Writing, Winning and Wonderful Weekends

The word of the week is tangible.

July 10 – Writing Retreat

After work today, I attended a brief 'Writing retreat' at a local author's house, with several other writers I'd been invited to enjoy the evening free of charge as a thank you by the organizer for helping set up several meetups between them and the membership of the writing group I help manage locally.

The evening proved to be very fruitful for me creatively, as the methodology employed was guided in simple terms around objects and ideas to foment creative thought. This proved to be excellent fodder for my imagination. I came up with about a dozen pieces altogether, of which I liked this one the most:

I really enjoyed the evening, and I'll consider going for one or two more later in the year as treats for myself once I complete the heavier lifting I need to do the next few months regarding my novels and my business.

July 11 – eReaders, for me?

Last month, my amazing girlfriend gifted me with an Amazon Kindle eReader - wow! Reading some of my hundreds of Amazon books on it has been a blast.

However, you need a light source in order to see anything on the screen, which means it's perfect in daylight and completely invisible in the dark. Seeing as even the next model up, Kindle Paperwhites, are going for around $100 CAN plus shipping on eBay, they wind up costing about the same as new ones - ouch!

But... today was Amazon Prime Day, of which I'm still a member! That meant there were sales almost everything and my heavily-crossed-fingers turned out to be lucky: new Paperwhites dropped to $99.00 for today only, the lowest they've ever been! I was able to snag one as an early birthday gift from my parents and sister, and I did a little jig in front of the TV when all was said and done. YAY!!!!!

Old one out, new one in - barely!

I also performed 'heart surgery' on my dying OnePlus One tonight.

As a new battery only cost $15.00 I decided a few weeks ago to give it a shot, and thankfully the instructions on Ifixit.com were really easy to follow after the battery arrived in the mail today. It was a tight fit, as the new battery's cable was a touch shorter than the dying original's.

The only hiccup in the installation was that the outer case cracked along all the spots where the holding tabs were on one side, but at this point I don't care about aesthetics - there's a replacement Samsung S5 on the way, after all. I just wanted to see if I can get some more useful life out of this OPO, perhaps to repurpose it as a bluetooth controller or a smart-home control, but not if it keeps overheating.

So far, the temperatures haven't reduced significantly, and I've also discovered that the new batteries temperature sensor is defective, as it reads a constant 78.6° - useless, but at least I can still feel with my finger if the phone's too hot in my hand...

July 12 – WINNER!

I received an odd phone call at work today, close to my morning break. As it wasn't a number I recognized, I let it go and since no voicemail was left, I chalked it up to someone's wrong number and thought no more about it.

Until an e-mail popped up on my phone a few minutes later:

It said I'd won advance screening tickets to the upcoming Valerian movie next week... whaaaaaattttttttt???????? I had to rub my eyes just in case, but it was true! I've been participating in online contests for a few years now, for a few minutes every day, and I won again after a long dry spell:

I've been really stoked go and see Valerian when it opened on the 21st next week, and it's just icing on the cake now that I get to see it two days early! I'm tempted to bring along my copy of Ambassador of the Shadows( the comic that's the movie is based on )to complete the journey that my six-year-old self began nearly 40 years ago when I first read it...

July 13 – Trolling

It's easy to become distracted on the Internet. Moreso when it's subjects you care about; for me, those are things like climate change, vaccinations and similar topics that invite divisive debate.

What it also invites are trolls.

Several times in the last few months, I've made the mistake of engaging people too deeply on FBook, due to the nature of the conversational topics on several posts. I'm well aware that it's extraordinarily difficult to change anyone's mind over the Internet( to the point where I don't think there's a documented case of it happening to date )but for whatever reason in several instances, I thought the person might see reason and meet me halfway.

Nope.

The arguments were like someone showing me their marble collection... except that each one is cracked in some way, and each time they plucked out a new one to 'show it off' the cracks are obvious to me, yet they KEEP pulling out new ones despite me continuously pointing out the flaws to them. It's like they can't see the flaws, and think if they just keep pulling marbles from  the bag, eventually they will be proven correct, despite the flaw in each and every one.

Mainly, I think this has to do with selfishness, as most of the the people I saw arguing against my point of view were doing so from a selfish base, a 'Why should I have to pay for others with MY money?' mentality that being a Canadian living in a socialist country, I find shallow and backwards in this modern day. Not to mention the levels of profound ignorance that were displayed by many people in general.

However, this same week, I was given hope that selflessness would win out over said self-interest, thanks to a study that found microbes with the altruistic tendencies had a much higher survival index. So the selfish microbes died out, in favour of those who shared...

