All posts by Deirdre Straughan

usability

ATM Irritations

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I recently had occasion to withdraw money from my US bank account using an Italian ATM. I was presented with a choice of amounts ranging from 10 to 250 euros, plus one item marked “Other Amount.” I chose that one then, as prompted, entered the desired amount (500).

I got a message “Amount too large, try again” or something of the sort. I entered 400. Same message. I entered 300.

“Amount too large. Too many attempts. Operation concluded.” And it spit out my card.

Apparently, 250 was not just one of several options: it was the maximum allowed. But this was not clear from anything on the screen and, having failed to make clear to me that there was a limit, the machine blamed me for making too many guesses as to what that limit might be!

Solution: If there’s a limit, tell me what it is on the first screen, don’t leave me poking around trying to figure it out.

 

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The Twitter Diaries: July, 2007

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I don’t have precise dates on these; something goes wrong in Google Reader’s interpretation of Twitter’s RSS feed.

my head hurts so bad I could cry

Occasionally, I get something that is actually identifiable as a migraine. Not too surprising given the stress I was going through at the time.

@pm10 spero che sia anche mamma porno-tolerante – mi dicono che e’ tutto sesso li’ dentro!

A friend was showing her mother around Second Life. I had just tried it a bit myself, and had read that there’s a lot of online sex in there. Not that I mind, but don’t consider it a compelling business venue for this reason. At least not for the kind of business I deal with…

maybe my migraine is finally calming down. I still just want to crawl into a corner and whimper.

@rosso received my second copy of HP from Amazon today, gave it to peppermint patty. Who passed our lunch together petting it. ; )

pensieri di una figlia in partenza: http://www.fotolog.com/rossella/ – non sa’ cosa sta passando la mamma!

@kitykity – sounds like my own pathetic fallacy of assuming that whatever is obvious to me is obvious to everybody, i.e. nothing special.

I’m awake, I’m awake! For once my body would have slept, but have things to do. Statistical things. Very exciting.

up to my eyeballs in web metrics. Should I try to corral my wandering content?

just posting about my daughter leaving. And Google slaps on an ad for sugardaddie.com ?!?!?!?!?

Ross shedding possessions: just “lent” her Fornarina shirts – considered part of her public identity – to a friend for the year she’s away

Argh! BA only allows 1 bag Milan-London. But Ross is going on to India for 10 months (Air India allows 2). !@#$@!$@#@#$ airlines!

http://www.fotolog.com/rossella

NOT participating in a 2.5 hour conference by phone. just too much for a hot summer night in Italy. Had a great dinner and too much wine.

ordered HP 7 read by Stephen Fry to meet me in Milton Keynes. Absolute bliss for airplane listening.

@blublog se fossi passato per Jesolo la settimana scorsa, avresti trovato Rossella!

Symbols & Connections: https://www.beginningwithi.com/Woodstock/symbols.html

last-minute stuff: online check-in, print boarding passes, pay extra baggage, print that receipt just in case, what am I forgetting?

sticking last-minute things into suitcases. Are they too heavy now? Probably. I paid $77 for Ross’ “extra” bag – better not hassle me!

@jeffreytaylor – thanks, yeah, been through that. Apparently some passengers have resorted to putting everything into a garbage bag!

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Woodstock School

Symbols and Connections

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A few weeks ago, Ross posted the above picture on her fotolog, of the jewelry she’d been wearing for days, with the caption: “you are what you wear.” A very interesting statement, in light of what she was wearing.

The gemstone is alexandrite, a semi-precious stone that changes colors in different light. My father bought it for me in Delhi in 1977, as my going-to-Woodstock present, and I wore it almost constantly during my first year there. I haven’t worn it much recently (that’s how Ross was able to make off with it) – nowadays I usually wear a golden heart necklace that Enrico gave me, though for Woodstock occasions I wear the silver Woodstock lyre tree pendant that my classmate Sarah got me when I couldn’t attend our class of 81’s 20th-anniversary reunion.

