The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden, originally uploaded by Wonderlane.

wave coast

wave coast, originally uploaded by Wonderlane.

Peggy's Zen living room makeover, Seattle, Washington, USA

Peggy's Zen living room makeover, Seattle, Washington, USA, originally uploaded by Wonderlane.

A tender moment with a sunset and a huge wall of black glass and steel, typical cityscape, San Francisco, California, USA anyplace ...

A tender moment with a sunset and a huge wall of black glass and steel, typical cityscape, San Francisco, California, USA anyplace ..., originally uploaded by Wonderlane.

Fruit candy like you've never seen! Dried sweetened candied fruits in large chunks, market, Baja California Sur, Mexico

Fruit candy like you've never seen! Dried sweetened candied fruits in large chunks, market, Baja California Sur, Mexico, originally uploaded by Wonderlane.

Flying bananas cart, fruit, Nepalese shoppers, stripped plastic cover, fruit vendor, Kathmandu, Nepal

Flying bananas cart, fruit, Nepalese shoppers, stripped plastic cover, fruit vendor, Kathmandu, Nepal, originally uploaded by Wonderlane.

Rabbits, Hats, Furniture, and Country flowers for the outside living room, at Mill Rose Inn, Half Moon Bay, California, USA

Rabbits, Hats, Furniture, and Country flowers for the outside living room, at Mill Rose Inn, Half Moon Bay, California, USA, originally uploaded by Wonderlane.

Decorative wooden bowl with shell inlay, triangle pieces, tax time, CPA's office, West Lake Union, Seattle, Washington, USA

Decorative wooden bowl with shell inlay, triangle pieces, tax time, CPA's office, West Lake Union, Seattle, Washington, USA, originally uploaded by Wonderlane.

Handmade stained glass wall sconce for mood lighting, triangle pieces, OR2K Middle Eastern vegetarian restaurant, Kathmandu, Nepal

Handmade stained glass wall sconce for mood lighting, triangle pieces, OR2K Middle Eastern vegetarian restaurant, Kathmandu, Nepal, originally uploaded by Wonderlane.

Just moved, esh!, living room, main floor, sofa, sleeping Rosie, heater, tables, boxes, lamps, mirrors, pillows, clothes, art, wide screen TV, curtains, modem, router, carpets - what a mess, worse move yet, Broadview, Seattle, Washington, USA

Just moved, esh!, living room, main floor, sofa, sleeping Rosie, heater, tables, boxes, lamps, mirrors, pillows, clothes, art, wide screen TV, curtains, modem, router, carpets - what a mess, worse move yet, Broadview, Seattle, Washington, USA, originally uploaded by Wonderlane.

File Under "This Makes Me Feel Better"

"Designers get pulled off projects and their ego is bruised. Feeling hurt is how they should feel. If their ego wasn’t bruised, they weren’t trying hard enough. Professionalism means they don’t show it, but if they are good designers, they care. And caring means feeling pain sometimes."

- Christina Wodtke
GM of Social at Myspace
http://www.boxesandarrows.com/view/fear_of_design

Many designers work alone in large corporate environment - just like I frequently do - they need to know that not every project will be continued or successful. The fact that one feels pain when a project fails is good - it means you are a professional who cares about your work!

User interface changes in large corporations - 5 drivers in customization, personalization, internationalization, UI display and process

Many large corporate sites already provide unique services tied to individual identity. Large corporations are planning to do the same at the top level of their main Website; in effect corporations want to provide every business partner and customer their own membership “site” or “view” of the corporate site, in effect giving a face to the customer, their own!

Another very big consideration in redesigns right now is the Asian market, specifically China, and India. Most of the Asian market accesses the Web over mobile and other handheld devices. With this in mind, identity and device recognition (or device agnostic sites) for small screens are two of the major drivers in this change.


The 3rd major consideration is auto selection and personalization. In this way it is hoped that both the company and individuals can control what is displayed on sites – showing people just what they are interested in or more well stated – what they need.

The shotgun approach of presenting everything and expecting the end user to navigate to what they want is expected to wind down and come to an end. In particular it is too time consuming, confusing, and causes opportunity loss (loss of sales or conversion). Many large software firns are close followers in this effort, mostly due to how large a project it is. Notable exceptions include Amazon, and the micro sales sections of Google. Followers notably include Microsoft.

