[Author’s note: this is one of the earliest mentions of the “shop”. I do not recall if that is a referral to the same computer shop on Hollywood Blvd, but I think it may be.]
First quarter finished, and I’m still back in school. I’m taking the scanner in today to see why the thing won’t connect. Probably that scuzzy cable which I have no method of testing. Which is frustrating because I can test anything. I need a second cable or some expensive gear. As soon as I get it, remember there is a fairly large tub full of pictures that need to be scanned. Some as early as when I was fourteen years old and combed my hair so it would look (from a distance) like I had sideburns. I never wanted sideburns, but people who would otherwise have bitched that I had long hair thought I was really dumb if I thought I was fooling them. I have not even gotten to the slides. These are several more trays of rather expensive shots from around Asia, mostly Thailand. I actually lugged a $300 35mm SLR around in those days. Then, it sat on the shelf for years when I found out it also required a $300 sealed case to take it on vacation (or the shutter would rust). What a rip-off that was. Give me digital any day.[Author’s note 2021: I was past the shop last week on my way to the club meetup. I saw a small orange sign in the door of the old shop, but for the most part it has been vacant since we left, what, some ten years ago anyway. The boring coffee shop and the Korean store are still open, but how, I don't know. Money laundering? That's the shop the landlady tried to raise the rent from $800 to $3,000 using the old CAM-clause trick.]
Which is the focus this week, getting the system to the next level. Didn’t I warn all my cronies that this was going to take six months and a thousand dollars? People who say they got some cheap software together and started producing video are leaving out a major part of the story. For example, Sam (JZ’s brother) does it, but has a whole library of 8mm footage from the family vaults. That makes production considerably easier. I am also told that scanning photos is a tricky art that has to be learned and according to at least one source is not worth the effort. My situation is that I hardly have an alternative.
I missed going into the shop today, maybe tomorrow. I walked over to the lesson, which was only an hour, but hey, that’s a half tank of gas. Marilyn has been given instructions to learn Excel, but has not been given any time to study it. She is quite aware that studying during her lessons is the most expensive way to go about things, but she is okay with that for now. Today, we worked directly on her spreadsheets, not copies, but live files. This was as unwise as it was unavoidable. They haven’t really given her a choice, because she gets seventy e-mails a day and it looks like she’s also doing the single mother thing. I wouldn’t have any time if I only had to read the e-mails.
Now I am really glad I took that ten minutes when we first met to explain [to Marilyn] that a spreadsheet was never designed to do certain things, and while you can do those things for a while, there is a point of no return. She does not have time to practice any of the lesson material and with that spreadsheet [she is using] it is not going to get any easier. She is trapped into adding more and more columns as each weekly report is due. Already half her time is spent scrolling back and forth. There was a complaint at the far end, so that is the reason I broke the rule and showed her how to clean up the spreadsheet (but only after she affirmed that we were going far beyond the skills she has learned so far and she should not try to duplicate the process when I am not around). Also, I normally charge a significantly higher fee to work on the actual spreadsheet design.
This is the reward and challenge of teaching adults. She is bound by tradition but knows a better way when she sees it. She is going to have to change from thinking across the page to down the page, so I am leading up to it very gently. Today I asked her to start putting the design number down the column of every related data item [instead of just once at the top where it often gets scrolled off the page]. She immediately took to that. Down the page, and that is a good sign.
