Safe Distance

Posted by Andrew Ferguson on

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It is easy to be brave from a safe distance.

Status: good. I wonder how Aesop would feel if he knew that someone was using his name to sell skin care products? Disappointment or, show me the money? Maybe a little bit of both.

Career.

Had a mild anxiety attack yesterday thinking about all of the things I need to and want to do before starting the next chapter in my Finance career. I have 3 months left. Three months of freedom. I’ll be handsomely compensated in exchange for my freedom, but will I be happy? Can I go back to something that was making me miserable? Can I go back to the place which was making me unhappy? Appreciate that this is a practical choice. It’s also the safe choice. So, I’m essentially exchanging my freedom for security. My life mirroring an aspect of the current zeitgeist.

I’ve thought this through already and have made my choice. I suspect that I’ll continue to struggle with this…or, maybe I’ll like it. I won’t really know until I get there and experience it for myself. And, I’ve promised myself that I’m going to give it a year and see how it fits. If it’s making me miserable then I’ll take stock of where I am and re-rationalise the strategy. The good news is that I do know what I want to do long term, and I can continue to prepare for it while collecting a paycheque.

Writing.

I’ve had my best week yet, and my word count is getting progressively higher as each week goes by. Seven thousand words so far this week compared to four thousand last week compared to three thousand for the week previous to the last one. I’ve been able to build up some good momentum and some good habits which are allowing me to be productive. I’ll call that a job well done. For The Win.

I think it’s time to take the next step. I didn’t quite finish the first draft of The Patriot story this week as expected, but I’m close and should be able to complete it over the weekend. I’m finding that I’m very productive first thing in the morning if I wake up, meditate and then start writing, which is good, but then I’m fading in the afternoon. My energy levels drop and then I start procrastinating and then the ball starts rolling in the opposite direction. I need to figure out how to reverse this trend. I talked about using a temporary site-blocking app to help me stay focused, but never pulled the trigger on it. Perhaps now is the time to do that.

Date.

Spontaneous coffee date this afternoon. Out of the corner of my eye, I can see a red flag flapping in the distance. Girls from that dating app who are available to meet on short notice are typically bad news. Most people who have their shit together (and have a life) are not available to do that. In her photo she has wild hair and a mildly crazy look in her eyes. I bet she’s lying about her age.

(Then why you meeting her, bro?)

Because of the entertainment value. That’s it. The crazier they are, the better the stories.

Nikon D3400
1/15 sec
f/5.6
18mm
ISO 100

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The One

Posted by Andrew Ferguson on

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If she doesn’t scare the hell out of you a little, she’s not the one.

Status: good. a little tired. dragging my feet this morning. For some reason my post from yesterday “exploded” and received more views than usual. Not sure why. Took a look at the tags and they are the same as was used in previous posts, although they are less of them. Maybe that’s it.

Writing.

Knocked out two pages this morning and I have five more pages to complete before I am finished the first issue. I’ll try and kill off those pages between today and tomorrow, so that I’m going into the weekend with a clean slate. I’ll then circle back and start working on the second draft of the short story I completed almost two weeks ago.

Or at least that’s the plan. I have a few more story ideas I’d like to work on, and all of a sudden I’m flat out busy and realising just how much time goes into creating this stuff. Not surprising, but at this rate I’ve got at least 6 months worth of ideas to work on, and I need to make sure that I finish some of these stories and attempt to publish them versus working on everything and then completing nothing.

Photography.

Itching to push forward on this, and realising that I may be biting off more than I can chew. A bit challenging to focus on both this and the writing at the same time, but I’ll have an opportunity to get more practice at The Artist Project this weekend, and I still have the photos from the Auto Show last weekend to process. Tried processing one of the construction pics from last weekend and was not happy with the result, so maybe it’s best to set this aside for the moment.

I also have the food pics from Playa Cabana to post as well. Still. They’ve all been processed and are ready to go, just need to organise them in sequence for posting and wrap some commentary around them. If I have some spare time tomorrow after completing the five pages noted above then I’ll work on this.

Career.

I have three months left before I start my new job, so want to make the most of this time to complete as much as I can. Once I start work then my priorities will shift. Damn it. Stay focused, dude. It scares me a little, but it’s a sound plan.

Nikon D3400
1 sec
f/13
18mm
ISO 100

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Hump Day

Posted by Andrew Ferguson on

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Status: good, but my day has been slightly derailed because of an early morning meeting followed by being booted from the unit so that some work can be completed and then errands early this afternoon. So, I’m getting stuff done, but had a bit of a hard time getting to the stuff I really want to do. This will be an ongoing theme once I resume my Finance career, so it’s good practice for when the bulk of my day will be spent on the day-job and I’ll have limited time to focus on writing.

