Boat Battles, Boyhood and Being Busy

The word of the week is auspicious.

May 1 – Living Long

If you were immortal, how long would you survive?

It's interesting question, one that many people don't consider when discussing immortality and its ramifications. The gist is: if people were unable to die by natural means( disease, old age, etc. )but only by accident, how long would the average person live?

According to results of the simulation in the chart above, the average person would survive 8 1/2 thousand years! Of course, that's a simplified model, which only accounts for fatalities deriving from fire, auto accidents were firearms and not the complete gamut of ways one can depart this level of existence. You can find more information about the full simulation that was run here.

Still, it's an interesting thought exercise. I just finished watching The Last Witchhunter this week( it took me a while to watch in pieces every day )which stars Vin Diesel as an immortal witch-hunting warrior who apparently hasn't learned a whole heck of a lot in his many centuries of life. That always bothers me, as you'd think that someone who has all eternity might transcend their mortality( at least mentally )given enough time to learn about the universe... and themselves.

Something to think about.

May 2 – Happiness

Are you happy?

For many years, I asked myself the same question fairly regularly, and got different answers every time: sort of, kinda, not today and the most common: no.

Things have changed in the last few years, I'm happy to say( see what I did there? )and for the better. While I'm still having my rough spots, I am better able now to recognize how and why they're occurring... and so be able to do something about them before things get too out of hand.

If you're having trouble maintaining your Happy, here's a little list to help:

There's a far more detailed, larger image about how the state of happiness here, which I highly recommend viewing.

For me, helping others and finding my Flow when writing are the things that most quickly bring me back to balance, at least when my girlfriend's not around; her presence always brings a smile to my face and peace to my troubles immediately.

May 3 – Not Happiness

I had to make a hard decision this week: I'm going to be returning my new phone, even though I love almost everything about it and the price was more than fair.

Sadly, it's been rebooting randomly and the charger's gone wonky...

It's pretty, fast, cheap... and somewhat buggy.

While I think I've managed to remedy the reboot issue by turning off some 'deep sleep' features, there's not much I can do about the charger... And that also raises the issue of quality control levels: what else will go wrong in the next little while?

As I was thinking that troubling thought this week, I also came across this post, which suggests that the phone's low price is due to the fact that manufacturer 'dumped' it instead of releasing it officially due to hardware problems:

Add this to Things I Hadn't Considered...

Fortunately, I received a positive response from BangGood today, that they would provide me with a full refund as well as the cost of shipping the phone back to them. This is unusual, as most China-based online sellers will not reimburse shipping costs, which is often a dealbreaker for folks in North America wanting to return items when in assured sending costs run around $60-75 USD.

So, I'm returning the phone, and going back to my wonky OnePlus One for now. Seeing as I'm not using the phone as a phone on a daily basis, sitting at my desk, it's not as huge issue as it would be if I was constantly on the move, so that's a plus. However, I'm just going to grit my teeth and wait until some of the newer phones to market later in the year and see what I can pick up around Christmas or in the new year, depending on when market prices start to adjust themselves.

I tried, and I'd be foolish not to take a full refund offer for something that could fail sooner rather than later, leaving me with useless hardware and a $260 hole in my wallet.

May 4 – Love Living Locally!

Happy May The Fourth! How I wish today was an official holiday...

All the same, living in this city, especially at this time of year when the grass is green, the plants are all blooming and the weather is hinting at full-blown Nice Outside, is just like being on holiday all year.

The video below gives you an idea of why this is so wonderful to live in: on top of the wonderful weather almost year-round, it's just beautiful everywhere you look:




May 5 – Freedom

I do love my days off, like today, which I can spend however I wish!

Part of that's of course is writing this month, but today I also put in a little time getting my model PT-109 torpedo boat ready for this weekend.

Well, at least it floats...

I've been having some trouble with the props / propulsion system: the battery as I have are not powerful enough, causing the props to stutter at various speeds, and I think I might've reattached a prop backwards after greasing it last time.

Thankfully, the president of the local model boat club is very generous, and invited me over to his place this afternoon for some maintenance work on the boat. His basement was a magnificent treasure trove of modeling magnificence, containing dozens of boats and hundreds of different train cars, as well as all the supporting paraphernalia that comes from decades of working in both hobbies.

