Martin

@halfbakedboat.shop

117 Followers 361 Following

woodworker --- hobbyist creator of mediocre things writer, game dev, artist, and very occasional streamer --- 🇨🇦he/him 👾 https://www.twitch.tv/halfbakedboats

Photo of a restaurant called Minotti in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Photo of a white hand holding two knockoff Pental p205s mechanical pencils, one black and one grey.
A photo of a line of three identical white-framed windows in a salmon coloured stucco wall. There's a small pipe or conduit running from the top of the frame to about two thirds down to the right of the leftmost window, it is also salmon coloured. A bit of the ground is visible in front of the wall along the bottom.
Black and white photo of the original Bluenose fishing schooner
Photo of the cake showing the exposed cut face. There is a visible if somewhat lopsided spiral of light brown cream filling surrounded by darker brown chocolate sponge, covered in a layer of ganache. All in all, this thing was quite rich.
Photo of my yule log on a serving platter that was maybe slightly too small. It's covered in chocolate ganache with squiggly grooves created by a fork in it to mimic bark texture and decorated with sugared cranberries and rosemary sprigs. I covered the ends in ganache too rather than leaving the spiral exposed because it was a bit messy.
Picture of my Steam Year In Review spider graph that shows the genres I played the most. Action RPG and MMORPG are at the top, then Racing and Dwarf, followed by Metroidvania and Looter Shooter.
Summary of my Steam Replay 2025. I played 35 games, 17 of them new, and earned 80 achievements over 155 play sessions. My top 5 most played were Final Fantasy XVI, Final Fantasy XIV, Enshrouded, Peak, and Kingdom Come Deliverance II.
A cloudy scene of a large, calm lake with low, snowy mountains on the far side. There's a bit of sun poking through the clouds adding some patches of golden highlights to the slopes.
Renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma
Screenshot of The Jetsons with Rosie the robot doing chores in the centre.
Me posing in my homemade Sir Fratley Halloween costume. Took the better part of three days of crafting after a trip to the thrift store for a few pieces to sew together for the top, ears, and tail. The spear is made out of a 1 and 1/8 inch dowel and a 1 by 4.
A close-up photo of a small glass jar of dark liquid sitting on a white windowsill with some yellowed fall leaves, deciduous trees, and a wedge of clouded blue sky visible in the blurred outside.
Art of Sir Fratley from Final Fantasy 9.
A simple, relatively bland graphite pencil sketch of three salmon hanging over a slightly crooked horizontal stick. The fish have been beheaded, filleted and scored across the flesh but the skin and tail were left on to connect the two halves which are draped over the stick, leaving the tail sticking up vertically. This exposes the flesh to the sun and allows for ventilation while the scoring helps to accelerate the drying process.
A sketch of a male Final Fantasy XI Elvaan character holding a pike with a gonfalon (banner) hanging from it in his right hand. He's got a shield on his left arm and is wearing low level gear. The proportions are a bit off, the legs are too short, and it's very light as it was originally going to be an underdrawing but I decided it wasn't worth it to try and ink. And since I'm playing by my own rules and not doing Inktober, it's allowed.
A small ink and alcohol marker sketch of a Tope Shark. It's a side-on view. The lines aren't too bad but the colouring which is shades of grey is inexpertly applied, to say the least. Probably didn't help that I'm using a cheap sketchbook which isn't intended for this sort of thing, but I wanted to try to markers. Lessons learned... maybe?
Up close photo of a snakefly with its head raised.
Screenshot of Kingdom of Heaven's Rotten Tomatoes page showing its Tomatometer score of 39% and Popcornmeter score of 79%.
A classic green throne style port-a-potty among mosses and coniferous trees in warm morning light. These normally offer minimal privacy but this one was a bit of an upward hike from the campsite and offered quite a view of Lanezi Lake through the trees. Among the better woods toilets I've ever encountered.
A brief video of a view of Issac Lake facing North. It's early evening, the sky is still blue with a few streaks of cloud. The lake water is mirror flat so the silhouettes of mountains are nearly perfectly reflected. A few seconds in four mergansers resurface from their dive, one after the other.
