Good morning, Readers!

Last night was great.  I went to training, the second week of adding a Monday night training session.  I practiced what I knew, and realised with some chagrin that I've forgotten a great deal.  I managed to get some time working on my staff form, though I have forgotten almost all of it.  It was great to be able to swing the staff around again, and it immediately put me in a better mood.

A direct result of me getting to muck around with weapons is an improved mood.  It's just fun, and  you can't stay mad when you're having fun.

Side note: if ever I gain enough funds to buy a house (HAH!), there will need to be a basement with a roof high enough that I can throw my staff around while training.  Of course, it would take some kind of miracle in order to get a house at this stage, but still.  I will need a basement with high ceilings.  For weapons.

Today also marks day two of Screw you, Failure.  Yesterday was day one.  It was weight-training day, which I did.  Sunday should have been day one, but I was wallowing in a stew of my own self-pity.  It was not as bad as it sounds.  There was chocolate.   Anyway, day two of Screw you, Failure is running day.  I won't be running long or far.  I have only the time between work and training to run, and taking into account travel time (over an hour thanks to public transit), I will only be running for a maximum of half an hour, if that.  Then I'm off to training.  It's the first week back with the regular crew, and I'm really excited to go back; as much for the friends as for the punching and kicking of things.

I'm going to be wiped tonight.

Speaking of martial arts, Saturday (yes, the same day as the stupid run which made me angry), I taught my women's only classes.  It's four hours of teaching epic things, and I love it a great deal.  My women's kickboxing class is full up.  I'm a little saddened to see that the kung fu class is not so full.  That's the class we get to play with weapons in, and I do wish more people would sign up.

Oh, while I think of it, if you're a woman in the Ottawa area and feel like taking a martial arts class that's less intense than kickboxing, give kung fu a go.  I teach out of Carleton U, but you don't have to be a student to take the class.  Here's the registration link if you're interested:

THIS IS THE REGISTRATION LINK.

If you're interested in joining our coed class, I highly recommend coming to our Tuesday and Thursday classes.  We're at St. Gregory at the moment, and we're doing a free week.  Contact my Sifu, Sifu John Hum for more information, and drop by to see what it's all about.  Also, you get to see just how terrible a student I am.

THIS IS HOW YOU CONTACT MY SIFU.

Honestly, signing up is one of the best things I ever did.

Alright, I'm fast running out of brain power, and must preserve at least some for writing today, so I'll sign off here.  Have a lovely day,

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I ran my first ever straight 5K race this weekend just gone.  I'm... not happy.

Look, I know, I know.  At least I did it.  I should be proud that I was at the event at all.  Blah, blah, blah.

I'm not, and y'all are just going to have to deal with that.

Why not?  I hear you ask.  Or someone asked.  Maybe I just am hearing things now.​  The point is, I'm not proud of how I ran. 

The usual annoyances happened.  My nose started running almost as soon as I did, resulting in some serious mouth-breathing.  That's normal for me, though, and happens every time I run.  I read up on it, and it might just be that I'm literally allergic to running.  Which is hilarious, and annoying, but not really anything I worry too much about.  That's not the reason I am so angry with myself over this run.

I'm angry because I had to walk a bit.

Granted, I knew that I wasn't any kind of runner.  I've known since primary school.  I'm not fast, or good, at the whole running thing.  I'm not built for it.  I'm built for pulling a plough, or hauling logs long distances.  I'm not a cheetah.  I'm an ox.  Still, having to walk pissed me right off.

More than anything else that could have happened, that was the most aggravating.  I'm furious about it.  It was stupid and unnecessary, and surprising, since my last few practice runs before the race, while weren't the best performance on the planet, did not require any walking.  Why did it on Saturday?  Don't know.  But I had to, and I'm angry about it.  I'd have rather broken my leg, frankly.

You don't understand how sore I am over the whole thing.  Not as in muscular soreness (though, for some reason, my forearms were aching Sunday morning.), but the emotional kind of soreness.

Anyway, I wasn't thrilled on Saturday, and so I slouched home, fuming at myself.  If you happened to be on the bus Saturday evening and saw someone sitting near the front wearing a scowl, that was likely me.  Because I scowled hard, the whole way home.  I'm quite upset with myself, really.

Ordinarily, or rather, previously, that might have been enough to make me give up.  You see, as a chronic overachiever, if I couldn't do something well when I tried, I would give up and go do something else.  Academics came very easily to me.  I barely studied in school.  I thought all things were supposed to be like that, and if they weren't, well, I'd rather not do them than fail.

