Hypnobooberday!

Last night was Mark's happy birthday, or as he likes to call it, hypnobooberday.

Actually, that's a funny story. When Shane and Karen went to the bakery to pick up the cake, they discovered, to the baker's chagrin, that the cake had vanished--someone earlier had been given the wrong cake. This resulted in Mark receiving an even bigger and better cake than the one that had been ordered, as the baker was quite generous in making amends, but it also means that someone, somewhere was opening their cake and wondering what on Earth "Hypnobooberday" might mean.

In any case, there were quite a number of intelligent and pleasantly inebriated people hanging out on the patio, in the dining room, and in the living room talking about anything from hikes on the West Coast Trail to the future of the human organism in the face of information and genetic technologies.

This morning everyone is feeling a little groggy and unambitious, though overall the intoxicants were properly balanced and nobody appears to be suffering. We still used it as an excuse to go to a restaurant called the Village, which serves a wonderful breakfast.

I'm not going to do a formal check-in, but suffice it to say that all categories are doing quite well.

In Victoria

Updates will be irregular for the next few days as I am currently visiting Mark in Victoria for his birthday, along with Shane and Dean.

We carpooled out on Wednesday, starting the journey at 2 am. This gave us quiet roads while in Edmonton and the stretch to Hinton, then daylight for the drive through the mountains. We managed to make the 3 pm ferry with about 10 cars to spare.

Since then, I've been downtown a couple of times to shop at nerd stores, and I've started to re-acquaint myself with some familiar stomping grounds, like the bog. It has been interesting to see the place in a different season, such as the flowers covered in flower petals depicted above.

The place is good for creativity as well. I had some interesting writing thoughts last night which I will now review to see if they are actually good, or just looked that way last night. I find I often come up with ideas that seem fun that don't stand up to later review, but that's just part of the process.

Oh! And how can I forget the dust devils? Two really nicely formed dust devils formed in dry fields near Vancouver. One of them raced towards our road and then disintegrated just as it reached it. Definitely an unexpected treat. And going on a long road trip to suddenly see a tornado-like vortex made me feel like one of the storm chasers I've been watching so avidly lately.

Fun times.

Check-In: 2015-05-16 (Saturday)

Body: PASS (walking)
Mind: PASS (story analysis)
Spirit: PASS (walking outside, gaming)
Social: WIN! (visiting with friends)

Most of yesterday I hung out with Jason and, to a lesser extent, Amber, who was out with friends for a good portion of the day. Our gaming group is playing GURPS Star Wars (a table-top role playing game) so Jason and I discussed most of the canonical Star Wars universe and finished the day with the Plinket review of Episode I.

WARNING: the shtick that the reviewer uses is a serial-killer theme. It's not graphic or anything (in fact it can be quite funny), but it deserves a trigger warning since it involves depictions of women being tied up in basements and such.

But the review itself is incredibly thorough and insightful. As a former Star Wars fan who was alienated by the newer movies, the reviews are wonderfully cathartic.  As a story professional, the reviews are intelligent, well-articulated analysis into how to craft good movies--and what not to do, which is basically everything Lucas does.

Anyway, I griped very briefly about how poorly my novel writing is going. Which is good, because it galvanized me to stick to the decision to turf that angle and do something new.

Check-In: 2015-05-15 (Friday)

Body: PASS (walking)
Mind: WIN! (writing)
Spirit: PASS (walking outside, writing, gaming)
Social: PASS (visiting friends, corresponding with family)

Took another stab at the novel on Friday again--it's been a little while. I didn't get the normal Spirit win that happens with writing endeavours simply because I still can't feel the story in my bones the way a compelling tale hits you deep down. I'm drawing very close to the point where I scrap this angle entirely and try something new. After many months of solid trying, I have given it the college try. There are plenty of other angles to pursue, so this is a strategic repositioning and not an emotional giving up. In fact, I'm pretty damn proud of how long I stuck to this approach before calling it off. Because persistence is an I-Win Button. Sooner or later I will come up with something good.

Anyway, I also went for a walk with Andrew after and chatted about Marvel and Star Wars movies, then took it easy in the evening and played some games.

Check-In: 2015-05-14 (Thursday)

There's too much to catch up on, so I'm just going to jump right in to yesterday.

Body: PASS (exercise, diet, but late night)
Mind: WIN! (gaming)
Spirit: PASS (walking outside, gaming)
Social: WIN! (gaming, corresponding with family)

The main feature of yesterday was gaming, specifically a table-top RPG in the Star Wars universe (though using GURPS as a system). I spent several hours building my character on top of the several hours of socializing and gaming.

I don't find I get quite as many points under Spirit for playing games as I do for creating either fiction or games, but it's still worth something for the pure entertainment. And it can actually be quite a mental stimulation as it can require a lot of storytelling, game design for managing the rules, and logical work for building the character sheets (I use spreadsheet applications to build fairly complex, automated monstrosities rather than just recording things on paper like a sane person).

