Long Time, No Post
Yes, I know - I'm as slack as...a very slack thing when it comes to posting. It's just that I figure most of what I might want to bang on about would be excruciatingly boring for anyone to read, so I wind up not posting at all most of the time. Well, unless there's new art to show off, which is (I hope) not too boring. And, I know...I haven't updated the website in months - I'm just trying to get a goodly amount of updating together, so it's not just a one-new-thing job. I've actually done several pieces, but most of them are ACEOs which won't translate very well to larger format prints, so I want to finish up some "regular" sized artwork to add as well.
So, here we go. A post. A post of me banging on. A post of me banging on about stuff that might be excruciatingly boring. But, there it is. Well, no - here it is:
We're about to embark on a holiday adventure, my beloved and I. It's our nearly-yearly trip to the UK to visit with family and sight-see and what-not. We've been dashing around, getting supplies and gifties, and getting things ready for the house/bird-sitters. Which reminds me - I've still got to ring up to put the newspaper on hold, because I'm never reading 11 days of back-issues of the daily news when I get back. Luckily it's a slow time of the year for the "day job", so I needn't worry too much about how orders will get filled whilst I'm away. Any that come in can be dealt with during my twice-weekly check of email. Artwork orders will, however, have to wait until I return, as much of the order processing for art is done in-house. So, if you want a print or cards sent out before next Tuesday - now would be the time to order!
So, Sunday afternoon we went to the mall for some last minute items, including some new shoes for Grahams. Now, I was raised to always wear clean socks or to take a clean pair of knee-high or footie hose if shopping for shoes, so that you're not contaminating the shoes with your sweaty feet germs (not that one always has sweaty feet, but one does always have germs whether one likes it or not, and most people don't really want to share them with you). So, I was horrified to see a lady trying on shoes in bare feet. Even if I'm going to wear the shoes in bare feet (which RARELY ever happens, unless it's beach sandals or something) I never try them on with bare feet, out of consideration for the next punters who might try them on if I don't buy them, and just in case a previous candidate might have had athletes foot or something and didn't wear any socks or hose. I said to Grahams, "I always bring hose if I'm trying on shoes other than those I'd wear socks with anyway, because it's just common courtesy." It was one of those "train-wreck" kind of moments for me...you don't want to look because it's un-nerving, but you can't help it, sort of thing. So, I watched as she stuffed her bare feet into shoe after shoe after shoe, and handed them back to the salesperson to put away. I was pondering if the salesperson had offered to lend her some hose, as some shops carry complimentary hose in case a customer doesn't have any, when I noticed the lady putting on hose and putting her street shoes back on! So, she DID have hose, but took them off to try on other shoes. What's up with that?!
Well, while I'm in a ranting mood...
I love UNC-TV. I really do. You can see some really terrific shows on PBS (UNC is our local affiliate) that you don't find on other channels. And they don't have as many commercials as other stations. That is, they do have commercials but they're usually just on between shows and not during shows, which is nice. I love Nova, and Masterpiece Theatre, and Mystery, and the Newshour, and the McLaughlin Group, amongst other shows. I love that you can get some of the good British sitcoms (although they're a bit out-dated lately). But! I detest UNC-TV's fundraising weeks. I didn't always, and until just recently, I'd give money, when I could afford it, during the fundraising weeks. I haven't donated this year, however, and if I do, it won't be during this fundraising period. And, here's why: Because I donate money so that UNC-TV can continue to show the programmes I love them for. And, what do they do? Take about 6 weeks of them and throw them away. For about 6 weeks in February and March, and a few other weeks later in the year, they take most of my favourite shows off the air during "Festival" - their fundraising period - and show shite I wouldn't watch for free and certainly don't want my hard-earned money spent on. It's around 6 weeks of "We know you really love (insert show name here) and that's why you've tuned in, but we're not going to show it to you! But, send us your money anyway!" I miss the good old days of "Festival" - when they didn't take off the regular shows to show these "special" shows. You got the show you expected, with a few breaks asking you to donate so they could continue to bring you "your favourite shows". Maybe it was a special retrospective of the show, or a "best-of" clip-show, but you got to see what you were expecting, at least. I used to volunteer to answer phones during "Festival". I can remember road trips with my friends to Chapel Hill so that we could answer phones for a few hours on Saturday or Sunday. We used to volunteer during the hours they'd show "Dr Who", or another programme we liked on weekends. We were there one Saturday when "Dr Who" was on just before "The Woodwright's Shop" and our shift lasted through the two shows, and we got to see the host of "The Woodwright's Shop", Roy Underhill, goofing off on and off camera during the breaks. But, they showed the shows one expected to see during those time periods - not this "special" programming they seem to think we prefer. If you want me to pay for you to show "Nova", then AIR IT. I'm not paying you to show "special" programming. To paraphrase a bit from "Seinfeld", if it were that special, it would be on the schedule.
