Author: greatwallstudios

It’s not a difficult game, as some shots take some skill, and you need other players to help remove some of the protector fish that surround the really big prize winners in order to get a brief but clear shot at said prize fish. It can be high octane, adrenaline fueled fun, or you can just sort of take pot shots and take it easy. I like when we all fire at different things and then occasionally come together to take down a killer whale, or a great white, or take a single pot shot at the central treasure chest to win the largest prize available. The graphics aren’t crazy, there’s no story, no cut scenes, and yet we will gather around and play it for a really, really long time. Tonnes of fun. Great if you get competitive and want to compare scores. There are no boosts, no power ups, no siding your harpoon aim, it’s a very level playing field. Like I said, love it!

Last night we went to go see Toy Story 5 in Markham. It was very of the times in regards to technology stealing our kids sense of play, imagination, and ability to be present with one another in the physical world. While it didn’t feel as strong as other previous films, it was perfectly fine. I’d give it a seven or a seven point five out of ten. It probably could have been 10 minutes shorter, but it wasn’t bloated by any means. I was just starting to feel a little restless, and some of the youngest in our group didn’t last the entire run time sitting down. Three of the nine of us had to get up and move around, those being the 4, 7 & 9 year old. With bathroom breaks and a need to just move about.

My kids are currently on a dragon hand puppet kick, which is great. Colouring, drawing, and three dimensional structure building. Glue sticks, scissors and paper and markers. They’re off the tablets and VR so I’m thrilled about it. They’ve made three or four each, and look to keep on going. Crafting is a great way to spend the summer break. I am all for it. Maybe some of it can go into the Markham Fair this fall.

Have a wondrous Wednesday. Ciao Bella!

Not my first choice of place to visit in the open season for fun that is summer holidays, but when the kids gotta go, she’s gotta go. I booked this visit back in May because it was the earliest opening they had. Not my best work, but we’re going to work with what we’ve got. The youngest isn’t a fan of having strangers poking about in her mouth, and I don’t blame her. But, she needs to be seen, and have X-rays done, so we bite the bullet and we go. My only rule is no braces until they hit their teen years. I’m not doing baby teeth braces, that’s just not going to happen.

Also it’s Tuesday, which makes it refuse collection day. I woke up before the sun to wheel the 306L recycling bin to the curb, and also empty the green bin and send that curbside too. Even in the summer we have to stay on top of this sort of stuff. It never ends! Just like laundry, and house cleaning. It’s never really done, just waiting for a new mess to appear.

I for one hope that it rains for the whole day today. I don’t need the thunder or lightning, but a good twenty four hour soaking if the grass, trees, and garden beds would be very helpful. My rain barrel should be full to the brim again by now (I hope), ready to carry these new fruit trees into August and then come September they’ll begin to shed their leaves and I can stop babying them so much. With any luck next year or two they will flower and begin to hear fruit. My apple trees are good to go, same as my grapes. We had a heavy cherry growing season this year, and an underperforming raspberry bush. Can’t win them all! Some is better than none.

Just like it says on the tin we spent four hours on Sunday down on the east side of one of the near fields pulling up around 6,500 garlic bulbs. When the singular purpose built plough worked, it was the best thing ever, but when the heavily impacted earth took the plough to wandering and we had to dig the missed bulbs with spades and forks, it was a hot, sweaty mess of an operation. Luckily the plough worked roughly 85-90% of the time.

Unseat the garlic from the cement choke hold the ground has on it, then you gather the bulbs, break off the clinging dirt, lay them in piles facing the bulbs all one way, gather those piles in the bed of a side by side, then load them out onto wagons to dry off, but also not roll away or get picked over by racoons and such. Rinse and repeat row after row until completed.

My inlaws don’t primarily do garlic, this is a hobby crop, because they mainly do cattle corn and soya beans. We also have a pumpkin patch and orchards and various berries too. But the “farming” is for corn and beans mainly. Everything else works because they have the gear all ready for the two main income crops.

