Category: Uncategorized

LinkedIn and Jetpack/Wordpress are up to their shenanigans once again. It seems like every eight weeks or so the connection breaks down. I’m not a prolific writer with tens of thousands of daily views, so it takes a few zero traction days for me to clue in that the links are down – again. Oh well. I think WordPress owes me .15$ for the last three years worth of ads served, which means essentially zero dollars earned. Not exactly a rich vein of a revenue stream. My writing isn’t an earner for the family, is what I’m saying.

Although I have had a few novel pdf downloads in the last month. That puts a smile on my face!

I’d love to say that I’ve lost 15lbs since Christmas, but I waiver between 198 & 200lbs on the daily, and I can not seem to get under 198lbs for any length of time. Smaller portions, and reduced snacking, and an increase in movement (walking the dog) have helped out. But sheesh. Plateaus suck. I didn’t want to have to spend money, but I might actually need to get to a gym for free weights, and increased periods of movement.

I have not swam as much as I was doing in May/June/July, and haven’t used my bike, nor long board at all in recent weeks. I had high hopes for getting some use out of that stuff this year. Being trapped elsewhere without my stuff makes it hard to accomplish. On the other hand I have paddle boarded and wrangled massive tubes behind the boat nearly every day, so… I’m not entirely motionless. Bugs here are still bad so not walking the first trails at all either, which is a shame. I look forward to that in October/November when all the mosquitoes and black flies, deer flies, and horse flies are dead.

I should probably get a count on what calories I consume in a day. That might tell me something useful. I was doing time on the elliptical here. I did 3 mins, 5 mins, 10 mins, and then 21 mins respectively. I used the tower once, and have been squatting with the weighted bars, but nothing like a routine has emerged. The elliptical feels more like an odd stepper, than a running gait. Makes my hips tight. The travel on the paddles isn’t long enough, like running with shoe laces lightly tied together. Must take some getting used to. I prefer running on the track by our house with my kids. But that’s outdoors in the heat and full sun of the day. Sweat city! Drenched and smelly.

So I need a better plan. Yes smaller portions are good. More vegetables is a smart choice. More water, less soda & juice as fluid intake will help. But I need to create a much larger deficit between what I take in, and how much energy I put out over the course of a day. Would a step counter activate me to walk, do more? Maybe, but again i don’t want to go spend any extra money. Feeling cheap. And I’ll tell you why.

A client emailed me privately to say they had been laid off, so now I don’t know if I have lost that client as a whole, or if it’s just that both of my regular contacts are gone, or have moved on. That stresses me out a bit. They were pulling back on work over the last eight months, but design ebbs and flows, so not everyone is in a heavy growth pattern all year, every year. That dip felt normal to me. Guess not.

That could potentially be client number two who dropped me this year. Well, the first was taken over and bought out, bringing all design in-house, little I could do there after I sold all my working files to them. Fine. But this one hits different, as they were my third largest client. I haven’t heard anything official yet, but no news, and no further projects might spell that out plain as day. You know? Right. I could be worried about nothing. I’ll have to wait and see.

In September I’ll reach out to other clients and see if they need any help. Get the ball rolling out & about once more that I have bandwidth for more/new work. Sounds like a plan to me. Sold!

Thursday with rain on the forecast, and a couple of thunderstorms tucked up under, ready for deployment at a moments notice. Still sat watching the Olympics, this time it’s men’s diving from the springboard. Watching people spin like tops and then miraculously not make much of a splash at all. Crazy-town. Can’t be too many more days left of this years competition. I don’t typically bother with the opening nor closing ceremonies. If I were involved I most likely would, but otherwise it’s a pass for me dawg. Bzzt. No golden buzzer here bro.

Best eat breakfast and get back to work.

Where did the time go? A family visit took up a real big portion of yesterday which caused a bunch of back ups here. Cleaning had to be redone as some folks just didn’t leave – at all. So yesterday’s time spent cleaning was a total waste. Now I’m back in the thick of it, work wise, and I have to clean everything top to bottom once again. bathroom’s, floors, table tops, chairs, you name it.

I’m doing yet another load of laundry inbetween saves on my display packaging file that I am working on. Getting bigger each go round, with more and more elements added in. Yikes!

