Greatwall Studios Graphic Design

I always thought those CLIF bars were supposed to be healthy, like some kind of activity recharge type thing. But due to the high sugar content it’s just a deconstructed candy bar really. Not so much a meal replacement, or healthy alternative, as a calorie dense treat. The chocolate oatmeal ones are pretty delicious if you ask me. Not a weight loss option. Not a meal replacement.  It has far too much sugar to serve that purpose. Would be good while climbing though, I suppose.

It’s a balmy minus eight today, so a far more reasonable temperature for the kids go have outdoor recess, and a play time after lunch/meal time. I know my kids hate being cooped up inside the school from first to last bell. You can read it plain as day on their faces. Plus they tend to be real punchy at home. Quick to irritability. Fighting ensues with little to no hesitation after an entirely indoors day. So now they are able to roll in the snow, and soak their socks in puddles at the door. Nice!

Walking the dog when it’s like that is no picnic either. We just about ran through our route in order to get back into the car and go home as fast as possible. No moments to watch clouds, birds, or bunnies. No looking for deer tracks. No admiring the sun rise. Just in and out. For us these deep freezes are short lived, and more of an inconvenience. Don’t get me wrong winter is still cold, and full of snow & ice, but typically it’s liveable atleast. These polar vortex, historic lows are getting out of hand though. It crossed minus thirty the other night. Water freezes in mere seconds at those temperatures.  Ouch — nasty!

Spending some time today tracking down older unpaid invoices, looking to see where the funds were put. Fun times.

Brrr… it’s frigid outside. Thank you.

I’ve been living in long John’s for a while now, and it makes school drop off and pick up bearable. Still stings the face, and acts like a lance through my jacket though. Numb fingers in too thin gloves, and icy toes in boots which insulation just can’t seem to keep up. Nasty stuff. Not that 100°F plus heat & humidity are any better, but the extremes just aren’t all that much fun. I know it’s bad when my eye lids threaten to freeze open or closed. When my nostril interior freezes shut. When skin goes white & waxy looking, that’s prefrostbite knocking at your door. These kids are going to have spent a fair few days inside for recess this winter. They aren’t all that fond of indoor recess and lunch breaks multiple days in a row. The polar vortex should begin to subside sometime soon though. The forecast for the weekend looks liveable once more. Playing outside in -3 weather is doable. Not so much when it tops out at -30 or worse.

Did you see they announced a Switch 2 the other day? Larger screen, larger Joy-Controllers, and more internal processing power (I’m guessing?). Looks cool, but since I only just laid out $400.00 this Christmas for one, i won’t be upgrading to the other any time soon. We have access to any number of other console systems. Xbox, xbox 360, PS4, PS5, Playstation one, Sega Master system, Nintendo snes, Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, an Atari. We have lots of options for the kids to try spread out between our house, the grand parents, the cottage, and their cousins. No shortage of video games to tackle. I’m never ready for when stuff like this gets released. Too easy a trap to fall into.

So last night we finished watching the last of Mindhunter’s second season. I see they aren’t going to make a third, so the very last episode is a real lacklustre way to conclude the series. Shame – it was actually pretty decent. I have started to watch Chernobyl,  but that’s a much shorter series at just one eight episode chunk. Slow moving, slow burn. But it has been very well done so far. I’m part way through episode three I think. Lots of radiation poisoning, and burns at this point.

Almost halfway through my current book now too. It’s the kind of thing I like. Short. Fast paced. Action packed. Doesn’t take itself too seriously. Might have four books done for my 2025 reading challenge by the end of January! Speaking of challenges, my eight loss reached an all time low of 195.4lbs just before Christmas. I think it’s back to 196/197lbs, but I’m trying to drink more water, snack less – or atleast snack in a smaller portion, and be slightly more active with the dog walks, climbing, and free weights. It is going to take quite some doing to reach 175lbs, or below any time soon. I cleaned out my closet but saved the 33″ waists just incase I manage to get beyond my 34’s! I gave up on the 32’s, as I was pretty unhealthy when skinny enough to wear those, or the 30’s & 28’s. That was pre diagnosis of Crohns when I wasn’t managing my symptoms, and repercussions very well. Stress helped keep me thin by limiting my appetite, and constantly twisting my guts in knots.

