Robots, Recompense and Redux

The word of the week is perambulatory.

April 21 - Day by Day

It's looking to be a busy spring around here.

But being busy can leave you lacking time for yourself, if you're not careful. It could also mean that you are less appreciative of your life in the present while looking forward to the future.

For a long while, I thought very little about the past and the future was to much of an unknown to bother with. Which grounded me very solidly in the present, to let me focus, but that's what was needed then and not now. Self-examination of one's situation has always been a strength of mine, far more so than divining the gray mists of things to come or the mining the misty memories of the past.

NOT the way you want to discover your talent!

Similar to the 100 Days of Happiness I mentioned recently, Improving Your Life in 10 Steps is something that people can do every single day of their lives. Putting your head down and pulling through troubles is one thing, but being blind to everything but your goals is not really living, at least not in my books. Stopping to smell the roses should be on everyone's list and I speak from experience; cycling around the city year has given me a new appreciation for the every day that lies within one's touch and that can turn into a blur if you insist on stepping on the gas every time you need to get somewhere.

April 22 - 'Bot Budz!

I, for one, welcome our robot overlords!

Those of you who watch Futurama( I hope there's a lot of you reading this who are ) will be familiar with that quote. Machines that think have often been used as a metaphorical example of humanities here technology( as well as change ) and there are myriad of examples of such - the Borg from Star Trek are probably the best-known of those. Put intelligence and machine that can move under its own power and many people will tell you that humanity's days are numbered.

Myself, I just think robots are cool. Especially ones that you can own!

Back in the day, I really wanted an Omnibot 2000:

Missing: drink-serving tray and raygun.

Unfortunately, they were extraordinarily expensive; at $600 in 1984, it would cost over twice as much in today's market to purchase one… if they were still available, that is. While the Omnibot was basically a remote-controlled toy with a few automated functions, robots have come a long, long way since then with the advance of the personal computer market and advances in miniaturization technologies.

Meaning that nowadays, any g33ky dad with a knack for electronics can make his son a personal robot:

And while they're not robots, they might as well be: Daleks are both dangerous and cool and I would never want to meet one. Especially not after seeing this helpful and funny Hitchiker's-Guide-styled entry:

April 23 - Thriller Redux?

Speaking of modern technology : it's amazing what people can do these days with it.

To be more specific, it's incredible how talented CGI artists can create amazing videos using only the power of their home computer systems, no longer needing massive mainframe power. When you combine these talents with g33ky fandom, you come up with recent mesmerizing creations like this:

By comparison, Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within came out back in 2001 and had millions of hours of computing power poured into it in order to create the fantastic graphics. There were quite a few g33ks involved in its creation and some of them used some spare computing power to create this fantastic animation - coincidentally using the same song as the one for the Frozen video above:

April 24 - A Week To Go!

Just one week to go and I'll have finished the first major edit of the third draft!

Meaning that I'll be spending all my spare time in May going through and adding smaller things here and there but not doing another full revision; that's to be for a professional editor in the future.

I can talk faster than I can type - some days...

This week I also had some MAJOR ideas for improving the novel yet again. Note I said 'improve' there, not 'change completely' - I believe the work that I've done so far holds together very well and there's no need to 'fix' it in any major way. Barring any glaring flaws, the book in its final form should be ready within a month or two at the most. I can hardly wait to read the finished product myself from cover to cover!

In the meantime, as I've been doing for the last few years, I have been accumulating tips, tricks and writing advice - both from the perspective of an author and from the business side of the craft. There's literally tons of advice out there and you could spend the rest of your life reading about it instead of actually writing, as I am very well aware. I've gone from reading to writing and one of the common pieces of advice is that once you started writing, you should never stop.

Recently I came across this list of 50 Books That Will Make You Better Writer and I have read some of them and though I didn't find all of them helpful, I can recommend the list so that people can make their own choice. I do find it amusing that I have hundreds of bookmarks about writing advice and very little time to peruse them - I imagine anyone who's doing something they're passionate about for living feels the same way about reading on the same subject.

April 25 - The Phone Call!

Good news everyone: I have a job Interview next week!

As most of you know, I've been looking for quite some time to find a better job than my current one which, though the people are wonderful, doesn't pay a living wage - unless you live in a cardboard box. And this is the first interview I've been able to land in a year...

The new job would be a government position, working downtown within walking distance of my current domicile - no need for a bus or even a bicycle, which is fantastic. The pay is almost twice what I'm making now and would be better even than what I was making back at MMart, which boggles my mind considering how much smoke was blown in my direction about how well-paid I was then. Not nearly enough, in my opinion, for everything that I went through there.

