Drafts, Downpours and Drama

The word of the week is incisive.

Aug 26 - Ritual

It's interesting how quickly people can fall into habits.

We live short lives, yet sometimes we feel like we've been doing something for far too long. Other times, these habits can be comforting to us, as they reinforce the normalcy of our lives.

One habit that I've been keeping up for over half a decade now is writing this blog. In the beginning, it had a different purpose than it had now, which is still to inform but also to record and document, if you will. Where I've been, what I've been doing, what I've been thinking and feeling and all the other things that I write about, week to week.

Not a whole lot of people read this blog, when it comes down to it. A few dozen here and there that I know every week, plus a lot of strangers that wander in from the web from various sources for various reasons. Some of the most popular posts in this blog of mine might surprise you: TotalDrama Island is the most popular post of all of mine, with over 400 hits. But most the time it's not like that. I like to think of this blog is a positive habit, one that keeps me going and forces me to think on what I've been doing at the same time.

It's writing practice, reflection and journaling all-in-one, all of which are good.

Aug 27 - Bill Watterson

Who better to give life advice than Bill Waterson, who drew Calvin and Hobbes?

The creator of one of my favorite comics is famous for giving a graduation speech in 1990, in which he espoused quite a lot of good advice. While some people would say that it's advice given by a successful person after the fact, the fact remains that it's still good advice no matter what the source.

Above, I've shown a small snippet of a comic drawn in Waterson's notable style by another younger comic artist who wanted to pay tribute to Calvin's creator by drawing parts of his famous speech. It's a wonderful way to enjoy some Calvin and Hobbes that we haven't seen before. Click here to jump to the full comic and enjoy it in all its splendor.

Aug 28 - Wrecking It

I was feeling down again, so I went and rented Wreck-It Ralph, for a toonie.

It's a computer-animated film lovingly done as a tribute to the early videogame age, along the lines of ReBoot, which explores what happens inside video games when they're not being played.

I thoroughly enjoyed it!

It's wonderful to see films that show the viewer how much effort has gone into creating them and arched just smarmy ads for products or treading old ground that we've all seen before. In the case of Wreck-It Ralph, we get to see a character who wants to be more than he's been up to that point in his life and yearns for something better.

I found it to be a delightful story, with memorable characters and no slow spots that jumped out or took me out of the story. The animation was excellent in HD, with creative choices by the art director to provide colorful and entertaining visuals as the story moved along.

It definitely took me out of the mood I would perhaps described as despondent and left me at the end of the movie with a much more balanced view of how one can change one's life if you really want to. While that may sound cliché, I will have to say that the film didn't make me roll my eyes at any point about the lessons it was conveying but instead had me nodding in sympathy with Ralph as he made his choices.

Sometimes those choices work out, and sometimes they don't. You'll never know unless you make them.

Aug 29 - Rain!

Victoria got one of its rare rainstorms today, and I was out in it unfortunately.

After a fairly long and tiring back-to-school-busy day at work, I emerged to find that the rain had turned from a gentle shower into a veritable downpour. While it wasn't a thunderstorm, it was the heaviest rain I've seen for quite a few years and I made sure that before I left the shelter of my workplace, I had all of my waterproof gear on including shoe covers and a slip cover for my backpack. My glasses and my other workaday things were safe inside the waterproof covering, thanks to my planning ahead for this sort of thing happening every once in a while.

What I hadn't counted on was the rain being quite salty, having come from over the ocean to dump all over the city. The only unprotected part of me was my face and within a minute, my eyes were burning from the salt content of the water that was running down into my eyes. I also discovered that my gloves, which had been fine in previous light rains, gave up the fight and became sponges quite quickly, leaving my hands soggy and cold to grip the handle bars as I rode.

Note that he's not wearing gloves...

Fortunately, traffic was quite light given the heavy rain and I was able to go at a steady pace, despite not being able to see all that clearly. Wiping my eyes did little good as the water came back right away and kept burning just enough to make me blink rapidly the whole way home in order to make out objects.

Once I did get home, I had to hang up everything to dry in the bathtub, including my helmet, unusually. I washed my face and got my hair dry, still smelling of salt. I also discovered that my waterproof biking jacket has started to lose its waterproof coating, as it was rather damp on the inside in addition to being soaked on the outside. Given that it's a decade old, I'd say it's probably time to replace it but right now the price of a decent jacket isn't in my immediate budget.

So I'll just be sure to bring along a towel in case another downpour happens.

Aug 30 - The Play's The Thing

I saw a live play tonight!

