Dancing Upside Down

Bic Pens & the Magic of Opportunity

In the Footnote of the post below I commented about how Jeff Gregory continues to amaze me with his sketches done using a ball point pen.  A few hours later and I came across Juan Francisco Casas!

He uses only ballpoint pens to create his photorealistic portraits! Note that in the photo above he is using a regular old blue bic pen!

I am in awe of talent, education, and opportunities to create like that.

The book Outliers has greatly changed the way I am willing to talk about success and accomplishment.  I guess "There but for the grace of God go I" cuts both ways.  I truly am in awe of this work.  But I am also very envious. 

Juan Francisco Casas not only was willing to spend the 10,000 hours it took to become this sort of Master, he also surely had the opportunities that allowed him to do so.  For instance, he probably has parents who recognized, valued, and encouraged his interest and talent in art.  They also probably had the means to send him to art classes and probably even University.  (I do not speak or read Spanish so am unable to read his site.) 

Ha!  I went searching and though Wikipedia only had a stub I found him on MySpace and I quote

I have a degree in Arts (BA), two postdegree masters (MA) and I am finishing my doctorate (PhD). I also was a teacher of the University of Granada during 4 years.

Malcolm Gladwell writes in Outliers

Everything we have learned in Outliers says that success follows a predictable course.  It is not the brightest who succeed.  ...Nor is success simply the sum of the decisions and efforts we make on our own behalf.  It is, rather, a gift. Outliers are those who have been given opportunities - and who have had the strength and presence of mind to seize them.  ...To build a better world we need to replace the patchwork of lucky breaks and arbitrary advantages that today determine success ... with a society that provides opportunities for all. ...Now multiply that sudden flowering of talent by every field and profession.  The world could be so much richer than the world we have settled for..

The reason that this comes up for me so strongly with posting Juan Francisco Casas drawings is that I used to draw well, very well.  I loved and still do love art.  I wanted to become a professional artist but I was born at the wrong time into the wrong family. 

Gladwell goes into the importance of timing; of the year in which someone is born which in turn dictates the society the person is raised in and the society they enter in their early 20's when starting a career.

I was born in Ohio in 1954.  I was raised during a time period and in a family that were very left brain oriented.  Become a Doctor or a Lawyer or study Business; well actually since I am female the career choices were Nurse or Teacher.  Art was not valued as a viable skill.  It was a nice hobby, but nothing to ever get serious about. 

On the other hand, Juan Francisco Casas was born in La Carolina (Andalusia, Spain) in 1976.  I was 20 in 1974.  He was 20 in 1996.  What a world of difference our birth times make in how a career in art was viewed.  I know little of Spain but the difference of La Carolina (Andalusia, Spain) as compared to Cleveland, Ohio, USA may have had an additional big effect on the worlds we were raised in.

I will post some of my old artwork here as soon as I am able to scan it in.

Wrong Business Decision at Watertown?

Somewhere below I mentioned a "favorite" coffee place in a couple of posts.  I was doing that because I liked it.  It was new.  The owners seem nice (they still do).  I want to see it succeed.  So I mentioned it in here to help give it some free publicity.  

Sadly, it has changed.  Still the same name. (Watertown)  Still the same nice owners.  Still the same location.  But no longer the same business.  

They have gotten their liquor license and have made the decision to be a bar all day long and push the alcohol.  They have decided (and told me this today) that being a bar means they need to play LOUD music all day long; too loud to have any kind of decent conversation so I strongly do not recommend it for meetings.  They do still have great coffee and free wifi.  You just have to be able to think to a heavy loud beat.

There is a much higher margin on booze so for every drink they sell they technically make more on the booze than the coffee.  The problem is, IMHO, that there are more people who want to have a good "Cup of Joe" during the early part of the day than a good "Shot of Jack".  

They have missed a great opportunity!  They could market themselves as a great coffee place; great place for meetings, and coffee with friends during the day and as a bar starting sometime in the late afternoon.  3:00 PM would possibly be a good time.

