Timing, Topsy and Thanks

The word of the week is anticipatory.

Feb 29 – Stabilizing

I'm taking each day as it comes right now.

Some days I don't even think about being anxious, as I'm busy or otherwise feeling fine

Speaking of stabilizing, I've been searching through the millions of cyclign videos on YouTube to watch when I exercise, typically 15-25 minutes of light-resistance. I've found that the majority of the videos aren't easy for me to watch, as the cameras wobble all over the place( it's a bicycle, so this is normal ).

So I've taken to searching for stabilized videos, which are eminently more watchable. Here's a lovely example, with mountain scenery:

Watching these videos while exercise is soothing, as I easily slip into my memories of cycling around town. Except that I'm actually cycling in other cities, which is pretty cool: places I've never been but that I feel like I'm touring around in on two wheels under my own power. It's good for the body and the mind.

In a few months’ time, I hope that I'll be ready to head out on the roads again locally, once my muscles have toughened up again with regular indoor exercise. Combine that with some solid walking every day and I should be good to go cycling this spring once more.

Mar 1 – Pencil It In

It's a new month, and my calendar is clear.

All I have on my plate officially is work; my evenings are no longer filled with other things, apart from the occasional writing group commitment and even that is just for critique nights, not presentations.

It actually feels quite good to look at my calendar for March and not see anything, apart from the usual due dates for bills and a few social engagements. Having large swathes 'free time' means that my mental processes can juggle things into place more easily.

Should I work on the book one night? Perhaps work on the costume? Get a few small or necessary tasks around the apartment done? Plan the meals for the week, or tidy up a bit? What about just relaxing for an hour or two?

Having the flexibility to do any or all of those things, depending on my energy levels, is going to be a source of great relief to me. Especially since I am going to be attending a convention in a months’ time with thousands of other people; I really need to get my thoughts settled so that my anxiety doesn't rear its ugly head at an unfortunate time when I'm in Seattle.

I'm doing better in social situations this week: heading into a crowded restaurant or shopping area doesn't give me much in the way of heebie-jeebies, for which I'm quite grateful - a few weeks ago, that would have been a Rather Big Thing.

Besides, crowds have never bothered me before and I'm not about to let being social become a handicap to me, if I can do anything about it. The irony is that right now, this year, I need to spend a lot of nons-ocial time working on my novels, so being anxious about being social really plays right into the hands of my inner author.

However: I like being social...

Mar 2 – Old Star Wars is New Again?

Man, I love the original Star Wars films... and I'm not thrilled with how George Lucas 'improved' it with his Special Edition releases.

Apparently, neither a lot of people. A few years ago, a group of them got together to do something about it and have produced an amazing restored version of the original theatrical release this year! Frame by frame, they've gone through the entire film to remove every visible imperfection and color correct everything.

 Here's a clip of the typical cleanup process, frame by frame:

The original 2-hour Star Wars has close to 175,000 frames, so doing the math, it would take 1 person an entire year of working 8-hour days non-stop to tidy up the film!

You can follow their progress here, as they look to release

Mar 3 – Costuming

I need to pick up the pace.

Emerald City Comicon is in a month and I have yet to do more than print out a few patterns in regards to actually getting the Colonial Marine costume physically started. I have all the bits and bobs that I haven't been able to source locally on order( on the cheap! )and the remainder of them should arrive next week. I have a workstation set up, complete with a brand-new cutting mat( thank-you, Amazon: $30 vs $200 everywhere else! ) as well as all the basic tools I need. Not to mention the massive research I've done for images, parts and plans.

So I really need to get things rolling on my end.

The first order of business is to finish printing out and assembling the templates. I've been using a set of guides created in Pepakura, which is a free program that lets anyone create 3-D objects which can then be printed out on any home printer, then slide and spliced together into their final shape. Here's a picture of somebody else's work made out of tough vacuum-formed plastic:

Left = Final cosplay Middle = paper template Right = plastic parts

Once I have the templates tape together, I will check them for size on ARMeY( my mannequin )and then start cutting out the basic pieces from the foam EVA mats I purchased. From there, I will trim them up to match pictures of the actual armor from the original movie, then do a rough-fit on ARMeY using masking tape to check everything's aligned properly.

