it was a year ago today we laid my father to rest. It was after a relatively short medical struggle. It was tough watching him lose his ability to move without assistance, to being hospitalized for the last three weeks of his life. The man that shared with me his love of aviation, although he spared me his fear of flying, shooting, and photography.

I have a pair of codes for BlueSky. Comment if you'd like one.

Starting Sunday I'll be starting the first of my blogs. The first blog will be related to model building and model railroading. The first posts will be related only to my model railroading. Starting in mid-February it will be expanding to include various model building projects. I should be posting bi-weekly on Sundays and Wednesdays, with the typical Sunday post being on the subject of model railroading. and typically Wednesday will be on model building.

Feel free to look as I'm getting things ready.

Blog address: Rails & Tails Blog

https://www.furaffinity.net/view/50349076/

I don’t do this often, but definitely check out their art.

We’re packing getting ready for a move in the next two months. So far we’ve packed 10 boxes of DVDs. 1:5 DVDs are animated. 1:10 are my series/boxed sets. Far too many are still wrapped.

I got the first of my Icons of Canadian Steam locomotives, “The Royal Hudson” in blue and silver (exposed aluminum)

I’m hoping to get at least one of each of the series, with a couple of exceptions.

2020
D10k (4-6-0) CP#1078
H-6-d (4-6-0) CN#1328
H-6-g (4-6-0) CN#1392

2021
H-1-a (4-6-4) CP #unknown
H-1-b (4-6-4) CP #2816 (modern)
N2b or N4a (2-8-0) CN #unknown

14 years ago on July 10 the last Saskatchewan Air Show was held. It ended with the tragic loss of two pilots. This year it returns with an interesting schedule, and the static displays are interesting too.

I'm currently working through a number of Lynda.com classes - one of stream is photography. I'll be posting a few here to my scraps, but the bulk of them are going to be posted on my DA account: http://sdsmillar.deviantart.com

Growing up in the 1920s and 1930s young Canadian men from various walks of life volunteered to serve in the military for a war that began on September 1, 1939 with the invasion of Poland. The war was unlike any other that had been fought before. Air power, armour and a swift mobile force were a challenge that the allies were unable to handle, and a month and a half after the start of the invasion of France the capital of France had fallen, and the allies had been pushed off of the continent. Volunteers from Canada would soon be shipped to the UK. Among these volunteers was my grandfather, Jack. He joined the SSR in 1939 before being sent to Shilo, MB for training and finally overseas to the UK.

They trained in the UK for commando raids. Several commando missions were carried out, and by August 1942 the battle where my grandfather was selected to participate in entering the final stages of planning and preparation. On August 19, 1942 the raid was conducted, at a massive cost. Of the 6000 Canadian, British and American soldiers to participate nearly 1:5 were killed, with total casualties approaching 3:5. My grandfather was among those wounded during the battle. Two of his closest friends were killed. The lessons learned from the battle would be applied in 1943 and 1944 during the invasions of North Africa, Italy and Normandy, but this lesson was extremely costly. Poor intelligence and unsuitable equipment were major issues corrected during the Normandy Invasion. Two years and two weeks after the Dieppe raid the 2 Canadian Infantry Division, the same division that lost so many in the raid on Dieppe liberated it. They met little resistance, and held a victory ceremony and reclaimed their war dead, buried in graves by the Germans after the battle.

What's going on in August?

August:
Trip to the lake,
Linear Algebra edX course,
Blog Notification MS Flow Project
An essay (1500+ words) on the Dieppe Raid
Professional Portfolio Website
MAGAM Project 1: Memory - using 1, 2 decks of cards, counting number of turns.

September:
Personal Projects Website
SNCF Layout design phase I
SNCF Layout Site
Rail Docs site

One thing I have to look forward to is the distinct possibility that my income will be 20% below what it should have been at the end of the year through a combination of cutback in hours, held back step increases, withdrawn market adjustment. All of this with the spectre of the company I work for being sold to some national Telecom Company. This is all due to a decade of excellence where our government overspent during prosperous times, whittling away any buffer we had to deal with the downturn in revenue the province experienced over the last three years. The bulk of the employees effected by this live in cities with the largest percentage of opposition seats, and they're being asked to take on the brunt of these cutbacks.

One of the things I always enjoyed about the Red Bull Air Race was knowing that Hannes Arch would be pushing the limits and pushing the competition to be the best.

So this morning woke to the news that he went down in a helicopter accident. It will be odd not seeing #22 flying in the races, just like it is odd not hearing Mike Mangold announce the Red Bull Air Races.

- commemorative image coming.

http://www.redbullairrace.com/en_CA.....arch-1967-2016

July 1 is not Canadian Independence Day. It is Canada Day, the day we started on the journey to become what are. We didn't fight for our independence, we asked to be our own nation, we then proved it again and again. We didn't fight an empire to gain our identity. We stood up to the bullies, from before we even asked for that identity and beat or helped beat them. (1812-1814, 1914-1918, 1939-1945, 1950-1953) It wasn't until World War I that we started to be able to establish our identity. We fought in the Boer Wars under British command. We fought in World War I under British command, until battles such as Vimy, Paschendale, Ypres, (For Newfoundland - the Somme). In World War II we were still fighting under the British Crown, but were also very much independent by then. We fought in Hong Kong, Dieppe, Italy, Normandy, the Low Countries, the Atlantic, and Western Europe. We collaborated with the British during the war, we also collaborated with the Americans (look up the "Devil's Brigade").