Other drivers besides (multiple) identities within the corporate software platforms (including identities related to such things as gaming), are the language /locale issues which still remain problematic on many large corporate Internet properties.

A 4th driver is tracking results (page views / sales) for both A / B testing and efficiency and success of design and auto selection processes. This does not include 3rd level stuff such as triangulation between sales results. Usually this is termed "profiling" but in this sense it means presenting items that consumers would actually be interested - a great example of this is Amazon's site.

Shopping helps aid the Amazon algorithm to tell what interests consumers. But even here the end user has the ability to say "Nope, I'm not interested in this."

A 5th driver is process. After I do X, what should I do? What is a logical process customer/end user should follow? Perhaps there are freebees or other information perks which make sense to include in a download process, or just as information (on demand or that is, as needed) within the process they are engaged in using.

Looking forward to more personalization in process driven large corporate Websites.

Spring Flowers

Yellow taxis and white Toyota Priuses
stir pink flurries
snow blossoms at Microsoft

time falls down
on the ground
beauty falls down
sparks through the air

Christian the Dog Thief AKA The Enforcer

Standing in the Central District Safeway with Rosie on her new long black leash, a well dressed, calm man walked up to my friend Julie and I, said hi, kneeled down on the floor and nuzzled my dog.

"A rescue?" he asked. "Yes, Rosie's from Mexico" I said, and Julie said "Linda rescued Rose and her 3 siblings and mother from starvation in a Mexican graveyard."

Smoothly pulling out his state of the art cell phone he showed us a photo of his three dogs, explaining he had just lost the best dog he ever had, because the dog died of old age. All kinds of love welled up in his eyes.

"Where'd you get these pups?" I asked. "All rescues," the man replied, "you can't really tell their size, they are huge dogs."

Then he added quickly, "I steal dogs."

Oh this is gonna be good I thought, as he launched into his tale.

"First one, the golden Retriever on the right, was my next door neighbor's dog. Kept the dog locked in the garage all the time, in his filth and piss. It was so sad. Just his nose would peek out of the garage, laying on his side, looking at me, asking for affection. Once in a while he'd escape, and we'd go looking and I'd find him and return him.

All summer long this went on. One time my neighbor came home, and the dog welcomed him, by jumping up on him. The owner kicked that dog - so hard I could hear it outside.

So, the next time the dog escaped, I found him, and I just never gave him back. What a shame your dog ran away, you know? Lived right next door.

Next time I stole a dog it was when someone I knew was getting a divorce. His wife took everything, just left him the big Chevy cab, his tools, and his dog. He was a contractor. I went to visit him and the guy was really drunk, spinning wheelies with his huge pickup, knocking the dog around in the open truck. But his big toolkit was loose and kept crushing the dog.

We went upstairs, got really plastered on a bottle of ancient scotch, smoked a big fat spliffy. All great stuff. He complained about his stupid dumb dog this and that.

Really early in the morning I walked downstairs, and took the dog with me as I left [as he said this he smiled at the perfect plan.] Next day that guy stopped by to give me a bottle of Chivas Regal, and a hundred dollars. Hey my big dog is missing - he told me - I think someone stole him out of the truck!"

'Wow, who would do that?' said I, with complete surprise." showing off his great boy-next-door-poker face.

"I am 'The Enforcer.' You mistreat your dog in front of me, he's gone. That was the best dog I ever had." he finished up.

"Excellent!" we both said with glee at his story. "Julie has 22 dogs and more cats she saved in Africa." I told him with a hint of one-upsmanship.

"Yes" said Julie, "there people leave puppies and kittens by the side of the road for God to sort out. So we stand in for God. They die from diseases a lot because of all the stuff, but we do the best we can with what is available there."

"Keep up the great work!" we encouraged him as we split off and continued shopping. "You too!" said he. "By the way, what's your name?"
"Christian" he said.
"Its our pleasure to meet you."

"Christian the dog thief" said Julie as we climbed into the car with Rosie and rocketed off with another random wonderment answered - who would steal a dog? It is the The Enforcer who steals dogs. Hen hen hen.

