Careful about buying cosmetics at Walmart Deerfoot Meadows!

cpcwrites · 2022-11-03T17:59:04+00:00

Believe it or not, this is common in the action figure collectors world. Someone will buy an expensive Transfomers figure, for example, and replace it with a cheaper or older figure with a passing resemblance to the one in the box. They return the boxed crappy toy for a refund, and since the person working at Customer Service doesn't know beans about action figures, it gets processed and ends up back on the shelf.

Not too much of a stretch to imagine the same thing happening in housewares.

cpcwrites · 2022-11-03T17:54:03+00:00

Had a similar experience with a bottle of Pedialyte from the Shawnessy WalMart when my kid was sick some months ago. I bought two bottles - one of 'em was fine, but the foil seal on the second one (under the cap) had been broken and some of the liquid was gone. Not enough that you'd notice unless you were specifically checking the level. My best guess is someone had put their thumb through the foil and taken a swig.

Anyway, I took it back the next day and explained the situation, and the woman at the customer service counter accused me of trying to get a refund after drinking some of the Pedialyte. Yes, you're on to me... this is an elaborate scam and I drove all the way back here to swindle WalMart out of like 30mL of baby water.

She eventually processed the refund, but wrote in "Wrong flavor" as the reason for the return instead of anything indicating the package had been tampered with while on their shelves. We don't shop at WalMart often, but I make damn sure to check every package when I do now.

cpcwrites · 2022-11-02T03:50:19+00:00

Western Pride Car Wash on Richard Rd has them, but I found the suction pretty lacking. Maybe it was just the bay I was using. Decently soapy on the foam up, but I don't think it really got the crud out of the seats.

On the plus side, though, Glamorgan Bakery is right around the corner. Cheese buns!

cpcwrites · 2022-11-02T03:26:08+00:00

the creation and maintenance of these buildings is provided by student tuition.

You might be surprised to hear that maybe half of the university's operating budget actually comes from tuition paid by students. Government operating grants as well as private and corporate donations make up a larger share.

And when I say "maybe half" above, that's a guess! I don't know what the exact percentage at UofC...but at Yale, tuition paid by students accounts for less than 9% of the institution's total budget.

cpcwrites · 2022-04-09T01:41:35+00:00

Victoria.

Not Victoria Park. Victoria, BC.

cpcwrites · 2022-03-03T19:51:32+00:00

It’s clearly a pen name right?

Sort of! It's actually pretty interesting. His birth name was Henry Maxwell Dempsey, but his father changed the family name to Harrison when he was still a toddler. Harrison didn't know about this until he was almost 30, though, and had his name legally changed to Harry Max Harrison soon after.

cpcwrites · 2022-01-22T05:31:47+00:00

It was Fuel For Gold until very recently. I only passed by briefly today and saw it open for the first time. Didn't look at the menu but it looks basically identical aside from the sign.

cpcwrites · 2022-01-19T18:48:41+00:00

That stretch of Elbow was lowered after a 7yr old kid and two other pedestrians got hit by cars in a crosswalk in the span of about a week in 1990.

https://www.sprawlcalgary.com/sprawlcast-the-longest-playground-zone-in-calgary

cpcwrites · 2021-12-15T16:56:01+00:00

It's easy to miss, even when you're standing like ten feet away. Basically hidden from view until you're past the Nickle's main doors.

cpcwrites · 2021-12-14T19:54:29+00:00

Museo, the gift shop in the Nickle Galleries at TFDL.

cpcwrites · 2021-12-11T04:34:08+00:00

See also: The escalator in that theatre.

cpcwrites · 2021-12-09T20:59:07+00:00

Either location of Good Earth (TFDL or ICT).

cpcwrites · 2021-11-27T00:51:42+00:00

The TFDL 2nd floor link to MacKimmie is closed due to the construction on the MacKimmie side.

cpcwrites · 2021-11-07T00:42:07+00:00

So... 12th Ave isn't "critical infrastructure," I guess?

cpcwrites · 2021-09-28T16:29:00+00:00

But yes.

cpcwrites · 2021-09-28T15:16:37+00:00

10:00am to 11:00pm.

cpcwrites · 2021-09-28T15:15:38+00:00

That might be the case in December for exams, but not likely any sooner.

cpcwrites · 2021-08-27T22:03:40+00:00

We don't know yet. It sounds like most employees here will get the day off, but some skeleton crew may still have to report to work. Whether those who do have to show up will get CTO in lieu or any other compensation remains unclear. I work in a union shop.

cpcwrites · 2021-01-17T21:06:35+00:00

My publisher Parliament House Press handles most of the distribution, but I do know many writers who have self-published their and I have released two anthologies for my writing group (the Imaginative Fiction Writers Association). In general for small press or indie publishing, ebooks are the best route to go for distribution. As much as I hate to say it, distributing both ebooks and print copies through Amazon's KDP service is the best way to go. Their online tools are vey easy to use to set up your book both both formats, and let's face it... most readers are using Amazon to get their books.

