The Future of Home Design

Think of the last time you re-decorated or re-designed a room in your home.  It may have been a new home, simply updating an outdated style, or for a new purpose, whether that be a nursery for a new baby, updating a kid's room to their changing tastes, creating a study for your new work-from-home lifestyle, putting in a dream man cave, game room, or craft room, or making a space more usable.  You may have chosen a generic theme: seashells in the bathroom, abstract zoo animals for baby, Disney princesses for your pink-loving toddler, chefs in the kitchen, etc.  You may have gone down the aisle at Target and bought everything that matched the theme, and cleverly added a few touches from Home Goods or bought something on Amazon to fill the gaps.  You may have re-painted the walls, adding cohesion to the theme.  And maybe you were underwhelmed by the results.  Now think of the next time you re-decorate a room - it will be a completely different process with completely different tools and completely different results, at least if I have anything to do with it.  We now live in a world where millions of talented artists are within our reach, tools to create the perfect pieces are at our fingertips, niche interests are celebrated, and hacks are abundant.  And these tools, resources, and the gig economy are only going to get better, more helpful, more accessible and more powerful as time goes on.  Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail" rightfully predicted that niche markets would become more accessible.  In that book, he says, "It is when the tools of production are transparent, that we are inspired to create."  That is one of my favorite quotes, because I truly believe that we now live in a world where we are empowered to make our dreams come true, big or small and everything in between. 

To best understand where we're headed, we need to take a look at where we've come from.  Big Box Retailers dominated consumer's wallets, capitalizing on economies of scale, utilizing cheap labor in China, and knocking smaller shops and artists out of the way.  It seemed like there was nothing that would hinder the growth of mass produced, ever cheaper products for us to buy, buy, buy!  When ebay started to get a spot in the lime light, consumers turned their interests into not just buying but also selling, the Big Box Retailers saw a small threat on the horizon, and economists wondered if auction pricing would take over the world.  Amazon was a much bigger threat to the Big Box Retailers, first single-handedly killing my beloved Borders, and quickly expanding beyond books - Circuit City, anyone? 

Between ebay and Amazon, it seemed that we could buy EVEN MORE!  But there was another trend sneaking into the interwebs, and that was a growing crafters and artistic community.  Enter etsy, the ebay of craft supplies and finished crafts and art.  Social media grew up in this environment, and along came Pinterest, a beautiful blend of social media and the modern Good Housekeeping.  With seemingly endless recipes, design hacks, crafty ideas and clever tricks, Pinterest went beyond the pin-board functionality and created a culture of aspirations in the kitchen and in the home.  YouTube also plays its part here, with lots of tutorial videos about how to make or fix anything. 

Fast-forward to today.  Etsy and Amazon are still a great places to buy niche art and products, but there are even more ways to do it yourself.  From Spoonflower, which prints custom fabric and wallpaper, to fiverr where you can pay someone to do something creative for cheap, and from 3D printing to maker spaces with laser cutters and decal tools, the home decorating space is ripe with opportunities to create whatever you could imagine.  No longer do we need to stick with common themes: if you like a specific scene in a movie, a song, a game, or a book, you could build a whole room theme out of that.  You will be able to do this, not necessarily by buying more finished goods, but by creating custom products.  Craft stores have been around since before the likes of social media and etsy, but they unlike the Big Box stores, craft stores will become more relevant as YouTubers and Pinterest pinners promote more crafts and hacks that can be done with the same old craft supplies.  Craft supplies are also evolving, though, too, making more accessible kits for amateurs, so you don't have to be an incredibly crafty person to create amazing things. 

This will be the topic of my upcoming book!  I will be focusing on creating a themed-room of Disney inspiration, and will discuss some principles to execute these amazing themes, even if you don't consider yourself terribly crafty or artistic.  My main principle is to go for big, bold elements, and I will talk more about what that means within different themes and different rooms and functions.  

Update! The book is here! Check it out on Amazon Kindle! 

Design Hacks for Disney Themed Rooms

The Future, Brought to You By Pokémon Go

It's just a game, critics say. They're right, too, in the sense that it's not worth going to jail for trespassing or risking life and limb playing it while driving. But this is not the Pokémon from before, and that's where they are wrong.

I jumped on the Pokemon Go bandwagon on day 3, after reading a compelling article about how it's application of Augmented Reality is the first application that nailed it. I called it an instant addiction; I had to go to the library anyways and saw that there were stops there, so I went and collected my first items and Pokémon. I went home, because it was far too hot outside, but found myself anxiously awaiting my boyfriend coming home from work so I could get him (the gamer and former Pokémon player) to download it so we could go play it.  In an ironic turn of events, he had been avoiding it for fear of life-ruining addiction, and I was the one who convinced him to play.  We ended up finding a bunch of Pokemon in the mall, and later joined thousands playing on Mill Ave.

The game has not only gone viral itself, but the virality of it has sprung new Twitter accounts and hilarious memes, new business models (i.e. sponsoring lures to attract customers), new crimes (i.e. using lures to attract victims, then robbing them), and new vocabularies (I read Pokeconomy earlier this week).

From my viewpoint, it's great to finally see an intersection between gaming and physical activity, something the Wii and specifically the Wii Fit seemed to promise but failed to deliver in mass; the games didn't have an addictive nature to them that kept users coming back or using it as their primary exercise. FitBit incorporated a social and competitive element to its otherwise essentially glorified pedometer, but that motivation only goes so far. One of the hilarious memes circulating the Twitterverse early on noted, "It took Michele Obama 8 years to get America active, and Nintendo 2 days." Another

showed a surge in FitBit steps and noted that "My FitBit doesn't know what happened 3 days ago." Increasing activity is always a good thing in my book. But as at least one tweeter pointed out, it seems like a partnership with FitBit and Pokémon Go is inevitable. Maybe not a direct partnership, but it does feel like the game needs to better acknowledge active movement versus driving, and active movement in a small area, so a FitBit - like technology would fit better than the GPS tracking currently used. It's unfortunate that walking around the house or on a treadmill doesn't help my eggs hatch in Pokémon Go.  It's really too dang hot in Phoenix in the summer to exercise outside during "normal hours", so Phoenicians specifically are doing more driving and playing, which is probably not good for anyone but gas companies. We may have a great time come winter here, but I'm not sure the phenomenon will still be a predominant use of leisure time by then.

