The Elegant Solution of the String

My brother writes from Switzerland, where he lives. Occasionally, he writes of amazingly elegant and simple solutions that I believe are out of the realm of coming out of the American mind. I don’t mean this to be demeaning, it’s a wonderful awareness of different problem-solving abilities in different cultures. Here is the story:

“I was coming home [riding a bicycle] on a paved, two-lane-wide road without lane markers, common around here. I saw a road sign that signaled ‘cow crossing,’ but it was in an odd place and beat-up looking. I mistakenly assumed it had been left there by accident until I came upon the cows blocking the road and coming toward me.

I’ve mentioned before that the Swiss stake out fields that have been turned into pastures by putting frail poles strung with a single thread of electrified fence. The cows could easily walk through, but because
of the shock, won’t. Thus, when farmers herd them down a street, they block of side streets with string, and the cows, mistaking it for electric fence, respect that.

Well, this herd was being herded down the street with string. The shoulder of the road was lined with electric fence. The farmer and his wife carried some string perpendicular to the road and to the fence
lining it. The farmer formed the corner, and his children and a farm worker brought up the rear, shaping the line of string into a rectangle. The cows carefully stayed within it as the group walked down the street toward the barn.

As they saw me coming, they narrowed the rectangle, freeing one lane for traffic, and I, and then one or two cars, passed through. The cows carefully stayed within the string.”

–Image: courtesy lowridavies.co.uk

–Quinn McDonald is the sister of a clever observer and a bicycle rider, who is pretty damn smart and is teaching her to overcome her fear of word problems. Quinn is a writer and creativity coach. (c) 2007 All rights reserved.

Phone Joy

For three days I’ve had my iPhone. After the initial frustration of  getting the computer updated so it would talk to the phone, it became clear that Apple intuits like I do. In three days, I have figured out how to load iTunes onto it, can read and answer emails, put in world clocks for people I know, ditto for weather, learned how to use the alarm and timer, created a voicemail message. I can use the calendar, the to-do list, the yellow stickies. It syncs with my Power Book and I can figure out how to work and find most of the features.

In other words, I am using more of a phone I’ve owned for three days than the one I owned for two years before. I paid $175 to break my contract with Verizon, who, after an outrageous mistake on my invoice, once told me, “We are Verizon, we don’t make mistakes.” It was $175 well spent.

If you buy the iPhone, don’t get a holder at AT&T.  Be smart and check the prices at the Apple store first. Get your holder–and you will need a holder–at the Apple store. If you buy the phone there, you get a month worth of free one-on-one help. They do this because you won’t need it.

It’s the best purchase I’ve made in three years. It was the best birthday present in a long time.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and iPhone user. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2007 Quinn Creative. All rights reserved.

One phone, no training

The iPhone has been tempting me for months. It saves me from dragging the laptop on airline trips and lets me watch movies on those same trips. Like most e-gizmos, there are a zillion features I don’t use. I love audio books, and can load them onto the phone as well. But my purpose for buying it is to have a calendar, appointments and email capacity all at once–and have them synch with my Mac.

Here’s the problem. It’s the same problem I run into again and again. I go to the store and ask about the iPhone. The smiling associate looks at my husband (who is with me because we are running errands using the same car, not to buy the phone) and asks him if he is an AT&T user. My husband says he is, but that the phone is mine, and I’m an unhappy Verizon user.

The associate, undimmed, brings out a folder, which he shows to my husband, about sharing the phone and family minutes. My husband says “The iPhone is my wife’s.” I add, “It’s for my business.”

He finally looks at me, still smiling, and shows me the family features. After we straighten that out, I ask, very specifically, if the iPhone will synch with the computer I own. I name the model, the operating system, and the version. The assistant nods his head, yes. A warning bell sounds in my head. He has not listened. He has not heard. I repeat, and he laughs, turns to my husband and says, “yes, yes, sir and ma’am, it indeed will.”

It indeed does not. iPhones require OS X Tiger, 10.4.01 and I’m one short.

