Developing Usable Experiences

No sense in worrying

November 18th, 2008 11:34 pm —  31 views

A classmate of mine suggested Pandora to me today so I signed up and created a station based on Nina Simone. Otis Spann was just reminding me there’s no sense in worrying, and after thinking about it, I have to agree. The semester is weighing on me like a backpack filled with textbooks and bricks, so his reminder helps…a little.

Looking ahead, I registered today for winter semester. I signed up for a course on developing eCommunities and course on managing the IT organization. Should be interesting. First, I have to get through the two I have…and I will. In fact, I should be working on homework tonight. But after spending all day in classes, I decided to just chill and reflect.

Like Otis said, no sense in worrying. I’ve reserved time the rest of the week and this weekend to concentrate on final projects1

It was cold when I walked across campus early this morning. The sun was out, a blessing of sorts. Made the cold feel less cold…but it was still below freezing.

Pandora is playing me songs by Shirley Horn, Ella Fitzgerald, Etta Jones, Billie Holiday, and Madeleine Peyroux even. I’m feeling the melancholy. Sing it girls…

In a meeting the other day I pulled out my trusty cyber shot and found it deader than a doornail. I knew I’d just switched batteries so found this very odd. Today I charged the battery, verified it was topped off and set off. After taking pictures during the walk across campus, I was putting it back into the cell phone holster I use to hold it and noticed something interesting. If I put it in one way, the magnet from the holster flap was making it come on. Apparently the panel that drops down to expose the lens turns the camera on using a magnet and my holster was doing the same thing. Turned the camera around and all was good. No more worrying I had a bum battery.

Speaking of batteries, a wall clock in a computer lab stopped working about 10 weeks ago. I noticed this the first week and ignored it. After the third week I decided to put a sticky note on it saying “dead battery.” After the 7th week I took the clock off the wall and put it near a garbage can. This morning I remembered to pocket a AA battery on my way out of the house and resurrected the nearly disposed of wall clock. I figured it would take more effort to get the university to bring in a single AA battery than to do it myself. But then, I didn’t try to figure out who to contact so maybe it would be easy. But seriously, I tried to make it obvious. Usability fail.

Image: I took this from the 3rd floor window of West Hall today. Was looking for an interesting photo of campus and this turned out to be one of them.

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  1. Which are going pretty well, all things considered. [↩]

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3 Comments 

Comments

3 Responses to “No sense in worrying”

  1. Dawn on November 19th, 2008 8:02 am

    Great photo, I recognized where you were after a bit of thought. Nice save of the clock. WAY easier than getting UM to buy a battery! :) One day at a time, one day at a time…no worries.

  2. Dawn on November 29th, 2008 6:59 pm

    Is this the last week of classes coming up? Another semester down!

  3. Brandi Hoffman on November 30th, 2008 3:40 pm

    Out of curiosity, is there a real difference between textbooks and bricks?

    PS After you did fix the clock were there admins that came out of no where to reprimand you for interfering with University property? Once in my workplace at another library, there was an automatic door that squealed every time it opened and it seemed no one was in a real hurry to fix it despite the fact that it was god-awful to listen to all day. I figured I could probably fix it myself with some WD-40, but didn’t bother because I figured some one (or some admin) would get mad at me for it…. let no good deed go unpunished I guess… well, anyway pardon my rant =p =)

    PSS Happy Holidays from Chile!! (I’ve been studying abroad for the past semester in Chile. You can see some of my photos on facebook if you like….)

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