Monday, February 25, 2013
Not New, Not Improved
So there's this billboard I passed over the course of the last few days taking the Brown Eyed Girl to work.
It's for Shiner Bock, and it says: NOT New, NOT Improved.
And I loved it. If I drank beer, I might have switched. I never understood the philosophy of fixing something that isn't broken or improving something that tastes or works just fine. I get why they do it, but it's still bothersome.
The first thing I remember is the cereal, Special K. I used to eat it many years ago. And then they changed it. And I stopped eating it. Same with Grape Nuts. :(
More recently, a large organization to which I belong revamped their website. First, it was all back-end stuff, it looked the same mostly, though they'd added features. Now, I've been on PCs and the Internet a long time and I'm fairly savvy, but I hate hate hated the changes they made. The site was no longer user friendly. I could never find the same file or the same section twice. And if I did, it was never by following the same path. Ugh. Very frustrating. And then they decided to change the color scheme, the look and feel of the site. In general, I'm not opposed to the colors they chose, BUT this organization represents something and in my small insignificant opinion, the new color scheme does not represent that thing quite as well anymore. I'm not the only one. When the color changes were implemented, there was a lot of grumbling. And maybe it's more about the change rather than the changes themselves, because a lot of people resist change. Me included. But when something seems less friendly, less easy to use, or doesn't taste as good as it used to, there's something to be said for leaving well enough alone.
One last example is iTunes. Most people either love it or hate it. I'm mostly in the love it camp. The last upgrade brought significant changes to the user interface. A lot of folks were upset over that. And I'm not really sure what the purpose was. As of this post, I have not upgraded, although I'm sure there will be a point at which I have to otherwise things may stop working as well or altogether.
Is there a product that you wish had not been subjected to improvement??
NASCAR update: Danica Patrick started 1st, placed 8th. Not bad at all, considering there are 43 drivers.
Friday, February 22, 2013
NASCAR
I may have to start watching NASCAR again. :) If you've known me for very long, you'll know I went through a stint where I loved NASCAR. I watched it on Sundays, I discussed the races with people, I had driver stickers on my car, and I still have my fair share of collectibles. DH and I even attended two races; one here in Texas at Texas Motor Speedway and one in Arizona at the Phoenix International Raceway.
My favorite driver, back in the day, was Sterling Marlin.
I was NOT a Jeff Gordon fan.
One thing we learned about race tracks was that they have their own personalities, if you will. Texas Motor Speedway was a total party track. We could hardly get to sleep for all the noise and chatter and laughter going on late into the night. For our trip to Phoenix, we bought a pop-up trailer. A good choice, though not because of any sort of noise. In fact, PIR was the complete opposite of TMS. This was the rich/old person's track--they all had motor homes! And it was quiet as heck in the camping area.
The reason I may have to take up NASCAR again is because, for the first time ever, a woman will start the Daytona 500 from the pole position (that's first in the line-up, on the inside nearest nearest the flag pole if there are two lines). Last Sunday, Danica Patrick drove the fastest qualifying lap, giving her the pole.
It's hard enough to win a race even if you're a man, and there are or have been scant few women in the sport, though it's one of the few were gender really isn't an issue in terms of needing brawn over brains. You need endurance, a good engine, and a lot of luck.
I'm not really a women's libber, but it's good to see Danica taking a giant leap for woman-kind and showing girls and young women that with a lot of hard work and perseverance, you really can do anything you want in this world.
(borrowed from autoweek.com)
Are you a fan of auto-racing? Any particular kind?
Wednesday, February 20, 2013
Whatever Wednesday
Maybe you've heard of Minecraft, maybe you haven't. It's a video game and one that Sonshine spends a lot of time playing.
It's a cross between Legos on steroids and the Sims meet the Stone Age. The description according to WIKI: The creative and building aspects of Minecraft allow players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D procedurally generated world. Other activities in the game include exploration, gathering resources, crafting and combat. Gameplay in its commercial release has two principal modes: survival, which requires players to acquire resources and maintain their health and hunger; and creative, where players have an unlimited supply of resources, the ability to fly, and no health or hunger. A third gameplay mode named hardcore is the same as survival, differing only in difficulty; it is set to hardest setting and respawning is disabled, forcing players to delete their worlds upon death.
