Count Urlik

No. In the pac nw, we have four primary ’natural’ disasters to be ready for: wildfire, earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruptions. We get plenty of warning on the first, and we’re not really in a burn risk zone anyways. Earthquake is probably our biggest risk, and we have enough food water and common sense to survive a while, assuming we can reconvene (communication and travel will be tough). As for volcanoes, we just have to hope it doesn’t happen, or doesn’t hit us here, because a lahar is pretty much doom…. Things would have to be pretty unique to make us abandon the property, as we have multiple structures (shop/greenhouse/shed) and camping supplies, as well as more tools than you can imagine…

Wow, a masters course in textural qualities. As always, amazing! Thank you!

I need to finish off Andowyn Thrushmore, fortunately there's a deadline... I'd like to mostly finish off my Lysette chibi and either a Dark Sword, Moonlight Mini or Bombshell figure. On top of that, I'd like to hit a few of the quarterly challenges, because I don't think I'll have the bandwidth for the monthly submissions. I may try and recruit Andowyn in for the diorama - she's too cute to be a one and done. Of course, I need to figure out some way to complete a few of the "color study group" exercises from the MM group, and it would be great if I could devote at least a little time to pushing the lumberjack bust forward. Maybe I need to call in sick...

Somewhat. I used to mostly paint monsters, with just the occasional token PC. As I’ve shifted from table painting to more display quality painting, I find myself painting far more PCs. Also, I paint far more females than males, I guess I’ve always preferred the company of women? I only painted my first larger scale figure and my first bust over this last year, and I really enjoyed the process. They take longer, so I seem to spend a much greater percentage of my painting time on these than I did before.

Quiz shows were a guilty pleasure, but I haven’t watched much broadcast tv in over a decade. I do okay in quiz type games, but I get tripped up a lot by anything celebrity culture or frontline pop music related. I know what I like, and I learn it well, but all I can tell you about kardashians is that there’s more than one and they have some sort of ties to the decathlon…

It seems like they’re all busy, anymore! We got a contractor lined up to build us a retaining wall, and that took a huge chunk of work off of my hands (but out of my pocket…). We made it to and through the annual koi club convention, which ate up a weekend. We got the boy out the door for his school band trip to Disneyland, and he seems to have had a great time there. I managed to make a little planning progress towards tearing a wall off our house and reframing it. Daunting work, but having a plan makes it manageable. Also, I made a ton of progress on the quarterly contest figure, and regardless of how she does, I know I’ve learned a lot in the process! Well, I need to start tearing that wall out at some point! Also, I need to finish my QC figure, get going again on my diorama, and start painting some of the busts I’ve acquired. It would be nice to get out for a few hikes or scrambles as well!

Really nice, and the coloration of those horns is outstanding!

Wildfire smoke into seattle used to be a once every 4-5 years event that would last a few days. Now it’s every summer, often for weeks. We’ve already had a ‘heat dome’ event (once a summer rarity) earlier this spring, and it coincided with BC-generated forest fire smoke. The part where generalized climate change causes accelerated weather changes is upon us, and it’s only going to get worse. I’ve been dreading this for decades, and now we’re living it.

I think the race track is a perfect place for them. My view is that motorcycles are noisy, polluting and dangerous. I don't ride. I liked them as a kid, but by high school I had a friend that lost a leg and another that died, both in accidents that weren't their fault. My experiences in college and beyond pretty much reinforced that.

Drives around here are measured by time. Downtown seattle could be 25 minutes or over an hour depending on the time of day. Very few folks around here have commutes under 20 minutes. Traffic is still a lot better than pre-pandemic, but it’s still a major reason for people to leave the area. I don’t know about most people, but long drives are when you’re measuring by hours instead of minutes!

Fantastic! A one-panel story! This is so creative, and the execution is superb. I think you need to take more pictures, but against a dark background.

Yeah, I’m pretty much in the same boat as Chaoswolf (do wolves like water?)…. Bad back and shoulder, but after decades of dealing with it, I’m in a good place. I’ve learned to lift weights deliberately and regularly, avoid pushing past trigger points and generally trying to stay active. I switched from ibuprofen to naproxen 5 - 10 years ago, and I find it works a lot better for me, although I reserve it for very limited occasions. I have reams of exercises that have come from PT over the years, so I try to refresh whenever things seem to be trending downwards. I wish I knew this stuff when I was 30, it would have saved a lot of heartache and trouble…

I think the last season of Stranger Things or the next season of House of the Dragon come to mind. Oh, whenever the next Dune movie comes out, as well!

Oh no! 😀 That means I blew it! I was trying to emulate this sort of rock: I should have stuck with just a few “main” veins and then tried finer lines, but I started to run out of steam…

Pretty good, although a lot of the time the new shiny is what I need to get the work done…