The first thing to tackle is that seemingly inevitable lack of energy come Monday. Monday morning is that schoolyard bully that comes around and punches in your face when you arrive, stealing everything you intended to bring in to start your week and probably somehow making you late in the process. Somehow you wake up later, but still feel less rested than usual. You can’t seem to follow that same routine that you were doing fine last Thursday and you end up rushing out the door, forgetting or forgoing breakfast (and likely enough something else important) and generally in a panic. A quick run through the doughnut shop for a highly caffeinated, sugary beverage to get you going (crap, you left the coffee maker turned on at home — hopefully your place doesn’t burn to the ground today) and some biscuit or croissant or muffin or what have you with something they called egg and a protein of choice, or maybe just a doughnut and you’re now five minutes late to work, wondering what’s so hard about getting the three people ahead of you in line some damned doughnuts and coffee that it’s taking so long. Right?

You try to fly under the radar as you roll in (now fifteen minutes late — why is traffic worse on that three mile stretch from the doughnut shop to work on Monday?) to work, but that’s not at all possible since there’s a standard Monday morning meeting with everyone on staff and everybody is looking at you as you join in. Including the boss, who doesn’t make any big thing about it, but you know it’s not good and pretty soon you are going to be asked about some status or another, but since you just got there and haven’t thought about work for better than forty-eight hours you honestly have no idea.

Does any of this sound familiar to you? A year ago, as much as I hate to admit it, I recognized this all too well from my own life. Thankfully, it doesn’t have to be this way and small steps can cure you forever. I have taken only a few such steps so far, myself and they have done wonders for me. This is why I want to share these with you, along with others that I have in mind to work on.

First, and for me the biggest thing, end the weekend binge. You and I both want to stay out late with friends, party like rockstars and sleep through noon. This doesn’t mean you can’t do this ever again, just back up off it a little. At least get it out of your system Friday and let the rest of the weekend be restorative.

Treat Saturday and Sunday the same as every other day when it comes to getting a good night of sleep and also getting up at the same time as you normally do. Treat yourself on those weekend mornings. That is your time to enjoy the luxury of taking your time to get ready for the day. Make an omelette. Brew up a really good cup of coffee. Sit around in your pajamas for a little while and do a little bit of reading. Take an extra long shower.

Now that you’re feeling refreshed, if at all possible, find something to do outside. You probably don’t get enough fresh air or sun. It’s ok. I definitely don’t, either. These things are good for you, so go get them! As an added bonus, beyond the restorative benefits, this is something you can do for free and your budget will love you for that.

Get some housework done. I hate this. I love this. As little as I want to do it, my week is always better when I start it off knowing that it will be nice when I get home. Go on and do a bit. Just take 10 or 20 minutes and tackle some basics. Do the dishes. Start a load of laundry. You don’t have to go all in and scrub down like it’s your only chance to go to a royal ball.

Have some fun! I know. I said to chill with the partying, but balance is important. Just remember to keep it moderate, get in bed at a reasonable time and keep up that sleep schedule.

Finally, treat Monday like it is the most important day. Prepare for it. Get to bed extra early and wake up extra early as well. Have your food prep together so you aren’t scrambling in the morning. Take a bit of time Sunday to think about what went on last week and make some notes for that meeting and when you get there early, check in with your boss and see if there is anything that isn’t in your notes that might come up so you can prepare a little for that as well.

Get yourself together, be focused and start evaluating improvements you can make and those you have made and get ready to advance your career.

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I don’t want failure, so I need to build out some groundwork first. This is going to start with three small things; walking, push ups and house work, because those are some little things I can do today that will make the bigger things easier.

The first two seem almost ridiculous. Push ups and walking are so elementary that they almost don’t register. I’m not even talking about doing a lot of them. I’ll walk a mile, and probably take one of my dogs because they love me so much for it. I’ll do 25 push ups, but they won’t be continuous. Probably 5 sets of 5. That is not a lot, but I’m starting somewhere with a reminder to myself that every little bit counts.

