Happy End of the Year for 2007

I'm ending the year on a positive note! I managed to accomplish my Top 5 from my To Do List BEFORE the end of 2007 so I can now start 2008 fresh with a completely new Top 5 To Do List.

I am not making resolutions for the new year this time ... I am concentrating on accomplishing tasks from my To Do List instead. Concrete goals that I can (and will) do and remove from a To Do List seems more of a reachable goal than idealistic resolutions I would like to do but will forget about within the first week or two of the new year.

For the end of the year, I accomplished getting my Art Reviews website Art Reviews by Barbara Burns up and started and I moved the existing review pages from my personal blog [barbaraburns.com] over so there is even some starting content on it for the beginning of 2008 :) and I revamped my Fantasy Art Gift website into a blog format.

Those are just two of my year ending accomplishments - I am thrilled that Comcast did not stop me either since my Internet connection has been up & down for the last 2 days - it has been down 4 times today alone! I detest typing away and getting things done when suddenly right in the middle - whammo - no Net access! I have several Notepad files on my desktop to delete now.

Valentine's Day

In a month, it will be Valentine's Day. For some people it is a glorious day filled with love and spousal togetherness - for others - it is a lonely day watching couples while being alone yet for others it is a day to pretend that we are blind and cannot see let alone notice all those people with mates while we are alone.

Yes I am single ... I play video games and buy the candy for myself - that is the best part of Valentine's Day for me - I get the candy and I can have a great time without worrying about if someone will remember it is a "love holiday".

A friend of mine gave us a challenge - create a Love Cow design. All my friends did a great job and the designs were wonderful - it is terrific to see how talented and creative all my friends are and how each of us approached the challenge differently. It was a lot of fun and it was neat to see all the different designs too!

Switchover Success!

I was excited that even though I started out doing it wrong to switch from the old Blogger to the new Google Blogger that I managed to get switched over with my blog and the other two that I also contribute to as well!

Yay!!!! They are all here! One of my 2007 Resolutions is to try to blog here at my direction connection at least once a month. Just because it is not my main blog does not mean that I should not update it on a fairly regular basis. Monthly seems do-able for me right now during the ugly winter weather in Texas and it being dark when I get home - my puppy needs to be fed & taken outside too when I get home so I do not have unlimited time to spend on the computer :)

I am going to budget my time so I can get back to accomplishing things instead of feeling overwhelmed and getting nothing done except spinning my wheels! Being so sick the end of the year and the first of the year did not exactly help me get anything done either. It was a real downer to miss Christmas but I felt awful, I was coughing so bad that was all I could do mostly except huddle under a blankie and I had no voice - it is just now starting to come back - it's not all back yet at all!

Buyer Beware

If you do not know anyone in real life who has a Nintendo DS system and the Animal Crossing Wild World game to share Friend Codes with you - you CANNOT play Animal Crossing Wild World online at all UNLESS you find someone somehow with a Friend Code to share with you.

The game box DOES NOT say - "Game Intended for Two to Four Real Life Friends / Family Members to Share Friend Codes to Play Game on the Internet".

The back of the game box DOES say and I quote:

"Visit friends near and far over local wireless or the Internet"

How is any consumer supposed to know BEFORE buying and opening the game - $35 plus tax (and possibly like me, a $40 plus tax Nintendo USB WiFi Connector since I do not have a wireless router) to specifically play this game on the Internet and then contacting Nintendo Customer Service after trying to play it online and cannot?

The system, the game and the USB Connector are non-returnable to the store at this point - they've been opened and they are not defective.

Nintendo's recommended solution for me?

Buy a DS system and Animal Crossing Wild World game for my grandson and exchange Friend Codes with him so I can play Animal Crossing Wild World online OR buy a different WiFi game to play online that does not require a Friend Code to play online to use the USB Connector but still not be able to play the game I already purchased?

This is the only DS WiFi game I have (or will have), my grandson does not have a DS system and guess what - I will NOT be buying a Nintendo DS for him for Christmas now after contacting Nintendo Customer Service about this issue and their handling of my complaint.

As a consumer, I find this type of deceptive advertising unacceptable and I do not spend my hard earned dollars with companies that practice it.

I will be buying a PSP for my grandson for Christmas.

I will also be writing a letter of complaint to the Better Business Bureau and the Texas Consumer Affairs Department.

Technorati Tags: Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Nintendo DS Lite, Animal Crossing Wild World, Internet Game Play, Online Gaming

Art & The Internet

Art is a lot of fun to create - my grandson enjoys it even more than I do - it can also be a hard business. The Internet has leveled the playing field for artists and Galleries ... many artists are now selling their art instead of trying to get into a Gallery and hoping that someone ... anyone .. somewhere ... anywhere ... will actually see it and buy it.

