Personal History – Page 8

Disaster

My laptop, which has now performed quite a few Lazarus impersonations has it seems finally kicked the bucket with a irreparable hard disc failure.

I have back ups, all is not lost.

I have Backblaze (affiliate link).

I even have the capacity to plug the drives themselves in elsewhere with handy cords. I can access the primary drive for an inconsistent twenty seconds or so before it resets and windows helpfully asks if I want to format the drive in order to use it. I have grabbed a few important things off the drive that way just to tide me over until I download the rest from Backblaze.

Still I’m pretty crushed and demoralised by it all. Struggling to see a way in which I can purchase a worthwhile laptop pre-Europe. Loans are unlikely due to the instability of my income, hire is for chumps. I am going to have to sell something big to achieve this and I’m going to have to do so without my primary creative tool.

In the mean time N and I will share her desktop which is her primary photography processing tool. For reasons still unclear her desktop restarts between 2 and 12 times a day at random intervals and with no clear trigger, so this is not an ideal solution. Event logging has yielded no explanation for the restarts so far and we have tried a huge variety of fixes to no discernible effect.

Adding to my frustration NSW Ed got back to me today and, in direct contradiction to the first enrollment officer I spoke to, asked for scans of certified copies of my ID and university documents. The first enrollments officer said that scanned originals were clearly superior and the second ‘jobsworth’ grudgingly acknowledged that a scan of a certified photocopy is an uncertified digital document and therefore worthless but that’s what the system needs. Fortunately I have a fairly large collection of certified copies and was able to scan and send them today. But it means it is likely to be at least another week before I get any progress on permission to teach in NSW. Another week without earnings beyond the meager supplemental income my tutoring is bringing in.

Thanks to the computer troubles and playing primary carer while trying to polish off the final rough edges of the unpack as well as clean up some of the grime our two darlings spread everywhere they go I’ve had limited creative success today. I have managed to recover the progress I made on a perspective reference model for the castle card in Sketchup, which is a relief. But I haven’t even begun installing Sketchup, tablet drivers and Manga Studio on this comp.

Some good news arrived in the form of my key ring showing up in West End so we will soon have a second car key again.

Art, Memory and Mortality

by Kimliatach

A day spent with my boys. A trip to the library, some paperwork and the first meeting with some new clients: A pair of boys fresh from Brisbane over the holidays just like us.

Fbook, by minor coincidence put me in touch with friend of my father and mentor Brandon Cavallari (Gallery Link). He shared a pic of one of my works from childhood, in his house. I went looking for and found this in mine:

‘Fire of Henelon’ Acrylic. 5″x7″ 1984 aged 6.

Painted in Brandon’s studio of the time somewhere in Sydney. I remember the day and my cousin Caitlin is still slightly resentful that I used all the red and yellow before she was even really started, leaving her canvas a little ah, drab by comparison. Also proof that little boys taste in topics hasn’t changed that much in the past few hundred years.

We exchanged a few more pictures including these two of Brandon’s:

This one of my father although laminated for protection is badly faded. I think it’s from when we lived in Balmain so about the same period as my painting above.

My friends father’s passing reminded me of an essay extract I read in Tell Me No Lies of the extraordinary The American Way of Death. Let me say with absolute certainty that I do not want an open casket funeral when my time comes. In fact the quicker you can get me mixing (hygienically) with the biosphere the better. I take great comfort in knowing that my atoms once belonged to stars and will again someday.

Trying to get that terrain card over and done with now. Oh and I’ve some Hallmarkish cards to produce as well.

Broken skillet

by Kimliatach

A new tutoring client on the radar, a tidy house, more mud mixed and spread to pack in the paths, art to make.

Broke the handle of N’s magic frypan making Osso Bucco tonight. :’-(
It claimed to be oven safe. It was N’s birthday present from me this year and is our primary skillet. It is Neoflam Mable stone the first genuinely nonstick pan I have ever used. We had a lovely Scanpan skillet we destroyed with honey garlic prawns years ago, I honestly believe this pan could cook them and wipe clean.

Just slammed down Cardboard by Doug TenNapel. One of the few graphic novels at the local library.

