#245 - The Beginning and the End

We slept in until about ten AM and that felt amazing.

There was nothing going on for a change to get us up any earlier. I went downstairs and made us some tea with sourdough English muffins and peanut butter. I grabbed a banana to share between us as well.

The sun was shining, and it looked like it was going to be another amazing day outside. We watched some Bill Maher while we ate and then moved on to an episode of Dutton Ranch. Robyn got up to get herself ready for the day and I watched a few more YouTube videos.

When she returned we started another Dutton Ranch episode. We were in no hurry to do anything today. We did have plans to go see a movie at the 2:30 with our friends, so eventually we had to leave the bedroom.

It turned out kiddo #2 needed a ride to a friend’s house, so we left a bit early and dropped him off first before heading to the theatre. We had VIP tickets to see the Mandalorian and Grogu and when we arrived our friends were not there yet. We sat on very comfortable chairs in the VIP lounge while we waited and after fifteen minutes decided to head to our seats so we could order our food from the waitress.

I got some hot honey chicken tenders with fries and Robyn got chicken tenders and fries with plumb sauce. She added in some chocolate M&Ms for a snack during the film. Soon our friends arrived and ordered their own snacks.

The chicken was as wonderful as always and the fries were a bonus. I definitely enjoyed the food portion of the show.

I don’t think I can remember a single trailer from the preshow. Not a one. So, nothing must have left an impression. I know they played the Toy Story 5 trailer and that’s all I can remember.

 Oh, wait!

There was another one that I thought was a resident evil zombie flick, but I don’t think it has any affiliation with that other franchise.

The Mandalorian and Grogu was a fun film, but it wasn’t a great one. A good deal of the action was action for actions sake, although they had some cool scenes. Dave Filloni gets a cameo a few times, but that just made me cringe.

There were some inconsistencies that could have easily been corrected if the had been paying attention. In one scene Mando sends the ship into hyperdrive by pulling on a lever and the ship shoots off into the distance. They have set the scene for how the ship goes into hyper drive.

In a later scene, Grogu sends the ship into hyperdrive and does it by pushing a button and that breaks the mechanics they previously set up.

Rookie mistake.

I found the CGI characters to not work for me this time around. There was something about their voices that didn’t match their look. And some of the characters were made to good guys and it doesn’t work in these types of genres with legacy films. The good kid from bad parents Sticht felt a bit forced and required an info dump on more than one occasion.

Grogu was cute as always, but his little, tiny mechanic friends are bit too Fraggle Rock for my tastes. They also included some birdlike puppets in the Hutt palace that, although used in the original films, looked like they belonged on the Muppet Show.

Was I entertained? Sure, it was fun. I kept expecting to end, but they just kept going. I think my friends enjoyed themselves at least. They left with a tin popcorn bucket as a souvenir.

I guess if I am going to gripe, and I have been activity trying to hold it back, I would say it was still not the Star Wars I was hoping for, but it was better than some of the slop they have been dishing out the last few years. It didn’t feel like a political opinion piece or a commentary on the sexes or gender. Thankfully, it was just a Star Wars movie.

It was enough to give this old guy hope for the franchise.

It may not be dead yet.

We said our goodbyes to our friends and headed back to pick up kiddo #2 from his friends, and then back home.

On the ride back home, we got a call from my stepmother-in-law with an invite to come and see the new cottage. The initial invite was for next weekend but kiddo #1 flies into town late Saturday night and it wasn’t a good fit.

But there are other upcoming dates that were also available and we are excited to go see the place and spend a weekend in good company. I’ll have to cook something up to bring as meal for everyone.

A large batch of Chicken Ruby perhaps?

I watered the plants in the front and did a little inspection to see how everything was coming along. The hanging bags are looking a little better after their initial planting and all the plants I moved yesterday are looking no worse for wear. In fact, the only plants looking a bit off are the spring blooming plants like the alliums, hyacinths and the tulips. But that’s what they are supposed to do this time of year. Some beautiful gladiolas should be replacing them in the coming weeks.