By marketing themselves as this dual personality they would gain a few of important things:  

First, it is a fun niche and a treasure trove of marketing possibilities.  It is different.  It is unique.  

Second, they would be addressing two audiences and could use them to feed each other.  For instance during bar time they could have a special thing like:  when you buy a certain drink you get a 10% off card on baked goods bought with an expresso drink good from X hour to X hour during the day.  The X would be the slowest time of the day so would do double duty to encourage people to come in during that time.  The could make it fun and change what drinks have the bennies on them from week to week or more often.  The same could be done with the day crowd.  If you buy a bakery good and coffee you get a card that gives you a bennie at the bar during the bars slowest hours.

Thirdly, back to the two audience opportunity; it is also two age groups.  This bar is located very near 3 large hospitals and medical centers.  There are thousands of employees between all of the hospitals and related clinics, offices, and other support services.  There is nothing like what Watertown was. They had a good opportunity to do some niche marketing and missed it.  

It feels instead that they have decided to take a broad shot gun approach aimed at the owners own age group: Twenty-Somethings and pretty much only them.  I have to admit that I know very little about twenty-somethings' alcohol consumption at 9:00AM.  Maybe they have a business idea that will fly. 

I truly wish them the best with their business endeavor, but unless you are a Twenty-Something looking for a stiff drink and loud music at all hours of the day, I can no longer recommend the place.

Computer Confusion!

I have not posted for quite a while due to my trusty old (read: very old) Dell laptop gasping its last breaths.  It has so many things broken on it that I am not sure the nonprofit refurbishing organization will even take it.  The funny thing is the computer part of it works fine, albeit slow.  But it will no longer charge the battery (even though the battery is fairly new), the sole USB port on the machine is completely non-functional, the CD R/W drive will not securely lock in anymore and throws error messages, and I could go on and on.

Now the good news is that a friend offered me a work trade in which I end up with a new MacBook.  He pretty much made most of the decisions for me and ordered it last Friday . . . and wouldn't you know it: Apple revamped their whole line on Monday so now the old models are on sale for less.  

WARNING:  The rest of this short post is a little more of a ramble than my other posts.  That is because I truly am in the middle of the indecision as I write.  And I am going to go ahead a publish the post because I have been silent for so long.  You have been warned!  Read at your own risk!

Apple is coming up to the plate and offering a refund of some amount because we purchased it within 14 days of the announcement of the new models.  But now I also have more options and thusly a lot more confusion.  I can get a higher powered aluminum model for not much more than we already paid.

But man oh man does that ever throw my brain into sheer panic.  It feels like there are so very many things to weigh in and then it all gets so confusing.  

Nice Ad however, I find the range of choices on the Macs about as overwhelming as the PCs.  

As I am writing this I realize that I also am getting somewhat paralyzed by fear.  I fear I will make the wrong choice; the wrong decision. Part of the fear is real in that it is a big decision.  I am someone who tends to buy for the long haul.  I have had my Dell for almost 9 years, my truck for 15, etc.  Even if I change laptops again in three years it is still an important decision because of how much I use the computer and also because it is a lot of money! 

The other part of fearing I will make the wrong decision has nothing to do with a laptop at all.  It stems from having made so many bad decisions in the years prior to knowing that I have a brain injury.  Now my trust of myself and of my decision making ability is in the basement, at best.

The thing about the computer is that I am having problems with sensitivity in my fingertips and this mouse pad on the new MacBook is bothering it as much as my old machine.  So right there is something telling me I may need to upgrade to the aluminum mousepad.  Either that or I need to figure out why my fingertips are so sore!

The questions are still looming and making a cacophony of mental noise.  The biggest one is, of course, Mac versus PC.  I have only had one Mac: the original MacDinosaur.  It had 128 kilobytes of memory. Nowadays we are talking in hundreds of gigabytes for hard drives and even terabytes in storage drive.  

