Giveaways, Games and Gifts

The word of the week is impetus.

July 4 - Plugging away

Hello, new month - hello, more of the same? All's well around here, for the most part, and that's good.

I'm working my way steadily through my novel, noting things down page after chapter as I go through each chapter - my hardcopy of the 3rd draft is a sea of post-it notes.

The great thing about the detailed read-through of the last month has been the explosion of ideas building on one another as I re-familiarize myself with the world and the characters intimately. That familiarity has led to much firming-up of ideas and threads running through the trilogy that weren't all that clear a year ago, but now seem much more well-defined after such a long hiatus from writing.

I'm genuinely excited about digging into the meat of the 4th draft next week on my vacation. I'm planning on spending 6-8 hours a day working on the draft, honing and refining the words so that they sparkle. If I can, I'll get through 3/4 of the book in a single week, one long experience of doing nothing but edit.

It worked for me the last 2 times, so why not now?

July 5 - Vocal what?

What the heck is that sound, I wondered?

Years ago, I wondered what was going on with some women's voices: they sounded like they had a cold or were trying to gargle when they spoke. It was really weird, and my ear for some reason became sensitive to it as the years went on.

Password this year and apparently that particular vocal effect now has a name: Vocal Fry. Unsurprisingly, it's really bad to do long-term, and even less shocking it's something that the Kardashian's do on a regular basis - one more reason not to like it.

Essentially, it's when people( quite often young women )use of vocal technique to lower the pitch of their voices which gains them more attention due to the odd sound and resonance of the results.

Sure, it can be cute if you only hear it on occasion, but when everyone is doing it, it's like a group of frogs croaking: not attractive for cute whatsoever.

For me, it's extremely grating on the ear, and while it certainly makes someone jump out of the crowd, it's the vocal equivalent of nails on a chalkboard.

No thanks: just talk normally.

July 6 - Animated!

It took me a while, but I finally did it!

For a few years now, I've been looking at a way to bring some of the characters of my novels to life in a new and unique way. I haven't seen many authors able to animate their works without bringing in some seriously-expensive talent or going the other route to do a cheap-looking low-cost job in the visualization.

This week, I managed to get a Giveaway-Of-The-Day copy of CrazyTalk, a simple 3-D animation package that focuses on creating realistic faces that can be synced to audio files or even text. I was somewhat hesitant when I first started playing around with it, but within a few days this week I managed to get some good results. A few more tweaks and I had this to show for my efforts:

it's extremely basic and only scrapes the surface of what's possible, should I have enough time and effort you put into creating something truly unique. For the moment, I'm just pleased that I've been able to bring my character to life in a new way for other people to enjoy and in the form that I am pleased to say is extremely close to the vision I have of her from the novel.

I love technology!

July 7 - Video Capture? OK!

This month I finally gave in and tried again.

For years, I've been looking for a low-cost, decent-quality USB solution for capturing videos from old sources like VCR's to save them to my computer. Time and again however, the expense of the hardware and software meant that I could only fiddle around with cheap used versions from eBay that never worked properly or simply gave bad results for all the time I invested in the attempts.

Watching a few sales online, I spotted this little device on super-sale for $25 CDN:

It had some excellent reviews that also mentioned certain software that performed well with the hardware - gems like that are why I always keep my eyes open so that I can catch and make use of the advice they offer.

The results were excellent from my old VCR test tape, which given the age and nature of the medium was music to my ears( eyes? ). I've kept a few dozen old VCR tapes in storage, mainly of shows that haven't been on the air for many years or available on DVD. I'll be digging through that box occasionally this year to digitize some treasures before they become unreadable on the medium.

Next up: finding some video processing software to clean up the images and learning the techniques to do so. It's an interesting side hobby with tangible results and I'm looking forward to capturing some more videos to work with soon.

July 8 – Oops, Sugar?

After work today, I joined some coworkers on the patio.

It was still windy out, but the sun was making an effort through the clouds and I definitely wanted to be outside after extremely busy week at work. We managed to get a really nice table at the very top level of the rooftop area:

I had a nice glass of Blue Buck ale with my bison burger and side salad, and enjoyed myself thoroughly. I felt full and happy when I got back home, but around 7:30 PM I started sweating for no particular reason while working on the computer from the couch: something was going on.

