#318 - The Experienced Unexperienced

Slept great last night even though Robyn’s glucose alarms kept going off .

The tart cherry pills seemed to work just fine last night. I woke at seven expecting Robyn to drive me to the station, but she decided she didn’t need to borrow my car today after all.

I finished my morning routine, and I was in no particular rush to get to the station. And the universe granted my wishes by placing some obstacles in my way. My car was parked behind the other one, and that required me to move cars before going anywhere. Then the street I turn on to get to the station was backed up two or three lights/intersections.

After waiting for a few minutes, I calculated that it would be faster to get on the highway and go to the next off-ramp and swing back towards the station. I am pretty sure I got there before anyone who was waiting in that original queue.

As I arrived, I found an acceptable parking space just as a train was leaving the station. No worries, another train was only ten minutes away. It was an express train. The slower train might have been preferable if I had planned to write, but I was too sleepy to even think about it.

As it was, I just sat with my eyes closed and enjoyed the peace and quiet.

Off the train, I headed down the Esplanade to enjoy the calmer commute. Turning left on Farquhar’s Lane brought me to the Pain au Dore café where they made me a grilled vegetable sandwich. I wanted to sit outside at the café tables, but the place was busy this morning inside and out. I was able to get a table inside, but I have never seen it this busy before.

I cracked open the can of Alani Pink Slushie that I brought with me to wash down the sandwich. I think that was my favourite flavour so far, being that it was mostly a strawberry variant. And I do love me some strawberry!

It was a nice start to the day, interrupted only by people messaging me from work. I guess it was time to finish my commute and walk the short distance to the studio and get things started for the day.

I arrived at work to find I was the only person in department that came into the studio. And since I am supervising an episode myself, it meant I was in for a pretty quiet day. Although, I didn’t know that at the time. I logged in to my PC and then made myself an instant coffee. It was the leftover ones I get for the cottage. The smell immediately took me back there. I only every drink these when I am there, so it kind of makes sense.

I settled in and got to work doing approvals and tracking down more of the assets we need to finish the episode. I had to find work for another painter, who was ready to start working on this episode. Not having all the reference designs available makes handing out work more difficult.

I managed to find him a section and then went back to doing my own work.

Lunch finally arrived and took my leftovers into the kitchen to microwave them to at least a lukewarm temperature. Robyn texted to say the dentistry she needed was going to be a bigger job than they thought. It was going to be a tough day for her.

I ate lunch with the Art Director, and we talked about the industry and some of our experiences. The cost of things came up. I think we are all feeling the increase in prices. There is nothing that isn’t more expensive than you think it should be. There are no deals anymore.

After lunch, I returned to my desk and prepared for my three o’clock meeting. A Leica launch intended to see if more designs are needed and to discuss any confusing items. The meeting went well, but there wasn’t much for us to comment on as the designs weren’t even started yet. This makes my job much harder as time is all compressed and the pressure builds.

And continues to build.

With that meeting over, I got back to making the files my painters would be working on easier to paint. This meant bringing in previous artwork for what we call reuse backgrounds and by bringing in trees and bushes from our library to replace the line drawing left from the layout. There is still plenty of work for them to do in any of the files I touched, but it should speed up the process next week when the rest of the team comes on board this episode. Just trying to set myself up for success. We’ll see if it works.

Five o’clock came in the blink of an eye and I was packing up my things and getting ready to leave before I knew what was happening.

I stepped outside, and it was raining.

Luckily, I had an umbrella with me and was nonplussed by the pesky precipitation. It seemed like most of the other pedestrians around me didn’t think they would get caught out in the rain. I walked down Front Street before realizing I didn’t have t endure all the people if I took the esplanade. It’s still too new for me to think of it immediately. And I have years of habit, going the same way to work day after day.

It was like night and day. The traffic was quieter, and there were fewer people on the sidewalks.

I managed to get on a train after waiting only ten minutes. It was an all-stops train. Being rush hour, there were plenty of people on the platform waiting to get on in front of me. Still, I managed to get on and get a seat without too much trouble. I should have immediately taken out my laptop and got it set up to write. But I was feeling tired from working and decided to nap instead. I think the fact that Robyn was going to be out at a movie tonight and I would be home by myself, granted me the excuse to write while she was gone.

And that is exactly what it did.

Well, first thing I did was grab the last slice of pizza from the weekend and polish it off, washing it down with a Dr. Pepper Zero. Not having to make dinner tonight was perfect for getting some writing done.

I watched a YouTube video while I ate. It was about a writer’s writing process. He, like me was married, had two kids and a full-time job. He was trying to illustrate a writing routine for people with busy lives and plenty of responsibilities could do every day.

