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Showing posts from 2016

Fortifying Friday - Resolutions?

I guess it's that time of year. Time to decide my plan for the year ahead. I worked as a planner for a long time and I know how Murphy likes to screw with plans. I've never really been a New Year's Resolution type. Why? I don't believe in waiting until the new year to start on most goals. I mean, obviously if one were to start their list of 2017 books to read before 2017, that would be cheating, but other things? Just go out and do the things. Don't wait for the perfect day. Don't wait until you have hand weights to exercise or you'll go to the store and find they literally only have 1 in stock. Also, I just spent a bunch of time eating junk and drinking more alcohol than usual, so my body is probably saying 'WTF dude'. Anyway, I know that it's not likely I'll be able to do a specific word count each day. My life has been too unpredictable. I know it doesn't make sense to try to do some exercise programs while also doing martial arts. I d

Thoughtful Thursday - Life As I Know It

During the holidays, I had a lot of conversations on a lot of different topics with a number of people. I also saw the new Star Wars movie with my brothers the same day Carrie had a heart attack. I wasn't in a good mood for most of the holidays between being laid off close to Christmas and struggling with food. Usually it's not so bad, but everything wanted to be a challenge all at the same time. Star Wars Watching Rogue One was a mix of wonder and sadness as I had just heard of Carrie's heart attack not long before. I found the movie to be well done and bittersweet. It filled a void in the Star Wars canon for me as I don't read the books. It was a void I was aware had to have happened, but now I know more about it. Growing up on Star Wars, I've seen the original trilogy many times and Leia was a favourite of mine. I didn't find out until after I had reached home that 2016 claimed her for good and all I want to do is cry about it. I don't think she'd wa

Christmas 2016

As usual, I left town later than I planned, but I received a tip on a possible job from a friend and had to submit my résumé. I was shocked that I didn't have any car trouble on the way as my battery wasn't making full connection with the terminal, so hasn't been properly charging lately. The drive there was pretty easy as mild weather kept the roads clear and since I left on Thursday I was able to avoid heavy traffic. I ordered pizza and decorated the tree after I got to my parent's. My dad took my car in the garage to begin repairs on a piece I had snagged on a curb. After wrapping a bunch of the presents, my parent's chocolate poodle was obsessed with the Christmas tree. He settled down after I shifted the gifts enough to give him space to lie on the tree skirt. Silly pooch. Christmas Eve brought me to sushi then the mall to pick up my ticket for Rogue One. I also got a bacon-flavoured treat for the dog. Christmas Day brought a few movies, a gift card, and donut

Thoughtful Thursday - A Break

It's the holiday season. This year has been a tough one. I'm taking a break except for one post about my Christmas holiday visit to my hometown, which will appear next week.  During this break, I'll be doing something I'm not great at: relaxing. I think Skyrim may help this. I'll probably do some fiction writing and clean my condo as well as play various instruments because I haven't done that enough this year.  I have no idea what 2017 has planned for me. I'm just going to try some things and see where they lead.  I hope everyone enjoys the holiday season in a way that feels best to them.  I also hope my car lets me get to my parent's house. Ciao,  R~

Merry Monday - The Importance of Reading as an Author

[caption id="attachment_4711" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] So here is my planned reading list for 2017: Éric Desmarais - A Study in Aether: A Baker City Mystery Tanya Huff - An Ancient Peace Caroline Frechette - Blood Relations Jostein Gaarder - Sophie's World Madeline Ashby - VN Jeanette Walls - The Glass Castle Margaret Atwood - The Blind Assassin Thomas Keneally - Schindler's List Ursula Le Guin - A Wizard of Earthsea F. Scott Fitzgerald - Tender is the Night Terry Pratchett - The Colour of Magic Kass Williams - The Elf Conspiracy You might notice that I have a fair bit that isn't in any of the genres I write in. Sophie's World is the type that I expect will fundamentally alter my perception of the world. The Glass Castle as well. I have a feeling I will like F. Scott Fitzgerald because I'm not a Hemingway fan. I like to include at least one classic in my reading l

Fortifying Friday - Rhyme or Reason

Is there any rhyme or reason to being laid off twice in the same year from two different companies? Is this just because it's 2016 and it has been a challenging year for many? I'm still not over the loss of Alan Rickman. But many lost far more this year such as family members. Most likely, it's the economy and there's nothing much to be done about it. As more and more automation happens, there will be less jobs available. This is why it's so fabulous that PEI is piloting a basic income project. Basic income is the future. With it, we shouldn't need many of the social programs that are currently in place. With it, people who are barely surviving now will be able to put time toward other things like helping solve bigger problems like cancer. There's a small chance there is some cosmic force directing me to where I'm meant to be and I'll meet the love of my life and birds will sing and blah blah. Sure. It's possible. I have a few irons in the fire r

