Being one with the geekness

Posted on July 10, 2014 by Mary Beth Frezon

Yesterday I sat down to work on renovating the Fruitcake Society’s website. Before I knew it, it was quite middle of the night time and I had done a lot to getting it going. Some of the pages told me they had been done using Adobe PageMill around 1998! Good code is a joy forever. It was like old times getting in the groove and trying to figure it all out.

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That A-HA! moment

Posted on July 9, 2014 by Mary Beth Frezon

Sat down with my first cup of coffee this morning and clicked on the first TED talk link that popped up in my Facebook feed. It was a very interesting talk from TEDu by Tom Wujec about “3 ways the brain creates meaning.”

OK Good stuff, I’m thinking. Previous year they’d gotten a great response to a project involving two artists who sketched the main points of each talk presented and an interactive wall was created from these sketches. Very popular and successful. And in my mind, if I had the option of ordering a book like that from a TED I’d attended I’d plop my money down for the visual cues it would give me.

Then this came up as he was summarizing his ideas, which were really about how the brain takes in information, processes it and makes best use of the material in front of the eyes to both take in the information and direct it and remember it.

makemeaning

He had shown how the brain brings the eye around to look at various parts of the image in front of it, focusing first one area and then another in order to engage better and longer.

My brain went: a ha! Isn’t this how I want people to interact with MY images (aka quilts or photos?) I use images to present some sort of idea (not usually literal ideas). I want people to be drawn in to look at various parts of it and to look up close and farther back. A visual model of something is created for the person to take away in their brain. That persistent part I would guess might be a book with photos, or the photo they took, or a sketch or even notes they took in the moment.

Next cup of coffee, please!

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Thunderstorm warnings #haiku

Posted on July 8, 2014 by Mary Beth Frezon

alternating bursts,
the fireflies and the lightning
fill my dark window

the edge of humid,
heat, dark, downpour, and my sweat
puddling coolness

in the dark, thunder;
then rapid catapaulting
the cats seek safety.

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Before the rain

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Mary Beth Frezon

There was a short shower before the serious rain went through.

Birdbath plus

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Monday

Posted on July 7, 2014 by Mary Beth Frezon

So far today:

Had headlight replaced (thanks Naomi!) at dealer. I would have done it myself except the picture in the manual made it look super easy and yet the picture didn’t look anything like the inside of my car… Anyway while I was there I got to see a great example of someone firing a customer who surprisingly left quietly at that point. I posted about this to facebook and it got a lot of ‘likes’.

Kudos to the service manager who kept his cool with the yelling abusive customer who called him stupid, accused them of lying and thievery and told him he’d written a very scathing survey. The manager explained what had happened, why the repairs weren’t covered under warranty etc and that they weren’t going to provide service for him since the customer obviously didn’t want to do business with them.

I do believe this is called ‘firing your customer’. Good job.

The end of what the service manager said, very calmly, was: we did this nice thing for you (charged him very little for previous non-warranty repair) and you didn’t like it. You come in here today, you call me stupid, call us liars and thieves and want us to help you out by doing another out of warranty repair for free. That’s not going to happen. So you should take your business someplace else.

Went to eyeglass place to report that I think there’s something seriously wrong with my main glasses as in far things look fuzzy and often doubled. Oh. So I get to go back on Wednesday where I will insist they re-test my eyes and then remake the lenses without the prism correction. Flashback to my brief encounter with progressive lenses. I know many people wear and like them but no thanks.

Stopped at diner in Nassau and heard the dirt about offers made on the place and other people and things. Had a nice chat with the owner who sent me home with a big handful of homegrown greenbeans for dinner.

Ripped open the mail which had two things I’d ordered.

Researched a couple things online and found something that should work for me. Also chatted with Mom and resolved a joint venture question with her.

Got the lawnmower started after a few tries, mowed the front yard until I was covered with sweat and felt virtuous for having provided my neighbors both angst and entertainment. Now I can pour myself a cold beverage and go bead until the thunderstorms hit.

Oh, and I saw this:

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