I got that Batman/Starry Night t-shirt I liked that I saw in that story about the Starry Night house, remember?
They had it at Amazon and I had it delivered in two days via Prime.
Now what? Guess I’ll wear it around town and of course at this year’s New York Comic Con. 
I finally pulled the plug on my house phone, the land line. I don’t know why I kept holding onto it, for 10 years or so I had it forwarded to my cell phone, so I never used the house phone. But boy, was it a bitch getting AT&T to release me. They gave me the run around. One guy refused to pass me onto the correct department until he looked at my account and tried to stick me with other services.
Then he passed me to another department and then they passed me to another and then I was on hold for a long time and then the lady who came on could barely be heard. It was some game they play in order to get you to give up. AT&T are bastards.
I finally went to the website and chatted with a guy and he did it within few seconds.
I then asked him about my very high cable and internet bill. He gave me a lower rate and gave me a faster internet speed, which I thought I was paying for all the while. I’m not sure why they just don’t give everyone the fastest internet, why would you not want that?
I want to learn what Sling and Hulu and all those anti-cable tv things are about so I can just tell the cable tv to take a hike.
It feels weird now not having a home land line, but like I said, I never used it anyway. It would just forward the calls all to my cell phone, which all were telemarketers anyway.
I also cancelled four websites I had with Earthlink. I had moved them long ago and was still paying for them. Earthlink is expensive and for almost 20 years I paid those rates!
They too tried to give me the run around. I kept trying to explain to the guy that one site was only $13 per year on WordPress, yet Earthlink charges me $45 per month. Why would I stay with them? My main biz site is now only $150 per year with a new provider, as opposed to their rate of $45 per month, which is $540 per year! At one time I had a lot of websites with them and I paid through the nose. I also had them return the $139 they charged me for SSL service which I never used. I got it free from my new web host.
Loyalty has its price. So does stupidity on my part. I’m glad I finally wizened up.
I saw this story in the news about a house in Mt. Dora, Florida, that is painted to look like Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting. Here is a video with artist Richard Barrenechea explaining the art/house.
People either hate it or love it, I’m not sure how I feel about this, but Starry Night is my favorite piece of art. I have it all over my house as knock-off paintings, posters, even a coffee mug.
But you know what I like better than that house? Richard’s shirt. Look at this screen capture I took from another video at the Orlando Sentinel site. Batman/Van Gogh! Love it!
I found a similar shirt on Amazon, is it the same thing? I want it.
A new project began this week called the Peanuts Global Artist Collective. Seven artists were chosen to interpret the Peanuts characters on 15′ x 10′ murals at Hudson Square in NYC. Similar projects are happening in Paris; Seoul, South Korea; Berlin; San Francisco; Tokyo and Mexico City.
Hudson Square is in lower Manhattan in SoHo, on the west side.
The artists are Mr. A, Nina Chanel Abney, AVAF, FriendsWithYou, Tomokazu Matsuyama, Rob Pruitt, and Kenny Scharf. You can see them here.
And here is a map of the locations of the murals. It’s in an area I love. I have mentioned before the old Keller Hotel at Barrow and West Side Highway in Greenwich Village; well this is just a little further downtown from that. I take this route sometimes when I meet up with my cousin at her office down in SoHo.
The murals will be up for three months, so I’ll get to see them when I’m in NY June and July. I look forward to it.
This film is amazing. It’s New York City in 1911. It’s so interesting, just seeing the people is amazing. So many of the buildings are still standing today, it amazes me that the clocks in the Madison Square area, near the Flatiron building are still there today and I love seeing the old New York Herald building which is in a few shots.
Sound has been added, this isn’t the sound from that period, but it fits in perfectly and you really are transported to 1911 and the streets of NYC. We’re time traveling.
I have a new Amazon store called Tomversation – you can see it here.
I’m offering all sorts of comics-related things from books and dolls to t-shirts and jewelry.
Please check it out. You might like something for yourself or as a gift and it supports this blog.
Thanks!
So the comic strip Nancy has changed. I don’t know if you knew or if you care, I only care because this is one time when I don’t mind that a comic strip continues.
Usually I feel that when a cartoonist retires or passes on, the strip should pass on, too. Comic strips seem to never end. Usually a new cartoonist takes over and they continue on and that has always bothered me. But for some reason, I like the new Nancy.
So Nancy is now written and drawn by Olivia Jaimes and the new Nancy is a bit fisty and nasty and modern. There are cell phones and video games and things from the 21st Century.
Olivia is one of many cartoonists to do Nancy, many think that Ernie Bushmiller was the creator, but Larry Whittington created Nancy in 1922 and Ernie Bushmiller took over in 1925, then others took over after his death and the last person to do the strip was Guy Gilchrist and finally Olivia. It’s amazing the many lives Nancy has had – sort of like a cat.
People either hate the new Nancy or love it. Here it is at GoComics, check it out for yourself.
There’s a book out called, “How to Read Nancy: The Elements of Comics in Three Easy Panels
My Uber rating is 4.82, I’ve been trying to get it up to 5.0, which is was for a long time, but about a year ago it dropped and I don’t know why.
I don’t know why I care either, but I’m just wondering why it went down.
I always tip, I over-tip. But am I talking too much for one driver and not enough for another? Should I sit in the back seat or the front seat? Do I remind a driver of someone they don’t like? What is it?
I never check the driver’s ratings, I just hop in the car and we’re off and I suppose the drivers don’t really check most ratings of passengers, since it’s numbers game and I doubt they can be that picky.
One time a driver got mad because the address given on the system was next door to where I was. But for some reason, I couldn’t get it to put my exact address in. Now it uses a GPS that does it for you so you don’t have to punch in the address.
But he was upset. Not sure why, I was literally 10 feet away early on a Saturday morning, there was not another person on the street and there I was standing there, holding my luggage waving at him.
But I want that rating up to 5.0. Maybe I should offer them chewing gum and bottled water when I get into the car, rather than the other way around.
Maybe I’ll try Lyft. I think I have a few free rides coming with them.
I like to look for time travel whenever I can.
I belong to some groups on Facebook that post old photos and this one popped up. It’s Miami Beach in the 1920s. But look at the couple on the left, are they looking at a cell phone? Probably not, it’s probably a book or mirror or something, but it appears like some sort of smart phone.
And the guy’s leg. Why is his left leg so much larger than his left leg? Was it affected during his vortex return from the future?
Then there is this photo that has been making the rounds on the internet for years. This hipster dude in the 1940s looks out of place, but it turns out the t-shirt is of the Montreal Maroons, a hockey team that played around that time. Those type sunglasses were available at the time and the small camera was available by Kodak at the time.
I don’t know if it was meant to be an April Fools joke, but I took it that way seeing today’s Bloom County. I’m not sure where else it is published, but I follow it on Facebook and it comes up in my feed.
Today, Bloom County is called, “Calvin County” and it features Calvin, from Calvin and Hobbes.
At first I wondered by Berkeley Breathed did this. Why would he copy Calvin and make him the star of today’s strip. And the drawings of Calvin were so perfect, that I thought he probably traced him.
But if you look at the byline, it gives it away – it’s signed by both Bill Watterson and Berkeley Breathed!
Perfect April Fools day comic.
You can see the full comic here.
tomversation.com 