I just don’t give a fuuuuuuuuuck.

…okay. Maybe I do. A little. And maybe I wrote about 300 words for this stupid, ridiculous short story that was going to be day 19, but it’s 8:03pm, I’m tired, I want a cigarette, and I hate everything.

So, yeah. Fuck this.

Yeah, yeah. Terrible post heading.

My mother has had this plant for twenty-five years. Apparently it’s written in her will that she wants me to have it when she dies.

D:

I'm actually pretty impressed that a tropical plant has survived for so long in the midwest.

With a human for scale. I'm 5' 7".

(Yeah, so, this is kind of a roadblock post, but I hate writing out “LOL GAIZ, I’M REALLY DEPRESSED AND I DON’T FEEL LIKE DOING ANYTHING, SRY” and just leaving it like that. Better a lazy something than nothing at all, right?)

First things first, let’s get all the gameplay whatsits out of the way.

Joanie’s traits are clumsy and artistic, which makes me very happy, since I have big plans for such an artistic sim as Miss Joanie. Her favorites are: electronica, grilled cheese, and violet.

Having already mastered the arts of walking, talking, and using the potty, Joanie has also maxed out her toddler skill levels on both the peg box and the xylophone, and has moved onto toddler books.

With six days until she ages into a child, I’m confident she’ll have learned all she can. However…

I read on a forum somewhere that if a sim takes a toddler to the park and leaves it there, the toddler will be deemed “abandoned” and will gain hidden charisma skill points. I’m curious about that, but not curious enough (yet) to try it out on an heiress.

As for Carlos, he had three off days in a row, and since he’d tinkered and upgraded all the Modela appliances not once, but twice, I sent him down to the bookstore to pick up Gardening, Volume III, and Handiness, Volume III.

Once he’d done that, I put him to work skilling straightaway.

Twiggy mastered her guitar skill and began working on her Master Guitarist challenge by learning new songs.

There’s still 2 days (1 day, 17 hours) until she can return to work, but with all the work she’s been doing at home, a promotion on her next shift is inevitable, bringing her to career level 7. But now with her guitar skilling out of the way, there’s not a lot left to do.

Twiggy says: “I’m bored.”

I hear you. And yet, you just rolled a wish for another nooboo. Ha! As if.

End of Week 3 Stats
Twiggy
Guitar Level: 10 (Mastered)
Career Level: 6
LTH: 50,099

Carlos
Cooking Level: 2
Gardening Level: 6
Handiness Level: 8
Career Level: 3
LTH: 30,070

HBO Channel Info

Week 3: HBO Logo Info

I’m…not sure if this counts as something creative? It’s not really in my “What is Operation: Create” outline, but this is such a massive undertaking that I’ll be damned if it’s not getting recorded through some medium.

So, basically, I haven’t cleaned my room in about…two weeks. Between getting fired and getting injured I haven’t been in any sort of “yeah, let’s clean shit” type of mood. Things have kind of spiraled out of control since then, and now it’s an absolute disaster. I mean, it’s officially dangerous for me to be in my room, seeing as it’s difficult to maneuver over piles of clothing and trash with my bum leg.

Here’s how this is going down. I have about 22 hours left of Day 17, and I’m going to try to get as much done as possible. Gonna update this post once more at the end of the day, with BATTLE WON or BATTLE ON-GOING and pictures of my hopefully significant progress.

UPDATES THAT YOU WON’T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT:

• 2:00am Look upon my room in horror. Snap some pictures.
• 3-4:00am Continue to stare in horror; say, “Something must be done!”
• 5:00am Collect clothing strewn about room, separate into piles of clean and dirty.
• 6:00am Fall asleep (oh no!)
• 7-11:00am Sleepin’ like a boss.
• 12-1:00pm Emergency last-minute grocery shopping.
• 2:00pm Finally get the first load of laundry into the washer. Two Three Four more to go.
• 3:00pm Second load of laundry in washer; walk-in closet cleaned and organized; clean clothes put away.
• 4:00pm Strip the bed, dust, sweep, organize main room. Throw third and fourth load of laundry in the washer; fold first load.
• 5:00pm Turkeeeeeeey.
• 6:00pm Fight off food-coma and knee pain with an energy drink and Vicodin. Fold second load of laundry; hang dry the third; put fourth in washer. Put crap back where it’s supposed to go. Sweep more.
• 7:00pm Clean and organize bathroom. Fold fourth load of laundry; make bed. Finishing touches. DONE.

