I’ve always loved cycling, but I’ve had little time to do it lately. (Child, writing, day job, etc.) So it was lovely to get out for a ride the other day. Although it’s clear I’m not in the same shape I used to be….

The photo was taken on the Golden Ears Bridge connecting Langley and Maple Ridge. It’s one of my favourite places to ride because of the great views in all directions, second only to the Lions Gate Bridge. The filter was courtesy of the Picfx app, which has rapidly become my go-to photo app.

Image is of Cultus Lake in B.C. It’s also the reason I didn’t get any writing done today. Sometimes you’ve got to get away from the desk and dip your feet in the water. And maybe take a selfie or two.

There are many things that drive me crazy. Other people in grocery stores. The willingness of everyone to divide themselves into left vs. right — can’t we all be ambidextrous? Netflix Canada vs. Netflix USA. But one of the things that drives me craziest is stories ignoring reality just to lazily advance a plot point.

I’m not talking fantasy stories here a la Game of Thrones. I’m talking stories that are supposed to be more or less realistic. Usually TV shows. TV shows are serial offenders.

Last night I was watching a show that I started out enjoying but am slowly growing grumpy about because of this. I like the characters a lot, I love the setting, I find it a good mix of humour and action (and no, I won’t mention the name here as it’s beside the point). But it’s increasingly presenting simply unbelievable scenes to reveal some plot point, get the character from A to B, etc. Last night’s episode involved a police officer helping a suspect in a major crime escape because… well, because the character needed to be somewhere else. That was really the only explanation the script offered. There were no real considerations of the impact of this on the officer’s career, why the other dozen officers at the scene didn’t notice, and so on. It was so completely unbelievable that it threw me out of the show. I skimmed the rest of it and seriously considered giving it up, as I do with most TV shows after a few episodes. Don’t even get me started on the bad guy hiding out of frame in an otherwise empty room, ready to throw a sucker punch….

I know TV writing is hard. There are crazy deadlines you have to meet, you’re always making up the story on the fly, and so on. But is it really worth taking a shortcut if you know it’s going to cost you viewers?

Or maybe I’m just turning into a grumpy old man, like one of those TV characters.

Sometimes there are so many things I could speak out against online, so many people doing nasty, stupid things, but I’m trying really hard to be only positive online, to speak out for things rather than against them. So on days like this, I have nothing to say at all. Instead, I think I’ll just keep on writing.

On a positive note, hey, at least the sun is finally shining in Vancouver.

The Storm Crow Tavern is my favourite pub ever. Ever.

Like most writers, I go out of my way to procrastinate. My distraction drug of choice is apps for my phone and iPad. I try almost every new app that gets the slightest whisper of buzz. I usually trash most of them within a day or two, but every now and then I find one I genuinely like that becomes part of my daily routine (more procrastination!). The latest one is the Sunnycomb app, a cool weather service that lets you see pics of the weather in different parts of the world. It’s user generated, so the quality can be uneven, but it’s got social networking baked in, which is surprisingly fun. I never thought I’d talk to people in other parts of the world about the weather, but there it is.

I was pleasantly surprised the other day to open the app and discover one of my pics had made the photos of the month list for January. (Scroll down until the “zombiedragon” entry — that’s me.) It’s a shot of an empty playground from the gym where I sometimes procrastinate work out. I like the vaguely apocalyptic look of it, which is more or less what winter looks like around here.

If you’re on Sunnycomb, follow me. If you’re not, check it out. There are worse ways to waste time.

While it may look like I took this photo from some desolate spot in the wilderness, as my last chance at salvation passed by without noticing me, I actually took it from the middle of Vancouver. It’s all about perspective. Although the salvation comment still stands.

Yes, it’s been one of those weeks.