That was the past however; I'm looking forward to the future now. I've gone from being employed at a terrible job to being unemployed and having a wonderful time writing my book to being employed with wonderful people, so it's all about your perspective. I'm certainly not any kind of corporate ladder climber and would rather make my living by being creative than kowtowing; I've shown I can hold my own with my writing. If I keep working at my word crafting harder than any job I've had before, I know that it will be something I can do for the rest of my life and hopefully get paid for it in the bargain.

And from the past:  how about Andy Warhol?

I just have to throw this little bit in here: I have spoken this week in the blog about how technology keeps advancing. I used to own an Amiga computer, which back in its day was one of the most advanced personal computers available on the market… which unfortunately ignored the Amiga and went with the Windows PC( or even the Mac ) instead.

However, creative artists at the time knew that the media was THE premier machine to allow their creativity to blossom and one of those artists was Andy Warhol.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder - in this case, the middle.

Just recently, some of Warhol's last works, created just before he died, were uncovered on digital media by a computer club in Pittsburgh,PA. It's fascinating to see how a famous artist was able to effortlessly create new works in a new medium, one that I knew at the time to be cutting-edge.

Perhaps I'll find the same thing out when creating my first e-book?

April 26 - Speedy Surfing

Since I'm on a bit of a g33ky bend this week, let's talk about browsers.

On my computers, I use a mix of browsers: all of the major ones, in fact. FireFox, Chrome, Opera and even Safari… All of them have their strengths and weaknesses. Considering that I usually have several hundred tabs open at a time, it's useful to be able just to start up a browser and pick up where I left off.

However, even with memory-management and tab-organization software plug-ins, it can get a little crowded and the browsers slow down. So I usually use each browser to surf different subjects separately - for example, Opera is mainly for writing, chrome for gaming and entertainment, etc.

Drowning in a sea of tabs...

This week I've started using a fifth browser, one that's faster than any of the others, called WaterFox. It's a variant on Firefox, as you may have guessed and owes its speed to being a pure 64-bit browser. Windows 7 and 8 are written in 64-bit code and since 2009 most computers have shipped with 64-bit CPU's, which is a perfect match-up. Using WaterFox this week has been lovely, as the browser speed paired with the 16gb of RAM in my older desktop PC has been a great combination - the less time I have to wait for things to load, the more time I have to sort through all of my interests!

Speaking of interest, there's a lot of interest in low interest these days and in the near future.

A recent report about the state of Canada's economy look specifically at the interest rates of our country and pronounced the situation has a good one - very good, in fact. Canadians are currently enjoying some of the lowest interest rates in their history and it looks like things are going to be that way for a while. Which is good news for anyone carrying any debt, though I should caution against anyone picking up more debt due to the tempting low rates; it's always better to just get which you need instead of eyeing that gold-plated Porsche that you saw on TV.

April 27 - Too Many Thoughts

Sometimes there's too much to talk about in one blog entry.

Week to week, there's a lot going on in my head, many things piquing my interest and setting my thoughts in 100 directions a day. Some of these things I write down for later and some of I don't; some things I feel like discussing and some things will never see the light of day… well, basically because they're stuck inside my head( where there's no actual light )and I don't think there of value to anyone but myself. Then again, who am I to judge what's of value to another person?

Yup - it's like that.

All the same, I think it's a wonderful thing that so much about the world fascinates me that I can make so many connections between things that pop up in my life on a daily basis. I like to think that at the end of each day I understand a few things a little better and that makes the next day a little better as well.

In other good news, the injury I did to my side a month ago seems to have healed and I can move without pain day-to-day - yay! I'm quite glad and relieved, as I'm still dealing with the yo-yo factor of my wrists, which can be decent one day and bedeviling me the next. I hope that in my new job, the lack of lifting heavy objects on a daily basis will mean that my wrists have a chance to recover; the jury still out on how much typing I'll have to do with data entry, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

As I've mentioned, it's going to be a BUSY week: finishing off the last 5 chapters of my novel AND going in for a job interview, not to mention working 3 days at my current job and taking time for all the other sundries that make up a day in the Life Of Me. Should be fun. :-)

Songs, Sandboxes and Sendoffs

The word of the week is quiescent.

April 14 - It's been awhile...

How long have you been at your current job?