It wasn't a single day, or a short little war against an imperial foe, but us distinguishing ourselves from the rest of the world, and that same empire that the US fought against nearly a century before our "independence day."

That is who we are! That is why we are the greatest nation on Earth. That is why I am a proud Canadian.

For the third time I'm off to Fur-eh. This time I'm actually staff, running the art show.

On the way up I hope to catch photos of VIA #2 coming through Nokomis... Apparently my favourite rail fanning spot. Then through to Saskatoon, North Battleford, and Edmonton.

https://twitter.com/melanieastles/s.....14082650361856

Let's see how she does in her first year as a Challenger class pilot. (I'd like to see her get an invite to the Master Class)

1. Try to do something creative each week, whether writing, drawing, 3D modelling...
2. The standard - Get healthier.
3. Stop procrastinating so much (Off to a bad start - decided on and posted on the 3rd.)
4. Get started on my degree (CIS/Appl. Mathematics)
5. Finish Things

It's harder and harder for me to say I'm proud to be where I'm from. It's not that the conditions are bad, or even difficult. I just don't like how fear, and right seems to be taking over. The pocket book is more important than their humanity. People seem to be childish, intolerant cusses. Even my family members who I respected I'm finding it very hard to tolerate because of their doomsday view on anyone but the rightwing having power. I'm even uncomfortable in my job because of the uncertain future I see with our current Premier.

Just plopping down a few notes.

Pilots:
#19 Nigel Prudhomme (L)
#14 Chase McLeod ( Cl )
#13 Cara Middleton (Da)
#9 Daniel O'Sullivan(De)
#8 Kyle Ross ( C )
#7 Wayne Leahy ( C )
#4 Cameron Brooks (Da)
#2 Marissa Marin ( C )

This is based off of the http://www.redbullairrace.com/ - There are only 8 racers in the first season. 2 more will join in the next year, with one sitting out (A doe).
Rank:(## (pts)) #7 (54), #4 (48), #8 (37), #19 (33), #13 (27), #3 (17), #2 (10), #14 (4)

L - Lagotian (Arctic Fox)
C - Corsac (Red and Corsac Fox)
Da - Dakotian (Whitetail Deer)
Cl - Columbian (Mule Deer)
De - any of three feline species (Oscelot, Tiger, Margay)

As alluded to in the Babylon 5 and MLP there are several "Constants." From B5 there is the meat food called "Breen" or Swedish Meatballs. In addition MLP has RD curling with an eagle. These are two constants that I've developed so far. (That and well everyone is struck by the beauty of the A6E intruder :) )

Would anyone be interested in seeing character biographies of the major characters I have? These will be done before I get the character sheets up for most of the characters (Cara and Amber excluded).

I will be starting with Jason and continuing from there. Eventually it will include all the major characters, including Cara, Amber, Kendrick, Sylvia, Tom (as yet unseen), Melanie (Mel) (as yet unseen).

Initially these character bios will be just a simple story, and as character sheets get done for the major characters I'll be adding the character sheets to the bio.

that as soon as you make it to the light at the end of the tunnel there's some son of a bitch with a club that knocks you out and drags you right back to the start again?

In one of my recent moves I had a number of cars and locomotives damaged. The repairs required vary from a simple replacement of couplers to major fixes. The worst off was a beautiful CN 0-8-0 switcher which had the one DCC connection sheared, so it won't be an easy repair.

The rest are just time intensive.

I have my projects to take me up to the middle of June.

First Locomotive off the RIP track - NS7146 (GP60)
Next Up - CR(NS)5605 - SD60i - To be patched & Renumbered 6734
NS7123 (GP60)
NS6564 (SD60)
CR(NS)6811 (SD50) - To be patched & Renumbered 5472 or repainted completely.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1jP.....NJfMk/viewform

I am looking at improving my drawing skills to that end I'm opening up for a limited number of headshots. You may submit one character. Requests may be taken until January 3 at 12:00pm Central. I hope to have at least 10 requests. The requests may not be first come first completed. Currently I am only going to accept mammals.

Details:

Post character name here,
Fill out form above,

Due not read if you due not want to. Oops I mean do not read if you do not want to.

I frequent sites like CNN. Every once in a while I come across an article that, while interesting, is full of stupid mistakes. It may be because I applied to be an editor for an online magazine, but I've noticed a lot of these mistakes lately and it's starting to piss me off. I've read through an article and found the number two spelled three different ways, all correct according to the magic red squigglies that show up under misspelled words. Another one, the example that set me off today, was the incorrect use of the word do. Do is a verb. To do something is to perform. What I am doing right now is bitching about the incorrect use of the word do. Do shouldn't be used where due should be. I know it sounds the same but the meaning is completely different. What is an editor's job now a days? Check to make sure that the spell check is doing its job correctly? Due to the fact that I see dumb mistakes in the use of simple words I tend to get a little annoyed and honestly disregard whatever has been said in the articles that their, oops I mean they're letting slip by.

Take a moment and send some help to those affected by the flooding in areas downstream from Canmore. It's likely going to affect towns and cities all the way through to Hudson Bay.

http://www.redcross.ca/

(I'm from well west of Calgary, and won't be affected by it as the South Sask runs 120mi north of here)