5 Things

Stolen SHAMELESSLY from a friend's blog (not sure if she wants to be blog-outed just yet)

5 Computery Things That I Think You Should Know*
Or I am a Huge Dork, the Abridged Version

1. Alt+Tab - Used to switch between open programs without using the mouse. I probably use this more than any shortcut keys besides CTRL+C and V. I tried to take a screenshot of what this looks like but it doesn't work - the screenshot key seems to override the Alt+Tab function so the little window isn't saved in the screenshot. So I decided to poach the image from another site - U of Alaska Southeast. My blog doesn't get many hits anyway.
   *Edit: the stolen JPG disappeared so I made my own screenshot to replace it. Apparently, it does work.
   
   
   
2. F2 - I use this mainly in excel to be able to type in/edit a cell without clicking the mouse. Saves a TON of time. Personally, I think that any time you can replace a mouse movement with key strokes, it's a time-saver but I don't think everyone agrees. But F2 is awesome.


3. Google Reader - If you still keep up with blogs, online news, and other types of sites by manually clicking on them every day (or several times a day?) then STOP IT! Seriously feed readers such as the awesome Google version can track everything for you and by going to that one site (the google reader page) you can instantly see which of your many time-wasty sites have been updated. I use mine to follow friends' blogs, icanhascheezburger, post secret (etc, etc), craigslist searches of things on my wish list, press sites for work, and even ravelry updates. Look for the little orange RSS button on any site you like or simply paste the site's URL into the "Add Subscription" bar on the left in Google Reader. It will then hunt for the RSS feed for you.
   
   


4. Specialized google searches such as "site:.gov" or "filetype:xls" - found under the advanced search section of google.com, I use these two right in the search bar all the time. Like, "zip codes site:.gov" would only return results found on pages that end in .gov, ie. only info on government sites. Other handy ones are .edu, or [state].us. It's also useful for sites that don't have their own search bar. So you could do "knitting site:.bloggingbeta.blogspot.com" (ignoring for a moment that this site actually does have a search bar).
   
   
5. Text-to-columns and concatenate: (Advanced warning that this is an extremely dry topic to explain in writing...read on at your own risk)
   I often use the first one in conjunction with find/replace. Example: I pull a bunch of data off a website and paste it into excel. Except it doesn't paste as a table, it crams everything into 1 cell. If the information is a list of locations such that each one has common labels like "phone: asljdf", "address: dkfj, AK", etc, then I might use find/replace to change all the "phone:" to an * and all the "address:" to some other symbol like ~ or [. Once that's done, I could use text-to-columns to break out the contents of that cell using the symbols (found under the 'delimited' option, not 'fixed width'. So at the end, all of those numbers and addresses would be separated out in their own cells. I use text-to-columns mostly for when I receive data that has city, state all in one cell and I need separate city and state columns. I tell text-to-columns to break it up at the comma. Concatenate is just the reverse of text-to-columns except it's a formula rather than a tool in the menu. If you have house numbers in 1 column and street names in the other, you can use a 3rd column that is a mash-up of the first 2: =1stcolumn&2ndcolumn...but really you'd need a space in the middle of the numbers and names so it'd be =1stcolumn&" "&2ndcolumn to yield "1 Main St." You can also use =concatenate(1stcolumn," ",2ndcolumn).

I think a lot of computer tips are things you would have never thought about if you didn't know that such a trick existed - it's like, you don't know what you don't know. I'm sure there are a ton of really easy tricks out there that I don't know and I blissfully go about my business doing some things manually, having no idea that there's a much better way to do it. I spend a lot of time in Excel and think it's a perfect example of that pitfall. Until you've seen something in action (or get so frustrated trying to achieve something that you magically discover the tip during a furious session of googling) you don't even know what capabilities are out there.

* Unlike many of my coworkers, I bet friends that read this already know these things. But I was inspired to draft this list after a week of a surprising number of relevations on their part during various collaborations with them on the computer. "Wait...what did you just do there? How did you jump from Word to Excel like that!?"

