Offseason Camblings, Part Four: 'Tis the Season

Ah, Christmas times, when I forget to remember what people want and end up just getting them food or gift cards for Christmas. Actually, that’s not an entirely accurate statement, I actually didn’t get anyone any gift cards this year, or books. Books are things I was getting for the brothers pretty regularly but with Tanz in Aussieland and Jord just about to pull the trigger on building his computer, I figure I can safely get Tanz nothing ’cause I’m a jerk and Jord something computer related… Considering he does read these I probably shouldn’t have said anything but I’m pretty sure I already told him that I’ve got it, he’s planning on performing the build on Friday Night, so I’ll be on standby as technical support…and he may very well get the thing then and there. I’ll probably do some post-christmas shopping online looking for miscellaneous things I’ve been after that I constantly forget to remember to tell people. Stuff that I can’t even exactly remember right now because I just spent like 5–10 minutes reading random stuff on Reddit. Yes, it is slow enough to be doing both a new post and a delving into the depths of Reddit. 

 

Now for something completely different. Imma talk video game for a bit, so folk who don’t care can skip this paragraph. With that warning out of the way, now comes “Past and present favourites, why and how; a discussion of entertainment and appeal.” …I really like that title, I should make that a recurring things. Anyway, for the first instalment we’re gonna go way back, so far back that I doubt anyone will remember this. It’s one of my first gaming memories and it took place on an old Macintosh Apple computer, the type that used the big (in girth, not memory) floppy disks and used an old joystick. I can’t remember the name of the game in question right this second, so I’m gonna see if google knows what I’m talking about. … … … Alright, I’m like 90% sure that it was just called “Bruce Lee” and while I remember it playing in black and green I can’t seem to find any images online of it with that specific colour combination. *Shrug* Oh well. Anyway, it mostly consisted of running around, avoiding traps and kicking/avoiding enemies as you made your way through a series of increasingly difficult levels/maps/screens/boards, whatever you want to call them. It ended up looping around back to the start but it took a while to figure that out due primarily to the trial and error approach that the game forced you to take in order to progress. I did eventually get to the point where it looped around and after doing that a couple times I got bored of it and don’t recall ever touching it again. As far as I can tell, the primary appeal to me was to just see how far I could get while avoiding danger from all over the place, learning new things and figuring out how to overcome obstacles, it was all about besting the challenge laid before me. It was quite a while before I figured everything out, having to start back at the beginning after failing… I don’t recall if there was a lives system, I think there was but I’m not sure. Regardless, after I did eventually figure out everything and got back to the first screen I’m pretty sure there was either a sense of disappointment or bewilderment, resulting in me going through it again just to make sure I didn’t miss anything. After that was exhausted I was done with the game, I had proven that I could do it repeatedly, there was no need to do it any more. That being said, it could very easily have been what started my love of challenge in games, to overcome the obstacles laid before me and prove that I could do it leading me down the road to Dark Souls and Monster Hunter eventually, which are similarly action based games about overcoming challenges. I don’t know if that’s the oldest game I remember playing, but it’s definitely one that left an impression on me. It also might be the one that I was playing this one early friday morning in December/November when I declined delivering paper and my mom had to do it and I constantly feel super guilty about it when it pops into my head (which happens more frequently than I’d like), sorry mom, I was a dumb kid. 

 

…Well that happened, I could probably make that a regular thing, considering I barely remember it and I wrote a good chunk about it. But yeah, slow day in a paint store, I haven’t seen a customer in several hours, ’cause who the butt wants to buy paint right before Christmas? Nobody in their right mind, that’s who. After today I’m off ’til the 27th, which is nice, and I expect that day/week to be pretty well completely dead, so that’ll be a fun week, especially since Cheesefest ’16 is happening that week and for whatever reason I’ve been informed that I’m not allowed to ever miss a Cheesefest. Something about being my “brainchild” when all I said was “I wanna try a whole bunch of different cheeses some time, maybe get a bunch of people together to do it with”…which actually is pretty much exactly what it is, though with the added “pair them with wines” due to Ma not being able to enjoy cheese without wine, plus it turned out it’s pretty interesting to see how the combination of flavours works together. That being said, I still can’t stand alcohol so I tend to not partake in the wine part of cheesefest, but boy do I enjoy the cheeses. I’ve learned a decent amount about the pairings by proxy, but no personal experience. Hmm, come to think of it, Lish would probably enjoy that sort of thing, I wonder if she’d be interested, I should ask. I’ll probably forget to do that though, ’cause as soon as I finish typing these things they’re straight gone from my brain. It’s weird, people bring up things I’ve said in these posts and I just stare at them blankly, wheels in my head slowly turning trying to recall if I even said that. I think it’s probably ’cause these posts are so much like my actual thought pattern, and who actively remembers what they were thinking about 2–3 days ago? No one that I know, that’s for certain. 

 

Unrelated, the darkness has begun to recede as we pass by the solstice signifying both the official start of winter and the coming of light, that is to say the sunset will slowly start getting later, which is good ’cause It’s currently 5pm and super dark out there. Oh, speaking of evenings, a couple days ago, I wanna say Monday, it was like the perfect winter evening. Not too cold out so my face wasn’t freezing off, smell of wood smoke in the air signifiying the use of fireplaces and mentally representing comfort and warmth, a beautifully clear sky with stars and the moon making their presence known, I really enjoyed that walk home, I may have been a little hopped up on caffeine… regardless, it was a lovely evening and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I do love this time of you, and it’d be nice to have someone to share it with, hence blog post. I mean, I’m normally an intensely private person due to a combination of “why would anyone care about this dumb stuff” and “People frighten me (really/not really, I’m just super introverted)” but there are definitely times when I find myself wanting to share moments that strike me as either beautiful or exciting but lack people to share them with. I know I’m not a great communicator, and that’s something I want to work on, so that’s probably a big part of it and if we delve too deep I’m liable to lapse into unnecessary sadness, so we’re gonna go ahead and avoid that. Also I’ve gotta close soon, so I need to wrap this up anyway. 

 

Cheers, and Merry Christmas,

 

~Cam

Offseason Camblings, Part 3rd of ???

Round 3, type-type-typing away at nothing, watching the snow fall down softly while internally grumbling about knowing I’ll have to shovel it again before my shift is done. It’s a very snowy day, which leads me to believe I won’t see anyone today which is good for convincing the company to not be open on Sundays in the winter (which is an idea panned by everyone we’ve discussed it with) Hopefully they don’t keep this up much longer, it’s been really dumb, they’re definitely losing money on it. 

 

Enough whining, let the rambling commence! I still can’t figure out how to do a proper paragraph break without more editing than I’m happy with in this app, needing to copy and paste some html code every time I want to add some spacing is rather tedious and annoying, especially since it apparently didn’t keep the previously copied piece of code in the clipboard for…3 or 4 days. Bleh, oh well, I’ll just have to work around it. Side note: I need additional caffiene if I’m gonna stay awake for the next few hours. Time for some Earl Grey. *proceeds to make tea* Ah, I do love the smell of Mr. Gray in the…any time of day, really. 

 

Alright, so what to talk about now? I dunno, probably snow ’cause that’s very present right now. So snow, this soft fluffy frozen water that lightly floats down from the sky and coats the world in a layer of white, muffling sound and making walking more treacherous whilst perturbing those who have to remove it from walkways with shovels and ice melter. Mixed messages, sure, but I have mixed feelings about it. I love the look of it and the silence it brings is vastly different from other weathers, but as a guy who walks everywhere it makes life more hazardous and being a tall guy shovelling it has a tendency to aggravate my lower back. I’m probably doing it wrong, or not using the right type of shovel, but I don’t do it that often except at work.  I do prefer my Christmases to be covered in snow over not snow and just dead brownness, makes things cozier and gives us reason to stay indoors spending time with family. 

 

Speaking of, I’m SUPER BEHIND on my Christmas shopping. That’s a thing I’ll have to do in the next couple days (which I have off because my schedule’s weird [I blame exam time of a coworker]) so I guess it’s time to come up with ideas… in the next couple days and not online, ’cause I like surprises and for people to not actually know what I got them unless they specifically ask for them. Alright, mental note set, I’ll do that tomorrow/later.  

 

*Customer shows up, ruining plans of $0 day*

 

Drat, I was really hoping that I'd sell literally nothing today. Still at a net loss by quite a bit for having me even be here, so that's something. I've also already done two crosswords and a sudoku, and put away a bunch of paint and shovelled the sidewalk, so that says something too. I should work on those creative writing thingies I've got cookin'. I don't really have anything else to say about anything anyway. Nut much happens to me in the span of less than a week...or months...or years really. As I tell a lot of people, I'm not an exciting person. 

 

Anywho, I'm off for now. Cheers!

~Cam

Offseason Camblings, Part the Second of ???

Here we are, once again wandering down the dusty road of “so much time so little to do” as I hang out at work literally not doing anything* and having the sun reflect off the window DIRECTLY INTO MY EYE YOU JERK, STOP THAT.  Seriously, right straight to the face but I can’t have my back to the store so I’m just suffering through it. Bah, I’ve had worse, I can tough this out. Earl Grey will get me through, make me strong like oxen.

