http://homepage.mac.com/amv12/FileSharing4.html
Sunday, March 25, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Good Morning,
March Madness is here! Get out your foam fingers and clown wigs!
You might think the NCAA Tournament determines the best college basketball team in the country, not so. It is a reminder of how much we Americans love an underdog.
Me? I'm rooting for Mamdouh (kind of sounds like a college doesn't it?). Mamdouh is a friend of mine who's started an on-line business called Sharm.biz.
I met Mamdouh when I was on safari in
I met Mamdouh in a yoga class a couple years ago. Recently, he asked if I would like to help edit his new e-commerce website.
Sharm.biz offers convenience store products to suit the needs of people traveling to
"Okay, sure" I said. I can spell
Let's see, I've been to...the Kentucky Horse Farm,
The team back home in Sharm el Sheik, Mamdouh describes like this "they do not like to be bothered with work. They do not like, you know, schedules." He wouldn't say it, but I believe the term is lazy.
I've taken a few notes on what I've learned so far.
1. The site was designed by Mamdouh, his brother-in-law (no, I don't know why he's wearing the camouflage vest), two friends and a lady from
2. "We hope to hear from you!" is not a sales pitch we Americans often use.
3. I like that I get to make tactful comments like
American’s sometimes mistake politeness for lack of confidence. Have confidence! Americans (at least in the business world) expect it.
or
Americans tend to assume others already like us. In short, you don’t have to work so hard on selling yourself to the customer. Just being simple, direct and honest (which you are by nature) works.
4. I like that through grammar and a simple turning of a phrase I get the chance to watch out for my friend...
Okay, one more item. ALWAYS make sure you check the spelling of your site. I just accidentally typed Sham.biz. “Sham” has a COMPLETELY different connotation. Sham means you’re trying to “put one over” on people, trying to cheat them.
Other things I've learned.
5. I think someone/the Russian lady? tried to copy the writing on the packaging for the product descriptions
"Lopsided tweezers this handy beauty aid is a dream to handle!"
or
"Protects dry chopped lips!" (the chapstick)
As a perfectionist by nature, I must research every item. This has been eye opening for the Sexuality products...
6. I've learned I am not familiar with words like "odour masker" and "extra bulbous teat." This is probably a good thing.
7. "Top to toe tingling experience!" Not exactly sure how that can happen but okay?
8. Baby Care? If you have a winding? Colically, teething baby? I do not have children, but I do know you will not be traveling to
Anyway, this job promises to be interesting : ).
Now I'm going to go take a nap. Before I lay on the couch and watch TV in my robe and slippers.
Happy Monday,
Amanda
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Dad Episode
INTRO
My dad has been divorced for six years not once has there been a “meet the kids” date. I thought I would give him a strong healthy push in that direction when I was home the other week for his 60th birthday.
Project/Activity: Set your divorced dad (or mom) up on an on-line dating service
Previous Attempts: 1
EPISODE: "I am Never without a Flower and a Good Book"
START
You might think having someone who is crafty and creative would be helpful to my dad in filling out his profile. Here I will admit (only temporarily) that I have been involved in the on-line dating scene. I made up my own profile. Here was the last message I received in my Inbox:
“I like to chat with you some time, i founf your profile interesting and would like to know more. However 1 question r u a black women?”
This and several other things I did not share with my dad as we sat huddled on folding chairs in front of the computer screen.
Although uncertain about my abilities to help craft a dateable profile, I was sure about the importance of attracting a good woman.
She would possibly be that someone sharing the Thanksgiving table with us
She needed to be someone I could imagine wiping his bum when he’s 80…
And most importantly she’s going to be the one responsible for buying him the big Christmas present
“Okay, so we’re looking for…a goood picture of you Dad.” (that is, deeper considerations are quickly abandoned when presents are involved).
“Do I have one?” he said.
“Yes, of course you do.” They were conspicuously marked in a folder labeled Dad photos. Evidence that my brother had organized the first on-line dating effort. In the pace of snails and slugs, the simple head shot uploaded to the site.
It did not take a supersleuth to determine why my dad's initial foray into the world of on-line dating was not a success. He has a dial-up connection and a Wal-Mart e-mail account...(helloooo ladies) I haven’t checked the books on this one yet but, I’d say the odds were 1 in 87 billion that he would succeed.
Anyway,
There is a certain amount of excitement in filling out the profile. The opportunity to create someone…you’ve never been.
“Dad, how tall are you?”
“5’11”
I am 5’9 when I’d hugged my dad the previous morning we were eye-to-eye.
“Since when? If you’re 5’11 then I get to be 6’0.” We settled on a healthy 5’10.
“Weight?” Here the drop down box gives options: slender, average, muscular, few extra pounds
“Well, slender.”
