From Failure to Failure

[HAMP man]

I am finding that my mojo/attention span/motivation is a bit like the Radio Luxembourg reception. Must be the weather

[Procopius]

15 hours ago, 06/24 said:

I do have a fear that PC is secretly delaying completion to allow me to catch up, I hope that isn't true because right now my motivation is at zero.

 

Good news: nope! Bad news: I've been totally exhausted for the last two weeks, and I turn thirty-five next week, so I'm slowly sinking into my annual miasma of depression that accompanies turning older. I'm celebrating by drinking too much and watching episodes of Chuck, which is ten years old now, which makes me feel even older, because I watched it and loved it while it was still on the air, in a time when we still waited for weekly episodes of television programs to be broadcast. How naive we were. Anyway, Chuck was not, objectively, a good show, for those of you who've never seen it (and few people did, even when it was on the air), but isn't it strange how something that isn't necessarily the pinnacle of human endeavour can just hit you at the right moment and make you love it forever? (Total opposite of the Spitfire, I know, but we all need a little mediocrity in our lives too, or how would we know excellence?) Something about an underemployed guy failing to live his best life, coupled with the nerd fantasy of becoming special and important...well, I was working in a call center at the time, and it really resonated. Also, it has the delightful Yvonne Strahovski, an incredible argument for both Australia and Poland. 

 

 

I think I mentioned I've been drinking. Anyway, the show had five seasons, but only the first two are good; they have a lot of heart and I really liked them. The latter three were negatively affected by it constantly being on the bubble and losing writers to other shows, and the rapid erosion of what made the show great. 

 

EDIT: Also, the show really captures what it's like to work a crappy job with no hope of promotion...during the recession, that was basically my life.

 

 

13 hours ago, AdrianMF said:

The paint job looks super Edward and it looks like you have saved your disintegrated decal too. I've only just noticed the extra inlet on the wing (presumably the oil cooler) on the Bisley in that last photo, and lo and behold it's been staring me in the face in all your progress photos. Observant, moi?

That's okay, I just noticed how much less prominent it is on the wing of the real thing compared to the model. 

 

Anyway, in conclusion: Jonners, you should press on. I should press on. But right now it wouldn't be prudent to do so, so I'll watch more Chuck and have another cider, I think. What could go wrong?

[06/24]

Ah Chuck S1&2. Sublime telly. Silly, but kind, in a we'll kill you if you disagree kind of way. I loved it, still do.

[Procopius]

2 minutes ago, 06/24 said:

Ah Chuck S1&2. Sublime telly. Silly, but kind, in a we'll kill you if you disagree kind of way. I loved it, still do.

If I didn't know you were a man of impeccable quality already, Jonners, I would now.

[Drift]

Excuse me while I go fetch some tissues. 

[06/24]

Forgot to mention the music, Chuck's music director deserved an Oscar (wrong genre but you get my point) - clever, imaginative use of both back catalog and then current indie music, superb.

 

 

[06/24]

Oh, and its no coincidence that my (now sadly sold) US model railroad featured an electrical distribution warehouse called Buy More...

[AdrianMF]

I do recall being shown a 3D demo of Chuck that involved the delightful Ms Strahovski in a dream sequence, purely in the interest of TV calibration you understand! In my defence I am 4500miles from home and just recovering from 13 hours in the lab trying to get pictures to a TV...

[Cookenbacher]

I remember discussing the joys of Chuck (and Sarah) while driving over Organ Pass on the way to PhanCon PC, both of us completely surprised that there was anyone else on earth who watched that show.

[06/24]

Perhaps there were only three of us, but one wonders how it survived for so long if that were true.

[Procopius]

Well, I began to feel like I've been letting the side down by not accomplishing anything modelwise lately, and since Mrs P and I had an actual fight (unusual for us in that harsh words were exchanged) and I didn't go with her and the kids to a birthday party, I had some time on my hands. 

 

So I went downstairs, queued up an episode of Chuck (Chuck vs. the Nemesis) on the ol' Kindle Fire, and did some of this modelling lark that I've heard so much about.

 

I fixed the patchy part of the tail on the Bisley.

 

20180310_115744 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

 I sprayed some Alclad on the Blenheim I's parts:

 

20180310_115739 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

20180310_115736 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Then I glosscoated the Alcladded stuff, because I want to try this stuff for weathering them:

 

20180310_115919 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I'm not sure how well it will work, but I know that if they're not sealed with an acrylic, the enamel-based fixative will do some things to them that can really blow your mind.

