Welcome friends!
Enjoying my Earthly visit while I can.
“Welcome!” Is that not the best start to a conversation? I guess “You’ve won money!” or “Coffee for you!” might be pretty good too. I was thinking how greeting a new person or a friend or family seems overlooked sometimes. You have to start a conversation somehow, you might as well begin with optimism. I’ve had things go sideways immediately after a greeting but at least I gave it a chance. Hi how are you? Sir, do you know how fast you were going? Hi how are you? note: Not a good way to start if at a funeral. I’m more careful on FB after someone posted a picture of their dog, I didn’t read the part that started with “Fluffy is biting power lines in heaven now…”
I recently was at a friend’s birthday party. He’s an adult so he had a gathering of friends at a bar. A new couple arrived and I introduced myself with a little feeling that I’ve met them before, “Hi I’m Fred”. “We know”. Inner dialogue involved a lot of swearing at myself. I am not proud of this, but that isn’t the first time that’s happened. Mostly I can’t remember names. I almost always remember faces. Unfortunately no one writes their name on their face. Otherwise I would be pretty good at remembering names. I usually only have trouble with names that have letters in them. If a person uses their own name in a sentence I tend to remember it better. Sometimes if I’m able to physically write it down I have a shot at remembering it next time but sometimes I just remember the corner of the page in my sketch pad that I wrote it down but not the specific letters.
One technique that is a good way to remember names is associating an animal with their name. That has worked for me but it’s definitely a weird way to start a conversation with me trying to remember the animal and then the name of the person as they approach and all I can say is “Hello stink bug”. Maybe I should stay away from insects but I can’t associate everyone with “giraffe”. Too bad I can’t just greet everyone with “Hello human!” I’d mostly be correct!
I had a friend who follows this news letter and they told me while at work they had to quickly close the window they were reading/looking at my news letter because I had posted a few nudes. I have drawn and painted so many nudes over my career that nudity is not something that is different than seeing a cat or a car. I really enjoy painting the nude figure so I’m just posting something I like. But I realize that if you are at work, it might be a problem so I try to post nudes that are only a butt if that. Here is where I separate the folks who follow for free and those that pay. Nudes are mostly on the other side of the paywall (if I do this right!) I’m thinking of making it worth the extra dough for anyone who wants to upgrade by giving out a small original doodle that I have on hand. It’d be random unless you want to just commission me for something specific. I like the idea that everyone would have a little art from me as they read my ramblings.