Most men might hesitate at using this term, not my dad. I tried explaining the feminine connotation of this word suggesting that “slender” along with his interests in decorating, flowers and dancing might not be an adequate counterbalance to his qualities in the man department…
This is something I like about my dad. He did not care. A man proud to be slender not average—that’s my dad!
The online dating profile is the opportunity to bring forth your best self. Here’s a bit of “entercation” (i.e. entertainment/education)
In filling out a profile from an alternative perspective…
It’s fun to feel above the dating scene. It’s no fun to be in it (especially when you are a new lesbian). It’s a little worse when you are disabled and even more when you identify as Buddhist. I always want to save on the complications later. There will be no Thanksgiving dinner announcements. There will be no when are we going to tell your parents about all this?
Questions I’ve had…
Do you keep files on people?
How do you introduce yourself?
How do you present your “self” as a commodity when you’re Buddhist? There is no self…(do I have to hide my Buddhism too?)
As you can see the situation is complex.
This is why I enjoy hearing that for my dad and others like him a “deal breaker” …is getting the news that the potential “fix” up date has an appointment to get her hair done once a week. Simple things like a bad hairdo can still be one of life’s biggest concerns.
There was a time when I wanted to learn a formal dance for a friend’s wedding. My dad is a good dancer (specify ballroom…). He came to
…the instructor was adamant yet patient as we waltzed across the floor to Dad’s lead. Dad went glide, glide, giddy-up and I went STOMP STOMP STOMP. “Dad listen to the instructor. We’re taking a lesson!”
Dad’s ability to take the lead did not apply to dating profiles…our efforts lagged and lulled. His face flashed a look of concern and mental faculties halted to a complete stop at our next section of the profile—YOUR DATE--the place to provide characteristics and attributes of the person you would ideally like to meet.
The question about keeping a file on someone?...in theory it was answered. My dad was able to produce a prototype from his first on-line dating effort that didn’t pan out. He still had her profile.
Pure gold. I asked if I could see it. Dad hesitated, looking a bit sick and stricken. I promised not to tease, judge or tell anyone (oops). She was/is an attractive lady, slender, nice smile. From her stated interests she indeed earned her title “Classyladyfriend.” (*name changed to protect the innocent).
At times having this made things far easier than perhaps they should have been. Dad and his Classyladyfriend were going to have profiles that look like they got stuck in the ditto machine.
At other times having the profile made things MUCH MUCH harder…
When we arrived at the Turn Ons/Turn Offs section
Dad sat clutching his profile. In his eyes I thought I saw a spark of hope. Knowing a parent’s turn-ons/turn offs…I thought, this is guaranteed to turn me off to anything for the next 32 years. We settled on tattoos and body piercings Turn Offs, dancing and romantic dinners Turn Ons. The rest he would just have to revise at a later time and fill out on his own.
“What makes me unique? What makes me special?”
It is sad that Dad had to ask this question. I had a memory full of a daughter’s words but these words only seem to matter when spoken. They fail to endear or compel when crammed into a dialogue
I lovingly encouraged my dad to go away and think about what made him special while I worked some magic into the profile. (an artist must be left to her work…). Five minutes later, my dad returned and proudly handed me a little note with some penciled down items (underlined).
Christmas
Flowers (double underlined--*very important)
Reading a new book every week
Cleaning house
I proudly turned in my seat. “Okay dad, I’ll look at that but first listen to what I wrote.” I smiled all the love and encouragement I could muster after ventilating some of the extra heat I’d generated underneath my sweatshirt. I was hot, tired and ready for Father-Daughter Day Activity #2 Go with dad to the recreation center for a good workout.
Dad stood nonplussed, a quizzical look in his expression after I finished my dramatic reading.
“Oh so you wrote it like a book there…I mean can’t I just say I like Christmas?”
I’m not sure where I ever got this idea that life needed to be so complicated. I put away (my marker board, quill pen and etching stone) the careful crafting tools of the wordsmith and simply wrote a new headline and front page teaser.
Posted and pending approval from the Website, Dad’s headshot now appeared with the headline:
“I am never without a flower and a good book.”
And underneath…
“I like Christmas. Let’s clean house together.”
I must say this was a strange kind of power I did not enjoy. The technically incompetent should not have to suffer.
“What did you do?” My dad asked. “What does it (the profile) say now?”
“Well, Dad, reading it says…you’re a woman.”
Panic.
Okay, okay we’ll change it. On the third attempt we arrived at a satisfactory profile.
I left him with instructions on how to cancel the account and remove the profile should word leak into the community that he’s out a lookin’ for the ladies on-line.
And thus ends my submission for a Brownie badge. Happy Girl Scouts Week and Happy Monday. Your Troop Leader, Amanda
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
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