Ebay is a popular market (I have never sold through Ebay - it appears complicated to me for some reason and I am afraid I would get lost in the crowd too!). I believe that ImageKind (I have several Galleries) will become a popular destination for people who want to buy gorgeous Fine Art Prints / Posters too.

My probable next online art business will probably be to try Etsy where I can put my actual Original Watercolor Paintings for sale - I only occasionally paint in oils right now and shipping oil paintings is a nitemare in my opinion! But watercolors are easy to package and ship ... even my larger works! I don't paint very many larger watercolors right now - I need to get a new digital camera - my old one barely works and does not take very good pictures any more.

As a kid, I wanted to travel in outer space, maybe even move to another planet to be neighbors with all sorts of different from me people and I always believed that it would happen in my lifetime ... well ... traveling in space hasn't yet for regular working people like me and I'm not sure if it will or not ... I still have hope it will!

I also wanted to share my art with lots of people ... and I was in a traditional Gallery arrangement for a few years ... my art being seen depended on foot traffic through the door and Gallery advertisements / events ... then the Internet came along ... and the entire world has access to seeing and enjoying my art and can purchase it at their convenience 24 hours a day from the comfort of their own home or office. What a blessing!

Technorati Tags: Art

Back To School Late Night Musings

My grandson will start the fourth grade on August 10th. He is growing up fast! It seems like only yesterday that he needed his shoes tied, his face washed & his shirt buttoned up and now ... he pours his own milk ... he butters his own muffins ... he hangs up his own clothes ... he puts away his own laundry.

Where did the time go? He is half grown all of a sudden! Time passes even more quickly with grandchildren than it did with my kids! I think the reason it seems like that is that I do not see him every day ... he keeps getting taller & more grown up every time I see him.

For Mother's Day, he picked out a gorgeous sentimental card with lovely words - the quote on the front (not attributed to anyone so I do not know who wrote it) is "Every moment spent in a grandma's company is a chance to listen, to remember, to enjoy."

This is the little boy who at four made my favorite piece of artwork (I have it framed and hanging next to my computer desk!) We fingerpainted .. sort of - he walked through the fingerpaint and marched all over the watercolor paper on the floor - it is very true - they put footprints on your walls, your floors ... and most importantly ... on your heart! The laughter & joy of that now long ago moment of fun that I treasure is one of my favorite memories from his past while we continue to make memories for us both to treasure as the years speed by for both of us .... being a grandma is hard work some days ... but it very rewarding even if they do grow up way too fast!

I treasure those footprints and the glorious memories associated with them.

Technorati Tags: Footprints, Treasures, Memories

One Red Paperclip

I only recently heard about Kyle MacDonald's trading journey that took a year and went from one red paperclip & 14 trades later to a house in Kipling Saskatchewan Canada.

That is amazing! We raise our kids to believe they can do anything ... yet we also tell them on the other hand not to dream impossible dreams. On the surface, Kyle's dream sounds completely impossible. Yet he did it.

You can read his story on his blog, One Red Paperclip.

Dragons, Wyrms & Art

Right now, my art is being influenced a lot by two things ... my grandson and dragons. I've always loved dragons. Never could draw or paint the "classic" expected type dragons ... but dragons are now appearing in my art ... they appear to be more "worm" than dragon but wyrms can be any shape, color or appearance. These are the ones invading my art. Perhaps they will continue to be wyrm-like or maybe they will morph into other flavors ... only time will tell.

Wyrm in Flight was created with watercolor pencils on 140 lb cold pressed paper.

Wyrm Flight was painted digitally on the computer this morning while I waited for my grandson to wake up - no paint fumes in the house while he was sleeping - those are not good for his allergies! If I had painted it in oils on canvas, it would have been the same painting ... except I would have a wet canvas to hang up to dry with lingering oil paint fumes in the house and with this, I have a computer file and no paint fumes.

Internet Connections

I had to have a Blog here in order to make comments at other people's Blogs so here I am - my main Blog is at barbaraburns.com - "Barbara Burns - TX Dragon - Houston, Texas - Dateline - Life - Journal" - come on over, pull up a comfy chair, a glass of ice tea & read awhile.

I have another at My Yahoo Blog - I never write the same thing in any of my blogs - all have different content though the themes remain the same since I am writing them :) - a little of everything that interests me or catches my attention that I want to share with the world.
Above & below - these are my "Internet Connections" as of today - Life and the Internet is always subject to change!


My web sites / blogs are:

Barbara Burns
[This is the main one - all the others are linked from this one!]

Dragonfly Theme

TX Dragon - Barbara Burns

Seascape Artist

Watercolor Gift

8/26/06 Update

I now also have several Galleries for Fine Art Prints and Posters - framing is available!

Enjoy!

Barbara Burns (Fine Art Prints/Posters Gallery)

12/31/07 Update

I also have:

Fantasy Art Gift

Art Reviews by Barbara Burns

Art Dragonflies by Barbara Burns