Most of us remember with fondness those teachers who made a positive impact on us (and maybe more teachers who didn’t). For me in year 11, it was my science teacher who encouraged me to keep going after an epic fail in my geology mock exam. His teaching style, different than most at that time, was discovery oriented and coupled with his belief in my ability to succeed, made me persevere. He wrote the most humane and encouraging end of year report of all time, securing my loyalty and determination. He was also rather cool and drove a smart, racing green sports car!
Later, whilst in a challenging role as head of science in an overseas school, my new head teacher noted my struggle, recognised elements of self-doubt and issued me an open invitation "visit and talk anytime Lisa, my door is open always. Really." And it was. And I did. She had a presence and way of being which was unique. She wasn’t a dynamic speaker, she didn’t have a vibrant, extrovert personality and she wasn’t cool or hip. Instead, she was genuine to the core, with an authentic way of being, treating everyone as people of intrinsic worth, dignity and value.
What is it about such professionals that leads to this positive and lasting impact? Many appear to have some of the qualities Goleman refers to as emotional intelligence: empathy, communication and self-control. They usually prefer to be the catalyst in other's lives and often have that precious and rare attribute humility which is evocative and powerful to move others forward. There’s a high degree of respect for each person, of affirming others contributions and of desiring to unlock potential.
The International Coach Federation’s (ICF) coaching competency coaching presence highlights these people as “being fully conscious and creating spontaneous relationships… employing a style that is open, flexible and confident” and which Carl Rogers refers to as a "way of being" which can be more effective in moving people towards their goals. So, is this presence taught or caught? Is it learned or innate? Some people seem to have that natural ability to ‘be’ rather than ‘do’ more than others. Regardless, it is an attribute worth spending time on developing and as professionals we can explore more and ask ourselves:
Lisa’s challenge: What is one thing you can do this week to move into a place of being rather than doing to help others in your place of work?
What’s in your wardrobe of life? Is it lurking or is it shining? Is it serving you or not? - Life Coach Directory
Walking back home after dropping my children at school this morning I looked down at my black work trousers. I noticed the neat crease down the centre, which has faithfully remained there since I bought them, and I had a shock. The shock was this; these trousers are about 20 years old! How embarrassing. I only have one pair of black work trousers and these are them. They are one of my faithful friends. Whenever I need a pair of smart black trousers for work they are there, ready and waiting to do their job, perfectly. Not fading, not lumpy, not out of fashion, just a simple pair of black trousers. Now I’ve not actually been able to wear them regularly during the last 20 years. No, I have become a mummy during that time and there were a few years when they remained hibernating in my wardrobe, due to my increased mummy weight, which meant we didn’t see each other for a while. But, having got back to my pre-mummy weight, they have become an essential part of my work wardrobe and, in essence, a stable part of my life.
As I reflected, I realised that our wardrobe of clothes is a bit like our lives. They are unique. No one has the same life as you. No one has the same wardrobe of clothes as you. It’s not about how your clothes look or what you wear, but what we decide to treasure and hold on to and what we decide to get rid of.
Sometimes the wardrobe of our lives needs an over-haul. It may be that you are holding on to beliefs which do not serve you well. It could be that you are holding on to thinking which is out-dated from your past or as far back as your childhood. Are there things in your wardrobe of life which you are holding on to because they have always ‘just been there’ but actually they are not working for you or serving any purpose? How do you decide what to keep and what to let go of? What does it take to let go of something?
My faithful black trousers are an asset. They have served me well and continue to do so. Another item of clothing, my mum’s handmade dress, which she was wearing when she first met my dad nearly 50 years ago, is a treasured possession. I can’t fit into it, and I never will, but I love that it’s in my wardrobe. It gives me pleasure which is why it stays. Other items which may not have been worn for 12 months or ones I don’t really like are not serving any purpose – they need to go. But it’s so rare that I ever get round to getting them out.
Are you satisfied with your wardrobe of life or are you thinking ‘there must be more’? Do you need to replace old clothes with new ones which are more suited to the real you? What new tools of life do you need to acquire so that you can pick them up when needed to help you to face life’s challenges confidently?
If you feel that an overhaul of your wardrobe of life is a good idea for you at this time, consider exploring what life coaching can offer you.
I have a passion for coaching mums to enable them to flourish. Current offer - a 1-hour sort it session for the special price of £15. My coaching sessions are calm, respectful, motivating and challenging. I have strong people skills, putting my clients at ease quickly and asking perceptive questions to bring clarity.
