Rocket Roadsters, Relationships and Readiness Reports

The word of the week is incorrigible.

Feb 5 - Project Linda

Ah, technology: good for a bit, then the bad starts to bite.

Phones in particular seem to be of the 'Wow' followed months later by 'What the?' category, which explains why most people upgrade every 1-2 years when they're on contract. I aim for 3-4, but then I'm a sucker for punishment: It doesn't stop me from wishing for the latest smartphones...

I love comparing the specs on the latest phones every 6 months, feeding the 'I might get THIS one!' fantasy I have, though I've stepped back a bit in the last two years given how FREAKIN' expensive the things are now. The latest Samsung S9 tops $1,000 CDN, which is more than I can dream of justifying, even on contract( WHICH I WILL NEVER GO BACK ON AGAIN! )to help with the wallet-pain.

However, there are some things that are just too cool NOT to want, like:

Attach phone to dock and presto: instant midrange laptop!

I'm putting this on my 'Something to aim for in 2019' list, for when I've dug myself enough out of debt that I can consider a new cell phone with some style and utility. By then, both my Samsung S5( with its growing list of quirks )and my Samsung NP540U3C laptop( an i5: coincidence? )will be VERY long in the tooth.

I'll be dreaming of Project Linda for the rest of 2018, methinks...

Feb 6 – Falcon Heavy Launch!

Today was an AMAZING day for space exploration!

Elon Musk's SpaceX debuted the next generation of reusable rocket, the Falcon 9 Heavy Launch vehicle, which put in a SPECTACULAR performance! Utilizing three reusable boosters, the Falcon soared into space in a textbook pilot launch, which I had the luck to watch LIVE from work on my phone - how cool is that?

The boosters all returned to earth, and while the sea-landing failed, the two land-bound boosters made perfect simultaneous touchdowns, right out of a scifi movie:



Yet the BEST part wasn't the boosters, but what the rocket payload itself: Elon Musk's cherry-red Tesla Roadster, being used as ballast in a great PR move rather than boring old concrete or steel shot - hello, future space travelers, be sure to check out what's on the dash and in the glove compartment:

Feb 7 – Friendship

What does friendship mean, really?

It's a HUGE subject, and I don't intend to get into a long diatribe here, but rather state what simple applies to me and my experience... and why I bring it up today.

As others have told me, and I've noticed myself, I tend to make friends fairly easily, for which I'm grateful. In thinking about the Why and How, I believe it's a combination of being genuine, listening to what others say before speaking to find common interests, and trying to give more than I receive. There are other nuances involved as well, many of which play into proximity: where are my friends?

In the last ten years, the majority of my friends have been online: either old friends from back east, or online friends I've made over the years. I've been slow to cultivate new local friends here in the first five years in BC, I think in the main because I wasn't exactly happy, I lived outside of town, and I was just too damn busy with work which wore me down mentally, emotionally and physically.

This brief article takes a solid look at how people become friends, what a true friend is, and why they become friends in the first place. Interestingly, the subject came up in relation to Star Trek, examining the unbreakable bonds between Kirk, Spock and McCoy that provided such a solid foundation for the original series... and left such enduring characters for us to both enjoy and relate to even today.

For me, my current situation sees me with some solid local friends I see semi-regularly, a larger number of online friends that I 'keep up with' on social media, and a whole bunch of friends that I count as such, but don't really keep up with: unlike me, none of my friends have regular blogs, and as such I can only go with what I see on social media. Oddly, nobody really tries to 'keep up' any more via email, mail, or( shockingly )phone calls: we're all busy, and I think we're all keeping a weather eye out for Big / Bad News - that's the extent of things if we're not actually sitting down for a beer in person.

Yet the friendships endure, for the most part, changing intensities over time.

Feb 8 – Penguins!

This week at work: laughter!

