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June 27, 2008
You, With the Laptop
Step away from the Conditional User Interface.
That's what I'm doing at the moment. The software I teach just released a new version. Next week, I have to teach a bunch of people everything that has changed, and any brand new stuff.
A piece of one of the brand new stuffs is kicking my butt at the moment. I got part of it figured out last night. At about midnight something I had been attempting finally worked.
The (unnamed) fireflies on the other side of the screen, had they been listening to me, would have heard me say, "hey, I did it all by self."
And then another moment later as I shut down the computer, "yay me."
It's like a big game of Mastermind - you try something, anything. You get some feedback, try something else, get some feedback, try a third time, this time you get feedback that may start showing a pattern, and hopefully by the last line in the game (my favorite as a kid, by the way) you get all the bits right, and are rewarded with the big reveal of the puzzle.
My big reveal though, was more like getting five of the colors in the right spot, but the string has about 300 more slots to guess and each new round introduces a brand new color.
Or so it seems right now.
So I had to step away for a few minutes.
And, no surprise, I wound up checking on the progress of the comments.
One.
From my sister. (I'll pay you next time I see you.) But glad I made you laugh.
Shea just made me laugh.
I asked her to do me a favor. "Take the bucket of sticks from outside the back garage and put them inside the garage. Along with the rake. You can open the big door, or take them through the side door. Either way, close up both doors when you're done. Please."
"Okay." She put on a pair of my flip-flops over her white-socked feet, and, carrying her pack of sunflower seeds, went out the back door and down to the garage.
Approach big bucket full of sticks (for fall fire-pit fires).
Touch side handle with right hand.
Left hand holding sunflower seeds.
Remove right hand from bucket, look at dirt on hand, wipe dirt on jeans, look back at bucket.
Grab bucket handle again with right hand. This time she makes an attempt to actually move the bucket.
But it's too heavy for her to move with one hand.
She looks at the sunflower seeds in her left hand, looks at her right hand, wipes the new dirt on her jeans, puts the sunflower seeds in her pocket, and now puts both hands on the bucket.
Then removes them, and wipes more dirt off her hands onto her jeans.
So she sees the rake and decides to move it first.
She carries it into the garage. Then comes back out for the bucket.
She carries it about 10 feet before she stops to wipe her hands off again.
Finally she goes around the corner with the bucket.
Then starts up the hill toward the house.
I was giggling so hard at her from inside the house as I watched this, that I was afraid she'd hear me laughing at her when I opened the back door to say, "close both of the doors, please."
(See, she got distracted.)
So she turns around, goes to the big overhead door, and tries to close it. She has to stand on the handle, but the door does close to within a foot of the ground.
I tell her to try it from inside. So she goes inside, and I see her feet in the socks and sandals stand near the door. At no time does either foot leave the ground to try to close the door the rest of the way.
She stands there for a moment. Her feet never move. Then she turns around and comes out and tells me she can't get it closed.
Still laughing, I tell her that's okay, as she closes the side door, and comes back up to the house.
Posted by Angela Tanner at June 27, 2008 03:11 PM