It's like watching girls playing Barbies--and it both cracks me up and tickles me to death. I'm sure there are girls that play, but it's fun and amazing to watch my son and a handful of friends get together in various worlds and create. They work together build communities. In fact, this past weekend, they thought up a constitution for their little world.
Here he is with the headset, talking to his friend, discussing the inventory on the alchemy store they've built.
This is his character on the computer version/world.
If you look close next to the head, there's a lighthouse he built.
In other news, poor Kitty got fixed and declawed Monday. She came home yesterday looking pathetic and having to wear a collar so she can't lick her paws or her belly stitches.
She wanted to clean herself so badly she finally took to licking the collar with her body going through the motions beneath it. It was funny in a pathetic sort of way. And she has to take this horrible pain killer that tastes nasty and makes her foam at the mouth. It was not fun trying to get that into her.
She should be right as rain in a few days.
I think my generation was the first to have in-home arcade games. Do you remember Atari and Pong??
We've come a long way baby!
Monday, February 18, 2013
A time for change...
First of all, there's a lot a bad juju out in the universe right now. From all the random, illogical violence happening across our country to the meteor hitting the atmosphere over Russia to some tragic deaths closer to my heart, it's been a wicked week. Hug the ones you love and tell them you love them.
Now what's this change I speak of?
Well, it seems every 12 to 15 months I have a sort of writing freak-out wherein I question my pursuit of publication. I know what writing entails. I know what a good story needs. I know about deep point of view, turning points, the black moment, and goals, motivation and conflict.
What I can't seem to do is pull all of that together to write--to finish--a book of my own. I reach a point at which it seems impossible to actually pull all of the elements together into a cohesive whole.
I've also come to the conclusion that I really enjoy the beta reading/proof reading process and I've finally decided to change tacks and give that a go.
To that end, I'm hanging up my shingle for proof reading services--see the text gadget at the top of the column to the left.
Way way back in the day, I sold Tupperware. I loved Tupper. I used Tupper. And I needed a way to make some extra cash, so I tried selling it. But somewhere along the way someone said to me: Some people are meant to be great Tupperware ladies and some people are just meant to be great hostesses.
I think that can sort of apply to me here. So I'm going to stop trying to write stories for publication, at least for the moment, and help others make their stories the cleanest, best stories they can possibly be.
Have you ever changed career paths?
Friday, February 15, 2013
Fort Worth Friday
Welcome to the second edition of Fort Worth Friday.
One of the things I love about Fort Worth is that there's so much history here. The proof is in the wonderful old buildings still prominent throughout the downtown and surrounding area. I really love when these old buildings are given new life.
One such building is the Texas & Pacific Station. Opened in October 1931 to replace the previous building, this building served as railroad terminal and office space with warehouse space just to the west. It was designed in Zigzag Moderne Art Deco styling.
Look at these cool, and I do believe original, doors!
The building was run down and abandoned when we first moved to Fort Worth in 1999. According to Wiki (yes, I know what they say about Wiki), that area of downtown declined when the freeway (I-30) was built in 1958. In 1967, the terminal was closed when passenger train service to Fort Worth ended. After that, HUD was the lone tenant from the 70s to the 90s.
The lobby was returned to its former glory in 1999 and passenger service began again when the Trinity Railway Express extended into Fort Worth.
Much to my surprise and pleasure, renovations began on the building in the early 2000s and in 2006, the first lofts were for sale. A smaller adjacent building was built on the east side of the original. The north view of downtown is spectacular I'm sure. The southern view--I guess if you look past the freeway. According to another site, the warehouse building is also slated for renovations, but the economy has postponed those plans.
This is the addition they built to the left of the original.
It's more modern than the original building, sad to say.
I would have loved to see them duplicate the external architectural design.
I took these pictures of the outside (obviously), but did not attempt to go inside. To see pictures of the lobby, click here. And to look at what they've done with the lofts, click here and here.
I still have more pictures, but another trip with my friends will be discussed this weekend.
Do you live in a city with a rich history, architectural and otherwise??
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