This is a training issue. To return the phone, I’d lose $44, the “restocking fee.” That protects untrained employees, or employees who were napping during training. Updating my computer will cost about $130. Nothing left to do but stand like a doofus at the “Genius Bar” and get the upgrade.

This kind of bad treatment isn’t necessary. I would have bought the phone anyway, but had a better opinion of AT&T. I left Verizon for this kind of bad customer service.

Listen up. If our fate is to be a consumer culture, we are going to start turning against bad service and bad training. It won’t be long till it starts to show up in company’s bottom lines. Don’t make me stand up on my desk and hold up a “consumer’s union” sign. I will.

–Quinn McDonald will spend much of her birthday getting her damn birthday present to work on her older computer. She is a writer and creativity coach who believes in training. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2007 All rights reserved.

Images: cake, scrippscollege.edu;  Non-working iPhone, digitaledge.com

It’s Not Working

Outsourcing is fine, but we need some help in keeping things working at home.

Today I spend the day running errands, a necessary evil. I broke a fingernail and bent my wrist backwards at a store that is too lazy to unlock both glass doors. This is a real danger for left-handed people, and happens quite often.

Before I made my purchases, I found a ladies room and discovered that the auto-flush didn’t. I waved my hand in front of the little window, I pushed the top of various parts of the machine, to no avail.

I went to wash my hands, and the soap dispenser was empty. On second glance, it was full of soap, just not working. I waved my hand in front of the faucet, but only cold water came out. And while I was waving my hands around, I noticed the paper-towel dispenser was not responding either. I watched as other women flailed around, finally wiping their hands on toilet paper or their own clothing.

Some things I can’t resist trying to fix. Customer Service was at the other side of the store. I stood in line, and after waiting in line, I reported the malfunctions to the customer service rep. “They were fine this morning,” he assured me.
“Not working now,” I said, knowing damn well the whole bathroom didn’t quit in the first hour the store was open.
“We don’t have anyone who can verify your claim,” he said.
“Don’t need to, just send someone to fix it,” I suggested.
“You have to fill out a form. You can download it.”
“No, I am actually standing in front of you talking to you which is even better,” I said.
The rest of the errands were uneventful, although I counted one Coke machine that didn’t work, an ATM and automatic doors with Out of Order signs on them, and another bathroom (in the coffee place, of course) whose towel dispenser didn’t wave back or give me paper.

It’s probably global warming, although I have a sneaking suspicion it’s employees who aren’t trained to know what to do or who simply don’t care.

–Quinn McDonald is beginning to wonder who’s minding the store. Or the ATM. She’s a writer and creativity coach who teaches journaling courses. See her work at QuinnCreative.com

Training Cats

You can train a cat.
Yes, you can. I have three who know that when I gather laundry, they will be fed.
It’s one of those odd coincidences that the three cats learned faster than I did. The cats have their litter box on one side of the laundry room and their food and water on the other.

Being genetically predisposed to never making two trips when one will do, I combine chores. When I walk from the studio upstairs, I grab the load from the dryer and any mail I’ve generated and bring it up with me. On the way down, I’ll take the paper recycling, mail that goes to the studio, grocery bag of cat food and the dirty laundry.

For a small household, we have a lot of laundry. A woman of a certain age spends a lot of time perspiring, and that means extra laundry. Most of my clothes go through the washing machine instead of the dry cleaners. It’s not unusual for me to gather towels on my way to the basement.

The cats know that laundry equals cellar and cellar equals food. I combine tasks so often that the trip to filling the machine is almost always combined with a meal for the cats. It took them less time to figure that out than it took me.

They’ve become more aware. I lift the laundry hamper lid in the bedroom and I hear three cats bumping into each other as they race down the stairs. By the time I fill the washing machine and put in the detergent, my ankles are thoroughly polished and three cats are waiting for me to fill the bowls.

Yep, you can train cats. Or they can learn on their own. Or they can train you. When Buster jumped on the hamper and knocked the lid over, he was mildly startled, but the noise was right, so all three of them headed downstairs, although I was asleep and it was 5 a.m. Now if I could train them to tell time. . .

