Rae Roy's Blog, page 61

Thoughtful Thursday – An Opinion on Opinions

[image error]Sometimes there really is absolutely no need to state your opinion on something. If someone posts an ad about a country home for sale that states they are willing to sever more acres, it is not time for you to chime in and say that the term sounds weird. No, it’s time for you to educate yourself on common real estate terminology rather than suggest subdivide would sound less ‘harsh’. Sever is a LEGAL TERM. This is not something subject to your “feelings” about wording.

It’s a term used in a lot of things. Severance pay. Severing assets. Severing land.

If the only thing that comes to your mind is severing limbs, then you are the one with the problem rather than the rest of the world.

The knowledge of much of the world is at your fingertips. I don’t give a crap what you *think* something is when it takes two seconds to confirm you’re talking out of your rear end.

And for heaven’s sake, it’s a real estate ad. If you’re not interested in buying the house, then keep scrolling. If you honestly can’t find something better to do with your time, GET A LIFE. Seriously. There are a billion more fun and productive things to do with your time. Life is short and one day you’ll wake up wondering why you wasted so much of it on crap that was meaningless.

These are the same people that are amazed at how much I accomplish on a regular basis. It’s not rocket science. I don’t waste time as much as you do. I set goals, make plans, and limit my time on things that are a waste. You won’t catch me regretting lost time.

Have the courage to fully live your life rather than piss on others who are living theirs.

I’m off for a weekend of relaxation and partying at a cottage with a friend to celebrate our birthdays, which are a few days apart! Well, and a few years, but not everything needs to be technical either.

When I get back I’ll work on my goals and relationships with humans that I care about instead of trolling people like a beta male.

Sorry for the rant.

Posts have been prescheduled for the next few days. I hope you enjoy them.

Salut,

R~

Filed under: Musings Tagged: Courage, Discipline, Respect

Warrior Wednesday – Weight

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Image created using Bitmoji

I know several people who’s fitness goal is to lose weight without even realizing they may already be in the ideal range for their height. They look at their flabby middle section and think they have to get onto a bicycle and try to sweat out the extra fat they believe they have despite how tiny they might be.

It’s quite likely they need to gain muscle or tone rather than lose any pounds.

This chart may be a decent guideline on how much you should weigh if you are concerned about your weight. It tells me I’m already in my ideal range, but I look down at my tummy while I type this and wonder if I’ll ever see my abs. When people are sitting, it’s normal for our bellies to bulge out. You may not have as much work to do as you think. Your thighs also look fatter when sitting. Also, sometimes you might just be having a bloated moment that makes your belly seem bigger than it is. This is especially common in people with digestive issues/food allergies like Celiac Disease.

I’m not saying your shouldn’t be exercising. Everyone should be. You could be going to the gym and not achieving much because you’re working on the wrong thing though. Regularly going to the gym is a great habit to have. And if, like me, the gym isn’t really your thing, there are many other ways to get exercise in.

I mainly do cardio, take walks, and do core exercises outside of the dojo. Swinging my sword about is helpful for upper body fitness and the lower movements we do regularly in kata are pretty much lunges. I do some upper body work outside, because sword work would leave me a little lopsided otherwise. I prefer to do something like play a sport rather than hang out in a gym. And I love to dance.

Lately, I’m also looking at my diet. I was feeling much better when I did roller derby and my diet was rather ketogenic and I think I’m going to try and go back to something similar. A little less carbs, good proteins, good fats, and lots of veggies.

It’s also worth stating that the same volume of muscle weighs more than that of fat. I often focus more on the inches around my waist as a measurement and keep track of what I’m physically capable of before getting tired. I use things like FitBit to see how active I’m being.

I’m planning to get more active after this weekend. Why wait? Well, I’m off to a cottage to party and I plan to start one of those challenges that has requirements that I don’t want to be vacationing in the middle of. Once I’m recovered from the weekend, I’ll get at it. It’s supposed to be 30 minutes 3 days per week and doesn’t go higher than 40 minutes at the end, so it shouldn’t be that hard to fit in. It lasts for 8 weeks. More on it later this month.