Merry Monday - Socially Spent

'Tis the season to be jolly, right? For an introvert, the holidays are extra exhausting. I had three parties over a two-day period. I enjoyed myself, but I was happy to have a warm bath and curl up on the couch with a remote to begin recharging. It might surprise some people that I'm an introvert. According to the Myers Briggs personality test, I'm INTP and 33% extroverted. That little bit of extroversion is how I survive the holidays, conferences, and seminars.  Saturday was the annual dojo sushi dinner. Tasty sushi and sake met good conversation.  Sunday started with another dojo event involving cutting mats with a katana. Next, it was off to a party with other writers where I met an older British woman and had a fabulous conversation about literature. She was also not a fan of Hemingway. We also talked about how you need to read some trashy stuff now and then. Something to read when you're exhausted or as a palate cleanser. For her that means mystery novels. For me i

Fortifying Friday - Busy

It was a busy day today for work mocking up web page designs with only the use of Google docs at my disposal and simple tools like paint. Fun. Stuff. This weekend is a busy one. Tomorrow is the annual dojo Christmas sushi outing, which I always look forward to. Sunday the dojo is doing cutting practice on mats (tameshigiri), but I won't be able to stay for the whole thing because also on Sunday is a Christmas party with some of the other writers in Ottawa.  I've started work on a short story for an upcoming anthology I'm hoping to get it into. It's a straight sci-fi tale. Straight as in no supernatural elements or sex. I wish I had started sooner, but I didn't have an idea. Now I do. Anyway, back to work. One more mockup to go then it's writing and relaxing time. Ciao, R~

Thoughtful Thursday - Fighting Back

Some days it's really hard to stay strong. There's just so much bullshit in the world. I got a letter from my condo board claiming I owe them money. When I check through my bank account, their claim doesn't add up. No doubt they'll find some convoluted accounting reason despite my evidence to the contrary. Problem is that if I don't pay it by Monday I risk being charged upwards of $2,000. See how the little person gets screwed over? Oh, I got the letter yesterday. And they only want to accept certified cheques or bank drafts, which I don't think they are allowed to do. I believe they have to accept payment in any format. If I wanted to pay all in nickels, they have to take it. Earlier this year they *had* to change banks. What company spontaneously needs to change banks? Then they screwed up taking payments for months on end and we had to give them cheques in payment. All my cheques went through earlier in the year as well. In August, they took 3 payments on the

Merry Monday - Living Life

Here's what I've been up to while I've been spending less time on Facebook: Writing I met with my new writers group for the first time on Friday. It's quite different than my old one as we use Google Hangouts rather than meeting in person. I found it works well. Also, instead of having everyone read everyone's stuff, the author reads and then everyone takes a turn giving comments from the notes they made while listening to the reading. Overall, it takes less time. With a biweekly meeting schedule instead of monthly, I think it'll be easier to keep motivated. I'm a little greener than the others, but it seems we all have different strengths and weaknesses, which is a great thing.  After the meeting, I was inspired to fix the pieces I had read and add some new parts. A Saturday morning fire alarm might've turned into going back to bed if I wasn't still feeling inspired to write. Christmas Preparations My first Christmas movie pick of 2016 is Gremlins.

Fortifying Friday - Recovering from Failure

Last weekend was a downer. I wasn't successful at grading. How do I feel about it now? Well, it still sucks and I'm still sad about it, but I've had so many people come forward to tell me about the times they've failed at something including the Nidan grading that I've realized it's going to be OK. Part of me wanted to just stay home the other day, but hiding myself away won't get me where I want to be. Black belts are not quitters. Black belts pick themselves up and tweak the plan as many times as we need to. An outcome of failing is that I feel like I have renewed interest in iaido, so I'm taking things in better. I especially noticed this doing the kata that is like a drunken version of ukenagashi. I've never been able to do that one properly, but it's starting to work. I'm not really surprised that this happened to me. As a child, I was bullied. Especially in the athletic sense. Except for that one year where I beat several boys at runnin

