Moose in the Mist

I apologize for my absence.   I'm having all kinds of problems with my keyboard.  I'm once again joining Rike at Rike's Art this month's host at Art Journal Journey with her theme Animals A to Z.

Today I have a page I call the Moose in the Mist.


Once again, I didn't draw this moose, but colored the sentiment.

Somehow I never realized the moose was considered a deer.  I guess I can't exactly argue with the dictionary, can I?

This is a beautiful creature though, and those antlers are incredible.


I did very little to create this page in my Challenges altered book, other than find the image in a book I picked up at the art museum book sale last year, and add the dictionary definition, as well as the sentiment I colored.

I also want to share a lecture I recently attended at one of our local libraries.  I think it is quite relevant to all of us who are on social media sites like Blogger.

I'd never been to this library and drove by it the first time I looked for it.

I was trying to show the patterns on the pavers, 

but no matter where I stood, the star pattern didn't show up.

This was the library, but the workshop was being held in a room off to the side.

This was a workshop on security.  Not just internet, but all kinds of security.

Whether by e-mail, a phone call, or text, the idea of the con/scam is to part you with your money.

It's wise to have a secure e-mail that is off the grid.  It's best to not let anyone get to you via your phone, either.

This is how the con gets your information.  They scare you into acting irrationally.

I used to get those warnings when I was using Windows.  Now I don't have that problem because I run Linux.

This scam also happened in a county just east of Wichita, recently.  Someone in their county office opened a file that led to the shutdown.   The county had to pay the hacker or take the chance of losing vital information, like tax, property, and personnel records.

A similar ransomworm recently infected Equifax, one of three consumer credit reporting agencies.  Its monumental data breach exposed the personal information of over 145 million people, which included Social Security numbers.  I've never been concerned about my credit, because I don't buy anything on credit, but I know this affected a lot of people who were duped by Equifax into believing the hack wasn't as severe as was reported.

If for some reason, your computer IS infected, you should have a good back-up, like thumb drives that contain your information.  Be sure the thumb drive is removed after each back-up session.

One final thing I learned was if YOU have a smart phone, iPhone, or Android, there is a Skype app you can get for that phone.  That means you would be able to talk to anyone or any phone in the world for FREE whether they have Skype or not.

As I was preparing to leave, I took a photo of this wood-carved and hand-painted statue made from a tree that had been cut and designed by Gino Salerno.

Though he's perhaps best known for his statues, he's made some changes with how he showcases them. The colorful fixtures were staples in many Riverside parks for years, but a rash of thefts and vandalisms in the early 2000s prompted Salerno to shift focus to making them for private collections.  This one was salvaged before it could be damaged.

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/entertainment/arts-culture/article1073209.html#storylink=cpy

Thanks for joining me today at Art Journal Journey and the Security workshop at one of the libraries in my city.  And thanks for visiting and being supportive of my art.  I'll be by to visit when my computer keyboard quits acting up.