As long as I am raving about Annie Modesitt and musing about the differences between printed and electronic media, have you seen her Flip Books?
Suppose you recently learned how to knit (or are returning after an absence) and forgot how to perform a certain knitting maneuver?
Sure, you can watch your choice of free video clips on the web showing you how to form a knit or purl stitch or perform a decrease. But, do you really want to haul around an electronic device, wait while it fires up, and then search for a broadband internet connection?
You can ask others around you to show you how, but they might not be able to help you. (This is especially problematic for people who knit in non-dominant styles like combination and continental styles.)
Annie's genius was to recognize this and come up with a clever solution using an old technology. Remember those flip books you used to make as a kid to create short animations? Annie converted video clips of herself demonstrating basic knitting techniques into small flip books that you can tuck into your knitting bag. They are portable, instantly on, and infinitely replayable. Each book has two clips ,just rotate the book and view the reverse side of the pages.
Keep them in your disaster/earthquake kit so you can knit through any crisis!
Buy them from her internet bookstore. I appreciate the irony of using new media to sell such an ancient technology. Annie is a real out of the box thinker. And she needs to sell books to pay her family's mortgage and health care costs. Because we are the kind of nation where officials elected to serve us can enjoy health care funded by taxpayers like Annie and Gerry. But Annie and Gerry are not worthy of obtaining publicly-financed health care in their hour of need.
re 'Because we are the kind of nation where officials elected to serve us can enjoy health care funded by taxpayers like Annie and Gerry. But Annie and Gerry are not worthy of obtaining publicly-financed health care in their hour of need.'
ReplyDeleteWell, you've summed up very succinctly something that utterly outrages and frustrates me. I strongly feel that members of Congress, and perhaps all government employees, should not receive any perks that do not extend to the entire American populace.
As usual, right to the gist of the matter. Very well put. I'll agree with the outrage and frustration too.
ReplyDelete