Friday, January 30, 2009

Checking the Annual Report Off My To-Do List

I really like Dan Meyer's annual report contest. (Even though I treat it more as a meme.) Despite it being a change in the calendar, January never feels like the change of year to me. My life calendar always seems to shift in the summer months. So pausing mid-year to reflect on the changes reveals interesting behavior patterns to myself.

I wasn't sure I'd get slides done this year. Last night I sketched out some ideas in my journal and created them this evening. I'm not totally happy with everything--slides aren't as consistent as I'd like--but tweaking them to perfection is not going to be the best use of my time this weekend.

So for now, here you go.

Edit: Feb. 2, 10:56 pm. Realized last night that the labels on slide 4 were incorrect. Not that anyone else will care, but the corrected version is below.





A few final reflections.

The background picture is busy. But I wanted something that fit the "Comfort" theme. I'm waiting for some slippers to arrive, but planning on spending this weekend cozied up in PJs. You don't get much more comforting than a baby blanket.

I like not having the scale shown on these. Full confession, I did not track all of this data, so some of the numbers are guessed. My personal favorite slide is the one with the least fact behind it and my least favorite is the one where I can tell you the numbers exactly. Go figure.

Thanks to Dan for putting the challenge out there. And thanks to everyone else who got their entries in before me for the inspiration to create mine.

(A note to Alice Mercer: I really liked the text as background on your slides and originally planned on adapting that idea. I had planned on using my parent's pizza recipe (I freestyle mine anymore), directions to a friend's ranch, the pattern for the lace shawl I knitted, and the text from last year's entry to the same context.)

With that, I'm off to bed and the rest of the weekend.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sarah, I had the same feeling about real vs. guessed at numbers in last years contest. I like that your a knitter, cause I'm one myself, and I like the use of a washout pic for background. I've been doing a lot of those in the classroom lately. That look didn't make it to the slides this year. Nice stuff, nice story. The yarn helped tie it all together.

Sarah Cannon said...

Thanks for the feedback. Yay knitters! Learning that you're one explains some of the acronyms in your blog. (DH is much more something I see on crafting sites than teaching sites.)

Going back to look at the slides after 24 hours I like them more. The blanket doesn't distract as much as I feared. Though I do worry about the friend who IMed saying she first thought the background was colored brains...

Jackie Ballarini said...

She thought it was what?? Even I, who doesn't knit, knew what it was.

Sarah Cannon said...

I'm not disagreeing with you Jackie, but in defense of my friend you have babies in your world view in a way she doesn't. She did figure out that it was yarn. Though I think she settled on balls of yarn rather than a finished product. I'm convinced that not enough people of my generation and younger have "real" security blankets.

Full disclosure, not only did I not make this blanket it's not the pattern that I use when I make baby blankets. It is however one of the baby blankets made for me when I was born. Yes, it is easily available for photographing. It's my personal comfort, no?

Anonymous said...

I confess, even though I do knit, I didn't catch what it was at first either and thought it did look kind of brainy, noodly -- but not in an unpleasant way!