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

Pumped up!

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Just got the word I’ll be doing more retail packaging projects this summer! Excellent news. I’m always happy when I get to see the fruits of my labour out in the wild. Or, more aptly put, on store shelves. Which reminds me of a short story I’m going to share with you now.

A few years ago I had a massive project that came in that looked so good, and was destined to be in beer stores and LCBO’s all over the province, and I was so proud of it, and after we developed a proprietary bottle for their spirits line up, they took the project back to formula, and then shut it all down. I was bummed out. I had been telling people to look for this line of products coming to stores for a while, and then had to admit defeat. We’d have been first to market, but too late now. Just another entry in yet another bloated field of RTD’s.

So it’s Friday, apparently. I have work on my plate, and obligations to attend to over the weekend. Otherwise week 1 of summer holidays has been pretty smooth. Eight more to go! Woot-woot!

Grass is still green and growing. Bit of an anomaly around these parts for July. But I’ll take that rain if it means I don’t have to lug water around the farm. Yeah buddy!

I recieved a pretty good nibble…

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Right on the ankle by a mosquito and good god does it ever itch. 95% of the time bug bites don’t seem to register with all this itch! And it isn’t even all the time either. At the end of the day it’ll drive me nuts until I put benadryl or after bite on it to draw out the itch. Still a red lump after a number of days too. Ugh! Dastardly little beasties.

I also need to run a few errands today which are business related. I need a new day planner, a desk calendar, printer ink, a desk chair. Pay some last minute tax fees, and try to pack & ship a wooden moose for my parents.

Now that the holiday weekend is over things will start to pick up again. So I best eat and be about my business! Ciao Bella!

Damn it, now I’m jealous of myself, from a couple years ago.

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Some of my most popular posts that continue to get views are about building miniature war gaming terrain, and now all I want to do is go and build more war gaming, D&D terrain pieces. Unfortunately I don’t have the room to build any more of the ultra fun 2ft by 2ft tiles. I’ll need to scale it back, and build something like a bridge, or a wall section, or a single town house of some sort. During the winter I bought some texture rollers from green stuff world off of Etsy. I have not yet had a chance to use them. So maybe a much smaller set piece will get my creative passions flowing, and satisfy that itch.

What I really want to do is build a 4ft by 8ft multilayered environment with water effects, a wharf, a fishing village, and a castle on a hill, and a river running through it all. But who has the time, money, and space dedicated to such an endeavour? Not me. Maybe I’ll prime and paint some left over minis I have and that will remind me how much work is involved in war gaming.

I have yet to give resin water effects a go yet. I really, really want to at some point. I’d like a hot foam wire cutter, and a static grass applicator to use on a big project or two, but those are expensive(ish) if they are left to sit for years at a time inbetween uses. I’d like to use rock moulds, and higher quality 3d printer dwellings that I can paint up. So many different possibilities. Argh! I have too many hobbies! Not enough time or resources to follow them all at once. I still haven’t done any sculpting this year, and six months of 2023 have all ready passed us by.

Summer is off to a very hot start. I think that today is Wednesday. I have some work to finish up for a client before end of day. So I best get cracking. Ciao Bella!

Sure is a hot one out D’ere.

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Lookit that water just a shimmering in the hot early morning sun. Whoo boy, gonna be a hot one, fer sure, fer sure it is bud. Roast the nuts off a squirrel if it sits too long on the car hood. Singed hairs and everything bud. Best to stay indoors with the ac, or go float around in the pool with a cold one.

Summer has arrived, and brought the wet bulb temps along with it, just about over night. The humidity done dropped down on us from out of the south, and slapped us all in the face with it. Hot, sticky, oppressive heat. Nasty stuff. Dehydration, sun burns, heat stroke, and overly hot heads abound. Hope you have a decent hat, because you don’t want to be straight heading this shit. No sir. Burned scalps, ear tips & noses for err’y body. Yuck.

At least at the lake you could just walk out into the water to cool off. Even at the farm you could go sit in the stream while it’s still flowing. Cool you right off. Might grow a sixth toe at some point from all the chemicals and shit people pump into the ground, but you’d be cooled off as you mutate. Going to be some long hard days spent weeding & watering over the next two months, that’s for damn sure.