So perhaps the microbes will be able to get it right when we're all gone...?

July 14 – I must go there...

After starting my week's vacation today( flex day! )I now know where I have to take a vacation in 2020...

Star Wars Land!

Revealed that Disney's D23 event today was the first look at a physical model of the upcoming Star Wars Land being built at both Walt Disney World( FL )or Disneyland( CA), of which the latter is far closer and more likely for me to be able to get to... grinning like a kid all the way.

Here's a 7 minute tour of the model with one of their Imagineers:

As well, there's a series of amazing close-up photos of the model, showing all the various parts: ships, rides, shops and more, all set in the Star Wars universe.

As icing on the cake, there will be a Star Wars hotel available as well, which purports to be a 'totally immersive experience' which I would love to immerse myself in, if the cost wasn't pegged at around $1000 USD per night's stay. 

Ouch. *sad Wookie howl*

July 15 – Eclipse Returns!

Whoa... it's been five months since I last played a game of Eclipse, which I think is far too long! Fortunately, my friend Chris was open to playing just such a game today along with my lady and our friends Cara and Greg - yes! As a point of interest, I noted last time that we could have up to eight players but I was mistaken: we can actually have up to nine and considering that it takes about an hour per player to play the game, that's really not that bad.

2.5 hours in, things are getting interesting...

We started the game at 3:30 PM and the first five rounds so everyone do typical empire-building, though you can see from above that my empire( green ) had quickly become stymied by a wall of powerful Ancient ships that I didn't have the firepower to overcome easily. The cost would have been just too great, so my expansion was stopped dead one way and the other way saw me hit some dead ends in terms of exploration; again, not good.

After the 'saggy middle' of the game was passed, things really heated up in terms of fleet purchases and technology research, both key factors to creating big nasty swarms of spaceships to go and smash your enemies with.

Which didn't happen much until last couple rounds of the game:

Greg sported the same colour shirt as his empire: dedication!

As you can see from the picture above, major fleet actions in the last round were underway: My newly-purchased fleet in the bottom-left had repelled an attack by Chris' white fleet, and the other major battle of the game took place between my lady( in black: Borg-esque! )and the fleets of both Chris and Greg( red ). Action!

In the end, though, resistance was futile: my lady won with a score of 31 Victory Points, her total points over 13 higher than anyone else. She really knows how to play the right strategies, but the rest of us are learning quickly...

July 16 – Me Day!

Today was a perfect birthday.

I slept rather well last night and woke up somewhat refreshed, in part because I'd had another massage session yesterday morning that really helps to loosen up my far-too-tense abdominal muscles: I didn't wake up at 4 AM in pain, so huzzah!

Even Google got in on the act... is that good?

After a relaxing breakfast with my lady, we both headed down to Harrison's Yachy Pond for a bit, to test out the pair of new batteries that I received several weeks ago after a two-month wait( from Turkey, of all places ). It turned out that one of the batteries was defective, and to add insult to injury, my PT boat's control system started malfunctioning to the point where it wouldn't run properly. Luckily, the president of the RC boat club took an interest in my difficulties and generously offered to take the boat home to work on himself. I was thrilled at the offer and I'll have to think up a suitable thank you for him when I see him next.

Then it was lunch time with my parents and girlfriend( my sister's off in Calgary this week for a much-needed break with friends ). We went to ReBar downtown that bastion square, which was packed with people enjoying the gorgeous weather, perfect for the annual Busker's Festival taking place this weekend in Victoria. The food was excellent( I had a veggie burger with mushrooms and Swiss cheese - yum! )and the place had a funky vibe that we all liked, so we'll most likely be back sooner rather than later. My lady then took me out for ice cream over at The Beacon Drive-In, where we got into an intense discussion of my novel's characters, which I absolutely loved and tried my hardest not to give away any spoilers!

Tron: Uprising 1 Beck's Beginning from tracius01 on Vimeo.

Back home, I got a few more things done, then relaxed for a few hours, watching a few episodes of Tron:Uprising online - a wonderful show that's extraordinarily hard to get a hold of, as it's not out on DVD or Blu-Ray, and I don't care to purchase it from iTunes, as I consider Apple's service an evil I don't wish to foist on my computer anytime soon. Ironic, considering the subject of Uprising...

Yes indeed, a pretty solid week that I couldn't wait to end, so I could be on VACATION! A working vacation, mind you, where I plan to make great strides EVERY day to finish editing my novel. I won't have another chance like this in 2017, so I'm going to make the most of it!

Mid-sleep Maladies, Massage and Managing Mindsets

The word of the week is palpable.

July 3 – Better Thoughts

I've been thinking lately more about budgeting, and possibilities.

That word is the key: possibility.

In previous entries, I mentioned that there's a 'gap' that I'm trying to overcome in terms of my wages versus debts: $10K more year and I would be slightly more than breaking even in terms of my net take-home income versus monthly expenditures. Yet I've been so focused for the last year on increasing my income that whenever I looked at my debt, I would shut down mentally, seeing it as a burden that gets heavier every day. I couldn't see any way to get out that didn't involve in me essentially throwing up my hands and 'giving up' on repayment.

This last month, I've forced myself to set that aside and think about it again.

If I want to get things rolling in terms of repayment, I need to budget a total of $1500 a month to go towards debts, which would result in 90% of my debts being repaid within two years. That minimizes the amount of interest that will accrue( and I'm not even thinking about what I've ALREADY paid over the years )which is incentive to stick to the plan to see it to fruition.

I think that's reasonable, but I have to get there sooner rather than later.

The important thing about running these kinds of numbers is that you have to leave room for hope. For a long time now, I've just been plugging away at what I can see in front of me, juggling things so that I have never missed a payment and in doing so, giving up on any long-term financial goals due to my current situation.

Raising my eyes from the ground, I can see a way out, but it's all dependent on a decent income increase within the next 6 months. After that, the wave will catch me... and I'll have to let go of what I'm clinging to in order to make it to shore.

July 4 – Follow Your Bliss

Life is what you make it.

It can be blissful or unbearable: the choice is up to you and how you live your daily life, and none knew this better than the remarkable John Joseph Campbell:

My takeaway from his words is that happiness is a state of being we can all attain with effort, but few of us can maintain it consciously every day. Living your life under a cloud will color everything you see, so simply allowing the light to shine on your daily activities will reflect back far more happiness than just hoping that the sun will come out - it's an interesting distinction and one I'm working on myself.

Speaking of bliss, I mentioned last week I found something at my parents place while searching through the storage boxes for comics... it was this:

That's a BucConeer 1998 souvenier coin there too!

Now, the story behind this was that when I moved to BC nearly 10 years ago, some of the boxes from the move went missing... conveniently including one with the new-ish camera. At the time, I was unable to get anywhere with moving company and had to accept the loss it as part of the price of moving. I also thought that the same box held my cherished dice bag( above )containing all of the dice I've ever used for decades for my RPG games. I'd held off buying any more dice since, partly for the reason that I didn't want to replace these originals if they were still around, and partly because I never got back into a regular monthly RPG group( with a too-brief, wonderful exception a few years ago ). It was obvious I was still holding out hope of finding the bag, and I was rewarded this week for my patience!

The bag itself is unique, in that I've never seen anything like it anywhere for sale, online or off: I found it at BucConeer, the 56th world science fiction convention I attended in Baltimore in 1998. The bag's skin resembles that of a Dragon, in that it has a 'pebbled' texture with the appearance of scales: I fell in love with it instantly and it cost me a total of $15 USD at the time, a bargain!

I'm incredibly happy that I found it underneath some larger books in a box full of Car Wars RPG supplements, so it was completely invisible without the whole box being emptied. Which I thought I had done when I was going through all my stuff after the first couple moves around the city here years ago.

Joy and happiness!

July 5 – Living In Paradise

Ah, Victoria... you're so glorious!

The weather here is finally stabilized and we're into the 'dry season' with little to no rain for the next few months. The grass has turned Brown except where it's watered regularly( with restrictions )and the temperatures have stabilized.

It's the perfect time to go and explore Vancouver Island... Except I can't, because I have too much to do. But I can still look and plan for next year:

July 6 – Phone Return = Good!

Looks like I made a good choice in returning my recent LeEco phone.

I received notice a few weeks ago that my phone had been received by Banggood in China, and just today I received the bulk of the refund( less shipping fees, they're coming soon )via PayPal. I'll be sure to deal with Banggood again, as there was absolutely zero questioning of my return: it was quick and easy compared to that of many people in the forums I've seen when dealing directly with China-based companies, who tend to clam up when it comes to returning money for purchases.

Back to the phone: things aren't so great with LeEco lately.

If I had returned my phone, I could've been stuck with a device that while technically sound, wouldn't have received any kind of upgrades in the near future and more than likely any warranty service would have been haphazard at best. I'm glad that I followed my instincts and returned it as quickly as I did, despite the disappointment that engendered in being stuck with my failing Oneplus One.

However all is not lost: I found a new phone today on eBay - that I can afford!