We managed to get my boat running smoothly by testing it with more powerful batteries, which I happen to have on order but haven't arrived yet. We also third out which prop was reversed and fixed it, so I should be ready now for this weekend, when the local Victoria model boat society is holding their annual Battle Of The Atlantic Memorial event - it should be a whole lot of fun!

May 6 – Sidney Complete

My lady and I went to Sidney this morning. We were there for the third and final session of Ben Coles' writing seminars, with today's being entitled 'Do Authors Need Professional Help?' which I appreciated on several levels. It was another two hours of excellent information, which again validated my own research into the modern book business in many ways, telling me that I have a good grasp of how things work. It also told me that my aim should be to be traditionally published, with a major company and most likely through an agent to protect my work from being undersold initially, as can happen with writers who don't know how to get a good deal from a publisher.

As we were still fairly full from the huge breakfast we had at The Roost, we headed back into Victoria and spent the afternoon on a patio at Bubby's Kitchen enjoying the gorgeous sunshine: beer and chocolate cake made it perfect.

I spent part of the evening trying again to get the crowdfunded Lockitron that arrived this week to work. That's right: I decided not to wait another 6-8 months for the other 2 parts( Internet Bridge and lock keyway )to arrive, but rather went in search of( and amazingly found! )an original Lockitron for a mere $75 on eBay - yay!

So far, I've managed to get it talking to my home network, but it just doesn't want to speak to the Lockitron app on my phone( either of them )which will enable it to actually perform various functions. I'll keep working on it though; it's better to keep trying now and then instead of just staring at the newer version sitting on my shelf.

May 7 – Toys and Naval Battles!

The 19th Annual Ultimate Toy Fair was happening today at a local arena!

My lady and I purchased inexpensive earlybird tickets so we could get in the doors as soon as it opened at 8 AM, to beat the inevitable crowds:

Though I wasn't expecting to do more than a bit of nostalgic looking, within only a few minutes, I managed to spot something worth getting - well, 2 somethings:

A VAMP( missing steering wheel )and a complete Whirlind!

We both had a nice time wandering around the aisles, pointing things out to each other and reliving fond childhood memories kindled by the sight of plastic toys in various states of disrepair. It was the perfect size show, as we had finished thoroughly checking everything out by the time 9 AM arrived in the crowds started to get unnavigable, so we headed out, as we were due elsewhere:

The Harrison Yacht Pond, and the annual Battle Of The Atlantic!

It was a perfect day to be out at the pond: sunny and slightly cool, but with no wind to ruffle the surface of the water, which was shining like clear glass. It made for incredible pictures, like these:

Just some of the great pictures that today's weather allowed...

We spent several hours enjoying ourselves, though I wasn't able to get my boat out immediately as someone else was using the same radio channel; ironic, since we were the only two people with old-style controllers. Once I did get my boat in the water, I unfortunately discover that one of the screws clamping down the starboard prop shaft was stripped, and so the boat stuttered through the water as the propeller received little to no power. It was rather disappointing, but it's something I can probably fix for next to nothing, but it will cost me time.

To top the day off, after a nice lunch at The Bent Mast in James Bay, my girlfriend and I played a new boardgame acquisition: the now-rare Thunder Road! I actually own a copy, but the pieces are lost somewhere in my storage tubs, so I was thrilled to find a copy for sale locally for 1/4 of what they're going for on eBay, if you can find them, plus shipping - score!

I *love* this game... 

It's a quick game, where the object is simple: just have the last surviving vehicle on the road, which spans two long boards. Each player gets three vehicles of different strength, plus an attack chopper, with both combat and will been resolved by the role of six-sided dice. Whenever any vehicle reaches the edge of the second board, any vehicles remaining on the first board are removed, and then the road is 'extended' by placing the first board in front of the second, and so on until the game is resolved. We managed to play three games in about half an hour, and each one was different depending on our luck and strategies. It was just as enjoyable as I remember and I'm sure we will play it regularly.

I'm doing better every week these days, eating full meals and walking an average of 10K steps a day, without more than the occasional twinge in my left foot or right leg. I'm still quite weak when it comes to my core muscles however, as I've noticed with their intermittent soreness day-to-day depending on how I set / for how long, but that's something I can manage and will likely go away once I'm back to exercising as well as swimming regularly. Here's to a healthy rest of the year!

Chats, Change, Contests and Chasing Classics

The word of the week is momentum.

Apr 24 – Back To A Better Me

Good news: my appetite’s almost back to normal.

