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Ready to update

I’m back! Again! LOL! My next short-term goal is to get our 2021 journey photos posted. This was a 6-month trip with 3 distinct parts: Pre-Pearland, Pearland, and Post-Pearland. Actually, I’ll probably be doing it by months, since that usually works pretty well. And this is done now – 3/3/22. Check it out!

Another goal is to compile pictures of Jodie’s 2nd year. Here’s her first year.

And I want to update our State Capitols pages. We got to visit 4 more this summer — Alabama, West Virginia, Ohio, and Wyoming. We had visited Wyoming’s capitol before, but that was just an exterior visit, because they were doing remodeling of the building. This time, we got to go inside, too! And now, 3/3/22, I have all of the capitols updated.

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My Day

Back home again!

And here I am again! I didn’t do anything I could count as work while we were on our journey. I’ll be getting photos uploaded, edited, and posted onto my Travel Tales soon! For now, I’m concentrating on re-entry. I need to kind of remind myself how to do all of the things I got so good at over the months of Covid sequestration.

And I got a new monitor! That new Samsung curved monitor? It’s now mine! Here’s a snippet from Gamestop’s website. This technology will be something to laugh about in a few years:

Samsung’s 49-inch CRG9 Curved QLED Gaming Monitor immerses you in detail and color. AMD Radeon FreeSync™ 2 technology and 120Hz refresh rate provide crisp images, even in fast motion scenes. A spectacle to behold, the 49-inch CRG9 is built to help you win more and do more.

FEATURES:

  • DUAL QHD DISPLAY – he CRG9’s 5120 x 1440 Dual QHD resolution provides a super ultra-wide aspect ratio that lets you view more content in superfine detail. With screen space equivalent to two 27-inch QHD displays side by side, the 49-inch curved monitor delivers a wider view for winning play.
  • SUPER ULTRA-WIDE CURVED SCREEN – With a Super Ultra-Wide 32:9 ratio, the CRG9 curves around your field of view to immerse you in all the onscreen gaming action.
  • HDR1000 and QLED – HDR1000 supports a peak brightness rating of 1,000 nits for true high dynamic range (HDR content). And with Samsung QLED technology delivering DCI-P3 95%, colours are pure and bright.

It is my present for Christmas 2021 and I’ve just gotten it set up and working. Functionally, it’s really much the same as my 2-27″ monitor setup, except that I don’t have that big dividing line down the middle. 🙂 Yes, I am going to like this!

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My Day

Blue Jay

Today I’m finishing up a blue jay portrait for a client’s wall. My photo had a tiny stick covering part of his body, so I took that out. I also pumped up the blue and selectively reduced saturation on the green background leaves.

And I got my hair cut finally! Of course it’s not like I wanted — too short on the sides — Argh! I’m switching stylists for next time. Well, partly because “next time” we’ll be someplace other than here! LOL

I’m wanting to get going on our backyard project. I need to measure and draw up the master plan onto graph paper so I can start working on what goes where. I really don’t want this to be a piecemeal project.

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General myJanee.com News My Day Travel Tales

Another Travel Tales Page Posted!

Yeah! I’ve posted another Travel Tales page! This one is our Alaska Mission trip from 2014. It was fun going through my pics and remembering that good time.

We’re getting closer to making more on-the-road memories. We’ve had the RV serviced and made road-ready. We got pleated shades to cover the front side windows, replacing the very ugly curtains that were there.

I’ve lined up our renters for the time we’ll be gone, and I’ve begun the spreadsheet!

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My Day

Assorted Doings

Yesterday Jack and I went to the Home Show up at State Farm Stadium! Woo hoo! I’ve never seen so many people with improperly worn masks… ever! For those of you looking at this site through the Wayback Machine, wondering how one can “improperly” wear a mask, I mean wearing it so that one’s nose is sticking out over it.

We escaped without signing up for anything and without buying anything! We did get some good info regarding possible future projects.

For one, we’re looking into how to make our TV work in the RV. We have Dish installed in it, but we have to activate it to make it work. Since we have DirecTV at home, I’m thinking that our best option will be to switch to Dish at home and then activate the “outdoor” thing for Dish in the RV.

The other thing that we’re thinking about thinking about is our backyard landscaping. Jack wants an outdoor kitchen and I think that it would be a good thing. Before we start building that (and the pergola to go over the top of it), I want to draw up a landscaping plan for the yard, including all of the existing hardscaping and all of the permanent landscape elements — like the palm trees.