For as much as the media is raving about the social interaction Pokémon Go encourages, I was a little surprised there was no way to add or see friends in the game. We went to a Pokehunt that first Saturday night, and one of my boyfriend's friends had been there, but we didn't run into him physically, and weren't checking facebook because our screens were dedicated to the game, and so we had no idea until later. Maybe it would be too stalkerish or Big Brother - like, but I think the game should tell you when your friends are nearby (on a permission basis). At the very least, I thought the old Pokémon

had a trading function, yet sitting next to my boyfriend and nephew, the game doesn't acknowledge they are there playing with me, and we can't trade.  We did bump into some people who recognized Jaiman at last night's hunt along Tempe Town Lake (looking for water creatures, a rare find here in the desert), but it still felt more like an exception than part of the phenomenon.

What I think the media has gotten right is the amazing impact the game has had on local and small businesses.  Take my own personal experience, for example.  I've been meaning to try this restaurant just down the street for a while - it's a Scandinavian place, so the food was a little intimidating to me - and it happens to be one of those lucky(?) businesses marked as a Pokestop.  So, when Jaiman and I were debating what to do for lunch one lazy Saturday, I suggested we go there and load up on Pokeballs and other goodies from the stop, while finally trying the place out.  The food was wonderful, we got a lot of balls, and that restaurant got our business for the first time (and probably repeat customers in us).  Later, a specific game store announced it was a stop and was luring Pokemon to the stop, inviting players to come and hang out in the A/C.  I would not have been too excited to go to such a store normally, but I ended up buying a used Wii steering wheel for a good price, something that I've half-heartedly wanted for a long time.  So again, they got business they wouldn't have gotten otherwise, and I got a new toy at a good price.  From the news reports, it appears my anecdotes aren't far from the general idea.  Local businesses are booming in unexpected ways.  And that's just for the existing businesses.
There was definitely a step change in the Pokehunting events we went to that first Saturday compared to the following weekend.  The first Saturday of Pokemon Go, people were out in mass, playing the game.  One week later, people were out in mass, but there were also street vendors peddling Pokemon-styled hats, shirts, and water bottles (hey, we're still in the desert).  People had set up tables and were blasting the audio of the Pokemon shows being displayed on their laptops, I guess to attract Pokemon fans to their table to buy their wares.  While most were looking to turn a profit, one lady was handing out free glow bracelets and necklaces to represent our team colors, and another group was handing out free bottles of water.

A quick search online will show that there are people making all sorts of unauthorized merchandise for Pokemon Go.  The most stand-out one to me were the team decal pre-orders for the Pokemon Go Watch - the watch isn't even out yet and this guy is ready to sell you a pre-order for a decal to go on top of it.  It's brilliant, really, because only time will tell if Pokemon Go will be a big thing in a month or two, so he's trying to capture sales now while it is a big thing.
I've even seen evidence of churches getting in on the Pokecraze, inviting trainers in to play in the A/C.  I'm not sure if any Pokemon trainers will find Christ through this effort, but it certainly couldn't hurt.

One thing is for sure: the world has fundamentally changed in some way.  But to me the nagging question is, what's next?  Between server crashes, some Pokemon trainers spending far too much time hunting and evolving for the rest of us to catch up, and just the nature of fads in general, I really don't see the obsession being sustainable.  Pokemon Go proved that Augmented Reality can be done well - so what other applications of AR could be as appealing?  One blog post suggested AR killed virtual reality by the sheer ease of adoption - I'm not sure I'm convinced of that yet, I just think VR is still early in its life cycle and hasn't found the right applications yet.

Copycat games are an inevitability, if they haven't already started, (I'm already seeing requests going out into the social media world for a Harry Potter version, because, you know, Pokémon isn't nerdy enough for some people in my friends list) but I am confident that straight copycat or even slightly improved ideas won't catch like Pokémon Go. The difference is that Pokémon Go is a disruptor.  But capturing what makes it such a viral disruptor is what is critical for the enterprising thinker looking to capitalize on this technology.

One article I read attributes the virality of Pokemon Go to what the author called FOMO, fear of missing out.  I would agree if, after my first jaunt around the library, I was satisfied that now I know what it is and I can move on with my life.  But that's not what happened.  I was addicted, and couldn't wait for my boyfriend to come home so I could make him download it and start playing with me.  So it may be a FOMO that causes some to start, but the world would be bored with it by now if that was all there was to it.  There's definitely something to the personal victory and elation one feels when catching a rare breed of Pokemon; something akin to bragging rights.  There's also a level of complexity to the game - you can visit stops to get things, including eggs that you have to walk in order to hatch, you can hunt lots of little Pokemon to evolve your bigger ones, and the battling at the gyms is a whole different level. 

I think there's also an appeal that Pokemon Go is good for you - in the sense that it gets you moving about, and exploring your town.  I was a little disturbed that Pokehunting now seems to be a predominant Saturday night activity for Jaiman and I, and was basically too embarrassed to even post about it on facebook.  But the truth is, it's better than sitting on the couch watching TV or playing a game at home, because of the activity level (albeit limited), and it's better than going to a movie because of the (also somewhat limited) social interactions.  It's something we can do together, outdoors, involving physical activity and meeting up with other people.  I think those attributes should trump the nerd factor. 

Here's the question I would pose to trainers: If you weren't looking for Pokemon, what would you want to be looking for?  The answers would most certainly be different for many people.  For some, the answer is finding a girlfriend.  For some, the answer is simply looking for a good conversation.  Some may need help with a project or want to find a partner to work on a startup with.  Some people are new in town and want to know what the cool things to do are.  So I am imagining an sharing economy app that could help link like interests and match people up based on proximity.  Put another way, it could be a AR-based dating app, professional networking app, startup incubating app, educational app, and life list assisting app, all in one.  This essentially would assist or automatically create the serendipity that so often aids us in pursuing our goals normally. 