It isn’t glamourous by any means, but at least 8 know we have garlic available to season what we eat this year! Ha. Small comfort. All of our clothes, gloves, and shoes smell heavily of garlic at the moment. The van smells like a garlic bread factory. It’s rather pungent and invasive! Phew!

So back to Monday and I have my edits in hand to get to early today. My back and legs are sore from all the bending and leaning in the full sun yesterday. Luckily it topped out at 21°C, and the air quality was sitting at a 2. We had the best possible conditions for getting the whole patch done in one concerted effort. It took just about all of us, minus most of the children, but we got it done. Thank God! You absolutely could not count on the weather staying this reasonable for much longer.

On the plus side, I was outdoors and active for four full hours yesterday. Had a lovely swim afterwards, and then visited with friends in the evening to enjoy their new hot tub that worked wonders on my sore back, and the aching in my legs. Turned out better than I could have hoped for.

Took the kids climbing for the first time in three weeks, that’s six missed sessions, and I’m still eating the same without the total body work-out so I’m back up about 10 lbs once again. Not my proudest moment to be back up close to the heaviest I have ever been. Not my finest moment. And no I didn’t substitute my lack of climbing for using weights, calisthenics or bike riding, or swimming while I wasn’t roped in at the climbing gym. My bad. I’m being lazy. In my defense the temps were up into the forties, we went to the cottage to get it opened up, and we travelled west for a week, and then the northern forest fires have made the air damn near toxic, so I haven’t gotten outside to do anything physical in a hot minute. Still my own short coming, but I had a myriad of reasons to not get outside.

It is now Sunday and the heat is turned down about ten or so degrees, the air quality is better, so I bet we’ll go pull up garlic for a few hours today. Can only out run our farming obligations for so long. Best find the widest brimmed hat that I own to keep the sun off my neck and face. Don’t want to add a sunburn to my overall bloated heaviness.

The traveling has also stopped our daily dog walks too, so that has only added to my sedentary weight gain. At the cottage the dog is free to roam the acreage and chase things to his heart’s content, so I don’t actively walk him all that much, and he didn’t come out west with us. Then my spouse took him back to the cottage for the week while I was working on a report, and the aforementioned heat and air quality kept me inside the house, seated, and working at my desk for large portions of the day.

I was living life in a veal stall, just getting fat. Ha! Doesn’t take long for those hard lost pounds to slide back into place and then some. Back to drinking more water, and being more persistent with free weights, squats, push-ups, sit ups and being active out of doors. It’s a struggle. One I’m not all that fond of truth be told. But it’s one I’m stuck with until I get it sorted, and manage to keep it that way.

Looks like I need to build out a new habit like I did with daily writing here on the blog. I may need to do some thinking, testing and experimenting in order to find something that works without being too over the top, all consuming, or expensive. Follow along as I waste everybody’s time doing a bunch of stupid shit as I try to lose weight — again. Nah!

Simple fix really. Whilst I had spent a week across the country, once I returned home I immediately began work on a new large project where I sat at my desk, stationary for hours on end, and the air quality was so poor I never stepped foot outdoors. This I was not tired at a reasonable bed time, and was not rested enough come morning. Rinse and repeat. That is until the air quality got better, down to a 2 from an 11, and I could freely exert myself pushing the mower for the better part of an hour in modest temps. Bam! Sleepy by eleven, and wide awake before eight thirty in the morning. Back to my regular schedule. Funny how that is.

Back to looking a little orange/amber again today. Air quality is sitting at a four. Must have a low pressure cell moving in because I have a wicked head ache, even though I drank a number of pints of water yesterday throughout the day. Storms, the bane of my brain’s existence. Pounding headaches, nausea, dizziness, and stuff neck, and strained shoulder muscles. It’s a treat!

Glad to know all I needed was some physical activity to set myself back to rights. If I’m lucky maybe I can even do some climbing today too. I’m sure my firearms and shoulders have grown weak with lack of use. Belly fat has made a resurgence in the last three weeks believe you me. A beach ready body I do not possess. Ha!

