Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

Stiiiii-rike One! Way to whiff on it buddy boy.

November 3, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Now we gotta adjust plans ever so slightly. This is where my working from home part time most days comes in super duper handy. Not just for appointments and sick days for the kids, but for online learning and strike-work action interruptions to the regular school day. Let us hope this doesn’t become another 20 week on line school stretch like earlier in the pandemic. I can do 7-10 days, but after that it’s going to get tense with Christmas right around the corner, and the cold bitter weather rolling in. But for all those walking off the job, you’re in a tough spot. Purposefully. Stay and get shit pay, where after inflation you earn even less than before, or stick it out and get hate from parents and politicians alike. 16k raises for some without batting an eye, $3.25/hr raises for others and you gotta shut down bargaining powers and tremble over the Charter of Rights. Ugh. Not a fun position to be in for anyone.

As far as I know the clocks wind back one hour on Saturday evening at 2:00am. Or very early Sunday depending on whether you are out partying at that time, or have been in bed asleep for four or more hours by then. We were up to about 3am last Monday with a sick kid, and being out drinking and dancing with friends hits different, than a worry induced insomnia. I do not recall the last time I went out to a club or went dancing, beyond any weddings I have attended in the last decade or more. I know we went before we had kids for a friends halloween party downtown, and stayed in a hotel. I’m just not certain if we were married yet, which could put that more than 12 years ago. Sheesh. How time flies.

Luckily we have a large class playdate set up for a few hours tomorrow to run all the kids about outside. I’ll bring a back pack with snacks, drinks and maybe even lunch. I hope it takes up 2 full hours, but with my kids it could last 45 minutes, or drag on for five hours. It is supposed to be warm and over cast, so not a terrible time to hit the park with friends. In that case perhaps I will string up some Christmas lights today, and get that out of the way. Decisions to make.

Love what you’re doing, but I have a few notes…

November 2, 2022November 2, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

In regards to your performance recently… in that it sucks. When you work, it’s all great, but then you break down, clog, jam, hell we even lost an integral part of you recently in the u bend of a drain (more on that later). So yes, as a no name air brush, you do what it says on the tin, in brief spurts, and do fine work, but ultimately you are a major failing and we don’t want to work with you after you finish all seven parts of this major project. Oh ok? Hmm. Yes, no you can not leave early. We’re under staffed, and you’re the only equipment we have on hand. Budget constraints and all that jazz. Please and thank you. I’ll dock this meeting from your time sheet today. Bye-bye. But don’t leave. You’re not fired – yet. You are fired, but not until all seven items are finished ok? We clear? Great. Uh-huh. Toodles.

So yeah, the no name cheap air brush is solid when it works, but needs to be torn down and cleaned to the Nth degree after every single solitary brief use. The air brush cleaner, and hot water treatment don’t seem to cut it. And all I’m working on right now is priming stuff black. Haven’t done a zenithal high light on anything yet, nor have I laid on any actual colour. So maybe in the new year I will break down and purchase a higher quality air brush.

On the other hand, the caddy works great. The Vallejo ready out the bottle paint primer is fantastic. The iawata air brush cleaner feels like it should work. Smells nice. And my make shift card board box over spray protection booth, while lacklustre is perfectly fine. Can be set up in seconds, and torn down to store under my drafting table just as quickly. I do want to build a better one, but I need to know what I really, desperately need out of it first. Do I need extraction, filters, lights, a turn table or flat static bottom. Do I want to be able to tear it down, or is it a new permanent fixture in my office/studio from here on out. Do I need to build it to fit inside a closet? Or store it under a work table. I don’t know. I do know that eventually a box of more than 100 miniatures will come my way in mid 2023, and I want to hit the ground running when those finally arrive from a kickstarter I backed a while ago. I should have done the Reaper Bones kickstarter, but I opted for a less expensive one, and it might take me for the $100 bucks. Oh well. Nothing I can do about it now.

In other news, the U bend I busted yesterday has been fixed. I went to Schell Lumber and bought a suitable replacement. I put that back in place, and tested the taps. No leaks – as of yet. It threaded properly, and fit the current existing piping. So a win! Yeah. Also I stopped off for groceries and bought a present for the birthday party this weekend, so that’s taken care of too. Came in and worked on some sample labels, and sent them off too. Had a request for some French Language items and got that put together, and am waiting on any additional instructions. So Bully for me. Ciao Bella!

