Month: August 2026

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.