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

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The plan, the plan. What!?! Is the plan…

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I think I’m going to aim for 400 days of blogging, creative writing, and a general sense of nonsense and then reassess. I didn’t really have a plan beyond wanting to do a little writing every day for a year, and well…. now I am beyond that by a slight margin. I don’t have any goals for writing beyond the mere act of doing it. I try to get more concise. To limit run on sentences. To be more coherent in general. I’d actually need to reread a portion of last years posts to see if I managed to achieve any of those things. So, I’ll go out on a limb and I will say, sorta, kinda, maybe?

I do use this medium to moan, and lament about daily struggles and annoyances. But believe you me, I don’t have it too bad. I’m doing just fine. I could do with slightly better gut health, but otherwise, we’re all good. I just love to narrate a good gripe, every now and again. For those at home keeping score, I have Domestic Duties Monday’s, which sometimes gets bumped to Tuesday. I occasionally do movie reviews. Mostly if they are awful, or evoke some type of emotional response from me. Rage being a perfectly reasonable response to write about.

Rarely, I will cover retro gaming with my kids. As I have access to a Sega Master System, PS1, Nintendo 64, Super NES, Atari game system, Xbox , and an Xbox 360. So for older games we got you covered! I had kids so the PS4 & PS5 sailed right by me without waving. So nothing more recent than late stage 360 games get reviewed here.

I sometimes cover wood working projects, home DIY items, and my own spin on sculpting monster/creature busts and figures. I don’t recall ever discussing my music tastes, or instruments, but I can if I felt like it. I have taken to assembling an instrument stock pile, so that my kids have access should the mood take them. Key board, guitars, possibly drums, a violin, and a clarinet. Maybe we’ll form a family band just for kicks to keep ourselves occupied in the future. Who knows.

I just feel like I want to quit dreaming about things, and just go do them, regardless of being an awful noob and all. I don’t need to be any good, I just want to do the things, and experience them first hand, instead of watching others do the thing on YouTube. Perhaps building a new skill, or just preparing the way for my kids to learn, and do new things too. No point being miserable doing only what others expect of you. That way lies madness, depression and misery.

So in short, I don’t know how much longer I plan to keep going on a daily basis, but whatever I do, it’ll be more of the same. With the caveat that I might stumble upon a good short story theme or character, and then light up this phone with new installments. Fingers crossed. Ciao Bella!

Tomorrow is Day 250.

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How do you describe to someone what it feels like to have fundamentally changed a behaviour of your own. Nothing as monumental as say, quiting smoking, or getting sober. But, rather adding one tiny element into every single day, rain or shine, power or no, connection notwithstanding.  Feels a little self indulgent. Sounds a tad self righteous. Kinda seems more like a small shadowy facet of OCD. But no!, we call it discipline, and over the long run you get better at the thing you do a little of every single day, regardless of quality. Or not. I don’t think I have it in me to read all of the posts from Day 1 through Day 250, to see if I formulate better sentences, or have become more concise. Or even if my vocabulary has shrunk or grown during the process. A word art map would likely tell me which words I use most often. That would be funny to see. May show some insight into the inner working, bias of my mind. I’m sure that I write too passively. That I switch from first, to third person constantly. That all of my characters sound like me, saying the things that I woukd say in every single interaction. Snark, nonsense and all. I still find it fun though, so there is that.

In other news, I managed to bulk out my Ninja Turtle and add the shell to the main body. It is giving me some grief. But I don’t do free standing full figures any more. I have been focused on chest and head busts for the last few years. Also Apoxy Sculpt is really different from the clay, or sculpey that I’m used to working in. Hell of a learning curve with this stuff. However, forward progress is being made! Yahoo! When I get the shell covered, and the face put together on the skull I will show pictures of it. The WIP is just a bit too rough, if you know what I mean. Next time, perhaps.

I forgot to mention (not really) that today is Day 150!