I bruised my rib and arm yesterday doing someone a favour, and it hurts like the Dickens. Serves me right for leaving my whole body weight on a quarter inch thick piece of steel to extricate myself from a tight spot. I didn’t have the arm strength to just do a muscle up. My starting position was too low, with my arms too high above me. I don’t typically work out at those extreme positions. Serves me right for going easy with the weights I guess. Plus if I lost some weight it wouldn’t be as hard to move myself around either. I need to find a good place to go ride my bike. But without all the technical damage to my nether bits that usually accompanies such a hobby. Squashed urethra and all that.

Man I miss going out and doing crossfit. I was never in fantastic shape, but I didn’t have all this excess weight while I was doing all that cross training, running and Olympic lifting. I don’t miss the too tight ham strings or back pain though. Gotta find a reasonable inbetween. Happy Tuesday. Ciao Bella.

Elemental : A Sort Of Review.

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Took my oldest daughter to go see Elemental by Pixar yesterday. It looked lovely. Was touching and heart warming, if a tad long. My daughter cried. I’m glad I didn’t bring my youngest as she would have been bored to tears. The fart jokes were funny enough. I’m not certain there was enough meat on that bone to warrant nearly 2 hours of film. I think if they had whittled it down to 90 minutes that would have been their sweet spot. I did not pay attention to any of the marketing for this movie. I had heard a few people on twitter say it was good but the marketing focusing on Clod was weird, since the wee “boy” doesn’t really factor in for more than perhaps a minute of total screen time. If I hadn’t of heard about that, I would not have had any thoughts about it one way or another. I’d say wait for Disney+ to show it in October, if not sooner. I used my Scene Points, so technically I did not pay cash for us to see the film. Just opportunity cost for potential other uses for those 2400+ points from Scene. After driving, bathroom breaks, concession stand and the movie itself, it was a nice air conditioned way to occupy 3.25 hrs with my daughter.

The most striking thing about the Carl & Dug short at the start was how photorealistic the backgrounds were. The story itself was a waste of time. Though I like the dog. The squareheadedness of Carl is off putting, and he looks oddly out of place against such beautifully rendered backgrounds, objects, and environment. Pay those folks more. Their portion, or contribution was notably better in almost every aspect.

First full day of summer down and…

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It began at 5:00am, and ended with the kids going to bed around 11:00pm after the town fireworks were delayed beginning until almost 10:00pm. It was hot, and sweaty, and expensive, and disjointed. A bit too hard going to be a manageable pace to maintain all summer long. It was Canada Day, so a bit of grace shall be given. Next up, after lazy sunday, is Domestic Duties Monday, with laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, sweeping, vacuuming & mopping the floors, cleaning the sink and kitchen counters, cleaning the bathrooms, and a general tidy up of our main living spaces (work schedule permitting). They can either help me, or go find something to do for 2-3 hours so as not to interfere with my progress.

Which reminds me, I need to run a few errands today. I think some places will make Monday a holiday since July 1st was a Saturday. Might have to bump some items to Tuesday if that is the case. Either way, I’m sure that today is Sunday. I was under the impression the weather was to turn stormy today, and I was going to kill some time this afternoon taking the kids to a movie. But if it’s not raining we can be outside instead.

The humidity settled in from out of nowhere yesterday. While we sat in the grass watching a formerly famous clown, the sweat was just rolling down my back, and soaking through my t-shirt. No shade was provided near the children’s programming section. Could have done with getting hosed down every do often. The grass made me itch, and the sticky heat didn’t make me very receptive to the comedy stylings of Doo-Doo the clown, “The clown from Billy Madison”. That’s his claim to fame apparently. He was ok. Needs a better sound tech, as his mic’s eq levels were ear splittingly loud.

