Stouffville, Ontario Canada (647) 962-1997 gwstudios@rogers.com M-F 8:30am - 2:30pm & 8:00pm - 11:00pm

Author: greatwallstudios

Married, Graphic Designer, enjoy playing the electric guitar, model building, wood working and sculpting.

My go to fridge clearing recipe.

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First I chop up left over cloves of garlic, green onion and sweet onion and pop that in a large sauce pan with a smidge of olive oil to brown up for a couple minutes. Then I chop up and add carrots, celery, bell peppers, diced potatoes and a healthy dose of unsalted beef broth/vegetable broth. Occasionally I will add in a splash of OJ or lemon juice for a bit of a zip. Boil that until it simmers and the broth begins to reduce down to a thicker (think less than watery) consistency. In a separate cast iron pan I will crisp up and brown both bacon and chicken. Once the bacon has a good crunch, and the chicken has a crispy browned crust I plop them both into the veggie pan. Add as much honey garlic sauce as you like to the total mixture, let simmer and serve. I don’t typically add any salt, as the bacon and honey garlic sauce tend to have a significant amount in them. You can add virtually anything you have in your fridge in just about any quantity. I like that it changes from meal to meal. Looks like a dogs breakfast but tastes great, and is 75% vegetable and could easily be all vegetarian if you were so inclined.

Some things you will need: At least 2 sauce pans – chopping board – knife – spatula – 2 stove top burners

Things you might use in the recipe: Aromatics; Sweet onion, garlic cloves, green onion, ginger Meats; bacon, chicken, beef, or pork sausage Vegetables; carrots, celery, sweet bell peppers, potatoes, zucchini, egg plant, and a whole slew of others. Basically whatever you have in your fridge in whatever amount you have left. Sauces & Broths; I prefer to use the salt reduced Campbell’s Vegetable broth or beef broth, but if you like Knorr or Bovril have at it. I do like to splash in some OJ or lemon juice. And to top it off I like some Kikoman soy sauce (salty af, so that’s why I don’t have salt or pepper in the ingredients list) and then some form of a Honey Garlic Sauce. Add to taste.

Mix it all together and serve. If you use potatoes in your meal cook it all until they are done ( or if you are impatient run them through the microwave for 10:00 minutes before placing in the sauce pan – but you still have to wait on those pesky carrots!).

This is a fire, not the recipe.
A beautiful moss covered rock, but not a recipe.
Ooh the Gut, in the Kawarthas, but not a recipe.
Purple Iris, but you guessed it, not the recipe.
My daughters art installation, also not a recipe.
Pork browned in a pan, with veggies in another pan. All very brown.
Starting on that yummy in my tummy bacon (diced) for additional crunch factor.

Well, I’ve gone and done it again. Terrain build #3.

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I’ve always wanted to have an interconnected series of gaming terain boards and now I’m on a mission to complete all four 2ft by 2ft boards.

The third installment sees us come up against some steep shoreline, more water, cliffs, and a ruined temple upon a plateau with trees growing out of its discarded rubble. I also tried something new with this build in terms of materials: namely tile grout that hardens to stone with the liberal application of just plain water. Choosing the right colour was/is an ongoing challenge unless you can store multiple sacks and/or boxes of the stuff.

Here are the build images in progression.

Cut out the foam, add the wooden rocks, add some tile grout/stones/sand for texture. Block it all into place with papier mache.
After the grout has dried.
Primered in black for a uniform colour.
Dry brush grey.
Dry brush beige.
Dry brush titanium white on the top most portions of the rocks and rubble.
Slather on watered down mixture of earthy brown paint.
Block in my water.
After adding the various colours of flocking, tufts, trees and more tile grout. Also added some clear gloss varnish to the water.
How the current three tiles fit together. Waiting on ideas for completing the fourth. Will either be a rolling hill, or a two tiered piece with a surprise.

If you looked this far, and read that, thanks for following along. One more build to go and then I’ll have to move on to my woodshop projects. Almost finished the Harry Potter trunk I’m building for my daughters book collection, wand, robes, tie, glasses and D&D dice. All I need to finish it is the burgundy felt I ordered to line the inside in Gryffindor colours. Catch you around.

We’re out here in the early spring boiling up maple syrup.

