Distant Duos, Discernment and Disappointing Myself

The word of the week is ratiocinate.

Feb 19 – Spaceship Park!

Well this is a blast from the past: an old stomping ground of mine!

Actually, it's a twin-once-removed from an old playground I used to frequent as a kid, which until now I thought was unique. Behold - the Enterprise Two:

Seems they've let a few things slide...

The above is a playground in current use in Australia, on Frew Street in Milton, Queensland. It's of a different design than the original playground set that was at the 'Spaceship Park' when I was young, smaller too, but it's of the same basic design - so cool!

Below is the current image of the Enterprise-inspired play equipment that was installed in 1972. It was removed, sold, cleaned up and installed at Safari Niagara in 2002 and is as you see it now, very similar to the unit above. It has two slides descending, one from each nacelle, and a stair leading up to the enclosed 'bridge' which has two reclining steel 'gravity chairs' inside. There's a 'transporter cage' below the bridge, and the engineering hull is hollow while open at both ends to let kids climb through it. Tons of space fun!

The ol' girl's looking spiffy!

There's even an article about the installation and history of the 'Playground Enterprise' of 'Spaceship Park' as the kids referred to it! It's also worth noting that the bridge often stank of spilled beer, urine and cigarette butts, as it was in a public park and teens loved to sneak in there after dusk.... which made it not a lot of fun to play in as a kid, I can tell you. Here's a snap of the original from the 70's:

I like to think that's my sister and I playing!

It's too bad that 'theme playgrounds' like this were only around for a few years, before cities went full-on over to 'safety first' designs that were quite functional, but lacked any of the style we see in both of the above designs.

Maybe in a few years we'll see a hybrid of the two show up somewhere?

If so, I'll dub it the 'Enterprise-E' and let you know here first!

Feb 19 - Spotting Fake News

As it turns out, I'm pretty good at this sort of thing - mainly through practice.

For those of you out there who tune out completely: good for you! I've yet to be able to turn to that 'social media survival method' but it may come down to it soon, if I can't manage to stop caring as much about the world.

For those of you somewhat bewildered and/or overwhelmed by the preponderance of fake news out there, take heart. There's several ways you can go about sorting the shite from the shiny, such as using this short list:

Six Steps to Evaluate Contrarian Claims

1. Identify the claim: First, identify as simply as possible what the actual claim is.
2. Construct the supporting argument: An argument requires premises (those things we take to be true for the purposes of the argument) and a conclusion (effectively the claim being made). The premises together give us reason to accept the conclusion.
3. Determine the intended strength of the claim: Determining the exact kind of argument requires a quick detour into the difference between deductive and inductive reasoning. A claim is definitive when it says something is definitely the case, rather than being probable or possible.
4. Definitive claims must be supported by deductive reasoning. Essentially, this means that if the premises are true, the conclusion is inevitably true.
5. Check the logical structure: We can see that in the argument from step two — that the climate change is changing because of natural processes — the truth of the conclusion is not guaranteed by the truth of the premises.
6. Check for ambiguity: The argument mentions Xin its premises and conclusion. But X can change in many ways, and the phrase itself can have a variety of meanings. The problem with this argument is that the phrase is used to describe two different kinds of X.
7. Check premises for truth or plausibility: Even if there were no ambiguity about the term 'X' the argument would still fail when the premises were tested. In step four, the third premise, “If something was the cause of an event in the past, it must be the cause of the event now”, is clearly false.

Lastly, you can always use a 'cheat sheet' like this lovely bookmark, to help:

Feb 21 – The Secret To Life?

Oh, I could write for days about this subject...

But I won't subject you to that sort of rambling. Instead, I'll simply present you with this: the Japanese concept of Ikigai ...

I like that the concept of Ikigai isn't a 'rarefied' one, but rather grounded in the ordinary thoughts and goals that we all carry day to day. This means that it's achievable by anyone who can put some thought into what they want out of life, using a simple framework that doesn't disconnect you from reality.

Given how INTO reality many of us are these days with social media, I'm all for that!

Feb 22 – Me: Effing up...

Apparently, I can be an asshole, without realizing it, as I learned this week.