Gotta love it when…

November 1, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

You manage to crack the bottom of the U bend pipe to your bathroom sink when you pull it out to retrieve a very important piece of your tool that fell in while cleaning it. I now have a very tiny hole/crack in the base of my U bend that absolutely pisses water out of it when tested. Atleast I checked it with the bucket & towels underneath. Fuck me. I wonder, now that I’ve buggered it, if all u bends are uniform, or if I’ll be in and out of shops trying to find a replacement. I hope this god damn thing is easy to replace. It has to be right? I guess the dimension of the pipe itself could be the biggest obstacle to finding the correct replacement piece. Hopefully none too expensive either. Well, as it stands now, the water is shut off under the sink & the taps are off, and the line drained. I’ll pull it when I get a chance, and will take the bloody thing with me to go buy a new one. C’est la vie. Whop-dee-fucking-do!

Those liminal days of limbo inbetween holidays.

November 1, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

55 days until Christmas, but we still have Remembrance Day, A P.A Day, few birthdays to get through first. Halloween is officially done, and I’m not entirely ready to shift directly into Christmas, and the Holiday Season. I need a breather. I had hoped to dry off, and take down the Halloween inflatables, and possibly put up some exterior lights. But, much like always around here, plans have changed.

I have my youngest home bound again, thanks to her unyielding post nasal drip cough which she can’t seem to shake off. It was a rough nights sleep, and a wet phlegmy cough filled morning, so she is once again riding the couch/bed combo trying to recuperate. Had a chest x-ray last week, but no news there, as of yet. So no news is good news, but it means we’re stuck trying to use the humidifier in her room, an inclined plane of pillows, and a cool breeze go try and clear it all up. No puffers or steroids (which is for the best). Lots of parents talking about running a course to the end with multiple puffers just for the cough to return in less than a week. So we’re all trying something. The kicker is, we aren’t even into flu season yet, so it’ll only get worse. I’m glad we’ve stuck with masking, but we are few and far between with any others who bother to mask their children still too. There are some, but not many.

On the plus side it’s about 16°C today, which is unseasonably warm, and I’m ok with that right this second. If plans had of stayed the same, I’d be outdoors soaking up that warmth. But I’m inside keeping my kid occupied, and waiting on changes/edits to current projects. The big one I’m waiting on has to pass through some UK officials office for sign off on the data first, so there isn’t much I can do about that. Not my party, not my dance floor.

A warm grey Tuesday for November 1st, 2022. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

What a Monday it is.

October 31, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

The big day is here, gather round, as we get dressed up to parade around town for freebies & goodies in the rain and/or snow! It’s a tad drizzly outside, but that’s more of the rule than an exception at this time of year. And what luck, it was lovely and warm both before, and after the big day. Perfect for setting up decorations, and then tearing them down. I the midst of getting the house ready I also did about 3 hrs of leaves yesterday. Still have one full Maple left to drop its rusty brown treasures. I’m sure we’ll have snow immediately after it does so, just to mess with me.

But, tonight! The big kahuna! A night to watch a scary movie at home with no kids, while they hand out treats at the grandparents. Or so I thought. Change in plans. *record scratch*. Grandpa has surgery this week, so no kids until he’s out. Gotta stay healthy for the procedure. So looks like an actual night of walking and trick or treating with the kiddos. Bundle up, and walk around with a flash light, and reflective gear on, as the wee ones terrorize the neighbourhood. Should be fun. I will miss my viewing of Alien, or Bladerunner, or some other non-child friendly film, but I can make up for that later this week.

My assumption is, is that things will quiet down a fair chunk as we angle into the Holiday Season, and people run about tying off loose ends before they go on Christmas break/vacation.

It’s a Monday, so I’ve got laundry going, dishes are out of the dishwasher, beds are made, floors vacuumed. Trying to decide if I want to mop today, or wait until tomorrow as the kids with their wet boots and costumes will make a horrendous mess later tonight, and I’ll need to start from scratch on the floors again anyway. So I’ll take the executive decision to hold off for today. I need to fix the main bathroom sink again. Three long blonde haired family members continue to clog it up! Blargh! Nasty. Seems like every other month it starts to drain poorly, and I have to undo everything and pull out globs of hair, goo and muck. Not my favourite task, but it is indoors with music, so could be far worse.

Tomorrow I’ll take down the inflatables, and dry them out. Store them away for another year. I’d love to not get all the stakes, and tie down lines tangled, but inbetween putting them away neatly, and pulling them out of the box a year later, the knot faery comes by and works her magic. Bitch. Ain’t nobody got time for that. If the weather is as nice as they report it will be, perhaps I’ll put up the exterior house lights tomorrow too. Depends. If I feel motivated to get it done, then Bammo! Lights on the house. Otherwise it can wait a week.