Not having been to the theater for probably a decade or more, it was quite a treat. The play was one of dozens of performances being put on by the 27th Annual Fringe Festival, part of the national on goings in cities across the country this week.

The play I saw was a small production called The Occupied Mind of Mr. K. Here's a brief summary of what the play was about:

From the creators of last year’s hit Awkward Hangouts of History comes a riotous, unnerving black comedy of the supernatural and the “one percent.” Jobless programmer Vijay, deadbeat friend Dylan, and psychic meditation guru Pericles conceive a novel solution for their economic woes: to take over a recently deceased billionaire’s “vacant” body and gain control of his business empire.

I really enjoyed the entire production! The performers were lively as a group, with very few line stumbles and very energetic performances, with the sole exception of one young lady whose obvious inexperience on the stage showed in a somewhat wooden but still serviceable delivery. It gathered some very favourable reviews as well, which I heartily agree with.

As a writer, I have to say that I now look at live performances in a different light. Observing people is a big part of what I do and watching the actors on the stage, I got a real sense of how one brings a character to life through the actors art. Much like painting a picture in the mind with words as I've been doing on my own, the two are both sides of the same coin in many ways.

It I was also there to be entertained and I really truly was. The world outside and all its cares disappeared for an hour as I watched the story unfold live upon the stage under the lights. Becoming immersed in the performance was a fantastic experience, being drawn into the emotional river as it flowed towards the end of the tale was wonderful.

I hope to see more plays next year, now that I know to mark it down on my calendar for the 2014 11-day run.

Aug 31 - A Year Gone

One year ago today, I finished the first draft of my novel.

Since then, I've completed a second draft and I'm currently working on a third. I've also printed dozens of copies of the second draft in a lovely paperback formats to hand out to friends and family at cost, a project that I'm quite proud of despite the amount of work and funds that it's taken to date.

From here, I've got a ton of work to do still. With all the feedback I've received to date on the second draft, I feel that I can now do justice to the third draft and make it the best book possible without having a professional editor look at it - something I can't afford right now. However, the third draft should be good enough for me to shop around to agents and hopefully from there to secure a publisher.

Okay, this is a pic of the second draft. It's still a big stack o'paper...

That's the route I decided to take: traditional publishing. Why, you ask?

Simple: it's a matter of time. Having a mostly full-time day job right now means that I don't have the luxury of time to be able to promote my book myself, which is quite necessary in order to secure any sort of meaningful sales. With the resources of a publisher behind me, I am free to write the next two books in the trilogy instead of spending many hours every day flogging my book near and far myself.

That's the choice I've made and the one I'll be following this fall and winter. We'll see where it leads me.

Sept 1 - Moving Onwards

The last couple of weeks have been a little hard on me.

While my job is going fine, I've been having growing thoughts about spinning my wheels, so to speak. I've been there six months now and though the people have been fantastic, is certainly not something I'm going to retire on a large pension from. In fact, it's not even really paying most of the bills.

But that's not what's bothering me. My mind is strange sometimes, in that it often won't let a problem go until it's found a solution. Right now, my problem is that I'm not feeling fulfilled in many ways, including my employment. They're not things with easy solutions, unfortunately.

Writing the next draft of my novel is my top priority. I have to wrap my mind around that and let everything else that's distracting me go, including thoughts about being unworthy of relationships and working at a job that I'm massively overqualified for. Plus dealing with being at a point of my life where I never thought I'd be: free to do whatever I choose to but being burdened with debt that's unattached to any sort of equity-based possessions like a house or car, which I find immensely frustrating. I'd love to be able to work a day job simply out of the desire not to dig into my savings instead of doing so out of necessity of not having to become homeless due to a lack of same.

I can't help being where I am right now, which means I have to make the best of it as I always have. My emotional state has been a pendulum for the last couple of months, despite the pithy I experienced in Arizona which has not studied me as much as unstuck me from my burdens to wobble around juggling and admittedly fewer number of them. Yet they're not all gone and I still worry, regardless.

Where to go from here?

It's a new month and this blog, as I said a few times before, is about new beginnings. I've also mentioned before about needing focus and in thinking about it these last few weeks, I've come to the realization that my worries will not go away. I have to simply set them aside, not ignoring them as much as not letting them have power over me while I focus my energies on what I can do about my life right now.

I have the third draft to do. I have a job that I generally enjoy because the people I work with, despite the constant mistakes I make, which is great. My family are all doing well and I have to pull myself up by my own mental bootstraps and push on despite the steepness of the hills that I feel I'm treading.

Nobody else is going to walk a mile in my shoes for me.