After that, it's on to painting, which will take a fair bit of time as I have to do multiple layers in order to reproduce the camouflage correctly. Then once that's been coated in a clear protective finish and has dried, I'll start assembling the clasps and webbing using a rivet gun. From there, it's just small details.

Wish me luck.

Mar 4 – It’s Good To Blog

Thanks for dropping by.

At the risk of repeating myself, I'll repeat myself: thanks, really.

Blogging is a strange thing. Coming up with something new every week is a daunting challenge sometimes, and I can't imagine how some people manage to blog / tweet / post original and unique things more than a few times a day. It's a lot of work and for those people whose lives revolve around social media platform, either personally or professionally, it really eats up your time.

It also takes time to read, which means that I'm thankful for all of you that drop by here on a semi-regular basis. As I've said in previous posts in previous years here and there, I make every effort to keep this blog light and interesting. While sometimes it dips into the deeper into the pool I make sure that I don't spend too much time down there... you tend to run out of air real fast.

When I'm feeling somewhat crunchy of the week, it helps me to know that my friends and family can keep up with what I'm up to and how I'm doing, through the simple medium. I'm able to express my thoughts and feelings plainly, for the most part here, and that does me a world of good mentally to be able to set it all down, to spell it out for you to see.

I hope you drop by again soon. I'll be here.

Mar 5 – Saturday Mornings

I have an idea that involves nostalgia and Saturday morning cartoons, but it don't have time to do anything about it right now. I think it's a great idea, but to make it work would require a large investment of time on a regular basis and even some money, so for now all I can do is shelve it and hope nobody gets to it first.

The idea mainly has to do with your typical Saturday morning lineup from the 1980s, kind of like the intros these ones:

For most of my childhood, I knew what I was doing on Saturday mornings during the regular television season, and it was great.

And what would cartoons be without toy commercials? Here's one of my faves:

It's a shame that those days are gone now. Perhaps my idea will be able to bring them back in a way for many, but we'll see if I can get that off the ground sometime...

Mar 6 – Turvy

Blah.

That was me all day today: I felt like I had some kind of hangover, but I'm not sure why. I haven't eaten anything unusual this weekend so all I can think of is that the weather's been up and down for the last two days, with Sun and rain and sun again cycling back and forth. Typically, when the pressure changes, it affects me, so shifting back and forth fairly rapidly might be affecting my equilibrium, though I would have been surprised that I haven't had a headache at all this week.

Not knowing also adds to my anxiety, though I fight that consciously.

It's funny how so many little things can make my brain clicked over into worry mode. Am I too hot, or did I have some sugar I didn't know about so that's why I'm sweating? Am I too tired? Did I eat enough for my last meal, at the right time? Did I eat too much and so it's not digesting correctly, since I lack a gall bladder to help with larger or difficult meals? Did I walk enough today? Did I sleep well last night, comparatively? Am I stressing about something that I shouldn't be, or am I forgetting about something that I should remember?

All these things and more are always running through my head all the time, factors jumbling in juggling in a semi-conscious maelstrom of mental arithmetic that leaves me drained sometimes. I need to learn some meditative techniques in order to calm my mind down, so that I can let the small worries fall away and focus on the things I need to get done, sooner rather than later.

That's all for now.

Nothing much more to say: a new week awaits. I think I've got a handle on things now, and I should get a good number of things accomplished by the time of my next entry in a week.

Caffeine, Coping and Cosplay

The word of the week is composed.

Feb 22 – Working Out Write

Exercise of all kinds is most assuredly in the cards for me for 2016.

I've become far less active in my current job, so much so that physical things I used to take for granted are no longer at the same level of performance, which stuns me. For example, my right shoulder still hurts from playing video games for a few hours weeks ago, all from having the angle slightly off why was using the mouse. While I'm careful with my wrists, this shoulder pain comes as a complete surprise and indicates to me that my level of physical ability has dropped severely from several years ago when I was moving office supplies around on a daily basis. Not to mention biking to and from work, which was its own cardio workout in and of itself.

I have taken the first steps in purchasing and using my exercise bicycle. As of last week, I've been cycling a steady 15 minutes a day at a moderate tension setting, not pushing things as I'm keeping an eye on my heart rate - it has been holding at around 100 BPM , which is excellent for a light workout of that order.