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Which I think is a pretty decent milestone to reach for having written something here on my blog every single day. Weekends, illness, good times and bad. I’m pretty happy with that. Not only that, but the discipline to keep writing has helped me develope a commitment to lifting weights and exercising again. Which my heart will thank me for in the long run. If I can psyche myself up to run or bike that would potentially go a long way to help reduce my waist line. It has made it easier to pick up something new and do a little of it more often than not. I switched to home reno projects, and away from my children’s book last week, and this one. But I did manage to get an awful lot of it onto paper, and I’m in a great spot when I go back to it. I’m reading proper books again, not just twitter and the news, which is great. I miss reading when all I do is scroll twitter and read about politics 280 characters at a time. I’m currently painting my screen door frame, waiting on primer to dry actually, if you must know. Then I need to cut down Cedar strips and keep this bad boy rolling. I want to have it hung up before June 1st, which is attainable, if I don’t all of a sudden become paralyzed by fear of fucking something up. I’ve even made plans on an interior window project next. So I need this one to go fairly smoothly, now that I am committed to finishing. The trim will have to be cut twice, into 8ft long strips from a 6x1x8, and then taken to a .75 down from an inch in width. My door, after sanding, planing and lots more sanding, is no longer two inches thick where the mesh screens will be inset. So slight tweak there, but nothing too awful. Maybe i don’t have to take it to .75, i could potentially go thicker. I need to double then triple check my measurements before I cut it down too far.

So Day 150 huh. Seems like a lot. But isn’t really all that much. Not even a full half a year yet. My “streak” began about two weeks prior to Christmas when I was panicking about how little I had written last year vs. The year before. Far more traffic with short/micro stories than my regular blog jabber. No surprise there. I’m not an interesting person, nor am I famous or grotesquely handsome. Just run of the mill me. Running my mouth and thinking thoughts like a person.

I didn’t know she was 115 years old.

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That’s ancient in dog years, holy cow. Today marks continuous writing day 115. That’s not any specific kind of milestone, but I did keep going even while having a pretty dastardly flu all this week. So that counts for something around here. Though it was a light week for paid work, some labels, a display, a meeting through a glass door, a some customized brochures, I did much more outdoors. Spring is in the air! And so is the sun and slightly warmer temperatures.

To celebrate I put out the patio furniture. The deck carpeting, chairs and kids toys. The solar lights and ornamental garden decorations, the hose ( but didn’t turn the water on yet.) This whole month is one longish rain storm, with intermitten fits of blue sky and sun. The slack line went up. The swing is back in working order. Crab sand box is uncovered from leaves, snow and winter debris. Porch chair, and drinks table put up. Scooters dug out of the shed. Gardening tools brought to the front, and winter shovels and de-icer moved to the back, and away from the front door. I did not uncover the AC unit, as that’s about 6 weeks away from being needed, if at all in the spring. Cleaned the car of snow gear and toboggan etc… a productive morning.

In the shop I built the second peg board and placed that over the lathe. It’s a bit bare, but I wanted it off the floor, and that’s where it was going anyway. I got my large cross cut sled holed so it can finally hang on the wall and get out of my way.

I have a new project from my wife for the farm orchard, a rustic bench. So I’ll move that in front of my adjustable saw horses. I was looking at last years progress on the screen door, trying to see if I can salvage it, or am I putting good money after bad on it. I do need a door there though. So I might press on with it.

I had an hour or two tweaking the kids bikes yesterday, so all good there now too. Cleaned a bunch inside, got the laundry sorted and put away. All in all a good week for having been ill. Still am, but not as bad as last weekend. Maybe I’ll watch Dune again. It’s long enough that I can just phase in and out of attention with it and still enjoy it a bunch. Part two coming next year!

Odd question for you.

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Why is it that all of our local bicycle repair, or sales stores around here open at or after 11:00am? Is this in preparation for warmer weather and a morning ride with no rush to get in to open the stores? I don’t get it. In most parts of Canada, bicycle riding weather is mid April until early November, at the best of times, and that’s not guaranteed. So what do they do the rest of the year? Are these the Peloton people? Anyway. I went to our local bike shop to buy what could have been $100-$150 worth of name brand parts for my kids bikes. Namely brake pads, kick stands, bike pegs, and some much needed bike specific repair tools for chains and tires. But they weren’t open for another 3 hrs. So then I went to Canadian Tire, which had empty spots for brake pads, no kick stands whatsoever, and no service people around. Then off to Walmart, which had most of what I’m looking for, sort of. I might have to put down the break pads they did have, but otherwise I made out ok. The kick stand wasn’t exactly what I was after either, but it’ll work just fine as is. My last hope, in town anyway was a SportChek, but I didn’t have much faith in that store. It’s all glitz and no underlying product strength.

