Publishing, Parking and Passing

The word of the week is prodigious.

Mar 6 – Investing in Yourself

Life sometimes has a way of getting away from you.

It's all well and good to think you're on top of things, but if all you're doing is just keeping up with your daily schedule, then you might want to rethink a few things.

If you're not enjoying your life as it is, it might be time for a change. The list below is an excellent way to take stock of how well you are doing in your own life, and what you can do to improve things for the better. Not to say that my own life is pure dream sparkles, but I know I can always make the effort to do better.

For myself, I've discovered that I'm already doing most of the things on the list, which pleases me greatly. I'm still looking to eat better( as I've mentioned many times before, since it's not as easy as you think to form new eating habits ) and as yet I don't have any idea where I could find a mentor for my writing.

All the same, running across the above list this week has picked up my spirits, showing me that I'm well on my way to bettering myself through my own efforts.

Mar 7 – Passing

A friend I never met passed away this morning.

His name was Steven, and he had cystic fibrosis, succumbing after a courageous battle to this vile disease only a few months after he was diagnosed around Christmas time. He was hopeful to last that a lung transplant would bring things around again, and to see him just vanish was utterly shocking.

I first met Steven online, playing Neverwinter Nights, around 10 years ago. I got to know him through his characters, one of whom, a warrior named Jade, and up spending quite a bit of time with my own character creation, Nichneven. Through our regular character interactions over the years, I came to count him as a friend.

One of the many beautiful images Steven was always sharing...

I am saddened that I did not get to know Steven as well as I could have, though I was fortunate enough to become a FBook friend years ago. He always posted images of beautiful landscapes, had a fondness for funny memes, Star Wars and Star Trek, and from our too-few interactions had a lovely, contemplative soul. He also had an oddly endearing love of squirrels, as well as Disney's Tinkerbell.

I will honor his memory by remembering him, and his deeds in NWN, and by thinking about the kind thoughtfulness he put forth daily into the world. He was a constant in the game world we shared for many years, and his passing is a devastating reminder that our time in this world can all too quickly be cut short.

Be sure you use it wisely.

Mar 8 – Knowledge Gap

Today, I had an odd thought, a variation of what don't we know we don't know?

Between what we believe and what we know, or what is proven vs. what we suspect... it's something I've pondered, in relation to online social interactions, as there are so many assumptions made through the muddle of communication barriers.

In other words: people assume too much, both for themselves and others.

This sort of thinking comes into play in every aspect of our lives. It affects the decisions we make, both for ourselves and others. I believe that our innate assumptions, sometimes referred to as 'gut feelings' are based on a complicated amalgam of experience and knowledge. While you can't do much about experience gaps except to just keep going through life accumulating it, you can do something about your knowledge gaps: you can work on eliminating your assumptions and replacing them with facts.

In the last few years, I've been pleased to discover that my 'gut feelings' have almost always been correct: I rarely over-think a situation or second-guess myself these days. Thinking about it, I believe it's due to my confidence level in my own knowledge and experience having reached a tipping point, likely when I decided to move on from my soul-killing job at MMart, searching for something better. 

My decisions since then have been progressively more solid and despite numerous difficulties, challenges and setbacks, I'm pleased with where I've ended up today, apart from the annoying health issues nagging me.

All because I'm using my brain to think, and to look forward, not back.

Mar 9 – Digestion Liquids

I still don't know what's going on.

It seems I'm going from one health issue to the next, and that's worrying to me. I'm just holding down a day job and trying to get my novel done, these issues are gettting in the way of me accomplishing much.

Since Christmas, I haven't been able to eat a regular-size meal without discomfort, sometimes pain, and that's in no way normal. It's like my stomach's contracted to half it's normal size, which means that with me trying to gain BACK the weight I've lost( mainly muscle mass )it's really, really difficult: I haven't gained a pound in 3 months...

 

So, what to do?

Well, for one, I'm getting back to drinking liquids with meals, in small amounts. My sister suggested that I don't do so about 6 months back, for various reasons, but for my own health, I disagree: liquids HELP digestion. In moderation before, during and after meals, they're just what's needed to keep things moving, as more solid meals have been getting... stuck of late, just after dining - not fun. And since I don't have a gall bladder any more to store up digestive helpers, liquids are a good choice.

Walking also seems to help, so I'm doing that more, going out of my way to and from work, as well as a solid walk during one of my daily breaks. My Pebble Time's a great tool for this too, as I can easily see how much I've walked in a day.