File under "Crawling around on the floor with world leaders": On Meeting General Westmoreland to plan for a school in Anchorage, Alaska

When I was 12 or 13 years old I met General Westmoreland, on Elmendorf Air Force Base in Anchorage, Alaska to plan for a school. At his invitation I met with him privately to discuss planning in North Mountain View, Orah Dee Clark Jr. High, so the jets landing at Elmendorf did not cross over or directly land over the planned combination elementary / junior high school because it was loud, disturbing and potentially hazardous.

My girlfriends and I did not want the junior high to lose it's cross county ski and running track, nor did we want the elementary and junior high to be combined due to drug problems and the cost of an overpass. The cost of the necessary overpass was not included in the city's planning, which drove the associated cost way up. There was also the potential problem of older kids hazing younger kids.

My mom made an appointment for me, and drove me to his office building; I was unusually wearing a dress with my hair combed. She waited in the waiting room. At first General Westmoreland did the "How may I help you pretty little lady" thing, but when he heard the problem description that all changed. We were looking for 5-10 other physical sites but having trouble finding any good ones.

General Westmoreland ordered a large map of Anchorage which included Elmendorf from his aides. Several rolls appeared immediatedly and he selected one.

He took off his suitjacket. We sat on the floor with a very large map of Anchorage spread out in his military office, much to his aide's surprise. They stood in the door way and whispered and fretted. I think there are protocols for guarding a general but what is the protocol regarding a child? They treated him like gold. Finally he shussed them off! (*dismissed*)


We crawled all over the floor together looking at the landing patterns and the potential sites, but really he knew I was asking him for land from the base (and even worse yet to change the landing fields.)

General Westmoreland told me that the military could not be involved with civilian matters, but privately I believe he communicated his advice. I included our meeting in the materials later presented at the Anchorage City Council meeting.

Since no practical solution was found the school was delayed in being built for 40 years(!). Anchorage did finally built it this last year. The school as it existed then was called Orah Dee Clark Junior High where I attended. http://www.asdk12.org/renewal/ms/clark.asp

My mom told me Westmoreland became a famous general in Vietnam. I recall how kind and gentle he was to me, though firm, and strong -- handsome -- he had a big aura. I can find no public records of his being in Anchorage, but I know he was.

Unfortunately due to the presentation we made to the Anchorage City Council the paid city planner was fired for incompetence. The Council reasoned that if three 13 year old girls could do this level of planning they could find a more qualified employee. My buddies, Nancy Byrd, Mary Liston, and I have high IQs so perhaps that was an unfair comparison to him. Everybody should have work, cause everyone needs it. It wasn't our intention to harm anyone.

An article and our photos were published in the Anchorage Times about the planning meeting. I'll see if I can find my old copy and digitize it.

Here's some more information about the General:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Westmoreland

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/VNwestmoreland.htm

You may be required to sign in to read this article - or just search "General Westmoreland" and you'll get it fresh...
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/19/international/asia/19westmoreland.html

Inexpensive project - brick and pavers path to repair an entry, backdoor, $1 dollar each (Home Depot), total cost $4, Seattle, Washington, USA

This back entry to an older apartment rental used to be a jumbled, unsightly and confusing nightmare, especially dangerous to people using canes to walk, those with bad eyesight, and even to the cat or dog. Using the existing brick dug out of the old walkway, purchasing the 4 larger brick pavers (concrete), we restructured the area for $4.00 using existing materials. This project was accomplished in 2 four-hour sessions with two people.

Between sessions the area was cleared of the materials and the ground was leveled to make walking here easy to do, even when the project was not finished. All tools were put away.

We added drainage using all the small pebbles and rocks we could round up from the yard. These rocks are no longer in view in the finished project because they form the foundation for the left, right and front areas so water drains from the left to the right and away from the entry.

Entryways, paths, exits, stairs and all transition places, such as hallways, and driveways should always be kept as clean and free of debris as possible.

There are multiple reasons for keeping transition areas clean and clear.

First is safety, and safety is aways the first consideration in walkways and staircases. The last thing anyone wants is a disabled or older person falling down a staircase, or tripping over stuff left in a transistion zone.