Like any goal, you need to figure out your needs otherwise you’ll be stumbling around in the dark. Your body responds differently than my body. Spend time getting to know yours and pay attention to what works and doesn’t for you. If you know you hate squats, you shouldn’t aim to do hundreds of them. Find an exercise that works the same muscle groups that you don’t hate.

My needs? To perform better at martial arts, I need to strengthen my core as more than one high ranking practitioner has advised me that my posture is 80% of where my issues lie. If I fix this, I’ll get the most bang for my buck. I also need to practice cuts and seiza/tate hiza more. Also, I’ll be walking a lot come September judging by the size of the campus, so I want to be physically prepared for that.

Basically, fitness is about far more than weight and you do yourself a disservice when you only focus on that piece.

I meant to post this earlier but I got distracted. It’s not tomorrow yet though!

Salut,

R~

Filed under: Martial Arts Tagged: Fitness

Theatrical Tuesday – Game of Thrones

[image error]Over the past couple of years, there has been some negativity following this show because of the sexual assault scenes depicted. Among my author peers, I have an unfavourable opinion when it comes to this. I think the scenes were indeed horrible, but depicting them was the right thing to do.

Why do I feel this way? Well, largely for the same reasons that the actress herself feels: “The more we talk about sexual assault the better, and screw the people who are saying we shouldn’t be putting this on TV and screw the people who are saying they’re going to boycott the show because of it,” she said.

Think about how much discussion on this subject has happened since.

Yes, we’re still struggling to get rapists appropriately punished, but discussing the subject and showing how horrible it is help people see why it’s wrong and bring us closer to appropriate punishments. Not everyone can simply intuit things. Not every person has parents that are actively involved in teaching them right from wrong, but they can get that marriage is supposed to be based on love and there’s no question that what Sansa experienced was not love.

Moreover, this reached people who don’t even watch the show. I’m speculating, but it’s possible that whoever caught Brock Turner in the act was more equipped to know when they were seeing something that wasn’t consensual because it was on their minds having heard about this episode online or at school. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if Brock’s father was like Lucius Malfoy and advised Brock to get some action whenever he could. Not that I’m in anyway excusing Brock for his actions, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he has had a life rather like Draco in Harry Potter.

Regardless, only when highlighted and brought into the open can a festering wound be healed and Hollywood has the power to influence more than any other industry.

Sansa Stark has been through a lot of crap. She began as a shallow girl who cared about nothing more than marrying a prince. She got her wish. She was sent off with Joffrey, who was a whiny and emotionally abusive shithead among other things. Then she was given to Tyrion. When Sansa was married to Tyrion, they also showed what respectful treatment of someone who doesn’t want to have sex can look like and he cared enough to get her away from King’s Landing. She had more bad crap happen to her and it gave her agency. She rose like a queen and handled her rapist by turning one of his favourite tools against him and ensuring he couldn’t hurt anyone else ever again.

Anyway, it’s ludicrous to think that a novel series set where and when this one is wouldn’t have true evils that were prevalent to the point of being acceptable in human history. If we’ve paid attention though, the public outcry shows that this behaviour is far from acceptable today. Maybe someday we won’t need to discuss it because the problem will be resolved, but we haven’t got there yet. There are still judges making bad calls and the rare female who lies and both things are detrimental to the legal side of this issue.

 

Something that causes a disturbance in North America may not rate as newsworthy on another continent and I think everyone should be aware of that. Your fire is not someone else’s fire. Your methods of living are not someone else’s and trying to force them to live in a way that appeases you isn’t right. We don’t live in a dictatorship. Everyone has free will and a different story to tell for reasons you might not understand.

As a writer, I can choose to pretend it’s not happening or I can choose to discuss it. How I discuss it is debatable, but simply preaching leads to people feeling ostracized rather than allowed to talk about an issue. That creates festering wounds.

I personally prefer not to fully show such scenes in my work, but if it’s a necessary story element, I want to get as close as possible so there’s no doubt what is happening. Some things shouldn’t be explained through metaphor. If you’re looking for an author who plays it safe, you won’t like my work whether it’s in film or novel format. I never was the kid who cared about fitting in.

And Game of Thrones has so many wonderful things going for it. The acting, CGI, and musical score are some of the highest quality out there. The fight scenes are also excellent. The writing is too. There are many strong female characters in the show as well. I look forward to its return later this month.

