My Bucket is Full

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Hello My Imaginary Friends,

I’m struggling this week. I know most of us are struggling right now. In my part of the world, we’re in the second wave and I’m not sure people understand what that means.

Bucket

Pegasus is not good at having his sleep cycle disturbed. Last Friday we slept in and didn’t wake him early enough and he refused to nap, then he fell asleep playing (twice) and I was up until 2am with him for the next two nights. We’re just now getting his schedule back in order.

Work has also been super busy and stressful. Report season in fall and spring has stressed me out for over a decade. I should honestly be better at it by now. With the season change comes a new set of allergies and a huge uptick in the pain in my hands.

So I’m feeling like I have a bucket for stress and my bucket is starting to flow over. I’ve started feeling overwhelmed. This morning I got an email and I couldn’t process it. It just went in one ear and out the other. I’ll get back to it later today and try again.

My way of dealing with new stress this week.

Trapped

The stress, the pandemic, politics, pain, allergies, and not-sleeping have me feeling trapped. Not by my life, not by my house, and certainly not my family. I feel trapped in a need to be productive. I’m missing having days were I don’t have to do anything. Where I can wake up and just do whatever I want. Six years ago I decided I wanted to try and roast coffee. I binge watched Gilmore Girls and made buttons. I haven’t had one of those days in a while. It’s part of getting older and having more responsibilities, along with being limited in what I can do because of the pandemic. As the kids get older and don’t need naps, and there’s a vaccine, I’ll be able to just spontaneously decide to take a day off and go to a museum or to a park with them, that’ll be nice.

Grief

My mom’s mother died when my mom was 5. Every chance we got we’d come to Ottawa to visit my grandmother’s siblings that acted like grandparents. I found out that the last of that generation passed away on Monday at 85.

My last phone call with her she sounded tired but hopeful. Because of health issues and the pandemic, she never met Pegasus but met Dragon a few times. She was a fantastic painter, wonderful hugger, terrible cook, and lovely person. I’m going to miss her.

Hope

My bucket is full but I’ll scoop it out, or drink from it, or something… (this metaphor seems to be getting away from me.) The point is, I’ll be okay. The nights will start freezing away the allergens, the weather with stabilize as much as it ever does, work will become less hectic, the stress will abate. It’s just a matter of dealing with it and taking deep breaths.

I have toddler, child, and wife hugs to keep me going, coffee to roast, and more pumpkin things to bake.

I’ll be okay but I’m struggling.

Stay safe and be kind,

Éric

Doctor vs Dalek

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Authors Nathan Frechette and Cait (pronounced Cat) Gordon cosplayed together as the Fourth Doctor and a Winter Dalek! Books by both of them can be found here.

This was the cosplay that Cait wore when she first met Nathan and gave a surprise pitch of her book!

Week 6 – ParaNorman

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I’m going to be honest with you here; I BARELY remember this movie. I saw it in theatres, loved it, bought it, and haven’t seen it since. I’m pretty sure Dragon will love it, so here it is. Warning: could be a bit scary for younger audiences.

Here is the link for the downloadable materials. (Again, please let me know if you have any problems so I can fix it!)

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
Watch movieTake stop motion picturesPut pictures together into movieMake shoebox dioramaFlex
Summary of the week

Daily details:

Dance

Ballet and martial arts on alternate days

Music

Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano

Crochet

The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho)

Basic Information

We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.

Printing words

Download materials

Counting objects/math-type activities

Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type – in download materials

How many zombies were on the council? (7) How many were judges? (1) How many were not judges? (6)

Count fairy tale objects (like beans or coins)

Storytime

Fairy tales

Activity

Film script in stop-motion (2 days: taking the pictures + putting them together on computer, find music to go with it)

Make a shoebox diorama (web instructions)

Next week: Curious George Halloween!

Week 4 – Tinker Bell Results

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Other than a few tech issues on the teacher’s side of things (videos not broadcasting properly, etc), virtual school went well this week. Dragon had to be coaxed to talk to the teachers, but she really opened up about Miraculous Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir (we had watched the new movie the night before and she was really excited about it.)

The home school portion was a lot of fun this week, with a nature walk, building a new LEGO kit, and putting together a new and challenging puzzle as the major activities.

Dance

I kind lost track of how many times we did ballet this week. Essentially, I do this whenever she stops sitting still, so more often on some days than others.

Music

First piano lesson happened this week! She paid attention and tried really hard. She started to hold her hands properly and knows where middle C is. Whole notes (doughnut) count to 4, half notes (doughnut with a stick) count to 2.

