Nina Lewis

Archive for April, 2009

You can find some amazing things on the Internet. My son, Tyler, shared this site with me:

http://ge.ecomagination.com/smartgrid/#/augmented_reality

To use this site, you need a web camera and a microphone.  And a printed Solar Panel Marker.

Be ready to be impressed about the Smart Grid technology that GE is working on.  I certainly was!

Last August, a friend threw herself a birthday party.  I was invited.  It was her 58th birthday in the 8th month on the 8th day of 2008.  (That line-up of 8s certainly calls for a party!)

Was this the typical come-over-for-cake-and-ice-cream-and-spend-an-hour-or-two type of a party?  Oh no!  It was a stay-over-night-I-provide-lots-of-activities type of party.

It was held at a ‘cabin’ up the canyon.  (See the above picture.) This cabin was at least 4 times the size of my home! There was a lot of food, friends, and activities.  However, there was not much sleep. 

As time drew close to bid adieu, a little idea popped into my head.  ‘Make her a DVD from all of the pictures taken of her party,’ the little voice said.  I should have ignored the voice.  But no, I opened my mouth and offered to make her one as my gift to her — even though she had requested no gifts.

Well, I’ve finally finised the project — nine months later in 2009 done by me, Nina.  (That’s my line-up of 9s.)

So, why did it take so long to complete? you ask.

Ahem.  Need I say life gets crazy?  The project slipped to the back burner?  But mostly, it was avoidance.  I was having technical difficulties and so in response, I figuratively climbed into bed and pulled the covers over my head hoping the project would go away.

It didn’t.

So, this last week-end, I knuckled down.  I worked on it.  I stewed.  I fretted. I tried this.  I switched to that.  I tried this program.  Then that one.  Then yet another one.  Finally settled on a fourth program. And I am now proud to say that the DVD is finally finished.

What did I learn from all this?  (This is always something that I constantly ask myself with the hopes I can learn from life’s experiences.)

First, don’t get a new computer in the middle of a project.  (This is the second time I’ve done this.) Second, don’t get an update to the software that I am using for a project while I am smack dab in the middle of the project.  (This is the second time I’ve done this, too. I guess I’m a slow learner!) Third, don’t volunteer to do a project when my nose is barely peaking over the pile of projects I’m already working on.  Fourth, I CAN design a decent label all by myself! (That’s the one good thing that I learned.)

My to-do pile of projects is a smidgeon smaller now and my nose is sticking slightly higher above it.  I don’t feel like I have this heavy ominous black cloud hanging over me.

Now, upward and onward to squelch another black cloud by completeing another project.

Here is an excellent example of the fact that we shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.  Way to go, Susan Boyle!!

This is so true — personally in addition to nationaly . . .

I have just completed the 49th and 50th book since I started riding the UTA.  And in 2 more weeks, it will be the one year anniversary of riding the bus.  Hopefully by then I’ll have finished reading books #51 and #52 thus reading one book a week for a year.

Book #49 was Glenn Beck’s Inconvenient Book.  He has some interesting things to say.  And I must admit, I enjoyed the writing style: humorous, succinct, to the point.  Clever sidebars dot the pages.  While many of them might be satirical, truth runs through them.

I agreed with many of the things that he said.  I agreed with what he said in the chapter about education (do away with tenure, teach the students how to think and not what to think).  The College Pledge for college-aged students and their parents to sign is interesting.  But I don’t think it will be used.  (Maybe it was meant to be one of those satirical sidebars . . .)

While in one chapter he berates our society that inundates girls with media that makes them believe they have to have perfect skin, perfect hair, perfect teeth, and a perfect size 0 body, I find it interesting that most of the time when he refers to his wife it is to say how beautiful she is and how ‘hot’ she is.  Does he praise her for her intellect?  Once.  For her kindness, compassion, humanitarian service, community service, success in the business world, political activeness?  Nope. Nada. So, in a way, isn’t he aiding and abetting through his comments the belief that women should have perfect bodies, be beautiful, be sexually alluring?  Isn’t he being hypocritical?  Mmmmm . . .

And the chapter about the lies behind illegal immigration — what an eye-opener!  If what he says is true, that will be scary.  If you don’t read the book, I recommend at least reading that one chapter.  I just hope I don’t live to see it happen.  Nor my grandchildren.  Nor my great-grandchildren.  Nor my great-great grandchildren.  Nor my great-great-great . . .

As always, it’s interesting how things come together at the same time.  I finished Glenn Beck’s book and a couple of days later came across a blog with this video.  I think Glenn makes a good point here.

Book #50 was The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood.  Boy howdy!  Are these two disparate books, or what??  A I read the book, I vacillated back and forth and then forth and back on whether or not I liked it.  In the end, the verdict was yes.

I ended up caring about Sidda and her mother, Vivi, and the members of the sisterhood.   I wanted Sidda to marry Connor (which I knew would happen because I read the last few pages before I started reading the beginning of the book!).

I wanted Sidda and Vivi to ‘kiss and make up’ and have a good mother-daughter relationship.   I wanted Vivi to have a good relationship with her mother.  I wanted everybody to be happy.  They weren’t and there were lots of ups and downs and loop-dee-loops because life happened (as it does to all of us).

Sidda flees to Lake Quinault near Forks, Washington, to sort through her feelings about marriage to Connor. This made me think of the book Twilight that was set in Forks, Washington. It so happens that both of these books were published in the same year. Was there something in the air that compelled these two authors to base their stories in this area? Just what are the odds of two popular books being published at the same time that take place in the same location?

Lots of raw emotion in this book!  And, good writing.