Well, 'new' is a relative term: it's a Samsung Galaxy S5, and I just paid far less for it than its initial $600 price tag when it first came out in 2014. While its specs aren't quite as good as my OnePlus( only 2gb RAM vs 3 on the OPO )the screen is excellent and it has a number of features that my OPO doesn't: a heartbeat monitor( which I will use sparingly! )and a barometer, which is great as I plan to monitor the daily weather in the service of migraine prevention. Here's the rundown:

This will give me a phone that I can use for at least another year( or even two ) without issue in terms of speed, and without my having to cave in to Telus to get a phone on contract - never again!

Now I just have to find a decent-and-cheap case for it... on eBay, of course!

July 7 – That's too early...

It seems I can't catch a break with my physical health sometimes.

This morning, I awoke at 4am with some awful stomach pains, similar to the random-but-nasty leg cramp last week that snap me awake around the same time. It felt as though my entire abdomen was burning and I had to spend the next hour hunched over a heating pad in order to find any relief.

I didn't get back to sleep.

Looking things up after breakfast, I narrowed it down to the Rectus Abdominis group, or as they are more commonly known, one's abdominal muscles, as the culprit. From what I can determine, my posture over the last several months has been more 'forward' and hunched due to my new job position, despite my efforts to ensure that I sit upright in my chair. The sitting itself is also a factor, in that my stomach muscles have become foreshortened even with my regular walkabouts every 20 minutes, the regularity of which my coworkers have often commented on lately.

Tension, it seems, lives everywhere in my body, and I'm having difficulty getting rid of it even with regular stretching and walking daily. This never happened when I was riding my bike to work, and so that's a goal of mine: to get back on my bike, despite my fear of another hamstring-related failure...

Next up on my daily / weekly regimen: adding some Tai Chi and breathing exercises. We'll see how that goes, and I'm thinking of adding both acupuncture and massage therapy as I can find the funds to afford either this summer.

July 8 - Pressure Release

In the morning today, I went to get a massage - talk about good timing!

Serendipitously, this Thursday while hosting one of my writing group's monthly meetings, one of the members picked up on my brief aside that I was in some discomfort sitting at the table and mentioned that she was a massage therapist. After the meeting, she sent me an e-mail offering me a free trial session today, which I gratefully took her up on as I've been putting off any such treatment due to a lack of funds.The fact that my archaic work health coverage will only cover $10 per session for massage( unbelievable! )was also a factor, so I didn't want to 'waste' large amount of money on someone whose treatment might not have any major effect.

I really should've just spent the money, as the effect was indeed major!

During my treatment today, there was a massive release of tension throughout my body: she said it was directly related to my posture while sitting, as I had suspected, especially around my hips. Afterwards, I felt like I was a dangling puppet in a jar, my limbs were so much looser and I walked without more than a twinge or two in my foot tendons for the first time in many months.

I'll be going back next week again, as I certainly won't go back to feeling like a over-tensioned tennis racket waiting to snap should I move the wrong way. Unfortunately, my abdominals are still really tense and woke me up again last night , though this time it was just on the manageable side of uncomfortable rather than agonizing, which was an improvement.

Lesson learned: spend the money on massage to avoid further pain and lifestyle fragmentation...

July 9 – A Poetic Day

I was a 'hunter' for a day today!

My girlfriend invited me out to join her poetry group downtown, as we did a poetic scavenger hunt for a few hours this afternoon. She provided us with a list of six route items to 'collect' / experience, and we all went on our merry ways:

After an hour and a half, I made it back to Sam's Deli, where I sat down and for the next 30 minutes worked on my poem objectives. I ended up with five complete poems and five Haiku, which I thought was a nice balance. After everyone else had arrived and had a little bit more time to work, we went around the table sharing our creations in general order and they were quite impressive! I received some excellent feedback on my own works, of which I've selected one for your reading pleasure below, complete with picture - enjoy!

I have to say it was a glorious week and weekend weather-wise: sunny, with warm breezes and nary a hint of rain. Which is par for the course for Vancouver island in the summer months: not too hot, not too cold and just the right amount of humidity to be comfortable without the problems at either end of the scale. It looks pretty good to me for the next few weeks and I hope that August will also see us experience this moderate forecast:

It's been a good week, even with the waking-at-4am difficulties I've experienced. I'm hoping that the massage this week and next will alleviate most of those issues along with stretching and other exercises that I'm doing to bring my body back into a more balanced state. Eating well, a positive mindset and my eye on the ball( writing / better job / building my home business )this summer will see me make great improvements in my life before the end of 2017.