Mathnet

Education, Entertainment, Mathnet, Social Media, Square One TV

An Open Letter to PBS.

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Dear PBS,

Oh, how you taunt us so. A couple of weeks ago, you posted on your official Tumblr account this little teaser image:

Where in the World IS Carmen Sandiego?

…Carmen Sandiego?

And then…speculation started to flow from all corners of the Web. Even HuffPo covered it! New episodes? Reruns of old episodes? So much potential excitement here, and then…NOTHING. No follow-up posts as of yet. Boo. Hiss.

So, what’s the deal, PBS? Don’t you guys realize how EPIC this would be? Why tease the masses, then just crush their hopes with your “edited to add” business: “this is not about new episodes, but will be appreciated by any 90s kid…” Well, I was an 80s kid and I watched it, but I’ll let that slide. Are you going to do something, or not? And while we’re on the subject, PBS, let’s talk about some other shows that could prove useful for today’s kids. You did keep Reading Rainbow on the map for awhile, as well as Ghostwriter, you even refreshed The Electric Company, an “Old School” staple, as well as Zoom! for a time. Sesame Street continues to brighten the lives of young kids as well. So, how about a couple more that could use some revamping, or re-airing, at the very least: 3-2-1 Contact, and Square One TV. Oh, and of course, Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? (Let’s pretend that Noggin didn’t exist though, because it’s dead; well, it’s Nick Jr. now, and they didn’t always do these shows justice in rerun format.)

Granted, some of the materials and information on these shows may be a bit dated and in the case of “Carmen,” inaccurate, but in a time where American kids are falling behind in math, science, and geography, let’s at least put some reruns back. Better yet, DVD releases of these shows. Ever heard the phrase “shut up and take my money” used online? Surely you have. You would have SO MANY former kids fully prepared to hurl massive amounts of money at you if you put these shows out on DVD. You might not even need to have pledge drives for awhile if you do it right. Teachers and parents want this stuff in their homes, trust me. As someone who created the site for “Mathnet” (yes, it needs updating, I KNOW), I can tell you I have received a lot of E-mails about this very thing for years now, and the more people hear about possible renewed interest in these 80s and 90s after-school staples for kids, the more people will crawl out of the woodwork wanting to know more. And they’re waiting…

I could go on for quite a while about this, but what I’m saying here is: pay attention to the media buzz! Look at the likes, shares and mentions on all the major sites  – there’s your target audience, plus any new fans you pick up along the way. If you follow through with these teasers, it’ll be a move you won’t regret, and kids are about to go back to school – is there any better timing? 

So, do it. Do it, Rockapella!

With Love (that remains to be seen),

Me, and Legions of Other Fans.

Art, Crafty, Design, Feelings, Life, Mathnet, Site Updates, Square One TV, Work

Time Marches On.

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Wow, June has come to an end already. Half the year gone POOF? What is with that? Seriously, time…just slips away, no matter where you are or what you do. Let this serve as a reminder that life and time is short, so make the most of it! 🙂

So many things as usual on the mind, recently lost a beloved furry friend (R.I.P., Mr. Biddles), but I am finding, as time marches on, that things that were giving me worries and regrets earlier this year are no longer important enough to fret over, or rather, have faded into the past where they belong. Feelings of anxiety, emptiness, anger, frustration, sadness, all that is no longer hounding me, or very rarely these days. The time I have had to focus on finding myself in my element again has been good medicine, and surely a few of those who have been following along don’t want to hear that, but perhaps the problem isn’t really me, in that case. 😉 Finding what is going to make my life the best it can be (while the show is just me) is the main task for my life. While I am here to support and care for those in need (ALWAYS), and even those who don’t need it at this time, we have to look out for ourselves first and foremost; if you lose yourself in trying too hard to please everyone else, avoiding making waves to a point you become a pushover, blankly going through the motions, getting back to YOU can be a difficult journey. But honestly, I need not go on about that, because I have found peace in the process of moving ahead, and that is giving me motivation to tackle the things I had pushed aside for a long time. Don’t like that? Too bad; nobody’s making you read this anyway, and my give-a-damn’s busted. 😛

