discovery that we hope will be mitigated in a few months’ time with proper care.

Unfortunately, my head began to throb just after lunch and I spent most of the afternoon in bed with a debilitating headache, nixing my plans to enjoy it outside on a patio as I did yesterday reading my copy of the Wonderbook by Jeff VanderMeer. A few Tylenol and some serious shut-eye managed to eliminate it by the evening however, and I was quite grateful not to waste the whole day.

In the evening, my girlfriend and I watched several episodes of the first season of Star Blazers, a series I've been eager to introduce her to as it was so formative to my own creative psyche and interest in sci-fi so many decades ago. I've mentioned it before and I will say again: this is what made me want to write Space Opera, and it still holds up today more than thirty years later.

June 5 – Even Hotter!

Holy summer-scorchers, Batman!

The temps here shot up to a blistering 28C today, but didn't feel higher as the humidity's dropped quite a bit. I was again thankful to be living in a ground floor apartment facing north and west that only gets direct sunlight on the front windows for a few hours each evening. Even that is mitigated essentially by an overhanging balcony and a very large tree by the roadside, which can raise the temperature significantly unless the front blinds get mostly pulled across.

All the same, I felt fairly relaxed and comfortable in my place with a fan going as I wrote and read for most of the afternoon. My girlfriend wasn't feeling well this morning( I think the lack of humidity was bothering her )and thus our plans for the day went by the wayside... but I'm hopeful she'll be better with some rest, which is worth taking the time for. 

I decided to test myself a little today, and went for a walk to get some groceries. With a hat, and water, and keeping to the shade as much as possible, I ambled about twenty minutes to the downtown Market on Yates, where I enjoyed the cool air from the refrigerated section until I was ready to head back home... which went without a hitch. The humidity is a startlingly low 30%, which means that yes, it is a dry heat that's settled onto the Island for today and tomorrow both.

So I'm thinking: test passed, I may sweat but I'm just fine walking around sensibly in the heat, as long as I stay out of the direct sun for any length of time... and as long as the humidity's low. I won't have to feel anxious about going out to enjoy the temperatures, as long as I'm smart about it - which is the way it should be, right? And it’s great that the sprinklers come on in the evening out the front, which helped cool things off nicely:

Sprinklers!

Getting the blog done early( by 8pm! )was nice, as it meant I could relax for a few more hours before bed and get some reading in. Since I now wake up regularly at 6am, I've been trying to hit the hay around 10pm, to get a little balance in there and make for a restful 7 hours of sleep. With less preying on my mind of late, I'm hoping that I'll be waking up far more refreshed in the mornings in the coming months, perhaps enough to get some writing in before work... who knows?

Thanks for dropping by. I'm afraid things aren't going to be as... exciting as they've been these last few months, what with trips to WA and ON and all that, but I'm pleased to say that it's probably for the best: I've got work to do and can't really afford too many distractions from that worthy goal... 

Walks, Well-Being and Wackiness

The word of the week is implacable.

May 23 – Steady On

Strange... as I place things in this blog, thinking that I never have enough space( nor time )to write down everything that's going through my mind of the week. My brain is always busy, churning out comparisons, criticisms and conundrums each and every hour of every day. Over the years, I've managed to impose a sort of order on the chaos, in that some thoughts get written down for later cogitation wallet let others play in the mud until they're exhausted.

It's a good mental construct, I think.

Getting through each week mentally is always unique: some weeks are quite challenging and draining, while others are energizing... it all depends on what factors are driving me day-to-day during those dates.

Some weeks I want to hunker down and just ignore the crazy going on around me, while other times I can barely climbed down from the peak from which upon I'm viewing so much of the world( which is a metaphor for too much time spent on the Internet ) which in turn sparked so many more thoughts...

Given that I have a lot to do this year, my brain has to be in the right kind of shape to deal with my daily work challenges while still leaving enough unused fuel to burn for my creative endeavors of an evening... and since I've been managing to control my anxiety daily fairly well these last few months, I can focus far better.

That makes me happy - as well as balanced.

May 24 – The same Thing We Do Every Night...

What writer doesn't love a good plot?

I know I do, and the zany plans of the infamous lab-mouse duo in Pinky And The Brain always fascinated me: how can such crazy plans actually work, even in concept?

There were quite a few episodes of the show, and in many of them Brain almost got what he wanted: to take over the world, but somehow it never actually worked out, in the end. I own the entire series on DVD and darned if I haven't wanted to watch it all again lately...

Keeping track of the plans was too much for my brain however, and I can only recall a few of them, crazy as they were. Thankfully, a kind soul over at io9.com has put together a complete list of all 94 wild schemes that were hatched. Some of my favourites are #'s 12, 29 and 55.

Now sing the theme song with me in your head...

May 25 – Why Laserdiscs?

Why, you ask, would I get into an old-tech hobby?

It's a good question, and there's more than a few good answers as to the reasons I decided in late 2015 to find myself in possession of some 20-year-old precursors to DVD's and a couple of semi-working( argh! )players.

In the main, I dived in because of Babylon5, as the CGI for the show frankly looks like crap on DVD, as they did a terrible job of transferring the video from the broadcast footage. It's very much like watching television before HD, when people wearing striped suits would have 'crawling lines' all over them... it's hard to watch.

