Thursday, December 22, 2016

My new Mac OS is working out well, thank you. Except I don’t understand “the cloud.”

Good Thursday morning, y’all, and HAPPY BELATED WINTER SOLSTICE! Yesterday was an astronomical phenomenon with the shortest period of daylight hours and the longest night of the year, something that means almost nothing to me whatsoever as I’m a housebound old coot with mobility issues and have no fucks left to give about an extra 15 minutes of daylight. Last night I tried to weasel Sam into staying awake for an all-nighter with a few of the classic Christmas movies stored on our DVR, such as: Christmas in Connecticut (1945) starring Barbara Stanwyck and Dennis Morgan; The Man Who Came to Dinner (1942) starring Bette Davis and Monty Woolley; Meet Me in St. Louis (1945) starring Judy Garland; and The Shop Around the Corner (1940) starring James Stewart and Margaret Sullavan. (I hang onto these all year round in case I need a dose of ho-ho-ho. No kidding.) However, Sam didn’t take the bait so we wound up with The Lost World (1960) starring Claude Rains and Jill St. John. I love my life!


I’ve got another amazing herd of FREE FONTS for you tonight. Most of them in this list — from “Garden Crown” through “Wanderlust Ornaments” — are part of the Winter Font Bundle. (Yes, there are a few that I didn’t load onto my Mac.) “Masters” and “Marks” are modeled after mid-century sign-painting techniques and include multiple styles and weights. I think they’re fabulous ... and not just because “Marks” is my last name!

You’ll note that several fonts are coordinating pairs designed to work together, such as: 1) “Garden Crown” and “Garden Crown Caps;” 2) “Local Market” and “Local Market Bold;” 3) “Local Brewery Two” and “Local Brewery Four;” and 4) “True North” and “True North Script.” I find these strangely stimulating but please don’t ask me to explain it. (Thank you.) Download links will appear after the graphic so you snag them for your personal collection.



Yesterday afternoon for no reason whatsoever I treated myself to some excellent seamless digital background images on Etsy.com. Most were on sale for $1.50 for whole collections of 12 to 64 images. Two of my new collections aren’t included below because the designer has to send them to me via email (they were “buy two get one free” specials).
Here’s a sample of what I do with those abstract watercolor backgrounds: I use them to jazz up DISPLAY TYPE, as illustrated below, for greeting card designs and assorted other whatnots in The Howdygram Store, such as mugs, tote bags and mouse pads.
I also have a new (free) collection of gold and white Christmas ornaments. I have no idea how I’ll use them, however, because I already have a enough holiday objects, doodads and backgrounds to choke a fucking horse.


And now ... please join the Howdygram and Senator Cory Booker (D-N.J.) to demand that Congress restore the Voting Rights Act. In many states during the recent presidential election, restrictive voter I.D. laws successfully suppressed the turnout in minority and poorer communities. THIS ABSOLUTELY SUCKS AND IT HAS TO STOP (my interpretation). Therefore please sign Senator Booker’s petition and thank you for your support. Click the button ↓ below.


I’d like to end this post with speedy updates on a couple of pressing issues, okay?

HOW’S MY NEW MAC OPERATING SYSTEM WORKING OUT? Just fine, thank you! After Half-Price Geeks came over a few days ago to clean a pile of viruses from my iMac and install a newer OS I thought I might be having “issues” and compatibility problems with currently-installed software, but I was wrong. Everything is working well right now and I’m awfully damn happy about it. However I had to horse around with my Epson WF3640 printer for an hour before it would print my Wal-Mart grocery list for Sam. For some reason the new operating system refused to recognize my printer because everything has to be in “the cloud” now, so I wound up downloading the print driver and installer all over again from Epson’s support website and setting up the printer from scratch. I HATE CRAP LIKE THIS. And I wish somebody would explain this fucking “cloud” baloney and why it’s considered an improvement. Please raise your hand if you can help me out here, okay?

I FINALLY GOT MY BAYLOR-SCOTT-WHITE MEDICARE HMO MEMBERSHIP CARD TODAY. This is right down to the wire, because my HMO plan is effective on January 1 and I need this card to pay for prescriptions and see my doctor. I can stop worrying about it now and concentrate on other shit.



It’s time for drugs and a nap now. Thank you for reading this and don’t forget to remember the Alamo if it’s not asking too much ...

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