A few more weeks and I should be up to a higher tension setting for longer, building up a sweat in the process. I'll also be doing some basic lifting exercises at home with light weights, in order to tone my arms back up to where they were; playing video games and working around the apartment shouldn't cause me pain, and once I'm done with these preliminary exercises over the coming month I'll consider the next step to take, which may involve the local gym.

In the evening, I attended my girlfriend's Craft Of Writing presentation, the 12th in her ongoing series this year as part of our local Victoria writing group. I was able to stay out of the limelight while still contributing to the group, which eased my anxiety greatly as did the uncrowded and softly-lit meeting venue at the Atrium downtown.

We talked about the process of creating a first draft of a novel or other similar works, to which I was able to contribute a fair bit of working knowledge from my own experience in the process. It was gratifying to be able to share my own information with others who found it useful and meeting went quite well while still finishing early enough for us to spend time having a late dinner at a nearby sushi spot. The Japanese art of preparing raw fish has been growing on me since last year and I am pleased to say that there's quite a few good sushi spots now in downtown Victoria, enough to give a pleasant variety to one's dining choices.

There's nothing fishy about good sushi, you know.

Feb 23 – No Tea, Less Stress?

Caffeine is not something in my diet right now.

Given that I'm still suffering from anxiety, it only makes sense to cut out anything food-wise that can contribute to stress levels. That includes caffeine, which is well known as a stimulant that can increase a person's heart rate, which is exactly the opposite of what I need right now.

As of last week, I've gone from having cut back to a half a pot of tea a day to only a single cup of tea in the late afternoon before heading home from work.

It seems to be working. I have been naturally waking up around 7 AM for the last few months for work anyway, usually without any real grogginess unless the cats been keeping us awake( which he has this week - last night I got four hours of sleep total )so that's an indicator that I don't need caffeine in the morning unless absolutely necessary.

This also has the benefit of not contributing to an acidic stomach, which I've been known to suffer from if I have too much tea to drink in a day. Even a full pot of tea, made with just one teabag, is too acidic for me, though I have been known to let the teabag steep for too long sometimes when I'm getting ready for work in the morning.

Keeping an eye on this sort of thing is necessary, as I want to be able to fall asleep naturally and wake up in the morning feeling rested without any sort of stimulants taking too much of a role in my daily life. We all drank coffee or tea and have a lot of sugar in our diets, so cutting all those out of mine should make a big difference in the near future.

For now, I just have to get used to feeling out of sorts - until I don't anymore.

Feb 24 – STRESS

Today did not end well.

My parents insisted on picking me up from work today, so that I could help them configure their new Samsung S6 phones that they'd just spent the afternoon purchasing. I had advised them on the purchase a few days ago and they did a little research before committing to another contract today, upgrading from their older HTC M7 phones to the slick new Samsung models - a good choice, and my eyes.

What wasn't a good choice was to have me work on them tonight.

The process of setting up their phones was not done by Telus, unfortunately, so I had to do things like configure there are Wi-Fi settings, install a few favorite apps and get other things working with their Google account.

These things by themselves would have been stressful, but technology isn't a strong suit of my parents and their frustration with the need for remembering passwords or configuring other apps began to show itself in their behavior. It wasn't their fault and I did the best I could, but it's always been this way with them - hence the need for me to assist with new technology as needed.

Within an hour, I was a nervous, frustrated wreck and I barely got them out the door before I had to sit down to get a hold of myself before a full-blown panic attack could manifest. I spent the rest of the evening practicing breathing and meditation techniques as well as taking calming herbs( and herbal tea )to try and calm myself.

While I succeeded, it was a complete waste of an evening that I had planned to use for other things, including writing. I ended up sending a polite but firm e-mail to my parents explaining the situation and I don't believe this sort of thing will ever happen again; they're wonderful people and wouldn't intentionally upset me.

The silliest part was that I realized I hadn't really got to play with the new phones all that much, which was a shame.

Feb 25 – Show N'Tell

I hosted my first writing group evening tonight in many months.

