Boomeresque:Definition
1. Adj.: Describing a person born between 1 Jan. 1946 and 31 Dec. 1964
2. Adj.: Description of a person, place or thing possessing Baby Boomer je ne sais quoi
3. See also, Boomer, Esq.: A Baby Boomer who is also a licensed attorney (See, e.g., About).

Zentangle Diva Challenge #263 – O Canada Edition

by Suzanne Fluhr on May 14, 2018 · 12 comments

Fairmont Le Château Frontenac

I’ve been doing the Diva’s weekly challenges, but I’ve been “out” a lot lately, so I haven’t shared them here. When I say “out”, I mean “out of the country”. In April, we spent two weeks in Italy, and a week after returning from there, I flew to Quebec City in Canada for a conference, the Women in Travel Summit. (For the uninitiated, O Canada is the name of the Canadian national anthem.)

Fairmont Le Château Frontenac

This is the Fairmont Le Château Frontenac where the conference I attended was held. Those cannon were to protect Quebec City from — the Americans. In 1812, Quebec City was controlled by the British and they were a little nervous about an incursion by their neighbors to the south. Because, you know, there wasn’t a wall. 😉

I love visiting Canada. One of Canada’s tourism slogans once said, “Canada: Friendly, Familiar, Foreign, and Near”. (Obviously, the “near” part of the slogan was aimed at United Statesers.) I’ve found that to be true on all my visits, even this one where I was an anglophone (English speaker) in Quebec, the francophone province of Canada where French really is the first, and sometimes, the only language.

At the conference, I learned some more about blogging, social media and the dreaded GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation), a European Union privacy regulation that applies to all websites accessed in any way by EU citizens. Since so many of my Zentangle friends are from the EU, I better figure out how to comply.

Sometimes, being an almost recovered lawyer is troubling because I know that although “ignorance is bliss”, the contra-narrative is “just because you’re paranoid does not mean they’re not out to get you”. I know that many Boomeresque readers have their own blogs or other types of websites. If you want to freak yourself out, you can read this article published by the New York University School of Law about the GDPR, compliance requirements, and non-compliance penalties. Oh, and the compliance deadline is May 25, 2018. BTW, NONE OF THIS IS LEGAL ADVICE, I’m just trying to explain one of the reasons I’m not feeling particularly Zen at the moment. 

Enough freaking out (by me). Back to this week’s Zentangle Diva Challenge. The Diva challenged us to use the aura technique in our tile. I don’t know any bona-fide user of the Zentangle method who isn’t enamored of the the aura technique. It’s almost a mantra, “When in Doubt, Aura”. The technique just requires repeatedly outlining a section of one’s tile. Here’s what I came up with:

Zentangle Diva Challenge #363

Since auraing is not particularly challenging for me, I decided to use a tangle I’ve been playing around with. I don’t recall seeing it before, so I thought I’d crowd-source that inquiry. It’s a random series of interconnected 5 pointed stars.

Do you recognize it? Here’s an example from when the tile was in progress.

Zentangle Diva Challenge - Aura

Here you can see how I worked on the tangle.

Finally, here is an un-shaded version of the tile. Do you prefer it this way? Gah, I just realized I didn’t shade the tile the way I should have to make the stars pop. Oh well, next time.

Zentangle Diva Challenge- Aura

Even though my my most recent travel was to Canada, my most recent blog post (other than this one) is about the Barnes Foundation Museum in my hometown, Philadelphia. Add it to your “must visit” list if you’re interested in art.

Questions for various Boomeresque constituencies:

Should I deconstruct and name the star based tangle I used in my tile? 

Have you ever visited Quebec City?

Are you losing sleep about the GDPR?

 

{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }

Nan May 15, 2018 at 2:20 pm

I had to sqeench my eyes and then viola! I saw stars (smile). If you hadn’t told me, I wouldn’t have seen them. I tend to get mesmerized looking at some tangles because they’re so… addicting to look at! Are you subliminally telling me secret things like, “Read my blog. Never unsubscribe. Leave a comment”?? I’ve been ignoring the GDPR stuff until other bloggers and authors began asking me re-sign up to be compliant. I guess I need to go read the article you mentioned so I at least know what’s going on! Someone mentioned that we didn’t need to mess with it in the US – guess I was being ‘head in the sand’ stoopid!

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Nan May 15, 2018 at 2:30 pm

Oh my gosh – why don’t they just put it in “easy speak” – i.e., “if you collect data from an EU anything and anyone that you plan to do something with or even if you don’t do anything with it – and you don’t obey our rules… doom on you!”

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Suzanne Fluhr May 15, 2018 at 3:09 pm

And it took them 43 pages to say that!

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Ed Holmes May 15, 2018 at 3:30 pm

Quebec City looks very interesting. Could practice my french there.

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Suzanne Fluhr May 15, 2018 at 3:52 pm

You could definitely practice your French. And, you could eat poutine too.

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Roz warren May 15, 2018 at 4:04 pm

I say no to all three questions.

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Annemarie May 16, 2018 at 1:47 am

A tile I keep looking at. Nice to see the first picture of it.
From EU, Annemarie 🙂

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Lily M. May 16, 2018 at 2:07 am

Nice tiles!

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Leslie in Oregon May 16, 2018 at 6:13 am

I don’t know enough to answer your first question, but “yes” to the second, and “no” to the third.

When as a child I spent a summer month with my grandparents in western Canada, my grandmother lent me a mystery series set in Le Château Frontenac. I loved those books so much that a decade later, I made a point of detouring to Quebec City and staying at Le Château Frontenac the first time I travelled across Canada, west to east, by rail.

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ria matheussen May 16, 2018 at 2:52 pm

I like the tangle you have chosen on your tile, looks great with the beautiful aura’s.
Many years ago, I have made a trip to the east site of Canada. I visited Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Quebec and Quebec was my favorite town. I’m fond of the special language and the friendly atmosphere in that part of Canada!
Kind regards from Belgium!

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Ken Dowell May 16, 2018 at 9:30 pm

I was in Quebec two summers ago and stayed at the Chateau Frontenac. At the time they had just opened the new contemporary art pavilion of the Musee Nationals des Beaux Arts, which I thought was amazing. The other thing that stands out in my memory is the Fresque des Quebecois, a giant mural that covers the whole side of a multistory building and tells the history of Quebec.

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Suzanne Fluhr May 16, 2018 at 11:26 pm

I did see the Quebec City history mural in the lower town. I will be doing a more extensive post on my visit to that lovely city.

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