Selfies

I've never been one to take many selfies and whenever I did, they certainly did not turn out well. I wasn't sure why and figured I am just older than I feel and it just showed up when I pointed a lens in my direction.

Over the Christmas season, someone wanted to take a selfie with me and I cooperated. But before she pressed the button she gave a little instruction I wasn't expecting. "Look here," she said, tapping the corner of the screen. The picture turned out fine.

A couple of weeks ago I discovered a photographer on Facebook was about to give a 5-day free course on how to take good selfies using our phones. Well, mine has a crappy camera but I was not about to pass that up!

The instructor, Sab Will, is a well-known street photographer and writer currently working out of Paris. He started us off by having us express any emotion other than the usual happy smile or dreaded duck face where you purse your lips like you are about to give a kiss. He told us to locate the camera lens and look at that instead of our image on the screen. Ah, so that's what my friend was having me do to get the shot she wanted!

Lots of people took the course but not everyone posted the results. Some of them were hilarious though so we were already having fun. Right away I started liking the pictures more than others I had tried to take.  I don't feel you get as much out of a course unless you work it. Sure some likely did the exercises and just didn't post because they are too embarrassed or something, but really, the community atmosphere of any course is what makes them so much fun.

On other occasions Sab had us doing things with reflections and frames and words. He even had us change our point of view at one point.

There was no requirement to use a mirror for reflection ones. Some used windows or other shiny objects. That sometimes distorted the image but that just made it more interesting. I tried a few such surfaces but even he preferred this one with the three-way mirror and the actual image in the phone all at the same time.



 







The lesson about being framed by something gave us choices to be within the frame, have it in front of us, or behind us. A doorway can frame you, but there are lots of more interesting frames to be found if you just look for them or make them, as I did with a belt.

One of my favourite photos resulted from a lesson about looking somewhere other than the camera. I chose to look at one of my own paintings.

Another fun lesson had us include words. We were supposed to find something with words on it that seemed appropriate. Many used a book or a sign.  I had a bit of fun with this one. I'm a housewife so I couldn't resist taking a shot with this can of compressed air in hand.

I'm quite pleased with some of the selfies I have produced while working though this wee course. Oh, by the way, what started out to be a 5-day course stretched to about 2 weeks but still only had 5 separate lessons. Some of the participants said it was hard to fit the challenges in every day with their work schedule, etc. Sab was quick to cooperate.

At the end of the course, Sab honoured some people by posting his favourites and asked the rest of us to post the pictures of others that we liked too, and to tell him why.  Apparently, me peeking through my hoya plant was a big hit. That was one of my framing shots and I started using it as my Facebook profile picture practically as soon as I took it.

The whole experience was well worth the time.

A Creative Smartphone Photography Masterclass will be made available starting in late February.  More info in the link.

Meeting Up with Online Contacts

With the advent of social media, it has often been said that your real friends are the ones you have around you and not the ones you meet online. I'm sorry but I love many of the people I've met online and some of them I have considered to be my friends since well before the invention of the modern internet and Windows and definitely before the term, social media ever started to be in common use.

I have met a few of them over the years. Sometimes they are quieter in person than online. Sometimes it's just the opposite. Sometimes we seem to have said everything there is to say online and it's difficult to make conversation in person without repeating ourselves. Other times we don't discuss much other than what the topic of where we met is online and in-person we really get to know one another by talking about anything and everything. It's always an adventure.

This past week two separate women contacted me out of the blue to join them for coffee here in my own little village. The first one is a businesswoman who joined a networking site called Alignable where you basically only interact with other businesses.  She has lived in the area for the past ten years but she has never really become part of the community as she did her work elsewhere. She is now in the transition of bringing her business here. She thought it would be good to get to know some other people in the area so she has started reaching out to make coffee dates with other local business people she finds on that computer site. I wasn't really comfortable with this in the beginning. I mean, I didn't have a clue who she was or know anything about her line of work. Why would she want to meet me?  But after a week or so of writing a few messages back and forth, I decided I would go and find out. I did a little computer search on her so I had some idea of who to look for in the restaurant. She seemed a little impressed that I recognized her and knew just where she worked and lived. I'm apparently more computer literate than she is so perhaps I can be of some assistance to her in the future. She is a lovely lady and we found a lot of topics to discuss other than what we each do in our respective businesses. We exchanged a stack of business cards that we can each give to our own contacts so now I guess I'm networking offline as well as online.  I also told her of various social gatherings where she might meet more of the people she lives amongst and hopes to work with. I do hope she comes to some of them so I can get to know her better. I think we could become great friends.

The second one contacted me just the evening before she wanted to meet with me. She was going to be in my area the next morning and wondered if I was going to be free. I did a quick check with my hubby to see if he had any plans for us, but he was only planning to make a trip to the dump so I agreed to meet with her. Now this one I knew from a Facebook group or two so I knew we had something in common, but I didn't know much more about her either. We met through Sketchbook Skool so of course she came fully prepared to draw during our meeting. I had thought of that originally but somehow managed to leave my sketchbook in my other bag.  Silly me!  Well, she did dig out her beautifully handmade sketchbook and proceeded to draw me anyway, as she uses it as a sort of journal and this was her way of recording out meeting. I did a quick doodle in a little lined notebook I had in my purse, but I also took a couple of pictures of her and combined them to create my own drawing once I got home.  This meeting was a very comfortable one. It didn't feel like meeting a stranger at all. I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did as I know she comes back to this area from time to time. I'd love to spend more time with her and have already promised to bring my sketchbook and be prepared to draw with her in the future.

I do feel I'm in the process of making two new friends that I never would have met if I had not found them online first.

Cooking in the Modern Age

This question has come up on Facebook:  "How many husbands are absolutely thrilled you've become obsessed with your Instant Pot?"  It seems most of them are. In fact many of them have either taken over the cooking job or declared themselves official tasters. I did have to laugh when one woman said her husband has pleaded for a pork chop cooked in a frying pan though.  I'm not obsessed (yet) but I am discovering how easily that could happen.

On Christmas morning my son said to me, as I was opening my presents, "If you don't want this, or think you might never use it, just say so and I'll take it back." He was somewhat concerned about what he referred to as my phobia concerning pressure cookers. Okay, true I never used one because I was sure I'd blow up the darn thing.  My mom loved hers but she never taught me to use it, and they didn't teach us about them in home economics where we learned most other housewifely duties either. (Okay, so I guess I just aged myself).

I accepted the gift, though it took me a little while to get brave enough to use it. I really didn't like the sound of any of the recipes in the book that came with it so I wasn't tempted at first. For a couple of days I was actually thinking I really should have turned this rather expensive gift down. What do I need this thing for anyway? Then I decided I better run the test cycle and figure out what to do next. Testing involves putting some water in it and bringing it up to pressure, just to make sure the seals work. So far, so good.

I went online and looked for recipes and also discovered a group on Facebook called Instant Pot 101 for Beginners. That sounded like a good place to start. From there I found a really good newsletter that lists several tried and true recipes each week. Wondering what to start with, someone suggested I practice by just boiling eggs. There is a chart available that shows all the different stages of cooked eggs and you can decide how long to leave it in there by matching the picture of the egg that looks like your idea of perfect to the time to cook it. So, I tried that. I can't say that it was any faster than boiling one as the water had to heat up enough to build the pressure up before the timer would start. But the egg did come out perfect and I had finally cooked something in there. It won't become the way we do boiled eggs here though as I like a nice runny yolk and my hubby likes everything super firm. In a regular pot, I can just take mine out after 3 minutes and have it all gone before he is even thinking of removing his. In an Instant Pot, you can't exactly take the cover off to take out the one I consider done as it will let the pressure out.

So next I decided we could try some pulled pork. The instructions told me to cut the roast into 3 or 4 pieces and use the Saute setting to brown the meat first. After de-glazing the pan I added the rest of the ingredients and cooked the meat. Since it was already cut into 4 pieces, I just shredded one of them for the pulled pork, and we ate the rest as roast pork. That's great for us as the individual pieces can become separate meals, and I can even freeze portions if I want for some other time.

The next thing I made was a mix of chicken thighs, rice and black beans and salsa. It had chili in it and was really tasty. That also lasted us a few days.

Then this week I brought home both ribs and chicken legs from the grocery store. I thought I'd cook one of those up and freeze the other, but I ended up cooking the ribs the first night, and cooking an entire meal of chicken, potatoes, celery, carrots and onions  the next. Everything came out perfectly cooked and very tasty. The trick is in the stacking. Apparently you have to put the stuff that will take the longest to cook at the bottom. I'm getting so brave I even changed the spices I used and cut down on the onions.

Last night we ate the left over ribs with the left over potatoes and carrots from the chicken dinner. Tonight we can eat the left over chicken which I will likely pair with some rice. As I see it, this gadget should cut down on my electric bill as it only takes minutes to cook a meal that could take an hour or more in the oven and on the stove. Since there are only two of us, there is always enough for another night or two. That means I don't even have to cook as often, which should cut the electric bill even further.  I'm not obsessed with this gadget yet though, as I still have a lot of favourite recipes that I will cook the way I always did. In fact, I like my old way of cooking ribs better, because I like to put sauce on rice to go with them and that didn't happen with the Instant Pot recipe I used. Maybe I just need to try a different recipe next time.

With Instant Pot, I am still at a stage where I have to follow the directions step by step. It's not like you can just take the lid off and check on how things are doing or adjust the spices.  Or maybe you can, but then I wouldn't know how much longer to put it back in for. I'm learning as I go though, and it's rather fun to see how things turn out. I know others have had failures and I will keep following the facebook page page as the people there are quick to give guidance if you need it.  Right now, I'd say it's the biggest time saver since the microwave, and may soon be used here just as often. As for my husband, I'm not sure if thrilled is the word, but he is enjoying the food that comes out of this gadget, and that's all that matters.

Even a Bad Reaction Can Be Good

I'm taking part in Inktober this year. I couldn't have done that in the past as I never could draw, but I've come a long way in the past year and I figured that Inktober would be great experience. For those of you who don't know, Inktober requires you to draw something in ink every day for the month of October, and post it online. Well, therein lies the reason for this post.

A long time ago I explained to someone who commented on something I had written that it really didn't bother me that he didn't agree with what I was saying. All that mattered was that he took the time to have read it, and then let me know by voicing his opinion.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion, I feel, and I accept that it might not necessarily agree with my own.  If what I write elicits a response of any kind, I'm thrilled. It proves I've done my job well.

For day six of Inktober the word prompt was "drooling".  My initial idea was to draw a drooling dog. Some sort of hound was what I had in mind, but most of the pictures I found were of other dogs that I thought might be more difficult. They either had more wrinkles or more hair to deal with. Then I got the bright idea of  drawing some guy drooling over a pretty woman. I set out to find such pictures and had no problem coming up with one I really thought I could handle. It was a man in a suit and it was done in cartoon style. So I set out to basically copy that. I managed to make him heavier though and when I got to the tie part, I had this notion that he needed a different head. I flipped though a bunch of pictures and found one with the head in the right position and proceeded to draw that onto the shoulders of the guy I'd already started. Well, he was supposed to be drooling over a pretty girl so then I went in search of one of those. The first one I drew was more in line with what I had in mind. She was a blonde, curvy bombshell.  But I had not placed things on the page properly so I started over and ended up with a different girl. Oh well. It was getting late and I decided to add watercolour to this drawing rather than trying to shade it all in with ink.

Once I was finished I posted it first on Instagram with the appropriate hashtags, like I was supposed to. I shared it to both Facebook and Twitter.  I also shared it on a separate Facebook page. Later I saw someone requesting people to post their latest watercolour works on another group page and I dropped it in there. While there was no problem anywhere else, a major controversy broke out on that new page.  Many people on all three pages saw the humour in the post and poked the Laugh button. But on the new site, there were a few who were either angry or just plain upset when they spotted this drawing. I sat back and watched as they all argued among themselves.  I didn't feel the need to defend myself from what they were reading into the image. I didn't think of it as a political statement. Some of them definitely did. It's a scientific fact that it's normal for a man to drool over a pretty woman. The assignment was drooling. That's all I was thinking.  But the controversy went on all that day and into the next.  Actually, out of the 108 responses (so far) on that particular page, less than 10% had any kind of problem with it, but even that number surprised me.

Guess what, people.  Just like with my writing, I'm not bothered by this. It tells me these people not only didn't scroll past my drawing but that it actually created a response in them. People were either loving it, or telling me off. That's cool. I got a reaction either way.   Isn't that what art is for? My poor little drawing was an amazing success.  I made people feel something and respond to it. I have never referred to myself as an artist in the past, but I'm certainly feeling like one now.

Here's the sketch in question.

Don't Say I Didn't Warn You!

Recently I finally got my hands on enough rhubarb to make my annual rhubarb cookies. I mentioned them on Facebook and immediately people commented that they had never heard of rhubarb cookies before, and they asked for the recipe.

Well, I have given out this recipe many times but I do so with reluctance as I usually get a complaint later that it didn't turn out. It didn't turn out because people think they know what they are doing and don't follow the recipe. This recipe has to be followed if you want any kind of success. Do what it says, in the order it says to do it, Don't skip things. Be prepared to start the night before you plan to bake. If, by chance you end up with not enough liquid in the cooking pot after draining the required amount off, add just enough back into the pot to keep the rhubarb from sticking. You don't want this saucy. The rhubarb can be steamed, instead of stewed.. Be sure not to overcook it as you want it tender but still firm enough to be able to stir it into the dough.

Here's the recipe. Good luck.  I'd be happy to hear of your success!

                                                        Rhubarb Cookies

1/2 cup margarine                                          
1 cup brown sugar                                          
1 egg                                                         
1 cup cooked rhubarb, drained ***                
2 cups flour                                                     
1/4 tsp salt                                                         
1 tsp baking soda                                           
1 tsp nutmeg                                                  
1 tsp cinnamon                                                  
1/2 tsp ground cloves                                    
1 cup raisins          

*** Note:  It is important to cook the rhubarb as follows:
Slice 4 cups of rhubarb into 1/2 inch pieces.
Toss with 1/2 cup of sugar.
Let steep overnight. Pour off 3/4 of a cup of the liquid and cook the rhubarb in the remaining juice, just until tender but still holding it's shape (less than 5 minutes).
The rhubarb is then ready to use in this recipe, or others, eat as is, or freeze.                                          

Cream the butter and sugar together.
Add the egg and beat until light
Stir in rhubarb.
Stir the flour, salt, baking soda and spices together.
Stir the dry ingredients into the rhubarb mixture until the are blended.
Fold in raisins.
Drop the batter by tablespoons onto a greased sheet about 1 1/2 inches apart.
Bake at 350F for 12 minutes or until lightly browned on the edges.

When the Cat's Away....

This week there was a bit of excitement in our village. I had been downtown and when I came back there was a police car parked on the road in my general neighbourhood. I say on the road as it was not exactly pulled off to one side. It was empty and that seemed to indicate that the police officer made a hasty stop before exiting his vehicle. I could not tell where he was or which of my neighbours I might need to worry about.

Eventually he came back out to his vehicle and moved it to a safer location at the side of the road.  It seems one of my neighbours was on vacation and when the person who came to check on the house got there, she discovered the window at the back had been broken by someone who wanted to gain access. I don't know at this point what, if anything, might have gone missing in the process, or what other types of damage may have occurred.

Now, here's the thing that I want you all to understand, and the very reason I'm writing this particular blog: The owner of the house mentioned an intended vacation a few days ago on Facebook, and has since been posting pictures of a a beautiful southern location. That's like advertising that the house is empty and apparently someone saw that and decided to take advantage of the situation. Personally, I would not have known the house was empty myself if I had not seen those posts.  Probably the friend  alerted the owner of this problem and a perfectly good vacation has been ruined. The owner arrived home the very day after the police were there.

Please people, when you go on vacation, don't post anything about it until you get back. That's a much safer time to share your pictures and stories. Enjoy your holiday, but keep safety and security in mind and keep your travels off social media until you return home.

Spending my Prizes

Last year at this time I was telling you about the lovely basket of gifts I won from the merchants of Almonte. The contest was to promote the town, and it worked as I had not been there for many years and was surprised at the amazing changes in the place. It's not just a pretty village anymore. It's well worth the visit now, to shop and eat and spend the day.  We've been back several times since then and I've told lots of people about it.

So, while I had won some amazing prizes by this time last year, worth hundreds of dollars, this year I'm winning on a much smaller scale.  Yesterday I got to go and collect a couple of my freebies.  First, I had a certificate that I got from Kelloggs that I could spend on a $10 toy. I didn't figure I'd get much for that but when I walked into Toys R Us, one of the first things I saw was a game that the grandsons had been asking for just a couple of weeks ago. How could I pass that up? It's not the big board version but a compact one that folds into its own case and is easy to store. Just the thing for Nana's house! And hey, it was $9.99 so I got to spend the whole coupon, which is great as they don't give you change. I expect I'm going to have a break from our ongoing Mille Bornes challenge while I figure out who done it while playing Clue.

After that, I went for lunch and used a gift certificate I won from New York Fries for a free regular poutine. I asked if I could upgrade that to one with the works and was told that the regular, in this case, referred to the size, and I could have anything I wanted on it.