I'm tired, with bags under my eyes and a busy week ahead. I hope by the end of it I'll be more energized, as right now I'm feeling worn. Best to sleep on it.

Coincidences, Colds and Consciousness

The word of the week is dichotomy.

Aug 19 - Symptom of a Down

Lately, I've been feeling rather down and blah, not just because of the cold I've had.

I think it's a case of my subconscious and my conscious minds battling, with old habits fighting the new positive inputs that I've had in my life this year. Stress is, of course, a constant companion and again I've been dealing with that in new ways instead of letting it take over as I used to sometimes.

It's a strange thing. On the one hand, you could look at things is still being rather unstable in my life, with no solid career, house, family, kids or many of the things that people my age look on as the natural progression of things. I'm certainly not in the same place that my parents were at this point in my life, nor similar to the parents of most of my friends. Only some of my friends have some or most of these things, but I don't feel like I'm missing out; my life is my own and I'm living it now as I believe I want to.

Of the other hand, trying to tell my subconscious that everything is looking up has been challenging. As I've been struggling to learn at work, I've also been trying to shake my decades-long habits of worrying over things like money and direction for my talents. The money issue has receded into the background once again with my sister having secured a well-paying job, but it's been very difficult for me to get my mind around that given that my own job pays so little yet demands so much of my time and energy to perform. As for the directional issue, I've been getting a better handle on that with the issuance of my book's second draft this month. It's been a lot of work to get everything organized but most of the books have been handed out or were mailed out this week, so the ego boost from having people reading my work is wonderful. I can only imagine what it'll be like once I get the next draft finished and published.

One thing that has been very much on my mind this year has been the subject of relationships. I won't get into that this week; all I'll say is that my subconscious really has its claws dug into that topic.

Aug 20 - The Return of Cable TV

Sometimes timing is perfect, sometimes it isn't.

This week, I got a call from Shaw Cable, telling me they had an offer for me yet again. I sat patiently through the first few minutes of the call but as it turns out, it was worth taking. They had a deal to combine a cable package with a free HD PVR for the next six months, hoping to entice me back into the boob-tube world.

Surprisingly, it worked.

Normally, I wouldn't give a foof about cable television but we are heading into the fall season with some new shows - no Game Of Thrones on my budget lineup, though. I'm no longer feeling overwhelmed by my new job which I've been at for over six months now and my sister has a day job for the next little while, which means she has some free time in the evenings. Both of which add up to neither of us minding being able to flip the TV on for an hour or so an evening a few times a week, with a lot more choice than just a half-dozen channels that are in French over the air.

While some people might not like the current cable television landscape, I don't really care either way. As I've said before in this blog, most of the television I want to watch is already on DVD or digitized on my computer, awaiting my available time and not the other way around. I have a lot to do and while I appreciate the hard work that the creators and cast of the shows I like have gone to, I don't really feel that my time is best spent nowadays watching somebody else's work when I could be creating my own.

Aug 21 - Riddick is REAL?

It may be that mutants ARE real. Maybe.

There's a story out of China from 2012 about a boy with bright blue eyes who has the ability to see in complete darkness, just like the main character from the Riddick series of films.

Yet I always take stories out of China with a grain of salt, as their media tends to sensationalize things with an odd spin in order to draw world attention and not pay so much attention to the facts. Not that everything out of China is laced with falsehoods; there are quite a few interesting stories that have come out on a regular basis… but in this day and age of instant sharing before fact checking, I always like to do a little bit of background digging before I take things at face value.

In this case, numerous publications have written about this boy's unusual ability and I find it fascinating that his unique genetic gift has developed. Perhaps it's a sign that the human race is still evolving and changing at a fairly rapid pace, so that we may see more unusually gifted people appear in the near future. Or it could just be another hoax, as some people claim.

Blue eyes, man. The LOTR movies were full of them...

Aug 22 - The Writing Edge

A phone call led me to make a new friend today.

Oddly enough, it was another call for my technical assistance skills, this time with repairing a printer for someone in my building. As I was working on the printer which had slipped a belt due to a jammed piece of paper, the older gentleman got to talking and I discovered that he was a writer. He also paid me a compliment by saying that I reminded him a lot of himself when he was younger. I was also amused when I had to correct his estimate of my apparent age from mid-20s to my actual 40s, which again was complementary.

It's interesting how life can be serendipitous at times; in this case, I randomly ran into someone that I share a lot in common with as a writer. This very senior man has written several books, one of which he gave me a copy of and it's amazing how parallel is to my current situation: it's about a young writer on the West Coast in the 1940s who's trying to make his way in life with the written word as his calling.