I don’t want to be uncontrollably sick just for the sake of shedding twenty to twenty five pounds. I need a caloric deficit for that. Hence the snacking changes, and higher consumption of water. I’ll keep you posted on how any of it goes!

I’ll place it in my list with an asterisk then shall I? It’s not often the last 120 or so pages of a book gives me so much grief. Normally I get within a fingers width of the end of a book and I’ll have one very late night trying to get through it. Not in this case. It has plagued me since October, at least. But it’s done, put to bed, and I can start my next book immediately. This is how I work, hot out of the gates to cover as much ground as possible while the weather is terrible, and then once it warms up, and I’m outdoors more I lean off the books, and then try to slot them in here and there, rather than as my main focus. In case you can not tell I hate the cold. It’s just awful. Yuck.

I’m going to read a very short Alien novel called “Rogue”, from many years ago, and then I will have to decide on if I want to hit up Dune, or more Alien novels, or find an alternate book from my collection that I haven’t read yet. I have several, from all kinds of genres. It’s gotta pull me in within the first 40 pages though or else I’ll set it down, and move on. I can’t be doing any cold boring starts. I hate cold boring ends too, but that’s another matter.

It is minus twenty six with the windchill factor today. Starts with a balmy minus seventeen, and then the wind just makes things that much worse. I know the prairies have it worse, more consistently,  but they chose to live there! This is bad enough. Thank god for automatic car starters, and block heaters etc etc… makes me wish we had a much larger garage, not just for tools, but to house our two cars too. I could spend a lot less time clearing snow off of the cars, and scraping windshields free of ice build up.

A funny thing happened on the TV yesterday. I saw, on the news, multiple sources that is, Elon Musk give two, in very quick succession, ole Sieg Heil salutes at the inauguration of #47, Donald Trump. So I had to face the reality of things and delete Twitter. A sad day, but necessary at this point. Deny it as I might have done for the last several months, the utility & purpose has declined a great deal. I used it to follow politics, but politics is a stagnant cesspool, so let us not dwell in the shit anymore. He will get no advertising dollars from me, nor my continued engagement.

Here we are, on a Tuesday, double digits in January all ready. The twenty first day at that! My my how the days go by. It’s my niece’s birthday today — Happy Birthday!

Came home yesterday to the fire alarm chirping again after I just replaced the battery middle of last week. Hit the tester/reset button and that seemed to get things back to normal. But just incase it was picking up something else I went to the furnace room and replaced the battery on the carbon monoxide detector too. It did bot go off (which was a relief) and I tested it, and the ear piercing shriek it emits was well and truly horrifying. Glad to hear it. Hard to miss anywhere in the house. So besides a potential low battery I don’t really know what set it off again yesterday evening. The fire alarm that is. No smoke, no smells, nobody had made bacon, or had a too hot shower where the steam from the bathroom could collect around it. I don’t know. A mystery to me.

Here we are, Monday morning, kids are at school, I’ve walked the dog in mi us seventeen weather, and I’ve done a weekly grocery shop. I can put the kids laundry in the wash, and vacuum the house if I feel like it. I can clean the sink & kitchen, and the upstairs bathroom too. I have some work to finish, and then I can start proofing my report before I send it away for review. The day is as busy as I make it.

Domestic Duties Monday is off and running. Technically, now that we have the dog, whom sheds like he has alopecia just waiting to happen, I need to run the vacuum about the house almost every single day. Not to mention the grit he drags in on his fur from walks on the street with my wife. Hair, grit & dander are ever present here now. No escaping it! I’ve cleaned the kitchen, and the floors. First batch of laundry is in the wash, with one more to go. Then dryer time, and if I still have any get up and go, I’ll fold it all and put it away. But I have paid work to do inbetween getting all these household tasks done. I have an Excel sheet with my name on it, with a whole batch of data points I need to graph out, and put into a marketing document for easy consumption.

