Settled in

After a long three days of moving, driving, packing, cleaning, it’s all done.

I’m now set up in my apartment, and today is my first day of work at my new job.

This weekend I’m planning on going around town and taking a few pictures of things that interest me, and things that look really cool.  I’ve already got a couple of things in mind, such as the old post office which is now the museum, the provincial court house that has a small park beside it, and a few other places around town.

It’s exciting, and hopefully this move will not only give me new challenges at work, but sort of give me a kick start to my creativity and help with my writing.

Speaking of which, my office is set up in a good location.  It’s in the spare bedroom and it was great that I got fixed for wireless Internet.  I’m not bound to making sure my computer is near an outlet.

I’m also quite happy with my book layout, and will be getting some added help from my father with setting up a shelving system that better displays my books.  Plus I have an area where I can have a TV and DVD player set up.  Which, after looking in the local flyers, I think I’ve found a decent one that I’ll pick up at some time.

As you can see, the space for a TV is already set, I just need to get some things organized. And get a TV.

All in all, I’m excited about my new place, this new city and this new job.

 

The Cleanup

The last cleanup is almost done, which means that all the anxiety I’ve felt over the past few days is starting to wane. I just have to have the final walk through of my old apartment and this chapter of my life is complete. It’s been a hard few weeks, but I got a lot of help from people.
Rob and Lisa Pederman, who moved all of my furniture. My parents who helped me a great deal with cleaning. They got most, if not all of the heavy work done.
I’ve enjoyed my time in Outlook, nine years is a long time.
Here’s hoping I’ll be in Humboldt for just as long, if not longer.

 

Movin’ movin’ movin’

I know, people must be getting pretty bored of the moving updates, but I can’t actually move until Sunday (which is tomorrow).

But I’ve spent the last few days preparing for the move.  Packing and minor cleaning and getting things washed and deciding what gets moved last, such as my coffee maker for starters.  Almost every single room is ready to go.  Minus the bathroom (which still needs a good cleaning), here’s what’s been done.

The storage room, all cleared out (save for a mop and bucket). There used to be boxes all over the place in here. Some were used to pack current items, others were taken to the recycling.

The spare bedroom with a lonely office chair that’s broken.

Kitchen cupboards cleared out, ready to be dusted and cleaned.

The last aspect of recycling: glass.

Jackets will go in the last trip, which will be Monday. I’ll spend Sunday night in Humboldt, then head on the road to get the last few items.

Bedroom things packed and ready to go.

It feels like a mile high pile of packed boxes, bags, and suit cases in my living room.

All of this will be gone tomorrow afternoon.  That includes the bed, couch, chairs, computer desk, book shelf, TV stand, coffee table, kitchen table and end tables.

 

Trash

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from this latest move, it’s that I accumulate a lot of garbage over the years.

There have been eight trips out of my apartment, carrying four large bags each, and once was a car load of cardboard to the recyclers and another time was all of my old, useless electronics.  And I’m not done, because I have four large bags of glass that needs to go to the recyclers, and I’m pretty sure there’s still more garbage to be found over the course of the next two days.  Including the large amount of coins that I took into the bank this morning, the total back from the recycling has been about 125 dollars.  Keep in mind, there’s no monetary incentive for recycling a television or a computer.  In fact, there’s quite the opposite, because the town charges you to put garbage into their landfill.

But just think of that for a moment had all of that which I recycled (which is about 75%) had gone to a landfill instead.  Pop bottles and cans, several rum bottles (Captain Morgan’s to be precise), all that electronics, cardboard, glass, and beer bottles would have added about 250 pounds to the local landfill.  Now multiply that by 2500 (estimated population of Outlook), and you have how much garbage would be dumped.  Mine is on the low side, I’m sure, because while waiting to recycling my pop bottles and such, there was a young couple in front of me with about ten black garbage bags full of plastic, glass and tin pop and beer bottles and cans.  I’m sure that they too were on the low side of the average.