For example, I am not single so I am not seeking a mate.  But I am interested in learning more about 3D printing applications and the future of the technology, as well as self-driving cars, sustainable energy, personal robotic assistants, and health and diet.  I want to have a great conversation with a smart person, and am especially interested in those topics, but open to others.  I also have on my Life List, among other things, the desires to try pole vaulting, ride a penny-farthing bicycle, and be an extra in a movie.  I am a supply chain expert (with specialization in kanban and SAP implementation), enjoy designing / painting large graphical murals, own a 3D printer, have over 100,000 miles on my electric car, am really good at Microsoft Excel, I know a lot of good hikes and breweries in the area, and am okay at swing dancing.  I walk into a bar and turn my app on, indicating to the AR world that I am open to conversation.  Ideally, the app connects me with someone who knows a lot about 3D printing but doesn't have access to one, or a person who is a track coach and can help me with pole vaulting, and wants to learn about Microsoft Excel.  Maybe there isn't someone who is mutually beneficial to me, but the app may direct someone wanting to know about electric cars my way, or may direct me to the person in the bar who owns a penny-farthing bicycle. 

Maybe some of the services we provide, we would put a price tag on, like fiverr.com's model.  We could also say how much we're willing to pay for something, i.e. I will pay someone $100 to get my 3D printer working.  Having great conversation or seeking a mate are certainly things we would not put a price tag on.  In this way, it's like airbnb or uber, but for more abstract things.

One of the challenges I see is, where airbnb and uber are "sharing" things that are tangible, a living space or a car, and can be rated as such, the quality of work or even the quality of a conversation cannot be judged as objectively.  I think we'd want to have some sort of IQ test for intelligent conversations, samples of work for artists or service providers, and other qualifications.  The other challenge I would worry about is that the app would attract creepers and awkward socialists, much like I saw predominantly at Events and Adventures when I was single and looking for a man.  The kinds of people I would want to socialize would think, "I don't need an app to help me socialize," and wouldn't join, so I would need a way to incentivize them to get good results.  The question, then, is, does enabling goals provide enough incentive for the target people to join? 

This is just one idea of how Pokemon Go could lead the way for innovative new ideas.  I could also imagine brick-and-mortar shopping models getting in on the ideas, as well as health & nutritional applications (eat this, not that).  One thing is for sure, the world has had a paradigm shift in the way we use our phones to interact with the environment around us. 

Back to the Future: A Sneak Peek at 2045

There is a big difference between following current trajectories into the future to imagine a dismal fate, and believing that the small efforts today can turn those trends around.  Maybe its the hopeful optimist in me, or maybe its my faith in humanity's ability to prevent foreseeable disasters, but I believe 30 years from today will be an awesome time to live.  There are three areas that I'm most anxious to fast-forward to: technology, health and the economy.

Self-driving cars will be practically mandated; it won't contravene hard law to drive oneself, but it will be rendered completely impractical and economically challenging because insurance rates will skyrocket for non-autonomous vehicles.  A new industry will arise around furnishing and "pimping" your self-driving car, free from the restrictions of forward-facing seats and the tethers of strict safety features.  Cars will morph into lounges of productivity, comfort and service, while zooming along safer roads than ever seen in the history of the car. 

Programming will be taught in schools instead of cursive.  Some will excel at it and become programmers, but most people will know basic computer languages. 

3D printing as a technology will mature into a mass production tool for specific applications, such as wearable technologies, on-the-go sound equipment and hot-off-the-printer food delivery services.  Most middle-class people will have some sort of 3D scanner at home, with many also having a 3D printer for specific housekeeping requirements. 

Speaking of housekeeping, robots will be employed in most homes to do the mundane work - washing and putting away dishes and clothes, taking out the garbage and recycling, vacuuming and cleaning surfaces. 

Wearables will be as pervasive as cellphones are today, and will become more invasive as we get accustomed to the Internet of Things.  These technologies will drive the turnaround of the obesity epidemic, bringing diabetes, asthma, IBS, heart disease, allergies and even cancer to their knees.  Your device will inform you that you are low on a specific nutrient and will select recommendations from your list of favorite foods as well as new dishes to try at local restaurants to satisfy your dietary requirements.  Restaurants will have no choice but to offer tasty, healthful options to win and retain customers.  Your device will also walk you through your grocery store identifying products that you may enjoy based on your tastes and dietary needs, avoiding those that you have a habit of over-indulging on.  Health and weight loss will no longer be a pressing matter, as it will be so effortless to stay healthy that obesity will seem like a frivolous concept, and all the diseases that are correlated with poor dieting will seem foreign. 

The economy will accelerate like never before, primarily because we will have long since done away with partisan politics and replaced the political system with an issues-based and performance-driven model. Flourishing in this economy is as simple as getting paid fairly for what you excel at, enjoy doing or what you are learning.  The increased transparency of skills, qualifications and talent compared to relative salaries in every field will make it nearly impossible to be under- or over-paid.  There will be more part-time and flex-time jobs and the development of hybrid jobs - where you spend part of your time in one function, and the rest of your time on another function - to best make use of the skills and value each person brings to an organization.  With job satisfaction and productivity up, and economic uncertainty diminished, the finance will be a no-brainer.  The work week will be shorter, providing us more time to exercise and participate in activities that keep us healthy. 

These are the things that I see as inevitable, if not a slightly optimistic or accelerated view of 30 years from today.  The future is ours to invent, and if we don't invent it, someone else will.  Deciding what aspect of the future to be a part of making is an ongoing challenge for me, but its the right way to think for any company or individual wanting to be around and see these things come to fruition in 30 years. 

My 30 Under 30 List

My closest friends, family and colleagues know that I was really not looking forward to my 30th birthday.  I have made a habit of celebrating big almost every year until now.  The reason for my downtrodden mood is that my "life plan" had me so much further ahead than I am now.  There are many reasons why I'm not where I wanted to be at 30, the housing bubble and subsequent recession having a large part in it, but also my pursuit of other priorities in lieu of focusing on my career, and such.  I have many things to be thankful for and do not want to seem unappreciative; I just wasn't ready to be done with my twenties.  I aspired to be one of those great prodigies listed in the 30 Under 30 lists of 20-somethings doing amazing, world-changing things.  On the other hand, I am told that many people enjoyed their 30's more than their 20's, which is a little reassuring.  Since I can't change the past, I wanted to put my best foot forward as I head into this decade, so I've decided to make my own 30 Under 30 list, but this is a list of the 30 amazing things I accomplished, participated in or experienced before turning 30.  My hope is that this list can inspire, in me and in others, a hope for what can (still) be accomplished! 