I consider Saturday night something of a failure. It grates at me in the same way a bad grade would.  But I'm not going to give up.  I'm so, so angry that now I'm motivated.  I won't ever walk during a 5K race again.  And more, my time will be so much better.  I finished Saturday's race under the thirty-five minute mark.  Next race, it'll be thirty-two minutes.  The one after that?  Thirty minutes.

Screw you, failure.  I'm not beat yet.

I'd like to take the time to thank awesome person and gazelle in human form, Evan May.  Evan is not just a good person, a great and patient running partner, but also a kick-arse writer.  I love the way he uses words.  Do check out his stuff ( this  is his site).  Evan ran with me, and was nothing but kind and supportive, even when I was fuming and cranky (sorry, Evan!).  Also, thanks to Kaylee, who came along too.  She's a long-time martial arts student of mine, and I'm really grateful she was there.

I promise that next race, I'll be way better.

Right, I have work to do.  I hope everyone's weekend was wonderful.

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Yesterday, because I felt I needed a refresher so I could answer someone's questions, I skimmed through my book Daughters of Britain.  Reading through again made me smile and wince in equal measure.  I do have to say though, that as far as crushes on fictional characters go, I'd marry the hell out of Adalbern.

I mean, he's patient and kind, tender and loving.

It feels weird to say, since I wrote the guy, but I'll pretend that because my stories and characters feel so external to myself, it's excusable.  Anyway, there's no real point to this thought save to say that I want my own Adalbern.

But not yet.  I'm happy single, so...

Today, I have to re-red Skylark in anticipation of the book release party happening in a few weeks.  I need to pick out a passage to read.... After I find out how long I have.  I have a couple of options depending on the time available.  I need to figure that out.  I'd like to get it all sorted soon, so I can practice like hell, and hopefully not spend the entirety of my time before the reading on the night hyperventilating.  That'd be nice.

For those who have read the book, what was your favourite part?  Maybe it'd make a good section for reading.

Also, I have to share that my good friend Éric Desmarais, who roasts his own coffee, is currently taking pre-orders for an advent calendar of his flavoured coffees.  It's a fantastic idea, and his coffees are absolutely delicious.  If that sounds like something you might be interested in, you can pre-order here.

Right, I need to get to work.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

I'm over on Black Gate magazine today, talking about Can*Con, and the state of our community.

One of my favorite conventions, Can*Con, is rapidly approaching (sure, it’s the only convention I can afford to go to, it being in my hometown, and all, but that doesn’t detract from the fact that it is, in truth, a wonderful convention), and I’m excited. This excitement, however, is also tinged with not a little trepidation. There are many reasons for this, but foremost among them is anxiety. I am anxious for a number of reasons.

First among those reasons are the sheer number of people. There will be a lot of them. Some of them will be important-types. Some will be just regular folk like myself. Being a very small, unimportant fish, struggling to grow, being surrounded by much bigger, more successful fish can feel a little suffocating. It’s difficult to get seen, and harder still to be heard.
​
One of the reasons I so love Can*Con is how, despite how it has continually grown, it hasn’t forgotten those of us who aren’t so big and important.

Good morning, Readers!

I went back to heavy lifting yesterday and my thighs and back are quite sore.  I had given myself a week off following helping a mate move.  Because I am an idiot.  I need to run this afternoon, and my legs are not function properly.  It will not be a good run.  Oh well.

Today marks the return to a regular schedule that is only a little different from the schedule I've been maintaining for the past couple of years.  The change is only this: I am adding another evening of martial arts training.  I did used to train a great deal more than I currently do.  With this change, I'll be closer to the original training schedule I once had.  Not entirely, though, as I have other things to do of an evening.

I have noticed, however, that I'm not learning at the same rate as I once was, and it bothers me.  So, I'm using the extra training session to cement the stuff I've learnt and practice it until I don't have to think about it.  I need it, I think, to continue to learn and improve.

It also helps to get my butt off the chair for a couple of hours, which I sorely need.  My job is sedentary.  My hobbies are largely sedentary... I need to move more.  So, I've added an extra training day.

All of which to say that this, the first week of my new/re-established schedule of training, will be a hellish week.  I will likely be grumpy and continually tired.  And hungry.  So, so hungry.  But, with luck, the end of the first week will have me back into my routine, and things will start getting better.  I say with luck, because I feel like I am simply always tired, whether I'm exercising or no.  Being an adult is fun.

Happily, though, I really enjoy martial arts, and the people I train with.  A good thing too, or I'd have quit long ago.