I was feeling stressed this week about various things, so I took the opportunity at work to watch as many episodes of The Penguins Of Madagascar series on YouTube as I could: there's dozens of them at watchable quality, and I quite enjoyed each one:



Thinking about the show and why I find it so appealing, it's fairly simple: the writing's solid without feeling like it's pandering to kids( weird, I know! )and the characters are memorable, especially the core 'team' of the four penguins as well as the primary antagonists, the lemurs:

Watching as many episodes as I did this week back to back, I can't say that I grew bored with the dynamic, even though it's an episodic show without a long-term arc: there's a TON of possibilities in situating a martial team of penguins in a New York zoo, with much the same setup as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles by having a major city as a backdrop for their 'undercover' adventures. None of the writing felt trite or the situations overused, as the storylines played well to the characters... and it helped that each episode was only 11 minutes long: perfect!

Feb 9 – In A Fitter State

I'm doing well, two months into 2018 - to wit:

• By today, I'd managed to shake off the cold that had me... er, cold, all this week and my energy levels are back to almost-normal
• My massage therapist commented on how I was far more flexible overall, especially my abdomen and left foot, whose main tendon used to be like a steel cable under my skin: I'm MUCH improved, and feeling far less 'fragile' of a day.
• Eyesight-wise, I'm only getting the occasional twinge when I do something I shouldn't, like glancing at my phone without my closeup glasses... otherwise, my eyestrain seems to have gone away, and I hope the eye supplements I'm taking twice daily now will 'see' more improvements happening over the next few months, with a lessening of my light sensitivity.
• On a high note, I've walked almost 13,000 steps twice this week without mishap, which is almost twice my average daily distance and nary a twinge in my legs: GREAT progress!
• I've had a low-level headache for the last three weeks, but I've atributed it to the yo-yo weather changes( +/- 2.5 pts of pressure every other day )along with the sinus pressure from my cold... but it's been managable, not debilitating.
• The extra exercise and twice-weekly swimming seem to be making a difference with my heartrate( along with watching what I'm eating: little-to-no bacon or sugar )as it's been low and steady when it should be, without going too high even when I'm busy: again, good signs, and also notable for indicating low daily anxiety.

While my stress is still hanging around, it's not at the near-crippling levels of recent years, so I'm managing it fairly well though there's been some bad days of late. Friends and family, and especially my girlfriend, have kept me balanced, and I'm finding I'm not getting fixated on what's wrong, but rather moving on to what I can do to make things right.

That's as progressive a shift as I can think of right now.

Feb 10 – Future Me?

How long will my words be around?

I've pondered this question over the decades: what, if anything, of what I write will still be around in twenty years? Or fifty? Or five hundred?

If Google or its descendant-companies are still around, will my Blog still be as well? What will people make of it, should they stumble across it in the etherweb?

Would they be able to recreate me from my blog, just like Bart Simpson? Like so:

I find it an interesting mental exercise, one with some basis in possibility: we're already coding AI's today to behave like humans, and how better to do so than by providing them with samples of a person's writing? I have over a million words in this blog to date, and I'd wager that someone would be able to make a decent interactive copy of me with enough effort and ingenuity... which is intriguing.

A form of immortality, if you will: any author hopes to live on in their works.

Feb 11 – Altered Carbon

Over the last two weeks, I've been drawn into the new NetFlix series Altered Carbon, set in a scifi cyberpunk-esque future where humans can live forever thanks to alien technology... if you can afford it, that is. While everyone has what's called a 'stack' you only get the body you're born with; should anything happen, you only get to come back if you can buy a replacement 'sleeve'( body )to house your stack... and that's where things get tricky if your credit's bad. You can read an excellent bit about the series 10-year journey to the screen here.

The production values are top-notch: seamless CGI that doesn't get in the way of the story but instead, serves it, as things should be. The acting is excellent, with good character progression, an intriguing plot, and a well-developed world with a solid backstory that's plausible and has room for exploration. I found myself watching two episodes at a time this week, as I couldn't stay away, and I've just the final ep left to treat myself with this coming week, should I be so deserving.

I think what I like most about Altered Carbon is the world-building: there's a solidity to what humanity has grown into over the last few centuries, a natural feeling that 'sure, if we discovered how to make people live forever, this is what would happen' which is the hallmark of good scifi: making excellent guesses about the future, and then commenting on what a mess humans will make of it.

Like I said: it's addicting... both the show, and scifi both.

