Logo Reboot

We're reworking our logo.   I love our logo, but for reasons out of our control, we're going to have to redo it.  Or rather we think it would be prudent to redo it.   The trouble is, I really like our logo.  We could keep it, we've already won out in one situation where the logo was in question, but it would be easier if we just moved to a new logo and abandoned the current one. 

We have someone working on options, but it's hard to look at anything and like it as much as our current logo.   We've had some options so far, but nothing we like.   It's a tough situation.

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Genes Discussion:  My son wanted to know what percentage of each of our genes he got.   He and his sister talked about who each was more like and they decided mostly that my son was like my husband and my daughter was most like me.   They readily agreed it was mostly gender-based in their decision.  My husband and I aren't sure about the breakdown.  They each are their own person.

Sneaking Away

I love running live streams.   But I can get stuck in them.   They are so fun, but it's two in the morning and I need to get to bed.   I had to sneak away quietly.  So I'm going to write a nice quick blog post and then go to sleep.  Tomorrow I need to put together a video on buying rainbow transition filament.  I've been putting it off. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son had a nightmare early in the morning after it was light.  He came down, got in the bed, and told me about the apocalypse he had dreamed about.   He does the same thing every time: he wants to tell me about the dream and then he says, "I'm going back up to my bed" and then leaves.   By then the dream has faded and he feels safe enough to go back to sleep.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter also had a bad dream, but it was well into the morning when she woke up.   She dreamed I had broken the glass eyes of the dolls and stuffed animals she had.   She didn't know why, but it was scary.     There was a reason I had to do it, but she wasn't sure what it was by the time she had gotten to the basement to find me.  We talked it through with the dog sitting on her until she was calmed down and no longer scared. 

So Many Platforms

YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, Instagram IGTV, TikTok Live, YouTube Live, Instagram Live, Twitter, Facebook, Twitch, Patreon, Discord, and more, oh my!

There are so many platforms that are in the realm of social media.  We're publishing on many of them, but not all.  There are just too many to be able to manage and have time in the day to get any real work done.  Perhaps with a team of people or no children, job or life and you could do them all.   But I don't want to do them all.  

We've avoided Twitter for the most part for most of the time Filament Stories has been active.  We knew we needed to post there because odd as it seems, the people and atmospheres of the different platforms does make a difference.  

So tonight, we took pictures and uploaded them to Twitter, posting in advance so that while we're on vacation one or two posts will happen each day.  Twitter is different in that it's mostly pictures with a line or so of text.  It's almost manageable.   Twitter is a good place to make connections and is a positive place to communicate for the most part.  We just avoided it at first until we got the video part of things under control. 

Success is measured one platform at a time, I suppose.   Speaking of time, we need more of it.  It's two-fifteen in the morning again and I haven't even gotten a print started on livestream.   But I don't mind; this evening we got the most heartfelt thanks from a filament company I was actually critical of.  They're changing how they deliver their filament based on our videos and were instead of being unhappy with our videos, were incredibly grateful for the feedback and exposure.  

It was a surprise and a relief as I didn't like saying things that weren't complimentary, even if they were done in the most positive way I could manage. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son asked for me to print him a headphone stand.  I used a filament that came all the way from Turkey.   It's a bright yellow skull and he loves it.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter had a very hard time not telling me what was coming up in the books we'd listen to when she had listened ahead.   She just had to give hints.  Now though, she knows to not tell me anything and is even getting good at making me wonder which direction the story is going to go with her vague comments.   It's nice to see her be able to keep a secret and not let on that she knows a secret in the first place

Golden Shoes

Today was the National Braille Challenge competition day.  Or rather it was the regionals for each state.   Students from first grade through high school compete in multiple braille events from proofreading to spelling to speed and accuracy, hoping to score high enough to make the top ten contestants across the United States so that they can go to California in several months to compete in the finals.

Today we had two students who had made it to nationals in prior years, one who won in her age group and one that was a finalist.   Of the two, one had attended my daughter's school a few years ago and made the news when she had won at the fifth-grade level. 

My daughter was excited about today.  In prior years she wasn't as sure about the event, but she knew less people, was younger, and didn't know all of the braille contractions she needed to be a full competitor.   Today, she was ready to get there and had fun the entire day. 

