desperate for change

Left the Sunday before last and just got back last Sunday. It was a much needed vacation. Here are some random notes and observations:

• On the way down, the customs officer asked who my passenger was. I said that she was my girlfriend. Then he asked how long have we known each other. I said since November; then I asked if it was too soon to go on a trip to Oregon together. He smirked and handed us back our passports.
• The drive down took as long as advertised. There were the occasional mini-jams.
• We navigated Portland using a combination of Google Map printouts, tourist brochures and a mapbook. I probably should have borrowed my brother’s GPS. (When I got back home he was wondering why I didn’t ask him for it.)
• Powell’s Bookstore was my mecca.
• Woodburn was the outlet of choice. Did I mention that Oregon has no sales tax.
• Japanese food is interpreted slightly differently than that of Vancouver. I mean, what would you call a BC roll in Portland?
• The King of Roads through the Columbia Gorge was very scenic.
• Newport was our home base on the coast. We got a room with a view of the ocean. This was a lot warmer than braving the very strong Pacific winds.
• Whenever I was on the beach, I had two thoughts: how beautiful the view was, and whether I can acquire some property.
• Food service at restaurants was excellent. Food was very good. Seafood was good too. When Frommer’s give it a star, it’s worth checking out.
• I was carrying a Lululemon grocery bag, exiting a restaurant. Random girl: “Lululemon!” Me: “Yes? Are you from Vancouver?” Girl: “Yes!” Me: “I guess we’ll start carrying Lululemon instead of wearing Canada flags, eh?”
• Who on earth would bike the Oregon coast highway? You are so exposed and naked to the elements and the speeding cars!
• Florence sand dunes was like being in the desert.
• Cannon Beach was very pretty.
• Seaside’s beach at night allowed people to have little bonfires on the beach. We didn’t have any wood handy unfortunately.

I wouldn’t mind going down again.

Imagine the Old Spice Man voice as you read this:

Hello readers. Look at her blog. Now look at mine. Look at her blog. Now back to mine. Is your blog as “interesting” as mine? I think not. How about her blog? Is your blog as interesting as her blog? Don’t you wish you can have thousands of subscribers? And look, there are comments and regular readers. Sadly, her blog is not your blog. But if you go to her workshop, your blog could be like her blog.

Look down, back up, where are you? You’re on the Internets with a blog your blog could be like. What’s in your hand? Back at me. I have it – that WordPress theme that you’ve always wanted. Look again, the WordPress theme has turned into diamonds. Anything is possible when your blog is like her’s. I’m on a zebra.

The Old Spice Man is godly; my writing is not worthy.

In case you are wondering, I did go to a writing workshop by Kelly Diels. She is very professional and has tons of stuff for the aspiring writer. Yet at the same time, the personality and style that you have come to know and love is also present. (Note: I am not a long time reader of her blog, just came across it recently.)

Her big points, mutated into my words:

• Keeping the door ajar – Work ethic. You’ll never find time in real life to do the writing that you want. You have to want it all the time and be working continuously. This can mean quickly jotting down notes when it strikes you during the day. This can mean mining your own conversations, emails, IMs for material. This can mean forcing yourself to write daily as a way of exercising your muscle. This can mean that you might just do 2 sentences today but really good sentences.
• Procrastination, perfectionism – You can’t count on inspiration to strike you. You must produce even if you’re not inspired. The Old Spice Man would probably strike me down if I use the cliche about perspiration.
• Personality – Tell a story. Incorporate details. Be you. Evoke the emotional response. The personal story is the brush strokes of the bigger picture. Be courageously vulnerable.
• Tweetable = Writer’s Win #1 – How do you know if your writing is good? When there is a sentence in the prose that stands out like a gem, so much so that people will tweet it far and wide.
• Me Too = Writer’s Win #2 – How do you know if your writing is good? When your reader vigourously nods his or her head and gives you the epic “Me Too”.
• Purpose – Mommy bloggers of today are capturing the life as we know it. Writing lets you travel through the space-time continuum. I happen to know of a teenager who never would have imagined that her diary would be read and translated in the languages of the world.
• Structure – Kelly uses a corset as the metaphor of choice. As a man, I just feel weird trying to explain it in my own words. But it was a really good metaphor.
• Imitate – Channel the styles of your favourite writers. Eventually your own voice will come out.
• Old school tips – Kelly also brought up a ton of other tips that I should already know but just haven’t thought about because I used to think that English classes were for the cool popular kids who wanted to do creative writing and not for nerdy bookish math types like me. Rhetorical devices. You need writing peers.
• Making a living as a writer – Being personal makes you stand out from the dull. Who reads Case Studies? I would if they weren’t so boring. Your blog is the different kinds of voices that you are capable of writing in.

Your door is a jar.

It was Alice in Wonderland. This was my first time ever using the little red machine (DVDPlay is what it’s called).

And I had to freaking line up for it! Two people in front of us!

Total cost: $2. Return by 7pm the next day. I have seen the future!

I used to get zip.ca (which is a Canadian netflix like service). I loved being able to create a massive list of things that I wanted to watch and be “surprised” when my 50th pick arrived instead of the next DVD in the Sopranos series. What I don’t like is when I get behind in my watching. Life sometimes get busy and I can’t be bothered to keep up with the DVDs. While there are no late fees, there is a nagging thought about not maximizing value of the “unlimited” DVDs per month, which was limited by the speed of Canada Post.

Don’t get me started about Blockbuster.

By the way, your public library is totally loaded with lots of good stuff too, if you don’t need to watch the latest greatest.

Apparently, someone figured out that you can find out a lot about people if you have their real name.

This “stunt” was done in protest to the requirement of having to use your real name, if you want to play on Blizzard’s games.

I don’t know about you, but sometimes I would just prefer to hide behind an IP address. But for the information of myself that I am making available online, there is an internet approval committee (i.e. me) that decides if it is safe to put up or not, and it’s not just any old random crazy stuff. (You may beg to differ after going through the blog’s archives, but please humour me.)

As for WOW and StarCraft II players, I think that there is really no good reason to force people to use real names. I mean, I don’t use my real name when I go on plentyoffish for safety reasons, right? There are unscrupulous women who would think nothing of seducing and taking advantage of poor innocent Alfred!