Rae Roy

We've started a steps challenge at work and to keep motivated, but also because I've been wanting to do these things, I've joined The Conqueror Challenges. I'm walking through Angkor Wat, in Cambodia, from home. I'm enjoying the challenge, however, you need to have your phone with you at all times if you want to actually look at the places you're walking past. It would be nice if it vibrated once you arrived at a location because sometimes I'm just walking around my house as I clean and it's not useful to be staring at a screen while doing that. I've been checking out the places I've passed by in a day. This is the shortest challenge they have and I'm 58% through it. And a neat part of the challenge is that I chose bottles as my contribution, which means that each time I hit a milestone, 10 plastic bottles are removed from the ocean. Angkor Wat was originally built for the Hindu God, Vishnu. Fun Fact: Vishnu, like Lord Shiva, is a fan of Cann

It's a long weekend in Canada. Friday and Saturday were quite warm. Saturday ended with a severe thunderstorm that has uprooted trees and knocked out power across the city. Two deaths have been reported. I spoke with a tree removal service who is working with hydro and several hydro megastructures were twisted up. No one knows how long the power will be out in any area of the city. I'm in a little pocket with power, but nothing around me has power. Because much of the infrastructure is messed up, I have no internet.  Yesterday, I finished the edits on chapter 13. It turned out not to need too much as it was mainly what I had named something that was bothering me. I also tried a number of video games and didn't enjoy the bulk of them. I'm glad that many were around $5, so I didn't lose out too badly. I'd really like to game right now, but most of my consoles require Internet. I know I'm luckier than most of the city. It's a good time to catch up around th

I'm finding it difficult to do anything during this heat wave beyond watch TV, game, and read. We've been having weather that is more typical of July. I like that we are having warm days, but a couple of weeks ago, we had snow. It would be nice to gradually acclimatize to the really hot weather! My keys lesson when well on Thursday. It definitely helped me feel better after a tough week between having my first Mother's Day without my mother, a hectic work week, and having to commute on Tuesday to a friend's house because they had to cut the power in my building all day in order to work on the building's electrical panel. Tuesday was productive even with a dance party in the other room. My buddy is a DJ. Actually, dance music was quite motivating in the early morning. And it was so nice to spend time with their kids when they got home from school. We used to get together all the time and then Covid happened. Tomorrow begins an exercise challenge at work, which I'

Image from IMDB. I've been watching horror films for more than 30 years now and very few of them actually scare me. Fewer still are the ones that continue to terrify me long after I've watched them. A handful of films have done this in recent years including Get Out , Insidious , and The Platform , but I ultimately got over them. Get Out didn't scare me per se, but it was more shocking and I truly appreciate the craftsmanship that went into it from all disciplines. But The Descent continues to linger with me and it's been well over a year since I watched it. The basic premise is that a group of women go on an adventure to reconnect with each other. Their choice of activity is spelunking. This quickly turns to misadventure as the group gradually shrinks. Thematically, it's a man vs man and a man vs nature tale. The nature part being differently evolved humanoids. But it's also an allegory for the divisiveness we see in society today. These humanoids are brutall

Mother's Day isn't easy when you've lost yours, but there are hopefully many other people in one's life who fill aspects of that role. Moms do a lot more than wipe butts, clean houses, and cook. The people who: - will listen to you talk about the dumbest stuff - regularly check that you're OK - are there to help you through tough times - help you grow as a person - help you make sense of this wacky world - cheer you on toward success - celebrate your accomplishments - help you make tough choices - encourage you to practice self care - drive you places no matter the cost of gas What would you add to this list? Please check out my digital to-do list: https://trello.com/b/RM8yD3eq/rae-roy-general

The last couple of months had me struggling.  I was burned out at work and with my writing. Then an event I was lightly involved with planning happened and it was like a reset button for me. I had such a good time with friends that it reinvigorated me and despite being a bit hungover the next day, I wrote a chapter on a passion project. On Monday, I decluttered my schedule and started fresh. I was able to shift things around to give myself time to do all the activities I love most. Thursday was the only day I really struggled to get everything in because I had my keys lesson and a learning event related to eventually streaming games. I've since completed the edits on chapter twelve, which originally ended in a way I was never happy with, but hadn't figured out how to improve yet. Sometimes a writer just needs more time living in order to write what a story needs. I'm very pleased with where I ended up in this chapter. This is probably ambitious, but I put together a list of