I just remembered one of the other preshow trailers was for ‘The Odessey,” and the thing that stuck out was a line delivered by Tom Holland. “My Dad will come back one day,” was the basic line, but it was the use of the word Dad by an ancient Greek that seemed so out of place. If they did that in the rest of the film, people are going to think the movie is stupid. I’d heard some talk about miscasting, but none of that was shown in the trailer. One wonders if the film industry has evolved to create false narratives about the film or show to start the critics raving against it. And then when the film comes out, and none of the things people warned against are present, the critics look like idiots and the film got lots of free press.

It would be a good strategy and a natural evolution of what they have already been doing in the past five years.

I find myself being very weary about critics on upcoming movies as I want to decide for myself and form my own opinions.

We watched Seth Myers monologue and another episode of Dutton Ranch before Robyn had to head out to her personal support worker job. I watched a few videos before ambling back downstairs to fire up the oven and the sous-vide cooker. We had some Walmart steaks that were preseason with Montreal Steak spice. Having never tried these before, I was skeptical about how good they would be, but it’s what we can afford at the moment. Beef prices are way to high to have as anything but a treat or a special occasion meal.

These pre-seasoned ones were cheaper than the regular steaks at the other stores. I’m sure cooking them sous-vide helped to keep them more tender.  I also wrapped up some potatoes in foil and put them in the oven to cook. Both the steak and the potatoes needed an hour to cook.

When the steaks were finished in the water bath, I fired up the infrared grill on my Napolean BBQ. I pat dried the steaks with paper towel and then removed the baked potatoes from the oven to rest on the stovetop.

Then it was outside to sear the beef, thirty seconds per side and the once again to get that Maillard effect and some attractive grill lines. With that dinner was done.

We had a scoop of sour cream and pats of butter to go on the potatoes. I like to add a little extra salt and pepper too. It’s been a while since we had steak and potatoes for dinner and it was great. For a cheap Walmart steak, it was good. Not as good as one of my regular steaks but it was just fine for a Sunday night dinner.

I have certainly eaten worse beef at restaurants in the past.

I took a break and did a repair to a slide for our automatic blinds in the bedroom. There are two aluminum rails that I added to help block out sunlight early in the morning. Initially, I had installed them with double side tape, but the change in temperature caused it to pop off one day last week. It makes a huge difference in how much light leaks into the room past the blackout shades.

And by now you know I don’t want to be up an earlier than is strictly necessary.

But I guess if I am wearing the sleeping mask, it doesn’t really matter anymore. But it’s a chore that got done none-the-less.

Kiddo #2 has gone out for a night on the town with his work friends from the retirement village where he is a food server. That meant we didn’t have to share the meat with him.

After we cleaned up our plates, Robyn headed out to do a few groceries, and I was back out on the deck working on my laptop trying to get the last few thousand words done for the month. I am about 3400 words away from reaching that goal. A number I know I can achieve before I head to bed. When I head to bed will be completely determined by how fast I can type those words.

But this month, the challenge has certainly been less stressful that the month before. If you remember, I had to write over 6500 words a day for five or six days in a row, and during a time when we had plenty of social engagements and a higher degree of stress from work.

Still, wouldn’t it be nice to achieve the minimum well before the due date in June? I think the answer is yes. But will I pull it off? It means front loading the challenge or increasing my daily minimum. I will be helped this week by the fact that my mentor assignment is due at the end of the week, and it is likely to be a longer story.

I think the key, same as it was last month, is going to be working on my science fiction novel on a daily basis as the main way of getting my quota. Then a short 300–500-word blog post to shore up the numbers each day.

Sounds exactly like the plan I made last month. But as each month passes into the next, I should be getting better at this and there should be less putting up with the old habits. A continued effort to forge ahead must be maintained.

I prefer it said this way. “Try to get one percent better every day. Or week or whatever interval makes sense to you. But that one percent is cumulative and starts to add up quickly.

I am sitting out here on the deck listening to all the air conditioners running, including my own. But I am starting to get cold sitting out here. Time to go upstairs and open a window and let that fresh air wash over the house interior.

Might save us a few bucks on the Hydroelectricity bill too.

Okay, that’s done. AC is no longer droning on incessantly in my ears.

Well, the neighbour’s AC still has a death rattle sound to it, but it’s not as intense as when ours is on.