Heading out to the meeting tonight, I was somewhat anxious, as I'd be in a busy place with mostly strangers at the table and given how stressed I was yesterday, I wasn't sure how things would go. Would I need to step away from the table in order to calm myself?

I needn't have worried.

Experience is a lovely thing. A AI was in charge of the evening, the role took over and evening proceeded apace. There were about eight people in total, myself included and tonight was all about sharing one's written work, a short 500-word piece per person( except for me, as I was the host ).

We had six new people, including one lady who has sold quite a few of the nearly 2 dozen self-published novels that she's written to date; impressive! There were a few nervous people among them, but surprisingly I found it quite easy to keep everyone on the level despite my own worries about stressing out, which turned out to be unfounded.

It was an excellent evening overall, where everyone who shared their written pieces received excellent feedback and there were smiles all around. In fact, the same woman who had published so many books of her own wrote me after the meeting, to thank me for providing such excellent feedback on her current story piece that she was working on. It was extremely gratifying to know that I was able to be so constructively critical despite my current personal imbalances and to assist another writer so ably with making their work better.

What a great night~!

Feb 26 – Bee Aware

What's going on with the bees lately?

For over a decade now, scientists have been aware of declining bee populations globally, but little progress has been made in determining how to reverse this deadly trend. Bees are necessary for pollination in over 75% of the world's crops, so the loss loss of their population will be keenly felt by humans quite quickly. Several different man-made causes of population decline have been pinpointed recently, which is vital to discovering the next step to take to save the bees.

What can we really do about it though?

New strategies are being tried all around the world, including a few old ones. Diversity is the key in many places where 'monocropping' has eliminated far too many of the wildflowers and other plants that bees used to use as staging areas: giant fields of the same crop are like deserts to them if there aren't places to stop along the way.

This fascinating article talks about how farmers are going back to the old ways of doing things in India, Mexico and Tanzania. Ancient hive management practices are being revived in order to nurture declining bee populations and ensure that local farmers are all plugged into the need to protect this vital biological resource.

In Toronto, bees are high on the everyone's priority list. There is a healthy community of urban beekeepers in the city, helping to keep a thriving pollinator population alive and well:

I think what scares me about bee loss is that too few people are where the problem and even fewer are aware of how critical they are to life on our planet.

Feb 27 – The Skinny on Cable

I've not had cable for six months, and I'm really enjoying it.

To be honest, I have a ton of movies and TV on DVD and Blu-ray( not to mention NetFlix, AmazonTV and other streaming sites online ) so I'm not hurting for entertainment, that's for sure.

But for those folks who haven't cut the cable yet, good news is in the pipe coming next month: skinny cable.

The CRTC has mandated that all cable providers in Canada must have basic cable TV channel grouping packages at 'reasonable cost'as of March 1, 2016. This grouping must have all the channels on the CRTC's mandatory distribution list, which includes CBC, Global and CTV, as well as public interest stations like APTN and minority French or English language channels.

All for $25 - or less.

Considering I couldn't get my combination cable TV / Internet bill to total less than $100 before I pulled the plug, that's really interesting news and wallets across the country will welcome it with open arms.

The cable companies, less so.

Skinny cable still won't entice me to head back to cable TV land, not when I'm paying $45/month for Internet service that gives me all the access to the world that I need. Though I still do get several broadcast TV channels over the air, I've missed out on watching favorites like the new X-files or New Girl, simply because I don't have the time or even the means of recording them.

I'll get around to seeing them eventually, which is part of the beauty of modern entertainment: you can buy, rent or record whatever you want, whenever you want and right now, that's reserved for when I have the time to spare.

Feb 28 – ARMeY and Prep

Slowly but surely, my Aliens Colonial Marine costume is coming together.

It's been a real challenge to both figure out what parts I need and how to source them cheaply; my budget is minimal, both monetarily and timewise. I have about a month left to pull it all together, including fabrication and painting, which is going to be cutting it close - but I think I can do it, even with the delay caused by the last few weeks of my emotional yo-yo state.