30.  I followed my dream of moving back to Arizona
I never expected my family to follow, although I'm thrilled to have them living so close now. When I was in junior high, I decided that I would move back to Arizona as soon as I could.  I was accepted at both UA and ASU, and picked ASU for a number of reasons (including eh hem, my UA alumni parents recommending that the program was better at ASU).  Although it was scary and sad to leave all of my friends and family behind, half a country away, it was a big step in my independence and I started a new and wonderful life here.  I love Arizona, and although I talk about moving elsewhere all the time, I always intend it to be a temporary situation until I move back to Arizona again.  This is home, and I'm glad I made the leap to settle out here. 

29.  I have made an incredibly ambitious Life List, and have knocked off a number of those items every year since
As a planner by nature, I am always thinking of what else I could do to be awesome!  So a 150-item Life List seems like a must to me, and I have enjoyed knocking those things off from time to time.  Sometimes they are planned, like signing up for surf lessons, and some of them just happen to me (although I certainly always try to put myself in the best spot possible to make things happen), like when I rode the cable cars in San Fran, forgetting they were on my list.  As long as I continue knocking things off my list, I feel like my life will never be boring or routine.  

 28.  I have my name up on walls in public places 
There's a very strong ego in me that likes to see my name immortalized.  I love supporting projects on Kickstarter, there are some fantastic ideas out there and great people behind them!  One of my favorite things to do is to back Kickstarter projects for breweries, especially when the reward involves putting my name up on the brewery wall or somewhere in the tasting room.  If you're thirsty in Tucson, I highly recommend Sentinel Peak Brewing Company, not just because my name is up on the wall there, but because the food and beer are unbelievably good!  One of my favorites in Arizona already, and they're just getting started.  Up in more northern Arizona, there's a little brewery serving beer in Camp Verde at an awesome foodie spot called The Horn.  The Camp Verde Brewing Company is right next to The Horn, and I peaked in through the window to find my name on the wall there, too.  Other breweries are opening up around the US all the time, and a select few will have my name on them as well, and I think that's swell. 

27.  I have seen some awesome Broadway musicals, including Wicked actually on Broadway
Rent, Miss Saigon, Les Miserables, Chicago, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, The Lion King, Fiddler on the Roof, Shrek the Musical, Porgy and Bess are all shows I've had the honor and privilege of seeing live on Broadway tours.  Most of them I watched at Gammage, with a few in Chicago and elsewhere.  Wicked is the only musical I've seen actually in New York on Broadway, and I've seen it there twice as luck would have it.  There's something very special about seeing one of these musicals on Broadway, and I can't wait to go back and see some more!

26.  I have earned multiple professional certifications, including a Six Sigma Black Belt, and an MBA
As someone who was not big on homework or studying or school in general when I was younger, I certainly have changed my tune since graduating with my IE degree.  I earned my Six Sigma Green Belt while interning before my senior year of college, and after a year of working professionally, I got fidgety and wanted more.  So I immediately dived into both the APICS CPIM and a Six Sigma Black Belt program.  One of the most "executive"-like activities of my career thus far was when I was flown out to California for a final Black Belt presentation in front of dozens of Presidents and VPs.  The CEO of the host company, my supplier at the time, was even in my class and I had helped him as an informal tutor throughout the Black Belt training.  My VP recognized my accomplishment by promptly sending me to Texas to fix some warehouse operations, which I did before leaving the company less than a year later.  My Dad and I studied for the APICS CSCP together, which was interesting to say the least, and we both passed the exam and earned that certification at the same time.  I had my Black Belt recognized at Honeywell, which is a major accomplishment in and of itself because of the rigorous requirements of Honeywell Black Belts. 

25.  I composed and arranged music to be performed in a musical
With a theater major as a roommate, it was probably inevitable that I would be pulled into a musical audition in college, especially after she learned that I had been in musicals in high school and junior high.  What I didn't expect was the possibility of writing and arranging the music for said musical.  But shortly after practices started, our director asked if anyone knew a music composition major or other student who would be willing to tackle such a project.  I didn't know any music composition majors, but I had taken a music theory class my senior year of high school, and I was pretty good at it.  I attribute my math skills to that.  I raised my hand timidly (yes, there was a time I wasn't so cocky and bold as I am today), and said so.  My director, looking at mostly theater major and minors and then measuring up the industrial engineering major in the group, certainly had reservations of my musical writing ability, but gave me a shot anyways.  That's all I've ever needed, I find, is a shot.  In writing, in painting, in martial arts, and in dance.  Give me a shot and a reason to succeed, and I can do it.  I came back within a day or two with a full piano and vocal arrangement with three part harmony on the song he gave me to try out, and he was impressed, if not a bit overwhelmed at the complexity of vocal harmonies.  I toned down the harmony at his request, and continued working on the full soundtrack for the musical.  It was a bit of an unconventional theater group, as we didn't have parts assigned to us yet, so I had no idea who would be singing the parts even as I was writing them.  Once the music was complete, I ended up getting the part with the coolest solo in my opinion - an eerie scene where the music goes from minor to major and back again.  I don't think I've met anyone who has written music and performed it in a musical in front of an audience, and certainly nobody with an engineering degree. 

24.  I have hiked "The Wave"... twice!
And I would do it again next chance I get!  "The Wave" is one of the most stunning best kept secrets in the area.  It's right on the border of Utah and Arizona, and it's restricted to a very difficult permitting process in order to preserve its beauty as best as possible.  It is one of the most photographed areas of Arizona, and yet, few people are in the know about it.  I have had the honor and privilege of hiking there twice, and its beauty never ceases to amaze me! 

23.  I put $100 down on red in Las Vegas, and won! 
A hundred green may not be a fortune, but I'm not a big gambler.  It would have been a little depressing if I had lost, but I hit it at the right time and it was just a neat little bet that turned into a fun little story. 