As always, stay safe out there. Ciao Bella!

Authors: I’ve often wondered…

October 30, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

How hard do you have to fight to add some newly made up words or terminology to your books? Do the editors ask you to first try to explain the idea in current known terms, or do they just let fly, and leave you be, if you’ve explained yourself well enough in the manuscript? I’d be interested to know. Just popped into my head while reading some sci-fi stuff, with new & interesting terms I could not locate in a dictionary. Carry on, as you were.

Decorating for the holidays…

October 30, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Just finished putting up the last of the Halloween inflatables we’ve received from the inlaws, onto the front lawn. And by Tuesday they’ll need to come down in favour of Christmas stuff. I think I’ll start with the house lights first, and leave the lawn empty so that I can cut the grass one more time and get rid of the leaves one more time. Leaves, leaves, leaves oh my! Wednesday’s wind storm certainly brought a whole bunch more of them down. Kind of infuriating how slowly they come off the trees at this time of year. They fall off in large enough numbers you have to take care of them, but not so much that any one tree is ever totally bare. Ugh. I hate repeating projects over, and over again.

Maybe if the kids go out for a bit I can get outside to do it uninterrupted. Who knows? A man can dream, can’t he? Ha. Although, I will say this. Now that the kids are older their help is far more useful to me than it was in years previous. One, they are both tall enough to hold and handle a rake. Two, they are pretty keen on stuffing bags with leaves if you don’t mind the chaos that ensues. Three, they laugh a lot and make a tedious job more enjoyable than they used to. But I know my kids and loud noises (not produced by them) and they hate my mulcher, so best to go it alone.

On to the rest of my lazy Sunday morning.

Dream a little dream of – Paint? Damn it!

October 29, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Spent a little time yesterday tweaking my air brush paint caddy to properly house my mini air brush compressor and air gun unit & hose. Added some dowels to one side so that it can hang comfortably off the side, or wrap around the handle for transport. Nothing major. I also added a tiny tray which screws to the side where the compressor will sit, and the strapped cord can be stored side by side with the unit too. All neat and tidy like. It’s no grand masterpiece, but it is functional, and with one last element to arrive it’ll be complete. A small bottle of Vallejo airbrush paint thinner medium. Don’t leave home without it. I am toying with the idea of added another tray go the back side to house the massive bottle of jet black airbrush paint I have had, and been using for years, as a nice wet, spreadable black on any canvas I’ve painted on in the last decade or more. I think the bottle is still half to one third full. It’s a big god damned bottle, believe you me. We’ll see. It’s lived up on a shelf for ten or more years, so I don’t much see the need to move it now. Except to keep my newly acquired supplies as a self contained unit. I feel the need to do this. Not sure why. An obsessive compulsion if you will. A fixation of the moment. Bah.

I even spent much of the night dreaming about the paints, their order in the caddy, and how I’ve set up the compressor and air gun accessories. It just wormed its way deep into my brain, and I got to spend nine or so hours dreaming the same forty seconds over and over, and over again. Oh joy. Such fun.

In other news the project I was waiting on will likely come next week. Which is fine by me. I figure I will now have booked work right up until nearly Christmas, which is amazing. I love when I know I have work coming, and roughly what that will pay. Makes budgeting for Christmas, and the dreaded lull of winter that much easier to deal with.

Today is Saturday, and the town will have a Halloween trick or treating event on down on Main Street, so I best get to eating, and finding warm clothes & comfortable shoes! Going to be a hell of a lot of walking later on today. Plus one more inflatable to erect on the front lawn! Let’s get spooky! Ciao Bella

Cleaning house, and finding a cache of…

October 28, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Clothes, never bags of money, but girls clothing, hundreds of pounds of fabric, sequents, lace and frills of every colour you can imagine. We have enough clothes in this house that our two kids could wear something new every day for two to three months. Excepting of course, underwear and socks, both of which tend to get eaten or lost in between being worn, washed and put back in the drawer to be worn again. That mystery is ever lasting, and shall never reveal its secrets to me. But yes, clothes. Tote box after tote box found with great big piles of mix ‘n match clothing. Pants, t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, shorts and by god, even more sweaters. Are we all really that cold so often? I could run a business just selling the sweaters we have accumulated over the years. Once the youngest outgrows it, we pass it along to other younger family members. If we opened every single closet, drawer, cold storage room, and tote we’d find enough random articles of clothing to stock a JC Penny of considerable size. It boggles the mind, just how much we’ve managed to gather. I am amazed.