I'm eating regular sized meals again, though I'm being careful about exactly what it is I have( pasta and bready foods are still too filling for me ) and it seems to be working, as I've gained 5 pounds in the last three weeks. I don't feel like my stomach is full after only eating half a meal and I have enough energy every day to get through what I need to without straining or feeling worn-out.

All good signs.

I'm also walking up to 10K steps a day, with little to no discomfort, though again I'm watching how I step and making sure that's I don't sit or stand for too long at any one time at the day job.

Speaking which, I've been re-tasked again at work, for the better: as of last week, I'm no longer in contact with the public and instead can wear headphones all day long while I go about my tasks. Ironically, this is extremely like the position I started with in the government nearly 3 years ago, and I fully intend to saturate my brain with epic music scores to kick my writing Muse into overdrive just as it was back then when I was putting the finishing touches on my first novel's third draft.

While it does seem at times like I've gone backwards, I'm choosing to see this as a reward: I've worked hard, put in my 'time' on the front lines and now I get to step back to perform necessary tasks that you are in no way as stressful as the ones I was undergoing for far too long.

In a way, it's like a vacation from stress, and that's exactly what I need right now.

Apr 25 – Land Mark Redux

Last night I attended a free seminar, offered by Land Mark.

It was the first of a series, meant to be an introduction to a total of 10 parts over the course of the next few months. The series was designed to allow the participants to continue to work through the topics they wanted to explore from the three-day weekend back in March that everyone attended.

After the first hour, I already knew that it wasn't for me.

Quite honestly, there were no breakthroughs that I experienced from the weekend that I feel I need to explore further, which I'm getting is a good thing as it means that I'm far more well-rounded than I thought.

I was also glad to be sitting next to one particular guy, who was of the same mind: neither of us was convinced that the seminar series was necessary for us. It was nice to be able to simply discuss things honestly with someone there.

In the end, I handed in my nametag and left satisfied that my time would be better spent each week working on my novels and looking to upgrade my current work position. I also felt that for many of the people in the seminar, this will likely be a singularly important experience to vastly improve their lives.

It's just that I'm already well on my way, on my own.

Apr 26 – Chatting It Upwards

I had a good talk today with someone I trust in the government.

They were my boss for nine months last year, and it was a fantastic experience working with them. They are a straight talker, passionate about the work we're doing and for some odd reason extremely interested in me as a person as well as an employee, which I found gratifying - and still do.

To make the point: today's meeting was set up a month ago because this person's schedule is always so incredibly busy due to their position, but they spent almost 2 hours this afternoon talking to me about my career with government... as well as chatting about how I was doing personally.

I felt pretty good after the talk today, I tell you!

Again, it was amazing to hear such kindly interest about my strengths and specific praise for my skills from someone I respect so much. I really needed that this week, as I've been feeling very off balance from my shift in responsibilities at work:  today's talk truly helped push all the lingering negatives aside from the last few months.

In summary: I need to focus on exactly what I want out of my time in government, to move from a broader 'I want a good position that's not going to stress me out to the point where I can write after the workday's done' to 'My skills and interests will allow me to specifically perform well at these particular jobs I want' - I can then apply for those positions( things like a business analyst )instead of IT positions that I don't-quite-qualify for.

It was a very good day to be Me.

Apr 27 – The Tricorder is Real!

We all win, with this news.

For the last three years, I've been following the occasional story about various individuals as well as parties trying to come up with a viable working modern analogue of the Tricorder from Star Trek. To date, it's been hit and miss, though I think this guy came the closest of all of the ones that I have seen.

However, the Xprize contest to create a Tricorder has found a winner!

It's really a 4-not-1 device...

Oddly, the winning Tricorder design consists of actually four separate devices, each of them designed to be used by people with no medical training while still providing accurate and valuable data for medical professionals to use with connected data links.

In other words, anyone can use them to diagnose a multitude of illnesses and injuries without the presence of a doctor:

It's a huge step forward and I hope that the initial designs can be mass-produced in upgraded forms over the years to ensure that the quality of medical care around the globe improves significantly without undue cost.

Apr 28 – A Pro On Writing

The Flow: what is it?

Writers, real writers, often talk about 'The Flow' in revered tones, as though it's a place that they would love to visit often but rarely find the time to do so. What they really mean though, is that when a writer's Muse is working properly, the words flow like water and the passion of the writer produces amazing work.

