Post 18

And now for some sagacity that will surely help you through your many woes:

"There are eight ways to place a viewgraph." --Anita Gale

I first heard this straight from the horse's mouth while I attended my first SSD competition at Kennedy Space Center. It was a tip she gave us on presenting our material well as she demonstrated all eight orientations on the overhead projector: north, south, east, west; ʇsǝʍ 'ʇsɐǝ 'ɥʇnos 'ɥʇɹou (kinda like that; pretend it's mirror writing instead of just upsidedown).

Since then, I have discovered that these wise words apply to many aspects of life. For example, when I worked at an office supply store, I often was tasked with assembling furniture. One time, I was trying to put together this office chair, but it just wasn't working for me. I finally went and asked my supervisor for help. When he came over, he looked at the chair for a minute and said, "Well for starters, most people prefer the cushioned side to be towards their back."

"There are eight ways to place a viewgraph."

This past weekend, I visited home. While there, I helped my sister put some dishes away. She handed me a pancake flipper to put in a drawer, but I couldn't make it fit.
"I think it goes in horizontal," she said.
I thought I was putting in in horizontally, but I flipped it over, wondering if that's what she meant.
"No," she said, "horizontal."
I flipped it around on a different axis.
"Horizontal!" she said again.
To be funny, I stood it on it's end--a position that was vertical no matter how you looked at it.
"No," she said, "like this," and she flipped it around--oh--horizontally.

"There are eight ways to place a viewgraph."

At Church on Sunday, a man told a story to demonstrate how husband-wife communication is not always perfect:
He and his wife were putting up a fence, as they got toward the end, she said, "We're gonna have to cut one piece in half," so he obediently took one of the wooden slabs to the garage and cut it in half.
"WHAT DID YOU DO‽" she asked when he brought the two pieces back.
"I cut it in half like you said!"

"There are eight ways to place a viewgraph."