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This has been a good week… Doin’ a Happy Dance!
Life is lookin’ good!
Just a quick rundown of some great things that have been happening to me over the past few days… Woot! Uh-huh! YeeHaw!
- I’ve been feeling a LOT better, more energy, moving around easier, more active.
.. - I am now within spittin’ distance of 300 lbs! Woot! This will be a major milestone, just a few more pounds!! Yay!
.. - I’ve started planning for next year’s “Dance Competition Season” Woot! Check out my updated Calendar to see which events I think I’ll be attending… — I’ve started looking at dances and music for next year. I’ve already been invited to perform in the Saturday night show at the Texas Hoedown in March! Thank you Virginia for the invite! I start rehearsals on Monday. It will so good to get back into the studio!
.. - My Blood Glucose levels are mostly within the target range. My big challenge is taking my meds on a regular schedule. My sleep cycle keeps messing up my “take the meds” time. *sigh* but it is getting better! Progress! Not Perfection! Woot!
.. - I’ve been cleaning out old files on my computer, sorting them, deleting them, renaming and organizing the ones I need/want to keep.
.. - And over the past few days, I’ve had a sudden surge of folks buying stuff off of my design store: TxCowboyDancer Designs! Woot! Uh-huh! It really does make me feel good when something I created is bought by someone who thinks highly enough of it to lay out some cold hard cash. Even at a measly 10% commission. But hey, I ain’t gonna turn it down! Woot!Here is the current “Top Dozen” most popular designs on my site:
- Also in the “graphic design” front, one of my very favorite designs was purchased this week *and* it appears in the Top 12 for the first time! Woot! It is a photo I took when I visited Banff, just outside of Calgary, Canada. I fell in love. I actually checked job listings at their local library when I got back home to Texas. Alas, there were no openings. *sigh* Here is the photo for your enjoyment (or if you wanna buy something with it on it, well that works too!) LOL
I mean, I’m not a pro photographer by any stretch of the imagination, but sometimes you get lucky… *sigh* I wish I could go back….
- And, finally, I’ve noticed over the past few days that I am more flexible, I’m able to reach and twist more that I could a month ago. Life is good.
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New Section opens at TxCowboyDancer Designs
Tao & Zen Designs
Hi guys,
I’ll make this short. I just opened a new section on my storefront (TxCowboyDancer Designs) called:
It will have a mish-mash of beautiful designs inspired by Eastern Philosophies and traditions.
Nothing preachy, just cool fun stuff featuring awesome designs. 🙂
Sample of the designs in this section:
And I’ve loaded the first of many designs there for you to checkout. Here are pics of the first couple designs.
There are more than this — and lots more on the way — but here is a sampling:
See ya on the dance floor!
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Pop Quiz: What do “maps” and “Hee-Haw” have in common?
Me! Of course!
All will be revealed… Just keep reading. 🙂
I was curious….
If you follow me on:
- Facebook (facebook.com/txcowboydancer)
- or on Twitter (twitter.com/TxCowboyDancer)
- or on Pinterest (www.pinterest.com/txcowboydancer)
Then you know that I’ve been “celebrating” just about every sale I make on my store, TxCowboyDancer Designs,
because the whole concept of being a self-employed, freelancer, in-DE-pen-DANT BIZness person, is well, uhmmm… something new. 🙂
and because every sale and every dollar is one tiny contribution toward keeping me off of a street corner holding a sign that says Read the rest of this entry
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Where Tony’s been hiding and Thank Heaven for the Affordable Care Act
I’ve been out of the loop…
I heard through the grapevine that people from the dance world have been asking “Where’s Tony?” Hmmm… Is that kinda like “Where’s Waldo but in cowboy boots? Read on if you’re curious about what’s been going on and why I’ve not been around the dance scene lately
But first… let me share some good news! On Jan 1st, I’m getting health insurance and…
I’m going to be able to see the Doctor!!!!!!
No, not the cutie to the right.. LOL YummME!
