Sidetracked Charley

  Spectacular dawn yesterday. And a busy day. Hoses rolled up, rain barrels emptied. Doggie pond drained. And my Etsy page stocked and opened: Wild Goose Witchery . New venture and lots more to learn. And I will admit to rushing it. I wanted to get it begun. Rather like setting up a booth before the fair opens. You can always fuss with it later. At least I hope you can. And there is the question of what I want to sell on the site. Input welcome. And then I reopened my Twitter account @JBellBinford. And that is very funny. I had an account @JBinfordBell and @BinfordBellStudio but Twitter was being very obtuse about providing me with a new password for either. So having reached my total frustration level I decided to begin again and sign in with my Google account. My Google account is JBinfordBell but somehow it did JBellBinford. I find Twitter rather obtuse itself. Not conducive to long esoteric chats but then FB with its habit of tossing me in jail for the wrong word per its bots i...

  The theory about FaceBook detention is we are suppose to meditate on our sins and become better citizens. It was the same course of action my parents believed worked. And it did not. Any time I was sent to my room without supper I just divorced myself one step further away from my family. I came to a more or less complete separation from my brother when Dad locked the two of us in a hotel room in Texas because we were not talking to each other. He had not noticed we had not really talked to each other for close to ten years. In the hotel room, to avoid being sent off to private and military school, we agreed to 25 words. Those worked until our mother's funeral after which I never had to talk to him again. The first few days of this last FB detention I began looking closely at what I truly would miss about FB if kicked off forever. 1) Only about 1/3 of the people on my friend's list. And one of those died this week. 2) Being able to keep up with about only half of those is ess...

The last couple of days seem to be all about words. Reminding my yet again one needs to choose your words wisely. In a community post about an electrical outage I used fast instead of quick. Not the same thing. And as regards Pence's visit to the detention centers, his words, I use the words concentration camps. And that he had no sympathy - feelings of pity or sorrow, when he in fact had no empathy - the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. At the risk of sounding like a grammar Nazi words do matter. Take for instance the matter of Big Blue, the GMC pickup not starting. You get taken a lot seriously by a mechanic if you use the right words. The truck won't start is actually a symptom not the problem. It takes a key, the ignition, a battery, a starter, and a starter cable to start the GMC. It has a new battery and the starter is just a couple years old. But I have been having a starter cable issue or more specifically the connection of the starter cabl...

The cat bench If there is a lesson to be learned from this 46 days of retreat it is that it isn't all about me. As an artist trying to make it through trying economic times I must admit I sometimes forget that. Especially in light of shameless self promotion. The new art market is the internet and it takes more than just a website. In fact websites may be going the way of the book store these days. Along with galleries and art fairs. What is hot in this day and ethernet age is Facebook, Twitter and blogs. And an artist needs all three and Google + I am not a tweet twit though I have a twitter account and post links to my blogs routinely. Blogspot makes that very easy. And also linking to Facebook and Google +. And the marketing gurus tell you that you must be active on all platforms to catch the attention of the art buyer. This has been one of my good weeks in that regard. I have sold two photographs on gallery wrap canvas largely because of my posts on my Facebook fa...

Window Pane Acid Trip by J. Binford-Bell Long time followers of my blogs will know I am not a religious person, but I like to think I am very spiritual. I think most artists are whether they know it or not. Life, however, can separate me from my spiritual connection with the universe and ergo the muse which directs my creativity. Life can be challenging and annoying and downright irritating at times. The month of February has been that in spades with slaving to get the apartment refurbished and cleaned, the dog issue which gets close to life and livelihood threatening, winter in general, and a dear friend facing the end of days for a loved one. Oh, and my sister running over her cell phone. What does all that have to do with the price of tea in China, you might ask? Well, it just seems that when I am most personally challenged and at a loss I am placed into a position where communication is sparse, difficult or nearly impossible. Get thee to a mountain top s...

Communications are at the best of times at cross purposes. Even when we are in the same room and we have inflection and body language to add to our understanding of the words we think we hear. Written words should be clearer because generally we have a wider vocabulary at our fingertips and the chance to reread and edit. I worked as a free lance writer for small publications for a number of years and still submit an article or two. I found quickly that the first read through I am likely to read what I thought I wrote. So I generally let it settle a bit before coming back to it and giving it another once over. I am often shocked at my second take. That clearly was not what I intended to say and so I rephrase it. But there are often those times when you come up against a deadline and don't have the grace of time on your side. I suppose that is what retractions are all about. But experienced writers generally hit the mark. If the upset a certain segment of their readership it is ...

A funny thing happened this morning. I opened Twitter first. And then Travels with Charley that has my most extensive blog list. I have been reading Shouting at Street Lights by my 360 friend Michael (Muttley de Arf Arf) and Treesparrow's Twitterings by Treesparrow who I met there too. And then a great poem by my old friend Catfishred at Catfish Tales . And another by Aimless Joys . Then I was off to the pages of the people I have met on Blogger like bekkieann of Red State Blues . And then, of course, Margaret and Helen at wordpress. I finally swung back to Y!360 my old home blog. It has been rather quiet there of late and no doubt the problems with posting comments and blogs has been an issue for some. In fact it has been easier to send messages or post on profile on Yahoo or Twitter. I have tried Facebook and cannot see its draw quite frankly. I am using the 5 second rule to avoid malware is my excuse but basically I just find it boring. All the blogs I have listed above hav...