It is Friday once again. Bit of a weird week, with us having been off on vacation Friday through Wednesday. Two destinations, warmer than usual weather, and lots of water fun. More of a local destination in both instances, but really nice regardless. We all had fun. It has been a challenge to transition the youngest back into school life after five plus days of being out & about trying new things. Oh well. It is what it is at that age.

I’m waiting on a new project, so pretty calm at the moment. Could turn to mayhem at any moment, but I think it’ll come on Monday. I just have a hunch. Not a problem either way. It sort of sucks that Halloween falls on a Monday, but nothing we can do about that. The town has some outdoor programming tomorrow which looks like a fun time. The kids are looking forward to testing out multiple costumes before the big day. Once it passes all eyes turn to more birthdays and then Christmas. Oh lord Christmas! Here, again? So soon? Such lunacy.

Quick trip to the water park.

October 27, 2022greatwallstudiosLeave a Comment

Where we later discovered that my eldest has a threshold for how high she is comfortable being. We found out while seated in a glass bubble about two hundred feet in the air above Niagara Falls while on their giant ferris wheel named the “Sky Wheel” on Clifton Hill. It didn’t cost too much to ride, and how often are we in Niagara in October with mild walking around weather? Never. That’s the truth. So I took a chance and we did it. Lovely views from up high. It was night, so the falls themselves were lit up. I wish the kids would have been more inclined to walk around a little more, but we saw lots, and tried to keep it fun, with as few meltdowns between the two kids as possible. So – one each essentially. We had our own cabin on the ferris wheel, which was nice. I think you could have fit eight adults in one car and still have room for arms & legs. Not bad for less than $50.00 CND.

The youngest took her turn at wigging out during dinner. I thought it would be fun to eat at the Rainforest Cafe, as it’s interesting to look around, the food is decent, and I know what the pricing vs. Portion size is going to be. My meal of “spicy” shrimp & sausage & chicken was delicious. After all the cheap spicy ramen I have consumed lately, the meal was no issue what so ever. Tasty and filling. I even opted to get a tall Daiquiri. Oh wee, look at me, living life on the edge. The kids loved it initially, but I think they should have snacked earlier as they were too hungry to wait for our meals, and the youngest went full auditory overload at the faux thunder, and kina, sorta, lost her mind for about fifteen minutes. But they did enjoy the animatronic elephants & gorillas. Loved the giant fish tanks. And my youngest has a fondness for frogs and toads, so she fawned over the mascot a lot.

The purpose of our family trip was Great Wolf Lodge. We managed a fun filled three days in the water park. This year my eldest and I rode every single ride available too us, excluding the three childrens rides in the toddler play area. A lot of standing and waiting on the stairs. But both kids did it without too much complaint. We lazy rivered it many times. Tackled the obstacle courses a few hundred times, used the slides, wave pool and the regular pool. Hell, we even found a moment to spare to go sit in the hot tub together. It was very pleasant. Some of our friends had an overlapping stay, so the kids got to play with them, and we got to chat as adults. Brief, but lots of fun. We even plucked up the courage to ride the single rider, no innertube, Wolf’s Tail. Where you climb inside a giant clear cylindrical coffin, and the floor gives way so you fall one story straight down into a gentle curve and speed your way via tunnel to the water trough at the end where you stop. It was brief, terrifying, but fun. Glad we both went once. My daughter desperately wanted to try, but I know her and her fickle ways, so I said once we got all the way to the top of the stairs, if she goes, I’ll go too, directly behind her. Otherwise we can both walk back down. I didn’t want to go first, just to have to walk all the way back up the tower to collect her, and walk immediately back down all those stairs. And she went for it. Fuck me! I didn’t actually think she’d do it. So I went too. Once. Phew! Glad that’s done with for now.

We went to the gift shop to buy pajamas for both girls, but they don’t carry them anymore. The kids were bummed about that, but still managed to find $100.00 worth of trinkets to take their minds off of their despair. Ha. Right.

We’ve done the story time, dance party elements, so we skipped those in favour of more time in the actual water park itself. We ordered pizza, and had the second half of it for dinner, and it was excellent. Not sure if, or what they changed, but it was really good this time around. We didn’t have time for bowling or laser tag, or the MagicQuest stuff, but the kids were fine playing in the water for longer anyway.

So that was our Monday to Wednesday. Came home in the afternoon, and I sent out a number of projects or tweaks that were requested while I was away. Now we’re all caught up. The kids are masked (as per usual) and back in school for Thursday/Friday. A little peace & quiet just for me. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

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