First of all… some ground rules:
In this post I’m going to be voicing my opinion at great length on a “hot button topic,” the Affordable Care Act”, something which I’ve never really done on my blog before.
But this is important folks! And, to answer the question of “Where has Tony been? well, it is sorta necessary.
Setting that aside though for the moment, it is important to let folks know that the the ACA not some remote political fight. There are real people benefiting from this law. People like me. By sharing my story perhaps anyone who reads this can put a “real face” to the issue.
Having said that, I recognize that others may disagree and want to comment and/or voice a rebuttal to what I have to say, which is fine.
However… “No rude or mean comments!!!” If anyone chooses to make a comment on this post, then awesome, but if you don’t like the ACA (I refuse to call it “Obamacare”) then also fine, you are welcome to post an intelligent politely worded comment and disagree with me.
I have absolutely no problems with people holding different opinions than I, nor with people voicing those opinions, BUT there is no need to be rude or mean or demeaning while doing it. Any such posts will be deleted, not approved for posting, and I’ll remove you from my “follow” list immediately. So just don’t go there!
Say it nicely or don’t say it at all! There is too much of that kind of BS in Washington. I don’t have to put up with it on my blog.
Now… where was I? LOL I do that a lot don’t I… start out with one idea then BAM “Squirrel” I’m off on another topic! Woot! I should make a tee-shirt… Hmmmm… now there’s an idea! Woot!
I have an awesome Doctor!
Her name is Karen King; she is caring and kind and sweet, and efficient and knows her stuff and well, she’s just AWESOME! And for almost 2 years I haven’t been able to see her about stuff that I really do need to see her about.
Uh… you guys did catch that right? LET ME REPEAT:
For ALMOST TWO YEARS I have needed to go to the doctor and to the dentist for things and have not been able to do so because I can’t afford it. We live in the richest nation on the planet and a citizen of that country like myself has to go without healthcare because of money?
It is just wrong, that a person, an individual, has to ignore health issues and scrabble and scramble to make ends meet while corporations are sitting on BILLIONS of dollars protected by loopholes in the tax law written by the guys they helped elect allow them to keep piling up the wealth while people in this country go homeless and hungry and without health care?
Almost EVERY other major industrialized Western nation on the planet has UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE for its citizens. And we don’t? There is something wrong with this picture.
ACA is getting a bad rap and it should not!
A case study of 1 — “Moi” who thinks it is AMAZING!
Rather than jump immediately into this big huge philosophical discussion of the ACA and it’s relative merits, let’s talk about this in a “real world” kind of thing.
Bringing it down to a “real person” level
Putting a face on it… My face to be precise.
And after I’m done… Read the rest of this entry
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Where Ideas Come From…
I confess that I have a weird brain
Ok, Ok… friends who know me outside of this blog… Hmmm.. Scratch that… whether you know me from reading this blog or if you know me from wherever…
You can stop laughing.
Now! Stop! I tell you!
Cease. Desist! *SIGH* Fine…
I’ll wait. Dum de dum dum..
Ok, there, got that out of your system? *SIGH*
Yes, I’m fully aware that I have a strange brain. It makes connections that most people don’t make. I’m not saying that in a “bragging” way because most of the connections that it makes are not for public consumption and I wisely keep them under wraps.
I have thought occasionally that maybe everybody’s brain works this way and that EVERYBODY keeps the weirdness under wraps so everybody thinks that nobody makes these weird connections. Which is just weird.
Because if we’re all “weird” and making “weird connections” then wouldn’t that make “weird” well.. Uhmmm “normal?”
I should move to Austin Texas. Ya gotta love a city who’s unofficial motto is “Keep Austin Weird”
uh-oh… I’ve gone into Free Association Mode. BEEP Danger! Warning! Danger Will Robinson! Resetting Brain…
I Told you! that my brain makes weird connections! I wish someone would make a “brain image recorder” because the movie of my brain would be well, weird. Interesting, maybe, scary, probably, but definitely weird.
