Rae Roy

[caption id="attachment_4712" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] Language is on my brain a lot lately with the immense amount of hours I've been clocking while learning French. It shows ignorance when people assume refugees should speak English. Yes, they need to learn to communicate in Canada, but it appears that there are a large number of people who don't realize that refugees get to choose to learn either English or French. It's almost as if English Canada thinks they're the only true Canadians. Canada is considering adding ASL as a  third official language . I think this is pretty cool though I'm not sure how many people speak it. I'm surprised a First Nations language such as Algonquin hasn't been considered given how many FN people live in Canada. But then, what often seems like a no-brainer to me isn't obvious to other people. For more on the Algonquin language, you should foll

I often feel like the dumbest kid in the room. Like I don't see or hear half of something being said. Like I'm too uncomfortable to use my voice and speak up when I'm lost. I've been to many parties where people are talking about things that I know virtually nothing about like astrophysics. Or I know some things but nothing about the particular piece people are talking about at that particular moment. This usually happens with things like Magic the Gathering also. And writer parties remind me there are a lot of words I don't know. Also Scrabble with anyone who knows medical terms makes me feel like an imbecile. But none of that matters. None of it will stop me from being successful in life because it's not only what you currently know that defines that. It's your capacity and willingness to learn. Your ability to persevere. There's an old saying that reflects this well. "The race is not to the swift nor the battle to the strong." I've alway

[caption id="attachment_4711" align="alignleft" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] I started a YA novel awhile ago, but haven't gone too far into it. I have a few other projects ahead of it, but it was something that just came to mind one day that I had to jot down while I played around with my distraction free writing tool. In thinking about YA, I find it is a challenging thing to write. It's challenging because there needs to be a balance between recognizing what this group of people lives with regularly and a want to plant the seeds for growing a better world through our youth. When teens are engaging in activities like  The Blue Whale Game , and their friends are experiencing their loss, it can be unhelpful to read a story about a character that has little to no serious problems. It can feel like an author has no clue about being a teen when your friends are  overdosing on opiods  despite having seemingly perfect lives and

I had a scare last night. I went to the grocery store around 8:00 pm. I've done this before without any issues. When I came out to my car though, there was a man that came out of the shadows and started asking me for money. I refused and had to do so more than once. Lucky for me, I was really close to my car. He kept coming towards me and I unlocked my car, opened my driver side door, locked the car, got in with my groceries, and took off. When I got home a very short while later, I called the store to let them know that they have a dark parking lot and a strange man was skulking about asking for money. I suspect given that he was preferring to stand around in a dark area rather than near the doors that it wasn't actually money he was after. All I wanted to do was get myself some dinner. Were I a man, wouldn't have to worry about it. "It takes two to make a bargain." If someone says no, whether it's to a request for money, food, sex, or anything else, it means

"A liar ought to have a good memory." True. They'll be found out pretty quickly if they aren't good at it. Trump pathologically lies as his daughter takes a new position and signs documents in front of the media. Somehow, he got good enough at lying that he made a huge amount of money doing it and now he's rather untouchable. Everything he says can be a lie and everyone can know it is a lie, yet this doesn't stop him from doing anything. I mean, he holds one of the most powerful positions in the world. He got it by lying and, so far, he continues to hold it while lying despite calls for impeachment. Not a good role model to be sure. It's an interesting thing to puzzle how someone like Trump can lie so successfully and yet most other people get found out and stopped long before they ever reach some sort of celebrity status. Is it morals or ethics that separate most of us from people like Trump or did he sell his soul? I mean, the demons in Supernatural seem

[caption id="attachment_4711" align="alignleft" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] "The leopard does not change their spots." This old saying speaks of leopards but suggests that humans are the same. Not true. With hard work, a human can change. With money, they can change even more. There's another saying that applies to people, "Turn over a new leaf." Humans have the capacity to change nearly anything they want about themselves. People overcome drug addictions every day. We can change genders. We can transplant limbs and are working on doing the same with heads for people who are severely paralyzed. Every human has the capacity for good and evil within themselves. Some days one side wins more than the other, but every day we can try again to become something other than we were the day before. Some resist change more than others, so the effort required to make a lasting change varies. With some people, it might

[caption id="attachment_4712" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] I've been struggling with routine for a while now and I think I've actually been fighting the routine that is ingrained in me from nearly two decades of traditional work. One would think I would be quicker at getting my writing projects done given the extra time I have during the day, but something in me says writing is to be done in the evening or on the weekend. Most of my jobs have been the 9-5 variety, so I think I'm fighting to change my routine to one that is mostly writing during the normal-for-me workday hours. Some days I can write just fine and others it's like all my other tasks are coming first. Maybe I need to have one day of the week where I get errands and such done while things are open. That should probably be neither Monday nor Friday as there are many holiday Mondays and people are less attentive on Friday. Maybe Wedne

