How many times does THIS need to be learned? A colleague got it right today. Not the part in which she spilled the water on the laptop. But the part about how she only lost part of a day’s work, because she is smart enough to back up ALL of her work data on common servers, not her own hard drive.
Author: janeslessonslearned
Location is Everything
I learned that owning a GPS does no good at all if it’s in the other car.
I have learned that it’s worth it to me to have one GPS for each car, and that low-feature ones are really cheap.
Label Prized Possessions
Even better to put things where they belong, every single time. But failing that (and I keep failing that), I have learned that it’s a really good idea to put my name and cell and/or email on all the items that I want returned to me.
Shedding Some Light on Sales Taxes
For this Black Friday entry, I learned, from Dmitry, that NOT all online stores charge sales tax when shipping to a home in a state with a state sales tax! I thought they did!
So if you ship from Best Buy to NYC, you have to pay NY tax (sorry Kat!) because Best Buy has a presence in NY state. But possibly NOT for an Amazon purchase, as they are based elsewhere.
Who knew?
Really – did you know? Comment here!
Preheat Peril
See this is how an electric oven works: Preheat means heat both the top and bottom elements. Bake is just the bottom elements.
I have learned how darn important it is to switch from preheat to bake when you put the item in the oven.
Our carefully over-managed Thanksgiving morning project plan had every step in the world on it -when to mix, when to bake, when to carve. But there was no task and no slack for dealing with broccoli casserole with actual raging flames coming from the potato chip topping too close to the still-on-preheat burner!
All’s well that ends well, but please heed the lessons from this!
Sequence is Everything
We learned this in our mall trip: Drop of the pictures FIRST! Or if you have uploaded them before you go shopping, go check on them FIRST. We also learned that you can use Best Buy as your own free internet cafe, if, for instance, you have to go resubmit your whole stupid photo order from within the mall!
It’s all fun and games for a while…
This was learned in Carolyn’s house today:
“Playing with yarn is not so fun when you get your head stuck in the wrapper”
More on “Write Stuff Down”
Michelle’s lesson prompted Carolyn to share this:
“The one about writing stuff down reminds me of a lesson I was taught MANY years ago but didn’t follow.
A neighbor ran a large international company. He told us a resume policy we should all follow:
Revise your resume after are major accomplishment.
1) You are really psyched and positive and that will show.
2) You won’t be overwhelmed with a large task for you only need to add a few lines.
3) You never have to think about writing your resume when looking for a new job. Your resume is always ready
I wish I learned this when I was younger so I would have good habits now.”
Be Discreet
This is something I learned from Tina: Be discreet.
If you can’t be discreet, at least be confusing, so that if someone rats you out, they use the wrong name altogether and your totally innocent friend gets blamed.
One or the other.
“Do It With Energy”
Elaine Fong, our amazing Taiko teacher, taught the WSS drummers this in our last rehearsal (it’s big):
“If you are going to be wrong, do it with energy!”
She was telling us that we need to stop being tentative on the big drums – to go for it – and look like we know what we’re doing.
The result is here. Advance to 4:30 to see the windup to the big finish by the group. Maybe not exactly the same moment, but with great energy!!!
Jane's Lessons Learned 