taken for granted

Ok, this one requires a bit of background. The conference rooms on our floor at work are all named after trees. Each floor has a different theme and my colleagues voted on trees. It isn't especially exciting, but it beats some of the floors. One has some sort of sci-fi names and no one can ever pronounce them. Then, there is the planet floor, which always makes my inner adolescent laugh. (You just have to go through the list of planets and apply the scenario of telling people where the meeting is to understand why I snicker: "We are having the meeting in...." Of course, they left that planet out.)

Back to the trees. They've just built out a new conference room on the floor and it will be in need of a name. I was in a meeting with about nine other people and, in an excited voice, I exclaimed: "We can name it jacaranda. That would be so cool!" Everyone in the room swiveled around and looked at me like I was insane. Not one person in the room had heard of a jacaranda tree. I had a quick conversation inside my head: "Am I crazy?" "No, not crazy." "Well, not crazy, except that I am talking to myself inside my head and nine people are staring at me."

I returned to my desk and of course, looked up the illusive jacaranda tree online, and sent the Wikipedia link to the entry on jacaranda trees around to my colleagues. I soon learned that jacaranda trees are quite common in South Africa and Australia...and in Southern California. They are in Southern California, where I was raised, largely due to the efforts of botanist Kate Sessions. I lived on a jacaranda-lined street, thanks to her, and remember the purple blossoms and the smeary stain they left on the sidewalks.

I suspect the conference room will bear another name, but it's still a great tree. Thanks, Kate.

three at three in room three

To help a friend in a pinch, I am teaching three-year-old Sunday school for a couple of months. You've never seen cuter little faces! Well, maybe you have, but it would be a tough contest. They're pretty darling. This week I had a helper and it made a big difference. They outnumber me, so they can quickly divide and conquer.

It is a funny thing, reaching back into my mind to remember those little crafts, songs, and stories from my own Sunday school days. If you're happy and you know, well, you know what to do.

pseyler.blogspot.com, this is your life

Today, as April pointed out, is my blog's first birthday. She said, "You are going to blog today, aren't you?" Though, she never speaks in capitals, so that should be "you." Sorry, a. Anyway, it's been a full year. The blog's been an interesting adventure &mdash I've met a few cool people along the way, improved my html skills, and bared my soul on topics such as politics, music, cowboys, and most everything else.

So, thanks for playing along at home. Yes, even you lurkers who never poke your head out to say hello...thanks go out even to you.

Be well and do good things.

Your blog hostess,
pseyler

blessed be the floss fairy

My life is back on track.

If you are a regular reader, you'll remember my rant about not being able to find my dental floss anymore. It's been discontinued and the #$%!@ company that makes it keeps killing off the good flavors one by one. Well, through perseverance, good googling skills, and a dose of good luck, I found a woman in Buffalo, New York that has a small supply of it. So, I bought a case of it. Yes, a case. I will have 720 yards of Cherry Berry Wild String dental floss by this time next week. So, Patty in upstate New York, today you are my hero.

mindreaders

While listening to my former colleague's NPR radio show, The Works, I heard an interview with the founder of a Web site called Pandora. Ok, this thing is seriously cool, though it will suck time before you can say boo.

Here is what it does. You go to the Web site and give it the name of a song or an artist. It uses a series of algorithms to determine what other music you might like based on the characteristics of the song (tone, speed, vocal quality, vamping, guitar riffs, electronics, etc). You give the song a thumbs up or down. If you like what they play, that choice will guide the next choice of songs. For example, when asked why it's playing Roxy Music's Take a Chance With Me, a song I do like very much, it says the following: "Based on what you've told us so far, we're playing this track because it features mellow rock instrumentation, a subtle use of vocal harmony, mixed minor and major key tonality, a smooth male lead vocalist and many other similarities identified in the music genome project."

My choice of This Must be the Place (Naive Melody) by the Talking Heads led to selections by Roxy Music, Madonna, Duran Duran, Loverboy, OMD, Big Audio Dynamite, The Cure, Smashing Pumpkins, and others. Ok, it did pick out Phil Collins and Genesis, which I hate, but I used to like them so I guess I'll let them off the hook on that one.

I have no idea how they'll make money (ad revenue model) and since they have to pay royalties on the songs when they play them, I can't imagine that they'll make it. I'm pulling for them, though. Cool stuff.