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Family Reunion
It’s Labor Day weekend and Kelly’s family is having their annual family reunion get-together. On my side of the family, this typically happens at weddings. In either case, it will be good to see the folks we don’t get to see as often as we’d like.
On The Run
It was fun to see the family today. Kelly and I kept Emmeline and Connor apprised of the goings-on since they were out of town.
Now that I’m back, I’ve got a bunch of work to catch up on. Pioneer Skill Set is structured to go live. I just need to edit the posts a bit, get some banners ready and put a landing page on it. It will be getting an eStore (The Trading Post) soon but the site is overdue for going live again. Fortunately, the Pioneer Skill Set Channel has a lot of content on it already. It’s helping me to stock the site with interesting topics. My most popular video is Waste Disposal – Staying Sanitary After SHTF.
I’ve also been nibbling at the edges of the site I restarted on Wednesday. I’ve got plenty of ideas for Nerdlightenment but I want to make sure the idea of the site remains coherent. I’ve been designing around a basic theme image, colors and font set. I’ve also got a channel started for the project but I don’t have any videos started. That’s fine. As long as I keep up the pace I’ve been running so far, it won’t take long to get this site up and rolling.
I also succeeded at a goal I had set for myself regarding the setup of a template in Scrivener for my Holiday Season serial novellas on Christmas All The Time. I came up with the number of days from Thanksgiving thru Epiphany for the next decade (it actually varies by year) and discovered that the minimum range is 40 days. I set the template up with 40 scenes and there’s room to add scenes for longer years. The story will play out daily through the holiday season and at the end, it will be available on the eStore Christmas Shopping All The Time in print on demand and eReader formats.
Wise men can hear profit in the wind ~Ferengi Rule of Acquisition #22
An interesting thing also came from the family reunion. Aunt Donna suggested that I put Nana-specific t-shirt designs on and one of the extended relatives (whose name I didn’t catch) wanted Gam. There are a lot of different titles that grandmothers go by. The less common ones don’t find themselves served on mass-market sites. That’s more opportunity for me! The Elfmeister General has heard and will set the graphic design elves to work on shirt designs for all the Nanas, Gams, Grannies and Mamaws!
Labor Day ~ The unofficial “End” of Summer
Summer isn’t technically over until September 23rd when the Autumnal Equinox occurs but functionally, summertime ends on Labor Day. By and large, people stop taking vacations and going to the beach all that summery stuff. The gap between Labor Day and the actual beginning of Autumn is a strange lull when kids get back to school and projects begin in earnest at workplaces.
Feh!
It’s still Summer
and it’s still hot
and I still don’t like it.
So there!
Creatives
Without poets, without artists, men would soon weary of nature’s monotony. ~Guillaume Apollinaire
Count on a poet for a conceited quote like that.
It’s true, though. The arts are the hardest hit in an economic downturn because artists are considered to be a luxury. Artists of every kind are appreciated in good times when we’ve got a moment to stop and smell the roses, so to speak, but when stuff hits the fan they’re regarded as, at best, a nuisance.
Well, there are artists and artístes.
An artist is a creative person who makes life a bit more bearable by putting their personality into something that would otherwise be dull but functional. An artíste is the kind of person who thrives on imposing so much flourish and embellishment that functionality goes right out the window. Few people really like an artíste. In most cases, deservedly so. These are the drama queens and ennui-stricken tosspots who have ruined life for others throughout the ages. Unfortunately, the artists often get lumped in with these fanciful louts.
An artist is a person who can deliver value and function while still delivering a bit of joy. Even if it’s just a matter of picking the right color for the office furniture, the artist goes that one step beyond simply delivering basic function.
Artists can still be seen as more flighty than the average bear. The fact that they spend that little bit of extra time to put a bit of thought into the arrangement or appearance of things can be a bit irritating to the humdrum, git ‘er done types.
In fairness, when you’re trying to get your house secured for an incoming hurricane, you’re not much in the mood for an artist to feng shui the yard furniture in the shed. That being said, an artist will typically have thought of all this ahead of time and will have feng shui’d the living space so that once you’re sequestered and hunkering down for the storm, your shelter is actually cozy and welcoming.
You’re welcome.
Artists can be seen to be daydreaming or wasting time by those who are not so inclined. Artists will happily tell you that “Reality is for those who lack imagination“. I had a plastic sign that I stuck in my windshield for years which said exactly that. Eventually, it became so sunbaked and brittle that it simply shattered. Mother 🍃👩🍂 Nature is no respecter of sentiment, it would seem…
Nevertheless, the truth remains:
Reality is for those who lack imagination.
Just take a breath and wait for us to make things better. We’re really worth the wait.
It’s been a wonderful day. Tomorrow is September and we’re that much closer to Autumn! I wish you and yours a lovely Labor Day weekend.