Monday Musings

Monday Musings — 1 JAN2024

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Happy New Year!

Don’t Make a “New” New Year’s Resolution

You don’t have to wait until the New Year to make a resolution. And you also don’t have to make a new resolution because it’s a new year. You can choose to have less stress and more success anytime by updating the meaning behind old goals, picking a quick win to cross off your list, and by helping someone achieve something that matters to them.

That’s my advice for you all (and Psychology Today’s).

I’m hoping this will be a better year than 2023. Spent a lot of time in the hospital. Don’t like that. My energy levels have sucked, especially towards the end of the year. Got to figure that out. Part of the problem is chemo drugs, part is that food doesn’t always taste good to me. Even trying to choke down a scrambled egg is hard sometimes. No resolution will fix that, but I’ll figure something out.

I am starting a new thing though. 30 days of drawing for 10 minutes, each morning. I belong to a group that’s doing this so hopefully we can keep each other on it. I may post the drawings here also.

Art

Monet’s Poplars

Source: Monet’s Poplars

 

Monet’s Poplars series 


Apparently, Monet was at work on three different groups of the same trees (in the end, there were 23 paintings in all) each group with its own compositional format, when he learned the trees were going to be cut down. So, he did what any self-respecting art god would do – he bought them.


Monet made most of the Poplars paintings in the summer and fall of 1891. He saw them while rowing toward the “floating studio” he kept moored further up river. They stood single file along an “s-curve” in the river, and you just have to look at the paintings to see why he fell hard for them. 

The trees, which belonged to the commune of Limetz, were indeed auctioned off for lumber. Monet therefore was forced into buying the trees to keep them standing long enough to finish painting them. Once he’d completed the series, he sold the trees back to the lumber merchant who wanted them.


Thus the world still has that graceful, elliptical geometry of light, leaf, breeze and branch, and we have one very focused and very successful never-say-die painter to thank for it.

Art, Monday Musings

Monday Musings — 11DEC23

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As promised last week, the inks for that page.

And a fun video.

A video from Winsor McCay the artist on Little Nemo in Slumberland

A Canadian study gave $7,500 to homeless people. Here’s how they spent it.

Because they were participating in a randomized controlled trial, their outcomes were compared to those of a control group: 65 homeless people who didn’t receive any cash. Both cash recipients and people in the control group got access to workshops and coaching focused on developing life skills and plans.

Separately, the research team conducted a survey, asking 1,100 people to predict how recipients of an unconditional $7,500 transfer would spend the cash. They predicted that recipients would spend 81 percent more on “temptation goods” like alcohol, drugs, or tobacco if they were homeless than if they were not.

The results proved that prediction wrong. The recipients of the cash transfers did not increase spending on drugs, tobacco, and alcohol, but did increase spending on food, clothes, and rent, according to self-reports. What’s more, they moved into stable housing faster and saved enough money to maintain financial security over the year of follow-up.

That’s it for this Monday. Remember to pull your pants up so you don’t trip over your legs.

Monday Musings, nature

Monday Musings — 4DEC23

It’s Monday, what’s on my mind?

Here’s a blue line of a page I’m working on for my comic. It’s going really slow, but I am working on it. I’ll post inks for this page next week. I have them done, but not scanned.

Everything is going slow for me. Low energy because of the chemo, and etc. Some days I just have energy to watch videos and do some light housework, and that’s it. Even sitting at a drawing board seems like a lot, which it shouldn’t, but does. When I force myself to do art it feels good, so I try to do that, if I don’t fall asleep first. LOL But stuff gets done, really.

Now for some health/science news. Check out the video.

A video about why statins aren’t really doing what they say, and are not all that good for you.

Writing this Sunday night actually, and we are getting snow. Supposedly about 6 inches by morning. I’ll let you know.

Yep. Snow. Not quite 6 inches but pretty close, and still coming down at 7AM. Now to get ready for my appointment.

Stay warm, careful shoveling, and remember, that this ends like everything else.