And I see in the news that Israel has messing about in Lebanon again with its military. There will no doubt be a rise in oil prices as a result and if you are in Lebanon, it means people are going to die. World peace seems like pipe dream in times like these.

And closer to home, odd and stupid things continue to happen. This week a 20-year-old was arrested for doing over 100 km in a 60 km zone. This dude was arrested and is waiting trial for causing the deaths and injury of others in another incident in Brampton. And then there was the shooting not too long ago and the break-in and car theft just before that.

It really feels like a criminal element has penetrated our sleepy little town.

My writing teacher was talking about licensing his work and how it makes the majority of his income and his wife’s. They have had ongoing licensing agreements for various stories and novels to be used in games, tv and films. It’s something I pay close attention to as I would like to do the same thing in the next few years as I create a greater inventory of work.

 

Obviously, a big movie or a ‘Game of Thrones’ sized deal is worth a ton of money, but he’s talking about a bunch of smaller deals, some of which that renew every three to four months and payout $3000-$5000 each time. That adds up, particularly if you can get a bunch of them going like that.

Its one of the exciting things about being a creative. One good idea executed well could be worth a king’s ransom down the road.

As I continue to practice and study, the possibility of such things happening to me steadily increase. And that is a future to look forward to.

I have been watching a couple of videos by a guy who uses old items lying around and old model kits to kit-bash spaceships and other fantastical models together. I would like to give it try one of these days and construct a ship from one of my stories and the photograph the painted and finished model for the book cover.

The last one I watched him build was made from an old shampoo bottle and some bits of cardboard and few pieces from an old keyboard. The build was a bit janky, but his purpose was to illustrate how you could make something without having to spend very much money on parts of equipment. And once it’s painted all one colour it starts to look really good. Some final colours and details and you get something that looks respectable.

One day if I ever have the time.

Another Youtuber I watch, called the Anti-Chef, did an interesting video that was more about the behind-the-scenes stuff he does for his channel. Things we would never regularly see. I am always fascinated by other people’s ways of working. So, this was right up my alley.

I never got to finish the video, so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

There is a really nice breeze blowing through the back yard tonight. I think it is keeping the mosquitoes away. I have the Thermacell running again just in case. But it’s one of those breezes that rustles the leaves of the trees, so it sounds like the ocean.

I often listen to the sound of the ocean on my earbuds when I am writing to help my mind concentrate and to drown out all the other noises of life.

Whoa. The moon looks really cool tonight. Its full and warm coloured. Apparently, tonight is technically a blue moon as it is the second full moon we have had in the month of May. The first instance of a full moon was on the 1^st of the month and the second was on the 31^st. Either way, it looks really amazing and the color has more yellow than normal almost like a dull sun.

I’ll keep a keen ear out for the howling of werewolves.

It’s starting to get a little too cool for me to be outside. It’s just after ten thirty. Time to pack it in and head indoors.

And what was a carriage return for you was twenty minutes for me getting some things ready for tomorrow and locking up the house.

I ordered some more Perrier water in cans from Amazon. I wanted to try some of the other favours they have come out with recently. Every so often Amazon has sales on the cans, and they did tonight on a flavour I have never tried before. I like the lime and the lime and ginger, so I thought I’d give raspberry with rose a shot. The people who left reviews had good things to say about the flavor. I guess time will tell.

I still don’t like their new 340 ml can sizes. I preferred the 250 ml as it was the perfect amount of liquid when I was thirsty. I guess I’ll adjust to this travesty of overpriced carbonated water eventually.

I still haven’t seen a decent video from the guy who is living with his girlfriend on a solar boat in Spain. I ended up watch the girl friend’s channel to see if there were any updates, but she seems even more behind in her videos than he is. And she speaks in such a manner as to put a person to sleep. Granted, English is not her first language, and it’s not like she can’t speak; it’s just the monotone nature of her delivery that drones you to sleep.

I can see Maximus right now, turning in the coliseum, arms raised and asking, “Are you not amused?”

“No, Maximus, we are not amused,” he said in a high-pitched feminine English accent.

I just finished my 134^th straight day of playing a game of chess. I managed to win the game this time around. I could feel that my opponent was going to make a blunder sooner or later. I just had to stay in the game long enough for it to happen, and it eventually did.