I've been relying on online forums for ideas on what materials to use, as well as to get the proper patterns and other resources I need to create the costume. The original armor props were created by Terry English out of aluminum, and he still making them today, though a fully-painted costume will set you back around $5000 Canadian – way, way out of my budget. This is what I'm trying to achieve, or at least an 80%-level copy:

The materials I'll be using include EVA foam mats, the kind that you stand on for comfort for long hours at a time. I did also managed to locate a Canadian source online for webbing and the buckles to make the armour straps, which was a great find as shipping items from the states is costly given the current crappy exchange rate. At  least I can find paints that will be a close match to the on-screen colours locally, and I can make everything myself in my apartment for the most part: I've put together two sheets of plywood to convert my bed into a makeshift workbench as needed. Taking over the bathroom for prop-making in a shared apartment isn't really in the cards.

This week I also scored a huge find: a mannequin! It's most impressive:

I've named him ARMeY, for obvious reasons and he was real find for a mere $50 from a local seller - her last one! He looks like he's never been used and is in perfect condition, complete with an adjustable stand and he's exactly my size, torso-wise! So I'll be able to use ARMeY o help me fit all the armour pieces together properly from all angles, far more easily than I would be able to if I had to work on them without a display mannequin.

Given my lack of costuming skills, I need all the advantages I can get this coming month.

I think the worst of the anxiety is behind me. Barring this week's unexpected evening episode born of frustration, I think I've been doing fairly well in being able to keep an even keel both at work and at home. I've been able to concentrate on my tasks and not feel trapped in mental loops on any particular topic, which is a change from the previous week. Slow but steady improvement is the order of the day, I think, for the coming weeks.

Mercs, Mechs and Moola

The word of the week is effusive.

Feb 15 – Taxes?

Some good news!

After plugging all of my tax information into TurboTax.ca online, then triple checking the numbers, this year looks to be the best one yet for me.

I have to admit, I was feeling quite trepidations before getting my day job's T4 slip today, as I wasn't sure how much tax had been taken off. Without today's T4 numbers, I was looking at getting about $80 back, which wasn't going to do much to help my financial situation for 2016.

It should be noted that I've been doing my own taxes online using TurboTax for almost 10 years now and it's been incredibly useful tool, especially as it cost me less than $20 to file, which is significantly less than any other place will charge.

Note: I found out after filing my taxes this week that you can file your basic Canadian tax return for free at SimpleTax.ca, which is even more impressive!

But, back to my 2016 taxes: they look good!

While my return's not going to send me on a vacation, it will help alleviate some of the financial crunch I've been feeling and definitely help to knock down my anxiety levels - it's one less major thing to worry about.

Having done taxes at MMart for years, I'm fully conversant with all the ways that people with basic tax situations can reduce their tax burden and I've done all those, so seeing the proof in the pudding with today's numbers was rather nice.

Feb 16 – Critique Night!

Of all the nights I thought I'd be feeling anxious this week about, it was this one... but I didn't, which was good.

We met upstairs in the SkyLounge, which I think is an excellent place for us: there's lots of room and nobody will bother us for the few hours that where there. I'm looking forward to meeting up there in the summer, not only for the warmth but for the fact that we'll be surrounded by floor-to-ceiling windows through which we can enjoy the late summer evenings when the sun's still up in the sky.

The feedback I received on my latest two scenes was excellent and I picked up more than a few tips about where I should go in the next draft. 

One other thing I'm nervous about is running out of material. After tonight, I only have one more chapter's worth of material left for Book 2 and that's it. I won't have anything more to critique until I start writing again sometime this summer; my time up until then will be focused on editing my first book and not creating new material until the Fourth Draft is ready to send out, probably by June.

I don't feel pressured though; my critique group is amazing and they know( just as I do )that writing isn't a production line, but rather situational: it happens when it happens, and as long as you're working on it in one form or another, that's all it matters.

Feb 17 – Merc With A Mouth

I saw Deadpool tonight, and loved it!

It's not often that a movie exceeds my expectations, and Deadpool did that on several levels. It was well-written, self-aware, funny and just plain fun to watch. Sure, there were gory bits and excessive violence( it's DEADPOOL, after all )but it was a pure pleasure to see how well Ryan Reynolds brought the character to life - he was the producer on the film as well and it shows in the care that was taken with almost every aspect of the picture.

Being an R-Rated comic-book film doesn't seem to have hurt its opening weekend whatsoever: it annihilated Star Wars: The Force Awakens opening by a comfortable margin and that alone is an incredible achievement.

