Jen’s Weblog

Ever since my post about various yoga products, where I made a cursory mention to preventing dance shoe funk, I’ve been getting questions about my defunkification routine. Although I mentioned it in the comments there, I’m pulling it out for all you curious folks.

The shoe lady mentioned this at Liberty Swing: “baking soda and put them in the freezer.” Here’s my interpretation of what that meant:

1. When you get home from dancing, put your shoes on a paper towel and sprinkle them lightly with baking soda. Rub it in a bit so you cover the full base.
2. Put the shoes (on the paper towel) on a shelf in the freezer.
3. The next day (about 8 hours or so), let them thaw out for a bit by removing them from the freezer and putting them out somewhere.
4. When they’re warm again, shake / wipe off the excess baking powder over the sink, and put them away.

This process seems to work well with my new silver shoes. They don’t smell and the base hasn’t turned funky black.

Caveats (or, things to be careful of):

• Don’t let the baking soda freeze too much to the straps (i.e. focus on keeping it on the base). In some places my shoes have lost their silver luster and are white (not from caked on baking soda I think, but because the baking soda “ate” off the coloring).
• When you rub the baking soda in and rub it off, do it lightly. I think the rubbing has caused some of the glue to come off, so where the material meets, it comes up a bit.

I recently commented on an IxDA group post on LinkedIn and got a very positive response, so I figured I’d re-post my thoughts here for those who may not be members of that group (or site).

I’m a usability experience professional who is a generalist (i.e. I do a little bit of everything from user research to interaction design to information architecture to usability testing). And I’ve been thinking about portfolio design for awhile now. To me there are four aspects to having a portfolio: 1) content 2) presentation 3) delivery 4) maintenance.

1. Content
I often see job descriptions go by, and people say “must have strong portfolio” and the like. I’ve taken poor portfolios to job interviews (in a scramble) and gotten the job, and taken what I thought was a great portfolio only to be turned away. Different people want to see different things, so obviously knowing your audience and being able to show them what they want is key. One of the ways I figured out what to include in mine is by talking with hiring managers (often friends) to see what they look for, and by looking through interesting job descriptions as they come by for any meaningful nugget about what kind of content the recruiter or hiring manager is interested in. (I save these in a Google doc to refer to later, as a sanity check.)

2. Presentation
Presentation is another aspect. For my portfolio (because of the audience consideration), I’m working toward modularity. So if someone says “I want to see how you arrived at the final design from the first back-of-the-napkin concept,” I can show them the section that addresses that. If they say, “I want to see how you came up with the information architecture for this,” or, “I want to see an example of a top notch design specification,” I can pull out an example of a project that focused on these. I find that writing up a page or two (max!) that describes the project’s goals, what you did, and the impact you had can be useful — who remembers after years have gone by!? Best to do it right after the project so you can keep track of those useful details and refer back to them when you’ve forgotten.

3. Delivery
Delivery is something I personally struggle with. I’ve collected links over the years for people’s online portfolios, but I never feel comfortable doing mine in this way. (I’ve worked primarily on internal sites / tools or software that is sold to the public, not web sites I can point to easily.) I worry about confidentiality and so I have historically always brought a hard copy portfolio to interviews. Has it cost me some opportunities by not being able to have people browse my portfolio online ahead of time? Probably. But I’d rather have that than get sued by a former employer for publishing something I shouldn’t have. And, to me, any employer I’d want to work for would understand and respect that.

4. Maintenance
Then, how do you keep the portfolio fresh and up to date? If it’s hard copy, it gets large quick. When / what do you purge? My thought is, when I have examples of things that were mentioned in that Google doc, and a good variety of work from all different prior jobs (not just my current one), then I need to look at the quality of the sample, and see if it’s something I can improve on. If I’m missing some aspect, maybe my next project will help me fill in the gap, or I can do something on the side to cover it.

Anyway, those are just my thoughts. My goal for the year is to finish up a draft of a new portfolio at least. I keep slogging through stuff, but other things always get in the way — especially when there’s no (known) urgency for me to be job hunting!

Kevin and I had a discussion on the way home from work today, which I thought might make for an interesting blog post.

See,  I had a great night’s sleep last night (some of you know how rare that is for me), and woke up feeling good as well. Maybe riding the wave of the Saturday acupuncture appointment still, who knows. Then I got to work.

Mid-morning I was hit with someone’s crankiness, which I think I did a pretty good job of recognizing and letting bounce off me. Mid-afternoon, I was in a meeting that pretty much had three topics: one completely unnecessary / unchangeable / irrelevant, and two circular, “no-answer” kind of discussions that also felt counterproductive. Late afternoon, I was miffed because of someone’s lack of attention to detail (causing more work for me).

Kevin and I discussed, on the drive home, whether such”negative” events (as perceived by the experiencer) accumulate over the day, and whether equanimity can be maintained by balancing them out with positive events (in effect canceling them out). These negative events don’t have to be caused by anything external, but could be anything that upsets your inner calm (e.g. waking up after a poor night’s sleep, just feeling general unease throughout the day, etc.).  We talked about the obvious: letting these events “roll off your back” (easier said than done), and living in the moment. But if more of the moments you live in suck (of course this is subjective and dependent on mood; and “suck” is a strong word for what I experienced) than are happy, what affect does this have on your well being and overall health? And, what can you do to counteract the negative events to keep that see-saw in a balanced state?

