Ashamed to be Canadian

by tag Posted on April 17, 2024

[I don’t usually post things related to politics on this blog, because it’s not what it’s for. But this is important.]

So, I used to be proud to be a Canadian. As a child, as a teen, when we started to recognize what we as a country owed the indigenous/First Nations/original inhabitants of this land, and when we legalized homosexual marriage. These were all things to be proud of (even if we still have a ways to go on a number of them).

There are still a lot of problems within Canada, of course – there’s racism, there’s inequality, the rights of persons with disabilities are not given the full weight they should be, for some examples… but I never thought the country I have lived in my entire life would start to condone what is more or less a form of slavery.

No, I’m not exaggerating.

Read On….
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Life, The Universe, and Search and Rescue

by tag Posted on January 23, 2024

So, it’s been a while.

A long while, it seems.

*sighs*

Life has been… well, there’s been lots going on. Geeze, I haven’t posted here in over two and a half years! Whoof.

So… suffice it to say, life has been life.

However, there’s a good reason for posting here now!

This year, I am bound and determined to finish and publish Search and Rescue (you know, the first NaNoWriMo story I wrote, back in 2008, and then started re-writing, but never finished?). I am posting my progress on my blog for original writing, TAG Books, starting with finishing up the re-write.

So far, I have two updates on the matter: last week’s details that I’m starting (Search and Rescue Completion Plans) and tonight’s update (Search and Rescue: Update 1). Feel free to visit and start getting traffic there ( 😉 ).

😉 tag0

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Update, & Devastating Last 6 Weeks

by tag Posted on May 25, 2021

First of all, an update that I started to write back in October, and then completely forgot about… so, I moved to Nova Scotia in October (after my brother and his family moved there from Toronto in August), and my parents followed me in January. Which was a good thing.

Then in late February/early March, I ended up with shingles.

[Note: If you have had chicken pox, and at some point end up with what look like clusters of bug bites over part of your body, but they are sharply painful rather than itchy, go to your doctor, or a walk-in clinic, before 72 hours (3 days) pass. The likelihood is that they’re shingles, and the only pain relief that really works on them needs to be started within 72 hours after they appear, or it won’t work. I didn’t realise they might be shingles for 2 weeks.]

So, that lasted until around the beginning of April. Not fun.

Then, six weeks ago Thursday (April 15, to be specific), I took a tumble while coming out of my (last) physio appointment for a problem I’d been having with my legs since August/September. Yes, it was to be my last one. I was delighted at that… until I tripped and fell while walking down the grass slope to my car. (My dad signed his car over to me when we moved to NS.)

At first, it seemed my right ankle had a bad sprain. I couldn’t really put any weight on it, so the reception staff at the rehab hospital (after a very kind gentleman who saw me fall went in to get them) got me into a wheelchair and back into the reception area. My parents came to pick me up, and drive my car back to my place. (Which, note, is a first floor walk-up.)

So, ankle was in agonizing, sharp pain (I’m more sensitive to sharp pain than I am to dull pain). I asked my parents whether we should have it checked out at Emergency, and they said a bad sprain didn’t really need that. So I iced it numerous times from Thursday evening to Sunday, but the pain didn’t really abate at all.

As a result, when I went for my usual Sunday with my parents, they agreed to take me to Emerg Monday morning (April 19), because I was worried that I might have actually broken my ankle.

Turns out, I did. (Dad turned to me in the car as we were leaving after getting it casted, and said, “You can now say, ‘I told you so’.”)

WARNING: VERY SAD/UPSETTING STUFF FOLLOWS!
Posted in Cats, Family, Goold Zoo, Grief, Health, Parents | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Adventures of Imber-Kitten, Tarma-Turtle, and Mommy-Cat!

by tag Posted on March 15, 2020

So, I’ve written a fair amount here on the blog about Imber, my currently 12 year old cat whom I recently discovered is either Siberian or part-Siberian, and who is physically disabled (and doesn’t like other cats).

Small Siberian (blue tabby) cat on a flannel blanket, looking up at the camera.
Imber lying on the desk chair looking up at me, February 25, 2020.

As a twelve year old, Imber is getting on in age, and as much as I really hate to admit it, sooner or later she’s going to pass away. Both Brightspot and Mitzy were in their mid-teens when they passed, and I’m hoping that Imber will reach at least that age… but it will happen, sooner or later, and I’m going to need another cat around to help me when that happens.

Continue on for the promised Adventures! Pictures Included
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Quick Update and 2020 Writing Goals (with #HabiticaResolutions)

by tag Posted on January 29, 2020

So, came onto here to do this post, and was shocked to see that I haven’t posted to this blog since Nov. 2018. Whoof. More than a year has gone by!

So, a quick summary of the last year, and then the details re my goals for this year (which is what this post is meant to be about).

There have been a couple of posts over the last year over on tagÂûght, covering some autistic related stuff (and a neat pub that a friend of my youngest sister’s owns here in St. John’s). Other than that… overall it was a quiet year. My rheumatologist added another medication to help with the nagging pain still going on with my arthritis, I made a couple of new friends, starting using Habitica to build my good habits up, got a volunteer position (I just had my third shift today), and survived Snowmaggedon 2020! (76 cm – about 2-1/2 feet – of snow in 36 hours. 8-day State of Emergency. Imber was happy – I was inside for basically nine whole days, with a 10 minute outing on Day 7 and a 3 hour outing on Day 8 – but I have to admit I was starting to go stir crazy by then.)

Now, onto the important part ( 😉 ) – my writing!