In my own case, my mother fell over a bag of potatos left on the staircase of her house, onto the landing where she cried out for help for 4 hours until a passerby on the street heard her. After that she always wore an emergency call necklace just in case. If we all followed the simple rule not to leave anything on a stairway, it just simply would not have happened.

Second is the energy or spiritual quality of any location. To keep energy flowing and clear, entryways, exits, hallways, paths and similar transition areas are the veins and arteries of physical places especially around the house.

Anything which blocks the flow of energy often is a safety risk as well.

The desire to place things in such transition zones that block their use, may be reviewed and considered as physical manifestations of energy and psychological problems such as the desire to hide, not deal with personal or professional problems, or other similar energy flow issues.

Now both the people and the cat enjoy walking through this area because they don't even notice it any more. Not noticing a transition zone is a good place to begin with a redesign - the best result is to notice the beauty of such an area, because its usefulness is a given.

With something to cheer about: A cliffhanger, untangling personal economic near disasters and boondoggles

I want you to know something in the government still works!

The Governor of Washington Chris Gregoire's office responded to my email plea regarding the unemployment problems I encountered with a call today from a real live person, Mr. Mike Lundstrum. Mike is an interstate laison for the unemployment program here in Washington. He is following up in minute detail to get both Washington state and California state to pay me the back payments owed to me for my unemployment claims from both states.

Due to California's archaic paper forms process, and internal online form screens and Washington's oversight in informing both me and California of my valid claim I was not paid unemployment for some months. We don't even want to imagine what handling all those millions of paper forms is like in California.

Mike said he is "like a dog with a bone on this sort of thing and won't let go until it is resolved." I am not sure how much I will be paid finally, but it should be something more than a month of unemployment and it could be two months plus worth.

There is an additional so-called waiting week in my California claim that I will not be paid - and what exactly are we waiting for kids? - that waiting period in all states should be abolished in IMHO. Why put up with "we've always done it that way" as an excuse?

Mike has also notified the California Federal Extended Unemployment program that I am qualified, if we reach that point. I was hoping his call was someone offering me work, but sadly "no", he said, he "was not that person". He did however suggest that the state of California hire me to get an online claims system up and running, hen hen hen.

Now, to figure out what happened to the school loan deferment forms I requested two weeks ago so I stand a chance in heck of returning to the UW with a loan.

Then, on to untangling the credit problems created by the auto-fraud detection and auto-payment software programs at Bank of America that ate my credit card and accounts, canceling my account, charging me for the late auto-payment that it did not make, and then dooming my credit without my ever missing a payment in 10 years. Shame on you Bank of America for canceling my credit for your own software mistakes and claiming it was because I was unemployed!

My new Virgin Mobile phone setup triggered the fraud detection software at BoA, because the phone, purchased from Best Buy was not registered in the Virgin database. Ok. Days of boondoggle wasted time and energy. Good luck getting the "customer service" at BoA to listen to the words coming out of my mouth. When I call again I will be Rambo - armed to the teeth.

I have lived on the edge many many times in my life, with increasingly great faith, but this last 2 or 3 years, even I have to admit has been a wingdinger, a real cliffhanger, and I can hardly wait to see what happens in the next installment -- like a child afraid of the boogieman under the bed, up late at night watching TV.

I know I learn more this way, but WHOA.

PS for those of you who have never been poor enough to qualify for foodstamps or other aid, I discovered that programs to help the poor provide only for landline based phone service, not cell phones. So I wrote a number of our representatives about fixing that antiquated oversight.

The real poor live out of their car, or public sleeping cots in group shelters, or on the street - they don't have the luxury of a residence - where are they going to put a landline -- in their pocket? and if We The People are going to help provide homeless and needy with phone service they should have cell phones because that is what makes sense.

Anyway - Cheers!

Hola from Blas!

Hola Amigos de linda , Estan en contacto con ella. Que bien. Blas.

Blas Nayar

Swine Flu in Guadalajara, hopefully as everyone stays home it will not spread

Guadalajara is a very social town, people party on bikes & skates (Sundays when a main street is shut down to automotive traffic), dance on every public square; party here party there, festa every where. Guadalajara is shut down. 6 confirmed cases of swine flu here - not yet reported to the press (my host Ariel's connection to the hospital - a doctor - called just now with this news.)

