Moustaches, Media and Meh

The word of the week is ebullience.

Nov 25 - Improvement

Winter hibernation has definitely got its claws in me. 

Ever since the clocks were turned back, I've been getting quite tired earlier in the evening and by 10 PM, I am ready to hit the sack. For someone who normally turned in well past midnight even as of a year ago, that's quite a switch. I'm compensating by getting up earlier in the morning and getting things done, which I think is a fair trade.

My moods have definitely stabilized, due in no small part to reduce stress at work and financially. While I'm in no way anywhere near a black-ink bank balance, not having to sweat every single $1.95 Tim Horton's tea purchase of late has been wonderful. It's been all due to my sister, whose now-solid employment has meant that my own paycheque pittance hasn't been the prop for our household.

While the days of upgrading computer parts and purchasing the odd neat( and inexpensive ) gadget are gone, just not having to worry about every single dollar every single day has been fantastic.

That's good practice for when our finances flip and Fortune favors us once again.

Nov 26 - Why a Word Of The Week?

In case you ever wondered why I include one every week…

Apart from the obvious, I like words that carry a few layers of meaning in them and can be used for different things. I often sit and ponder different words, rolling them around in my head while I think about all their meanings in different contexts.

Also, each week's Word is related to how I'm doing that week. While there's been a few weeks where the match isn't exact, the words definitely describe at least a portion of my week - usually the most important one - and that's enough for me.

Words, after all, can be made into anything by writer.

Nov 27 - Nova in my pocket?

A simple bit of software made my day today.

For the last long while, my old ASUS tablet hasn't seen much use, as it's been simply too slow for me to tolerate using it much. I've looked into doing a few things to speed it up, but not had the time to really get into those solutions - not that I have great hopes for them to work all that well, my do.

This week, I downloaded an app called Nova Launcher. It's an android app that replaces the standard 'launcher' which runs any android device, launching applications and generally Getting Things Done.

It's amazing! It's like I have a brand-new tablet again; swiping from screen to screen is lightning-fast and there's almost no lag, which drove me bonkers a lot of the time.

I like the program so much, I installed it on my Samsung Galaxy SIII and wouldn't you know it also made my phone feel like new again. I'm very impressed, even after needing to spend a few hours reconfiguring all the icons and widgets, it's definitely worth it. I definitely recommend checking it out for yourself.

Nov 28 - Free TV?

If it's free, I like it.

Hopefully whatever it is, is also without a catch. For the most part, watching television over the Internet has been very hit and miss. Even in the last decade when broadband cable became commonplace, it's very difficult to find TV programming that's recent or of decent quality.

Someone at work suggested this site, which I had a look at today. I was thoroughly blown away by the sheer volume of programming available - for free - which doesn't involve any sort of Torrent downloads or watching poor-quality videos the size of postage stamps. A small caveat is that some of the videos have pop-up ads, but the site actually asks viewers for forgiveness, as their host where the videos are stored are the ones actually putting the ads up - they have no control over it.

A quick perusal shows you that there are hundreds of shows hosted on the site, enough television from the past few decades to keep you watching for another few decades, at least.

For now, I'm going to pick and choose my favorites here and there. Free!

Nov 29 - Black Friday: Meh

Rarely have I been more disgusted at consumerism then today.

I used to think that the crazy materialism mindset that comes over the majority of North Americans during the holidays was moderated by the feelings of generosity and love that the season engenders in people.

However, this year saw the widespread adoption of the American 'Shopping Holiday' known as Black Friday in Canada. The day after Thanksgiving, at least in the United States, means massive crowds turning out for substantial discounts at almost every retailer - all of this a month before Christmas.

Personally, I think the crowds and the tension are disgusting and I was thankful that I was working today in the afternoon so that I missed all the morning madness. It was a steadily busy day but there was no sign of any tidal waves of people scrambling to grab a deal before someone else got it. Nothing material is worth standing in line well before the sun rises in order to get in before anyone else grabs the deal.

