May 2, 2020 - 232 - "What Was My Mission Again?"

Announcement:  New Website Name!

     I made up the name of this website in about the same way that we made up our old house name in Mexico:  
     a) with zero forethought whatsoever, and
     b) more as a tongue in cheek joke than anything intentional.

    But now I've actually taken some time to think about the subject. I've come up with a new name for this site.

Old Name:    DeepThoughtsOnSeriousSubjects.blogspot.com
New Name:  DailyHitsofHappy.com

    (You can enter either of the names and still get the same place.)

On A Mission

     I'm not sure my new name will reflect the actual content of the site any more than the old one did.  But, I do know that the new name better reflects the intention of the website.  

     My intention is always to:

           -Make you smile.  (Well, honestly, I'd prefer making you shoot milk out of your nose, but a smile works too.)

Technology Bringing Me Down

     So, that brings me to yesterday.  

    You could probably tell from my post that technology had its way with me this past week.  I got the website redirected.  That was a little easier than I thought it would be.  (Though I've found some glitches, but it's pretty much working.)

     But then the favicon thing was proving way more difficult than I expected.  

     I was feeling bummed.  

    Not only was I struggling with trying to get the technical stuff done, but I felt I was running out of time every day to actually write, and felt like my posts all sucked.  

     I had intense and frequent "Why am I doing all this?" moments.  

     Nothing was helping much.  My morning check-in wasn't as motivating as it usually is.   I was trying all day to use my 'go for feeling just a little bit better' method, but mainly felt like:  "meh."

Darkest Before The Dawn

   For days I'd been going back and forth via email with Emilie, from the help desk at PicMonkey.  PicMonkey is my photo editing site.  I was attempting to create my "Grand Vision" for my new site's signature images.  

    Nothing was working.  The simplest little things weren't working.

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    I wanted balloons.  Because balloons say "Happy!" to me. 

    The site had the stock photos of the world's cutest little balloon image...

      
    My vision had four balloons in a row.  No problem:  super easy to copy the image.

    But the balloon was red.  Not that I have anything against red.  But I had more rainbow-type colors in mind.

    That's usually nothing for PicMonkey (there's an actual monkey in their favicon, and he is all-kinds-of cute!). PicMonkey can recolor things like nobody's business. Recoloring stuff is nothin' for that little monkey.

   ...except this time.  The balloon would change colors...  But not to any color I actually intended...

Colors on the left were what I wanted them to be.
Colors on the right were what they were stubbornly being.

   I shared my troubles with Emilie, and she was responsive and sympathetic and saw that it wasn't working.  She said she'd talk to the techies about the issue.

   She did, and got back to me with the bad news that:

Hi Susan, 

     It turns out the balloon image is a bitmap file, and sadly it's not possible (it is, but we can't control it) to change the colours* for this particular file type.

I'm very sorry about that, Susan.​ 

We'd kindly advise you use SVG files in the editor instead, as you'll be able to change the colours for these. 

I hope this helps. Is there anything else I can help you with? 

 All the best, 

Emilie

*I suspect Emilie is British because she spells color like this.

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     I was now entirely and genuinely frustrated.  I loved that little balloon!

     But it wasn't Emilie's fault, so I thanked her for her time:

Hi Emilie, 

Thanks for looking into this and getting back to me.

It's not what I wanted to hear, but I can now move on to finding another image.  (Though, like a bad boyfriend, the fact that this one's no longer an option makes me realize just how perfect it was for me.)  I'll look for a more compatible SVG file before I fall in love with the next one.  

That's all I need help with...unless you can send over a robotic chef to save us from all this endless cooking-at-home. 

Thanks for your help. 

Stay safe and well and may your favored images always be color-changeable!  :-) 

Susan 

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    I then went on to jump through all sorts of hoops trying to convert that little red balloon to an SVG file (which I did), and then recolor it (which I couldn't do...kept having a black border...and the wrong colors...and I just couldn't get it right.)

Wanted bright, vivid colors with no outline.
Got tepid colors with a black outline.  Blech.

    And I was frustrated and annoyed and disappointed and tired of the whole thing...

The Dawn

     But then I got this email back from Emilie:

Hi Susan, 

Your email truly made me laugh! 

Thank you for putting a smile on my face today.  

If you ever need help with anything else in the future please don't hesitate to get back to me. 

Have a lovely day and keep safe!  

All the best, 

Emilie

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     And suddenly my day was GREAT! 

     I was so excited I went down to tell Michael that I made someone laugh!

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    When I got downstairs, he was looking at his phone and said:   I just read your posts from the last two days, and I loved them!  

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     And suddenly my day got even GREATER!  Suddenly my day was the absolute GREATEST EVER!

My Mission

     And it occurred to me:  At the heart of this blog is my desire to make someone laugh, or chuckle, or even smile.   

     The very thought makes my day.  

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     Eventually, I bought some balloon images from a graphic artist on Etsy for $1.55 that were already colored the colors I wanted.  That was money well spent.  I hope I remember this next time I go down a black hole of image-altering.

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     I created, not precisely (never precisely), but pretty darn close to the vision I had of what I wanted:

     And this image also makes me smile...and my heart sing!  Cute, huh?  Happy, huh?!

     I hope you like it too!  

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"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."

-Leo Buscaglia

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"I have been complimented many times, and they always embarrass me; I always feel that they have not said enough."

-Mark Twain

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