I tested my heart rate and saw it was quite elevated: dang.

Admittedly, my heart rate increase wasn't all that high, getting up to around 112-115 beats per minute. However, that was with me simply sitting on the couch and my average resting heart rate should be around 75-85 beats per minute according to the measurements I've been making the last year with my phone's heart rate app.

For what I can reason out, the salad dressing( of which I didn't have more than a small drizzle )must have had an extremely high sugar content. My body started metabolizing about an hour after I finished, as I have a somewhat slow digestive system due to the lack of a gall bladder - I like my meals small and regular now.

Today's little blip has shown that anxiety or sugar affecting my heart rate is something that can sneak up on me, for the most unlikely source. As always, I have to pay attention to what my body is telling me and think through what my response should be. Discovering that I have a rapid heart rate should not immediately dumped me into panic-mode but rather the response: what's going on, what caused it and how can I react appropriately?

Like one of my favorite authors famously wrote: Don't Panic.

July 9 – MOTU on Blu-Ray? Nice!

Tonight, my lady and I rewatched a classic 80's movie:

The film was released in 1987 to poor reviews, but I recall renting it with a fair amount of fondness in the early 90s, so I picked up a Blu-Ray copy of the film recently for $10 on sale on Amazon, which had a decent review that touched on the fact that this Blu-Ray version was actually worth getting for the visuals.

Since my girlfriend hadn't seen either The Last Of the Mohicans, nor the MOTU film, we watched them both back to back with MOTU first on the docket.

It was surprisingly good, in both her and my opinions. Spoilers below!

Story-wise, the film sets a good pace from start to finish, with very few slow spots and surprisingly intelligent dialogue choices. An example of such is the fact that when the heroes are on Earth, they don't refer to the cardinal directions as 'spinward' instead of using North or South: a nice touch.

There's also a nice sense of scale, in that Earth is seen as, and referred to as, a 'cosmic backwater' several times in the film: again, a nice subtle way to put us in our proper place as a setting for this story rather than the center of all of events.

The real star of the film is Frank Langella, who gives a masterful performance as the scenery-chewing arch-villain Skeletor. He is riveting in every scene he's in, a commanding and dangerous figure whose quest for ultimate power is what drives the movie. The other more maudlin performances that attempt to tug on the viewer's heartstrings are nothing compared to Skeletor's drive for power.

I think this is what really gives the film its heart, and along with the genuine performances of the other actors helps to carry this film above the other 90's-meh scifi films that you'll never want to watch again.

Visually, the film's great to watch in Blu-Ray, with colours and contrasts all sharply defined. The details you can see in HD are extraordinary: the quality of the costumes really jumps out at you, as does the sense of 'being there' in the 80's as well as on the planet Eternia. There's nothing 'cheap-looking' about the film with the extra HD on, and it makes it a whole new experience compared to the blurry low-res VHS release or the clumsily-cut TV-movie showings. There's even a great fansite dedicated to the movie here.

If you haven't seen MOTU, go get it on Blu-Ray for $10 online. It's great!

BONUS: a remake is in the works as of 10 months ago!

July 10 – Early Gifts!

My girlfriend is amazing! 

While we were out today, we wandered back to Cavity Curiousity Shop on downtown Victoria - it's PACKED with about 3x's as much Sweet Stuff as you see in the video below from 2013:

While there, I had another look at a Panasonic V4400 laserdisc player that was gathering dust on a shelf along with a V1100. Noticing my longing glance, my lady told me she'd get it for me as an early birthday present - wahoo! We purchased a few more things and the shop owner knocked the price down to $60, a fantastic bargain given how heavy the V4400 is( 28lbs! )which would be killer to ship( and have a high possibility of damage like my last player )plus a 1st-edition of I Am Spock - again, wahoo! :-)

Getting it home today, I set up the laserdisc player on the floor for now( as it's too big for my AV stand )and started it up. Everything worked! I carefully loaded a disc( The American President )and pushed play.

A picture appeared: glorious and distortion-free! :-)

I ran the movie for an hour, checking in on it as the player warmed up to see if there were any issues. After an hour, the picture was still solid - happy day! While it's not a double-sided player( meaning I have to get up and flip the disc after an hour for movies )it's perfect for watching hour-long episodes of Babylon5 on laserdisc that have been languishing unseen on my shelves since I painstakingly collected them last year in order to see the better-than-DVD SFX that the laserdisc versions have.