 

That reminds me… So here’s a fun fact, my default non-english accent has in recent years become Russian, and I have no idea why. It used to be French, ’cause that was really the only one I was decent at, but for whatever reason my Russian accent grew in power… which is phrased weirdly but surprisingly correct, leading to a “new default” situation. So now whenever I feel the need to express myself in a different accent (which happens pretty frequently, again, no idea why) out slips the Russian. I don’t even know if it’s good. I mean, I think it’s solid but that’s a similar quandary to the “do other people really exist?” quandary that people have been struggling with since conscious thought first emerged. I’m no philosopher though, so I don’t really give any of that too much thought. They’re just flashes in the so-called brain-pan, here for a second and then gone the next, just like most of the topics that I ramble about.

 

Unrelated, I’m gonna have to do a double check on whether or not breaks are showing up properly, I had to do some weird structure editing last time I posted with this app. That being said, I do prefer the formatting on this app over the official Blogger app. It’s a combination of “I can see more of my post” and “options are more readily available” and “I can type up drafts offline to any of my apparently 5 different blogs I’ve got.” Yes, I have 5 different ones. No, I haven’t really done anything on the other ones yet. One’s my defunct WoW blog, the other three are creative side projects that I haven’t even done anything official with yet, it’s all just up in drafts. Creative writing is much more different/challenging than just spewing brainw-ords and thinky-thoughts into paragraphs. You’ve gotta actually consider pacing and flow and explanations and reasons for doing things and types of motivations and how to convey stuff without just punching people in the face with exposition ’cause I don’t care for that nonsense personally.

 

——–Singular but very particular customer that takes up a lot of our time showed up——— 

 

What was I saying? Oh, right, creative writing. I’ve got a couple of creative irons in the fire, ready to burn a hole through my keyboard as I type up a storm in a burst of creativity strong enough to set my fingers ablaze. Side note, that sentence would probably translate very poorly into other languages, idioms and whatnot clogging it up so good…

 

 stares blankly into space

 

I entirely just lost any sort of train of thought that may have been happening. Dead stop, end of the line. I’ve hit a writing block while writing literally anything that pops into my head. That’s a serious case of “no thought” that just happened. Like, stopping a freight train in time to not hit the baby carriage that got stuck sort of dead stop, it was impressive just how much of a stop it came to. 

 

Anywho, I should wrap this up now, I’ve gotta do closing stuffs. Yay time-killing exercises!

 

Cheers!

 

~Cam 

Offseason Camblings, part 1 of ???

Hmmm, using a new app for this post and it seems to have…a not small number of options immediately available to me and is auto saving like every 10 seconds (which is nice). Unfortunately my old app I was using likes to shut down after like 20 seconds of being active since I updated to the latest iOS, so that was frustrating for like 5 minutes ’til I googled “app for blogger” and found this one. So far so good, it’s actually got a large typing section so I can follow my own progress more readily without having to scroll back up.

 

ANYWHO: So it’s now officially the slow season and I haven’t seen or talked to anyone in like an hour+ on a weekday. Could be due to rain, could be due to just slowness in general. Either way, time for typing. Speaking of, schedule shift incoming for me since we’ve been told we are now required to open on Sundays because a so-called “competitor” is also open on Sundays, which means I’m working Sundays through Wednesday/Thursdays now (it’s still a little up in the air, we’ll see how it pans out). Not the worst outcome but it was nice to have actual weekends off even if it was only for a couple of weeks. Oh, right, I made myself some sort of hot beverage, I should go actually fix it up and drink it.

 

Tea. It was tea, specifically Earl Grey (a common but understandable favorite). I do enjoy me some earl grey every once and again… or actually quite frequently, ’cause it’s definitely my go-to at work. If you are what you ingest then I’m like 50% tea at this point… and like 35% sandwiches (I do include burgers as a type of sandwich, ’cause they totally are). Huh? Oh, right, whatever I was rambling about. Topics I thought about discussing: “Am I the weirdest person I know”, “Thoughts on being a mind-reader”, “Why I cry” and other miscellaneous things. Respective short answers: “Yes but everyone’s the weirdest person they know (Thanks for that, Jord)”, “I don’t wanna read minds my own is weird enough”, “I don’t normally”. So that basically defeats the potential of those blog topics. So with that in mind I press onward, casually not knowing where this is going.

 

Unrelated, I think I need to find a job that pays better. I mean, this one’s alright what with the solid amounts of time I can allot to doing my own thang and the pay is alright as is evident by my saving steadily increasing…actually the job and pay is probably adequate for what it involves, but I’m actually just kinda getting sick of it. Paint isn’t really interesting and can just cause problems for painters which comes back to me even if I had nothing to do with it.  Like the times when I get yelled at for orders I literally wasn’t around for, that’s always a fun time… Frankly I’m mildly surprised at how long I’ve stuck it out, then I remember that job hunting is probably less fun and I’m not a big fan of change, at which point the surprise disappears as I go “Oh yeah, that sucked pretty bad.” So I’ll probably stick it out for a while, added bonus of friends and family getting my discount which is actually pretty nuts. I do like helping people, and I’ve learned more about paint and/or architectural coatings than I ever thought I would (what with the not thinking that paint is where I’d end up even if I didn’t have any idea where I’d end up).

 

Alright, so begrudging my work and lack of productivity aside, what’s new in the Camiverse? Honestly, not much. I live a very stable, consistent life that I enjoy so I’m not really looking to change it… which entirely counters the previous thought on wanting a different job… but I digress. I get up, I work, I go home, I pretend to be productive. Maybe I should actually decorate some Christmas-y stuffs this year, I entirely didn’t last year so that’d be a new thing. I mean there are now pictures on the walls so that’s a step in the “this place is actually lived in” direction. Heck, even if I just got some cozy LED Christmas lights to go around some windows…I dunno, just tossing ideas out there. Regardless, the first step I need to take towards being more than a hermit is getting an actual usable drivers license. I’ve gone 28 years without doing it so far, I guess it’s about time to get that part of supposedly being a person done. One of these days… At least I’m supposedly good company. I heard that from friends recently and that warmed my heart. I like that others like being around me.

 

 

——Round 2: Sunday Addition—–

 

 

Alright, so back after a three day break and working on a Sunday now. Currently half-way through the day and the only reason I didn’t start this up sooner is ’cause I had things that needed organizing/doing leftover from the saturday shift. That’s all done now though, so time for blogging. 

 

 

Current estimation of sales today: $0. Literally nothing. Well, that’s not completely true, one of our big companies that buys from us took some product but requires Purchase Order numbers on every bill and we won’t be getting that ’til at least tomorrow. So net daily sales for $0 currently, which is fun. If this keeps up over the next few weeks they may actually stop us from being open on Sundays. I’m even being good and having the OPEN sign on (I was contemplating not doing that but my obedient nature got the better of me…) and still no one. At least it’s a short shift, that helps alleviate the tedium. Anywho, less work talk seems good so let’s do that.

 

 

Alright, so what to talk about… Um… Let’s see… I guess I could talk about why I don’t really ever talk about more-different things. Short answer: I’m very consistent. Long answer: I’m a person who doesn’t like change in large quantities, so I tend to live a life that doesn’t change much, resulting in a lack of new things to talk about and a very consistent daily routine/life. I’m totally fine with that, personally, but that could just be apathy coming into play, I dunno for sure. What I do know is that I get very good at what I do, what with the doing it regularly for extended periods of time. Apparently I’ve got a lot of… I wanted to say latent talent but I’m not sure that’s exactly it.  I think it’s more of a an aptitude for learning and improving, like, I’m good at just focusing on one thing at a time for extended periods of time, which helps develop skills and knowledge at a fairly high rate. The problem is that when I get distracted from it I get distracted HARD, like I delve full bore into this shiny new thing and just go friggin’ nuts in exactly the same way, focusing on this one thing for quite a while until I can do it at least decently. Then a new thing comes along and I go chasing the shiny blue chicken again until I catch it, then another one comes by and I let that one I caught go in order to chase this new one. Ah, the shiny blue chicken analogy, thanks Raz and Q for that long running analogy… not that they’ll see this, but it’s the sentiment that counts. ANYWHO, yeah, good at focusing but getting distracted means re-focusing on a new thing and kind of entirely abandoning the previous thing. 

 

 

Well whatever, I’m pretty content, I’ve got good family and good friends even if I am a loner for the most part. Loner by choice though, which negates potential “loneliness” that I don’t really ever experience. I’m good at keeping myself occupied where a lot of others would be bored, which actually makes me really good at working by myself… I should try to get a job where I work by myself and/or with computers, I’d probably be very good at it. Note to self, start looking for something like that, I’m gettin’ kinda sick of retail. Alright, that’s enough for this post, time to geek out/write some FFXIV short story (which I guess is kinda fan-fiction? Boy howdy do I not like that term, it’s got a lot of stigma in my head). So yeah, catch ya later, probably next Sunday.