Thoughtful Thursday - The Caffeine Challenged Writer

So writers and caffeine are supposed to be a marriage made in heaven, right? For me, it's an unpredictable beast. I can get wonderfully creative bursts that fuel my writing. I can also become overheated and over sensitive to my surroundings. That's what happened a couple of Thursdays ago. I was hoping for writing fuel and instead felt like I was burning up, felt nauseous, felt scatterbrained, and spent a lot of time running to the washroom. Caffeine overload and gluten reactions have some overlapping symptoms, so I learned. The problem is, I really didn't have time for it. I needed to be at Kendo because I committed to getting something done the following day that required me to get something from someone at Kendo. Yeah, I could've just attended and not done the workout, but that felt silly to me. Besides, I'd been putting off starting Kendo for far too long. Also, given Kendo's connection to Star Wars, December seemed an appropriate month to start Kendo. As I t

Thoughtful Thursday - Social Media Break

I'm taking a break from social media in December. This is for a couple of reasons. 1. I need a break after all the election stuff and from the constant stream of mostly depressing stories people share. 2. I have things to do around my home like figure out how to pull up peel and stick tiles that have partially pulled up, but are sticky enough that they don't want to fully pull up. Also organize my closet. Also figure out how to move my appliances out of my way for cleaning and flooring. 3. Christmas parties and shopping for loved ones. 4. I need to finish the edits on The Page & The Magician. 5. I need to finish writing The Blood Waitress Club. 6. I need to figure out distribution for my books. 7. I must determine my next step with regards to publishing The Page & The Magician. 8. December just feels like a good month to focus on friends and family too. So my closest friends, the ones that don't put drama in my life, will probably see the odd like or comment. I'

Merry Monday - Nerves

What happens when you let your nerves get the best of you?  My weekend didn't go the way I had hoped. I choked like a Maple Leaf during the playoffs and failed my grading. Considering that I felt like I did my worst example of iaido, I agree that I shouldn't have passed. That doesn't mean I'm not upset. I'm pretty damn sad about it. What happened? Leading up to grading I: I caught my big toe on a computer cable, which tripped me and hurt my toe. Weeks of fighting with acne as if I'm a damn teenager. I dropped a plate into my sink, which broke itself and a bowl. I cut my finger with a steak knife. I got very little sleep the day before travelling. I had car troubles. I forgot to put my chicken bacon in the fridge at my friend's place, so breakfast was different than planned. I got lost in the building more than once. I should've read the signs better. Pre-Grading Seminar On nearly every kata they gave us corrections and I felt overwhelme

Fortifying Friday - Calluses

[caption id="attachment_4712" align="alignleft" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] I first started learning guitar in grade 12. We had a course we could take and get credit for as part of our high school diploma. My then boyfriend was also taking it and class was slightly uncomfortable once we broke up, but I enjoyed it regardless. I had a blast performing with the class. I was supposed to sing too, but singing performances and I are like that Buffy episode "Nightmares" where Willow ends up singing with Pavarotti and can't utter a word only weird screechy noises... Yeah. Put me in a car with friends and I'm fine. Shower? You betcha. In a musical or band performing in front of people. Nope. Unless I'm just one of the choir and not alone. I did make it through an O' Canada performance with only two other people one time in high school, though. All our strongest choir members were at another performance and the f

Thoughtful Thursday - Renos

I thought I already posted this, but apparently not. I started a kitchen reno. Just a little bit at a time. It was instigated by my peel and stick floor starting to let go. My cabinets are solid wood, so with a little ingenuity I can make them look nice. I think I'll do what these people did to give them dimension: http://www.beautifulmatters.com/2013/02/diy-inexpensive-cabinet-updates/ I need to fix the drawer bottoms and one piece of the drawers. The very back and bottoms are not wood, so guess where the moisture has collected over the years. I literally needed one piece of wood to fix the top three drawers and I can probably leave the very bottom one. For bottoms? I was going with plexiglass because it's waterproof and I had enough for 2 of the 3 until one didn't work out and when I looked at the price of plexiglass, I said holy crap! So onto thin wood bottoms instead. Then I'll paint them a dark chocolate on the bottom doors I think, or maybe the top too. I was thin

Merry Monday - Crunch Week

[caption id="attachment_4711" align="alignleft" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] I'm heading into crunch week, which started with my first time teaching martial arts and continues with my library writing group, my French oral exam, the last iaido practice before grading, anime club*, a bunch of laundry/ironing/packing, travel, grading, and then my French written exam. And all I feel like doing is relaxing. *I might not make anime club given the rest of the week. Iaido I taught my first martial arts class yesterday. It went OK. It was a good thing I had the book to refer to. I found it helpful when they had questions or specific things to fix. It's really hard to practice at the same time as teaching. I can't focus on both at once, otherwise I do both crappy. Since the other classes were cancelled, I got extra practice time in with the other student that is grading next weekend. We have one more class before the big day. H

