learn something new every day

That’s what I learned yesterday. A co-worker was written up, lost her bonus, and can’t post out of her position for nine months for abusing the company’s internet policy. The rest of us got off with a warning. Needless to say, you will be seeing less of me (for those of you who may care!). :-(

1. About Celtic culture, and my curiousity is piqued. I have some more reading to do.

2. Capitalism really isn’t all that bad as far as an economic market system. I am taking a Microeconomics course and we had to wax poetic about all the wonderful things our free market system in the U.S. has done for our communities. I immediately bristled at the idea thinking about companies like Wal-Mart and all of the political influence corporate America has. Before I started spouting off about how evil capitalism, I decided I’d better read up a bit since most of my ideas come from anarchist zines and political punk rock. What I found is that, while flawed, capitalism in theory isn’t a bad way of doing things at all. It encourages creative thought, innovation, and entrepreneurship. It has just been warped over the years.

...takes paint off your vehicle when you run into something. I – geez this embarassing – tried to pull into a tight parking spot when we were in Chicago a couple of weekends ago, and I swiped a pillar with the side of my van. I had white and yellow safety paint all over my van! I actually freaking backed up and hit another pillar and smashed one of my tail lights! Yeah, I’m a genius parker. I am actually an excellent driver, but a wretched parker.

Today, I’ve learned that lithotripsy means to break up a kidney stone.

But more importantly, DH and I are going to see punk/space rocker Helios Creed on Sunday, and I have been doing all sorts of reading about this interesting music legend. Can’t wait to see him! We actually saw him several years ago playing guitar for Hawkwind, but I…uhh…don’t remember the show so well….

:-)

1. Of or relating to orchids, or 2. Showy or ostenatious

Did you know orchids have three petals, and many have one enlarged middle petal. Also they can be found anywhere from desserts to rainforests.

So this is what I’ve learned today! It’s only 11 am; hopefully there will be more to come! (I won’t bore you all with it unless it’s something really exciting.)

I’m reduced to talking about my Federal Taxes class, but this one is really interesting. The Tax Court ruled that amounts received from begging are nontaxable gifts – not earned income. The beggars wanted the fruits of their efforts to be treated as earned income so that they could qualify for the earned income credit! Very clever…wonder who thought of that? Too bad it didn’t work out for them! :-)

Those delicious beans that I love in my favorite bag of Baby Broccoli mix are called “edamame” beans, and they are soybeans. I had no idea. I always think of tofu when I think of soy, so I never realized the beans were green. I looked them up and they are among the world’s healthiest foods:

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=79#descr

but I thought it would be interesting to record something I’ve learned each day for a year or so just to look back on and reflect on all that life/experience/reading/research has taught me. I thought of this goal yesterday, and April 1 is a nice place to start, so without further ado:

April 1: I learned about what most believe to be the origins of April Fools Day. While several ideas abound, the most widely believed is that the custom of pranking people on April 1st dates back to the 1500s when civilazation switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. As a result of the calendar switch, New Year’s Day was moved from April 1 to January 1. The people who continued to use the Julian calendar were regarded as fools or tricked about the new year. Another common belief is that the pranking has to do with the coming of spring.

April 2: Studing Literature, I learned about allusions, level of diction, denotation, and connotations today, and how to recognize them in poetry. I also learned a lot about Federal Taxes and determining gross income today (as I am also taking a Federal Taxes class), but that’s all way too BORING!