Cleaning house doesn’t even seem to fit, because it doesn’t seem to relate to fitness, or making money, but a happy household is key for me, so it’s right there at the top. I don’t like doing push ups when I’m distracted by mess. You probably wouldn’t, either. When laundry is piling up it makes it harder to take time to go for a walk, because it seems more important that you have clothing for the next day. A dirty kitchen is the bane of food prep, so your diet suffers.

You have to get out and face these simple things, and the bigger goals will follow!

The post Preparing for Success appeared first on Jay Drake.

In all fairness, I’m fortunate to have had a better year than many close to me, but my early afternoon musings were not as sunny and optimistic as I like for January 1st of any year. A part of me was honestly just short of terrified, forcing me to set my jaw and stare down the challenge ahead. I reminded myself that panic is the enemy. The best way forward is to look ahead, make a solid plan and execute. Yes, I know this is easy to say and this isn’t going to be easy, but failure, as they say, is not an option. I will succeed, because I can.

I sat at my computer, logged into my Facebook account and started writing out strategies I could employ to reduce spending, improve my fitness level, lose weight, be more valuable at work and also be a better friend, father and husband. I wrote serious goals to meet, some for this year and some for next but depending heavily on forming good habits this year. 100 pound weight loss in 2019, mastering very specific business skills, slaying the debt dragon, writing stories and even a novel and writing code toward having a reasonable side-hustle to help fund an even better future.

It is cliche to make resolutions for the new year. That does not mean it is bad. Let’s make the best of this year. Join me in becoming the best you that you can be. How do you categorize your goals? What are they? What are your strategies to meet your goals?

The post See Ya Later 2018! appeared first on Jay Drake.

The games we played started with Labyrinth by Ravensburger games, then Exploding Kittens with the prototype expansion cards they sent me when I joined ‘the crate’ and finally, back home, we got a bit more serious in playing through a game of Pandemic.

Also worthy of note for our Tabletop Day 2016 experience is the game Cash’n Guns. We have yet to play it, but as we made our way out of the store Saturday afternoon we saw people playing it as a demo and immediately felt we had to have it. Actually, I immediately felt I had to have it and when my wife said something to the effect of “We don’t even know anything about the game.” my response was “What is there to know? It’s cash. And guns. ‘Merica!” — Somehow that was good enough, and I was allowed to buy the game.

Of the games we played, I think Labyrinth was the winner for best game for us. For context, our family of four includes myself at fourty, my wife at somewhat younger, our son of nine years and our seven year old daughter. While all the games were playable by us as a group, Labyrinth is the clear winner as far as games that both hold the kids attention throughout the full course of a game, and that they could honestly play without need of adult supervision.

Pandemic is an amazing game, and I definitely look forward to playing it again. Given the context of our family, it is unfortunately relegated to the end of the line for family game night when we consider these things. (However, since it is a co-operative game, it does still work for family gaming!) Exploding Kittens may be a bit too simple for strong replay value when it comes to adult play, but kids can be kept busy with games like Go Fish and War, so that’s not really a problem.

In all, Tabletop Day 2016 was a huge success for our family, and we are looking forward to hosting many games for our friends and family in the coming months, whether it is these four or other games entirely.

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But what the heck am I babbling on about, you are probably asking yourself right about now, if you actually made it this far. (I won’t blame you if you didn’t. I also won’t know, so there’s that.) Chosen few what? What the heck is that title? Are you trolling?

No, dear friends. I am not trolling. I apologize for the foolishness, but I am excited. I am also nervous. Let me explain…

Yesterday I received an email from an author, whose work has been some of the best examples of good indie fiction that I have had the pleasure of reading these past couple years. That particular author is Chris Pourteau, and the email I received was an Advance Review Copy (ARC, get it?) of his latest, not yet available novel Ironheart, a new novel that picks up in the Apocalypse Weird world, particularly in his part thereof which he called The Serenity Strain, following his previous entry there named Stormbreak. (Once upon a time you would have found this as Apocalypse Weird: The Serenity Strain, but now said novel is available as Stormbreak (The Serenity Strain Book 1) — Go buy it!)

Of course the excitement part of this is fairly obvious. I’ve received a novel, in the appropriate format to load up on my kindle, that I can read free of charge. However, I am a little nervous as well, as I feel very strongly that in receiving this novel I should do the responsible thing and not just read it, but do so in short order, send in any notes on any little imperfections such as typos or the sort I might see and even work on a review as the best way to say thank you for this.

I’ve had opportunity before to receive ARCs from others, and I’ve generally said no, thank you. My time is limited, and I don’t like accepting something for nothing — winning prizes doesn’t count. I don’t like to post a review unless it’s a helpful and meaningful review, either!

This is Chris Pourteau, though, and after getting through with my move, renovations and even getting our house ready for, and throwing a fun house warming last weekend, I actually have more time this weekend than I’ve had in months. Challenge accepted! (I might even find time to burn through Grey this weekend…)

To find out more about Chris Pourteau, I recommend checking out his blog at http://chrispourteau.thirdscribe.com/!

As far as what I suggest you read by Chris Pourteau, I would have to say that the top choices for me would be his novels which take place in the same settings as Michael Bunker’s Pennsylvania, which is also well worth taking the time to read. A quick run through Amazon will find Tales of B Company: The Complete Collection, which I can’t recommend enough. (Though, I could possibly take time to write a review at some point in time…)

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But then there was that pesky cancer thing. Not me, but my wife. Truth be told, it didn’t so much eat at my time as it did my mind. All the same, creative writing wasn’t in the cards and I’m fine with that. I did start writing some more, however. I started another blog, specific to this present journey of my life. I hope you might drop by and read what I have to say there as well. It is called Writing To Survive. (Update: My wife is now cancer free, and the Writing To Survive blog has since been taken down.)

Over the next several months, as my wife fights her breast cancer through surgery, chemo and finally radiation, I will likely spend more of my writing time there than here. Should I surprise myself and find that there is adequate writing there when it is all said and done, and if I feel that it could be at all interesting or helpful to others I have considered collecting posts from there together and publishing it. For now, though, it is simply a place where I can unload my mind to retain my sanity.

The post Hey Jay! Where Ya Been? appeared first on Jay Drake.

…

It’s Tuesday. It doesn’t matter what month it is, the season, or what the weather is like. It’s just Tuesday. There’s nothing special about today. It could have been Wednesday or Thursday, or any other normal day of no particular significance, but it’s Tuesday. Nothing is supposed to happen on Tuesday, not this Tuesday or any Tuesday, but it’s looking like this is the day that I am going to die a violent, painful and bloody death.

These are the thoughts that have been rattling through my head from the time that van — that typical, non-descript, panel van — screeched to a stop just a little too late, striking me on the sidewalk and knocking me to the hard concrete and hooded men yanked me to my feet and hurled me into that van.

Fast-forward to the present and I find myself bloody, battered and dumbfounded. Tied down to a metal chair like some superspy movie so tightly that I haven’t been able to feel my arms and hands for at least an hour now, which might be a blessing as I’m pretty sure I have a couple broken fingers — the first broken bones of my life. It probably doesn’t matter, though. I probably wouldn’t even notice that pain after the body blows I’ve taken and the punches to the face.

It has to have been a couple hours at this point. To say that I am panicked is a ridiculous understatement. They took me, they brought me to this crazy place, and they’ve beaten me. They haven’t said a single thing. My best guess is that this is one of those crazy gang initiations that you hear about. Like when someone gets punched out at random, or that thing where you see a car with their lights off at night and you flick yours at them and they drive you off the road and shoot you. I’m going to die!