It's going to be a good rest of 2016: my lady and I will be happily ensconced in Seasons 4 and 5 of B5 for months to come.

It was a busy week at work, which was draining, and I didn’t get much of MY work done on the books. On the bright side, I had a great weekend, which was energizing! I ended my Sunday with a game of Scythe in the evening, which took a few hours and I returned well before 10pm. Even though I came in last( of 4 players )I learned a great deal from this, my second time playing the game... and I should do FAR better next time

Wheels, Writing and Weekends

The word of the week is fecundity.

June 27 – IMAX... at home?

Who wouldn't want a home theatre?

Better question: who wouldn't want a home theatre made by none other than IMAX?

The question to ask yourself then is: how much would THAT cost? Answer: about $400K USD, and that's for a basic model.

The thing about home theatres is that they're all customized according to the whims of the person having them installed. Who also is paying for everything in the end, so it only makes sense that things are customized.

Yet a custom home theater couldn't get an IMAX experience, until now.

Personally, after taking a look at the IMAX Private Theatre site, I wonder if it's not smarter to ask oneself a different question:

Who wouldn't want a theatre as a home? You could spend about $400,000 or so to build an IMAX Home Theatre, with another $100,000 to add a house to it. All you really need would be a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom and a little bit of storage, with maybe some outside space when you emerge from your IMAX caved to look at the real world once in a while. With today's houses costing an average of half a million dollars anyway, it only seems reasonable, if you have the cash.

Too bad real life isn't like the movies in that regard.

June 28 –  Dark Crystal Anew!

Two and a half years ago, entered a contest: The Dark Crystal AuthorQuest.

While I didn't end up getting the top prize, I did make quite a few friends and placed favorably, being a Top 20 Editor's Pick out of the almost 500 entries - not too shabby at all, in my humble opinion.

The winner of the contest, Joseph M. Lee, went on to write the official prequel novel to The Dark Crystal, which was released today, I'm happy to say!

Can you spot me in the audience? Hint: I'm wearing a vest...

Shadows Of The Dark Crystal is the first of a planned four book series aimed at young adults by Jim Henson Ltd, which brings a smile to my face. Being able to read more about one of my favorite fantasy franchises all these decades later is wondrous, and as a bonus I am privileged to be able to communicate regularly with the author gifted with that honor.

It's been illuminating to be able to see a bit of the process from the inside, and to get some feedback on my own AuthorQuest submission from J.M. Lee. I understand now why my piece wasn't chosen by the Hensons: it wasn't as YA-friendly as J.M. Lee's was, going to a more detailed and darker place then they had envisioned for the revival of The Dark Crystal franchise.

I'm eager to get my hands on a copy of Shadows to read over the summer, so that I can see for myself in print what wonderful things my friend is done with the beloved world I remember from my childhood. You can read a lovely interview with him here, where he talks about the process of adjusting his writing to create a world that met with the approval of the Hensons - fascinating stuff!

Some days it's really good to be a writer!

June 29 – What Might I Make?

On the topic of writing: what do writers make, on average?

It's a harder question answer than you might think, as the publishing industry has changed almost unrecognizably over the last decade due to the dual rise of e-books and self-publishing.

It used to be that there is only one route to becoming a Real Author: write something Good and True, then submit it to one of the Big 5 publishing houses and hope that someone noticed how Good your book was. Then along comes a Contract( hopefully with favorable terms ) and with that just wait for the book sales numbers to start rolling in. With luck, your sales figures would mean that you could just keep writing and not have to worry about holding down a job any longer..

Nowadays, that's all been turned on its head.

There's a TON more data available in the last five years to everyone involved in making books than there ever has been before, and it's illuminating to see how much things have changed from the traditional publishing model.

For starters, independent authors can make as good( or quite often even better )a living writing and selling their own books - ebooks and print both. That's a stunning revelation, because if you sell your own books, then you don't have to worry about the convoluted accounting policies of publishers that may result in you getting only pennies per book that is sold: you are in control of how much money you make based on what you sell your books for and how you market them. In essence: you are your own best friend, because the harder you work to sell your books, the more you will make if you're smart about how you do it.