Entertaining if a bit cliched. A nice play on some classic tales al’la Gremlins & the Sorcerer’s Apprentice. Clearly for a younger audience than me.

It has put me onto this software which I’ve never yet tried.

Drawing time!

Cool links:

A neat collection of images of Hong Kong in the 50’s

and an amazing alphabet ambigram from an unknown artist:

A Perfectly Mirrored Alphabet

New Printer

by Kimliatach

Splashed out and bought a new printer today. It is going to pay for itself many times over I hope. My old one, a Brother laserjet is still working fine though in need of a new drum sometime. The new one is very similar mono laserjet with one key functional difference; it has a document scanner. An urgent and key requirement for the lodgement of important docs and for my sanity in the creation of artwork.

On the chicken tractor I completed the roof, attached wheels, sanded and ground down sharp and prickly edges. It is looking very nearly complete. We will paint it over the weekend and I’ll wire the cage over coming days.

Planning to watch a film tonight so keeping this very brief. Just knocked up an updated draft evolution card template based on discussion. Thinking I may doodle a bit during the film.

Pounding the Pavement for more Paperwork

by Kimliatach

Today I visited all three schools in the Cobar district and met with the principals at each. The outlook is positive I have 2 weeks for the end of the term locked in at the catholic school for the end of the term in addition to days and short contract prior. The State School and High School have both assured me there will be work available in the interim. I have a nineteen page Cath Ed application pack to fill out and I have discovered that I am short one aspect of NSW registration. I have the Working with children check, I have BOSTES registration I do not have NSW Department registration which requires the others and involves an interview. Paperwork will consume my evening from here on out.

N’s Path remains very close to finished, less than 2m left. I’ve been waiting on the paths completion to do a bit of concreting before I start yet another patch of paving myself.

Progress made on the chicken tractor, I was hoping to have the roof done today but it like every other part so far has proven more involved than anticipated. I’ve been inconsistent on my photography but I think I have enough to show a pretty thorough development process photoblog of the build once complete.

Tasks remaining in the build:
Attach the tin the roof frame (Frame and insulation completed today, tin cut).
Attach wheels.
Attach the roof to the tractor with hinges.
Put a door on the roost.
Add clasps and locking mechanisms to a number of hatches and openings.
Add a ramp to the roost.
Paint the roost inside and out.
Affix chicken wire and shade cloth around the frame.

Found some seriously amazing drone + photoshop photography work in my feed:

Istanbul Inception: Warped Turkish Cityscapes by Aydin Büyüktas

Australia Day

by Kimliatach

Very profane vid follows.

I spent Invasion/Survival day at home working in the garden and listening to the Hottest 100. N took the children to the farm and did some work there.

A friend has recommended I check out HitRecord which although I had heard of I had not really paid attention to before, joined it to explore today.

Made some progress on children’s board books at lunch time. Found a digital rhyming dictionary which is helping with the Giraffe’s Shoes. Dictionary is produced by this interesting character.

Trying to get more card work done tonight so leaving it at that for now.

A night off

by Kimliatach

Taking an evening to enjoy some audiovisual entertainment with my loved one.

Progress on chicken tractor, path and children’s board book.

A visual treat for those that are tuning in anyway.

Peter Pan and the Red Pill Right

by Kimliatach

So we watched the first half hour of the 1953 Peter Pan which has frankly amazing amounts of overt sexism and racism. This got me thinking about the bizarre and alarming reactions so called Men’s Rights Activists (MRA) have had to films, games and books over the past year or so. I pictured the comical scenario in which guided by misplaced nostalgia Peter Pan was re-released to the big screen and the gigantic kerfuffle which would inevitably result between RedPill keyboard warriors and true believer Gender Feminists. This got me thinking about The Blank Slate(PDF Chapter link) again and I even began mentally composing a long form piece of the curious similarity between the two extremes in gender politics.

But… then N tagged out of a contested bedtime. Our beautiful progeny fought sleep until well past nine and all my aspirations beyond making art crumbled.

Speaking of my beautiful progeny. My firstborn A has been accepted into Law at Griffith!
Unfortunately not his first preference but a very good law school all the same. He may find he can transfer into his first preference with relative ease later if he still wants too.

L has finished 10 days of swimming lessons with huge gains in confidence and comfort in the water. He was uncomfortable getting his nose wet at the start. As he has taken a shine to the coach we are planning on getting him another 5 half hour 1 on 1 lessons over the coming month.

F has started expanding his vocabulary dramatically in the last week. This morning he said ‘Pterodactyl’ while playing with the toy.

We made minimal progress outside today as we spent most of the day at the farm for a family lunch. I have managed to knock out two cards though colouring on both and a revisit of yesterdays will happen tonight and tomorrow.

Fangs, which has taken more than its fair share of drafting, reference from bear teeth used in the end.

And now in colour! Not helped by my Wacom tablet drivers mysteriously malfunctioning. There are a couple of fixes to try but after trying one with no luck I persevered as is rather than get involved with restarts and reinstalls.

First lake terrain card.

Waiting for NBN Co.

by Kimliatach

The title has been the name of my wifi network for a number of houses now. Particularly appropriate here where for the privilege of running a surprisingly respectable 5Mbps down I am paying $80 for a mostly symbolic home phone and 100gb a month. I know full well that 5Mbps is incredible in a rural area like this too. I also know that if Labor’s FTTP NBN had gone ahead the figure would likely be closer to 100Mbps.

The mess that the ABC has made of coverage of the NBN has been making some interesting waves this past week. I am deeply dissapointed in the ABC and very curious to see what if anything will come of the revelations following Nick Ross‘s resignation. The fact that Turnbull in his capacity as communications minister made three appearances on Q&A without being permitted to field any questions on the mutli-billion dollar project he is making a mess of should be evidence enough that something fishy has been going on at ‘Aunty’.

I firmly believe A R (2 links there) is going to replace the smart phone in your pocket within the decade, possibly within 5 years. When it does bandwidth is going to be like the weather, a constant background influence in our daily lives. Only a real NBN can cope with these developments. Malcolm Turnbull’s Mess is going to put Australia at a serious economic and social disadvantage over the coming decade, one from which we will take a long time to recover.

No time for long rants tonight there is creative work to be done. Lots of progress made on the chicken tractor today. A detailed photoblog of the build process will come on completion. Progress is so good I am thinking it is time to make an order for day old chicks. I am particularly enamoured of the Double Laced Barnvelders and Plymouth Rocks but we may just go for a plain Isa brown. Who we get the chicks from remains to be seen, that site has nice pictures, reasonable prices and immunised chicks though.

I’ve also written a new board book called ‘Belly belly bum bum’ today. Got to get onto trying to get one printed soon.

Downs/Grasslands card complete. Going to need to revisit this one but calling it done for now.

The Revenant and Bureaucratic Nonsense

by Kimliatach

Double swim today, picking away at the value of the season pass, once for L’s swim lesson in the AM and again late afternoon when the heat was just abating but it still felt to hot to do work.

N butted heads with bureaucracy repeatedly today, converting to a NSW licence and changing surname at the same time is apparently a tall order, but she succeeded. Not so with the children’s passports which apparently have to wait until her new licence arrives because birth certificate, passport and a bank statement showing address are apparently insufficient for lodgement of childrens passport applications. So there is likely a two week wait until N’s new licence arrives and lodgement is possible. We may try in Dubbo if her licence hasn’t arrived by then. We remain eager to lock in flights.

Noticed at the pool this afternoon that we are apparently far enough south that this noxious weed is ornamental:

Mt what lovely flowers on that shrubbery. LOL #lantana

A photo posted by @liatach on Jan 18, 2016 at 5:36pm PST

Path progress

A video posted by @liatach on Jan 18, 2016 at 11:44pm PST

N has made some progress on the bike path. Six or seven courses of bricks down since this animation.

Rather than working this evening we watched a screener of ‘The Revenant’.

Having just finished it, I feel it is too early to pass judgment, I will share some impressions now though.

Incredibly brutal, visceral film.

I was repeatedly reminded of ‘Blood Meridian‘.

Nature does the best lighting.

Revenge stories are predictable.

Leo deserves an Oscar, but is it for this performance or for his body of work. I am not sure this is his lifetime best so far.

Tom hardy can play nasty well.

Alejandro Iñárritu puts his actors through hell.