Tag: Edward Caissie

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Thank You

Bringing awareness to a rare disease is no easy feat. Generally speaking, most people do not go out of their way to find a rare disease and although there are over 7000 rare diseases out there it usually takes yourself, a family member, or a friend to contract one before you even know it existed in the first place.

Some of you may know my wife, Terri Caissie, and some of you may know she has Hashimoto’s Encephalopathy (Autoimmune) with Progressive Cerebellar Ataxia … but how many of you know what that is?

Terri and myself had tried to get the details of this disease in front of more people to consider and learn about but until very recently we were not having much success. This changed … and for that I am writing this post to say thanks to the people that are affecting this change.

First off, we’d like to thank Tom McFarlin for his post. This caught the attention of others in the WordPress community and sparked a post by Jeff Chandler at WP Tavern; thank you very much, too!

Look what happens with a post on WP Tavern:

WordPress News 2015-12-13

What does that mean to awareness for HE? Considering WordPress powers 25% of the Internet … THAT. IS. HUGE!! Thank you!

Thank you again for the people sharing these links; and, thank you for those that have donated monies to help Terri. We are very grateful for your support.

Our hopes of bringing awareness to those with Hashimoto’s Encephalopathy (or any other rare disease) are buoyed up beyond anything we could have imagined when Terri started her YouCaring campaign.

Thank you, again, to the WordPress community … without you this would not be happening.

 

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Dreaming

Never put any restrictions on pie-in-the-sky ideas, the bakery might not be that far away.

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Set The Bar High

There are just some things that really get under my skin and comments like this “… beyond the support levels expected from this volunteering forum” really burn me up.

You might ask, where ever did you see that? The WordPress forums of all places?!

Now, to qualify this, I spend a great deal of time every working day in the WordPress forums and I cannot accept this, period.

Whether you are providing support as a volunteer; out of the goodness of your heart; giving back to the community; or, just providing quality support for your plugin you should always strive to improve. This not only benefits yourself but you also become better at helping others as well.

Set the bar high! Do yourself a favor … as well as those you are trying to help. Don’t accept “the support levels expected” … go beyond, go above and beyond!! Give back to the community by making it better not maintaining the status quo.

How do you set the bar high in your support efforts?

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IDxD

Wait? What?!

Some days are a bit of a challenge around home but we always try to find a way to makes things light and continue to look for the bright side as often as we can.

Although a topic for a much longer series of posts, Terri has been diagnosed with a rare brain disease, Hashimoto’s Encephalopathy (Autoimmune) (HE). Among its many varying symptoms and issues the ability to communicate will at times have us use “Identification by Description” (IDxD) for Terri to get her point across. Fortunately this is not often but it can be infuriating, frustrating and downright demoralizing when it does but being together for over 20 years we know each other well enough that it works.

Coming up with this little acronym gave us both reason to laugh … and laughter is the best medicine!

 

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Apple Watch: June Delivery

I booked a try-on appointment at my favorite Apple Store (the one in Sherway Gardens) and went for the experience on a Saturday afternoon. I haven’t worn a watch in more than 20 years but the “cool” factor just couldn’t be resisted. I really just wanted to get a better look at what wearing one would be like, better than what the Apple Watch app offered … there’s only so much holding your iPhone on your wrist can really accomplish.

I picked out three “favorites” that I wanted to try … all the 42mm face (the app really did help there) and prepared for … well, um, not a whole lot … what can you accomplish in 15 minutes?

It turns out quite a bit. “Alex”, the associate who helped us, made the experience quite enjoyable and definitely no rush. Did I mention this was my favorite Apple Store? We go out of our way to shop there when in-person product review / purchase is necessary.

I went to try on the Apple Watch. I selected the 42mm Stainless Steel Case with Milanese Loop; and, the 42mm Stainless Steel Case with Link Bracelet; then, for comparison the 42mm Space Grey Aluminium Case with Black Sport Band (from the Apple Watch Sport line).

Although I liked all three models I was most impressed with the Milanese Loop as the Link Bracelet (although not fitted well) tended to unclasp very easily (perhaps too easily?) and the Sport Band just didn’t have the “look” I wanted. I’m not sure a rubber-like band would ever have the look I wanted but it did feel good. I was actually really surprised the Apple Watch 38mm Stainless Steel Case with Milanese Loop was quite snug getting over my hand (as in almost not getting over my hand at all), but the face itself was just a bit too small and the thinner band also did not quite look as good either.

Terri was with me during all of this and Alex was very kind to offer her the experience of trying on some of the different models … all told, between the two of us, I think we tried on seven or eight different models.

We played with the demonstration models in the store as well and were easily impressed with the functionality being displayed there. Terri was very impressed with the ability to use touch gestures with the watch given how much trouble they present her on her iPhone 6+ and new iPad Touch … and the display was very easy to read, too.

My thoughts on the Apple Watch: waiting until June is going to be a challenge; but, I am definitely looking forward to wearing a watch again.

To see the update click here.To hide the update click here.
I noticed this morning that Apple has gone ahead and put through the charges for my Apple Watch nearly a month prior to the shipping date … does this mean they will be a month earlier than their scheduled end of June / beginning of July shipment status?
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Perception Is Everything

Much like beauty is in the eye of the beholder so perception is an individual’s viewpoint.

One’s actions and words define another’s perception whether it is the desired result or not. How things are perceived is up to the individuals or groups involved, it is not something that can be decided by one for the other.

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Telus Loyalty Reward – Thank You!

I had thought about just sending out a tweet to say thanks but then 140 characters or less probably will not convey Telus‘ kindness or the value of their thoughtful gifts … yes, gifts! Completely unexpected, too.

Let me backtrack a bit … we pre-ordered our iPhone 6 Plus 128MB phones shortly after it was possible to do so on the Telus Mobility web site. We hemmed and hawed a bit about which model to go with an ultimately decided to just go BIG. After ordering I thought it would be nice to share this with a tweet:

Earlier this week I received a call from FedEx asking to confirm my address for a delivery. All said and done, I asked who is the shipper? They replied with Telus … and I’m thinking cool, the iPhones are coming earlier than their original October 6th promised shipment date.

Yesterday, as arranged, the FedEx delivery arrived … Terri opened the box as I knew if I opened the box the rest of the day would be gone (I really do love to play with new tech). The iPhones were not there?! What?!! I spoke to Telus earlier in the week and they said they were just completing the order processing and the iPhones would be shipping this week. Very patient and helpful customer service associate as well. (The iPhones were shipped via Canada Post and arrived technically on Thursday … I had to go to the Post Office to pick them up on Friday).

Back to the mystery(?) FedEx shipment … inside was a quality note card with a hand-written message thanking us for pre-ordering our iPhones and sending out the tweet above, signed by “Your friends at Telus”. Thanks!

What else was in the box? Another box with a big purple ribbon tied up into a bow and inside that box was the following:

Now I can really have some more fun. Stay fit. More power. Great sound.

Thanks, again, Telus … we will enjoy these thoughtful gifts!