It's not all roses, however. According to various data sources, the vast majority of writers out there don't make enough money to live off of independent of any other sources of income. They may make enough to supplement their day jobs, but in effect they're working a second job by choosing to write, and that's only as good as the amount of time they can put into it while still being efficient in what they produce. Being too tired to write means that what comes out isn't good work.

Still, I'm quite hopeful: I have good work coming out of my writerly mind and I'm getting a better picture of what to do with it with every passing day as I do my research diligence on the business end of writing. It's scary, but I'm certainly not going to be going into this completely blind: it's great to see that there's so many options opening up and I can choose the best one for what my work represents.

It's an exciting time to be a writer!

June 30 – Driving Innovation

Can tires ever be cool?

Sure, I don't own a car, but being the in the scifi-writing business, I always appreciate new concepts and ideas about the future. Who doesn't like thinking about that sort of thing?

Goodyear has come up with an interesting concept called the Eagle-360, the tire unlike any other that you might have seen. For one thing, it's a sphere - have a look:

This tire was first conceptualized in the film I, Robot, giving the ground vehicles in it unprecedented mobility and control. I love the idea of magnetic levitation, as that also adds a controllable aspect to driving we've not seen as yet in vehicles. If cars in 10 years switched over to this system, I'd be sorely tempted to get one just for the fun factor alone.

Plus, it just looks really, really cool...

July 1 – Celebrate!

It's Canada Day again!

Every year on this day, I give quiet thanks for being lucky enough to have been born and raised in this amazing country. I'm grateful that I have had so many opportunities to experience other cultures and peoples existing together peacefully within the borders of Canada while celebrating their differences.

Canada is a delightful country, with all its distinctive regions. Below is a comedic look at how we all get along as Canadians in our own unique ways:

Today I spent my time in two places. First off, my lady and I attended a quiet celebration at one of her friends houses, as part of her poetry group. It was in a quiet suburb off the beaten path of the main roads of Victoria, and we spent a few delightful hours ensconced in a sunroom looking out at the perfect writers backyard: full of plants and overlooked by majestically tall trees of a ravine beyond.

In the evening, we traveled out to a friend's place in Sooke, to bask in the perfect outdoor temperatures of a backyard barbecue. It was nothing like last year's oven-like experience, as moisture-laden clouds drifted through the trees from the nearby ocean to mist the area with their cool kisses on the skin. Delightful! We had a great time catching up with all of our g33ky friends, and I ended up heading home with a box of some old Star Wars toys that my friend was clearing out of his storage area to make some room. How could I say no?

What better way to end the holiday then with Star Wars gifts, I ask you?

July 2 – Whew!

It was quite a busy day for me!

As was the weekend, I got quite a few things done around the house, as it is my wont to do. Working during the week as I must, my evenings are usually split between relaxation and writing, with not a lot of time to catch up on other things that need doing, like organizing, shopping or other general household tasks. Yesterday, I had someone come by the house to clean as I have for the last few months to do some cleaning, which freed me up to do my own tasks - well worth the minor cost and it gives them a boost to their own business as well.

It felt good to get things done.

In the evening, my lady and I attended a charity dinner at a local high school. A good friend of mine was the head chef in charge and made a magnificent showing, with perfectly-cooked roast beef, mashed potatoes and tons of Caesar salad. The evening's entertainment was also fun, with multiculural dancers and a choir singing. We stayed for about 3 hours total, but I had to leave as my headache was getting worse, despite earplugs lessening the din, which at times reached 89 dB - gymnasiums aren't exactly quiet spaces when packed with 400 people for dinner!

July 3 – Relax...

I didn't get up to much today, which was nice.

Having had a 4-day weekend with three very full days, it was nice to just spend the afternoon not doing too much of import. I ended up catching up on a few more episodes of the computer-animated Clone Wars TV series, which was recently made available on NetFlix.

Originally, I had little interest in watching the series when it first came out in 2008 as it seemed rather childish to me at the time. However, I went back for a look at it t earlier his year for a few episodes and realize that it had a depth of writing that wasn't apparent in the first two episodes I'd seen back in 2008.

