Dirty Data Again

February 11, 2011 by Leave a comment

It happened again.  I was working on a project for which I needed a quick list of all of the 50 states and their abbreviations.  I probably had it somewhere— I’m sure I’ve needed this information before—but I was too lazy to look for it.  If I was in 7th grade, I could probably have just typed them in order from memory.  But I’m not and I can’t.  So I did what any half-way smart person would do.  I googled “State Abbreviations”.  The result returned a lot of sites, as you’d expect.  I decided on using the one for our good old United States Postal Service: http://www.usps.com/ncsc/lookups/abbr_state.txt. Read more of this post

Filed under Application (Excel, Access) and Process Development, Business Stuff Tagged with , , , , ,

You’ve heard it before, but breakfast..

February 10, 2011 by Leave a comment

DO NOT skip Breakfast!

Breakfast is still important.  Extremely important.  The most important meal of the day, in fact.  You’ve heard it time and time again.  But need more proof?  Men’s Health gives you 3 Reasons.  They also have a great quiz to help you make the best decisions when choosing what to eat in the morning.

Filed under Fitness Stuff Tagged with , , , , , , , , ,

7 Muscle Building Mistakes

February 8, 2011 by Leave a comment

If you want to build muscle you can’t smoke and you must get lots of sleep.  Duh, right?  But what about playing hoops or going for a jog at lunchtime?  And is eating right after a workout good for you?  Learn the seven biggest mistakes people make when trying to build muscle at today’s Men’s Health article: 7 Muscle-Building Mistakes to Avoid.

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Mortgage Calculator

February 7, 2011 by Leave a comment

I have a lot of friends and friends of friends that are in real estate.  More importantly, I have a lot of friends who are home owners or soon-to-be home owners.  And I, too, am trying to navigate this grown-up stuff that includes providing a home for my family. So, it dawned on me the other day and I remembered one of Excel’s cool functions, Pmt().  Given the loan details— amount, interest rate, and term— the function returns the monthly payment.

So I decided to put together a simple Excel Sheet (form, really) that applies this function. It also highlights some of Excel’s other cool features, such as: Read more of this post

Filed under Application (Excel, Access) and Process Development, Business Stuff Tagged with , , ,

The Brand Called You

February 4, 2011 by 1 Comment

Build and Protect The Brand Called 'You'

What comes to your mind when you hear Disney? What about Microsoft? Sony? Coke? The name DirecTV do anything for you? You don’t need to tell me, but I bet each of these conjures in you specific, even emotionally strong, thoughts and emotions. For Disney, you might picture happy children and a company that has, for years, provided beautiful, lifelong memories to adults and children alike. Microsoft? Well Bill Gates has made sure we’ve all equated the new computer age- technology advancement, in general, really- to the company he founded. With Sony, many of you may think of quality video and sound equipment such as televisions and stereos. Others may think of the efficiency with which the Japanese company is run, while still others may have negative feelings simply because it is not an American original. Coke- excuse me, Coca Cola- has been in our collective consciousness for so long that a whole brand category was created. Have you ever said “can I have a Coke”, when you really wanted a cola of any sort? I happen to prefer Pepsi, but still ask for “coke”, for some reason, when I eat out. Read more of this post

Filed under Deep Thoughts and Philosophy, Self Improvement & Motivation Tagged with , ,

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