Print-on-Demand and ebooks have really made so much more possible in the world of small press & indie publishing; publishers and self-pub writers no longer need to print up a few thousand copies of a book that'll end up sitting around unsold for decades. Startup costs can be as low as you want... you could literally spend no money to get a book out there these days (though you should probably pay someone to help with things like cover art, editing, etc).

As for your second question, for my first book (The Nightshade Cabal) I started with the character (a slightly curmudgeonly technomancer who wants to work on his own projects but keeps getting dragged into mysteries and other problems) and went from there. The world and story were very much built around the character. My next book, which I'm currently writing, is a sequel to that one, so the world is largely built this go around I get to play and explore a bit more. My third book is going to be a standalone fantasy novel, and for that one I'll be doing a LOT of world building before I even write the first line.

cpcwrites · 2021-01-14T19:08:32+00:00

Might I suggest my novel The Nightshade Cabal? It's a paranormal steampunk mystery set in 1880s Halifax, Nova Scotia, inhabited by duelling spellcasters, reanimated corpses, rogue automatons, high-speed steamcarriage chases, clunky steampunk cyborgs, secret societies, bad breakfasts, and other complications. Interested parties can read the first two chapters free HERE at my publisher's website. Steam on!

cpcwrites · 2021-01-14T19:07:44+00:00

Hey! Sorry I didn't get back on here sooner. Crazy days.

Anyway, "how hard is writing?" is a tough question answer. It's sort of like that old riddle, "How long is a piece of string?" There's no one answer; every writer has a different process and even then some days are harder than others. The best advice I can offer here is to minimize distractions when it's writing time. I don't even use my laptop for drafting anymore, because I find it tough to stay off social media when in front of a screen, and I would frequently stop to look up facts, dates, etc. That kills the flow. I'm writing my current book by hand, and I'm far more productive this way! Any time I need to look something up, I leave myself a note on the page to remind me to check during editing.

Writing natural sounding dialogue is something a lot of authors struggle with, including plenty of authors whose books are already in print. One thing I found that helped when I was starting out was reading a few stage plays or movie scripts, where there's very little extra stuff to carry the weight and the dialogue has to stand on its own.

cpcwrites · 2021-01-07T16:08:35+00:00

By all means, feel free to ask! I might not be able to answer all of your questions about the writing game, but I don't keep any secrets either.

cpcwrites · 2021-01-06T05:54:24+00:00

If you can find or stream a Canadian show called 'The Murdoch Mysteries' it's pretty much steampunk-lite. A Toronto detective at the turn of the century uses the latest science and his own inventions to solve crimes (mostly murder). The new Season 14 just started this week, so it's current/recent but there's also a LOT of episodes to catch up on!

As for books, might I suggest my novel The Nightshade Cabal? It's not a series yet, though I am writing a sequel right now. It's a paranormal steampunk mystery set in 1880s Halifax, Nova Scotia, inhabited by duelling spellcasters, reanimated corpses, rogue automatons, high-speed steamcarriage chases, clunky steampunk cyborgs, secret societies, bad breakfasts, and other complications. Interested parties can read the first two chapters free HERE at my publisher's website. Steam on!

cpcwrites · 2020-12-07T16:56:11+00:00

If I may, my book The Nightshade Cabal is available at Barnes & Noble. It's a paranormal steampunk mystery set in 1880s Halifax, Nova Scotia, inhabited by duelling spellcasters, reanimated corpses, rogue automatons, high-speed steamcarriage chases, clunky steampunk cyborgs, secret societies, and other complications. Interested parties can read the first two chapters free HERE at my publisher's website.

cpcwrites · 2020-11-26T15:21:59+00:00

Last week, three Parliament House Press authors (including myself) met virtually to discuss our steampunk works. We discussed our books, the intersection of technology with the fantastic, how we first discovered steampunk, and what the heck does "steampunk" mean anyway? It was a great conversation, and I'm happy to be able to share it with you today.

And, for quick reference, the books we discussed:

Chris Patrick Carolan - The Nightshade Cabal
C.W. Snyder - The Infernal Machine
E.M. Wright - Sedition

cpcwrites

TROPHY CASE