Up next, either today or later on in the week, toilets, sinks, and the tub itself. Towels, and floor mats, bed sheets and hand towels from the kitchen all need to get done soon. It’s a never ending battle. Costly one too, when you think of how expensive detergent, fabric softener, and static sheets are these days.

Now, I don’t consider myself much of a prepper, but I do have a gas powered generator, and now a battery power bank for my computer(s). I often think of getting the house a solar panel & battery combo so that no matter what time of year it is, we can have power at our finger tips should anything happen. When you consider just how volatile the US is with 45 back in as 47, I think it best we be prepared for anything strange. Extra food in the pantry, full gas can(s), and power source(s) if we get left to our own devices during something big, or drawn out. I have two medical kits here, fire extinguishers, limited external power sources, and lots of rice & pasta, but I’m not going to build a bunker, or anything like that. We have bottled water in a few spots in the house. I just don’t want to be caught out totally unprepared for either extreme weather, or the US doing something dumb. Does anybody else have this creeping urge to do this sort of stuff as they get older? I was “devil may care” for forty years! Not so much any more. Likely why we have all the fruit trees, and berry bushes on our property!

How quickly the rains will turn to freezing rain and black ice is not up to me. If I had my way we’d avoid both at all costs. Nothing quite like being trapped miles away from home in terrible weather. But life goes on, weather or not. Today is climbing day, so with any luck it shall remain just rain until we’ve gotten home safe & sound.

We have our chalk bags fitted and filled ready for use today. We’ll see how well it works compared to just the small liquid chalk that I was distributing only every so often. Let us pray the kids don’t empty their bags today by being silly, or forgetful. Only time will tell.

With any luck California will get some much needed rain of their own to replenish that which was lost due to fighting the fires. They can have some of ours!

I had best get to work while the kids are occupied with eating, and not currently fighting like cats & dogs. I’ll see just how far I can get before I have to break things up, make snacks, wipe a butt, or find them clothes to send them out into the yard for their hour of fresh air today. See you all on the other side of it!

We decided to offer the game night ticket to my wife’s brother as an additional part to his Christmas present. So he will travel down and watch the game with my eldest daughter. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little sad about not going with her — again, this time. But, in all fairness we have tickets for the end of the month, and I have one more set for early March as well, so I’m not hard done by, by any means. I’ll put on my colours, and will cheer from the couch. Maybe this time their section will win a prize, or a t-shirt, or get to meet Carlton the Bear. I know she’d love that!

Tomorrow is a PA Day, so with any luck both kids will sleep in, and not be grouchy after a late night out to the game. Well, the oldest one won’t be much of a problem, she’s old enough to keep herself occupied, and to find things to do that she likes. The youngest one is that child that still needs/wants everything done for her, and is the bigger issue at play. It depends, if I’m busy with work it will feel like a hassle, and if I’m slow then I won’t much mind. I don’t like to be made to feel like a servant, but I also don’t mind occasionally being helpful for fetching an item from the kitchen. Problem is the youngest one tends to abuse this by calling for any & everything under the sun. Which makes me angry. You need “a” drink, sure, you want six refills, and snacks, and, and, and…. then I’m magically in a huff, and it’ll get pretty shouty around here quickly. No point worrying about that which hasn’t happened yet. Getting pre-mad is stupid.

I need to go back to the drawing board on a big project, so I’ll be fairly busy today. Best get a move on. Ciao Bella.

I was starting to panick yesterday when my brand new computer was not charging above 96%, but it turns out the Magsafe 3 charging cable is very sensitive to fluctuations in voltage from the wall sockets in my house. Luckily I have an APC battery station and surge protector which evens out, and moderates a steady flow of volts from it. So that’s the new chargers home to keep my computer safe. Just like my older iMac. Battery emergency power, and a safer power source for something vital in the house.