The good news is I’m starting to look at this more from an analytical point of view rather than beating myself up for feeling annoyed (which just adds to the negativity)! But, I’m not quite sure what techniques to apply to get that force field working–that impenetrable wall against which others’ negativity, or my own, can’t get in and stick!

I’d love to know what others think about this, and what they do to keep equanimity in the face of life’s inevitable annoyances.

This morning I went for my very first acupuncture session with Matt at Inner Strength Yoga. I had been very excited about it ever since I booked the session about a week ago, and was still excited (with tinges of nervousness) when I walked in. Matt was great though. He talked to me for awhile about my various physical and mental health “issues”, then got me up on the table for a real session.

I didn’t feel most of the needles as they went in, unless they were in a particularly “uptight” part, such as the side of my foot or the back of my neck. A few things that amazed me were that he was able to put my shirt down over the needle that stuck out near my ribs (because they don’t stick straight up), and when he suick one right in the top of my skull!

The feeling was amazing though. Before he was even finished putting all the needles in, I started feeling ridiculously heavy. Though I didn’t sleep when he left the room, I did feel like I had just taken muscle relaxants (which of course I always joke that I need).

We spent less time on my back, but I did get to experience cupping as well. (Kevin looked at my back strangely for hours after, since all the little circles turned various shades of red and purple — I didn’t notice a thing.)

I really wish I had found this sooner and am already looking forward to my next appointment!

Of course, like Randy, Matt wasn’t thrilled to learn that my day after the session was jam packed full of other things. A few hours later (after a quick lunch at Red Lentil)  I went to a 3 hour basics yoga workshop with Brian Lam at the Cambridge Baron Baptiste studio. I was worried that the time would crawl by, but it went very quickly. This workshop was another amazing experience (two in one day, isn’t that awesome)!

Brian took us through pretty much a full 90 minute class, but broke down each of the poses in a way that no one’s ever done for me before. I learned the proper alignment for the sun salutations (which I had been starting to explore on my own), and even was able to do shoulder stand! There were only about ~25 people in the workshop too, which made it easy to ask questions like, “why does this hurt when I do that?”and not feel like a total loon. I am very much looking forward to implementing what I learned in Gregor’s class tomorrow morning.

What strikes me though about this yoga workshop is that it reminds me of dancing. Anyone can learn how to lead or follow a left side pass in a class or two, but the *refinement* of that simple pattern feels like it’s endless. And so with yoga technique as well. I’m working on refining my technique in both, and hopefully moving into new experiences as I do so. These two hobbies of mine have a lot more in common than I originally thought, and I look forward to learning what more each of them have to teach me!

For my birthday dinner, Kevin took me to Daedalus. We had heard about this restaurant some time ago–I think it was through a Boston.com article about roof-top dining restaurants. We had been meaning to go for awhile, but just never felt like the hassle of driving in after work.

But today, I was home all day so for me it wasn’t so bad! Of course the drive in sucked during rush hour, but Kevin’s parking karma held up and we got a really sweet parking spot on the street about 1/2 block down. After a short 10 minute wait, we were at our table.

They brought us pita bread with red pepper hummus, which was quite tasty. Their cocktail menu left something to be desired, and after feeling boring for not drinking anything, I ordered a cosmo (which I later sent back for being too citris-y  and got a G&T instead). I loved that the waiter called me “miss” every time! It was nice sitting outside and only when the ambulance or fire truck went by was it noisy.

I had the blackened (spicy) haddock with black beans, chorizo, and mango salsa. It was REALLY good. But the atmosphere left something to be desired. I was pretty surprised at how (more than casual) everyone was. In other words, really really sloppily dressed. Even the waitstaff didn’t seem all that put together or neat. (Our waiter was though.) I started thinking about dining in other countries and how much better dressed people seem to be elsewhere. I’m all for being comfortable, but *some* effort would be nice (i.e. when you go out to dinner, leave the ripped jeans, tinny white washed shorts, and Red Sox caps at home)!

Anyway, after that we walked to LA Burdick’s where I had a cappuccino and mocha chocolate cake and Kevin had a chocolate frappe and orange hazelnut cake.  To die for, of course. (And possibly quite literally so, had Kevin actually drank the huge class of basically melted iced chocolate they poured him!)

It was a quick jaunt home to write this post, so that was good. But, I’m not sure I’d go there again….

As many of my friends know, I’ve gotten back into my yoga practice over the last 6 months or so. I’m excited about this and wanted to share some of my experiences.

Now, what people may now know about me is that I’m a sweaty girl. My hands and feet are always either freezing or sweaty, whether I’m doing an activity or not (special apologies to my WCS dance leaders). So, when I do yoga (even if it’s not hot yoga), I sweat like mad. This of course makes it difficult for me to hold poses.