Perhaps we will chat again soon and I'd be interested to compare notes with him about the writing life, as he's had quite the breadth of experience with making a living at words. Again, I wonder about how people's paths cross and how you might find just what you're needing at a certain point in your life just around the corner, when you're not looking.

Just remember to keep your eyes open.

Aug 23 - Legacies

Everyone wants to leave something lasting behind.

For me, that's my writing; I hope that someone in the future will read my work, some part of it, and feel a connection to me and what I've related through my words.

But that's presuming that I have time to write a lot of things.

For some people, time is not in great supply, yet they do great things with what they have been given. In the case of Zach Sobiech, by age 17, he'd done more than most to share his gifts. Watch him soar:

http://www.upworthy.com/this-kid-just-died-what-he-left-behind-is-wondtacular-rip

Aug 24 - Voices

This seems to be my week for compliments, which I don't mind at all.

Despite my having a rather froglike voice this week due to my cold, I was paid a compliment today by customer. She told me that I have a wonderfuly unique voice and that I should do voiceover work, as I'd be excellent at it. She made the point of saying that she was a professional singer and thought that I had a voice that in her words "has something very special about it" which really tickled my vanity, I have to say.

This message was waiting for me on the way home today - click to zoom!

So there's another direction of my talents that I've been reminded that I need to explore and not neglect. Adding voiceover work to my writing skills might just be the double whammy that will take me along career-wise towards making a living with my abilities. To ignore one or the other might be foolish and to be honest I really don't mind the way my voice sounds - when I pay attention to it, that is.

The difference between having good voice and being professional voice actor is very large however. The main thing is to have the ability to take direction with one's voice, which entails at the very least having some acting lessons in my future. My brief forays into voice acting in the game world made it quite apparent to me years ago that I need to be able to modulate my voice just as an actor does in order to convey emotion effectively through just the audio medium.

Otherwise it's just me reading the phone book, which is pretty darn boring.

Aug 25 - The Keys to Losing It

Sometimes being nice backfires a little; that's just life.

Such was the case today, and I found out that my sister had lost my keys last night. She wasn't able to locate her own and she was being picked up right at that moment, so she has to borrow my set until she could locate her own in her purse( there's another story right there, but we won't get into that ). Being the good brother that I am, I agreed and she was on her way with a smile on her face.

This morning she told me she couldn't find them and after we both searched the apartment, I was in agreement, as well as not being pleased. I never loan my keys to anyone and the one time that I do, this happens; this perhaps maybe a lesson of some kind. It also may be a sign that we really do need a Lockitron on our door ASAP, so that keys become a moot point and all we need are our cell phones to enter and leave our apartment securely. But that bit of tech is not going to arrive for another month or so.

Keys aside, we went out for breakfast to Jam, a highly regarded local eatery that specializes in an all-day breakfast with some fantastic menu items. We didn't wait in line any longer than it took us to walk there on the other side of the downtown core and it was busy enough that we decided to be seated at the bar. My sister ordered the red velvet pancakes while I had the biscuit( singular ) with sausage gravy. Both arrived in good time and stunned us with the massive portions for the price: the biscuit was easily the size of a saucer and filled with delicious gravy and scrambled eggs. My sister's order was also fantastic: fluffy red velvet pancakes that tasted similar to cake with a delicious sour cream sauce. We were both utterly stuffed when we left and will be going back again soon-ish, which means probably next month. Eating out is a treat, not a daily or even weekly thing for us.

As big as THIS picture is, the portions were even BIGGER - click to zoom!

The rest of my day was a relaxing one, with a few hours spent taking a walk through Beacon Hill Park for an ice cream and then a tea over at Moka House. I didn't stay very long on the patio there however, as clouds have rolled in and the temperature dropped fairly rapidly from the lovely afternoon with its sunshine.

Good news when I got home though: my sister called to say she had found my keys! It was even better scenario ending than I'd hoped, for though I had a War Amps keytag on the ring, there was no guarantee that someone would have known enough to drop it in a mailbox in order to get it back to me. I'll be sure to duplicate my bike lock key this week, as it's the only one on the ring that I don't have an extra of. Not being able to bike to work would be rotten.

I'm feeling almost normal again, with the cold finally giving up its grip on me after nearly two weeks. I seriously have to get healthier, as I've never had a summer cold before and this one was a doozy. In the meantime, I've managed to injure my right arm, something to do with the tendon, so I'll have to see the doctor ASAP; it's been well over a week and its not improving. Unlike the cold, I can't fix it with rest, fluids and chicken soup - my arms just seem to be out of whack all the time. Maybe I should learn to use my feet as I do my hands?

