My life doesn't need a movie... But it needed something.

As many, if not most, of you know I was in the Military (that was a fun time). Most of you also know that I spent a little time in Afghanistan (also a fun time). Well, it’s hard to believe but, that tour was ten years ago now.  Ten years.  TEN YEARS.  

Sorry, I tripped out for a second there. Where was I?  Oh yes, ten years ago I stepped foot in Afghanistan and forever changed my life. Not in the way that I would feel the need to write a memoir about my tour, or that my tour deserved a movie, but in some different way I can't explain. A way that gave me a sort of appreciation for daily life I guess.

After I had been back in Canada for about five years, I left the military. That’s when I started to go through some sort of weird separation anxiety. I wanted so bad just to be in uniform and head back to the sand box where everything made sense. 

Knowing that I couldn’t do that for whatever reason; age, my knees, my wife (take your pick), I started writing down a list of my experiences. Not a memoir, a list. It's totally different. After a two-thousand-word list (chapter), I was out of material. But damn did it feel good to get that out of me. I set that Word document aside and continued on with my life for another year. 

The following year, I was cleaning up my MacBook and happened across the Word document again. So, I popped it open and gave it a quick read through. I thought to myself... damn… this is NOT that interesting. This was by no means a movie worthy story. And on top of it, I only had one measly chapter (list). I'm also not worth any of Hollywood's time. 

As I was about to delete the document, I had a flickering light bulb of an idea. What if this was a work of fiction? Seriously. Why not? A movie or story about my life is not that interesting, but maybe one about someone else and their life is. So, I started hammering on the keyboard. Started changing some names, details and locations. Before I knew it, the two-thousand-word "memoir" was now a three-thousand-word, two-chapter short story. The bonus was that I felt just as good as I had a year prior when I wrote the first time.

From there, I set a schedule. Once a week, I’d hammer out at least five-hundred words and if I couldn’t, I’d at least make some notes on the direction I wanted the story to go. Needless to say, I did NOT stick to that schedule. This is A Procrastinators Blog after all, we don’t do things on a schedule. 

I would occasionally open up my short story over the next couple of years and add things here and there. By the summer of 2017, I had four chapters and a clear direction of where the story was headed. Then, and this is where it gets a little interesting, I did something unexpected. I printed a copy of the chapters and showed it to my wife (I wasn't even drunk!). And then I gave a copy to my sister (I was a little drunk). This was one of the most stressful moments of my life.  I had taken something that had taken me a few years to create and asked someone what they thought of it. As someone who sucks at drawing, can't build things and has always said he wasn't creative. This. Was. Stressful.

But, boy am I glad I did that. The adrenaline rush I got from that was like a shot of Red Bull to the heart. In the next four months I took their feedback and my little four-chapter short story and turned it into a little eighteen-chapter novel. Yep. I had written a book.

Now, this wouldn’t be a true procrastinators story without a little more procrastination. I set that first draft aside for another six months before I opened it back up to edit and review it. Telling myself “You gotta review that book before summer.”  Naturally, I didn't do that at all. I actually didn't touch the damned thing until June of this year. From there though, I spent the better part of the summer editing, changing, adding and erasing content from this book until I had something I felt was worth more than just my family reading. 

It’s amazing how the story has changed so much over the years. But I couldn’t be happier with the final product. I’m incredibly excited that after four years my first book, an ebook, is titled ‘Insurgent Fire’, and is releasing on October 1st, 2018. And it’s available now for pre-sale on Kobo ereaders and Amazon Kindle. As well as the Kobo app for iOS or Android!

It’s been an amazing journey from stress release and self-care to the creative process of thinking up all the details of a full-fledged story. I couldn't have done it without your support either. That's right, you, reading this blog, have helped me build up the courage I needed to release a book.  So thank you.

I hope you enjoyed this and if you're interested in checking out my ebook 'Insurgent Fire', you can find it at the following Kobo or Amazon links:

https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/insurgent-fire

https://www.amazon.ca/INSURGENT-FIRE-D-S-Cannon-ebook/dp/B07GSJ62P9/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1535115538&sr=8-1&keywords=insurgent+fire

That's enough for now, and remember:

"Procrastination means you have nothing to do today, and something to do tomorrow." - Unknown

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Having A Dog Is Basically Like Having A Kid

It's not.  I know that.