Writing.

On that note: hitting it first thing in the morning is definitely optimal for me. I also discovered that trying to write in Indigo is not optimal, however I was able to complete one page this morning. All things considered, I’ll take it. I also think this is a good opportunity to celebrate the great day I had yesterday; it was my highest word count yet, so I’ll take that as a win.

Tenant.

Gently pushed back on the nice-to-have items on their list and received an ultimatum this morning. My tolerance for this kind of behaviour is near zero. I’m going to sit on the list for a couple of days and let them stew. Appreciate that this is passive aggressive, but I don’t feel the need to reward that kind of behaviour. If they decide that the unit is not meeting their needs and want to look elsewhere, I won’t stop them.

I also became aware of a noise complaint directed at the unit beside mine, however that one is vacant. The description of the issue makes it sound like my new tenants could actually be the culprit. Maybe I’m just projecting because I don’t like them very much. In any case, I’ll keep an eye on this. If it turns out that they are the source of the noise then I think I’ll seriously consider pushing them out of the unit…..

 

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Comic Book Review – Batman Vol. 6: Graveyard Shift (The New 52 – 2015)

Posted by Andrew Ferguson on

batman vol 6

So here’s the deal with this book and why people are rating it so low. Snyder and Capullo have done the majority of their Batman run in arcs, arcs which take up a trade’s worth of material all by themself. However, inbetween these arcs are usually one-and-dones, smaller stories that only take up one or two issues. Including chronologically didn’t work so well, because it would have made the trade’s too big, and make less sense as a story. So, all the one and done Batman stories are collected here. Some of these issues are very good, some of them less so. The issues it collects are #0, 18, 19, 20, 28, 34, and Batman Annual #2.

#0 is sort of a precursor to Zero Year. It would have been nice if this was included in the first Zero Year trade, but again, that would have made the book too big, so it goes here. It’s a good story on it’s own, just a little out of place.

#18 is a Harper Row issue, detailing how she tracks Batman in the days following his son’s death. If you liked the other Harper story in City of Owls, you’ll probably dig this. I was never huge on Harper, so it didn’t do much for me, but too each’s own.

#19-20 is a short Clayface story. I really enjoyed these two. It has one or two tender moments with Bruce still dealing with Damien’s death, Clayface seems to be going through a cool process, and there’s a great easter egg to a certain DC Animated show from the 90s (and not the one you think). There’s a moment where I think Bruce plays things a little close to the chest with his secret identity, but I can forgive it. It’s important to note too that these are the only 2 issues drawn by Capullo in this volume.

Batman Annual #2 is a fun short story where Batman is trying to break out of Arkham Asylum. It also introduces the character of Eric Border, who will be important down the road (don’t look up why, it’s only 1 volume away).

#28 is definitely the worst of the bunch. It’s a story that ties into the Batman Eternal series. You may or may not be completely lost reading it, and you will never see any pay-off for what happens in this series. Read it if you plan on reading Batman Eternal, but otherwise I’d almost say just skip it.

#34 is one of my favourites. It’s a simple murder mystery story, with Batman trying to hunt down a serial killer. It’s not Capullo, but the art here is amazing. The story, other then one big “WTF, HOW” moment is really well done.

Overall, it’s nowhere near as good as the other volumes, but there’s plenty of material to enjoy. Issues 19, 20, and 34 are definitely the stand outs, with the annual being pretty good as well.

 

4 out of 5 stars

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The Rule of Thirds

Posted by Andrew Ferguson on

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The Rule of Thirds.

Status: good. feeling great, actually. happy. Didn’t skip the vitamin D regimen on Sunday like I did the previous one, so I wasn’t teetering on the edge of depression like last week Monday. Need to remember not to do that and stick with The Plan.

Writing.

Another very good day of writing yesterday. The ‘up and at ’em’ routine is working better. I’m discovering that my word count for the comic book script is higher than the prose, which is to be expected. Building momentum first thing in the morning positively affects self-esteem and encourages me to move forward, so I’ve found the payoff/incentive I need to sustain this model. I am, however, finding that I’m still fading in the afternoon. I’ll try a quick meditation after lunch to see if that helps. Two other things which stick out:

  1. I’m way happier when I’m writing and I need to spend some time figuring out how I can do this full time, i.e. for a living, without pushing myself into the land of poverty. Because, you know, I like money.
  2. I also need to allow myself some time to daydream – that seems to be the best way for ideas to germinate and to work past the sticking points in the story, and I’ve hit a few of those over the last few weeks. I write and write until I don’t know what happens next and then I have to stop. Which is frustrating, but I think this is part of the creative process, so I need to be patient with it.

