Wouldn’t it be awesome if Rogers prepared its stores for an onslaught on July 11th, and the news agencies made sure they sent a reporter to the busiest, most central store, and nobody showed up to buy the iPhone? The news reports would be so much more interesting than the same old lines snaking for blocks, shelves empty, dozens of staff running amok story we’ve seen for other Apple launches.

At the end of the day, my civic duty comes before my selfish desire. I won’t be buying an iPhone next week. I’m a bit heartbroken, but it’s the only decision I can live with. After all, they’ll still be around the following week, or whenever Rogers makes me want to sign a binding contract with them.

(It’s very, very good news that Bell has just announced a wicked inexpensive unlimited data plan for a Samsung phone to compete with iPhone. If it isn’t important to Rogers to, you know, attract and keep customers, perhaps it will be important to them to compete with one of the few rival cell carriers out there.)

UPDATE (8th July): Looks like Apple is going out of its way to distance itself from Rogers, and—by design or in consequence—squeeze Rogers painfully. I wonder if it will entice Rogers to change its offerings. I also wonder if Canadians will end up screwed in the end, either by lack of product if Rogers comes through, or by Rogers changing for the worse instead of for the better—say, by ditching the iPhone altogether.

No Comments / Jul 03.08 / Blather / by Kim

We know I’ve wanted an iPhone heartily. I’ve blogged about it, Twittered about it, talked about it, dreamed about it. We know it’s coming to Canada two days after my birthday. What we didn’t know until last week was how Rogers (the only company in Canada that supports the network the iPhone uses) was going to price its plans. In short, the plans are fairly appalling (even more so in light of AT&T announcing they’ll offer the phones in the U.S. for a higher price without a contract).

I’m severely bugged by this. On one hand, the plans are outrageous and Rogers’ insistence that they designed the plans with their consumers’ needs in mind is a patronizing load of crap. I wrote to Rogers to complain last week, and received a response this morning that included this paragraph (the emphasis is mine):

“Please be aware that the plans unveiled were designed specifically for the iPhone. At this time, all pricing and plans that will be available for the iPhone have yet to be finalized.”

I can only hope that in the next ten days, Rogers will finalize some plans that include the following: An unlimited data option, an option for new customers that allows them to add unlimited data onto a voice plan of their choosing (as is now being offered to existing customers, if I read reports correctly), a voice plan that includes long distance (especially long distance to the U.S., which might be required by business users, and by me so I can phone my parents when I’m out and about), call display included in all plans ($7/month extra, seriously?), and an option for one- or two-year contracts. Actually, they should follow AT&T’s lead and offer the phone at full, unsubsidized price with no minimum contract. I’d happily pay full price for the phone if it meant I wouldn’t be screwed up, down and all around by my service provider.

So. Help me out with some friendly advice, eh? Should I put off getting the phone until Rogers comes around? Should I put off getting the phone as part of a collective effort to help convince Rogers to come around? Should I just get the phone because I want it so bad (as one old friend reminded me, we do have universal health care, after all)? Should I just get the phone because it would be unrealistic to think Rogers would ever come around?

ETA (2 July): I nearly forgot another factor. Part of Rogers’ plans is free wifi at all Rogers/Fido hotspots. Which is cool, from what I understand, if you live in Rogers-dominated eastern Canada. But out here in the west, it’s Telus land. I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a Rogers hotspot. This is one of the things that lead Canadians to refer to our cell phone situation as monopolized. Grr.

6 Comments / Jul 01.08 / Blather / by Kim

Happy Canada Day, y’all! It’s a workday for me, but I’ll be off on Friday for the 4th (and specifically, I’ll be off camping. Psyched.)

So, a bit more on combating the WorkFromHome Vaccuum.

Step 4: Tackle email. After that iced soy chai on Sunday, I started going through my email, having finally decided to read the oft-bookmarked Inbox Zero posts on 43 Folders. First, I moved all the messages from before June 1st into a new folder. Then I sat shocked at the 198 messages just from June. Starting at the bottom, I went through them one by one. Most needed filing. Many needed to be deleted. A good bunch needed my attention. After an hour, I’d whittled it down to 98 messages, and I needed to call it a day. It’s important to note, though, that just doing that added to my feeling of relief. I started to feel far more on top of things, and just as important, I started to feel like I was accomplishing real work.

Yesterday I went through the remaining messages in my work inbox, and although I’d be kidding myself to think that means I’m caught up, I do feel poised to get real work done. The power of that feeling should not be underestimated.

