I just about forgot to keep the streak going! Near miss on my part. Have a large, urgent project in my lap that I need to do so gonna be a quiet one from me today folks.
Author: greatwallstudios
Married, Graphic Designer, enjoy playing the electric guitar, model building, wood working and sculpting.
Peter Pan is the villain,
He kidnaps children, whisks them away to Neverland so that they’ll never grow up. You know who doesn’t grow up? Dead kids. He’s the angel of death, and Captain Hook always tries to stop Peter Pan, and rarely goes after the lost boys. He’s witnessed the transmogrification of so many children in his life time, that the ticking of the clock drives him mad with grief and despair for those he couldn’t peel away from Peter’s endless parade of unwitting dead. Carried off, in the night, on pixie dust from their bedroom windows. Captured in a web of childish delusion as they fell to their deaths, never to grow up. Sad story bruh.
Amazing how much better everything looks…
When the leaves are out on the trees and the blooms are all as colourful as ever. A slight sheen of rain on the grass, and a shine on the rustling leaves in the breeze. A quiet morning, rich with the scent of damp earth and wet pavement. The slight crunch of grit on the asphalt as you walk about your day. Peaceful and serene.
It is Thursday, and I haven’t put any work into my childrens book in about seven or more days now. I think on it some times, but not enough to move forward with it. I have three backgrounds left to paint, and then the characters left to populate the scenes. It all feels oddly disjointed, but that’s how things are these days. I am slowly coming to terms with building over days, weeks and months, rather than rushing to complete a task in a day. I have to actively stop myself when I feel that draw to rush ahead, move faster, just “get it done”. Not that by being slower I’m getting closer to perfect. I just don’t want to take short cuts because I feel pressed for time. Take the time I need to complete the task properly. Not just to get it finished.
The screen door is now built and assembled. I need to measure and cut my hinge slots. Do the same for the frame where it will reside, and then hang it up for good. I pre cut some internal trim, to keep out bugs and such, and have a latch to attach, but I am otherwise very close to done.
I started to cut strips for my kitchen window screen as well, so that is progressing along side the door. The window is a combination of Cedar and Walnut. An odd combination, to be sure, but one that will hold up over time, I hope! These will be mitered and require a little more finesse than the bulky, chunky Ash door, that is outward facing. Thus, not seen as much as the kitchen window over our sink.
Unanswerable questions.
If God is good, and so great & powerful, why didn’t he strike down the Devil, and save us all that grief? Why do we buy garbage bags for the sole purpose of to throw them away? Why buy insurance when they are far more likely to stiff you than pay out when you need it most?
The age of nuance, context and “it depends” is rapidly receding in the rearview mirror of contemporary society, and I got one and wary to see it go. Rare that a subject be completely black or white, rather a vast continuum oscillating along the spectrum of varying shades of gray. As we learn more, and come to terms with our past selves we should have the grace to slide the dial on said continuum to better reflect what we “now know”.
Listen to me prattle on, and wax poetic. Not even my thoughts. Mine are a jumble. Mostly fixated on odd jobs around the house. I’m more than a little excited to get the new window screen project up and running. Viva la breeze!
Finished another book recently. I am behind on my 12 books to read this year. But then I was writing one of my own, working and trying to do some wood working. Excuses, all. But now I’m in the thick of it – again. James S. A. Corey’s “Memories Legion” collected short stories was a nice, if brief return to the Expanse universe. But now I have exhausted all related materials in that universe, excepting the tv show. Which didn’t do it for me. Maybe another try at it would spark some joy? But I’m kinda snobby when it comes to sci-fi tv show production quality.
I am now ready a Robert J Sawyer book about Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project. I like it a great deal. Then I will read Don Winslow’s, City on Fire, and then a couple Children of science fiction books by Adrian Tchaikovsky. If I read all four in the next six weeks or so, I’ll be on track for one book a month for the year. Not including what I read to my kids every night, or political doom scrolling on Twitter.
Waiting on a grocery delivery, and having the tires changed over. Not exactly a full day today. Best of luck to you all.
Back in the shop for a partial build day.
Yesterday I milled down all of the Cedar trim I would need to fill in the inside portion of my screen door. I cut a 1x6x8ft board down into eight .25 strips, and then trimmed those to be .75 inches wide by 8ft, by .25 inches thick. I pin nailed in the first layer. Now I have to cut up and staple in place the actual mesh material. Another big step forward. Makes me nervous. I have the second layer of trim cut and ready to sandwich in the mesh material. Fingers crossed I don’t screw this up, as I only have so much mesh to work with before I’d have to order & wait for more to arrive.
Once this goes in, I’ll affix the handle, and push plate. Then we are on to hinges, and hanging the heavy thing up in the door frame. Wish me luck! I’m going in.
The rain has come!
And we are all the better for it. Getting a touch dry round these parts after several weeks with no meaningful rainfall. Usually we get into mid June, or early July before we start with the thoughts of a drought. Times they are a changing. Not for nothing, but the change in the trees over the last five days has been non trivial. We have the leaves! The Lilacs are blooming and everything smells like fresh cut grass and flower blooms. It is a welcome reprieve from the nearly 30 degree Celcius temperatures of last week. And we are still a full month away from summer. But that is our weather for you. Miserable through April, a handful of days in the late teens, early twenties (i.e. ideal spring weather) and then BAM! a punch right to the tits as we snap over into 90+ percent humidity, scorching sun shine, and heat waves. All fine and dandy during the summer when school is out, and you can crawl into a pool, lake, pond or river, not so good when your kids are stuck inside an ancient school with no AC, as the temperatures reach the mid eighties or higher for a sustained length of time. I’ll be picking up sweat drenched cherry tomatoes from school for the next six weeks. Poor kids.
