In landscape view on iPhone 5s it is hard to type. This is because the viewable area for typing is so small. Voice to text recognition is easier. But then editing mistakes becomes a pain.
It is really hard to get the loupe tool in the text mode. So it’s hard to move the cursor.
When switching between horizontal and vertical modes the cursor always goes to the top of the article instead of staying where the author was editing at in the document. This is extremely annoying.
Sometimes when I press the return button I get multiple returns between words it’s as if the WordPress app inserts extra non-visible characters which create new lines.
There is no way to share a post with someone. There does not seem to be a button inside the interface of the app to text the link to someone or to post to Facebook or tweet a link or email link.
Well, here we are 10 years to the day that my dad passed away. In many ways it has been a long time 3,652 days. But in other ways it was just like yesterday.
It is erie how I remember so clearly the events of the night he died. It is also interesting how that event gets treated through time. It sorta sits there as a marker. Something that kinda shouldn't be there but is. Because it is a marker it tells us a lot about us and our response to the event. I mean there should be memory. But do we each remember the positive things about him, or do we remember the stressful things about him? The impacts of events on social memory is deep, embedded in our psyche, and reflected in the presence or absence of the objects we permit around us. I have struggled over the years with which objects to keep and which object to release (especially those objects which remind me of my dad). For me it is an even harder struggle than some: as a third culture kid the object made home what it was because we were "constantly" moving. Places and people were ever changing. But somethings were the collection of "home".
In the time that has passed I got married. I had a beautiful baby girl. These are exemplars of events and relationships post an era "with dad". Life does go on. But I struggle with how to remember my dad.
I find myself (alarmingly at age 33) not able to remember names - like one day I couldn't remember the name of my boss. It is like the proper names of general nouns are missing. It used to be just the names of people. But now it happens to things too. So, I wonder how should I best remember my dad. I have little things in my office: a photo of us white water rafting and his Gideon New Testament. I have hopes someday to write my memories of dad in a book or in a collection. (In fact I have started several times). But then I wonder how should the collection be organized. Or what point of view should the the stories take? I feel a double responsibility: one to pass on to my kids something about their grandfather, and a responsibility to share with the youngest of my sibblings about their dad. Yet my point of view is currently neither mild nor neutral. So for the time being I am quiet. I hope for the day when my sibblings and I can collectively share our memories with eachother. And I look forward to the day when my dad will be able to answer the questions I posed to him shortly after his death.
Well, we have been tasting solid foods for about two weeks. There was apricot jam, toast, apple juice, carrots, apple, Moriah’s halla bread. So tonight we start with cucumber and avacado. She is well coordinated in getting the spoon into her mouth on her own though it seems that she is more interested in chewing on the spoon as teething relief than for its food content.
One metric to determine how moved I am is when I have set up my server. I have two servers and two Reel-to-Reel machines. Generally my office set-up includes both of these. I basically took them down the week of June 9th when we bought our house in Eugene. Now 244 days later, I was able to turn my MacMini server back on. It has been a while. Hello MacMini - Now just to get you up and running with the latest software...
Sanctity of life Sunday is a Sunday where the Christian church in the United States takes a day to remember, highlight, and acknowledge a cultural option in the United States for women to have abortions. Each church which celebrates sanctity of life Sunday will do it in their own way.
As I sit and think and respond to the things said at my Church, I have a few responses.
I am glad that this is important to us
A certain historical set of statistics were presented estimating the total number of aborted babies. Well, I wonder why are these statistics so accessible, but the number of people killed needlessly by police (or even just in the course of duty) are not accessible?
At my church the focus is on women. (And this might be uncommon nationally, or this might be a result of my own perception bias.) In fact this emphasis might be appropriately placed. I don’t think the intensity at which services for women are offered should be abated; but where are the services for men? Life – pregnancy – takes male and female. (Even my male homosexual friends who adopt children do not create the life sans the male-female union.) So, this apparent set of services offered to women, I wonder if it ignores men and their needs in the process – these services are often professionally offered by organizations financed by Christians. That is, the service providers are not bound by some government policy or stipulation to offer services to only women. But is the state of the asymmetrical offerings of services a result or reflection of culture bias in the United States or is it a reflection of government services to women to help them terminate pregnancies? Not that the entire governmental approach to women has not also been biased. For instance, in divorce courts there is often a bias against males. And WIC stands for “Women, Infant, Children” – where are the services for the men?
I have been struggling for the last few months with an addiction... an IKEA addiction. An addition that I am not sure I was completely responsible for creating, but more on that later.
It is a habit which, I really had to learn the hard way, that I needed to kick. Here is my problem: Their product line has a really powerful draw. Their products all look like they fit together (with each other). This gives the impression of harmony. Meanwhile many of their products look like they are minimalistic in design. That is, they are smooth and sexy and and visually simplistic. I say look minimalistic, because most of the products from IKEA have a well designed (short) life span. That is, the products simply do not last beyond the first intended use - and this is by design. The way I understand the product is that in the IKEA business model, the products are not what create the business money, rather it is the service of distributing the products which is viewed as the money maker. So, the business metrics are set up as: "How many products do I distribute?", not "How products do I sell?". While both metics are important, The first puts an importance on the distribution, the second puts an emphasis on the monetary value of the sale, or the value of a lasting product (value presented to the customer). This is why I suggest that the IKEA product's life cycle is also designed. I have had to learn that the hard way. I like the look, but beyond that "IKEA life" seems to be designed to bring the customer into a consumer relationship with IKEA, such that the customer must buy multiple products due to short life spans. Consider the difference between the IKEA Expedit series and their KALLAX series (several differences are exposited well by Peter Robinson). Expedit was a series with solid construction and a production run of several decades. However, The Expedit product had a fantastic secondary market because they lasted and were hearty. The Expedit series was replaced by KALLAX. A less hearty, physically lighter product series.
Consider the following review from YouTube.
From a management perspective, IKEA has applied design principles not only to the product but also to the acquisition process and to the life cycle of the product. They have put new design requirements on the life span, causing a redesign of the product. In a way, this de-emphasizes the product and elevates the need for service mechanism of delivering the product - The service has been assessed and re-designed. For a good book about applying these principals to your business read: Service Design Thinking. Or for a quick check Service Design look at Wikipedia.
My distain for IKEA rivals my distain for Facebook. They also have an interesting product, but one is never sure where the platform is going. This makes the product life span (as a user understands it) quite susceptible to uncertainty. Apple products could also be similarly considered to have gone through this design phase. Consider when Apple started soldering RAM to the motherboard (because their secondary market has been limited by making certain parts "non-upgradable").
I have been plotting my escape from life drainers. This means that I need to be able to find solutions elsewhere with other products. I think I found my solution to the IKEA wormhole on a DIY site or two: http://www.ana-white.com , and http://designsbystudioc.com.
There are several projects I have been looking at doing. One is a shoe rack for my front door area. These sites were a good place to get ideas and example plans - to see how things go together. Another project in progress is a coffee table on casters for my living room.
Some interesting links about Apple and design:
http://www.jnd.org/dn.mss/apples_products_are.html
http://www.idgconnect.com/abstract/10261/design-guru-don-norman-slams-apple-ease-disservice
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3053406/how-apple-is-giving-design-a-bad-name
http://www.theverge.com/2015/11/16/9743996/apple-designer-interview-bruce-tog-tognazzini-don-norman
These are here because I talk about Apple designing the life cycle of their products. I don't link to them because they are not a major thrust of this post.