Next year, I'll be sleeping in.

Nov 30 - Movember's Last Day

My moustache has a fan club!

Admittedly, it's a small one, but still: I've received quite a few compliments on it these last few weeks. More than a few of them have compared my appearance - with longer and now-curly hair - to Tom Selleck, which I find flattering, even with a squeaky voice thrown in.

I'm quite liking the low-maintenance aspect of having just a mustache, compared to the fiddly work one has to do with a beard or goatee to keep everything in trim. I do enjoy being clean-shaven, as it gives me a more youthful look and most of the rest of my facial hair is now coming in salt-and-pepper grey. Seeing as I don't believe in coloring my hair, I'll just shave it off, which is easy enough.

Also, it keeps my lip warm when I cycle!

Dec 1 - New month, new ideas!

As I keep my nose to the writing grindstone with my Dark Drystal entry( due in a month! )my mind is already looking forward to more writing challenges in 2014: contests!

This coming year should see me flourish as a writer, at least in terms of productive output. If I can manage it, I'll be spending less energy on my day job and reserving the best parts of myself for throwing into my writing full-bore. 

Which means I have to enter more than a few contests, I believe. It's the only way I'll be able to prove that my writing can have meaning enough to other people that they'll pay for it, and not in terms of writing some kind of advertising copy. I want to know that the stories in my head, the fruits of my imagination if you will, are enticing enough to other people that I can share the views of my mind's eye and they'll want more.

Once I get rolling, there will be no stopping me. That thought makes me quite, quite happy.

Only a few weeks to go for completing my Dark Crystal contest entry. I'm excited and eagar to write every day this coming week - as it should be! The mild weather's been great, as I haven't had to walk or bus to work due to ice or white stuff...

Buzz, Bookstores and Being Better

The word of the week is confluence.

Nov 18 - Beneficence

Weight and energy are intricately linked for me now in my mind.

Right along with food, of course. The last two weeks I've been eating more, and more often, with some solid results. My weight has stayed rather steady and my energy levels have been a lot higher overall, along with some much better( and consistent ) nights of restful sleep. Having a tracking program on my phone that lets me know that precisely really helps as well.

This has also had a positive effect on my mood, which has become much more balanced and I've been able to step back from situations much more easily rather than lose myself in the moment. Which is very helpful when work or life pokes me in the eye, looking for an instant reaction, which I don't want.

What I do want seems to be finding me, albeit slowly and at strange times. As I've mentioned before, writing and working for all that I'm doing right now, which makes it much easier to focus. I am looking for another job, if only because my current one demands too much of my mental and physical energies every day that I KNOW I have to put towards my writing instead if I want to make that into something major.

For now, the winter months will be ones where I spend my free time in my head, working on things that will bring my dreams of writing for living much closer.

Those thoughts will keep me warm when it's cold outside.

Nov 19 - Buckling Down

The pace has been picking up for my Dark Crystal writing project.

This week, I've made great strides in getting the general outlines straightened out for my short piece. Getting the details right is critical for my writing process, as it sets the framework for my mental images to form properly and lets the themes of the story coalesce naturally as my brain gets everything sorted out.

I'm very close to getting to the writing itself, as I can feel the story forming, which is very exciting. Coming at things with the image of the blank page never works for me; I just have to get all the little puzzle pieces arranged in a pattern before I can start to assemble them into place. Sometimes that means I get separate little stories, all part of a whole, while other times a great story arc forms out of the pieces I've carefully laid out.

The next few weeks will be very exciting ones for me to discover!

Nov 20 - Bad Bugs Bourgeoning

Regular flu shots may be only the tip of the medical iceberg to come.

I've already have mine this year, but as I learned last year, influenza can come in both a bacterial and viral form. In the case of a bacterial influenza, antibiotics are the way to go, but a worrying trend in the last decade has seen completely antibiotic-resistant bugs develop and start to spread alarmingly across the world.