Looks like it should storm all weekend so maybe we’ll take the kids to the movies or something else indoors to get active, and kill time away from the VR headset, or the near constant tablet usage.

I cleaned the house up nice and tidy while they were all at the cottage together. I was working so it made sense to stay here and do some domestic Duties without them coming along behind me to dirty it all up immediately. I got a week alone in a clean home. I’ll have to wait for school to start up again before I get anywhere close to that anytime soon. And even then that’s only in seven hour spurts.

Happy Saturday to you all. I for one am pleased by the sight of rain. I had been watering my flowers and fruit trees as well as my inlaws potted plants, tomatoes and their citrus trees. An inch of rain over a whole day should soak in and do them all a world of good.

It was 218 ppm here in southern Ontario which is unsafe, but places like northern Michigan it was 1150 ppm, and you can’t escape that by staying indoors and running the AC. You’d have to wear a respirator full time until that number falls bellow 50 ppm. That’s a long drop to be waiting for when pressed right up against the source of the smoke, but only separated by open lakes, creating a wind tunnel driving all that smoke towards you. Yikes. Bad juju all around with this year’s forest fire season. Entire towns wiped out – again. This looks to become an every single year from here on out occurrence now. Tragic.

I think it’s Friday today. I’m still discombobulated by the west coast travel. I can’t fall asleep at 10:30/11:00 pm anymore, I find myself awake until 2:00 am now, and I’m just not feeling the 8:45am alarm, nor my 9:25 am back up. I need to get my old time regulated self back in focus because there’s far too much of summer left to start creeping towards staying up until 3 or 4 am, and wanting to sleep the whole day away. I have work, and responsibilities, obligations to perform, I can’t regress like a teenager because of time zones and jet lag. Maybe if I’m just far more physical today that will help switch me back?

I’m on the last day of my big project before I hand in my first draft. I have a handful of pages left to go, and then soft proofing, and fixing items I know will come up during the style review. Best to get out in front of them now, head it off at the pass. It’s a long one though, I’d estimate it being between 85-90 pages long for this go around. The trick is to pace yourself for the long haul. I start with about 21 pages, next day 33 days, third day once we’re really rolling along (provided the data you have allows for it) you aim for another 30 or so pages, then on day four you do the last ten or so, and begin soft proofing on my end. Export it, hand it off, then wait for any edits or changes. It’s a mighty fine system. Works well and saves my wrists from RSI’s.

Gave myself a carpal tunnel injury nearly twenty years ago and that was really unpleasant. To the point where I couldn’t use my dominant hand to eat, drink, get dressed, or even brush my teeth without severe pain. Sounds like wringing out a leather glove whenever I used any tendons in that hand, and it lasted for weeks. This was before I had children. Could only imagine trying to change diapers with only one good hand. I know people can do it, but by golly that seems tough.

Luckily the temperature is cool this morning, and the air quality back down to a 7 from yesterday’s 11, and I took forty minutes to cut the front lawn. Now it doesn’t look quite so bad. Oh yeah Markham Mower still has my Echo SRM-230 weed eater, that’s gotta be eight full weeks by now. I guess they’ll keep it for 12 to 13 weeks, I’ll get it back in September I think. Ha. So stupid.

As of two days ago this blog exceeded the previous best years viewer & visitor numbers, and as of this minute those two metrics are still climbing. That’s incredible news! And all of this done without a single outlier spike in views driven by an outside source, link, or direction. This is from a modest but recurring daily visits from people around the world coming here to look at my stuff. While the downloads of my books are down comparatively, it isn’t all that far off. I’m just not driving traffic to my free downloadable books on a featured page. I would like to think that it would sort itself out, but I guess I should do more to plug them every so often. Not a problem.

