Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

But I’ve never had a problem with crying when something I deeply cared about turned so far sideways it was no longer salvageable. Could be I’m the youngest, “the baby” and didn’t have to be as tough because I was “only little”, and now I don’t worry about bottling everything up, or pushing until I break. I certainly see those constraints placed on others, to have had to Man-up, Nut-up or Sack-up and carry on as though nothing had happened. Give a guy a chance to breathe and they’d be a lot healthier both physically and mentally. A lot of shit can really shake you. Doesn’t mean they won’t come back and power through, but given a chance to atleast admit, “jesus this shit is sucking at my will to live!”, then go back and accomplish said thing might actually let some of these folks live a semi-normal life if they come out the other side. Human beings feel things. It’s not a weakness. But you have to be willing to work through it, or it’ll eat you up and kill you in one way or another. Shits hard yo! Give’em a chance to breathe, grieve or get angry before demanding more sacrifices of them. Dudes dropping dead in their forties and fifties because they suppressed every single emotion after the age of three is a nasty pill to swallow. Good on that Rugby dude for knowing when his head wasn’t in the right place. To show human frailty takes courage, especially if it’s getting at you internally, and becoming noticeable externally via physical ailments and maladies. Tough to see.

It is now Saturday. I’m off to visit family for an evening. My folks just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in Campbell River with two of my brothers. The sun is out, it’s warm but not scorching hot. Lovely day to be alive. Ciao Bella!

And things are getting messy out there in the streets. Another positive test inside the extended family, travel plans disrupted, tensions are high, and summer is drawing to a close in the next three weeks. Lots still left to do! Swim lessons close out this week too, so that’s another wrinkle. No matter, we’ll sort it all out eventually.

I have another busy work day ahead, and then a day of soft proofing for tomorrow if all goes well. Would be great to get away for the weekend and have my initial portion of my projects completed, and awaiting feedback next week. I need to eat something soonish! I can feel my stomach and guts rumbling in protest.

Food certainly does help put things into perspective. While this mornings news was a bit of a downer, it’s all going to work itself out somehow, so no use fussing too much about it. Eating, and working for a few hours has put me in a much better news, as I’m nearing the end of my project. Well, atleast the first chunk which is about 90% or more of the whole process. Minor changes and fixes usually only adds an additional hour or two. It’s this early step that takes anywhere from twelve to thirty hours to complete, depending on the size, and complexity of any tables provided. Doing a report with tables that have five columns is way different than doing one with eighteen, plus different call outs, like italicized data, bolded figures and colour coding in every single table & every column. Wow. Those are the wrist burners of the project world for me. Gotta take lots of breaks when those items come to town. Phew!

In other news, it’s been like six weeks since I’ve done any wood working, and I hate it! Bah. Would really enjoy building a table or chair right now. I need a good quality chair for the shop, so maybe I’ll build one this year, if I can. I’m thinking about a bass guitar, drum kit, air brush kit, a new larger air compressor, a new larger high powered bandsaw, a mill/drill machine to replace my tiny drill press. So many things, but most are out of reach financially, so I just like to look around online and look at the market place. Mooch about as it were. Looking, thinking and day dreaming about tools and such. I need to buy some quality raw materials if we’re being totally honest. That can get pretty costly depending on what species of wood I choose, and how much I buy. Decisions, decisions…

In other, other news I downloaded and watched both Prey and Lightyear. Two very different movies. I sorta enjoyed them both to some degree. Both were a bit odd. I’m still not sure who Lightyear was geared towards, because after watching it, I don’t think my kids would like it that much. And in the case of Prey, why they gotta fuck up the Predator head/face, and do such a bad job of the rubber gloved hands. Tacky as shit. The rest of Prey was good. Well, the CGI animals were a bit shit, but who has the time/energy for real bears and snakes. So I can give that a pass if I absolutely had to. But why mess with the head so badly. It looked terrible. Awful. Weak sauce!

Lightyear on the other hand looked incredible. Wish I’d seen it on an over sized AVX screen. It looked pretty stellar. I did however watch it in two parts because I was tired. Don’t know if that says anything about the films overall quality to you indirectly, but that’s how that viewing experience went down. Like it or lump it I suppose. Ciao Bella!

Summer sun, having a blast. Now back to our regularly scheduled work block of the week. It’s great to be able to get out and about with the kids, and then settle in to work for a few days every so often each week. Even better are the paid invoices that have come in recently. Which means it’s just about time to do more work, so I can send out new invoices to be paid. Could be a busy end to the month of August, and lead into September as well.

We saw some opal in real life the other week while visiting the Bancroft Rockhound Gemboree. Flashy stuff. Bit pricey if you ask me, but I don’t mine the stuff, nor buy it, so no skin off my nose. We went to a Sodalite mine and found a whole lot of amethyst chunks, which we were all super happy about. Fun times. I’m going to eat some breakfast then tuck into my latest project.

If I had my way, this would be the only way I would make bacon moving forward. So crispy and evenly cooked. The house doesn’t stink, and it just tastes pretty great this way. I need to buy a platen, so that I can do eggs, bacon and pancakes or sausages all at the same time on the bbq. Doesn’t that all sound delicious! Mm mm. Good.

And other fun stories I tell my kids when they get way out into the weeds asking multiple questions on a subject I once thought I knew anything about. Ask enough ultra fine pointed questions about something and you start to butt up against the end of what you know about just about anything. So i have that going for me. No need to lie, or make up any grand statements. Just offer to go look it up with them and find out together. Depending on how left field their questions actually are, you could actually learn something new and interesting, if not useful in any way, shape or form. Good times.