Lately I've been pondering the power of advice and it's impact on my life. I've had some pretty great advice from some pretty and some great people, words of wisdom that have changed my life. Next week I hope to share some of those gems with you. This week I am going to share the best advice I have. Are you ready?
Come unto Christ. Come unto Christ. This is the best advice I can give. Particularly in this Easter season, Seek Him. Actively.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (the Mormons) has published a video and Easter Week outline that will direct and focus your efforts. Use it. View it. Read it. Hashtag it. #BecauseHeLives LOVE IT!!
“Ladies and Gentlemen, we are experiencing some technical difficulties and will have to stop the show for a few moments. We will return shortly.”
We, with about 600 other Hale Centre Theatre goers, found ourselves in the light and in the dark; in the light because the house lights were on in the middle of the show and in the dark because we had no idea why.
Hale Centre Theatre crowds are generally friends and matinee crowds are generally elderly and friendly. All of us sat, generally quietly, patiently awaiting the resolution of the “technical difficulty”, whatever it was. All of us, that is, except Grace. A few minutes into our wait she suggested to her father that they start The Wave. She asked the right person—one of the things I adore about Lance is that he is game; nothing embarrasses him.
They recruited Miles and Cooper. I agreed to participate as well, though very half-heartedly. (Maybe only quarter-heartedly….). Tanah told them, emphatically, “No”. Grace rose and waved, as did Lance and I raised my hands. Miles and Cooper rose and waved as well….and The Wave died there. Not to be deterred, Grace and Lance rose and waved several more times. After three half-hearted attempts, I went back to my book. Grace and Lance did not go back to their books. Nor did they go back on their goal. Rise and wave and wait….rise and wave and wait…….again….and again…..and again.
After six or seven attempts, one person to the side of us rose and waved….and someone directly across from us did the same thing. Encouraged, Grace and Lance rose and waved again. A few more people joined in, including a significant number of people sitting behind us, who saw and supported our efforts. (I say “our” efforts because, by this time, I had put my book down and was an eager participant, as was Tanah.) The Wave rippled weakly around the theater. More people joined….and more….Momentum built….. and The Wave was on! It circled the theater several times, with nearly 100% participation and in full audio. “Wheee” we roared as we rose and waved.
The show, “Ghost”, was fabulous—great acting, great message, a great story that elicited a full range of emotions—and we’ll remember it for a long time. Better than the show, though, was the fact that Grace successfully started The Wave—we’ll remember that for a much longer time.
The right to tell some stories requires people to rise from their seats, other stories require people to rise from their beds… Paula, a kindred spirit of mine, texted me about a story-creating opportunity in Roy. Get Air, a local trampoline park, was unveiling its new Ninja Obstacle Course and the first 100 people there would get in free. Doors opened at 5:00 a.m. Grace, Miles and I were the 16-18th people there. Miles loves trampolines, I love stories and Grace loves both.
Grace also loves having her cast off (YEA!) and Miles loves his new haircut. Months ago Miles told me I was no longer allowed to cut his hair. [Chick was in high school before he fired me as his stylist.] Miles’ hair got so long that Elder Hislop (Chick) did not recognize him in photos. Wednesday he got a haircut and now I almost do not recognize him.
I applaud haircuts (even when I have to pay for them). I also applaud spring. YEA and YEA for longer, warmer days!! My toes are free and happy again—toes were never meant to be enclosed—and my garden is growing as are our lambs. Onions, peas, spinach, carrots, lettuce, and beets are planted; grapes, berries and fruit trees are pruned—I’ll be posting pictures of protruding plants soon. (I hope!)
Stories, stories, stories………… Life is the stories you can tell. The stories I can tell are good, not Earth shaking, but good. So is my life, not Earth shaking, but good. Very, VERY good. Thank you, God, for a good—very, VERY good—life.
What does an engineer look like? Thick glasses? Pocket protector? White lab coat? In our home an engineer looks a lot like Grace….
This week I awoke one morning to find a pig in my kitchen. Grace, wanting some extra credit points in English, created an essay-eating animal to present her writing project. Weighted with washers, funneled by tubes, and transported via ribbons, 20 essays (each independently attached) were drawn through the pig’s mouth into the abdominal cavity where they hung, available to be read and appreciated.