An archive photo of the first Hagwilget bridge taken in winter 1872 as seen from water level just down the river. It was made using only knives and axes of a bunch of intertwined logs and cedar planking that springs forth from either side of the canyon, all lashed together with cedar rope. It has a distinct dip in the middle giving it a very precarious appearance but it lasted 34 years so it must have been quite serviceable. The bridge spanned 150ft, had 6ft wide decking, and was 100ft above water level. Load capacity was estimated to be around 500lbs. I can't help but feel awe when I look at it. The second Hagwilget bridge built in 1880 was similar, though a slightly more orthodox design as it incorporated king post trusses on either end. It still maintained a pretty wild appearance. The modern, fourth bridge is a single lane suspension bridge that is one of the highest in North America. It's impressive too, but has nowhere near the aura of the first.
Screenshot of an Independent headline that reads "'Zombie' rabbits with black horns and mouth tentacles are invading Colorado backyards"
Front view of a little tortoiseshell cat sitting on linoleum tile. She's slightly looking up at the photographer.
Photo of the box of a Spear and Jackson brand Number 5 jack plane on my desk. My keyboard is visible above it. I did not splurge for a Veritas or similar up-brand model but once tuned up this'll do fine for my needs at the moment. And will serve as a nice roughing out plane once I do get a nicer one. Why not an electric plane for that you ask? Because I'm hard-headed and stupid.
A picture of a cooling down strawberry rhubarb pie with a cat lurking in the background. This one has a diagonal lattice and a three strand braid around the outer edge of the crust. It's still not the neatest but maybe a slightly superior effort to my previous one.
An oblique view of a strawberry rhubarb pie with a lattice top that's in the process of cooling off. It's got a little coarse sugar sprinkled on top but the filling has leaked over at several points along the circumference of the pie. Overall it's not the neatest, but a decent looking pie. There's a cat lurking in the background because theyre inescapable.
Photo of an elaborately decorated commercial truck from Pakistan. Sourced from Wikipedia
Screenshot of a delapidated wooden skiff from Stalker 2 sitting on dry land, viewed from the forward starboard quarter.
A closeup photo of an extremely cute, very young California quail hatchling sitting among some rocks and pine needles.
Relatively close-up photo of a snakefly sitting on the edge of a concrete step, just at the edge of a patch of sunlight. Beyond the step, in the upper half of the photo you can see the blurred greens of varied vegetation.
Photo of my right hand holding my Grey Anbernic RG35XXSP clamshell retro video game console in the bottom centre of the image. It's playing Chrono Trigger and because I'm on top of a small mountain the blurred background is behind the console is a beautiful view of some agriculture, a large lake, and some low mountains beyond. It's a beautifuk sunny day so while the screen isn't particularly visible in the photo, it was actually fine in-person. Note that I am a poser and only brought this along for the photo, I didn't take a break long enough to actually play.
A photo of a dirt hiking path snaking along a grassy hillside dotted with fir, spruce, and pine trees of varying maturity. In the valley distant there is a town and beyond it another low mountain carpetted in evergreen. The sky is a rich blue spotted and streaked with light clouds.
Jonathan Byers from Stranger Things
A photo of a slightly dirty pink bear-pig stuffy lying on its back in some dry grass and dandelions. There is a grape vine clipping lain across its neck. The scene is a tragic one.
Aerial view of a site called Guachimontones in Jalisco. The site is characterised by several round central pyramids each surrounded by a ring of square platforms.
A not particularly clear video of a female grouse on a forested pine needle floor cautiously making some distance between me and her as I slowly walk by. I'm not sure if she's a dusky or roughed grouse, but I'm leaning roughed.
A render of a little lapstrake sailboat. It's still missing a rudder, sails and ropes and stuff but the hull and mast are basically complete. The boat itself is two shades of grey on a background that is a third shade of grey so the whole thing is a bit lifeless. This model is about 8600 tris which could surely be reduced some if desired.
A view from the top of a small mountain, looking roughly southeast. In the middle distance about 400m below, through a dip in the rock of the summit you can see agricultural fields, mostly wineries and orchards. Between that and the range of low mountains that make up the horizon line you can see the mirrorlike surface of a part of a rather large lake. The sky is largely clear with some fluffy clouds scattered, mostly just above the horizon.
