Archive for Interesting

My favorite quotes by Peter Drucker

"There is nothing quite so useless, as doing with great efficiency, something that should not be done at all."

"People who don't take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year. People who do take risks generally make about two big mistakes a year."

"The best way to predict your future is to create it."

"Trying to predict the future is like trying to drive down a country road at night with no lights while looking out the back window. "

"The problem in my life and other people's lives is not the absence of knowing what to do but the absence of doing it."

"Unless commitment is made, there are only promises and hopes; but no plans."

"Efficiency is doing the thing right. Effectiveness is doing the right thing."

"When a subject becomes totally obsolete we make it a required course."

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Beeturia – the thricening

Yesterday spudart asked where the third beeturia post was. There wasn't one. There wasn't one planned.

Here it is.

Last night I cooked up the three beets I received last Thursday. I ate two and left the third for my roommate.

Last night's dinner was a salad with the following layers (starting at the bottom layer):

  • 1 sliced beet
  • Steamed beet greens and steamed kohlrabi greens (I do not like kohlrabi greens, I need to stop trying to eat these)
  • 1 tomato
  • Mozzarella
  • 1 sliced beet
  • Parmesan cheese, bacon bits, and pistachios

I took a picture (before the cheese/bacon/pistachios went on) because I thought it looked pretty:
Beet salad

By the time I was at the bottom of the bowl, the mozzarella that was left had been dyed a vibrant purple.

It was good.
The effect of two beets seems to be identical to the three I ate before.

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How to be persuasive at work

spudart's latest post offers suggestions for being more persuasive at work.

His suggestions are great, building trust and all…

but..

If that doesn't work for you (it should, but if it doesn't) you could try going in the complete opposite direction: intimidation.

More specifically, intimidation via costume.

Can't get people to listen to you? Dress up and act like:

  • A Viking
  • A Barbarian
  • The alien from "Alien"
  • A Klingon
  • A cowboy/outlaw
  • A medieval warrior
  • etc!

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Beeturia – part deux

As a follow up to yesterday's post –
apparently it takes about two days for me to fully process that amount of beets.

Just in case I'm risking some sort of "beet withdrawal" or something, tonight I'm frying up a pan of summer squash, garlic, basil, parsley, scallions and BEET GREENS.

Beets. Go figure.

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Beeturia? For reals?

So, since I'm not a big "beet eater" I didn't know this was a thing.
Beeturia [wikipedia link]

On a few occassions in my life I've eaten small amounts of beets. I like them, but no one in my family made them, and thus I've had no need to go out and purchase and cook my own. But, the joys of being a CSA member, I'm getting vegetables I have no idea what to do with.

Yesterday morning I cooked up the 3 beets that I had gotten the week before. Baked and peeled (what a mess), sliced (even more of a mess).. and then what?

I had three beets all sliced up and no plan for a dish. I started piling them into a bowl, and after a layer it came to me:
Some parmesan cheese, some ripped parsley and basil, another layer of beets, another layer of parmesan and herbs, and a drizzle of olive oil. Oh, and some bacon bits to top that all off.

Yum.

So… yeah. I've come to the conclusion that my body doesn't break down the beet pigment at all. I'd go into more details here, but no, I'll just say that everything has been very… colorful.

End.

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Friday cop-out post

Following last Friday's post – and almost creating a trend (maybe the streak will end here) – here is a post just for the sake of being able to check off another day.
This will make TWO full weeks of daily postings.

I'd like to thank the people that have encouraged me to start posting again – and hope I can keep up the (possibly chemically induced) desire to post on a daily basis.

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Why we use the "M-D-Y" date format

Have you ever wondered why (in the United States) our date format is a mismatch of significance?
"Significance" in this instance referring to the weight each section of the date carries: Year(Y) being more significant than Month(M); Month more significant than Day(D).

A logical date format would progress from either least to most significant (D-M-Y) or most to lest (Y-M-D). Our format is (in level of significance) Middle-Low-High.

According to the wikipedia article "Date format by country" – and ignoring countries that use multiple date formats – there are approximately:
3,200,000,000 people in countries that use D-M-Y
1,500,000,000 in countries that use Y-M-D
310,000,000 in the United States using M-D-Y

If you ignore the "logicalness" of D-M-Y and Y-M-D, for most people in their daily lives, our format would seem to make the most sense (totally biased opinion).
If we need to know about something coming up in the future, the Year can be pretty safely assumed, and if not, toss it at the end. In many cases the argument could be made that the Year is the LEAST significant part of most dates.
Putting the Day before the Month (as in D-M-Y) just seems bizarre. It would be like asking someone for the time and having them tell you "it's 35 seconds after 20 minutes into the 8th hour of the day."

All that aside –
I've come to the conclusion that the real reason we use the M-D-Y date format is because we, as a country, are incredibly self-centered, and that this is the only date format that allows us the chance to see our own birthday displayed on a clock twice a day.

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