My girlfriend made a comment to me this weekend about my blogs almost always ending on a positive note... and I responded that it's intentional: nobody wants to read a complaint journal, a weekly long-term doldrums essay-length dump of headspace. I try to tell things like they are for me, week to week: the good, the bad and the irksome all rolled together. It's part journal-diary, part here's-how-I-see things, and part this-is-what-went-down, hopefully packaged and tweaked with my own voice in words, for folks to find as they see fit. Enjoy!

Shadows, Stress and Some of the Same

The word of the week is morose.

Jan 29 - Bright

Netflix has been pretty good lately when it comes to original content, coming up with quite a few new original shows in 2017, including an interesting twist on the "buddy cop drama" theme: setting it in a world of magic, with elves, orcs and more...

Also starring Wil Smith, because... why not?

Bright was an interesting film: well-produced, decently written and with solid characters set in a world where orcs and elves have 'returned' to co-habitate alongside humans. Obviously there's all sorts of tensions involved, and you can read a summary of the show here; I can't be bothered.

It was a fun watch, which surprised me, but I can't say I'd like to go back to that world again; the backstory seemed weak, and the plot centered around a magic item that seemed TOO powerful... along with a "gee, I wonder who it is" moment that was telegraphed from the first ten minutes of the show. It's again a case of $50 million for the production, and $5 spent on the script: you get what you pay for.

I applaud Netflix for making Bright, and hope they'll do more original programming in the future: though it appears that Bright is getting a sequel, I don't think I'll be watching it.

Wanna bet they'll call it 'Brighter' ?

Jan 30 – Eyeballs

My eyes still hurt, but less each week than the last: so, um, good.

I believe it's because I'm getting better at switching glasses for each of my tasks: Real Close, Close-to-Midrange( one to five feet )and finally Everything Past Five Feet Away. Being consistent about it means that my eyes don't 'tweak' in pain when I try to look at something 'out of the range' of the pair I'm currently wearing, so I'm taking that as a sign that I'm doing things right.

I'm also switching distances every 20-30 minutes, to give my eyes a break from focusing at the same range for too long( the ol' 20-20-20 Rule )which is also helping. One trick I've found is to 'defocus' my eyes when I'm doing something close to the range-limit, so that my eyes aren't trying to make the details 'crisp' - I can still see well enough, and it works as well when I'm not wearing glasses.

This week as well, my order of Lutien Plus came in, which I'm taking twice a day. I'm not expecting miracles, but rather I hope the supplements( benefits are listed HERE )will help 'round out' my eye health, letting get back to being more flexible and relaxed of a day. Heck, I'd LOVE it if the stuff helped my night vision become less ultra-sensitive so I don't have to avert my eyes from oncoming cars in pain. One more reason to pay attention to your eye health.

Small things, but they all add up to quality of life: the eyes have it!

Jan 31 – Pulling The Shades

It's an interesting thing, privacy: it's what you make it, these days.

I'm a private person, though you wouldn't know it from this blog, tossing things out there for the entire internet to see, if it cared to look. Most people don't, though; I doubt I've had more than one random visitor a month over the last decade, and none of them likely stayed too long; why would they?

In the early days of the internet, it was a different story. People put all sorts of info online: home address, phone numbers, email addresses... all through the 90's, things that are completely are-you-NUTS? today. I was one of the few who did my best to keep my personal info OFF the web, and it shows even today: I barely get any spam, only a few marketing calls a month, and no junk mail whatsoever. Keeping a low profile online has many advantages, especially when it comes to social media, where people 'creep' your profile regularly to try to pry out info they can use to sell you things, or worse, sell to spammers to sneak past your spam filters: I still get email derived from spambots scraping my online profiles for friend's names, which irks me.

Offline, I like to keep my blinds closed, and it weirds me out that so many people leave theirs open; don't they care that other people can see their activities? Not to mention advertising their nice big-screen TV, art collection, and what-have you. While I'm no Harrison Ford, I do value my privacy, all the more so having lived on a main street for the last five years with constant traffic twenty feet away. Time to myself, the privacy of my own thoughts without interruption or distraction, is precious indeed.

Retreating to a cabin in the woods can't happen soon enough for me.

Feb 1 – Try Not To Lose

When I'm stressed, I don't want to think: I want to relax.

Which leads to problems like not enjoying semi-complicated boardgames, stimulating conversations, or other medium-to-hard mental activities: they're stressful.