On to details about the writing Last Year and This!
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#NaNo2018: Winner, Winner!

by tag Posted on November 30, 2018

On a yellow backgroud, shows "2018" and "nanowrimo WINNER", then at the bottom of the banner has a table with (from left to right) a donut on a napkin, a mug with steam rising, a laptop computer with the screen showing "50K", a cup with pencils and a pen, and a pile of five books, laid one on top of the other.
The 2018 NaNoWriMo Winner Banner!

Apologies – I had meant to post more throughout the month, but it’s been a learning curve for me, and I’ve had a couple of downturns this month, for various reasons. (Have I mentioned how much I hate psoriatic arthritis? If not, consider it mentioned now.)

It’s really been a crazy month. I basically booked us/organized three write-ins a week, to try to make sure that everyone who wanted to make it to a write-in managed to do so. It was… less than successful in terms of that (other people showed up to about half of them), but successful in terms of allowing me to reach 50K! (Each day I had a write-in, my word count really picked up – more than the daily recommended dose of 1,667 words – which, since there were a few days where I wrote less than 100 words, really made an impact.)

I also had a number of issues with my characters throughout the month (*glares sharply at Jade*); they went in some weird directions. Which helped contribute to those days I wrote less than the daily recommended dose, because I was fighting for every sentence.

Read on for details!

Posted in Accomplishments, Fantasy, NaNoWriMo, Writing | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

#NaNo2018: Creative Anticipation

by tag Posted on October 31, 2018

Well, here we are at less than 5 hours away from the start of NaNoWriMo 2018, and I’ve spent the last three days with the feeling that I always associate with anticipation, usually involving something creative (or presents, I usually got it when I was about to start opening presents as well, as a child and teenager). I’ve always called it “butterflies in my stomach”, because it’s pretty much exactly how that metaphor/expression is defined: a fluttery feeling in one’s stomach. (I just looked the expression up – admittedly on Wikipedia/Wiktionary – and apparently it’s a physical expression of an adrenaline surge, the fight-or-flight response. Weird. Maybe it’s my autistic/alexithymic confusion of emotion and physical reactions, rather than what other people call “butterflies in the stomach”?)

This year is extra special to me, because for the first time, I am an official Municipal Liaison for my region (Canada :: Newfoundland – which does include Labrador, I believe, but it’s not listed in the region title).

NaNoWriMo's 2018 Municipal Liaison Logo: shows a cursive font of "NaNoWriMo" at the top, then a double line with "2018 Municipal Liaison" dividing the top from the bottom, and then from right to left, a tea cup, a slice of pizza, and a crossed pencil and pen; all in white on a dark blue background.
NaNoWriMo’s 2018 Municipal Liaison Logo

Plus I’m working on a book cover for one of crossoverqueen’s novels. As a result, the creative anticipation explained in the first paragraph has also led to some insomnia. Which… well… I guess I can consider it research for this year’s story – see below!

Read on for the details of my NaNo project this year!

Posted in Creativity, Fantasy, NaNoWriMo, Writing | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

#FinalFrontier: @NSOonline Spring Pops – SF Concert

by tag Posted on April 21, 2018

When I first found out that the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra‘s Spring Pops concert (the final concert of the 2017-2018 season) was going to be science-fiction themed, including music from Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica (the original 1970s one, yay!), ET, etc. (which I think was back in November) I knew I wanted to go. So a ticket went on my Christmas wish list.

My parents were kind enough to get one for me, and I have been eagerly anticipating this concert ever since then. (Yes, it was definitely worth it.)

It’s been a long week for me – I was doing an Autistic Adults panel at the Canadian Autism Spectrum Disorders Alliance (CASDA) Summit in Ottawa this week – details will be posted on tagÂûght over the next few days – and got pretty much 4 hours of sleep each night, including being up at 2:40 am EDT this morning (it’s still Friday, because I haven’t gone to sleep yet) to get to the airport for my flights home. But it was so worth it.

I’ve got some pictures for you (sorry for the quality), that I’ll post as appropriate as I go along.

Read on, read on!

Posted in Music, Science Fiction | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

#CampNaNoWriMo: April 2018 Update 1

by tag Posted on April 3, 2018

So, I’m trying to post more frequently again. And it’s April. What is April known for? (Aside from Autism “Awareness” Acceptance Month, that is. That’s for tagÂûght.)

That’s right – the first session of Camp NaNoWriMo! (Which lately I seem to have mostly posted about in April of odd years.)

So this month, I’m once again going back to my NaNo roots and trying to finish the rewrite of Search and Rescue. I tried to work on it last year (unsuccessfully, though I think I wrote 4 pages or so?), and back in July of 2015, and didn’t do much then.

This year, I’m taking full advantage of Camp NaNo’s ability to choose your own target and type of target. I decided to go for 40 hours of editing and rewriting – and then changed that to 2,400 minutes (the same time length) because the “hour” type doesn’t allow for fractions. So the goal is 80 minutes a day to make my target.

My actual goal is, of course, to finish Chp. 8 and do the rewrites of Chps. 9 to 14, in order to actually finish the rewrite so I can start working on getting it into a publishable state.

So far, I’m at 199 minutes of editing and rewriting, and I think I’ve managed to get through some of my block on Chp. 8. I need 41 more minutes today to make my goal; going to see if I can’t exceed that.

Will probably update intermittently during the month – wish me luck!

🙂 tag

Posted in Camp NNWM, Creativity, NaNoWriMo, Science Fiction, Writing | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments