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Yesterday I pulled out my 1967 almost mint condition Spirograph and sat down to play. I bought this little gem on eBay a few years ago because it was one of my most favorite things to do when I was growing up. I was looking forward to revisiting this old friend since I was certain that as an adult I would be able to eliminate some of the things that frustrated me about it as a child. As I prepared my work surface I remembered how my uncoordinated child fingers always had trouble coaxing the little map pins out of their container. I discovered that my arthritic adult fingers have the same problem. As I pinned my ring in place on the official Spirograph corrugated cardboard work surface, I had trouble identifying the holes in the ring that were meant for the pins. There are 4 of them and they're smaller than the other holes, which I still don't know the purpose of. Later I was reminded that it doesn't really matter which holes you stick the map pins into. They will eventually...

Today I am commonplacing in my first visual zibaldone ....and trying to define exactly what that means as I go. Since a zibaldone is such an obscure type of book and by definition it means hodgepodge, I feel like it's okay to just make stuff up. Therefore, my zibaldone will be similar to my Journaling By 5s journal but without the limitations. I will work on the book as a whole instead of going page by page as in traditional art journaling. I will limit myself to about 20 pages since working on any more than that can get overwhelming or tedious. I will loosely follow the JB5 sessions and media recommendations but in no particular order and with more substitutions and repeats. Some of the JB5 principles that I will continue to follow are that I only use things I have on hand. I will not buy and kind of media or embellishment specifically for my visual zibaldone. That doesn't mean I'm on a spending freeze. I'm a very thrifty shopper anyway but I will occasionally pick u...

I've decided I don't like the words 'art journal' anymore. Art journals have expectations. They want you to fill them with beautiful works of art. Sometimes I'm okay with that but sometimes I'm not. 'Sketchbook' doesn't work for me because I don't sketch. I don't do 'scrapbooking' because all those pictures of my family just got in the way of what I was trying to create.   'Notebook' isn't the word I want either. Those have lines in them and want you to write important stuff on their pages. I think Strathmore made a wise marketing decision with their ' Visual Journals '. That phrase doesn't have the same expectations as 'art journal' or 'sketchbook. I can glue a picture of a dog wearing dentures into a visual journal. But I'm still bothered by the 'journal' part of it. That word makes me think of a diary...a written account of thoughts, events, plans, dreams, etc. I journal on occasion b...

I haven't blogged much since starting my YouTube channel but lately I've noticed that a lot of YouTubers have a very active blog to go along with their video uploads. Who are these crazy superwomen?! How do they do it??!! And you know what's worse? Some of them have full time jobs outside their home. And some of them are still raising young children. Lots of young children. And some of them have successful online businesses in addition to their full time job and litter of children. And here I sit unemployed retired, my daughter is grown, I should have no excuse not to update my blog regularly in addition to uploading videos but can I manage that? Heck no. Just thinking about it stresses me out and gives me old lady zits. I'm not one to back down from a challenge and failure is an option that I'm completely comfortable with so I see no reason why I shouldn't try to blog my videos. Wouldn't it be great if I had a video to go along with this blog post? Yeah, I...

I have a really disgusting story to share. Common sense tells me to never ever speak of it to anyone. But I decided to share it on the off chance that there might be one other person in the universe who has had a similar experience and is feeling like a lonely freak about it. Obviously you will want to stop ready now if you have a delicate constitution. Whatever that is. A few months ago I got a blocked tear duct in my right eye. I pretty much diagnosed myself, thanks to Dr. Google, and in the process I learned a lot about how our tear ducts work and are connected to other stuff in our face. I always thought our tears came from the tiny holes on the inside corners of our upper and lower eye lids. I've thought that for 48 years. I was wrong...for 48 years. The little holes we see on our eyelids are not where the tears originate, they are the drain holes for our tears. The tears originate from tiny glads that are located under our upper eyelids. I swear it. This video proves it: So a...

AT&T is cracking me up. I sent them that email on Tuesday explaining how I felt like they should send me a MicroCell for free, right? Less than 24 hours later, I had the free MicroCell in my hands. Problem solved. I think. I haven't actually hooked it up yet. Just a few minutes ago I got a call from the manager of my local AT&T store saying he just got my email and would be glad to send me a free MicroCell. I did cc that email to a couple of different people so I can understand the communication breakdown. I don't know who forwarded it to my local store but I really think that was kind of a cool thing to do. I told him that AT&T already shipped me one and he asked if they credited my account for it. I told him they never charged me in the first place. I felt like I shouldn't have to pay anything extra for cell service that I'm already paying for. He totally agreed and just wanted to make sure that I got what I needed and wasn't charged for it. I'm no...

Today at 1:22 p.m. I sent this email to Glenn Lurie, the new President of AT&T Mobility. Just to make sure all my bases were covered, I sent copies to Ralph de la Vega, who had that job before him, and to Richard Lindner, CFO and Senior Executive Vice President. I decided not to bother the CEO unless these guys proved to be useless:  Dear Mr. Lurie, Congratulations on your promotion! I hope that dissatisfied customers such as myself aren’t sucking the fun out of your new job. I took a guess at your email address since Google doesn’t know what it is and you probably want to keep it that way. I’m having issues with my wireless service that your company is not able to correct in a way that reflects good customer service. I’m sure you hear this daily but I hope you will hear me out. I will try to be as concise as possible out of respect for your time. My family moved from NW Houston to SW Houston on August 25. We failed to verify whether or not AT&T provided coverage in our new...