Wikipedia says “An engineer is a....practitioner of engineering, concerned with applying scientific knowledge, mathematics, and ingenuity to develop solutions for technical, societal and commercial problems.”
This is certainly Grace. But not just Grace….. The person who sent Grace a box FULL of yellow goodies and a note that said “A little box of SUNSHINE to brighten your day” applied social science knowledge and ingenuity to develop a solution. Engineering is all about building and you, whoever you are, built up my sweet Grace. Thank you!
One of the reasons Grace needed a sunshine package is that she is on the injured (but not reserve) list. Several weeks ago she was “hangin’” with some friends at a local fun center. The guys were punching a bag, hitting it hard and competing to see who could record the highest score. When the girls joined the fray, the competition was over; their scores did not even approach the boys’ scores. Enter Grace. She would show those boys that girls can hit hard, which she did. Her score was competitive. And her hand was broken.
Though her right hand is casted, Grace scored high enough on the evaluation rubric to make a spring league AAU basketball team. At the end of a very difficult school basketball season Grace swore that she would never touch a basketball again……which made her acceptance of Bev Rose’s invitation to try out for the AAU team very surprising. [After try-outs she said, “That was FUN!” Thank you Bev!!!] I guess she should not swear……
Miles believes that Mormons do not swear. (He has never heard me milk cows….). In a family game of “Catch Phrase” ( a game where one tries to get one’s teammates to guess a word) Miles’s clue for the word “donkey” was “Mormon ass”. In his mind, a Mormon would substitute the word “donkey” rather than say the word “ass”. The logic was somewhat twisted but his intent was pure….so was our amusement. It’s a story we’ll be telling for a long time.
Speaking of twisted logic and pure intent……… As a family we are reading selected stories in the Old Testament (pure intent) and last Sunday’s chapter was Jonah 3, which has only ten verses. Tanah, who wanted to go to bed, asked “Can we read only half the chapter?”
“Let me try it,” said Grace. Grace read the chapter; her time was over 42 seconds. Tanah got cocky so I had to try it. 38 seconds. Tanah could not be outdone so she read it again. 42 seconds. And again. 41 seconds. Grace tried it once more as well. All told, we read the chapter six times. Sixty verses….instead of five. Something got twisted!
Lance asked his boss for a letter of recommendation so that he could apply for other jobs. She wrote him a nice letter…. and posted his job as open. So, there is an opening for a geography/keyboarding/computer teacher at SAA. Should he apply? Or would that be twisted?
Perhaps not twisted but definitely not normal, I spent a day observing my boss this week. [Usually it is the principal who observes the teacher….] Amie, who is a chemistry-teacher-turned-administrator, taught my classes Wednesday. She was awesome—rainbow glasses, green fire, flaming hands—it was science at its best. The kids loved it—what’s not to love about fire!, she loved it—“oooh’s” and “ahhh’s” are intoxicating, and I loved it—it was great to watch a master teacher, to watch enchanted students, and to just watch, rather than perform.
I am really enjoying watching our eldest son grow. In a letter he said that patience was Christ’s characteristic that he best emulated last week. When I asked for more details he wrote that “nothing in particular” had caused him to exercise patience but that he simply feels “less likely to push and resist” and more likely “to trust through trials.” Sounds like a definition of faith to me. Beautiful.
Somehow the theme of this letter has twisted; we started with engineering, right? But that is okay, engineers deal with twists and I can turn it back.
We are all engineers, are we not? We certainly can be. By applying knowledge, be it science or social, we can use ingenuity to develop solutions. Engineering is all about building and we can build. Be it essay-eating pigs or struggling teen’s self-esteem, family memories or professional opportunities, personal patience or faith in Christ, we can build.
What does an engineer look like? An engineer looks like Grace…and like me….and like you. Be an engineer today!
Get out and do something. It’s another variation of the “Life is the stories you can tell” theme AND it is great advice. Get out of the house, get out of the door, get out of the car and get going! This weekend, thanks to my parents, we were able to do just that. For Christmas, Mom and Dad Noel gave us a chunk of change with the charge that we use it for a family outing. GET OUT! We got out, got going, and got stories, some of which I am going to share now.
Our first “get out” happened in the Soldier Hollow parking lot where we got out of the car, got into our snow clothes, and go onto some tubes. For two hours we rode up (a tow rope took us up) and down (gravity brought us down) a giant snow slope. It was tubing cruise-boat style (i.e. luxury) and it was fun.