An article this week in Wired magazine explores just how widespread the effects of these new bugs would be on our lives, well beyond just making people sick. If antibiotics become ineffective due to their overuse( as Alannis Morrisette famously croons about ) then we will see a whole range of routine medical procedures become dangerous undertakings, among many other things.

It's very worrying and I wonder how we'll manage this looming health threat.

Nov 21 - Bouncing Brains

Work this week has been wonderfully different, for the most part.

When I've not been pulled from the Tech Office onto the floor to help( for various reasons ), it's been rather nice, as I'm getting a feel for the job. Setting up computers, diagnosing problems and transferring data from old systems to new ones are things that I feel very comfortable with. Learning the procedures that are in place is a vital part of the job, as I have to ensure that standards are always maintained. Nothing unusual there.

The fun part of the job is working with people on a daily basis, where sales are only part of the job, instead of the all-consuming primary focus. It's also rather nice not to have to heft heavy objects with my still-fussy wrists day-to-day on top of dealing with the frustration of finding products for customers while doing five different things at once... because there are too often too few people to deal with the variable business volume.

If I could do this five days a week( once I'm properly trained - again; this is the 4th dept in 9 months ) then I think I'd be content doing the job( for now )for what I'm being paid. I've noticed that I'm smiling a lot more and that's transmitting to the people I work with, keeping their stress levels down as well. Which means I can focus on writing.

Definitely a good thing.

Nov 22 - Bountiful Blessings 

Two great pieces of news arrived today!

The first was that my sister has been offered ( and accepted! )a permanent position at her government job today. This means that instead of being on contract, she is now a full-time employee and thus her income as part of our little shared household is secure.

Which means a LOT less worry for me in terms of my own job not providing nearly as much income or security. With her income stream firmly in place, we can plan more easily for the near future and worry less about how each week will fall out financially. It's fantastic news and we're both very happy about it!

On the same note, I received an unexpected cheque in the mail today for a decent sum. As it turns out, my benefits have finally gone through at my workplace after months of paper shuffling and delays. Which has meant that my MSP premiums that I have been paying since the beginning of the year have been adjusted to reflect my employment status, with the result that half of each premium I paid every month was returned to me - huzzah! While it's not an incredible sum of money, it's definitely welcome and goes to show that good things do happen at the unlikeliest times and places.

The next surprise I'm hoping for? Getting a letter in the mail for one of my stories!

Nov 23 - Bye-Bye, Biggest Bookstore

A sad note today for booklovers everywhere.

The World's Biggest Bookstore, located in Toronto, is closing its doors in February 2014.

As a child, I loved the occasional visits we made to this vast space full of books whenever my family made the trip to Toronto for the weekend. Usually it was a stroll through the Eaton Centre, with a diversion to the newer Atrium Place at the north end of the block… and just on the other side of that was the World's Biggest Bookstore, where I could always find something new and interesting to entertain my mind.

 

All things change and that in itself is generally a good thing. I haven't been to the Biggest Bookstore in decades and its unlikely that I'll get there before it stores are closed forever. I will have my memories though, seen from the eyes of a young boy for whom the stacks of books towered well over his head whenever he ran eagerly through the doors. Stretching almost as far as a boy could see, the rows of bookshelves promised treasures hidden in plain sight, waiting to be discovered. It was a wonderful, magical place.

That's a feeling I hope I'll never outgrow.

Nov 24 - Beautiful Blade Runner

If there's ever been an iconic vision of future, then Stanley Kubrick's work is it.

The masterpiece that is Blade Runner came out back in the summer of 1982 and has continued to influence generations of artists, writers, filmmakers and many others when it comes to envisioning the future. I happen to own four different versions of the movie, watching some of them from time to time and marveling in the incredible cinematic experience that happens every time it's on the screen.

 

Artist Anders Ramsell has animated Blade Runner by painting 12,597 different water color paintings and stringing them together into beautifully fluid sequences. It's incredible, you feel like you're watching Blade Runner, you get to hear Harrison Ford and follow the story but you're seeing it like never before—in moving art.

It's been an interesting week, one of the more relaxing and good-news-filled ones I can recall for quite some time. I'm eating better, sleeping better and enjoying work FAR more while worrying LESS on a daily basis. Which are ALL good things when it comes to being in the proper frame of mind to be creative and WRITE. I'm looking forward to the next six weeks of solid creativity as I complete my entry into the Dark Crystal AuthorQuest contest… and try to get a handle on where my day job will end up taking me.

Heroes, Hard Work and Happiness

The word of the week is antithesis.

Nov 11 - Be Remembered

Unlike last year, I worked on Remembrance Day today.

It felt a little odd, with so many people crowding into the store instead of attending today's ceremonies. I wondered what people would be doing 50 years from now, when even fewer members of the world's population would remember the time when war had gripped the globe and peace seem like a dream.

The lesson that those who take things for granted are often rudely disappointed by the universe is perhaps lost on the young. Which is also something that every generation has lamented for as long as humanity has humanity and refused to learn the terrible truths that war teaches.

I'm not a pacifist, nor my warmonger. I'm someone who is extraordinarily grateful for those who gave their lives long ago to ensure that my life's choice is my own and that the world was not forced along a different path towards a darker future.

I'll remember that lesson for the rest of my life.

Nov 12 - A Blue Dot

Sometimes we forget about perspective.

It takes people like Carl Sagan to make us realize just how small spaceship Earth is in relation to the cosmos - and how lucky we are to be aboard her. Listen to what he has to say:

For myself, I've always thought from a very early age that there has to be more out there. More worlds, more intelligences, just more than we can imagine with our limited perspective, despite the realms that the human imagination has conjured into being to date. I've always wanted to be one of the explorers to set foot out on another planet, far far removed from our own solar system, but I quickly understood the only way I would get there in my lifetime was to write about it.

Good thing I'm already started on my way to that dream.

Nov 13 - Libraries

I spent a lot of time reading growing up and libraries were my treasure houses - along with bookstores, of course.

Only those people who developed a love of reading will know what I'm talking about. Wandering into a row of shelves and discovering new books is still a thrill for me, albeit my pace has slowed dramatically in the last couple of years, mainly as my focus has shifted from reading to writing.

Yet many people see the library going the way of the dodo bird in the electronic age, when paper books lose out to the likes of the Amazon Kindle or the Kobo e-reader. However, I believe the opposite will be true: books will always have their place, cradled in a reader's hands alongside the more portable electronic copy of the same book. Browsing electronic shelves can never( and never will )take the place of a library.

One person who truly understands this is Neil Gaiman, who recently gave a speech on the very subject. It's powerful and contains many truths that I hadn't realized I'd known until he gave voice to them.

It's definitely worth a read.

Nov 14 - NaNoWriMo

It's now two weeks into National Novel Writing Month.

I'm not participating this year, mainly because I'm working steadily on my submission for the Dark Crystal Authorquest contest that's due in two weeks time. Across the globe, thousands of people are writing furiously, accumulating words daily towards the goal of completing a novels worth of creative output by the end of November. It's my hope that next year, I'll have completed the third draft of my novel and can participate in the crazy writer's novel creation push. It sounds like a lot of fun.

On a related note, my moustache is fairly solid now, two weeks in, for Movember in support of prostate cancer awareness. It's interesting how this particular awareness campaign has spread and grown, to the point where at work we have received boxes of mustache-shaped USB drives - which is really cute, I think although I wouldn't buy one myself as I don't need another one to lose in a drawer.

Besides, I've already grown a decent mustache of my own.

Nov 15 - Buffalo Hero

Do you know your local heroes?