So while I had a calorie-laden lunch for free, my hubby ate more sensibly but it cost him over $10 for his salad.

I still have a $10 Walmart gift card to spend too, but I haven't decided what I want to shop for yet. I won it on Facebook from a page that promotes freebies called Mae-Mae's Freebies. A lot of the offers there are just for people in the United States, but I won it so soon after I joined the page I didn't realize that yet. Occasionally there is something for Canada or other places too though, and the odds are good for the contests as competition isn't all that big yet. But it is growing.

Anyway, I am still having some luck, though nothing like last year. That's fair. It's not good to be greedy. After so many years of never winning anything at all, I'm still quite amazed when I win something and actually thrilled with even these little prizes.

People are still asking me how I win. The only advice I can give is, you can't win if you don't enter.

That goes for life in general. You can't succeed at anything unless you are willing to go do it.

Mid Year Report

Happy Canada Day Everyone!

Here we are at mid-year and I have to wonder how you are all doing at keeping your New Year's resolutions. I called them New Beginnings this year and had three of them on my list. I'm not doing so well with the weight loss and tidying but I'm certainly having a great time keeping the third one. That's all about furthering my art.

I have gone out of my way to make sure I learn new things this year. As I've told you I took a course through Sketchbook Skool called Drawing Without Talent and really enjoyed it. I was so pleased to see a definite improvement in just a month's time.

Then I got involved with a group that met at our local library once a month. I was introduced to a lot of new mediums while we set about creating an art project for Canada's sesquicentennial. The work was all photographed and printed on shipping labels that were then stuck onto a map of Canada in a way that corresponded to the regions. The map was unveiled this past weekend with just some of us in attendance.

In the meantime, I took on a five-week course at Sketchbook Skool that, among other things, had me go sit in a public place and draw what was in front of me. I had never done that before and I thought it was great fun. It will be my new summer pastime. In fact, I just got invited to join a local group that would be doing just that each and every week throughout the summer months. A year ago I never would have considered accepting such an invitation but the Sketchbook Skool courses have given me the confidence to jump in with both feet.

I stopped by the Sketchbook Skool closed Facebook page to tell them about it. I was excited by this new opportunity and wanted to thank them.  They put out a weekly bulletin in video format for the students and they even mentioned me in that (from about the 1:20 to the 2-minute mark). While Dean of Students, Morgan Green, managed to put her own spin on things what she said rang truer after I actually experienced my first session with this group.

We met in a local park where there are all sorts of sights worth drawing. I expected everyone to gravitate toward something of interest to them, but they all clustered around two picnic tables. I stayed close to them but sat off to the side where I had a better view of a suitable subject.
I like to draw in pen and then apply a watercolour wash. I forgot my watercolours at home but did have my watercolour pencils with me, and a water brush, so I used those. One young gentleman was interested in this process so I showed him how it worked. Me! Not only was I exposing my scribbles to a known artist, but actually showing him how to do something! I'd certainly call that progress, wouldn't you?

Now, if I could just do so well with the tidying and weight loss...... Maybe another new beginning is needed for the second half of this year.

What have you accomplished so far this year? Or do you need to begin again too?

Making My Mark

I don't seem to be painting much recently.  I'm busy learning how to draw. Or perhaps I'm learning I always could draw and I'm learning that perfection isn't that important.

I previously told you about a little course I took called Drawing Without Talent through Sketchbook Skool. I was delighted with the results and wanted to learn more.  Danny Gregory had taught me that drawing with a pen would make me commit to my lines and I would, therefore, be more careful about where I placed them.  But that little course did not teach me how to shade with a pen.

Sketchbook Skool offers a variety of multi-week courses that have as many different teachers as they have weeks. I enjoyed the Drawing without Talent class so much I wanted to learn more.  Just as I was struggling to choose which course to take next they came up with a brand new one called Exploring. They claim they will only offer it once. It's a five-week course with five different teachers, and the very first one was Danny Gregory, teaching hatching and cross hatching.  Just what I needed!



Shortly after I signed up for the course I noticed an old friend on the Sketchbook Skool Facebook page. I mentioned that I'd just signed up for Exploring and she told me she had taken a course through Sketchbook Skool once but was very disappointed. She said there was "too much teacher info and not enough teaching."

I quickly discovered she was right.  Danny didn't break down the hatching process into daily lessons as he had done with the previous course.  He showed a lot of his own work, did one little demo and then gave us homework. That was not at all what I expected, and I told them so when I was offered a chance to give feedback.  I made a similar complaint at the end of the second week.  But then something magical happened.

I really enjoyed doing the homework for the second class, which basically involved drawing outside. I'm now looking forward to doing a lot of that this summer. I made some major mistakes on that homework assignment, but I like the overall idea so much I'm planning to rework it and use the image on a t-shirt or something. The next teacher actually reinforced that idea and showed us images could look whimsical and unreal and still be effective.

The fourth instructor gave us homework that sent me into a tailspin as it was a long, involved process of creating a concertina style sketchbook and then filling it with a particular theme.  I turned to the Facebook page and confessed that I was procrastinating because the mission seemed impossible to me. The monkey had me firmly in his grip.

The monkey refers to the little voice inside your head that tells you that you can't do something, or if you do, it's just not good enough.  (Check  out Danny Gregory's book Shut Your Monkey).

The Facebook gang encouraged me, shot the monkey and told me to put pen to paper and get on with it.  I did and felt a great sense of accomplishment when I was done.  Once again I discovered I really enjoyed the process.  I'm learning I can draw for the sheer joy of it and it doesn't have to be perfect. When I draw with a
pen I may make a few mislines but they are not mistakes.  They are simply part of the process and I can find ways to incorporate them.  I've also discovered that a bit of colour goes a long way to distract the eye away from these spots otherwise previously thought of as errors.

So while the Exploring course was not at all what I was expecting, What I got out of it was far more valuable than techniques on how to draw well. I gained confidence and the ability to accept whatever I create as just part of the learning process. No matter how good you are at something, there is always more to learn. I learned to play and regained the joy of making marks on paper. I had that in my youth before some high school teacher found a way to spoil it for me. Somebody should have shot......er, shut that monkey!

Heritage Pie

A long lost cousin I've reconnected with on Facebook posted a scan of an old recipe she found recently. Apparently she has been sorting through things and eliminating clutter, just as I have been doing.  Sorting recipes always slows me down because I have way too many of them and I try every year to find a way to get them more organized and get rid of duplicates. She was having a problem too, but it was more because some needed to be rewritten before being tossed. And how do you toss away a piece of paper with your own Grandmother's handwriting on it, even if it is damaged by oil and time? Such things tug at the heart.

The recipe was for a Butterscotch Pie and for some reason I downloaded it. Probably because I have my own fond memories of Vera Coughlin.

 It wasn't easy to read, so I tried running it through some editing software, but all I really succeeded in doing was to get the yellow out of the paper and changing the size. I printed off my best effort and went about trying to decipher the words that had nearly faded away. I had just rolled out the last of my Christmas pastry and needed a filling for a single crust pie. I decided this was a good time to try this heritage pie.

As I began to mix the ingredients together, I was suddenly aware that the dear lady had not spelled out tablespoon and teaspoon as even tbsp and tsp. I had to hope that "T" was tablespoon and "t" was teaspoon and that it wasn't just a quirk of her handwriting that caused her to capitalize one of the T's and not the other.

There was another part of the recipe that confused me. It looked like she wanted me to add the warm milk to the egg yolks, but if you've ever made lemon pie filling from a package, you know you would add the egg yolks to the mixture in the pot, along with some of the cold water, before adding the hot liquid. I decided to do this the same way.

In the end, it all worked out, and I will write out the recipe in a manner I can understand for future reference.

Butterscotch Pie
1/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
5 tbsp flour
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla
2 egg yolks (reserve the whites for meringue)x
2 cups of milk, divided

Cream together butter, brown sugar, flour, salt and vanilla in a pot.
Beat egg yolks with a 1/2 cup of the milk and stir into sugar mixture until well blended. Heat the remaining 1 1/2 cups of milk until it's hot but not boiling and pour into the pot with the rest of the ingredients.  Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly. When bubbles break the surface, cook for another 30 seconds. Pour into cooled 9" pie shell and top with meringue.

Meringue
Beat 2 egg whites until soft peaks form.
Gradually add 1/4 cup of white sugar and beat on high for 2 minutes until stiff peaks form.

Getting Rid of the Other You on Facebook

There are a lot of people on social media these days, but not everyone is comfortable enough with it to know how to do even the simplest things, let alone survive a hack attack by someone who pretends to be them.

I have now been cloned at least 3 times on Facebook.  While I had seen it happen to others, and knew enough to report the fake friend requests when I saw them, I do remember freaking out a bit the first time it happened to me.

Recently, I was happily sitting at the computer, taking a webinar, and keeping an eye on the goings on on Facebook at the same time.  I left the house for about half an hour, and when I came back there were numerous notifications from my Facebook friends who wanted me to know they had received friend requests from me,  and since they were already on my friend list, they were sure I was being impersonated. My immediate response was to ask them to report the fake.  Of course, some had no idea how to do that, and others had already deleted the request, so I'm going to walk you through how to handle this problem if you ever see it, or if it happens to you.  You might want to bookmark this particular blog.

If you are the person who's account is being duplicated, first ask your friends to report the fake account rather than just deleting the friend request.  They can do that by clicking on the name of the person requesting friendship, and then, once on their page, they simply click the three little dots  up next to Message, on the right hand side of the Cover Photo,and that will produce a drop down box.  The report button is there.

Also, get someone to send you a link to the fake person's page.  It will look like your page, but won't have as many friends yet. Click on those same three dots, and report the creep yourself.  What both you and your friend want to do, is Report Profile.

After clicking the Continue button, you will be given a range of choices.  The second choice, "They're pretending to be me or someone else I know," works best if the perpetrator is pretending to be you.  Others might be better off clicking on the "This is a fake account," since the previously mentioned choice tends to ask who they are pretending to be.  It's much easier to say "Me" than to name the person being cloned, as both the real and the fake account have the same name attached and you don't want the real account to be eliminated accidentally.

Once the reports go in, especially if you are reporting that it is you, yourself who is being duplicated, the Facebook staff will quickly pull the plug on the imposter.  They take these things seriously and act very quickly.

I hope I've been able to help some of you, as I'm seeing this happening more and more often lately. Another friend just sent out a warning today to ignore any strange friend requests.  Once these people get your friend to accept them, they start sending private messages, and sooner or later, they try to pull a scam.  Pulling their plugs as quickly as possible is the safest way to proceed.

Good luck, and play safe.

The Evolution of a Computer Addiction

I've had a computer longer than most people I know.  I had one long before Windows appeared and used to go online by using the National Capital Freenet on a dial up system. There was no high speed internet back then. You clicked a button, and you waited.  

I found I liked to get into conversations with others, and joined several forums on Freenet. Then I discovered the Bulletin Board Systems, and found there were several BBSs within my dialing area. I joined many of them, so that if the line was busy trying to get into one, I could just dial into another one. To me, a BBS was more fun than Freenet, as often others were online at the same time as I was, and the conversations flowed much more quickly.

I still joined groups based on subjects of interest to me, and got online daily to read and respond to what was being said.  I made several wonderful online friends in those old days, and have kept in touch with many of them ever since.  They have helped me learn things, solve computer problems, and other problems and have occasionally even sent me interesting and valuable stuff by snail mail.

I spent time with these virtual friends every day, and if the conversation got really lively, I spent more time than I likely should have.  You have to remember, that without high speed internet, if I was online, nobody could reach me by phone.  At some point I did get a handy little application (before apps were even spoken of) that let me know if someone was trying to call in.  

Eventually a Windows based computer opened a whole new world to me. I still liked being social on the computer, but I found lots of other interesting things too.  I signed up for newsletters, and later contests, surveys, coupons and samples.  I opened separate e-mail addresses so that my requested "junk mail" didn't get mixed with my personal correspondence. In those days though, people did have a tendency to pass on a lot of jokes by way of e-mail, so there was still lots of junk in my regular inbox too.  Thankfully, most people have stopped doing that, now that we have Facebook.

Facebook used to be a simple thing, much like Twitter is today. You went on and made a statement, or a comment about your day. There were no pictures, no jokes or news items to pass on. There were also no companies using it as a way of interesting you in their products.  Now, of course, everything can be found on these social media sites, and others as well.  I don't really need my newsletters anymore, as most of that info gets posted on social media, but I've tended to hang onto them, anyway.  There is so much on social media that I might miss something, after all.

I was given a tablet for Christmas a few years ago, and can now get online as soon as my eyes are open in the morning, without even getting out of bed. I check the weather, the news, my e-mail and Facebook most days, before even having breakfast.  Are you getting the picture here?  That's the time when I used to read books or magazines.  I still do, but I've already proven that I accumulate reading material faster than I can read it.  Maybe that wouldn't be the case if I wasn't on the computer as much.

I've occasionally admitted to being a computer addict.  I feel disconnected when I'm on vacation, away from the internet (though that doesn't really happen anymore as the tablet goes with me).  I'm also overwhelmed by how much e-mail piles up when I can't get at it on a daily basis.  Mind you, I'm not talking about personal correspondence.  There's actually less of that now that most people I know share their lives on Facebook and such.  Somehow, just trying to keep up with what's coming in could take all day, so I have to turn the darn thing off and go do something.

I'm not saying I don't have a real life.  I do.  I have lots of social outings.  I spend time with Real People most days.  However, with the knee problems I've had this past year, I've spent even more time sitting in front of a screen than ever before.  Sitting, of course, is dangerous to our health.  I have scheduled regular walks, when the knee allows, and now, of course, it's gardening season, so I'll be outside doing that too.

I do need to find the time to weed not only the garden, but also what arrives in my e-mail.  I get entirely too much of it these days.  Even just going through what has come in and deleting things I don't have time for that day takes more time than I'm currently willing to spend.  I've got to step away from this machine.  I have so many other things to do, and I don't move as fast as I once did.  I need to recapture some of the time I spend online.

Excess screen time has snuck up on me.  At least I don't have a smart phone.  I don't want to be constantly connected online like so many people are today.  It was bad enough when I caught myself about to  check the tablet recently when I actually had real company.  The gadget dinged and while I'm rather hard of hearing, she heard it and asked what made that sound.  "Oh," I said "something has just arrived on the tablet."  A few minutes later it dinged again and once more she was curious as to what that little sound was. I flipped open the cover and showed her that new e-mail had arrived and mentioned that it would make a different sound if someone was actually trying to chat with me.  Once I had it in my hand I found it much harder to ignore.  That's when I understood the draw cell phones seem to have on people, even in the middle of a conversation.  No, I don't want to get that bad.

I've now chatted with you about this problem, and how it came to be.  I need to find ways to reclaim some time, but I'm not willing to go cold turkey.  Computer use may take up too much of my time but much of it is enjoyable, educational and even productive.  I would love to hear from any of you who have found ways to reduce your online time, or even just tame the influx of e-mail.  Give me a hand here.  Tell me your stories.  

It's Official. Spring Has Arrived.

Spring has sprung, or so I'm told. It was difficult to believe that though, with all the snow that's still on the ground.  This is a picture that was taken from my living room window on Sunday.  Does that look like spring to you?

The temperature had began to climb and the warm sun hit the white siding of my house, causing the snow to start to recede near the foundation on the south side.  I saw actual life coming through the ground on March 26th.  When I posted that on Facebook, a few people were amazed that I had bare earth. I explained that this was near the foundation, but it still gave some people hope that spring was not just a figment of our imagination.

Then, on the first of April, the snow melted back a bit further, and I discovered the narcissus had been hiding under the snow, and were also up. I posted that on Facebook too, half expecting someone to accuse me of posting it as an April Fool joke.

Today, even I got a surprise.  The first crocuses decided to bloom, in a spot where I had not noticed life yet.  Yes, they are snuggled right up close to the warm foundation, but now I'm starting to believe spring really has arrived.  There is hope after all.

 My first crocus last year, was on March 28th, by the way, and my records say they were a couple of weeks later than the year before. This year they are a week later than last year.  If this is a trend, then so much for global warming.

At supper time, I saw a mosquito sitting on the window screen.  Not everything about spring is welcome. But since it's still not warm enough to expose too much skin, we may be able to enjoy a few flowers before we start feeding the bugs. 

Happy Springtime, everyone!

The Results of A Little Commitment

My New Years Resolution for 2013 was to get more involved with my art. Back in March I told you about various projects that I had been doing for the Art House Co-Op .  I had also signed up for a few other projects by that time, that I knew I wouldn't be able to share until they were all done.  The idea was, that if I committed to such painting projects, it would force me to take the time needed to complete them. It was a good plan.

Early in the year, on Facebook, I saw someone post something about giving away things they made to the first five people who commented on that status line.  There was a condition that the responders post the same offer on their page.  Then I saw more of my friends post the same notice I mentioned to one of them that I'd love to get in on that, but I didn't know what I could make. She told me that a small painting would be lovely, so I jumped in with both feet.  I lucked out though, as, instead of having to make things for five people, and only getting one thing back, I managed to get into a basic exchange with four other people. I posted on their page and they posted on mine.  I was thrilled, but still had to figure out what I would paint for them.  I was very happy that the project deadline wasn't until the end of the year so I had all year to work on it.

