People, Phones and Pressure

The word of the week is passion.

Sept 3 - School Of Life

Holy Guacamole, is it September already?

While I don't have to start school, I do have to ramp up my job search as I only have a few months of EI left.

 

No pressure.

Now that I've been 'armed' with the information from the WorkBC seminars last week, I feel fully prepared to dive into my job search with focused efforts - no more blanketing advertised jobs with resumes and hoping for an interview. Given that I've been awake well before 7am for the last few months, I feel like spending the day job hunting will be just like having a day job, which is the whole idea - and you can insert that old saw about writers not quitting said jobs here, thankyouverymuch.

I want to find a good job. Not necessarily the perfect job, but one that I can enjoy going to every day, to be valued and to get value for the effort I put in. Just to make a living from it and to pull ahead a little each payday is all I'm looking for; if I find more, all the better. My focus for the next year is to finish revising my novel and to publish it in some major form; the job will serve that end and to keep me from editing from a cardboard box in an alley somewhere. 

It's going to be an interesting year…

Sept 4 - NEW PHONE ARRIVES!

Imagine my surprise when the doorphone rang and it was a delivery: my new Samsung Galaxy SIII was here a week early!

Excited, I took a few pictures before unboxing it carefully and checking it out. It was a LOT lighter in the hand than I had expected, a practical featherweight compared to my brick of an HTD Desire HD( 134g vs 164g ). It is sleek and very sexy-looking and FAST: the screens zip under a touch and apps load in an eyeblink.

There's a LOT of features that come with this phone which I won't bore you with( THIS ARTICLE covers them exhaustively, if you feel so inclined to find out ). Needless to say, I'll be happily fiddling with it for many months to discover them all. One feature I LOVE is that it has a built-in barometer, a rarity among smartphones and tablets still - meaning I can FINALLY check to see what the local air pressure is like in real time to help manage my headaches more precisely. It's a revelation!

I'll try not to wax too poetic over what amounts to a new toy, but at the same time I have to say this: if it does WHAT I want WHEN I want it to and FAST, then it ceases to be a toy and instead becomes a useful tool. Heck, the bonus 48gigs of Dropbox space alone makes my head spin! :-)

 

Sept 5 - Remembering Ray Bradbury

Two months ago, Ray Bradbury passed away, leaving a legacy as a writer equaled by few.

I was surprised to learn that he and I shared something in common: we both felt that the only long-term solution to the survival of the human race was to leave Earth and settle other planets. Bradbury is well-known for his support of space exploration and the settlement of Mars in particular: his Martian Chronicles were read by many of the early astronauts and are still popular today, though I myself have not read them for decades. As to what we shared: I remember way back when I was in grade school being horrified to learn how fragile Earth was and deciding firmly that I would design some spaceships "to get people to other places in case of disaster" with the same though in mind as Bradbury. To get people OFF this planet and onto others so as not to have too many eggs in one basket, so to speak.

This week I scanned almost all of my early artwork and posted it to my FBook account. It's work I've never shown anyone save my parents and sister over the years and that sparingly; you ask why? It's that for the longest time I was ashamed of the pictures, that they were juvenile and not 'art' per se; I had( and still lack )any skill at drawing. What little I do have comes from being precise and patient with a ruler, as you may see from the picture above: I love detail. I took great pleasure in drawing what I did, when I did and I didn't do all that many over the years; most of my imagery remains in my mind, unable to be expressed by my hands onto a medium save through words.

Which is why I'm a writer, not an illustrator. :)

 

Sept 6 - Mega… VOLCANO???

You know those Big Things that might be changing the world yet you don't take too seriously since they aren't happening in front of you, like global warming ? You can add the Yellowstone Supervolcano to that list. I just found out from this article on io9.com that the magma chamber under the park is MUCH more MASSIVE than previously believed. So big, in fact, that it could lead to an Extinction Event.

Scary!

There's the consolation that if the thing goes off, it won't matter where in the world you are - the ash and smoke it will release will make Mount St. Helen's look like a preview trailer for the Yellowstone Main Event. Makes me wonder if the people on Doomsday Preppers know about this yet…?

Sept 7 - TED Success

The TED Talks are wonderful things: ideas from the top minds in the world that ANYONE can listen to and watch without having to pay huge fees. I've installed the app already on my new phone and I try to watch whenever I can.