I made a comment on a friend's post that they didn't take well, as I could have worded things better... that's what you get if you let your stress take over your tongue, or in this case, typing fingers - it's a first for me.

Charlie Brown gets it...

I'm disappointed in myself, as this is something I thought I wasn't capable of doing: I think about what I do, constantly, so that my emotions don't get ahold of me, especially through the keyboard where it's all too easy to snap off a response in seconds.

Being an adult is a work in progress: for ME that means holding oneself to higher standards, ALL the time, and any slip means I'm not doing a good enough job of looking in the mirror each day.

I rarely admit errors in judgement( a failing of mine )because I see myself as striving to correct them BEFORE they happen through forethought and practice, but if I don't make them, then I can't learn from the experience. In hindsight, I see that I could have done BETTER when it came to many of my choices, which while not counting as mistakes, mean I didn't learn as often or as quickly as I should have living life.

Handling stress always comes at a cost, and I believed I knew most of the ways that it affected me. In this case, I wasn't seeing how subtle the slip could be: one picture pushed a button and I rushed to 'correct' what I perceived as someone else's mistake... instead of seeing it as an opportunity to discuss WHY my friend posted it, and what it meant to me.

Fortunately, my friend and I worked things out after a fair bit of back-and-forth communication, which wouldn't have been possible if they hadn't been both gracious and open-minded about talking things over. I was able to make the Why of my comments clear, as to where they were coming from within me, and we've patched things up, though I still feel like crap.

For now I'm stepping back from social media somewhat to re-examine what I'm really accomplishing there, and in balance as to what it's doing to me.

Feb 23 – Really, ReBoot..?

Oh, man... this is so disappointing, and par for the course this week.

ReBoot is returning to the airwaves after nearly twenty years, and I have no desire to see it, because.... well, have a look for yourselves:



What were the creators THINKING, to make a bad 90's Power Rangers clone - .. that's the best they could do with 17 years work? It'll vanish as quickly as it appeared, and unmourned by any, including most every fan of the original ReBoot, as many are already saying. 

Compare the 'rebooted' show to the old ReBoot and you'll see why I'm passing... there's not a whiff of originality, character, effort or passion in the new, while the old has them in spades:

Tragic, and Game Over... what a waste!

Feb 24 – Wheel Of Time: Found~>~!

Many years ago, I found a website, and lost it again.

While it's not uncommon for that sort of thing to happen, even with the extensive bookmarks I've retained through various backups, it happened to be a site I VERY much wanted to peruse, as it involved the Wheel Of Time series by Robert Jordan.

Specifically, the site in question had a 'tracker visual,' which allowed a reader to track all the main characters, plots and sometimes places through EACH novel of the series by chapter. Meaning you could follow the development of any main character or plot throughout the entire series, which is an incredible thing!

And until this week, I thought I'd lost it forever.

Incredibly, I happened to mention my frustration in a WoT FBook group, and a member there responded with a site name: Encyclopaedia-WOT.org! Excited, I pulled up the site immediately and indeed, it WAS the site I'd been looking for!

Now all I have to do is find the time to re-read the entire series... but when I DO get around to it again, I might just track through chapter by chapter instead!

Feb 25 – Working to Type

My girlfriend and I went for a too-short drive this morning after breakfast to enjoy a bit of the sunshine while it lasted, going along a few back roads here and there in the northern parts before we had to part ways again before lunch. She's got to finish her move from her old digs to her new( MUCH closer to me AND her work both, which is amazing! )while I had to dig into writing... and having to miss a friend's birthday party to do so. Suckage.

I spent a good part of the rest of the day working on two writing projects: fleshing out the rest of the short story I'll be submitting for a contest in 3 days, and talking myself up in the other project for a temporary( and better! )position at work as a trainer. I'm excited about both projects, but lamenting the time it's taken to work on both in the last week: there's never enough energy to concentrate more than an hour or two after work, so that's been challenging.