Salut,

R~

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: TV Shows

Merry Monday – Tough Weekend

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Image created using Bit Strips.

Around mid-day on Friday, my phone died. After trying cache wipes, factory reset, and more, it just wouldn’t come back to me. Late on Friday, I saw a cockroach n my kitchen. It ducked into my saran wrap dispenser. I think I’ll be getting rid of that device. I spent the weekend “sleeping” with the lights on. You can guess how much sleep I actually got.

Both of these things affected me far more than I wished they would have. I’m a horror fan. I read it, watch it, and sometimes write it. I couldn’t do any of these things this weekend because of one cockroach. With my phone down, I couldn’t access the Kindle app because I forgot about the browser option in my state of distress between the phone and the bug, so I went to the next book in my reading list, which happened to be The Glass Castle. This book is a memoir of a woman whose parents are dumpster divers and so far it sounds like they neglected their children as she got badly burned as a child. Well, that helped me put things in perspective.

Canada Day was spent obsessively cleaning, playing video games, and watching the live stream of the concerts and fireworks. I’ve realized that fireworks are kind of boring to me these days. There really hasn’t been much innovation in them. I long for fireworks like Gandalf’s! Perhaps the fun of them as an adult is watching your children’s faces light up in excitement.

I played a little Assassin’s Creed 2, but realized I’m not fond of the game. Desynchronization happens far too often for me to have fun. I read #3 is better. Perhaps I’ll do a trade in. I have a few games I can get rid of. Really, I prefer games with more freedom to run around like Prince of Persia or Dishonored. When I do play AC, I try to kill only those in the way of my target and try to blend in as much as possible. I prefer when they can’t even tell I was there, so I hide bodies and such. Anyway, I just wasn’t in an AC mood on Saturday, so I switched to Fable III and had a great time while waiting for the live stream to begin.

The Canada Day live stream was delayed because of rain, thunder, and lightning in Ottawa. This also made me quit gaming sooner than I wanted. I enjoyed the diversity of the stream. Some other Canadians didn’t. I’ll have another post on the concerts later this week. I’m surprised it’s sunny today. We’ve been getting hammered by storms for at least a week now.

On Sunday, I got my new phone for the cost of a SIM card and a case. It’ll be a $9 charge for two years to pay off, but that’s not bad. I went with the Galaxy a5 2017. I’m mostly enjoying my new phone, but it’s taking some getting used to. The back button and tabs button are on the opposite sides of the home button from the Nexus 5. Because my Nexus 5 was almost 4 years old, this phone is actually an upgrade for me. I have double the storage now plus the ability to use SD cards and the camera is way better. I had to turn on so many things like Swype. But some apps I don’t need anymore like a blue light filter because it’s built in. The battery seems better than the old phone too. Some things annoy me like how many screens I have to go through to flip my data off. Also, some basic things I haven’t figured out like how to save files that aren’t pictures directly to my Google Drive. I’ve downloaded the manual to figure out things that should be intuitive but aren’t. I find it interesting how different things can behave on a different phone like emojis. Apparently I might be able to do things like send a YouTube video to my TV. I have a smart TV anyway, but it’s a neat feature to try sometime. I can apparently use it to pay for things, but one needs money for that to be a reality, so I’ve turned that feature off. My charging port is USB-C, so it can perform multiple functions like access a USB key. I’ll probably see about playing music from there rather than having songs on my phone directly. The audio is louder on this phone too. Lots of things to try out. It’s also water resistant. That killed my Nexus 4, so it’s a nice feature to have.

The young woman at Koodo turned off things like data for me to prevent it from eating up all my data while I drove it home to update it on my WiFi. I thought that was very nice. I think Google had the mall hours wrong though. It said it opened at 11 and I got to the Koodo booth around 11:05 and there was a line up…

I probably looked strange as I exited the mall holding my phone as though I were Gollum and it was my preciousss.

[image error]Goals Update

Cleaning

– I have only some dishes that must be hand washed to do because of the cockroach scare. I guess that’s something.

– I have one drawer bottom to cut before I can put all my tools away. Well all but the few tools required to shave it down to the proper size to fit in the slot.