One of the more interesting ones I've come across is 'The 8 Secrets of Success' which seems simple enough. Have a look at the video, or the poster below:

You can download a PDF to rate yourself in each of the eight categories here.

Going through each of the steps, I can see some areas where I need to improve and others where I'm actually doing rather well. Getting myself up to speed in all eight categories will take some work but I'm a LOT closer now than I was even five years ago when I first set foot in BC.

That makes me rather happy. :-)

Sept 8 - Jarring

For over a month now I've been waking up at 6:30-6:45am. Involuntarily. I've tried to find out WHY it's been happening, from things I've been eating the night before to light from the almost-closed curtains to noises. In the last week, I've woken up on my bleary-eyed own around that too-early time to hear NOISE. Specifically, what has sounded like a door slamming close at 6:45am. Today I set my alarm again for 6:30am to be up in time to LISTEN for whatever's making the sound… and I succeeded!

It's the next door neighbour, not the ones above.

Since the kids usually have had me up around 7:30am regardless since we've moved into this place, the difference of less than an hour may seem trivial - it's not. There's a HUGE difference between waking naturally and being jarred from your sleep, over and over again - right now, I'm feeling that difference. It's affecting my health and it frustrates the HELL out of me that a good night's sleep is beholden to the ignorance of others. I do NOT enjoy feeling like I'm not in control of my life and that feeling is only intensified by a lack of sleep - the bags under my eyes don't need more company.

I spent ALL of the afternoon on a patio at Moka House on Cook St with a new friend. It was wonderful. :-) To the point where it was dinnertime and I was reluctant to go and eat; I didn't want it to end. What a lovely day, the last gorgeous weather we will see of the summer, so I hear. I'm glad I spent it outside.

Sept 9 -Dullness

Ugh, from blue sunny skies to overcast and raining in the afternoon today; what a difference!

I didn't get up to much today, as the weather change had me feeling tired and blah. As well, the hint of a headache threatened to go full-bloom for most of the day, but thankfully it didn't do more than that.

Some of the day was spent prepping and listing my HTC Desire HD phone for sale on eBay. I reset it to factory defaults and checked it as best as I was able to ensure it is in salable condition. Amusingly, once it had been WIPED it was perky and fast again, a good indicator to me that I was asking too much of it. Then again, I wanted it to do the things I NEEDED it for daily; since it couldn't hack it, it's going 'bye.

The evening saw me watch my copy of There's Something About Mary, which I haven't seen in many years. I was less impressed with it this time around, perhaps because I saw the 'Extended Edition' which focused in the main on slapstick antics and less on making the story more solid. I'm a writer, so go figure I was more interested in that then seeing Ben Stiller get mauled by a small dog. Cameron Diaz was a lovely vision as always and she really shines in this film; I think that's why I've kept it around so long… it can't be for the zipper scene, which I ALWAYS thought should have remained visually in the minds of the audience - they should NEVER have show the frank and beans! A little mystery goes a long way…

It's nose-to-the-grindstone week; lots of searching to do and a time deadline on top of that. Not to mention getting the novel manuscript whipped into shape and sent out to my beta readers… I'm not sure which I'm more excited about: finding a great job or getting some much-needed novel feedback!

Novel first draft is FINISHED!

The word of the week is perspective.

Aug 27 - Farewell to... Zellers?

I wandered through a Zellers today at the Hillside Mall, mainly out of morbid curiosity. I'd shopped a fair bit there over the years, but not for the last five or so. Maybe longer. I'd always gone in with a shrug of the shoulders and the thought 'Maybe I will find something good today' in mind. I never really did.

Today was no exception; of the masses of pawed-through merchandise in all the departments, I ended up getting a pair of AAA Lithium batteries for about 30% off. That was it.

Soon Zellers will join the ranks of Eatons, Woolco and K-Mart among the dead or chains of stores that couldn't figure out how to compete. They maintained a stock of merchandise but couldn't maintain a lead in their markets, where consumers tempted by choice and price often went elsewhere. The occasional rare 'Hey, that was a good bargain!' experience is not enough to keep people coming back…

I can't say I'll miss them. Their toy section was always so-so.

Aug 28 - A hard day's writing

As you may have guessed, the theme for this week's blog is writing. LOTS of writing.