I did manage to sneak in a grass cutting session just moments prior to the downpour. It felt like there was some hail mixed in there too. Will have to check the plants to see if they were shredded by those fat, ice cold drops. Front yard only, this time around. We like to leave some wild flowers out for the honey bees, and bumblebees to putter around. Plus the purple and blue look nice for a week or two.
It is Monday, again. So that means domestic duties get pushed to the front of the to-do list. Laundry, dishes, floors and unclogging a sink. Whee! Blargh. Seems like I’m unclogging this damn sink every six to eight weeks. Not the most pleasant task around here. But I thought we were going to get thunder and lightning so I didn’t want to be out in the shop mid cut if the power dropped out, or we had a power surge.
The screen door is finally painted up. Four coats, and a light sanding with 320 grit. Now for trim and the mesh. Then hinges and hardware for the door itself. It is moving along, slowly, but surely. All the best to you and yours this fine Monday in mid May.
Multiple events in a day
Is not how I wish to spend every single weekend. One per day is perfect, a chance to get out, do something a little different, off the beaten path, chat with friends, then BAM! Right back to regularly scheduled life programming. Doing two or three in a day is a messy endeavour. Kids get over tired, and then we all feel out of sorts. I’m not built for that lifestyle.
However, as we speak we are gearing up for two separate birthday parties which the kids need to attend. Luckily, same day, same time, in two different cities. So we will divide and conquer rather than try to do both in the same day. That’s an ugly rush filled trial when you have to attempt that trick.
Also it is now Sunday, and I am exhausted. I feel as though I could sleep for two days straight if I gave it enough effort.
When you come for the Devil, you’d better not miss…
Or aim for his back so he can’t see what you’re up to if you flub the attempt.
The mornings are warm and sunny, and I’m taking my beverage in the partial shade of our back deck. The kids are fawning over their pea pod plants, anxiously watching them sprout and grow over the last few days. It is slow going, and full of childlike anguish. Pleads for the plants to grow faster, and the whole process to speed up abound. Soon they will tire of the hardening and will begin to squabble loud enough to disturb the neighbours and I’ll have to send them inside. Hidden amongst the chatter of our children playing is the insistent hammering of a giant wood pecker somewhere further down the street behind us. The murmur of passing cars drifts softly through the trees as we are set back a fair ways from the road. A warm and richly scented breeze rustles the leaves of our Lilac bushes, bringing the smell of freshly brewed coffee to my nose. It is a Saturday in May. Things, such as they are, are good.
I forgot to mention (not really) that today is Day 150!
Which I think is a pretty decent milestone to reach for having written something here on my blog every single day. Weekends, illness, good times and bad. I’m pretty happy with that. Not only that, but the discipline to keep writing has helped me develope a commitment to lifting weights and exercising again. Which my heart will thank me for in the long run. If I can psyche myself up to run or bike that would potentially go a long way to help reduce my waist line. It has made it easier to pick up something new and do a little of it more often than not. I switched to home reno projects, and away from my children’s book last week, and this one. But I did manage to get an awful lot of it onto paper, and I’m in a great spot when I go back to it. I’m reading proper books again, not just twitter and the news, which is great. I miss reading when all I do is scroll twitter and read about politics 280 characters at a time. I’m currently painting my screen door frame, waiting on primer to dry actually, if you must know. Then I need to cut down Cedar strips and keep this bad boy rolling. I want to have it hung up before June 1st, which is attainable, if I don’t all of a sudden become paralyzed by fear of fucking something up. I’ve even made plans on an interior window project next. So I need this one to go fairly smoothly, now that I am committed to finishing. The trim will have to be cut twice, into 8ft long strips from a 6x1x8, and then taken to a .75 down from an inch in width. My door, after sanding, planing and lots more sanding, is no longer two inches thick where the mesh screens will be inset. So slight tweak there, but nothing too awful. Maybe i don’t have to take it to .75, i could potentially go thicker. I need to double then triple check my measurements before I cut it down too far.
So Day 150 huh. Seems like a lot. But isn’t really all that much. Not even a full half a year yet. My “streak” began about two weeks prior to Christmas when I was panicking about how little I had written last year vs. The year before. Far more traffic with short/micro stories than my regular blog jabber. No surprise there. I’m not an interesting person, nor am I famous or grotesquely handsome. Just run of the mill me. Running my mouth and thinking thoughts like a person.
“He’s strange, eccentric and terrifying.”
He talks in a sing song but staccato manner, with emphasis wherever he pleases. He dances with grace and the fluidity of an otter. His pale visage, and croaked rasp will send you running for the hills. A more vile and vulgar an individual you will never see. Wrapped up in himself with a blood soaked cloak of spies and slaughter.
You don’t get to become supreme leader without having killed entire opposing bloodlines and all of their heirs. It’s thirsty work, and the Blood Gods will not be sated.
Take heed young noble men and women. When you look the emperor in the eye, know that he has both a blade at your back, and arms aimed at your families across the imperium. No one is safe, until everyone is safe. And no one is safe from the wrath of a god king whose sworn an oath to the Blood Gods.
Our life’s milk shall be drank by the altars of blood this day, and every other! Rest not until you have carved rib bone with your saber. Rattle them not. But plunge them deep and swift into the heart of madness at the center of struggle. Go forth, and die with honour! If not for your sake, do it for me! May the gods have mercy on your souls.
Greatwall Studios Graphic Design 
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