Tenant.

Aaaaaaaand they’re back with another list of To Do items. I honestly want to take that nit-picky list, set it on fire, take a piss on it and then return the remains of that list to them. But I won’t do that. The key here is to separate Signal from Noise, so I’ll tackle the legitimate items and then politely decline to address the rest. I’m seriously entertaining the idea of terminating the lease and then placing the unit back on the market. I mean, it would make life a little easier to have an available place to utilise while I make the transition from Here to There. That way I won’t have to source an alternative, and I can focus on upgrading and renovating the unit, which I want to do anyway, without having to disrupt the tenant’s living space.

I’ll mull this over some more.

Nikon D3400
1/100 sec
f/5.6
55mm
ISO 100

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Untroubled Days

Posted by Andrew Ferguson on

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“No untroubled day has ever dawned for me” — Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Status: good. Actually, better than good because it was a stellar weekend. I’m still not drinking, although briefly considered taking the plunge on Saturday night because I went to a steakhouse for dinner and I like a nice glass of red wine as an accompaniment. But, I’m glad I didn’t. Got quite a bit of writing done, plus some photography, plus a little entertainment and bit of reading. All-in-all a very productive weekend and as an upside I’m not feeling all musty and depressed first thing on a Monday morning. I’ll call that a win.

Writing.

Tried an experiment on Saturday with my morning ritual. Got up, meditated and then started writing immediately (versus the “going to the office” process of: shower, eat, make the bed, meditate and then start writing). That really worked for me. Kicked out two usable pages of the comic book script which really set the tone for a productive day. I’ve heard this kicked around a lot on Tim Ferriss’ podcast: Win the morning, win the day. This looks like a truism and I’m going to stick with this for the remainder of the week and see how productive I am.

Quick note about Sunday: spent the afternoon reading and writing at my local Indigo and was able to produce a one page synopsis of another story I’d like to write. The best part about it is: the momentum I’ve built over the weekend has created encouragement and I’m excited about getting this story down on paper. I’m going to call that a win.

Photography.

Note to self: don’t use the auto settings on the camera. Because, (a) you’ve passed by that stage of your photography journey and know how to properly use the manual settings, and (b) the photos are rarely good – they’re either partially out of focus, or the ISO settings are too high (which creates a lot of noise in the photo), or both. The above photo is a prime example of that – so lesson learned.

Food Adventures.

Tried two places over the last two weekends based upon recommendations from other folks – a date and a potential romantic interest. Playa Cabana was great, really enjoyed it and will definitely go there again. Michael’s on Simcoe? Not so much. I’m a huge fan of the steakhouse Jacobs & Co and was told that Michael’s is a much better steakhouse. It wasn’t. I’m not disappointed that I tried it, but at $100 a plate (which was without wine included and is on the lower end of their pricing), I expected better.

Anyway, the box has been ticked, I’ll know not to go there again. Caveat: as I was leaving it was transitioning from restaurant to lounge and loads of people were showing up for drinks and entertainment. Amongst the crowd were loads of cute, single Jewish girls. For that reason alone, I may go back.

Ok, let’s call that a win as well.

Nikon D3400
1/4 sec
f/16
18mm
ISO 100

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Born Again

Posted by Andrew Ferguson on

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Every morning we are born again. What we do today is what matters most.

Status: good. still dragging myself out of bed, but good. Taking a little too much time to get ready to go to the “office”, but at least I’m getting up and putting myself in an optimal position to be productive. I’ll call that a win.

Writing.

Excellent day yesterday. I’m repeating myself, but full credit to a good start to the day which set me up for later success. I need to remind myself of this every time I don’t feel like going through the morning ritual and just want to lounge around reading and drinking coffee when I first get up. Churned out three solid, usable pages of the comic book script which I think is a reasonable expectation for someone who is just at the beginning stages of learning how to do this. Production varies wildly, but the fastest writers will produce five pages per day, or about four books per month. The slowest will be one page per day, or one book per month. I’m going to call this a win.

On that note, I appreciate that not every day will be like this. Creating art can be frustrating and disappointing, but days like yesterday confirm what I’ve always suspected: I love writing. I just love the whole process and it’s what I really want to with the rest of my life.

Opportunity.

That said, I will need to detour slightly while I work on establishing myself. The call yesterday with my network contact went well. They have an open position available, but there are a few hurdles to clear. It’s multi-jurisdictional, which is attractive to me. The organisation is good, and I know some of the key players. The position is a bit more junior than I’d like, and as such it likely won’t meet my salary expectations, or match the offer received from the other company, but let’s see how this plays out.

Ok, let’s get on with it………

Nikon D3400
1/30 sec
f/3.5
18mm
ISO 400

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