BATTLE WON!

Pre-cleaning and post-cleaning photos <insert embarrassment here>:

BEFORE

Clothes eeeeeeverywhere.

Bonus dog behind, to hopefully distract you from the OH GOD SO BAD mess.

Normally I do not sleep under a pile of laundry. I swear.

I have a medicine cabinet, which I can put stuff in, and instead I throw it ALL OVER.

AFTER

Oh man I love organizing too much, I think. By type and then color awh yeah.

I think I should be upset that I'm using my music stand to hold scarves, but it worrrrks.

Check out my pimpin' stoplight.

Clean bathroom!

Actually using my medicine cabinet now. Like smart people do.

I'm not very good at making my bed. :/

No, really, I’m not. I usually just curl up in a nest of blankets to sleep and leave it like that when I wake up.

This makes me die laughing every single time I step on my scale.

All in all I am very pleased with how quickly I pulled this off, even being gimpy.

Bonus!Picture: My wall of beautiful people. It makes visiting plumbers and electricians give me The Nod.

The Nod (v.): A nod given from one person to another, usually from a male to a male, that means, “Hey, you’re alright in my book.” Alternatively: “Right on, bro.”

I just don’t care enough to put forth effort and make a post today.

Depression is a bitch.

Happy holidays, or something like that.

When we last left the Modelas, one was reading about asparagus and the other was vomiting pea soup.

Yeah.  Like that.

Thankfully, Twiggy’s random acts of vomiting ended when she entered her second trimester.

Despite her delicate condition, she’s still belting it out at the park all day, every day. Lately she’s been making upwards of $1,600 per performance. Really, well done.

And did you know she was a doula?

Twiggy says:  ”You couldn’t have waited until after I was done?”

Neither did I…until Blond Beehive Sim went into labor at the park, and Twiggy took it upon herself to escort her to the hospital.

Before too long, it was her turn.

Carlos says:  ”I do nothing but read and tinker, so I’m thankful for the screen time.  P.S., this reminds me of an episode of I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant where this woman gave birth in a toilet.  You’re not going to give birth in a toilet…are you?”

I’ve never weighed the pros and cons of a hospital birth versus a home birth before, so I sent Twiggy to the hospital to do just that.  I was expecting the hospital would be not unlike a trip to the day spa (ha ha, I realize now how ridiculous that sounds), and that the mother would come back more well-rested than before.  BUZZ!  WRONG!  Twiggy came back from the hospital just as annoyed at having been woken up as she was when she left the Modela house (estate?  compound?).  So other than being largely inconvenient, what is the point of a hospital birth?  Can anyone tell me?  Aspyr?  EA?  Maxis?  Anyone?

Joanie Modela was born on W3 D3.  Her traits are artistic and clumsy (inherited from her father), and her favorites are ???, ???, ????.  She was named after America’s Next Top Model cycle 6 runner-up Joanie Dodds, who was best known for being completely awesome, and also for having spent 12 hours at the dentist getting her teeth grinded down to pencil points.  Ouch.

Since Joanie didn’t roll insane (huzzah!) or come wrapped in a blue blankie (huzzah!), she is officially the unconfirmed Gen 2 heiress; she’ll be confirmed when she produces a female heir.

While both Twiggy and Carlos have acclimated to being parents rather well, Carlos seems to have adapted to the change better than Twiggy, who spends most of her time off lot and can’t stand the sound of a crying baby. And this, I don’t understand. For one thing, Twiggy has the “Family-Oriented” trait, which should make her more fond of children, not less. And Carlos is a Loner, which should mean an infant in need of constant attention should drive him batty. And yet…

Huh.  Go figure.

At some point, around W3 D4, Twiggy aged into a full-fledged adult.

She was pretty happy about it.

Twiggy says: Day 25 is the new Day 7!

A few days later, Joanie aged into a toddler.

Carlos wasted no time teaching her to walk, talk, and use the potty.

Now she’s almost entirely self-sufficient, and has moved on to the peg box and xylophone. She also now has a bookshelf of her own to store all the toddler books she’ll need to read before she ages into a child.