We are not going any place. Schools and large workplaces closed until May 6th.

We did the monthly shopping early two days ago at Wal-Mart, so we are fixed for food and water (but no milk for tea!).

Here is the most recent slideshow of a visit to Chela - my host Rossy's best friend and advisor's - house and art studio within the same block we live in:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/sets/72157617230803620/show/

I was planning on getting an oil change at the Toyota dealer today in preparation for traveling to the coastal city of Manzanillo (near Colima, and the last volcano of the Ring of Fire on the West Coast) on Friday - but that is on hold and up in the air for now. I believe I will take the risk.

Every time I go out I get lost, but I have consistantly found my way back. The temperature here is in the 80s - on the rooftop it is frequently more than 100 degrees.

The whole thing sounds like a call to prayer to me.

Traveling in Mexico to Guadalajara, kissing cheeks, swimming, and birds in the morning

Here are photos of traveling in Mexico to get to Guadalajara, and some here in town.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/sets/72157616310268586/show/

Traveling across the border there was no monitoring at all. I have no idea what they are talking about the border, all the stuff about what is required to enter Mexico, as far as my car and so forth, I did not find to be true. Nobody even looked at us entering Mexico - insurance? good luck getting anyone to stop after they hit you!

This is no-mans wild mans land - anything goes - we could have come in with anything - there is no security at the border... just a couple of guys sitting on chairs watching the melee.

I did go both ways, but I am Caucasian -- entering Mexico there was no filtering, and coming into the US, most people just walked in -- I rode my bike across because my Bank had zero'ed out my credit card - even though I called and told them I was going to Mexico. After dealing with the bank in Calexico I stopped and asked a Mexican guard if he needed anything - "A kiss!" said he, and we kissed cheeks - how nice!

Tijuana is a nightmare and I feel sorry that there is a border for the people there bare the brunt of all the illegal desires that Americans want to fulfill cheaply. Even the traffic lights did not work - clearly it is a minor hell on Earth.
Former head of the US government Bush had build a giant rediculous steel wall in the desert that runs for a huge number of miles. It is an ecological disaster preventing land animals from migrating. From the human standpoint you can just walk around it, especially where there are breaks in the flat Sonora Desert.

Other than that wall, traveling in the Sonora Desert which runs all the length of Northern Mexico, is quite beautiful and I saw fields of cactus - I didn't stop much there because I wanted to get to Guadalajara, but I wanted to stop and admire the beauty and photograph it. I stopped at a few of the larger shrines along the way and made offerings of candles for the benefit of all sentient beings. At one of the larger sets of shrines a turkey vulture starred me in the eye for a long time circling not far overhead. I took it to be a good sign.

I stopped at the way stations that have been abandoned since Bush's wall went up. I did take the time to spit on on the wall. At one of the way stations I fed sets of large ants in the ground what remained of the cookies.

Later stopped at the many, regular security checkpoints I learned the power of transparent organization. All of my paperwork was in a medium sized transparent folder where all the materials were labled and could be clearly seen, my VISA, Passport, drivers license, registration for the car, insurance, etc, everything.

Not only that, all my clothes, and everything I packed to take with me was similarly packed in clear transparent plastic containers of various sizes and shapes. I also carried cookies, and food with me while traveling to give away. So each time I was stopped and asked to undergo inspection or for my papers and so forth, as soon as the police saw the transparent notebook with clear pages and the clear plastic containers, mostly like boxes, they knew there was no point, I really did not fit the description of someone with anything to hide. So I offered them cookies and this was accepted with gusto! They waved me on immediately.

I learned not to take anyone I do not know with me as a traveling companion. What a painful and drawn out lesson! One of the police women at a regular security stop noticed that the person riding shotgun didn't raise a hand to show her the items in the car or trunk, which meant removing my bicycle from the back of the car, and she was clearly astonished, and leapt to help me instead. Finally she just waved me through with a look of disgust at my passenger. He remained oblivious to the reactions of others throughout the remainder of his time on my dime.

I stayed at several hotels along the way, all about the same, kind of old, like on the order of 100 years or more, and run down, but everything tended to work, even if a bit dusty I could afford them. It was not like India where you consistantly put your life in your hands to travel and eat, or stay someplace.