That night we checked in to (and checked out!) the Homestead Resort in Midway, UT. There were three in the bed and the little said……..”I’ll sleep on the floor instead” which was nice of him. Grace and Tanah took one bed, Lance and I the other, and Miles was grounded, voluntarily. (He often chooses to sleep on the floor in our home too. Crazy.) Though we aren’t used to sharing bedrooms (it was not a very romantic night) we are used to sharing a bathroom. (We have only one bathroom for the five of us at home too.) The greatest advantage the Homestead has over our home stead is hot water. In our home, there is only one regular size water heater so the person showering after the teen girls is lucky to get lukewarm water; it was hot water for all at The Homestead. For Miles the greatest advantage The Homestead has over our home stead is T.V. He ended Friday watching March Madness basketball and started Saturday doing the same thing.
Saturday morning, after enjoying The Homestead’s volcanically warmed indoor pool and its electronically warmed sauna, we took Chick to breakfast—or rather we took breakfast at Chick’s…Chick’s Café in Heber City. WOW! Eating breakfast there should become a “must-do” on everyone’s bucket list.
After eating several days’ worth of calories for breakfast (and loving every bite of it) we were back to Midway for ice skating on their outdoor rink. Miles and Tanah took to the ice gracefully and easily. Lance took pictures, easily and gracefully. It was not nearly so graceful or easy for Grace and me. We wobbled and tottered together. I love being outdoors though, even when I look and move more like a Holstein than a human. (Have you ever seen a Holstein in ice? It is NOT a pretty sight.)
Our adventure ended at Farr Better Ice Cream in Ogden in honor of my dad for whom ice cream is the answer to everything. Everything. Hum……Brownies on the Moon in a waffle cone……….Yes, he may have something there. It may not solve all of the world’s problems but it certainly could solve a lot of them!
Thanks to my parents we “got out” and had a glorious weekend. You should GET OUT too. If not to Soldier Hollow then to Rohmer Park in Washington Terrace—the tubing is as good and the exercise pulling your own sled up the hill is good for you; if not to The Homestead then to a slumber party in your own home stead—be sure to restrict yourself to one bathroom; if not to Chick’s Café then to Bee’s Café in Roy—I’ve heard it’s good; if not the Midway City outdoor rink then to Syracuse City’s outdoor rink—free if your bring your own skates; if not to Farr Better Ice Cream in Ogden then to Farr Ice Cream in the grocery store—Brownies on the Moon can be found in most local grocery stores, sometimes it is even on sale at Kent’s. If you don’t live in Utah, do the equivalent where you do live. GET OUT! And, in getting out, get in. Get in with your family. Get in to the adventure, the memories the stories. After all, life is the stories you can tell. Make your stories family ones.
There was a car in the parking lot at 6:45 when I arrived at school Wednesday morning. (Almost always mine is the first car there.) “Hum……….,” was my first thought.
Elliot had stayed after school Tuesday to put the finishing touches on his project for Wednesday’s Science Fair.
“Good,” he replied and then, in explanation said, “I threw away the project we talked about because the potatoes were gross and decided to do a different project.”
My heart sank. Really? Despite my almost Herculean efforts to help these kids develop a testable question and a valid experiment, somehow some of them still manage to miss the mark.
“Then it is not an experiment,” I said. “It is a research project, which is fine in its place but Science Fair is not the place. For Science Fair, you must have an experiment.”
So, less than 18 hours before Science Fair was to begin, we started over, Elliot and I. Fortuitously (for him, not me) I have witnessed many last minute projects and was able to give him some suggestions. We wrote a new question, hypothesis, and set of procedures and I sent him home to perform his experiment. He did not have a computer at home, much less a printer, and was very concerned about preparing his the display board for the fair.
“Okay,” I told him, “I get to school at 6:45 a.m. Tomorrow is Science Fair so I will be incredibly busy starting about 7:15. If you are there at 6:45 then I can help you until things get crazy, about 7:15.”
He came and I helped. I set him up in the faculty workroom where he used my computer to type what he had laboriously hand written. With a little guidance he created a graph for his data and with very little guidance he printed everything and posted it on his display board. Mission accomplished.
Not all missions were accomplished. On the day of the fair Mason told me that he did not bring his project because he did not get any results. ARG! “Yes you did,” I told him. No results are actually results; much priceless science knowledge has come from “failed” experiments. And two students simply did demonstrations—a hurricane-in-a-pop-bottle model and a recipe for oobleck—but I did not have any baking-soda-and-vinegar volcanoes, which was a victory. Most students had an experiment of some kind and most students had a great experience.
