#178 -Dishoom and Deggi Merchi

Slept in another half an hour and woke up around seven-thirty. Amazing what an extra half an hour can do.

I spent more than a few minutes trying to charge and start my doorbell camera. I plugged it in last night, and for some reason, that drained the battery. So, I took it inside and plugged it into my iPad charger, but the battery was so drained I didn’t have time to get it working before I had to leave.

I made it onto the last express train to Union Station with plenty of time. The eight-twenty-four is an excellent train for me as I get a bit of a rest, and I get to work in a reasonable time. This means I will forgo my eggs and bacon at the diner and any writing time I might have had there.

On the plus side, I am currently writing on the train, and a story point popped into my head as I was walking through the Go Train parking lot. The purpose of the two characters made themselves perfectly clear to me. And that I amazing because it makes the writing of the next scene even more interesting. 

I have the main characters visiting an island police station on the Detroit River, and the officer there is meant to look into something for them as a favor to an old friend. But I wanted the police friend to offer up more information to the investigators. And now he has either a clue or a red herring to offer up. Not sure which it will be yet because I have no idea how the story will end.

Oh, my doorbell camera just woke up and is now streaming my video and alerts of my wife cleaning something up in the kitchen. That is where I left it to charge. At least I know it works now.

I think I will stop at the Au Pain Dore Cafe for one of those delicious vegetarian breakfast sandwiches today since I am missing the Patrician Grill. Having the energy to write on the train feels great. The more I do on this ride into the studio, the less I’ll have to write later on and that means I get to read and relax for an hour or two.

I am currently way behind on the challenge. I think I am back in a position where I need to write about three thousand words a day until the end of the month. The exact position I said I wasn’t going to allow myself to get back into.

Sigh.

It’s my own fault. Again.

Just on the ride here, I have already written over five hundred words. All these thirty-minute sessions really impact your productivity.

One thing that has changed with writing every day is that the eureka moments are not coming as often as they used to when I was writing a story, just like in the parking lot this morning. I used to keep a notebook by my desk for just this reason. Thoughts would erupt from my subconscious in the middle of the night or while watching a show.

Recently, they have been happening less frequently and sometimes not at all. So, it felt great to have it happen again. Some of it could just be that I have been exhausted and or more stressed than usual.

Today, the new oven is getting installed. Robyn is meeting a friend to help her build a website for her artwork. Lots going on. I have to write like a demon today, as tomorrow night we’ll be at our friends' for two to three hours of Survivor and hanging out.

These are additional reasons why morning writing is so important and something I strive to move towards. Having all your work done during the day frees up your nights for socializing. Right now, I feel like thinly spread butter over too much bread.

I’m feeling Bilbo Baggins’ed, you could say.

The train is just about to pull into Union Station, and I need to pack everything back up and prepare to do the commuter fast walk, lest I be trampled in the mad rush to the cubicles of the Bay Street financial crowd.

With luck, I’ll get my sandwich and be back here writing by noon.

And spoilers, the sandwich was acquired, and here I am writing on a brown faux leather chair in the staff kitchen area. The kitchen is busy today as it’s the 3D team's anchor day. There is currently a lot more 3D crew than 2D crew in our Toronto offices. Great to see everyone around and engaged in lively conversations.

I’ve been able to get loads of work done this morning. Haven’t had any interruptions or questions and absolutely no meetings are scheduled for today. I have a little bit of work left to finish my painting, and then I can get stuck into the next one.

Robyn texted me to let me know that the oven guy was there and it was all working fine. He even took the time to level the stove and lower it so it was flush with the countertop. At one point, the LG app on my phone told me the oven was on and what temperature it was at. Pretty cool. I think we can shut it off remotely if we have to as well.

I am excited to do some cooking and baking on it this week.

Work reached out today asking if I would represent the company at the upcoming TAAFI Industry conference the second week of April. I have done this two or three times for them, often giving portfolio advice and information about the industry. Most of the time it is students, and they are fun to talk to. A few friends are also giving talks this year about their experiences as well. I might be able to sneak into a few talks if time allows.

Last year I stayed from eleven AM until six PM because the students just kept coming by nonstop and we needed all hands-on deck. I didn’t feel good about leaving the other team members to fend for themselves.

I figure it keeps me in the memory of some of the decision-makers in our studio as well. And I get to spend time with other team members that I don’t interact with all that often anymore, like HR and the 3D people.

And tomorrow, many of our animators are coming back into the studio. They started this week and had to go through all the training and learn the new show. There are few familiar faces returning, and I imagine I’ll be grabbing lunch with at least one of them.

The stock market seems to be recovering a little bit today as there are talks about having peace discussions between the USA and Iran.

Things are looking up today!

I even got my seventieth consecutive chess game in at lunch, some writing and another day completed in my AG1 streak, which I managed to even have at breakfast time.

I was able to write about 1200 words so far today and that’s a real win!

Of course, that still leaves me with just under two thousand words left to make my daily quota. I hoping to get another 500-600 words completed in the way home and at least fifteen hundred words written on my story tonight after dinner.

But for now, it's time to get back to the day job!

Another great painting session with little to no interruptions, except the ones I made for myself getting some tea or stretching my legs.