I still need to have breakfast, and get a few more items done before other family come for a visit. Was to be no overlap, but the lingerers just had to stay! I’m sure I’ll have to hear about it.

You ever win so badly you essentially lost in the end anyway? Yeah – me neither. But then I’ve never been divorced nor gone off to war, so what do I know about anything like that. Not much. But it’s a term I hear every so often, and it makes me stop and think for a while.

It’s a cooler Tuesday around here now that we had yesterday’s storm, and I suppose a tropical storm has something to do with it, off the east coast – again. Dropping 30 inches of rain in one of the Carolinas. Flooding race tracks, townships, and running all kinds of amok. Weather! She’s fuckered.

Back to work now that the long weekend is done. I for one am glad I worked during it, so that I could focus on one job, and one job only with no phone calls, emails, or meetings of any kind to interrupt my flow state. It’s not grinding, it’s finding and maintaining a state of least resistance while you work. Get a whole lot more done when in the groove, than fighting every step of the way. Clichés- littered with them!

I need to go and eat some breakfast before I start to feel ill. Happy Tuesday!

Did not end how I thought it would, so pleasantly surprised. Enjoyed the trilogy a good deal. Now I can try to finish  “The Left Hand of Darkness” and then I can immediately jump into the new James SA Corey book due out later this week. I’m chugging along now. Got a good rhythm going. I was hesitant to finish “City in Ruins” because I was dreading a less than stellar ending, but fear not! It isn’t. And now that I am deeper into The Left Hand it is making more sense to me. It felt like I had missed a book one, but that’s just how it is written I suppose. Not all questions get answered, at least initially.

Will I make my 12 books over twelve months challenge again this year? Not sure, but I think I’m up to book 8 or 9 so far, so not far off if I keep chugging along. I don’t mean to keep buying new books, as I was trying to get through my TBR pile on my book shelves. To save money, and to actually read all the books I’m storing at home, which take up space. Valuable space in such a small home at that. I hot rid of quite a few books last year, and was looking to do so again, but I didn’t read as much of my back log as I had hoped that I might. 2 or 3 only, so far. I’m kind of scared to go count just how many I have on hand that I have not yet read a word of. The total number is going to be fairly high. Like 20-30 books or more potentially. Although I think I donated a few series that I just knew I would never bother to read based on how much I disliked what I’d read of their first book(s). Sometimes you just know. You know?

We have rain today, much needed rain at that. The last two or three days have been blisteringly hot. My room smells vaguely of burning white. So that isn’t good. I thought it was my small portable fan, so I unplugged that and ran just the ceiling fan. But this morning the room smells again, so it’s the ceiling fan that is the culprit. Unless there’s an issue in one of the walls, or sockets. Try sleeping with that knowledge creeping in your head. Yeah! Exactly.

Though it could be the lingering off gassing from the sinking my dog took 3 weeks ago, missed with his body oils, as he (the puppy) sleeps in my room to stop him interfering with the bunny rabbit at night. So maybe I’m just paranoid is all. But I know that smell. I’ve cooked off enough tools and electric motors to know that stench well.

It’s a real nail biter as I try to completecat least one novel before the latest off the presses gets delivered. I’m excited! A new series from James S A Corey, the writing duo behind the expanse. I had originally thought it wasn’t going to get released until some time in September, but I had an alert from Amazon that it’s coming in early August instead. Goody-goody. I am looking forward to a new sci-fi series to follow. I’d love to see the last GRRM book get finished and published, but to be truthful I can not remember anything that happened in the last book, so… it’s anyone’s guess how the whole lot wraps up. Fun-fun!

I am very close to finishing my first draft of a large report. I have family coming so I didn’t want to get stuck building graphs and charts the whole time they are in town. So, I had best get my last 11 sections completed between today and tomorrow.  I chose to work on it this weekend because i knew i wouldn’t have any other client work over the long weekend. I could knuckle down and focus solely on the report, and proofing all of the minute details.

Multitasking is useful, but focusing on one thing at a time has it’s benefits too. Especially when it’s a long project, with most of data points. Getting lost or muddled up is not a good way to work on this type of thing. So yeah, maybe the weekend is a bit of a wash, but to be able to focus without interruption meant I could finish sooner, and potentially with fewer misses, and edits in the long run. Bonus!