I didn't post just to get attention

And it worked! It's like the silent treatment for blogs!
(but secretly we all know I just got lazy...)

Is your life low on bullet points? Then you've come to the right place...

• World of Goo (plus Sonic, Donkey Kong, and Wild West) - we finally started using some gifted wii points (thanks princess sara) and purchased these 4 games. World of Goo is AWESOME! Highly recommend. It's good enough to make E* completely ignore the Wild West game (which is saying something cuz he loves shoot 'em up games).
  
  
• Rank list and where to live - anyone who reads this is probably aware that E* graduates from med school in May and begins residency in July. We won't find out WHERE that residency will be until March 19th. Our last shred of control over this process comes to an end tonight which is the deadline for submitting The Rank List. This list is part of the whole weird Match process whereby each residency program (in a given specialty) ranks the applicants they interviewed while the applicants make a rank list of the programs they would want to attend. All of the lists are fed into a computer and it magically calculates the best possible match based on both parties' preferences. On March 19th, the students each open 1 envelope which contains 1 program's name - so there aren't a collection of acceptances to choose between and it is a binding contract. Items on that list are Boston, Philly, New Haven, DC, Worcester, and NY. It's going to be an agonizing 3 weeks. But probably not as agonizing as the last week has been for E* since the rank list submittal process forces so much self-analysis and goal-assessing...makes for sleepless nights.
  
  
• Knits in 09 - it's been a stash-busting frenzy for the last several weeks and there's no end in sight. I cranked out a hat for me (even though I *never* wore hats), a reusable cotton swiffer cover, a one-skein cowl that I LURVE, and 3 squares as part of a gifted blanket project. I'm also working on a first sock using birthday gift yarn from last year (love it!).
  
  
• Restaurant Week: we had lunch at Oyamel last weekend. Our favorite dish was the Pastel de tres leches con piña. I also really enjoyed the seared scallops with pumpkinseed sauce and the black bean soup.
  
  
• Real reasons for not blogging: twitter, ravelry, flickr, and facebook. They are killing my blogger motivation even though I don't spend much time on any one of them.
  
  
• 2 photos from our recent day-trip to Baltimore - we just spent a few hours there walking around the inner harbor and Fells Point. Here we are enjoying some wicked oysters and crab cake.

Blerg.

Edited: Oh well, it was worth a shot.
You all (both?) know how it can get with a blog....a little time gets away from you and the task of updating becomes über-intimidating.

More than a month

Even when things are busy, I try to make sure I post at least once in a 30 day period. Well, blog fail. (D'oh, I promised not to use that word again cuz it's so overused. oh well.)

Throughout the day today, I will periodically add to this post with short updates or tidbits until it becomes worth posting. So don't expect transitions or good prose or anything (ha, like you were anyway?)

• I won 2 tickets through my work to the Inaugural Concert at the Lincoln Memorial called We Are One. Performances by Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Bono, Garth Brooks, Sheryl Crow, Renee Fleming, Josh Groban, Herbie Hancock, Heather Headley, John Legend, Jennifer Nettles, John Mellencamp, Usher Raymond IV, Shakira, Bruce Springsteen, James Taylor, will.i.am, and Stevie Wonder.  Among those reading historical passages will be Jamie Foxx, Martin Luther King III, Queen Latifah and Denzel Washington. It will also be like 10 degrees out so I'm not 100% sure we'll be going. Oh, and the tickets get us into the front-most section near the stage. Otherwise the event is free and open to the public.
  
  
• On inauguration day itself, I think we're planning to stay home and enjoy whatever food and drinks we please, surrounded by lots of large bags..and heat.
  
  
• In the end, I gave 11 knitted/crocheted gifts as Christmas presents: 5 scarves, 2 hats, 2 snowflakes, 1 bag, and 1 pair of socks (though one of those scarves was orig. knit 2 yrs ago, I did some tweaking and wrapped it up). It was fun but totally exhausting. I'm now reveling in January as it is the month of knitting for me. A pair of socks for my feet will be finished shortly :)
  
  
• E* went on his last residency interview today!!!! Congrats babe! Now he has about a month to finalize his rank list to submit to the Central Computer. And March 19th will be a glorious day at the end of a long journey when we'll find out where he'll be doctoring for the next 4 years.