Image: Buster, taken by his human.
–Quinn McDonald is a writer and creativity coach and is owned by three former residents on an animal shelter. See Quinn’s work at QuinnCreative.com

Wabi-Sabi Ideas

Wabi-Sabi is a Japanese aesthetic that values the time-worn, the aged, the imperfect. It is a philosophy and a way of accepting and giving up control. Bringing wabi-sabi into your life allows you to make room for daydreams, for accepting a simpler life and for valuing the riches already in your life. Today, a few quotes to help you open your mind to Wabi-Sabi

You are the person you are when no one is looking.

Anger is only one letter short of danger.

No one can give you abilities. For example, an Olympic athlete works with a trainer to develop her abilities, but the trainer only helps manifest what was inherent all along. Likewise, no one can give you happiness. At most, others simply help manifest the joy that was always within you.

Happiness does not mean ‘absence of problems.’ There has never been a life free from problems. It is not the presence of problems, but how we tackle them that determines the quality of our lives.

Blind faith is no faith

One does not win by making others lose.

–All quotes from “Open Your Mind, Open Your Life.” edited by Taro Gold

–Image from Still in the Stream, a site reflecting on Wabi-Sabi in nature.

–Quinn McDonald is an artist, writer and certified creativity coach. See her work/contact her through QuinnCreative.com

New Word Needed

NOTE : 10.16.07  Winners of the drawing are Lisa, Mari Mann, and DJ.  I couldn’t draw just one winner. Congratulations!

Frequent blog commenter Pete told me that the world needs a new word for ‘blog post.’ I agree. “Blog” sounds like something my cat throw up after rolling in it. It’s not worthy. To make matters worse, blog is the whole content of a website, and we have to go to two words, “blog post,” to identify a single thing.

How efficient is that? So here’s the challenge. We need a good, useful word for a single blog post. It has to make sense, maybe even have a good explanation. (I’m always up for a good explanation.) I’ll have a drawing for a winner. If you leave a post and want to be in the drawing for a set of One Sentence Journaling Prompt Cards, let me know.

Rules:
1. Give the word and definition or story to go with it.
You can also. . .
2. Vote for another word
3. Tell me if you want to be in the drawing.

Here’s an example:
E-scroll. It ties together the old notion of words written on a scroll with the new idea of scrolling to read an entire post.

OK, your turn.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com. (c) 2007 All rights reserved.  Image: en.wikipedia.org

Words Gone Wrong

After one month of tracking misused words (for a class project), here are the five biggest troublemakers and how to use them correctly. All without grammar.

–Simplistic. Doesn’t mean easy or simple. It means oversimplifying by leaving out important factors. Use “simple” instead.

–Podium. A riser. You have to step up on it. Comes from the Greek for ‘feet,’ as does podiatrist. The tall piece of furniture you stand behind to deliver a speech is a lectern.

–Disinterested. Fair or impartial. Does not mean “used to be interested but not any more.” That word is uninterested.

– Passionate/Passion. A buzz word, a fad that will soon pass. It means, “based only on emotions, without reason,” as in the sentence, “He killed his wife with a knife. It was a crime of passion.” Once ‘passionate’ is worn out, a new, escalating word will have to replace it. Wachovia bank already claims to be “obsessed” with their clients. Really? Scary.

–Actionable. Not an action item on a list. Much worse. Something that will get you sued. “Patting the tushy of my boss not only is actionable, it got me fired.”

–One off.  Short for “one of a kind,” not “turn this one off,” or even “off the last ‘f’ in this word.” So it’s “one of.”

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and trainer in business communication. She is fighting an occasionally losing battle to keep spoken English understandable. And then she goes, “You know what I’m sayin?” and her audience goes, “Whatever.” (c) 2007 All rights reserved.

Web 2.0 isn’t bringing us closer together. . .

Web 2.0 may be a great way to interact personally without ever meeting anyone, but I’m already tired of it.

My phone rings. I’m on the Do Not Call list, so I pick it up, knowing it can’t be a telemarketer. But it’s a charitable organization, using telemarketing techniques. Calling me at dinner.
“I’m on the Do Not Call List,” I explain.
“Well, Ma’am, we are an exception to that list,” the caller proudly proclaims “and your number came up on my screen.”
“Just because you found a loophole doesn’t mean I have to talk to you.” I answer, and hang up.