So while I have not experienced that 1,500 person spike on one random day in July like last year that got my numbers well up in 2025, this year any growth whatsoever seems to be more organic in nature or people just finding older articles or posts on the reader, or following a Google search for something specific that they were after. While the thrill of a single day jump of four figures was amazing, a constant flow every single day feels pretty great too. So thank you! Thank everyone of you whom came to look, read, listen, and watch the items I have archived here from the last several years.

I’d love to wax poetic about this sort of WIN for hours on end, but I’m still plugging away at a large project and as such must focus on the fine details. No focus pulling allowed today, or tomorrow. Perhaps I can return to this subject once again soon. Though truth be told I will go on and on about it come late December, so keep your eyes and ears peeled for that! Ha.

Have a bodacious Thursday. Steer clear of the wildfire smoke if you can. It was supposed to sit lower today and act like fog/smog moreso than ever before. Wear an appropriate respirator if outdoors for prolonged periods of time today. I believe in you!

It’s very dim outside, and tinted rather orange. So much so that I have overslept in the gloom by a number of hour(s) plural. Looks like I’ll need to work late today to make up for my extended snooze! The temperature has dropped ten degrees, and I’m sure those trapped VOC’s in the low pressure spaces will begin to decay in the UV light and everything will smell like acetone for a while now. A spooky reminder that mother nature always wins. The northern forest fires are getting worse as the years progress. In all my youth I never once remember the entire sky going orange from smoke, and now it’s happened twice within the same decade. I’m sure this will become a yearly thing as we continue to get hotter, and do nothing about it.

I do believe today is Wednesday. I had a full day yesterday or work, dishes, laundry, vacuuming the floors, and a general tidy up. Later today I will put the girls sorted laundry into their rooms, drawers & closets. I believe there is at least one large load of laundry that I have discovered on floors, chairs, and under beds, tangled in sheets that can get done today, alongside my day job project that I got several hours into yesterday.

I could not fall asleep last night so my alarm pinged I immediately fell back asleep after turning it off. I expected like 30 more minutes, maybe an hour while the rising sun beamed down directly onto my face waking me up purposefully. But no. The gloom and dim orange glow did not in fact stream directly into my eyes and I slept soundly for SEVERAL hours instead. Damn.

Air quality is at a seven (7) which is pretty awful. One is good, and a three is borderline unhealthy, so it’s way beyond any sort of safety guidelines for outdoor activity. At least here in Stouffville, things at the cottage seem better somehow. Strange.

Not of a hot one out there today. Supposed to feel like forty plus degrees with all the extras added on top. I miss the BC weather all ready! I know I’m getting older because my back hurt just from sitting down on those consecutive flights, and not much else. My shoulder was hurting from all the driving we did. It was a fun trip though, even with the minor inconveniences of personal injury. Ha! Also my innards do not seem to care for the cabin air pressure changes. Does a number on my guts that lasts for a few days. Not my favourite aspect of air travel these days. With any luck it will be a few months if not longer before I have to head back out on an airplane again.

Just found out I can no longer fly directly back into the UK until I sort out a British Passport for myself. That might make a Euro trip a bit tricky in the coming years. I’ll have to look into that sooner rather than later. But with the stuff going down with Russia and Ukraine, and threats to Poland we may hold off going to Europe for a bit longer still. No worries.

We had to spot friends that wound up getting shot down by the Russians when they took a passenger jet out of the sky in the early 2020’s. It was very very sad for the whole town. The family was well liked.

Getting back into the swing of things. Working on some new stuff today. All the best.

We totally got all of our steps in this time around! Not only that but we put quite a few kilometers under our heels in the rental car driving between Comic, Courtenay, Cumberland and Campbell River as we found beaches, animal rescue tours, river bed fossil tours and whatever else took our fancy in the moment. We also got to see a bunch of my side of the family, and the kids had time to play with their cousins and swim until we all turned pruney. It was a blast. Sad to leave, but real life awaits us back here at home.

Now we focus on getting over the red eye flight, and doing so much laundry in this heat! What a way to return from a week in the mid teens with rain, it’s going to feel like 40°C with the humidex here during parts of this week. Ugh! Nasty. Welcome home!