The movie itself was a blast. Being somewhat of a smartass myself, I can really relate to Wade Wilson / Deadpool in the movie, making snappy comments at just the wrong moments... and the best part is that he can't die, so he can mouth off all he likes - and he's funny! It shows that Deadpool, as a character, is smart, observant and well aware of the fourth wall, speaking directly to the audience numerous times in the film( which he gets from the comic, that's one of his signature things he does ). Having a character who is aware he's a fictional character is extraordinarily freeing for a writer, and Deadpool makes the most of this freedom to send up all sorts of things in the film, which I won't spoil for you - go see it!

Other things about the film: the CGI was excellent, with nothing that pulled me out of the film while watching it( no over-the-top look-at-me sequences )and the casting was spot-on. I especially liked the main villain( 'Francis' as Deadpool calls him )as he and Deadpool have a most-hated relationship, which is quite believable. The other characters were believably done, especially Wade Wilson's bar-buddy, who is notable for his lack of enthusiasm about being Deadpool's friend. And the humour in film is spot-on funny all the way through: no jokes fell flat and the tone perfectly suited the material source of the comic - bravo!

One also can't help but compare Deadlpool to another R-Rated comic-book film from previous years: Blade and its sequels, all of which I happen to like. Yet they're not on the same level as Deadpool( not counting the breaking of the 4th Wall, which is a key element of Deadpool )because Blade takes itself area seriously - totally unlike Deadpool, which is out to give the viewer the most enjoyable movie possible, based on the character.

It's not distinction, but an important one: when a movie is made by people who are not only thoroughly familiar with the material but want it to succeed based on that material and not studio notes, something impressive becomes possible

I can't wait for Deadpool 2!

Feb 18 – Archer P.I.

I think February is going to be renamed 'Nostalgia Month' in my calendar...

In this blog, I've written before how I love Magnum P.I. the TV show - there's just something about the concept of a semi-deadbeat detective living out their mid-40's dream in Hawaii while playing dangerous games that really appeals to me and always has.

Apparently it's also appealed to quite a few other people over the years and continues to do so, as evidenced by the intro for the upcoming 7th season of Archer:

It's a shot-by-shot animated rendering of the Magnum P.I. intro with the characters from Archer replacing the actors from the original show, and it's glorious! It brought a smile to my face and maybe want to watch the rest of Archer as soon as possible - which was probably the idea behind it in the first place.

Tellingly, I mentioned the Archer trailer to a friend at work this week and the next day he told me that he'd been watching the show at home while his wife did other things... but then he noticed that she was paying more and more attention to the show until she finally burst out laughing and joined him to watch on the couch.

Need I say more?

Feb 19 – Jumbo Birthday!

It was my girlfriend's birthday today and I took her out for dinner.

Being the guy that I am, I didn't want to go somewhere we've been before. I wanted to surprise her and at the same time give her the perfect dinner experience for her birthday.

No small task, that.

My choice? Little Jumbo, a below-the-radar establishment that is one of Victoria's best-kept open secrets. It's tucked away down a hallway near the waterfront downtown, with only a small sign with a purple neon elephant on it to mark that it's there for the average passersby.

Our reservations guaranteed us a table, and when we arrived it was quite busy though no surprise on a Friday night. I should mention that the bar is one of the best-stocked in all of Canada, with some items that apparently you can't find even in the best bars in the USA... not being a knowledgeable drinker, it doesn't do me any good.

We decided on a 3-course dinner: she had chili shrimp to start and I had grilled romaine hearts. The dishes were quick to arrive and they were incredible: subtle flavors layered with bolder ones in perfectly cooked food and just the right portion size. Delicious!

The main courses were duck for her and gnocchi for me. Her dish was amazing: the duck was tender, moist and not gamey at all, but possessed of a rich flavor throughout. My gnocchi were soft pillows of perfection, layered with many different tastes on the dish - we couldn't stop exclaiming over every bite!

Dessert was less impressive but delicious all the same: she had banana caramel layered in biscuits and I had a chocolate peanut butter sundae. Yum!

According to my girlfriend, this was the best birthday dinner she can ever recall having- big points for me today! And the best part?