– Then it’s pretty much paper to clean up. Most of that I need to type up or scan into the computer then get rid of the paper.

Course

– I’m almost done. I have the Coursera app on my phone, so I’m getting through videos faster. Problem is that I’ve saved some PDFs to my phone and can’t find them to move them to my Google Drive. I guess I need to plug it into my computer or plug a USB key in to find them? Seems very inefficent and there has to be a better way. Maybe I can save them directly to a USB key and transfer that way? I really don’t see why I don’t have direct access to the downloads folder…

Reno

– Nothing changed since last week.

Novel

– Coming along nicely. Changing to 3rd person limited, because I don’t love 1st person for this story. I find it too limiting and want to do more with the story.

Script

– Haven’t progressed on this. Have been watching movies to learn things though.

Sewing

– I’m nearing the scary parts of building a purse. I can’t see how the directions will make it happen correctly. This is life though. Sometimes you just have to do the thing and see how it goes.

Music

– Haven’t done anything here, but planning to do more once I have the course done. Feeling like I need to clear a couple things off my plate before I can really focus on this.

School

– OSAP either sent them money or it was deferred. I can’t tell. I know it says it’s paid. I know I’m getting less than I expected, which is about the amount of first semester tuition. I am signed up for orientation late August and should be able to get all the stuff I need done like my bus pass and computer setup. I’m supposed to have my schedule at the beginning of the month. Maybe I’ll give myself a tour early. I could take the bus and see how painful that will be every day.

Plan for ROW80 Round 3

Finish the major cleaning before school starts.
Finish the Transmedia course. It ends this month so this should happen.
Complete my kitchen’s drawers.
First draft of the Blood Waitress Club.
First draft of my horror screenplay.
Learn how to make a basic song in LMMS.
Get products made for my sewing business.
Practice some self care like video games.
Finish reading at least one book.

I’m off to hang out with friends this afternoon, so I need breakfast and a shower.

Salut,

R~

Filed under: Musings Tagged: Courage, Discipline

Symphonic Saturday – Canada Day

Today is Canada’s 150th birthday, but that means a lot of different things to different people, so I can’t think of one music genre or song that fits. As a friend said, Canada is a cultural mosaic.

To me, being Canadian means recognizing the awful things we’ve done and are doing like how the railroad was built, the continued mistreatment of our First Nations people, our involvement in The Somalia Affair, turning away Jewish people in WWII, the internment of our Japanese citizens during WWII, and our involvement in supplying materials for the bombs detonated in Nagasaki and Hiroshimi. There’s probably more listed in a book called Orienting Canada: Race, Empire and the Transpacific by John Price.

All of that means everyone who lives here can have immensely complex feelings about this holiday.

For the First Nations people, many may protest or want little to do with this day. It means 150 years since strangers came and took nearly everything from them.

For the Chinese, it may bring up memories of lives lost building a cross-country railroad system that so many still use today.

For many from all over the world, it means a safe place from the atrocities in their home countries.

Some of us don’t even know why we ended up here instead of the country of our ancestry. The Scot in me wants to listen to Oh Canada on bagpipes.

But we’re all on this piece of the globe trying to live together despite differences and some truly awful things in our recent past.

And for the most part, things are pretty good here. A few weeks back, I spent time in the park near my house at an event where people from all different racial backgrounds and lifestyles came together to sing and dance to hip-hop. It was the first time I had ever felt like the oddball being one of the few white people who live in my neighbourhood, but I enjoyed the day. Missing Linx was there. One of their members happens to be one of Ottawa’s newest Poet Laureates, which isn’t a distinction that is easily achieved. You can learn more about JustJamal ThePoet here.

And Canada has a lot of wonderful things too!

We’ve had amazing people like Terry Fox.

The world owes our First Nations people for maple syrup.

A Canadian invented basketball.

Winnie the Pooh was inspired by a Canadian soldier’s pet bear.

John McCrae was another Canadian who created a famous poem.

Superman was created by Canadian-American man names Joe Shuster.

Canada helped free slaves.

And how about the green spaces, fresh lakes, Tim Hortons, hockey, ringuette, bacon, Alberta beef, and real beer?