Jodie is finally back to herself after her protracted recovery from her spay. For the past 5 days, she’s gone on our “walka-walka” with us, much to her delight. That lump that I thought was a hernia has mostly resolved and her incisions look great.

Last week we took the RV out to get it fueled up and take some measurements. I’m working on a curtain arrangement that will keep the cold air from our chassis air up front when we’re traveling.

I’ve just about given up on the idea of getting famous in Photoshop easily, like I did before. The days of announcing that you are here, and people flocking to you, wanting to learn from you, wanting you to write for their magazine, wanting chapters for their books, are over, I am afraid.

I haven’t been able to gauge any interest in such a thing as the Art Challenge that I once did, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not there; I just haven’t found it.

I’m down more pounds. I started at 157.8 on 10/6 and today, 3/6, I’m 140.0. Maybe I should start a Facebook group on “Losing the last 15 lbs and keeping it off.” I’m sure that’s something that will never go out of style!

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My Day

Yikes!

I have not been on here for awhile, because I was scared. I screwed up this site in a major way a couple of weeks ago, while I was trying to install a bulletin board. My tech people at my hosting company ended up restoring my backup from 1/21 in order to straighten my site back out. For the past couple of weeks, I’ve been afraid to really even look at what’s left.

Yeah. Note to self: Really READ those dialog boxes. If it says “Replace images folder?” that’s what it means. Well, at least nobody saw it. That’s the good part about not having anyone visiting my site. :/


So… what else is new? On the health front, we have all had issues. Jack’s finger is still on the mend, because he keeps whacking it on things. He wears a metal cover over it most of the time, just to protect it from these whacks.

Jodie was spayed on Tuesday, 2/16. She’s very bad at being quiet, and I’m horrible at keeping her quiet, so she has a bulge at her surgery site and I’m afraid that it’s a hernia. Or something tore loose… or something. We took her back in on Monday and they said not to worry, just to continue trying to keep her quiet. She has actually been pretty quiet since then, so maybe it’s going to be a nothing, I hope.

On January 25, Jack had an appointment for his first Covid shot. I was there, of course, and they offered me one as well. When they have extra doses, they can do that. Heck, yeah! All was fine and we had no after-effects.

On 2/19, at 2:30am, we had Jack’s appointment for his 2nd shot. We drove up there and he got his, but they wouldn’t give me mine. Instead, I got an appointment for my 2nd shot on Sunday evening, 2/21.

Monday, I was just achy and tired. That night, I got chills, fever, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. Ugh. Tuesday, I rested and felt horrible. But then on Wednesday, I awoke feeling fine. Yay! And I’m vaccinated.


In the meantime, We incurred a tiny scratch from another vehicle at our storage spot, so, after a bit of research, we have a new spot for it in Queen Creek, about 30 minutes away. The spots are far bigger and it should be easy to navigate it in and out.

Michele and Jack came for a visit! We got to see them for a little while, masked and distanced, while they looked at some retirement housing options.


So, until I can actually get a bulletin board successfully installed, the Art Challenge is tabled. I’m not sure, of course, that this is even something that people want to do.

One thing I do know is that, while I was “away,” so many, many people started teaching Photoshop and doing video “tutorials,” that “I wrote a tutorial,” is not even an exciting thing for people to hear. They are all over you tube, each one competing with the others for the “which tutorial is worst?” prize.

I sound so unpleasant when I read my thoughts about what I want to do with my life. I guess I just want to be appreciated for what I do — like everyone else in the world.

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My Day

Working on some art

This is from January 22.

Just in case I figure out how to do an Art Challenge, I’m working on some art. So far I have two pieces — one in All Original Pixels and one in Manipulated Photos.


Jack had an accident with his saw yesterday, giving himself a pretty serious cut on the end of his right index. I made him go to Urgent Care and they gave him 5 stitches to close it up. He also had a tetanus shot. He’s making out like it’s no big deal, but it’s got to hurt!

I’ve been having some fun with my puzzles of late! It’s fun to have them where I can see them and easily take one out to work it. Jack was working on a stand for one of my puzzles when he cut his finger.

Jack’s first Covid shot is Monday. I have no idea when mine will happen. I am not in the next group (65-75) and so I’m thinking March, at the earliest. There’s a shortage of vaccine now, they say.

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My Day

Get Ready

And get set… I’m getting ready to start a new Art Challenge! I made my Purple Ribbon and I’ve done most of the work on the Index page. I may end up doing February the old-fashioned Brute Force method till I can figure out how to have folks post their own entries. Anyway, I’m eager to get eager to start on this!


