Trying to do more things.

Spent some time yesterday getting reacquainted with some of my hobbies after a fairly long break, due to travel, and various other things. I busted out the Karaoke for about an hour, and sang my way through my favourite songs, was even able to hit my current favourite twice! Even worked in some new (to me) songs I’ve been vibing with. That made me want to play guitar, so I did that for an hour as well. Jamming along to the JBL Boombox. It’s a concert in my office people. After I was done jamming, I pulled out my airbrush kit and finished off some cheapo 3d printed minis I had lying around. I did them up with a black base colour, then two shades of green, followed by a slime green dry brush. I plan to use this group as an undead/spectral horde. No need for fine detailing. Which reminds me, should I ever actually receive that Blacklist mi iatures I bought from Kickstarter 2.5 years ago, they’ll have all the details you could ever hope for, for a finely painted set of monsters and such. Followed that up by playing Diable 4 for a bit. Watched some baseball, and finished the night off watching a hockey game at my buddies place. We were hit with the mother of all tornado warnings (luckily for me my friend Leslie works for a weather tracking/mapping/research facility and was able to tell us we were really far south of where the actual threat was, but to be prepared for a heavy downpour and lightning) which was very helpful.

Today I had a moment so I took the inner frame of my resin kit and added a cohesive layer of light grey primer. I fear I thinned it too much. I hate having to unclog the machine once the primer kits off, but I might have gone overboard with the thinner portion. Live and learn. I’ll try it again with less thinner, see if I get better, and a more saturated (in colour) coating.

My cardboard box spray booth. Mainly to collect over spray, and save the stuff around me from getting coated in misted paint.

I was able to replace the innertube on my daughters bike the other day, cut the grass, and go grocery shopping, and do laundry. So it’s been a full week regardless of the holiday long weekend which we just celebrated.

If I can work in reading my book, rather than Twitter, and try to get some more of my Ninja turtle bust sculpted, all that’s left is to do some wood working and I’ve done just about everything, except painting on a canvas (which I substituted painting on minis, and on the resin kit so all good there) and trying to do some creative short story writing. It’s too much. I know I have a finger in too many pies, but I plateau and get bored fairly quickly. I find moving around between them all makes me like each one more, as it offers up some very different feelings, actions, and sense of reward for trying. Yeah I’d get much better and any one of them if I narrowed down to just one, possible two things, but I find that to be too inhibiting. Some of them I treat as seasonal endeavours, which really helps to open up the schedule to doing all of the things. Just not a once, this ain’t no fantasy camp for the arts here bud. That was college. Glad I went. Great times.

I personally would love to spend a week someplace where I could devote 16 hours each day to art stuff. I’d plan it like this.

8:00am wake up. 1hr work-out and a jog. 1hr for a shower and then breakfast. 2hr life drawing, 2hr painting, 1hr lunch, 1hr creative writing, 2hrs wood shop, 1hr music (playing an instrument or karaoke mixed) 2hrs sculpting, 1hr dinner, 2hrs free time (gaming/reading/model building etc…), in bed for midnight. For a week straight. Now that would be a vacation for the ages. That would be awesome, especially if there were talented folks there who you could ask for advice on stuff, or watch them for brief periods to learn new techniques. Fantasy artist camp. I’d go. I might squeeze in some computer software time to work in Photoshop & Illustrator to build some skills there too, if I had the option. A little skills workshop for the old day job wouldn’t go amiss.

I think my eldest daughter, and even my youngest might get a kick out of a retreat like that as they get older. My wife is quite crafty too. She used to paint rocks up as flowers, do beading, and stained glass projects. She might like it aswell now that I think about it. Ah, to dream.

It’s Thursday today. May 23rd I believe, of the year 2024. 2 years ago we had that massive Djericho storm that traveled 800km from Windsor to Montreal up the highway 7 corridor tearing up trees, rooves, and knocking down barns. Followed by a 26hr long power outage. What a day that was. Have a great day. Ciao Bella.