What else could it be? I’m just a guy, like anyone else. I’m thirty-six, and my job as a network administrator, making a moderately good but not amazing living. Jesus! I work for a damned real estate agency. I keep to myself. I’m polite and nice. Nobody has any reason to do this to me.

Tears stream down my cheeks, blood and mucus is smeared across my shirt. I’m a quick study, and I’ve learned to keep my head down after throwing up all over myself when I choked on that combination. James Bond I am not.

I hear the door open. They’ve left me alone for awhile, but the respite is over. In the back of my head I’m counting the seconds and at eight the door slams shut. The sound is sharp and loud, with a hint of a clang. Guessing it’s metal. Guessing the wall it is in to be bare brick, like the one wall in front of me that is close enough to see in the sparse light.

Foot steps slap against the dirty concrete floor. I know this is the sound of running shoes now. Sounds like two this time. I’ve never considered this sort of thing before. It was never particularly important to know how many people were behind me based on the footfalls. Like I said, I’m a quick study. Not that this knowledge is likely to be very helpful to me.

Fuck! Rhymes with ‘thock’, the meaty sound that accompanies the solid punch that crashes into my cheek and jaw, causing a bright flash then murky darkness as I nearly slip into unconsciousness. Then the pain. I am sure I can feel the impression of every knuckle that collided with my head, a sharp pain in my neck might be whiplash and I spit a tooth before unceremoniously vomiting again. I rather wish that shot had knocked me out and given me a break from the pain. OK, fuck doesn’t quite rhyme with thock. Close enough.

“Where is the custodian?” the smaller, nicer one — nicer, based on the fact that he hasn’t hit me, yet — asks.

I have no idea what in the world he is talking about. The janitor at work? I want to redirect this situation, maybe if we can get to a discourse all of this can be cleared up and I can go back to my boring Tuesday. I need to hurry up and get this started, so I lift my head and start down that road, but all that comes out is an infinitely diplomatic, “Wh-what?”

Yeah. I’m going to die today.

“I said where is the custodian?” small guy said loudly, with an edge to it that pushed him further away from the nice moniker.

I replied quickly, hoping that what I had to offer would satisfy, “We hire a service. They come in and clean the office four days a week. I don’t really know who they are — what the company is called. I saw one of them once, he was Mexican, well… hispanic or I don’t know. Like… Someone who -”

A curt nod from the short one and the other guy slammed his fist into my head again cutting off my blabbering. The impact to my ear was such that it throbbed immediately, deeply. I felt like I had a horrible sinus cold and it was affecting my hearing.

I am vaguely aware that they are speaking with each other, but can’t quite make out the low voices until I loll my head toward them to catch bits and pieces of their hushed conversation.

“…he doesn’t know?”

Know what?

“He’s the chosen one! Of course…”

Was that the little guy or the big one? I’m not sure. I’m pretty sure it doesn’t matter. It’s all coming together now. These guys aren’t part of a gang. It’s worse. They’re religious nutters.

“We’re not getting anywhere with beating him, though,” says the big guy. Turns out he may be a meathead, but he’s the one with brains in my humble opinion. I’d like to chime in with my agreement, except that it seems unlikely to be welcome.

“He won’t be any good to us, and the new one won’t be ready if we don’t go ahead and kill him now,” he goes on. I’d like to change my vote and go with continued beatings, thanks.

Shorty snaps back, “I know that, David! Fuck! We all know that, but we have to find the custodian, too.”

That’s when things go from Quentin Tarantino to H. P. Lovecraft.

The post A Story I Probaby Won’t Write appeared first on Jay Drake.

These addicting cubes of chance show up for a variety of franchises that the family appreciates including How to Train Your Dragon 2, The Walking Dead, Game of Thrones and, more recently, a Classic Sci Fi set. In some, the odds of getting one or another vinyl miniature are the same — In the How to Train Your Dragon 2 set all of the figures were 1/12 chance, though Astrid eluded me well… In the Game of Thrones and The Walking Dead sets, the most rare figures are 1/144. With this in mind, I’ve managed to pick up a full collection of the set which has all the same chance, but those other ones I haven’t done so well at collecting. I started to think of how to beat this game.