The lady who said she'd be happy with a small painting happened to have a photo on her facebook page that I had already saved to file, as I thought it would be a good thing to try painting someday.  I would have asked her permission if I'd done it for any other reason than to give to her for this project, but it seemed the perfect subject for this, so I started with that.

This is the first time I had ever tried to paint a dog, I thought he was pretty cute, though I wasn't sure if she would recognize him or not.  As she has a few of these little fellows, I'm still not sure if she identified it as the right dog.  I don't know the dogs personally, so I have no way of knowing which one it was originally meant to be either.  It doesn't matter, I guess, as she seemed pleased with it, and I was pleased that it resembled any kind of dog, let alone a specific one. Not too bad for a first try, I was thinking.

That made it easier to decide what to do for the next
project, as there was a dog at that household too.  I went back to the facebook files to see what I could find for the second project, and I came up with the family beagle.  That's a step forward as now I had to contend with an entire dog, not just the head. I was very happy with it when I finished, but now, months later, I'm not so sure.  Perhaps I've improved as the year went on, causing me to be more critical now. However, it was mailed off to one of my long lost cousins, who immediately recognized her dog, and sent many thanks, so I guess that was another success.

A friend of mine had seen me working on both of the above projects and made some rather nice comments, so I thought I'd surprise him by trying to paint his puppy. He's not on Facebook, but he does have a Flickr account, and while he thinks his photos are safe there, I do know how to steal them.  He was extremely pleased when I presented it to him.

Oh, I must say that in the past I've never felt that I produced anything good enough to give away, and here I am doing it time after time. I guess that in itself is a step forward.

So, since I'm learning to enjoy giving away paintings, I decided I'd try a portrait. My daughter-in-law had lost her grandfather over the winter months, and the family was preparing to do a memorial service for him in the springtime.  I thought he had an interesting face, but in most of the pictures I saw of him, he had on a baseball cap.  While I wanted him in his overalls, I didn't want the cap, so I looked for another photo of him facing the same way, and then combined the two. I was really happy to have produced a human face, but since I didn't know the gentleman well, I wasn't sure if I had captured him or not.  I took it to my daughter-in-law and asked her if she recognized this person. She got the sweetest grin on her face and said, "That's my Grandpa!"  I asked if I could take it to the memorial, and she said I could. When I arrived there was no one around to see me place it among he other pictures on display, and it took a while before anyone knew where it had come from.  Then one of the aunts said, "There's only one artist in the room."  LOL  I've been elevated to artist status now. That made my day.  The painting went to reside at the family cottage where the old gentleman spent a great deal of his time.

With one portrait under my belt, I decided to try another. I couldn't find usable photos of pets on Facebook to use for my next exchange project, so I made off with a photo of the lady I would be sending the painting to.  Faces were a nice change from dogs, and I think perhaps I even do better at them.

Meanwhile, I had also discovered something called the Petal Parade on Wet Canvas. I told you about that back in May, when I painted the Parrot Tulip.  For me, to finish painting something within less than a months time, takes a concentrated effort.  I started with the Parrot Tulip in May.

Moved on to Apple Blossoms in August

And switched to acrylics to try a pumpkin flower in October.

I decided it was time to get back to my exchange project, and I just had one more to do. Since I was doing so well with faces, I decided to capture this lady in one of her many costumes. She's involved in re-enactments, steampunking, archery, face painting, belly dancing and karate, so she's seldom in regular clothing.

I discovered that while I had no trouble with likenesses at a larger size, when I made it smaller, even the tiniest fraction of an inch out, you create a totally different person.  I rather like this painting anyway, and may make it into cards, but it definitely could not be sent out as the final exchange project.  So, back to the drawing board, so to speak.

I noticed she had a new dog, so I took a stab at him.  Cute little fellow, don't you think.  I hope she's as happy with him as I am.

I couldn't finish out the year without doing one more dog.  I have a friend who is good enough to give me a lift to various functions in the area that I wouldn't have gotten to without her. She has a pug, so I decided I'd surprise her with a little Christmas present.  I'm getting rather confident at painting dogs, and I must be doing alright as now I've had a few people ask me if I'd paint their pets.

All in all, the idea of committing myself to projects this year has worked very well.  It kept me painting while some other friends from my old paint class tell me they have not picked up their brushes at all this year. All this practice has given me more confidence, and, I'm sure, increased my skill levels as the year went on.

I did very well at keeping my New Years resolution for 2013.
Now I just have to set some new goals for the coming year.

A Technological Dinosaur

I started with a Commodore 64 and I used to type in games and other programs out of magazines. This was a great way to learn some Basic Programming as I would always make some typos, and while trying to find the problem, I often learned what various commands did.  I was able then to create a little program of my own, that enabled my hubby to shave hours off a monthly task he did at home as part of his job.  I was quite proud that I had learned enough to be able to help him in that way.

As time went on, I was able to help various friends do the things they wanted to be able to do on their computers, and even became a Newbie Helper on the 50Plus chat room. I was pretty good at that as I was able to get 80 year olds, who had never had a computer before, to understand and implement what I was telling them.  And all that was done online, though the chat window, or sometimes by private message.

Times have changed however, and the technology has been developing so quickly I have had trouble keeping up with it. I'm still working on an old Windows XP machine (which I will cling to as long as I possibly can). I also now have a second hand laptop, but I seldom use it as I find it awkward to type on, and often revert to the two fingered method (and I really don't want to do that).  My young grandsons both have  iPads, and I'd love one, but I'm not sure it would suit my needs. I want something with a USB port, so I can load geocaching way points on it if we find ourselves with some spare time while away from home.  Today there are so many different tablets, and I hear they don't all do the same things, so I'm leery about choosing the wrong one.

Recently my house phone got short circuited by a snow storm and I had to resort to using my cell phone.  I was on a pay as you go plan, which accumulated so much credit that Telus finally decided to let me use that credit if I switched over to a monthly plan instead. Now I don't have to top up every month. But when I turned the cell phone on the other day, I got an automated message from Telus saying I had to top up or I'd lose my balance. I started to reply to them, asking why I  needed to top up when I had already had a message from them recently that told me I didn't need to do that because I had over $......oh wait a minute, how do you type a number into a text message anyway?  I don't have a fancy phone with a built in keypad. I don't have a smart phone, or anything fancy at all.  My phone is the most basic model because, as I said, I don't use it for anything. My hubby uses it as a way to track me down when we get separated in a mall. He calls to ask me where I am.

While I fooled around trying to figure out how to text numbers, (and I still don't know) I got an incoming call from my hubby (he is the only one who has my number). He would have been calling to tell me when to expect the Bell Telephone guy who was supposed to come and string a new line from the pole to the house so I answered the call and immediately lost the text message I was labouring over.

When I finally got land line phone service restored, I immediately went online went online to the Telus site. I'd been without the internet for 3 days by that point, suffering, as one of my Facebook friends implied, from a severe case of withdrawal by that time.  I'm usually good at finding things online, but I discovered Telus are very good at hiding their contact information.  I finally found a chat box, and had a lovely chat with someone who assured me that the message I had received was just an automatic thing and that it would be the last one I got like that. I wasn't going to lose my balance after all. (Darn, what was that person's name in case the money disappears tomorrow and I have to get back to them?) 

I asked, since I had contact with a live person, if my new monthly plan (which gives me 50 messages or texts for the same $10 I've always paid) still included voice mail.  I was asking because I had spotted something on one of their web pages that said "Add Voice Mail" when I was hunting for some contact information.  I had earlier tried to retrieve some voice mail and couldn't get in. The phone was not recognizing the password I'm sure I've always used.  The nice person at the other end quickly decided to reset my password for me, and told me how to access it, and what to do when I did. I disconnected, thinking all was well.  I tried to get into my voice then, as I now had two messages to retrieve, but the password she had given me did not work either. Obviously she must have typed it in wrongly at her end, and I'm going to have to connect with Telus again to straighten that out.

This weekend I was at a party, and even though there where ten of us gathered at one table, several of those were busy socializing on their phones instead of with each other.  I have even seen people actually texting while jumping around on the dance floor, and for the life of me, I don't know how they managed that!  I have a hard enough time getting away from my computer as it is, so I'm pretty sure I'm better off not having such a gadget that kept me connected all the time. Not that I'd ever learn how to use it properly anyway.    

How I went from being so far ahead of others technologically, to being so far behind, is beyond me.  I doubt I'll ever get caught up now.   I've turned into a technological dinosaur. 

It's a Small World After All

A "degree of separation" is a measure of social distance between two people. Six degrees of separation is the theory that each one of us is connected to each other with only six, or less, people between us.  Like a friend of a friend of mine, knows someone who knows someone who knows you.  Sometimes those chains are much shorter.

I've run into this sort of thing on Facebook a couple of times now.
A couple of months ago the mother of some of our ex-karate students became a "friend" of mine of on Facebook.  Immediately I saw that we had one friend in common, so I checked to see who that was.  It happened to be someone I've never actually met, but have been talking to online since well before Windows took over the computer world. We used to chat by way of the BBS forums back in the 1990's, and have kept in touch one way or another ever since.  It turns out these two women were neighbours and good friends in BC when they were very young. Both now live here in Ontario with me.

More recently a lady I've known for 36 years decided it would be interesting if each of her Facebook friends told us where they were actually born.  I spotted someone who listed Campbellford as her birthplace.  My Mom was from Campbellford, and I still have an aunt there.  I took the conversation into the background, and used the e-mail system to tell her who my uncle was, as I felt he would have been well known there.  It only took a moment before she told me her mom is his cousin.  That meant we were cousins too.  Then I tried to determine which side of my Mom's family we were related on, and by then she had her mom chatting with me also.  It turns out the Mother's grandmother was my grandfather's sister.  On top of that, the Mother said, her mother's grandfather was married to someone from the other side of my mom's family.  So here I have two new cousins, connected to me through both sides of my mother's family.  Actually, there are more cousins out there, since the girl I first found on Facebook has a couple of brothers.  The fun could just be starting.


I asked what the connection was between the girl from Campbellford, and my local friend.  It seems the met through some game online.  It's just by chance then, that I've now gotten connected to this branch of my family.  After chatting a bit we found there are several other coincidences running through our families. It's like a pattern or something.

And I really had to laugh when the Mother left a note on my page last night that mentioned someone else she found on my friends list.  Apparently he is her ex-father-in-law's grandson.  I only know him through the martial arts but it all goes to prove, we are all connected more closely than we seem to think.

Freebie Friday - April 5

Someone on Facebook said to me, "Nothing is ever free."  I started this Freebie Friday report to show that some of us do indeed get free things.  Even I am surprised that I have had something to report each and every week since the beginning of the year, and now it's April already!  Okay so some of the stuff isn't worth much, but some of it is, and all of it is certainly worth having....especially when it's totally free!

This week I just got a couple of little treats. This seems to be a good time to point out that while some companies send the product in the mail, others send you a coupon for the free product, and you have to go pick it up yourself. I don't mind that. It saves them postage, so they can likely give away more. And I get to choose from among their product line to pick the one I think I'd like the most. 

This is a full pack of Dentyne.  I guess they have a new look they want to introduce to us. The Doritos were won on a game on their Facebook page.  The coupon is for a 65g - 91g bag, depending on the product I choose.