Feedback can be amazing

Back in the sixties I was amazed by Jimi Hendrix’s innovative use of feedback to create his unique sound. This post isn’t about that type of feedback that I enjoyed then. It’s about human feedback I enjoyed recently.

Out of the blue a couple of days ago, I opened an email from an unknown sender. The email was titled, “One of your old hexbug videos”. My initial thought was what a strange scam email. No, the email was a surprising positive feedback message. It didn’t take much reading before my thought became this personal message is amazing.

 

I reread this sender's line a few times: “Something you did changed my life and I wanted to thank you for that.”

I suspect if you reflect long enough, you’ll recall a time that your actions/words probably had a positive effect on a person in your life. Of course, some (thank goodness for them) expand their positive influence beyond their close group. This email started me thinking I might be able to join that impressive group.

This “life changing” action was something I created back in 2011. It was a short video that I hope would be enjoyed by others and maybe bring a few readers to this blog. It was fun to make. Here’s the video.

 

 

 

He explained in his message:

"...I liked hexbugs and did the same thing you did by modifying them. I had several of your videos but the video "fun with hexbug nano and other home made bots" was my favorite as there was something about your video which made me happy..." 

"In 2011, I had an extremely stressful job and at times, was having serious stress/anxiety problems...."

"...Your video always calmed me down when I played it. Over time, I memorized your video and also the song so I could mentally play it whenever I got overly stressed or anxious. Your video or my memory playback of it has worked for the last ten years."

 

WOW

I had no idea

 

Showing appreciation and gratitude benefits both sides. Little things can make a big difference. I once told a granddaughter during our discussion about the world that everyone should try to leave the world a better place.

Draft - It's always something

Such as forgetting to remove "draft" from the post title. 

 

Well it's over now. I'm fine again. Anxiety seems to creep up on me as I age. Is it those life experiences that didn't go well that add to the feeling? I've never liked being late for anything but don't most people feel that way? Being able to give yourself a little spare time to meet that arrival time is sensible to me.

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot am I talking about? Well the first time was back in 2013 (see this old post).

Prep for entry

back side moon

Drink rapidly rather than sipping. Not advice for drinking a fine aged bourbon. Good advice for drinking a large unwanted amount of PEG-3350. The 4 liter prescription gives me reason to hate the metric system.

Rapid drinking was one of many instructions provided to me for my colonoscopy. This was my second exploratory visit within my body. I heard the visit went well but I was completely asleep during their expedition so I'll trust their answer.

The first expedition included the day of liquid diet but I don't recall the list of foods to avoid 3-5 days prior to the drilling (procedure if you will). I understand nuts and popcorn could ruin their view. I was surprised being told not to eat healthy food like fruits and cereal high in fiber. Basically go on a junk food diet for a few days.

Another change this time was a COVID-19 test. I'm two shot (jab for the Brits?) vaccinated but I understand being cautious. The test had to be done a specific day. It went well. I was expecting a bit of discomfort up my nose but that didn't happen.

Until my next something, have a listen to "Bad Moon Rising". It's not "a bathroom on the right" but during the prep I was on the bathroom alright.

I see the bad moon a-rising
I see trouble on the way
I see earthquakes and lightnin'
I see bad times today

Mindful

You really can’t fill your mind to the full level. There’s always room for more knowledge. Now, I’ve certainly become overwhelmed too often. The chaos of nature sometimes comes at us too fast. Now maybe my memory of being overwhelmed is a bit flaky but it seems I’m more prone to being overwhelmed as I age.

Being mindful is a great condition to be in. If the opposite is being mindless, then a mindless condition/action might have a deadly outcome.

I have enjoyed learning and still want to learn more. My last post was about the notion of boring. Boring is so very subjective. I’m certainly biased but I find my posts very interesting and I consider a few to be educational. Oh no I used that boring word, “educational”.

I’m becoming self-taught on various branches of physics such as cosmology by reading books such as Neil DeGrasse Tyson’s “Astrophysics for People in a Hurry”. At the end of the chapter 7 titled, “The Cosmos on the Table” he describes the names of some chemicals as sesquipedalian. I had to look that one up. The word sesquipedalian is sesquipedalian. It’s a self-referential word.

Now that I overused my new word of the week, I’ll move on.

On a trip this past spring I came across a strange sign in a small Texas panhandle town. It was too interesting to skip taking a picture so here’s the sign.

What happens at 34 or 36 seconds?

I spent more than 5 minutes looking around trying to figure out the purpose of this sign. You might notice the railroad tracks in the background so I assume it has some connection to freight operations on the railroad. Why does it state such an odd specific time? Would 1 minute be too long? When do I start timing? Do I need to carry a stopwatch? Please provide your guesses in the comment section below. I’m mindful but clueless about this sign.

 

Oh be quick or take your time. It doesn't matter to me.