I’m not sure his idea was all that groundbreaking, or even correct, but it was working for him in the here and now. At least for the time being. The one issue I had with his method is that t requires you to create an outline. Nothing kills your creativity like an outline. But many people swear by them and my writing teacher considers them to be one of the myths about writing. He claims most of the long-term full-time writers do not use outlines, nor do they do multiple drafts. Because it takes to long and is too tedious.

He has plenty of famous writer friends and fifty-plus years of experience as a writer. His wife has about the same experience level as him. I think I can trust their take on things before I listen to some YouTuber who hasn’t actually published a book. Not even once.

You really have to be careful about what advice you take from the world. There are so many people pretending to be experts in fields in which they have very little experience . And sometimes they have none at all!

Calling yourself an expert seems to be the only qualification needed these days.

Glad I was able to find people who walk the walk and talk the talk. It’s an invaluable resource to me.

Kiddo #2 interrupted my writing session, as he does, to ask if I had a USB-a to USB-c adapter, as he is making a mixed CD for the girl who is not his girlfriend, but that he goes on dates with. I mean, he’s making her a mixtape. Back in my day, a girl had to be worth the effort of all that dubbing. You didn’t make a mixed tape for just anyone!

But the kids these days are so low key about their relationships. They love to label everything, but hate when anyone attempts to put a label on them. I wonder if we were like that as kids to?

Probably.

The point is he interrupted my writing session, and he has a girlfriend whether he thinks he does or not! He made me order him a stack of burnable CDs from Amazon to accomplish this task. And he is planning to paint a custom cover for the case. A mix tape and artwork.

Smells like love to me.

I should be able to finish my writing quota early enough to be able to read for an hour or so this evening. I would really like to end my evenings that way whenever possible.

I don’t think I will be able to tomorrow night, as our friends, Paul and Laura, have invited us over for dinner after we get back in from the studio. They have decided that they are selling their house and have started downsizing. Lots of things to give to friends, sell on eBay or take to the dump. They have plenty of time to get it done but have started now so it doesn’t become a big deal when the time comes.

Not a bad strategy. We could probably all do with a little purging at least once a year. They are the kind of people that have various collections, like Disney, Star Wars. They have posters and figurines. Plenty of Lego sets as well. And they still have most of the boxes the items came in stored in the basement. This all means that they have a lot to go through and why its such a good idea that they started sorting through things now instead of later.

I sure don’t want to think about having to do the same thing with our own belongs anytime soon. I have a lot of books and twelve typewriters. It could be worse. Neither of us really has what we would call a serious collection. Just little groupings of like items here and there.

I watched a video about Magnus Carlson, the World Grand Master of Chess. The video made the claim that he liked to play bad moves because he knows eventually, he’ll be able to find a winning move before his opponent does. I’ve heard him say they he likes to take his opponent into a place of chaos. Most chess players memorize all sorts of positions and when someone plays a know move it’s called a Book Move. In fact, it’s fairly standard.

By taking the game off-book, Carlson manages to create that chaos. The opponent is now in a place they haven’t studied. It is unfamiliar and upsetting. It breaks their sense of composure. Magnus has trained to live in that chaos and has become comfortable in the knowledge that at some point in the game we will find his way out of the chaos before his competition does. I think that is a great strategy, but it does require a lot of experience and some memorization in his early years.

I’ve often tried to do the same thing with my chess games, and even with writing Learn to write without an idea of what it will be in advance is like playing into the chaos. I trust that eventually I will be able to figure a way out of the story and that I will have fun getting there as it will be a challenge.

And success breeds confidence.

Even though Robyn went to see Spiderman tonight with kiddo #1, we are going to try to see it this weekend. Robyn loves the Spidey movies and is willing to see it twice. Before the pandemic and the rise of crappy movies, we used to go to the theaters at least once a week. Now it’s hard to justify seeing a movie once a month. The pickings have been slim to say the least. It’s great to see movies drawing families back out to the theatres again. It’s a slower return to the cinema than I’d hoped for but at least it is getting better. Makes me wonder if investing in Cineplex now might be a good idea?

I took a break from writing and watched Peaky Blinders premiere episode of season six. It takes place four years after the events at the end of season 5 and has Tommy Shelby going to North America to expand on his business ventures.

So far, the season looks like it is going to be a good one. Anya Taylor Joy is one of the cast members, playing the niece of a powerful American criminal. And she is married into the Shelby Family as well. I don’t enjoy her performance in this series. I turned to my wife and remarked that Joy’s acting was terrible. She’s been good in other things, but in a period piece like Blinders, I’m not sure she fits in. But who cares what I think about that!

We are turning in early tonight. We could both use a good night’s sleep, but I say that every night. Sadly, it’s always been true.

As we are coming straight home tomorrow from work and going directly to our friend’s house for dinner, I expect I’ll need a little more gas in the tank to make it all happen. I’ll have to remind myself to make sure I write on the train, as their dinner party takes place during the time I would have been writing.

Until tomorrow.