Better

When you are around someone who is bettering themselves in some way, education, fitness, etc., it is hard not to get inspired. Or at least feel inadequate or lazy or both for not doing something to move toward your goals. My husband has acquired a couple Microsoft certifications and is taking a course twice a week to learn C# (sharp not pound, apparently) and .net programming, things I cannot hope to ever understand. I've run a few marathons so I'm crushing him on the fitness (though he's not unfit as I've wrangled him into some 5Ks), but it's time to work a body part I've been neglecting.

I've been a graphic designer for over a decade, but as with most professions, there is always something new to learn - and thank goodness. A month ago I downloaded a 10-week Photoshop webinar and am finally nibbling away at the one-hour classes with accompanying one-hour Q and A. For perspective, I now have to admit a guilty pleasure: I loved school. I loved college. Being in a class is one of my favorite things. I was really disappointed I couldn't take this Photoshop course when it was offered live and was really worried it would be dry and feel less interactive. Maybe that's why I put it off for a while. It turns out that it's wonderful.

The instructor, Jason Hoppe, is excellent; he is concise, entertaining and dispenses so much knowledge about Photoshop it could fill an Egyptian pyramid. As someone who uses the CS3 version of this program, I'm in an excellent spot to soak up more efficient ways to do the things I know, learn some new techniques, see how things work in CS4 (the version used in this course) and get a refresher on skills I learned once but don't have the opportunity to do often. It's like taking toothpaste to tarnished silver; try it - it will shine like new.

As a lover of learning, my second favorite thing is sharing what I've learned. I often e-mail my coworkers tips and tricks. Some they already know and some they don't, but I figure if we all get faster, we have more time for the fun part - being creative! There are so many things I've picked up from this course, such as holding the option key (alt on the PC) while clicking on the eyeball icon on one layer will turn all the other layers off for instant before and after comparison. Fab-u-lous!

This course is still available here. Download all 10 weeks for $65 or just the weeks you want for $15 each. CreativeTechs, a Seattle-based professional Mac support company, is who produces this course and others. Visit their blog for all kinds of useful Mac/design-related information. You can also follow them on Twitter: @creativetechs. Am I in some way affiliated with CreativeTechs? No. I just want you to get better.

SharePoint Saturday, D.C.

I don't use SharePoint. I have just a basic idea of what it does. Who knew it would take me on a variety of road trips and lead to fun excursions at the destinations? While Rick packs his brain all day at SharePoint sessions, I meander around wherever I am until we meet up with the group later to go out and have fun.

I have now tagged along to two SharePoint Saturday weekends - one in Boston, one in D.C. - or to be more precise, the surprisingly fun suburbs of Waltham, MA and Reston, VA. In Boston last month, I set out on foot and didn't stop until five hours later and then just to have some lunch. While in D.C. this past weekend, we headed into the city to experience the monuments at night. The cherry blossoms littered the ground like delicate pink confetti as we walked from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington, the spring night air was perfect and the company highly entertaining and welcoming to a non-SharePointer. From an impromptu light saber duel during which a stranger sidled up and joined in for a few jabs to lying at the base of the Washington monument to look up at the top, it had the air of a senior trip. Maybe that's because my senior trip - way back in the day - was there though our bus driver got lost, and we didn't get to all our designated stops.

Rick is really motivated as a user of SharePoint to learn all he can and then share what he knows via blogging and presenting. I had a small epiphany today about getting certified in the design programs I use. Perhaps I could eventually train people if I headed in that direction. It could be worth the mental road trip.

Thank You Fold-Down Seat Inventor

I have a bike rack. I just decided it would be easier if my bike could
go in my car, and those sweet fold-down seats did not let me down -
just.

If the person who invented them stumbles by my blog and reads
this, I think you deserve a Pulitzer prize. You made it possible for
me to get to a trail where I didn't have to worry about traffic. You
made it possible for me to ride helmet-free, the wind in my hair -
without the usual guilt I'd feel about being turned into a vegetable
for my husband to feed if I were braving the road and got unlucky.
Simply put, you make my life - and those of countless other fold-down
seat owners - better.

Note: For those of you thinking I should be wearing a helmet anyway, it was not a mountain biking trail, but one of those rails-to-trails trails. If you think I should still be wearing a helmet, I'm just glad you haven't gotten a law passed against it for people my age because this normally law-abiding person would break it.

Getting it Done

It's been another busy week where the majority of the time spent at home was with my eyes closed. Tonight B and I stayed in. I dialed on the dishwasher, got two loads of laundry done and - miracle of miracles - put away, went to the gym, had wonderful conversations with B, got my mom's birthday present, downloaded an online Photoshop course to expand upon my skills, updated apps on my iPhone, made the grocery list because our fridge looks like a bachelor lives here and picked up the last drawer pull we needed for the kitchen and returned some wrong size screws that I'd bought. Whew. Still there are plenty of things that need doing like cleaning the bathroom, putting the dishes away, grocery shopping...it's just never ending isn't it?

Hesitation

I have trouble connecting things. I hesitate. But some things you have to go right into. For example, when you do a round-off back handspring it is no where near the same thing as doing one round-off or one back handspring. The round-off back handspring is all one creature. The middle is not "pause, bend knees, sit back, JUMP!" It's "land/punch the floor with toes while jumping backward." Fast.

No time for thought - only do.

I am so bad at do because of that lack of time for thought. In the end, that is my downfall because thoughts lead to fear and fear leads to hesitation and hesitation leads to failure. I must try to trust that physical plane and push the mental one out of the way. My brain may be the least flexible part of me because it is the only one that understands the danger I'm putting the rest of the parts in. Understandable brain, but it's unacceptable. Get out of my way.