And here’s where my complete n00b-ness comes through, since my toddlers can’t all read the same books, and I don’t know why.  I’m also curious what the differences are between the toddler reading the book themselves and an adult reading the book to the toddler, if there are any.

Toddler skillinz – I knowz not how to do it.

In the meantime, the adults have to go back to work and earn more promotions, especially Twiggy, since she’s so close to her Lifetime Want.

No stats today, since I lost them.  Better luck next time!

Muziek op blogs

Zender
Bloggers

Doelgroep
Buma/Stemra

Probleemvraag
Moeten bloggers auteursrechten betalen aan Buma Stemra?

Doelstelling
Bloggers verdienen vaak geen geld met hun weblog en vinden het wel leuk om muziek die bijvoorbeeld door artiesten of platenlabels op youtube is gezet met hun lezers te delen. Bloggers die geen geld verdienen zouden geen auteursrechten aan Buma Stemra hoeven te betalen.

Muziek op de werkvloer

Zender
Luisterende werknemers en hun werkgevers.

Doelgroep
Buma/Stemra.

Probleemvraag
Moet muziek luisteren op de werkvloer gratis?

Doelstelling
Maak muziek luisteren op de werkvloer legaal zonder kosten.

Overlast door muziek in het openbaar

Zender
De overheid

Doelgroep
Mensen, die met het openbaar vervoer reizen en muziek te hard hebben opstaan.

Probleemvraag
Is er een oplossing voor de overlast die wordt veroorzaakt door muziek in het openbaar?

Boodschap
Een tikje zachter en je muziek klinkt even goed.

I recommend clicking on the picture to get the full view. And yessss, this is kind of a “oh man I’m so lazy and depressed, why don’t I go take a random picture and use it for one of my days” post. Bite me.

Think of it as a game of “Can You Find All The Birds?”

What is this?  What I am seeing?  What does it mean? Ooooh.  For more information, see the Week 3 Sketchbook entry on this blog.

Time: 6 hours.  Paper:  Sennelier pastel card.  19 x 26″.  Media:  Black, white and gray pastel.  Actuals: a standard laptop run amok on MS Vista and a bonsai root trained on a circuit board:

Process: I love drawing on pastel card, basically like drawing on sand paper. It allows for many clean layers of pastel.  If only it came in 54″  x 10 yard rolls.  First layer:

Second layer.  Drawing from bonsai, overemphasizing the circuit board and linear perspective because I liked it that way:

Third layer.  Printed out bits of my Perl program (CTRL + PRTSC) graphically enhanced,  (Print Mask for GIMPs).  Pastel on back of print, then traced with ball point.

]]> http://trudalakingglatz.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/week-3-sketchbook/ Mon, 23 Nov 2009 05:47:32 +0000 trudalakingglatz http://trudalakingglatz.wordpress.com/2009/11/23/week-3-sketchbook/

Most my artwork of the last 10 years falls into this genre so it was no problem coming up with an idea for a class sample drawing.  I was looking forward to doing this assignment, completely prepared.   At the very last minute, I mean the nanosecond before putting pastel to paper, I changed my mind, inspired by the paper size.  I love drawing on Sennelier pastel card but the largest available size is 19 x 26″.   I felt restricted by the small paper.  It reminded me of the laptop I inherited which is a standard sized laptop but feels like being in a doll house compared to my big screen, wireless mansion of a desktop.   Furthermore the laptop was already loaded with MS Vista: windows popping open, scroll bars, some sort of MS designers gone mad translucency thing that has to be seen to be believed, I mean, totally anathema to anyone who knows how to micromanage their computer experience.  Ubuntu, BSD, Perl anyone?

Since 2001 I have grown ficus retusa bonsai over circuit boards, real plants grown over real pieces of circuit board, and made the ceramic containers for them.  Right before I started the drawing, I attempted to email an image of my bonsai using the laptop.  Who knows what happened.  The image broke into multiple windows on the laptop screen, probably nervous pastel coated fingers on that itty bitty fingerpad and the whole mess looked like….well, a potential drawing.  With the thought that it would be easier to create a program for sending images than using someone else’s idea of an image sending program, I added a bit of my own Perl code, a program that admittedly I never got to work correctly, digitally speaking, but has its uses as a decorative element.  The best laid plans and all that.

