Halloween 2018

Myra Canyon

A friend of mine from Red Fox and I went for a walk in and around Myra Canyon, which is pretty close to Kelowna. The nature and the scenery were fantastic so I thought I would share. :)

Vault Dweller: Mark Ramsden

This car looks like something that could show up, wrecked, in the Fallout universe. In fact, I saw this when walking with my parents in Peachland. But I wouldn't be surprised if it ran on a fusion core and had a case of Nuka-Cola in the back.

I know it's been a while since my last update so here's the abridged version: I haven't found a job yet, which sucks, but my parents came out for a visit recently, and that was a great time. We saw a bunch of things around town that I hadn't seen yet, such as Mount Knox and Peachland.

I've recently developed (well, relapsed into) a Fallout 4 addiction again. I am managing a little bit of writing and coding, but this has certainly impacted my productivity. So this post is an attempt to turn my obsession into a slightly more productive endeavor. Job searching has caused me to spend a lot of time contemplating who I would like to be and what kind of life I want to live, so I thought I'd write myself up as a Fallout 4 character. This may challenging, as the game is designed to create characters who fight bloodthirsty raiders to the death in a nuclear wasteland, but I think I'll be able to fudge it into a modern context. And the way the political sphere is going lately, the wasteland may not be as far away as we'd all like.

Fallout uses the following stats: Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, and Luck, or S.P.E.C.I.A.L. In Fallout 4 you get to start with 28 points, with a minimum of 1 in each, though you get a bonus one at the start of the game, so it's effectively 29. For reference, 1 is very low and 10 or more is exceptionally high.

After a few minutes in a spreadsheet, I came up with these stats:

Strength: 2

It's possible I'm selling myself a little short here, but I based this on the skills. At Strength 2 I get access to Unarmed and Big Leagues (armed hand-to-hand combat) which means my kung fu training is all accounted for. If I were to "level up" my character, I would probably get some extra strength points, much the way that I was a weakling when I was younger, but was able to raise my strength through exercise. But as strength isn't an important part of my identity (or job skill set) I think 2 is fine.

Perception: 6

This is a tricky one. When I'm paying attention, I can be really alert. When I'm not paying attention, I can miss a dancing gorilla. In any case, 6 gives me access to Night Person, which increases my effective Perception and Intelligence at night. Being a night-owl, this makes sense. And I think I am perceptive, just easily distracted.

Endurance: 1

Bad lungs is hard on the endurance, and even at level 1, I have access to the Toughness perk, which can represent some of the body-hardening exercises I've done under kung fu. I've never been exposed to high doses of radiation (thankfully) so I don't know if I am particularly resistant to it, but I know for a fact I do not have Lead Belly. I can barely get along with normal food, let alone eat whatever I want without consequences.

Charisma: 6

Another tricky one, like Perception. In some cases, I can be very likable and persuasive, and in other cases I can be an awkward wallflower. But I think my management experience is similar to the Local Leader perk, which lets you create supply lines and workshops, so I'm taking Charisma 6 and blaming my anxiety for the wallflower moments.

Intelligence: 4

This might sound a little low, given that I did very well in school and even completed some honours-level mathematics courses in University. However, most of that knowledge was theoretical, and I never really developed any of the higher-level Intelligence skills. I am confident that I could learn those skills with enough effort, but for now I'm sitting at 4, which allows me to take the Hacker perk. This represents my general computer savvy, such as the fact that my first instinct was to use a spreadsheet to come up with my stats. If I feel like becoming a Nuclear Physicist (in practice, rather than just reading about it from an armchair), I'll have to hone a lot of fundamental skills like math, chemistry, and physics—i.e. I'll need to raise my Intelligence score first.

Agility: 6

This one took some fudging. All the Fallout 4 Agility abilities have to do with murdering people after the apocalypse. But I figure that all the weird yoga I can do and the brief stint learning aerial acrobatics means I probably don't suck in terms of agility. I think Moving Target is as close as I'm going to get to "can do weird yoga and aerial acrobatics." That's Agility 6. I could have also used Blitz since this combines nicely with hand-to-hand combat, but that's Agility 9 and I didn't have the points for it.

