Trek and Date Time Stamp
It was me but it wasn’t me. I’ve been gone, out on a short trek, the kind of trek where a computer would be laughable, in terms of time, in terms of connection. And it forced me to try something new . . .
Word Press has a Date Time Stamp feature. Instead of pressing “publish” when you finish an entry, you go down to “post timestamp” and you click in the Edit Timestamp box, then you choose the date and time you want the article published.
It’s not that I don’t trust technology, but I don’t always trust my grasp of how it works, so I tested it before I left and to my astonishment, it worked like a charm. It’s hard to believe something so cool could also be so easy, so straight forward.
So I have tagged it, in addition to other tags, with “lies” because it kinda IS a lie – it implies I am somewhere when I am really somewhere else. And the good news is – it really works!
Visit to Skyscraper City
As I was preparing to move to Kuwait, and searching the blogs and internet for any information I would find on living conditions, I came across this quirky website called Skyscraper City which has forums on buildings and developments going up all over the world.
My favorite area, of course, is the forum devoted to the Middle East and Africa within which I love to visit Kuwait and Qatar.
Here you find all the latest news, information and GOSSIP about what’s going up, who has applied for permits, and why projects have stalled. It is one of those gems of the internet.
If you want to post, or reply, you have to join the City. There is a Sky Diwaniyya in the Kuwait section that is always entertaining reading.
Palm Island Resort, UAE from Skyscraper City Forum
Kitchen Souk?
A reader wrote asking about where to find a cast iron skillet in Kuwait. I brought mine with me (if you use a cast iron skillet, you’ll understand*) so I haven’t been paying any attention to cast iron skillet availability here. I’m pretty sure I haven’t seen any in the local co-ops, and I can’t remember seeing any cast iron pans in the Sultan Center. City Center?
Is there a Kitchen souk in Kuwait, a place with lots and lots of pots and pans?
(A cast iron skillet is heavy metal, and a shiny grey when you buy it. You season it by rubbing it with oil and putting it in an oven on low heat for hours, even overnight. You never wash the skillet with soap, only with water and scouring pads, so you don’t lose the seasoned coating. When you have a well-seasoned pan, you carry it with you so you don’t have to start the process over! You can see a photo of my skillet at Cornbread and Chili)
“I’m A Third Culture Kid, Are You?”
Most of those who read my blog are not Kuwaiti, and it is for you that I am writing this post. So many of you who read me are also “Third Culture Kids.” My blogging friend Amer just wrote a post by the above title, and whoa! The responses will blow you away! Please go to I am a Third Culture Kid, Are You? and check in with your story – where you came from and where you are today.
And how being a third culture kid has affected your life. This is one of the best blog entries I have read.
The book from which the term Third Culture Kids comes from is mentioned in an earlier blog entry of mine, Chicken Nuggets and Big Macs and is by David C. Pollock and Ruth E. Van Reken. You can find it at Amazon.com. If you are a third culture kid, you might want to buy two or three – you will keep giving them away. The book is that good.
In the Headlights: Added to the Blogroll
I don’t remember how I came across this blog, at some time in December, but I remember laughing my head off. After two months, I find that she still delights me every time I visit. Today at In the Headlights (a reference to a common English phrase “deer in the headlights” meaning that wild-eyed-I -don’t-know-what-to-do-next-so-I’ll-just-stand-here-frozen look) Riannan shares an e-mail from a friend with curmudgeonly rules for 2007, and earlier on the page, shares a site where you can have mittens, etc. knit out of your pet’s lost hair! Dying laughing.
(And no, she is not a relative of mine. I don’t know her! I just like her blog!)
This woman comes across some of the most amazing things. She, like me, is all over the map – salsa dancing, books, great recipes (the latest was Oven Baked Sesame Scallops, oh yum!), stories about friends, some of the funniest signs I have ever seen, and screwball ideas. She can give your day a lift.
Check Every Comment
One of the things I like best about WordPress is the scum and filth they keep from ever appearing on my blog. But the scammers out there get better and better.
Check every comment. Check where it is coming from. Check closely – some at first appear to be blogs, but they are really all about marketing / selling. They are getting clever – the comment appears to be pertinent, or flattering (example: great blog and great content!) but if their blog is really just a sales tool, you can (in WordPress) go into EDIT on the comment, and eliminate the url entry, and then you have this sweet comment but there is NO connection with this person’s so-called blog.
Here’s what to look for. A blog may look like a medical information blog, for example, but just underneath the entry (which is copied from someone else’s blog!) you will find a list of 10+ url sites that have little or nothing to do with medical information. Like “click here for a bargain on leather luggage” and more irrelevant entries.
Be aware!
Google Earth – Map Your Books!
More news from Earthling (not quite my co-blog writer, but he sure gives me some good stuff to share with you 🙂 )
“This just launched, very cool. Google books search now lets you see a map of all the place mentioned in a book.
