Things I've Noticed

Hiding Things Is Rarely Beneficial

I recently came across an article in which a student found a valuable baroque painting inside an old sofa.  It made me think of something I should write about, the concept of Hiding Things.  I would say that it's usually not a good idea, (with one exception being the hiding of Easter eggs on Easter).  I understand the origins and necessity in te past but it has mostly lost its usefulness today.  Usually, when something is hidden, it is valuable in some way.  It's also hidden so that strangers or even family members, don't find it.  Based on real family experience though, hidden objects often become lost and forgotten objects.  If the hidden things are valuable, they are probably rarely used.  Or, as in the case of the painting from the article, they may be hidden to keep them from enemies, or to preserve them for future generations.  The problem there is a lack of documentation and/or communication.  In either of those cases the person hiding the things eventually dies and the survivors don't know about them or where to uncover them.  So, if anybody wants to hide something, they should write about it in her/his will.  Sometimes hiding things is a de-facto act.  People like me who have lots of stuff end up hiding objects inadvertently because boxes and drawers can be deep.  Then I forget I had something until I move or until I have a clean-up or an organization day.  I have to admit that I do enjoy these pleasant surprises.  I've found some pretty cool hidden objects such as baseball cards, old photos, music tapes, and even clothes.  I suppose a safe deposit box is the way to go when it comes to hiding things.  In this case, more than one person knows about the box and how to get access to the box.  So don't be a squirrel and hide things.  Your nose isn't as good to find them and your memory's not as good as an elephant's to remember them.

+ Atul

Happy Thanksgiving from T.I.N.

I just wanted to wish all of you, including my loyal readers, a Happy Thanksgiving. I'll be saving a turkey by not eating one, but all the other food will be delicious. Speaking of turkeys, we also now have wild turkeys in our neighborhood, just like this Oregon town in the video I've linked to.  Our neighborhood team won our 18th Annual Turkey Bowl and I had a fumble recovery for a touchdown.  I'm now getting sensation back in my toes so it's good.  It will be a different and somewhat sad Thanksgiving without my dad, but we still have a lot to be thankful for.  Good friends, family, food, shelter, employment, and health should not be taken for granted.  Let's just hope the world comes around and becomes more peaceful. 

+ Atul

Quick Quote on Being Unique

"The road less traveled is the road more lonely."

+ Atul

Passing on The Blogging Bug to Students

First of all, I apologize for the delay in posting.  I have no excuse other than just being busy.  But I'm getting back into the swing of things and I wanted to write about a great opportunity I had a couple of weeks ago.  Thanks to friend, volleyball captain, and frequent T.I.N.  visitor Dave P.'s current teaching job at a local university called Madonna University, he asked me to present to one of his classes about blogging.  I was temporarily considered a blogging expert.  So I put together a presentation to go through with his class and the students learned about blogging at a general level.  I called it, "Blogging:  What It's All About, Why You Might Want to Do It, and How To Do It Too."  My intent was to introduce them to the world of blogging and to get them interested in blogging to the point that some of them might even start one.  I don't know if I was successful, but one of the assignments Dave handed out, was for the students to comment on one of my blogposts.  (You might have noticed the sudden increase in comments).  I appreciated the insightful comments from the class members.  I want to thank Dave, his class for paying attention and being nice considering how late in the day it was.  Thanks also to them for the gift certificate to a local vegetarian restaurant which I will use soon. 

In addition to presenting, somebody else Dave works with, Dan, was nice enough to record my whole presentation as a podcast you can download here --> Download Atul_Blogging_Things_Ive_Noticed.mp3 .  This is great if you want to learn about blogging or if you want to hear what I sound like the night after staying up late to finish a presentation.  Thanks Dan.  Overall, presenting to students about blogging was a great experience and made me feel like becoming a professor.  It sure beats presenting to management.

+ Atul

Sidebars: Confusion-Creating Mini Articles

I like to read magazines and newspapers... a lot, even more than books.  Automotive ones, news ones, business ones, science ones…  They're all good in their own unique way, but the one thing that magazines all seem to have are sidebars.  These are those sectioned off or shaded areas containing short articles within long articles, ones that talk about a topic related to the one you already began reading.  They're usually interesting little tidbits.  But what confuses me is that I never know when I should read them.  If I read them after I finish the main article, I might forget.  If I interrupt my flow of reading the main article and read the sidebar, it might have the most relevance, but then I might not remember where I left off in the main article.  Then I'll waste time by rereading stuff I already read.  I know this sidebar stuff is not a huge deal, but it comes up often as I read lots of magazines and newspapers.  On a sidenote, what's interesting is that when I searched on the word "sidebar" for images, this is the only picture that I found that shows one, (and it's at the bottom).  Yet, these things are everywhere in newspaper and magazine articles.  I could always boycott sidebars, but I might miss some really good writing. 

I wonder who invented this idea.  I'm guessing some newspaper editor realized that they couldn't use all their space in a given issue and they gave an assignment to a junior writer to write a short article to fill in space with one requirement.  It had to have something to do with the main article.

Today I see that the whole sidebar phenomenon has migrated to the internet web page world.  In this context, it's not so bad.  Everything on the page is typically in sections anyway and are all meant to be read whenever in any order.  Chances are the sidebar is unrelated to anything else on the web page.

When do you read sidebar articles?  Do you like them or wish they would be banned?

+ Atul