I personally don't have children.  But my friends do and they've told me the stories.  I've heard about the two a.m. feedings and the constant crying.  The smells.  The liquids... Excuse me while I gag.

That's nothing like having a dog, right?.  Especially when that dog is a chihuahua that weighs less than three pounds.  So why did I draw a correlation between pet ownership and having children?  Good question.  It started one night, a few weeks ago, when we were abruptly woken up by the sound of dry-heaving at Zero Dark Thirty. By the time we were awake enough to realize what was wrong, our aforementioned three pound chihuahua had thrown-up on our duvet.  Not a big deal, she's little, and her stomachs little, so her barf should be little.  I fumble for my phone (yes, despite my last post about airplane mode, I still keep my phone next to my bed), and flip on the flashlight.

Photo by Mike Wing, Wing Studios

I saw what I can only describe as a mountain of partly digested dog food in the centre of our black and purple space-themed duvet cover.  Seriously, I think there were tiny adventurers already reaching the summit!  I gave her a quick pat on the back to comfort her, but also to make sure she's not hurt anywhere.

I made my way out to the kitchen to grab the paper towel when I hear her dry-heaving again.  Seriously?  Like, how much do you even have in there?  I made my way back to the bedroom, paper towel and disinfectant wipes in hand just as another "large" glob of foamy bile and undigested dog kibble land on our duvet cover, adding a second peak to Mount Barf.  So there I am at two a.m., cleaning up vomit and thinking of my poor friends with kids who could be doing the exact thing at that exact moment.

Now, if you've made it this far in reading this post I bet you're either one of two things; disgusted about the barf chat, or starting wonder why we weren't rushing her to the after hours vet clinic.  Well, four years ago, we would have been out the door before I even attempted to clean our bed.  Much like our kid-having friends when they were new parents we would have wanted to get our little one to a doctor as fast as possible. 

The best part about sharing your space with something you need to care for such as a animal or a tiny human is that you get to learn and grow.  Over the course of the last five years of sharing our lives with this tiny creature we have come to learn all of her little quirks that make up her little personality.  The night she got sick, as I was cleaning up her mess, I thought back to what she had eaten that day:

• the same grain free dog food she's eaten since we got her (no issue there)
• her little bite treats (nope, not it)
• a piece of dehydrated beef liver (maybe, but doubtful)
• a chunk of hot dog bun (ding! we have a winner)

We've come to realize that this little Chihuahua has such a sensitive stomach that any tiny deviation in her diet results in an upset.  And this was quite an upset.  For those of you who are still concerned we didn't see a vet, don't worry, I kept a close eye on her over the weekend and within a day, she was back to being the yippy little cuddle factory that she is.

So, to all the parent's out there:  I may not fully know the horrors and joys you face with your kids, but I feel your pain in the middle of the night when you're trying to help a little creature who doesn't know what's happening.

Time to bounce,

D.S. Cannon

You "Should" Use Airplane Mode More Often

So, I have a pretty decent phone plan.  Well, it's okay.  The price is right.  Anyway...  We recently spent about a week at our trailer and within the first hour of arriving I receive a text message.  "You've exceeded your monthly data by 1GB so far this month."  Well damn.  I'm not near WiFi and don't plan to be for a week, so damn, what do I do?  I instantly placed my phone on Airplane Mode.

The first day wasn't so bad... What am I saying! It was awful!  Checking my phone has become such a habit that I was still looking at this thing constantly even though I could only use it for phone calls (ew) and pictures.  We eventually decided to go sit by the lake and so I left my phone behind.  It was such a relaxing time that I completely forgot about my phone.  We watched these white and grey birds dive in and out of the water catching fish.  We argued over whether they were Kingfishers or Black Skimmers.  We read books.  We splashed around in the lake.  It was great.  By the time we made our way back to the trailer, refreshed and sunburned, my phone was not even on my mind.  We fired up the barbecue and had a couple of cold drinks.  After dinner we continued to just relax and read and watch the sunset (super cheesy but also super adorable).