Have a look at this clip and see for yourself. It's where Asajj Ventress, a Sith Assassin who has lost her way, falls in with a group of bounty hunters who include a familiar face. It's quite good, and I'm impressed that such a long original-material SW clip has stayed up on YouTube for over 3 months:

Other than that, it was a typical Sunday in that I started writing my blog around dinnertime and put the finishing touches on it well before 8 PM. I think that's going to be pretty standard for the next six months at least, as it allows me to wind down for a few hours afterwards and get to bed at a reasonable hour.

Heck, I may even get up early to write at this rate!

I've had a lingering headache for the entire long weekend, which has been somewhat frustrating. The weather hasn't really changed, apart from some rain on Friday, so I've no real idea as to why I've had to pop a few headache tablets every day to keep it under control. Hopefully it's just the slightly higher air pressure - and a REALLY windy weekend - that's been holding steady and as of Sunday night. It's more of a headache-echo than a real headache, which is something I'm grateful for.

Filters, Fine Finds, Fun and Fools

The word of the week is execrable.

June 20 – VR Phones?

My VR headset arrived today!

Before you think I'm crazy, this isn't 'true' VR* virtual-reality costing thousands, but rather a headset designed to hold a smart phone in front of your eyes, like so:

This model even came with a remote!

By using a smart phone, one can get around( to some degree )the need for some rather expensive hardware to experience VR. Smart phones these days are powerful enough to provide a decent viewing experience and combined with the motion sensors they already possess, it's a relatively easy thing to do. And at a mere $25 for the headset( purchased after much research and good reviews ) it was time for me to get one.

Unfortunately, at the moment there's not a whole lot of good VR apps out there, and the ones that do exist don't always play nicely with different models of phones: there's no set 'standard' for this kind of VR yet, only approximations designed to work with as many models of phones as possible.

It's a distraction for me at this point, but I'm hoping that it will eventually turn into a tool I can use for my business. Being able to model parts in 3-D might come in handy, along with other tasks and I'm certainly open to discovering new things that I can do with this gear. So far, the experiment seemed to be working decently well: everything seems to run smoothly in terms of frame rate and that's key.

Hopefully the usefulness will come sooner rather than later.

June 21 –  Nose Smoke?

Smoke really bothers me, especially when I can't escape it.

Aside from the ever present stench in my building's hallway from my next-door neighbor, I run into cigarette smoke every single time I'm out walking in the city.

Every time.

It's a migraine trigger for me, unfortunately and so just as I do in my building's hallway, I've developed the habit of watching people for lit cigarettes and holding my breath as I pass them by. If at all possible, I go out of my way to avoid the clouds they exude, slowing down to let the things dissipate or even crossing the street if they're particularly voluminous in their noxious exhalations.

I won't get into the finer points of my personal rights versus theirs here; it's a free country and if they want to kill themselves slowly then that's their right. I just prefer that they don't share that mentality with me and others by exhaling.

You might ask: what if I could just filter out the smoke?

I've considered wearing masks that would do just that, but aside from looking ridiculous, they're not all that effective to wear long-term. They restrict breathing significantly by covering the nose and mouth and on top of that, most masks are expensive and need replacing regularly.

Then I discovered this product, which I'm considering getting:

The plugs are discrete, relatively inexpensive and I'd only have to wear them when I'm out walking around in relatively crowded areas, where people are puffing out fumes often enough to make it worthwhile. Nobody would know that I was wearing them and the best part is that I can continue to breathe normally through both my mouth and nose, simply closing my mouth to breathe through the filters whenever I pass through somebody's carelessly floating cloud of carcinogens.

Something to think about.

June 22 – Was I pwned?

Have you been hacked?

It's a good question to ask yourself every few months. With all the online accounts that people have nowadays, it's hard to know if you've been affected by one of the growing number of privacy breaches that keep happening.

A great resource( and free! )to have bookmarked is Haveibeenpwned.com, which is a reliable website dedicated to letting people know if there privacy has been breached and presenting the info in a simple, easy-to-use format.

Basically, you just enter your e-mail and see if it's associated with reported breaches: if you use that account anywhere that has been compromised, the site will tell you.

