learn something new everyday

Guess what I just got to do at work?

That’s right, I’m doing some real work and even though it wasn’t expressly told to me, I ended up doing a little extra research on some Due on Sale things for Mortgages and found some Garn Act Exceptions.

Yeah, Compliance will come back with these things (and more), but I wanted to make the flow chart look a little better. Of course, I even managed to find a lot of mis-information out there as well – some folks have a rather broad interpretation of what constitutes an Inter Vitos Trust out there…apparently anything that’s a Trust is an Inter Vitos Trust – you know, the same way that every car is a Rolls Royce.

But at least I got a running start and I understand a few things.

Okay, it was pretty easy – I used dbPoweramp Batch converter, but this was after looking up stuff and having some files that I wasn’t really able to load onto the iPod for awhile.

Now I can. Yay me.

Although the program is snotty – it reminded me how sucky mp3 quality was about 30 times. Whatevs. It’s not like I’m DJing. It’s a freaking iPod.

What with the new job and all, but yesterday, I learned how to navigate a bit of the customer service system. They have this cute icon that they can press for customers that call in and like to share random facts – so if you like to talk about, say, model trains, they can note that you like that. This way, any rep that talks to you can know to ask you about model trains.

I thought that was rather spiffy – and certainly beats constantly asking about how the weather is in an area. :)

Is in the Netherlands…in Gronigen .

Due to the large student population (50,000 out of the 185,000 who live there), the average age of the entire population is just about 35.

I learned this on the Amazing Race last night.

Yeah, it’s another Ace of Cakes learned thing – but it was a bonanza of cake shows yesterday. They did the Challenge marathon of scary cake challenges.

Anyway. They did do the Ace of Cakes where they were doing both Camden and the Ravens stadium and I finally caught what Gum Paste was. I don’t know why I always pictured “gum” – as in worrying about some poor person that would get a mouth full of spearmint – but it’s not gum. No, it’s made with gum tagacanth – which is a plant (I looked that part up), but it’s got the texture of (and I believe I’m quoting Adam here), “wet Necco wafers.” But it’s something they can mold into things that’s not fondant.

Now I know.

It wasn’t all that hard, but I did learn how to do something new today!

I learned how to send an e-mail via Lotus Notes. I’m bragging a little, but my prior work places have always been Outlook – even back in the temping days. Never had to use Lotus Notes.

First day on the job, I sent an e-mail to a friend letting her know what my new e-mail was. I know, way to go all professional. Tomorrow, I’m thinking about conquering the sig line. :)

He was his first literary agent.

In fact, I had no idea Alan Ginsberg was even an agent of any kind – I knew him as a Beat, and more specifically, a Beat poet and the author of Howl. I knew he was friends with William S. Burroughs, but I didn’t know that he represented him professionally.

This is important not only in that it brought us Junky (which I’m currently reading), but that it brought us Burroughs the writer at all. See, he’d actually given up on writing when Keroac had been published. Ginsberg is the one that got the deal with Ace to publish Junky (although he and Burroughs both originally wanted to call it simply Junk).

I think it’s pretty cool – the group had its competitive moments as writers (Keroac being notorious for making up stories about writing first drafts only). But here you have Ginsberg making sure his friend’s voice makes it to print.

So last night we’re watching Mythbusters and I’d never really thought about it, but one of the tests was to see if they could knock Buster’s socks off (it wasn’t pleasant).

But I learned that the origin of the phrase is rooted in boxing. A particularly savage punch would be deemed as one that knocked your opponent’s socks off.

Of course, the Mythbusters team showed that it was impossible to generate enough force to literally knock someone out of their socks – not that their message boards aren’t filled with folks that don’t feel that a lack of 1800s-era socks and shoes aren’t the big problem. Nevermind the hand-knit socks they used in the 500lb bomb experiment with both shoes on and off to see if they could find folks who were blown out of their socks that could have survived…

So I guess I also learned that I shouldn’t read the Mythbuster forums if I don’t want to be driven insane as well…

Well, empire is a strong word. So I’m channel flipping and our cable company has shifted around all sorts of channels and I discover that I have the Science Channel in HD. And it’s playing some game show.

Hosted by Greg Proobst.

Called Head Games.

I am intrigued.

It’s basically random science-y trivia questions and videos where 3 people compete for about $3,000 bucks and a plastic trophy. I got to see video of fainting goats.

And I learned you could pour wine into your car battery if it died to get it to start. I’m not lying:

http://science.discovery.com/tv/head-games/science-trivia/wine-powered-car.html

It was interesting. And even more interesting to find out that Whoopie is building a sort of Merv Griffin-esque empire in addition to her other entertainment ventures.

So, I have to admit this weakness for watching Ace of Cakes. I just love what they can make out of cakes. Today, they made something I’d not heard of – a pair of Dunnies. Admittedly, I thought they said “Dundie” and immediately thought that the people were huge fans of either The Office or Crocodile Dundee – neither of which made sense from the sketches.

So a Dunny is this cute little vinyl toy that’s a bit arty and totally collectible and also has a French line. They have this sort of look that reminds me of Lucy, Daughter of the Devil if you’re a fan of Adult Swim. If not, never mind. But their heads and arms move and when you buy it, you have no idea what you’re getting because they’re sold in foil. I think that’s kind of cool.

But now I know what they are and I didn’t know before. And now you know I like Ace of Cakes.