It's an interesting question. I used to think that a job was something you did for 5 to 10 years, or if you are lucky it turned into a lifelong career with a solid retirement package at the end. I guess growing up when I did, I saw a lot of people who followed those patterns in traditional jobs such as teachers, doctors, lawyers, firemen, policemen and the like. Most people settled into a career path and stuck with it if they were competent or more rarely successful at it and that was the norm for the time.

Apparently things are a-changing... have a look at this:

What a change 25 years makes to redefine what 'career' means ...

Job-hopping is the new normal, at least according to data recently released by Workopolis. According to their study of more than 7 million employment history records dating back to 1995, there has been a huge shift in how long people stay at their jobs. I wonder at where the world will be like in another 10 years in terms of what people will call a career...

And: A Million Dollars, 25 years later?

Back in 1992, the Barenaked Ladies song 'If I had A Million Dollars' was topping the charts and making dreams of dollar signs dance in the eyes of fans everywhere. In those days, if you had $1 million then you truly were among the rich. Yet a quarter century later, inflation and economic changes have meant that a re-examination of what that tidy sum could buy is in order. Over at CBC.ca, a blogger took a look at what $1 million could buy you today in Canada and its rather amusing to see how things have changed into an a half decades. While there's still some things that money can't buy, the overall consensus is that… well, read the article for yourself and you may be surprised.

Still, I won't refuse a million bucks if it happens to come my way...

April 15 - A Late Start

This past weekend, I started watching 3rd season of Game of Thrones, finally.

So far, so good. I've managed to avoid any spoilers, large or small, for the last year and I'm hoping to keep it that way as I work through the third season. I know that the fourth season has begun and that's making things a bit tricky, but given that I don't have a whole ton of time right now while writing my novel, there's no choice but to soldier on. I'm really looking forward to seeing what's in store! In keeping with that theme, here's a GOT-esque( slightly dark sense of humour )work-safe parody video of Frozen:

Aaaannnnd... on another note: the new laptop is fantastic! ( Non-g33ks may tune out now ).

When I was hoping to get a laptop that would fit my needs, there was just a short list that I wanted, beck, NEEDED the thing to have. 1) Fast boot-up and recovery from sleep  2) Great multi-tasking performance  3) Small and light enough to tote around like my old ASUS tablet.

Thankfully, I can report that the Samsung 540U is all that and more! Heck, it even has a touchscreen, which makes it MUCH easier for me to switch over to from my ASUS tablet - it's far more natural for me now to tap or swipe on a screen after using my ASUS, so the Samsung is just ideal in that sense.

I'm very happy with my new novel-writing tool!

Daily usage is smooth and simple too. I flip the lid( its, not mine )open and the system wakes in a second or two, ready to do work. No waiting for a drive to spin up or the internet to connect, which just wastes my time and lets my ideas slip away before I can jot them all down. Enter notes, search a term or two, maybe check my email and away it goes; just as fast as using my phone but without the headache of cramming everything into a tiny screen.

Definitely a writing-worthy machine!

April 16 - Play

Almost every kid loves to play in sandboxes.

I know I did, though I was less enthused in later youth when I found out about how cats saw outdoor sandboxes - yuck. All the same, being able to create imaginary worlds with just a bucket and shovel and a little time was simply magical. I treasure that feeling still.

That was over 30 years in the past. Times have changed and technology has progressed. Now we have very powerful computers and virtual reality technology that we can combine with the latest in video projectors to create… a Virtual Sandbox. There are several different systems around the world that are exploring this technology and one of them is called Sandy Station. It uses a simple sandbox surrounded by sensors and video projectors to allow high-resolution images to be mapped onto the blank surface of a sandbox in real time. The sensors allow the computers to see the height and disposition of the sand particles and adjust the video images accordingly in real-time to… well, just have a look. It's too cool for words:

PS - I adjusted the audio track of the video myself to include the same piano track as Sandy Station's other video, an ethereal piece by Ludovico Einaudi. For some reason they didn't include any audio on the particular video that I liked and thanks to the internet plus a little work on my part, the video you watch above is now by far the better, if I do say so myself.

April 17 - Write On

For four days this week, I socked in five solid chapter edits, plus another batch of enhancements, including switching the name of the primary 'good-guy' weapons to one that's more accurate. Small but vital details like these each enhance the story a little more, so that the whole benefits.

It's really exciting! I know I keep saying this, but I can't wait until I can get this third draft of the novel into your hands. It may not stay in this exact form though: if it's picked up fairly quickly( I hope a year? )by a publisher, then they may insist on a professional edit which may change some details yet again.

So many books waiting to be written...