Being a Canadian is mostly awesome, but don’t forget how we got here and respect how others choose to spend this day. That’s about the most Canadian thing you can do.

I’ll likely spend part of it in deep mourning for my Nexus 5, which has decided to stop functioning. According to the Internet, repair is estimated at $200. I have some money on my tab, so a new phone would be about the same including a case for it. There are a couple of problems. I really can’t afford a phone right now. I have a trip next weekend to a place I’ve never been with no GPS. Guess I’ll be busting out an old school map. Truthfully, my phone has been acting odd. Difficulties charging properly and calls only ringing once before hanging up making them impossible to answer most of the time. Maybe I can collect on a debt owed to me and have it work out.

Salut,

R~

Filed under: Music Tagged: Respect

Frisky Friday – Combating Frustration and Loneliness

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Image created using Bitmoji

If you’re a fan of X-Men, you probably know a bit about Rogue and her powers. She’s basically like a puritan succubus in that she takes life energy without having to get naked. She’s very strong because her power also gives her the ability to use the power of another mutant for a time. A force to be reckoned with, for sure. But it also means she can’t physically connect with others without possibly killing them. There could be a message in there about the benefits of chastity, but I have no interest in talking about that today or possibly ever.

Think about how sexually frustrated she must be though. I mean there’s the ‘I haven’t had sex in a year or two level’ where you feel like climbing walls, and then there’s Rogue. She’s far from the only superhero that has sexual challenges. Bruce Banner usually hulks out if he gets excited. You can read more here.

Today, technology brings hope to Rogue and others like her. A parody video of an app called Lickster exists and it was supposedly developed to help men perform cunnilingus. There really is an app from CamSoda that works with certain sex toys. It’s called OCast. Men or women can “touch” their partners in a sexual way from a distance. They can even upload their techniques, so people from all over the world can try them out and rate them. Apparently, Tsunami Mami is a popular one.

Women can even give themselves oral through this app either by using it themselves or using the technique uploaded by a stranger. Sex with a stranger is a common sexual fantasy that both men and women have actually, so it may be performing extra services.

PornHub has seized on this and now some of their videos can be synchronized with these devices for an interactive experience.

So, now Rogue doesn’t have to be quite so lonely, though I doubt there is a way to get the full benefits of real connection such as a boost in oxytocin levels. Oxytocin is the hug hormone and it’s important for a lot of things, especially continued propagation of our species and mental health. Now there is apparently a supplement, but supplements are rarely preferred by medical specialists to natural sources. Ultimately, Rogue should probably find an incubus to have naughty time with as perhaps their powers wouldn’t work on each other and they could just have some safe fun together.

But my biggest question is, when will men have a similar interactive toy that simulates blow jobs and can teach women to be better at giving them? When will their toys also respond to PornHub’s interactive videos?

What’s good for the goose…

But I suppose, the need for cunnilingus and blow jobs may reduce altogether as a result of these devices. We may be at the beginning of the change to virtual sex as displayed in Demolition Man so many years ago. I’m still wondering about the seashells.

Have a great weekend whether you choose to celebrate Canada Day tomorrow or not

Thoughtful Thursday – Balancing Life’s Pieces

[image error]A puzzle I won at a friend’s Steampunk barbecue really resonated with me. It’s James Christensen’s piece called Balancing Act. The piece shows a man balancing items like hearts, flutes, clocks, yin-yang symbols, soccer balls, cake, angels, devices, bottles, fruits, vegetables, keys, candy, and more with his nose, both hands, and one foot while the other foot rests on a living turtle. Life is a struggle between religious beliefs, eating well and treating yourself, exercising, enjoying games, time, love, learning, and more. Coins are falling out of his money bag as he attempts to keep the balance. The object the turtle is walking on looks much like a chess board. Also in the picture are the skull of a long dead turtle, two prey animals, and the statue of a king who is staring at this farce. The man himself is dressed in possibly Elizabethan attire suggesting culture is another thing we must balance. There is an unopened package on the table, probably because he’s been too busy with everything else to bother opening it. You can see it below.

 

Image borrowed from artbarbarians.com

This is life. While balancing all of this, we must continue to move forward even if it’s slow like a turtle on land.