Not a day went by in my nine years in Outlook when I didn’t see someone using the many different aspects of recycling in town.  Whether that be taking alcohol bottles to the liquor board store, recycling pop bottles and cans at Sarcan, or filling up the recycling boxes around town with cardboard, newsprint, high grade paper and magazines, tin cans, milk containers, and glass.  I’ve seen the numbers on how much this community recycles.  It’s in the millions.  Think about that for a moment.  Millions of bottles, cans, pieces of paper, newsprint, and other items that would have gone to the landfill had a recycling plan not been put in place.

So in the long run, even though I have had a lot of garbage go out my door, most of it was recycled.  And my contribution has actually had a huge monetary affect on this community.

 

Move update

The old electronics are gone.

Gone are two old computers (one a Mac, the other a Windows XP machine that started giving me the blue screen of death), the old television, the VCR (which hung on since the late 80’s), an 18 disc CD changer (which lasted since the early 90’s), Altec Lansing speaker system, and a switch box that allowed me to switch from TV, VCR, DVD, and CD player with ease.  Estimated that I won’t be hauling close to 200 pounds of old electronics with me when I move to Humboldt.

Which is okay, because I’d rather not have to move all of that stuff.  The less I have to move, the better off I am.

One nice thing with clearing out the old stuff is some of the neat stuff I find. Like change!

I had an old peanut butter jar full of change, but I also found a bunch in all sorts of nooks and crannies.  Once all rolled up, I counted $115 dollars worth of change (a lot of that was pennies, you can blame me for the extinction of the Canadian penny, and other penny horders like me).

The windows and walls are perhaps the two most difficult things to clean so far (haven’t even started on the walls just yet). Actually, looking ahead, I’m thinking the floors might be just as hard, solely because I have to move the fridge and stove to clean underneath them, which will be no easy task for me.

There’s still the cupboards and the closets to clear out.  Today’s objective is phoning the Town of Outlook and finding out if there is a policy for recycling glass, because I had this habit of saving every pasta sauce jar that I used (after 9 years, that’s a lot).  Some of them are really cool and have measuring units on the sides like old Mason Jars.  There’s a few 12 ounce and 20 ounce jars, I plan on keeping three each because they make for great drinking glasses.

This happens to me sometimes.  I pack up some things, get ready to move and then a couple of weeks after I’m settled… “Dangit!  I left my [insert item here] back in my old apartment!”  Now often I’d do this in the past when I’d go in to visit friends over summer holidays or Christmas.  I’d get a phone call that goes something like this:  “Tim, you forgot your curling broom and slider at our place.”  Or: “Tim, you left your hood thing from your jacket at our place.”  Or: “Tim, you left your book here at our place.”  Keep in mind, that’s not at multiple places, that’s all at my friend Pearce’s place.  I was fortunate that Pearce was able to keep a running tab of things I left behind.  Looking back, I could have left the curling broom and slider considering I haven’t curled since I lived in Melfort in 1991.

One thing that I’ve gotten rid of over the past few months has been my comics.  It didn’t come easy, but I came to realize they were basically sitting in storage and I’d rather they were actually read by someone.  I’ve been collecting trade versions of them anyway, so I may very well get my hands on those in the future.

 

Random Thursday stuff

Anxiety

Today is the last day of my job in Outlook.  Over the course of the next two weeks, I’ll be moving, cleaning and setting up in my new place in Humboldt.  I’ve been here in Outlook for 9 years.  The really interesting bit is that I began working here on August 16, 2004.  My first official day of work in Humboldt is August 16, 2013.

I’m excited, but I’m also filled with a great deal of anxiety.  I love working and living here in Outlook.  I grew up here, I was comfortable here, I knew lots of people.  Humboldt is going to be a tad different.

I know there’s positives about this move, and everyone was happy to hear that I was planning on being there for the long haul (maybe I’ll hit ten years there).  But it’s this transition period that’s really got me right now.  It’s affected some of the creative things I do.  So for now, I’m not doing any writing until I get the move done.

Oh, and the biggest worry is money.  I’m worried about paying for everything and how much debt I’ll be going into with this move.  I’ll just have to deal with it as it comes along.