I'd like to get back to the point where I treat weekdays as "work time" and evenings and weekends as "relax time" with any sort of game design or writing counting legitimately as "work". Yesterday did not obey those rules. However, the score is still excellent. Any day with four passes is automatically doing wonders for mental health. Adding a couple of wins to the scoreboard means it was a healthy day.

It's good to see that even a fairly irresponsible day like yesterday is still scoring well as far as my psychological well-being is concerned. And heck, I'm going on a trip on the 20th, so maybe all that being a responsible grown-up stuff can wait until I get back.

Now I'm thinking about Luna, and how good it will be to see her again. And Mark and Karen of course. Let's not forget them. :)

Beautiful Allergies

 

Edmonton's vegetation decided that a day of blizzards was just what it needed to really thrive. Shortly after the snowstorm of last week, everything really started to bud and to bloom. My favorites have been the budding green trees near the promenade downtown:

 

My little cellphone cam doesn't do it justice, but the rich emerald of the leaves against the sombre browns of the branches makes the whole scene seem to just glow, like these plants have been transported to our world from the bioluminescent forests of Pandora.

I always have preferred forests to gardens, trees to flowers, but even I have to enjoy the beauty of an entire tree so overloaded with petals that it looks like it's about to burst, raining flowers over the street.

Of course, all of this comes with a price. Those flowers aren't there to be admired by us, but to facilitate a frenzy of plant gametes seeking each other out for reproduction. My body, possibly as the result of antibiotics when I was young, has decided to treat these gametes as dangerous entities, and enters a full histamine lockdown. Allergies.

I've been taking loratadine for several months now, so I've actually been pretty good on the sneezing and itching part of allergy season. But recently, it has been quite warm in my apartment, leading me to make the foolish decision to open my window at night. For days, I found myself groggy and without energy or motivation, until I remembered that I basically set myself up to inhale allergens all night every night. I've closed my window for the last couple of nights and my motivation is getting a lot better.

Not that it's wise to pick on a single possible reason for these kinds of things. I am living alone and unemployed right now, a situation ripe for psychological issues which can sneak up gradually. So while it's good to realize that I need to keep the window closed at night, I also need to make sure I tag the psychological points: physical, willpower, emotional, and social.

So let's fire up those check-ins again.

The Link Between Taste and Nutrition and The Link Between The NDP and AT-ATs

What I would like to talk about in today's post is nutrition. On Thursday on The Current they interviewed a guy called Mark Schatzker, who has the most interesting take on healthy diet that I've heard in a really long time.

But I probably shouldn't let this week go by without commenting on the Alberta election, the results of which are depicted above. While the obvious comment is something about an NDP majority in Alberta and how long it'll be before hell freezes over, I prefer to imagine the conservative vote experiencing it in terms of the ice planet of Hoth:

"NDP walkers spotted on the north ridge!"

"Socialist troops have entered the base! Socialist troops have entered the--[static]"

But I think Alberta needed a change. Again, in terms of the Star Wars franchise: I'm not sure if I like the idea of Disney doing the next movie or not, but they can't do a worse job than Lucas did, so heck, let's give it a shot! (After Han gets his shot, anyway, because he did shoot first.)

Though what I'm really thinking, as I pull on my toque and gloves in freaking May, is:

"I could be in Victoria right now."

Check-In: 2015-05-06 (Wednesday)

Body: PASS (walking, okay sleep, decent diet)
Mind: WIN! (game design, Unity meeting)
Spirit: WIN! (game design, Unity meeting)
Social: WIN! (Unity meeting)

The main standout for yesterday was the fact that Jason, "Landrew" and I met to work on our Unity game. I had a little homework to get done for that meeting so I spent the afternoon on it. These things rapidly score points under Mind and Spirit, with Social getting a boost from the meeting itself.

I initially put "diet could be better" because of the donair I had at the end of the day, though in retrospect that's not entirely fair, since sugar trumps fat in the race to kill you. And natural fats, as opposed to modified fat, is starting to look like a downright acceptable food option.

But for a really interesting take on diet--the most interesting one I've heard in the last few years--will be in tomorrow's Friday post.

Forbes Nails the Ultron Review

Time for another unscheduled posting:

I think Forbes says everything I felt about the latest Avengers movie.

Note that there are spoilers in there, so don't read it unless you're prepared for those.

Check-In Catch-Up: 2015-05-01 (Friday) - 2015-05-05 (Tuesday)

Lots of visitors, Age of Ultron viewings, and NDP candidates made for a busy weekend and start of the week. Overall:

Body: PASS (walking)
Mind: PASS (gaming, election coverage)
Spirit: WIN! (gaming, movies, Orange Crush, walking outside)
Social: WIN! (gaming, movies, noodles, visiting with friends, corresponding with family)

Sleep has been reasonable lately though not quite in the win column. Diet ranged from fairly terrible one day to quite good another day, and a lot of medium in-between. I at least ate several grapefruit, so I got some vitamins.