I’m trying to avoid Amazon. Not out of anything worth a damn, but because if I can grab it now, I can do the work now, sort of thing. I hate all the waiting involved. I looked at various other bike related stores but they opened at 10:00am, 11:00am, 12:00pm (noon) or as late as 2:00pm. WTF. I don’t have time for that. Gotta be around for school pick up. Plus I’m not comfortable with how Covid is progressing to have my kiddos tag along when I wander around stores searching for stuff. Maybe after Wave 6 is behind us, or my youngest is finally old enough to have all of her jabs.

Yeah so. Odd start to the day. My Flu is still in me working it’s filthy tendrils deeper into me, but I’m keeping the worst of it at bay with NyQuil brand products. Sleeping well, eating & drinking fine. On occasion I can breath through my nose properly. Feel off, but not horrible. Which is a big step forward from last Friday/Saturday. Still testing negative – so. Yeah.

Going to eat and then work on the bikes for a bit. Ciao.

We’re only human after all.

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Six days in and I’m finally starting to feel a little more like myself. Still have the register of Barry White when I talk, and fluctuate between stuffed up and Oh God, Eew! With an occasional cough. So not totally out of the woods yet, but – still negative. So, we have that going for us, I suppose.

I had some work to do yesterday, most of which I did, while my head was swimming in cold & flu medications. Nothing major though, and I left a good chunk for today just to give me a chance to plan it all out so that my foggy mush brain didn’t cock it all up. So far, so good.

Kids were all on the up & up yesterday after five days off school recuperating. This bug hit us all in fun and exciting ways. No two completely alike! Fun fact, I can’t distinguish between eaten tomatoes and watermelon in a puddle of vomit. Suspiciously alike in many ways. Ask me how I know! Go ahead do it.

Views here have tanked, obviously. No one wants to read about me whining of being sick. But I’m not mentally in a place capable of plotting some of the most important chapters/installments of my short story series. This brain fogs gotta go. DayQuil and NyQuil , whilst excellent for treating symptoms, make me spacey AF. So a delay is in order. Hopefully you’ll check back in once they start up again.

I need a shower and a nap.

What is there to say…

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We’re here, the flotilla has jumped in to battle. I can’t hide from it, nor steer into a detour any longer. Well, I think I have one last point of view to check in on before the big to-do of it all. Plus having written another 3,000 words of short stories yesterday, i may not write again today. “Can’t brain today, has the dumb.” Is a quote that oft comes to mind. The second installment yesterday garnered almost zero response, and it took some doing on my part to get it written. But I did it, I like it, and I feel it’s a worthy entry in the series. One of the longer ones too, clocking in at just under 2,000 words itself. Plus the somewhat related prior entry that was around 1,200, I think it fills an interesting space with more POV’s.

Have been running full steam in the garage shop. Managed to completed the following: wheeled cart, tool cubby, router table for table saw gap, built a peg board panel, a router bit display block, a T handle hex key stand for my Imperial & Metric Hex Keys. That makes for a pretty good build week.

If I get the rigid router sled made, and two adjustable saw horses, and the oversized 12×12″ router cover panel made from clear acrylic, I’ll be finished with all shop centered projects and can begin a real wood working project again. Like the nagging screen door, or a new coffee table build.

Work is going ok, some previously quiet clients (due to Covid) have started to make their way back into spending marketing budgets again. Happy to be thought of for stuff like that. There was some potential for new clients on the horizon, but I’ll have to wait and see. I gave my presentation, and now I have to wait and see. The Joys of freelancing solo.

101 Dastmalchian’s.

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Polka dots, polka dots every where on this rainy drizzly Friday in March. And not a single dog in sight. Puddles of cats up to your ankles. This coat itches and the collar has hairs embedded in it. My vest made from donkey chest is a tad ill fitting through the middle, must be a little saddle worn. I should put another feather in my cap as I stir the macaroni pot with my shoes. Do you hold your drinks with your fingers in the liquid? I held my wine glass by the stem as though writing with a pencil. 101 ways to wash cars in your Jeans. Acid wash Vs. Pre ruined garbage bags for sale only seventy dollars a pop. But for you, my friend, I’ll do seventy five.

I would classify my interior design aesthetic as plastic caught in trees, and other helpful euphemisms. Like an oil slick on your morning coffee that shouts “Don’t stray too far from a toilet.” A juxtaposition of jumbled malaphors, and too much grey on grey on grey, with cappuccino browns and textured caramel ceilings, with black toilets, sinks and tubs, using gold filigree inlays. A real what’s what of whatever you can throw in the sink to stick. Popped nails and prematurely cracked dry wall speckled with toothpaste. Minty fresh! Damn near useful.

