Can I start out by saying that I liked this film even though I hated how close to the bone it cuts? It was well done, but it stressed me the fuck out. It made me angry even when it made me laugh. I cringed an awful lot at the actions of Jonah Hill’s character, who was at once hilarious and horrific. A ‘himbo’ who placed his Ivy League uneducated devotion in the wrong people. Jennifer Lawrence goes full bore on her incredulous millennial schtick and sticks the landing, hair cut and all, well done. I love that Leo goes full nerd but still gets to smash the blisteringly wealthy talk show host with too white teeth (Cate Blanchett). Both sides of the ending are… something. A blood pressure raising, pulse increasing, rage inducing, funny, satirical send up of modern times that slices deeply along the vein.
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Something unexpected that I was proud of in 2021.
Earlier this year I built a series of four terrain panels, each measuring two feet by two feet, and almost ten inches tall on the highest elevation. I was originally going to build just one, but I had such a good time making the first that I decided to go ahead and all three more to it to make a larger gaming table for D&D or war gaming. It’s not something I have done before, but it sure was a lot of fun. I can see why people get addicted to terrain building and 3d printing and such. It was a wonderful creative outlet, and I wish I had the room to use and store an eight foot gaming table with modular mix and match panels. I would love to build a proper wharf, a seaside fishing town, a mountain pass, ancient ruins, a meandering river bed, a proper cliff face and waterfall, try water effects, real rock moulds with plaster of paris etc… a hot wire cutter, a grass applicator and those uber swanky high class model train trees too. There are just so many things you could do with the time and resources to tackle them. My only hope is to help my kids build dioramas for elementary school projects! Or try to build a bunch of much smaller and more compact elements, like castle walls, or ruins or individual hovels & town houses. I’d love to see any of your work if you have images handy!.
The day after ‘The BIG Day’…
And I feel hung over without having had anything booze or beer related to drink. It was a long and somewhat unconventional Christmas day, you know, with the isolation and the quarantine and the pandemic still running amok in the general population. I know for a fact that at least a couple of the kids gifts were a slam dunk, home run, field goal, Uno! And a few were near misses due to the aforementioned grand slams. While none were entire failures, so I’m happy with that. It’s a long day, preceeded by a terrible nights sleep, ensconced in over stimulation, sweets and hyper activity so that there were a multitude of melt downs, hard feelings and squabbles among the children. Par for the course at this age bracket. Otherwise getting them back into bed by 8:00pm and then watching ‘Don’t look up’ until around 11:00pm in relative peace and quiet was a great cap to a long and challenging day. If the weather could either warm up or snow a bunch we could figure out how to entertain our isolated family over the rest of the school break and through the last five days of our isolation that would be greatly appreciated.
“Do you know what I’ll do?…”
He exclaimed rising from his overly soft sofa cushion, finger jabbing menacingly into the air. ” I know just what I’ll do!” He bellows into the chaotic room littered with wrapping paper and shards of open gift containers. “What’s that dad?” A tiny voice asks from the corner of the sectional. “I’ll steal their Christmas! Ha ha ha ha….” roars the plump middle aged man whom is likely to do no such thing. “But dad – it’s all ready Christmas!”. “Next year then!”. Fin.
Happy holidays, merry Christmas to all.
Aiming for those last few days of 2021 writing streak…
Which means pulling out all the stops to create something written every day until the new year begins in order to fulfill some weird kind of anxiety about not doing enough creative writing during the year. For all those days when I followed the white rabbit down the hole on YouTube regarding wood working or welding or sculpting or entertainment news about movie spoilers. For those lull days when I didn’t do jack shit. For those weeks in September and October where my singular focus was on home DIY projects and not being creative in any way, shape or form. For those days when I really wanted to watch a movie instead, or bury my face in a good book. Now it is a race against time to prepare some short, fun ‘content’ for my blog. On the plus side, by skipping writing in September I was also able to buy our Christmas presents and avoid busy stores, malls, parking lots and any possible supply issues. The big show starts tomorrow, with some champagne and orange juice at days first light. Stay sane, stay safe, and be merry (where possible).