Brayden said “I honestly feel more inspired to do science research” and Avery said “I learned a lot about energy and conduction and might want to make it a career.” Cute, little Susan stated “It wasn’t as scary to present to the judges as I thought it would be” and Allison said “At first I was nervous but relaxed after the judges were very nice and very funny.” In response to the prompt “My overall opinion of my science fair experience was…….”, Gary wrote “EPIC”. My response to his response is COOL!
“Epic” could also be used to describe our field trip to the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point. I invited all 8th grade science fair participants (almost 100 kids) to spend Friday with me at the museum. We met at the train station at 8:15 a.m., rode the FrontRunner to Lehi, walked a mile to the museum, spent an amazing couple hours in the museum, and then did the trip in reverse, arriving back at Union Station at 2:52 p.m.
It was fabulous. My kids are so, SO good. The museum staff was very concerned about turning a large group of junior high students loose in a museum that was already full to overflowing with elementary children. If only they knew my kids! As I circulated I saw three small children land on Brian’s head in the spider web, I witnessed Sicily carry a lost child to the nearest responsible-looking adult, I watched Bruce and Jose wait patiently as elementary student after elementary student after elementary student pushed their way in front of them in the line outside the wind tunnel, but I did not see any instances of recklessness or irresponsibility from my students. When it comes to respectful, responsible behavior, I will put my kids up against any elementary class anytime anywhere. Oh man, I love these kids!
The best part of the experience, however, was not my amazing students. It was my amazing daughter. Grace skipped her school Friday to come to mine. We spent the day together and it was truly EPIC.
A current student presenting to a former student... Thanks Gil, for being a great student (long ago) and a great judge (now).
I was asked to fix a computer for one of my wife's friends who had a computer running Windows Vista.
The problem with the computer was that when she opened Internet Explorer it would attempt to show a dozen other Internet Explorer windows and each Windows tried to load a dodgy web page.
In addition to the multiple windows, the browser would also not allow the lady to visit certain web pages such as Facebook and Twitter.
When I booted into the system for the first time I wasn't surprised to find a dozen or so icons for programs such as Windows Optimiser and iSearch. It was clear that this computer was full to the brim with Malware. The really big clue if one was the "Install Internet Explorer" icon on the desktop.
Normally in these situations, I prefer to go for the blitz and reinstall the operating system. I find that it is the only way you can be fully sure the system is clean. Unfortunately, the computer didn't have any disks or any restore partitions.
I called my wife's friend and told her that I could either spend hours trying to clean the machine with no guarantee that I would get the desired end result (for all I knew Internet Explorer had been completely compromised), I could hand the machine back for her to get fixed by somebody who had a Windows Vista disk, she could buy a new computer or I could install Linux on the computer.
I spent about 30 minutes explaining that Linux isn't Windows and that some things worked in a different way. I also listened to what her general requirements for the computer were. Basically, the computer was mainly used for browsing the web and writing the odd letter. Her requirements could more than be met by most Linux distributions.
The next step was about deciding on a distribution. To work out what to install I first had a look at the hardware. The computer was an Acer Aspire 5720 with a dual core 2 GHz and 2 gigabytes RAM. It wasn't a bad machine in its day but its day has passed somewhat. I, therefore, wanted something fairly lightweight but not too lightweight because it isn't ancient.
Based on the fact that the lady is a fairly basic user I wanted to get a distribution that was a lot like Windows to make the learning curve as small as possible.
If you check out this article about choosing the best Linux distribution you will see a list of the top 25 distributions as listed on Distrowatch.
A number of the distributions on that list would have been suitable but I was also looking for a distribution that had a 32-bit version.
From the list I could reasonably have gone for PCLinuxOS, Linux Mint XFCE, Zorin OS Lite or Linux Lite but having recently reviewed Q4OS I decided that this was the best option because it looks a lot like older versions of Windows, it is lightweight, fast and easy to use.
Reasons for choosing Q4OS included the older Windows look and feel with everything down to icons for My Documents and My Network Places and a trash can, a small initial download with options for installing multimedia codecs and a good selection of initial desktop applications.
The Q4OS Linux distribution has different profiles for different uses. The initial install comes with a basic set of KDE desktop applications.
