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Sixty three thousand four hundred eighty seven minutes…

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Or however the song goes. Another busy one today ladies, gents and those whom wish to remain nameless. Have been going non stop since eight am. Got a few more PSD’s to build and place and my last instore project for the day can go off for review. Had to call in to a supplier to figure out a tricky die line today. I just can’t seem to figure out how they do it, given the amount of material we have to use. My spatial awareness is usually pretty good, but this one feels as though it needs to fold through another dimension in order to work. Maybe I’ve brained to hard this weekend and I’m feeling foggy or dim witted today. The vendor will ship a hard copy to me so I can assemble it first hand and see what’s what. That should help out alot. I have seen a fair number of odd shapes but I can usually figure them out in my head. I even took to cutting one out of construction paper, and I still can’t see how they are doing it. But one straight from the source may correct for any of my errors.

Another beauty of a day outside, with lots of sunshine. Nice to have it, as tomorrow and the day after the temperature will sky rocket and it’ll absolutely piss down for two days. Just you watch, it’ll snow a few days later, and we’ll be right back to where we are, but with 100% more ice!

Wish I had more to tell on my book, but worked hard on Sunday, and now have paid projects to keep me busy for a while.

**Added note : worked right through until 5:00pm for the first time in a while. Had to stop for an hour for school pick up, but otherwise a full day’er. Woah! With phone calls and mail drop I was having office job flash backs. Except for almost no interruptions when at home. Not even a single delivery today either! A text from a neighbour and one from my mum, but otherwise laser focused today.

Also it is Taco Tuesday, so I have that to look forward to this evening. Even if I am craving pizza for one reason or another. Hard to go wrong with a zesty taco! Which reminds me, it has been far too long since I have been able to indulge in a hefty chimmichonga from ‘Made in Mexico’ out of Newmarket. Damn they make a fine Chimmy! So good. You could club a man to death with it, they are so voluptuous!

Sixty two: Microns versus thousandths of an inch.

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Welcome back to Monday! New week new me, am I right!?! I’m positive but I’m not that optimistic. Pragmatic might suit me better. Looking for the hidden surprise while allowing myself to enjoy things as they are. Like – expect the worst, but enjoy what comes to you.

Anyway, I’ve just gone and sprung an appointment on myself for early today so I’ll need to keep this short.

Hey! Did you see that I wrote about 3000 words of short stories yesterday? Nice. Haven’t had that kind of output for a single day in more than a year. Had a bit of umph to try a third but got caught out with a possible Cinderella Story for the Cincinnati Bengals. But – they botched it, so. Whatever. Had a great bowl of chili though. So good!

Why spend the money when they just want to play with the box.

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This is a lesson learned from every single Christmas, birthday and gift giving holiday that we’ve ever had over the last near decade. Kids love toys, certainly. But they are also consumed by the need to hang on to card board boxes to colour, decorate, modify and play around with for weeks after the toy has lost parts, fallen out of favour, or been ignored. You think you will remember this revelation, but it will hit you anew, every time. Luckily marketplace can get you some great presents at drastically reduced prices, so you don’t care as much if their initial excitement is about the box and not it’s contents. Let them have at it. They’re happy, giggling and playing well together, so that’s all I can ask for.

I couldn’t wait for Monday to celebrate Valentine’s day. Also the present I gave my kids this morning is to help them to ignore how much football my wife will watch today. Pre-game coverage, Cinderella stories on the Bengals, theory and strategy with pundits from all over the USA, the game itself, the commercials, the endless speeches at the trophy ceremony. It’ll take up the whole afternoon and well into the evening. I like the spectacle for the new movie trailers, and any funny one off product commercials that we catch here in Canada. But they always go up on YouTube, so I could easily give The Superbowl a miss if I wanted to.

Day 61 is here, and looking sunny, with blue skies and sub zero temperatures- again. I don’t have any data on this, but stick with me here. I ‘feel’ like this particular winter has had more blue sky sunny days than most winters I can recall. That’s not a scientific fact, but it feels true. Which means very little to anyone else I’m sure. I’m willing to bet that because of the Pandemic making business a fair bit slower, I’ve just been able to have the time and the desire to notice when the sky is blue and the sun is shining while it’s bitterly cold outside. Could be that the weather is mostly the same percentage of sunny vs. Cloudy year over year but my wistful glances out the window this season has noticed the ice blue and registered it, and forgotten about any drab grey I’ve seen. Not forgotten, that’s the wrong word. Taken no notice of, ignored? Ignored seems like the right frame of mind for what I’m talking about.

