Conventionalism beware! The following is a public message to all those who just can't grasp the idea of someone wearing two mismatching socks. Not no subtle dark brown/dark blue matches either, comfortably hidden in high top shoes. I'm talking about neon green with sea creatures on my left foot and bright red with little pink hearts on the right (I'm looking under the desk now).
Just want to publicly state my reasons, mainly so I can say "I just blogged about that last week" I love the way that sounds. Like tea drinkers, who use china cups and you get that delicate clinking noise when they touch cup to saucer, I love that sound. Anyway, I think I should clarify my reasons here on my blog.
The Back Story
It started out when my studio went digital over 2 years ago. Photographers (I was the main one) needed to wear only socks as they walked over massive backgrounds all day long. Our trainer insisted that dress code would be black everything from this day forward, and that meant black socks also. I had already purchased a bunch of colorful socks from JCP and planned on wearing them though the upcoming Christmas season. She looked me right in the eye, while chomping on yet another piece of gum, and said "take them off". Okay, I thought she is only hear for a day or two more, I can handle it, I'm the manager here and I don't feel like I need to make a stand on this issue when she will be soon gone. I so badly wanted to say, "I'll change my socks if you stop chewing gum while working" which I find far more distracting and don't allow during work hours.
So the trainer left and I wore my funny socks, then I started getting holes in some of them, but had grown attached to them. I tried to repair them, but they didn't feel right. So I would started trying to "match" them both pastels or both bright colors, or maybe the same theme.
After I got comfortable with that, I started letting it all go and matched them as opposite as possible. I also noted some of my employees really could not stand it, and rolled their eyes. But, hey I'm the boss!
So now I am totally out, I am a freer person person because of it, kinda like I am letting people know I don't have a problem being silly. Some people think I am intimidating, and maybe sometimes I am, but then again maybe I'm not.
I put up a 20x24 family portrait up at work, I am sitting on the floor right in front with my oddly mismatched socks on, the comments have been all positive. People think it is funny and say, "that's you alright".
They say you can find anything on the Internet, maybe if I bothered to look I would find a support group for people like me? I think the best answer for me is, why should I throw out a perfectly good sock?
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Mom was right - again (Math Problems)
Thinking over my last 26+ years with easy access to cash registers and calculators I've recently learned I am losing my math skills. I've wondered why my employees write down ridiculous numbers on our very important paperwork, numbers that with any thought could never be correct. Yesterday I asked my associate Darlene what 61 minus 5 was. And I sat there waiting for her to give me an answer because a calculator was not at hand. She thought about it for a minute then gave me 3 different answers, the third one was correct.
Math class was never my favorite in high school, I vaguely remember class, I seem to remember I was always in a fog as to what was going on in class. I was probably thinking about boys or how to become popular or some such thing. This all started in 4th (I think) grade when I was sick for a week, I came back not knowing what the teacher was talking about, I know I skipped something important. (I think it was 7 & 8 multiplies cause I never learned them)
At Hartnell (Jr. College) I did pretty good in algebra, that is until I hit advanced algebra where I lost it with logarithms and imaginary numbers (how do we know they are there?). I liked the logic of algebra, the rules and the neat writing and rewriting of numbers with a sharp pencil and white lined paper.
Then came word problems, adding the Johnny and Susie element with apples and trains traveling towards and away from each other only confused me. Leave it at just numbers and I was fine, add the real world to the mix and that was the end of it for me, I couldn't even begin to think how to solve the problem.
Which comes to now, why do I need a calculator to solve a easy subtraction problem? Do I hear my mother rolling over in her grave? Yes that is what I hear! I teased my mom about pulling out a pencil and paper to add/subtract/divide and multiply her Avon numbers, I said, "Mom we have calculators now." She would ignore me and keep on with her stack of numbers on top of numbers, lines and symbols. I would pull out the calculator (my first needed AA batteries) and would solve the problem in a flash. She just kept ignoring me and when she finished she would say that she just checked the calculator and it got it right. How stupid and behind the times she seemed.
That was then, now I know she was right. I have nearly lost the ability to do even the simple math on paper. Asimov had written about this very same social condition in one of his short stories, computers that think take over mankind. When finally a lone man figures out how to use "art sticks" on "art paper" to solve equations. The machines can't see the paper and will not be able to stop humans in their effort to take back society. The man ends up showing this "math" to the military who are impressed, then end up killing him to keep society from knowing this secret.
I am starting to not think about the process of how we get the end result, they are just numbers typed into the calculator and a end number pops up. To many of my employees the end number is just that, an end number they don't think much of. What it means is irrelevant, it is just the answer they got, even if the answer is crazy and impossible it is the number they got.
I think I need to rethink numbers, and the old-fashioned ways of my mother. She lived to be almost 86, her math skills never abated. I think I have a new skill to relearn.
Susan
Math class was never my favorite in high school, I vaguely remember class, I seem to remember I was always in a fog as to what was going on in class. I was probably thinking about boys or how to become popular or some such thing. This all started in 4th (I think) grade when I was sick for a week, I came back not knowing what the teacher was talking about, I know I skipped something important. (I think it was 7 & 8 multiplies cause I never learned them)
At Hartnell (Jr. College) I did pretty good in algebra, that is until I hit advanced algebra where I lost it with logarithms and imaginary numbers (how do we know they are there?). I liked the logic of algebra, the rules and the neat writing and rewriting of numbers with a sharp pencil and white lined paper.
Then came word problems, adding the Johnny and Susie element with apples and trains traveling towards and away from each other only confused me. Leave it at just numbers and I was fine, add the real world to the mix and that was the end of it for me, I couldn't even begin to think how to solve the problem.
Which comes to now, why do I need a calculator to solve a easy subtraction problem? Do I hear my mother rolling over in her grave? Yes that is what I hear! I teased my mom about pulling out a pencil and paper to add/subtract/divide and multiply her Avon numbers, I said, "Mom we have calculators now." She would ignore me and keep on with her stack of numbers on top of numbers, lines and symbols. I would pull out the calculator (my first needed AA batteries) and would solve the problem in a flash. She just kept ignoring me and when she finished she would say that she just checked the calculator and it got it right. How stupid and behind the times she seemed.
That was then, now I know she was right. I have nearly lost the ability to do even the simple math on paper. Asimov had written about this very same social condition in one of his short stories, computers that think take over mankind. When finally a lone man figures out how to use "art sticks" on "art paper" to solve equations. The machines can't see the paper and will not be able to stop humans in their effort to take back society. The man ends up showing this "math" to the military who are impressed, then end up killing him to keep society from knowing this secret.
I am starting to not think about the process of how we get the end result, they are just numbers typed into the calculator and a end number pops up. To many of my employees the end number is just that, an end number they don't think much of. What it means is irrelevant, it is just the answer they got, even if the answer is crazy and impossible it is the number they got.
I think I need to rethink numbers, and the old-fashioned ways of my mother. She lived to be almost 86, her math skills never abated. I think I have a new skill to relearn.
Susan
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