We totally lost track of time while we were there. Win!

Feb 20 – Whattaday!

This was the busiest day I've had in quite some time!

My lady and I were up early and out the door for breakfast at Adrienne's before visiting my mother for a short while, some of which was my usual tech support and helping with difficult minor tasks around her place that neither she nor my dad can easily take care of.

Then it was back to my place for a few hours to take care of some necessary chores around the apartment, including laundry. On my way to the laundry room, I spotted a commotion at the elevator: apparently several people were trapped inside when the door failed to open. As it was going to be some time until either the fire department or the elevator repairman arrives, I stepped in to assist.

Having a quick look at the door, I saw that the mechanism was relatively simple, basically a tensioned chain keeping the locking bar in place, like so:

I asked the super for a wrench and proceeded to release the chain carefully, ensuring that I kept my hands clear of any sudden tension that might result. Fortunately, the mechanism responded exactly as I predicted after having checked in earlier and once the chain was gone, the door could be manually retracted.

The ladies inside were most relieved, as the elevator had been getting quite hot in the short time it had been stuck on the main floor. The superintendent was quite effusive in his praise of my ability to open elevators and several people asked me what mechanical degree or experience I had that have enabled me to open the door.

I just replied "I used to watch a lot of Mythbusters" and went on my way.

But today wasn't done yet! At 3pm I had another Trial By Stone podcast session about The Dark Crystal, which ran overlong again and was a lot more relaxed, even chatty, than the previous sessions had been. I should have one more podcast to go in a few weeks and I have to say I've been enjoying myself immensely.

In the evening, my lady and I went over to a friend's to play a game of Eclipse, which said friends were eagar to try out after watching this excellent video review:

Surprisingly, we managed to get through most of the game in only a few hours, which was fantastic! Everyone really enjoyed themselves and our friends can't wait to play again, which is music to my ears: I love Eclipse and I hope that's it will become something we game with regularly month-to-month.

Feb 21 – Breathe…

Today was mainly about relaxing.

Around noon, my girlfriend and I attended a housewarming party, at the same place we'd been yesterday. A few months ago, our friends had decided the condo they were renting was perfect for their needs and as it had just been put on the market, they made an offer that was accepted!

Hence the housewarming party today. It was the first social situation with many people that I've been out at in some time and it went splendidly - not a hint of anxiety, helped perhaps by the fact that I knew most of the dozen people there.

It was a good time, and I ended up spending 3 hours there, chatting with people about various things. I think it helped that good number of the folks there were g33ky and all were smart folks, so we got along really well. While we were talking about area codes, one person was impressed with how I managed to place a phone number exactly to the city it was from in Canada and complimented me on "How it was amazing at how many things I knew" - which was great to hear, as I can use a good ego boost of late!

I played some MWO in the evening, on and off, as I wrote my blog. It's funny how out of all the games I own and still haven't finished, that I pick the one to play that has the potential to annoy me the most sometimes. Winning is great, don't get me wrong, but when you lose in MWO it's usually by quite a lot, as your team runs around like headless chickens and some idiot has to comment on how If We'd All Done This Then We'd Have Won Instead... which I got a few of tonight directed at me when I was the last guy standing and I couldn't maneuver fast enough in my Big Stompy Mech to nail the last enemy standing with a few more shots for the win.

Stick it, all you Know It Alls: I play for fun, and it's just a game.

For all that, I do well enough to keep coming back; I love the Battletech universe and the flexibility fun I have tinkering with the mech loadouts to see what best suits my playstyle, as I've said before. I'm not one of the hardcore players( and never will be )who have spent hundreds on the game, have dozens of mechs and log a few hours every day playing at a minimum. I have better things to do with my time; MWO is my entertainment only and as such I realize that I'm in it purely for the fun - anyone who's taking it more seriously than that isn't my problem.

It was a tiring week, working five days while trying to keep myself balanced mentally and physically. I think I succeeded, as I didn't have an anxiety attack or even a close call, so I think the St John's Wort dosages I'm taking are the right ones at the right times each day. I do need to work on spending more time daily on my new exercise bike as well as writing time; that sort of balance will be crucial in the next few months as I juggle a whole bunch of things at once.