I discovered I don’t need my inbox to be empty. Like David Pogue, who wrote about this last week, I use my inbox as a to-do list, and it works for me. What I need to improve on is moving stuff out of there when it doesn’t need my attention. And you know what? After I finished going through the old messages, I had an easy time quickly processing new ones. I answered those I could reply to quickly, filed those I needed to archive, deleted those I didn’t need, and left alone the ones that need more involved attention. So now there are 51 emails in my work inbox, and I’m okay with that.

And so yesterday I went back to my in-laws’ house and spread out and got some work done. Thank. the. gods.

6 Comments / Jul 01.08 / Blather, Photos / by Kim

[365.4, originally uploaded by kpwerker]

It’s kinda nice to know I’m not alone in my occasional submission to inertia. In an effort to further the conversation about it, and to experiment with some strategies, I’ll update this post as the day progresses.

Today is all about combating the vacuum. It’s a hot hot Sunday, and I’ll have a lot to catch up on this week, so I want to start off tomorrow in tip-top shape.

Step 1: Get something (anything) done. I started the day by tackling a much-put-off domestic chore: I repotted a few plants. I made a total mess on our back deck. And I’m very happy to have gotten that done. Minor feeling of accomplishment = a good start to combat the vacuum.

Step 2: Change of scenery. Next, I loaded up my bike (see photo [the fourth of my 365 self portraits]). In the basket are the winter IC submissions I need to pay much attention to. On my back is a bag containing my computer, a notebook, a peanut butter sandwich, a sweatshirt, and my iPod. I’m writing this post at my in-laws’ house while they’re out for the day. It’s totally quiet save for my music, and the solitude is good for my soul.

I’m going to eat that sandwich now, and will let you know what I’m able to accomplish, and how. Fingers crossed!

Update 1 - Step 3: Alleviate Guilt. One of the relatively small tasks I’ve had at the top of my to-do list for far too long is to submit my expenses. I’m a disaster when it comes to this. These are the most significant deadlines I fail to meet, and I brow-beat myself every time. This past week, I had quite a list of expenses that were overdue, and I let the guilt over not having already submitted them stress me out. Guilt is never productive. Although my expenses are only the tip of the guilt iceberg, having just submitted them has resulted in immediate relief of some of the pressure. Now I’m going to take a short nap (hey, it’s Sunday. And it’s hot), and then I’ll start on the next major source of counterproductive guilt: Email.

Update 2 - I totally just rode back from Starbucks with a grande iced soy chai strapped into my egg crate with the bungee cord.

5 Comments / Jun 29.08 / Blather, Photos / by Kim

This week I suffered from what I’ve come to think of as the WorkFromHome Vacuum. From what I understand, everyone who works from home experiences this from time to time. I used to succumb to it more frequently before I started working on the magazine, and I’ve gotten better at both avoiding it altogether and at cutting it short should I fail to avoid it. But this week I was hit hard.

WorkFromHome Vacuum involves the utter failure to to be productive in any useful way. One of the reasons I stopped experiencing it when I started with the magazine is the sheer amount of work I have to do. Also, I usually need to be in touch with a lot of people. That high level of activity keeps the vacuum at bay.

The Vacuum is different from the everyday temptation to be distracted by home-related things. It’s more dramatic than that, and I have much less control over it.

I was unable to combat the vacuum this week, and I’ve learned over the years that there’s little I can do once it’s settled in. I just need to wait it out till it passes, and I’m sure by next week all will be well.

Still. If I owe you an email, please know I’m on it. I’m sort of banking on the vacuum departing by Monday morning. For now, I’m trying my best to enjoy this gorgeous weekend so I’ll be rested up in time to fire all engines come the workweek.

What challenges do you occasionally face in your work life?

11 Comments / Jun 28.08 / Blather / by Kim

[Cleo & Jayne Amigurumi = Defenders of the Yard, originally uploaded by kpwerker.]

It arrived! My early birthday present to myself. Geek Central Station is a genius. She paid such amazing attention to detail! That there gun is the only one I’ve ever liked. Every crafty geek should pay her shop a visit.

In an attempt to clear my scattered brain of late, I’ve succumbed to decided to take the 365 self-portraits challenge. We’ll see how that goes…

3 Comments / Jun 26.08 / Photos / by Kim

Time to let an image do the talking. (Robyn reworked this to be all about yarn!)