Ah, conundrums...

It's really frustrating: I want to relax, to play a game... but I don't like to lose, which undercuts my self-esteem. What I seem to want is to win without trying, which my logical mind *knows* is laughable, but at the same time I can't put in the effort, because it seems too much like work, which I'm trying to avoid.

*rubs his eyes with a tired hand*

I don't have a solution to this, apart from not playing games where I can't lose, like co-operative games:

Feb 2 – It's that Day again!

Groundhog Day never fails to relax me... even if only for a while.

This week has been especially trying, as I've been at work with a cold, focusing as best I could while killing Kleenexes - not fun, but I'm damned if I'll use up my previous sick days for just a head cold. I've needed them in the past for when I'm too sick to BE at work, and I want to ensure that 2018's supply isn't wasted early on...

Anyway: great movie, one that never fails to move me. Just what I needed tonight.

It's also the 25th anniversary of the film, and worth mentioning because I've been watching it for nigh into twenty of those years, every year... and still not tired of it.

The same can't be said for the people of Woodstock, Illinois, where Groundhog Day was filmed for five weeks in 1995: the town has moved on, but much of the town has remained the same...

Definitely not a timewarp, but something else - kind of like this 15-minute video, whose creator went to Woodstock to capture many of the film's locations as they are today:

 

Feb 3 – Eyeballs

I'm feeling down this week.

Maybe it's the total lack of sunshine, or the constant rain, or the depressing size of my chequing account... a combination of many, MANY factors, but I'm down.

I'm sure the cold's not helping either, though I'm mostly over it by now. I haven't swam this past week because of it, but I'm determined to go THIS week as I NEED the exercise, to keep my health improving: I've lost 5lbs over the last 10 days, which isn't good, so exercise and eating well are the orders for February.

Quicksand Rhino isn't enjoying himself right now...

Perhaps I'm just tired: tired of hanging on to the ledge with my fingertips for so long, that they've gone numb. I'm tired of looking up from my long trudge and seeing the future no closer, my book(s) still not published( don't get me started on THAT side-quest )and each day seeming like the same "Wake, Work, Worry, Wish, Repeat" cycle - it gets old, trying to be optimistic when nothing changes for the better.

Yet 2018's here: I made it through 2017, and something's GOTTA give as long as I keep pushing, though from past experience it might be a tendon of mine.

Each day's another opportunity to push: to take another step towards the goals I've set, and nevermind that the light seems to always remain just as far away...

At least it's stopped flickering.

Feb 4 – Timing

Ergh.

I must have woken on the wrong side of the bed today, because everything hurt: my neck, my head and most of all, my mood: it was foul and decidedly down.

Writing the blog in the morning helped somewhat with the mood, but by noon my head was aching abysmally, so much so that I popped a second Tylenol, which was unusual of late.

By the time I met my lady downtown at the main library for an afternoon poetry session being presented by Victoria's Poet Laurate Yvonne Blomer, my head and neck still ached. I persevered through the presentations, which admittedly were lovely when I could focus enough on the words being spoken. It was a shame I couldn't fully take everything in, but I gritted my( mental )teeth to enjoy as much as I could through the pounding in my head, which thankfully had faded to a dull ache by the time things wrapped up a few hours later.

My lady suggested a late lunch / early dinner at Shiki Sushi, which combined with her gracious company really helped lift my mood. We ended the day with a long walk that looped over to Cherry Bomb Toys, where a friend had earlier today said some Babylon 5 toys had come in! Unfortunately, someone had beat me to the Shadow Sentient by ten minutes( ARGH!!!!!!!! )but we were still able to enjoy the rare sight of a good number of B5 toys on display:

Middle Left: Shadow Sentient, usually goes for $150 USD, IF you can find it...

Not that I could have afforded to purchase the figure, mind you, but I would have liked to have held it, at least... kind of like finding a unicorn and being allowed to pet its nose.

Pshew... I'm glad this week's over with, especially Sunday: what with the cold, body aches, stress and the mood I was in, I was fit to chew adamantium... but, sometimes the elephant sits on you, and all you can do is wriggle out from under: no butts about it.

Writing Woes, Wasted Weekends and Wrapups

The word of the week is pertinacious.

