Why is it that every time I learn something new, it ends up being a trial by fire? And any mistake just has to be made in a very public way, of course.
I had to learn to wet-spin flax, right-handed (that’s when I found out I’m a left-handed spinner). The task was to demo the skill at a historic site’s very popular craft fair the next week.
Some knitting techniques I’ve learned have been after someone said, “You can teach this for us, right?” Yippee for YouTube!
I had to learn a database at work. To teach and support the student, all the university has is a video but a) you can’t play along if your office runs Mac, b) has to be exceedingly general because there are so many databases in this system and they are all so vastly different and c) you can’t ask a question because all you have is a video. My mistake for that was an overrun to the tune of a several thousand copies. Awesome.
Now I have to put together a newswire from a cheat sheet. The potential for public viewing of any error is 15,000+. Luckily, the person that normally handles this can be reached … sort of. If I’m lucky and the gods decide to smile. If not, well … as long as I can test before I hit the big ol’ send to all button, I have a fighting chance of coming out of this with some hair still attached to my scalp.
Nervous? Me? Nah.
Ready to scream and repeatedly slam my head into the desk? Yeah, that.
Seriously, Fates, please. Next time may I have complete hands-on training before I go public? Thanks.
It's My World 
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