I too am excited for Christmas…
Whether or not Covid looms over it like a bloody great black storm cloud threatening to drown us all at the slightest whim. Regardless of hand washing, masking, social distancing and drastically limited contacts to anyone beyond our immediate family. Even with that horrific tangible threat just looming on the horizon, my childrens bottomless zeal for Christmas, Santa, family fun and presents is keeping us on the cheerful side of what could potentially be a drab and dreary worry filled occasion. God bless the blissful ignorance of children and their singular fixation on Christmas time! While the inexhaustible energy levels can be bothersome, some might say, the optimism is hard to beat at a time like this.
How do my children have this inexhaustible…
Supply of energy, all day every day? I’ve gone so far as to supply them with multiple outdoor play dates this whole week and it makes nary a dent in the ear piercing shriek of delight levels of play that they engage in. Seems like wailing at the top of their lungs in our small cozy home is the order for the day, each and every time. It can be infuriating! Adorable at first and then grating on those self same nerves. The constant refrain of “bring it down a notch or two!”, or “Separate if you can’t handle sitting together”, are met with blank stares and renewed vigor on the auditory front. I swear their vocal cords should waiver and shred apart at these levels of noise, but they only get stronger, louder and more sustained. It’s a whole thing. Feel our pain, and know it isn’t just your house, or your kids that are driving you a little mad some days. If I thought strapping them into a treadmill for a few hours a day would drain some of the fight out of them, rest assured I’d have them harnessed in immediately. But I fear it would just help them to build their stamina so that they could be overly dramatic for much longer. Ah kids. The apple of my eye. I love my kids, I love my kids…
The holidays are almost upon us!
Staring down the barrel of an unusually long week as we wait for Santa Claus to ravage our home with socks and useful household items! I hate the fact that school let out so early, and we have an entire week in which we need to entertain our kids prior to the big show. If Covid weren’t a thing right now, I would have loved if school could have gone right up until December 23rd, and then we’d of had a fun filled friday for Christmas Eve, then Christmas Day & Boxing Day, and then the kids would have had almost two full weeks to play with their new cherished toy(s) and we could putter around the house doing something constructive. Instead I needed to rush out in order to make play dates for both of my kids sets of friends, and keep them occupied for seven full days before the main event. It is stressful to say the least. I do like being able to spend a good chunk of time with them, but by 8:00pm, I’m ready for them to leave me the “F” alone. Come on holiday festive cheer! get me through this without an eye twitch or a set of equally horrible child melt downs!
After all this time
I didn’t do any work on my illustrated children’s book this year at all. Last year in Year One of the Covid-19 pandemic I took my rough notes and wrote the story out in full, and then also rewrote it two more times, along with a few character sketches, but then I’ve just left it sitting untouched. Mind you, I did then go and write a full book of short stories in its stead. Now however I feel like I should resurrect the project for 2022. Alas, in the few golden months I had since both of my kids were attending in person school I tackled home diy projects to improve or finish off rooms in the house, rather than devote myself to an illustrated childrens book. I haven’t drawn by hand in a very long time, and I haven’t painted in watercolours or acrylics in nearly the same amount of time. I think I’m nervous about the artwork being terrible, more so than the story not being entertaining. But wave #5 and the end of Year Two of the pandemic are nearly upon us all. Part of me is still chasing the high from actually writing a full book of interconnected short stories set mostly out in space, along with some non-fiction autobiographical stuff mixed in. Funny how a lot has happened while nothing has happened. A very strange feeling. I think what I’m missing is, I used to come and work/write every day from 12-2pm while my kids napped, and then the youngest gave up naps, and I had to resort to working at night and then I dropped off my writing habits because I was focused on the paid work for my day job, and my brain was a tad fried from several weeks where I wrote 5 or 6 thousand words over some very productive days, week after week. Not always that many, but I know my cognitive skills dipped on any day that I wrote more than 3,500 words at once. A fugue state, brain fog, brain fart, mom brain, synapse fatigue or what have you. Odd feeling, that. Oh yeah, and I devoted more time to wood working, and I scaled back my sculpting too this year. Perhaps a more rounded dabbling in all of my hobbies will make for a better choice next year. Glad I am alive and well enough to consciously make that decision.
Not too much going on today
So here is a photo of our former pup Alfie Francis before he past away in May. This is the first Christmas in twelve years without his wagging tail knocking ornaments off the tree, or his snuffling nose tearing through wrapping paper on gifts under the tree. He was a good looking boy, and though his last yea to year and a half were challenging, he was well loved.
Greatwall Studios Graphic Design 
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