Sometimes, no matter how much I concentrate I just do not understand. It is not like the problem is something new... I am sure some of you know what I am talking about. The situations occur when you can't figure out how to turn something on and your daughter looks at you like you are really dumb and says "Mom, it's the universal symbol for ON & OFF ". Who knew there was a universal symbol for such a thing?
OR no matter what buttons you push on the tv remote you can't figure out how to get the tv back to being a tv - it is stuck in Guitar Hero mode. ( I am getting pretty good a playing "Slow Ride" but that is another story) And when you ask your other daughter to help you, she looks at you with pity in her eyes, pushes a couple buttons and in less than a second "poof" the tv is fixed.
There is one area I usually understand with no problem and that has been sewing. So, you can understand my distress today as I found an article on a craft blog titled Sewing with Deployable Structures . What? The only "deployable" thing I could think of was sending out the troops. My College Edition of the American Heritage Dictionary said "deploy was to spread out your troops to form an extended front". When I was teaching, some days I would have liked troops to cover my front but I still didn't understand how it related to sewing.
So I had to Google. It took a while as I filtered through articles about bridges and buildings until I found an article about structures that can folded small and then be opened. Ah Ha, Deployable Clothing. It sounds like a good idea to me. Nice for travel. I think they had clothing like this on The Jetson's. Jane and Geroge pushed buttons and the clothing got larger. The article focused mainly on hats. I don't think McCalls and Simplicity have patterns for this yet but at least I know what they are talking about now, not quite so old and stupid as I felt earlier in the day.
Sunday, October 25, 2009
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I think it is common knowledge, among those of us of a certain age, that the so-called "engineers" who are designing all these media systems are not thinking the way we think. They are in a different place - and most of us will never be there. I think you have to be born to it. Look at our children - they have no issues with it! Their brains are wired for it. But their detailed instructions make no sense to me, so "I don't get it". I read books instead. Or sew. But no deployable clothing for me! Sounds like something you'd wear to go to war in!
ReplyDeleteI am hoping to live long enough so that the people who design LCD screens on digital cameras will turn 40. Once they start having presbyopia they will realize they need to rethink those screens. Or maybe they will just have LASIK and I will have cararacts and I still won't be able to see into the camera clearly enough.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but you guys just plain sound old!
ReplyDeleteMy qusetion is, what is the "universal" symbol of on and off?
If I am the OLD one, how come you don't know? =)
ReplyDelete1 means on, O means off. Put a 1 inside the O and it means on/off button. Usually the one is just a straight line.
Look around your house. As I sit here the printer has one on, the camera etc.
It is the only universal symbol I know so don't expect me to be able to help you anymore with my knowledge of universal thingies.