We are all, like this puzzle, made up of many pieces. If you give too much weight to any single piece, the whole thing will fall down. And no matter how slow, it’s always in motion, so we’ll forever be having to balance.

My puzzle has pieces like:

– writer

– aspiring screenwriter

– hobbyist musician

– martial artist

– alpha woman

– entrepreneur

– hobbyist artist

– daughter

– sister

– former project manager

– trained social worker

– former computer technician

– former catalogue delivery person

– former actress

– reader

– seamstress

– cosplayer

– former roleplayer

– gluten intolerant person

– autoimmune condition sufferer

– white

– Scottish

– French

– Swedish

– has hoarder parent

– has former workaholic father

– doesn’t know who maternal grandfather was

– former roller derby player

– former theatre worker

– former copywriter

– former fast food worker

– former government worker

– former spouse

– former victim of bullying

Sometimes people look at the pieces that are part of another’s puzzle and only see a few of the pretty ones and think they want a puzzle like the other person has. The grass always seems greener on the other side and from that distance you might not see the weeds.

Your puzzle is different because you are different. It makes no sense to be upset that your puzzle doesn’t look like my puzzle. You are not accepting yourself when you do that. You are not giving yourself permission to be yourself. If you truly accept who you are, you have no fear of hearing other perspectives.

Also, my puzzle could be broken down further. For government jobs, I’ve worked at the North Bay Police Service, the Ministry of Correctional Services and Community Safety, for Ontario Northland, and for the Ontario Clean Water Agency. The martial arts could be broken down into each I’ve studied. Writer could be broken down into every genre plus non-fiction and poetry.

You don’t see how some things in my mother’s puzzle affect me. It doesn’t talk about how my grandfather has been erased from our history for some reason no one alive knows today who he was or why there needs to be a shameful secret about him. It doesn’t say that my mother was born and lived on a First Nations reserve yet instead of First Nations blood, I have the blood of English and French royalty in me somehow.

When you look at a few pieces that someone chooses to share online, they are often not sharing any of the scary bits or very few of them. I didn’t list everything above that I’ve been through or done, but they’re all part of me.

The cool thing is that if you really want to make changes to your puzzle, you can. But you won’t get there by coveting mine. It all takes hard work and perseverance.

Stop obsessively comparing yourself to others. You are in a race with yourself, not me.

The best thing to do is to figure out who you are and what you want out of life without feeling envious about the success of others. You do you and let them do them. The mountain they are climbing isn’t likely the same one you are and even if it is, your path doesn’t have to be the same to the top.

Best wishes on your journey.

Salut,

R~

Filed under: Musings Tagged: Courage

Warrior Wednesday – The Book of Five Rings pt 2

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Image created using Bitmoji

Today, I’m continuing my examination of The Book of Five Rings, which is known by many martial artists, but has implications for all areas of life. In case you missed the first part, I’ve linked it below.

I: Earth

II: Water

The second part of the Book of Five Rings is titled “Water”. Musashi talks about being the same person in all endeavors. He advises that we should be able to peacefully acknowledge all things without letting them distract us from what should be at the center of our focus. We should be able to maintain a state in between relaxation and alertness at all times. It’s like he’s saying we shouldn’t be locked in fight mode, but we shouldn’t be so relaxed that we are unprepared for a fight.

How might that translate in the day-to-day life of an office worker? Always be looking at what other job opportunities are out there and continually learn new skills even if you love your job. This means you will have no trouble if the company suddenly goes bankrupt or your division gets down-sized. I learned this lesson the hard way.

In your love life, this suggests to me that you never get lazy. Always show your appreciation for your partner because you both deserve someone who puts the effort in that strong, healthy relationships require. Always be willing to talk about anything that may come up, but never assume your partner won’t get upset. At the same time, sometimes tears and anger do more for strengthening a relationship. Don’t ignore things that are annoying you, but don’t nitpick either.

Musashi considers water to be the foundation of his Two-Heavens style. He says it’s important to be aware of the body of the big man and the small man. We should always be aware of the good and bad in all things, but don’t let them distract you from completing your objective. He again recommends studying the arts and even when in the midst of a hectic battle, you must keep your mind calm. Battle in today’s world could be applied to the political climate.

