That was one of the many things my parents drilled into us.
Boastful: statement in which you express too much pride in yourself or in something you have, have done, or are connected to in some way
I Declare This Blog Guilt-Free
A Nice Memento
I have donated blood, with some regularity since first year university. This week when I donated it was my 100th donation. For some reason, I do feel proud, even boastful. I am fortunate to be in good health and to be able to donate blood. Donors are not aware of exactly where the blood is needed but you trust you may be helping someone somewhere. The Canadian statistics about blood donations are a bit surprising-only 3.5 % of eligible Canadians routinely donate blood. There are a number of reasons why people aren’t able to donate. If you are lucky to live a life where you or your loved ones aren’t in need of blood or blood products, it’s not top of mind. That is possibly the best reason to donate blood-because you don’t need it and someone else does.
The above is a line from one of the many Christmas songs we hear on the radio at this time year. For many of us this time of year is filled with shopping, cooking, visiting and sending greetings to family and friends. The tradition of sending Christmas cards has waned from years gone by but it is still ever so nice to get mail that isn’t junk or bills. That said, at this house we’ve left it too long to do much in paper-at least anything that would be on time, so I thought I’d do something in the electronic media.
You’ve Heard of Drug Interactions.
It is my experience there are adverse technology interactions. Just as you shouldn’t take drugs together unless you have gained knowledge of the expected outcome, the same goes for using too many new-to-you programs, websites, mouse clicks and such in any one project. Anything that says “easy to use” is likely not. If you have questions about taking drugs-ask your lovely, knowledge and trusted pharmacist. If you have questions or problems about mixing the instructions of one program with the information from another website-you’re pretty much on your own. Frustrated and on your own.
Off I went, then to do something simple but hopefully a little creative for our Christmas greeting. I used the Movie Maker/Xtranormal site to make a little movie. That wasn’t too bad. I’ve used it before. Then I thought I’d try to find some stationery. I found Pages on my iMac and played around with the templates and found something that could work.
When Is A Download Not A Download.
Linking the movie into the Christmas message shouldn’t be a problem. I add links to this blog all the time. Not so. There should be standardized ways of linking-world wide standards. If we can all agree on the shape of a stop sign, surely the way we add links could be standardized. Add to that my inability (until I read Q&A’s and chat forums) to effectively download the movie in a reasonable format and well, let’s just say, I was feeling challenged. I was to not simply download but it had to be a HQ Download..oh yeah…well what’ s that? And there was something about an MP4 file-remember I’m the one who still owned the now-recalled 1st gen iPod and now there’s MP4?
All’s Well That Ends Well
Here’s the Christmas message, ultimately. I will spare you the Pages document.
Breakthrough IT Solution!
When I stepped aside from full-time work earlier this year, one of my special gifts was from an IT colleague who was more than aware of my IT (in)abilities. This gift sat next to my computer desk. Good think I had taken a picture of it before embarking on the Christmas message-it’s gone missing. My husband mentioned something about removing from the computer area, any objects that might be used to pummel technology.
Universal IT Problem Solver
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and May All Your Technological Efforts Be Effortless in 2012! Please tell me I’m not alone.
It’s time to speak out on behalf of left-handed or mixed-handed people. Mixed-handed is the label for people who are not solely left or right-handed. I think there’s a world-wide conspiracy of some sort. We get a bum rap-those of us who aren’t right-handed.
Scissors aren’t made for left-handers, nor are powers tools and machinery. Lecture halls restrict us to sitting at the end of the aisles where they situate the left-handed desks. What if we wanted to sit in the middle of the aisle? When writing, our hand is tinged with ink as we drag our left hand through the ink writing left to right on the page. We apparently have more accidents since the world is made for right-handed people.
An article in the Globe and Mail newspaper today “The health risks of sinister people” by Shirley S. Wang, a member of the Wall Street Journal Staff wasn’t exactly a fun read if you are left-handed. She reports some researchers have found that left-handers’ brains are wired differently that may result in difficulty with language as well as ADHD symptoms. Stress during pregnancy seems to increase the risk of having a left or mixed-handed child which in turn, they say, may be a risk factor for possible psychiatric or developmental conditions.
I’ve about had it with this type of research. I am left-handed. I don’t think I am sinister. (Actually I am more accurately mixed-handed.) The definition of sinister spans being left-handed or threatening, bad, evil and disastrous. There is a need for someone to do the research on the advantages of being left-handed.
Sports: Most people involved in sports are right-handed. By being left-handed, players can pose an advantage because their competitors aren’t as used to playing left-handed players. There’s plenty of left-handed pitchers in Major League Baseball.
Higher IQ: A 2000 study by Dr. Alan Searleman of St. Lawrence University in New York found that more left-handed people had an IQ averaging over 140 than right-handed people. Albert Einstein was left-handed.
Creativity: Due to what may be different wiring in the brain, left-handers may be better at divergent thinking or starting from existing knowledge to develop new concepts, which is considered and element of creativity.
When we read or hear of research, it’s important to look carefully into the report and the findings. Who are the researchers? What are there qualifications? What is the strength of the evidence? Who is funding the research?
I’ll bet if we looked into the research on left-handers, the researchers are all right-handed. And their research is well-funded by the makers of right-handed scissors, right-handed desks and right-handed power tools.
Barb's True Stories 