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Much like the title told you, we’re busy during the spring time tapping, transporting, straining, filtering and boiling maple syrup like a bunch of Canuck rubes. Lovely weather and a lake side view are very much appreciated when on fire duty, watching that we don’t boil over the evaporator. Sometimes smells divine, other times tastes like ashe and smoke on the wind. Good times.

A bit of media for the terrain build.

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I’m not a vlogger or youtuber so my video snippets are few and far between. But here’s a short flyby of my two completed terrain boards with a few minis in tableau on one half. I’ll be back to writing my short story series about The Chronicles of Kelvin soon enough. So fear not, I’m not transitioning to only war gaming, or recipes or short blurbs about nothing much at all. Take care out there folks. And with no further ado, my terrain build in video format.

And because I’m proud of much of it, my book case full of bust sculpts from my home office.

War gaming board build number two.

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So the crafting terrain building bug has hit. And it hits hard. Like a sledgehammer to the skull, when things go right anyway. Shortly after completing the first board with a mountain and some water and hills, I found a second 2ft by 2ft board and started another portion. They go together to make one longer playable table or can be used separately. I ordered some new parts for it, but I had enough to finish it with what I had laying around. Could put some extra bits on later, but I don’t have to.

Same process as before. Glue on foam to the board. Cut thicknesses to make obstacles and elevations and landmarks. Glue on thick bark chunks to make rock walls (this part was new, last time I just used paper mache and a tin foil mould). Bark was simple and cheap. Found lots in the yard. Washed and dried it, then glued them on. Add pebbles, rocks and sand. Added paper mache in a thin layer to cover the foam and block in the bark to make the transitions seamless. Let dry in front of a fan over night. Spray paint with black primer. Let that dry over night. Dry brush my grey/beige/white layers on the rocks. Add watered down brown to my ground portions of the terrain. Flock and decorate. Done like dinner.

Let me just sneak this in here, I also wrote a whole slew of short stories, some take place in space. Check them out. An interconnected series of short stories set in space. Cheers! -M

Building war gaming terrain.

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So for the last week or so my eldest daughter and I have been building a 2ft x 2ft gaming board with multi leveled terrain.

I think we got to about 97% of what I was hoping to achieve on our first attempt at a large scale terrain build not from a kit or that was store bought.

A few things we learned along the way were : mdf bases warp like hell. Paper mache based mainly on flour shrinks a tonne. Hot knifing to cut foam smells dreadful (glad we did so outside) and takes a while if you don’t own a heated wire cutter. Static flock applicators will get your grass to stand on end, where as shaking from height out of the container does not yield such results. Tin foil rock moulds are handy but not as good a actual rock moulds used with plaster of paris. Paper mache takes a lot longer than you think it will. It also is a lot messier with a six year old helper. Dry brushing doesn’t take very long at all to achieve decent results. Exploded styrofoam slabs are great for flat surfaces but the extruded xps foam is where it’s at for topographical elements and carving. Sculptamold knock offs are good but not great. Use a fan to speed up drying times by an exceedingly wide margin.

I look forward to building more terrain in the years to come with my daughters. Campaigns await!

Spectacularily Rich Hot Chocolate

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The girls have just come in from an hour long play at the park in late February, so Dad’s Hot Chocolate is in order. This is how I put it together.

800mL of 1% / 2% or if you like it thick 3.25% Milk into a Pyrex® measuring cup, Heated in the microwave for (3) Three minutes, (45) forty five seconds. [Until more than warm but not scalding hot]. Pour into blender with chocolate syrup (add to taste) and four heaping table spoonfuls of chocolate powder. Spray in two full layers of whipped cream out of an aerosol can. Mix up until no powder chunks are visible.

Pour out into 4 mugs, add more whipped cream on top, and drizzle some chocolate syrup on top for sizzle. Serve and enjoy. Having to peel your children off the ceiling an hour later is your problem, not mine.