Fortifying Friday - A Tiny Bit of Breathing Room

[caption id="attachment_4712" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] French If you asked me last week, I would have said it was doubtful I would finish my online French hours in time. I finished my last two hours tonight! The oral exam is this Monday. The written exam is next Monday. Iaido Now I can focus on grading Nidan for iaido. I need to reduce how long it's taking me to do etiquette. It needs to be crisper too. And I need to run through my kata several times, perhaps by picking out numbers from a hat. I don't know what kata they are going to give me. I'm worried I'll forget the numbers and then do the wrong ones and fail. Writing I can finally work on The Blood Waitress Club. This story now features witch/vampire/insect demons that play roller derby. I'm collecting ideas for who they may play against. Some of my research includes rewatching Buffy the Vampire Slayer as I'm looking for differe

Thoughtful Thursday - Restless

I'm feeling restless lately. I've been so busy with French and iaido that I've had very little time to work on my writing. I just want to get the words into the page. And my place is a mess, but that's not unusual for November. Animé club has been keeping me sane.  Other things are bothering me too, but I'd rather not go into them. I think it'll be better once I've finished the online portion of my French class. There are about 5 hours left to do. Then, I can just focus on iaido and writing. I also need to see Fantastic Beasts, but that won't be for a few days yet.  Well, back to it. Ciao, R~

Merry Monday - Busy Times

I had a pretty full weekend. On Friday, I got some errands done. On Saturday, I cut a pumpkin with a sword and threw some axes and spears at a target. On, Sunday, I woke up thinking it was Monday and became very happy when it dawned on me that I had another day off! Kitchen Reno Well, I'm still trying to just fix my drawers. I thought it would be easy. I'm just changing out the bottoms and the backs for real wood that will be sturdier and not shed bits of itself into the drawers below. My plan was initially just the bottoms, but then I noticed the backs were particle board and had some water damage. So, I was going to use fiberglass for the bottoms. They'd last forever and have no water issues. Well, fiberglass sheets are hugely expensive, so I scrapped that part of the plan. I tried a thinner acrylic and it was too flimsy and broke easy. Now I'm doing wood, but it's slightly too thick, so I have to scrape the edges a little with my hand planer.  Wood, as I learned,

Thoughtful Thursday - What Next?

[caption width="398" align="alignnone"] Made using Bitmoji[/caption] Like many others, it was hard to function yesterday. I'm still upset, but I've had more sleep and I've read a lot. I've also seen a lot on social media, some of which includes things that have yet to be corroborated or have been debunked by sites like Snopes, but I digress. There will be many challenges ahead. You must have courage to face them. When things seem hopeless, I find what is in my realm of control and do something about those things. This is what keeps me going. Yesterday, I felt awful. We don't know yet the full consequences and won't for some time. What do we know? We still have to eat, do laundry, and care for loved ones. We still have jobs and bills. The sun still rises. Your goals may be harder to achieve in some ways. I find breaking goals down into smaller pieces helps me. As an example, my martial arts grading is happening at the end of this month. There

WTF Wednesday - Deeply Afraid and Deeply Saddened.

Approximately five hours ago, I cried myself to sleep out of fear for what the future holds. Early this morning, I learned the difference between a Canadian and an American. I know. #notallAmericans Four years is enough time to do irreparable damage to the world. I can only hope that many of his election promises won't be met. I can only hope that somehow, Canada can lend a cup of sugar without being dragged into a war. To my American friends, I hope no harm comes to you or your loved ones.  R~

Fortifying Friday - Tired

I'm tired of so many things of late. My phone gets updates that purport they will be improvements, yet swype is now not working properly. Amazingly, the Facebook app is working just fine. Usually it breaks with every update. But lately Facebook makes me sick. It is filled with people who lash out at others for having a different viewpoint than they do. One point lately has been on palm oil. Don't buy the candy that has that in it. There's never a thought that that candy bar might be one of the only options for someone with food sensitivities and a necessary gluten free diet. Also never a thought to those products perhaps being the only ones affordable for someone. I'm tired of people who spend their days attacking people online in some sort of perceived social advocacy effort while they could instead be organizing with others to get real change to happen through parliamentary process. I feel like too many have chosen educating others on social issues as their method of