22.  I inherited the bar my Grandpa built
I'm a pretty modern style girl, and I have very little patience for antique shopping and hand-me-down clothes.  But my late Grandfather was a skilled hobbyist carpenter, and made some beautiful pieces.  I am so glad I had the audacity and insight to ask for the bar, because that piece, now situated happily in my home, is a fantastic memorial to him and my Grandma, who always celebrated life with friends, love and good times.  It was a big part of my childhood, when I would pull myself up on a bar stool and say, "Shirley Temple, please!"  And it is a reminder of their lives and an inspiration to always celebrate and enjoy even the littlest things. 

21.  I have sold commissioned paintings
I mostly paint for myself, but I have made a number of paintings for my family members and friends, and it thrills me to think of my paintings hanging in the homes of the people I love.  I'll reiterate that I don't think I'm an overly creative or talented painter, I'm a hack.  But I can hack some pretty cool stuff, I think, and it confirms it for me when others want it.  One of my sisters' friends liked the painting I did for my sister, so she asked me to make a similar but different one for her, and paid me for my trouble.  That, to me, is a secondary measure of success! 

20.  I *did* Spring Break in Cancun
Before I graduated college, I realized I hadn't yet played the part of the drunkass college kid on spring break in Mexico.  So I would, naturally, not be satisfied with my college career without this opportunity.  Senior year I made it happen.  A couple friends and I booked a trip that lived up to its expectations.  We had very little plans, we were total amateurs, really, when it came to partying for Spring Break.  But luckily, we met up with a threesome from Kentucky who were much better at this, and we piggy backed on many of their excursions and adventures.  It was such a fantastic time, that when we were supposed to be at the airport to go home, we were sitting on the beach relaxing.  Quite a mess we got ourselves into, and such a perfectly typical Spring Break story that everybody just laughed at our stupidity. 

19.  I have tutored and taught classes effectively
I started teaching for APICS as a way to get over my fear of public speaking.  But so much more than that, I always aspired to some day be a teacher of some sort, not for kids, but for adults.  Since I started teaching, I have taught a number of supply chain classes, including my own curriculum for an Excel course geared towards supply chain professionals.  Nothing makes a teacher happier than to hear that her students, who have taken Excel classes before and got little to nothing out of them, finally got it.  While I may also not make a career out of teaching any time soon, I feel empowered to speak in public and to teach, and I have passion for sharing my insights and expertise in all sorts of ways. 

18.  I have made money with my writing
I never expected writing to make me rich, but I have always enjoyed writing.  So to be employed as a freelance writer, and actually make decent money doing it, was a big deal to me for a little while. Now I am mostly blogging and writing articles for various venues on a volunteer basis, but I know I could always do more freelance writing if I ever wanted to go back to it.  I really enjoyed seeing what was popular and what fell on deaf ears, what got reactions (good and bad) and what got the attention of large corporations.  Being able to write is a powerful skill, and I wish everyone would take it seriously in school and in life. 

17.  I have skiied some tough slopes in Arizona
It's been a while since I've gone skiing, and I definitely moved to Arizona because I don't like the cold, but it is pretty awesome that a four hour road trip takes us to some pretty wild ski slopes.  I'm not the best skiier, either, I usually complete a big hill by throwing myself onto the ground and toppling to a stop.  But the thrill of skiing is something that not everyone has or gets to experience in their lifetimes, and I am glad I have had a number of experiences on the slopes. 

16.  I partied hard at Mardi Gras
Not only did I return from Mardi Gras with a black eye and a stitched up eyebrow, I had the stories to back it up!  The very last night I was there, most of my girlfriends were ready to call it a night, but one girl and I wanted to stay out.  The only problem was, we were out of money and the dance club we wanted to go to had a cover charge.  We figured that if we went back to the hotel now (which was in walking distance), we probably wouldn't come back out.  So I told her, very matter-of-factly, okay, we'll find two guys to pay our cover and buy us drinks, and we'll dance with them for the rest of the night and then ditch them.  She trusted me, and not a minute later, a guy approached me admiring one of the white bead necklaces I had on.  I told him he could trade it with me if he could find a Jameson necklace for me.  He found a girl with a Jameson necklace and persuaded her to give it to him, and then came back to me to make the trade.  I may have made him work a little more for it, but you know how it goes.  After talking with him for a few minutes, he told us that he was going to get his buddy over here to meet us, and they would take us somewhere.  The two guys returned and triumphantly announced that they were going to get some more money at the ATM, and then they would take us to the dance club - the same one we had wanted to go to.  We hadn't even told them we wanted to go there, nor did we mention we were out of money.  Just like that, they whisked us away, got us into the club, bought us drinks, and we danced with them until we were just too tired to stand.  Then we hugged them good bye and headed back to the hotel.  When we were out of sight, my friend grabbed my hand and told me in amazement, "It was just like you said!  We'll find two guys, they'll get us in and buy us drinks, we'll dance with them and then we'll ditch them!  How did you do that?"  I was really amazed too, it was quite lucky really, but I had no problem taking the credit.  Then, still holding hands, we skipped back to the hotel joyously!

15.  I (barely) conquered Flat Iron
Only the most advanced hikers in the area have tackled and successfully completed this monstrously difficult hike, and I am neither advanced nor overly athletic.  Needless to say, it was the most physically demanding thing I think I've ever done.  But I never officially gave up, although I wanted to a number of times along the way.  The worst part was, unlike most hikes which are harder on me going up because of my asthma, this hike is severely more difficult coming down and I felt like it nearly killed me after I had already been to the top!  Every step was a huge vertical distance, so it took great leg strength and solid knees and ankles to get down.  My asthma wasn't bothering me on the way down, but I was shaky and weak, and nervous about slipping and falling the rest of the way down.  I do not intend to tackle this hike again anytime soon, but I know what it takes and I will be better prepared for it if I ever decide to head up there again.  The plus side: the view was very rewarding, and I wear that memory as a badge of honor and perseverance.  It's definitely bragging rights among hikers here. 

14.  I have designed something and brought it to life via 3D printer
Programming and writing are both nice, but there is nothing like the experience of seeing something from your mind's imagination become an object you can hold, touch and use!  Even though I am just starting my adventure in 3D printing, already I have made some pretty neat things, and started to understand both the limitations and the awesome power of this new technology that is promising to transform business, space travel, health care, and the culinary arts as we know them.