Now we are in week six of nine for the summer holidays. The last couple of weeks have been both fast and incredibly long. It all changes hourly. I’m sure if we varied up our days activities it would feel different, but for right now we are reliving the same days over and over again. I can sense a good deal of work coming at any time, soonish. So we’re doing a lot of family time while I am not logged in and building projects for clients. I think it will last through until late October. Which is ok by me. Once the kids go off to school I’m going to go buy some hard woods and try at least one more furniture project in the fall. Possibly more depending on what I try. A table I could do, as I’ve made a few already. If I attempt a chair, that could take longer, as it’s far more intricate, and needs to be repeatable. I hope to find a decent slab to build a live edge coffee table as well. So we’ll see what becomes of anything when it comes time to a actually spend any money. Always hard to part with those precious dollar bills y’all.

Last nights storm didn’t do much to alleviate the humidity that is hanging around here today. We could hear lots of rumbling, but I never saw any flashes of light, nor any major window rattling booms of thunder. More rain is on the way, so let us hope the grass goes green once again, and that my tomatoes and pumpkins live to tell the tale of how dry this summer has been in random places.

That shit likes to spread when you live and/or work in close proximity with people whom refuse to mask or social distance in any way, shape or form. C’EST la vie! This is life. If you want to live that way, you get all that freedom as well as its attendant fallout from the living on the edge of danger lifestyle. Unfortunately it tends to also collect housebound invalids with a myriad of medical conditions who didn’t ask for you to bring that shit into their homes. Critical but stable is still the call of the day. Angry? Yeah, certainly. Tense and anxious that a few others selfishness could end in calamity? Yes that too. Three of the four have it now. Two are suffering terribly, with the third only just testing positive, so it’s still too early to comment much. Let us hope they all make it out alive and well, with no new maladies to work through.

In other news, it’s hot. God Damn! Yesterday was an absolute humid roaster. The sun hurt to sit in. It reminded me of the time my wife and I went to Nevada in August and it was 106°F most of the time. Did not enjoy that much. That desert dryness is unbelievable. Gotta love Vegas though. I always get my steps in when wandering around looking at stuff. Few things I enjoy more than a good wander around looking at stuff. The interior themes of the casinos are as interesting as they are varied. Even old Freemont Street is a kick and a half. I can’t recall how many shows I’ve been to in all of my trips there in the last decade or so. Eaten some pretty great food there too. Steaks, french toast at any point in the day. It’s fabulous. I like that i can wander around with a chilled Twisted Tea can in my hand, and go look at stuff. I have even gone to the movies in Vegas. I think i saw Justice League with one of my brothers there. Couldn’t exactly tell you which theater it was. The movie didn’t leave much of an impression, beyond the fact i had wanted to go see Thor Ragnarok, but my brother had seen it already, and didn’t care for it. Whereas afterwards, I saw Thor and preferred it greatly over JL. Weird what we remember and why.

I think today is Sunday, if I had to venture a guess. This could potentially be the end of week six? I think. I need to look at a calendar to be certain. Nope, I was wrong, end of week five. Phew! Thought I’d missed a week somewhere in the mix. We did have a stretch of cooler, dreary days, but not enough to have lost a whole week of summer holidays.

Dig dig dig dig dig dig, in the mines the whole day through! Off on a day trip to gather amethysts and other fancy looking minerals and gemstones if at all possible.

Trying to find ways to stay busy while family are in the ICU in stable but critical condition with Covid. Not doing my stomach any favors waiting for potentially calamitous news. On to the next thing I guess.

Slept like shit, and have an anxious upset stomach. Waiting to hear how a family member is faring in the ICU with Covid. Prognosis is bad, O2 levels dropped precipitously mid day yesterday. Age and other health factors at play. Not a candidate for ventilation or other extreme measures. Tough spot to be in.

The kids have finally succumbed to the plethora of on-line content surrounding Shark Week, Megalodon and underwater attack videos. Although they find the brief interludes where the great white sharks breach the oceans surface a tad boring. I can forsee hours of YouTube videos in my near future. That, and possibly screams of terror in the night from nightmares. Soon to follow, a fear of sharks in any pool anywhere world wide, and fear of ever going into the lake when at the cottage. Good lord save us if a piece of sea weed touches their feet when in the lake! The hysterics, I can hear it now.

What day is it today? I whole heartedly believe it is Thursday, but don’t quote me on that, I’ll actually need to check to make sure. The air outside feels thick, so I guess we are going to have a bit of a humid stretch coming our way. Crossed a couple paid projects off my list, and am waiting on some others that I know are coming. The free fall life of uncertainty that comes with freelancing.

No, I do not do much of any development of new business. I like to have five to seven constant clients all year round. Preferably with different peaks and valleys for work load and high priority project deadlines. I used to advertise and spend hours a week on quotes, phone calls, inquiry e-mails and RFP’s, but I am a small, very small, niche freelance graphic designer, and all that writing & development takes precious time away from the actual paid work. I like doing the work itself, not networking, not schmoosing, not chasing clients and having to put on a song and dance for others. I suppose when my kids get older and are more self sufficient I’ll need to suck it up and do some networking to capture a few more clients, or sub contract out to a larger agency, or become more available to a larger local business that doesn’t have an in-house designer on tap, but would like one, several days out of every month all year long. But we’re not there yet, so I’ll stick with what works for now. I also have enough down time that I can pick up and learn new programs without that training cutting into paid work schedules. Which is really handy, and a privilege that I hold onto dearly. So no major paycheque chasing for me just yet. Thanks.