Today in Laos–Flash Flood in the North

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It’s raining lightly in Vientiane at the moment, and we haven’t had an overwhelming amount recently, but in the north, it’s a different story. This is from the Vientiane Times:

Floodwaters surge around Laos-China border crossing as Luang Namtha declares disaster zone.

Luang Namtha province in northern Laos was declared a disaster zone on Saturday after flash floods surged around the Laos-China border crossing in Boten, inundating buildings, a special economic zone, farmland and critical infrastructure across more than 30 villages.

Of course, this is nothing like the recent Nepal flash flood, but I’m sure the people in Luang Namtha are feeling stricken.

Why I’m Slow to Post Digital Art

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I stated in an earlier post that I was back into doing digital art again. So, why haven’t I posted anything recently? Time. The lack of time.(But, read the end of this post to see my real time killer.) I’m involved in so many artistic endeavors and other interests that it’s impossible to keep up with everything. I’m stretched too thin and I should, undoubtedly, focus on one area instead of flitting from one thing to another. Here are the various interests I’m involved in:

First, and probably foremost, are the several Photoshop Artistry courses I’m either taking or have finished but refer back to from time to time. There is the original Grunge course that got me started on this journey and then, after that, the Awake group of artistic training. I’ve finished both of those, and I’m currently doing an ongoing monthly artistic group called Kaizen. I’ve been a member for several years, a total of 92 monthly courses, but I’m only at month 52. Gotta catch up! All three of these have been created by Sebastian Michaels, a wonderful teacher and guru of all things digital art. The original Photoshop Artistry: Fine Art Grunge Composition course cost $197, and the Kaizen group, which is closed to new members, costs $37 a month. It has been well worth the price. I don’t remember what I paid for the Awake group. It might have been free and was by invite only. I don’t think it’s offered any more.

Another group is Evenant, started by Scandanavian creators, Walid Feghali and Arn Andersson, which teaches digital Matte Painting and offers other modules (for a price, of course). I’m currently doing, when I make time, seven courses and workshops, including The Awesome Art of Matte Painting, Visual Storytelling, Cinematic Design and four others. They’re worth the price I paid for them, though the focus is different than the Photoshop Artistry courses. They’re related, though somewhat different. Evenant also offers Musical Composition courses, if you’re interested. All of these courses, as well as the Photoshop Artistry courses, have lifetime access, so I can re-visit them anytime I want.

Lest I forget, there’s also Shift Art and Shift Art Summit. Here’s a description of them from the website: Shift Art was launched on December 1st, 2015. The site is dedicated to highlighting Photoshop artists and their work with interviews, galleries and tutorials. The goal is to promote a new generation of artists using Photoshop as their main medium. To facilitate this, Shift Art offers a member’s only tutorial collection which includes tutorials by the featured artists. It’s $97 for lifetime access, which I have, and Shift Art Summit comes free with the Kaizen group mentioned above. Another worthwhile endeavor.

There are also Training for Comics (you might get an alert from your virus protection software, but I’ve never had a problem with the site), Phil Steele training for using AI in MidJourney and Photoshop, and the twice-a-year Dave Cross Photo Shop and Lightroom Virtual Summit courses, to all of which I have lifetime access. Again, they are a bit pricey, but worth it.

So, as you can see, I’m kept quite busy with digital art. But there’s more.

What’s my biggest time black hole? Playing computer games, mainly the long-running MMORPG “The Lord of the Rings Online,” or LotRO for short. I love Tolkien’s books and I’ve read them probably at least a dozen times since I first read the trilogy in 1970. LotRO scratches the itch. It also sucks up a lot of my free time. I play several other games as well, but they don’t engross me as much as LotRO. Those games include Eve Online, another time killing MMORPG, and a few other old classics, none of which I regularly play.

I’m going to start a Gaming Page on this website or include gaming into the main blog posts. If it’s a new page, just see the top menu bar.

Anyway, there you have it. My time is “precious,” to paraphrase an iconic adjective from The Lord of the Rings. I’ll eventually get serious with digital art again, so if you’re looking for some art on this blog, don’t worry. I’ll get some posts up sooner or later. Thanks for reading this somewhat long post.

Too Much Rain

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Finally . . . FINALLY . . . after 2 weeks, I was able to walk through my front yard to go out to the main road to do some walking without getting my shoes completely water logged. It’s been that long since I’ve been able to do any jogging or power walking at all. Tomorrow, barring any rain overnight, I’ll be able to get back to my morning routine.

There’s a restaurant owner a few minutes down the road who’s had the same problem–3 to 4 inches of water, above the ankles, at least, for the past couple of weeks. I’ve been walking through the yard in my sandals, so I ordered some fried rice and shrimp from the place yesterday and that’s when I talked to him.

The same problem occurred last year, though not for so long a time, and I posted about it, with a YouTube video, here.

I sure hope this dry spell lasts a while, a week or so at least, though that’s doubtful. I plan on going to Nongkhai next week for several days. Fingers crossed.

Rainy Season in Laos

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Speaking of the rainy season in Laos, which I mentioned in my previous post, it rained quite heavily a few nights ago. The two ponds on either side of my house filled up and overflowed into my yard, a somewhat usual occurrence this time of year. In the past I’ve foregone the pleasure of taking my morning jog because it was impossible to walk out to the main road without getting my running shoes completely drenched. Normally, it takes a few days without rain and with lots of sunshine to reduce the amount of water in my yard.

But now I have a backup for that. My place of employment, Vientiane College, installed a small gym, complete with a few treadmills, for teachers and staff to use on the top floor of the building. So, before my normal class periods begin in the evening, I have time in the afternoon to do either some jogging or some power walking. Hooray, no more down time

I still have to take my shoes off and put them in a plastic bag while I wear my old sandals coming and going to the main road through my yard. It’s impossible, for me at least, to ride through the yard without putting my feet down to balance my motorbike through all the water, which right now is about three to four inches deep in a few places. When I get to the school, about 16 kilometers away, I can remove the sandals, let my feet dry, and put on some nice, dry socks and shoes. So, I can do cardio exercising without skipping many days.

The next time I get the opportunity, I’ll take a photo of our wonderful new, albeit small, gym.

Beginning of Buddhist Lent

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Yesterday, July 29th, was the first day of Buddhist Lent, Boun Khao Phansa (boon cow PHANsa, approximately), which lasts for three months and ends on October 26th. Lent marks the period when monks are supposed to stay at their home temples throughout the time.

As it is described in the Vientiane Times (subscription required):

“Far more than a religious celebration, Khao Phansa is a season that encourages people to pause, reflect and reconnect with the values of compassion, generosity and self-discipline. It is a time when monks devote themselves to deeper spiritual practice, while ordinary people seek to improve themselves through acts of kindness and moral living.

“Across Laos, families prepare for Khao Phansa by visiting temples, making merit and offering essential items to support monks during their retreat. Candles, new robes, umbrellas, rice, drinking water, dried food and daily necessities are among these gifts. These offerings symbolise gratitude and respect, while helping monks to devote themselves to their religious practice without concern for material needs.”

The Times also tells about the history behind the period:

Often referred to as the “rains retreat,” Buddhist Lent has its roots in ancient India. During the rainy season, travelling became difficult because roads turned muddy and rivers overflowed.

As Buddhism spread and the number of monks increased, many travelled from place to place, unintentionally damaging farmers’ rice fields and vegetable gardens. To protect the crops and the harmony between monks and local communities, the Buddha established the tradition that monks should remain in one place throughout the rainy season.

And in summary:

“As candles continue to shine in temples across Laos during these sacred months, they symbolise more than tradition. They represent hope, wisdom and the enduring light of compassion. Whether through prayer, generosity or quiet reflection, Buddhist Lent is a reminder that true peace begins within ourselves, and that even the smallest acts of kindness can brighten the lives of others.”

I wrote about Lent last year and my partner Nai’s preparation of a goodie basket for the monks. He’s a very devout Buddhist when it comes to these religious events. But for me, about the only real significance of the period is that when it ends on October 26th, the next day is the final day of the Vientiane Boat Racing Festival. I have a few posts that you can read here and here about that festival.

Digital Art Inspiration

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It’s about time for me to start creating digital art after a long lay off. How long? It seems like it’s been a year, at least. The last piece of art I created was this piece looking down on the main avenue in Vientiane toward the president’s mansion.

Traffic on Lane Xang Avenue looking toward president's mansion in Vientiane, Laos.

I stated in a previous post that I wanted to get back on the creative wagon, so I’d better start.