Today was a hard one for it; EVERY kind of distraction you can think of tossed itself at me. From a fender-bender RIGHT OUTSIDE my window to the kids above staying in for the day, it was trying. A constant flow of heavy trucks and emergency sirens hammered at me from the road while feet hammered at me from above, so I bundled my things and escaped upstairs - or so I thought.

Would you believe that a pair of seagulls picked TODAY to chase each other around on the roof? Right outside the SkyLounge, they decided to have some kind of lover's spat for an HOUR! I yelled at them through the windows, tossed a few pebbles nearby and tried ignoring them. Eventually they left and I managed to finish the other half of the chapter, but I was worn out for the day...

Aug 29 - The Earth Moved!

While writing the second-last chapter of my novel today, the earth shook. It was an earthquake!

A brief one, registering 3.0 on the Richter Scale - have look here.

It happened after 3pm, as the sun was shining. I was tossing words onto the page and then I myself was tossed for a moment. It felt and sounded like the idiot woman in the condo above had moved a huge heavy something-or-other across the floor, which she has done several times before. So I simply ignored it and moved on with my writing for another hour, thinking nothing of it.

Only after we were done for the day did I hear on the news it had been an earthquake; oops! Nothing fell off the walls and there was no reported damage anywhere. The epicenter was RIGHT UNDER where I was writing at my parent's place in Langford; it seems that even Mother Nature tried to toss a distracting rock into my creative pond while I was trying to finish the novel! Sheesh!

Aug 30 - NOVEL COMPLETED!

I wrote the final chapter of my novel today. The first draft's done.

WAHOOO!!!!

I wasn't certain that I'd hit my self-imposed deadline of August 31st 2012 when I started writing in earnest back in June 2012. As of then, I had only six chapters partially completed after six months of effort and my arms weren't letting me write any faster. I was stymied physically and creatively.

Teaming up with my mother proved to be the catalyst: I was freed to CREATE and not be distracted by the details of spelling and minor typing errors. The words began to flow and by the end of July I was often completing about a chapter per day and averaging half a chapter a day since the start of July when you worked in days when I didn't write.

Completing my novel today felt exhilarating! Then I felt exhaustion crash over me; it's been a LONG ride.

Now the hard part begins: making it BETTER. I have lots of notes. :-)

Aug 31 - Incentive!

The first thing I did today was call about a new cell phone. I promised myself that if I finished my novel's first draft by the end of August, I would treat myself by replacing my crazy-making HTC Desire HD cell...

With a Samsung Galaxy SIII - now THAT was incentive for me!

I wasn't sold on it though; the thought of signing another 3-year contract gave me the willies due to my bad experience 2 years ago with Telus and a new LG IQ phone. But: whilst in the mall earlier in the week watching Zellers dry up, I noticed that the Telus store had a sign out the front with 'Trade Your Phone In For Credit' plastered on it. Once I was back home, I looked up 'trade' on their website and discovered that my HTC Desire HD is worth $65 if I traded it in for a new phone. Which is a LOT more than I thought I'd get for it; even at twice that, they're still selling on eBay. Curious, I then worked a few numbers: if I sprang for a Samsung Galaxy SIII on a 3-year contract( gah! )I'm looking at $160+tax, minus the $65 credit, minus a $20 'loyalty credit' leaving me with about $75. Which was approaching a good thing!

So this is what I did today: I called Telus and spent over an hour wrangling a deal with the rep, who ended up crediting me $65 for my current HTC phone AND I don't have to hand it over… so I can SELL it for $180 on eBay, I hope! AND, it gets BETTER: There's a 'loyalty bonus' of $20, plus Telus is giving away 5,000 Scene Points( equal to 5 free movies! )for each contract renewal or new phone until Sept 30th - that's worth $75. PLUS: All Samsung Galaxy SIII's come with 50gigs of DropBox cloud storage FREE, which is worth $99+tax  / year. What's the total, you ask? The phone cost me $160+tax, but with the freebies and credits, I ended up AHEAD by over $350! So in the end, they PAID me to get a Samsung Galaxy SIII; THAT is what I call a deal!

My new 'superphone' should arrive in a little over a week. Yay!

Sept 1 - A Day Off!

Today was great: nothing planned except to enjoy the day!

Except I was really, really tired; for some reason I couldn't fall asleep last night until 2am and the usual early noises work me at 7am… so I was pretty tired; I had went to see the new Spiderman reboot last night at the IMAX and it was finished well before 11pm, so it wasn't that. Or was it?

