SUNDAY WEBCOMIC

Today's Sunday Webcomics are as follows:

Dugan's Air Force is, strictly speaking, not a webcomic at all. It is a comic that happens to be on the web but at the time it was drawn the internet was entirely analog. You don't have to be in the Air Force to appreciate its unique qualities.

Hapless Harold, on the other hand, is a webcomic. It is as educational as it is entertaining.

PORCH PROJECT - final report

Today I restored the third pillar. I also took off the new steps I added to the west end so I could build this frame for the access opening. Then I took the stairs apart and rebuilt them using metal brackets and, although they still came out a little wacky, I am much more satisfied with their structural integrity. Basically if you fall down those steps it is your fault, not the steps. I will keep an eye on them and see how they hold up. I can remove them by taking out four screws, so if I need to work on them again in the future it will not be much of a problem.

All that is left is a little detail work and a final once-over with paint. It won't look much different from this.

There is not a huge difference between the current state and the way it looked when this non-summer google picture was taken. Which was my plan all along. Make it the same only better.

At least I don't feel it weighing on me as much now that it is visually unified, and the plumbing situation has eased off from impending doom status so I feel I can just relax all day tomorrow and take a shot at it on Sunday. It's not the kind of thing that makes for good blogging so I will not be reporting on it, but I do have a poorly-built leaky amateur skylight in my studio I need to fill in before the rains start up again and roof stuff is pretty exciting so we have that to look forward to. I will keep you posted.

PORCH PROJECT - two pillars restored

Today I got two of the pillars put together. Since I am putting 7.5 inch square pillars around a 3.5 inch post I have to cobble together one inch spacers to go inside. Of course nothing is actually one inch - it's all 3/4 for some reason. Somebody knows why but I don't. I happened to have some 1/4 inch flat molding that I could put together with 3/4 inch wood to make an actual inch. Pretty crappy looking but all they have to do is be there.

Here is what they are doing. The pillar boards are nailed to each other and to the spacers placed at the top and bottom of the post. There is a lot of fiddly work and adjusting to do, and nothing is really square or straight, but I am holding my own, so to speak.

Two pillars built, in need of some touchup and paint, but from a distance they look okay. They are certainly not much worse than what was there before. I am working at the limit of my skill and the ability of my tools and as long as you don't look too closely it's alright.

The bummer of the day was, just when I was about to start doing this, Donna told me there was water on the floor of the back room in the basement, near where she keeps some of her books for sale. I wisely had everything up off the floor on an old wooden futon frame for just such an event. It seems an ancient iron water pipe has sprung a slow pinhole leak, and it is very fortunately in a place that it will be relatively easy to replace it with copper. I keep hoping the 80+ year old parts of the plumbing will just wait until I am dead to fail because some of it will be a real pain to replace. So I got to start my work angry and frustrated at having been suddenly jolted out of my focus by another problem. It's been pretty rough the past few weeks with environmental issues - too hot, too sunny, too many people out doing things and raising a ruckus, and I have been generally anxious and depressed over that and my zillions of internal demons I never discuss with anyone. I really have no person or thing I can turn to for relief. Now I have to think of this new thing too.

SUNDAY WEBCOMIC

Dark Days provides everything you have come to expect from a SUNDAY WEBCOMIC in artistic and literary quality, excuse pages instead of comics, and transgendered autobiographical content.

PORCH PROJECT - cosmetic

It was rainy for a few days this week, which delayed my work since it involved a lot of painting. Over the past three working days I have completed most of the cosmetic restoration of the railing wall. I was able to salvage much of the original siding, and only had to buy one 16 foot piece, the top one across the inside of the wall as seen below. It was mostly just painting, sanding, cutting and nailing which is not as exciting as demolition and takes longer.

One of the many useful features the old porch lacked was the cutouts at the bottom. Since it was only open at one end, all the leaves and blossoms shed by the wisteria had to be swept the entire length of the porch. That's what those cutouts are for - if you look you will see them on a lot of porches, so you can sweep stuff out. Some of the details came out a bit weirdly where the end parts come together, but it achieves my basic need of not having anything jump out at you from ten feet away that makes you say what the hell is that.
This is the wood for the pillar restoration. The short ones below are salvaged from the original pillars and the longer ones are new wood I bought today. I hope I have made my last purchase of materials for this, but I may end up having to buy one or two little things I can't predict yet.

Addendum: I just did the math and not counting the trip to the dump and the gallon of paint I bought today this project comes out to almost exactly $700. That is way more than I had hoped, but about a tenth of what I would pay to have somebody else do it. I was hoping for more like $400, but it's something I won't have to do again so I am glad I did it as well as I could. I think the wood I salvaged saved me about $150 - $200.

Movies

Pool of London (1951) A complex, intelligent and multilayered noirish drama with numerous memorable situations and characters, centering on the activities of a pair of sailors in port for a few days. The standout performance is that of Earl Cameron, touchingly evoking the uncertainty of a man trained to wariness who unexpectedly encounters tolerance and a promise of happiness. A diamond heist is just one complicating factor to shake up and combine the numerous characters, but it is their humanity that comes through over the action and plot. The scenes and settings in mid-century London are outstanding and many tertiary characters add even more to an already overflowing story. A superior and engrossing film. 9/10

SUNDAY WEBCOMIC

Boy thanks for telling me that your Online Webcomic, "Altered Realms" is an Online Webcomic, because I wouldn't have known otherwise. If it didn't say Altered Realms - An Online Webcomic at the top I would be going "Whuuu??? What is THIS suppose ta be?" I have seen about a jillion online webcomics that make sure you know it is an online webcomic and I am glad to avoid the confusion that might otherwise arise from not being informed. I should make a list of repetitive motifs in Online Webcomics. Like 3DCG "Anthro" comics - those animal headed people I keep ragging about, Anthro (short for anthropomorphic) or Furry is what they call that stuff.

Set Apart isn't too bad for a 3DCG Anthro Online Webcomic, even with the added plus of being a Christian 3DCG Online Webcomic. Personally I don't believe Jesus died for the sins of foxes and dogs even if they can sit at a table and order lunch. The great thing about this strip for me, though, is that it went out with a bang - its last entry is a guest strip from Master Cartoonist Stripy Artist, creator of Stripy Six.

Addendum - The creator of Set Apart also has an interest in light bulbs, and has written a book called I Collect Light Bulbs.

Allegory - Escape from Reality has many interesting qualities not seen in the average 3DCG Anthro Online Webcomic. Not that there are really all that many of them, but this one stands out for its overall appearance, the fact that it is more an illustrated story than a comic, and the use of differently colored and fonted text to differentiate between characters, which I find far more baffling than the clumsiest speech balloon could ever be.

Enjoy these 3DCG Anthro Online Webcomics.