In other news we have family that have finally, after two years of complaining about it, gone to Florida for some R & R. I get it, we’ve been stuck in, mostly at home for two years, soon to start year three, and people with disposable income are getting antsy to get out and about. In October I made it to a single movie, which felt like a morsel of normalcy. Mask and everything while I watched. I was just happy to get to have that back, briefly. Different than international travel, sure, but I understand the desire.

Did you catch the story recap I posted a few days ago? Can you guess how things are going to end? I hope not, but if you’ve read all four sub sections of book one you might have an inkling for how things will turn out. I hope not, but you very well could. Which leads me to another question for those of you who write. If you thought people might guess at your initial ending would you feel pressured in any way to add in additional twists, or go an entirely different route to end it? I guess I’ll see how close to what I’m aiming for I get when the characters start to act up and act out! Happy Sunday Feb 13th of the year 2022.

Bread you can believe in, and other silly tag lines.

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Having worked in marketing departments for some multinational corporations you really start to see just how much BS there is out in the world regarding your average product. From bread to deodorant, to wine and beer. A tonne of the marketing jargon is bunk made up my pedantic people playing at semantics. It’s all geared towards garnering the cash of not only the staple consumer, but the fickle and flighty “experiential” consumer who is looking for an ‘experience or ritual’ attached to their product. What your average person considers to be just opening a can or bottle, they call a cherished pause in the day to listen to the crisp pop of the bottle cap, and the decanting of the golden liquid, etc etc… copy writers just describe opening a bottle in fancy terms and a select few people gobble that shit up.

You can really see it if you have kids ages four through ten. When those endless commercials for toys come on inbetween the endless stream of shows geared towards showcasing those self same toys. The colours, the tone of voice, the offer of something you JUST CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT. Ugh. It’s a thing.

So Day 60 is here and it is once again cold, icy and snowing. Winter in Canada, what more is there to say? Going to enjoy some breakfast while watching Rock Solid Builds out of Newfoundland. Praise be to HGTV and the kids actually playing well together for a change. I need to eat.

How much blood does this Blood god need?

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Can you satiate a blood god with a bucket of blood? Does he need gallons of the stuff? Would a barrel suffice? Or are we talking like lakes or oceans worth? Where is the power derived from? The iron content, the plasma or the red blood cells themselves? What happens if some of your offerings have sickle cell anemia or blood poisoning? Can you substitute any blood? Like does a bull count as several people due to the quantity, or is it the quality of the blood? Like… is a singular virgin’s blood better than, say an entire herd of cattle? Does the blood god have a preference of species or is it just the amount in the offering that matters. How does the blood god keep all that blood from coagulating into a rock solid mass? Does it exude chemicals or treatments to keep it flowing in liquid form? Would working for a slaughter house be considered cheating? Like do meat packing plants with their waste blood pools out back hold a sweet spot in the blood gods ruined heart? How could you compete with the quantity spilt by these industries. Can you just sort of splash it on the ground. Do you have to get all of it to wash over an altar? Like what’s the practicality of the donation process? Do you just shout the name of your given blood god and let’er rip? Can multiple people involved claim the same massive offering or do you have to divide it into shares or percentages? Could you just farm it like a living blood bank, or can an offering only be made in death? Could you resuscitate an offering to make it again? Asking the big questions here, folks.

Just a thought. Any who – so tomorrow is day 60. I guess I could write about the impending spectacle of The Superbowl. I’m not entirely sure I remember who is going to be in it, beyond the Cincinnati Bengals. I do recall there being a lot of shouting and whooping regarding them not having a Superbowl showing since 1992* or something along those lines. (*I really could just google this to look up the correct answer, but I don’t care enough to double check this sports factoid.)