The RV is in her parking spot! It is the same spot in which we parked our 25′ one, and this one is 33′, so it sticks out more. But, with Jack’s help, I managed to maneuver the thing in there without tearing anything up!

The little doors Jack built for under the dinette are adorable!

We finished up the work on the TV stand just yesterday. I did a little artwork installation for the back of the TV cabinet and it’s just the essence of FeminIndustrial design.

FeminIndustrial is my own style that I have developed and we are both loving it. The point is that it’s industrial, but with feminine colors and living textures. That is, the sofa is a soft cushy leather. There are a few pillows. Colors include magenta and orange. Yeah. But it’s clean, practical, and industrial in the architecture.

Jack’s in line to get his Covid shot, but can’t make an appointment yet. I have to wait till the next group, since I’m so young.

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General myJanee.com News My Day Travel Tales WordPress

Playing Catch-up

Christmas. Yeah, I’ll blame Christmas for my not posting on here for 2 weeks! I’ve been engaged in other pursuits including puzzles, cleaning a bit, carving wood, Christmas cookie baking and delivering to neighbors, picking up and parking our RV, going for our daily walks, and just getting up in the morning. Yeah, it’s a depression thing.

Re: Relevance. Still searching. I’m beginning to think that the Photoshop tutorial realm is so oversaturated, that there just isn’t room for me to squeeze back in. I’m still investigating and searching my own soul at the same time.

I was reading a post of mine from 2013 where I was talking about wanting to make a password-protected arm of my site where people could upload their own photos anonymously and thus have a new Art Challenge.

Still haven’t found out how to do that. At that time, I was feeling frustrated with the mountain of work that was ahead of me in “converting” my site to WordPress. I didn’t know that the easiest way to do this was not to do it, but to start all over.


The RV!! It’s indeed back in our custody and it’s beautiful! We were concerned that, with its extra length, our storage spot wouldn’t be big enough, but they said, “No problem,” with regards to our extra length. Woot!

Jack’s been busily making new doors for the space under the dinette. It had cheesy panels that snapped on and off with difficulty. We will now have smoothly operating doors with hinges. He’s also making drawers for his closet.

We still have a few items on our punch list to complete before we can go on a trip: chassis air conditioning, TV functions, and …mmm… thought that there was another thing, but maybe that’s it.

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My Day Travel Tales

I’ll be home for Christmas

…and I hope you will be too! We are trying hard to keep away from this virus which has filled our hospitals to near capacity, ended too many lives, and wrecked so many more. We are so fortunate in that we don’t have to worry about where our next meal is coming from or whether we’ll be evicted for non-payment of rent.

I’ve been kinda blah. I guess it’s depression rearing its ugly wintertime head. I’ve decided to up my anti-depressant.

The TV cabinet is glorious. I have good storage for my puzzles and games. We have even played some games! And I’ve put together a few puzzles, some of which have eluded me till now. The TV now swivels brilliantly from being visible in the TV room to being visible from the kitchen/dining areas. Yeah, I know. Still no pictures.

And I’m still searching my soul for relevance. I know that I’m an unlit fuse just ready to be fired up so I can serve a great purpose. Well, ok, that was a bit dramatic.

Jack had his pacemaker replaced on Monday. It served him well for 8 years, and this one should last as long.

The RV is doing OK, though it’s still in the shop. It’s being painted now, so… I am thinking that it’s getting close to being in our custody once more.

“They” — the health officials in Arizona — are saying “spring” for us to have our vaccines for Covid. And then we have to have 2 of them, 3 weeks apart.

We had hoped for a get-away date around mid-April, but we will await our vaccinations before we travel out of the state. Even then, I’m thinking that we’ll still be observing all the same rules about masking and distancing. Sooo, we may be mailing you that graduation gift, Matthew.

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More Travel Tales Posted!

I’m finished with my Travel Tales postings for our two 40-day adventures in 2018. Again, my pictures are all backups from my phone because my camera was lost, carrying with it all of my photos from …. God knows how far back, but 2018 and 2019, for sure. Ugh. I keep searching, now and then, for the camera, just thinking, hoping, that there is someplace I’ve forgotten to look, but I know the truth.

Anyway, thankfully, I did take many, many pictures with my phone for these trips! Trip 2 is in 2 parts.