 

 

Cheers ~Cam

 

E: Formatting on the new app, had to figure out how to do the paragraph breaks properly…

The Big Ole Labour Daybour: Work Posting 'Cause bored.

Ah classic me, working on a stat with very little to do and no reason to really care. Not that I every really have a reason to care, I'm not a guy who cares much about things. People yes, things no. I worry very little, which is a great way to save myself some stress.  

Anywho, it's the first monday in September and I've got two less brothers in the country to show for it? Brostralia is a go, and my best wishes go with them. Being a person who doesn't really "miss" people in the standard sense, I'm mostly just excited for them. Now to spend a month living with just me and Bella (a dog) in my little suite. I'm looking forward to it, even if sudden scheduling has me working...a lot. Oh well, it's good for the survival (and more than survival) fund. I may even do some rearranging of furniture that I've been contemplating... though I need a better vacuum for cleaning before I decide to cover change where things are (and therefore both covering and exposing potentially poorly cleaned carpet). I should do that when I get home... I'm gonna set an alarm... ... ... Alright, alarm set. Man, I love smartphones. Tiny little surprisingly powerful computers that we keep on your persons pretty well constantly. So neat and useful to the point of "I'm pretty sure we're dependant on them." 

Anywho, an hour and a half left and I'm still not doing things at work. I get the occasional phone call and people are surprised that I answer thinking that we wouldn't be open, literally saying "I didn't think you'd be open!" This phrasing sort of vexes me, I mean, if you didn't think we'd be open then why'd you call? A better phrase to say would be something like "Oh good, you are open," implying that you were calling to see if we were. Meh, it's not like it really matters. 

Hrmm, contemplating starting up a creative writing blog when I just post tiny made up things, possibly story continuations or maybe completely random stuff. I think it could be good brain excersize. Don't get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy the mental vomit that is my ramblings (I just spew it out, no real control or direction aside from into a specific container [aka: this blog] and it happens relatively infrequently...dangit I love/hate how accurate that description is), but something for a more...measured aspect of my brain could be a lot of fun. Though, to be honest, typing on this little keyboard is surpringly taxing... I may also want to get a laptop for typing purposes. Nothing major, just a little thing that handles...word processing...and...like maybe some usb audio input stuff for other projects. I'll keep an eye out for something that suits those needs. 

Unrelated: something that popped into my head just now that my family probably all knows. I'm a guy who eats to survive, yes, but that doesn't stop me from appreciating good food. I don't particularly care about what I'm eating when I'm by myself as long as it fills me up and has decent nutritional value. I don't sit down to have a meal, I just kinda grab something and go. However, I do have quite an appreciation for quality food, what with the chefdad and whatnot. I know how to tell good food from the bad (even if I'll still eat just about anything). There are some circles that call me the Garbage Cam, 'cause whatever food you'd've otherwise thrown out I will almost certainly eat. Fortunately I don't take any offense to that nickname, though I may want to be more discerning in what I eat... Meh, I keep it pretty balanced, I should be fine.

Oh, right, I was gonna get a fancy pen for drawing on my tablet...I should re-look into that. I'll add that to the label of my other alarm. Again with the "I should just be creative for a month straight to force habit" thing. I'll do that at some point, I'm just currently acquiring tools to make it easier, I'm no good at finger drawing (and drawing fingers [not 100% accurate but I'm a perfectionist]. I will say that even with my limited practice I have been doing I've noticed improvement in my linework. I need to work on EVERYTHING ELSE and I should probably do that thing where you use base shape skeletons ('cause boy howdy do I not use those, which may actually imply that I'm more creative than I think) so... yeah, practice. They say practice makes progress ('cause pobody's nerfect) so that's probably a good idea. Flip, I talk about how much I should do things that I'm not actually doing. I currently blame WoW:Legion, what with it having come out last week and me wanting to experience it and progress through it. Also the whole leadup to Brostralia involved being with family a bunch and while that's good it's rather impeding. Also also I've been working a lot and rarely want to actually do things when I'm off work. Speaking of, being at work gives me a surprising amount of motivation to do not-work things...it might be all the caffiene. I do drink a lot of tea at work when it's slow.

Alright, that's enough out of me. Happy Labour Day and whatnot, I'm out.

Cheers,

~Cam

Ramblings Prime: Short But Sweet?

Classic scenario: I'm at work, I've got nothing to do, I can type. Therefore: ramblog. Is very appropriate. So, casually tired, here I sit type-type-typing away into nothingness. And by nothingness I mean I have no plans for how this will all pan out, ramble-style. Just like always. It's like I think of this stuff exactly as I'm typing it. Weird how that works, right? I don't know if that makes for a good or terrible writer, but I don't really classify myself as a writer so...yeah. I just type things and have no strong opinion one way or the other on stuff.

With regards to world news: Olympics are neat but Canada does better in winter sports, people do dumb things in a variety of ways that can be anything from annoying to very hurtful, and nature be crazy. There, summed up the entirety of news everywhere in one kinda rambly sentence.

Unrelated, I'm contemplating getting a new phone, mine's done well considering that it's...when did the iphone 4s come out? 'cause I got it the week it did and am currently still using it. One sec, I'll find out...   ...   ...  ... October 2011. It's now approaching September 2016, maybe I'll get a new phone for its 5 year anniversary...though not through a phone provider, unless they let me buy it outright. I like only paying like $10 a month for my phone plan and don't want to have to deal with paying the stupidly large canadian phone bills that we have. Granted, I can only get away with it 'cause I barely use my phone as a phone or any sort of communication device. I mostly use it as a tiny computer that lets me surf the interwebs (as long as I have wifi, which is most of the time, and if I don't then I'm probably somewhere that I should be being social). I would probably like/utilize a more powerful one though, the 4s is starting to show its age. Plus like all my charge cables are breaking due to the weird twisty nature of how they work. I mean, they still function, but dang is there fraying and that's not a good thing when it comes to wires that run electricity through them. 

Entirely unrelated, I've got this incredibly dry skin patch on my left foot that I have no idea how it happened, but I've been using some sort of intense hand treatment cream on it and it's been showing improvement like within days. I'm very pleased with the results, frankly. Added benefit of it smells pretty good. Goodbye weird cracked dry patch of foot! You won't be missed!

Additionally unrelated, currently in a 10/11 day stretch at work, yaaaaaaaaay. These are always fun, dealing with people and not being able to escape or really relax because suddenly someone orders 50 gallons of paint over the phone for the next morning. That was yesterday, at about this time actually. I had no chance to get it all ready because I was actually busy yesterday (which may or may not be a good thing...) but gosh dang that's not a fun thing to get unexpectedly when working by yourself.

Oh, right, I tend to type these things up when I'm "working" by myself because what else am I gonna do, talk to a coworker that doesn't exist? Pfft, that's just talking to myself which is basically what this is anyway. So I'll just continue to do this. Though actually I should probably take out some garabages and check the colourant levels. Meh, in a bit, those never take too long.  

...I had something else I was gonna type about, but it seems to be eluding me... getting new glasses? No, that wasn't it (but I still should). Uh... Oh! Right! Apparently I've started writing a short story (probably) as a continuation of my Eorzean adventure that ended abruptly last post. It's about a Miqo'te (basically: cat person) Adeata (who is actually the character I entirely didn't name but was talking about) and her adventures. It might be a series of short stories eventually, who knows! And I super don't know what I'm doing or have any real plans for it, but it's a fun little endeavor that requires substantially more...um...let's just call it self-editing. With the rambles I basically just vomit thougths onto a keyboard and see what sticks. Ew. That was an unpleasant, but accurate, description... and a pretty good example of what I'm talking about. These short story type deals have a lot more thought and structure put into them. A lot more deleting of things that I type down initially, I guess. Things that I just ramble about aren't exactly how these characters/people behave. I've also gotta get a knack for different speech patterns down, 'cause while Adeata is my character and pretty easy going with her speech (which happens to be similar to how I type normally) I've got some other characters based on or exactly representing people I know in-game that have specific speech patterns that aren't mine. So it'll be a fun practice-times.

Anywho, only like 13 minutes left before I have to have the store closed, so I should probably wrap this up. I did get the colourants and garbages checked a little earlier though, so don't worry about that, I've just got standard closing stuff to do.

Cheers! 

~Cam

Bored? Make a story!

Wow, half an hour in to my saturday at work and I'm already typing up a thingy. What kind of thingy? Hows about a random-made-on-the-spot story thingy? Ready go!

Once upon a time...

No, too conventional. Hows about "Long ago in a distant land?" Also cliché, and therefore not what I want. What about "Down, deep down in the ground there dwelt?" I dunno, I don't think I want to confine myself to a cavern setting. Blast it all, let's just "Some time ago in a place that probably doesn't really exist" this story and see how it goes! 