1. First name: Kim, 2. Favourite food: Sushi, 3. Bethlehem Central High School, 4. Favourite colour at this moment: Grey, 5. Celeb crush: After a night chatting about him, Nathan Fillion, 6. Favourite drink: Coffee, 7. Dream vacation: Highlands, 8. Favourite dessert: Pie, 9. What I want to be: Editor (didn’t know there’s a band!), 10. What I love most: Trueness, 11. I am: Me, 12. My Flickr ID

Here’s how you play:

1. Type your answer to each of the questions below into Flickr search.
2. Using only the first page, choose an image.
3. Copy and paste each of the URLs into the mosaic maker over at FD’s image maker.

The questions:

What is your first name?
What is your favorite food?
What high school did you attend?
What is your favorite color?
Who is your celebrity crush?
Favorite drink?
Dream vacation?
Favorite dessert?
What do you want to be when you grow up?
What do you love most in life?
One word to describe you.
Your Flickr name.

5 Comments / Jun 26.08 / Blather / by Kim

Clearly, weekly roundups need not happen on the same day each time. Nor weekly. Whatever.

This week’s roundup has a loose theme. You tell me what it is.

• Oh, giddy:
  
  Teaser from Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog on Vimeo.
• On Sunday, I attended my very first large-scale geek event. I was sort of expecting to feel like I do at a yarn event—like I was with my people. I didn’t really feel that way. Apparently, I’m a bit of a loner geek. But it was awesome to see Serenity on the big screen. Also, there were a lot of Jayne hats in the audience. That rocked.
• We cycled to the screening. Thanks to the man, I now have a turquoise milk crate on the back of my bike (it’s not really a milk crate but a remnant of some ill-conceived decorating plan I hatched when I was still living with my parents, I think). So now I ride a yellow mountain bike with road slicks and a turquoise milk crate with one end of a bungee cord permanently attached to it for holding stuff in. And I totally freaking love it. I ride it to the bank and to my PO box. For example, today I brought home yarn samples and colour cards in my basket.
• I’m reading After Dark, by Haruki Murakami, for book club. It’s lovely and surreal.
• I did the second geekiest thing yesterday. Actually, it might be the first geekiest. You judge. I wore my spanking-new Roslin ‘08 t-shirt to run some errands (at least one person became confused about my politics, and I had to explain). But that’s not the half of it. Last night, I wore it over to the man’s parents’ place to watch… wait for it… Battlestar Galactica. (We don’t get the cable station that plays it, so my in-laws record it on their DVR and we go there to watch it. We’re four episodes from the season break. Don’t spoil it!). I’m seriously torn between feeling mortified and feeling, like, way too cool for school.
• Speaking of webcomics (which I was, even if you didn’t notice). Seriously into Hijinks Ensue of late. Go there and read for a while (start here [not so much work-safe], if you’re so inclined). And in the less lighthearted, more post-apocalypse vein of fiction I love so much, FreakAngels is brilliant.
• I’m still enamoured of the Twitter. Yesterday I tweeted about needing some help with work music, and Ravelry came to the rescue almost immediately. I now have Adele (thanks to Mary-Heather) and Sia (thanks to Jess) on my iPod, and am slowly falling in love with each. I’m listening to Adele now. Ok, I totally love it.
• Sixteen days till the iPhone comes to Canada (read: into my grubby hands).
• Today is my little brother’s birthday. Happy birthday, Day! May only good things come from this coming year, kiddo.
• We had our fall photo shoot last week, and I’m waiting for some weird news to come of it. Two things happened that give me pause: First, the weather cooperated. It was chilly and rainy the first day, and sunny but not too hot the second. Given that it snowed during our summer shoot, I barely knew what to do with myself. Second, we ran on time, to the quarter-hour, the entire time. The models were gorgeous and friendly (one of them was once a stand-in on BSG, *snort*), and we all had fun behind the camera. And now, back to working on the rest of the issue.
• My birthday present to myself must be stuck in customs. :(
• I’m not ready to believe we might lose a wee tomato plant. Not to the coldcoldrainy June we’ve had. Or the weeds. It might have been the morning glory (which I don’t consider to be a normal weed, I’m sure you agree), and I actually think morning glory isn’t really of this earth. I think it’s the insidious spawn of an unfriendly otherworldly beast that arrived millenniums* ago and promptly departed, but left its spawn here to slowly kill our food. It’s not global warming, dear readers. It’s insidious alien spawn in the form of morning glory. Tell your kids’ science teachers.

* My Firefox spellchecker thinks millennia is not a word. Merriam-Webster says either plural is acceptable. I’ll let Firefox win this time, since it does such nice things for me every day.