A Girl I Used To Know

I don’t know why this came to mind yesterday when I was driving back from Humboldt.  But I suddenly thought of a few small conversations I had with a woman through tumblr and the things we discussed.  I didn’t know a lot about her save for a few things.  She performed in the ballet, she worked with a small indie comic book company, and she was a big comic book reader.  We had something in common and that was a total hatred of the fact Jason Todd was brought back from the dead (to be honest, the coming back from the dead trope is tired and over used).  She was the one that got me thinking to start up Batman Thinking In All Caps (which I have totally been neglecting as of late, tumblrites need to start submitting stuff).

She left tumblr and I haven’t heard from her since, but I got thinking about her yesterday.  Wondering if she was doing well, if she’d succeeded in her dating pursuits (she is close to my age, so you can guess how older people like myself have trouble finding someone just right), hoping she’s happy and continuing her love of comics.

I remember talking about some of the things she posted, and was asked if she was someone I’d date if given the chance.

“If she didn’t live in LA and I didn’t live in Outlook?  If we lived closer to each other?  In a New York minute.”

On The Road Again

This has sort of been the story of my life.  This song, by Willie Nelson, has followed me for the past two and a half decades.  And it seems it’s very apropos.  While I lived in Outlook for nine years, before then I had lived in the following locations, starting in 1989:

• Saskatoon, SK (CKOM Radio, part time over night disc jockey, no announcing)
• Yorkton, SK (CJGX Radio, three month news internship)
• The Pas, MB (CJAR Radio, ten months, on air announcer)
• Dauphin, MB (CKDM Radio, two months, on air announcer)
• Saskatoon, SK (CKOM Radio, four months, swing shift announcer)
• Melfort, SK (CJVR Radio, 14 months, afternoon news reporter)
• The Pas, MB (CJAR Radio, 14 months, news director)
• Yorkton, SK (CJGX Radio, 2 years, swing shift announcer)
• Rosetown, SK (CJYM Radio, 14 months, news director)
• Prince Albert, SK (900 CKBI, Power 99 FM, 10 months, FM morning news anchor)

There were small things in between each place, but needless to say, Prince Albert was my last bout with radio.  After that, I moved to Saskatoon, went back to school and secured work teaching some desktop publishing and web design.  Shortly after, I moved to Outlook and have been living here ever since.  But that’s a lot of moves in twenty years, not including the different places I lived in each community.  My 2 year run in Yorkton, for example, I lived in four different places.

To be honest, I hate moving.  But sometimes, it has to be done.

 

She’s a tricky one: Why we need a Wonder Woman movie

That’s a comment that’s been going around the ‘Net for a few days (weeks, months) now about a Wonder Woman movie.

“She’s a tricky one to handle.”

Really, it’s that difficult to get a good story out of a female superhero.  It seems to me that it would be fairly easy.  As a matter of fact, it’s already been done once.  Gail Simone had a helping hand in it with the release of the animated Wonder Woman movie.  Starring Keri Russel in the title role and Nathan Fillion as Steve Trevor.  A lot of the stories of Greek myth were interwoven with the aspects of a modern superhero, and having Wonder Woman shocked at the treatment of women in the modern world was quite refreshing, and a different take on the world.

Wonder Woman isn’t hard to write a good movie script for.  It’s basically 300, but with women and set more in a modern era.  Even Wonder Woman’s uniform could be a throw back to the old Greek and Roman style armours that she’s been dressed in the comics.  Like the leather skirting and the knee high armoured boots.  And this would be an opportunity to not only take a chance with a female superhero, but it’d also be a chance to use a woman of colour.  Many might argue that Greece and Italy are European, so that’d mean “white people only”, but that’s grossly ignorant of history.  In Greece and Rome there were North Africans, Middle Eastern Arab and Persian people, there were Pakistani and East Indian people who all followed the trade routes.  And Wonder Woman could have been born after the Silk Road began uniting people from different areas thanks to trade.

Even keep the story of Diana being formed from clay, and given life by her mother Hippolyta.  The call back to ancient myth would be amazing.  It’d be much different than the aspects of male superheroes that always have to have one motivation; death of family or threat of destruction.  Wonder Woman is a warrior.  Plain and simple.  She’s no different than Xena in that regard.

As Gail Simone once said about DC’s holy trinity; “If you want to stop alien invasions, call Superman.  If you want a mystery solved, call Batman.  But if you want to stop a war, call Wonder Woman.”