I intended to have more updates here but the day was busier than I expected. Partially due to some serious ticket swapping negotiations when we almost had the opportunity to get 2 "silver standing" tickets to the swearing in ceremony. Unfortunately, that fell through but not without some serious bribe offers on my part.

What's new with me

• I'm cranking along on Christmas knitting projects! Finished: scarf & hat set for my niece, socks for my gram, and felted purse for my MIL. Not so finished: pink scarf for aunt, the yarn for which is on back order (I'm not very happy w/ the online yarn store...won't get into that now), blue chenille scarf for my mom, and crocheted snowflake(s) for family friend. I was especially glad to realize one Tuesday that I was FINALLY knitting an actual project to be felted AT Felt-n-belch.
  

• I switched over to Google's new internet browser called Chrome a couple of months ago and I love it. Just so you know.
• I have jury duty tomorrow. While I am generally supportive of fulfilling this basic civic duty, I'm mad about having to serve this time. Why? Because DC Board of Elections and Ethics blocked every attempt I made to get my absentee ballot. Despite their final claims to me that they FedEx'ed it out on Oct. 30th, I never received it and therefore didn't get to vote. And my jury summons most likely stemmed from the fact that I was registered to vote. From what I've read (and experienced) the DCBOEE needs a serious overhaul on their systems (really, lack thereof) and accountability. It was shameful. I have a full-page chronology of the entire thing (with bullet points and dates of course) if you're interested. ha.
• I'm afraid I'm addicted to roasted chickpeas seasoned with garam masala. I'm going through 1-2 cans a week and I've moved on to dealing. Now my mom and a couple of friends are hooked though I don't think they're using as much as I am. There are lots of different spice combinations that people recommend, but I haven't budged from the garam masala because I don't want to be disappointed.
  
  Ok that's a lie. Once I made them with rosemary and a little lemon juice. They were fine but didn't have the kick I was looking for. Over Thanksgiving, when I didn't have access to my usual stash of store-bought garam masala, I actually made some from scratch: bought the seeds my mom didn't have, roasted them whole and ground 'em up.
• My other addiction, which seems to be little more respectable is a soup recipe my mom adapted from Cooking light: Sweet potato, sausage, and kale. My mom's adaptations were to split the potatoes into half red potatoes and half sweet, and use 1 can each of canellini and red kidney beans. Oh, and Cooking Light seems to have a typo in the list - obviously it should say "sweet italian turkey sausage." I think I've made this 4-5 times in the last 3 months. I'm eating so much of it that I ran it through one of my favorite nutrition-y sites to see it's nutritional breakdown: Protein - 19g, Dietary fiber - 13g/52%, calories - 317 (from fat, 62), iron - 29%, vitamin A - 148%, vitamin C - 51%. And more importantly, it's delicious!!
  

Chile Chocolate Cupcakes

I've had this recipe on file for awhile, awaiting the right opportunity. A couple days after I got back from Miami, the temperature started dropping here in DC. So these cupcakes that pack some heat seemed like a good idea during the chillier days. A member of our knitting group is leaving us for Chicago next week (and a better job in yet another restaurant that I can't afford :) so I made some cupcakes for her last week here. She's always brought yummy homemade baked goods to Thursday night SnB so it was nice to return the favor.

Recipe mod: I couldn't find Pequin chilies very easily so I substituted with Chilies de Arbol... thanks to a well-stocked latin grocery near us. While they came out pretty spicy, I didn't hear any complaints that they were too hot so I'd probably stick with that level of heat (3/4 t. of ground chile in both the batter and in the frosting).

Decisions

Several decisions have been made since last I blogged.

Here's the result of one of them:

Another decision that was made carries less importance for the country, but still affects the quality of my sleep.

Here it is:

Thanks for all of your input!!!