As an aside regarding the original MacIntoshes; there is quite a move afoot to make them into great MacQuariums!!  Almost wish I still had mine!¹

Ever since I outgrew the MacDinosaur I have been PC; mainly because I worked at companies that were PC.  

There are camps that say the Macs are overpriced and the PCs have caught up to the Macs in bells, whistles, and software.  And then there are the diehard Mac users who swear they are the very best and would never go back to PC.  

I have to say that in using this MacBook for most of the day there are many things I like about it already.  Bang!  A small hole just got punched in the PC bucket!  

It is now hours later as I am finishing this writing and posting it.  Mac has won and so has an upgrade.  It means I am down to my last cent yet again but I think I will be very happy with my decision in the long run.  

Boy!  It feels good to be writing again.  Just wait until I get a Mac that doesn't make my fingertips ache!

Footnotes:

1. The Macquarium pictured was created by Cate & Kevin Byers. Kevin & Cate Byers put a little ingenuity into designing the lighting apparatus for their MacQuarium. Two nightlights, a 3-socket swiveling adapter, and an extension cord installed inside a custom enclosure provides a great glow inside the tank. There is a veritable world of macquariums out on the web. Google it and you will see!

Home on the Move

I am on my second house sitting gig in as many weeks.  So far it is going wonderfully well.  If it continues to go so well I think I may try to house sit for a long time: at least 6 months and very possibly a year or more.  It will allow me to get back on my feet financially and, most importantly, help me to chunk out changes one at a time.

As I mentioned in posts below, I put all my belongings in storage in mid January to go down to Florida to help my Mom for a month.  What I realized is that "chunking things out" is exactly what my brain is currently capable of doing: dealing with one chunk at a time. Trying to pack up, find a place to live, then deal with unpacking and getting settled, while also dealing with this never-ending attempt at healing the torn achilles tendon, start cognitive rehab, and work with DVR & NVSU regarding work . . . it was all too much!

Suddenly being forced to drop everything other than packing up my belongings made it all so easy.  I could do THAT!  Then when I was down in Florida, my focus was to help my Mom.  Coming back, my focus is to get the wheels in motion that will eventually lead to paid work. 

I did not pack my boxes nor my storage locker with an eye to house sitting for 6 months.  In fact, I did not begin to entertain the idea of house sitting until I saw how well we were able to fit my belongings into the storage locker.  We made an S shaped path so I can reach a lot of the boxes.  Now, I am working to find the things I will need to have with me and also trying to get the locker into a semblance that will allow me to have other things easily in reach for when I need them.  I am setting my life up such that all my "need to have with me" items are well organized in easy to tote containers which will simplify moving in and out on a weekly or monthly basis.

It seems odd that house sitting is so much easier for me than finding my own place.  In fact, it amazes me.  I have known that I find home hunting stressful, especially now when I am not sure where I will need to be for work.  The only word I can use is that it is simpler and simpler is the key word here.

Hmmm . . . There is more to the story here.

House sitting for people who love their home is a joy.  The care and love is palatable.  The house bears the energy the owners invest in it.  It is an honor to care for these homes in their owners' absence.  The energy I feel in these homes is what I long to have in my own life again someday.  But I know that someday is pretty far away right now.  So being able to bask in that energy as I house sit is filling that need in me.  It somehow satiates the longing more than a rental ever could. 

I am worn out with trying to turn a rental into a home.  The energy of a rental is so different from a home.  No matter how much a tenant works to make it their home there is still a rental energy.  I think it has to do with the difference of paying into someone else's equity instead of your own.  I can't put better words to it.  It is just a world of difference.  And frankly, from where I stand right now, I would rather house sit for many, many months to come than to go through rental roulette again.  I think I am especially feeling this right now because I really thought I had moved into a place I could stay for years this last time, but it was not to be.

It is always interesting to see where these posts take me!  In writing them I often come to some "Aha" for myself.  That is true in this post. I know that I long to have land and a house that I own. But I had not realized how house sitting is easing that longing more than a rental could.  Very interesting.