Bottoms up! -M

With the echos of the scream still bouncing off the protective shielding…

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The man falls heavily to his knees. The harsh bitter cold of the metal floor is bone chilling, and it seeps through the rough canvas coveralls at the point where his knees touch the ground. The thick icy grasp of the medical bay floor hits him quickly. With puffs of breath raggedly exhaled into the cold chamber the man is stricken with waves of fear. Bursts of crystallized breath plum out of his mouth with his dogged panted breathing. Outside of view beyond the protective barrier, ensconced in utter blackness, the rest of the medical bay appears to have deteriorated considerably. Heard amongst the rattle of his breathing are the insistent chimes of his wrist biometrics unit churning out error codes and warning notifications. Slowly rising to his feet, with a frail wobble to his steps, as though he hasn’t stood up in weeks or months the man stumbles towards the pale blue glow of the protective shielding he is standing within. The static fuzz ignites off of his finger tips, radiating through his palms and up above his elbows. The skin on his hands shimmers and pulses under the low voltage passing through it. Turning to sit with his back resting against the security shielding the man limply slides back down to sit upon the freezing cold floor. Feeling he harsh bite of the frosty metal against his rump. The static pulse of the shielding is accompanied by the shrill urgent chiming of the wrist biometrics notifications throwing up error codes and streams of data too small for the man to read. Looking down at the shimmering, rippling skin on his hands, his focus pulled away from the odd undulation of his flesh from the static from the security shield, he stares blankly at the wrist biometric unit. This is brand new he thinks soundlessly. “Yes… Yes it is”. Answers the empty darkness. Jumping to his feet, turning around, bare feet pattering the ground, the numbness now reaching his hips, the man screams again. A blood curdling, epic scream of madness. “Don’t be alarmed, we are you, that is to say, you are us. We are one. Do you understand?” speaks the disembodied voice, as clear as day, as though it were stood mere centimeters from his ear. Jumping with fright at each punctuated word, turning both this way and that, the man is frantic. Scattering bits of dust and debris, he searches the small med pod bay looking for the source of the voice. “No need to look for us, we are you, you are us, we are one. Together. Do you understand us. We know you speak a variant of the English language. Not American, nor British by Canadian English… yes?” speaks the voice in a slow drawl. Nod if you can hear us, do you understand the words you are hearing – Oh no. Here we go! Brace for impact… protect the head, protect the head! , make sure the tongue doesn’t slide back down the throat!”. The man crumples into a heap and promptly passes out. “Well, this is no good. We have to clear these notifications and sort out our access if we’re ever going to do anything useful with this vessel. We know, we know. Yes, I am aware of that. It does pose considerable challenges. No I am not currently aware of anything or anyone else quite like us, we… me.” The voices which can be heard sound muffled as though they were coming from another room down a shared hallway. Certain words are distinct but much of it flows together and is incomprehensible. Slowly everything fades to black, again.

**Another new installment of the interconnected space serial from 2020: The Chronicles of Kelvin.

In the stark white brilliance of the medical pods internal lighting…

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My vision fades from inky blackness to a dazzling white hot fire. Through the fuzz of far too dilated eyes in sudden brightness I can just make out my greyed, and cracked skeletal hand pressed upon the domed glass. The sensation of a deep cold burning the palm of my hand slowly crawls it’s way into my thoughts. Jerking my weak and flimsy hand back off the glass while tearing off the finger pads with the motion. The tear of the skin is audible like a seam popping on cheaply made pants. In the stifling silence I realize that I am alive, barely, and I do not know why. Left upon the surface of the glass are five perfect finger prints which start to flake off the frozen glass before my eyes.

