Greg vs Google Play
2026/01/04
Today started off really well. And most of the day was great. It has ended well too. But there was one thing that took the wind out of my sails for a moment. I'll not go into the full saga, but I've had issues trying to get Malachi a Google Play gift card for his art tablet. I think I may have mentioned something about it in December when I first tried to buy a physical card. But I tried a digital one during my Christmas visit up there. That one still hasn't cleared the system. So, I tried a different way today. Once again, trouble...LOL Third time wasn't the charm...at first...hehehe In my frustration, I prayed for God's guidance. That gave me a spirit of calmness. I wasn't actually angry or anything. I just didn't want to give up or allow this to drag me down. Hence the prayer. That gave me clarity of mind. Rather than seeing the problem as the point of friction it was feeling like, I looked at it as something to be solved. I thought about what I could be doing wrong. I thought about what Malachi could be doing on his end. And I also thought about if the system was broken or if it was just something I didn't understand. Well, it turned out that the system is broken...LOL In the end, we got it working for him and he was finally able to buy the premium features of the art program I recommended to him. I released this friction over to God and my heart and mind cleared up well enough to solve the problem. A problem that shouldn't exist in such a common platform. I'm glad it got resolved, glad we learned something about the system, and a bit perplexed at why the problem exists in the system to begin with...LOL
Today, I worked on my latest art piece using that same art program I recommended to Malachi. It isn't quite finished yet. But I'm glad to have started work on it. Thankfully this was before all that trouble with the gift card...LOL I wouldn't have had the energy to work on it after all that mess. I already want to make some major changes to the piece. That's actually one of the many reasons I love digital art. I can try things and change them. I don't even need to delete things. I can keep every phase of a project. Nothing goes to waste if I don't want to let it go. It all has meaning. After that Google Play debacle, I decided to test out another art program just for fun. When I get finished with a frustrating task, it's sometimes fun to try something new where I don't need to keep the output. So I did one of my test paintings with it to try it's brushes. The aforementioned app is Infinite Painter. I like how closely it resembles Procreate on the iPad. The latter app is Clip Studio Paint. I bought a year's subscription to it when I was trying it out on my e-ink tablets. Today was the first time I tried it on my new art tablet. Wow! It works great on the new tablet. So, I'm going to explore it more. I may even try it with my current piece. Guess what...we shall see...LOL
The rest of my day was really good. I had a lovely walk, church was amazing, I went to the grocery, and I journaled a bit. So far, I'm really enjoying the daily journal process I'm doing. For the grocery, I finally went to Sprouts. It had been a while. Most things were where I expected them from before. But one of my favorite things was no longer there. That happens sometimes. I got what all I need for this week, though. I'm really happy with Community United Methodist Church and I'm so grateful Cherie introduced me to them in 2024. And I love being back to walking around my little lake...hehehe
I also finally caught up on my email. I still need to clear out some things in my inbox. But I had some unread The Pour Over emails and similar to get through from this past week. I was so busy working on my journal process and creativity that I had neglected a few things like that for a few days...hehehe
I'm very excited to be starting our Bible study this week. First of all, it's something new and exciting! Secondly, it has been a few weeks since we finished our last study. So, I've been missing the Blessing of Bible study. I've been in the Word pretty much daily still. But our studies and fellowship discussions are something I've missed.
My journal process is going so well that I'm considering how I can use my methods to help with other areas of my life. I have built an AI agent to be my little Journal Partner. Have a mentioned that in another entry? Well, I think I want to build another AI agent to help with my workflow at my job too. I can't feed it company data. But the workflow is something I can train it on and have it help me keep on track with some general things. I project manager of sorts...but not really. I haven't quite thought it through yet. But I love the idea of at least having a little work buddy to assist me with the trivial tasks of reminding me that task B still needs attention when I'm too focused on task A. And don't even get me started on task C...LOL j/k
I'm all caught up on watching the Toy Story movies...hehehe I'm ready for Toy Story 5 when it comes out in June. I got the itch to watch them when I saw the teaser at the movies when I went to see Zootopia 2...hehehe I can't wait!