Month: January 2023

Now don’t get all riled up but that is pronounced Ah Chill Ess, like how that dude from Indiana State University pronounces it. Not the fancy pants way Ack ill eze that all those learned people say. Ha. Can you imagine? I’m guessing the poor guy wasn’t a history major. At least I hope not, otherwise I’d be very angry at every professor ever whom didn’t bother to correct the pronunciation. Bet that took a while to crawl out from under. Hope that guy has a sense of humor. He’s meme famous now. What a legacy to leave behind.

Oh, in other news I am reading an autobiography by Robert Evans, called “The kids stay in the picture“. It was recommended on Twitter by Pattick Willems of YouTube video essay fame. And I’ll admit, I’m not a golden age of Hollywood buff, but the book is entertaining to say the least. I typically steer clear of non-fiction, and especially peoples life stories. But it has a certain old world charm, and a fluidity to the writing. Dude was an unabashed poon hound and liked to gamble, and flounced all over the place chasing pictures and actresses. It is compelling.

On another front I finally started the VF-1 Valkyrie build up. I nearly lost three excruciatingly small clear plastic light covers. I somehow managed to stay calm and found all three. What luck! So I’m taking my time to clip, file, sand and properly glue up each individual element. Going faster than I thought it would. But I realize – again, why I stopped doing anything in 1/72 scale. The small bits really are just too damn small. Hard to pick up with tweezers. Even harder to manipulate to get into place. I need a magnifying head set, and some kind of a non bounce build tray, as parts fling off and go every where! Maddeningly regular occurrence. Even if I am able to keep a finger nail tip on the piece as I cut it free from the sprue. Still, I persist. I was thinking of painting pieces before assembly, but I think I’ll just have to mask and paint as a whole. I’m going to order the thin profile low tack Tamiya tape, and see if that gets me better results. As I plan to start the resin kit after this Macross Valkyrie is done. Practice, practice, practice!

I managed to get my first large report for 2023 done, operating on international hours as well! It looks pretty vivid with the clients colour scheme. They also had fairly good photos too. I’ve said it before, and I mean it, great photography can really elevate your work. Don’t skimp on that skill set. Seriously.

I have been informed of a whole slew of new projects coming my way. Which is awesome. Doesn’t appear as though I’ll have much of a down period just yet. Which is better for everyone! I hope to keep the work flowing at a slow but steady pace, to try and limit bottle necks, and mad rushes. It won’t always work, but a guy can dream can’t he? Plus if I’m busy working, I’m not getting antsy or bored and spending money. Also a plus. Earn more, spend less on “stuff”. I obviously can’t stop buying groceries or gas for the cars, and covering my work related costs. But by not engaging in retail therapy because I’m bored will go a long way towards building a better financial situation in the future.

I am also going to put some serious thought into what personal wood working projects I want to tackle this year. I want to make a live edge coffee table, so I need to set aside some money for a dried slab of something dark and in the hardwood section. I will need to make my oldest a desk at some point in the next year or two as well, so that will require some drawings and measurements. The family room could do with more shelves that hang off the wall as a contained unit, but not like floating shelves with no sides. The cottage needs more long and thin side tables for the front hallway. Maybe fancy like a trestle table, and not really for storage. So maybe when I grab a slab, I should look into getting more Walnut/Cherry/Mahogany/Hickory to keep on hand.  At some point, several years in the future I want to make myself a dining room table, as our current antique one is massive, and has been badly abused by both children, our former dog, and ourselves over the years. It’s had some hard living as the only table in the house. Scratches, nicks, knocks, water spills, paint, ceramics, plasticine, playdough, kinetic sand scrapes, food, and whatever else two kids under nine could throw at it over the last near decade. Plus the matching side board is equally abused. I’d like to see both items off to a good home, and then build out more upper & lower cabinets, with a desk in the centre, but more for storage. The current antique side board is wide, and deep, but without offering much storage inside it. The bottom 2/3 rds is all open air legs, so can’t store anything there. I think a butcher block top counter with cabinets underneath would serve us better as a family. Need a better place to hide the clutter. Though I imagine by the time I get around to it the kids will be older, and I would think much of the kids mess will have disappeared by then. However we still want a bank of cabinets between the window and the door along the far wall beside the fire place. Built in a fashion to mimic the kitchen. But not with granite counter tops. Something cheaper, like a butcher block. Not that we’d prepare food there, but you could use it for a buffet line when guests come over (if that ever happens again).

Is it really only 9:00am? This is going to be a very long day.

Another freezing rain warning for later on today. Should make the afternoon commute for people an awful white knuckle ride about town. Oh joy! May end up being a walking pick up for 3:00pm today if the roads are horrendous. Which, luckily isn’t really that bad for us. An energetic pace could have us from the school to home in little more than ten minutes. Accounting for the shorter stride of my youngest child. I’ve done it in a panicked 4 minute shamble, after missing a warning alarm on my phone while totally engrossed in a project. So not exactly a hardship to walk. Depends on if it is still raining heavily, the road conditions, how iced over the vehicle is, have the town been out salting before hand. Can I even stand up on the front steps. All of these factors will contribute to the math of whether or not I walk vs. Drive to go get them later today.

The storm could end up canceling the kids evening programming with the town, so I need to get through most of this weeks work by eod today. With tomorrow’s PA Day, I won’t get much done with two bored children at home fighting constantly. Oh, two school aged kids, bored stiff, looking to scrap 24/7 can stay home from school tomorrow to hang out with me all day? Oh joy! Really… you shouldn’t have. This is when my Covid restrictions start to waiver as I think about what we can do to stay occupied and unmurdered. Movie matinee, shopping mall trip, indoor rock climbing, gymnastics camp, a zoo visit, bowling, something, anything to fill the time up, and stop the incessant squabbling. Oh my lord. It’s enough to drive me to want to day drink. Love’em to bits, but good grief.

Hard to believe that it’s Thursday, but here we are. Monday was an oddly long day, and then so was Tuesday. Felt like a weeks worth of things & stuff had happened in those two days alone. Like a week within the week. A recursive loop of days within days within days. A fractal work week of epic proportions. Tiring too. No wonder I chose to go to sleep instead of write about a story idea I had. And poof! Just like that, with a nights sleep the thread of the idea slipped away. At least for now. I thought that for sure when I went grocery shopping and my mind was elsewhere it might come back to me. But no such luck this time. Probably needs more time to bake inside my head. Also – I haven’t done much outside the ordinary, and it was the weirdness of a new activity that sparked my imagination last time. Like climbing into the freezing cold Bobcat last winter, and the icy touch of the seat, metal, dials and levers gave me a great backbone to build a story around. It’s what I imagine a tie fighter interior to feel like because they have no life support systems. At least if you didn’t have gloves or the black self contained flight suit on. Just a thought.

Going to bed used to be so easy. Climb on a mattress and be sound asleep as my head hit the pillow. Now – not so much. Now, after using the bathroom, and turning out the lights, I will try my left side. Then my right side. Stick one leg out over the covers. Maintain the one leg out, then flip onto my belly with my left check pressed to my pillow. Then flip slightly to press my right check into the pillow instead, with an open adjustment of my hips. Feel a slight strain in my neck. Readjust the whole pillow set up. Close my eyes – and wait. Eventually a heaviness comes over me, and I think to myself, if I stay put I will sleep. But if for some reason I need to pee, or worse, then I’ll wake up entirely, and have to restart the process from the very beginning. What used to be instantaneous is now a thirty plus minute endeavour. Good grief.

Good lord do I love that onset of heaviness. It’s like teleporting straight to the future. Unless I’m troubled by night terrors, upset guts, or insomnia. One night of wee hour waking isn’t an issue. But if it happens again? Well now I have a pattern, and that will be my life for days or weeks on end. I hate that. I really, really hate interrupted sleep for no better reason than my body has developed an unruly schedule which I am now a hostage of. How unfair. How disappointing. How dare you! Got’sta haves my sleep homie! Not cool.

This is day 400. Ta-da! Made it. Now what? I had been thinking about an insightful piece to mark the occasion, but I wrote it in a fit of pique a couple of nights ago. So that went out the window. Was thinking about a short story idea last night, but it didn’t grab me enough to write it. And now that thread is gone. At least for the moment. It’s early, and I’m tired. Could come back to me. Probably will as I stand in line to cash out at the grocery store later on this morning. Such is life. Speaking of which, best get moving.

!

Finished the third book last night. On to the fourth one. Keep the ball rolling for as long as it will last.

Busy day type setting twenty pages worth of comments. Not going to be online much today. Ciao Bella.

Time to rise and shine Sonny Jim! Another day, another dollar, another glorious morning with the corps, Hu-rah!

Sometimes I wish I had a hype man to get me moving in the mornings, because I trudge about like partially frozen diarrhea down an iced over pipe. Slow, lethargic, and not very appealing to the eye in the early A.M.

I imagine a blaring speaker that plays Mark Rebillet’s tune called “Your New Morning Alarm” a ten minute long treatise on waking the fuck up, shucking your excuses, and getting some shit done. Give your morning ritual a real kick in the dick, kind of energy. But positive vibes meant to make you feel as though you could really – if you tried – conquer the day. I can dig that.

I just tend to feel unrested, and like total shit first thing in the morning. Not drinking coffee or tea puts a damper on taking in any artificial energy boosts first thing too. Tried it. Hated it. Set off my Crohn’s like a ten pound bag of Taco Bell, while stimuck in traffic, and no napkins or TP in the vehicle with you. Not good. Messy even. A tragedy for me, and whomsoever follows dear old dad into the bathroom. Matches, fans, a courtesy flush. These things are weak compared to the horrendous nature of the inner workings of my GI tract. Woe betide I say. Woe. Betide. Poor ole Woby, getting gassed in his own home. Run. Flee my son! Take foot, and fuck off with you! It’s real. And it’s unpleasant. So no coffee or tea as a wake up aid.

That’s why I want music, a hype man, lights, bells, a whistle, a smoke machine. A grand entrance into the day. But not unnecessarily early though. Like 7:15am would be awesome. Kay. Thanks. Bye-eeee!

Good lord I hate mornings. Ugh!.

I have finished both January & February’s book selections, and I am moving on to March. All three books that start off this year are short. I have a trilogy on my to read list, that could require a longer time to read, so I want to give myself that space to operate within. I don’t know how much world building those longer sci-fi novels will have to trudge through to find a compelling story. I am reading two semi autobiographical books this year, which I tend not to do. I don’t wanna know how that sausage was made. Leave me with some mystique where possible! Also, who knows how busy I’ll get, or if I decide to shift my focus away from reading to my sculpting, model building, terrain construction, creative writing or various forms of music. Or come spring, a return to wood working projects once more. Strike while the iron is hot, and my attention is focused.

Also – Monday. Hey, hello! Lots to get to this week. I am waiting on the last portion of a data set, and I can roll out the last section then fire off my report for proofing / edits & final fixes. Yay me!

All the best on this cold, but sunny Monday in mid January. Mid. Did you hear that!?! Mid january all ready. Bloody hell. Where does the time go. Today is the 16th for crying out loud. Vroom and it is Valentine’s Day, the Family Day, then March Break, then spring starts and then, oh my God, holy shit… time flies. It gets kinda scary. Too weird. Catch you around. Ciao Bella.

Some people talk about making their own luck rather than waiting for something special to happen “TO” you. I on the other hand sit someplace in the middle. I’m open to the world, but willing to put my work out there on multiple platforms, the good, the bad, the ugly and all, in hopes of sparking… something useful. I see a long road ahead, so my gambit was to produce a long string of provably quality materials, and push it out into the world, and see if any of that hard work, and personal labour comes back to me. So far… not so much, but at this point it’s about being in the groove of the process, and doing things, good or great. I don’t believe I have attracted any new work or clientele via this route, but rather from former working relationships, and word of mouth from people I know. On the order of creative sparks I’m not so fickle as to wait, with baited breath for inspiration. I’m a clock in clock out artist. Pulling on learned patterns, a hard won process, and fundamental knowledge to produce quality artwork/product. I’m not a temperamental flake – like an artiste. A tad eccentric, sure, but I say graphic designer, not artist. Even if I do sculpt and paint, and do all manner of art like things. My father was a tool and die maker. Pedantic and exacting. Being told to “pull your finger out”, and to “not be so bloody idle”, for decades, rubs off on a guy. So I’m a doer of things. Expectations of hardship be damned. If you don’t want to help, step out of the way, don’t join in just to drag me down, or put your foot on the scales against me. It might take an age, and be ugly, or slow and methodical, but I’ll get you there. He was exacting in his professional responsibilities, and I can understand that. As much as I want to be a cravat wearing, black beret wielding art fop, I can’t. I’m a blue collar, work a day guy building artwork, and reports alike.

I’m reading the second book of the year, and it’s Tom Segura’s “I’d like to play alone, please”. And I find it fascinating, and very funny. His written voice, much like his act, is pretty distinctive. You can imagine the half twist at the waist, the gruff imitation of his Nam vet dad, or his mocking huf-huf-huf “…but why?”. Made me think of that title joke that I’ve seen countless memes of. Though I can’t give any credit, as I don’t know where the quip originated from. Sorry, random human with quicker wit than I. Not that that is a challenge in and of itself. Some people found me funny, I don’t think I can tell a funny story to save my life. I don’t have that innate sense of timing. I can say something off the cuff, but I don’t have no ‘tight five’.

Just me thinking on paper. Watching playoff football, and reading on a Sunday evening. Kids are out of the bath, finalizing their night time ritual with their mum. Domestic Duties Monday looms large on the horizon. I got a good portion of my report started ahead of Monday morning, so as far as I know, I’m in a half way descent spot. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

Start writing…

Sure sounds easy enough but some days that blank page just sits there mocking me, or feeling too far out of range buried until a massive number of potential topics. Spoiled for choice most days. I’m not sure what is worse, not having anything to say, or being paralyzed by indecision over which in a plethora of topics I’d like to spout off about. What’s worse, having nothing, or too much you can’t get out from under it all? Hm. That’s a good question. I’m sure people much smarter than I have an answer for that if you know of a reliable place to seek it out.

Winter seems to have settled down a tad. The last two days has seen the local temperatures settle into the mid teens, on the minus side of zero. We have snow, so I took the oldest to a nearby hill to blow off steam, and get reacquainted with the GT Snow racer we’ve had for a couple of years now. Luckily ran into a few school friends, so the forty odd minutes on the frigid hill were more fun than originally planned. Good. Our household has been experiencing some larger than usual feelings the last few days. I think a sense of jealousy over grandpa going to Florida, in the sunshine and warmth (not minus seventeen like here atleast) and enjoying some international air travel. We haven’t flown in years now. Mostly due to Covid putting our Florida/Disney trips on hiatus. And school friends, and family are traveling while we are not. The kids hear this stuff and wonder why. I don’t know why trying to protect ourselves from such a nasty bug is so divisive, but it feels that way sometimes. We will make up much of our sacrifices in the coming years, and hopefully avoid the ill effects of LC, or the more immediate body scrambling after shocks of SARS-Cov-2. One can hope, I suppose.

It was big feeling days like yesterday where I miss being able to whisk the kids off to a matinee movie. Or go out to lunch to dine in. Or wander a far away mall just to stretch our legs away from the frosty weather, and look at all the fancy stuff, and eating ice creams, and getting take out for the ride home. We haven’t done much of anything that isn’t outdoors. No bowling, rock climbing, concerts, bars, dancing, restaurants, library, theaters of any sort, amusement parks… so dull without it all. Limited in what we can do to keep the kids entertained and engaged without fighting constantly.

I will say this though. We went hard in the paint for the extra curriculars for both kids, in an attempt to let them get out and enjoy themselves. With the caveat that they mask up, and keep a reasonable distance if at all possible. We’ve been fortunate that a good portion of their activities are in large high ceilinged locations with limited attendance. One group meets outside for a huge chunk of the year, so… yeah. A balancing act for sure. I’d be more likely to take the kids to do more things, if more people were at least masking up. It seems that unless we are all forced to, very few are willing to do so. C’est la vie!

In other news, the kids are off to a birthday party today, held in one of the better, higher quality locations that we frequent. So I have two to three hours to work. I have a new large paid project I want to start before Monday. It came in later in the day on Friday while I was finishing other things. So rather than wait until Monday, I’d love to knock out 10 or 12 pages today, so that I am ahead of the curve come 9:00am Monday morning.

In other news, my first round of tidying up the house went smoothly. I worked more than I thought I would last week. However, it turns out I had done the bulk of the work in previous years. We have cardboard and tissue bits laying around, more so than actual junk or broken toys. Sorting all the toys will be a bigger key to success moving forward, rather than purging stuff. Though my wife and I desperately need to declutter our closets. I hate to turn around and find random stuff we are just holding on to for no real reason. I’d rather have the space, and the breathing room, than bags of old, or unused clothes, and bags, boxes and knick knacks. The urge to purge is growing as the house grows tighter & tighter with stuff, things, junk. Blargh!