We’ve noted in the past with these and other mystery boxes that there are differences in weight between the heaviest vinyls and the lightest that are discernable by hand, but not so well that it’s likely someone can determine exactly which mystery mini they might get just by holding a box. (If anyone is capable of this feat, all I can say is you are awesome.)

That said, we’ve always ripped into these guys right at the store where we bought them to share the joy and excitement, until tonight.

Tonight we went all in and bought a full case of 12, and we took those bad boys home. Once home, we weighed each of them on a little, battery-powered food scale we have in grams. Why grams? Because they’re pretty darned accurate little units of measure and hey, I’m Canadian so I actually know what it means!

What we determined was quite telling. First, we only opened 9 of the 12, and we hope to return the other 3, bringing our scale along to choose 3 replacements. Because grams are a fairly fine measure, we were able to discern a nice bit of difference between the boxes which varied in weight from 40g to 67g.

We did not open the 40g box, which was a full 5 grams lighter than the next box up. We are relatively certain this is an E.T. We already have an E.T. — If we were real scientists we’d surely open it to be absolutely certain, but we’re more interested in making sure we maximize our success in getting all of them!

Of the 9 boxes we did open, the difference between the weight of the full box and the vinyl out of the box was 23 grams on 6 of them, and the other three were 1 gram different — one higher and two lower.

In the boxes we found 3 vinyls that we already owned. When we weighed the duplicate vinyls we found them each to match weight with their corresponding vinyls. That said, the glow in the dark Tron vinyl was 3 grams lighter than the normal Tron, and the clear Predator was 6 grams lighter than the regular Predator.

Knowing the weights of what we have, and having a fair idea of size difference on those we don’t have compared to what we do have I suspect we have at least a slightly better chance of making a good choice in whether or not to open a box. As noted before, we left 3 unopened to go see about returning. The one I mentioned earlier we are sure is E.T. as no other blind box is as small as it is. The other two we chose not to open were 62g, which was the exact same as one other that was the black alien. We also had the silver or chrome alien, and when the two figures were measured outside of the box they were found to be the same weight. Based on the data available and consideration of the relative sizes of other miniatures, we are fairly certain that the other 62g boxes are also aliens.

This certainly isn’t perfect. For one, some figures weigh the same. In our observations, we found that Malcolm Reynolds (both the figure available in these boxes and the lootcrate exclusive on with a shotgun), regular Tron and Spock each weighed in at 25g. Similarly, Judge Dredd, Metaluna Mutant and Robocop each weighed in at 28g. Also, both alien variants weigh the same and I expect the normal and bloody Predator probably weigh the same as well — The reason that the clear Predator and Glow in the Dark Tron variants would be different in weight from their counterparts is almost certainly due to a difference in material.

With that in mind, even if we know that we’re looking for one of those, we’d not be able to determine which of those we would end up with. Additionally, there is the seemingly slight chance of box weight difference. Finally, in order to try to pick up a figure that we do not yet have a measurement on, we have to make some guesses as to the relative weight in comparison to those we do have available. That said, one strategy we have in mind is to consider any box which has a weight that is different from any that we have on record and open those to hopefully find something new.

If you read all the way through all of that, congratulations! I will give you our findings as your reward. If you just skipped to the findings, shame on you. My kids worked hard weighing and opening boxes, and they’re super cute. Even Jewel Staite says so! (Granted, they were dressed up as Kaylee and Jayne at the time…)

Yes, that cute. So now the data…

I hope you find this data useful, or at least entertaining. Feel free to friend me on facebook!

The post Winning the Blind Box Game appeared first on Jay Drake.