Thoughtful Thursday - November Madness

Well, like every November, there seems to be too much going on. After spending my days writing copy, I spend my evenings either studying French or writing a novel. One might think this would burn me out, but while writing copy can be draining, writing a novel feeds my soul. I am a little worried though. It has been a long time since I have had to write an exam, especially a French one. There seems to be a lot of hours left to complete in the online portion. I'm worried I won't make it. At least the course is cheap if I have to repeat, but I'd rather not. I need to fix my kitchen drawers, which are in pieces in my living/dining room, so I can make room to practice iaido. Any extra time I can spend will be helpful to prepare for grading. I've started some ankle strengthening exercises to reduce my wobbliness. I aim to get the drawers done over the weekend, so I can get on the rest. That, of course, dips into my French time and my writing time. C'est la vie. Ciao, R~

NaNoWriMo 2016

It wasn't until the screen asked me what novel I was going to work on that I decided it would be The Blood Waitress Club. It is a tale of roller derby and demons. It used to be vampires, but no one wants to read about vampires these days. There will be an assortment including vampires instead. Right now, all the odds are stacked against me to succeed at my 50,000 word conquest. I suppose I can count my blog posts technically, but that doesn't help me complete the novel. This month, outside of work, I need to log 25 hours of online French learning, 9 more hours of classroom learning plus a final exam. I also have to prepare for Nidan grading, so I can't miss any time to write more.  Whatever. As long as I add to the current word count, I'm going to call it success even if I don't reach 50,000. Good luck fellow NaNoWriMo participants. I'm off to buy a book for this project. Ciao, R~

Merry Monday - Adjusting to Your Surroundings

On the weekend, I traveled to Peterborough, Ontario for the annual koryu iaido seminar. I always come back from seminar with some helpful corrections and some less relevant ones. The thing about seminar that is different than my dojo or the grading floor is that it is packed with people. There is a kata that we do where I normally cover a large distance across the floor because I assume a kendo like stance and use okuri-ashi. If I did that in seminar, I'd run into the person in front of me. I often sacrifice technique at seminar in favour of paying attention to my surroundings. Several people near me were obviously oblivious to those around them. On this particular kata, it was not the instructors offering corrections, but people near my own level. This actually drives me crazy. Instructors can usually understand immediately whether you're doing something wrong or adjusting to your surroundings. Now, I did receive some helpful corrections such as that I'm not putting my han

Fortifying Friday - Going Places

After finishing my work today, I headed west to pick up a dojo mate for an iaido seminar. There was a lot of chatting about a variety of things before dropping her in Peterborough.  Peterborough has a strange spot near the Trent Severn Lock where your options are a tunnel or a bridge. The thing is that the tunnel and the bridge are shared with oncoming traffic. I opted to avoid the tunnel, not knowing that the only other option was the bridge. It was strange and it scared me. I had the illusion of choice. I guess I should've done the thing that scared me. After doing her in Peterborough, I headed further west to Oshawa to a friend's house and we got delicious pho. I'd been thinking about our pho plans all week. We got them to add veggies to it. I need to remember to ask for this in Ottawa. Also, I don't know if my pho place has glutinous rice balls.  After that, she bought books off me, so I've made my first two sales. I should remember to sign them for her before I

Thoughtful Thursday - Tension

All day she waited for the moment that was planned months ago. As the weather grew dark and stormy, she lifted her chin defiantly. Nothing was stopping her today. She had an important package to retrieve.  But first, there was a workshop on building tension.  As the workshop started, she received a message from a friend, which contained a video. It was from his toddler. She wanted to play it right then, but the authors had begun speaking about tension. For nearly two hours she listened to their suggestions and comments. They offered tricks and suggested ways to...  But what did the young boy have to say to her? Right... The workshop. Oh, a book recommendation that sounds interesting. She writes it down.  It is question time and she challenges them to talk about positive ways to create tension that don't involve dramatic things like bombs. Mostly because she thinks they could all use some positivity. Naturally, there's the obvious example involving two consensual adults.  The me

Sad News

A friend of the family passed away. He was found in his garage. Given that he was a man who liked to putter, it was probably the best place he could have chosen for his last moments. It was on his riding lawnmower that I had my first driving lessons. A large red beast that my friend and I used to ride together, taking turns driving.  That year, she and I got in trouble for letting some fish out of a cage in the pond nearby. Oops. We thought we were doing a good thing. The bait shop owner wasn't happy. Now, this man was a very nice man, but also very unlucky. One year, his dog ate his false teeth while he was sleeping. Another? He accidentally set his garage on fire. In the north, it's not uncommon for us to have fun by shoveling our snow into a pile to jump into from a height. My brother and I did it often as kids with no problems. Well, this man was shoveling off his roof and now and again his shovel would follow the snow and he would jump down and retrieve it. One of the time