Oh, right, genre. I'm thinking classic fantasy with maybe some modern twists. Apparently my headspace is mostly filled with classic fantasy, which might be slightly obvious to those in the know, but who knows! I might do entirely random things! Anywho...

Some time ago, in a place that probably doesn't really exist, there lived a cat. By all accounts she was a pretty normal cat. She lived a catty life and dreamt catty dreams. Then a thing happened, but she was just a cat and didn't really care or pay attention. Conflict arose around her, but she just catted around it, mostly ignoring things that didn't involve her. At somepoint the conflict reached its climax, but she didn't care, she mostly just ate and slept with some grooming mixed in occasionally. A resolution occured and one side of the conflict emerged the victor, and there she was, still not caring about it because she was actually just a cat. Cats have no time for the menial conflict of lesser beings, so she had no time for this epic tale that was unfolding around her. Before long everything was back to normal for the world at large, but she continued to not pay attention. She lived out the rest of her life as a very normal cat, nothing important or extraordinary happening to her, and she was content. 

How's that? Huh? You thought it was weird and had no point? Yeah, that was kind of the point. I'm a strange guy, and make strange things and a story with no direct point or meaning or actual progression is something I'd do just because. Metaphors? What metaphors? I mean, being that it's a story that I just made up on the spot you could probably make something up, but I can assure you that I did nothing intentional with anything that might be construed as a metaphor.

Okay, round 2, based in the realm of Eorzea (which is from a game I play regularly), readygo! Edit: minor preface, the measuring system in Eorea is basically inches and yards but uses the terms "ilm" and "yalm" instead...because...reasons...to make it fictional I guess? Also currency is "gil" 

Off in the distance she spotted it, a glimmer on the horizon that would be missed by most folk looking from the same range. She knew in an instant that it was her mark thanks to years of honing her senses and learning the geography around Limsa Lominsa, the city-state of organized pirates. Urging her steed and companion Felwind forward, they trotted along at a quick pace to avoid distractions and hoping dearly that they'd reach the mark in time. Timing always came into play when on the hunt, being off by even a second could end disastrously. 

Making good time through the meadow they arrive on the scene with time to spare. The target is massively tall, with an incredibly hard carapace but slow moving to the point of being nearly stationary. Quietly dismounting Felwind about thirty yalms away, she proceeds slowly and silently to avoid attracting unwanted attention. As she sneaks towards it she loosens her trusty axe from its holster, readying it in her hands to strike. With a deep, calm breath she winds up, no hesitation in her motion, and swings hard. With a solid "Whack!" the axe finds its mark. Over and over she strikes, deepening the the wound until it collapses onto the ground. It's over. She cleans her axe and puts it back in its holster, slight grin on her face as she admires her handiwork lying on the ground.

"This'll make some high quality Ebony lumber," she says aloud, talking to herself. "Should be able to get a good chunk of gil for this, people seem to be using quite a bit of it lately." 

"Kweh!" Felwind chimes in, apparently pleased.

"Yeah! Let's get this hitched up so we can get it back to town quick-like, I don't like to keep the markets waiting" she says as she motions at Felwind to come over. With a practiced hand she binds up the log with sturdy ropes and attaches it to Felwind's barding. "Kweh..." he sighs impatiently, this is always the longest wait. "Oh hush you. We'll be on our way soon enough, I know you have a hard time standing still" As she pulls the last knot taught Felwind lets out a soft chirrup in anticipation. A quick once over for all the fastenings and she give him the okay. They walk side by each through the early morning sunlight shining over the coastline.

And that's as far as I got before getting busier than anticpated. I'm probably actually gonna continue this, I think it's a decent start. 

Anywho, I'm off! Cheers!

~Cam

Nonsense for the Sake of Nonsense aka: Talking to Myself

So, here we are again. Me: a guy working at a paint store and it being slow, you: a person who stumbled across my inane ramblings. The consistency of these meetings is baffling, how does it always happen like this? I mean, we keep running into each other here, it's like fate or destiny (which are almost the same thing? yeah...) that we should be in each others lives. So with that, let us being anew!

Sooo, how are things? Mhmm, mhmm, oh that's neat. Go on, yeah, yeah? Really? Huh, never woulda thought. Good for you, glad things are turning out that way. Me? Oh, you know, same old same old, still alive and still making colours and stuff, I live a pretty consistent life but I'm mostly content. Only mostly? Oh, yeah, well, I figure I could be better at some things I do and I wouldn't mind if I was better at friending and/or staying in contact with people, but those things aside I'm pretty happy with who I am and the people in my life which is all that really matters, right? Yeah, I think so too. The things I want to improve on? Oh nothing really important, just creative type stuffs that I haven't been making a big effort to work on, probably 'cause I've been working a lot and don't have a lot of alone time. Nah, it's not that big of a deal, I just tend to be more open and creative when alone, I find it hard to really let loose when there are other people around. I think I might be unconsciously choosing to avoid interfering with whatever they're doing by being quiet and out of the way, so I kind of turtle into my own little world. It involves a lot of wearing headphones and not-talking, this little world of mine, but it's a place of my choosing where I can escape from people. Nothing against my roomy and his dog, they're great, but I'm a super introvert and would happily live alone if it was a feasible option for various reasons. I feel far less confined when no one's around, inhibitions just fly out the window, there's much more grooving and singing and playing things at a not-headphones level of sound...I mean, it's not constant, but the likelihood of those things occuring is increased quite drastically.  Being less inhibited tends to get more things done, just in general, I seem to be struck with inspiration and motivation more frequently when I'm by myself. You know how the really extraverted people tend to not know the difference between being alone and being lonely? I'm super the opposite of that, I rarely if never feel lonely by myself but it has occasionally happened when I'm with a group of people. I bet some people can't even fathom that idea, being lonely while with a bunch of people. Granted, that only really happens if it's a group I'm either not very familiar with or don't know at all, but it's not exactly a common occurance (possibly because I don't actually go out much if at all, but that's another topic for another day). I've officially lived alone for like less than two months, during which I was working six days a week 'cause a coworked had left for a rial company and we had literally no time to replace him (it took like 3 months, plus then training that person, I was working 6 days a week for a solid 4-5 months, I got very tired), so I haven't really had time to just be in a place by myself when not tired constantly. Actually, as it so happens, for like a month starting in September I'll be living alone (with a dog, so only sort of alone) because of a certain Brostralia trip that's happening, so I guess I'll have a decent chance to see what the solo life's like...hopefully, we may also be looking for/hiring a new person to train around then, so I may again be doing the six days a week thing. I know it's not really a tough job and it's been pretty slow lately, but it's still working retail and people suck (in general as a broad statement) so stress levels get pretty high... especially if there's a big sale in the middle of it (which means we'd also be open on sundays, so that's rotating 13 days straight for us [we trade off so that we don't actually go insane]) and september seems like the time when the company might spring another one on us. 

Unrelated, you know how life is hard sometimes? Yeah, sure is... Actually I had nowhere to go with that statment, my life isn't that hard currently. I've got relatively few expenses, I'm in relatively good health (I think, I haven't had any issues that I'm aware of... I should probably get a check up at some point), I sleep fine more often than not, I've got people in my life that care about me which is swell, other good things that I can't think of right this second. So yeah, life's treating me alright for some reason. I have no idea why though... I mean, I like to think of myself as a nice person and treat people well, I'm fairly certain I could be classified as generous and helpful, so I've got that stuff going for me, but there's a part of me that feels like I haven't earned what I've got. I don't really think that, but there's a small nagging doubt about it, kinda like how I've got this small part of me that's all like "What if I'm actually super dumb and people are just humouring me?" I guess nagging doubts are just part of a human experience, and they probably don't really mean much, but if I weren't as cheerful and jovial as I am already I'm pretty sure I'd just be sad and guilt-ridden constantly. Granted, eliminate the cheer and joy out of most people and you'll probably end up with sadness incarnate or just straight raw fury, so I guess that's kind of a moot point. Bummers aside, I think it could be worth it to explore these nagging doubts at least enough to find evidence against them so they can freakin' shut their dern mouths. Silly little brain mouths all spouting garbage and trying to make you feel bad for no reason. Ugh. Regardless, not now, maybe elsewhen. 

Have I mentioned recently that I love the term "elsewhen?" It basically just means "later" in most contexts because time (as we experience it) is linear, but nobody uses it. It's like "elsewhere" but for time. I'm the only person I know that actively uses it, which is fun. Added perk of nearly everyone immediately understanding it because it's so similar to a fairly common word.