I was shocked to learn that two rather ancient websites that I frequented almost 10 years ago had been breached, when associated with one of my two main long-term e-mail addresses. Fortunately, the information on those sites was rather outdated and while I'm not happy that someone out there knows my birthdate, I don't think they're going to be able to do much with it, especially if it's bundled with millions of other much juicier datasets that people left hanging around. I tend not to put more than the bare minimum of information into any sites that I won't be using on a regular basis, which helps keep my private info private.

I think that's a good policy, especially given the prevalence and sophistication of hackers these days. 

June 23 – Tanks for the memories!

Nostalgia comes in many forms, and today a little bit of mine came in the mail.

One of the best memories of my childhood is getting a HISS tank for my 10th birthday. It was an 'enemy' vehicle, belonging to the evil Cobra organization that opposed G.I. Joe and it was as solid a toy as I've ever had the pleasure of playing with: I practically wore mine out, despite it being a solid chunk of heavy plastic.

Unfortunately, that was the reason that I ended up selling it off about 10 years ago as part of paring things down before my move to BC in 2007. Ever since then, I've regretted giving away that particular piece of my childhood, as I discovered to my chagrin that the darn things are fairly expensive on eBay if they're in good shape.

As luck would have it, after a few years of looking I managed to acquire one recently for the kingly sum of $25 CAN, which was a great find! As you can see, it's in great shape, with even the easily-scratched cockpit plastic looking like new:

Key to note is that the gun barrels are elevated: almost all the HISS tanks still out there lack this ability, as the tiny little tabs underneath wear out in no time with regular play. To find a HISS tank in such great shape like this is a real coup and my inner child is feeling most satisfied with holding it in my hands again.

It's like my 10th birthday all over again, though admittedly without any 32-year-old cake.

June 24 – Don't Sleep Outside

Waking up early sucks; being woken at 4 AM sucks even more.

I wasn't feeling great this evening and wanted to go to bed early, but I couldn't follow sleep until around midnight. Which is fine, as long as I got sleep in… and this being the weekend, that's exactly what I had in mind for tomorrow.

However, I was awoken at 4am by someone who decided to park on our street while leaving their car running... whose muffler had either fallen off or had more holes in it than a politician’s promise. The metal-drums-booming racket must've woken the entire local neighborhood and I heard the lady upstairs get up at the same time as I did.

Feeling rather annoyed and still being assaulted by the pulsing beat of the idiot’s vehicle, I slipped on some clothes and headed outside with the flashlight, with the vague half-asleep idea of appearing pissed off enough to make said idiot move on.

Just as I got outside, they did just that. Grrrr.

I headed around the corner of the rear parking lot to see if I can catch a glimpse of their retreating taillights and that's when I got a bit of a surprise:

There was someone slumped over on the grass by the road.

After an initial second's shock, I noticed that it was a young man. He was seated cross-legged on the grass somewhat neatly, wearing just a T-shirt in the cool air and with a knapsack beside him. A pair of white headphones were connected to a music player and I could clearly hear the music blasting into his ears from 10 feet away.

He was also pitched face forward onto the grass, which looked really uncomfortable unless he was some sort of yoga devotee. From what I can tell, he had sat down, turned on his music and then passed out face first into the grass: classic faceplant.

I decided against trying to wake him, as I could see he was breathing. Heading back inside without catching a glimpse of the vehicle that woken me, I dialed up the police and let them know about the likely-drunk young guy outside doing silent yoga in the cold. I stayed awake for almost another hour until I heard voices outside accompanied by bright lights and knew that the cops had him taken care of, so I managed to fall asleep at last.

The next morning I checked in with the police for an update on Mr. Yoga. It was exactly as I thought: the guy had had too much to drink, picked a 'safe' spot to pass out and did exactly that. Which wasn't all that smart, as anyone could have come by to cause him grief and spending four or five hours outside in the 11C weather probably wouldn't have done him much good on top of that.

So I had done the right thing. Amusingly, when I walked out there on Saturday, I spotted $6.00 in toonies nestled in the grass exactly where he had sat. Thus in a small way, my kindness was repaid... and that brought a smile to my face.

Still didn’t get me my lost sleep back – may karma find that Muffler Idiot soon!

June 25 – Space Empires!

It was Game Day today!

On the menu: a 4-player game of Eclipse, the best( in my opinion )space-empire boardgame out there right now. Myself, my lady, my friend Chris and his pal Greg all got together around 4 PM to have a go at playing a full game of Eclipse. With 9 'rounds' to go through, none of us had any idea if that would happen.