What I most admire about the author of Wool, Shift, Dust, Sand and other titles (some of which are comprised of more than one syllable) is his generosity in taking his celebrity powers and using them to point out other great artists for his fans to enjoy. I am very happy that I found Hugh Howey and have read and (mostly) enjoyed his writing, but I am so much more happy that in finding Hugh Howey I have also been introduced to others. Two, in particular, are Michael Bunker, another great author who has been seen to put in action anything Hugh Howey does that works and skip the things that didn’t and Ben J Adams, a graphic artist who has done limited prints (that I just had to have) based on each of the aforementioned author’s novels.

In some ways, this trio of united indies give me the same feeling as a comic hero group like Justice League. Each one of them is a superhero in his own right, but together they are that much more. What’s even more cool is how everyone is invited to join right in. Whether it’s writing within the confines they’ve set for their own fiction series via Kindle Worlds, or just chatting with them on Facebook, these guys are happy to connect and even help out.

I’m not going to go into much more depth about either of these today. I’m just going to make some recommendations. First, go to www.benjadams.com and (if there are any left) buy limited edition prints for Hugh Howey’s Silo series and Michael Bunker’s novel Pennsylvania. I say do this first, because you will be kicking yourself later if you waited and missed out on picking these up. Next, go get yourself a copy of Pennsylvania and The Last Pilgrims by Michael Bunker. You might also consider Wick, but I didn’t care for it, so I’m not recommending it. Did I mention that Pennsylvania is Amish Sci-Fi? Yep. Seriously.

Great, now all you need to do is pick up those four titles I mentioned up above by Hugh Howey — Wool, Shift, Dust and Sand. I recommend you start with Wool. If you don’t really, really like it just keep going. I wasn’t absolutely enthused about it when I started and I was even uncertain when I got through, but Shift and Dust was worth the effort. Sand, while it certainly sounds like it might be the next in sequence is not a part of that series, and it is by far my favorite. I say read it last, because the others just don’t compare.

There’s plenty more that I could recommend, but the last thing I’ll toss out there is that you should engage with each of these guys via social networks and, if you’re lucky enough, in person.

Tell them Jay Drake sent you!

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That said, I am not so completely absorbed in my career that I completely lack free time and I know that it could be pointed out that just budgeting in an hour or so a day can lead to the publication of a novel. While this is quite plausibly true, other priorities also come into play including my health (I really need to spend more time at the gym and making sure to prepare good, healthy meals to continue to lose weight and be stronger) and, more than anything, quality family time.

I am extremely fortunate that this last priority is extremely enjoyable, not only because I love my family but also because my wife, my two amazing children and I all enjoy so much of the same, very nerdy things! Cara, Ash and I love to read and as Sky is showing a great deal of excitement at the prospect of learning to read as well. Add to that a shared appreciation of many facets of pop culture including comics, anime, various television shows, lego, cosplay and conventions for all of those (as well as combinations of these) and we have a nearly unending amount of activity to share in together that is worth far more to me right now than sharing my novel with the world — Or the handful of people in the world who would end up reading it.

Despite all of this, I do continue to write a little here and there for Angel Story, and I intend to blog at least a little more actively in coming months. Perhaps this will mean that it will take another decade to write my novel. Maybe my current career will go so well that I can take a hiatus some years in the future to concentrate on the book. Either way, my passion for this story is enough that I intend to eventually publish and I will be sure to continue to discuss it between now and then.

What you will see here on this blog will probably vary depending on where my attention is. I won’t be saying “sorry I haven’t been writing here” type posts going forward. This one pretty much covers that. I will be posting about the various things I’m enjoying with my family, whether that has to do with going to comic cons, watching tv or movies, learning how to make kick butt costumes or our slightly-out-of-control lego habit. I will also probably venture into some deeper and somewhat scary waters in sharing some opinions and musings on some variety of things. I definitely will take some time to introduce people to some of the artists I’ve come to appreciate, and pass along interesting things I notice in regards to how some of these cool people are making better lives for themselves and others and how other people (perhaps you) can emulate their successes.

Thank you for your time. We are Groot.

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