Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 55

Knitting Patterns and Organization

Somehow I've ended up with a ton of knitting patterns. A lot of them were free from the designers, but some I've purchased. The problem is organizing them all.

Do I leave them at Ravelry.com, where I purchased the vast majority of them? Do I download them to my computer? There are thousands of them. Gah! Or do I only download the ones I've purchased and the free ones that I think I'd like to knit?

If I do download them, do I go with broad categories like Sweater or Scarf? Or do I narrow them down like Sweater-Cardigan, Sweater-VeeNeck, Sweater-CrewNeck?

It's another organizational challenge for me and I already have so many of them!

What about the patterns I've already knit? Do I create a separate folder for them so I know they're finished? I like to work on new things all the time, so the odds of making a pattern twice are slim and this would get them out of the way if I'm scanning a folder for a new project.

Which would lead to the problem of finding them all because so many don't have intuitive names and the big yarn companies give them numbers instead of names.

I asked in an online knitting group that I'm part of what they do and there were good arguments for downloading and good reasons for not downloading and it was split about 50-50 which didn't help me make any decisions on what I should do. Right now I'm a mixed bag and don't have much of a system which doesn't help me figure things out.

Why was I born with this obsessive need to be organized and yet have so much difficulty figuring out a system that works?

My Favorite Laptop

In 2016, I abandoned my favorite laptop because the keyboard was shot. Keys missing, keys not working when you tapped them, and the laptop was six years old. I replaced it. Unfortunately, Sony had sold off their Vaio brand and I had to buy a different manufacturer.

Recently, though, I got to thinking. The keyboard was a problem when I was using the laptop by itself. I have this nifty setup now where I hook my laptop into a docking station, have a real ergonomic keyboard and two large monitors. I could use this laptop again! All I need to do is a few upgrades and software updates.

So I plugged it in, turned it on, and started working on getting it usable. Yeah.

It's slow. I didn't expect that big a degradation because I always buy the very top of the line so that I can use it for years and years before it needs to be replaced. I didn't remember it being slow when I replaced it.

It's loud. The fan is working overtime to keep up with the heat. I'd forgotten that, but as it hummed and blew, it immediately came back to me. I hated all that noise.

On the plus side, I have some pretty cool software on there that I wasn't able to transfer to the new laptop. I'd purchased them when it was a set cost for a license. Now that software has gone to monthly fees and I'm not willing to pay that much a year when I already bought a license. Changing midstream without grandfathering former users in stinks. Although, at least one of the programs is pretty much unusable now because it's too far out of date.

I also found some files on there that I'd never transferred over. Like graphics on how to use Lie-Lay, Affect-Effect, and where the em dash goes in dialogue. Most of my stuff had moved over because I backup to the cloud and I just downloaded it to the new computer, but I've mentioned my propensity to save to the desktop before.

Anyway, my favorite laptop really isn't my favorite any longer. It's too frustrating now to wait when I have a newer, faster, and (most importantly) quieter laptop, but it's nice to have it available in case of an emergency. I'm kind of sad, though, that it wasn't everything I thought it was.

The Quest Continues

You'd think by now I'd be the most organized person on planet Earth. I have a daily planner, I have a kanban board, I have a weekly planner at my day job, but I am not organized. I struggle with this constantly. Trust me, you do not want to see what my office looks like after my attempt to clean it up.

The books in the picture to the left are my latest hope at keeping myself on track. There's a book for the series bible (I'm doing this in a spreadsheet right now). Another book for plotting (I tend to write by the seat of my pants and fix later). A scene planning book (I am not a plotter by nature, so haven't really done this before although I generally have an idea of what's coming next). And the final book is for research and notes. (I'm not sure how much I'll use this because I like keeping this information in OneNote, but we'll see.)

I've looked through all the books, but haven't started to use them yet. I'm kind of wondering if I should wait until I'm starting a new story, or use them mid-stream. The mental debate is ongoing. :-)

The Button Jar

I woke up this morning thinking about my mom's button jar and wishing I had it. Technically, it was multiple jars. My mom had sorted the buttons by color into baby food jars and had kept them in her closet. I remember when she'd be working on a project and we'd go look for buttons. For some reason, this was an exciting moment.

It wasn't that my mom sewed a lot. She didn't. But she still had this collection of buttons she could go to whenever she needed one. When we cleaned out my parents' house after she died, I didn't find her buttons and I never collected them on my own

In fact, until recently, all I had was her sewing machine and that hadn't been out of the box. When I decided to try and sew face masks, I had to buy material and elastic. I had nothing.