I get an e-vite for a party. I have to check my calendar and ask my husband, too. Before I get the chance, I get six “reply to all” responses from people who pushed wrong buttons, want to know if I’m bringing a gift, and one from someone who said her party is the same day, but she just hasn’t had time to send out her e-vites yet. What am I supposed to do with that information?

Moving down the list, I’m invited to Link In with someone I don’t know. Dump it. It crawls out of my trash can and informs me I haven’t answered it. I mark it as spam and dump it again.

Another invitation to check out some books another person is reading and see if I want to make suggestions on what she should read next. I don’t know this person. I know her website. I may get her newsletter if she’s the person I think she is. I dump the email.

The next day I get a reminder that this person is waiting for me to join her virtual book club and tell her what to read. The least I can do, the email says, is “compare what I’ve read to what she’s read.” I roll my virtual eyes. That could take years. And I don’t. want. to.

I’m perplexed. Web 2.0 has no room for the polite silence of “I’m ignoring you.” And worse, perfectly fine business emails are getting dumped because the ether is clogged with virtual taps on the shoulder. It’s the junk mail we hated when the postal service left it at our door. It’s not more lovable now that it’s called Web 2.0 and gets here faster.

I send an email letting her know I don’t know what she should read next. And I add, “what if I suggest a book and you don’t read it? Is there a page where I can express my disappointment? How about if I suggest a book and you don’t like it. Is there a survey where you can question my taste?”

And I get back, “This is all standard Shelfari text, not mine.” And there’s the problem. She signed up without knowing what the program would send out in her name. Now she wants to be not responsible for it. It doesn’t work that way. If you run into me with your car because you haven’t taking a driving lesson, it’s still your fault. And if you crawl into Web 2.0 with its endless networking, relationship marketing, and “personalized” emails, it’s you I’m going to be cranky at when you can’t control what you signed up for.

Even the Web needs responsible users. Be one.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and creativity coach. She rides a motorcycle and understands how easy it is to get into dangerous situations without wanting to. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2007 All rights reserved. Trash can image: panasonicyouth.buzznet.com

Fear Factor

About the time I left the corporate world, I had to make some big decisions. How to run my business. What my core principles would be. I decided to use the same principles I use for my personal life. When you own the business, it looks a lot like you anyway.

Some of the values were easy to choose: Be honest. Be fair. Ask before you spend the client’s money. Don’t jump to conclusions. Listen.

Then came the giant one: no fear. Do not make business decisions out of fear. Don’t make any decision out of fear.

It’s hard to keep that one. I had made business decisions based in fear for a long time–fear of my boss, fear of not meeting the team goals, fear of the competition, fear of getting fired. And it was that fear that made me a lousy corporate employee. So, on my own, I decided–no fear.

There are plenty of things to be afraid of when you own your business–not making a profit, getting underbid, outperformed and over cautious. But fear was the big “Aha!” in my business life.

A decision based on fear is frequently loaded with other weak motives. Revenge, neediness, lack of control. If you take fear off the table, you get a different picture.

“What if my competition underbids me?” Became “How much do I need to earn to make a fair profit and do the job well?” If it costs me $10,000 to do the job, and I underbid on purpose and then get the job for $8,000, I am not getting an $8,000 job, I’m losing $2,000. That’s fear.

“I hate Client X, she’s always blaming me for her own mistakes.” I can choose
to work with Client X and be clear on responsibilities or I can pass on the job. But if I continue to let her blame me for her own mistakes, I’m letting fear make my decisions. At the end of the job, she’ll either blame me anyway or I won’t respect myself for taking on blame that isn’t mine.

Fear undermines us. It justifies bad behavior. It is the road to the collapse of self-respect. I can’t live my life without fear, but there are a million great reasons to make decisions and always one lousy one–I did it because I was scared.

–Quinn McDonald is a writer and creativity coach. See her work at QuinnCreative.com (c) 2007 All rights reserved. Image:fantom.xp.com