Building on good eating habits also helps, though increasing my intake of 'liquid' veggies is challenging. I've compromised a bit in having omlettes when I do go out, and generally keeping an eye on the clock: most food exits the stomach in 2-3 hours, while liquids take around 30 minutes, which again helps the system move.

More next week, after I talk to the doctor about some blood work...

Mar 10 – Tidy?

I've got too many books, too little time AND space...

So today I packed up a bunch of books from my apartment, along with many DVD's, to send them to my parent's place for safekeeping.

Much as I hate being parted from my books and movies, there continues to be less and less room in my apartment. My sister and I are ready have two storage units full of stuff, even after several clean-outs in the last few years: we're down to keeping just the useful things that would be too expensive to place compared to just storing them, and quite honestly we're paying a tiny pittance for that monthly.

Maybe by this time next year, I'll have managed to find a place to share with my girlfriend, where we can use the second bedroom as an office / workroom / den. Our ideas to line it with bookshelves, much like the den at my parent's place, though theirs is fancy-looking with French doors - nice touch, that. In the meantime, I'll be less crowded here which will make me better able to focus on doing my own work rather than reading other people's works that I haven't got time for right now. 

This evening, I went to see the new Wolverine movie Logan with a few friends; as my lady had declined, as it's not exactly her kind of movie. Spoilers below.

I found the first part of movie to be most interesting, as it introduced a world that was shockingly like our present day, but further fallen into decay. It was a world bereft of hope, where mere survival was an accomplishment, and done so under the noses of commercial corporate greed taken to the ultimate level.

The characters were the stars of this film. Wolverine facing a slow death from the inside out, and the same happening to Professor X: both of their powers being turned against them, in horrible ironic twists on being aging superheroes.

The real star of the film was Wolverine's daughter, whose unwavering belief in him as a father figure was, in the end, justified by his redemptive actions. We were left with a blossoming of hope as the film closed, with old heroes buried in unmarked graves rather than with the accolades that they should have been laid to rest with.

Very satisfying, and a damn smart film I'll be watching again soon.

Mar 11 – Publishing BS?

Today was another field trip to Sidney!

My lady and I left early, breakfasting at a lovely little café off the beaten track called Toast. It's the kind of coffee shop that writer's dreams are made of: quiet, with lots of room and plenty of good things to choose from while you're working:

There's couches behind me... so cozy!

We were in town to attend a seminar being put on by a friend of mine, Ben Coles, a local published sci-fi writer. It's the first of three in a series introducing writers to the publishing world while cutting away all the BS that people new to the big bad writing world normally must wade through on their own. It was an extremely informative two hours and I'm looking forward to the next two seminars in the series in April and May, to learn all I can about how to get my books published without making any major missteps along the way.

In the evening, we joined forces again to go see Rogue One for the second time... at the IMAX theatre in the BC Museum: six stories of Star Wars goodness! The recently upgraded theater boasts the brand-new IMAX Laser system, which is incredible to watch: there's no frame flicker and the details are stunningly sharp, especially in the CGI scenes which in Rogue One look incredibly realistic. This movie reviewer goes into a little detail about his experience with the new tech:

One thing that was a little off was the 3-D portion of the film. Because of the sheer size of the screen, not every part of the projected image could be in proper alignment with both eyes, and so a parallax effect was noticeable unless you continually turned your head to look at the focal point in each shot. As this is rather tiring, I'll have to remember not to see any 3-D movies until they work out the pictures as it's rather distracting, as though some parts of the film are shifting off into other dimensions.

Other than that, the experience was excellent. Since my lady and I have season passes to IMAX, we can get into any Hollywood feature film for only $5.00, so we'll be eagerly waiting to have more movie nights as the year goes on.

Mar 12 – Driven

Thanks to a friend( hi Kevin! )I had a car to use all weekend.

Though I didn't use it much apart from driving to Sidney yesterday, it got me thinking a little bit about the perks of vehicle ownership versus the downsides. Apart from the monthly cost of a lease or payments, insurance, gas and maintenance, there's one more thing that always crops up with owning a vehicle:

Parking.

For last three years, Victoria's been known for having a parking crunch, with not enough on-street spaces or parkades to accommodate all the people who want to jam into the downtown district daily. It's tough to find a spot, any time.

Knowledge of available parking is also key: where are there likely to be spots?

Enter Parkopedia, an online interactive website put into Google maps that lets you scout out possible parking anywhere in the world, be it places familiar or foreign.