Morning comes too early, and the night disappears too quickly. Thank Fuck It’s Gone or (TGIF) to my friends out there in radio land. I have a voice for print, and the face of radio. But I have a mean limp when I walk this way. Bawk bawk ba-gawk!

Let me tell you what kind of person I am.

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I’m the kind of person who hates having an appointment in the middle of my day, because I can feel it looming over me. So I don’t like to start anything prior to the appointment in case I forget about it, or turn up late. So in most instances I sit and wait, minute by minute until the appointment arrives. I hate that. So today I forced myself to run some errands, which took 45 minutes, possibly 50 to complete, that on any other day, I would have had to rush to complete after my appointment was done. But now those three things are done, and I have a full hour left to sit and wait. The waiting always makes things worse. I wasn’t nervous about it all week, or last night, or this morning when I woke up, but now it’s filling me with anxiety and bubble guts. Argh! Hate that. Oh well c’est la vie.

So day 100! Woohoo! Milestone for sure. Did you catch yesterday’s back to back chapter entries for the interconnected series Ghost of the Dirty Starling? Fun stuff. Those Bison drones sound gnarly, and a tad volatile. Hmmm… foreshadowing perhaps? Or just another side trip I can make later on if need be? Good to give yourself off ramps occasionally, I believe. I was going to do something funny with Norman and Gerty, but changed my mind. I like the self serving killer for hire in a tutu. I also liked the fact she knew enough about murder to do her gloating afterwards too. None of this providing your captive with extra precious seconds or minutes to formulate a plan or escape out of sheer luck. No sir! Gun’em and then gloat. Like a good little hitman – hired gun, contract killer etc etc..

I might be fortunate enough to pick up some bakery bagel display unit design work today or in the near future. Which is great. I kept in touch, once every six months since Jan 2020, with all of the folks I freelance for, and recently those connections have become active again, as people feel as though the pandemic is coming to an end. I have thoughts on that, but I am also a huge fan of the work coming in as well. Work in, and invoices out, this is good for business.

Had my oldest child help me with some cleaning in the garage. I had to tear down some tables and stands I had for equipment. I have a larger table saw now, so I need to recover some space by placing my jointer and my planer together on a low lying wheeled cart, so it can be tucked under the rails of my hybrid saw. I can’t have that space go to waste anymore. I have completed projects eating up space, which I need people to collect, or accept delivery of. It’s all bought and paid for, and I knew I would have to hold on to it all, but now it’s getting on a bit, four plus months later, and I would like to not have to maneuver around it any more. It’s not a huge deal, but it aggravates me. I’m not working with 40,000 square feet here people. Think, tall single car garage stuffed to the gills with house hold stuff, Christmas  lights, bikes and wood working tools. Not a pretty sight to behold.

If I had the money, and paid work, I would use a dedicated dust collection system, and air cleaner, rather than my ShopVac. But it’s nice and compact, and I can store it under tables and shelves with ease. But the dust means you have to work in a mask at all times. Not a real problem,  since I use a fair bit of Walnut, and you want a mask for that stuff anyway. I have my eye on a hickory slab waterfall coffee table I want to make later this Spring/Summer/Fall. Could be a real looker if I take my time with it. I have the angle iron I need for a rigid router sled to flatten the slabs. I am looking forward to it a lot! I will also venture to build adjustable leveling saw horses to hold said router sled. So those will be fun to build too.

99 Days : The Story of the Day Before the Day Of The BIG DAY.

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Also known as Thursday March 24th, when I will hit the 100th day of writing every single day without fail. Some entries were short, some sweet and most are nonsense. But the trick of it is, I did it regardless. On the brighter side during those one hundred days I have created thirty two new chapters to my short story series. Filling in some gaps while propelling the story forward.

I think I was rather sad when I finished book one, if you can believe it. Happy I had achieved nearly 60,000 words of coherent melodrama, struck something from my bucket list, but felt also like I had lost something too. Took me just about nine months later to get out of my funk and commit to writing anything again.

Today is an inclement weather day, due to freezing rain, so the whole family is home along with me today.

I don’t have any big plans for tomorrow. In topic or otherwise. My milestones seem to just pass by lately. Talk of new cars or family vehicle, needing to buy the eldest child a new and larger bicycle, talking about the build process for the screen door? Who knows. I sure don’t.