cheerfulmonk.com

Why I Love That Doodle

Jean — Tue, 16 Jun 2026 06:00:43 +0000

Linda Sand said she thought it looked sad. I think it looks young and innocent. The feet reminds me of the sleepers Kaitlin wore as a baby.

Here she is with her proud father.

And here she is when she was a little older.

Heartwarming memories.

June 16, 2026

Two Things

Jean — Mon, 15 Jun 2026 06:00:51 +0000

That Amazon delivery: The missing item I wrote about came Saturday, but they charged me for it again. Once I found the “call me” option on their site, the matter was easily settled. But it was tricky to find that option, so I think next time I’ll try phoning them directly and see if that works better.

Phone Call 1-888-280-4331 (available 24/7). Say “representative” or press 0 to skip the automated system.

Brain teaser: What four-letter word can be written forward, backward and upside down and still be read from left to right?

Click here for the answer.

June 15, 2026

The Quality of Our Lives

Jean — Sun, 14 Jun 2026 06:00:49 +0000

The quality of our lives depends on how we focus our energy and our attention.

Focus on what you want, not on what you don’t want.

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
—Epictetus (~50-135 AD)

Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response.
—Viktor Frankl

Stay curious and open to life. No matter what happens keep learning and growing. Find what you love and find a way to share it with others.

I thought of these a lot yesterday morning as I spent an hour or two with Century Link while they verified there was problem with our internet line and scheduled a repair trip. Someone is supposed to come out on June 24 between 8 am and 5 pm. Fingers crossed!

I think the most interesting thing is they couldn’t schedule a repair unless I gave them a cell phone number. Apparently our landline number is useless for that. It isn’t a problem for us, but I do think it’s funny.

While I was waiting for responses from the fellow on chat I played with doodling. This is my favorite,

The others weren’t worth saving, but that’s fine too. Doodling is for the fun of it, not for results.

June 14, 2026

What Lights Your Fire?

Jean — Sat, 13 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000

Floats your boat? Puts pep in your step?

I love the burst of energy and enthusiasm I get when fall comes, but I need to work on it when the weather turns warm. At the moment I’m doing two things;

Reading my favorite comics first thing in the morning: I subscribe to gocomics.com and have a list of favorites there. It starts the day on the right note.

Andertoons

Remembering my avatar: I’ve subscribed to YouTube and when I connect to it, my favorite avatar comes up:

It reminds me that happiness is a garden:

Pulling the weeds, nurturing the flowers, delighting in watching things grow.

So, do I have pep in my step right now? Am I delighting in watching things grow? Not at the moment. When I stated writing this post yesterday, I kept thinking of

I try to take one day at a time, but lately several days have been attacking me at once.

All sorts of little annoyances have been popping up lately. The biggest one is that our internet is sometimes extremely slow and even briefly loses connection. That’s one big weed! So I decided to face up to it. I’m trying to understand when it happens so I can isolate the problem and talk to a technician about it. I spent a few hours yesterday talking to my buddy, Claude AI, and he told me how to run a program in the background to record every time it goes out. It lost connection 21 times in less than 3 hours last night, so I’ll probably talk to Century Link today.

It’s not fun, but it’s better than feeling helpless. And I will no doubt feel chuffed when/if we get it straightened out. I will let you know!

June 13, 2026

Thank You, Claude!

Jean — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 06:00:42 +0000

Wednesday Amazon told me that something I ordered last month had arrived, but it hadn’t, so I tried their automated chat and got into a loop. There was no way to tell it I needed a person. I tried a few times, hoping it would figure it out, then I asked Claude AI how to do it. The answer was easy, so I’m saving it for the future.

Here are the quickest ways to reach a live Amazon agent:

Phone Call 1-888-280-4331 (available 24/7). Say “representative” or press 0 to skip the automated system.

Chat (workaround if broken)
1 Go to amazon.com/contact-us
2 Select your order or issue
3 Choose Chat — if it’s not loading, try a different browser or incognito mode

Request a callback. On the same Contact Us page, you can choose Phone and have Amazon call you — often faster than waiting on hold.

Social media
• Twitter/X: @AmazonHelp (they respond pretty quickly via DM)

If the chat is consistently broken, the callback option or phone are your best bets.

Have you had any experience with automated chats lately?

June 12, 2026

Different People Like Different Things

Jean — Thu, 11 Jun 2026 06:00:10 +0000

I love this comic because it seems so innocent and friendly.

B.C.

But it reminds me of this one in 2016,

gocomics.com/theothercoast
Click on picture for higher resolution.

Unfortunately not everyone shares our values.

June 11, 2026

Another Reminder

Jean — Wed, 10 Jun 2026 06:00:57 +0000

That we can’t always believe everything we think.

Drabble

June 10, 2026

Attention Spans

Jean — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 06:00:18 +0000

Betty was in a bookstore looking for a title in large print for easier reading. The seller suggested this:

Betty

Hmm. I had read that college professors have been having trouble getting students to read long assignments, so I asked ChatGPT about it.

For college students, professors across many disciplines report increasing difficulty getting students to complete long reading assignments. Researchers have documented declines in recreational reading and increases in time spent with digital media. Reading a 300-page book requires a different kind of attention than consuming information in short online bursts. Many educators argue that the issue is often less about an inability to focus and more about habits, expectations, and competing demands on attention.

For seniors, the picture is mixed. Aging can bring slower processing speed and sometimes more difficulty keeping track of complex information. At the same time, many older adults remain avid readers and can focus deeply for long periods, especially on subjects they enjoy. In fact, some studies find older adults mind-wander less than younger adults during certain tasks.

The Betty comic’s joke works because it plays on a familiar cultural anxiety: everyone seems to think somebody else’s generation has an attention-span problem. Younger people are said to be unable to read novels because of smartphones; older people are said to need everything simplified because of aging.

What’s interesting is that the market now offers:
• “Micro-fiction” and short-form content for younger readers.
• Large-print, short-chapter, or short-story collections for older readers.
• Audiobooks for all ages.
Those formats may reflect convenience and preference as much as cognitive limitations.

A question worth asking is: Can people still focus for a long time on something they care about? If the answer is yes—and for most people it is—then the issue may be less about attention span itself and more about what captures and sustains attention.

In other words, many college students who struggle to finish a novel can spend hours on a game, a hobby, or a social cause. Many seniors who enjoy short stories can also spend an afternoon quilting, gardening, researching family history, or reading about a favorite topic. Attention is often highly dependent on interest, motivation, and habit.

Well said!

May 9, 2026

There’s a Lot of Truth in That

Jean — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 06:00:08 +0000

Ziggy

May 8, 2026

Learning to Steer

Jean — Sun, 07 Jun 2026 06:00:42 +0000

I cheerfully admit, I can’t always do that — but I’m working on it!

May 7, 2026