David Gerrold, a famous sci-fi writer, recently mentioned this in one of his many, many FBook posts( again, real writers often  = prolific word count )below:

It's refreshing to hear a professional who's been writing for decades speak about the flow in reverent tones; to me, that means that it's not a state that everyone can attain and even the professionals seek out fervently on more than a few occasions.

I've felt 'The Flow' when writing my first two novels and I know in general how to assist my Muse to come out of hibernation and get to work. I've been doing it on and off for the last two years and a good portion of the effort is reducing the stress on myself to where there's room again for my creativity to blossom on a daily basis.

I'm almost there again this year and it feels... potent!

Apr 29 – Jazz!

This afternoon, my lady and I attended a jazz session at Hermann's, where we haven't been in over a year.

We were there to see the Great American Songbook Trio, who we had previously seen last year and loved. My lovely lady's poetry group had invited her and myself along, and there were a half-dozen of us at the table to enjoy the music that started a little after 2 PM.

Cookie Lady Louise is on the left!

While I'm not particularly familiar with all that many of the Jazz Classics, today's tunes that I felt an immediate reaction to, in no small part thanks to the wonderful renditions that the Trio gave to the music with their passion and skill.

It was a stellar few hours spent inside, carried away by jazz.

Afterwards, we were treated by Louise, one of the Trio, to some homemade ginger cookies as she knew several of our group members, something that nobody else in the club was offered - sweet! I also admit that I had a few too many of the cheesy nachos that a nice lady named Sue bought for the table, but I'm happy to say that while I was uncomfortably full for the evening, I wasn't in any significant discomfort as I would have been only a month ago, so that was a useful discovery.

I'm happy that Victoria has such a deep-rooted and vibrant jazz scene. My girlfriend and I really enjoy having a place like Hermann's in town, as do many others, and I look forward to jazzing up my life more in the next few years.

Apr 30 – Races and Blossoms and Trees

What's all that yelling outside?

I was up early today( most days I'm awake around 6am )and after a small breakfast, I was puzzled to open the curtains at 8am to the unusual sight of a city bus turning around on my street, with a police van blocking southbound traffic - what the heck?

Expecting to be picked up by my lady so we could head out to Langford for the morning, I stepped outside to discover a massive stream of runners crossing cook Street West to East, with the street blocked off to all traffic. About 10 seconds later, I spotted my girlfriend's car on the other side of the southern barrier

Dang.

To her credit, while I searched for a break in the pack, she managed to get out of the snarled cars waiting impotently and went looking for a way to reach me. But unbeknownst to her, the race route was so poorly-designed that it completely blocked off the southern portion of the city where she lives, to the point where she couldn't find a north-south route to reach me after a half hour of searching! This was all for the TC10K as it's known, draws over 10,000 runners annually, so it's ironically well-named.

Did I mention it was a massive stream of runners?

This was the start, and BOY was there a turnout!

Eventually, the numbers dwindled and I managed to scoot through to where I could be picked up, then we headed west to the downtown core where one of the volunteers had told me the barriers would come down first - and it worked!

We did manage to reach Langford in time to have breakfast and then meet with a gentleman who just happen to be selling an extremely rare complete copy of the old boardgame Mercanauts for $35.00! Considering I have never been able to find it anywhere online, I was stunned to discover there was one for sale right here on Vancouver Island and for an incredibly good price - talk about serendipitous!

Little plastic ships, whose sails break off so easily...

While I still have the majority of the pieces( but not the boards! )from the 3 copies I purchased almost 30 years ago for a mere $8.00 each on clearance, I've never been able to locate another copy anywhere, at least not until now. It's a unique game in several regards, the major one being in that it has no set victory conditions: you can play until you get tired of it, or invent your own rules, which my friends I did back before high school. I truly liked playing the game back then, and look forward to playing with friends here soon.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly, seeing us spend some time in James Bay playing Dragonwood at a cute old-school café/bookshop, then just enjoying the rest of the afternoon together before I went to meet a friend of mine for coffee at the Breakwater Café where I happily sat in the gorgeous sunshine without any ill effects( overheating / light sensitivity ): it felt absolutely wonderful.

It was a lovely, lovely day.

I'm feeling quite relaxed after this weekend, ready to head into the week where I'll be learning some new tasks that don't involve any public interaction at the day job and spending my evenings writing: both sound glorious to me.