Category Archives: Nature

Icy shore Lake Ontario and sunset

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I made this short video the other day on a walk to the shore of Lake Ontario.

I liked how the ice had formed on the tree branches from the splashing of the waves — that should tell you how cold it was!

The sunset was very red and vivid that day, and I tried to capture some of it at the end of the video. It was filmed on a pocket HD camera (very handy!) so the iris was automatic and closed down some, otherwise I’d have adjusted it to give a better exposure on the sunset. Still, I think it’s a fun little video for what it is. If you look closely, you’ll see the ducks swimming, cavorting, and bathing in the frigid. rough water.

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Recently Published: MIB Files: Bigfoot Hunter – Tales Of The Men In Black

“The cry from the creature rang out in the misty night air, waking up Chuck Panter and his family in their tent.” In this installment of the MIB Files, Mr. Unknown presents the story of an encounter with the mythical forest creature who draws the attention of the Men in Black. Disclaimer: This is an original work, not based in any way on the popular movie series “Men in Black”.

Get it direct from me via Gumroad: https://gumroad.com/l/JNtEw I like to sell my work from there, as I get better royalty rates than other distributors and more control over how I distribute my work. They are available in the formats: EPUB, MOBI, PDF and there is a Send to Kindle function. Gumroad is Paypal enabled! Thank you for supporting an independent writer!

The story is also on all the major ebooks sites for the regular price:
Amazon (Direct link: http://amzn.to/1VdsYHP)
iTunes, Nook, Kobo, Smashwords, Google Play, and more: https://davidsloma.com/book-stores/

Saving my rotting cactus 8/9 – Oct 2015 Cactus cut part rotting

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The section I cut from the main cactus in June 2015 (see the video on this) only made it until October 2015 when rot overtook it. Think it got too wet being outside in the open, as we had a lot of rain. The main plant is still fine (it was under cover), see the update for October 8, 2015 on the main plant: https://youtu.be/Bx9K0r6ocxg

See my book 3 years in the making: “Saving My Rotting Cactus” (ebook or paperback) http://amzn.to/1xteqdM and my site for other places to buy the book and a lot more: https://davidsloma.com

You can also buy the ebook right from me (via Gumroad.com) and I retain a larger royalty this way, and more control over the distribution of my work. Thank you for supporting an independent writer! https://gumroad.com/l/sfHd#

https://www.youtube.com/user/RockinFilms/videos

Crickets tell the temperature

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I love the sound of crickets at night, making their mating calls! I believe it’s only the males that make the sounds.

Near where I live is a large field with a lot of crickets! At night (and even at times in the day) they make a lot of what some might call “racket” but I call music to my ears.

Did you know you can tell the temperature outside by counting the frequency of the cricket’s chirps and a little math? It’s true! This is how you do it, and I’ve tried it and it works: http://www.almanac.com/cricket-chirps-temperature-thermometer

Here is a video I recently made of the crickets nearby at night:

Night crickets walking

There’s more on my YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/RockinFilms

Dreams Come True

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I’m sitting in a park writing this. Why? Because I can, and because it’s a dream come true.

With my ThinkPad X60 in the park, my "office" today.

With my ThinkPad X60 in the park, my “office” today.

Decades ago I worked in towers. Specificlly, the tall office towers of downtown Toronto that I can now see far in the distance (I’ll put a pic up).

They were great for getting a view in, but were not someplace I wanted to remain for long.

The Towers

The Towers

Those towers are tiny to me, now, from my view in the park and seem like toys. They are in dream-scale, like they might not even be real. That’s how I feel about my past, and what has lead me to here and now.

When I worked in those tall towers, I was young, just eighteen and out of high school. I worked for six months in those towers, and I swore I would not end up working there for the rest of my life. I finished up there and went back to school, to university to study Creative Writing.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have the opportunities back then that writers and content producers have today to self-publish on such a grand level. Also, I had done some buying into the erroneous belief that it was not possible to make a living on your art; what a foolish notion to entertain.

Many years went by, and I had even more jobs of different kinds, most of them in offices, too. But I still was not living my dream, and that was to do my creative work full time: writing, filmmaking and other art forms, too..

Suddenly the other day, I looked up from my computer and realized that I was now, in fact, doing what I had been craving to do for all these years! I was working on my writing, film and video making, and other art with all of my time and effort (though, when you are doing what fulfills you, and makes you happy, I don’t think it needs to be called “work”).

There were many times through those years past that I thought my dreams and goals were so far away that I might never reach them. However, I am living a lot of them, now.

I still have many goals and dreams to realize and strive for, as it’s on ongoing process.

But, I just wanted to say that dreams do come true, and you can do what means most to you in life. Just keep going when it’s tough to do so, and know they are real.

 

From the park “office,”
-Dave

A good day for a park "office" visit.

A good day for a park “office” visit.

p.s. Posted this to my blog from the park, too.