Among the many projects I completed around the house this summer, the "picpic" table (as Cali calls it) is one of my favorites. Just in time for the weather to turn to poor, I finally got it put together. Hopefully, we can have a few dinners outside and enjoy it before winter. I had to buy one new board and new bolts and screws. I painted the legs white with spray paint that was left here. I used our leftover green paint from our doors for the table and benches.
The original table was left here by the previous owners and was in a sad state.
Yeah, that's homemade ice cream the kids are eating. Yummy. Have a Good Life.
It sure is frustrating how your average is really good until you factor in all the stops. This was a great ride. I am really glad I participated and finished. http://milliseconds.com/participants/detail/806427933 Thanks, Jethro
Me to wife: I want the kids to go to bed so I can eat some of that I-C-E C-R-E-A-M. 3 YO Daughter: I want some of that! Me: Some of what? 3 YO: Some of that stuff with letters in it! Me: What is that stuff that has letters in it? 3 YO: It's…C-O-N-I! Yummy!
Last year, May 2010, I walked during lunch at work and rode my bike after work, some days. I also weighed about 250 pounds. In 2010, I rode 700 miles on my bike and I was pretty proud of myself. I rode 300 miles in 2009.
So far this year, I have ridden 417 miles; close to halfway to my goal of 1000 miles this year. I am down to 215 pounds now, and I feel great. This has been a good year.
Even though I am not a graphic designer, I really appreciate the opportunity try to rub shoulders with those types of people. I like to read the things they share and analyze how they approach tasks and design.
In education, design really takes a back seat. Sometimes, even in the trunk. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. I fancy myself as someone who pays attention to good design, and I think about it. "Thinking about it" is usually 95% of the solution. If you just look at it and think for a moment, you're more than most of the way there. So, Piper and I got an assignment to collect and present some information on the time our office has spent on professional development with teachers this year. I compiled the data from 18 people and put it into a spreadsheet. We used Numbers, Pages, and Acorn to create the infographic. I haven't ever used Acorn, but I bought it a few weeks ago, and I have been waiting for an opportunity to use it. I am glad something presented itself. The infographic itself is a Pages document (11 x 17). The images are from some image pack I downloaded years ago, but haven't had any reason to use. To get the triangle graphs, I had to create them in Numbers, then paste an image of them into a Pages document and "Mask with Shape..." to get them right. I wish I could mask graphs in Pages (or Numbers) with a shape. That would be really nice. I tried to do it in Acorn, but I couldn't figure that out either. Piper pulled the + signs from somewhere and Instant Alpha-ed the white background so they looked better. I thought it was pretty fun creating it. Even though it took a long time to do, it was worth it. I learned a lot, and created something beautiful in the end. Here is the Prezi my boss used in the presentation to the principals in the district:
