WaterShapes World Blog

A New Year’s Revelation
For me, 2013 ended with a personal revelation. I was sitting at my computer late in the afternoon on December 19, getting ready to wrap up business for the year, close my office door and focus on spending quality time with friends and family through the dozen days leading up to New Year's Eve. As is my habit at the end of
On the March
It's been a long time coming:  Just ten days ago, after nearly six months of grinding care and effort, the entirety of the WaterShapes magazine archive is now available online as it originally appeared in print. All 131 issues are digitized in .pdf format now, every one of them from our premiere in February 1999 to our analog swan song in July 2011.  Many of these issues are still available in printed form if you want to complete your collection, but
Just Amazing
If you've spent any time at all looking through the ARTICLES section of WaterShapes.com, I'm certain you'll have noticed that we've been busy:  At this point, nearly 1,500 articles have been uploaded to the site, all of them configured in easily searchable .html format. This treasure trove of information has been broken down into topical groups to make the process of navigating everything
Paying It Forward
While I was in Las Vegas at the International Pool|Spa|Patio Expo, a young gentleman I'd never met before approached the booth and asked, "So what's the difference between Essential and Platinum Reflections?" "That's simple," I replied, pointing out that Essentials in the twice-monthly WaterShapes EXTRA newsletter are articles I see as being must reading for anyone who
Family Fun
It's that time of year again, planning for Thanksgiving and family fun on the one hand while simultaneously getting ready for the International Pool|Spa|Patio Expo and an altogether different sort of family fun on the other. For the former, we'll have an unusually full house this year, with both of my brothers and at least one and possibly two of my three sisters here with their families and significant others in tow.  I'd like to think they're coming to see how their brother, a vegetarian for 40 years, does in preparing
Family Fun
It's that time of year again, planning for Thanksgiving and family fun on the one hand while simultaneously getting ready for the International Pool|Spa|Patio Expo and an altogether different sort of family fun on the other. For the former, we'll have an unusually full house this year, with both of my brothers and at least one and possibly two of my three sisters here with their families and significant others in tow.  I'd like to think they're coming to see how their brother, a vegetarian for 40 years, does in preparing
Helpful Heat
I've done an awesome amount of painting in the past six months - two bedrooms, two hallways, a den, a kitchen, a utility room and our living room as well as the outside of the front door.  I won't count the two bathrooms, because I painted them last year:  They looked so good that the pressure mounted to bring everything else up to speed. I learned two invaluable lessons along the way. First, having the right
Helpful Heat
I've done an awesome amount of painting in the past six months - two bedrooms, two hallways, a den, a kitchen, a utility room and our living room as well as the outside of the front door.  I won't count the two bathrooms, because I painted them last year:  They looked so good that the pressure mounted to bring everything else up to speed. I learned two invaluable lessons along the way. First, having the right
To a Healthier World
Through the years, one of my favorite advocacies at WaterShapes has had to do with building awareness among watershapers about the health benefits that result from what you all do for a living. We've worked with the National Swimming Pool Foundation on many occasions, for example, lining up articles that have either reported on research related to the specific benefits of swimming and/or water exercise, or told personal stories of what
To a Healthier World
Through the years, one of my favorite advocacies at WaterShapes has had to do with building awareness among watershapers about the health benefits that result from what you all do for a living. We've worked with the National Swimming Pool Foundation on many occasions, for example, lining up articles that have either reported on research related to the specific benefits of swimming and/or water exercise, or told personal stories of what