But the needing of a Wonder Woman movie goes beyond wanting to have a kick ass lady in a superhero movie that in a genre has been dominated by men. We need a Wonder Woman movie because she represents not only a female icon, but the best of humanity, and the best of what we have to offer.  Wonder Woman is just as iconic as Superman and Batman.  Even those who don’t read comics will recognize the name, and many will recognize the outfit when they see a picture of her.  There needs to be a Wonder Woman movie, because we need more icons to be visible.  And we need diversity on our big screens and small screens.

It may sound silly, but if we want to progress as a society, to keep moving forward with our social awareness, then we need to have icons and myths that represent our ideals in this modern world.  One of those icons happens to be Wonder Woman.  And it’s about damn time that she got what she, what we all, deserve.

 

Another round of shameless self promotion

Another reminder, that yes indeed, I have written a book or two in my time (two, to be exact).

First, picture of a cute fox.

Now onto the books.

From time to time I’ll post up information about the first book I’ve written, called the Adventures of Black Mask & Pale Rider.  Here’s a little synopsis about the book, which is a western/fantasy.

Elven magic meets gunslinger grit. What happens when two elven travellers find themselves in the United States in the middle of the Civil War? The Adventures of Black Mask and Pale Rider tells the story of two elven women who’s curiosity gets the better of them.

The wild ride takes them from the Union to the Confederacy and back again. Along the way they make enemies and friends and learn a little bit about this world, and about themselves. An adventure of six guns and sorcery.

The Adventures of Black Mask & Pale Rider isn’t the only book I’ve written, Canyons of Steel is also available.  Here’s a quick synopsis.

What happens when an old gun hand makes a decision to turn his life around and set a new course? In Canyons of Steel, Johnathon Tiberius Walker makes the choice of turning his back on the underground military of the Red Hand and try to make right his own sins. All because he wants his daughter to live in a better world than he does.

Both my first book, Black Mask & Pale Rider, and my second book, Canyons of Steel, are available for purchase online through many different online book sellers.

Lulu.com (where both books were published)

1. Tim Holtorf Author Spotlight the front page store for my books on lulu.com.

Amazon.com (both in paperback and in kindle versions)

1. The Adventures of Black Mask & Pale Rider
2. Canyons of Steel

Amazon.co.uk (both in paperback and in kindle versions)

1. The Adventures of Black Mask & Pale Rider
2. Canyons of Steel

Amazon.ca (price not listed and currently out of stock)

1. Canyons of Steel

Barnes & Noble (for the Nook)

1. The Adventures of Black Mask & Pale Rider

iTunes iBook store

1. The Adventures of Black Mask & Pale Rider

Related articles

• …and the gunslinger followed (taholtorf.wordpress.com)
• Have to do the work (taholtorf.wordpress.com)

 

As one gets older

As you get older, you start to realize that the time goes by fast.  A day doesn’t take any time at all, and an hour may as well be a minute sometimes.

When I was younger, I remember times that I’d wish for the days to go by because I was going to go to Saskatoon to visit my grandparents for a week, and go to the Saskatoon Exhibition.  The time wasn’t going fast enough for my tastes.  Now, I try very hard to live each minute to the fullest.  No matter what I’m doing.  I could be reading or watching television or going for a walk or working at my desk.  Each minute that passes I take in stride, and try to make it as full filling for me.  Doing things for others is incredible work, but from time to time you have to be selfish.  And that means taking time for yourself.

Now, as I’m older, time flies by all too quickly.  One season into the next.  Summer, my favourite of the seasons (fall holds a close second) feels like it’s gone in a matter of minutes.  There are things in ones life that comes up that you look forward to, but there’s also today and the next day that we have to live through before getting to that special event.  Some days are enjoyable, some days are a drag, but each day should be approached with optimism.  Winter, on the other hand, doesn’t go by fast enough.