That seemed like something I've said before. I mean, I know I say that to people fairly regularly, but I'm having a reasonable amount of deja vu involving typing it. I've probably put it in the blog at some point, but since when have I been one to go back and look at things I've written before? Basically never, that's when...except maybe for some stories I never finished. Continuity's important for good longterm story telling, yo. Barring those exceptions that may very well never see the light of...internet... I rarely if never look back to prior posts, especially for these rambly type ones, kinda defeats the purpose of rambling, don't it? Rambling AND fact checking? Bah! Ain't nobody got time for that! Heck, I barely fact check in real life, I just say things with confidence and people believe me more often than not. Granted, I rarely talk in such ways without actually knowing, and people can basically look up anything anywhere thanks to phones and internet. It's kinda crazy how powerful these tiny computers have become, sitting in our pocket is more computing power than was even available like 15 years in desktop PCs, and while this is probably common knowledge it kind of blows my mind a little every time I think about it. The pace at which technology is proceeding is...well it's very quick. So quick that I'm a touch leery about where technology's going to end up, because one of the next big milestones for it is physical integration. This could go all sorts of ways, both good and bad, being anywhere from restoring people's lost appendages with tech that you can actively feel with and control with your brain (good) or so heavily integrated that theoretically people could be controlled to do things they otherwise wouldn't (bad). It's still all very up in the air, and I'm not really gonna swing one way or the other, the technology itself is not inherently good or evil, it's what you do with it that matters. I'm just an advocate for seeing things from multiple points of view, don't take one person's ideas and opinions to be the be-all end-all for your own.

Super unrelated: I get a decent chunk of comments at work about how, when hammering paint lids on with a rubber mallet, it must be a good way to vent frustration to do that. This is utter and complete bullhonkey, if I were venting anger/frustation on the paint lids I'd have broken a lot more paint cans. I'm hitting these lids with very, VERY controlled strikes in order to minimize unnecessary effort and get them on quickly. I'm a pretty large guy, if I were to take the mallets and swing with large force things would probably not end well. So yeah, definitely not exerting my full force on these cans.

Anywho, I got busy at like 4:30 and now I'm just wrapping it up at home base.

Cheers!

~Cam

Calm Before the... Additional Calm

Welcome to my Friday Funday blogpost before August. Currently at work, currently nothing to do (everything's put away and/or cleaned and no orders to fill, wooooo), so here I sit typing at my pseudo-laptop. Fortunately my manager's pretty easy going and is very ready for the long weekend. Yay, long weekend, which I'm working most of and by myself. I expect myself to not be very busy. Unrelated, anyone know any decent iPad drawing apps*? I wouldn't mind being able to practice digitally even if it is with my fingers and not a proper tool, I should still be able to work on shapes and anatomy and learning to care less about end results during practice. 

[*Note: I'm currently unaware of anyone who might read this that has an iPad excluding myself, so I expect literally zero actual recommendations, I'll probably just research it myself later]

...I seem to talk about drawrering (yes, drawrering, it's a new thing) quite a bit in these blogs. I guess as a form of self motivation? 'Cause my internal self motivation to actually work on those things is lacking? That seems reasonable. I think I need to just dedicate like a month to working on art and forcing it into a state of habit. Frankly, that could be a really interesting month, but I'm not sure when it could be...Hmm...I'll have to think on this for a while. Just cut myself off from most other things and just focus (housework/cleanliness not withstanding, those seem important...actually I could use the same month to focus on making sure I'm not a total slob as breaks inbetween artsy stuffs). 

So that's something I'll contemplate doing, and I'd need to get some supplies, but that can wait.  A secondary project I've been...all too inactive working on is what I'm shortening to "FGPC," Frustrating Games Played Calmly. I'm not sure if I've discussed it here, but it's my pitch for a style of "Let's Play" (which is basically just playing vidja games and talking while doing it). The concept is simple: Play the most frustrating games (due to challenge/RNG, not bugs/broken programing) that I can find and doing exactly the opposite of what most would do; take things calmly and with probably a long drawn-out sigh instead of enraging... and also doing it in a rather monotone voice, which will take some practice. Frankly, I want to do it 'cause it sounds fun. If it happens that other people like it, great! If not, at least I did, right? Right? Right. Unfortunately I've not been drinking coffee on my days off which tends to result in naps and lack of motivation to do things. I should fix that, though in order to do so I need to "destroy" the coffee with some sort of whitening product and a sweetness enhancer, sometimes they're one and the same. I'm like the opposite of a coffee purist, I don't particularly care how it's made or what type of bean or the fineness of the grind or anything like that, as long as it gives me energy and motivation I'll ingest it, though perhaps begrudgingly. I only really like the flavour of coffee in pastries/cakes/frostings...so basically just demolished with sugar and cream. Great, now I want to go to Sweet Caroline's Bakery and get some tasty treats...and also breads and basically anything else they make, it's all great. Maybe next week during my mid-week long weekend. 

Super unrelated, I enjoy how applicable the "Indiscernable Ramblings" name is for this blog. Where did any of this come from? Why am I talking about it? Does any of it really matter? No idea, no reason in particular and just plain no. It's great fun, and very rambly, and a surprisingly accurate view into my thought patterns throughout a regular day, though there are subsantially more "nothing doing" moments in my day to day, but otherwise accurate. Actually, on second thought, I'm not quite sure how accurate it is. Sure, I jump from topic to topic at the drop of a hat all the time, but I think there's substantially more of a push to make my thoughts coherent for the purposes of being able to actually make sense of what might otherwise come out. Seriously, I'm sure if you actually peaked into my thoughts when I'm not specifically finding words to make sense of it you'd just see a jumbled tangle of pictures and undecipherable code/acronyms (especially since I'm very much a visual thinker, hence the drawererings) and maybe some random gestures that I don't even know how they'd be portrayed, but since I talk and think with my hands I'm sure they'd be in there somewhere, somehow.

More unrelated: I've been watching Steven Universe, and it may very well be my favorite cartoon of the modern era of cartoons (as an aside, I figure we're currently in a new golden age of cartoons, but that's a slightly different topic, let's just say the 80s and 90s ruined (most) cartoons for a while). It's may have some relatively simple and predictable plots, but it's not afraid to shed tradition and shatter standard tropes. [Trope: a common or overused theme or device: cliché] It's currently one of the top rated and most viewed cartoons around and for good reason. It does more to give characters depth and nuance in 11 minutes than a lot of hour long shows fail to do, and that's what keeps people interested. The little adventures that go along with it are fun and interesting enough, but it's how the characters are actively developing and growing both on their own and with each other that makes it such a strong show. Plus there's a tonne of background detail and minor things that the internet loves to look out for, but that's more whipped cream on the sundae, sure it's tasty but it was already a great thing that I happily enjoy. The continuity is also fantastic, if something happens or shows up in an episode early on you'll probably see it or connections to it further down the line. Also the foreshadowing, which is not something I'm that keen on detecting, but when going back to old episodes the minor details in set design or dialogue that subtly hint at what was coming are rather amazing. It also just so happens that new episodes are being released every weekday for...at least 3 weeks that we know of so far, possibly more, they're calling it "the summer of Steven" 'cause that's a lot of episodes in a very short amount of time for any show, and also huge plot developments are happening rather quickly. It's a very exciting time in the fanbase, with a new episode to watch every weeknight and all of them have been thoroughly enjoyable while still progressing the overarching plot. I just really really like it, guys. That's all that there really is, there's not much else to say about it. At this point I'm emotionally invested way to deep, but I'm okay with that.

Speaking of "emotionally invested," those things are weird...emotions. When it comes to emotions I am far from an expert, but I'd wager to say that I'm more of a shallow lake than a deep well of emotional waters. There's actually quite a bit of it but it's all pretty consistent in temperature, and even though both cold and hot spots can occasionally be discovered they fade fairly quickly. I'm pretty sure I don't hide my emotions, I will readily get emotional at well told stories, and I genuinely care about other people and their struggles, but for the most part I'm a pretty happy-go-lucky fella, easily content and hard to frustrate. Though with all that said, there could just be a massive wall of emotion-blocking logic hidden in my mind-palace (though it's probably more like a mind-storagelocker, I'm no Sherlock) somewhere but I have yet to find it or attempt to break it down...'cause I haven't found it. Frankly, I think I'd feel a lot less relaxed than I seem to always be if I was hiding something in said mind-storagelocker, I don't really stress out about anything that's not work-related and it is a lovely experience.

Hrmm, I should probably start wrapping this up, it's almost 5:00 and I've been casually working on this on and off since...noonish. Had no one showed up to the store it'd probably be longer, but (sort of) fortunately some people did indeed show up. Huzzah! Sort of! Mmm, I think I need a sub, I'll probably pop on over to the 'way across the way and grab a...actually a pizza sub, turns out I really like those. I should also probably get some actual grocery type foods so that I don't constantly eat fastish foodities. 

Good thing I'm the only one working here for the next two days we're open, 'cause then anything unfinished is my own dern fault, not that there's anything to finish right now, flip it's been slow, and not even any colour matches! I'm good at those, but they take time (which could've been occupying the time I've spent typing today, silly long weekend). Oh, right, I neglected to mention the long weekend happening. I have it on very good authority that it'll be so flippin' slow that I could probably easily get two more long-form blogs in this weekend. Yaaaaaaay... I love it when it's agonizingly slow...

Anywho, I'm out!