Merry Monday - Danger

Danger is really dependent on perspective. I bought a dangerous thing at the store the other day.  They had this set in a locked case along with hunting knives. The young man in that department got the key and placed it into a cloth bag, which he then locked the zipper on. The lady at the cash unlocked it. Now, I'm aware the whole point in to ensure I can't use it in store. Here's the thing, though. If I already had a thing sharp enough on me to cut through that plastic, I could've also cut through the cloth bag. If I really wanted to do something, that wouldn't have stopped me. The other thing is that it's the type of store that is typically hard to find someone to help you in, so I would've had plenty of time alone to do something. Also, the utility knives are easily accessible if I really wanted to hurt someone. I walked to the cash smiling about the futility of their security measures and because I was thinking about my wand project at home that I needed

Fortifying Friday - Working Out

[caption id="attachment_4712" align="alignleft" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] This week I decided it was time to get back in shape. Not just generally fit, but in condition for martial arts. So I'm using Rushfit. Here are some problems I ran into: 1. I started on Tuesday instead of Monday, so I skipped the Day 1 Strength & Endurance workout because I want to leave Tuesdays as just cardio given that I have iaido on Tuesdays. I also want my main rest day to be Sunday because that's an iaido day. 2. Wednesday was supposed to be Abs & Core, but my abs were still killing me from playing too hard with my toddler buddy, so I did the Day 1 workout instead, or tried too. I think they put the hardest workout too soon in the program. It was daunting. I had to skip the core stuff. I also didn't have weights and could only find one weight instead of two at the store. At least I did some of it. I had a date planned the next

Thoughtful Thursday - Breast Cancer Awareness

The following has happened more than once this month, so I felt the need to say something about it: "Sorry Raeanne.. I fell for it also.....but it's for a very good cause!  Here it goes... you shouldn't have liked or commented on my last status.  Now you have to pick from one of the below and post it as your status. This is the 2016 Breast Cancer Awareness game. Don't be a spoil sport. Pick your poison from one of these and post it as your status. 1. Just found a squirrel in my car! 2. Just used my kids to get out of a speeding ticket. 3. How do you get rid of foot fungus? 4. All of my bras are missing! 5. I think I just accepted a marriage proposal online?! 6. I've decided to stop wearing underwear. 7. It's confirmed I'm going to be a mommy/daddy. 8. Just won a chance audition on America's got talent! 9. I've been accepted on master chef. 10. I'm getting a pet monkey! Post with no explanations. Sorry, I fell for it too. 😂Looking forward to you

Merry Monday - Grinding Away

Back to the grind this week. It was a little hard to get into French tonight, but after a while it was OK. Sometimes I feel like my pronunciation is very good, but my comprehension isn't. I guess that will come in time. Yesterday was a packed day. After iaido, I had a date at the Ottawa Geek Market. It was just OK.  After that, I had a visit with my toddler buddy, which was awesome. I was taken aback when he greeted me at the door. Usually, he's excited to see me but also shy about it and half hiding behind one of his parents. Yesterday, he said hello, asked me how I was, and how my weekend was. So adorable! Then he wanted me to do burpees with him hahaha. Of course, I obliged despite having done a bunch of leg work at iaido. At one point he said, "ciao"! After reading him "Stuck", it was time for b-movie club, which featured "Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead". It was pretty funny, though I still prefer "Cannibal the Musical".  The

Review - Inevitable (Blink format)

There's a book called Inevitable. I've only read the "blink" for it. Blinks summarize books for those of us who are busier than the average and I find them helpful to get a taste of what other ideas are out there.  Anyway, it posits that the future is not one of utopia, but one of protopia where each day we will see a small improvement over the next. It's saying that no invention will be static as it will constantly be improved upon. They base this on trends like how quick we are to delete apps after installing them. Let's face it though, some apps just don't do what they sound like they are capable of doing. Or they create extra work. Anyone try a diet app where you have to put in everything because your sport or the measurements of your food aren't in there? And hey, the next day you have to enter it again because it didn't automatically get added to the list of options, meanwhile there are whacked out measurements for things that are obviously f