Liloia.com

iVanity (the I should be lowercase...grr)

Wow.

I am doing some work in Starbucks in Burlington, VT today between appointments sitting in the back of the store. Along one wall is a young lady/girl/woman (who knows) reading a book with her iBook open in front of her. Until a moment ago, she hadn't used it at all since she sat down and I was wondering why she even had it on and open.

She put her book down, turned on the webcam and used it as a compact mirror to check her hair. For a full two minutes she adjusted her hair (for who or why I don't know) and then turned the camera off.

iVanity....just one of the amazing ideas from Apple.

Google Desktop saved my #$@

Let's start by saying this...I am a fan of Google. I love most of what they produce and I think they have a real knack for finding a gap and filling it. Or for finding something someone else has filled, prying them loose with a crowbar and then filling that need. Anyway...

Yesterday I was working on an Excel spreadsheet for a project I am running. I worked on it all day long and it contained A LOT of information that I needed. This morning I sat down to do some follow up work on that spreadsheet only to find it missing from where I had (thought I had) saved it.

I looked in all the normal folders I generally save things to and then started using Windows to find this doc.

- Recent documents revealed that it hadn't captured this item
- Windows search couldn't find it
- Excel (recent documents) didn't have it either.

So in frustration I asked Tara what to do and she reminded me "You have Google Desktop don't you?" Duh.

I usually only use Google Desktop to help notify me of all the incoming messages to my various inboxes for work and personal email, so it didn't occur to me to use it.

I typed one word, hit search and it was the first result! It was, of course saved in plain view in a normal location for me, but that's not the point (let's never speak of this again). Google Desktop is really a much better search than Windows itself.

So from now on I guess Clippy is going to be lonely.....stupid paper clip.

Interesting, but still corporate

I am always skeptical when a corporation posts something fun and/or interesting to the web. Most of the time I skip it, but this one is kind of neat.

Sprint has a new website called Waitless.org that shows some neat videos of ways to save time in your life. I know they are only doing it to market their free calling after 7PM, but I still think it's funny.

Raspberry Day

We picked raspberries at the Lakeside Berry Farm today in Alburgh. The farm really is lakeside, you can see Lake Champlain as you pick the berries.

This week, we'll be making raspberry jam, raspberry popsicles and maybe raspberry turnovers if I'm feeling ambitious enough to try making puff pastry from scratch.

Baking....again!

Ever since Tara resigned from her job, and has been home we have had a big problem. It's a pretty serious situation and I am afraid if it continues, we may have to seek some professional help. She won't stop BAKING!

Wednesday she made some delicious zucchini pies, and then last night she made a tasty banana bread as well as an apple rhubarb crisp!

I am starting to get a little scared. The food around the house is great, and I don't know if I can take anymore of this!

Tonight she is baking a Ricotta Cheesecake with Trevor and his friend Kiah. We're headed over to her parents house later for dinner, so she is being a good guest and bringing something! Imagine her nerve! :)

If she starts making pies, I am out of here.

Get a room

Could you not do that on the kitchen door? That can't be sanitary.

But how do you snooze it?

There are better ways to wake up than with a 1 billion-volt alarm clock. The lightning bolt sounded like it hit right outside the house, but that probably means it was three miles away. At least it hit two minutes before the alarm was going off anyway and woke up Trevor faster than I ever could.

The Power of Nice

It's great to see that nice is making a comeback. The latest engrossing read from BzzAgent^* is The Power of Nice by Linda Kaplan Thaler and Robin Koval, and though I approach all business and leadership books with a heaping cup of skepticism, these two authors have converted me to their side.

Yes, I know. Every new author has their "trick" to managing well and succeeding in business: The Eggplant CEO, Five Thousand and One Team-Building Games, The Indiana Jones Manager: Whipping Your Team into Shape. But Nice doesn't feel like a trick. Nice is something we lost along the way when we mistakenly started believing that hurting others was a sign of success.

All too often, there's an unspoken excuse for an ornery CEO -- there's a belief that his or her high rank affords them the allowance to be curt, aloof and unconcerned with everyone on the company's lower rungs. That meanness trickles down into every crevice of an organization; causing employees to grit their teeth and steel themselves against co-workers encroaching on their territory.

But IDG founder and chairman Pat McGovern proves the value of nice. He travels the world each year personally handing a holiday bonus to each employee. I participated in this ritual three times at CXO Media and it had an astounding effect on morale. People not only spruced up their desks in anticipation of "Pat Day," but they reviewed their previous year's accomplishments and their department's stats and goals, because Pat just might bring it up in conversation. You don't get just a handshake and hello; you get a compliment, a comment, or a question tailored to you.

When Pat leaves, the office is on a high for the rest of the day, and not just because of the extra cash. You hear whispers of, "What did he say to you?!" for hours afterward in cubes and hallways. No one is under the illusion that he'll be back next week to invite them to lunch, but everyone appreciates Pat's honest attempt to forge a connection and value our contribution toward his vision.

And just as niceness spreads like warmth, rudeness can also have an insidious effect -- like a germ. Last year, Dave's frequent-flier status got our family bumped to first class on the way to Disneyworld. You can imagine our excitement at the auspicious start to our trip; however, after we were seated in those spacious seats with a drink in hand, something unexpected happened.

As the rest of the passengers walked past our rows to their seats, nearly three-quarters had a negative reaction toward us. Some shot us nasty looks. Others made catty, sarcastic comments like, "Must be nice to afford this," and "Enjoying your snack? We'll get ours in about an hour." A few people even directed their barbs to eight-year-old Trevor.

Each one of those people left a negative impression upon us with their petty snipes. Little did they think that they would later be standing alongside us for 45 minutes in line for a Disney bus at the airport, in awkward silence. What you do can come back to bite you. Try nice.

^* As a BzzAgent, I try sample products and share my opinions. Sometimes I even blog about items if they really strike my fancy. If you'd like to learn more, go to BzzAgent.com.

The Angriest Catch

Dave finds that if you fish with rage, the fish fear you...

...and they swim away.

Rhubarb ID Check

This is rhubarb, right?

I found a spot next to Trevor's playhouse where the tall red-stalked plant with big leaves pictured above is growing. I swear it looks like rhubarb, but I don't want to cook and serve anything that'll kill the family.

Aren't we able to genetically modify plants to etch the latin name onto the stems yet?

Trevor and his salsa fresca

Trevor and I made salsa fresca today with tomatoes and peppers from a neighbor's garden (thanks, guys!). We took a basic uncooked salsa recipe we found while googling and modified it for the ingredients we had on hand (added leftover grilled corn, left out the cilantro).

Trevor is very proud of his salsa. He snuck a bite: