A Master of Embroidery

One the reasons, I started this site was to celebrate excellence in workmanship.  I recently stumbled across a blog by Mary Corbet while looking for information on cloth of gold. She is a master of embroidery. She creates by hand ecclesiastical embroidery that is simply exquisite.

She has posted an example piece in six entries,  the first image shows the layout of the planned piece.  It is a great photo to give you an idea of the size of the work.

You can really see the details of the needlework in the next two images:

 

Close-up of the above image:

The detail work, the color blending is just amazing.  Just look at the finished piece.  From the side photo, you can see the gold thread work.

A detail of the finished piece.

Now here is the really amazing  part - it took her six weeks to create this masterpiece (380 hours).  This is a lot of time but I have taken a month just to paint a room.  It is really hard to imagine being that gifted at embroidery. Or that focused on a goal.

Think of it another way; if she had worked just two hours a day, in little over six months this is what  she would have to show for it.

My husband is always talking about how important it is to find what you are good at and to focus your efforts in that direction.  This is a great example of someone putting their time, talents and efforts to create something that is really amazing. Everyone has a talent but we are not all focused on making the best use of that talent.

So how are you going to spend that two hours a day? Time to get busy and create a masterpiece (or at least finish painting the living room).
_________________________________________
In case you are interested,  the entire project is shown in steps on Needle'n Thread.com

There is also a set of  photos of some incredible goldwork (gold thread) at the the same site.  Don't miss it, this work is unbelievable it is so perfect.

Organize your E-Mail

I recently spoke a conference on ways to increase your productivity on your computer. Although I touched on several topics, several people have contacted me regarding the section on organizing e-mail and computer files. For that reason, I am posting a heavily edited version of that presentation on this site. I needed to remove the screen shots in the presentation due to copyright concerns but I believe that the directions are still understandable.

 MECA 2010 Edited Version


If you have any questions about this please contact me. Please do not republish this information but you may link to this post.

Hope you find this useful.

Snow in Mississippi??? How silly!!

I did not think it was possible but we had a snow day last week in Mississippi. Snow was even expected on the coast but we missed it. I understand that it did snow for about five minutes but I must have blinked and missed it. Four inches fell about an hour and half north of Ocean Springs in Hattiesburg and it did get cold enough that all the palm trees are now brown. I really felt sorry for all the school kids, everyone was expecting one to two inches. I was also hoping to photograph snow on the beach. (Now that really would be a photo; a whole new meaning to snow white beaches. )

If you want to see what a Mississippi snow looked like the Hattiesburg American posted some local photos.

I am sorry we missed it! It would have been grand!

Professionalism and Sudden Acceleration

Last week, it was determined that the problem with our car was not fixable. Since this was a new car, we were able to trade it in at a good price on a replacement. The cause of the problem was never determined.

The mystery problem was that the car would race unexpectedly even when the car was in neutral and there was no application of the gas pedal. Applying the brakes was not effective and the car would continue to fight the brakes and try to accelerate. This happened suddenly and repeatedly the last time we drove the car. We immediately took the car to the dealer and fortunately for us, it repeated this pattern in the service bay for the service manager. It was agreed that the fault was a dangerous one but it was not possible to replicate the fault consistently. For this reason, determining the cause was not likely. The best we could hope for was an educated guess and hope that the guess was on target. Since the last drive in that car had been one of the most harrowing experiences of our lives, we decided to trade in the car. The car is to be returned to Honda for review by the engineering staff (we hope that this is the case).

What impressed us most about this experience was how hard the Honda dealer worked to solve this problem. The problem was taken seriously; it was never implied that this was a floor mat problem or a confused driver problem. I realize that we had the advantage that the service manager had witnessed the problem but even so the temptation must have been great to replace a part and declare it fixed even though the problem has not be identified. In the final discussion, the service manager explained his best guess about the cause (possible electronic throttle issues) and told us that there was no way to know if this fixed the car. We would have to drive the car and if the problem did not reoccur then perhaps it was fixed. This uncertainly was not comfortable for us so after discussing all of our options, we decided to replace the car.

The professionalism in presenting the situation was memorable. Sometimes the real answer to a question is that the answer is not known. In many cases, this is the best answer. Knowing the real situation allowed us to make the decision that we could live with.

We decided to trade the car for the same model in this current year. After reviewing the statistics, it appears that this problem crosses brands and we hope that we just had a bad car. Sudden acceleration and similar problems appear to have been reported in a wide variety of models so it did not seem possible to avoid this issue for certain by changing models. Since our wide ride, I started reading everything I could find on this problem. At this point, I really think that there is design fault in the electronic control systems. I am not sure that we made the right decision but we do believe that we made the best decision given the known information.

We were very lucky. No one was hurt by our car; our dealer was fair and the service manager was an outstanding professional. At the present time, I think this is the best you can hope for.

If you are interested in sudden acceleration, you might find the following links interesting.

Doubt cast on Toyota's decision to blame sudden acceleration on gas pedal defect

Analysis shows over 40 percent of sudden-acceleration complaints involve Toyotas

Sudden Acceleration: It's Bad, and It's Not Just Toyota

The Growing Gap in Expertise and Application

One of our cars is very new and has now been at the dealer for repairs for nearly three weeks. Everyone agrees that there is a problem but they cannot find the source of the problem.


When we bought the car last spring the salesman proudly explained how new cars are now have systems as complex as the systems in fighter plans of a few decades ago. This was not comforting to me. I do not have access to a team of mechanics specially trained to keep these systems running. Particularly, the electronic systems are difficult to diagnose and repair. Auto technicians depend on computer diagnostic systems to help them troubleshoot these kinds of problem. And that is part of the developing problem.

For the diagnostic computer to locate a problem, it must be a type of problem that the computer has been programmed to locate. If the problem does not fit the parameters of the diagnostics program, it cannot find the problem. Yet I have heard people declare in frustration that the “computer says there is nothing wrong so there must be nothing wrong.” They will ignore their own tactile and sensory experience in deferment to a machine diagnosis. A computer diagnostics test may mean that there is no problem but it can also mean that the computer cannot locate the problem because it is not programmed to look for that problem.

Since I work in trade and industry education, I have recently discussed this issue with some of the auto technicians that I know. Not a single person I have talked to is truly comfortable working on the advanced features now common in new cars. Most of their training was focused on mechanical systems. Now many new cars depend on radio controlled systems. The new electronic throttle systems are a good example.

Consider this statement in the Automotive Industry Trends, November 2004

Typically, vehicles have as many as 80 motors and approximately 25 sensors, with over one MB of memory in the engine control system. This will grow to two MB in just a few years. No part of a vehicle is untouched by electronics, which controls an array of systems from powertrain, lighting, antilock brakes and airbag systems.

Keep in mind that this was written six years ago. Notice that these are not electronics such as car radios or power seats. These are systems that affect the safety of the car. Who is going to repair these systems?

According to ICT paper written in 2008:

Growth in automotive embedded systems (software and electronics) has been exponential since the early 1990s and the trend is predicted to continue. In 2002, electronic parts comprised 25 percent of a vehicle’s value – by 2015, car manufacturers predict this will hit 40 percent.

But the more electronic systems are added, the more they contribute to vehicle breakdowns and recalls. Researchers on the European ATESST project say a substantial share of vehicle failures today can be directly attributed to embedded systems, and field data indicates this share is increasing by several percent a year. This will reach unacceptable levels if no preventative action plan is put in place.
http://cordis.europa.eu/ictresults/index.cfm?section=news&tpl=article&ID=89579

Engineers are designing more and more advanced cars, yet where are the supporting training programs for the mechanics to maintain these cars? In popular electronics, when a TV remote does not work, most people simply buy a replacement. A remote is inexpensive and presents no safety concerns. This consumer model will not work in a durable good industry. Are we really going to just replace part after part until something works? How will you feel about having to pull over and “reboot” you car (turn if off and restart it) when your electronics acts up on a highway? (This is an actual recommendation for cars with electronic issues from a web site.)

Currently, vocational education programs are in need of revision and reform. At this same time, many vocational programs are closing due to lack of qualified instructors. A common reason for this is that students need computer skills to succeed in the future we are creating. This is a very short sighted view of technology. Of course we need adults who can use computers. We need adults that can use computers in a wide variety of applications beyond spreadsheets and e-mail. In Mississippi a computer program is being promoted in vocational schools that simulate a car. Instead of working on a real car, students will spend time on a virtual car. This is supposed to be an advantage because these individual will gain computer skills.

If we are really interested in computer skills for auto technicians, why not focus on the computer skills that they will need to work on 21st century cars? The answer is obvious; we do not have enough qualified auto tech teachers to do this.

What is really needed is a stronger partnership with professional engineers. At some point, in the very near future, engineers need to work with engineering educators and trade and industry groups to develop a technical education program that is current with the automotive systems they are developing in this century rather than pasting content in programs developed for the last century.

I hope this happens before I have to start shopping for a horse and buggy.

End of Term

Time to dust off the cobwebs and post a new entry. We are at the end of the dead rush to Christmas break, all my grades are in and I have to brag about some the wonderful work that my students created this term. My computers in education class was a great group and their ends of term collections were wonderful. We worked with teaching through narrative and in the integration of animation in to illustrate the points in each lesson. The concept is to develop a story and to work the lesson objectives around that story. My students developed media narratives such as one that featured an alien who needed more oxygen on his planet (a lesson in photosynthesis), one where a young girl who met her brain which then explained the functions of her other organs, and another about a young girl who needed to budget to buy snacks (learning to count money) and so many other really wonderful ideas. A full collection creative approaches that were on target and anything but boring. I think Santa came early this year.

Hurricane in the Gulf

Dutch Fishing Boats in a Storm: 1801 by Turner

Ida will be my first hurricane since Katrina and I would be less than honest if the prospect of this surprise storm did not make me a little uneasy. I have been through many hurricanes but Katrina was a life changing event so even the prospect of a baby (category 1) storm tends to catch my attention when it shows up on radar heading for our home.

We live south of Highway 90 and the houses across the street from us back to water. Our house is on higher ground and our house is not in the flood zone but the ones across from us are (we still have flood insurance since the edge seemed a bit too close for comfort). I heard a news story reminding people to keep the garage doors closed since alligators looks for higher ground when the water rises and they like garages and sheds. I cannot imagine anything much worse that going out to your car and meeting an alligator settling in for the duration of the storm. I wonder how often this happens or if this is just something that makes a good story to spook people. We do live right next to a national wildlife area and there are enough alligators in the county to hold a legal hunt once a year but I have never seen one in the wild. Of course I am not looking to meet one either. It may seem childish but I am not fond of animals that can eat me.

I do not think that we will have to leave since the storm is not a strong one. At this time the eye is expected to hit Mobile Bay about 40 miles east of us so we should get a good feel for the wind and good bit of rain. I do not think that schools will close for this one but tomorrow will tell the tale. Time to freeze some water and fill up the car just in case.