Turns out that’s pretty normal, maybe not the variance I’ve seen, but to some degree you’d expect and drop & a spike as people leave for school/work, and then return home to use devices etc… I just wasn’t prepared for a charging cable to be so finicky about the quality/level of power it was drawing in order to charge. I imagine there was a battery life, equipment durability reason to make the cords that way.

Here we are on Wednesday, and the Leafs have just lost three in a row — badly. I still hold out hope that they can pull off a valiant win for Thursday nights game, or atleast stay in the fight for the whole sixty minutes. A solid tight game, even with a loss is far better than a blow out either way. Of course all of the bus/train schedules are different from the last time we went. Nothing like needing to check the schedules for every single individual outing! It’s a shame it’s so damn cold as it would be fun to show my daughter around the city afterwards, ir before hand but if it’s minus sixteen or worse then who’d want to do that?

It’s a week night so the ability to get there early to eat elsewhere is greatly diminished. Will have to suck it up and pay for the overpriced on site food options. Fifty bucks to two slices, and two drinks is about right.

They came out so strong last night, and scored in the first opening minutes. It looked so incredible, and then Dallas answered almost immediately and the Leafs deflated, and then let in three more unanswered goals for a 4-1 loss in regulation time. It was… disappointing. Especially after that rocket start! They can turn things around, long way from the playoffs to go yet.

I have some work emails to go sort out shortly. Stay warm, stay safe. Ciao Bella.

Takes time, and effort to move 608Gb of data to an external hard drive, approximately three hours if you’d care to know. That’s my 8Tb external hard drive back up now roped into the mix. It now shares an exact copy of the last ten years worth of working files. After that came the set up of the new computer itself. Apple atleast makes things fairly simple, so making things personalized isn’t a massive time suck, nor much of a chore. The last part, and probably the trickiest is loading all of the Adobe design software, Microsoft apps, and file transfer protocols so that I can continue to work more or less seamlessly. It took up a significant portion of my afternoon and evening yesterday. Authenticating myself, passcodes, passkey, key chains, two step authorizations, text messages, and e-mails to verify actions. It was nearly more than I cared to undertake. Which is why I had been putting off this investment for so long. Also why I’m reticent to upgrade my phone any time soon, even though it’s got to be seven years old by now, possibly older give it take a couple months.

And yet, and yet he says, I managed to get it done. I will likely encounter a few instances where I have forgotten about an application I use rarely that I’ll need to migrate over aswell. Hopefully I have covered much of my bases. I do know that I have to transfer my invoices, and tax stuff so that I have copies of that too. I don’t fancy starting that from scratch again. I like continuity wherever I can find it.

I am lucky that in years gone by I signed up for multiple family licenses for programs that I use alot. Although I was under the impression that I had at least two Adobe licenses that came under my umbrella package, due to the old e-mails claiming as much. But once I started to dig deeper found that to be untrue. Yes I can manage my apps, and yes I can invite myself to be a part of my team, but to use said apps requires another paid license. So sometime soon I will have to delete Adobe from my old computer so I’m not paying for two for too long. Would make sense of I could continue to use my iMac for years to come as a studio machine, and not just a fancy monitor/storage device. Oh well. Cost of doing business I guess. I did get ten years from the iMac, and it still works commendable well. It’s the software updates stopping due to out of date OS, and my system nolonger being compatible with newer versions that get pushed out every 3-months. Not just that, but as they push out the newer stuff they shut down the older versions, which is where my iMac was headed. One day I’ll turn it on and all the Adobe stuff just won’t launch again. I’ve had to keep my computer on, with the programs loaded for the last few months for fear of them not launching before I had my new computer in place, and running properly. I guess now I can shut it down at night. Save me some battery life on the keyboard & mouse.

As of today the programs still launch but can take anywhere from seven to eleven minutes to load while the icon bounces and jumps. Gave me heart palpitations when the load times moved into double digits. I should go move those last couple of items, and be truly ready to work on the new machine from here on out. It’s not a good bye, it’s a see you later moment. Also if I mirror my laptop screen onto my old iMac then it’s not a goodbye at all really.