Travel Tales 2018 Trip 1

Travel Tales 2018 Trip 2


Jack finished the TV stand and storage display cabinet! It’s so perfect for us. Once I get some pictures taken, I’m going to update my Interiors page and I’ll post in this blog, too. This is a serious upgrade to our lives, though, and I can’t wait to show you!

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My Day

New Gallery added to Gallery of Galleries

I’ve added a new gallery to my Gallery of Galleries! It’s Bob Story, who, besides being a graphic artist and photographer, is my neighbor! I have some other cool galleries linked there too. That Gallery of Galleries is part of the massive Photoshop Resource Links section of my site. Go on! Have a look!

Bob Story’s Gallery is my latest addition

I’m wanting to restart the myJanee.com Art Challenge, which I ran between 2001 and 2007. It was a good attractor to people to my site and I made some good friends. Not only that, but people made art that they otherwise might not have done.

I’m trying to figure out a way to do it so that people could post their work themselves, anonymously. I also want to have a forum attached, so that the participants could comment on each others’ work. The way I did it before was all by brute force. People would email me their work, I’d post it to my site, and I’d format my on-site bulletin board for comments. It was really a labor-intensive thing for me.

So I’m looking into pBase and Instagram and … other places. I’d love to do a Challenge again, but I have so many other pursuits going, and I’d want time to make my own art, that I don’t think I want the time-consumption of the brute-force method again.

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My Day

First Trip of 2018 is posted!

This is the trip that Jack and I took through Nevada, Oregon, down the coast, and back through Bryce and Grand Canyon. You should go look. It was a great trip, and I have a couple of nice pics posted.


In other news, Happy Thanksgiving! I need to get moving on preparations for our twosome Thanksgiving dinner pretty soon. We ordered a turkey breast and fixings from Basha’s and Jack made us a mincemeat pie!

I made this as a little thank you to my dog groomer. I’m going to try to find another groomer, though, because this shop is soooo very maskless and so seems dangerous to me.

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General myJanee.com News Janee's Galleries My Day

Oh, just go and have a look!

I got Jodie’s Story published and I invite you to go and have a look! It’s linked back to my Family Photo Album, which has a new look as well. In Jodie’s Story, I’ve posted pics of her from her earliest days, her first days with us, activities she’s done with us, and just plain cuteness!

I’ve made more progress on the Janee’s Interiors page. There’s more to do on that. My goal is to get all of the before pics up (mostly done), the during pics posted, the “afters” posted, and then what new things I’ve done lately.

For 2020, this includes our Covid projects: things that we got done because we didn’t spend the time or money traveling this year.

Above is the 2020 arrangement of our Great Room. The sectional in the bottom third of the room is new, we’ve gotten rid of the cupboard and the rust recliner is going to get new life in the bedroom. Jack’s building a new TV stand with a swivel for the TV and display storage.

The top third of the room is another conversation area with our couch, plum recliners, and the little swivel club chair.

The middle area with the circle is our dining/puzzle table. The circle is the round rug on which this furniture lives.

All of the furniture is in place, with the exception of the TV stand which is being built right now. The lighting in the sectional/TV area is very different, very new, and just perfect for us. We will move our ceiling fan from what is now our dining room over to above the TV area. And we will need to reinstall our dining room fixture above the dining room.

I’m also beginning to think about lighting for the conversation area with the couch. We have a kind of arc lamp which we really like, but I’m not sure that it will give us enough light. The interior design class I had spoke very little about lighting.

I really should study lighting more. While I love what we have in the other areas, I just don’t know what to do about the living room.

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My Day

Family Photo Album Reimagined

I loved my Archived Family Photo Album. I love the artistry of it and the little tabs you could click to see inside. I love the cover, with the faded pictures of icons of my life at that time. And I love the pictures sticking tantalizingly out of the album.

But times change and interfaces like that old one are just not seen as good anymore. So here we are. I’ve gotten started on a NEW Family Photo Album. This can be reached from All Things Janee, which can be reached from my main page, myJanee.com.

I have linked to my and Jack’s Showoff Photos, to Travel, Purely Art Photos, Janee’s Photo Galleries, and Janee’s Archived Family Photo Album. I’ll do more work on the other categories – Jodie’s Story, Family, Events, and Other Photos that make me smile – soon.

I also did a bit of tedium, organizing my FileBird folders within WordPress so that I could more easily find things. l am starting to think that nobody else has a site as big as mine. I have 2688 photo files just in the NEW part of my site. I have 82 of these blog posts and 135 different pages. That’s just what I’ve done in the past 5 1/2 months. The part of my site that I did mostly between 1999 and 2007, has over 25,000 files. Of course, I still get next to no traffic, but you will find me eventually!