Are We Close Enough To That Holiday Limbo Period Where You’re Never Certain If People Are Still Working, Or Are Off On Vacation Time…

But sometimes they answer emails or request work, but you’d swear you’ve had an OOO message explaining an absence for the end of the year. Do I need to finish this asap or… will you approve this now or… should I wait for a reply and any possible changes before I go round my pal’s for a drink or… do I give you until 9:00pm and then shut down for the day or… that type of thing. Get it?

Tuesday of the week before Christmas,  and other such Holidays are upon us as well. Seasons greetings, Happy Holidays, Happy/Merry (?) Kwanza, Happy Chanukah, and any such others that I’ve missed.

We have a very light dusting of powdery snow this morning, masking a brittle & crunchy layer of ice beneath thanks to all of yesterday’s rain. Is it treacherous out there? I dunno. All I did was uncover both vehicles, but parts of the driveway were slick, so I’d have to imagine so. Go a hair slower towards all those four way stops, and give yourself a breather heading towards lights at intersections. That sort of thinking should help you out on a day like today. Get some of that good old glare from the sun off the road and you have yourself a recipe for smashed glass and dented bumpers. But we all hope not.

Here’s a quick health tip reminder. Drink a glass of water. If you feel bound up inside, head-achey, or a bit dry of lip, go drink a glass now. It might rush right through you in the next 10-15 minutes, but a cool glass of water will be appreciated by your body. I regularly forget to do so, and I should take better care not to forget. One small step of personal kindness. Just don’t do it if you have to go drive somewhere, or wait in a place with no bathroom access. That will not be of any immediate help to you! Ha.

In alternate news I did a good amount of clearing up down in the basement. I finally tossed several years of old fair entries, kept all of the ribbons though. Kept some of the more special entries too. Stuff that really displayed effort and/or creativity. I also condensed down our books to open up some more space for the kids things, and to provide additional playable surfaces for them both. It doesn’t look like I got rid of much because of how much is still left, but I know I sent off 70lbs worth of books, novels, and hard covers. Tried to get some old manuals out the door too, but those five were rejected. I knew they would be, but worth a try. Can’t score if you don’t shoot! Ha. In all honesty though, as happy as I am with the progress, there are an awful lot of things that still need to be sorted out, organized and gotten disposed of. The old water softener which weighs a gods be damned tonne has to go. But I haven’t been able to empty out all of the congealed salt yet. Also my wheelie cart went to the in-laws never to return. So I need one of those, my ratchet straps and a final destination planned out before I fuss with it. We have a change table & crib combo that needs to go too. If our newly pregnant cousin on my wife’s side doesn’t want it, I’ll take it to the Care & Share donation drop off site. I just want it gone, but not to a landfill. I could just as easily break it down and burn it at the cottage, but it deserves to keep doing its thing unhindered.

I also need to designate an appropriate storage spot for all of our newly acquired wheeled luggage. I don’t want to bury it someplace it’s a pain to get to, but they are big & light weight. I guess the closets I emptied recently of baby clothes is as good a spot as any. I was hoping to retain that space for later, but those new bags need a clean, dry, and out of the way place to be stored so that the kids don’t try to climb inside them, and break the wheels or zippers etc… I tell you I dream of storage space. A magical extra door in the basement that leads to a cavernous, yet dry and luke warm room with rack upon rack of easily accessible storage. An Indiana Jones style warehouse to put all of our extra stuff. These are the desires I have. Not extra wives, or girlfriends on the side. No. I dream of adequate storage space, and an upgraded shop. But I digress. I could daydream about that sort of thing all day if I let myself. That and winning the lottery. Again – I digress. Shame, that. I’d be pretty good at spending money on all sorts of fun things. Probably why most lottery winners go bankrupt or end up back where they were inside of ten years. Eyes too big for their account balances. Plus getting fleeced by banks, bad money managers, shady business partners and the like. I’m drifting here, I can feel it! Dream a little dream of meeeeeeeee!

Less than a week to go now until Christmas. And then we’ll be looking down the barrel of a looming 2024! Crazy. Anyway, take care. Ciao Bella!