Anyway, I spent part of the day out with my sister just wandering the downtown area, enjoying the crowds; there were 3 cruise ships in so there was a lot of people-watching to do. I even found a great fall jacket at MEC that I received Full Sisterly Fashion Approval on, so I'll be back to get in very shortly. Cool!

The lack of sleep hit me in the early afternoon, so I passed out for a bit and then went to Moka House to soak up some of the great sunshine. There were again a ton of people out and it was just great to be within easy walking distance of such a perfect afternoon hangout spot. No hedgehog today, though!

Sept 2 - 250 Posts? Um…

Almost two months ago, I wrote what I thought was my 250th post. I was wrong...

It's today. Oops.

Seems I neglected to go through my ENTIRE list of posts to winnow out over a half-dozen drafts that were tucked in there( written but not posted )that threw off my count. So there you are: live and learn.

It was a fairly lazy Sunday for me, one again without any online gameplay - my arms are simply not up to it. I did however find a HECK of a deal for XboxLive points! A place called CrazyGameTime.com in the USA is currently selling points for about 12.5 cents per point or 30% off retail. So I picked up 4000pts for $50.00 CAN all told - quite the deal and fairly easy process to complete online. Best of all? No duty!

In the evening I watched a few episodes of Arrested Development with my sister; we're both fans of the show. Even though I've seen it previously a few times, I try to go a few years between viewings just to make the zaniness all the more fresh when I see it again. The twists and turns of the writing are wonderful, as is the cast - I was tickled to hear that the FOURTH SEASON is currently underway for release on NetFlix in 2013!!!

A few weeks from now and my compiled manuscript will be on it's way to a few lucky beta readers! So far only a few people have asked and I am being rather careful about sending it out - it's a year of my life in the form of a single file and I want to ensure it stays safe! I'm hoping the feedback I get will better inform my second draft and really tighten up the novel!

Smiles, Seminars and Searching

The word of the week is lulling.

Aug 20 – Writer’s Group Redux

I went to another meeting of the local Victoria Writer's Group, which was again rather well-attended( as these things go ). Out of the blue I ended up reading the prologue to my novel to the group, who to a person closed their eyes and pictured the scene in their heads. Their comments ranged from 'striking' to 'that was incredible' and I was simply thrilled by their responses! One person across from me waxed on happily about the imagery I had created and some of the praise he gave was both well-considered and very positive!

I ended up talking with several of the long-time group members late into the evening about some of the general issues I had been having with the book. They were rather helpful despite not knowing the overall story or even most of the details and I came away from the night feeling MUCH more confident in my choices that I'd made in several places while writing the novel. People's reactions to the story have so far been EXTREMELY positive across the board, commenting that they can SEE the scenes I have written and THAT makes ME very happy. It means that the next draft may literally jump off the pages!!

Aug 21 - Returning Smiles

The stress has been falling from my shoulders gradually over the last six months, with each day better than the last and the occasional exception not dragging me down like they used to. I've lost weight in a good way thanks to my daily walks and I'm smiling more.

That's important.

My smiles used to be broad, but years ago they started to become subtle, for various reasons. My eyes didn't crinkle, my dimples were hidden and for the most part, you might swear you'd blinked and missed it.

Now I'm smiling again daily, letting my face do it's thing and not being pressed down by the weight of things on my mind all the time. It's odd, but I'm looking forward now to finding some crow's feet around the edges of my eyes in a few years… as that means I've let the smiles out enough to leave some tracks.

Aug 22 – Which Sci-Fi Character Are YOU?

Quite often when I've taken online 'personality tests' that use fictional characters, I've ended up with results telling me I'm like Spock, Data or other rational / logical characters. Which is why I was pleased( sort of )to get a rather different result with THIS test: I apparently am most like James T. Kirk. What?

Two of the greats - together!

Not Spock. Or Data. Or even Picard... nope.

It was an odd result, but I answered the questions truthfully, so I suppose it's about as accurate as these things get. If anyone out there knows of some better tests, send them my way; I always get a kick out of finding out which fictional characters I'm most like. One of these days Spiderman will come up and that will make my day…

 

Aug 23 - Fireplace!