We listened to a bunch of French music. Coeur de Pirate was the favourite yet again and I am thrilled because it is a beautiful album.

Crochet

We managed to get a few more stitches in on Friday. This is definitely the category we do the least, as it involves me not crocheting on my own project in order to help her with her own.

Basic Information

We played with the days of the week (twice) and the months of the year (once). It’s going to be a pretty steep learning curve, I think. She’s able to separate the days of the week into English and French. After watching the journées de la semaine video (thank you, Mme Samaké), she was able to remember the days of the week in French, which is pretty exciting. This was the first time she saw the months, so that was a bit difficult. I definitely consider this a work in progress.

Printing words

The words were very long this week. I think this was the point that I realized I should be trying to make the answers be words that she will actually remember. (hopefully – I made these worksheets at the beginning of August so I don’t actually remember)

  • I trace words!
  • I write words!

Counting objects/math-type activities

Her numbers have really improved in the few short weeks since we started doing this. I’m so impressed and love seeing the progress!

  • I forgot to get a picture of the traced numbers, but here is the second one

Storytime

We read a couple small books together.

Activity

Nature walk – look for different kinds of leaves, acorns, maple keys, flowers, etc. Because this week was incredibly rainy, only Thursday had no rain, so we didn’t pick up leaves and stuff. Instead, I had Dragon bring her camera along and she took pictures of things she found interesting!

My pictures:

  • Grand-dad accompanied us for the first little bit
  • Taking a picture of a picture of a leaf
  • On the bike path

Dragon’s pictures:

Build a Lego kit – This was the only thing that we bought in preparation for teaching Dragon at home (that wasn’t necessities like a bookcase for storage or a computer). We had many books and craft supplies generously donated by a couple people, so we were fortunate in that respect.

  • A new LEGO kit!
  • All the pieces
  • Does it match?
  • I think I’ve got it
  • I’ve got it!
  • Complete!!

Puzzle – put a puzzle together. I gave her several options, all of puzzles she hadn’t done before. She decided to do the 200 piece Little Mermaid puzzle. She was elated and frustrated by turns, but in the end, it only took her about 3 hours to do the whole thing. I’m very proud of her.

  • Start with the edge pieces…
  • Flounder and King Triton were easy to place
  • Ariel next…
  • Start on the statue
  • End of day 1
  • More of the statue
  • Ah, Ariel’s tail
  • Putting in the last piece!
  • Complete!!

The Holiday Shopping List

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Hello Fellow Small Business owners,

I’ve seen a lot of social media posts about how we should support small business. The problem with those posts is finding them again and getting more than just other business owners to look at them.

For that reason JenEric Designs and Creative Ottawa Nerds (CON) have teamed up to create a list of 30 Canadian artists and artisans that have something to offer for the holiday season.

Beyond the list, we will create a post each day in November that highlights one of the vendors.

For those of you that need holiday shopping ideas, keep an eye on this blog. The list will be up November 1st.

As more vendors join, we will add their logos to the banner.

For those of you that would like to participate please email us at JenEricDesigns (at) gmail.com Subject: Holiday Shopping List with the following information.

  • Business Name:
  • Business URL(s):
  • Description of your products/store:
  • Final Shipping Date for Holidays:
  • Sales or coupons:
  • Photos: 1 logo, 3-6 product pictures (each must be smaller than 2mb)

This will be first come first serve. We will accept a maximum of 30 vendors. No resellers.

There will be a $5 fee for being listed. All money collected will be used to boost a post on CON’s Facebook page promoting the list.

Thank you and I hope you have a happy and profitable holiday season!

JenEric Designs and CON

Journey to the Center of the Earth and Journey 2: The Mysterious Island – JenEric Movie Review

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How This Works – Read Other Reviews

Hello Cinephiles,

Today we’re talking about the 2008 movie Journey to the Center of the Earth and the 2012 movie Journey 2: The Mysterious Island.

Story

Journey 1

The movie adheres really closely to the original novel. I’m impressed that they were able to create a world where the book exists and then manage to follow almost exactly the same plot.

I’m impressed at the funeral scene where they spent the time to let the two male characters grieve and cry on camera. It’s not often you see men show emotions.

I like that they made the guide a woman and made her hyper competent, but I could have done without the awkward love story.

Score: 0.5

Journey 2

The movie doesn’t follow the story line of the book but that’s probably a good thing. The code breaking at the beginning and the diverse cast is awesome. I found the movie lagged a little as they traipsed around the island from one set piece to another.

The emotion in this one felt a little stilted compared to the first. The “pecs” talk was awkward until the berry part.