Part of the errands I need to run are picking up a new desk calendar for 2023, and a new day planner, printer ink for my Canon, and possibly a new office chair, as my current one gives me leg cramps for some reason. I can’t blame it, the chair was free. I dug it out of the trash pile at the Guelph Mercury sometime around 2007/2008, so it doesn’t owe me anything. Except for the whole leg cramp thing, that sucks, and I hate sitting for long periods of time. Makes doing precision work that much more challenging. Would prefer to eliminate that particular obstacle. I guess it will depend on how expensive the office chairs are. I do tend towards cheapskatedness when confronted with spending more than I had been planning on. Is that a moral failing, or an adherence to my budget requirements? Hard to tell.

Sick insomniac children make the worst dance partners.

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Usually by throwing up all down your back whilst you’re swaying back and forth gently in an attempt to soothe them when having night terrors, a fever, or general sleeplessness. Either way, fun times. And a change of wardrobe later, I’m up with the sun and the gooey, sick child that never, ever sleeps in on weekends. But, I will say this, since both kids have recently started to occupy their time with mobile ball balancing games, they are able to keep to themselves for an hour at a time before the rage quiting starts. Baby steps. I’d prefer them do console stuff, fewer ad interruptions, by far, and easier to monitor.

I guess this is Saturday July first. Day one of my wife’s year off, and also day one of nine weeks worth of summer holidays for the kiddos. Around these parts this is considered Strawberry Festival Season, and usually there is a big fair set up in town, fire works, food trucks, vendors, stalls, and live events. But due to a scheduling conflict, no rides this year. And the weather forecast calls for rain, and thunder storms from now until Tuesday. Welp! Not much we can do about that. I always have my eyes open for funnel cakes and fish tacos, so I don’t doubt that we will mosey over at some point if the rain holds off, or remains fairly light.

In the back of my head I’m glad for the rain. I can’t recall us heading into July with green grass before, so a couple of extra rain days should do us some good as the hot, humid parched earth of July settles in. The corn will like having some rain, especially if it’s followed immediately by several days of heat, and unfettered sunshine. We don’t irrigate our fields, so very dependent on rainfall. Eventually we’ll get back to a drought situation, and will have to hand water all the vegetable plots, and pumpkins, the peach trees, and apple orchard, cucumber patch, and all the tomatoes and pepper plants. Hundreds of feet of hose to move around, cans full of water, wagons with cisterns, or a full on water truck with pump and fire hose. It’s loud, messy, and hot physical labour. And that’s the easier job there is. Weeding, and pulling buckets of rocks out of the field are much harder. Both on your back, and how much time it takes. Well, correction. Rocks suck, but a few good passes might do it for the season, but weeding last forever. Sprays work on some things, but going in with a hoe, or trowel, and spending hours everyday cleaning up rows works the best. But is highly physically demanding. Tiring, hot, thistle filled work that stains your hands funny colours, and leaves you with dirty feet, bug bites, and a sun burn. Thankless work. Easily the biggest reason I would never own my own farm, or be interested in living off my own land. Awful, hard, soul crushing work. Owning land is a dream, but exclusively farming that land?, myself?, no chance. One acre plot for veggies I like, yeah sure why not. But a whole working farm. No way. Although the commute would be great, the most ever ‘work from home’ job you could ask for. But rigorous and hard living. I’m far too soft inside to weather that hardship.

Both kids are now up, and it has just gone 7:00am. Going to be a long, long summer.

The gift card boom…

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I’m sure anyplace that sells gift cards has seen a dramatic uptick in purchases lately. Priming the economy with $25 vouchers for teachers all over the country as we hit the very last day of school. After having to telecommute the kids in for classes for several months over the last three years, I’d say the gift cards are warranted. So, thanks to all the teachers for keeping our kids alive between the hours of 8:25am, and 3:00pm each week day. Throwing in an education is top shelf utilization of their time. Round of applause!

So summer officially kicks off at 12 Noon today, when the doors fly open and the kids run out into the mid day sun. Soon cries of “I’m bored” will be heard around the province. Unless you’re a farm kid, then you’ve got chores, and duties to perform sun up to sun down. If I hear my kids belly aching I’ll drive them right down to the farm to pull weeds and rocks on their hands and knees for a few hours under a very unforgiving sun. Pass around the hand trowels and hoes, and set them loose on thistles and crab grass to eek out the boredom complaints into the hard baked soil. You wanna act like your toys, books, games, and movies ain’t no ‘thang‘, then I’ll put you to work to save grandma’s back out in the fields of pumpkins and vegetables. Tell me again that you’re bored, I dare you.