This week's been challenging to me, as I've had to come to grips with my opinion being at odds with other people, such that I've had to wonder if MY opinion is the correct one... or if it is, then how to remain respectful of other's opinions while still remaining friends? How can I 'stick by my guns' without feeling crappy about it, when other people tell me that I'm wrong, or otherwise disagree with my stance on a topic? There's surprisingly little information out there about exactly HOW to navigate this kind of relationship minefield, which doesn't help. Knowing the line where you cross over from having an opinion you can back up( good )to being an opinionated jerk( bad )is rather difficult, especially as I'm coming from years of just wanting people to get along... leading too often to being a milkquetoast-spined lump of Agree-With-Anyone - which I'm not.

It's something I'm consciously not going to be devoting much energy to in the near future, as I've got too much ELSE on my plate to take on THIS overlarge mouthful.

When I do, I'll let you know what I find.

I'm actively working NOT to dwell on my self-disappointment this week, to turn it into a learning experience, as all mistakes should be. I make as many as some, but I hope that I make fewer than most as the years pass, as I learn and don't repeat my errors... and sometimes even see similar ones coming so I can avoid them too. Moping about mistakes is a waste of energy, and while my Shiny Image Of Smartness has taken a ding, the rest is still shiny, and I can probably buff things out with more hard work. Onwards.  

Love, Late Learners and Losing People

The word of the week is intangible.

Feb 12 – Fuzzy Feet Feelings

When I first started this blog, I promised myself three things I would do: I wouldn't repeat myself intentionally, I wouldn't use it as a forum for complaints, and I wouldn't talk about socks... because making much of the mundane means that you've run out of things to talk about in a meaningful or interesting way.
 
Well, I'm reserving the last stipulation for today, as this is too amazing NOT to share. John's Crazy Socks is the kind of brilliant company we should all aspire to be a part of, and not just because our feet would be warm and cozy:
 

 

Feb 13 – Aliens, The Ride?
 
As many of you know, I'm a fan of the Aliens series of films, though the third installment isn't exactly on my rewatch list. The universe the films inhabit is extremely well-thought-out, and I thought today I'd share some of the incredible things that have been created inside its imaginary boundaries. First up is a WILD ride through Aliens: The Ride... as a roller coaster:

 

This second clip shows how the fantastic roller-coaster sim above was made, which I think also illustrates the dedication and talent of Aliens fans:



Then we have The Making of Aliens, which has incredible details about the film's production that show the gobs of hard work and forethought put into its creation:



Finally, we have the full cinematic walkthrough of Aliens: Colonial Marines, the  game, which plays out much like its a cool new film in the franchise:


 


Feb 14 – Love

I feel damn lucky in love, I tell you.

Here I am, an older guy with little relationship history to speak of, and yet I've managed to find the singular woman on earth who fell for me, just as I am. Truthfully though, she found me, and she's a thousand kinds of wonderful... It's like hitting a hole-in-one from the far side of the solar system, and a million other metaphors describing what having the nigh-impossible happen feels like. 

Here's what she made me this Valentine's Day, hanging in front of my Golden Wall of Happy at work - a fabric heart with an original poem she composed:
 

I think of those as Golden Tickets on the wall...

What amazes me about how we met is that we were both pursuing our interest in writing, and that brought us into the same place at the same time: the local writing group that I'd just started attending the previous year and which I now co-run. Just like that, our mutual love of the written word led to love in the real, and I couldn't be happier about that fortunate coincidence!  

Which also brings up pet names in relationships: why? I found this an interesting read about the subject, and while I don't use pet names myself( apart from sweetheat, my love and other endearments )it's a great insight into how relationships work at that level.
 

Feb 15 – Passion Pursuit

Doubt is a writer's constant companion, day in and day out.  

Aside from Imposter Syndrome, one of the things you worry about as a writer is "Am I improving, or am I just fooling myself that I can make it?" which often enters a doubt-feedback-loop when you're slogging away alone without anyone noticing: no publications, just rejection and a slow crawl towards your goals.  

This week I came across another writer's experience on being a writer late to the game, and about having a belief in oneself that's unshakable in the face of doubt: 
 

The key takeaway:

The bottom line to this is significant for all of us: We’re smarter than we think. Don’t give up on an ambition, or a passion, because you think you can’t pull it off. You do not want to get down to the final years of your life and wonder what you might have achieved if you’d tried.

I'm persistent, and I forget that as long as I'm still moving forward, my goals are still in reach: I just have to persist, and not give up. The small encouragements I receive from friends, family and especially other writers, published or no, keeps me going.