Luck: 4

I was tempted to go lower than this, given that I've had my share of misfortune. On the other hand, I've also had my share of good fortune. I chose Luck 4 because it gives me access to the Mysterious Stranger perk. In Fallout 4, this unnamed individual will occasionally show up to give you a hand in a tough fight. In the modern world, I figure this represents people who have given me a hand when I've needed it. I have often had family, friends, and even relative strangers give me an emotional boost when I really needed it.

Okay, so now that I've established my current character sheet, I'll have to do some thinking in terms of where I want to take it. In the wasteland, I probably would want to raise my Strength and learn to make armor, but in the modern world I think I'll instead be balancing options that involve creative writing or else developing my Hacking skill further by learning to code and do database queries. Some of it will be answering the question, "How should I earn money?" and some of it will be answering, "What do I want to do with the time I have?"

These two questions are related, of course, and I'm not sure that this exercise has taken me any closer to answering them. But I at least had some fun with it. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as well, or that you at least weren't completely bored.

Cheers.

GDPR - Please Read The Privacy Policy

Yes, I know I'm not staying with Luna right now, and that this image is a few months old now. But I was looking for an image for this post, and I couldn't resist posting her adorable face. Pupper! \o/

I have just updated the privacy policy for my blog. Please read it carefully before continuing.

More seriously, though, I am apparently obligated to make sure that readers of my blog are correctly informed about Blogger's use of cookies. I hope you're all getting some kind of automatic notification about this? Because I'm not, but maybe I already clicked something like that months ago...? If I end up in trouble with European law, I will be forced to flee to Canada.

Speaking of fleeing to Canada, I'm now a couple of weeks into Life in Kelowna. I've had some really productive days. I've cleaned, I've written, I've toyed with C# a little bit, I've bought groceries, I've gone on exploratory walks, I've meditated by the side of the lake. And I can go meditate by the side of the lake whenever I like right now. I am loving the crap out of all this.

I feel like the job prospects at Golder are still promising, though I'll be looking other places as well this coming week. Otherwise no news on the employment front.

I am starting to feel a little bit more settled in. I now know most of the streets near the house, and the major ones around town. I now know where to find a lot of the local services. And even just little things, like where to find the cutlery drawer. It can take a little while before you can find a fork without thinking about it after you've moved into a new place.

In any case, I'll be in touch in about a week! I hope everyone is doing well.

Week 1

Technically it has been over a week now, but some of that was sorta-vacation-ish rather than I-live-here-now-ish. Though it will take some time before the latter really starts to sink in.

The weather was really hot initially, though we thankfully got a reprieve for a few days where it was more overcast. We will be heading to 31C soon again, but I think I'm starting to adapt a little bit. Mostly this involves washing a lot of shirts, because they get sweaty pretty quick.

I went to the farmer's market with Jason yesterday. The first photo is from the walk home. There's a vineyard in the middle of town, which you can see in the distance. Makes for an interesting view on the walk though.

I just spent some time today wandering around what I think is the the Mission Creek area of town, named after the missionary Father Pandosy who is a historical figure here. There were a lot of coffee shop, fitness shops, gyms, and restaurants. It felt like Whyte Avenue if the bars turned into gyms in order to burn off the beer bellies they'd created.

Starting to get used to the routine a little. Or maybe I am developing a routine? Early days though. :)

No major updates otherwise. Take care.

Flowers

Google did an automatic "stylized" photo of a picture I haven't posted yet, and it looks pretty good so I figured I'd share it:

Pictures!

In no particular order. Pardon the layout, but I don't have a ton of control of it.

Ma-ma-ma-my Kelowna!

I am in Kelowna!

Had a great day of unpacking, going to Cora's for breakfast, buying useful tidbits like clothes hangers from the dollar store, etc.

I am still getting flashes of "this is real" only to return to the vague hazy notion that I am still an Edmontonian. Apparently my friends here went through (or are still going through) the same thing.

Anyway, I am off to do a little more cleaning up of my computer desk now.

Cheerio.

Kelowna Ho!

One last picture of Edmonton before I go. Finally, spring is here! And by spring, I mean, "instantly, it was summer." Temperatures were over 20C today with lots of sun.

Anyway, this is just a quick update for those of you who have been waiting with baited breath for a blog update--and I apologize, because you must be getting light-headed by now.

I am hopping in the car with Jim tomorrow to drive out to Kelowna. We may stop in Valemount as a halfway point or not, depending on how the drive goes. If we take our time and dawdle, we'll stop, otherwise we should be able to push through. Google says it's an 11 hr trip, and Valemount is almost exactly in the center of that, so it's a pretty lazy two-day trip or a moderately busy one-day trip.