Right, I'm going to take my tired self and get on with the day.  Hope you're all well.

​Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Hey.... so... you remember how last year Skylark was published?  Yeah, it was awesome.  Anyway, if you were wondering if there would be a party for it, like, ever, like I was, I'm thrilled to announce that there absolutely will be!

October 5th, in fact, there will be a party to celebrate Renaissance Press' newest releases... and Skylark.  Not a new release, but hey, I also wanted to celebrate, okay?  So, Skylark gets to party with the rest of these really awesome books, and I'm super excited.

Come join me for some drinks, a meal, perhaps, and some kick-arse readings.

Save the date!

Right, I have a lot of work that needs doing, not least of all a new post for Black Gate Magazine... I forgot I had to write that.  Hell.  I don't even have a topic in mind.  Welp, wish me luck!

Ciao!

Good morning, Readers!

Okay, okay, I know I'm blogging about this game more than the other games I've played, with perhaps the exception of Skyrim, but an inordinate number of pets require names, and I need help to name them all.  Well, this time I have new names for some pets and also have new pets that requiring names.

First, the names I've decided on belong to my two jaguars.  That's right.  I have two of them now.  The most recent, the rare black jaguar was acquired during last night's stream.  At the end of the stream, their names struck me.  Ladles and jellyspoons, I'd like to introduce you to Aztec and Maya:

As usual, I still require names for my white wolf.  My friend Jerry suggested the name Tao during the stream (though I'm not sure which animal he intended it for), and I quite like that name for my white wolf.  I may go with it, unless a better name is offered.  For now, I'm listing him with my new wolf pet (who is just a regular wolf), who is also in need of a name.

I also acquired a brown bear, who is in need of a name.  A few were offered, but were terribly stereotypical names for bears, and didn't feel right, really.

Okay, onto a new theory I have about one of the tribes in the game, the Izila.  Right, these folks are new-comers to Oros, apparently, but that is not the most interesting thing about them that I've found.  The first thing I noticed is that they painted themselves with woad (blue).  Their skin also appears to be paler.  During last night's live stream, I encountered a number of standing stones that were also painted blue, and were carved with designs that were very similar to the carvings you get in, for example, Newgrange.  Also, they built a giant passage tomb that was extremely reminiscent of the afore-mentioned passage tomb in Ireland.  It was the Tushwarha Outpost that I conquered last night.  It even almost had a corbelled roof, and alcoves for bodies (though far too many entrances to be a true passage tomb).  Also present where there are many Izlia are a number of stone henges (not technically henges), with the same structures that can be seen in the famous example of such a site on Salisbury Plains (the Stonehenge (not technically a henge)).

All of this leads me to believe that the Izila are, in fact, the developers' imagining of the proto-Celtic culture that came to Europe in the late Palaeolithic.  At least, I will contend that they did, as I am a subscriber to the Upper Palaeolithic Continuity Theory (now pretentiously labelled the Upper Palaeolithic Continuity Paradigm).

You have no idea how much I was geeking out about all of this last night.  I mean, viewers of the stream would, because they were there, but my anthropologist heart was in a flurry, and my anthropologist brain was exploding.

Anyway, headcanon accepted.  Takkar's tribe, the Wenja, must be anatomically modern humans/early modern humans, with the Udam being Homo Neanderthalensis, and the Izila being the more modern Homo Sapien Sapien.  They all existed together at one stage in history, why not here?

Now, I have it on good authority that there is an unofficial Ubi-verse, and that the Assassin's Creed universe and the Far Cry universe are the same.  With Takkar being the beast-master, all the pieces lead me to think he's the ancestor of the assassins (who form strong psychic bonds with eagles... hawks?  One of those birds of prey... and can control and see via those animals the way Takkar can with his horned grey owl).  Perhaps, due to a lot of mixing with the Udam and Izila, the beast master abilities were diluted until it was just the eagles?

If that's the case, I greatly wonder then if the Izila are not the ancestors of The Templar, or at least their ideology?  I don't know.  I haven't had much interaction with the Izila in game yet, beyond several clashes and I'm not certain what their motives are (other than the typical inter-tribal conflict).  With the Udam, at least, it has been established that these poor people are dying off and they don't know why; they're scared and confused, and fighting against their own extinction.  I feel quite badly for them, to be honest.

Alright, alright.  I'm geeking out too much, I know.  I do have things to do, too.  But it's all so damned fascinating.  I should let you go then.

Don't forget to help me name my new pets.

​Ciao!