I managed to finish listening to the audiobook, “Will of the Many,” and started the Sarah J. Maas one right after. So far, I am finding the writing and the narration to be less than what I would have expected for such a popular series. There must be something else going on here. I know this was one of her earlier books, and that might be why some of the dialogue is a bit forced and some of the character thoughts seem a bit plastic.

But I’ll keep giving it a chance, as I need something to listen to when working anyway, and I already paid for it.

There was only one other painter in the studio today; two were away on vacation and my supervisor was working from home. I think that combined with the fact that we are getting into the show, have figured some things out and are feeling as comfortable as can be expected, helped give me a quiet day.

I at a small lunch of tuna and a few mixed vegetables. It was one of those canned ones from Italy and I really enjoy them. They probably have too much salt, but it’s not an everyday thing. They are quick and easy, as well as gentle on the pocketbook at under five dollars a meal. Restaurants in the Toronto area really can’t compete with that price point.

I left work just after five PM and power-walked to the station. I could have taken a streetcar, but I needed the exercise. I managed to get on a five-thirty express train a few minutes before it was set to depart and got a seat that allows for some typing. The new lap desk is working out great. I think I am also getting used to writing on the train.

I am looking forward to the days when I don’t need to wear a bulky winter jacket. That will improve my writing comfort by leaps and bounds. This cold weather can't last much longer.

Robyn had her meeting with the website person, and she felt it went really well. She has to choose some options, then the person will make a few examples for her to pick from.

My cellphone provider has recently upgraded the system to 5G and I haven’t really noticed that it was any faster than before. That could be down to the fact that my phone isn’t the newest one and my laptop was made in 2019. But I am wondering if my data plan is going to get eaten away more quickly.

I’ll have to go through my phone settings again to make sure I am not downloading ultra high-definition videos and doing all kinds of background tasks outside of Wi-Fi.

Having said that, the 5G should make for a stronger signal on the train. There used to be really bad dead zones on the line I take. I haven’t noticed it dropping out as much as it used to.

I remember I had to wait until we passed a certain station to play a game of chess, or I would time out and lose the game by way of abandonment. That doesn’t do good things for your chess rating!

I am feeling better than usual about getting my word quota done at a reasonable time tonight. I have written over 2000 words today in three separate sessions. On the train, there and back, and for about a half an hour at lunch.

Eventually, writing time like this will mainly be for writing fiction. My desire to write fiction during these blog posts is starting to increase. It’s generally easier for me to write a blog post than to make up a story, so this is a good sign.

Writing the blog has had so many benefits, though. My typing speed and accuracy have definitely improved. I also feel a lot more comfortable writing in public spaces, and my mind is able to focus on the task at hand even when I am in a noisier environment.

Learning to get work done in these little pockets of wasted time has also beeb a good lesson for me to learn. Having the laptop always within reach removes a barrier every day for me.

I’ve also acquired and tested a bunch of tools and paraphernalia to make the writing easier to do.

I haven’t successfully written anything at the Patrician Grill, mostly because there is a bit of count down timer running for me to get to work.

I am going to make a much bigger effort to get to the diner tomorrow and give myself an extra half an hour to just write, meaning I’ll need to spend a good hour there, half to eat, half to write. If we are going to our friend’s house tomorrow night, I will feel better about getting as much writing done before then as I did today.

When I was writing at lunch, the area with all the random couches also had a bunch of random pillows as well. I took a page from my supervisor and grabbed one to put behind my back while painting. The work chair was instantly transformed into something that resembled comfortable. Should have done that years ago.

The next thing we all need in our section of the office is some throw rugs to stop our chairs from rolling away and crashing into each other. We are constantly rolling into painters and bumping their arms.

I didn’t see any I could pilfer in the sitting area, but I’ll have another look tomorrow when I go to get some writing done.

The next stop is my stop.

I’ll pick this up sometime after we finish the first dinner cooked in our new oven!

 

I heard the guy from Reacher is in a bit of a pickle… some kind of altercation with a neighbour who was upset that he and his kids were riding loud motorcycles on their street. I think “Reacher” punched the guy in the face in front of his kids, who were watching from their own motorcycles. It was hard to tell from the information who was at fault.

But I have to assume that the person getting punched off his feet by a guy that big is likely not the one who will go to jail.

Robyn made us roasted vegetables and fish for dinner. It was great to have some vegetables again; we really missed having them after eating like that for most of our recent dinners. One-pan sheet cooking it the way to go.

I purchased a cookbook today called “Dishoom.” It’s an Indian restaurant in London that put out its own recipes. There is a recipe called Ruby Chicken that I’d really like to try. It’s basically butter chicken, but better. I’m looking forward to using the new stove for these recipes.

They use a special chili spice called Deggi Merchi which I almost ordered. It’s a deep red spice without as much heat. Turns out it is also called Kashmiri Chili, which I already have plenty of in my spice cupboard.

We watched the latest episode of Shrinking, and it was an emotional one. It may have been the season finale, but it sure felt like a finale.

Then we noticed there was a new season of “Daredevil” out on Disney Plus. I have enjoyed all the other seasons and I am hoping this one has the same magic as it did before.

So far, it seems to be following the same playbook as before and is continuing where the previous season left off, which is a good game plan in this case for Disney/Marvel as they have been destroying all their very expensive franchises over the past five years.

I think I do a little writing on the story now and then, and end the evening by reading for half an hour.

I’ll spend the writing time setting up the next scene so tomorrow I can get right into it.

As always,

I bid you good evening.