I love a good fireplace. Heck, my favorite house in my life was our place in Fonthill, where we had TWO wood-burning fireplaces in the upper and lower living rooms, built into the solid wall of bricks that made up the entire ends of those rooms. I loved curling up in the lower room the one year to watch Space: Above and Beyond on TV during that fall and winter; the crackle and warmth of the flames lulled me to sleep quite often on the couch. I've been without a good fireplace for nearly 20 years since then; even my first place here in Victoria which had a gas insert wasn't a decent substitute as it lacked the LOOK of burning logs. Over the last few years I've often eyed stand-alone electric fireplaces as possible substitutes, but they've either been too expensive or too fake( painted logs with a tiny red light? Bleh! )so I've kept looking, especially among local used listings.

A little blurry but this captures the warm feel of the fireplace...

This week I FOUND the perfect fireplace! Its not too big, not too ornate, has a heater with 2 settings and most importantly it LOOKS like a real fireplace when it's on! Oddly, it came with the smell of smoke from the previous owners, though it's the wrong kind( not woodsmoke ). I'm extremely happy with it and can't wait to try it this winter to see if it can lull me to sleep as well as the old ones used to do… but it does have a fairly audible motor. We'll see.

Aug 24 - Last of the Seminars

All this week I've been attending WorkBC seminars from 9-12pm, to aid my job searches. In the main, they've been rather useful as I've gained new insight into the job search process - having been out of the job market for over a decade, I'm surprised at how things seem to have changed( and for the better ).

What I've learned: It's no longer a case of firing off resumes to advertised jobs and hoping for a callback; now it's all about targeted searches and networking. WHO you know is 10x's more likely to get you a job than what you know. The 'hidden' job market also revolves around the networking factor, helping you get a leg up on people who don't know people who know about job openings, or even the needs of an employer. Being able to sell yourself is now a key factor in getting yourself noticed by an employer, especially if you can target them by positioning yourself as being a perfect fit for their company.

I'm glad I went to each of these different seminars( for free, plus I had the time )as each had some gems hidden among the more common-sense aspects of the job search process that was reviewed. I met some interesting people and networked with a few of them, which was great. But I think the most important part is that the information I learned has made me less jittery about my search and will aid me greatly in focusing my 'job wants' to help me land a GOOD job in the next few months, not just one that I'll drag myself into every day to make ends meet. I've already done that for the last 12 years. Never again.

Aug 25 - Critical Chapter!

Yesterday was the first time in the last three months that I haven't been able to finish a chapter the same day that I've started it. It was Chapter 35, the MOST difficult chapter of my novel and one I KNEW would be the hardest to finish from the time I drafted the final outline of the book in June. Some writers work organically, starting with just and idea and letting the book evolve from there; others write out every detail from first to last. I work somewhere in the middle, in a way building a blueprint for a house but filling in the details like finishes, paint, furniture and occupants as I go along. It’s worked VERY well so far but for THIS chapter, there was SO MUCH riding on one scene that I had to get it right.

Yesterday I set the writing aside and went for a two hour walk to clear my head and THINK HARD about the whole sequence of the scene as it related to the rest of the book. Once I got back, I went through the scene event by event, almost scripting it into 17 separate points. From there, I set to work thinking through the scene AGAIN to be sure that each point melded into the next in a series that made sense.

Today I set it all down in only two hours, which was exhausting. The scene played out in my head properly and FLOWED as I went along from point to point, in one long mental movie that ended up on the page at last. It's by no means perfect, but it WORKS - and that's a victory in my eyes any way you write it.

Aug 26 - HISHE: Batman!

Last weekend I went to see Batman: The Dark Knight Rises at the IMAX. It was great! The story was fairly tight( with some spots which were not )but overall I liked the movie, though not as much as Avengers. I thought Anne Hathaway was excellent as Catwoman, definitely capturing the self-centered nature of the character and nailing( if I can use that word )the sexy deadliness as well. I wasn't big on the character of Bane as I kept waiting for him to double in size and start tossing buses around; nope. Still, not everyone was cool with that and HISHE( How It Should Have Ended )took the plot holes and made a rather solid short trailer that addresses most of them rather neatly:

As for today, I finished another solid chapter, but I'm feeling rather low on energy. We'll see how tomorrow goes when it comes to the creative flow of things... I feel as though I've pushed the boulder to the mountain's top and stopped there. Now I need to give it the final shove and see where it lands...

Overall it was a good week; I was busy with the WorkBC in the mornings and writing towards the final few chapters of my book that will be finished next week. I think the early days wore on me though, especially as I kept waking well before 7am most days; this week coming I think I will 'sleep in' until 8 or so, if the people upstairs will let me. Here's hoping!