A quick drinks tier list I made to join in on the fun. My rankings are as follows. S-tier: water A-tier: lemonade, sparkling water, tea, coffee, orange juice B-tier: milk, choc milk, apple juice, iced tea C-tier: Gatorade, Powerade, fruit punch, grape juice D-tier: colas, root beer, orange soda, lemon lime sodas, citrus sodas F-tier: energy drinks Certainly a lot of drinks missing from the list but the main thing is that water is the only real s-tier drink.
I did my design work for this project by just messing around in blender until I ended up with something I liked that more or less met the criteria of the project. It's a great way to quickly try different proportions and (very) rough colours. This image shows three different renders of the nightstand with differently coloured accent woods. The light parts were always going to be a maple veneered particle board but for the accent I had a choice of a few woods. The first accent wood depicted here is sort of a honey/amber colour(alder), the second a dark-brown(black walnut), and the third a very red-brown(sapele). I ended up going with the the black walnut, which ended up being considerably lighter and more brown once it was hit with a finish than what I estimated here.
Photo of a my inlay panel that I'm making for the top of a little jewellery box. It's a simple sort of compass rose-style design that's twice as wide as it is tall. The points are radically symmetrical and made of half walnut and I believe half western maple though I'm not entirely sure, it could be red alder. There are little cherry wood near-rhombuses tucked in the corners between points so that it looks like there is a cherry octagon in behind the compass cross. It will eventually be set into the panel of eastern maple it's sitting on but I suspect that process is going to be quite a pain in the butt.
A list of 100 well-known video game franchises. Filling in the ones you've played at least one game of gives you your VARIETY gamer score. My VARIETY gamer score is 72 out of 100. Not bad.
Close up picture of snow of a tree branch. The ice crystals are big and sparkly in the sunlight.
view of my dovetail box, with the boxes front right corner closest to the camera to show the dovetail stack. The box is made of western maple (likely Big Leaf Maple) which has a slightly reddish colour direction for the front, back, and sides and light green Poplar heartwood for the top and bottom. The shape is going to be a little tricky to describe but I'll give it a shot. The top of the box is flat with an unusually large, downward sloping overhang, almost like a roof. The bottom is a mirror of the top, so the box has a sort of clamshell look. Both top and bottom appear to be about 1.5 inches thick with the walls of the box double that at about 3 inches. The usable depth of the box is actually 4.75 inches though because the top and bottom "overhangs" wrap around the sides, concealing some of the true depth and a couple of the dovetails too.
Screenshot of my new Final Fantasy 11 character, a tarutaru male warrior named Attuks, standing in front of the gates to Bastok.
A late fall view looking west up an agricultural valley from about 175 metres above. The view is framed by a pine tree on either side and there's a bit of wood smoke in the air that is showing nicely in the afternoon light. On the valley bottom there's still some fall colour in the leaves of some orchards and big willows.
A top-down photo of a wooden end grain cutting board sitting on a workbench. It's mainly made of eastern, likely sugar, maple with black cherry accents. The board is approximately 17.5 inches long by 12.75 inches wide and 1.5 inches thick. The pattern is a 17 by 25 grid of approximately .75 inch 'squares' of maple with a two block wide chequered accent stripe of cherry running both horizontally and vertically, four blocks up from the bottom and four blocks in from the left side respectively. Nothing too fancy but it's given me a lot of ideas for potential future projects. Not sure when I'd make another but it's always nice to correct your mistakes the second time around so we'll see.
A screenshot showing the results of my opening a pack of cards on Pokémon TCGP. The cards are Seaking, Nidoran female, Heliolisk, and the same Liligant card twice.
A black-and-white, off-angle selfie of me sitting on a beach after taking a dip in the Pacific Ocean for the first time. I'm resting my back against a driftwood log upon which sit an old buoy that appears to have some letters carved into it and my drying swim trunks. And this isn't really important to the photo but I noticed my messy hair blends in with the top of the treeline surprisingly well...
A full body picture of me in my homemade Hollow Knight Halloween costume. Both my hands are on the pommel of my sword and I'm facing slightly right of camera. The lighting is purplish/bluish a la Hollow Knight and there's a far too conspicuous picture of sad Cubone on the wall behind me.
A mirror selfie of me in my Hollow Knight Halloween costume that I took to check final fit. The mirror is possibly the narrowest mirror known to man, and for some reason there's an ethernet cable draped across it at about mid-height. Despite all that, this is currently the best picture I have of the thing.