We can plan for each day that comes around, or we can take what comes and enjoy the small things.  When we try to slow things down so that each day rolls by as slowly as it did in our youth, then maybe we’ll grow more appreciative of not only the day itself, but of everything around us.  It’s a very “stop and smell the roses” kind of attitude, but it makes a lot of sense.  Don’t panic, things will always work out, especially if you can plug away and gain some progress.  Be determined, and be positive.  And if there are certain things you need help with, never be afraid to ask.

When I was younger, I couldn’t wait to be older.  Now that I am, I often long for simpler times when I was 12.  However, there would be a number of things I would not have experienced.

I know this has sounded like a rather cliche post, all positive vibes and such.  I guess I needed a little bit of that right now considering I’ll be moving to Humboldt in the next couple of weeks.  Which does lead into the next thing I’ve learned.  Each move is an opportunity.  Each new chapter is a chance to learn something new.  You just have to approach it with a good sense of self and a lot of determination.  Always be open and willing to change.  A lack of change can end up forcing one to end up in the same rut, which is the opposite of progress and even the antithesis of happiness.

 

The move

The past few days on twitter, I’ve been posting photos of things being packed into boxes.  Mostly books and DVDs, but there’s a great deal more that needs to get pushed into different boxes and some things that need to be thrown away or sold.  The reason is simple.  I’m moving.  Or at least, I will be moving.  I still need to find a comfortable and affordable apartment in my new location, which is something that will happen over the next few days.

A canola field just outside of Young, SK on the way to Humboldt.

I will be moving to Humboldt, about an hour and a half north east of Saskatoon.  I’m not moving because I want to, I’m moving because I need to.  It’s a case of economics.  Things happen in business that are often beyond the control of those who are a part of it.  In this case, the newspaper I work for isn’t making enough money to support three full time people.  So one of us has to either go to part time, or find something else.  Fortunately, thanks to the larger company that owns the newspaper, finding a new position isn’t that hard.  I’ve already gone to Humboldt and spoken with the people there.  It’s just a matter of finalizing the pay grade and going from there.

This is Highway 15 east of Kenaston. This is actually the good part of Highway 15. I cannot, in good conscious, call most of Highway 15 a road.

My work will be similar there as to what I’m doing now, except I’ll be focusing more on the actual paper instead of doing commercial printing jobs as well.  It’s kind of exciting, because there’s a lot more people that work in the office.  Humboldt itself is a much larger community.  In Saskatchewan, Humboldt is classified as a city, even though it’s about 6,500 in population.  All the shops and services are there that I need, and if there’s something that I can’t find it’s not that long a drive to the city.  Or, as I’ve found, I can always buy it online.

There is some regret, naturally.  Along with a huge amount of anxiety.  There’s people who would embrace a move with vim and vigour, but I’m not one that likes moving.  There’s all the things that are involved in order to get yourself planted into the new place you have to go to.  Sometimes I wish that you could skip all of the stuff that’s involved in preparing to move such as finding a new apartment, getting all of the proper power, phone and so on cancelled in your old place and turning it on in your new place.  And then there’s the moving of all your things.  It’d be nice if you could have furniture like paper plates.  Just recycle them when you’re done with them, and buy a bunch of new ones when you get to your new place.

While there’s a huge amount of anxiety, there’s also a lot of excitement.  A new place to explore and possibly help recharge creative juices.  Looking toward new people to meet and new things to see.  Along with new photos to take, because honestly one can only take so many pictures of Skytrail.  It’s a lovely structure, admittedly, but I think I’ve taken enough pictures of it from many different angles.

For now, there’s still a lot of work to be done, and I still have a great deal of work at my present location.  I haven’t even left Outlook, and I find I already miss places and people here.  I’ve been living here for nine years.  In the grand scheme of things that is life, nine years isn’t a very long time.  But when weighed against the career I’ve had previously, it was a very long time.  Outlook has been a comfortable setting and an excellent place to live and work.

You have to find the positives in a move like this.  There are several to be had.  The new position I found came quickly, it was found for me thanks to the company I work for.  In Humboldt, they’re looking for someone who wants to stay long term, which I’m definitely up for.  It’s a larger working environment with more staff and opportunities to learn new techniques.  I only hope that I can live and work (and write) for as long in Humboldt as I have in Outlook.

Good grief, I’ll be 52 by then.  How the time goes by.