That's by no means a bad thing: a professional editor can work wonders with a story that's simply 'good' and turn it into a fantastic tale with just a few suggestions. In my case, with all the feedback I've been so graciously able to use, combined with the time I've been able to spend editing the work myself, I think that the book is well along the road towards its ultimate form and a solid start to the trilogy.

Just wait till you see what I have in store for Books Two and Three! :-)

April 18 - Weird Beer

It's safe to say, beer and I mostly have parted ways these days.

Months can go by between beers for me and I tend to forget that they're in the fridge if I do get the occasional six-pack. Bottles of wine in my place also tend to collect dust like sedentary layers forming. Not that I was much of a drinker or connoisseur - I've little appreciation for the finer kinds of alcohol - but the occasional glass of wine or a weekend beer wasn't beyond me. Red wine gives me headaches due to the tannins and I find white wine just too dry…

Which leaves beer, which I also have to be careful with, as craft beer might contain copper and that leads straight into migraines, which I can definitely do without. Tonight I pulled together a send-off party for two people from work were leaving for better things, having a total of three Guinness the whole evening myself. It was a great party with around a dozen people all told at Garrick's Head Pub, which was rather loud and had a lot of grumpy people who tried( some succeeded... ) to steal the chairs around our table with a too-small 'Reserved' sign on it. Beer flowed, nachos were consumed with smiles and laughter suffused the evening, so that everyone went home happy and feeling fulfilled.

The banner I created for tonight's farewell party - I like it!

Back to the beer fans: Some people really love their beer, I realize that. Really, really, really love their beer, so much so that they create a sci-fi anime commercial to advertise their beer. Some go whole hog and hire some of the best Japanese animators to really throw things into the next level? See for yourself how beer and the future collide:

April 19 - Rah, Rah, RPG!

It was all rush, rush, today.

Although I had a shorter shift starting after lunch today, it didn't seem that way. It was extremely busy and with our technician gone, I was given quite a lot to do in our tech center to get computers ready for customers. What I wasn't given was time: as per usual, I kept getting yanked out of the tech center to rush out onto the floor for various silly reasons.

Personally, I find it idiotic that I have to drop whatever I'm doing in order to rush out and assist a random person who's chosen this particular time and date to walk in with what's usually a simple question that gets drawn out into a 10-minute conversation. The priority that my workplace places on people who walk in the door or call by phone is too great, I think. Customers that have already paid for work to be done should be given priority over those who randomly show wanting basic things like ink cartridges, or to have questions answered about technology they could easily find out for themselves instead of taking the easy route and getting us to find their simple answers for them.

But that's what I get for working for somebody else: a lack of choice.

Six brave adventurers, sans silly unicorn, ready for battle!

Choice was what it was all about in the evening, though: I rushed from work up the highway to join another DnD game session in progress at a friend's. Playing a halfling rogue, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening, not the least because I had an excellent performance in the one combat that took place and didn't take a scratch!

In addition, I've been carefully crafting a persona of witty banter and unusual situational choices which usually results in laughter all around the table. For all I know, at this rate I'll end up as the de facto leader of the group, which would be amusing as my halfling doesn't even come up to thigh-level on most of the other characters. It's been far too long since I've sat at a table with such a wonderfully friendly and geeky group, so it's been a real treat to trade banter, g33k-references and just to role-play with their like.

A good time was had by all and I'm looking forward to the next session!

April 20 - Eggz

Happy Easter, to those of you celebrating it today. For those with a sense of humour:

Myself, I worked and it was one of the most pleasant days I've had in many months. Apart from accomplishing a lot of minor things that needed doing that have been unable to be completed due to the insane busyness of late, it was just a great day overall. People( customers and employees both )were happy, managers were fairly laid-back and coworkers were all smiles all day long. I headed home feeling a little tired( for some reason I didn't sleep well last night )but without a single iota of stress, which is very much worth noting. If all days could be like today in terms of my workplace, I could almost forget that I am not making very much and take that fantastic feeling with me throughout the week as I edit my novel.

So, to end the week with a bang: Here's highlights from the Space Battleship Yamato movie released last year in Japan. Lots of epic space-battle-boom, though the ending is a shocker:

This weeks blog really flowed together rather quickly: I'd completed it, with pictures, in less than three hours total. Maybe it's because I'm feeling more relaxed or maybe I'm just more into the floor writing these days while working on my novel; take your pick. All I know is that I'm rolling steadily along towards completing my book' s third draft and the increasing excitement I feel at closing in on that goal is a feeling like nothing else. It puts a smile on my face and a spring in my step and makes each day of late something to look forward to. Who could ask for more than that?