Most of the time I don't read comments, even in the forums here. (Whoever said "nothing good ever came from reading the comments" was wise indeed) Even so, every so often someone posts something intelligent, something that is food for thought... It's a nice change of pace, if nothing else.

I don't think Mr. Electrix007 necessarily has the gospel truth but, whoever he is, he's obviously someone who keeps the big picture in view. That is something I try to do as well, & not just in markets & finance.

Lately I've been posting chicken scratch on my other account, @ShadeUncut . Go check it out if you're bored. Photos of a couple small projects I did earlier this year will go up on there in the next two weeks.

As of April 18th, 2347 hrs.

It's been mostly wiggling between $2,370-ish & $2,410 for a few days now... Not bad at all, considering the price per oz. was nowhere near that at the end of 2019. Gold has gained a hair over 85% in value since then. I do wish its recent rise was for better reasons, though. (The current Middle East conflict & faltering stock market indexes because everyone is jittery have a lot to do with it.)

gold price per oz., as of 11:06 this evening

It's gone up just over 8% in the last 30 days. Nice.

The title is self-explanatory. The appointments to see various specialists are becoming a bit more frequent, & will be for a while though not all year. Chronic illness & getting older completely suck.

Aside from that, I've been scribbling again...a sample follows. Not much more to report at this time.

I like to keep track...though not always closely. If you are exposed to a given market, you want to know what's going on within it. So as of earlier today:

Gold has gone up a hair over 4% in a month's time while platinum hasn't moved at all...I do wonder why. One possible reason is a %age of investors are nervous about the markets--stocks & ETFs can't keep up like this indefinitely, especially with the economic conditions we're in--& so are putting money into gold as a safe haven...a proven strategy. There's always a bit of randomness in the signals as well.

A few minutes ago, after a websearch I sent an email to my old art instructor, from my university days.

I don't know if he will read it because I don't know if he's even alive or mentally competent...his work goes from the 1960's to 2020. The latter year was the last time he updated his website, so who knows? Maybe he doesn't give a shit by now. But I sent the email anyway.

I got my B.A. just before 9-11. So damn much has changed in modern society in that time...not all the changes were good or desirable. A chronic condition I didn't see coming completely shifted my life around & not for the better. But in all that time I never stopped being an artist.

And I never forgot about my instructor.

He was one of the two best ones I encountered when I was inside my alma mater.

Ai-yi-yi-yiieeee!

After posting my last piece here I leave, stay out for almost three days, & when I come back there's more of you!

24 followers now?...almost twice as many as the last time I checked. Where did y'all come from so quick?? How many of you are human & not bots? If you're human, please leave a comment...I like having a sense of who's behind a screen name.

For those of you who just signed on: Welcome. Sit down, take a load off, have a drink of whatever you like. I don't have any hard stuff in the cabinet but I do keep some good wines around at all times. There's also coffee if you like having the jitters. Right now I only have one piece in my portfolio, namely In the Catacombs. I intend to add at least one more piece this year, two if I can get away with it. If you're into saccharine cartoons, furries & other cute stuff then you may not like it here, as I tend to focus on memento mori & philosophical pessimism. When I'm not doing any of that I'm building canes out of various hardwoods, stainless steel tubing &/or other materials as needed. I'm also a dyed-in-the-wool traditionalist (the only digital stuff I do is editing pieces I already made) so don't expect the bright, crisp, slick aesthetic so typical of online art these days.

Of my "Playlists" (digital file folders), for some reason Newgrounders seem to like

the most. Why that is, I don't know. Personally I'm rather proud of some of my

...one thing I can tell you: it's unusual. You will not find too many other lettering guys on NG. I use it as a design element, more than anything else.

Feel free to explore my gallery here or the playlists. If you wanna leave a comment on my work, go ahead but I would appreciate it if you explain your position. Saying "this is awesome!" or "this sucks" doesn't tell me a lot. If you can say why you think the piece is great or why it sucks, I'm much more likely to seriously consider your comments.

Who is Luke Perry?