As an unexpected surprise, the mayor of the city the event was being held in was in attendance.  He was there all day, interested in learning about the event and to meet with educators, parents and students.  He stood up on stage in a brown suit and at the bottom of his trousers, a pair of the shiniest, gold high-topped sneakers were on his feet. 

He said the shoes represented fun, and he only wore them to special events.  His shoes just made you smile.  I messaged a friend, who said he could never hope to be that cool in his entire lifetime.   I rather agree, I'm just not that caliber of cool. 

We'll find out the results sooner than I had anticipated.  My daughter will know her scores within the week.  She will know if she made the highest marks in her age/skill group.  From there, the highest scores will be sent to the national group and should the winner be one of the top ten in the country, it's off to California in a few months.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  I think my daughter would like to win and to go to California.  She has a reasonable chance to win for her group here, but will that be enough to go to California if so?  I don't know what the competition is like in other states. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son wants to have me print something and have it be printed on a livestream on TikTok.  He's picked out a headphone stand that's a skull by a favorite designer of ours.   I'm trying to get the work done here so I can start a stream and have people watch it while he sleeps.   

Talk to Me

I was oddly tired when I went to get my daughter today at school.   I got to the line a pickup and realized I was about to doze off sitting in the car waiting for the line to start moving.   I blasted the air conditioning to increase my alertness and tried to think of the best thing to do for the drive home.   What would be the most helpful and was I just tired or actually sleepy?

When my daughter got in the car I told her I was tired and instead of playing the audiobook she and I were listening to together, could we play the Alphabet Game we liked to play in the mornings?  She's always asking to play this game so I didn't suspect she'd be opposed.   I told her I was unusually tired and I thought talking would help me out. 

She was more than willing to help, because this is my daughter we're talking about here.  She loves to help.   We played the game of trying to guess the secret letter where you get a helpful sticker with a power, have to fight a monster and can use the stickers you've accumulated or you get the secret letter. 

She and I have evolved the game over time and aside for it having the one downfall of it being rigged to win, what with no one ever having lost a game, it's fairly fun.  It involves a good bit of creativity on the part of the person who's picked the secret letter.  We alternate being the guesser and being the person picking the secret letter. 

She helped a lot and I was fine on the way home but I did lie down for a bit when I got there until dinner.   After checking the prints to make sure nothing was failing and no printers needed tending to. 

The Big Boy Update: My son sometimes runs late to get in the car in the morning.   He brings his socks and shoes and for some reason he cannot remember to get them on before getting to school.   We've reminded him again and again.  Today, he had to get out of the car with his shoes in his hands to walk in. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter competes in the National Braille Challenge tomorrow.  She's exited.  And I'm excited to be there during the event.  I hear I'm going to put braille letters on the cupcakes.  A hundred of them!  My daughter wants me to save a 'Q' for her.

A Better Day?

Yesterday was not a good day with the children.  But sometimes. when we crack down hard on them, they wake up the next day and are in a much better place.   They know they can't get away with the attitude and treating each other meanly.   And that's what happened today. 

The day ended with us needing to tidy up the house for the cleaners who are coming tomorrow.   This is not a task the children enjoy doing.   But we combined it with our family game night activity of Among Us.

You get handed a card.  One of the four is an ace, and if you get it, you're the imposter, "among us".  We all set about doing tasks, two per floor, while the imposter tries to catch people alone and tag them.   If you're tagged, you fall down dead.   When someone finds a dead person they call for a meeting and then we try to vote and pick out the imposter.  If we get it right, the imposter loses, if we get it wrong, the imposter wins. 

The non-imposters can finish all six tasks each and then they win, or the imposter can kill everyone and win as well.   The children absolutely love this game, although it's much more fun with more people.  

The advantage to tonight's game was that tasks were cleaning up your things and putting them away.   So we got two things done at once: tidying the house and playing a game together.    

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  For being blind, my daughter does quite well at being the imposter.   She really wants to be it, although the first time she was the imposter and lost on the first meeting, she said, "it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be."  She's gotten much better at being sneaky. 

The Big Boy Update:  My son is very good at being the imposter and also of not being it.  We've lost to his  games far too many times.   He's really gotten the knack of the psychological side to the game.  

The Hundredth Day Shirt

I had a request to see what my daughter's shirt looked like for the hundredth day of school today.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son tried in vain to throw a massive tantrum to get out of folding his laundry.   He tried so many different psychological tactics.  None worked.  In the end, he folded his laundry and did so rather quickly.