Write on!


Feb 16 – Gun Horror

NOTE: Skip this entry if you don't want your week spoiled.



 _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _  

Valentine's Day this year was a horror show for the students at Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, Florida: a student shot 17 of his classmates dead and wounded many others in the 18th mass shooting in the USA in 2018 - one every two days.  

Apart from the tragic aspect of the shooting, one thing has stood apart: anger, leading to action. The students of Stoneman High aren't stepping back from the cameras, but rather looking INTO them and screaming for answers, as well as action, from the US Government to address the ever-present fear of guns in America. I've spoken about this before, regularly, and been disturbed by the reactions; one in particular from a friend of mine stood out, where I was told to 'man up' after expressing my fear of travelling to the USA due to the incidence of gun crimes.  

Man up... really? 

Is that what the students of Stoneman should do to deal with what happened? "So sorry all those kids were killed and wounded, but you really need to Man Up: it's just the price America pays for Freedom, you know!"  

 Fuck that assinine statement, to which I say:
 

These are just a fraction of the images appearing this week in the USA re: Gun Control

I've examined this subject for years, while I could go on at length, I believe a big part of the solution is dealing with repressed white male rage, as well as the easy availability of guns in the USA, as this image shows comparatively:
 

I'm worn out from caring this week, about a neighbouring country where a good number of my friends live, and that I'd like to travel more of, at some point.  

But not when there's a likelihood that I won't come back alive.


 
Feb 17 – Big Debt = Tiny Home Action!

I talk about tiny homes a fair bit, but it's just talk, while other folks are making their dreams a reality. Such is the case of a young couple right here in Victoria, who decided to change their lifestyle completely in order to get out from under a crippling $90,000 debt load... which I can relate to:

 

While the couple acknowledges that they had a fortunate set of circumstances that allowed them to get into tiny home ownership, the fact remains that they DID it, in the main through good financial choices, patience and plenty of hard work.  

Inspiring and local: love it!
 

Feb 18 – Blocked? Me? Why?

Well, this is a first for me: yesterday I was Blocked by a friend for expressing my opinion, ironically after blogging last week about friendship.

Which I stated rationally, calmly and logically... apparently it was easier to get RID of me altogether, then for this person to ask themselves why posting their cute gun meme was an issue:

So MANY memes out there are DESIGNED to dismiss opposition with cute non-analogous comparatives...

I didn't post it as invitation to debate it, by the way: I'm worn out from this week's events, and by people refusing to see their own mental roadblocks. I've got an open mind, tempered by the knowledge I've gathered from MANY years of knowing the subject matter inside and out. In this case, it's the issue of Gun Control in the USA, which I more than understand pushes some people's buttons...

Yet even studying the issue for as long as I have, I've not come up with any concrete solutions: more national regulations, insurance and other ideas are all out there... and I am certain that there MUST be changes, BIG changes in the US, if they're going to come to grips with these horror shows.
 

If you're going to Block me on FBook, then at least have the decency to tell me why, first... because if it's just due to my having an opinion you don't like and expressing it like an adult, then it matters to discuss the reasons why,  if only so I don't repeat my mistake AND learn from it. Developing one's critical thinking skills along with empathy, learn to see different perspectives, keep an open mind, and above all, don't let your emotions take control over your reason: all of these things are important to me in both the public and private space. This is a learning experience for me, one that's not happened before, and I understand that it's not about me being right as much as it is me expressing my frustration on the first target I see, be it friend or stranger... and that's something I know I still have to work on.

I appreciate all of you, friends and family both, and you must know that I don't take ANY of you for granted, despite some differences. As should we all.

 
This week and weekend have been damn busy: I've been doing a line-by-line critique of a friend's 80K-word YA novel, as well as working on a story for a contest submission, both due ASAP. The weekend was especially challenging, as car problems ate up previous time On Saturday( parent's van sunroof stuck OPEN while RAINING! )and I broke my girlfriend's car door thanks to a HUGE blast of 90kph wind out of nowhere that snapped the limiter rod - DAMN! All these things and more have been wearing, but I've dealth with them, and am now on to a new week... and new challenges.

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!