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Showing posts from December, 2017

Symphonic Saturday - My Past Life in Songs

I often think of my life in music. What I mean is, certain periods of my life are pretty closely depicted in the songs I listen to. Some just remind me of the old days, but some say exactly what I was going through at the time. In elementary school, I wasn't a popular kid. I was bullied almost daily. Most of the time I felt like a loser. But in grade 7, Ace of Base released The Sign and though my parents couldn't afford to buy me the CD, the other kids sang it so much on the bus that I learned the words and could sing along. The next song we tormented the bus driver with was off Green Day's album Dookie and it was Basketcase . Those songs made me able to participate and feel like less of a loser if only for a small part of my day. High school brought with it so many artists including Marilyn Manson, Tori Amos, Bjork, Smashing Pumpkins, Nirvana, and Nine Inch Nails, which us theatre kids often played through the auditorium sound system during lunch. I had a lot of anger in

Frisky Friday - 15 Dating and Relationship Tips

[caption width="300" id="attachment_10523" align="alignright"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] Relationships are tricky. I've noticed people find a lot of things confusing. I put together a list of things that I hope clears some things up, but it's important to realize that there are a lot of different people in the world and some might like to be chased, for example, while others want to do the chasing. 1. You don't need to be into all the same stuff. Variety is the spice of life. My parents don't have a lot in common with each other yet they've been married for over 50 years. My dad is a retired mechanic who can play stringed instruments and draw. My mom is a housewife who cooks and reads. They both like country music and shows like Heartland. Dad's an introvert and mom isn't. Mom hoards and dad pitches stuff whenever he can. Dad likes to drink and mom rarely does. A couple of shared things is good. You need something i

Thoughtful Thursday - Past Ghosts

My life is so wonderful that not even the discovery over Christmas that my ex remarried can dampen my spirits. That part of my life is so far behind me it seems alien. I know people are usually upset about these things, but I've done and learned so much in the last five years that it doesn't bother me. I wish them all the best for the future.  Speaking of the future, mine is full of uncertainty, but I've never felt more alive. Sure, having someone to share it with would be awesome, but I don't need a partner to feel complete. I know I'll meet 'the one' eventually. Until then, my loves are writing, music, and martial arts.  I have so many writing projects going on and I feel like I'm finally almost living the life I've dreamed about. I have some of the most fantastic people in my life and I'm following my dreams. My heart is so full of love and happiness.  That doesn't mean everything is perfect. The bus is a pain in the butt and I want my hom

Warrior Wednesday - Learning Balance

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] When I was a child, I was shy and quiet. I barely said anything about myself. Even in high school, I didn't speak about myself much. I mostly just listened to others and gave advice when they asked for it. I guess that was part of the reason I started my 20s in social work. I'm an introverted type, so working in computers made sense for a long time after that. I'm still shy with some things like asking people out on dates. I often do that through social media because it's a little less scary. Also, sometimes it's really hard to get people alone to ask them out. These days, I've got enough Gryffindor bravery in me to tackle a lot of things like networking. I think that's a skill I've learned from working as a project manager. Sometimes I come off too strong and say the wrong things. I'm still learning. It's a common t

Theatrical Tuesday - A Writer At Christmas

I did take Christmas Day off, but the rest of my "vacation" has involved writing. There is too much on my to-do list not to. Maybe someday I'll have vacations completely free of work, but I'm sure ideas will strike me and I'll have to write them down anyway. Before today, however, I was rather blocked up. I got maybe a scene or two looked at each day on my short film script. Normally, I can get a revision done in a couple of hours. Nope. Couldn't focus. Final Draft's method for displaying comments didn't help either. I sent them feedback because they'll either tell me about some setting I couldn't find or make use of the feedback. They're pretty good that way. Anyway, I got the revised short film done today after several days of barely getting anywhere with it. Holiday brain, as one friend said, was probably another factor. Writers are rarely not working. Every interaction or experience is potentially research. As is every moment we're

