New Art Blog

Just thought I'd let everyone know that I've just started a new blog to talk and show paintings I've completed or am working on at present. I plan on posting some older stuff also.

Bill Guffey's Art Blog

New Painting - Villa One

Acrylic on canvas. 10" x 10"

Not Working Properly

That was written on a small piece of paper and taped to the front of a Pepsi machine, just above the coin and dollar bill slots. I wanted something from the inflicted machine but felt I couldn't chance it.

NOT WORKING PROPERLY

What does that mean? I can understand an "Out of Order" sign, but couldn't quite grasp what the establishment was getting at. They want me to insert my money and maybe something will happen?

Back from a brief hiatus...

Yawwwnnnnn....Wow! What a nap!

I seem to have gone to sleep in early November and have just awoke from a three month sleep. Actually, I was simply lazy in my blogging duties. But I noticed a recent spike in hits and thought I might add a bit.

So, let's play catch-up.

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The Library Renovation

Our purchase of a vacant building didn't work out. As the seller changed the rules mid-stream and I, nor the board, will play games. We are now awaiting for our renovation project to be put out for bids. With the new governor, most funds have been pulled from our county, and we are hoping that our grant stays put until the project is complete.

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Book Projects

I've completed a couple of projects for clients with pleasing results. Both, on their end, and mine.

I am currently working (slowly but surely) on a couple more things for me personally. Still accepting stories for When God Moved.

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Screenplay

Working on a screenplay based on the Coe Colony. The story has real potential, I just hope to do it justice.

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Website

Still a few things to complete, and I'm working on getting rid of the flash altogether.

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Painting

Knocked the dust off the brushes. Maybe I'll post a pic sometime (if I ever get the nerve).

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Thanks for reading. I'll try to be more faithful in my blogging. Too bad there's only so much time in the day.

Latest Release, Library News, Website ReDo, etc.

We have just received The History of Cumberland County by J.W. Wells. This book has been reprinted a few times, and is a perennial favorite for folks concerned with the history of this area of Kentucky, and in particular, the genealogy of the families. J.W. Wells was a judge of Cumberland County at one time and worked hard compiling the information contained in this book. There is a site out there that has an Index to this book.

We are ordering more copies of our other local titles and hope to sell many during the upcoming holiday season.

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The Library Board of Trustees got the go-ahead to turn our renovation grant into a renovation/purchase grant and have been pursuing a vacant building here in town. Hope to have good news soon.

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We have updated our website with a new look. But there is trouble with it at present. There is a flash header that reloads each time a new page is chosen. And on most browsers it looks okay, but I can't even get the thing to load on my Mac. I'm thinking of dropping the flash altogether and just going with the straight HTML pages. Thoughts?

New Monitor

My new monitor was delivered today. An HP w2007 22" Widescreen LCD.

Wow! It really is something, and will be even better once I upgrade my video card so that it will run the native resolution of the monitor, which is 1680 x 1050. I am currently typing this in portrait mode. About 12" wide and 22" tall. Why? You ask? Because I can.

Seriously though . . . I was working wioth it in portrait mode in InDesign CS2 this evening and loved every minute of it. Had to break out a little Photoshop and test the waters there also.

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I've been meaning to post for some time now, but have been really busy since the Bluegrass Festival. We set up for a day and a half and sold about 150 books. Split pretty evenly between Fire in the Hole and Chronicles of the Coe Colony.

I've just finished a project locally and hope to have the proof by Thursday.

Also reprinting another local history book, The History of Cumberland County, soon. Hope to have it out by November. That book, along with our other two local interest books, should do well this Holiday Season.

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I haven't posted on the Library renovation for a while now. It seems that the project has taken another twist lately. A local drug store recently went out of business and we are looking at a possible purchase of that building. Yes. We are talking about moving our library instead of renovating it. There are many reasons why we have chosen this route and there just isn't the time now to go into it. Let's just say that this move could be the best thing that has happened to our Library since its beginnings back in the early 1960's.

More on this and many other subjects later. I'll try and be more visible on the blog in the upcoming bit.

Blog stats can be scary

Back in December of 2006 I posted a picture of my wife's well-intentioned attempt at Reindeer Cookies. I actually made fun of the little delectables and called them Evil Chihuahua Christmas Dog Cookies. It was all in good fun.

Until today.

Checking statistics today to look at blog visits and what url they orginated from, I found the following google search string that led here, which cannot be a proud moment in this blogs history...

erotica chihuahua dog stories

Now, I'm not going to mention the city or state this search originated from. Not even going to say what ISP was involved. I will say it was initiated at 10 a.m. with the computer in question using XP, IE6, with a screen resolution set at 1280 x 1024.

I know that if I ever end up stopping in the town of about 40,000 (looked that stat up), it will be difficult to forget, and equally difficult to not automatically judge anyone showing human/chihuahua public displays of affection.

Ugghhh...I think it's time for a shower.

USPS vs UPS

I did a bad thing. I thought I had ordered enough of our two local histories to get us through the couple of weeks before the Cumberland River Bluegrass Festival, and to take us on through that weekend. But a wonderful thing happened. We have almost sold out of Fire in the Hole.

So on Tuesday I talked to our Client Services Rep at the printing company we use, and asked if she thought it would be possible to order, and receive, more books by next weekend. She thinks we'll get the books on time so I went ahead and placed the order.

While checking out the shipping costs through the online order form I noticed that 100 copies of this small (104 page) book, shipped by USPS Media Mail would be $58, while UPS is only $15. Helloooo! Why hadn't I seen this difference before!?

Adding to the confusion, Media Mail has to go from Nashville (point of distribution) to Memphis (Media Mail huib for that region), then to Cincinnati (MM hub for our region), then back down to Elizabethtown, Kentucky and finally to its final destination here on the Kentucky/Tennessee border. I can drive to Nashville in two hours, yet by MM it takes days upon days for delivery.

I guess my message this morning is don't assume anything about shipping. Make sure before you place your order. Brown just might surprise you.

You can't beat free advertising!

We received a multiple book order from a library today.

After replying to the librarian I checked our website to see if I could tell how she found us. What I learned was that our company and our two new local history titles were mentioned, along with a link, in the Kentucky Literary Newsletter which has over 1,700 online subscribers.

We're getting a lot of website hits today, and it didn't cost anything. You have to love that.

A big THANK YOU goes out to the good folks at the Kentucky Literary Newsletter.