This summer everything is open, so we can try a little bit of lots of stuff. Bowling, mini putt, movies, rock climbing, arcade, go karts, wandering a mall, the beach, Wonderland, the Zoo, Air Riders, Laser Tag. Have a better set of experiences this summer, or at least more varied this time around. Weather dependent too though. This forest fire smoke, bad air quality might force us indoors with crowds, so higher quality masks are going to be a thing for us. Batting cages, driving range, swimming, bike rides, these can be thrown into the mix aswell. I am positively giddy thinking about all the new experiences we can choose between. Price may very well be a factor too. We already have a Zoo pass, and Wonderland seasons passes, so those could shoot up the ranks as our go to, since parking and entrance is paid up for the year. Splash pads and water parks abound!

Alas, it is Friday, the last one in June 2023. How quickly it comes at you! Six months of the year done, and in the books. Wowzers. Both kids will be in numbered grades come the fall. Hard to believe time has gone by so fast. Don’t get me wrong, we had some slow as molasses days and/or nights, but man oh man the years start coming and they don’t stop coming.

Teaching self reliance.

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It has come to my attention that we are not doing a super job at teaching our kids to be self reliant. Not to the point where they need to find jobs, and shop for themselves, no. At this point I mean, fetching themselves a drink, and making their own breakfast. Nothing major. I’m just tired of having to feed these kids while they lie in bed with hunger pangs, and it not even crossing their minds to head to the kitchen to grab a drink, or pour a bowl of cereal, or eat a snack bar of some sort. Instead they’ll get ready for school, with our help and then whine that they didn’t get any breakfast. Get up! Walk the fifteen feet to the kitchen and grab fruit, make toast, pour yourself a drink. These aren’t major under takings that I’m talking about here. Ugh.

Maybe I’m just tired and cranky because yesterday involved a tonne of walking, standing, and being on my feet outdoors in the smelly unclean air. My hips ache, and my eyes and chest didn’t feel all the better for it either. But I think these kids are more than capable of sorting out a snack for themselves. 90% of what they need is kept at a level where even the youngest can reach it. Maybe I need to move some food stuffs around, and we’ll have another little demo on how to mix their own chocolate milks, juices, find testable bread, and where the bowls, and cups are – again. The early morning attitude is too much. All that angsty vitriol is too damn high! Perhaps another lesson with the can opener, and toaster are in order. Get these kids up to speed for summer, because I’m busier than ever with work, and I don’t fancy playing maid, butler, chef, event coordinator, and chauffeur all fucking summer long.

Hold on. School’s just called, youngest has a sore throat and I need to collect her and bring her home. So much for horse back riding, and meeting the friendly donkey tonight. Now I need to sort out how to grab my oldest once school is done, and juggle the two for this evenings birthday party out in the woods. Guess I won’t be staying to meet and greet all the animals. Which sucks. But sick kid comes first.

Have her in bed with some pain meds for the throat. Perhaps she’ll sleep? Doubtful. But stranger things have happened. Air quality wasn’t even all that bad outside when I cut the grass this morning. Maybe she caught my wife’s cold, but it has hit her throat first. I’ll have to bust out the Covid tests over the next several days if symptoms persist, and test her a bunch. This was the last real full day of school left. Guess they won’t be doing tomorrow’s half day either. Puts my plans on hold for a bit then doesn’t it. Welp! Not much I can do about that. We will just have to wait and see if she perks up and can drink like normal, or if she is actually out of sorts. I know the coming summer, and changing from kindergarten to grade one has her very concerned. Could just be she’s upset. Don’t know. Need more information, and data points to draw from. Right now, she is medicated, resting in bed with a drink and a show she likes, and I can check her temperature and fluid intake over the next few hours.

Work wise, I got nothing to say today. Take care out there. Ciao Bella.