We will most likely indulge in some pizza and wings to watch the game, and all of the new tent pole movie commercials, and the half time show. Although I’m not aware of who is performing. Prince is dead, so not him. And some of my current favourites don’t have a large enough following to play the Superbowl. I’d love to see Wolfmother or The Blue Stones or even Big Wreck play the half time show, but that’ll never happen. I wonder if we will get any meme worthy material like “the left shark” or Janet Jackson’s boob.

Speaking of meme worthy performances do you remember a few winters ago when Mariah Carrey was to do New Year’s eve and she Diva’d her way out of the sound check, then frog croaked her way into like one song of her set and flubbed the whole thing, looking ridiculously unprofessional the whole time. Yeah – that was good, like watching a slow rolling car crash great, not this is actually great, kind of way. It was pretty cringeworthy.

Alas, today is Friday, so that means more snow and unbearably cold weather for the weekend. Of course – of course. Valentine’s day is on Monday, so if you need to do so, go pick something up for your wife or kids. Not like a Lexus or anything that fucking dumb, but like a book on a topic you know they like, or a movie you know they want to see. Something small but personal. Like you actually love them, or some such. Wow – that sounds preachy. You do you. Do whatever it is you do that shows people near and dear to you that you love them.

Watching the Winter Olympics

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And feeling rather blah about it. Not that I get all dressed up in red and white face paint and shake a flag around for two weeks at the best of times, but really not feeling it this year. We watched a few moments of Alpine skiing, half pipe, freestyle snowboarding and some speed skating. Not for very long, and with only passing interest. I remember years were we would wake up super early, or stay up late to catch stuff live, and to watch the over tired tv personalities wrangle with sports figures and get drunk on set and act up. It was hilarious and entertaining and fun. But this Winter Olympics feels like it has this massive black cloud looming over it, because we all know about the Uighurs, and the Human Rights issues going on there, but we are to what? Forget it for two weeks, forgive it for the sake of some live sports on tv 24/7. It feels off. Hard to shake even with all the pomp and ceremony surrounding the events. Doesn’t help that Covid has the stands bare, and it looks as hollow as it feels. But before we get all Righteous and sanctimonious, let us remember how many other countries are participating in Apartheid like occupations, and are actively producing human rights abuses against members of their own populations. So – yeah. Now that that has been said. On to something else.

After last weeks school covid exposure we have tested clear again today, thankfully. Our friends whose child fell ill from Covid from that same classroom has since passed covid along to three of the four members of the family. Three of them seem to be mild, but one is in tough shape. The little one who brought it home is now on the up & up.

Did anyone out there watch the new Ghostbusters? Was it any good? I kind of want to see it, but I’ve had a slew of bad luck watching reboots and things like that. I don’t want to buy it, as the cgi looked suspect. More cartoony than I had hoped for. Although now that I’m a middle aged man I realize that most franchise stuff is geared towards 8-12 year olds to garner life long fans. Trying to revisit movies you loved as a kid will deflate you fairly quickly. The rose coloured glasses of misunderstood jokes, or being enthralled by bright colours and slapstick comedy while missing the point of the film itself comes home to roost when you finally have more to bring to the viewing than the enthusiasm of child-like wonder.

Hold on, I’ve just been asked to make a pumpkin out of blue and yellow pipe cleaners. A father’s work is never done.

Don’t mind me, just over here reliving the same day again.

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Can deja vu cover huge portions of a two year span? Or am I just going a little stir crazy at home, in a cold February? We had a few short weeks of something different, but we are back to the online elearning space to shuffle through our book matched days again. Not too awful for short preventative spurts, but draining and awful when they drag on for months without end. On the bright side, kids are safe and sound, after a narrow escape from a close Covid encounter in the classroom. I am also not as busy, and can afford to lend my computer to my child for class time for four days.

Well, we say four days, but after such a close call, a brush up against potential calamity do I keep them home for another few weeks? I’d feel so much better if we’d be able to vaccinate my youngest who isn’t quite five yet. Her little friend from play group is one of two currently out with Covid. Poor little munchkin. A fellow junior, and totally unvaccinated due to the age restrictions. We have our fingers crossed for mild/minor illness, since we know they aren’t asymptomatic.

All the best to other struggling families out there.

When covid comes to town – again.

