Learning about cake

I did warn you that some of the stuff I learn everyday will be mundane, but as I look back over yesterday this is the thing that I will take with me to my future cake and coffee outings.

In a nutshell what I learned is this;

Always tip your piece of cake over so you can check the bottom for mould.

Fortunately for me it wasn't my piece of cake. My friend had eaten half the slice before the rest tipped over, and there was a clear patch of blue-green underneath. I'm not mentioning the cafe because they handled it well, and I'm convinced they had no idea that it was growing mould.

All the same, every time I choose a slice of cake from the display cabinet I will tip my piece onto it's side to check the bottom.

Oh, and for something I learned a long time ago while eating out with the same friend;

When someone says "Taste this" or "Smell this", don't! Not until you've asked them why.

I remember this same friend handing over a turkey baguette and saying "Taste this". Then once I had a mouthful saying "Does that turkey taste like it's off to you?" With the power of suggestion it did start to taste off then!

It's a good thing she's such a positive influence and a good friend, otherwise I wouldn't risk dining out with her again.

Networking in 2010

I've been having fun getting Facebook, Linked In, Blogger and Twitter ready for the launch of The Learning Bean into the market. So I am learning which order to update things so that I don't have to go to four different sites for each status.

I start with the blog, share it on The Learning Bean's Facebook wall which automatically updates Twitter. Oh dear, I think Linked In maybe isn't! Ironic, isn't it.

I'll look at it again once business takes off, but for now I'll post Linked In separately. I'm pretty certain that by the time I've worked out the "best" way to keep all the online networks up to date, I'll be used to the way I'm doing it and not want to change.

(A brief update on the technical problems; Everything is working right now. The internet just kicked in for no reason on Monday morning, I found the right driver for my scanner, my WiFi is all good... TOUCH WOOD!!)

Technology and me

It's not my intention to blog every single day, but yesterday I think I made a discovery... I learned something new AGAIN!
See I've recently changed internet service providers, I've replaced my old modem and Apple Airport Express with a flashy BoB setup. My hope is that I will then change my phone to VOIP and save a bit of money on my phonecalls. I hope that my optimism here shows that, although I am far from being a "geek", I certainly am not a techno-phobe. I embraced my iPhone, my iMac is great, I plugged my own set-top box into my big screen plasma TV. I have Twitter, Facebook, Skype and now a Blog. I like technology.
Yet for some reason BoB is on the blink. When I first set him up two of the lights on the front stayed red, and red is rarely a good sign. I put that down to my failure to read the instructions and disconnected everything to start again, and it worked!
So now it is failing spontaneously for no good reason. I want to say that I'm "technologically challenged" but the fact is that I'm not! Even if something I have done has resulted in the failure, technology is designed, developed and sold with the user in mind... isn't it? So even if I did install BoB with the wrong sequence of events, out there somewhere is a developer who should have known that this would happen, and should have planned for it.
For the record, I don't think I have done anything wrong. Maybe it's the wiring, maybe it's the BoB... But one thing I know for sure, it's not me!
I'm not technologically challenged... but technology MAY be a little "me-challenged".

Something new EVERY day?

Well, they say you learn something new every day. But often at the end of the day as I reflect on the "something new", it is not what you could put in a text book, not something that anyone wants to know (until the point when they are reflecting and say to themselves "I wish I'd known about that!") It's often mundane, not always relevant to anyone else... regularly entertaining and very occasionally useful and interesting!
So here is where I'm going to start sharing some of the things I am learning. I am genetically predisposed to seeing the lighter side of things and hope that in this blog you will not only find some handy tips to lifelong learning, but also something to smile about (even if it is occasionally at my expense!!)
Thanks for checking in with me. I'll meet you back here soon!!