Curmudge's Sutff

No Idea: 1967

Sun, 19 Oct 2025 18:24:24 GMT

My 61^st acrylic is another in my projected No Idea series.

( the 'story' behind it )

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No Idea: 1965

Sun, 05 Oct 2025 17:51:11 GMT

My 60^th acrylic is another in my projected No Idea series.

( the story behind it )

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something I am grateful for today

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 00:25:19 GMT

an easy fix

Last night, when I removed my hearing aids for their overnight recharge, part of one of them stayed in my ear. (Wuh-oh.)

This morning, I took them back to Costco for a repair. And it was simply a matter of unplugging the broken cable and plugging in a new one — literally took less than thirty seconds. (Oh, and it was free: “Everything is covered by your membership.”) Gotta love it.

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one of life's great mysteries

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 01:45:33 GMT

Why why why do my dishwashing gloves always die by springing a leak in the right index finger? I've got a bunch of perfectly good lefties piling up in the kitchen here... and the lack of expected randomness in the process is driving me a bit nuts.

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something I am grateful for today

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 15:45:06 GMT

getting my headlight fixed — I hate having one out

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something I am grateful for today

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 23:16:10 GMT

these:

I got a bunch of them for Christmas, and today I used them to sort and put away my watercolour paints — they are now organized at last! Yay!

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something I am grateful for today

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 12:28:13 GMT

new dishwashing gloves that haven't sprung a leak yet

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AI art

Wed, 04 Jan 2023 22:57:18 GMT

Someone posted a piece of AI art somewhere and asked for thoughts and comments. It's the first time I tried to nail down my vague feelings on the subject. Here's what I came up with:

I'm still coming to terms with AI art. On some levels, it's just a new manifestation of something that has long been with us... for example, the human artist who repeatedly paints variations of the same picture and sells prints of them to people who are easily satisfied. It makes visual pleasure affordable and readily accessible. Similar to the way that portrait photographers [as opposed to portrait painters] did. In a way, AI art is a fancier form of clip art, I guess.

This doesn't mean that I wholeheartedly approve of it, just that I recognize that it arises from economic and cultural forces that are not new. It means that original human art will be obliged to become more sincere, less of a commodity and more ars gratia artis. That's bad for artists and their livelihoods, but it's not bad for art per se.

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my gruntles have been removed

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 20:17:00 GMT

The year is not off to a flying start, inasmuch as I am beset by oddities:

I woke this morning with a migraine [not a hangover, I didn't drink] and unexplained dizziness which took a few hours to ease off
My cellphone started misbehaving, by not displaying the correct keys I need to operate the current screen I'm using. I needed to pull the battery out, then back in, to get it to smarten up. It's never done this before.
One of the smoke alarms started giving random false alarms. Time for a new one, I guess. However, since it's today, nowhere is open for me to get one.

It feels a lot like living in a Road Runner cartoon...

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something I am grateful for today

Sun, 18 Dec 2022 14:13:22 GMT

Melatonin.

My doctor recently recommended this [and magnesium] for the trouble I've had with sleeping during this past year-plus, so I've been trying it. I've now woken up from my third solid night's sleep in a row — the first time that has happened this year.

This morning, I not only feel refreshed, I feel interested in doing something. And this makes me realize that, somewhere along the line, not just fatigue but apathy had become my new normal, without me noticing. I'm hoping this is all a portent of better things to come.

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something I am grateful for today

Sat, 03 Dec 2022 12:35:51 GMT

Electricity -- look at how many things we use it for, every day!

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something I am grateful for today

Tue, 06 Sep 2022 21:32:27 GMT

household paper products, such as paper towels, facial tissues, TP, etc.... when I think about how often I use them in a day, and for so many different things... they are handy as all get out

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something I am grateful for today

Sun, 28 Aug 2022 20:20:37 GMT

Yesterday we didn't need to put our A/C on. Today we do need it, and it's working. Opposite things, but I am grateful for both!

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something I am grateful for today

Tue, 19 Jul 2022 18:16:25 GMT

AC that works — both in the house and in the car

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something I am grateful for today

Tue, 31 May 2022 20:38:28 GMT

finding out how to put a SIM card into a phone for myself

also finding out that they still make new flip phones

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something I am grateful for today

Sun, 24 Apr 2022 01:10:03 GMT

getting a bluetooth running for the first time ever — I feel like a Jetson!

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something I am grateful for today

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 21:11:10 GMT

learning a valuable lesson — today in particular, a valuable art lesson

Almost every book on drawing or painting stresses the value of values [lights and darks], and they are an aspect of art I have long taken for granted. But, now that I've started painting [and working in colour as opposed to the black and white of my comics work], the whole concept of value becomes more challenging for me. Learning to see the lightness or darkness of a colour is not always trivial for me. But all my recent lessons have been emphasizing the importance of this learning, so I finally reached the point where I am trying to pay more attention.

Almost every painting book recommends the exercise of painting a value scale, which looks something like this:

However, since my art skills are surpassed by my procrastination skills, I have never done so. I always handwaved and said yeah yeah I get it. Until today.

I approached the problem logically, and figured that a half-and-half mixture of black and white paint should give me a middle value like 5.

Not so.

It was with considerable consternation that I discovered a 50-50 mixture gave me a result barely distinguishable from 9. In fact, a 90% white - 10% black mixture gave me a result much like 7.

Up until now, when I painted, I mixed what I needed but never paid too much attention to how much of what I used. I just mixed til it worked. But today, by approaching this in a systematic fashion, I have learned a new appreciation for the darkening power of paints. That's gotta be worthwhile knowledge to have, right?

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something I am grateful for today

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 21:25:40 GMT

I got my new debit card today, and the number on it is identical to my current card. I was worried they would change the number on me [which has happened in the past!] and then I'd have to fuss with my laptop auto-filling the old number when I do online banking. I mean, I could manage that changeover but it's a pain, and I'm glad to be spared it.

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something I am grateful for today

Tue, 23 Mar 2021 18:27:52 GMT

getting back an all-clear result on my FIT -- sigh of relief for another two years

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something I am grateful for today

Fri, 15 Jan 2021 18:38:20 GMT

a hot shower, and the vast interconnected world which it entails

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something I am grateful for today

Sun, 12 Apr 2020 12:41:21 GMT

my glasses -- there is almost nothing I like to do which doesn't require them

let the record show that I own six pairs, five different prescriptions, and I use all of them

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something I am grateful for today

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 15:22:02 GMT

windshield wipers that don't squeal

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something I am grateful for today

Sat, 25 May 2019 21:51:58 GMT

Our city held a public works open house, where people were invited to come see the municipal equipment and operations, and I got an up close and personal look at a Robot Truck®

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something I am grateful for today

Wed, 10 Apr 2019 23:52:09 GMT

getting dental work done quickly and painlessly

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something I am grateful for today

Tue, 19 Mar 2019 23:01:06 GMT

clean roads to drive on

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