13.  I painted a bad-ass mural
In fact, I painted a couple pretty cool murals, but the one I'm most proud of is the vibrantly colored circuit design in my project room.  Every wall is a different color, and the pattern changes colors as it moves to the different walls.  It is a huge-scale, large graphic design that just makes me happy.  I was never overly gifted in creating physical art, so I learned how to hack the talent instead.  Guests to my house think I'm a bit of an odd ball in my design style, but I think most people appreciate the artist value and apparent talent. 

12.  I became a "serious" swing dancer 
Its strange how some things evolve throughout your life, even if you don't recognize it until you look back.  Artistic movement seems to have been a part of my life since I was very little and starting in gymnastics (actually I think I had some toddler dance classes before that even).  While I was discouraged to pursue gymnastics due to my height, I found other outlets in show choir and school and church musicals.  In high school, I took gymnastics back up briefly, and then pursued jazz and ballet classes.  In college, I took a swing dance class and that seemed to hit the spot.  But I soon found myself without a dedicated partner, and no friends interested in dancing, and the passion faded.  I got back into it though in my late 20's, and that is where I met my boyfriend, and we have been dancing ever since.  I would say the last two years have been the most dramatic growth for me as a dancer, and I consider myself a real swing dancer now.  Having recently joined and performed with a dance troupe, I feel like my position has been solidified.



11.  I survived a pick pocket alone in the middle of Shanghai
In a world where an American woman could disappear without a trace, I was having a great time until I found myself without friends and colleagues nearby, without money, without an ID, without my hotel key, without a phone, and without a credit card (my phone and ID weren't stolen, I didn't take them out with me that night, but the rest was stolen).  It really killed the mood of an otherwise fantastic evening mingling with the locals while traveling through China with my MBA class.  I quickly used what asset I did still have in tact, my flirtatious personality.  I found a well off local (actually I discovered I had been pick pocketed when I was hanging out with him, so I started out by accusing him), and eventually persuaded him to give me a ride back to my hotel (he had a driver), threatening him the entire time that I knew kung fu and I would kill him if he tried to take me anywhere else but my hotel, and then I used his phone to call my credit card company in America and cancel my card. All in all, it may not have been the smartest move, but it worked out and I came away with a great story to tell.  I ultimately wasn't, going for the pun here, Shanghai'd.

10.  I have programmed some amazing macros and pieces of software
I never wanted to be a programmer, absolutely never.  But, much like how artistic movement has always found a place in my life, programming has cropped up again and again.  It's not a passion that drives me to program; quite the opposite, I despise it sometimes and I rarely want others to know I'm any good at all.  It's the sheer power of it; the possibilities programming unlocks are nearly endless.  And as the gap between the virtual and physical closes with CNC, CAD and 3D printing technologies, I think programming will become all the more important.  Programming hit me early, before I really understood what I was doing.  Since this article is about turning 30, I feel comfortable revealing my age a bit here: the first computer my Dad brought into our home was a Windows 3.1 machine with DOS.  I didn't do much creative work in Windows, but I had some games that ran in DOS that broke.  So at the age of maybe 4 or 5 at the most, I finagled my way into the code of these DOS programs and somehow intuitively identified the bugs.  I poured through probably thousands of lines of code, fixing what I saw was the bug (I have no recollection of how I figured it out, I only remember implementing the fix), and actually got the game to work again.  Once I accomplished that, I figured there was no reason I couldn't just write my own game, so I started on a dog-chases-cat game which never got completed because, well, I was five and had no idea what I was really doing.  But it had the starting essence of a program, i.e., it ran and did some stuff.  I found myself programming again when I was in high school, taking math classes with a programmable calculator.  I got bored and started writing programs for it (some legit and some for cheating purposes, but in the process of programming something to cheat, I actually learned the dang material and didn't end up needing it).  In my freshman year of college, I took two java classes which were required for my major, and also programmed in Basic X for our robot class.  I was the only person in the freshman robot class to create a "learning" robot which had an intelligent decision matrix instead of the general repetitive one.  I would later become a whiz and tutor for programming simulation of stochastic systems in Fortran 77.  My internship at Honeywell is where my programming really took off for the first time, when I challenged myself to create a stand-alone application in Visual Basic to help solve a problem in quality.  Since then, all of my jobs have put me in a position where programming in VBA to make my job easier just makes sense, and I've become known as the Macro Queen.  But again, I'm not a programmer.  I wish I had paid better attention and tried harder in my java classes, and I hope everyone who reads this sees the value of learning programming for themselves.  It's a talent that sets anyone ahead of their peers. 

9.  I created a sanctuary in my bathroom
Working with a fairly tight space due to my house being an older house, I managed to create a bathing sanctuary that few five-star hotels could match.  In so many ways, this shows the perfect duality of my being spoiled and me working hard to get what I want.  With the help of friends, I removed the old tub and all the hideous 70's tile surrounding it, installed a deep tub with water jets, routed the plumbing to the side of the tub to equally distribute the hot water (I always hated it when the water was hot by my feet and cold by my back), and installed a waterfall faucet.  When I decided that the water got too cold in the winter, I installed a heater on the jets.  And when I decided the water then got too hot in the summer, my friend and I rigged a thermostat to turn the heater off at a certain temperature, and turn it back on when it got cooler again.  Princess and Engineer all in one!

 8.  I got to travel to Alaska with my entire immediate family
As my sisters and I entered adulthood, we all became very different people.  So it is unlikely that we will all ever agree on another trip like we did for the Alaskan cruise and roadtrip.  It was a magnificent time, seeing whales, singing karaoke, playing trivia, seeing our Grandma's childhood island, driving around Alaska and seeing wildlife from mooses to bears and bald eagles!  That was probably the trip of a lifetime as far as my family goes.  It had been in planning for many years, and when it finally came to fruition, it lived up to its high expectations and so much more!