It’s a very linear movie without much surprise.

Score: 0.5

Characters

Journey 1

There are three characters in the movie. The dorky scientist that morphs into an action hero, the scared kid who goes on an adventure, and the beautiful and competent mountain guide with daddy issues. The movie spends very little time on any development for the characters, even forgetting the scientists awkwardness mid-movie in order to have him punching things and ripping off his sleeves. They are static but not offensive or flat.

Score: 0.5

Journey 2

The sullen kid became a sullen teen. The rest of the cast is entertaining if borderline annoying. The Rock infuses his character with enough charisma to make him likeable as does Michael Caine.

Vanessa Hudgens is great but has no real reason to fall for the charmless main hero. Luis Guzmán’s character is absolutely fantastic, funny and relatable.

Score: 0.5

Dialogue

Journey 1

The banter between the three characters ranges from dumb to entertaining. Thankfully there’s a lot more quips than awkward flirting.

Score: 0.5

Journey 2

The dialogue between the love interests is stilted and awkward, hopefully on purpose, same with the dialogue overall. Other than a few good lines it was pretty bad.

Score: 0

Visuals and Music

Journey 1

This movie was designed to be shown in 3D in the height of 3D stupidity. To the point where they added extra gags just for the effect. I hate that. The technology and special effects should always work for the story not the other way around. Despite that, the special effects were passable and the scenery was cool.

The music was utterly forgettable but not bad.

Score: 0.5

Journey 2

The special effects are enhanced and take much too much time from the meagre story. (I sound like a grumpy critic.) It’s pretty, but not great. Again, the 3D for 3D’s sake is tiresome.

The soundtrack is meh, nothing exciting. I enjoyed the songs.

Score: 0.5

Fun

Journey 1

I like the book, I liked the old movie from the 50’s, and I had fun with this one. There’s thrills and adventure throughout along with two very pretty leads. I also enjoyed how much my daughter got into the film and reacted to the young boy’s perils.

Score: 1

Journey 2

I’m not as big a fan of the books this was based on. I liked Treasure Island, hated Gulliver’s Travels, and was indifferent towards Mysterious Island. There were a lot of exciting moments but the fun was in the, rarer, character interactions.

Score: 0.5

Overall

Journey 1

This is a fun, easy, and exciting movie. Not the greatest and maybe a little forgettable but fun to watch.

Final Score: 3 Stars out of 5

Journey 2

There was too much time spent of visual gags and action set pieces when this sort of story is supposed to showcase the characters in between. The action often replaces character development instead of accelerating it.

Overall it was fun, but lacked substance.

Final Score: 2 Stars out of 5

S.M. Carrière and I discussed and reviewed Journey to the Center of the Earth from 1958 on the Night at the Round Table. Have a look here:

Renaissance Virtual Conference – October 23-24, 2020

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Hello Book and Coffee Lovers,

Éric Desmarais Author and JenEric Coffee & Crochet will be in attendance for the second Renaissance Virtual Conference.

JenEric Coffee & Crochet will be in the vendors room for the show.

Éric will have 2 panels:

4 PM – 5 PM EDT: THE END (Saturday October 24 2020): This panel discusses how to write a satisfying ending and why it’s so important. 

10 AM – 11 AM : I know that place! (Sunday October 25 2020):This panel discusses the challenge of using real places in fiction. How do you avoid problems? How to futurize a location? What are common pitfalls in using real locations?

Go register now (It’s a free conference)

Hope to see you there,

Éric

Week 5 – Halloweentown

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My Dragon LOVES Halloween, so we’ll be watching Halloween movies all month! I didn’t watch this movie until I was already an adult, so there’s no nostalgia for me, but it’s super cute and Dragon loves it.

Here is the link for the downloadable materials. (Again, please let me know if you have any problems so I can fix it!)

MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
Watch movieDraw monster maskHalloween scriptHalloween storyboardFlex
Summary of the week

Daily details:

Dance

Ballet and martial arts on alternate days

Music

Singing, listening to different pieces, learning piano

Crochet

The project she is working on (currently she is making herself a poncho)

Basic Information

We talk about the days of the week and play games with the cutouts of the names. We do the same thing with the names of the months of the year. You can find the print-outs here.

Printing words

Download materials

Counting objects/math-type activities

Practice counting objects and writing how many of each type – in download materials

There are how many children in the family? How many girls? How many boys?

Count and group with cheerios/chocolate chips

Storytime

Activity

Draw a monster mask (web templates)

Write a short Halloween script (2 days: writing + storyboarding)

Next week: ParaNorman!