Q.3 If an organisation has business processes that do not match any commercially available ERP, should the organisation adopt an ERP? Provide factors for and against and suggest other possible considerations that would factor in your reasoning.

There are many varied definitions of “business processes” that each organisation adopts formally and informally and there is evidently continual global change with competition and technology in the workplace, however it is through knowing the state of the organisation whether or not there is scope or budget for change (Sumner, 2005).

Analysis, models, rules and current business process need to be clarified and documented to order to compare with ERP commercial products. Business improvements may also be identified throughout the process of conceptualising and planning the business processes to be suitably centralised with ERP vendor choice. A relational entity model of the current status will identify what and how legacy, other systems, business processes and rules if any are in place to integrate a vendor best practice ERP. After all the supporting documentation has been collated to justify the current state, the business plan along with the facts, scope, models, risks, budget, costs and benefits will inform stakeholders/ decision makers to critically analyse and discuss the situation in order to make a decision and commit to positive change or not. Without strategies, policies, models, facts and data it is unknown if the business processes may potentially match or not and if so, what are the risks of change is to match a commercially available ERP (Sumner, 2005).

Assuming that all of the above has been thoroughly investigated and documented, the organisation is now at the business case stage and the decision makers are in the position to say that its business processes do not match, but there are criticalities to consider such as the business process re-engineering risks that need to be assessed, information technology that supports the re-engineering of business processes, training employees with new behaviours, outcome measures and the benefits for and against a clean slate approach (Sumner, 2005, p.31) ERP. Using a clean slate approach may potentially simplify business processes, improve business rules, user interfaces and productivity, increase efficiency to reduce costs and attain best practice, but the concerns are that the chosen ERP vendor may not turn out to be a vendor that has best practices that are suited to the current business and budget (Sumner, 2005).

To enable success through radical change, the communication channels are critical to the success of implementing ERP and the employees need exceptional interpersonal skills and adequate training, else there may be failure for the organisation and all the employees in it. Everyone in the organisation must be willing to commit to the project management plan and change that follows as it may potentially be a crisis area at the implementation stage if not addressed by the organisation early. Selective commitment may have adverse result such as conjuring up employee union movement. (i.e. fear of employee positions made redundant), however if handled appropriately, one of the benefits out of successful ERP implementation is the efficiency gains made through system integration and consequently a cost reduction of human resources for the organisation (Sumner, 2005).

The benefits of adopting an ERP is that the databases are integrated, it provides data sharing, independence, improved data consistency and integrity and reduced redundant data. All these improvements combined may offer competitive strategic advantages, efficiency gains and returns through re-engineering of the business processes (Sumner, 2005).

Each business has functions that of which some may match ERP commercial alternatives, however each off the shelf package comes with risks. Nominally there are organisations that lack synergy of the vision across the organisation and there are organisations that do not have best practices and there are organisations that have no strategic priorities or qualitative frameworks and methodologies. Without buy in across all areas, ERP may not achieve the benefits and as a consequence will cost the organization dearly. Dependent on the organizations status and positioning, adopting an ERP would be an opportunity to redesign for more simplified processes that are improved, aligned and integrated business processes that may have long-term potential gains that are sustainable (Sumner, 2005).

It is the writer’s thoughts after research and investigation that if the organisation is positioned well for example, it has all of the following organisational capabilities and more, the appropriate decision in this case is to become a risk taker because there is a higher risk and price to pay if left behind the times of the global forever changing technological world, changing markets and competitor strategies.

The questions of the success of an organisation transitioning to ERP are dependent whether,

• it is financially sound;
  
• it has time for lengthy projects;
  
• it has trained resources that have exceptional interpersonal skills and are adaptable to change;


• it has effective user acceptance test plans;
  
• it has targeted measurable benefit realisation plans
  
• it is prepared to train employees to sustain positive business outcomes;


• it is able to mitigate risks through re-engineering and consequently the development of new policies and strategies; and


• it has the ability to develop and test incident and business continuity plans in the event of disruption, shutdown or failure.
  

Another option is to go with ERP even if it does not fit with the current business processes or vice versa with the ERP best practices. The organisation may strive for the competitive advantages that ERP offer, however this option does not happen without high risks such as the ERP code being changed to fit into the existing practices and the danger of legacy systems being altered (Sumner, 2005).