Of course the other pendant is the Om. I think I bought that for Ross on one of my trips to India, or she bought it for herself when we went together in 2005. Or maybe she even bought it in Italy. When she was mad for a tattoo a couple of years ago, she designed her own tattoos based on the om (fortunately, she was still underage, so we were able to veto any tattoo whatsoever!).

Not shown in the photo is another piece of my jewelry that Ross seems intent on keeping: the silver chain bracelet that my classmates gave me at the 2004 reunion, to thank me for 20 years’ service as class secretary.

There’s something beyond mere fashion in all this.

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parenting

She’s Leaving Home

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What with all the preparations, end of the school year, and various family medical traumas, I have barely had time to dwell on the fact that our daughter is about to leave home.

It’s just as well that I haven’t had that time.

Ross will be away for a full ten months (yes, I will visit). During winter vacation, the SAGE (exchange) program kids go on a one-month tour all over India, and, although it’s optional, Ross won’t want to pass that up. She will finish up at Woodstock next May 30th, presumably with enough course credits to graduate with a Woodstock diploma (equivalent to a US high school diploma).

She could theoretically then return to Italy for her fifth and final year of liceo, do the maturità (Italian school leaving exam), and go on to university in Italy – which has the advantage that it’s essentially free (we have paid for it already through our taxes). However, for reasons that I don’t feel like going into right now (because I’m so angry with the Italian school system), that is looking unlikely at present. So there’s a good chance that Ross will go straight on to college in the US, with only a vacation stopover back home in Lecco. Enrico and I are staring into the abyss of an empty nest.

Not that we thought she’d live with her parents til age 30, as so many Italian young people do – the girls do tend to get away earlier, and Ross just isn’t the type to stay home. There’s a big, wide world out there, and she can’t wait to go see it all.

Ross is also turning 18, just a few days after her school year at Woodstock begins. The 18th birthday is a big deal in Italy: it’s the voting age, the age of legal adulthood, and the age at which you can drive a car (drinking age? that was a while ago). Many kids, at least in Ross’ circles, celebrate 18 in a big way. Ross didn’t quite get her act together for a big party, but had a dinner out with a gang of friends. And we’re going to see a show in London, and will be having a few other treats along the way. Anything to keep me distracted from that moment when I have to wave goodbye to her at the airport.

Comments and shoulders to cry on welcome!

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Cartoceto: A Geometric Town in Le Marche

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After the phenomenal dinner at Symposium, Susan and I shared a room at the Villa Cartoceto B&B. Though it’s a lovely place and I probably would have enjoyed it in other circumstances, I conclude that the old village houses in this part of Italy are built to withstand cold (or maybe invaders) rather than heat: our room was an oven, and by the time we got back after dinner (2 am) it was far too late to ask our hosts for a fan. We left both windows open, but there was hardly any breeze. I woke up at 5:30 am and sought relief on the rooftop terrace. If there’d only been something to lie on, they’d have found me still out there when they came to serve breakfast.

The view (above) did make up for quite a lot.

After breakfast we had some hours to kill, so we went to have a look at the village (which proved to be almost entirely stone and brick), on a day of record heat. It’s no wonder that we had the place practically to ourselves.

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^ This goddess sort of person sits atop a map of the town and one of its churches. Very mysterious.

I love the geometry of Cartoceto. There’s a lot of very tasteful (and very expensive) reconstruction going on – I wonder who’s behind that, and why. There is really not much to look at in the immediate town, no particular monuments (we couldn’t look inside the churches because we were not appropriately dressed).

Many of the houses were being beautifully restored, though few seemed to be inhabited that day.

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To give you an idea of the verticals, the photos above and below show the same man. He didn’t move for at least an hour. Not that I blame him: in that heat it was wiser to sit still.

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full photo gallery here

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