A topic we aren't supposed to talk about is on my mind today. I'm going to try to discuss it without pissing people off, but it is the kind of topic that tends to do that, so it may not be possible. There's a lot of commotion about M-103 going on. It involves anti-Islamophobia and other racist and religious persecution. The fear is that it will lead to widespread Shariah Law applied to everyone, not just Muslims. Also that it will lead to anti-blasphemy laws so, for example, atheists couldn't say that your God doesn't exist. There is also a fear that our Canadian Criminal Code will become second to Shariah. I consider myself to be quite open minded. I have friends who are Christian, Jewish, Taoist, Buddhist, Druid, Wiccan, Mormon, Pastafarian, Atheist, etc. I've also worked with Muslims and there's a nice Muslim woman in my building. Not one has ever tried to convert me or convince me their God is the only God. That's actually why we're friends. Man

[caption id="attachment_4711" align="alignleft" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] I'm late on this post today. I needed a nap because Daylight Savings and I'm not sorry about it. I'm going to preface this post with the fact that though I realize generations are mostly a marketing construct used to increase sales, I can't escape the fact that I do identify with some of the things they group together as traits. Of course, this could be because they are as broad as most horoscopes... Recently, I realized I'm not a millennial. Being born in 1981, I'm in that grey area between X and Y, but I identify more with X and here's why: My parents are part of the silent generation. There's so much they just don't talk about. I didn't have helicopter parents. My parents weren't my BFFs. They were authoritarian and disciplined me when I was a jerk and praised me when I did well in something. I was aroun

[caption id="attachment_4712" align="alignleft" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] I have a large list of things to do. Possibly even too much. On the writing front, I have to finish a short story. I'm a quarter of the way through. It's fun to write despite it veering away from my original plan. Actually, I don't think any story I've written has stayed on course. I have a ton of French to do, but I'm really not wanting to bother with it at all. My school laptop is supposed to arrive today. I have a deposit to put on my seat for school, but am waiting for the transfer to happen from my investment account. Working on the financial plan for school with my adviser. I also have taxes to start. Ugh. I need to continue cleaning my house. Much progress was made on this as the building superintendent had to visit the other day to help me fix a plumbing problem that didn't end up getting fixed. All the cleaning I did unti

The world is a strange place. It's also wonderful. I love how diverse it is, but I wonder if this is a problem for our future. Please, hear me out. When you watch shows like Star Trek, it seems as though the human race is united and well defined. We all speak one language (maybe there's a ship-wide translation system?). I don't think religion or politics are an issue. Neither is race. Though the humans aboard these ships have differences, the issues that currently divide us are not dividing them. They meet different alien species who war with each other, but most Klingons aren't killing other Klingons, nor Romulans other Romulans, etc. But if Star Trek is an example of what the future of humanity is, will we have to approach a singularity as this person suggests in their article ? If this singularity is needed, does this mean that we must eradicate all cultural, religious, political, and language differences to get there? Do we need to adopt one language? Do we redefine

On Saturday, I was informed that I've been accepted to college! I'll be studying Scriptwriting at Algonquin College in the Fall. The program has me more excited than any other I've taken. I'll be learning about the history of film in Canada, how to write for actors/digital media/broadcasting/screen, basic video production, the business side of script writing, and there's a field placement. I also read about how they often have a field trip where they take students out to pitch scripts to people who make movies happen. I think it might actually be at the Toronto Film Festival. I'm super eager to start the course! Seriously, if I had the books I'd already be reading them and like Hermione know a lot of the answers on day one... It's good that I don't have them yet as I have to prepare financially for this. One of the things to decide is whether or not to get the laptop I really want or to go with something cheaper to save cash. I really want one that c

So, remember yesterday when I was worried about looking like a flake to the heads of the college program I'm trying to get into? Turns out, I already accomplished this. When I went to email them to let them know about my high school transcript snafu, I found an email suggesting I send the written piece directly rather than just through the proper path because the proper one doesn't get checked frequently and could take a long time to get to them. This email came nine days before and somehow I didn't see it though it was marked as read. I think I need to do email box cleanup because I'm getting swamped with junk email.  So what did I do? I admitted I didn't see it and attached it then informed them of the transcript issue. Anyway, today I saw a friend had posted about doing another revision on his book before querying again and I realized I do this between every one too. Then I thought, maybe we all need to be more confident in our stories and just keep sending them

I haven't gotten as much done as I'd like lately. Some of it is due to outside forces, those that aren't in my realm of control. The rest is due to my own fear. I have a number of projects on the go, some writing endeavors*, some business ventures, and a few scholastic plans. Earlier this week, I submitted an article to a magazine I've been wanting to get involved with for a while now.  I've been scared to submit my novel anywhere lately. As authors, we spend a lot of time writing a story we are passionate about and it always hurts to get rejected even if we know that's part of the business side of writing. I haven't written much this week beyond my blog as I've been trying to get organized for school. I realized it was taking an awfully long time for my high school to send my transcript in to the electronic service and so I emailed the college application service to ask if there was anything I could do. They informed me that the school board my high sch