If the organisation, no matter what its size, is not positioned well and has budget constraints, the logical choice would be to avoid high risk projects that have potential failure and perhaps look at merging with a robust similar market to keep in line with the changing times. One option may be to upgrade to current best of breed systems in the knowledge that there is now a better understanding of the business processes through the development of the business case that may inform a better off-the-shelf product choice that is more suited to each individual area of the organisation, however not centralised. Another option would be to take a risk and choose the “vanilla” enterprise system that radically re-engineers changes to the business processes. Regardless of the direction taken, it must be viable to continue until such a time that the organisation is in the position to support the required or needed organisational capabilities for future ERP’s and what is the point of changing an ERP product to suit all organisational business processes/ practices as it defeats the purpose of ERP best practice purchase. (Sumner, 2005)

Annotated References

Weston, R 1999, Model-driven, component-based approach to reconfiguring manufacturing software systems, International Journal of Operations & Production Management, Vol.19, No.8, pp. 834-855, MCB University Press, Loughborough University, Leicestershire, UK , viewed at Emerald 22 November 2009,
http://www.emeraldinsight.com.ezproxy.cqu.edu.au/Insight/viewPDF.jsp?contentType=Article&Filename=html/Output/Published/EmeraldFullTextArticle/Pdf/0240190805.pdf

In this journal article the author’s research explains three main thrusts – usage constraints, a new approach to developing manufacturing software and associated system structures and general research findings when implementing the aspects of this new approach in different ways. The article explains a number of proof-of-concept system design and construction environments that have been developed and their targets at defining and resourcing different sets of W, H and D activity flows utilised by industrial companies that work together. The article will be used to gain an understanding of the types of systems and how the components of the software systems are embedded and configured into software integration mechanisms. The concepts will give an insight to support the Cisco case study decision as to whether they should adopt a new enterprise system to accommodate rather than inhibit subsequent change for the expansion of their products and services in the market.

The Economist, 2009, Reshaping Cisco: Cisco’s chairman and chief executive is stretching his company in all directions. Can it hold together? The world according to Chambers, from The Economist print edition, viewed 22 November 2009,
http://www.economist.com/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14303574

The author in this article explains Cisco’s plan for a big push into the server market. The article talks about the products and services already in place and predictions of future internet traffic accounted for by video communication that will be twice as fast as traffic overall in an attempt to justify why Cisco should make the change. It explains that there will be bigger routers and switches needed, such as Cisco’s Nexus 7000, which can handle 15 trillion bits that is the equivalent of 1,350 feature-length films every second. More research and investigation is needed to justify and argue the truth of such information to enable an informed opinion as to whether they should proceed with another enterprise system or look into alternatives to build its business and become the best company in the world.

References:

Lozinsky, S 1998, Enterprise-wide software solutions: integration strategies and practices, 1st edn, Addison Wesley, Reading.

Sumner, M 2005, Enterprise Resource Planning, 1st edn, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey.

Websites: http://www.hrgiger.com/
http://boingboing.net/

Descriptive Words Biomech: surrealist, hyper representational, machine + human, machine + animal,  dark, noir, pessimistic, technophobic, humans manipulated by tech, cyborg

Descriptive Words Geek: computer, tech, gadgets, repurposed, upcycled, human + tech, robots, tech as something controllable and fun, manipulated by humans

I had my first Beauty U facial last night — whenever we don’t have any regular customers in the spa, the senior students borrow one of us freshman girls to practice on — and it reminded me to tell you about this.

Jezebel is pretty sure that the Daily Mail is over-hyping this placenta facial as the latest Hollywood craze business (you think?) but it’s not the first time afterbirth has made the rounds as the beauty ingredient du jour. Shiseido, Mila Skin Care, Plazan Cosmetics and other high-end brands have all offered luxe anti-aging products in recent years with this so-called miracle ingredient, derived from bovine and human, um, volunteers. (It’s especially popular in Japan.)

The companies claim that placenta, the organ that nourishes a developing baby in the womb, can boost your metabolic processes, accelerate tissue regeneration and rid your body of toxins, all to help you achieve younger-looking skin. Dermatologists frequently dispute whether it really works.