Both at home and when I go to Gregor’s class at Baron Baptiste’s Cambridge studios on Sundays,  I had been using a sticky mat with a regular large towel over it. This works fine and is obviously economical, since I already have towels and they are easy to wash.  But, I wanted to try out some products that might help with the issue that were a little more exciting. (BTW, we love you Gregor!!!)

So, for my birthday (which happens to be today), Kevin got me several things from my Amazon wish list, including a thirsty yoga towel from Gaiam and yoga paws.

The Thirsty Yoga Towel

I used this last weekend when I went to class in Cambridge. Here are my thoughts about it:

Pros:

• Easier to carry around than a large towel because it was more compact.
• It’s purple (my favorite color)!
• It feels awesome. Soft yet just a bit sticky.
• It didn’t bunch up under me the way the regular towel sometimes did as I moved through the poses.
• It didn’t seem at all gross when I was done, even though this is a heated yoga class and I was particularly sweaty.
• I did feel more stable (i.e. not slipping) in my hands and feet than with the regular towel.
• I looked cool because I had a nice towel. (I know, not the point of yoga, but hey, it’s the truth.)
• This towel is much cheaper than the ones they sell at the studio.

Cons:

• When I get home, I usually toss the towel and all my nasty clothes into the washer. I wasn’t sure what to do, then read that the label was hand wash. Usually I’ll do that in the washer on delicate, but I was afraid to. So, I washed this in the sink. It was amazing to see just how much water it absorbed (the sink didn’t seem to want to fill)! I swished it around for a bit, then squeezed it out (easily) and hung it out on the deck. Despite it getting re-wetted from the sprinklers that kicked on later in the day (doh!) this wasn’t bad, but is a con just because it’s a little extra effort. (But then again, I now baking soda my dance shoes and put them in the freezer after each use — with great success — so this may also be worth it!)

The Yoga Paws

I got to open these this morning, as Kevin knew I was going to do yoga. I put on the feet, and pretty much instantly thought they were cool. The hands, well, I was less certain about. They felt a little bulky. But, I was determined to try them out while doing Journey into Power – one of my favorite DVDs for home practice. Here are my thoughts about the yoga paws:

Pros:

• They really did help a lot. I just used a sticky mat and these paws, and felt a lot more stable in all of the poses!
• They were particularly helpful in tree pose (where my feet often try to slide down my leg) and in wheel pose (was able to get a GREAT stretch into my back).
• I was able to do the sequences with much more stability and certainty, because I was less worried about slipping.
• After I took these off, my feet felt fabulous. (There’s a little strap that goes between your big toe and the rest of them, and it felt as if I’d been wearing a toe separator for 45 minutes.)

Cons:

• I feel like I was sweating more than usual. I’m not totally sure this is really a con, since 1) I’m fighting a cold 2) I was doing yoga later than usual 3)  it may be because I was working the poses deeper than I could without them!
• The only time these got in my way was when stepping back into down dog from something like crescent lunge. (I was stuck!)
• I kept thinking about writing this blog during the last half of the practice.
• I’m not sure I’d wear these outside of the house. People might look at me funny. (Oh wait….)

So there you have it. I think both of these products are totally worth it.

This article in the Boston Globe points out issues with *new* signs around Boston.

It reminded me of This is Broken, a site from which UPA Boston printed several confusing signs (with Mark’s permission of course) and put them on a poster for World Usability Day.

After going back to the latter site, I think I should submit the cruise control lever from my 2007 VW Rabbit. I’ve been using it more lately, and let me tell you, there’s nothing like mistaking your cruise control for your turn signals. (But wait, I’m a driver in MA, I shouldn’t be using turn signals!!! Maybe that’s my problem.)

Before heading off to Swingin’ New England (SNE) this year, I watched my DVDs of the SNE bookends competition from 2006. I was wondering how anyone could possibly make this year’s same sex couple dancing funnier than last year…I thought for sure it was not possible. However, two of the same couples who had me in hysterics last year returned, sending me into the longest hardest laughing fit ever at approximately 1 am on Saturday night.  And for everyone’s viewing pleasure, both have been merged into one hysterical YouTube video.  I think one couple had a better dance, the other had better shock value. I’ll let you be the judge of which is which. (Oh, and please know that this is the only type of comp where such things happen; and hey, we *are* in Massachusetts. )

Hmmm…what can I say about Pickled Eggs?

A colleague at work hosted a gathering in our dept. where we ate pickled eggs and drank beer. (Yes I can do Coronas.) The reactions from people were funny. People loved them or thought they were kind of gross and wouldn’t even try them. I was surprised that I was used as bait for people who were afraid to try one: “Well, JEN ate one.” Maybe I’ll try jumping off a bridge next! LOL. So sure, I’d eat another one in future. Can’t say I’m jumping out of my skin to learn to make them though (sorry Kev, but it was fun)!

I’m no Zagat, that’s for sure! I wonder if Robert has eaten these, and what HIS review would be? (Robert if you’re reading this, send me an email. )

I came across this article the other day and it cracked me up, given that I’ve been roped into the whole Facebook thing.

BTW, my comments don’t seem to be working (again).