I'm going to show a little bit of my political colours by listing the Orange Crush of the Alberta election in as a win in the Spirit column. But I think a lot of people were wanting change, and Wild Rose is still plagued by the floor-crossing issue and fears of their excessive social conservatism--though at least they managed not to tell anyone to go burn in a lake of fire this time.

There's been a lot of socializing for me in the last couple of days, what with the Age of Ultron viewings, the regular noodle meeting on Sunday, some people visiting from out of town, the walks with Jason and the electronic chatting with family members. Today I'm actually toning the social down a little bit so I can focus on Mind, which has been getting more neglected lately. Also I have some game design documents to prepare for our Unity meeting tonight... which will be social. Oh. Well, that's not a bad thing. :)

Check-In: 2015-05-01 (Thursday)

Body: PASS (walking, sleep)
Mind: PASS (rest)
Spirit: PASS (gaming)
Social: WIN! (visiting with friends (x2), corresponding with family)

A pretty mild day yesterday. After all the excitement this week I decided to keep things simple. I got to bed at a good time, though surprisingly the diet wasn't great. It was saved somewhat by the consumption of a grapefruit, though brought down by a pasta-based breakfast (not ideal when you're avoiding wheat) and KFC for supper. Still an overall pass under Body.

Check-In: 2015-04-30 (Thursday)

Body: PASS (walking)
Mind: WIN! (interview)
Spirit: WIN! (interview, walking outside)
Social: WIN! (interview, visiting with friends)

The main feature of yesterday was an impromptu interview at a company that does industrial training simulators. I call it impromptu because I got an email in the morning asking if I could stop by in the afternoon. I then sat with three of their project leaders (of slightly different specialties) and chatted amicably with them about QA and project management. I get the feeling that I left a good impression.

Then I got a chance to visit with some friends around dinner time. Took it easy on the walking after the previous day, getting my minimum step count, but that's still a solid pass in the Body column.

Check-In: 2015-04-29 (Wednesday)

I got a little behind on these and I don't remember much of Tuesday any more. So I'm picking this up at Wednesday. :)

Body: WIN! (walking, no seriously walking, diet and sleep neutral)
Mind: WIN! (Unity)
Spirit: WIN! (walking outside, Unity)
Social: WIN! (work friends at lunch, kung fu friends at coffee, Unity friends at dinner)

Wednesday was a record-setting day for walking. After walking to my various social engagements, I was at 22k steps. I decided to go for 25k just to get the 25k badge. By that point it was 11:00 pm and I was still feeling fairly spry so I decided to go for 30, which I made around 11:50, setting a new daily record for myself.

And since those social engagements included, amongst other things, work on our Unity project, that's a full day of wins.

Lazy Days and Productive Days

I'm writing this post on Tuesday, because Tuesday has been a Lazy Day.

For starters, I slept in, which is always a good sign that it's a lazy day. I then decided I didn't have the enough groceries for breakfast, so I went to Ricky's for breakfast, which makes hitting the Save On Foods afterwards easy. The contract of buying groceries after eating out makes me feel a little more justified in eating out.

Of course, while I was at the restaurant I thought about my story and tried a whole new angle on it (previous angles still aren't congealing enough for me). I then bought groceries, and I did the whole trip on foot in order to get steps and to enjoy the act of walking. I'm now sitting down to do my Check-Ins, after which I'll be doing some Unity training. Because today is a Lazy Day.

It's at this point that I realized that as much as I feel relaxed, I'm not actually being lazy. If you put the things I'm accomplishing in a list, it looks like I'm working my butt off. But it doesn't feel like it, because I'm relaxed and unstressed. It's just a startling remind that work isn't hard; stress is hard.

I like to call this more positive mindset "Gentle Action". When in a state of gentle action, there's very little stress, very little expectation. Instead, you're just enjoying the act of getting things done for the sake of getting things done.

Tom DeMarco, one of my favorite writers on how to be a good manager, actually has a graph in his book, Slack. It shows how people who are under just a tiny bit of stress are really productive, while people who are under heavy stress are much less productive. So gentle action isn't merely a pleasant way to do things, it's a productive one, and managers should aim to keep their employees in this state just to maximize efficiency, with the happy side-effect that they get to feel like a good person.

This duality where good business practice is the same as being a good person gives me great hope for the future of the human race, as it means that the practical arguments and the humanitarian arguments lead to the same conclusion: be nice to each other so we can maximize our productivity. But that's a whole new post. Or possibly a whole new field of study.