This lovely video explains almost all the major factors( from a new collectors viewpoint )of why people might decide to get into collecting laser disks. I found that it contained many of my own reasons for starting this not-too-expensive( but could easily become so )hobby, and it's worth watching:

May 26 – Simpsons Advice

What if Moe Sizlack gave a commencement address at a college?

Interestingly, Hank Azaria did just that this year, addressing his alma mater's graduating class of 2016 to give them some pointers and life advice he's picked up while providing so many of the memorable voices on The Simpsons, plus his other roles in Hollywood.

It's a great speech, and for me the parts that rang true to my own journey were where Hank talks about 'taking your own time' to find what works for you, and only you. I think it's a great speech, enlivened by Hank having many of our fave friends from The Simpsons give advice in character - give it a watch, it's worth it:

May 27 – Long Week

Dang, but this was a long short week.

Monday was the holiday Victoria Day, and so the week should have felt shorter... but it didn't, as we're down a person at work on our team and so when things are steady, they're actually busy. Which is fine most days, but we'll see how the busy days actually stack up next week when the start of the month rolls around and we're inundated with work to do.

Additionally, today I was invited to a meeting where I found out that I'll be part of a major ongoing project at work for the next six months. It seems that my computer skills as well as my other talents were noticed by a few people when this project was put together and I'm going to be helping along as part of my daily routine, which I'm extremely excited about. It means that when the project is finished, a lot more information will be accessible in more secure ways to clients and others( I can't go into details here for a while yet )which will make life easier for everyone, including the workers at the office.

Personally, it's a good thing that the days are getting longer, in that I'm still waking up at 6 AM and evening sunsets are moving closer to 9 PM, giving me a few 'extra' hours each day which I plan on taking advantage of cumulatively in the coming months. Seeing as many factors are coming together to give me the time I need to work on my writing, I'd be a fool to ignore any advantage this would give me.

The long days of Summer are here...!

May 28 – Neverending Big Screen!

Today was a step back into my youth, cinematically at least.

Myself, my lady and my sister all went to see The Neverending Story on the big screen, as part of a Family Classics series that Cineplex has been running on Saturdays March through June this year. I wasn't that interested in most of the other titles, save today's - it's about as perfect an 80's kid's fantasy movie as there is.

Some classics, some meh...

When I originally saw the film, I immediately connected to the character Sebastian, and I find it fascinating that now I no longer do. Instead, I feel a far greater attachment to the movie itself as a whole, in that it's a meta-reflection on the mutual support that fantasy and reality give each other for human creativity.

Plus, Falcor's just so damn cool... luck dragon!!!

Did you know this existed? I didn't, before strolling in Oak Bay today...

A little bit of luck followed me out of the theater, when at the end of our full day about town together, my lady and I went out to dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory. When the bill came after a lovely meal, I handed over the gift card I had hanging around from last year and discovered that instead of the five dollars I thought was on there, it was $25! Super gift card surprise! Our meal cost us a total of $3.27, plus tip... quite a lucky deal!

The small things in life can have the biggest impact. Yay!

May 29 – Volunteering!

It's been a long, long time... since I volunteered.

Quite honestly, it's not something on my radar, which makes me thing sometimes about what priorities and what I spend my time on.

My thoughts have always been: if I'm earning enough money for the time I spend working, have enough time to pursue my passions / hobbies, spend enough time with my family and friends AND have time left over, then I'll volunteer. Given the rather roller-coaster life-ride I've had in the last 20 years, I'd say that's an understandable mindset to take.

For the World Partnership Walk, I arrived by bus at Uvic a little before 10 AM, heading over to the audio tent next to the main stage. Most everything had already been set up by that point and a Jazzercise group was rocking the main lawn while I helped tweak the audio setup.

Then the main event got started, with almost 1000 people present to make the 5 km walk today. It Was quite the crowd and there was a lot going on for the next two hours, introducing many local Important Folk, including several mayors and news personalities. I was kept busy assisting my work friend who it asked for my help earlier in the week, ensuring that audio levels were too loud for the crowd and that many minor related( and often unrelated )tasks around the stage were accomplished. We had a break for lunch when the majority of the crowd went for the Walk( which took about an hour around the campus )then it was back to work as wards were given out for the most funds raised by various groups: in total walk raised nearly $150,000 CAN to help eliminate poverty worldwide this year - I got to handle the giant cheques too, which was pretty cool.

The weather cooperated as well, with cool cloudy overcast giving way to perfect sunshine and blue skies as the walk was progressing. That meant it was a beautiful afternoon to see the rest of the presentations, consisting of a dozen different cultural dance groups of all ages and each was fantastic. After everything was finished, the show runners came by to give their effusive thanks to my friend and I for making the show's audio run flawlessly throughout, which made us both happy as it was the first time either of us had run such a station by ourselves. A little bit of cleanup in the bright sunshine later and I was on my way home by bus by 3 PM. I spent a little bit of time down at Moka House reading some old New Wave science fiction from the 60's while sipping tea - gloriously relaxing. Then it was a little blogging and some more reading at a swift slide into a well-earned sleep for the night...

Today was such a great way to end the weekend!

What else is there to say? Long week turns into great weekend and sets up for a good run at the week to come. Nice! :-)