Merry Monday - Merry Christmas

Well, my pie crust attempt failed again, but at least it tasted good despite it falling apart. That's a step up from the last two times. The scotch also tasted good.  I was given several Lego games for my Xbox 360, Blade Runner, Wonder Woman, and an Instant Pot. I'm looking forward to all of that when I get back home.  My mom watched a lot of Wonder Woman with us and says Linda Carter was better looking than Gal Gadot. I'll have to finish the old series when I get back to Ottawa.  I'm not sure when I'll have time to game or watch anything given all the homework I have, but I'll manage somehow. No homework today though.  My parents's chocolate poodle has been into the tree all weekend. He's such a character. He couldn't go to sleep the other night without first coming out to say goodnight to me :) My brother got to just relax for once on Christmas. He's a snow removal guy and it didn't snow bad enough for him to have to go in. It was nice havi

Symphonic Saturday - 5 Favourite Christmas Songs

There are a lot of Christmas songs that I've never liked all that much. Most like Frosty, Jingle Bells, and Rudolph have always seemed too much like commercial jingles to me or too juvenile. There are a few that have always delighted me though. Here's a list of my five favourite Christmas songs. The Christmas Song It Came Upon A Midnight Clear Carol of the Bells Winter Wonderland O Holy Night I'm going to take a least a couple days off to spend with my family. I hope you are all enjoying the time with your own whether they're blood relatives or the family you've chosen. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! R~

Frisky Friday - Holiday Edition

I'm off to visit the family for Christmas, but I couldn't leave without putting something fun up on the blog.  1.  Sex toy or Christmas decoration ? 2.  Face paint . 3.  Sex toy advent calendar . So you can plan ahead for next year.  4.  Christmas design fails . I likely won't post much over the holiday while I spend time with friends and family. In fact, I think I'll take a breather. I could really use one.  I hope you have a wonderful holiday season whether you celebrate anything or not.  Guid cheerio the nou, R~

Thoughtful Thursday - False Information

You know what grinds my gears? People telling me not to reply to their blog posts unless I jump through a bunch of hoops to format it just the way they find acceptable. "You better say a stream of pleasantries rather than simply sharing a link or it's unwelcoming." "You can only reply if you meet my ridiculous IQ level requirements that actually prove nothing about your intelligence, but really show my own insecurity about mine." "We need proof you've crossed a barren landscape and survived the Hidalgo sandstorm before we'll talk to you." "Rescue a monkey from Agamemnon and we'll see if you might know something worthwhile to chat about." Because that kind of response as a reply to your blog post is welcoming. Nope. Guess what? It feels more like a slap in the face. Guess what else? There are thousands of other bloggers out there who are simply happy to have any response at all. I guess I'm rambling about something without havi

Warrior Wednesday - Fighting Oneself

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] Sometimes we have to fight ourselves. Actually, I find fighting myself to be the most difficult thing I do on a regular basis. I wouldn't say I'm lazy, but I like relaxing in the comfort of my home. If given the choice to stay home or go out, I'll often choose to stay home. There are so many benefits. I get to sit around in comfy pants, the liquor is way cheaper, I am as warm or as cool as I decide to be, I know how to feed myself and that's cheaper too, and so on. I'm mostly perfectly happy practically becoming a hermit in the winter. Except I like to get out once in awhile to  ice skate because it's the one winter thing I love. Snowboarding was fun at one time, but it's too dangerous with my neck. I have snowshoes, but they feel like a lot of work. Of course, that could've been because I was rather hungover the last time I

Theatrical Tuesday - A Review of The Star Wars Holiday Special

In short, just don't. Seriously. It's one of the worst things I've ever seen. If you're going to watch it, you best be super stoned. It's truly painful to watch. I'd rather not know that Chewbacca has a wife and kid. Or that wookies call Christmas "Life Day." There. You now know everything you need to from it. Now go watch something worthwhile. Guid cheerio the nou, R~

Merry Monday - Christmas Party Season

[caption id="attachment_4711" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] I'm sorry. I totally sucked this weekend in regards to blog posts. Christmas Party Season has started and made me rather busy on top of school work. I saw Star Wars on Friday. I love it despite some seriously WTF moments. The music is fantastic, as usual. There were several awesome combat scenes. I felt like some things came too easy to certain individuals and you'll know what I mean when you see it. I won't say anything else because I'm not the spoiler type. I don't know if I'll do a lengthy review at some point or not, but maybe. Also on Friday, I boosted my own car! Life skills leveled up. And then I had to boost it twice more because I couldn't drive it long enough to charge the battery between getting gas and going to Star Wars. After Star Wars, I drove across town to get Sensei and Sempai some sake. That has brought Pix