So that means people with medical degrees are actually sitting around saying “Hmmm, can placenta make you look younger or not?” instead of asking these companies more obvious questions like, “Are you high?” and “Where the heck are you getting this stuff?”

Poole Hospital, in Dorset, England, made headlines last year when it received about $10,000 in “donations” in exchange for delivering up to 70 frozen placentas per week to Sigma-Aldrich, a biochemical company that sells raw materials to cosmetic companies. The moms who signed consent forms after giving birth thought their placenta was being donated for medical research. You know, like to help sick people. Mila Skin Care and Plazan Cosmetics say their placenta comes from maternity wards in Russia — it’s not clear whether those moms know they’re donating (and perhaps being compensated directly) in the name of beauty science or not.

Okay, so there’s the obvious ick factor. We can be grown ups about that, I guess. But what I’m still working on: Is it okay to turn a body part (albeit a rather temporary one) into a commodity? What makes a woman donate or sell her child’s placenta in the name of erasing crow’s feet? Or is it even more creepy that she may not know it’s happening?

[Photo: Daily Mail]

My 600-hour adventure in esthetics school. Learn about the project, or catch up with Weeks 1 and 2.

We’ve been practicing the daytime face for two weeks now, so tonight, Meg and I are messing around in our FantaSea makeup kits. They’re filled with clever compartments and secret drawers, all fitted with perfectly pressed cakes of color that beg you to swirl your brushes through them, like walking on fresh snow. There’s even a black plastic comb fitted into the hinge, though no one can explain what we’re going to do with that.

“Remember girls, the daytime face should be very, very light,” says Miss Jenny for perhaps the millionth time. She’s been toning down our preferences for smoky eyes and pouty lips all week. “Very light. You need to be very restrained with your color selections.”

Meg dips her brush in a coral blush and dabs her cheek. We peer at the orange streak. “Nice and light,” I decide. She follows up with neon blue eye shadow, while I layer on the frosted pink lipstick. ”Perfect for daytime,” says Meg approvingly. We add sparkly gloss, green shadow for contour, and more orange blush, then admire our Technicolor faces in the Fantasea mirrors. It’s the kind of makeup you used to put on at a middle school sleepover party, while your one friend was in the bathroom dying her hair some impractical color, before you all sat down to eat an entire pan of brownies in one sitting.

“My god,” says Meg. “We’re so pretty!”

“Oh you girls are making me laugh,” says Miss Jenny.

I think this is kind of the moment when we all realize that we’re becoming friends.

During a back wax, pants should be worn. (This guy is not Frank. And he did it for charity.)

Miss Jenny asks us to go around the room and talk about which field of esthetics we’re most interested in pursuing. Everyone is deciding between being a makeup artist or “medical esthetics,” which is where you work in the office or medi-spa of a plastic surgeon or a dermatologist. Sometimes you apply camouflage makeup to burn victims or people recovering from a face lift. You might also perform facials or, with advanced training, laser hair and spider vein removal. And of course, you’ll handle the retailing of whatever skin care line your doctor has displayed in her waiting room.

“I want to do something to help people,” says Loretta. “Something not so superficial, if you know what I mean, though that’s just my opinion.”

We also talk about having the right personality to work in a spa. “I’m scared I’ll get some Miss Diva rich person snob,” says Loretta and we all laugh. “I don’t think I have the right personality to handle that.”

Miss Jenny says that you learn to handle difficult clients. She once had a man (“a top-rated psychologist”) undo his pants and put a wad of cash on the counter in preparation for a back and chest wax. “You don’t need to take your pants off for me to wax your back,” she says. “I did his back and then said, Frank, I’m going to step out so you can get yourself together and turn over for your chest wax.” She ignored the cash. Frank came back and kept his belt on next time.

Meg worries about having health insurance. “I just can’t see myself working on commission in a spa. It’s too uncertain.” She’s a single mom and has a couple of chronic medical conditions that require frequent doctor’s visits and medication.

“It was always my goal to be a spa esthetician,” says Miss Jenny, who works on commission, earning 46% of every $45 makeup application and $50 back wax she performs. “I knew when I was in school that this was what I wanted to do.”