I'm just trying to pull the last details together now. I think I'm overpacking some things, but don't want to miss anything either. I packed some things as though I'm moving my whole house, and other things like I'm just going for a short trip. I think I will have way more t-shirts than I need.

No word yet on the work front, though I'll be in a better place to pursue that when I get there.

In any case, Jim has elected to bus home. It'll be pretty brutal but he's happiest with the price on that option. Renting a car in Kelowna is, for some reason, enormously more expensive than renting one in Edmonton.

Anyway, I'll keep you all posted, and I'll be updating this blog weekly-ish once I've moved out, since it'll be my main way for sharing news.

Cheers!

Check-In: 2018-04-10

Yesterday:

Health: Stretching and exercise in the morning and a walk to the store in the afternoon.

Job/BC: (Merging these because they are becoming one and the same) Discussed some logistics with my friends in Kelowna.

Misc: Taxes are done! Ugh. Also laundry.

Today:

Health: Not much.

Job/BC: Applied at a game studio in Kelowna. Discussed logistics of a move next month with friends & family.

Misc: Not much.

Honestly, I think for today I'll take the job application as a win, because Overwatch just put out a major patch so I might be playing quite a bit today. :) But hey, every day that I make a job application is an automatic win in my books.

Check-In 2018-04-06

For the last few days...

Health: Not much. Got out to Costo but could probably do with more exercise soon. :)

Job/BC: Looked on the Accelerate Okanagan board a little bit today. Need to do more.

Misc: Costco run! Actually kind of fun and efficient.

Check-In 2018-04-03

Health: Meditation & stretching over the weekend. Walked to the grocery store this afternoon.

Writing: I am actually going to remove this field. The problem with making it mandatory is it creates a guilt-driven motivation rather than a fun-driven one. So my goal is instead to create space for me to write in.

Job: Applied to a company in BC.

BC: Applied to a company in BC.

Misc: Groceries. Also picked up some tax software (Turbotax) so I can do my own filing this year. Should be an easy return, so this might save a chunk of change.

Check-In 2018-03-28

Yesterday

Health: Not much.

Writing: Not much.

Job: Put together resumé and cover letter.

BC: The job I applied to is in Kelowna. (Alas, no luck; they changed their requirements.)

Misc.: Not much.

Today

Health: Walked to store and back with a good amount of groceries.

Writing: Edited a few paragraphs and read some recent stuff to try to get back into the mindset.

Job: Not much.

BC: Not much.

Misc: Condo business.

Summary

All categories have been looked at recently. Tomorrow it'll be time to look into BC and job stuff again.

New Round of Check-Ins

Construction downtown. Well, destruction downtown.

Today is the first Monday of being back in Edmonton, and I tried to act a little bit Monday about it. I got a bunch of walking done, renewed my driver's license, did some banking, and did a little shopping.

Last time I was unemployed, I did regular check-ins, so I think I'm going to do so again. However, my mental health is really good right now, so rather than focusing on that, I'm instead going to focus on these categories, in rough order of priority:

Health - Because it's always good to take care of this.

Writing - Because that's what I'm going to try to do now, so I should do it. :)

Job - Because I need to pay the bills somehow.

BC - Because I need to figure out where I'm living this fall.

Misc - Because there's always something.

Today's report:

Health - I did a bunch of walking all afternoon!

Writing - Not yet. I will try to at least write a paragraph or two before I relax for the evening.

Job - Nothing today.

BC - This evening I'll be talking to Amber and Jason about housing out their way.

Misc - Banking, license renewal, and starting these check-ins.

So it looks like I should ideally focus on Writing and Job more tomorrow. I don't think it's feasible to try to hit all categories every day. I just want to make sure they don't get forgotten. If I fail to focus on something for multiple days in a row, I'll put a counter next to it so I can see it getting stale. Then I can still decide to focus on things however I want, but I'll be able to see when a category may need a little extra love and attention.

Well, Here I Am

I am back in Edmonton now, safe and sound.

First up, some pictures that didn't make it into last week's post about climbing the mountain:

The journey begins...

There! We go there!

This wasn't on the map!

A rest on the way up.

Worth it!

... 

Home again. Hound happy.

And there's cake!

And now, some scenes of Edmonton, including my blooming Christmas cactus: