Author: greatwallstudios

Not off to a particularly auspicious start for Team Canada, but they’ve held the USA to a one point deficit, so not completely terrible. I would be happier to see Team Canada tie up this game before the final thirty seconds of the third period. I’d rather this not go to OT. We will have to wait and see. I got up early for this, so I’m drowsy, and feeling a bit grumpy to boot!

I believe today is the last day for the winter Olympics, so there should be a closing ceremony on television at some point tonight. Oh… Team Canada power play coming up, LFG!!

Lost in OT, with some disappointing game play during the final minutes. Taking line changes instead of following the puck in the charge to the net. Lacklustre. Lackadaisical. Generally lacking all around. Whiffing on the puck – twice, on  break aways (looking at you McDavid). Lost the gold to take home silver, same as the women’s team. Better luck next time.

Well who TF asked for that!?! Where am I going to find the space to put ten more days of accumulated snowfall? Add in the fact it has rained twice in the last few days, and we have a real mess on our hands. The previous snow banks are now hardened ice blocks, with no give to them. It is going to take a substantial effort to get the driveway, and the walks, plus the back patio & deck sorted out after ten more days of snow. That still only puts us into very early March, which means we can still get even more snow. I am over it. I’m so very tired. If flames would work on snow, and not set the house ablaze I would spend a day washing it all down with a blow torch or a flame thrower! Has some restrictions on use around these parts, but perfectly fine to use as an agricultural tool against weeds, and invasive plant species. Not so cool near cars, and the house, with a forty foot gout of liquid flames and super intense heat. I want to be rid of the snow, not char bricks, and boil off the paint on my cars. I’m sure it would feel very cathartic to lay waste to all this snow though. If I had a suitable heat shielding that is.

Saturday is here, same with more snow. I had a very busy week, and it looks as though next week, and the week after that are going to be pretty intense too. Invoices going out are a good thing! Means money coming in, and that’s very important given the times we find ourselves living in.

Funnily enough I just watched a report that shows just how poorly AI does real life work tasks, and in each case the best AI LLM service succeeded just 3.75% of the time, regardless of the brief it was served, and the desired outcome of the task requested. I’m happy to see AI crash & burn, and fail. Much like Meta, and AR glasses. If anything we should go back to more analog tech that can’t corrupt other things around it. No word ending bugs come from a type writer. Beyond a harshly worded letter.

Because my week was so very full I did not manage to finish my Warhammer 40K omnibus. I have one novel, and one short story left to go, but once finished that adds three novels, two novellas, and a short story to my reading challenge. I jump ahead by a good margin if I can finish these last four hundred pages in a timely manner.

Wednesday was a bit of a wash, we certainly did get nearly seven inches of snow, but the freezing rain portion of the snow day, was a total bust. Today however it is zero degrees and full on raining. Was to be a light drizzle, but I can hear it tap tap tapping on the car roof. It’s a fairly hardy rain this morning. A touch of the grey gloom hangs upon the air. We’re at the farm ready to go walk in it, just waiting to hear if our dog walking duo are still coming over. Otherwise we’ll do a truncated loop and get home in our of the rain. Preferably before it begins to freeze over. Sheets of ice aren’t much fun to drive on with people anxious about being late for work!

I can only imagine that the creek in the valley below is opening up in multiple spots due to all this running water. No longer safe to go tubing down the back hill and attempt to cross the creek in one fell swoop. Will have to break before the creek drop off or chance an icy swim in four feet of water, and an under current below the ice. Not favourable conditions for kids under the age of eight. So we will steer clear of the creek for now.

We did it! Made it to Friday in one piece (at least so far, it’s still early in the day). But I feel slightly less stressed out, which means a clearer perspective, and a better frame of mind. The weather tipping back towards cold and snow/ice hasn’t done my mood any favours, but it is February still so I have to get real and deal with it. Not like it’s April 10th or anything like that. We’ve got miles to go yet before we can be reasonably sure that snow is no longer an option. Next we’ll be sick of the rains in April. Ha. Never happy. Too hot. Too cold. Too wet. Too dry. Pick a lane! Sheesh.

I hope you all have a restful weekend, and a cathartic end to your work week. Short weeks always feel so long. Funny how that works. Take care.

Having the kids home for two additional days this week didn’t help me out all that much. Could have done without the extra six inches of snow, not the two bouts of shoveling that followed. I’m tired, and I have a long way to go before EOD Friday before I can relax. Dog walk was held up by snow plows, and farm hands running about the grounds with gigantic snow blowers on tractors scaring the dogs. Not my ideal morning. It’s cold again, there’s more snow than ever piled up every which way, and I’m feeling a tad grumpy. Not ideal! Best get to work though before even more stuff piles into my inbox.

It’s been go go go all day today. I’ve had more emails today than for all of November, December combined. It’s been a real blur of a day. Still more things to go back to and edit, but I’m ok with that – for now. Looks as though I’ll have a very full day tomorrow, and likely a new big project to kick off on Monday (though if that wanted to wait an extra few days I wouldn’t complain).

Hard to believe it is Thursday afternoon already. The new snow is melting under the ever so slightly stronger sun. We are definitely drawing closer to the first day of spring. You can feel it in the rays of light. A sense of warmth where there had been little to none in the minus twenty five degree cold snap we had for six or seven weeks there.

Looks like I’ll be helping friends reassemble their furniture on Saturday after their move. Glad to not have to lift things, just assemble them! A bit more technical, but far less physical. I’m all for it. I’ll bring my tool bag, and my knee pads, perhaps a impact driver, and I should be all set to help out for a few hours. Maybe we’ll get beers & pizza! Who knows!?!

Luckily no dogs were harmed by tractors, plows, or snow blowers on our walk this morning. That’s a big plus in my book. Wouldn’t want to have to pick bits of fur and bone out of the snowblowers blades. Would really kill the momentum of my morning. Ha.

Soon it’ll be time to take the kids to their extracurriculars, so I should go tackle my latest round of edits before I run out of day light. Ciao Bella!

Buses, cabs, and vehicular transports are all canceled for schools this morning, but the schools are open. I think we are going to take this opportunity to have a restful mental health day. We’ll the kids more so than me, I have a lot of open projects on the go, so I can’t flake on a work day. The kids however, had excellent report cards, and are looking to cash in with a freebie open day of R & R. I get it. I’m down with it.

The freezing rain is set to hit later on today, so a dog walk is still on the schedule. Luckily it isn’t foggy like yesterday, and hopefully not too chilly either. The subs rays were kinda warm yesterday by the time the afternoon rolled around. It was making me smile, and squint. Far better mood while the sun is out. Today however, is grey, and overcast. Ready to drop all sorts of precipitation on us for long, seemingly unending hours. Cool, cool, cool.

I’m going to eat first, then head out to walk the dog at the farm with the kids. Just not as early as I would normally because my spouse is going to a nearby school in town, instead of up in the Georgina / Sutton area. Means she could be home at a reasonable hour too, if we’re lucky.

By all accounts today is Wednesday. Feels like a long week all ready! And the day hasn’t even started yet. Oh bother.

I passed another accident at the same junction as on Sunday.vsame thing by the looks of it, somebody didn’t want to stop at the sign, and expected the main road travelers to yield to their crossing attempt. But in fig, moving at 60 km that’s an unlikely win for the gambler in you. So more cops, more EMS folks, and another fire truck get parked by the corner for a few hours. Tough luck for those who got blind sided on their morning commute to work. Wrote off a car, and now likely have a sore neck, or some chest injury from the seat belts, or inner car crumple zones throwing gear in their face (i.e. air bag). Hopefully nobody was killed now grievously injured in the collision.

We are sat at the farm waiting on the others to arrive for a brisk walk in the foggy sunshine, and newly wet snow. Still below zero, but not by much. I look to have a busy week ahead, so the faster I get home to eat, the quicker I can tuck into my work. Had a couple emails over the long weekend warning of new projects coming my way today. Can’t say no to paid work!

Short school week at least, so the kids are happy. No trouble getting them out the door for school. Tomorrow is midweek already, so it should move fairly fast. It’s almost March, which means another week long break for the children. Maybe some time spent doing Maple Syrup if the weather plays along nicely.

Drive safely in the fog this morning. Take a beat, and don’t rush when you can’t see what’s coming.

Even with only forty miniatures to paint this is taking me a while to do. Glad to have the ring light and magnifying glass combo on my desk to help because some of these details are microscopic, and my failing eyes can’t see them without help. I also bought some mini specific brushes that are teeny-tiny because over painting is a very real issue for me. I’m not well versed in steady brush strokes. I’ve had to go slow over many days because once I start to rush I get sloppy, so it’s best to stop when I start to feel that way. I would like to not have to strip and repaint these for a third time, if I can help it.

I bought these so long ago I don’t even know what regiments they are. I just remember space wolves on a few boxes. I’ve had these for more than twenty years. But I didn’t care for blue, so I’m going grey, with light blue dry brushing, and an icy blue edge highlight (if I ever get far enough to adding that on). I wrote out a list of steps to make sure I don’t forget anything.

Different shoulders, pouches, weapons, trim, purity seals, eyes, furs & pelts, and then basing the models after all the paint, and various washes have gone on. They won’t be box art quality, but they should (hopefully) look more presentable as a cohesive unit. Afterwards I have some 16 Eldar models to touch up too. I got my updated airbrush in on the action to smooth out their look, with priming the models, and zenithal highlights, and base coats.

I think about buying more space wolves models all the time, but the Games Workshop stuff is expensive, and finicky to put together, at least it was back in 2002. I don’t play the game, I collect the models, and paint them, as well as build terrain pieces, but I have not yet played a single game. I have watched a number of tutorials on YouTube, and sat through other people playing all out battle sequences online. I don’t own the Space Wolves codex book, so I don’t really know how to build out an appropriate army, even if I wanted to. Just what I need, an additional offshoot hobby. I have 200 or more D&D models coming from Archon Studios later this year from Dungeons & Lasers so I can wait on plastic bits, because I have a shit tonne coming my way. But that’s for D&D not Warhammer 40K TTRPG. Totally different rules of engagement and story telling. Ha!

It will likely take me until March to complete the 40 Space Wolves models I have on deck, so I’m not in a rush, but I hope they look decent when I’m done. It’s a lot of work, and effort, and hours to put in for them to look just as bad as when I started them. Let us hope I do a better job this go around.

I think the gold trim, Aguila and dark washes should tie them together nicely. Maybe a themed base for all 40 to add some pizzazz. Who knows!

Some of these winter sports would be really fun to try once. Like the skeleton, or the luge, or some type of short track speed skating. I could get a kick out of seeing just how slow I am in comparison, which would give me some perspective on what these world athletes are actually capable of achieving. From behind the camera it doesn’t look all that fast, but then you see over the shoulder drone footage, or they put up the Kmph beside a racer and it’s like the light bulb goes on — finally. Oh! The speed skaters are doing 54 km per hour , that’s pretty quick. Or the Super G folks going 134 km down hill, and still cutting into their edges to get those corners. Flying 60 plus meters beyond the jumps / humps in the track. Adds a new appreciation for the skill that those static zoom view camera sweeps didn’t really offer before. Also the head down camera for hockey is pretty great. Without the Jumbotron and scoreboard you can get more dynamic camera work I suppose. Neato.

So it’s Sunday of the long weekend, which means a lengthy dog walk, and the kids are off having fun with friends while I tidy up around the house, and the dog naps in the sun.

I am now slightly more than halfway through my 900 page Dan Abnett Gaunts Ghosts omnibus, so while I only average about 50 pages a day, I am making progress on the three novels, two novellas, and one short story contained within. I’m either going to start Dungeon Crawler Carl, or The Fourth Wing, because I’m still not sold on trying Mistborn for a third time, and the Mark Carney Value(s) book feels a bit “Mathy” to me. I’ll really need to get in the mood to dig deep into that book. But fear not, I have at least two Dune books to read, and an Aliens Omnibus with two novels contained within it. I have several other books on my shelf I could try too, should I actually get through the twelve books in twelve months challenge I set for myself each year. I know James S A Corey have a new book due out in April, so I keep an eye on my reading interest, if it begins to wane, I’ll order a new book, or scour the shelves to find one I’ve missed, to gauge interest. If I try a book three or more times and it doesn’t click, time to be rid of said book.

This Canada France hockey game is going well for Canada so far. Fun watch!

With the slightly warmer sun I took the liberty of uncovering the drive to try to eliminate the slush, and ice patches. So obviously we got another 2 to 3 cm of snow to obliterate the work I just did. That is the way of things. If I hadn’t of done so I’d just have more ice, and snow to clear today anyway. It’s hard to overstate just how done with snow removal I am at this point in the season. What’s worse is that this particular point in time is still really early in the season to even pretend to hope for no more snow. We can have some form of accumulation into early April if the world wills it into being. Makes my desire to lose all the snow now that much more ridiculous. Disheartening at best. With any luck we can see the last of the aggressively cold days that get down into the low twenties or thirties. If it hovers around zero, I’d settle for that right about now. Oh! And more sunshine on average too. That I’d take in a heart beat.

The last few years we’ve had brief warming spells that were accompanied by lots of rain, making a real mess of everything.

Hold up, showers just broken. Gotta go shut off the water to the house, then figure out how to shut it off at the tap.

Found the brass valves behind the cartridge thing / hand valve assembly. Crisis averted. We have water throughout the rest of the house again, and no major running faucet. Bit of a drip though. Oh well, beggars can’t be choosers.