Observation is strong, seeing is weak, he says. I think what he means is that observing something takes your full attention and seeing doesn’t necessarily. When you observe something, it is a process of active learning. Seeing is passive. If you have observed, you will be able to predict your enemy’s attacks even if they’re hiding their sword. If you only see, you wait until you see the sword and by then it will be too late. He says we must see both sides simultaneously. He recognizes this is hard when thrown into chaos, but the master does not change their eyes under any circumstances. If you cannot see beyond your side’s position, you are not objective and we must be in order to make the best decisions.

Musashi then talks about Niten strategy and says to leave your sword where it is after you miss. He advises waiting for the opponent to make their next move before you do anything else. At other times he advises to deliberately open yourself up to attack and let your opponent think they have an advantage.

Musashi advises to practice these things daily. He also frequently says we need to investigate everything thoroughly.

Then comes the story of the warrior Musashi can tell is different than the others. The man sleeps with a sword suspended above his bed with the tip aimed at his head to never forget the fine line between life and death. When you keep that as a focus, you know what to spend your energy on and what is just noise. But living this way attracts praise from those in power and envy from your peers. It takes much courage to endure the lies that spread so easily. Torture may come in the form of a false arrest, job loss, denial of funding grants, and more.

Put all of this into action and you will be better today than you were yesterday. Musashi says to practice for 1000 days and refine with 10,000 days of training. Practice is learning the dance steps and training is knowing how to apply them in different situations. For fun, I calculated how many days there are in 80 years. It came out to 29,200. This means that anything that you want to excel at will take many years and much of your life. No one is guaranteed any days. Be careful what you choose to spend your time on. It’s too valuable to waste.

Salut,

R~

Filed under: Martial Arts, Reviews Tagged: Books

Theatrical Tuesday – Rise of the Animals

[image error]At B-Movie Club this weekend, we watched “Rise of the Animals”. No, not the David Attenborough special. The Chris Wojcik masterpiece where even vegetarian animals craved human flesh.

Director: Chris Wojcik

Writer: Chris Wojcik

Film Studio: Whacked-Out Entertainment

Budget: $7000 (estimated)

Gross: Unknown

IMDB Rating: 3.7/10

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Synopsis: In a world where animals have turned on humanity, a teen travels across the country in search of the girl of his dreams.

*** Spoilers ahead ***

Premise

Our hero Max, played by Greg Hoople, has one last pizza delivery to make before making it to a movie with his buddy (Adam Schonberg). Trouble is, it’s in the bush at some cabin and they’ll be slightly late to the movie. After some difficulty they reach the cabin and by then there’s no way to make the movie, but the wary travelers are in luck as this cabin holds a plethora of drunken teen girls. Max’s longtime crush is visiting from Canada and they hookup despite her having a boyfriend. Max, not knowing that tidbit, tries to be chivalrous and return her phone to her while dealing with killer animals.

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Max, before the SHTF.

Writing

There were a lot of things that didn’t make sense in the story like why a girl would leave her phone in the back of a car with a voicemail on it for the guy she cheated with. From a writing perspective there were some overly convenient things that happened like suddenly stumbling on a canoe when they happened to need a boat, but the way it is executed makes it OK. There were a lot of good lines and funny things that happened that kept us laughing. Max learns good lessons and I like the way it ended.

Continuity

The film had trouble with continuity. The pizza boy was wearing a white shirt under his blue short-sleeved dress shirt until he opened his dress shirt and suddenly there was just hairy chest and a thin gold chain. Later, a girl at the cabin party lost her hand to a puppet deer. There was arterial spurt. A while later, a hand was cut off by a regular car window and there was no arterial spurt. Early on in the movie there was a lot of blood, but later there was almost no gore. All the animals are affected by some unknown thing causing them to attack humans, so it’s odd that humans aren’t affected when a dark-haired CGI gorilla shows up out of nowhere also super pissed off.

Effects

Bad taxidermy puppets, early 2000s CGI, fake blood, manikins, and explosions come together in this harrowing tale that is unlikely to scare. The sound effects rarely match the creatures emitting them, but that’s part of the fun of B-movies as any enthusiast knows.