Luck, Lifestyle and Living Large

The word of the week is attitude.

Aug 13 - Volcano Yacht!

We’ve all played the game “If I won a lot of money, I’d do / buy …” ( insert expensive item here ), right? I’ve played it just as much as other people and I wasn’t surprised to learn what a lot of Canadian winners did when  they’d won – only 5% didn’t seek professional financial advice( they probably were bankers already ).

What would I do with it? Get cool stuff that’s useful… mostly. While I don’t love the ocean, I DO like the idea of cruising around on my own boat( not sharing it with tourists, right? )to see the world at a slower pace. Getting a VERY expensive private jet doesn’t really appeal to me due to the massive ongoing costs… and that if an engine fails on a plane, it’s not as easy to land in water than a boat with a bad engine is. To wit:

 

So something like the Tropical Island Yacht might appeal to me if millions fell into my hands. I’d definitely do some changing to the design though; sailing around the world with a giant volcano on the top of the boat doesn’t strike me as being cool a few years into ownership. Maybe a fake Mayan temple with a waterfall instead?

Aug 14 - Starships Dancing? Nice!

Flying as a profession isn’t my cuppa tea; I don’t have a head for heights or a constitution for heavy g-forces. I can appreciate the views from high above the earth and how they make you feel though. So what if you’re WAY above the Earth, as in outer space? Spaceships in TV and film do incredible things, thanks to the work of the many artists that bring them to life, especially when those ships and their crews are performing some amazing acts, usually in the name of heroism. The video below is set to a song by Nikki Menaj, whom I’ve never heard of( shocking? Not for me )and it’s catchy. The first couple of minutes made me break out into a rare smile, as the video clips are perfect for the song… kudos to the artist who put this together( password is 'starships' ):

While it DOES have Farscape clips in there, I can’t BELIEVE that there’s not a single frame from Babylon 5… ! Ah well… maybe it’s better that B5 doesn’t get mixed up with the likes of Menaj, or the universe might  implode. I mean, starships and beaches? Hmm, maybe distant shores are metaphors for galaxies…

Aug 15 – I’m a Winner, Twice!

Since I left my job earlier this year, I’ve been enjoying the flexibility of my days – when I wasn’t moving, wrecking my arms or otherwise busy doing things like writing a 100,000 word novel or trying to find a job that I can do with just my toes to type with.

It’s also meant that I’ve entered more than a few contests over the last few months; I’ve used LookContests.com to vet ALL the contests that I choose to enter, as it filters out the scam artists and makes sure that every entry is valid for Canadians. I’ve got the ‘contest routine’ down to about 30 minutes a day, which is great and gives me that little ‘hope-thrill’ that I might win something…

 

Today, I DID! TWICE! Two emails came in today within an hour of each other to tell me that I was a contest winner! Mine for FREE was a $50 Subway card and even better: a Lagostina cookware set worth over $400 - BOOYAH! The Subway card arrived the next day and the cookware will be a few weeks in transit before I can pick it up locally from Safeway… and my sister’s already claimed it, as she’s said it’s a VERY high-quality set. I’m just thrilled and I’m very grateful to the universe that smiled on me today.

Aug 16 - Chapter 30 is DONE!!!

Holy fubar, it’s HOT out there! My apartment’s a cool 74F but that doesn’t do me any good when the ceiling’s vibrating to the tune of tiny feet bent on reaching critical mass. Yeah. I had to go up to the SkyLounge, opened every window and both sliding doors which got a breeze going, thankfully; then I was able to write. It was difficult, as I pace when I verbalize and the heat made even that rather taxing.

 

BUT: I produced what I think was my best chapter yet AND it’s also the 30^th one! So I have less than ten chapters left to go, probably more like six or seven by my count. It’s astonishing that I’ve made it so far so fast after getting the ball rolling in earnest back in June 2012. At that point I only had a half-dozen chapters written, some of which were unfinished to boot. Having my wrists in the state they are in, I couldn’t have gone any faster typing the chapters myself, so my mother’s suggestion to have HER type was incredibly generous on her part. It ALSO freed me creatively, for as I’ve said before I’ve been able to simply DESCRIBE each scene as I see it in my head and it is translated to the page without my being distracted by spelling errors and all the other things that typing can interrupt your flow with.