I have a few ideas about my next piece of art. The one that most attracts me at the moment is one based on the song “Midnight at the Oasis” by Maria Muldaur that she recorded way back in 1973.

So, the next digital art I post on this blog will probably be from that idea. When will I post it? Who knows, but not too far in the future, hopefully. Perhaps I should make a video about the creative process for making it.

My mentor and guru, Sebastian Michaels of My Photo Artistic Life and Quill and Camera posts in the latest Living the Photo Artistic Life magazine, issue 135,

“The secret isn’t in the material. The secret isn’t even in what you do with the material in Photoshop.

The secret is in loving the process of creating art each day.
The secret is in falling in love with the artistic life itself.

As a creative photographer, it can’t just be about the one shot in a hundred that turns out worthy of your portfolio. It has to be about the feel of the camera in your hands, the controls under your fingers and the compositions you’re framing through the eyepiece. It has to be about that strange, almost dreamlike state you slip into as you seek to create something beautiful, original, stunning…

And as a digital artist working in Photoshop, you have to fall in love with playing with brushes, assigning blend modes, painting on layer masks. You have to fall in love with laying down dramatic lighting and shadows, with finessing textures and making subtle
tweaks to the toning.

You have to fall in love with creating the perfect background, extracting models, and bringing together creative elements and artistic content.

You have to take joy in playing with the Warp tool, adjusting Camera Raw settings, stacking Filters.

To you, all these have to become as delightful as the feel of clay on the wheel is to a sculptor or the mixing of oil paints on a palette is to a painter.

And when each day promises a return to these delights, how much greater and endlessly rewarding is the artistic life you’ve chosen.

Not that being an artist is without its share of frustrations or fallow periods when self-doubt creeps in and threatens to throw a cloud over even the sunniest of days. But the solution when this happens, I’m convinced, remains the same:

Take a deep breath. Maybe revisit some of the issues of this magazine. And remind yourself again what it is you love about art and about the creative process itself.

If you find you’re putting too much pressure on yourself, if you’re wasting your time and energy comparing yourself to others, if you’re spending too much time on social media when you should be sipping tea, playing music, and making something…

It’s time to take up the tools of your craft again and spend some time simply playing, rediscovering the fun in all this, and reminding yourself just how much you love the process of creating something for the simple joy of it all.

An artistic life is a magical life in so many ways. But only when we see its blessings for what they are and continually fall back in love with all the little things that go into it each day.”

~Sebastian

Yes, words of inspiration from Sebastian Michaels, words that give me a bit of a kick in the you know where. So, back at it again. Stay tuned for more.

Sad News From Laos Cave

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There is sad news from the ongoing Laos cave rescue attempt as divers and officials have indefinitely suspended the operation that was still searching for two other miners trapped in the submerged cave. They stated that the conditions at the cave entrance were now too dangerous for rescue attempts to continue and that the lives of the rescuers would also be endangered.

But, the article also goes on to say that there is the possibility that there are no miners left in the cave system.

“But Richards said some of the rescued miners told officials that there were only six of them trapped in the cave, including one who managed to extract himself at the outset of the emergency and alert authorities.

Richards said that one possible theory is that eight miners entered the cave and three got out on their own and went into hiding because their mining activities are illegal in Laos and subject to prosecution.”

My question is where are the families of the two purportedly trapped miners? Are they still waiting at the cave? Are the two really still in the cave? I’ll keep you posted as possible future developments unfold.

Laos Cave Rescue Update

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No news is probably, in this case, bad news. Rescuers haven’t reported any new findings from the rescue attempt. They are going to try rappelling down a shaft today, Thursday, June 4th, in an attempt to try to find two missing miners, according to this article from AOL.

According to the article, there may be a chance that there aren’t any more miners left in the cave system, that the only ones in there were the five that were taken out. You can read about that near the end of the article. Let’s hope that’s the case.

Laos Gold Mining Crackdown

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Here is a Laotian Times article related to my last post about the rescue of villagers from a flooded cave in which they were supposedly looking for gold deposits. The illegal mining was taking place in Xaysomboun Province, the same province where the trapped villagers were rescued. I guess it just shows that some Laotians, villagers and larger mining operators alike, aren’t averse to trying to get the shiny stuff in any way they can, sometimes with consequences of one kind or another.

UPDATE: Laos cave rescue workers report ‘knocking sound’ in search for last 2 missing people

Let’s hope for the best!