The coming months will be busier yet; over the past months, I’ve been working gradually toward making art my (eventual) full-time life; it takes time to get everything just right, with projects and client work on all sides, but it will be worthwhile for those who have been waiting ever-so-patiently to get things launched and up for sale in my design business. If you haven’t hopped over there yet, check out my business site at JillthePill Design (currently a landing page), and track the progress, answer polls and “like” the page over at Facebook; it’s nearly launch time, but before I unwrap the site, I’m working on getting physical goods made and assembled, while also helping my mom get her stuff going, too. (If you like one-of-a-kind, fine jewelry pieces, her stuff will be right up your alley!) My aim is to avoid any bumps in the road upon opening the virtual shop doors, so fingers crossed that works out!

Spring? Plants? I hate them. I made my zom-bees months before Grumpy Cat became a thing, but if the shoe fits, Tardar would hate these, too.

This is a Zom-BEE™. Don’t you want to own one of these “happy” fellas? I think you do…

Other than that, nothing of terrible importance to report at this time; once things have officially launched, I intend to get back into tackling those personal projects that have languished for far too long…yes, that means you guys, Mathnet fans. In fact, Mental_Floss recently posted an article that pays homage to the show, and we have dropped the ball a bit with keeping things updated. Enjoy things as they are now, and know that they will be revamped one of these days…we (the fans) really want to inspire enough confidence in the folks at Sesame Workshop so maybe they’ll finally bring Square One TV back – the youth of today could certainly use it!

Okay, that’s it for this month, since it’s essentially over now. Enjoy the summer (or winter, depending where you are), and I’ll be here to yap at nobody in particular (probably just myself at this point) at some point in July. Take care! 😀

Education, Entertainment, Life, Mathnet, Square One TV

3/3/13 – World Dyscalculia Day

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Yay, it’s World Dyscalculia Day!

Uhhhhh…WHAT?

So, I started to touch on the topic of Dyscalculia in my last post, and I intend to further break it down into a series of posts over time, but this is a good time to summarize it, on the very day set aside each year for Dyscalculia awareness (always 3/3; how fitting for it to be a lovely fraction).

There is SO MUCH I want to say about it, but seriously, it can’t be summed up in a short post, and writing a novel will only bore people in a sea of new knowledge (tl;dr ;)), given how few actually know what it is. There are a lot of people out there who have this and only wish they could turn to someone who gets it, or knew more about it themselves, or wish to find a community of fellow “sufferers” where they’ll fit in and can relate to.

What is Dyscalculia exactly? It’s a learning disorder involving numbers, but not just numbers. Rather than write a painfully long description when other sites explain it very well, head over to the Dyscalculia Forum site and read up for a good breakdown (I’ll wait…). This does not mean we’re stupid and/or lazy, or aren’t trying hard enough to understand things like handling money, reading a map or organizing a space, or that we’re just choosing not to do something because we don’t like/feel like it, we actually lack the ability to grasp these concepts; our brains simply cannot make heads or tails of it (pun intended). It’s like any other form of dyslexia – you can try to learn, practice for hours, and no matter how much you put into it, your brain will never retain the information, or very little of it, and scrambles it around furiously without ever actually understanding it. Ooh, and the resulting brain pain. 😛

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Creative Writing, Feelings, Life, Mathnet, Work, YouTube

Month One, Complete.

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Well, how quickly the time flies, the end of January already? That means my first month in this new adventure of being self-employed is wrapping up. 2012 ended with feelings of guilt and a bit of anxiety, 2013 starting with the next phase of sorts: emptiness. The first couple of weeks I felt so empty, that vessel-full of frustration and futility suddenly giving way to a new, fresh slate. It was weird…I just felt nothing for a time, it’s like a mourning process, I guess: guilt, anxiety, emptiness, and now acceptance and the slow adjustment of my new life. I don’t regret it, though, because I am seeing life has put me where I need to be when I need to be, and I’m keeping busy with projects. Motivation comes in waves, inspiration pops up at rather interesting times, and coffee has become a dear friend, which leads to burning a lot of midnight oil these days. I do need to work on that, trying to keep a normal person’s sleeping schedule. I’ve had to kick my ass a bit, tell myself to “snap out of it” and get into this new groove, but as the weeks have passed, it’s getting easier.

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