Community: Olympics Mascots are Cute, P.C.

Our office is pretty excited to unveil our new Winter classes, which are now on the web and ready for registrations. Another exciting unveiling is that of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic mascots. They are cute, invoke First Nations mythology, and are ecologically responsible. What more could you ask for?

At the mascot microsite, you can watch a video about the mascots, take a quiz that determines which mascot you are most like, and find out where the mascots are appearing in person--tomorrow they'll be in downtown Vancouver!

My personal favorite is MukMuk, a marmot that represents the first ever Mascot Sidekick. However, the quiz has determined that I am most like Sumi, the mythical thunderbird. There is also Miga the Snowboarding Seabear, and Quatchi, a Sasquatch with earmuffs.

At this point it is a mystery as to how the 2010 Olympics will affect Bellingham. What is certain is that the mascots are adorable, and truly reflect the spirit of Vancouver.

To check out the mascots, click here.

Cooking: A cool new cooking website!

I was looking at various blogs today and the Dumb Little Man blog had the scoop on a new website for cooks. Called FoodTube.net, this site is all about cooking.

FoodTube has hundreds of video tutorials showing you how to cook various foods. It also stockpiles recipes and has a search engine to search their content. Like YouTube, people upload videos and recipes of their own. This should insure that FoodTube will constantly have new recipes and videos for people to look at and try.

I typed in "macaroni and cheese" and got a listing for 10 video recipes. "Stuffed peppers" got me over 20 video recipes.

If your in to face to face learning, don't panic. Our winter schedule will be on our website at www.whatcomcommunityed.com December 1st and features over 20 cooking workshops with 1/2 dozen new classes.
Picture from FoodTube.net

Cooking: You Really Want to Know How a Turkey Timer Works

WARNING! The HowStuffWorks website is very addictive. Reading it can cause you to forget your bedtime, forget to eat, and fill your head with tons of very cool but useless information!

I was poking around the HowStuffWorks website and found an article about turkey timers; Those pop-up things that tell you when the turkey is done. The article explained how that little plastic thing knows when the turkey is cooked.

I'm not going to tell you the specifics, you have to read the article. It has to do with a particular temperature, a glob of metal and a spring. Because it's that time a year, heres a list of other interesting articles related to the holidays you may want to checkout:

• Turkey timers
• Why turkey makes you sleepy
• How to cook a turkey
• USDA Food Safety Information

Another fun fact: The turkey almost beat out the eagle as the national symbol! Ben Franklin spent time watching birds and and he believed that the turkey had many of the traits that represented the beliefs of our young country. Eagles look cool, but, are not the smartest or noblest birds on the block.

Ok, one more fun fact: The turkeys we eat today are bred to fit in the oven. A traditional native east-coast turkey of yester-year was often too big for the oven. Turkeys now days are grown just the right size to fit. If you think ahead and order a real turkey from a farm that specializes in the "old-school" birds, that sucker may barely fit in the stove. Checkout the Heritage Turkey Foundation or this article from the New Farm website.
Photo by Anita Gould (flickr)

Travel: Couch-surfing

When I think of couch-surfing, I think of that mooch in college that didn't want to pay his own rent or buy his own groceries. It is not a fond memory. Now, however, couch-surfing is the latest trend in budget travel. Instead of blowing your budget on a hotel or getting flea bites from a sagging hostel mattress, you can stay on the couch of a friendly citizen for free---or at least for a few beers.

How does it work? The Internet of course. http://www.couchsurfing.com/ is an international database of available couch hosts and couch surfers, with accompanying recommendations. The site is run by donations, and there are very few guidelines to the activity, mostly centering around common sense and courtesy.


So, the next time you're travelling and don't feel like staying at the Hilton, stay on someone's couch. Conversely, if you're interested in making a new friend, put your couch on the site. You'll learn all about international culture, and you may get treated to a nice dinner by your new travelling friend!



For more information about couch surfing, you can read the Herald article here.


To learn about more ways to travel for free, look for our upcoming "How to Travel the World For Free" class in our winter schedule, which is on the web November 29th!

Business: Blog Schmog - Book by a Humbug

There are tons of books for bloggers available out in the world. Most are written by blog zealots who think blogs are the best thing since sliced bread. This book is different. This book was written by Robert Bly, who basically thought blogs were totally useless.

Well, you can imagine what happen when he said that in his Direct Marketing Column. The bloggers went ballistic and he decided to Blog for awhile so he could really understand the medium. Over the years, Robert developed a no fluff attitude about blogs that comes through in this book. He sees blogs as another tool for businesses.... nothing more, nothing less.

So if your looking at starting a blog for your business, read this book. If you have a blog already read this book to see how to blog better. If your a over caffeinated, rampaging zealot, calm down and read this book... you just may learn something.

Business: Meeting with The Boss...Not the End of the World

A meeting with the boss is not a time for fear and trepidation (unless you deserve it!), it's a time to show your boss your leadership skills and potential.
Most people fear meeting the boss because they get very little time with the managers at their work and most people are not very good at planning for meetings. The Dumb Little Man website recently had a article titled 10 Steps for a Successful Meeting with the Boss that gave some really good advice.

Meeting with the boss is basically your chance to impress. Make sure you dress and act like a manager. Put on slacks and a tie, a nice dress or whatever is the cultural norm for managers in your company. You also need to take it easy on the swearing and slang. Proper language usage is a must in business.

It's also important to be engaged. Listen, take notes, and offer suggestions where appropriate. Most people in charge want to see active, dedicated and engaged people in their business. Those are the types that get promoted.

Finally, If the boss gives you a task to do, or something to research, do it! It may not seem like much, but, it could be a test or even a small piece of information that is needed for a bigger project. It also gives you a chance to follow-up and have more contact with the person who can promote you.

Are you a potential manager? Checkout our Stepping Up to Manager Series starting again in January.
picture by tofutti break (flickr)

Self Discovery: From Scary Chains to Consumer Chains

It's November and the world starts to slip into the frenzied state of consumer spending as the holiday season approaches. what if you opted out? What if you didn't work madly to make money just to dump it into tons of ummm.....stuff you really didn't need.

Scott Young recently wrote an article on the Zen Habits website about the 9 Tips to Throwing Off the Chains of Consumerism. If you have read some of my posts before, you know that I am all for simplifying your life. I have been working on it myself for months. Part of that simplifying is not purchasing as much stuff and avoid accumulating stuff around you.

Scott recommends a regular "trashing" where you get rid of things that have started to accumulate and learning to be happy now and not "I'll be happy when..." He makes some great point to think about especially as we approach this hectic time of year. Checkout the article and while your at it watch for our Debt Free and Prosperous Living series winter quarter which will help you meet your financial goals and live a simple life.
Photo by Hamish on flickr