Author: greatwallstudios

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!

Rain, in January? Freezing rain at that. Again. What a weird winter this is shaking out to be. Take care out there all you long distance commuters, it could potentially get ugly. Take your time, and be safe.

Not much to report here today, beyond the aforementioned strange weather we’re having in Southern Ontario. Work has remained fairly constant this week. I have a new large project coming my way, probably for next week, possibly in a day or so. Lots of 3D renders to produce. New sell sheets, and a couple of coupons to make too. Gotta love it. Never know how long it will all last. Ciao Bella.

Wouldn’t be Wednesday unless it was also hump day too. First real week back for 2023 and it’s shaping up to be a doozy. Lots of new paid work, returning clients, and cold, cold, bitterly cold breezes blowing around the streets. Not so hard that the lamp posts are touching the ground, but icy enough to let you know if there’s any room left in your abdomen for a couple of cold danglers, hint hint, wink wink, nudge nudge. Brrr.

So due to the current temperatures of minus sixteen (as of 8:00am) this morning, no outdoor work in the shop is slated for today. I have some fine tuning of my cleaning to do out there at some point. Big boxes, and garbage items to get tossed.

I’d like to throw a bunch of broken random stuff away this spring, but that may require a trip to the dump, as I don’t think I can get it all to the curb for the weeks we have garbage pick up. My modest post holidays clean up has not yielded the amount of waste I thought it would. But I was trying to be kinder, and attempt sorting & storage over a straight up purge. Plus I didn’t empty all the cabinets like I did last year. Not that I believe there to be anywhere near the same accumulation of junk that there was prior to both kids starting school. I had been so pressed for time I just lodged junk out of sight, to be dealt with later. And, that later came and it was all dealt with. Something along the lines of four or five garbage bags worth, plus another five or six recycling bins of paper and cardboard we’d been holding on to for one reason or another. Pack rats. Sometimes I feel like we are hoarders with all the cardboard and plastic bits we manage to keep lying around. I’m still getting rid of birthday & Christmas present debris. Will probably still be doing so when Valentines day comes, that and then Easter too! Can’t escape it!

Not to mention my front porch is littered with “cool” looking sticks, and rocks, and other such items my children pocket when out and about to bring home and fawn over. Smaller rocks I don’t mind, we can look at and categorize shiny rocks, but sticks and grasses or leaves I could do without an additional stockpile of.

If I recall we are about a week away from the Big 400 Day benchmark. Four hundred seems like a lot. Being a week out, it doesn’t seem so big, but to start again, from zero that would be a challenge. I guess now that I’m in the thick of it, I’ll keep going until I miss a day. Not sure what else to do. Part of me would like to substitute the writing for working out. But I’m absolutely certain I would not achieve a daily workout of any sort for more than just a few days at a stretch. If we ever win any money, I’d like to invest in a home gym with free weights, and bench/squat rack. To be able to squeeze in a meaningful work out in the comfort of your own home must be a real thrill. Stinky, but thrilling nonetheless.

Duty calls. Gotta return some e-mails. Ciao Bella.

And I’m not about to start now. Most likely why I find I absolutely have to get eight hours of sleep or else I will have to drag myself around in an army crawl in the mornings. Not a fan of tea either, nor iced coffee, nor cappuccino, nor espresso for that matter. On a cold day I can partake of a hot chocolate provided it wasn’t made using water – blegh! Yuck. Although the powdered Icetea from Nestea is a bit of alright in my book, if made correctly for my tastes. I don’t care much for wine, of any sort. But! But, I will say this, the Yellow Tail “Bubbles” product, in the white wine or the rose are pretty great. But I dilute that with No Pulp orange juice, so… take that however you want. I don’t have a sophisticated palette you might say.

A long island ice tea however, is fantastic. Same with various Twisted Tea products, good stuff that is. Gets sweeter the more bottles you consume. Dangerous stuff!

I need to work on some 3D renders, so I’ll sign off now, and will leave this conversation alone for a bit. Ciao Bella!

Can’t believe there are 50 more of these things to go this year! Mondays that is. Chock full of things to do. Gas runs, milk runs, school drop offs (no tears today! Check mark in the win column, thank you very much), sorting laundry, hanging clean laundry, the dishes, and a general first round tidy up. That and I’m back on my bullshit. Yeah-buddy!?! But seriously. This week the extra curriculars kick in again, with new destinations to remember. Same bat time, new bat channel. POW! PIFF! POFF!

Paid work is back (thankfully) and so is my Domestic Duties Monday/Tuesday schedule. Cleaning and grocery runs are all a go. Green light! Gett’r done!

Soon I’ll need to put my quiet time to productive use and get my taxes sorted out before I take it to the accountants office. Lots of receipts to sort through & catalogue. Bill’s to dig up, billing histories to download. It’s a whole thing.

For those playing the home game, this weeks magic puzzle word is “Pilfer”. The losing team Gomes home with a thousand bucks, and the winner gets to eat a wheel of cheese. Fun times. Today’s game is called “The First Monday Back After Winter Break“, and it is most notable for a full e-mail inbox, an over flowing voicemail box, and more meetings than work hours, and having to say ‘Happy New Year‘ to everyone you meet for the next three weeks. Oh, isn’t life grand. Also we’re pushing up the time line for your projects, and you need to sit in on some calls/meetings about new big idea projects whose budgets we’ll never approve, but want you to look into anyway! Ta! Have a fantastic day.

The holidays went over well. We traveled to see some close family. Isolated at the cottage before & after until we had the all clear, and binged some shows, got out doors to snowboard, snowmobile, and walk around to find deer antlers. It was at once a busy & slow 15 days off. Food was great. People were great. Kids were lovely (mostly). The get older real fast though. Vroom. And they’re teenagers off to work, and out with friends. We did get hampered by freezing rain, but it was all good. One extra night with family went over smoothly with the kids. So all good.

Looking forward to what’s instore for 2023. Happy and hopeful! Ciao Bella.

Four months later and a squirrel/chipmunk or large black bird has recovered my 1/4 inch socket and deposited it on top of the leaves & dirt a foot from the garage door. Now my set is whole once more! I did have to buy a $4 replacement, and an extra deep version too, but the point is, I have found it months after giving up hope and forgetting about it. On top of all the downtrodden leaves. Imagine that. I forsure thought that was gone, lost to the ages. I’m so happy. Stupid think caused me a lot of grief. Searching here and back between the yard and garage. Sweeping on my hands and knees. But I have it back in my possession. Hurray!