Spanky's Pic Place

Looking good, mate.

Still can't see any meep though.

Thanks man.
I hit a slump in my motivation and I'm trying to power through it.
Right now I appreciate the meep out of those few words of encouragement. :)
Yer a good man Dragonstaff.

I'll be carving the meep when I'm GOOD and GODDAMNED READY though.

...I want them to be PERFECT.

It's an amazing piece of art already. Keep up the incredible work.

I mean, it's alright, I guess...

Hah! Thanks man.
Taking a second day off to get the ex's car repaired.
Might as well pick up a set of Exacto blades and carry on.
(Job site's probably on fire by now)

@spankerchief

meeping Beautiful!

WANT!!!

But it isn't even halfway done yet :/

How do you do that without bleeding all over it?

His ex has already bled him dry

Zing!

And topping off this month's annoyances:
I'm getting calls from one of those "not TECHNICALLY a scam" modeling agencies that my ex signed my youngest up for.
After bilking my otherwise intelligent daughter out of over $500 in sponsership money and producing nothing they had the nerve to call again for another round of "selection".
This time I fielded the call and had a...word...with the lady.

They are unperturbed, however by my refusal and are calling my house somehow with the same unidentified(123)456-7890 number. (Despite my phone being blocked for unidentified calls)
I believe they want to catch my ex wife again.

Problem is, she doesn't live here.
So when I or my son or daughter answer the phone, they hang up and call again a few hour later.
This has been going on for a week now.

Okay.
It's ON motherf#cker.

Update:
Wow. Already had to use it.
Not my intended target though.
Had a census taker call asking questions and when I said "Sorry, I'm not interested in taking a survey. Please remove me from your call list."
He responded with: "It's not a calling list sir. The numbers are randomly generated by a computer."
Then he followed up with: "Could you tell me what makes you uncomfortable with taking the survey sir?"
...
..."I'd have to say the ear-splitting background noise"
HOOOOONK!!

Sometimes assholes have the most AWESOME timing.

Well done, Sir.

Carry on.

@spankerchief

Exactly.

@spankerchief

I think that it is something to do with advancing years. I started to notice it about 5 years ago and now it is the torment of my life.
At least I hope it is advancing age, because if not, then it's some kind of universal conspiracy.

@godevillivedog

Like the way that the spanner that you drop whilst working on your car will always roll or bounce to the exact centre of the vehicle, ensuring that you have to crawl underneath to retrieve it.

My problem is tape measures.
Can't keep track of them to save my life.
I've actually given up on searching, driven to the hardware store, bought a few new ones and just purposely scattered them in random places around the house and garage.
I don't have an exact count, but I'm pretty sure there's at least half a dozen within 30' of me at any given time.
True story.

Spending the morning fitting hardware:

Okay. Carving titties now.@dragonstaff

I can't help but think about those woodcutting cnc machines...
Between injection molding, vacuum forming and 3D printing there isn't really any place for hand carving anymore.
All the skill and attention is in the computer rendering (and some for care of the tools) and after that, countless perfect copies.
Just how do you measure the artistic value of something if it can be flawlessly copied ad nauseum?

Here's the other side:

It looks embarrassingly cartooney at the moment because of the heavy lines I drew to help guide the carving. That'll go away.
-I think. (It's been awhile since I've done any bas reliefs)

... and then spankerchief reminded me of my broken heart.

@spankerchief

Er...sorry about that @LOki.
I wasn't happy with one of the lid so I changed it to this:

Getting there.
The curve of the lid is a b#tch to hollow out.
Should've made the cuts before gluing it into the curved shape(which still presents problems, but not as bad)
Now I'm gonna have to cut lines close together across the top at the right depth and then cut out the remaining "bridges"
Not perfect, but pretty close.

Like this:

Spectacular, so far.

Thanks!
Now for all the detail carving.
Skulls first:

I need to work on carving faces.
Screwed up and cut too deep on the eyes.
Will try to fix.

Fix't.

Haven't I seen that before?

Isn't there supposed to be a BEAK under there?

Anyway,
We have slightly less than two months left for this get together and this is what I have so far:
The event will span two days; October 27th and 28th.
We meet up Saturday morning on the beach at Spooner's Cove in Montana De Oro State Park located about 2 miles south of Morro Bay

We'll do the kid's competition and treasure hunt first both days so that we aren't getting tanked at 9am.
The kids will compete through games of skill and chance...
Okay, I'm still working on ideas here, but I'm thinking some kind of target (archery/knife throwing/darts/wet sponge :coughpussycough: toss/etc) probably a foot race around the beach and whatever else it takes to narrow the field down to a winner.

After the kiddies are done; LUNCH.

I will brine and pre-cook as many picnic meeps as needed and use the Buffalo to heat it up and cook side dishes like stuffed Jalapenos and cabobs and such.

Then on to the adults, who will play slightly more...adult oriented games.(Probably gonna be a sausage fest, so nothing too orgy-like, sadly)
I've got some suitably demeaning tests of skill planned out plus some drinking games to pick the final winners: A wheel to spin marked sword/drink/GTFO/MAP on day one and dice on day two(or whatever, I'm still planning)

The grand prize will be awarded on day two so I recommend being there both days, staying the night in either Morro Bay or getting a campsite.
(I'll help as much as I can)

-Reposted here because posts in the Linkswarm West Coast Get Together forum isn't showing up in the shoutbox.

Oh, two more things:
1) Anyone who wants to hunt for treasure MUST be in costume.
I will NOT hand out a map to any c#cksucker that can't at LEAST dress the part.(Yeah, wizards, ninjas or some other costume is okay too. It's Halloween after all)

2) Everyone playing The wheel of...er...piratey plunder (I'm working on it) must agree to do what the wheel says.
It will have several slots it can land on: Drink(takes up most of the slots of course), Lose Turn, Win a Sword, Dance a Jig, Sing a limerick(I'll have a selection of fine ones to choose from), Win a MAP, GTFO (You're ejected from the game), and Villainy.
"Villainy" is actually a job title. If you land on it, you're conscripted into the bad pirate plunder possee(...okay call it whatever you want)
The point is: You have to tail the treasure hunters and menace them throughout the hunt, yelling unhelpful things, trying to distract them, generally be annoying, etc.
You have to keep at least thirty feet away and (of course) aren't allowed to physically harm anyone.
There will be an entire bottle of good booze to share (with cheap little shot glasses so you don't give each other mono)
and some Nerf guns to take pot shots with.

Clarification: Nerf guns with a sh#t-ton of ammo to bombard those meeps.

Pick that meep up or the Rangers will kick us out, BTW...meepin' raccoons will choke on 'em.

So, now that I have a new batch of meds, if I just go nuts on carving & bedazzin', are you bringing some touch-up varnish?

Because if "Rosie, the Pirate Queen" has the Emerald Dagger, I want the Goat Sword...with the Horny Scabbard, and the Evil Details.

Sure. No sweat.@BeachGoat

So, now that I have a new batch of meds, if I just go nuts on carving & bedazzin', are you bringing some touch-up varnish?