It seems wrong not to have a button jar. Even if it's just to replace a missing button, it would be helpful. I did head to eBay and searched for buttons. It seems as if this is kind of a business for people when what I really wanted to do was buy someone else's button jar.

Oh, I'll probably end up buying one of these professional button seller's collection of odd lots because I really do want my own collection of buttons, but it's just not the same.

Wicked Intention Out for Edits

Every author has a book of their heart, but I've been lucky. I've had multiple books of my heart. These are the characters that stay in my head, no matter how long it takes to get their story told, and whom I love to spend time with.
Wicked Intention is the latest book of my heart.
Finn and Zo showed up while I lived in Minnesota. I can't remember how early before I started writing their story because I was under contract at the time and working hard to meet deadlines, but 2010/11 was the year I wrote three chapters of their story. It needed some work, and while I started revising, I had other deadlines and then my job was moved to Atlanta. This crippled my writing for years.

But while I wrote other stories, mostly novellas, Finn and Zo wouldn't go away. I didn't want them to go away. I love these two!
Their story is told in an unconventional way. It's the way it came to me, and while I thought about trying to make it more normal, too many scenes that I enjoyed listening to (I hear my characters) would have been lost. So unconventional it was. (The rest of the books in the Paladin League series are/will be normal, I promise!) But while this was frustrating to write this way at times, it was also something that pushed my personal envelope. Good thing? Usually, but it did wear me out and it took a long time to write. Longer than I expected by quite a bit.
There were scenes that didn't make the book, that never got written, but Finn and Zo shared them with me anyway. Maybe I'll write their first Christmas together. It's short. But then maybe I won't because the next book in the series is calling hard. Griff met his heroine at the end of Wicked Intention and he wants me to get moving. FYI, Griff can be demanding, so I'm probably going to acquiesce and save myself a character bitching at me. :-)
Anyway, Finn and Zo are with my editor right now and I'm working on Griff's story. Also trying to write cover copy for Wicked Intention, but it's not my favorite thing and I'm really extra struggling with this book's blurb. But I can't wait for you to read one of the books of my heart! I hope you love it and my characters!

The Non Sequitur

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that my dad moved in with me after my mom died. It's been...interesting.

One of the things he does that drives me crazy (and notice I said one of the things because there are a few of them) happened the other day.

I walk into the kitchen. He's reading something on his iPad and as I walk past him, my dad says, "Strawberries and Red Bell Peppers."

This comes out of nowhere for me.

I puzzle through it for a moment. Is he talking about groceries? So I ask, "What?"

He repeats what he said.

I spend another moment trying to figure this out and give up. "What are you talking about?" I ask.

The answer? He's reading a newsletter in email and strawberries and red bell peppers have Vitamin C.

He does this to me all the time, for real. Out of the blue, some non sequitur comes out of his mouth and I'm supposed to know what he's talking about. Like the Vitamin C issue, I am usually completely clueless. I'm sure it makes total sense to him, but I'm missing vital information that would help me make sense of what he's telling me.

I'm sure it's annoying for him, too, but sadly I never developed telepathy.

Shock to the Supply Chain

The second economic topic that has kept me going hmmm was inspired by the toilet paper shortage. I kept hearing that staples like toilet paper are so finely calibrated to demand, that the machinery is already at capacity and unable to crank up.

This doesn't only apply to toilet paper either, but other basic items.

I heard a discussion on a financial podcast that there are two streams--commercial and consumer--and that the two streams do not cross. So while there is plenty of commercial grade toilet paper and never had a shortage there (the thin, scratchy stuff), there was a shortage in the consumer toilet paper.

The economics of this are--of course--all about maximizing profit. There is no huge warehouses across the country filled to the brim with consumer toilet paper because they know exactly what demand is going to be, because the profit margins are thin, and because they produce pretty close to what that demand is.

And then things go to hell, hoarders buy all the toilet paper, and others are left scrambling. Not only for a week or two, either.

There is a similar supply chain for food. The story I heard was about a butcher who bought fish for his shop from a company that provided seafood to restaurants, and when the restaurants all closed, this company closed up, too, and the butcher couldn't get any fish either.

This made me wonder is it really more economic to have two supply chains? One only dealing with commercial entities and one only for consumers? What about in a crisis situation, like with the virus? We needed greater capacity on the consumer side and businesses were unable to pivot. Or perhaps unwilling to pivot because it probably would cost them money to retool commercial to consumer and no one knows how long they'd need to do so.

It seems like there must be a better way to do this so that the system can absorb occasional shocks without the complete toilet paper meltdown we experienced. Of course, a couple of entry level econ classes don't give me the inside scoop on this. :-)

Economics of Game Apps

I've been mulling over economics lately. I know, weird thing for me to fixate on--and I am fixated--but I've been trying to puzzle through a couple of things. Today, let's talk about game apps for your phone or tablet and the pricing model in the latest one I've been playing.