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Computers Janee's Galleries My Day

Hidden Treasures Found!

Today, I’m engaged in unpleasant tedium, but I am, in the process, uncovering hidden treasures! I’m trying to get a grip on all of my photos — to get them all organized in one place. Ah, for the days of the shoebox!

At least, I’m organized by date. Now if I could just get all of the decades together in one place. I just found out that my old Windows 7 laptop still has 4 years of photos which had not gotten put into Dropbox. And it’s not letting them go directly into Dropbox, although I don’t know why.

So I’m transferring them via thumb drive. And that drive’s not big enough, so find a bigger one. And that one’s full of old stuff so format it. … Soon I’ll have all of my pix from 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2016 in this computer.

I never thought it would be a cakewalk to get back into this after my -pause- . I just have to stay the course, praise myself for my progress, and realize that .. I’m still young.

In other news, I completed a new collection for Janee’s Gallery: Industrial Plum. Check it out!

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Travel Tales work, art, and interiors

Yeah! I’ve been a busy girl. I’ve done a bit of art, which you may review on my Text Effects page of my Gallery. I completed my Travel Tales pages for the 2019 epic journey eastward.

I’ve also made a beginning on my Interiors page. This takes you from the “before” pictures to the “after” pictures at some of the places for which I’ve done interior design work.

I still have not made any headway toward getting another Art Challenge going.


Work on the TV Stand is going great. I’m seeing completion on that within… a week, maybe? We are both horrible at estimating completion times.

I’m going to be posting pics of the new room and my new bedroom, too, after we have it all done, picked up, and cleaned up. You don’t want to see it now.

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General myJanee.com News My Day

#Originalpixels

I’m thinking more about my brand today. I’m thinking about SEO and how such a thing wasn’t a thing back when I started all of this. “Branding” was sort of a thing, but we didn’t call it that. I’m thinking about how “draw” and “onward” have the same last 4 letters, only reversed. Wondering what I could do with that?

I’m remembering how I got it all started back in 2001 with my first Art Challenges. They were held on my site, so that got people there and looking around. Many stuck around for the tutorials. Some stuck around for my classes. And that went on for more than 5 years.

So ok, let’s do an Art Challenge. There are others out there doing stuff like art challenges, but they’re not me, so there’s that. Ok so where and how? I’ll bet I could craft a way to do it in Facebook. Or Instagram.

All that Glitters: Gold Text Effect

Whew! Just climbed out of that rabbit hole. There’s a ton to learn about Instagram and hashtags and such. It turns out that I was in hiding for an unfortunate time period, when a LOT changed, and I have a LOT to learn. Thankfully, I’m young.

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Cool Text Effects: Gallery Updates

Yeah! I got away from the seemingly endless photo-editing today and did some fun graphics. Here’s my Text Effects Gallery. Today I did The Spatter ones, the Comb and Drip, and TTYL. I did Comb and Drip by modifying the Type Path. I did the others with clipping groups and Lighting Effects.

Part of my struggle with this was in coming to grips with changes in the Lighting Effects “filter” in Photoshop. It just doesn’t seem as easy as it once was, and it likely isn’t. More powerful = more complicated = steeper learning curve.

What I should do pretty soon is to do a nice tutorial on using Lighting Effects to make cool Text Effects.


The TV room project is coming along again. Jack’s in there hammering right now, starting work on the 10′ piece that will be our TV stand / puzzle display case. I’m pretty excited to see all of this coming together.

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General myJanee.com News My Day Travel Tales

Travel Tales 2019 coming close to completion!

I did a big thing today. I’d been working on my Travel Tales 2019 as a single page. Not sure why, but that’s what I was doing. I think that I believed I’d just do a short summary of our 5 months on the road. Eh.. not possible.

So today I divided the trip log into 5 parts, all linked to each other. And I posted a bunch more photos. Today, I took us from the Wisconsin Dells all the way to the Badlands.

Of course, each of the photos has to be edited — some a lot, and some just to save for the web. That’s lots of editing.

Sunflower photographed near Mitchell, SD

We got our new tv room rug in place, our lighting is done, and we’re starting to think about the TV cabinet. We bought an electric fireplace with a heater and colored lights to go under the TV. Should be the raddest living area in Sun Lakes when we’re done.