If I didn't like the applications that came with the fully featured desktop I would have gone for keeping Q4OS as it was and installing the applications separately but by installing the fully featured desktop I was given Google's Chrome browser, the LibreOffice office suite complete with Word Processor, Spreadsheet package, and Presentation tool, the Shotwell photo manager, and VLC media player.
Trying to explain to somebody the virtues of not using Flash probably isn't going to be overly welcome when they can currently do it with Windows (albeit in this case the lady couldn't because it is full of malware).
I, therefore, wanted to make sure that Flash was installed, VLC could play all media files and MP3 audio would play without any hassle.
Fortunately, Q4OS has an option for installing all multimedia codecs on the initial welcome screen. Problem solved.
If you read my guide listing the best and worst Linux web browsers you would know that I think only one browser really does the job and that is Google Chrome.
The reason for this is that only Google Chrome has its own Flash player embedded and only Chrome supports Netflix. Again your average Windows user doesn't care about the merits of other browsers if they can't get done what they can get done under Windows.
I have recently written another guide which lists the best and worst Linux email clients. I personally believe that the best email client for Windows users would be Evolution because it looks and behaves a lot like Microsoft Outlook.
However, I decided that as this was a KDE based distribution to go for Ice Dove which is a Debian branded version of Thunderbird.
Thunderbird was number 2 on the list of best and worst email clients and as an email client is perfect for most peoples needs, especially when it comes to home use.
Nearly every distribution has the LibreOffice suite as the set of office tools installed by default. Other solutions were perhaps Open Office or KingSoft.
Now I know Windows users generally complain that the one application they really need is Microsoft Office but when it comes to home use this is plain nonsense.
If you are using a word processor such as Microsoft Word the most you are likely to be doing is writing a letter, a report, maybe a newsletter for a local group, a poster perhaps, maybe a brochure, perhaps you are writing a book. All of these things can be accomplished in LibreOffice Writer.
There are some features missing in LibreOffice for sure and compatibility isn't at 100% when it comes to exporting to Word format but for general home use, LibreOffice writer is fine.
Spreadsheets are used at home for really basic things like home budgets, maybe a bit of basic accounting or a list of some kind.
The only real decision I had to make was that the lady admitted that she was used to using Open Office. So I had to decide whether to go for Open Office or switch her to LibreOffice. I went for the latter.
There really is only one Linux video player that needs to be mentioned. Most people use this for Windows as well because it is so good.
The VLC media player can play DVDs, lots of different file formats and network streams. It has a simple but clean interface.
It wasn't hard to find an audio player that beat Windows Media Player. What I did want to do though was choose something that had basic iPod support. I don't know for sure that the lady has an iPod but I wanted to cover some bases.
There isn't much between the two when it comes to features and so much of the decision was down to personal choice. Hopefully, she likes my taste because I prefer Clementine over Amarok.
Q4OS installed Shotwell by default and it is generally the photo manager installed by many of the top Linux distributions.
The GIMP is a well-known Linux image editor along the lines of Photoshop but I think that for the end user's requirements it would have been too much.
I have no idea whether the end user uses Skype but I wanted to make sure it was installed rather than making the lady search for it herself.
Again, I have no idea whether the lady creates DVDs but it is better to have one installed than not.
Q4OS has the choice of a basic menu that looks much like the Windows menus of yesteryear or a Kickstart menu which has a search tool and a more modern interface.
Whilst the old school menu system might be more convoluted I decided to stick with it as it is very easy to navigate.
I also decided to add a set of icons to the quick launch bar. I removed the Konqueror icon and replaced it with Google Chrome. I then added Thunderbird, LibreOffice Writer, Calc and Presentation, VLC, Clementine, and a shortcut to the desktop.
To make it even easier to use, so that the user doesn't have to try and traverse the menus too much I added icons onto the desktop for all the applications that I installed.
My main concern with the setup is the package manager. Windows users aren't overly aware of the concept of package managers. The one installed with Q4OS is Synaptic which whilst easy for most Linux users may be a bit complicated for basic Windows users.
The other concern I had was with regards to hardware. The user never mentioned a printer but I have to assume she has one because he uses a word processor.
Q4OS didn't have any problems connecting to my Epson wireless printer but then that is probably because it is quite modern.
My wife's friend is now in possession of a computer that works, is virus free and fulfills all of the tasks she mentioned when I spoke to her on the telephone.