BUT!!!!!!! WEIRD IS sometimes AWESOME! Like when you’re a “creative personality” or you are a comedian then you get on stage and say just about anything that comes to mind. And get paid for it! Woot! (I confess, money, or the impending lack of it is something that very near the surface of my thoughts almost 100% of the time lately… but I digress…)
I do that you know. 😉 Back to the comedians:
In two separate interviews, two of my favorite comedians / actors: Robin Williams and Jim Carey answered essentially the same way when asked about “Where they get their ideas?”
Both of them said that they get ideas constantly, almost continuously. The hard part is to not say them out loud because people would call 911 and nice guys with a really cool white jacket would show up. Essentially they said they their brain is just wired that way; they can’t shut it off.
Hmmm… I guess that puts me in pretty good company. LOL I just wish I made as much as those guys. 🙂
Speaking of the weird, well unusual.. in a good way… when you visit my blog, check out the snowflakes. COOL! No, I didn’t do it. It is something that Word Press does for the month of Dec.
Background on my latest design:
Bad Cowboy c2013 TxCowboyDancer Designs
Sometimes my ideas seem to just pop into my head but this idea is a little more concrete.
I was out at a club, Hmmmm, must have been a year ago at least… a friend of mine was looking at this really cute guy and said “I’ve been a bad cowboy. You should send me to his room.”
Well I burst out laughing and promptly found one of those little cards they put at the bar to write phone numbers on, and wrote it down.
It has been in my “idea file” every since. Uhmm.. not the card; the quip. I have this text file on my computer where as strange and weird things occur to me that *might* end up on a t-shirt someday, well I jot them down.
And when I get stuck for an idea, I open it up and start skimming. The first one that makes me laugh out loud. Yes LOL for real, well, that is the one I start working on.
As I was finishing up this design I showed it to my room mate and he said. “Oh I’ve seen that on a t-shirt before.” After I said “Oh Crap!” I clarified with my roomie that my design, to the best he could recall, looked a lot different than the tee-shirt he had seen before.
So… a quick internet search revealed that while I’m definitely not the first one to do a design along these lines, none of the designs I could find look like mine! WHEW! Want to see the search? you’ll see that my design is WAY COOLER! Jus’ Sayin’ 😉
Mental note to Tony: before spending hours on a design, do an internet search to see if someone else has already done it and if they have, well do it different and better. Whew!
My favorite TWO products with the new design…
Stretched Canvas Print – Available framed or unframed on skinny to thick canvases or on single, double, triple or quad panel configurations.
I’m going to do something new with this post, even though I realize it is already long. See what happens when I let my “inner weird” break loose? *sigh*
Anyway, I”m going to put two products up front and center: A dart Board and a Canvas Print.
You can see the rest of the products after the jump if you like. But these two products are something that I always put new designs on but no one has ever bought. Yet.
Probably because they are sorta expensive. Eeek! I know that I wouldn’t buy them. Hey, truth in advertising! But I’m an out-of-work librarian pretending to be a graphics designer! LOL Not some potentially wealthy customer with money to burn and friends to buy presents for… *hint* *hint*
Dart Board featuring “I’ve been a bad cowboy” design. Available at TxCowboyDancer Designs
AN – KNEE – WAY…
These two featured products are ones that I think would be perfect for a MAN CAVE or a BAR or a NIGHTCLUB!
Hey! Terri B. Are you reading this? Hmmmmm????
Roger? How about you? Show it to the owners! Don’t you think one of these would look great at the RU?
Hey Debbie! Don’t you want one of these for your new club?
OMG! I know a lot of bar folks! LOL Not a word dear readers… not a word!
The REST of My favorite products…
…with the new design on stuff that is a lot cheaper and priced for mere mortals and not Guys looking to decorate their Man Cave or Bar Owners looking to sell beer…
jus sayin… 😉
5-6-7-8 Dancing My Way to a Healthy Me! 