 

Since I had the gloss out anyway, I also glossed the hell out of the Blenheim I: 

 

20180310_125325 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I spilled about half a colour cup's worth on it while trying to airbrush at something like a 185 degree angle (I'm dumb), but it seems to have more or less worked out and left the aircraft very glossy indeed. 

 

13 hours ago, 06/24 said:

Forgot to mention the music, Chuck's music director deserved an Oscar (wrong genre but you get my point) - clever, imaginative use of both back catalog and then current indie music, superb.

I'm a huge fan of the soundtrack to the show as well! It was a big influence on my musical tastes.

[amblypygid]

That is shiny! (Like for the modelling, not the pre-modelling)

[robvulcan]

Looking very nice indeed  

[CedB]

Nice work PC, shiny!

Don't worry about getting older - the alternative is so much less attractive!

[TheBaron]

Parenthood, ageing, drinking.

These are all things that it would be easy to post something trite and platitudinous in response to.

As one who's been through that particular wash and rinse cycle, am simply sending warm feelings to a fellow creature PC - the hardest part is realizing that we all have deeply personal routes through the same territories...

 

Kind regards,

Tony

[Procopius]

So my family has a tradition where we buy all our siblings presents on our birthdays, as a safeguard against jealousy (since there are four of us), and due to scheduling, we scheduled my party today, four days early. This tradition is getting a little long in the tooth, since my parents now have almost as many grandchildren as actual children, but my mom, whose father took his favourite child with him when he abandoned the rest of his family, not to be seen again for almost forty years, is pretty hardcore about this one. 

 

Anyway, everything went wrong today. We tried to take the kids out for breakfast, and if you've ever been a parent you're probably familiar with the hostage situation that ensues: screaming, protracted negotiations, threats, empty promises until you can get into position, and then a SWAT-team style rush to get everyone in the car before anyone can throw up or tear their pants off. 

 

THENNNNNNNNNNNNN, Mrs P decided she and my sister (who has a baby herself, albeit woefully inferior to mine, it hardly needs to be said) would make baby food(? this is a thing, apparently) together and had to find her baby food maker, which has lain fallow for the last year. This course of action was decided on ten minutes before we were supposed to leave. 

 

Then a part couldn't be found. Mrs P was so taken by the idea of making this fricking baby food that she jumped in the car and sped off to try and buy a replacement. Twenty minutes later she returned, in a blind rage at her inability to find it. Doing one last wrathful once-over of the house, she then knocked her lunch basket out of the cabinet she keeps it in. Her school requires her to use all glassware for her lunch, and the plate and cup inside promptly exploded into a bajillion pieces (she has now broken seven of the eight plates we started our marriage with, and we're down to five glasses from the second full set of sixteen we've bought). Behind where the basket was sequestered was the missing piece to the baby food maker. You can't make this stuff up, folks. Mrs P, now well and truly out of her mind, immediately turned to washing dishes, then remembered that, oh yeah, she'd just left a heap of glass on the floor and we have small mortal children, so she tried to scoop it up, only to immediately cut her hand and begin fountaining blood. I went to get her a bandaid, but the box of bandaids we keep in the bathroom is just an empty box that we keep because her thankfully-deceased cockatiel* chewed on it, and it reminds her of that demon from hell in bird form. After much scrounging, I found a Cars-themed children's bandaid for her, and we finally got out the door. 

 

At the house, I tried to get Winnie out of his carseat, but he declined, and shouted no at me, so I tried get all the presents out of the car and into the house ASAP, because my siblings mostly get Visa gift cards these days, and so I grabbed them and the big box that was Mrs's P's gift to me (quiet in back, you deviants), to rush in with them, only to get yelled at by Mrs P for trying to abandon her with the children, so I ran back and put the gifts on the roof so I could grab Grant and ran him in. Mrs P followed, and then headed back to get the presents, as I told her I'd left them on the roof.

 

HOWEVER, Mrs P heard present, singular, and so only got the box, and left the envelopes containing $70 worth of Visa gift cards on the roof, then decided she needed to run back home and get matching sweaters for the boys so she could get a photo with their cousin, and promptly peeled out and redistributed some wealth in the way you've been expecting since midway through the last paragraph if you've ever seen a sitcom at any point in your life. Of course, nobody realized it at the time, and so we didn't discover this until it was time to hand out presents. We were eventually lead outside, where a forensic reconstruction of the discarded and cardless envelopes quickly revealed to us what had transpired. I honestly don't know why I bother to wake up in the morning anymore.