I used it today to have a look at the parking in and around my doctor's office, which is across from one of the main hospitals in Victoria, an area notoriously difficult to find parking in. I discover that there is an underground lot near my doctor's office which only charges two dollars for an hour: a bargain! Since I'll have my friend’s car tomorrow as well, I'll make the effort to drive to my appointment, since I now know I won't have to leave before 8 AM to have a change in hunting for a spot on the street. 

Then again, I could always just take the bus...

I've had to wear a brace around my stomach this past weekend, as my abdominal muscles seem to strain all too easily simply from sitting vertically for more than 20 minutes at a time; damn frustrating. At least my mostly-liquid / small meal plan seemed to be working in keeping my insides happy, and I'll be putting together a wider-ranging meal plan this week after speaking to my doctor. I need to get my energy levels up so I can start my twice-weekly swimming regimen in April to build up my flexibility and overall muscle strength. At this point, my health levels are too close to sink or swim for my liking.

Fun, Foap and Fantasy Libraries

The word of the week is omnilegent.

Feb 27 – Ultimate Library?

Why not start off the week with a fantasy?

Better yet, a fantasy library that really exists... although it's owned by a billionaire, it has to be seen to be believed, with images like this:

The multi-storey( story? )room almost doesn't look REAL...

Located in New England, the library belongs to Jay Walker, founder of Walker Digital and Priceline.com. The rest of Walker's mansion was constructed around the 3600 square-ft library, and was first conceived of as a 7-foot model, to get the sightlines just right:

Seeing a library like this is just mesmerizing, and I can just picture myself sitting in reading platform below, looks stacked by my side. The only thing missing from this picture is a fireplace, one of which I can only imagine is built-in somewhere else out-of-frame in this incredible space:

Needs a fireplace... but that's about it.

Absolutely incredible.... and now I have a new library standard to aspire to!

Feb 28 – (un)Cool, Stove!

I don't microwave, and neither does my sister.

While some people will tell you that microwaving things isn't as good as cooking 'naturally', as it may "destroy some nutrients" the smart folks over at Harvard Universitytell us that this just isn't so. But that's not the reason why we don't have one in our apartment: there's just no room in our tiny 36 ft.² kitchen.

So we've been using the stove / oven for our cooking needs, which are the most part it has been convenient enough to prepare meals and reheat leftovers.

Until the oven failed this week.

As most kitchens have both an underused oven and oft-used microwave at everyone's disposal, having one or the other fail isn't usually an issue. For us however, not having other means that reheating food is suddenly far more difficult, as a stovetop pot isn't nearly as flexible as a true oven.

While I was home last week on Friday, the repair man and landlord came by to have a look at the unit. As part of a conversation I had while everything was being tested, the repair man let slip some interesting facts: new ovens are in no way better than 30-year-old units like the one in my apartment, and in many ways they're inferior. Newer stoves have elements containing fewer coils, the controls are front-mounted, making it easier to accidentally turn them on or for children to play with, and they don't last nearly as long as ones made two or three decades ago.

With that in mind, I hope that this unit can be repaired rather than replaced, as it's done well to date and been otherwise very reliable.

But, in the end, we need to have a working appliance... however that happens.

March 1st – Why DO We Write?

It's a new month, so time for some introspection...

One of my favorite writers to follow is David Gerrold, who shares more written words in a day's worth of Facebook post then I write in one week's blog posting - astounding, and the quality of his posts are evidence that he is a writer's writer.

One of his more recent posts was about writing itself, as often happens when a writer ruminates about the reasons behind making words appear from thin air:

This encapsulates some of the basics about writing: it's about sharing, of having a dialogue between the reader and the author to express ideas.

Thanks, David!

Mar 2 – Old-School Transformers... ?

Um... I'm not sure what to make of this one.

There are many kinds of Transformers fans out there, and many of them are now quite talented, having reached their 40s or 50s with decades of professional experience under their belt.

What they do with that talent, well... have a look: ( WARNING: NSFW! )

I must admit, content aside, the animation in the video is top-notch and the models are perfectly on spec to the old Transformers TV cartoon. The sense of humor... well, that's debatable, but I personally found it quite funny all the same.

Roll out more like this, please!

Mar 3 – Fake Rentals?

What the bloody baffling hell... what is WITH some people?

When I first moved here, I noticed a few suspicious ads among the local rental listings, of the "too good to be true" variety. I reported them to the site's admins, and a few disappeared... but others kept coming back. Renter beware!