My latest app that's kept me interested is a coloring book/color by number game that has in-app purchases. There is no chance that I'll overplay this game because it only charges to 100 energy points and it takes 40-50 energy points to color a picture. Lower levels were less energy points and I'm assuming that as I advance, it will have higher costs. So if my game energy is fully charged, I can color two pictures.

I find this endlessly frustrating. I want to color more than two pictures, especially when I'm stressed because it's oddly relaxing.

I didn't need to look up the pricing model because it was in my face every single time I used the app. It might be every picture, but I can't remember for sure. Anyway, I would have been interested in signing up for the extended features, except for the price. $7.99 A WEEK!

That's more than $415 dollars a year! For real!

And that's when I started contemplating WTH the app developers were thinking. The game is slick, it's pretty, it's relaxing and I'm sure they have to pay artists to make the coloring pictures, but there is literally zero chance I'm paying what they're asking.

When I had economics classes in college, pricing was one of the elements we covered. How many people are willing to pay $415 a year or $7.99 a week? Wouldn't the developers make more money if they charged $29.99 a year (which is the max I'd be willing to pay for this game) and entice more people to pay? In Econ, the answer was volume more than makes up for the lower price, IIRC.

Then I wondered if there was a fixed audience that was willing to pay at all? Maybe they wouldn't make up the income in additional subscribers. What if pricing was inelastic for coloring games? If there are X number of people who are willing to pay $7.99 a week and not very many more beyond X who would pay at a lower price, then perhaps they're priced correctly?

I tend to think that is not correct, though. The game is enough fun that I would pay $29.99 a year for it, but I wouldn't pay more than that. So I play the two games I get with my free energy points and let it recharge so I can play again later.

I have to believe there are a lot of other people like me out there and that the game developers have priced themselves out of income.

2020 Kanban Board

I redid my kanban board for 2020! I thought about just switching out the word of the year, but my old board was bothering me. I'd used washi tape to make the lines for the board and they were crooked. Argh! You can see it here in my original post about the first version of my kanban board.

My first idea was to cut long lines of vinyl on my Silhouette Cameo for the lines, but that was a massive fail. Despite doing everything the way the tutorials and troubleshooting videos said to do it, my vinyl went askew and the blade was cutting everywhere! I wrecked several runs of material before I said enough.

Plan 2 was to cut 12 inch strips of vinyl and line them up. The cutting mats for the Cameo are 12x12 and they stay in place. I was able to get my strips cut, but lining them up on the wall didn't work really well. I'd have them touching and the next thing I knew, there was a gap. That would bother me as much as the crooked washi did. It was time for Plan C

Plan C is the version that worked. (See image above.) I used a fun font to cut out the names of each section and put them on the wall along with some small, zig-zag dividers to better outline the space. I deliberately put them crooked. :-) After that, I added my phrase of the year in a different font and color to delineate it from the rest.

In retrospect, I'm not sure the fun font was my best choice, but I'm not redoing it again. Maybe for 2021.

Best Laid Plans

I tried to tackle my office. I took out almost everything except for books and computer-type equipment. It was an interesting experience.

On the plus side, I found a box that I'd been looking for off and on for probably a year. I'd given up on it, but it made me sad because my mom had sewn pouches for my cards. With three moves in four years, I figured they were lost. They weren't. The box was in the office. In my defense, it was underneath a pile of my dad's stuff because my office is the dumping ground whenever anyone is coming over.

I found software I'd forgotten I had. I'm not sure if the add ons I found will work with the latest version of the software because it was made for an earlier edition, but I'll try anyway. I also ran across software I'd purchased that makes Celtic knots when I type. It was on floppy disk. I had to dig through my drawers to find my plug in floppy disk drive. I bought that when I found partial stories I'd written and not transferred off of the floppy disks they were saved to. :-( Odds are that I'll never write those stories, but I still wanted them in a format that I could use.

On the progress front, I moved stuff out of my office that shouldn't be there. Like my yarn. That went into the storage closet across from the office in some banker's boxes. Other things went upstairs to the bonus rooms. In Minnesota, I had a basement. In Atlanta, I have an upstairs bonus room. Both were/are storage.

The bad news? I didn't finish the project and everything that I didn't have a chance to go through got tossed back into the office. I'm surrounded by chaos. Again. Still. Sigh.

I'm probably going to have to live with it for a while and this doesn't make me happy. Overall, this project was a fail with a few bright spots. Although the office is a little better and I have my new storage cart set up near my desk so my planner stickers are handy.