Cheers,

~Cam

A Long Day for Someone with Nothing to Talk About

Ah good old "gotta be open on sundays because BOGO" blogging. Seriously, these days aren't worth it for the company, I've been open for half of my alloted time and all that's happened is someone came and put a deposit on a fandeck, so it's not even a permanent sale. Bah, whatever, I don't work for commission so I'm not really bothered by it, it's just boring is all.

Anywho, what should I ramble on today? These are the questions I ask myself and get no response to. Heck, I barely know what I'm typing right now, just starting off blankly into the...wall...and hoping I'm hitting all the right letters. Actually, I'm pretty god with my blind typing, I did a lot of that in highschool and I'm on computers so much that I'm very comfortable with not looking at what's happening on screen. Oh! That's a fun ramble topic: Useless (or close to it) Talents!

Alright, list of useless talents... 

-The aforementioend no-look typing, which most of these last sentences have been. FYI, my blogger app doesn't have an autocorrect, just sayin'. 

-Shaking my eyes, though I haven't really done it in ages and I'm pretty sure it's bad for me

-Being able to force my cheek to twitch on command

-the "incredulous eyebrow raise" (which is one step down from the eyebrow-wave)

-I'm pretty good at sudoku which is something some people struggle with

-Surprisingly flexible for a guy my size

-Unintentionally sneaky/silent, I've been known to unwittingly sneak up on people and startle them

-able to recite a surprising amount of cartoon intros off the top of my head...I like cartoons.

...that's all I can think of for the time being. I'm not gonna go into "useful" talents 'cause, well, frankly I don't want to and no amount of peer pressure will get me to change my mind. Only convincing and factually accurate arguments can do that, not yelling being beligerent. I don't respond well to that anymore, if anything it makes me more stubborn 'cause I lose respect for people who do that. Show me that yoiu can reason and be reasoned with and I'll actually listen to what you have to say as opposed to immediately ignoring everything you say because you're trying to shove it down people's throats. 

That tangent aside, what to ramble on next? Hrmmmmmmmmm... I'm thinking... Oh, right, fun new broject (which is a bro project, or conversely a bro reject, but definitely the former in this case). Jordo and I are building a computer for him! Yay! I love building computers! (I'm secretly also thinking of building a new one for myself, there've been a lot of technological advances since I built mine, though I do love my current PC quite thoroughly) It's actually mostly him, I'm just technical support/information guide. He's very technically inclined and I'm sure he'll have no issues, and the build-making site we use has compatibility filters to make sure everything works together and all the pieces will fit so even less chance of there being an issue. Gotta make sure that the MOBO matches the CPU chip set and fits in the case. Those are really the big ones for compatibility, most everything else have industry standards to fit all the ports and connections. So yeah, building a new broputer at some point, s'gonna be fun.

Unrelate, whilst typing up that last paragraph a SECOND PERSON showed up and also just put a deposit on a fan deck! WHOA, CRAZY. See that lack of exclamation point paired with the allcaps? That implies that it's not actually crazy and I'm being snarky. Super boring day, yup, as expected. I brought several things to alleviate the boredom, including but not limited to this tablet I'm typing at, a Get Fuzzy treasure I recently got, and my 3DS just incase. Watch, now that I've said all that I'm gonna get crazy busy. Murphy's Law at its finest. Though, for whatever reason, calling Murphy out about his laws tend to deter them to a degree, probably because it doesn't actually exist and we, as human beings, mostly remember when things don't work out as planned because remembering negative experiences is a key survival strategy. Get sick eating something? You probably won't eat that again to prevent any chance that you could get sick a second time. Someone kicks you in the shin intentionally? You'll probably avoid that person and others who look similar to avoid more shin-kicking experiences.

That got rambly...as was the goal? Oh, unrelated, the word "gaol" is a fun old timey word that is literally what "jail" used to be spelt like. It took me a bit to figure that out, I kept pronouncing it with a...hard "g"? Whatever that's called that make the sound at the start of words like "gate" and "goose" and "grate" and "great" and "gopher" and "go for" and "guild" and "gilde" and "glide" and "glade"...that's too many examples, but I'm sure you got it. The "g" in "gaol" should be pronounced like a "j", as in "geoff" and "general" and "jeff" and "General" and "gee-whizz" and "gentleman" and "gentile" and "giant" and "gigantic" and "genuine" and "geography" and "geology" and "genius"....again, too many examples but now it's a theme. So ya, "gaol" = "jail" just substantially more oldtimey and probably more likely to be used in crosswords....I've found it in several crosswords recently. 

Speaking of, I've gotten substantially more into crosswords lately, possibly due to boredome, and they have in turn gotten more into me... mentally. I'm getting better at thinking about words/phrases in multiple directions and interpretations, which is fun and pretty much the only way to properly solve a well crafted crossword. Either that or a ridiculous knowledge of crossword clues and answers, which I'm sure some people have developed because people are crazy. Heck, I'm at least mildly crazy, though you could probably tell that by the everything about me, and I'm a people. At least, I think I am, I have yet to confirm or deny it to myself. Who knows? Maybe I'm just a figment of everyone else's imagination! What if I'm just a leftover dream that made its way into the real world and then did nothing exciting with its newfound life? 

Psst, I don't actually think that, just spouting nonsense to kill time. 

Only two hours left, I can do this... I think I'm gonna read some more Get Fuzzy, so talk to y'all later!

Cheers!

~Cam

(May) Long talk about nicknames

{Preemptive warning: Timestamps may seem out of line...'cause they are. I added some things I remembered inbetween some other things to keep the discussion about the past chronologically sound.}

[11:30am] Long weekend in May in the Okanagan and, much to no one's surprise, it's kinda dreary. Also very slow in a paint store. Almost halfway through my day and all of two people have been in the store. Ergo: time for bloggin'. I specifically brought my tablet just 'cause I knew it'd be slow, so Clever Cam strikes again!

Now for the spinning wheel of topic picking (in my head) to choose something

...

...

Apparently "Nicknames and/or I've had/used" is what it landed on. Alrighty then.

[12:00]The first one I really remember was, embarrassingly enough, "Quick-dry Cement Butt" which came about when I was the king of that game on the schoolgrounds where you go down slides and try to stay on the bottom for as long as possible until you get knocked off. I was both great at knocking people off and staying at the bottom for the longest. The other children cried out in fear when they saw that I was up next. I ruled that playground game with a...cement butt....

I had a lot of other nicknames during my schoolhood life, but most of them didn't stick. Apparently "Cam" is an easy name to make nicknames out of because there are so many words/phrases that have "cam" in them. I definitely remember being called "camcorder" a bunch, along with "camshaft" and "Cameroon" (which was often followed by asking how my civil war was going) and "camaro" and "camel" etc. You get the picture, basically any word that starts with "cam" I got called at least once.

Following the "Everything 'cam' related" phase, we start to get into more creative nicknames. Nothing really stuck though, "Cam" is easy enough to say without needing a nickname, though I still occasionally bring up that I'm known in some circles as the "Garbage Cam" 'cause I'll finish whatever food other people can't/won't and I've got a strong constitution with regards to food. Heck, that came up on Friday when I was out having dinner with some friends and they had excess fries. I didn't even say anything, just a sly plate slide and a "Garbage Cam?" said fairly quietly. I then proceeded to help him finish the fries. A slight variation of this nickname was "Hoover" like the vacuum, also because I'd eat other people's unfinished food. What can I say? I like food.

[1:40] The highschool nickname that I've gotten the most use out of is "Camero the Artist" which came about from a couple of different sources. The "Camero" came about when it was my birthday and on my highschool's TV announcements, which they show birthdays on, my name was either cut off or just plain spelt wrong. Cutting off happens a lot, what with the 15 character last name, but that normally only happened when last names were placed first, which the birthday list wasn't. The "artist" part appeared when a gym teacher stated something along the lines of "You look like an artist with that long hair" (my hair was kind of unreasonably long, but I liked it at the time), and with that "Camero the Artist" was born. I still use that as my hotmail account, and a shortened version of it is what a lot of my random "sign up for something on the internet" accounts end up being, but I'm not really an artist, I don't spend enough time on it to really claim to be one. I can draw to an extent, I just don't do it that frequently (speaking of, I should really try to work on that...as I say almost every blog post...). So yeah, that one, the good old Camtist...which could be another derivative and I might look into that.

[1:00]There was a good chunk of time when I was actually almost literally "Captain Obvious" too because I'd make what is now considered silly and then considered overtly obvious statements about goings on and things that should be common sense. I wasn't exactly the most socially adept kid/teenager. Actually pretty close to the opposite of socially adept. Sure, I had friends and could potentially fit in anywhere, but dang was I awkward and cold and a know it all. I mustn't've been all that nice to hang around with...though I think I'm just remembering the bad awkward stuff right now and now all the positive good things, as is the brain's forte. Remember the mistakes to learn from them and never repeat them again, positive interactions leave little impact because you didn't need to take much away from it. Crap, I'm getting philosophical again, I should stop (and also I didn't know where I was headed)

[12:30] Further down the road, once out of highschool and well on my way to establishing my lack of care for what people think about me, I found myself acquiring not nicknames but unofficial titles. The two I'm most proud of are "Heart of the Dance Floor" and "Knower of Things." Becoming that which convinces the crowd to join in and wedding dance was great fun. Just going nuts and not caring a lick about what anyone might think got a ton of people more relaxed and carefree. It's a wedding! Have fun! Who cares what you look like, celebrate! (side note: this feels awfully familiar, I think I've talked about this in the past...) [1:10]"Knower of Things" came about because I have just way too much miscellaneous information tucked away in my head, about all sorts of random things. There's no reason for this vast expanse of trivial information, but it's there and it just kinda happens sometimes, so when random things pop out of my mouth and people are like "how do you know that?" I just kinda shrug and go "I just do" (which isn't exactly a helpful response, to be frank). 

