I’m on my mobile phone … cell phone to some of you! So I can’t insert the 5 second video clip illustration of the above … either because I can’t find the instructions to achieve it or it’s not available.
Have to make do with a still photo of the problem
So you’ll need to imagine it. The whole touchbar—at the top of the keyboard in certain models of Macbook Pro—is now flickering the whole time the laptop is being used. For all that I know it continues to flicker when the lid is closed.
I’ve been putting up with it since about September 2022, when it began with a couple of centimetres or an inch. After trying to have it fixed, the malady extended to 5 or 6 centimetres, which was when I stuck some blue electrical tape over it. This year that spilled into the rest of the bar, and became unbearable to use.
Hence went out Monday afternoon to purchase a new laptop … thought I caught Covid that day … but it was probably earlier.
I’ve been doing booklets using free form paintings for a while … producing these for eventual sale at a residents open day.
After two or three, it became difficult to replicate methods while staying original.
So—big think later—decided to paint structured pre sketched scenes where I could practice perspective, and revise different techniques on a small scale.
Also to be made into little books eventually
A front door … a couple of things that can be improved on next time …
A back gate next, where I did a bit of wet on wet …
There are more tracks/songs on this post-rock album. Steede Bonnet, my favorite in this album, is a kind of western, soundtrack sounding …?
Can you believe it, we have not yet found a good substitute for track/song and these purely instrumental compilations are called songs.
I’ve had a problem with that since I began with post-rock in 2017. At least the word ‘album’ has stood the test of advancing technologies.
The exact month and day now escape me but some time in 2017 I got home from a funeral and typed ‘big music’ into the google search box, because it felt like suddenly half my conscious mind had nothing to do.
I took up watercolour painting at the same time, as well as a third project to round things out…but what?
For the life of me I cannot remember what I decided on. Or even how I changed my life to fit it in. Still worrying at it at times like my tongue worries at a hole in my teeth.
Google came up with post-rock, and I’m still listening. Voiced lyrics don’t do it for me, I spend all my time trying to hear what they are saying. That’s not to say I don’t have a few favorite classical albums among my play lists. Plus quite a few film scores.
It’s been a while. Here a sketch that looks unfinished. If I lay a couple of fingers over the light green and house, it looks like something. I’m letting it sit for a while before I decide.
Good news today, for me anyway! Still in remission! Yay! Three years and four months. My type of cancer has an 11% survival rate.
I was glad to see this tiny patch of native moss among the giant south American exotics. Even better the clue to another species of birds to discover …
A scribbled sculptural form …
One a a pair of twins …
Its mate. They guard a pebbled through-way
In Brazil, or wherever they originate, there would’ve been a froglet living in the little pool in the heart of the floret. More on them after I re-read Wings by Terry Pratchett (1990).
Some people keep their piles at their bedside. I don’t sleep when I read in bed. This pile —
is beside me, on my couch. Plenty of paperwork under them as well, as you can probably see. My tax return for 2022-2023, for instance. Late already, it’s very forgettable.
Three of the books relate to Interpreting Dreams, the online course I’ve been studying. I’m halfway through but seem to be marking time, like I’m stuck on learning about shadows, and getting side-tracked on a bunch of other interesting stuff.
Ursula K LeGuin’s Tao Te Ching is a wonderful interpretation that I wouldn’t like to do without now. I have three bookmarks in it but most often I “make my daily march with the heavy baggage wagon”. From 26, Power of the Heavy.
Second from the bottom is my health journal wherein I keep track of what my Low Dose Naltrexone regime is doing to me. Good things, so far. Much less inflammation.
Then Sapiens: A brief history of mankind by Yuval Noah Harrari. Have to admit I’m past what’s most interesting to me which is humankind’s early history. I’m struggling through Roman times and the age of the empires.
Next up, is The Three Body Problem by Cixin Lui, famous Chinese SF author. Translated by Ken Liu. Unfortunately I started watching the TV series of the same name before the book arrived via snail mail. While the TV series is an easy and engrossing watch, the book is every bit as cryptic as has been said. Reading it, I keep trying to match events in the TV series.
Last in the pile, there’s Revenger by Alistair Reynolds. It’s just as rich and baroque as the first and second times I read it. It’s meaty with a thick silky gravy, excellent food for my SF hunger. And in addition I’m on the watch-out for the pirate captain’s magnificent orrery that influenced me to purchase the much paler Lego version. My next purchase will probably be the third installment of this trilogy.