They're all around us, waiting for the opportunity to act.

One such hero is Darnell Barton, a bus driver in Buffalo, NY. He was doing his daily drive when he spotted someone who needed help immediately and acted:

I think he's a wonderful example of someone who saw another human being in need and did what they had to do without driving on or taking too long to consider other action. He acted and in doing so saved the life of the woman in the video.

Now if we can only extend such heroism to everyday acts, to bring those who are downtrodden and diminished in our society back into the fullness of our community with small heroic acts from all of us.

Nov 16 - Starstruck!

I met an astronaut today!

A few weeks ago, I learned that Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield would be signing copies of his new book "An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth" right here in Victoria today - and I had the day off!

Needless to say, I was extremely excited, as it's always been my boyhood dream to become an astronaut. Sadly, my mathematical skills were never strong enough to make that possible and I'm not the healthiest person in the world, so my chances of becoming one of the elite few to leave the bonds of earth were rather poor. However, my love of all things space has continued with me throughout my life to date and the notion of meeting an astronaut simply thrilled me.

As I suspected that it would prove to be quite a popular book signing, a friend and I got to the Hillside Mall five hours early to get in line. We were successful in getting one of the first 25 spots, with only a few other people ahead of us, some of whom had arrived at 6 AM - way too early, in my eyes, as this was a book signing and not a limited giveaway of some kind.

Those five hours passed fairly quickly, as the line soon grew to enormous proportions and we were quite entertained by chatting up our neighbors on all sides. Everyone was in a fantastic mood, eagerly awaiting the arrival of said astronaut; there were even a sprinkling of young air cadets, all of which had the gleam of space-struck dreams in their young eyes.

The line started moving at 2 PM and within 10 minutes I was standing in front of Chris Hadfield, shaking his hand. Did I mention he has a very impressive mustache to go along with his impressive personal presence and very firm handshake? He looked me in the eye, thanked me for waiting so long and I said it was quite a pleasure to meet him, along with some babble about proving dreams could come true. He had the grace to smile and then I stepped away to take a few pictures before moving aside to let other people have their moment too.

It was definitely worth it and I've been enjoying his book enormously. He has a very honest writing style, which perfectly fits his telling of his journey from the first days of realizing he wanted to become an astronaut to the end of the his third and final trip into space to the present day. I highly recommend it, as it's filled with wonderful insights into the human condition from a person who has met every challenge thrown at him to stand as one of the finest examples of what humans - and Canadians - can achieve when they pursue their dreams.

Nov 17 - Changes Coming

Today I struggled to remain stress-free… and succeeded.

Work has been difficult for me, in the main( as I've mentioned before ) because it's so busy and I've received only haphazard training in such a variety of areas that I'm still not confident in my skills. It's becoming apparent that in order to function properly minute to minute in such an environment, I'm going to have to invest a considerable amount of my off-work time to online training and to be quite honest, I don't feel that it's worthwhile considering the wage that I'm being paid.

However, I am finding a balance at work, in that I'm becoming more proactive in seeing problems before they arise and thinking three or four steps ahead in order to smooth things for myself. As well, I'm doing my very best to have answers ready to questions thrown my way, but it's hard when I am run off my feet every single shift.

For the last few months, I've been looking for other employment and as yet I haven't found anything that I want to take. At this point, given that any other job will pay me as much as this one, I believe it's in my own best interest to find something that is less draining of my energy so that I can devote more of it towards my creative output: writing for living.

That's my best route towards creating my own self-sufficiency, I believe. Definitely not working for far less than I'm worth and coming home too exhausted to write, mentally and physically, every day.

I've a full work-week ahead, both at my day job and writing, so I'm going to need all the energy I can get. Right now I'm getting tired well before 11pm and though I've rested it, my left wrist is still dodgy... so it's to bed early and up early, which is a change for me too. Maybe when I spend a few more years doing it, I'll be healthy, wealthy AND wise...