[1:15] This brings me to the point where self-appointed nicknames became a thing for me. They're mostly due to online gaming where you probably don't want to share your real name so you make one up. My current longest running "in-game-name" (IGN) or "handle" or whatever the kids these days call them is "Vantox" which is the name of most of my first characters in any new game I try. I'm also the kind of guy who sticks with his first character for long periods of time, so I've been known as Vantox online since 2007ish. It's pretty regularly shortened to "Tox" and not "Van" (because who'd want to be know as Van, like the automobile, and also there were like 3 other Van-somethings in my first WoW guild and as I gained rank I wanted to distinguish myself from them, leading to my first truely self imposed nickname), and I do tend to use that as a basis for alternate rarely used characters (for example: Toxhoof the cowman, Toxblin the goblin and several other uncreative names) so my current online "nickname" would be Tox.

[1:35] On the great wide interwebs, when I'm not going by either of Cam or Tox (or camerodart, a derivative of camero the artist) I tend to combine the two into a shocking new name: Camtox. Yes. Super shocking, I know. You can pick your jaw up from the floor now. Who would've thought that I could take two words and put them together to make another word? No one, that's who. Sarcasm aside, I like how it sounds and it's the amalgam of both worlds I reside in, so as my worlds have been merging together my names have followed suit. People can still call me either of my most prevalent names (Cam and Tox) and still be totally accurate. I may end up changing my whole online presence to represent it, too. I dunno yet, I haven't gotten around to actually doing things online that people might want to see, though plans/projects are slowly in the works. I just work so much better when I'm by myself and not expecting anyone to show up, so I may have to find a place to record where I can just do my thing and not worry about anyone barging in. Also practice some voices and learn how to not destroy my throat, 'cause that sounds useful.

[2:05] So yeah, that's what people have called me over the years that I remember clearly (and not including parent given nicknames because dangit El Tigre's weird with his nicknames.{El Tigre is my dad, I get it from him}). I think that's about all I've got to say on the topic, maybe next time I'll get into weird nicknames I've given people, that could be fun. Unrelated: I'm getting pretty hungry, good thing there's only less than an hour 'til close. Speaking of, my work computers/systems have been super crazy today. Sure I've only seen like 4 people but it's been doing really really weird things, which is gonna be all corporate shenanigans and I'm pretty sure someone's gonna get fired over what it's been doing, but it won't be me, 'cause it's NOT my fault in the slightest. It'll probably be fixed by tomorrow though, so w/e. On my end, not a big issue, what with the being slow and nobody being here and me being able to type all this out with little regard for what's going on in the outside world. Oh well, nothing I can do about it. 

[2:20] Alright, I should probably take my leave and actually check to see if things need doing around here (prediction: probably no), so I shall bid thee a fond farewell.

Cheers!

~Cam(Tox)

Saturday? More like "Slow-today!"

[12:16] In reference to the title, it's been pretty not-busy in paint-store front today so far. That could change, possibly at the drop of a hat, but until it does I've got all the time in the 'verse (short for "universe," entirely stolen from Firefly). [1:06] Then little curveballs are thrown at you and you've gotta cope with them, shift some paradigms, revolutionize outside the box. Ugh, sleepycam quotes Futurama, ahoy. Also yawning. It's not like I didn't sleep or nothin', (so many negatives in that sentence...) I guess I was just up too late again, like most days. Definiitely turned into a night owl as I got older. Also also, sentence structure just goes to crap when I just type straight from the brain. I guess that means it's coffee time. Es la hora de café. Woo bad spanish!

Okay, so, uh, things, I guess. Oh man, this song, "My Type" by Saint Motel, rather amusing. First verse ends with the line I'm a man who has very specific taste* which is immediately followed by the lines You know you're just my type / You are alive and you are breathing*.  I chuckle about that one almost every time I hear it, which is a lot on this stingray station I listen to on the TV at work (Rock Alternative, for those wondering). That's one of the more popular ones that shows up. I'm sure there's others, but I can never seem to recall their names. Heck, the only reason I knew the previously mentioned one was due to it being played at the time I brought it up. 

{*note: music lyrics may not be exact, I haven't actually looked them up.}

[1:46] Speaking of music, I've been listening to a lot of Mother Mother lately. I listened to them like 6 years ago for the first time and loved their music, and then life and forgetfulness happened which led to me forgetting them. I rediscovered them and 3 additional albums they had put out, all of them good in their own way but each more different from the last. Quality stuff, man. Hard to describe, too, and the "genre" changes from one song to the next, thereby transcending genres. I guess they'd be labeled as "Alternative" but by golly does that labeling annoy me. It's just way to flippin' broad for its own good and vagueness, though a huge part of what and who I am, annoys me if used improperly and/or for classification purposes. Vagueness can be utilized to great effect leading to interest and intrigue, but not when you're trying to define something very specifically as it leads to confusion and deterrence. It seems to check the "Things that Irk me" box moreso in music than anything else, for no good reason and I have no idea why...

...

...

Sorry about that, Rhinestone Eyes by Gorillaz came on, it was super distracting and now I want to listen to that album again. Gosh dang I love them. I'm sure I've professed my love of their music before, but it's (apparently) just as strong as ever. 

Unrelated, I haven't managed to get my hair cut yet, worked more than scheduled, which is not a bad thing for me, not so great for the sick coworker I was covering. [2:34] She'll be fine though, she's a tough cookie. That's a peculiar phrase, "tough cookie," does it come from the way-to-high-energy foodstuff or the ship cook's nickname? I'm thinking the latter, as the former seems like it'd be a seriously negative thing. Granted, that's only if you don't like your cookies tough (like me, I prefer 'em soft.) A tough ship cook is undeniably good though, being able to put up with all sorts of sailor's shenanigans and rough seas whilst still cooking, gotta be a tough cookie for that sort of gig. 

Seriously need to get his mop chop-shopped, added benefits include:

-not having to deal with it

-no long hairs places

-less shampoo needed for cleanliness purposes

-if short enough, toque velcro

-beard longer than hair (won't actually happen, I trimmed it pretty recently so it's on the short side)

-feels awesome

-impossible to make look messy (also if short enough)

These are... actually probably most of the benefits. Still, that's a sizable list of things that cutting [3:10] off my hair will improve. I loves me some toque velcro sized hair. So fuzzy and fun to run my hands over, though I do enjoy running my hands through my long hair like mid-afternoon on a day that I shower in the morning, feels nice.

Okay, sub two hours left of work, you can do this Camson (like Samson with a "C", also the last name of viking children that I father, but that's not a modern concern) Now focus, what are you gonna do in this last stretch of the day? That's right, closing stuff. Check colourant levels, garbages, make sure everything's ready for the week ahead. First though, bathroom. BRB. 

[3:39] Back, had a customer, apparently I'm overly hungry, not that I'm Hangry (hungry-angry), my hands/mouth/face aren't working well together right now. Thankfully I keep snacks hidden in the break room, so I grabbed some before I came back to the pseudo-laptop. 

Hold on, stop. What the? How in the world did I change my align-left to centered? I'm pretty sure I don't know the command for that, so I either mashed a button combination that does it (which I don't think I did, but maybe?) or it just magically did it on its own. Neither of them seem likely, and frankly it doesn't really matter in the long run, I'm just not a fan of multi-format anything, you shouldn't change format unless there's a break or something intentionally very different, and even then you should probably keep your alignment consistent. The biggest issue with this is that I have no idea how to change it back (without looking it up, and who has time for that when I'm typing up a blog? Not me, that's for certain. Too busy complaining about it in the blog to figure out how to fix it, plus it's decent filler content... not really, it's not actually a good topic. I'm just bored and rambling, with an indescernible flair to it (blog name drop, ooooooooh! {man, I'm so lame}). 

Whelp, looks like I've run out of things to talk about. I guess that means that I'm signing off.

Cheers,

~Cam

P.S. Not aligned left sign off is dumb.

Saturday Afternoon Ramblings

(timestamp - 2:00pm)

Welcome back to another edition of Saturday Afternoon Ramblings (from work). I'm your host, C-Train, and today we'll be discussing numerous topics that I will decide upon as I go. 3 Hours left at work and tons of time to talk, slow day in the paint business, as usual on a saturday in winter. Fun Fact: I managed to watch the entirety of Lawrence of Arabia on a Saturday last January. I can only remember snippets of it now, but it was pretty good. 