Thoughtful Thursday - Winter, eh

So I have a new friend in town from South America. I've been telling him for weeks that it wasn't cold out yet. Today it was cold out. It wasn't as cold as it will get around late January or for a good chunk of February, but the wind chill made it -31 Celsius this morning. That's -23.8 for the Fahrenheit folks. Anyway, I thought a post offering tips to new Canadians and visitors might be needed. Welcome to Canadian winter. Officially, we're a little more than a week early as the 21st is the day it starts. I'm sure they've noticed our sun is hardly around. That will slowly get better from the 22nd on. Remember a few weeks ago when you joyfully frolicked in the snow because you hadn't seen it much/ever before? You'll likely be wishing for it to leave like the rest of us unless you fall in love with sports like skiing, snowshoeing, or snowboarding. Personally, I feel ice skating is the best of the options and the Rideau Canal doesn't stay open all w

Warrior Wednesday - Food and Fitness

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] A couple of weeks ago, I switched to a low FODMAP diet after having some people horrible reactions to garlic. Before that, I was having a lot of trouble working out. Every practice had me taking nearly 5 days to recover. It was ridiculous. I knew something was wrong, because I used to play roller derby and wasn't having anywhere near the trouble I was having. I never thought that it could be the result of eating the wrong things for me. Working out is hard enough. Early on there should be some pain and it should take a day or two to recover fully, but I was feeling like I had been out doing an intense paintball session including army crawls after my regular Sunday class. It had gotten to the point that I couldn't make most Tuesday classes because it hurt too much to walk let alone consider doing my martial art. I was worried I'd have to give it

Theatrical Tuesday - My Star Wars Theory

Are you ready for it? I've been thinking about this for a while. I haven't searched to see if anyone else has thought of this. It's just in my head and I want to get it out before the movie. After seeing the trailer for  The Last Jedi , my mind got spinning. At first I freaked out. Then I calmed down and thought. What if Rey's name isn't Rey? What if it's actually Rain? They sound similar enough to me that it's possible it got lost in translation or something. I mean, I've heard so many variations of my own name over my life so far that I really think it's possible. If that's the case, then we may be seeing the rise of the first female sith, Darth Zannah. Other things to think about include Rey's original weapon of choice being very much like a bo staff. Darth Zannah uses a double lightsaber configuration like Darth Maul. I think Rey would prefer that. Anyway, that's my Star Wars theory. Don't worry, I won't spoil stuff if I got i

Merry Monday - Movies, More Movies, and Work

[caption id="attachment_4711" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] What did I even do on Friday? It seems so long ago that I had trouble remembering, but I saw The Disaster Artist . It's a seriously great film about the making of the best worst film ever and worth seeing even if you aren't a fan of  The Room . I think I forgot to post on Saturday. I'm sorry for that. I've handed in somewhere around nine assignments in the last week and a half. My brain has been rather mushy as a result. I haven't gotten to do near enough music lately. I have to rebuild my calluses AGAIN. Someday I'll get to play guitar regularly... *sigh*. Saturday and Sunday were taken up by work placement with Digi60 and I was fortunate to see short films made by some really talented people in the Ottawa area. Many of the most memorable and enjoyable ones were by Vincent Valentino. Some other were definitely by people that hav

Frisky Friday - Star Toys

There's a whole new meaning to "feel the force". Warning: NSFW and will probably alter childhood memories.  Star Toys  are a line of Star Wars themed sex toys.  Seriously though, I'm wondering if they make film related noises. Is the R2 one beeping sarcastically while inside? Does the C-3PO kill the mood with uptight yammering? Will we next see condoms that make lightsaber noises? Clearly I have a lot of questions about these that I will probably never have answers for.  These also bring a whole new meaning to saying I'm excited for Star Wars. Here's a  clean article  on Star Wars you can read at work while waiting for the movie.  Guid cheerio the nou, R~