Jan 22 - Farewell, Earthsea

The losses continue: today Ursula K. LeGuin has passed.

An acclaimed Master of scifi and fantasy, LeGiun was one of the giants that writers hope to measure themselves against: genius coupled with skill, decades of experience, wit, wisdom and all the other ingredients mixed together to create an artist of words without compare. We'll not see her like again for a long time, if ever, and her life advice is worth paying attention to for its piercing insight.

Neil Gaiman presents lifetime achievement award to Ursula K. Le Guin at  2014 National Book Awards from National Book Foundation on Vimeo.

While I was introduced to her work early when my grade school class read A Wizard Of Earthsea( which I loved! )I must say I've not pushed myself to read much of her other work, including the seminal The Left Hand Of Darkness, one of the greatest science fiction novels ever written.

When I think on why, it's clear now: I wasn't ready.

Having consumed so much scifi and fantasy as I have, I think I knew as I was doing so that there were certain works I'd wait to get to, like Left Hand, because I wanted to ensure I had the depth and breadth of understanding before tackling them. I recall reading Larry Niven's Ringworld when I was twelve, and only appreciating it on a visual / story level: cool stuff, but the book has so much MORE than that, even on a technical level.

This article from Tor.com is a brilliant goodbye to LeGuin, and well worth reading, as it shows her far-reaching influence on generations of writers, as well as many other folk. Because that's what giants do:

They cast long shadows where they walk.

Jan 23 – Debt Trap

When you're trying to stay afloat, it's grimly amusing to know you're not alone.

According to recent surveys, Canadians carry the second-highest gross-income-to-debt ratio in the Group of 20 Developed Nations, a worrying statistic because so many Canadians are walking a razor's edge of debt levels right now:

That's my wallet in the middle, most days

With interest rates hiked 1.5% last week, some people may not be able to cover their bills, when it comes to mortgages: "Property rich, house poor" as the saying goes, which makes me glad I'm not in that group right now.

Thankfully, in my own case, TD Bank managed to get their act together, though it took a few phone calls over the past few weeks to get things back to normal. My interest rate was preserved because of my good history AND my timing, which was my main concern: my payments actually fell by $12/month, which was great!

Now I just have to keep my nose clean for a few more years, looking for opportunities to increase my income so I can chip away at this debt-mountain on my back until it's the size of a big boulder, then a rock, then a pebble...

Persistence, patience and planning: for the future.

Jan 24 – Hero's Journey

My sister and I watched Moana on Monday night...

It was wonderful!

What struck me the most was its almost-pedantic adherence to J.J. Campbell's The Hero's Journey( see here for a definition ). While I've noticed it to various degrees in films for the last few years now that I know what to watch for, Moana is the first I've seen since that embodies it completely - this reviewer in particular nailed their observations along those lines.

Which spurred me to check YouTube for a few other animated examples, and that was when I came across this gem: a tongue-in-cheek sendup of The Hero's Journey in two minutes!

Have a watch, it's hilarious:




Jan 25 – Doomsday

Unsettling news today...

The Doomsday Clock was moved forward to 2.5 minutes to Midnight.

In case you're not familiar with the Clock, and what it represents, there's an excellent primer here, which looks at the various Major Problems facing humanity, including:

- Nuclear threats

- Climate change

- Biosecurity

- Bioterrorism

- Miscellaneous threats including cyber warfare and AI

As the graphic below shows, the clock is moved each year in January to reflect the current state of ALL threats to humanity. The furthest it has been from Midnight was in 1991, and the closest in 1953:

In looking at social media today, I was disheartened to see comments like this one, showing people have forgotten the reasons WHY the Clock is so important:

Which leads us to a classic quote, itself too often forgotten:

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -George Santayana

Jan 26 – *Achoo!*

Ah, nertz... I've caught a cold.

I'm glad I got my flu shot 2 months ago though, as this is the first time in almost five years that I still feel halfway human while sick; as the last few flu-season blog entries have shown, I've previously been down for the count( including pneumonia! )when I've fallen sick, and Christmas 2016 was when I lost 16 lbs of weight while EXTREMELY ill: never again!