7.  I got one of the first 500 Chevrolet Volts
I had been watching the Chevy Volt since early in its inception, and was part of the forum which has now become my go-to resource for all things Volt and EV.  So when GM finally announced which dealers it was going to release the first Volts too, I got to work contacting my closest dealers in California and got myself a number 3 spot on the waiting list!  When I picked my beautiful red Volt up in January 2011, I fell in love with it immediately; it was everything Chevy promised it would be and so much more!  My Volt was the first to be registered in the state of Arizona, and has been put through its paces with the summer heat of Phoenix and my constant road trips and excessive driving.   

6.  I studied kung fu at the Shaolin Temple in China with the warrior monks  
I make it sound way more intense than perhaps it deserves, but really, how many people can say the phrase above?  I worked really hard in my kenpo class to be able to test for my purple belt in China, and I succeeded.  The test was intense and had some great moments (like when I knocked my male opponent into the red wall of the temple, so he looked like he was bloody even though he really wasn't, and when I got foot prints all over my opponent's black gii while being evaluated by the 10th degree black belt leader).  Afterwards, even though I was completely drained, physically and emotionally, I allowed myself to be interviewed by a Chinese newscaster via translator, posed in lots of pictures with Chinese tourists (and especially with their babies, they loved that), and was awarded a very special gold Buddha pin by the Abbot of the temple himself - a really big deal! 

5.  I studied abroad in Japan
Looking back, it felt like I was there for a year or more, but it was only about 6 weeks.  But every day felt like a month of learning and new experiences, and I made some incredible memories I will never forget.  If anyone ever has the glimpse of an opportunity to study abroad, I say take it!  That summer made a lasting impression on me that working a summer job or taking classes at home would have paled in comparison to. 

4.  I transformed from a spoiled, finicky eater to an adventurous foodie
I credit my travels to Japan and China for really breaking me of my inability to swallow unfamiliar foods.  My poor Mother coped with 18 years of me requiring separate meals or simple foods like pizza, burgers, and chicken nuggets.  For several years after I had gone out on my own, I astounded her with the foods I had seemingly magically learned to enjoy: potatoes, rice, vegetables.  I still don't like fish or egg, although my director at work makes a quiche that's too good not to have piece. 

3.  I bought my own house
After only a few years suffering through apartment living during college, and greatly as a result of seeing HGTV at my parents' house while visiting, I yearned for a fixer-upper of my own that I could tear down and rebuild and make amazing.  So about two months after graduating college, I had found a house (and inspected it on my 22nd birthday) in Mesa, Arizona, and made the leap into home ownership.  It has definitely been an adventure learning electrical and plumbing, and getting my own tools and a massive tool chest to store and organize it all in.  Early on, every project required a new tool to be purchased.  I felt victorious at the first project for which I had every tool needed to do the job right. 

2.  I earned an Industrial Engineering degree (and in four years)
Perhaps one of the most astonishing feats of my life was the four exhausting and incredible years I spent studying IE at Arizona State University.  I will never forget an advisor telling me how I couldn't possibly take 17 credit hours in one semester, and how I should give up hope on graduating in four years, citing that "nobody gets an engineering degree in four years".  Well, it would certainly be hard without taking enough credit hours per semester, I agreed, but I did both!  I took between 16 and 21 credit hours per semester, plus some summer school and a summer internship, and graduated in four years with an Industrial Engineering degree.  I learned then that the best motivation for me is being told I can't do something!

1.  I started my own company
I knew it wasn't a million dollar idea, but I set out a few years back to start my own company, and I did!  I thought I had reasonable expectations going into it, but it was even harder than I anticipated. Still, it was a fantastic experience, I learned some great business lessons, and I made lifelong friends in the process.  I have considered and pursued additional business ventures to varying degrees, and I do hope to start and run another company again in the near future, but having done it once (and before I was 30) is really quite amazing!



I will make a note here that I had a hard time numbering the "top 10" of this list, because those are the experiences that I've drawn from most in my life, and they are all valuable in different ways.  I thought I might be challenged to come up with 30 experiences and accomplishments that I'm proud of, but it turned out to be pretty darn easy, and that in and of itself makes me feel a lot better.  So, the next time you or someone you know is down about aging, I would definitely recommend this exercise as a way to feel good about getting old!  

Lessons (Take 2) for a Beginner in 3D Printing (from a Beginner in 3D Printing)

My venture into the world of 3D printing has continued with more learnings.

The top surface will almost always look the best, so "put your best foot forward" by putting your most important surface on top whenever possible.

Curves on the top can be weak, it is a good idea to thicken then whenever possible, or rotate the object so that the round part is not on the top surface.

Tool path matters, and can make an ugly trace that is hard to file off.

Rafts and supports pretty much suck. This may just be my opinion, or maybe I'm just too inexperienced to appreciate them. But when I first learned of this feature, I was under the assumption that they would be easy to remove, like a quick snap off, and was really impressed and excited to use them. After using them pretty extensively for some designs, I've designed that not only are they a pain to get off, they leave impressions on the piece that would take forever to sand off, and can damage the piece itself. Also, the software that I'm using doesn't give an options around them, they are either on or off. So if I need supports for a part of the object that starts a little ways off the table, that means that EVERYTHING gets supports whether or not I want them. The lesson here is do everything possible to design your piece in such a way that it needs neither rafts nor supports.

Switching filaments during a print job is awesome! The printer I was using had just started a sexy 8-bit bow tie when I realized it was printing in silver and not in white, like I had planned. Whoops! Luckily, it had only laid a layer or two, and I thought, hey why not, could be cool with some silver on the back. I paused it and changed to a white filament and continued the print job, which all went very smoothly. Then as it started building the raised section of the bow tie, I realized it would be swell to make that a different color too, like black. I paused it again, switched out the filaments, and voila! I even had a young admirer look in awe as my printer seemingly printed with two colors! When I brought the piece home, I was asked if I had painted it. All I can say is, it looked good, and I'm so happy I decided to do the black, because all white wouldn't have been nearly as cool. A hint to anyone trying this: The printer doesn't pause immediately when you tell it to, it finishes out the layer or section that it's on, so make sure to pause it earlier rather than later. I came up with the idea after a couple layers had already gone on, but one would have to look really closely to see the white in the mostly-black section, so it doesn't have to be terribly precise (unless your piece requires more precision). Also, the silver is barely noticeable unless you actually turn the piece around in your hand.