As it turns out, it was a ton of fun finding out!

What might still be revealed under the next hex?

As you can see from the picture above, the game board is set up using a random selection of hex tiles, each representing one 'sector' of space that players can control. Each player works out from their starting hex, gaining influence over nearby sectors and deciding the path of their empire's development. Part of the beauty of the game is that victory can be attained through various different strategies and not just a rush to see who can build the most powerful armies.

As you can see from this late-game shot, there's not a lot to each of the player’s territories and none of us had more than a half-dozen ships in our 'fleets' by the time the final round of the game arrived:

I'm the red player, my lady is green...

As it turned out, my lady and Chris tied for victory( in both Victory Points and even the Economic Supply areas )and had to duke it out in a furious space battle! Unfortunately, my lady lost to Chris' tech-heavy fleet... But it was fun to watch!

Showdown in space!

The best part was that we finished the game in around four hours, which exactly matched my prediction of games lasting about one hour per player involved. So for the next game that we have, we'll know how long to budget for to allow us to finish playing... and since we are all now rather familiar with the game mechanics, it should be even more exciting than today's epic game!

June 26 – That Sinking Feeling

Back to the pond today, and the weather was beautiful!

My lady and I breakfasted at the Beacon, where I was pleasantly surprised by this bounteous meal( I think their cooks are really shaping up well lately ):

I know, I know. I took a picture of my breakfast, but I had a was quite honestly surprised not only by how it looked but how good it was, so I figured it was worth sharing. Plus, dining on their spacious patio was nigh perfect under an awning in the morning breezes from the ocean. I appreciate the wonder of living where I do: fresh air, sunshine and bevvy of beautiful things to appreciate, all at hand…

Down at the boat pond by the sea, there were a fair number of model boaters out. My lady and I set up shop under the gentle boughs of a willow that overhangs the pond... and I could get the boat to power up. Checking the battery, I saw that I had all the connections correct and so I switched to the much smaller backup that I had used with my M41A nerf rifle the month before: it worked like a charm.

So while my lady happily drove our Haulin’ Trawler around the pond, I checked in with some of the other boaters to diagnose the battery. Quite quickly it was determined that the cell was completely dead, and the cause was entirely my fault: I had let it drop below critical charge levels and apparently LiPo( Lithium Polymer )batteries can't recover from that. So, $80.00 lesson learned... *sigh*

I do love my tech, but sometimes tech doesn’t return the feelings back…

But you learn your lessons and move on. After voting was done around noon, we hung out with a half-dozen of the modelers down at a very nice Moka House coffee shop at Fisherman's Wharf, talking shop and generally enjoying ourselves. They are a relaxed and fun bunch, very knowledgeable in their hobby, so my lady and I enjoyed ourselves quite a bit in their company. We were even joined by my friend Murray, who lives nearby and happened to run into us by pure coincidence.

My lady and I spent a few more hours out and about, exploring the downtown area on foot. We wandered into Cavity Curiousity Shop on Yates, where been before and was again impressed by the quality of the merchandise that proprietor Andy has curated. He has excellent taste: there's a fine selection of old-school science fiction and fantasy books mixed in with many other treasures of every imaginable media, though admittedly I don't have a use for most of them aside from pure nostalgia.

Incredibly, he also had not one but TWO working laserdisc players( both of them solid single-side-players )tucked away under a counter! I briefly spoke to him about perhaps getting a package deal for one with some laserdiscs he had in storage, for me to see in the near future - nice! Sometimes, it pays to ask...

Back home for the evening, I was feeling a little tired and didn't do much save prep the blog. I think I'm going to have to force myself to exercise a minimum of every other day on the stationary bike just to keep my energy levels up, as it seems I can't go more than three days without feeling tired of late.

More exercise is never bad for anyone, even in moderation.

I don't know what's with my oddly-low energy levels of late, but I'm glad to know that it's not anything do with anxiety, as that's been a real pain in the ass to overcome and keep on top of. There's lots to do this summer and I don't plan on spending much of it flaked out with flagging energy levels - at a bare minimum I have to get the next draft of my first book done, so have at it, Muse!