One of the most interesting hotels was built more than 100 years ago and named after a Catholic Monk by the name of Kino. The Kino Hotel is located in the capital city of Hermosilla. It had a lot of charm and many kinds of handmade tiles. There I also met a very interesting lawyer and I enjoyed chatting with him about when he was a tenor singing in a band in the 1960's (which I guessed because of his voice.)

The vacation towns along Mexicos beaches range from sweet and really for the locals to invaded by American students at spring break, during which time the Mexican population sort of holds their noses until it is over. They are a very religious people and for the most part I encountered the ethical folks. But here and there my white skin means I must pay much more for things than the locals do. They have no way of knowing how little money I have or that jobs in the US are such a rarity.

Finally I arrived in Guadalajara and with my memory of 5 years ago and my friend Ariel's instructions, combined with strong intuition I was nearly able to drive right up to Ariel and Rossy's house, in a huge city of 12 million people! I was so tired from packing my house, storing my things and traveling for more than a week, I went to sleep immediately.

I was bitten by mosquitos so badly that my left eye would not open. So in the following days I tried several techiques to prevent mosquito bites, but finally had a seamstress sew up a tent made from bridal veil material I designed that fits over a twin bed rather nicely. It took a lot more time to assemble the materials, and I got skin allergies that look like burns from all the stuff I used to prevent the somewhat painful bites. My lungs suffered from the Raid citronella rounds burning at night sometimes 6 at a time with incense.

We also had built a large closet arrangement in my room to hang and store my stuff. I plan to go get hangers this weekend I hope. What is holding me up there is that thieves stole my side mirrors on my red Toyota Corolla, and so it is more difficult to drive. Driving here is risky even if you are expert. They have several Wall Marts here, and although I don't love Wall Mart, in a pinch it works. Also I have car insurance but so far have not heard back from the insurance company if they cover the mirrors - it is a standard crime - stealing the mirrors and everyone except the police have antithief plastic devices to prevent their theft.

For fun we went to a river with Ariel and Rossy's mom's and members of their families. I enjoyed it a lot! The river was small, and flows not too fast with warm water over small boulders and rocks. It is situated in a small town about 30 or 40 minutes north of Guadalajara. Rrun as a small resort, we paid about 4 - 6 dollars for the day (with a tip!).

Here in Guadalajara I live on the top floor of a 100 year old house made of Adobe, Brick, concrete and iron rods with some steel or iron beams embedded in the Adobe. There is large white tile covering the entire ground floor, and it's warm and smooth to the feet. We have a professional maid come twice a week to help us clean because Guadalajara is a dusty town. We live in the Zona Centro, in the center, next to a lovely old Catholic Church and a great large square that has our favorite resturant, El Fenix.

My room has very high ceilings perhaps 16 feet tall, and the rest of the house has even taller ceilings. Rossy had a special paper bag brown wash over several of the interior walls which are otherwise in cream.

My room has one wall painted red with a large antique metal Mexican mirror of the sun hung on it - looks smashing. The opposite wall is where we had the closet placed, right now I am working on staining the wood of the closet which has a desk. I am staining it marroon red to go with the wall - so I will leave them something they like when I leave.

From the side of my room and Ariel's band practice room is a huge rooftop porch with no roof where we keep a few plants. Ariel and Rossy have very little furniture, they are saveing to purchase some traditional Mexican furniture from a town nearby that is famed for making furniture.Rossy and Ariel have a daugher, La China, and the family also has a dog, Breda, and two cats, one white and one black, and a turtle. Many students and people from international locations live around here.

In the mornings birds come visit the interior of the house, as the hallways are open to the sky, and sing sweetly, the most complex songs I have ever heard birds sing. Certainly in the 80 and 90 degree weather this is the tropics.

On Monday I begin Spanish lessons with a teacher in a school nearby, my classes are $10 per lesson.

I look for work every day over the internet in Seattle, and try to continue to learn something on the computer. I am looking forward to going back to school in the fall. Of course this means borrowing more money but I don't have a choice.

As possible I will publish more photos on my site at;
http://www.flickr.com/photos/wonderlane/