The Day Job

Blog Post No. 468

I have a love-hate relationship with my day job. Pre-pandemic days, I mostly worked at a single rental facility. It was mostly a great job. I liked my co-workers (or at least got along with them well enough). I had large chunks of time when I could get some writing or editing in (when I was good and forced myself to) and I made just enough money to afford working part time and have free time to write.

Suburbia

Blog Post No. 439

*Break/Interrupt has been officially released and I’ve started local distribution. If you want a copy, please leave a comment or send me a message. Thanks.*

Since I haven’t been using my vehicle very much, I’ve been going for a weekly drive in order to keep the battery from going flat (and other general benefits of not having a car sit for too long). I saved a lot in gas over the last year, but I’ve had to fill-up a few times. After my last drive, I was in need of some fuel but decided to wait until late to go to a station in an attempt to avoid people as much as possible. At about nine at night, I hopped into my vehicle and went for a drive.

Horse Mask Party

Blog No. 205

Last week, I was on a bit of a tear with my novel. I was catching up after a couple of less than stellar months. It was a good feeling. I was getting things together for the long haul. Now, after a busy week of work (and really busy weekend) and too many tasks left for too long. To top it all off, I have the dreaded layout to finish. A huge jumble of micro tasks assembled into one element that, when one task is finished, it screws up something else, leading to a never ending stream of necessary fixes and adjustments. Like I said last week, it’s a doozy. I promised myself that I wouldn’t let it interfere with my writing, and I was partially successful. The writing related tasks didn’t disrupt my flow, but work, more basement construction, and a last minute invite to help out in a music video did.

Multi-Topic (Because one wasn’t enough)

Blog No. 196

The last few weeks have been stuffed full of tasks needing my attention. More than writing or publishing, I’ve had work, family, and general domestic responsibilities come home to roost. I’m not sure if any one of them is worthy of being a blog post on its own, but perhaps together they can make up the approximation of one. As usual, I’m not necessarily sure where I’m going from here. It may just be a list of stuff I’ve been doing (not including all the slacking off I manage to fit in throughout the week. But that could be fun right?

Even the Smaller Ones

Blog No. 195

Last weekend I was invited to Essex for a Farmer’s Market. Initially, Christian and I thought we were going to be at the Busker’s Festival in Walkerville, but that fell through. Somehow, as if by magic, the organizer of the Farmer’s Market called up Christian, asking if we’d like to get a table there. I’m not sure how things work out like that some times, but it seems to happen a lot with us. We’ll be wondering what to do in the coming month and be invited to an event, or another author will tell us about something we haven’t heard of yet. Most of the events are small, but that doesn’t matter much. Sometimes it’s nice to have an easy day filled with nice people.

Shocking

Blog No. 184

What the heck London Ontario? Seriously. No banks are open on Saturday? Only one, but it’s on the far side of the city? Who does that help? What do business do if they run out of change? What is a person who is running a table at an event supposed to do if he runs out of change? What is this, the 90s? Is it just a London thing, or is it weird that Windsor banks are open Saturdays? I’m blown away. Of all the things that happened last weekend, that one was the most shocking—and I was at an event called Shock Stock.

Last week I did a split post about going to Shock Stock and being in a commercial. I thought it would be good to write about both of the major things happening to me. I figured I could just do this one as s split post too, but now that I’m back, it may be better to just stick with one and leave the other for the next post. Which is what I’m doing, right now. Since I’ve already started with my rant on London banks, I may as well stick with the convention.

Working in Coffee Shops

Blog No. 182

There is a running gag on the internet and television about people with MacBooks in coffee shops. It’s funny. The idea is that people are more interested in being seen than in actually doing work. Which is sometimes the case. Coffee shops and cafes are often filled with people either getting a quick lunch, enjoying a slow coffee, or the other thing. I’ve been in many places where nearly every table is beset by a laptop wielding individual (one per table). It doesn’t matter if it’s a Starbucks or local establishment. The coffee shop is a place to be.

London Nerves

Blog No. 181

One of the banner images at the top of my page (the ones that change when you reload it) is a snow-scape taken from the balcony of my tiny apartment when I was living in London Ontario. It was several years ago now, and I was only there for eight months for school, but it was a very formative time in my life, so it’s really stuck with me. I even talk to people like I know London like the back of my hand, but, while I’m acquainted with the place, I realize I will never know it like someone who was born there or lives there. Still, I have the lay of the land and a few potent memories that stick out above the jumbled mess in my head.

Daylight Saving Time is a Jerk

Blog No. 173

Daylight savings sucks. What the heck world (or at least countries who follow the archaic rule). There has been study after study about how daylight savings is a bad thing. Productivity goes down, accidents go up, people are inevitably late (or early depending on the season) and sleep cycles are put out of whack for weeks if not longer. It costs money and I believe it shortens people’s lives. And for what? An extra hour of sunlight? Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for that sunlight, but at what cost? Besides, it’s already been figured out that we’d get the benefits of the time shift all year. So why only do it in the summer? Let’s make this switch our last and stay at the hour ahead forever.

The Storm

Blog No. 169

I tend to start writing these on Tuesdays. It gives me time to explore what I want to write about, and I can scrap the whole things and start over when I’m not happy with it. This morning, I was sitting in anchor, sipping a coffee before heading to work. I was thinking about the weekend and what I’d like to post this week. Obviously I want to mention Syndicon. I could also talk about my current struggles with keeping up the daily work count. There are editing and Adventure World things I should mention, along with the next event on the docket. But really, I’m just tired and I want to go to bed. I can’t do that though, so I’ll mention little bits of a bunch of those things, or not. Let’s see.