Random topic change, go! My sense of taste seems unusually heightened right now. I'm not entirely sure why...my nose is just as plugged as always (it's almost never not plugged to some degree) and the only real difference from what I've been doing recently is that I am currently drinking a Green Tea w/ Ginseng and Honey AriZona (As per the font on the can) Iced Tea. Maybe it's clearing up my cluttered mouth flavour receptors or something, but holy cow have I noticed tastes. Like, a banana, which I commonly enjoy, is suddenly so much more flavourful than I thought it was. It's tough to describe, really, though I guess it's mostly just an intensifying of flavours. All the flavours I expect are still there, they're just making themselves known, or rather, they've improved their stage presence. 

Speaking of presence, that's something I've thought about a decent amount but haven't made any posts on. It's something that everyone notices whether they are aware of it or not, and as its root implies, it's all about how one presents themselves. Some time ago I was casually discussing this topic (in the middle of a rush) with a coworker who was having some, mostly mental, issues with giving orders to those who worked under her. She kept saying how she was trying to be intimidating as motivation but, because of both her stature and general disposition, it wasn't exactly working as intended. Sure, being intimidating can be a motivator for others but some people, if only myself, consider intimidation to be a negative attribute. Yes, you can get others to do what you want but at what cost? More often than not they'll end up anywhere from disliking to pure-straight-hating you. So instead of an intimidating presence as a source of motivation, I suggest trying to have an inspiring presence. Keep things positive, be a source of encouragement and advice, make them want to be like you, inspire them to greatness, demand respect through your actions and work ethic.

...I lost the wind in that sail, I have no idea where I was going from there. So new topic because I'm apparently incapable of staying on one for more than a paragraph.

So I really need a haircut. It's getting kinda out of control...and by that I mean it's long enough that I can actively see it without using a mirror. So sometime this week I'm gonna march my way over to some barber shoppe and say something along the lines of "Do you take walk ins? 'Cause all my hair needs to be chopped off." Definitely, most definitely, gonna do that, yeah, motivation. Daily alarm reminder for that? I think yes! 

2-3 minutes later: Okay done. I've got a daily reminder at 11:00am every day forever until I get a haircut. Cool. Also beard trim, because I've been putting that off too, need to get meself a new-old look. I should actually just do that tonight...BRB, setting alarm. Okay, alarm set. Horay for technology! So many alarms, so few that I use daily but none I want to get rid of.  

Otay, new topic. So...stairs are crazy, huh? Little changes in elevation to aid in the ascention of what would otherwise be a steep slope. Probably invented/discovered by people who were trying to get places and realizing it was easier to clamber over rocks for leverage than just go straight at the slope. Related if I lived closer to them, I'd probably be more motivated to walk the "stairway to heaven" on Mission Hill, it'd be some solid excercise, I know 'cause they've nearly killed me before in highschool, and they (timestamp - 3:40) are an excellent example of how solid, horizontal surfaces with consistent height increments can help one ascend what would otherwise be a very steep slope. Gosh dang that stairway was discouraging to look up.

Alright, back to task now that the naturally occuring "ohcrapeveryoneshowedupatonce" panic rush is done. Sittin' back in the office, chillin' on my tablet, sippin' coffee 'cause that's how I roll on a saturday afternoon (and mildly tweaking out because CAFFEINE). Realizing that I still double-space after a period even though it was basically proven that it's pointless by xkcd, but will probably continue to do it forever because that's a habit I'll probably never break. Also realizing that when I blank for a second or two I tend to type "Face!"...which is odd, but possibly explainable though I'm not sure how/when it started. I'm not really gonna delve deep with this one, I just know that it happens. Also, why don't I do these blogs when I'm *not* at work. It probably has something to do with how I've got a bunch of stuff to occupy my time at home but much less so at work when it's slow. We'll go with that, seems most logical. Ah, logic, my old friend, how I love thee. 

(timestamp - 4:42) 

And with that, I guess I should be taking off to finish up my actual job. Crazy how time flies when you've got customers who you're familiar with that are friendly and chatty.

Cheers!

~Cam

Ramblings Beckon from Whence Snow Came

The hardest part of this blogging thing is figuring out a post title. Seriously. I'm at wits end for no good reason. Gah. Something about snow and work and rambling maybe? Let's see...uh...how about..."Ramblings: Work & Snow Mk.II" or maybe "Ramblings Beckon from Whence Snow Came" because it's effectively nonsense. Yeah, I like my nonsensical titles, especially for nonsensical blogrambles. That seems reasonable. BRB, entering title.

Mkay, done. Now down to business. Or buisness, 'cause that's fun to say. Buisness. Like, bweesness, the "W" sound makes it more fun.  Regardless, let's do this. That is to say, ramble.

Snow's pretty, but it's been literally snowing all day. This could make for a tricky walk home. Good thing I've got solid waterproof hiking boots for wintertown travel. I've had 'em for years and they've served me well. If/when they ever get to a point of unrecoverable ruin I fully intend to buy a new pair as close to them as I can. Semi-related, I need new runners/walkers/non-winters. My current ones laste me a good two years, which is a lot for me and shoes, but they're past the point of no return. I should check sporting goods stores, this seems like the time of year when they'd have runners on sale, what with the "only crazy people be running in this snow" situation. Mayhaps next week, but I'll probably forget, 'cause I totally forget these things. Heck, I barely remember what happened earlier in the paragraph.

Speaking of coherence when writing, I'm pretty sure that the previously stated "what did I just write?" syndrome I'm subject to is at least partially to blame for my "little to no structure" writing.  Also the occasional "Oh crap a customer" leading to a "what was I saying?" moment. Good thing I refer to these as ramblings, eh? Though I wouldn't mind trying my hand at some creative writing, but I tend to need something to trigger the inspiration. I've got a handful of entirely not-fleshed out tales in my head, but the fleshing out will take some doing. I should work on that...I say that about a lot of things, huh? Whelp, that's what I get for being a jack-of-all-trades.

*Yawn*...Whoa, just got hit with a wave of sleepitude. I guess I didn't get that much sleep last night, so it sort of makes sense. It was still a pretty intense wave of tired. Good thing I've only got ~3 hours left. Random note: I had a minor panic when my tilde button was NOT where I'm used to it being. I like using the tilde! It makes me look sophisticated or some such nonsense. I actually just find it aesthetically pleasing and like using it to say "approximately" though I'm not sure if that's the proper usage of it...I should look that up. BRB.

Okay back, apparently I use the tilde in the common informal way, which is widely accepted and understood. Good, I'm not just crazy. I mean, I'm definitely crazy but there's backing for my usage of the tilde. I feel justified. 

Unrelated topic, go! So I was recently reminiscing about times spent with the guild (Woo, I'm a geek!) and I came to the sudden but innevitable realization that I CAN reminisce about my guild. I've been playing World of Warcraft with the same people since at least 2008, possibly earlier. It's now 2016. That's a long time. Granted, we haven't played consistently throughout the years due to content droughts and burning out on virtual walls (mostly in the form of bosses we can't seem to beat), but there's a good 7-15 of us who have stuck together with little to no drama and being reasonable to each other. At this point we're probably just actually friends who get together through virtual means. I'm actually one of the younger members too, but I'm not sure how much that comes into play (answer: probably none). I'm also the token Canadian, because apparently that's a thing. Also I was the straight man of the guild, though I'm not sure how well I really pulled that role off (I'm not super confident in my comedic talents). I think I've mentioned in the past that we have crazy stories about each other that just compound into more ridiculous stories, and that still holds true, though they've been less prevalent as of late. Still there and fondly remembered, but we don't need the medium ton convey affection. Also a lot of those stories revolved around the drama makers, most of which we've weeded out by now, so there's just less to work with.

Dang, now I feel like writing on my gaming blog. I should also do that...maybe later, maybe right after this. Good thing my blogs are all tied to this one email, I can switch between them at will. Semi-related, after thinking about it, if/when talking to someone who shared my interests I'd probably have a lot more to respond to the "what's new" question everyone asks (my normal response is "not much, I'm not that exciting" or some such ilk). I could go on and on about these new things I've done and challenges accomplished and what I was working on finishing, and what actually happened when I tried these things, all of which happen in a virtual world (of warcraft, more often than not). This does happen occasionally when I'm with the right group of friends, though I'm probably the biggest MMO gamer of the group, so I'm still a little at odds with them (though the margin is much much slimmer than most other people).

ANYWHO, geekiness aside (though that encapsulates a lot of what I am currently and probably forever) I should probably try to avoid alienating my audience (HA! Audience...like more than a handful of people read this stuff) but unfortunately I've gotta end it there as I now only have 20 minutes left before the store's supposed to be closed (I've already done a bunch of the closing stuff, but you can't tell 'cause there's no timestamps in this thing...maybe I should do timestamps...I'll think about it.) So with that I bid thee farewell. Until next time!

Cheers

~Cam