 

These past two weeks have been a little more than enough, I think. 

 

Anyway, it's not all doom and gloom. I made out pretty well giftwise, even if my siblings got totally shafted.

 

2018-03-11_11-14-13 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

 

*The day we buried him is the day my marriage truly began. I hate him as much as I hate Hitler. We planted a tree over him. Mrs P thinks it's to memorialize him, but I know it's to ensure there's a stake in his black heart.

[Procopius]

Oh, they never did make the baby food, either.

[Stew Dapple]

I'm sorry mate... I mean I do know that it's questionable whether I should be laughing like a drain at what sounds like a severe test of your equilibrium, if not your sanity, but I am, defninitely laughing like a drain with my upstairs neighbour no doubt wondering if I have finally cracked completely. It sounds like a hell of a day, but you made it amusing, well done

 

Nice Lib too, good call Mrs P

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[06/24]

Nice present haul Mr P! Your gift for recounting the trials and tribulations of life never fail to raise a smile, albeit always a sympathetic one. 

[Courageous]

As you say Mr P, sitcom material. I'm afraid it doesn't get much better latter on when puberty rears its ugly head. So I suggest, for your own sanity, you grab every moment you can and chill with your models. Now mellow out and get building.

[CedB]

 (Sometimes emoticons just work, don't they?)

 

Like Stew I wasn't sure whether to laugh or console so I've gone with the crowd and hit the 'ha ha' button but heck, what a day...

From the photo of the presents it looks as though it turned out OK though - nice haul! That stand / holder looks very desirable... want one now*

 

I loved the note about the Cockatiel's final resting place... PC you should save these missives and write a book

 

* Is this a good example of one of the differences between the sexes?

Our ladies seems to do things to impress their peers or conform to 'you're worth it' statements. Their peers are rarely impressed and new purchases, although often expensive, rarely deliver the promised happiness.

Us blokes (or is it just modellers?) see something a chum has bought and think 'that's a good idea' and order one. Then share experiences (good and bad) in contended companionship.

For me the things I buy get 'labelled' with the friend that suggested them (PC's airbrush, perdu's file, Stew and Jamie's paint etc etc) and they bring me joy.

Thanks mates. Man hugs.

[amblypygid]

Oh, it sounds so familiar (albeit without a second child or any bird-demons. Do you also sometimes struggle to catch trains or make it to important appointments because of the overwhelming importance of hoovering the house that was only apparent approximately five minutes before you needed to leave?

 

Awesome Liberator pressie, though! But why the circular dishwasher cutlery rack?

[perdu]

Dammit PC why do you have all the fun?

 

Not

 

There is no doubt that you are bound for a Christian heaven mate, no purgatory crap for PC because when the day of reckoning comes you will truly be able to say "I gave already"

 

It seems your 'family propre', know how to rebuild your spirit, enjoy them all

[Rob G]

Deja vu all over again- not for the first time, I am so glad that I'm childless and single. That sort of carry on would have lead me to an episode of distributing 9mm Parabellum rounds freely to all and sundry, I think. Or maybe .40cal, it makes a (slightly) bigger hole....

 

Sympathies from a single bloke, mate. For whatever they're worth. And bully for you for being able to still grin about it all.

 

Changing the subject slightly, I had a double take at that white rack wotsit. My initial thought was "Hey, young PC's started developing 120 film!", as at a quick glance it looks very much like a Paterson film spiral for a developing tank. A second look (and a quick slap around the lug'ole) refocused (hah!) my perception- I hope that you and your brush rack have a long and fabulous life together.

 

And Happy Birthday. Even if you had to share it (say what??) with your 'lations.

[Gorby]

Doesn't sound possible now, but one day you will look back on all this and laugh. Mind you you'll be laughing at everything in your padded cell by that point.

I'll have to send you my self-help book, 'Treat your kids like dogs' (note to self: must write it first).

 

It does get better (then worse, then better) so hang in there. The saying “There's no gain without pain” doesn't only apply to exercise.

 

I agree with Ced, your a born writer, much better than some of the stuff I've read in the past. And when you've made your first million with your book – get a nanny to look after the little buggers.

 

Oh, and the modelling is pretty good as well.