The once plush and padded all white interior on which I am splayed is now all grey and faded to a crusty brown, spattered with spots of orange, yellow and mustard coloured stains. As I wriggle around in search of the internal release latch, dust plumes fill the air making me cough violently. The claustrophobic tightness of the painfully cold harness, the dazzlingly bright white lights, and choking clouds of dust add to my confusion and panic. The interior of the med pod is freezing cold, so cold I can see whisps of breathe and a crystalline pattern on the domed glass matching the outline of my hand print, now contrasted greatly by the dust particles cascading off my dissolving finger pads. The radiant glare of the lights is awfully blinding. My eyes feel as though they are on fire, as though I haven’t blinked in weeks. My throat is parched and feels cracked. My tongue thick and numb inside my mouth. My breath rattles thickly in my chest. I can feel my ribs creaking beneath my coveralls. An audible rumble of my intestines disrupts the silence, punctuated only by the ragged short breaths I’m taking. Peering through the frosted glass looking outside the medical pod I catch sight of something that is down beside and below me, decayed and worn is an oddly familiar Edubot of an orange colour. It is in a terrible state of disrepair. The tank like track treads have worn through completely and peeled off the guide wheels. It appears to have crept over to the side of the med pod to manually interface with the pods override functions. It’s lone protruding finger pressed firmly against the med pod reset button. But why? What possible reason would the ships medical bay have for cutting off life support. All I can see within the medical bay is the small pale blue illuminated circle encased in our atmospheric protection dome. A shimmering curtain of pure energy. The ship must truly be in trouble for this last ditch security feature to have deployed. By the state of the looming darkness beyond, the ship has been derelict for quite some time. Finding and triggering the latch to release the pods internal restraints with a loud click. Reaching up to push the fabric harness to the med pod out of my way I can see the ghastly grey pallor of my skin beginning to fade, and a bluish tinted pink replace it. As I watch there is a certain plumpness that seems to fill out my emaciated hands and arms. A flush of warmth rushing to my extremities, filling my chest and clearing my head. A sudden chirp from the biometrics on my wristband has started to chime with notifications. An error code I don’t recognize is flashing double time on the small OLED screen on my wrist, I must plug in to the med bays internal computer to figure out what is going on. I have never seen such a code before. The interface on my wrist biometrics is brand new, and not a model that I’ve ever seen. Everything is so strange. Colours and sounds are off kilter, at once too sharp and yet fuzzy. My balance is shot even as I am laying down. My limbs feel foreign to me. I begin to panic while I can’t find my equilibrium. My heart is thumping savagely in my chest. As I thrash about inside the med pod I finally pull the main release latch and the outer dome sweeps out into the open room. A faint tinge of machine oil and stringent cleaners can be tasted on the stale air. Mixed with ozone burning off the protective energy shield. A massive cloud of dust bursts forth with the air pressure change. Trying to calm myself I swing my legs around to try and step out of the raised pod. The once soft padding crumbling under my shifting weight. The cloth comes apart like parchment paper. There is a significant lag between thinking about putting my feet down on the step just outside the pod and my limbs actually doing it. The sensation is uncomfortable, like trying to pilot my own body from seven feet in the air above my head. Trying to swallow my rising panic I have to reach out and put my weight down on the Edubot as I clamber out of the medical pod. The sole of my foot sticks to the ice cold metal step, and the pain of the icy burn races up my leg. Peeling my foot slowly off the step, skin sticking to the surface, the pain makes me focus. Looking around at the pale blue shimmering safety curtain of energy surrounding the pod my attention is called back to the insistent chime of my wrist biometric monitor. “What is going on?” I croak into the silence of the illuminated med bay. My voice, not quite my own, or how I remember it, reverberates off the powerful safety shielding. Looking beyond the sizzling ghostly curtain of the atmospheric safety dome I catch my first glimpse of my reflection. I am not myself. The surface of my skin is visibly crawling. I scream.

**A continuation of the interconnected space serial from 2020: The Chronicles of Kelvin. – Follow along over the next few weeks (hopefully) for the remaining installments of the story.

The bug has hit…

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Storyboarding out the next five additions to my interconnected space short stories. It has been more than six months since I have contributed to the series, besides a one off short I released yesterday, which ultimately seemed to dislodge some cobwebs and allow me, mentally, to align my thoughts and make a coherent story emerge out of my head. But don’t worry, my themes of isolation, confusion, future technology are all going to be well represented. I looked over my notes which kept on getting longer and longer and realized that instead of one ridiculous seven thousand word dump of text, I could break it down into smaller and more manageable pieces and explore each new chapter of the story with aplomb. I had tried several times over the last half of 2020 to plot out some new work and the dastardly covid fugue, or pandemic fatigue was making that near impossible. I don’t know how long this kick in the pants will last but I feel better all ready.

Plot outline for new chapters.

I’m guessing this new literary kick started because I now have three pounds of clay on my desk with a new armature built, and designs for several wood working projects for my wife and children ready to start. We’re into a new lockdown with nowhere to go, so I guess this is how I will try to remain sane with the whole family home 24/7 , and the coldest stretch of the year upon our doorstep keeping us indoors for much of the day. Isolation was far simpler when you could just go swimming in the sunshine to while away a few hours each and everyday. Not so much fun when it gets down to minus twenty degrees with the windchill. Anyway, not that I have an enormous readership, or that there are more than a handful who have read all of the interconnected series from cover to cover, but I’ll be back at it soon enough. I hope you’ll join the returning cast and crew of The Company: A Series of Interconnected Short Stories.

Don’t get discouraged if I pepper in some non-fiction(ish) one off stories in amongst the serialized stuff. Some times my kids do funny or relatable stuff that makes for humorous micro short stories. Wheels up!