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We had notification last night that there is an active positive Covid case in my youngest child’s kindergarten class. In another of the junior kindergarteners, all of whom are too young to be vaccinated even once unless born in Jan or early Feb. So even if the young ones have had a first dose very little time has passed for partial immunity to build. Ugh!

So this morning we were testing, and worrying and watching, and waiting. So far thumbs up, all good. Negative tests for our peace of mind. And a stay at home sick day for our troubles. We always knew it would come calling. Pushing it’s dirty tendrils into every facet of our lives. We’ve been very fortunate to only have a few cases in people we know and are close to, physically that is. People from within our semi permanent ten person bubble. Let’s just say it’s been a quiet two years with just our ten faces in close contact. Not that we haven’t seen others, outdoors and physically removed by several feet, and masks.

Makes sense that the greatest threat lies within our youngest child’s kindergarten class. Little kids don’t care much for the potential threat, and lose track of themselves when they get excited by play-dough or toys. It’s understandable. I don’t like it, but I get it. As far as being the weakest link and all that, I totally understand.

So – what to do, what to do, with both kids home, yet again. Glad to have gotten my work completed while they were in school otherwise I’d be stressed out. But no online school, and no work projects calling my name urgently. Day 55 could be a wash.

54 tonnes, what do you get? Another say older and deeper in debt.

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What’s with all of the extreme cold warnings showing up only on the weekends huh? That’s like when it only rains on weekends in the summer. Very irritating. Things could be worse though. Have you ever gone skating in minus twenty four degree weather? I’m sure that’s positively balmy for anyone in northern Russia, or Denmark and what have you. You lot must be made of sturdy stuff. Or you know better than to go out in it.

Feeling a touch deflated after yesterday’s late night revelation. I’m not certain how I will make up a 35,000 word deficit for book two. Perhaps I’m placing too much pressure on myself. I spent more than a full twelve months to write the first book, so I don’t need to complete the follow up in three months. I just hate having projects stretch on for weeks and weeks. Gives me anxiety to know something isn’t done yet.

I should note that when I started to write it was to shake my depression regarding the Covid lockdown isolation I was feeling. I didn’t start out writing a novella. I just wrote a bunch of shorts and then – kept on going. Then I tried to write a sci-fi short which in turn sparked an idea, and it snowballed into a book of shorts. This time around I know I am attempting to write a companion book devoted to a somewhat singular story line. It’s daunting. Easy to get discouraged. Breaking it down into individual chapter stories has made it manageable, but even then, with the thought of doing a dialogue heavy section or an action set piece has given me cause to pause.

Today is Sunday, which means nothing much is going on. I did get last weeks report off to California on time, so I’ll issue an invoice for that tomorrow morning. Had more work come in late Friday evening, so I know I’ll have something to do this week. Should be quieter than last week by a wide margin. Some free time might spark up the bug to write more this week.

In other news I ordered Spiderman No Way Home the other day, should show up in mid March. I look forward to watching it and maybe doing a late to the game review. As an aside – is it weird that the first teaser footage for D Strange and the multiverse of madness looks kind of tv movie terrible. Not the acting, but the camera work and picture quality. Could just be my television screen, and monitor and phone…

Something doesn’t add up.

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And I know what it is. I keep thinking my first book was mostly the first section of twenty two (22) chapters worth of interconnected stories, plus a couple of one off autobiographical stuff. But I have failed to remember that both Sisters in Arms and A Call to the Void, plus The Chronicles of Kelvin were multi chapter sections of weight on their own. No wonder I’m not anywhere near a 60,000 word count for book two. I’m about three, full matching in size sections to Ghost of the Dirty Starling short. Ha. At least I finally clued in as to why it felt like I wasn’t making much head way. On the plus side, I won’t feel bad if I go over twenty four chapters. Not that I’m looking to pad things out, but I want to hit all my marks, and tell any contextual stories as they come up. Like a flash back, or an aside, or some kind of additional point of contact within the story. I’m also not aiming to finish by the end of February. No need to rush. I’ll tell my story as it comes to me.

How on earth did I ever forget about those other meaty portions of my joint series. Covid times man – Covid times. Messing with my brain.