So I’m going to eat breakfast first, and then try to close this first draft out before 3:00pm. Have a lovely lazy Sunday in early August of 2024.

I have sculpts I’d like to finish, and a new one to begin for the fall fair (which will need to be painted aswell). I have a table to refinish, and four Walnut legs to build for said table. I need to purge a couple of years worth of junk from the house once the kids are back at school. Closets to thin out due to over stocking sweaters and pants. Shoes and boots to donate. Coats to sort out, and donate that which won’t fit my kids. And I have my eyes turned towards building more war gaming terrain.

Last year I ordered some texture rollers from Green Stuff world, and I intend to use them to help me build a ruined castle on a hill, with a river cut through it all. Only a 2ft by 2ft board to add to my other four. But this should offer me some new challenges. Grass, rocks, river bed, water, stone, mortar, and trees etc… I can make it playable levels, with a basement, main floor(s), and tower. I do need to start sketching up ideas, rather than fly blind. It could be a difficult build if I go at it half cocked. May have to order some supplies I’ve wanted from War Gaming Scenics , or whomever is still in business these days. Maybe some rock moulds. A grass applicator. New grasses, trees and flowers too. Could be another pipe dream.

I do have my eye on a new to me, but used Bandsaw still. If work picks up a little more deeper into summer, and throughout the fall & winter I can probably swing one or the other. New terrain build of top notch quality, or a newer, larger bandsaw for my wood shop hobby. Either way it’s going to be the tits!

I have home DIY projects to do, like power wash the back deck, and all of our exterior windows. Need to get the nozzle off the hose to be able to do that, or buy yet another new length of hose, just for my pressure washer. Since my current hand gun nozzle has seized onto the end of my only remaining water hose. I might just have to cut it off, the nozzle that is. The springs are shot, and the trigger is nolonger responsive. It has significant lag to it. Joy’s of home ownership, and property maintenance.

I really should spend a day to finish my childrens book. Get that put up on here, along with my two other books, though those two books are collected short stories. But they are books I’ve written. This third one is illustrated though. And meant for kids. My shorts are definitely not aimed at the youths. Oh no. Not at all. I can only imagine now just how long this children’s book has been in my thoughts. Five or six years by now. I’m slow rolling it for sure. I’m no GRRM, but I am taking my sweet ass time with it. Ha.

Half way into summer break now, how are you all coping with your kids, and spouses? Especially if you are married to a teacher, how you holding up? Are they starting to gear up for back to school shenanigans? Have a great Saturday, and long weekend. Ciao Bella.

And I’m happy as punch about it to! It’s also a long weekend, with a civic holiday on Monday. Means we are into the final weeks of summer break, and back to school commercials are about to flood the airwaves. See you in September! See you when the sun is through. I both love & hate this time of year. I wish for it all winter long, and then despise the sweltering heat when I’m ten days into a twenty one day heat wave / drought combo. I’m hard to please.

I did manage to get a hefty project off before the month of July concluded. Which is a big deal when you get rusty during lull periods. We still knocked it out of the park though! Score. Potentially winning more business in the process. Love to hear it! Also my other clients are bringing in some more work too, which is more than welcome. French language versions of projects we built in English. I’ll take that work! Is usually a bit tougher as the french language is a bit wordier than English. So Tetris skills are a must, to pack it all in there!

My kids are doing swimming lessons once more, so they are physically exhausted after class. A good thing! My oldest now has to do 3 x 100m laps using three different stroke techniques. Plus a full minute of hands out of the water, for treading water. She is usually rather emotional after all that exercise. Can’t say that I blame her really. I’d want to cry too.

I think today might be a quieter one with the holiday weekend and all. But I can’t make any definite calls one way or the other. If I’m needed, I’m around today anyway. All bets are off on Monday of the holiday.

Have a great last long weekend during the summer, until Labour Day that is! Ciao Bella.

Putting the water trampoline together myself in the scorching mid morning sun was a testament to how much fluid a body can sweat out in a short period of time. But we got it all set, and floated out into the lake without issue. I wonder if the spring guard got put on though? I didn’t check. Could need another few mi utes of work to officially call it done.