My 300th Blog Post!

The word of the week is SPARTA!

Aug 12 - Three Hundred Posts!

This week's post sort of snuck up on me.

To be honest, I knew it was coming but given how busy I've been for the last little while, hitting this milestone came as a pleasant surprise to me this week.

I won't repeat what I wrote in my 250th post, but instead comment on the near future: it looks pretty decent. My sister is employed for at least the next three months, my work is going well( when I'm not sick ) and I've managed to succeed in bringing the second draft of my novel into physical form to share with a fair number of people. I'm looking at completing two major writing projects by the end of the year, one of them being the third draft of my novel and I really have nothing else of import on my plate. Which is great, because it means my stress levels won't be climbing sky-high about any of the above things.

300 posts: I'm pretty proud about that number. It shows that not only can I keep myself to a weekly deadline while being pleased with what I've written, but also that I've improved with every blog post. Being able to speak clearly while keeping the reader's interest is critical to being a writer and I firmly believe that my weekly blog has sharpened my writing skills immeasurably since I first began B.C. Beginnings in November of 2007.

Not bad for someone who doesn't live the life of a rockstar, I'd say.

I also stayed home from work today, as I was just too sick. It was a midshift, so easier to cover, but I still felt bad about feeling bad, as it's the first shift I've missed there in over six months. No helping it though; I'm killing Kleenexes at an alarming rate and have NO energy. I can only hope that by the end of this week that I'll be over this cold and nothing could please me more this point. 

One thing I'm very concerned about is keeping the cold from moving to my lungs, as I have no wish to repeat my serious bout with pneumonia from late last year. Not one bit.

Aug 13 - Icky Misery

While the number thirteen's been good to me lately, today was not on that lucky list.

There was no one who could cover me today at work for my closing shift, so I went in an hour later by mutual agreement with the manager and did my best. My head feels like I've been swimming underwater, which is never a good thing when you're trying to pay attention to detailed work. Fortunately I'm not working with heavy machinery or power tools, but it's still taking all that I've got to ensure that each order is accurate and that I'm doing my job properly. As it is, a couple things snuck by me today but fortunately they weren't big things and my coworkers noticed before anything got out of hand.

The hardest part today was not blowing my nose while out on the floor. Through sheer force of will, I kept everything on the inside for a few hours at a time until I at last had to relent and go upstairs to clean house, so to speak. It wasn't fun but it meant I could work today and since I had no choice, things went all right. It was a slow ride for me though, as I felt totally beat, mentally and physically. I don't remember what time I fell asleep because I was out as soon as my head hit the pillow, which is unusual as my thoughts are usually slow to settle at the end of the day.

Aug 14 - My novel comes home in spades!

Today I did what I wanted to do yesterday, but couldn't: pick up my books!

It was my day off and as I was still feeling very woozy, I persuaded my parents to meet me at the printer' s to load the two boxes of books, as I had no idea how heavy they'd be. As it turns out, they were fairly compact and were filled to the brim with copies of my book! I ponied up my carefully-saved money and walked out of Island Blue with dozens of copies of my novel's second draft in physical form.

Once I was home, I took a few pictures:

Don't they look GREAT ? 

Next, I quality-checked each book( while wearing gloves )to ensure that they were all in perfect shape. I then sorted the books into piles according to their final destinations, with the largest piles being the ones destined for Niagara and to be distributed locally here in Victoria. Then I numbered and signed each book carefully, taking my time as I don't have the greatest signature skills in the world.

After that, I weighed and measured a copy and worked out the costs for various methods of shipping within Canada and outside of the country to. That took a while to figure out but I had some final numbers by late afternoon which were very encouraging as they were much lower than I'd hoped for initially. Again he should be mentioned that I'm not making any money off these copies that I'm distributing, as their solely for the purpose of people reading my work as it stood as of the second draft. This distribution of drafts came about because I have no idea when my third draft may make it to store shelves; it may be years before the process gets that far and I'd like people to have a peek beforehand.

I know I wouldn't like to wait that long.

Aug 15 - Humidity

I had a surprise waiting for me after I got home today from a very busy day.

It wasn't a good one: with all the rain in damp from the last 24 hours, the humidity levels around Victoria and in my apartment in general had risen sharply. I noticed that some of my novels had developed a slight curve and I freaked out slightly, as I hadn't expected the humidity to be so high that I needed to take precautions before leaving for work early this morning.

