Stuff
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”We web developers are the limiting reagent of every start-up experiment, we’re the sine qua non, because we’re the only ones who know how to reify app ideas as actual working software. In fact, we are so much the essence of these small companies that, in Silicon Valley, a start-up with no revenue is said to be worth exactly the number of developers it has on staff. The rule of thumb is that each one counts for $1 million.
Are coders worth it? on Aeon Magazine
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The OSTRICHPILLOW (by studiobananathings) has to be one of the funniest yet must-have inventions ever created.
If this doesn’t make you laugh out loud, I’m not sure what’s wrong with you.
And I won one! I am so excited to have one of these to nap in…YEAYY!
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Quest for Space
Yup, I should have worn braces when I was kid but somehow talked my parents out of that. Sometimes I think I have lost my power of persuasion over the years. I mean, getting out of braces and talking my parents into letting me go to college thousands of miles away from them.
I digress…So it was time to deal with my crowded bottom teeth. Mostly, because I started to notice my top teeth starting to move a little. And my nightly teeth grinding had put a dent in one of my front teeth. My dentist insisted for a little while to try Invisalign. I listened but mostly filed the advice away as a nice-to-have and not completely necessary investment. Invisalign here we come!
So I found a good orthodontist (thanks to Yelp! and my list of providers from my health insurance) and pulled the trigger. Here were my options:
- $5,000 for regular braces, like the ones kids wear with wires and all.
- $6,000 for Invisalign.
- $8,000 for Incognito. Yes, this is the Rolls Royce of braces. They go in the inside of your mouth so nobody sees them.
Yes, Incognito sounded amazing as a option but not really possible for my budget. And since wire braces were out of the question, Invisalign was the obvious choice.
So here’s what happens
1. Go in for a fitting: They make a cast of your teeth (pretty much) with a material similar to silly putty. This is a quick thing, 20 minutes tops.
2. Approve the plan: At the time I was unaware that I was coming in the office to do this. You are presented with a what a model of what your teeth look like now and what they will look like after treatment. They also let you know how many anchors or little stickers they will attach to your teeth to make the braces work. In my case, 24. Everything looked fabulous to me, so I said yes to the plan. In addition to the Invisalign plan, my dentist told me he would have to shave a 1 mm or 2 from two teeth to make the teeth fit! Yes, crazy. Well, not having any other options but say yes, I agreed to the plan.
3. Get your first set of trays: That means coming into the office for your set of Invisalign braces (called trays) and learn how to get them off and on and take care of them. Sounds easy, right? Well, putting them on, no problem. Taking them off was a completely different story. So luckily, I was told to come back in a week to get those 24 attachments after I got used to them and learned how to get them on or off.
It’s been 3 days. Yes, it’s a pain to take them off for meals. A simple bite off a cookie looks—a trip to the bathroom, stick my fingers in my mouth and pull, and rise—like too much trouble to bother. I am constantly thirsty and my mouth has a terrible taste to it. But again, I am grateful to even be able to care of the overcrowding in my teeth. It just seems like pure luxury but I know it also means I might be able to keep more of teeth when I hit old age. I am just waiting for the moment when taking them off and dealing with them will be like taking my contacts lenses out at night.
I laugh when I see the ad below. This is not what I look like when I take them off…
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Getting my behind in gear!
I was desperate for a way to get active again. A standing desk, walking and running up escalators, and occasional work out were good initial steps but it was hard to keep up. And then I got a nike fuel band…
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”The only way to learn stuff is by failing; all this I have learned by having bad times. You have to be willing to have a bad time. People that need to feel like a star and like they’re succeeding every time will never get better.
Louis C.K. Rolling Stone April 2013
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Are you ready to work in Switzerland?
Planning to work in Switzerland in 2013? Check if your brain is ready to embrace Swiss workplace culture.
Right on!
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”
If you define yourself as a “newspaper,” social media is bad for you. You are going to lose. There is no way around that. But if you frame your world differently, the scene changes.
Like the universe, journalism is expanding. AP plays a shrinking role in that universe, at the head end of the reporting process on primarily world and national news. Journalism used to be describable as “gather, order, and present” — or reporting, writing and publishing. AP lives in the first two layers, disconnected from and sometimes baffled by the rest.
But that’s not the process any more. Journalism doesn’t end with publication of a story, or even necessarily begin with the reporter. Journalism now is a dynamic and continuous process that can begin with the “people formerly known as the audience” and continues after publication in a public, social interaction in which the community discusses, digests, processes, adds to, remixes and redistributes information.
One-way journalism was an illusion of the 20th century. It’s over. Past tense. It was illusory anyway. Social processes existed even when we didn’t see them.
Practicing journalism in this century requires social media literacy and engagement in all the layers. Yes, it’s a time suck, along with everything else. As an old copy editor once told me, “that’s why they call it work.”
Steve Yelvington, long-time journalist and media strategist, reacting (on his blog) to this tweet:
AP’s Liz Sidoti: Social media is a “time suck” and threatening young journalists’ understanding of reporting basics. #apme2012
Read more about it, from Steve Buttry, here.
(via futurejournalismproject)
Stuff like this is why I try not to follow news about the newspaper industry anymore. It’s usually just people being dumb.
(via ianhillmedia)Journalism today…
Likes
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We can’t keep our eyes off the San Francisco Bay today!
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The OSTRICHPILLOW (by studiobananathings) has to be one of the funniest yet must-have...