[Photo Credits: Yanda Time and Premier Pigments]

Here are the videos from last night.

http://www.youtube.com/v/6ILQrUrEWe8&hl=en&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=0

http://www.youtube.com/v/sIFYPQjYhv8&hl=en&fs=1&showsearch=0&showinfo=0

My 600-hour adventure in esthetics school. Read about the project, or catch up with Weeks 1 and 2.

So, it’s not all trips to the mall and fancy eyelashes, kittens.

Tonight we studied the history of skin care. Oh, those Egyptians and their wacky kohl eye shadow — great for making eyes look larger and brighter if you don’t mind that it’s a not-so-distant cousin of arsenic. Milady’s apparently does not, because that’s all it has to say about that.

We carried on to Science. Because science is really where it’s at, if you ask Milady’s Standard Fundamentals for Estheticians.

Page 10:

Esthetics, from the Greek word aesthetikos (meaning “perceptible to the senses”), is a branch of anatomical science that deals with the overall health and wellbeing of the skin, the largest organ of the human body.

Pages 15-16:

Experts predict that the skin care and medical industries will continue to work closely together to create products and treatments that promote dramatically younger-looking skin. Skin care products will be more potent, will contain both medical and natural ingredients, and will be available in more efficient delivery systems that penetrate deeper into the skin. [...] Gene therapies — and even skin transplants for wrinkled skin— are on the horizon as well.

It may be worth noting that Merriam-Webster has a slightly different take on the matter:

Main Entry: aesthetic

Variant(s): also esthetic

Function: noun

Date: 1822

1. a branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of beauty, art, and taste and with the creation and appreciation of beauty.

Eh. Philosophy? Science? If you cut us, do we not bleed? We wear white lab coats, too, you know.

Onward.

PS. Thanks to Nutmeg Knitter —who, in addition to being a great knitter and mom is an actual scientist — for the lovely shout-out and for turning me on to the fantastic Operation Beautiful. Ending Fat Talk? Yes. More of that, please.

[Photo Credit: Flickr]

The future is scary. But I’ll let you decide whether it’s scary good or scary bad. Check out the video below.

This technology is called “Augmented Reality”. Basically the idea of augmented reality is to fuse a virtual environment with our physical environment. Ok cool you say, so besides feeling like you are in a Sci-Fi movie, what’s the point. Well, the possibilities are endless. One use that speaker, Pattie Mays, pointed out is that augmented reality, when integrated to our lives can provide us with information to make more informed decisions.

More on that later. First, here are 3 trends that I think  could develop with augmented reality.

1. Bands playing live without “real” instruments

-no need to worry about some drunk guy spilling beer over your equipment. wait… what equipment?

From the crowd's perspective

2. Rise in world’s happiness level

-feeling down? feel like the whole world is against you? why not turn your frown upside down by turning theirs upside down!

Happy Vision

3. Drop in global obesity rate

-with augmented reality gaming, experience Counterstrike & DOTA as if  you are in the game. So what are you waiting for? Get off your bum and start playing!

Augmented reality gaming

Okay back to the video. I’m sure we will agree that “The Sixth Sense” device is pretty cool. I mean, being able to see information about a product just by letting the device detect it. Are you kidding me?! Say goodbye to having to research on a particular product before you buy it. I thought the book example from the video was impressive. The front cover gives you an Amazon review (don’t know how credible that is though, see my previous blogpost “Wisdom Of The Crowd- Individual Stupidity= Collective Intelligence” to see what i mean), turning the page gives you reader comments and even annotations.

However, there was one part that scared me, as in scary bad. It’s the part when you can see a word cloud of a person. I feel uneasy because people can form impressions of you just by your online word cloud. I mean i know that the Internet is a public space and not my private space but you wouldn’t normally google every single person you meet to get a sense of what that person is like right? We all know first impressions are important  and I just think this technology just makes it harder to give a good first impression. Well, in any case, we must remember the importance of controlling what we say and do both online and offline. You don’t want people to blog about you in a negative light. Imagine going for a job interview and your boss seeing ‘backstabber” in your word cloud.

All in all, i think the good in augmented reality outweighs the bad.  So i pick scary good. What do you pick?

I had to work indoors today. Too dark and rainy. So I went for the cliche symbolism. This picture is only worth seven words.
I had fun working out the lighting. I needed to stop down the aperture significantly in order to open up the depth of field at the distance I was shooting. So I needed lots of light to make up for the small aperture.