The next day went much smoother.  My phone stayed inside and we, for the most part, stayed outside.  I would occasionally grab my phone to play a quick round of some little tank game that does not require internet, but for the most part, I was free.  A few more days of a phone-less existence went just as well.  No.  It went better.  I had not felt as relaxed as that in a long time and it was all because my obsession with my phone put me over my data.  Well, and my fear of being charged an obnoxious amount for doing so.

What I learned from this was, Airplane Mode is a really good thing.  After a while of not receiving any notifications, I slowly disconnected myself from my phone.  We spent the rest of our trailer time chatting with neighbours, having a few drinks, taking our dogs for a swim and relaxing at the beach.

Before I get into the "People need to disconnect more" speech I'll start with this: I know you can't just disconnect.  You're busy, I'm busy and not having that phone handy is not really an option.  Once my billing period reset I flipped that Airplane Mode switch so hard my screen cracked (not really).  After a day or so of heavy phone usage, I checked my used data.  To my surprise I had used nearly 1GB already.  After seeing that figure, I decided I needed to make a little change, at least for the rest of the summer.  I'm turning off my data.  That way, I can still use WiFi when at home or a friends and calls (ew) or messages will still come through.

I'll leave you with this:

Disconnecting is not always an option, but shutting off your data access can be.  You can at least disconnect from data heavy social media sites.

Thanks for listening!

D.S. Cannon

I'll Finish This Later...

I've said those words more times than I can count. From the two unread books next to my bed, the countless Netflix series, the four unpublished blog posts on this site and other writings I'm not sure if it's just the summer months or my "busy" life but I just cannot seem to finish things these days.

My attempt at getting back into reading came after Game of Thrones Season six ended, I know that was a while ago, but I set out to read the first book before Season seven aired.  It's a long read, but I had a year to do it.  So, I went to Chapters in Toronto just before a plane ride to Nashville and picked up the book.  I had it all planned out, I have the time spent waiting at the airports for our flights, two plane rides and some down time on our trip to get to reading.

So, we get to the airport terminal and we had about three hours to kill before our flight.  The military taught me very early on that if you're not early for something, then you're late.  As I rummaged through my bag for my newly purchased copy of A Game of Thrones my phone buzzed.  I delayed my search for the book to check my phone, after all it could be an important message from a family member.  It was definitely not important.  It was my phone asking me if I would like to connect to the airport WiFi since it remembered the connection from a previous trip.  This is great, I thought.  Now I can watch Netflix.  So I delayed my plan to spend a couple of hours reading, after all I still had the plane ride and everything after.

On the plane and ready to taxi to the runway, I cracked the book.  As I began to read I was relating the story to the show and it was great.  Putting faces to the names, understanding why some things were different and trying to figure out why some things were changed.  I spent the duration of the flight (only 3 hours) reading A Game of Thrones.

And that's where I left it.  The book went back into my backpack and didn't see the light of day for nearly two years when I pulled it out to switch my bags around.  I told myself the entire trip that I need to get back into it, but I always put it off for something else.

Maybe A Game of Thrones was a daunting read for someone who is not much of a reader.  So, maybe I need to start somewhere easier.  Recently, my wife and I purchased the complete Harry Potter series.  She was really interested in getting into them and so we made a trip to a book store and picked them out.  Now I have another book reading plan.  Wait for her to finish a book, then we watch the movie, then I read that book.  And so, I hope with her pressing me to read a series she's interested in maybe I'll get through a book.  Maybe even a series.  I'll let you know how it goes though.

Oh, and for those unfinished blog posts.  I'll finish them later...

Why You Should See A Movie Alone

I’ve recently been to a few movies by myself and I gotta tell you, I’m really digging it.  I used to be of the school of thought that movies are a group activity.  You and a date, a friend or a group of friends just watching a movie and enjoying your time together.  It just sounds right, doesn't it.  And, while it is still a great thing, seeing a movie alone can sometimes be much better.

Here's a few reasons why I think seeing a movie alone is better (sometimes):

1. Cost

Let's get this one one out of the way first because to me, it's the least important.  If you're in a couple, going on a date, or have a family, going to the movies quickly becomes an expensive outing.  Seeing a movie alone allows you to save a little bit of money.  Also, more snacks just for you.

2. Worry-free Viewing

Hitting up a movie you're particularly excited about is always a great feeling.  Whether it's the next installment of your favourite franchise or a new release you just found out about, seeing that movie fills you with a sense of excitement.  Sometimes however, the person you may be seeing that movie with might not want to be there.  I asked my wife to see Star Wars: The Force Awakens with me when it came out and I spent the entire time wondering how she was enjoying it.  I find myself doing this whenever I see a movie with people.  Trying to gauge their reactions rather than just focus on the screen can be exhausting and take away from enjoyment of the movie.

3. Immersion in the Experience

Carrying on from the last point, I feel that seeing a movie by yourself allows a more immersive entertainment experience.  With your entire focus on the screen, you can provide your undivided attention to the movie allowing you to really get into it.  I found myself really tuning out my surroundings and diving into the movie.  As a person who is always on guard and watching the world around him, this was a great feeling.

4.  Self Care

This is a big one.  Self care is such an important process we all seem to neglect.  Really this is to our own detriment.  Spending a couple hours by yourself watching a movie is a great way to just unwind and relieve some stress.  You get to spend some time away from your normal setting of sitting on the couch watching TV, staring at your phone or worrying about life.


I hope you enjoyed hearing my thoughts on seeing a movie alone.  If you haven't tried it, I suggest you get on that.  I know I'll be hitting up the screens by myself a lot more.

Thanks for listening!

D.S. Cannon

This Took Years To Start

Seriously.

This blog took me years to start.  I've always wanted to just sit and write a blog.  Get some thoughts out of my head and onto some paper (electronic paper).  So why didn't I just do it?  I mean, I've always wanted to, right?

Well, I procrastinate.  A lot.

You probably read that and thought "So what.  We all do,"  and, well, you're not wrong.  We all procrastinate.  We all put off doing something and just tell our selves that we're "too busy" or it's "not important right now".  The problem I've noticed about my level of procrastination is that, I will put something off with no excuse.  Or, I'll come up with an elaborate excuse that defies all logic and reason.  At least for my wife.

My first attempt at a blog came from a former job I worked at in 2013.  I was tasked with starting a blog on the companies website.  So I started it right away, after all, I was getting paid to do it.  I spent a week researching topics related to the field I was working in, and... I. Got. Bored.  After another two days, I opened up a news website (CBC, if you were wondering) and the headlining article was about a new Finance Minister.  So, I read through the article and thought about the implications of this Ministers new policies on our prices and our customers.  

It was nothing exciting, but I did it. And the rush I got when someone read it.  I mean, someone read something I wrote.  It wasn't a paper for a class and no one was forced to read it.  Someone took time out of their day to read something that I wrote.   It was exhilarating.  Then, another view.  And Another.  I was on a little bit of a high.  I began thinking of ways to really make this bog fun.  I drafted up a few different posts about me, my life, some things I've done and been through.  This was going to be fun.  I had a blog.

Before I got the chance to upload my second post it was suggested that I make the blog more about the business.  Something that our customers and their customers can read for tips, insights and information.  So my second post became about the benefits to offering financing options.....  

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Sorry, I dozed off just writing that.  The third post wasn't much better.  Over the course of my time at that company I think I maybe totaled five or six posts.  My heart was not in it.  I was turned off blogs for a while.  Occasionally I would read a friends blog and get the itch, but I would always find a reason to not start.  Simple things like, "I need to play XBOX" or, "I should really watch the entire series of Break Bad right now."

So, here goes.  I'm starting my blog.  Almost five full years after I planned on doing it.  Bear with me.  It's going to be a slow ride for now.  But hopefully I'll have something to offer you.

D.S. Cannon