I have really come to enjoy playing chess. I’d played a few friends as kids, but it wasn’t until about 2016 that I started playing a friend at work at lunch and then eventually join a chess club where we played much longer games that I really started getting into it. Then came the chess books, the videos and the learning. I joined Chess.com and even had a paid account for a year or twos I could do unlimited puzzles.

And during Co-vid, the online play really took off. By the time we were allowed to return to over the table playing at the club, I had lost interest in being chained to a Tuesday night game. It started to feel like an obligation rather than something to do for fun. But the online chess has always been enjoyable, even when I lose the game.

I can see myself continuing to play online well into my old age unless Chess.com changes their policies and fees to something ridiculous. But what are the chances of that?

Now that I have said it out loud, it will happen tomorrow.

I still need to dig out that chess book that has all the puzzles in it. The idea of making some photocopies of a couple of pages to take with me on the train might work.

It’s just after eleven thirty and I still need about 1700 words before I can lay my head down to sleep. The last thousand words is always the hardest on these longer blogs and I have to wrack my brain to come up with things to even write about. There is really only about five hundred words a day of my life that could be considered mildly interesting, and probably only to me.

It could take me another two to three hours to write that much at the pace I am currently going. It’s making it hard to judge when I should take me sleep aids. Too early and ‘ll end up missing the quota for the month, because I ‘ll be curled up in a ball sleeping. Too late and is there any point in taking them? What effect will they have late at night? Will I sleep for even longer than usual? These are the questions that haunt me as I type away.

It will seem like a vacation to only have to write 2026 words tomorrow. At least this time I won’t be starting the month feeling exhausted from a week of whirlwind writing activity. Last month was too much. I never want to put myself in that situation again.

I noticed that Manulife, who runs the company deductions for RRSP contributions as well as the retirement savings matching program reversed a bunch of match contributions this week. Looks like they were matching at the rate I was at versus the 2% that the company agreed to match. I was basically getting a lot of extra money for free every two weeks. And after being told it would be corrected after the first incident, they did it again the following week. I guess they got fed up, or the amount between all the employees was so great that they had to make a deduction from our accounts instead.

So, I saw a dip in my account balance as a result.

Still, it’s the first time I have worked for an animation studio that offered RSP matching and RSP deductions straight from your paycheck. It’s nice to have these things. It was only recently that studios started offering benefits. As soon as one place did it, the others had to follow suit to stop employees from leaving to get benefits somewhere else.

I am glad and thankful to have both at the moment.

I could be one of the many artists who are leaving the studio this week. And unlike all the other times things have slowed down, these artists are being offered their severance packages because there is no work coming up to legally keep them going. They can’t be laid off again.

It’s a sad state that the animation industry finds themselves in.

There will be more farewell lunches this week. And in fact, I believe our studio is throwing and after work party in the kitchen for our departing company president who was well liked and very approachable. Beer and wine will be provided as well as snacks.

That’s how you know people liked you. The budget includes booze.

When it’s my time to make a graceful exit, there won’t be so much as a fart blown in my direction. But that’s okay with me. I like a quiet exit.

They’ll say, “He was here one minute and vanished without a trace the next.”

Like a fart.

What’s your stance on flatulating?

My late mother-in-law found it to be disgraceful. Which was unfortunate for her that her daughter married into a family of professionals. We time ourselves at family gatherings to see how long it took to bring the subject up.

I’ve stated my theory that the strength of one’s relationships can be determined by the ease with which one talks about farts or engages in flatulation, is directly linked. Those who do, are in a strong relationship. Those who don’t haven’t talked about the serious stuff yet. And they may not last fro much longer. And they sit together, legs crossed, a sweat beading up upon their pasty brows, holding things in for fear that they will be the one to have farted first.

But being the first is a power move. The only proper response is to return the favor. A declaration that as a couple, you stand united, no matter what odor presents itself.

Are you still here?

I bet I lost some of you back there.

And now, walking around with their butt cheeks clenched tight, they will never know the key to a successful relationship and will likely suffer from digestion issues later in life.

I rest my case.

One of the science fiction shows I like on Apple TV has released a spinoff of that show.

