As an occupational therapist, I attach all kinds of things with Velcro. It’s also known as hook and loop fasteners. I use Velcro for PECS cards, game cards, attaching stuff to my door, First-Then cards, and lots of other stuff. I asked myself, “What is the best way to mount Velcro?” Do the hooks/rough side go on the wall or the object?
Here’s the rule that I follow… the Velcro rule!
“Soft goes on the surface.”
Why?
- If you put the hooked side on the hand-held object, the picture, or whatever, then you can attach that object to felt, cloth, or headliner material
- Holding the rough side gives the user good tactile feedback. That makes it a little easier to figure how to place the object onto the soft side.
By picking one standard, all your items become compatible with one another. So even if you don’t have an immediate need, everyone is better off sticking to the standard “Soft goes on the surface.”
(I have to thank The Practical AAC for advice on this and the image!)
Please help me find a good noisy-environment speech recognition microphone. I have students that want to use speech-to-text in their classroom, the microphone should pick up the student’s voice but not stray voices in the room. Best if it’s on a headset.
Megan, Abigail and I just saw the summer fireworks show at The Butchart Gardens near Victoria, BC. It was an even more beautiful show than we had seen 5 years ago on our honeymoon! The show is a gorgeous, playful, exposition of light-art, part representative, part interpretive, all pleasurable! A youtube search turns up some nice displays at Butchart Gardens but be forewarned that no fireworks show well on a screen.
I spoke with a few people in Victoria, BC about this and they said that Canadians use fireworks differently than Americans. American fireworks are almost universally a monosyllabic ejaculation of sound and color while Canadians use it as a medium. Curious! Wonderful!
How did it take me 20 years to figure out this “one weird trick” to know which way is up on a USB cable? All hail the sharpie clown nose!
Don’t buy a cheap cell phone, buy a used flagship phone! I was never really happy with the new $150 LG Charge android phone I got a year ago. I just got a used Pixel 2 from swappa.com for $190 and it’s a wonder! Fast, awesome camera (I got it pretty much exclusively so I could take better photos of Abigail), and a lot of nice features. Hurray and hurray!
For my birthday I asked for a potluck party. It was fantastic! We had some 20 friends and we were able to spread out in our big place on the little hill. The food was so much fun, the energy level great. There are definite plans to do this monthly-ish!
I like the plaque in front of the El Cerrito Library
El Cerrito Library
Where the individual may acquire
the wisdom to contrive
the strength to support
the beauty of the arts
that adorn man’s undertakings
Adopted by: El Cerrito Albany Masonic Lodge No 686
July 4, 1996
At my first reading aloud to Abigail, I saw it all spinny-aroundy:
Where the individual may
acquire the wisdom
to contrive the strength
to support the beauty
of the arts
that adorn
man’s undertakings
Possibly full of beautiful hidden meaning, or just my tired brain.
It looks like it’s an annual event around here. I have achieved inbox 0 at home! Celebrate! I should be getting my next email any moment now… waaaah!
Previously
Did you ever wonder how terrible it would be if you used that expired medicine in your medicine cabinet? In brief: far far less bad than you might think! Here’s an article from the Mayo Clinic about the US military Shelf Life Extension Program (SLEP). Nearly every drug tested out of the 122 drugs they tested maintained full potency 2-8 years after their expiration date. The only ones on their list that lost potency was Albuterol and Diphenhydramine (Benadryl). If you store your medicines in less than ideal conditions, your mileage may vary. Read it for yourself. Especially look at the tables.
Mayo SLEP
Did I mention that I have the most amazing, wonderful, daughter in the entire universe?