Now, with the red-hot rental market here in Victoria, criminals have been quick to jump in to take advantage of people desperate for affordable apartments in the city, which just makes my blood boil.

If it's too good to be true... 

I guess it's because I just don't understand how criminals can have a lack of empathy for the situations that other people find themselves in through no fault of their own... and have no qualms about taking vantage of those people for their own illegal financial gain. There has to be some mental justification mechanism, some sort of "Well, Me First and if THEY are dumb enough to fall for MY scam, then THEY deserve what happens to them" is the closest I can get to figuring out that twisted mentality.

Which also means that the criminals deserve what justice they get when the system finally catches up to them... but as we all know, back in either take a long time or in all possibility, never happen. Best to educate yourself, if you're renting, on how to avoid being scammed:

BIG image, but worthwhile info.

Meaning that too many more people are soon going to be deprived of their hard-earned money by scum who prey on the vulnerable and desperate.

Mar 4 – Games Night For Two

It was date night tonight with my lady!

We went to see the film Robots at the Victoria IMAX, which has the largest screen in Canada and has been recently renovated to include the latest in laser projection technology. The picture was incredibly crisp, with none of the flutter, motion blur or distortion one associates with film based projection, even at IMAX resolutions: it was astounding to watch even this simple 40 minute documentary, narrated incredibly well by Simon Pegg.

We also got to see this amazingly rare car, the Esso 67X, the only one of four examples created to survive to the modern day. Designed by George Barris, the creator the original Batmobile, it included innovative concepts such as front-wheel drive, swivel seats, a TV, a writing table and even a built-in cooler:

BIG picture, but tons of high-res detail!

After dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory( I took most of mine home with me )we then spent a few hours comfortably settled into the Wild Coffee House & Bistro to play boardgames( our first run-through of Forbidden Desert, then a solid game of Dragonflame ). It turned out to be an excellent choice and we might make it a regular gaming stop, as the Café is open until 10 PM and is not busy at all on Saturdays. They have excellent gluten-free / vegan food options and I especially like inside decor, plus there's a quiet upper nook to game in too, though we ended up sitting next to the stairs:

We sat directly below this picture, with an under-stair 'reading nook' next to us - nice!

One thing to note is that I'm still uncomfortable sitting for periods longer than half an hour, as my abdominal muscles tend to tense up( it almost feels like it's happening internally, like I'm clenching my abs 24/7 )causing discomfort. It's irritating, as I must consciously a pay close attention to how I'm sitting, so that I'm not leaning forward with the front of my body that will contribute to tension problems later in the day and especially at night, making it hard to sleep.

But, as always, I'm a work in progress... which amuses my girlfriends no end.

Mar 5 – Foap?

No, that's not a typo from 'soap' - Foap is an app.

Specifically, it's an app where you upload your best photos to a site where photography professionals browse and buy them, should they fit their needs at the time. It's an easy( and legal )way to make some extra money on a side, which I'm always looking for.

The rates are decent, too: each photo costs $10 US, and if it sells then you and Foap get five dollars each, which is pretty darn good. If you upload a few hundred good photos, then your chances of selling one or two of them every month, or even every week, are decent. It all depends on what companies are looking for what type of photo at a given time to use for their products or projects.

I've uploaded around 100 of my best images this month, mainly pictures without people( due to the release of rights ). I'm going to just see how that goes for upload any more, as you can only upload them from your phone at all and I don't feel like going to the trouble of linking photos from my PC cloud storage unless some of the ones I've uploaded start selling the next few months.

At best, another hundred dollars per month would be quite welcome!

My health has been okay of late, in case you're wondering: I'm walking around and getting about my days with nary a twinge, though I am ensuring that I'm not sitting for more than 20 minutes at a time at work or at home. My digestion is still off however, which I think is related to my weight loss( I'm still hovering around 148lbs or so ): eating more than half my pre-Christmas meal sizes makes me feel full, and I have to be careful eating anything within a few hours after that or I feel like things are getting... stuck, as they exit my stomach. Not fun. I have a doctors appointment in a week or so, and I'll be bringing up the subject among other things, but for the most part I feel like I'm getting back on track with my health for 2017. I just have to get this eating thing figured out, which is why I'm posting this blog entry WAY early, as I'm feeling tired and need to spend the rest of my evening writing / editing while laying down, which seems to help ease my stomach tension. See you all next week!