May

Have you heard about Wolfram Alpha? If you haven’t, you should definitely check it out! It’s a new search tool that uses massive databases to give you useful information. If you’re looking for data or statistics, this looks like a great place to go. Need to solve a math or science problem? Wolfram Alpha is much better than a calculator.

I’ll be in Rothenburg ob der Tauber for one day this summer, so I tried punching that in. It shows me a map, gives me the population, local time, temperature, etc. Lots of great stuff, all on one page.

However, when I tried “history of Rothenburg ob der Tauber,” Wolfram Alpha told me that it does not support Latin.

I don’t support Latin either. Oh well.

I think the name “Wolfram Alpha” is funny. But I also think it looks like a useful tool, one which I will use in spite of the funny name and the obvious prejudice again Latin!

May

Leo at Zenhabits has a great article today called 6 Small Things You Can Do When You Lack Discipline. I like this article a lot because Leo articulates something I’ve been thinking for a while–that discipline is all about motivation.

I experienced this problem recently when I was trying to exercise. I got up early and did an exercise video 5-6 times per week. The video wasn’t my favorite, but I liked how I felt after I finished it–energized and ready for my day.

The problem was that I had to get up early to exercise, and it was dark outside when I got up. For 6 weeks I kept it up, but every morning was a battle. I hated getting out of bed in the dark, but it just wasn’t practical for me to exercise later in the day.

Eventually, I stopped. I was more motivated to sleep (while it was dark) than I was to exercise. When I get back from traveling this summer, I will have a different schedule. I should be able to get up a little bit later and exercise in the morning light. I’m hoping that this change will make it easier for me to stay motivated about exercising. We’ll see!

Right now, I’m looking for little ways to incorporate movement and exercise into my travel schedule this summer. There’s definitely motivation–our hosts feed us like every meal is our last one! My friend Amy is also interested in exercising, so I am hoping that we can encourage each other to move around and keep our metabolisms working.

May

When I saw the coupon for a free KFC meal, I knew that it was probably too good to be true. I knew that KFC would be drowned in a tsunami wave of people bearing coupons.

But, I thought I would try it anyway. So I printed 2 coupons (1 for Tim and 1 for me) from the official KFC website. I followed the rules.

Today, I gave Tim a coupon and asked him to stop by while he was out running errands. I figured we could split the meal for supper. When he arrived at KFC, there were several other customers there with coupons. The manager was rudely refusing to honor the coupons, insinuating that they were fakes.

At first, I just thought that our local KFC has an incompetent manager. But it turns out that the entire company is refusing to honor their own coupons. If customers want the free meal, they have to mail in the raincheck forms. In other words, customers will have to jump through hoops to get the company to honor its promise.

I understand that this was certainly a logistical nightmare for KFC. However, their marketers should have known that this would happen. Any time a restaurant offers free food, people will take advantage of it,  and an entire meal is just too much to pass up. I feel sorry for the employees working at the individual restaurants, but not for the people who planned this campaign. They didn’t do their homework. Someone should be fired.

The manager’s behavior today reinforced my existing conception that KFC has bad service. But now, I know that the company cannot be trusted to keep its promises. I rarely ate at KFC before, but I certainly have no intention of doing so now. I don’t do business with companies that lie to me.

May

If you like desserts, you probably should not read this post. Stop right now, or it might be hazardous to your health! I’ll put the break here so that you can’t see what’s coming without clicking. Maybe that will save you. Go away and pretend that you like brussels sprouts.

(more…)

May

A garden at the White House, swine flu, and now goats at Google. Apparently the world has gone agrarian. Why didn’t someone warn me? (more…)