Thinking quickly, I rushed down the road to purchase two large bags of rice and raced back home again. There I broke out my supply of large Ziploc bags and distributed all of the novels among them, along with generous scoops of dry rice. I sealed them all up and ensured that they were airtight, so that any humidity within the bags would quickly be absorbed by the dry rice. It was something I'd learned as a kid, when we kept bits of rice in our salt shakers to ensure Niagara's humidity didn't affect the salt.

I also placed many heavy books atop the carefully-laid-out novels to encourage them to stay flat inside the Ziploc bags. Once I'd completed all of this, I felt a lot less worried; I've never had books printed before and this sort of thing is new to me, but I feel I've done the best I can and time will tell if it's, worked. I don't own a dehumidifier and quite honestly the Victoria area doesn't usually see spikes in humidity like this, so I'll just have to keep the books in their bags until I ship them out in the coming week.

I went to bed even more tired than usual tonight; this cold is really kicking my butt instead of the other way around.

Aug 16 - Flat Tired

This morning, I had a flat tire.

It was my first one since I started cycling in Victoria, so that's almost six years of biking without any punctures - a good record, I think. Unfortunately, it happened on my way to work and though I arrived on time despite the occurrence, the tire was totally flat and the tube inside needed replacing. Meaning I was stuck here until I figured a way to fix the tire and get myself home again. Seeing as it was the rear tire that was flat, it's a rather involved process to remove the tire from all the chain gearing and I didn't have those tools with me today. I've stopped carrying anything other than the basic tools when I cycle as I normally carry quite a lot of weight with my other gear as it is.

Hard to tell from this angle, but it's VERY flat - click to zoom

Fortunately, later in the day a coworker told me that SportCheck could fix my tire and they were just across the parking lot. So when I finished work today, I wheeled my bike over and arranged to have it taken care of for tomorrow on Saturday. All it would cost me would be the price of a new tube, for the grand total of $5.24 - a pretty good price considering the time and effort it would take me to change it myself.

Once I dropped off the bike, I figured out which bus to take and was home around dinnertime. Not bad for having started at 7:30 this morning, I thought, given the circumstances. I was pretty tired as I'd still been battling this blasted cold all day, trying to keep my thoughts focused and not to make any mistakes while taking orders. I thought I did all right overall and went to bed early very, very tired indeed.

Aug 17 - Rest Day

It was breakfast on the patio for me this morning, to start my day right.

Nothing special really, just the A&W downtown, but as it was my first day off in over a week I wanted to start the day out right. I went straight back home and got busy with some domestic chores that had been languishing for the week for lack of energy. Not that I had a whole lot to around today, but I could take my time to do things instead of prioritizing here and there for what I could get done with my limited energy levels. Chicken soup has been my saving grace and for the last few days I've consumed quite a few bowls of it; the combination of the hot liquid and its soothing properties have slowly pushed back the veil of cotton that I've been thinking through and today I felt the first signs of the cold giving up its knotted grip on my sinuses.

Three hours of my afternoon were wasted though, as retrieving my bike from SportChek proved an exercise in futility. After busing up there, I got my bike back and locked it up outside my workplace, where I proceeded to do some novel-related work for an hour and then started cycling home. I only got as far as the next block before I felt a familiar sensation run through the bike and, looking down, I could see the rear tire had run flat again. 

I wheeled my bicycle back to SportChek, where I was told that the tech had left hours earlier and the soonest I could have the problem sorted out would be Monday - which I was working. Having no other choice, I left the bicycle in their care again with the admonishment to remove whatever hazard was in the tire before putting the new tube in . Then I started walking home as I'd managed to just miss my bus and as the next one would be along for half an hour, it was as fast by foot and I arrived well after dinner time.

Needless to say, I didn't do much for the rest of the evening and it was another early night for me. The good news was that the fresh air and the decent temperatures seem to have reduced my cold symptoms and I hope that I'll wake with a clearer head in the morning.

Aug 18 - All Day On A Patio!

Today I was at a book signing: mine!

Actually, I'd already signed all the books and I was just there to hand them out to people. From noon until well past five o'clock today, I sat on the patio at Moka House with a dozen copies of my novel. I was there to meet people from here in Victoria, my friends and co-workers, to hand them their copies and personalize the books if they so wished.

This is how I felt, despite the cold's sniffles!

It was a gorgeous day, temperature-wise; though the sun hid behind clouds for half the time I was there it came out for a while around tea-time. I was kept company by one of my co-workers for the entirety of the time, as it was his day off and we had some great wide-ranging discussions as people came and went. About half a dozen folks showed up over the course of the afternoon to get their books, each of them excited to take home their copies and leaving myself excited to hear their feedback in turn, in time. It was a great feeling to sit there and hand out each book, to pass my imaginative work on into other's hands to see how they liked it. I'm itching to hear back from them already!