Go to books.google.com
Search for your book
Click the ‘about this book’ link.
example: Pride and Prejudice
The 9/11 Commission Report
911 Commission Report
Our Vanishing Wild Life: Its Extermination and Preservation
By William Temple Hornaday
Vanishing Wild Life
The great cities of the ancient world, in their glory and their desolation
By Theodore Alois W. Buckley
Ancient Cities
The Book of Ser Marco Polo
By Marco Polo, Henry Yule, Henri Cordier
Marco Polo
Adventures of Sherlock Holmes
By Arthur Conan Doyle
Sherlock Holmes
Kiss Kiss Bang! Bang!: The Unoffical James Bond 007 Film Companion
By Alan Barnes, Marcus Hearn
James Bond”
Travels of Ibn Batuta AD 1325 – 1354
Ibn Batuta
My comment: The maps usually showed up on the lower right part of the page, not always immediately visible, you have to scroll down. Not every page had a map, but the reference led to other similar books which had maps.
I didn’t even know Google had a book search section – and it is good! When I am reading, I like to read a train of books on the same subject – and I like the way Google gives small summaries which can give you an immediate indication whether this book will interest you or not. Thanks, Earthling!
Publish Your Photos on Google Earth
This is from Earthling, my nephew, who works at GoogleEarth, about contributing to the content layer of GE:
“Okay, it’s not technically Google Earth, and we don’t accept pictures that are too personal, but this can be done. I don’t know if you’ve played with the Panoramio layer in Google Earth (it’s on by default), but if you click the little blue and white circles that look like compasses, up pops a photo someone took. Its a lot of fun browsing these, they are by far the most popular layer we have.
How do you upload your photos? Go to www.panoramio.com and make an account and just start uploading. In order for them to eventually display in Google Earth, you need to give them a location. To do this, start uploading a file, then click the Map this Location button, enter a city name, pick the country/state from a list, and it show you a google map of the location. You can navigate in this just like on Google Maps, and when you find the spot where you took your picture, just double click on it.
The upload time takes a long time… so I don’t know how performance will be. Also, we (Google) don’t display photos of just people anymore. They will simply be removed from the feed panoramio sends Google. The layer is not real time, it gets refreshed every month or so.”
My comment: I uploaded a photo to Panoramio and it didn’t take me much time at all, even with my unreliable QualityNet connection. But just as with WordPress, I downsized the pixels in the photo considerably.
Weather Underground
We all have routines that get us through the things we do every day, things we do almost without thinking. You get up, you take care of your morning ablutions, fix some coffee, and then, in my case, you check e-mails, read the day’s selections from the lectionary, check the blog, and check the weather.
Part of my routine is Weather Underground. I like it so much, I added it to my blogroll, over there to the right. When I click, I get Kuwait Weather, first thing, but over on the left are all my favorite cities where I have family and friends – Seattle, Pensacola, Doha (Qatar), Mfuwe (Zambia), Colorado Springs, Zanzibar . . . all at a glance. With one click, I can see what the weather will be there, too.
And for any other city I’m travelling to, I can just type it in and it will take me there.
When my son was getting married, I could check the weather for many years back to see how hot it generally gets on that day in that city – it gave me a range for which to pack.
I’ve tried a lot of other weather sites, but this one has the things I need. It’s part of my daily routine. You can find it here.
“Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics”
This week I got a survey from our real estate management firm, asking us how they are doing. As I filled it out, I had to smile. I have structured several surveys myself through the years. It is an art.
The first thing you need to know when you are putting a survey together is what you want the survey results to say. I’m a cynic. You can get a survey to show pretty much what you want it to show by choosing your questions carefully, limiting the ways a survey-taker can respond . . .thus the title. If you have an agenda, you can get the results you want.
Here is what our survey did not ask:
Do we communicate with you regularly and accurately? (Sometimes)
Do you understand what we are trying to communicate? (Sometimes we are laughing too hard to get it the first time)
Could our surveys use some work on grammar and spelling? (Oh YES)
When you submit a work request, do we respond and solve the problem in a timely manner? (Absolutely)
Given that the management, guards and maintenance team are all really nice people, are there ways in which we could improve our performance? (Yep)
If we could improve our performance in ONE way, what would you suggest? (Train the maintenance people well, supervise them closely, use checklists, and hold yourselves accountable for shortcomings.)
Hint: If you really want to structure an honest survey, have opened ended questions.
Before you ever take a survey, look through it and ask yourself “what end are they trying to achieve with this survey?” Many times, it is not the survey that matters at all (like online surveys) but getting your address and/or phone number so they can sell you something.
So I wanted to make sure I used the opening quote accurately, and Googled “damn lies and statistics.” Great results. Got the quote accurately, and got a fascinating article from BBC called How To Understand Statistics. Here is how the article opens:
The world is littered with statistics, and the average person is bombarded with five statistics a day.
1. Statistics can be misleading and sometimes deliberately distorting. There are three kinds of commonly recognised untruths:
Lies, damn lies and statistics.
– Mark Twain
This quote from Mark Twain is accurate; statistics are often used to lie to the public because most people do not understand how statistics work. The aim of this entry is to acquaint the reader with the basics of statistical analysis and to help them determine when someone is trying to pull a fast one.
Think about how stupid the average person is; now realise half of them are dumber than that.
– George Carlin
There are many books which teach statistics, but they are mostly big and heavy mathematical books, which cost a lot of money, and which may require a degree in the subject to understand anyway. For many years there has been a need for a
-
Statistics for Dummies
book and in fact there is one, written by Deborah Rumsey. On the Internet information on how to understand statistics can be found, but the sites mostly cater for medical students who need to examine experimental drug studies, although a great online starting place is RobertNiles.com, which explains how to examine statistics for errors and how to create your own statistics correctly. . . . .
read more here.
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