The show ‘For All Mankind,” asks what would have happened if a space race replaced the cold war. The new show, ‘Star City,’ focuses on the Russian side of the space race where the original show focused on the American struggle.

It should prove to be an interesting show. I have always found the Russian approach to problem solving interesting and they did some amazing and daring things in their space program that an American program would never dare to do.

I thought the series called Chernobyl was a great example of the Soviet ingenuity and the pursuit of science. It showcased how well they thought out of the box to solve the nuclear reactor’s meltdown and the eventual containment of all the radioactive materials.

And although no one would call Chernobyl a success, it could have been a lot worse if things hadn’t been addressed in the way they had at the time. And in some measure, we have Gorbachev to thank for allowing whatever resources the team needed to get the job done and they needed a lot of them.

Not to mention the sacrifices made by all the men who worked on the site without the proper protective equipment that ultimately stopped things from spiralling out of hand. And according to the show at least, there were multiple times things could have gone really badly.

There were teams of minors who dug directly under the site who wore absolutely nothing because the temperatures were so high. And they knew the dangers involved and they still went in there everyday.

Not sure I would have that kind of courage if the roles were reversed.

But all this to say, that I think there are some interesting stories from Russia, that we in the west seldom get to hear about. When I was growing up in the eighties and nineties, the Russians were the enemy of almost every film. The West media certainly did their best to villainize the Russian government. Not that they were necessarily innocent. But I think we didn’t hear about some interesting things that would put the Russians in a good light.

It reminds me of all the scientists from eastern block countries that have been forgotten or ignored by western academia. These names aren’t whispered with same reverence as the eastern block scientists that defected to the States.

If you go through any book on the history of scientific discovery, you’ll start hearing about people you’ve never heard of and the amazing contributions they made to their respective fields of study.

I remember remarking on this to a colleague who originally came from Bosnia, and he immediately teared up. I think he’d become used to us not knowing these things.

All good things must come from America, is a real thing.

But it’s not true.

The world is a wonderful and mysterious place and it’s good to remind myself of that once in a while.

The house has gone quiet, and I am the only one up. I moved out of the bed and down to the kitchen table so I wouldn’t disturb my sleeping beauty of a bride. It’s about twelve forty-five and I have about four hundred words left to write before I can call it a night.

I took my tart cherry juice and magnesium glycinate horse pills a few minutes ago. I truer sign of my confidence in completing my quota there never was.

I am starting to mishit the keys a lot more now as we cross over into the next days time zone. I find myself typing the same word a few times. This usually happens when I don’t ground my fingers on the home keys, F and J properly.

I swear those pill and juice kick in right away. Maybe it’s just a placebo effect going on. My body starts to equate the pills and the taste of the juice with bedtime. Either way it seems to be working, but the real test will be how I feel in the morning.

The garage door opener stopped working this evening. I came around to the front of the house and the door was up. I could see signs that Robyn had watered the plants, and the access to the house is inside the garage. So, maybe she just forgot to close it.

I hit the button and I heard the motor running, and I could see the belt moving, but the door stayed motionless. I thought maybe a gear had stripped or the belt had slipped off a gear perhaps.

I grabbed a stool and got closer to the mechanism. The slide was working but it wasn’t engaging with the catch on the door itself.

It took me over five minutes to realise that someone had accidentally pulled the emergency release on the door while it was up and that’s why the track wasn’t engaging the door.

I repositioned the parts until the clicked together and viola!

No need to replace the garage door opener. That would have been a real pain financially and physically. Not to mention the amount of my free time the repair would have sucked up.

Well, it’s been an interesting month with work being incredibly stressful at the beginning and becomes less so with each passing day. We celebrated my mom’s birthday and an early Mother’s Day. We had our season finale watch party at John and Jody’s.

I wrote two stories for my mentor that went over well and stretched my skills to the maximum. Our gardens and planters got filled with beautiful flowers and the daily temperature is no hovering near body temperature.

I learned about the sleep aids and no feel much better.

We have an invite to a cottage and kiddo #1 is set to return to the fold next week.

Not bad month all things considered.

It’s just past one AM and I am ready for bed. I even managed to go ever the word quota be a hundred words or so.

Looking forward to having an amazing June and I hope to see you all in these pages

Night all.