After I called it a day, the evening passed fairly quickly. I felt relaxed and fulfilled, having handed out around a dozen copies to date. I'll be mailing out the rest early this coming week on my next day off, as I have to haul the large box down the road and I'll need some energy AND my bike to do so. Very exciting!

As a bonus, spending all that time outside in the fresh air seems to have socked it to my cold, as I've had nary a sniffle here and there all evening. I'm hopeful that I've seen the last of this bug and I'll be sure to redouble my efforts NOT to get sick again this winter.

It just takes too much out of me, and I need that energy to write this fall season!

That's about all I've got this week; beating this cold has really beaten me up. It's the first summer cold I've ever had and I can't say I'd EVER want to repeat the experience; at least in the winter you can turn up the heat without swimming too much in your own sweat.

Summer Sickness, Silicon Support and Skystrikers

The word of the week is commitment.

Aug 5 - Tech Support

Today I finally got a tech support call.

Not the kind you would think however; it was a call from somebody in the building looking for me to help them with their computer. For 10 months now I've had several posters up in this building the one next-door and this is the first call I received. Which means that either people around here have really reliable computers or they fix things themselves - either way, they haven't called me. Until now.

It was a fairly easy fix that just took some time to effect. Her laptop had been infected by the RCMP virus, which had locked it up totally with a form of ransomware: a screen was displayed telling her that she had violated various laws( false ) and that she needed to pay a 'fine' via electronic methods in order to have her computer back. This virus is used by organized crime groups to generate funds for their activities that is an excellent example of criminal scum using sophisticated methods to dupe the unwary into parting with their money. I personally can't stand this sort of thing or criminal activity in general.

Some variants take a pic of you with your laptop's webcam for added scare value

What perhaps was the most interesting thing about today's tech support visit was the apartment itself: it was utterly disgusting. I've been in some weird places over the years, including student dorms and people with too many pets, yet this place just had her and a complete lack of housekeeping. Dozens of empty pizza boxes stacked on the back of the couch competed with as many dirty dishes and scattered wrappers all around the main room for the attention of various flies. The floors were covered with various layers of food and other things that I tried not to identify, though there was little odour overall. Revolting.

I don't know what else to say. She was obviously happy living in these conditions and working on her quilting hobby full-time. She paid me well for my time after I'd finished restoring her laptop to her and I headed back to my place, seeing it with new eyes from a fresh perspective of how others choose to live.

Aug 6 - Back to work, you!

You should be careful for what you wish for.

Turns out, I got what I wanted: a full week at work! I'm working 5 full shifts this week, eight days in a row altogether, which will be great for the paycheque. I will have to get back into the swing of things after 10 days off.

Working in the Copy Centre at this point of the year is actually a great choice, as back-to-school is ramping up for the last few weeks of August. It's the busiest time of the year for the company, as well as the most crowded as thousands of students of all ages with their families pile into the store. I'm quite lucky to be in the department I am, as I don't have to worry about running around too much. I'll just be doing a lot of directing, which I can handle, or so I think; I've never done a back-to-school before so we'll see how it goes.

At least I get to work with a great bunch of people as part of the solid team that set the store. Everyone knows what they're doing and is more than willing to help out wherever and whenever they are needed. It's that positive attitude and the knowledge that your coworkers have your back no matter what that means going into this busy season isn't as stressful as it could be. Definitely a good thing.

Aug 7 - Framing

Lots of wall space, not so much in the wallet.

I need to get quite a few things framed, but I don't have the funds right now. Which is odd, as I haven't had a lot of things I want to hang on my wall that aren't already up there.

But, at Phoenix ComiCon, I picked up a set of three of these beauties by the artist Ant Lucia:

I got a set of all 3 for a SWEET deal! They're ALL I bought.

And just before I left for Ontario last week, I put in three images to be turned into 3x4' posters. One of my novel's Second Draft cover by Brian T. Woods, one of a set of dozens of sci-fi spacecraft… and a cutaway of the Milennium Falcon - just because. As well, I have my recent diploma from Brock and there's even a poster of Star Trek Continues, signed by the whole cast, from Phoenix!

So yes, I have a LOT of posters to frame and hang over the next while, as I can. I will keep them as safe as possible, but they're meant to be seen, not stored. Right?

Really, I just want some more cool stuff on my walls: they've been fairly bare for far too many years!

Aug 8 - Recharge Me

What do you do when your battery is low?

In my case, this applies to both myself and my Samsung phone this week.