Nevertheless, some people keep railing against flu shots, and vaccinations in general... and it boggles my mind some days. I grasp that they often have a poor understanding of the science involved, as well as other cognitive biases and probably just some plain old 'what we do not understand, we fear' issues. Not to mention WIDESPREAD misinformation via social media thanks to anti-vaxxer 'activists' who I think should be held responsible for the suffering( and associated costs )their rabid rantings have caused.

Get the facts on flu vaccines, not fiction

I'll post more on the topic next week, but for now it's time for me to dig in: chicken broth, plenty of fluids, an extra sweatshirt and hot baths / showers are all in the cards for me for the next few days to try and kick the bug's butts.

Good thing I laid in a good supply of Ultra Kleenexes earlier this month!

Jan 27 – Intimidation

I read an excellent post today by writer David Gerrold, one that helps to explain the WHY behind so much of the online venom behind those pushing the far-right agendas these days... and it's surprisingly simple. Here's a summary snippet:

The entire post is worth reading here, because of how it gets into the mindset of those who equate authority with fear and intimidation, then act accordingly. It's a mindset that I admit I have a hard time understanding, not only because it makes my mind feel dirty, but because I can't relate to the sort of person who would ACT that way to other human beings... though the word sociopath comes to mind, it's all too easy to fall into labels.

Time and again, I see people responding to my thoughtful, carefully-composed posts with venom, emotional diversions, memes and just plain dismissiveness of "You're wrong, so there!" which is the "Nyah, Nyah!" of the schoolyard bully.

We're better than that... or at least, humanity has to try to be.

This one's ruminating in my head, and likely I'll have more another day to say on it.

Jan 28 – Wrapping Things Up

Bleh.

I spent most of yesterday on the couch, watching Netflix, unable to concentrate much beyond that while wearing a rut in the carpet to the bathroom killing Kleenexes every ten minutes: it kept me moving, at least, so there's that.

Oh, Dreamworks: why the 4th-season mehs?

I used the opportunity to catch up on a few shows I've neglected, one of them being the fourth season of the new Voltron... which ended up being a little disappointing. Truth be told: the writing just didn't hold up: it made some big plot errors, missed several opportunities and felt just kinda... flat, give the building tension of the last three seasons. To give the show credit, the characters are solid and the animation excellent, but if the writing's not crisp, the rest unravels.

At work this past week, I also wrapped up the complete Dave the Barbarian  animated TV series from Disney, which was as excellent as I recalled: full of fun, puns and heroes on the run... from danger, because "they're the only ones we've got" - it's great that the series can be found on YouTube; though I managed to record a good number of them when it was broadcast to air( using my ATI All-in-Wonder card!!! )I didn't get them all, so there were about a dozen episodes that were 'new' to me, which was a treat! If you haven't seen it, go watch it now!

Speaking of treats: today my lovely lady took me out for a few hours at lunch, to set my cabin-fever to rest, as I haven't been out of the apartment since Thursday night. We had lunch at the nearby My Thai Cafe, seating ourselves next to the washroom so I could duck in as needed to vent my nasal annoyance - the food was delicious, what I could taste of it. We then whiled away a bit more time over in Oak Bay at Good Earth Coffee, where incredibly I managed a 4-2 victory ratio over my lady playing Hive; she complemented me on my improved skills, which really made my day! And, to top it all off, we took a brief walk during a lull in the heavy rain down the road to a local toy shop, where to my delight I found this:

WOW - so cool, and for LESS than the MSRP of $17.99!!!

I've always wanted a Terror Dog toy, so poicture me with a happy grin on my face, akin to a kid getting a lollipop after getting a needled at the doctor's office, and you'll know exactly how I felt today after picking this little set up for a mere $14.99 - cheap therapy!

And, smiles are good for the sick: "Laughter Is The Best Medicine" y'know!

Because I've got a cold, my heartrate's up a fair bit, and while I'm not monitoring it obsessively( only a few times a day, NOT hourly )I'm conscious of that knowledge being a source of anxiety: I'm telling myself that it's JUST a cold, that I'm doing WELL compared to previous sick-times, and that it will pass in a few days with effort and attention to self-care. I've too much to do in the next few months to start the year off on the wrong foot, so all my will is focused on Getting Better NOW: you wanna bet those bugs are in for a FIGHT!