Favourite Parts

My favourite part happens around 38:30 when Stephanie Motta was supposed to be peeing in the woods. Oh, and the romantic mushroom cloud moment is good too. I also felt nostalgia at the CGI creatures because they reminded me of my old Dark Age of Camelot player days during college.

Conclusion

It’s a fun movie to heckle with friends. The gore is on the fake side and not stomach churning, so unless you’re extra sensitive to the sight of fake blood, you should be able to get through this one. It could also lend itself well to B-Movie Bingo. It’s also barely over an hour long, so it’s a quickie if you’re strapped for time and want a laugh or two. Actually, you’ll probably have more than that.

Filed under: Reviews Tagged: Movies

Merry Monday – Taking the Reigns

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Image created using Bit Strips.

I forgot to post on Saturday. I meant to, but I got into taking control of other areas of my life and have been so full of inspiration to write that I just couldn’t spare the time.

On the weekend, I discovered that the Kindle app has something called collections. In the early stages of writing Scion, I downloaded every free book about survival. This made it hard to find any of the books I had before the survival ones. Now, all my survival related books are in the Survival collection and I removed almost all of them from the carousel, so I can access only the books I want to read soon. I also made collections for specific authors like Marie Bilodeau as I have several of her eBooks in my Kindle app and though I’m done them, I’ll probably want to reread them at some point, so I don’t want to delete them. I also had a lot of recipe books that are now in a Food collection. With the clutter removed, I can find things. I have slowly been making progress on my Dropbox and Google Drive as well in an attempt to be ready to work come September as there’s nothing more annoying than having difficulty knowing where you stored something.

I’m working on this in the world beyond my devices. There’s a certain clinical psychologist that has drawn a lot of hell for one particular view he has, but he says a lot of smart things like, “There’s a lot of young people today planning to save the world who can’t even clean their bedrooms.” He’s completely right about that. We have to start small. Instead of seeing my whole house, I have to see it in manageable chunks, quit complaining, stop daydreaming, and just suck it up. It’s a little more complicated being the child of a hoarder, but I get to decide whether to be a victim or take the reigns of life and steer it in the direction I want. Of course, I’d rather play video games, but who wouldn’t? I’ve amazed myself at how much progress I made this weekend in a relatively short amount of time while it was storming on Sunday. I *think* I’ve found all the glass from the bulb I broke many weeks ago.

There was another neat discovery this weekend. InspiroBot is a generation tool. Many of my friends have been a little obsessed with its outputs and posting them all over social media. It often spouts out awkward truths that people don’t like to discuss like this. One might argue that is the perfect way to describe politics or any kind of situation that needs someone who is other than those in your clique. It also puts out some deep thoughts like this one.  That’s Matrix style thinking right there.

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It’s been a while since I last did a goals update, so here goes:

Novel: I’m converting to third person limited, but have been writing a lot lately. Word count is now at 73,379 though a fair chunk of those are old blog posts. It’s probably more likely about half of that. I outlined this one and it’s going smoother than the last. I do have some other projects begging for attention, but I’ve mostly been focusing on this one.

Screeplay: My screenplay is at 2,813 words, but I’m about a third of the way through the story in terms of how many sequences I’ve written. I’m enjoying Save the Cat.

Reading: vN is a fantastic piece of literature, which happens to be a YA cyberpunk tale. I’m 105 pages into it.

Course: I’m behind, but it’s OK. I’m enjoying a fair amount of it. Some of it, I already know from writing and from reading writing craft books as well as having taking business in university. I may have already gotten the main thing I needed out of it, but we’ll see.

Songwriting: I think my finger is finally healed, so I can start playing guitar again. I spoke with a DJ friend and found a free GarageBand alternative for windows that I’m going to start messing around with called LMMS once I figure out how to finish setting it up.

Kitchen Reno: 2 of 3 drawers put together but I think one bottom needs a screw or something to keep it from sliding around.

Cleaning: Major progress made. I can actually see having other humans in my home at some point in the near future.

Sewing: Still having fun with the vague purse pattern, but it’s coming together. I should have a new purse soon that can fit my phone, glasses, and a book.

I think that’s all I have for updates.

Salut,

R~

Filed under: Musings Tagged: Discipline, Honesty