Thoughtful Thursday - Overcoming the Past

My grading weekend turned out to be about far more than leveling in rank. Like my feature film's theme, it was about overcoming the past in a few ways. The most immediate and obvious way was passing and thus putting last year's shameful attempt behind me, of course, but there is other stuff that I'm proud of that probably seems silly to others. I think there might be a lot of people that would be surprised to learn that I was the shyest kid in elementary school. The one that barely spoke unless I knew you. I didn't start that way. I was fine before school started. I noticed school was full of unfriendly people though. On my first day, the teacher didn't let me on the indoor play equipment and a boy wouldn't share the blocks with me, so I read a book to myself quietly. I knew how to tie my laces and how to read at age 5. Velcro shoes were strange things to me. I also didn't know about certain things like Robert Munsch. We were taken to see him and I didn'

Warrior Wednesday - 2017 Fall Grading Weekend

[caption id="attachment_11040" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] Grading felt different this year. I felt confident and ready. At several times during the day, I got a little nervous, but I was able to calm myself down. I was also able to force myself to be present rather than imagining frightful scenarios. During the seminar portion, I merely listened to the tips being given to others. Specifically, I listened for things like how they preferred we treat the tape line. They wanted us to keep ourselves behind the line during etiquette and have our sword on the other side of the line as we bowed to it. They also wanted us to look at the sword when we bowed to it. Placement wise, I always try to practice in a way that keeps my knees behind the line. I hadn't heard of the other bit about looking at my sword before though. I received a message from someone earlier in the day that had me in a bit of a mood, but I was able

Theatrical Tuesday - Gearing Up for The Last Jedi

If you were to ask me what my favourite fandom is, I'd have a hard time choosing between Star Wars and Harry Potter. Despite being a founder of the Ottawa Harry Potter Society, I'd probably choose Star Wars. There are some serious problems with both when you look at characters like Anakin and Snape. Both have abusive tendencies in them. Dumbledore wasn't a particularly good guy either. I mean, he was better than Voldemort, but Voldemort is kind of wimpy in actuality. I mean, all he had to do to get rid of Harry was delegate killing him to another person. You could even debate the reasons why Anakin went bad. Anakin had serious lightsaber and piloting skills that made him a formidable foe. A lot of the head canon in Harry Potter is annoying to me. And the need to ship people gets to me too. I like letting the thing be as it was created to a degree. I'm way not on board with the Ginny haters. I find people who are into Star Wars are more into letting it be as it is and I

Merry Monday - A Full Weekend

[caption id="attachment_4711" align="alignright" width="300"] Image created using Bit Strips.[/caption] So much happened since Friday that it's hard to know where to start. My close female friends and I traveled to Etobicoke on Friday. We went out to the bar near our hotel and got to have food and drinks with several of the Canadian senseis. Two of us challenged ni dan level, that is 2nd level black. We were successful! We'll next be eligible for grading in 2 years. I'm in no rush. There were some mistakes I made that I'll talk about more later in the week. Most of my other friends passed too. There were a couple of fails. I know how that feels having been there last year. The options for dealing with it are pretty much keep training and working hard or quit. It's hard to learn to move passed it and get back onto the floor. I think my feelings about it were worse than any my sensei could have thrown at me. Sometimes you just aren'

Symphonic Saturday - Travel

Full disclosure, my close friends and I have had basically key lime sake tonight as part of celebrating passing our second degree black belt exams.  Road trips always involve music in my experience. Who is in the car vastly affects what music you hear on the way.  Musically, this weekend has been interesting. One of my close friends is from Argentina and her taste varies much from my own, but not in a bad way. She's into things that have a Sinatra feel, some that have a South American feel, and some things that are completely foreign to me. None of it is bad to me though. I have no idea what we're listening to right now, but it's pretty chill. Maybe some blues? Anyway, back to partying.  Guid cheerio to the nou, R~

Frisky Friday - Being Me

[caption width="300" id="attachment_10523" align="alignright"] Image created using Bitmoji[/caption] It's so easy to convince ourselves of the wrong things, especially when it comes to dating, relationships, and sex. Being a writer with food issues has me searching the Internet for all kinds of things, so when I saw the meme below on the Just Laugh's Facebook page, I had to share it. Over-thinking causes me to over-complicate things often. I mean, I've spent weeks trying to figure out if a wink and smile is something more by reading Your Tango articles and other such drivel and... Well, I've realized I need to stop doing that.  I think it's better to just find a way to show interest and see what happens next.  I know convincing yourself to be something you aren't isn't the way to go ever. But people often try to be someone they aren't when they like someone rather than admit they might not be compatible in the least. I used