With the phone, my battery doesn't last the day and in fact usually lasts only about six hours. Something in the list of programs I have is draining it and I have to discover what it is. From my initial scan, it looks like the Samsung Link is the culprit, but I have no way to uninstall that as it's part of the manufacturers software that comes with the phone. Even the battery life extension software app I've installed isn't helping.

Which means I'll probably have to root the phone, which I've been meaning to do anyway once the one-year warranty runs out in September. Rooting the phone will mean I have complete control over everything that goes on and I can get rid of whatever extra stuff is taking up space or causing problems for me in daily use. I really don't want to buy a spare battery, as the one that comes with the phone should be more than adequate to let it last a day, at a minimum, once I have it rooted. My previous phone was rooted and although the battery life wasn't great, it definitely lasted a whole day.

The funny part is I don't do all that much with the phone that would be the battery. I don't watch YouTube videos or Netflix or surf the Internet endlessly. If I did, I just have to keep the thing plugged in 24/7 given the current battery drain and that would just be silly, I think.

Aug 9 - Jetfire SkyStriker? Cool !!!

When I was a kid, one of my favorite toys was a G.I. Joe airplane called the SkyStriker. I also coveted a particular Transformers toy jet aircraft called JetFire, which was copied from a Robotech toy.

Imagine the grin and delight on my face when I saw this picture of what was being given away at this year's San Diego ComicCon:

 

Pure. Awesome.

  

That's one really cool crossover and shows how a love of all things g33ky can sometimes combine several nostalgic memories into one really cool collectible. Not that I could justify dropping several hundred dollars for such a thing, but it's nice to know that people are still being creative in coming up with unique items like that. Perhaps if I end up with more room in the future, I'll be able to display some of my collectibles in some stylish glass cases instead of hiding them in cardboard boxes in storage.

Because cool collectibles aren't meant to live in darkness, but to be seen in the light of g33kiness.

Aug 10 - Talking about my novel! In a bar!

It was a full shift for me today at work, tired as I was.

Back-to-school is starting and today was a preview, with a solid stream of people flowing into the store together supplies for their kids on top of the regular weekend crowd. Copy wasn't overly busy, which was good as I spent a fair amount of time assisting people elsewhere to help take the pressure off my coworkers whenever I could. It was definitely wearing as I'm feeling under the weather with a throat tickle that's turned into a sore throat as of this morning. But I got through anyway without losing my voice.

In the evening I met up with a couple of guys from work for a few drinks downtown, at a pub I'd walk by many times but never been in. Turns out the Yates Street Taphouse is quite a nice place and I enjoyed finding that out.

Most of the conversation was between myself and one of my coworkers who had just recently finished reading the second draft of my novel - I'd given him a printout some months back at his request. It was absolutely fantastic to sit there and toss questions back and forth about my work with someone who had really paid attention to the details while reading it. It's that sort of feedback that I really need in order to take my work to the next level and several half-formed ideas I had already became much clearer after tonight's conversation.

I was also just plain thrilled that someone liked my work so much that they wanted to reread it again after talking to me in order to catch the details they missed the first time. That's the sort of thing that writers live on and I found myself energized anew to write more about the world I'd created.

Aug 11 - Blarg Bug

I woke up to find my cold was in full swing. Congestion, headache, the whole works plus a lack of sleep means it was going to be a bad day for me.

Unfortunately, I was working today at 10 AM.

I managed to make it through four hours with several fairly busy periods before I headed home, feeling quite tired and definitely intent on destroying a full box of Kleenex by the time the day was out. I'd also managed to tweak my right arm somehow today, probably when I was helping out a few times on the sales floor getting several chairs down for customers. One more thing to add to my sick list.

After napping briefly and drinking a lot of fluids, I was back at work for 6 PM for the annual mandatory back-to-school meeting. I sat myself well away from everyone in the back with a box of Kleenex next to me and did my best to pay attention. It worked for the most part but by the end of the meeting I was feeling much worse and at that point I pulled one of the managers I wouldn't be coming in on Monday. Good call, that.

It's worth noting that I have to be more careful now about getting sick, as I've had a severe case of pneumonia last winter. Which means that I'm more prone to a cold moving into my lungs and setting up shop, which would not be good. So I'm being aggressive about combating this one, with lots of fluids, chicken soup, cold medicines and rest whenever needed. I definitely don't want things to worsen by not paying close enough attention, that's for sure.

That's all I have. It took me most of the day on Monday the 12th to put this together, and here it is. Any ramblings or errors I blame on the battle with the bug that's got me. G'night!