So, what else can you do when you have a looming deadline and your story is stuck in the mud? Play with your blog template! As you can see, I’ve fiddled around with the design here and now have a great new template (with a really lame name – Internet Market Wordpress Theme?!) I added a few navigation tweaks at the top to let users get back to my website. Swapping around templates is really easy in Wordpress and that’s one thing I’m really liking about this blogging software. I like the template for now, but we’ll see how long it lasts – that name really irks me.
(Update: I’ve reverted back to my old template after seeing the damage my “tweaks” did to the layout when viewed through Internet Explorer – ouch. I’ve had enough css messin’ for one day, but will try and get it fixed later in the week.)
But on a more productive note, I’ve also added a new School Visits page to the site. With September fast approaching, I’m hoping to be out visiting schools more and showing kids how comics are made. I really enjoyed the school presentations I gave last year and this year I’ve actually got a booking agent who will do all the boring work of advertising my talk to schools.
You can check out my page at the Author’s Booking Service blog to learn all about my presentation. If you, or someone you know, would like me to visit your school and show your students how comics are made, email ABS at: authors.bookingservice@gmail.com and they’ll make it happen.
Now, what was I meant to be doing? Ah yes, writing! I remember now.
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Have you ever wondered how much dust gathers inside your computer? A deadline must be approaching because that’s exactly what I was thinking about the other day as I was cleaning and most definitely avoiding getting any writing done.
About three months ago, I looked inside my new super-duper computer to see how everything was running and I was shocked to see something like this:
This is the inside of Melanie’s computer, but mine was just as bad. Now, I’m not sure exactly what nasty things dust inside a computer can do (start a fire? cause some expensive bit to overheat?) but I wanted that dust gone. So the other day, I bought a can of this:
It’s basically air in a can and it’s completely nasty for the environment as it doesn’t have that reassuring “No CFCs” label and started to frost up as I used it, which can’t be good.
I honestly do feel guilty about using it. But I don’t drive a car, so that makes me carbon neutral, right?
Anyway . . .
This was the end result:
Dust on our back deck and out of my computer! (and Melanie’s too) Now our computers are dust free, fire safe and meltdown protected.
Okay, okay. I know, get back to writing. Hmm, but those dishes do need to be washed . . .
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My mom and some visiting relatives are heading into Toronto today for a bit of sightseeing and touring about the big city. So, where are we kicking off our tour of T.O?
Where else, but the CN Tower! Like Niagara Falls and other great Canadian landmarks and monuments, I only ever visit these places when we have visitors from out of town. It’s the same in every city, isn’t it?
Since it’s been a few years, I’m looking forward to zooming up the glass elevator and standing (buy probably not eating $45! for lunch?!) in the revolving restaurant.
The tower will be a focus for me in the coming weeks as the launch of the Max Finder Mystery Collected Casebook will be happening there on September 16th – everyone’s invited!
Okay, now I’m off to get ready to hit the tower and other TO landmarks. You see, the tower is so tall, I couldn’t write a post to match it’s height!
Now that is a tall building.
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As you know, I’ve spent the last month or doing research for my wilderness survival graphic novel. This research has included getting soaked in Algonquin Park, learning to make a fire from a pop can and lots of other fun stuff. Along the way, I’ve discovered some great resources like the Equipped To Survive website.
Equipped is packed with useful survival tips, articles and a must-listen to podcast about being prepared. And according to their recent newsletter, they’ll have their own TV cable network. ETS-TV apparently launches this fall, in conjunction with the Discovery Channel. They’ve got a bunch of shows ready to go and it looks like it’ll be a great channel. It’s the shows they have in development that are little worrying.
One show, Wings Become Adventure, takes reality TV to yet another extreme and makes Survivor seem like a school yard kids game. Contestants are dropped in the middle of the wilderness at the scene of a plane crash set up by the show’s producers and they’ve got to survive for a set period of time. Simple, right? But here’s where it gets scary. I’ll let the newsletter explain it all:
“Participants will be helicoptered into the site for their week long stay. Injuries will be simulated by binding arms, hands and legs according to a drawing made on site so that the survivors are appropriately handicapped, though they will also have to option to receive a $25,000 bonus and have the actual limbs or appendages broken for greater realism. It is expected that about half of the participants will take advantage of this option. Cirrus participants will not be required to have any such handicaps, unles they really want the $25,000.”
Could you imagine having your arm broken on purpose?! That alone is it’s own reality TV show! I’ve broken a few bones in my body, including my arm very seriously, and although I’d never want to go through that pain again – $25, 000 would soften the blow a bit. But ouch!
It reminds me of that scene in that great soccer/WW II escape movie Victory, where they break the guy’s arm so he can see the doctor. Seeing that as a kid freaked me out and everytime I broke something from skateboarding, I always thought of that scene.
As painful as Wings Becomes Adventure sounds, I think I’d watch just to see the survival skills in action and only if the contestants got a bonus for getting everyone out alive and in one piece. None of this tribal council stuff where someone is whisked away because they were too annoying or didn’t play nice with the others.
I wonder how much a contestant would get if they agreed to be mauled by a bear?
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Yikes! Over a week has passed since I returned from the wild north that is Algonquin and I haven’t even posted about it. For those who might have thought I was eaten by a bear, I apologize.
No bears this year, but plenty of rain. Fortunately, it came at night while we were in our tent. Unfortunately, it came in such torrents that two of our three sites were transformed into lakes and we became experts at moving the tent to higher ground (a valuable camping skill, if ever there was one.)
Below is that majesty that was our first campsite (we didn’t book early enough to get one spot for the whole week.) Originally, we had the tent where the picnic table was, but moved it at the last minute when I noticed it was standing in a slight depression in the ground. Good thing too, because after the first night of rain that spot was under a foot of water.
After the rains let up we hit the trails to check out the Whiskey Rapids. Named after a pair of greedy loggers who, at the turn of the century, decided to chance the rapids in their canoe with a barrel of fresh whiskey on board. They didn’t make it, their canoe shattered and so did that barrel of delicious whiskey. That’s me below learning about that sad day with the rapids in the background.
As we were relaxing in front of the rapids, we shot some video of a brave canoer running the rapids. Impressive stuff.
It was great to be back in nature, even for just a short time. And since I’ve been back, I’ve been writing about nature for my new survival guide graphic novel, soon to be published by Orca. More on that in the days to come. Honest.
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