Expanding on this idea, I feel like it might be possible to actually have two (or more) separate jobs. As long as the pieces fit together on the software, in theory, you should be able to tell the printer to print the bottom part, then switch the filament, then print the other sections before removing the first piece(s). I can't imagine I'm the first one to think this, I guess I just don't see a lot of material on 3D printing techniques, but this should be one of them.

I think that's about all for now, but I'm sure there will be more to come as I continue to push the limits of 3D printing with my untamed imagination!

Lessons for a Beginner in 3D Printing (from a Beginner in 3D Printing)

They say that the hardest part is getting started.  I couldn't disagree more.  The hardest part, of accomplishing anything, is perseverance.  When things break, when something goes wrong, when the outcome is not a desirable result, it is disappointing.  And disappointment defeats the energy and motivation we had at the start.  It can be so difficult to pick up the pieces (quite literally in the case of 3D printing), and start over.  So yes, the first step is to get started, but there are bigger challenges to face than that.  

I recently spent some time at my local TechShop giving 3D printing a whirl for the first time.  I am happy to say that I did complete two small projects, but it was not without trials and errors.  I had taken their mandatory class a couple months before, so I was a little foggy.  As I got started, I successfully fed the plastic into the machine based on my experience in the class; we all had to practice doing that and I was comfortable with the steps.  What I was not comfortable with was creating a design from scratch (for us un-savvy creatures, this may require a different class), and the "how to make it go" part.  A lot of time in the class was spent on the software, moving the object, turning it, etc., and there wasn't a lot of time spent on the printing aspect.  Even still, I would recommend taking a class at TechShop or similar before trying to 3D print somewhere or at home, even if its not required in your circumstance.  It may be well worth a trip to one of the cities that has a TechShop, just to get a foundation in the use of 3D printers before setting out on your own.  Here are some tips to prevent silly missteps and issues for a first-timer trying out 3D printing.  

1 - Use an SD card that is formatted for the 3D printer.  

Unfortunately I learned this lesson the hard way.  My print job was about a fifth of the way through when the machine pulled down the table and retracted the printer head, with an error on the screen referencing a problem with the SD card.  So the strange thing was that it had started printing just fine, but stopped while working.  The error did say that if this was the first time it had occurred, to try again, but I didn't want to take my chances.  I used the SD card provided in the kit, and it worked seamlessly from then on.

2 - Make sure you know which file format the 3D printer uses.  

I had notes referring to an older model which said to use .s3g file format.  For the model I was facing (MakerBot Replicator 2), I needed to use .x3g.  What was frustrating about this seemingly easy problem to fix was that, assuming I had the design in the right format, I started troubleshooting other things like maybe the machine wasn't ready yet, or maybe it wasn't feeding properly.  Maybe, I thought, it just needed to process the design for a while.  I wasted so much time on this!  Then, when I looked at the SD card in the kit, I saw that all the files from previous users were .x3g, and quickly resolved that issue.  

3 - Feedback is pretty much immediate.

This is one thing I was unsure about, and I wish someone had just told me straight up, if the machine doesn't appear to be working, then its not.  When you click "Build from SD Card" and there's no designs listed, it means it doesn't recognize any files.  When you identify a file to print, it starts doing something right away (parts move and the screen indicates its warming up).  When the plastic isn't sticking to the table, the design starts coming apart.  There is very little user wait time involved in 3D printing; it is either working or waiting on you 98% of the time.  

4 - Don't try to do too much at once.

The first design I tried to tackle had four pieces to it, so I thought I was very clever to combine the pieces onto one file and arrange them so that they wouldn't touch or overlap.  But to my dismay, I had a number of issues during the print, and that meant that all four of the pieces had to be started over again each time I had an issue.  It would have been much smarter for me to start with one piece, deal with the issue, start it again, deal with that issue, and so on, then to have several broken, unfinished pieces because of just a couple problems.

5 - Prying completed objects off the table is tough.

I think I suffer from an unusually weak level of strength in my fingers and hands.  As such, I may have used the tools more than most.  But there are tools to aid in this endeavor, and I've learned time and time again that the right tool for the job makes the job much easier.  The plastic is pretty durable (depending on the design, of course), too, so I didn't stretch or hurt any of my designs as I pried them off.  I think this is another "good to know" point, because first-timers might be worried about breaking things.  

6 - The plastic coming out of the nozzle is not always easy to see.

I had a small panic attack during one of my earlier attempts to print, because I didn't see any plastic really coming out.  When I went to the back of the machine, the reel didn't appear to be spinning.  I got worried that the printer head was just going through the motions and not actually producing layers of plastic.  As it turned out, it was working just fine, I just couldn't really see it until it was done.  This technology is working at such a small scale that it's not always going to be clear to the naked eye that progress is being made, especially for flatter designs.  The first layer of plastic is generally pretty obvious, because its so different from the table below it.  But as layers get poured on, it becomes difficult to see the difference between a fresh layer and the layer below it, and thus, looks like nothing is happening in the short term.  So my advice is to trust the machine and let it do its job.  

7 - Use previews before printing.

I think this is especially important for beginners because it allows us to solidify our understanding of shells, fill, supports and rafts.  Being able to see what the design will actually print before printing it, and playing with the different settings to see how that changes the preview, is very advantageous for tactile-style learners like myself.  It also allows for a time estimation, so you know how long you can expect the machine to spend printing.  

8 - Ask questions.

This may go without saying in a lot of learning experiences, but I think it is especially important when working with a machine.  If something is going wrong, ask a staff member to help.  The TechShop staff were very helpful in solving some of the earlier problems I had in which the machine itself was acting up. 

9 - Keep trying.

It can be frustrating, especially if the problems you're having are because of the machine or something outside of your control.  But I truly believe that 3D printing is going to be really important in the future, and chances are, if you're reading this or trying it out for yourself, you probably agree.  So it is worth it to persevere and don't give up.  Take a break if you need to, or walk away for a little while (not while its printing of course), or call a friend to stand by you.  Do whatever it takes to keep going until you have a success under your belt.  It gets much easier once you know you can do it!  

And with that, here are my successes!  

Designs from http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:49080 and http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27739.