8 Comments / Jun 25.08 / Blather / by Kim

If you’re here because you heard my interview with Mary Beth on Getting Loopy, welcome! (If you aren’t here because of that, go have a listen. If you were listening live but didn’t hear the end because we went about eight minutes over, you can hear those last eight minutes from that link, too.)

A few things we talked about: Interweave Crochet, CrochetMe.com, IC submission guidelines, Knitting Daily TV, books I’ve written or co-authored, posts I’ve written about editing, John Scalzi’s blog (I do read other blogs, just to be clear. I’ve just been thinking about his a bunch lately).

Having listened to the podcast, here are some follow-up thoughts:

I actually do think my background in linguistics is relevant to the work I do in crochet. Studying language as an entity involves breaking it down and analyzing it and looking at even its smallest bits to see how they contribute to the whole. My ability to examine language certainly influences my ability to use language, especially in a technical way, which is how we use it in crochet patterns.

When I mentioned that patterns float to the top as I sit surrounded by submissions, I meant it in a pattern recognition sort of way—trends in constructions or yarns or techniques or whatever start to pool together, and I slowly develop an overarching perspective on what the issue can become.

Mary Beth holds a contest each week, and the contest this week is for a signed copy of Crochet Me. Go have a listen for how to enter and for the special word you need to use be eligible.

And now, I want to hear from you, gentle readers. It had never occurred to me that designers might feel pressure to tell me what they think I want to hear when they put together their submissions, and I hope I cleared that up (to reiterate: tell me what you want to tell me; that’s what I want to hear). But now I’m really curious: What do you think I want to hear? Leave a comment.

Did you phone in to hear the end of the show, live? That’s just cool. I’m really digging the Blog Talk Radio format. If you didn’t catch it, we talked about why I’m motivated to keep being an editor instead of something more glamourous and less “in the trenches” (MBT’s words, not mine — I’ve never looked at it that way).

Finally, I was very, very serious about the fedora thing.

Man, that was fun! I hope you enjoyed.

1 Comment / Jun 24.08 / Blather, On Editing / by Kim

I’m in a bit of a cobwebby state, so I thought I’d take a break from trying unsuccessfully to get good work done to answer some questions that came up in response to my first post on editing. Then I’ll feel all articulate and like I got something done, and will therefore certainly return to good productivity.

Gentle reader EL asked, “I’m curious that you don’t mention a submission review panel; do you make the accept or reject decision by yourself? Are you the only contact with the people submitting work? How do you stay ahead of trends, in styles as well as in yarns?”

A good lot of questions there. First, we don’t have an official review panel. We have a small staff, and before sending the submissions to me (remember, I work remotely), the managing and assistant editors do look at submissions and make notes with their opinions. Ultimately, though, it’s my decision. Sometimes they’ll point something out I hadn’t seen, or they’ll mention something that makes me see a design in a new way. In most situations, I prefer not to act from the vacuum of my own head, and I value their input. That said, I don’t always agree.

I contact designers about submissions I’d like to accept, hold for consideration for a future issue, or about which I have questions. I continue to correspond with each designer through when they’ve received the yarn for their project. Then Toni, the assistant editor, becomes more involved, and communicates with designers about pattern writing and formatting, etc. I’ll remain in touch with some designers about particulars of the design as it’s being worked up, but some designers will fly off on their own and I won’t be in touch with them for quite a while.

As for styles and trends, I have only a vague answer. On the one hand, I rarely track style and colour forecasts. I don’t find them particularly useful, because my goal is not to be trendy, but to be classic in a way that is appealing to contemporary crocheters. For each issue, the magazine’s graphic designer gives me a palette to use as a guide for picking yarn colours, and I find it quite valuable.

On the other hand, I consume a huge amount of information on a daily basis, and that information, I’m sure, gets churned in the back of my head to eventually bleed into my work. I read the news, loosely follow interesting pop culture (by which I mean I couldn’t care less which celebrity is in rehab or married or divorced or adopting or has communed with what may or may not be a superior Martian race, but that stuff seeps in despite my avoidance. Also, I tend to like teen melodramas, and you can be sure Gossip Girl outfits end up in the endless churning mentioned above. I do follow what’s going on in television, though I don’t actually watch much of it. I am a magazine junkie, and also read about magazines. I don’t often read Vogue, but do pick up In Style, Wired, Good, Dwell, Real Simple, and occasionally Martha Stewart and some design mags); I read crafty blogs, writing blogs, sci-fi blogs, design blogs, and web comics. I’m often drawn to crochet designs and to colours that seem particularly unique or that were once in fashion but haven’t been for quite some time. Sometimes this results in the illusion that I have a good eye for trends, but I assure you it’s the result of a very short attention span and a strong attraction to novelty.

Yarns are a different story. I keep many colour cards and binders in my office, and try to stay in touch with yarn companies so I know what new yarns they’ll be introducing and which yarns they’ll be discontinuing. When I walk the floor at TNNA I do keep an eye out for fiber trends (linen is in lots of yarns this season, and bamboo continues to be on the rise; alpaca is practically becoming the new wool; more and more organics are coming out).

EL followed up with a question regarding what types of changes I request from designers.

Let’s start with the comment Doris left in my original post. The skirt she mentions (you’ll see it in the Fall issue) is awesome. But the original photo I saw of it didn’t turn me on. That said, I’ve worked with Doris a lot, and I rarely encounter a design of hers that doesn’t speak to me*. I asked Doris if the skirt could be reworked flat as a wrap-around for three reasons: First, I like the versatility of a wrap skirt for summer (which was originally when the skirt was to be published); second, I wasn’t loving the way the skirt seemed to hang in the photo she’d sent me and I thought it would be improved with a change in construction; third, a wrap skirt can be very easily flexible in sizing, which would allow us to run a very wide range of sizes in a relatively small amount of space. So I asked Doris about it, and she replied explaining that the stitch pattern she used had to be worked in the round, and she also sent me a different photo that made me see what I was missing in the first image. That was all I needed to know from Doris. I switched yarns on her, and picked a neutral colour that prompted her to ask if it was a mistake when she received it (which I appreciated — but it wasn’t a mistake, and though she might have complained under her breath about it, I do think the skirt is fantastic and photographed beautifully last week, and I thank her for humouring me).

Another note about colours. In a way, I think about colour in two dimensions for the magazine: neutral and colourful. I wanted Doris’s skirt to be a neutral for wardrobe flexibility and because I thought the lace pattern would be made even more outstanding juxtaposed with what might be considered a drab colour. Neutrals are easy. For colours, I think globally and locally. As I mentioned, I use a limited palette as a guide to ensure the colours in the magazine combine to create an overall cohesion. For an individual design, I work more intuitively. And I often work hard to overcome my own colour preferences. Two examples: First, Mary Beth Temple’s Flirty 30s Tank Top in the Summer issue. It took us a long time to find the perfect yarn for this design. The yarn doesn’t have a huge colour range, though, and I’m not personally a fan of yellow. But lots of people love it, as well they should. So I picked yellow both because it’s so obviously summery and is lovely for this design, and because it matched my palette best of the available colours. Second example: Doris’s China Doll. The spring issue was the first issue photographed here in Vancouver, and I knew that one of our locations would be a particular flower shop with pale greenish walls. I really don’t like lavender. Like, ever. But that colour was going to scream SPRING in that flower shop. And it was in my palette. And I thought it might make a gorgeous cover (though cover decisions aren’t really made by me). So lilac it was. And so you see: as editor, I think about colour differently than a designer might. I have to be very practical about it, and I often have to transcend my personal preferences. This is an aspect of my job I love.

Ok. Getting back to the question. The types of things I’ll ask a designer about: Will the garment construction play nicely with the fabric to create a flattering fit (e.g., will it bunch badly under the arms, be too narrow at the hips, etc.)? Will a lighter weight yarn produce a more practical garment? Will the fiber content work with the design? Will a heavier weight yarn produce a more practical end product? I’ll also ask about closures, and I’ll ask for clarification if an aspect of a swatch doesn’t make sense to me. I’ll also ask questions based on my relationship with a designer. For example, I might ask a particular designer if they think a certain yarn would be a good match for their idea even if it’s quite different from what they swatched. Sometimes I ask questions because I perceive a flaw, sometimes I ask questions out of innocent curiosity, and sometimes I ask because of a larger agenda.

* To be clear, past relationship certainly does influence my decisions about designs — just like in any job, I like to repeatedly work with people it’s enjoyable and successful to work with, and I try to avoid working with people it’s unpleasant or stressful to work with. Of course, I won’t accept a weak design or a design that doesn’t fit the issue just because of who the designer is, and I won’t reject a design just because I’ve never worked with the designer.

So much for a quick post. “Brain dump” might be a more accurate label. But I am feeling far more primed for productivity now. W00t.

3 Comments / Jun 23.08 / On Editing / by Kim