Now I have to write the hardest half-dozen chapters yet, to wrap up the book and let the reader fall back into their chair with a rapturous sense of satisfaction.

That’s not going to be easy. But it IS going to be exciting to try to get there!

Aug 17 - Two Cool Things In September

I’m the first to admit I don’t get out much, but it’s not for a lack of things to do around here that are inexpensive or even free. There’s two events coming in September that I’ll definitely be making time to take part in. Well, be AT, anyone.

One is the re-release of Raiders of the Lost Ark for the IMAX screen! I absolutely loved this film as a kid and I watch it every few years just to remind myself of the incredible sense of adventure it’s imbued with. Harrison Ford was the perfect choice for Indiana Jones and the humour that is woven throughout the film also appeals to me greatly. Seeing it on the huge IMAX screen will be just incredible!

Less massive in scale but still a spectacle in its own right is the Victoria Chalk Drawing Festival 2012, which features several artists who do unbelievable 3D-perspective drawings on sidewalks! I’ve caught a fair few of these over the years online and to have people doing it IN TOWN is very exciting! I wonder if they’ll do any pieces from fantasy or sci-fi… ? I can’t wait to find out!

Aug 18 – Ad Creep

Try this experiment: search for a few unrelated things using Google or Yahoo, then go visit your favourite websites. See how many of the ads that pop up are targeted along the lines of what you JUST searched for. Find this disturbing at all?

I know we live in an age of tracking cookies( mmmm…. )and similar technology, but I am somewhat freaked out by the thought of our world tumbling into a Minority Report advertising hell. Or like Fry in Futurama, when Leela asks him if he had ads in the 21^st century:

“Well sure, but not in our dreams. Only on TV and radio, and in magazines, and movies, and at ball games... and on buses and milk cartons and t-shirts, and bananas and written on the sky. But not in dreams, no siree.”

I’ve been diligent in checking the apps I’ve installed on my phone for ads, especially the ones using ‘AirPush’ which can pop up ads at ANY time while you’re using the phone, not just the app, using the Notification bar. While I’m all for developers making money on their apps, I don’t hold with being spammed while I’m not USING their app; that’s just dirty pool.

Aug 19 - Head Noise

I’ve wrote a good portion of this week’s blog upstairs in the SkyLounge on August 18^th, due to the noise in my apartment. It’s a great space that I’m happy to have available to me for FREE to go to when I need it; it’s not home and it’s not work and THAT is the key element to help me keep my sanity. August 19^th saw me spend much of my day OUT, as the SkyLounge was prepped for some kind of party and the noise overhead was unrelentingly severe as the kids ran laps around their apartment screaming and thumping.

For those who snark that I am being an 'old man' about the noise, let me posit this to you: think about how you spend most of your day. Is it at a job? Good; let’s say that job is how you make your living. Now imagine if someone came up to you every five minutes during the day, got IN YOUR FACE and interrupted the work you needed to be doing to make a living in a way that’s impossible to ignore given the nature of your work – I’ll leave you to imagine the details. The faint whisper of the muse, the diaphanous images in my head, are my work that I hope to translate into what I do for a living. When noise intrudes too far into my muse and my mind-images, I can’t hear or see them; it’s the equivalent of being poked in the eye every five minutes. If you want to feel how that is, all you need is a finger and a clock… go right ahead. I'll wait.

 

Please, no more snarking about how noise bothers me. My eyes have developed nervous twitches again, my back is a mess of knots and I’m trying desperately to cope. If you call yourselves my friends in reading this blog, please know that I’m not being dramatic here or fishing for attention. Just understand. That’s what friends do, right? I don’t think I’ve EVER looked at someone else’s pain and dismissed it offhand. Why would you do the same?

It's been a tiring day, Sunday; I've had little sleep. I took today and tomorrow 'off' so I can tighten up the outlines for the last chapters of the book and it's hard going. Everything has to wrap up properly while keeping the pace of the action going and I'm wasn't feeling it today. So I went for a walk in Beacon Hill Park with my sister in the sunshine and got a root beer softserve cone; all three really picked up my mood as did watching a few episodes of Arrested Development in the evening. I LOVE that show! I'm going to make it an early night tonight, as I have WorkBC seminars every day this week at 9am; mix that in with finishing off the last half-dozen chapters of my novel and it's going to be a BUSY week!